Hey everyone! I hope everything is going just great with each and every one of you at home. I have many things that I can talk about this week, so we gotta get going! First of all, as we speak, Honduras is playing Spain in the World Cup (and I'm sure Spain is killing them) and so the country has gone nuts. Everything shuts down for the World Cup when the home country plays, so yeah it gets a little bit difficult. The good thing is that all of the games are really early in the morning, because if they were at night, we would be having some problems haha. Anyways, here we go.
With respect to my health, I'm doing just fine now, all healed up and ready to go. But I do have a funny story about that! Last week, right after I finished writing my last email to you guys, we went outside to hop on the bus back to Ciudad España. We had been playing a bunch of soccer and I joined in because I "thought" I was doing alright. Well, I still didn't have an appetite so I didn't bother eating anything. We hopped on the bus, and headed off. Now, it's important to know that we always ride standing up for about half the trip since the bus is always packed full. So we headed off, and I started to feel very nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up, and I started to get nervous. I broke out into a cold sweat and turned as pale as a piece of paper (as tells my companion). I began to say a small prayer that I would not throw up and that everything would be alright.....and the next thing I knew I woke up sitting down in a seat on the bus with my companion shaking my shoulder. In the story he tells me, I had fainted! The bus started going crazy asking people for water to give me and everything...well I was half conscious and didn't know what was going on. All I know is that I kept falling asleep on the bus, and my companion kept smacking me so that I would stay awake. We got to the house, I hurried and ate some soup to put food in my stomach, and slept for the rest of the night. It was the first time in my whole mission that I hadn't proselyted, and frankly it was a really weird feeling, but it was something I needed. The next day I felt just fine, and we went back to work, everything normal. So I'm doing just great now.
This week we had interviews with President Flores, and once again it was a really uplifting experience for me. President told me that he had a lot of confidence in me and knows that I have learned a lot as a missionary, but he was concerned because he saw me as a missionary that worried too much and that I need to spend more time enjoying my mission than worrying about things. I think this has been a general trait of mine since birth, and when he told me that, I knew it was exactly what I need to change, so I have been working on that a whole lot this week. It has really helped me out a lot, and I can truly say that I am enjoying my mission a lot more.
Good news, Marino was baptized on Saturday! It was a really great experience. There were very very few people in the service (like 7) since we have to travel all the way to the city to have the baptism, but I didn't care that much. Marino is an amazing teen and I really have loved seeing the way he has changed in order to accept the true gospel in his life. His first Sunday as a member, he paid his tithing! It was an awesome experience to see him do that, and Elder Vasquez and I love him a lot. We had our branch conference this Sunday, and he was able to be confirmed and ordained a Teacher in the presence of the Stake Presidency, and they gave him a ton of council.
We did a lot of preparing for the branch conference during the week as well. We painted the chapel, it now looks a little bit better; and we did a little bit of deep cleaning inside, and bought flowers for the "pulpit." We learned a lot from the stake presidency and they were able to give us some good council. Something interesting happened during the conference as well. During Sunday School, the 2nd counselor took us out so that we could leave and visit a less active member. He wasn't home, so when we came back, we noticed that Marino's dad had come to the church! In Priesthood meeting, he was able to watch his son be ordained. After that, the 1st counselor taught the class, and said something to Marino's dad. He told him that He would be the one to confirm his own son an Elder when he was ready to go on a mission. So, Elder Vasquez and I are going to start working really hard so that the prophecy comes true, so that we can baptize him!
This week we have a lot of work to do with our investigator Franklin, because as rumor has it, we are going to get him married on Friday! We have been working hard with the paperwork this week and maybe...just maybe we are going to make another baptism happen this weekend!
Things are really improving for me here in Ciudad España and I'm starting to see success. That is the really good thing for me. When a missionary sees that there is at least a little bit of success, that is when you get excited, and work even harder. So that's what I'm going to do this week! I hope everything is going well with everyone at home. Love you all!
Vaya Pues,
Elder Tinkham
Elder Tinkham
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