Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there wherever you are. I am excited to be able to write you all today and tell you a few more of the experiences that I am having here in Honduras. First of all, I would like to say that the news about Grandpa getting married has got to be the most shocking of all the news I have received from home in my entire mission! Congratulations Grandpa! I'll be excited to meet my new Grandma when I get back! I would love to know how the wedding goes.
Anywho, this week has been somewhat normal for Elder Menèndez and I, with a few good points. This week we have been working to get the rest of the zone filled in on all of the stuff we learned in the training meetings, and so we have been having 2 zone meetings a week so that we could practice with everybody the new tactics and everything. I had to teach on Tuesday, but on Friday I was free to kick back and just listen. We're going to finish training this week after we have a couple of other meetings, and then the whole mission will be filled in.
I've been a little bit worried about my district lately. This week has been a rough one for them, and I have been doing all that I can to help them out. The area of theirs, Roble Oeste, is where the temple is going to be, and as most of you know, where the temples are, there are large houses surrounding them. Their area is the richest part of Tegucigalpa......and it's pretty rich. On Friday I went over there to do interchanges with one of the Elders, Elder Jimenez, to try and help them out a bit. We went over to contact pretty much all day in a mansion neighborhood called Las Uvas. Let me tell you, contacting from an intercom and camera on the doorbell is NOT something I am used to. I'm used to knocking on doors of tattered wood or painted iron and having pleasant conversations with the people at their doorstep. It was a little more difficult, but I managed to help them at least a little bit. We didn't find anyone to teach, but we had some good contacts of families that accepted, that we could come back on the weekend. I hope things work out for them, because I'm worried on what I can do to help them out. I taught Elder Jimenez that even in contacts, we need to do all we can to teach them principles. These principles are the things that are going to intrigue them enough to let us in and tell them more. Now I know how the missionaries in the U.S. feel...yikes!
Good news...we have been blessed with an investigator that accepted a baptismal date this week! Mainor, the black guy from the Mosquitia accepted to be baptized on our 2nd appointment that we had with him. It was a really great experience. I told my companion that he should put the baptismal date, since he doesn't have much experience doing it. He was really nervous when the moment came, but shone through like a champion and came out triumphant. He accepted! If everything goes well, he will be baptized one week after General Conference on the 9th of October. Mainor came to church for the first time on Sunday, and he told us that he was moved because of the kindness of the people there and how well they received him. That sure made my day!
Since we were able to find a ton of new investigators last week due to the extra boost of missionaries, we have been working hard this week to try and teach all our newbies with the Spirit so that they will desire to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. It's been interesting teaching them all, because each of them are SO different in every single way. Some of them will rise to be worthy of mention in the next email I'm pretty sure! The most positive we have so far is the mother of Fransisco, a 12 year old investigator that we have been teaching. His friend is a member of the church and has been bringing him along, so we decided to give it a shot with his family as well. At first we never thought that his mom would even listen to us, but turns out that she is extremely interested in what we have to say. The second time we went over to visit her she had a ton of questions and convinces us to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon so that she could investigate for herself (usually we have to convince THEM to read it!).
On the 15th, it was Independence Day in Honduras.....ugh. I'm not a big fan of holidays in the mission, it's quite difficult to get anything done. Sure, everyone is at home with their families, but they are all celebrating. Parties here are nothing like Utah parties so...yeah....almost everyone invited us in to "teach," but in the end nothing productive occurred. Oh well, I've made it through that day and everything is back to normal.
This week our ward had the chance to go to the temple, and so a whole bunch of people were gone, leaving us almost completely alone to work in the colony. On Sunday I had a really great spiritual experience in sacrament meeting. The bishop invited everyone who had gone to the temple for the first time to stand and bear their testimonies. It was such a heartwarming experience for me. These people sacrifice so much so that they can make the long, expensive trip to Guatemala in order to perform the holy work. I felt overcoming joy when I heard the testimony of one family that was sealed together for time and all eternity. The family was sealed together, and one of the children was sealed to his brand new wife whom which he had just barely gotten married to. It was just the cutest (sorry for using that word...shiver), most amazing testimony I have heard in awhile. I miss the temple a whole lot, and cannot wait to return and revisit the House of the Lord when I return. I especially hope to return to the dedication of the Honduras temple when they finish.
I know that this Gospel is true, and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He invites all of us to come unto Him. I love Him more than I can describe and know that this is His work. I love you all, and want you to know that my prayers are with you. Thank you for all of your prayers in my behalf, because I feel them lifting me up every day.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
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