October 25th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there in the modern world. News tells me that you've had snow (well most of you), and I am extremely jealous.... going 2 1/2 years without seeing snow really traumatizes a guy. Good news over here is that I saw a cloud in the sky yesterday! First time in awhile for me. Anyways enough blabbering...lets get going on the week that I had.

I'm proud to say that Elder Ortiz and I have had visual success for probably the first time since Ive been in Comayaguela. We brought investigators to church (Hooray...the crowd goes wild!) AND have baptismal dates! 2 of the 3 baptismal dates that we have are the kids of a family that we found last week. They are the Cerrato family, a very large less active family. The whole family was baptized about 18 years ago, but they haven't gone to church for about 10 years. The mom of the children, Yeni, left to work in Mexico, and "didn't find" a church to attend there. They are a lot more positive than the majority of the less actives we find, and always give thanks that we came over in the closing prayer (very special). The 2 children are Karla and Carlos (Charles) Darwin....ironically I'm going to baptize the founder of Evolutionism! They are both very smart children. Only Karla and her mom Yeni came to church, but Karla had a good experience. They don't know anything about the Mormon church and so it was very important that they enjoy themselves. We were very happy to see people at church.

The other baptismal date that we have right now is Gabriela, the niece of a really cool family that are members of the ward. Gabriela is 16 and....well....is the typical 16 year old girl. The good thing is that she has an incredible support system in her aunt and uncle. If everything goes well she should be baptized this Saturday. She came to church yesterday, and also said that she had a good time.

In my tour of interchanges, this time I went to the area of the zone called La Pradera. I worked with Elder Passey from Draper Utah. He went to Alta High School (boo), but it doesn't really show because he is really humble (haha sorry Alta fans). I really enjoyed working with him because we have very similar personalities and had a great time chatting, but more importantly we put 2 baptismal dates! The work that we did in La Pradera really helped me out to have the energy to work in my own area so that we can get the train rolling!

I heard a great story the other day that I will try to always remember. Let's see if I can paraphrase it for you. Two best friends were walking together in a desert area. One day, one of the friends got a little bit mad, and slapped his friend in the face. The victim of the slap knelt down and wrote in the sand, "my best friend slapped me in the face," and they continued on. Later that day, after finding water, he knelt down to drink and fell in the water. He was about to drown, but his friend dove in and pulled him out. His best friend had saved his life. A few minutes later he wrote on a rock, "My best friend saved my life." The other friend asked him...Why did you write once in the sand and the other in a rock? He said..."when you write in the sand....the winds are forgiving and erases the error, and when you write in the rock, it is always remembered."

Let us always find ways to do good deeds to others, so that they will always remember them. And if our friends do us harm, let us write it in the sand.

I love you all and wish you a wonderful week.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

October 18th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends located around the world. I hope that you had a lovely week filled with memorable experiences. I often wonder about how things are going back there, but one day I'll find out! Another week has passed me by in Comayaguela, and that means I have 7 days worth of information to tell you about. Let's see how much I can remember.

I am still continuing my long run of interchanges that I need to do with the zone, and this Tuesday I was able to work with my good friend Elder Tingey! That makes 3 elders from my group now that I have been able to work with for at least 1 day, awesome huh? Elder Tingey is an amazing missionary, much better than I am, and always has a smile on his face while he works. They have a lot of people to teach in their area, and so we had a busy day going from appointment to appointment in his area. The sad part was that almost all of them weren't home, darn it haha. But, we did have the opportunity to teach a couple of new investigators. We worked hard to really gain their confidence at the start of the lesson. We asked them about their families and jobs, and talked to them about our own families for a bit. This is a great tactic because if the people that we teach have confidence in us, they will recognize us as servants of the Lord, and it will be much easier for them to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. I had a great time working with Elder Tingey, and it's always good to catch up on the MTC days (well...I do that every day since we live in the same house!).

We had interviews with President Flores on Thursday, and let's just say that it's a little bit rougher of an experience when you're in charge of other missionaries. Last time I was interviewed I was just Senior Companion! After a bit of...let's call it encouragement...I left with a great desire to increase my diligence and obedience. Like President Monson said in this General Conference...it's a lot easier to be 100% obedient than 98% obedient! I have been dedicating my time to learn more about all of the Christ like attributes, particularly diligence, so that I can become more like my Savior. Since the work in my area is a little bit....out of season for now, I am learning to never get discouraged, because I know that one day we will find the people that are willing to accept our message.

This week Elder Ortiz and I have been inviting all of Honduras to attend church with us on Sundays. One of our biggest Achilles heels is that we are really struggling bringing investigators to church. In all of my time in my new area, we have never brought a single investigator to church, something that has never happened to me before. This week we had plans to bring 5 people to church. We committed them to attend, they accepted. We had members commit to go and bring them, they did it. And....all 5 stood us up. It was really sad and we felt really bad about it, but what can you do. We did everything within our own hands, but we can't deny the agency of the people. All we can do is lift up our heads and keep trying, inviting more and more people to attend church with us until someone decides to come. We haven't given up yet, and we're going to try new tactics this week to find new investigators.

Yesterday Elder Ortiz and I found a man who was very interesting. When we contacted his house he immediately seemed to be just one of those contenders (Joseph Smith this and Joseph Smith that). But miraculously he decided to let us in. He told us that he is not going to any church (except Alcoholics Anonymous, one of our biggest competitions) because he wants to really study the Bible until he knows where God wants him to be. He told us that he was fine with whatever he told us, as long as he could find it in the Bible. Well, we started to explain to him the Articles of Faith, and it went pretty well. He asked us if we had a Bible Study in our church, and since we are studying the Old Testament for Sunday School, I invited him to come to church to study the Bible! Well, we didn't have time to make it to the Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon part, but we left him with a pamphlet and a copy of the Articles of Faith. We're going to call him back tomorrow to see what he thought! Elder Ortiz and I felt really good about the lesson, so my fingers are crossed!

To answer a couple of questions. With respect to my parasite, Terry is long dead. I stopped feeling the side effects from him about 11 days ago, so don't worry about that one! Also, the other question is where are we going to church now that they are remodeling our building. Well what's going on is that our stake rented a bus for our ward, and so now we have church from 11-2. We meet at the church at 10:20 and head our way up to another building in the stake. It's not too big of a deal, just the only problem is that the investigators feel like it's a little bit far to go to church...oh well.

That's about all I have for this week. Congratulations Dallin on becoming an Elder! Welcome to the group! I was really happy to hear that.

I love you all and hope you're doing well!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

October 11th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! I hope that you are all doing well in your homes, works, and other places where you might be found at this moment. I'm imagining that the cold front is beginning to inch it's way over to the Western U.S. about this time, and once again.... I'm so jealous!

Anywho, lets get going on the weekly report. I never asked the Lord to be a Zone Leader, but now that He has called me, I need to fulfill my calling. On Tuesday I went to do interchanges with one of the district leaders in our zone. His name is Elder Canizales and he is from El Salvador. He is a great missionary, just a little spastic and let's say....antsy to be a leader in the mission. His area is called Tiloarque, and I had a lot of fun working really hard with him. His area has a lot of steep hills in it, and we had a lot of fun running up and down the hills all day (let's just say I'm a bit out of shape). They have some good investigators to teach and baptize.... I'm proud of my district leaders!

In our area, we attend the oldest chapel in all of Honduras (okay technically it's the 2nd oldest, but the 1st one was demolished and totally rebuilt, so that makes it the oldest!), and I feel very honored to go there. This week and last week we have been busy packing up a bunch of things and taking them all out of the church, because it's going to be taken down and remodeled this next week. We spent a lot of quality time with the Stake President talking about his family while we drove from the church to the warehouse to load and unload all of the things. I'll give more information on that later.

Elder Ortiz and I had been thinking a lot this week about some new things we can do as a zone in order to boost up the excitement and energy of the elders, because right now the zone is having a couple of difficulties meeting their goals they have set. What we decided was that for the weekly planning session, we were going to meet together as a zone and plan together, so that we could observe how they were planning and also watch a couple of tip clips from the PMG videos in order to help them out. I think it was pretty effective and the missionaries seemed to leave from the meeting content and happy. That's what I like to see! Speaking of Elder Ortiz, I haven't really taken the time to talk a little bit about him have I? Elder Ortiz is from Guatemala, and he is a teeny little guy. He is 23 years old (and frankly looks about 27), and has a great heart. We get along great together, and we're always working hard to strengthen our relationship. Every day my companion prays for me, and I pray for him, and we talk to each other often, always asking each other how we can improve. Elder Ortiz is a smart missionary, and he served as Branch President in a small pueblo in the mission for 7 months, so I have learned a lot from him. What I especially asked for help from him was how to improve and have effective baptismal interviews. I want to be able to have the Spirit within the interviews that I have, and I knew he could help me out with that. We're going to have baptisms in the zone this Saturday, and so I'll be able to show my new stuff soon!

This Sunday was the last Sunday in the chapel of Lempira. Every Sunday since 1972 the members have been meeting in that chapel, and it was a spiritual event to be there. A lot of the members were there and witnessed the construction of that chapel, and even helped build it! This was before the church hired other people to build the chapels, and so the members raised money, and with their own materials built their own beautiful chapel. As I was listening to their testimonies, I was reminded of the pioneers when they built the Salt Lake Temple. How would they feel if they saw their beautiful work of art still standing tall today? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has an incredible history in every country throughout the world. I am so grateful to be a continuing part of this history. As most of you all know, history is my favorite school subject and I just adore learning more and more about the history of God's creations.

I was able to participate in the setting apart of a sister missionary yesterday (here in Central America, for the setting aparts they have a special meeting and everything). Elder Tingey and I played the piano for her and it was a very spiritual meeting, the coolest part is that she is going to the Salt Lake Temple Square mission (to freeze her buns off)! Her name is Hermana (Sister) Perdomo, so if any of you ever see her at Temple Square, tell her that Elder Tinkham played the piano for her setting apart!

Today was a touching day for me, because I received 2 emotional letters from a couple of my beloved friends in Ciudad España. The first that I received was from Marino, the incredible 15 year old whom we baptized. He told me that he knows that the church is true, and is trying as hard as he can to get his family to listen to the gospel as well, and he told me that he is going to serve a mission. I cried. The second letter that I got was from Yasmin, from the couple of Yasmin and Cesar that we were still teaching when I left. That was a very sad letter. Yasmin told me that Cesar had died in August in a motorcycle accident, and it has been an incredibly difficult situation for her and her small child. I feel an incredibly strong desire to write her and testify of the healing power of the Atonement in our lives. As far as I know, the missionaries weren't able to find her for awhile to teach, but have once again started to teach her, and are going to invite her to be baptized.

I love this gospel. I love my mission. I am so grateful to be a part of the church's ever growing history. My testimony grows every day. I love you all, please take care.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

October 4th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! Yet another week has flown by, and might I add yet another beautiful edition of General Conference. GC is basically the Christmas for missionaries, and seems to be the best holiday in existence. More on that will come later.

So, as you all might have heard, I've received a promotion. I am now the Zone Leader of Zone Comayaguela, and my area has the same name. Let's just say it's been a crazy hectic experience for me. It's all quite new. I am carrying a cell phone in my pocket right now, which I haven't done since I left mine on our wooden dinner table 16 months ago. Our house is actually pretty cool and it's very large. We live 4 in the house (my first time living double) and I live with my good MTC buddy Elder Tingey! He is my district leader and does a great job.

If I thought my other area was city, I was just kidding myself. This time what I say is complete truth, I am in the depths of the capital city of Honduras now, and it's super different for me. My area is actually quite dangerous, and I'm pretty sure that's why the zone leaders are there because the gringos can speak fluent Spanish by now. But I'm not worried, most of the "sketchy" people seem to know who we are and we always say hi to them. I also have hot water in my house for the first time in the mission, what an incredible luxury! I think I have died and gone to heaven!

For those of you worry warts, I'll give you a quick update on my health. Well...my suspicions proved right this week, I had a parasite! I decided to name it Terry, and Terry lived with me for a little over a week. Let's just say, it was not a fun experience and I don't recommend it haha. The mission doctors gave me the murderous pills and I finished them off the other day (Nodik- I figured you'd be interested dad!), and now I feel fine. It didn't affect my work that much except for my last days in Pedregal. I felt horrible and did not enjoy packing all of my things haha, but it's all over now and Terry has now died. It was a memorable week for that.

Here in Comayaguela.....we basically have no investigators. I felt pretty bad when I got to the area cause I thought it was going to be loaded with awesome investigators, but I figured it was too good to be true since it has never happened to me before anyways. Let's just say that the missionary that I replaced finished his mission, and he had one foot in his house already, so I have been sent to start from ground zero. This week we started out by visiting a ton of members in the ward. We presented ourselves and offered our service, and began to train them so that we will be able to work together. The awesome thing is that there are a TON of members hungry to work with us and most of them, when we got there, said something like this... "Elders! Where the heck have you been? Why haven't you come over to ask us if we will help you out? We've been waiting forever!" I was completely shocked by these responses, and I don't know why they haven't been utilizing the members, but that is now going to change.

On Friday I had my first Leadership Council meeting with all of the other Zone Leaders, and boy did I feel as inferior as Courage the Cowardly Dog. We talked a lot about our goals for the month of October and what we wish to accomplish in our zones. I didn't participate too much since I had been there only 2 days, but I did mention our plans of how were going to carry out our goals. The best part about the whole thing is the lunch that Hna. Flores made us afterwards.....oh sweet mercy I can still taste it now......a giant, cheesy, scrumptious piece of lasagna!!! I think I could get used to that!

For General Conference, I was particularly impressed by the Priesthood Session, that was one of my favorite sessions. I took to heart what Elder Eyring said in the last session, and picked something from EVERY talk that I can apply in my own life, and change for the better. I received an incredible witness that President Monson is the voice of God on the earth today. I truly know that he is a prophet of God, and sustain him with my right hand raised high. The words of the prophets are more important than scripture, and the words of the current prophet are more important than those of the dead ones. I absolutely loved how I felt listening to the talks, and wish that feeling would never go away.

This change is going to be one of a lot of prayer and fasting for me. If the Lord trusts me enough with my new position, I must put all of my heart, might, mind and soul into what I do. I know that this gospel is true, and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and saw God and His Beloved Son. This is the true church on the earth today, and I will never tire in saying these things. I love you all, and wish you all a happy week.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham