November 29

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there on this “cold winters night” as you guys would say it! How are you all doing? I hope that everything is going well for each and every one of you. The Christmas season has officially begun, and even here in little ole Honduras you can feel the spirit spreading. No matter where you are, you just can’t avoid the feelings of jubilee that embrace the soul of every Christmas lover’s soul.

This week has been a learning one for me. Well, every week is a learning one, but this one has been a little bit more than the other weeks. It’s been a week of patience, enduring to the end, etc. Let me tell you why.

It’s been another slightly disappointing week for Elder Ortiz and I with respect to investigators. We got a little bit discouraged because we have been looking thoroughly to find new people during the time that we have to go contacting, and we haven’t had too much luck this week. We did all we could in order to find the people who were waiting for us, but most of the time we got the United States treatment...door slammed in your face. But... I do at least have one good story to tell you. On Sunday, we started up on our last attempt for the week to find some new investigators, and something very interesting happened. We had just left the house of some recent converts, and decided to contact the street of where they lived...well...I suggested to my companion that we do it. He told me...sigh...alright, let’s go....but I really hope that we can find somebody cause I’m losing my patience....put a prayer in your heart! Haha, so in that moment that he asked me that, about 5 seconds later someone was whistling to us to come over to them. Well...usually that means that some drunk guy just wants to talk to us, but it actually turned out to be an answer to our prayers. It turned out that the guy that was talking to us is a member that lived in a far away pueblo but had transferred to the city and lived in our area. He asked us where the church is, and presented us to his friends that lived right next door to them. We were able to have a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation, and set a date to come back on Tuesday. We were very grateful to have had our prayer answered by Heavenly Father.

This Sunday we had the Primary program in my assigned ward, and it was just hilarious! They had several songs which are just the funniest part, and they even had a part where they did some short dramas in the front part of the Sacrament Meeting. It reminded me of a very embarrassing moment that I had in a Primary program when I was about 9 years old. In that program I was dressed up as Wilford Woodruff, 4th prophet of the Church. I had a fairly long part to memorize, so I was a little bit nervous. I remember in the dress rehearsal, when I said my lines, I said, “My name is Woodrow Wilson!!” Everyone had a good laugh. We had been studying the presidents of the United States in my elementary class, so I got the names confused. The good thing is that I got my act together for the actual program and said my name right...whew!

For Thanksgiving this year, us 4 missionaries in the house decided to have a small celebration when we got home at night. We ordered KFC and timed it so that the delivery guy would get there right when we got home. Earlier in the day we made a flan cake with a homemade cookie crust and had it refrigerated just in time to eat at night. It was a delicious Thanksgiving “mock dinner” that we were very proud of. Sure it’s nothing like what most of you were able to eat, but it was a great moment for us!

Today for our P-day we went as a zone to the construction site of the Honduras Temple. They are actually doing pretty good on the progress! There are a couple of walls already built and it’s starting to get taller. I’m very jealous of the new missionaries coming in right now, because they will be able to see the completed temple. But at least we got to see exactly where it’s going to be at, and take some nice pictures. One day I am going to return to visit the temple here, especially because some of my converts are going to be able to go to the temple soon, and I want to be there when they enter, that would be a dream come true. Speaking of some of my converts, a couple of weeks ago I got a letter from Hno. Jose from Comayagua, one of my favorite converts. If you remember, he was the one that took us about 4 months to baptize due to the incredible challenges we had to get him and his wife married. He wrote me and told me that he is the Ward Missionary Leader and always accompanies the missionaries and is preaching the gospel to everyone possible. I shouted with joy!

I love you all. I know that this gospel is true and that I am doing a good work, and cannot be taken down. I wish all of you a lovely week, and I will keep you in my prayers.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 22

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there. I’m super jealous to hear about the snow that you’ve been having back at home. How I miss the snow....sigh. I think the only thing worth missing out on the snow is serving the Lord!

This week has been somewhat melancholy for Elder Ortiz and I. The bad news is that Hna. Miriam moved out of her house this week. The owners of the house kicked her out because she hasn’t been able to pay the rent on the house due to her unemployment. She asked for more time because she didn’t want to leave and she has been diligently looking for a job, but hasn’t had any luck yet. We were really sad to see her go, but we helped her pack up her things, and we even gave her a couple of references of work that I hope works out for her. She told us that as soon as she finds work she is planning on coming back, because she likes the neighborhood she was living in. So....sad moment for us, but we have hope that soon she will return.

Due to the moving of Hna. Miriam, we have been kinda hung out to dry with respect to investigators. We got left with basically nothing, so Elder Ortiz and I got back into our contacting routine from the start of last transfer. This time it worked out a lot better for us, and we were able to find 10 new investigators this week (and 2 families out of those 10)! One of our new investigators is named Iris, and she is a small person. She is 30 something and about 3 foot nothin! She is a really nice lady who lives with her sister and brother-in-law. We were only able to talk to her for a brief amount of time, but we hope to return soon. We also have a new family, a young couple named Seili and Antonio. They are 20 and 21, and seem very young to be starting their own family, but I’m not one to judge them. Antonio seemed to be one of those sports freak religion stinks type of guys, but he actually turned out to be pretty positive and had a lot of questions for us. We taught about the Book of Mormon and left a copy of it for them to read.

This week Elder Ortiz and I decided to focus all of our work around the Book of Mormon. In basically all of the lessons we taught this week, we decided to talk only about the Book of Mormon at first, and then leave a copy with everyone we talk to. Before we didn’t have that luxury because there has been a shortage of BOM’s in the mission for a long time, but now they are abundant and so were taking advantage of it. The Book of Mormon truly is the key to our religion. And so if the BOM is the key to our religion, and baptism is the key to the Celestial Kingdom, those are the 2 things that we need to most be talking about. It has been a great success so far.

This week I had the awesome opportunity to go on interchanges with the Assistants to the President. I worked with Elder Thompson, a great friend of mine from my MTC district, in his area. The area of the Assistants is pretty rough since they have very little time to actually work in it due to the extreme amount of office work to do, and so Elder Thompson and I spent most of the night contacting. We decided to let ourselves be guided by the Spirit. Well...we got to talking and lost ourselves in conversation while walking down the road. As we were walking forward, my legs strangely decided to turn. I told Elder Thompson I didn’t know why I was turning, but I think we need to talk to the next person we see. At that moment a lady walked out of her house and started down the street. We approached her and began to contact. It was a wonderful contact, and I felt the Spirit very strong while we spoke with her. We set an appointment for another day, and today Elder Thompson told me that they were able to teach her and her husband, and that it was very successful. It was a small miracle that I definitely will never forget.

This week we held a special Zone meeting in order to welcome the new elders and sisters into the district. We let the district leaders teach most of the principles in the meeting, and just decided to take a little bit of time at the end to talk about the Law of Consecration. We watched a short film called Treasure in Heaven (I strongly recommend it) about the life of John Tanner. We then explained to the Elders about the Law of Consecration and how we really are living it as missionaries, as long as we are doing everything we can in order to complete our purpose. I invite each of you to see that wonderful movie.

On Wednesday the Stake President of our assigned stake (Comayaguela Stake) invited all of the missionaries in the zone to go and eat lunch at his house. His wife made us a lovely lunch and even served us apple pie as a dessert! Our stake president is a really humble guy, and he shared with us several uplifting stories of his life. He explained his expectations for us as missionaries, and solicited his help in whatever we needed. It was a very pleasant lunch.

I have a strong testimony of missionary work. I know that it’s the Lords work and that He is our director. He guides us every day, because he has a great work and glory to complete. I love each and every one of you, and hope that you are keeping safe.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 15

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there. How are you doing? I hope that all is well in the real world. The weather has been absolutely crazy in Honduras this week. One day we wake up and I can see my breath and freezing my butt off, and the next day it's 100 degrees again. Mother Nature Honduran style is really bipolar, she can't make up her mind!

So to start off with the good news, the teens from the Cerrato Family were baptized on Saturday! After quite a bit of work we got the baptismal service worked out and it turned out great. We had quite a bit of challenges making it happen as the usual baptismal service is. For example, since we don't have a chapel in our area, we had to have the baptism in another church a little bit far away. Also, due to the Worldwide Training Meeting for the new Instruction Manual (they had that from 4 to 6 here in Honduras) we had to have the baptism at 7 at night. That is a little bit of a problem since the buses don't run that late. Well, with a couple of other challenges, we were still able to have a spiritual baptismal service. We invited the Hno. Lenin Cerrato (the guy that “kidnapped” us and took us to the house of the Cerratos (we would have never found their house if he didn't take us there!)) to the service, and asked him to talk about the importance of baptism. I wasn't asked to baptize this time so I had a lovely time sitting back and enjoying the spirit of the meeting. We were very happy to be able to hold the baptism this Saturday.

We had the intention to put a baptismal date with Hna. Miriam this week, but we ran into a couple of problems. She is a really great person and is still progressing, but I had always felt that something was still missing, because we had talked about baptism almost every appointment we had with her, and she feels like it's a good thing, but hasn't accepted the date. Yesterday we had a great appointment with her. My companion talked most of the time, but I had the continuing feeling that something was still off, so when my companion looked at me to begin teaching, I didn't know exactly what she needed, so I just began to ask questions...inspired questions. I felt the Spirit very strong in this moment, and then the Hna. Miriam opened up. She began to explain a couple of things that had gone on in her life. So now we have a really good idea of what she needs to hear, and how we will be able to help her progress towards a baptismal date.

This Wednesday we had the changes, and there wasn't too many changes in the zone. But Elder Ortiz and I had to go to the changes meeting anyway because of the new area they opened up in the zone. We went to pick up Elder Paulson (from Bingham High School!) and his trainee aka “son” to show them how to get to their new area. We got them situated into their new house and showed them how to get to the homes of the other elders in their ward. The only problem we still have with their house is that they don't have a telephone, so we've had a couple of communication problems for a couple of days, but today we were able to get them a phone. The new elder that is living in my house is Elder Martin, Elder Tingey’s (from my district) new son! Elder Martin is from Vegas but his parents are Latinos and so he already speaks Spanish. We have had a good time getting to know him and “initiating him in the mission.”

This last week I had my first experience teaching an investigator that has been exposed to anti-Mormon literature, and let me tell you, it was quite the experience. I haven't read a whole lot of it because I try to stay away from that stuff, but there is some absurd comments in those books. I try and do the best I can to not contend or “Bible Bash” with the investigators that want to “prove us wrong.” What I usually do is leave my scriptures in my backpack, I don't even bother trying to use them, because I know that it's not going to work. What you have to do with these types of people is be very delicate, calmly answer their questions, and bear your testimony like you've never borne it before! At the end of the lesson we at least accomplished something, we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so that he can obtain a real concept of what the Book of Mormon is. I pray that he will really read it.

Other than that, it’s been a little bit of a slow week for Elder Ortiz and I. Still lovin life and chugging along. I hope that you all take care. I love you!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 8

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there. I would like to start off by expressing my sadness of the Utes game, sounds like it was a little bit embarrassing, but at least I'm not there to worry about it. To start off with my usual weather report, I actually have a few surprises for you this week.....Its COLD here!!! This week a cold front moved on in that nobody was prepared for, and let me just tell you that this morning I saw my breath! Its not like its freezing, but the temperature got down to like 46 degrees, something seemingly impossible around here. I am zero prepared for this cold since the only type of jacket I have is my paper thin raincoat, so I had to borrow some clothes from a generous member that didn't want a poor Elder to freeze to death in his sleep. I feel like I'm camping at night all bundled up in a sweater and sweats, the only thing missing is the fire smell!

To start up the new month of November, Elder Ortiz and I held a zone meeting to give a little bit of excitement to all the Elders and Sisters. We're really excited about a new month and this time we are bound to have success. I love all of the missionaries in our zone, and am trying to look for new ways to get to know them better and serve them every week. We talked about a new action plan that we made, and gave a copy to every missionary so that they could have one in their homes. Hopefully it works!

Today we received the transfers, and as President predicted, there were very few changes in the mission this month. In the entire zone there were only changes in 2 of the areas. The interesting thing was that on Wednesday we will be opening up a new area in our zone called Pradera B. With the 3 changes (including the new area) that happened, all of the Elders or Sisters are going to be training, so there will be 3 brand spankin' newbies in our zone soon! I'm excited but it's also important that we have lots of training so that the new elders can learn the new style! We spent a bit of time as well looking for a house for the new Elders in Pradera, since they didn't tell us that they were going to be coming until about 2 weeks ago. We finally found one the other day, and so now we have to get all the paperwork done really quickly so that they can arrive smoothly!

On Friday we had our zone leaders conference, something that Elder Ortiz and I were not looking forward to haha. We presented our numbers for the month (that weren't too good) and then proceeded to explain what happened and what we are going to change this month. We had a great lesson from President Flores about how to make good decisions as leaders, and the process about how we should do it. But of course the best part was the lunch of Hna. Flores afterwards! MMMMMMM I can still taste it now.

With respect to our investigators, I am very content. I have a strong testimony that the Lord really does put us in the right place at the right time. Our 2 best groups of investigators, The Cerrato Family and Miriam, are still doing great. All I know is that I have a strong testimony that we really are instruments in the great plan of God. Elder Ortiz and I have had some serious problems contacting in our area, and almost no one has received us in the entire transfer when we have knocked on doors. I just remember the day that we found Miriam. We were walking by her house, and I felt a strong impression that I needed to knock on that door. Well we knocked on it, and she came out and invited us in, we got really excited but we could not go in because there wasn't a male present in the house. So we put an appointment for another day (something that almost never works out), and I left a little bit disappointed because I felt really good about knocking on the door. But eventually we did go back, and I now realize how true that spiritual influence really was! And with the Cerrato Family, if we wouldn't have gone over to an unknown street to contact, we would have never been run down by some random member from another ward so that he could take us to the house of some of his family. My testimony has really grown, and I know that God has a plan for every one of us. Being a missionary is an incredible way to know of that great plan.

Everything is going great for me here in Comayaguela, and thanks everyone for all of your prayers. I love you all and hope that you take care.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 1st

Good afternoon family and friends in the "Cold World!" Is it starting to get cold over there? I imagine it should be since we have now arrived to November, that's about the time that the good ole snow gets acomin. I feel like I'm always talking about the weather at the start of my letters, is it true? I guess it must be a good icebreaker if you don't really know what to say...(I'm gonna be a sorry date when it comes to talking haha). This week has been filled with good stories.

My reign as permanent interchanger has finally ended this week. On Tuesday I went on my last interchanges to an area called Flor del Campo (Flower of the Field). I worked with Elder Soto from Guatemala. He has just 3 weeks in his mission and is about 4 feet tall! The good thing is that his Spirit is about 8 feet tall! I enjoyed myself in that area because the bishop gave us lunch and dinner, and lunch the next day, and it was delicious. It was fun to be able to work with a new missionary again and to be able to teach a couple of things that I have learned around here. But of course, I learned more from him than he learned from me. I enjoyed myself that day.

Thursday was quite the interesting day for Elder Ortiz and I. First off, on Wednesday night we received a phone call from the mission doctors (Elder and Sister Garvis from Preston Idaho). They warned us that tomorrow morning we were going to have house inspections for the whole zone, and that if one of the houses in the zone were dirty, we were going to receive the scolding (uh-oh). So...when we arrived home that night from work, we immediately began to sprint to clean the house the best we could (not that it was that dirty, let's just say that Elder Garvis is ex-military and he gets a little bit angry). We also warned the rest of the zone so that they could have a small heads up. Well... they showed up at our house at 8 exactly the following morning, and we received an A! We jumped for joy. Then the Garvis`s told us to hop in their car and show us the way to all of the other Elders houses in the zone. For the next couple of hours we helped the Garvises inspect houses, some of the Elders houses were sparkling clean (especially the Sisters, geez), but other Elders did not do so well. The best part of it was that afterwards the doctors took us to Wendy`s afterwards (it's famous because it's the only one in Tegucigalpa).

Later that night, the Young Men of the ward had a special food making activity for mutual, and we decided to invite all the boys from the Cerrato Family to get to know all of the kids in the ward. We brought them over and everything started out well, but then I started noticing that Carlos, the oldest, stopped talking to people and just held his head down. My companion and I went into the kitchen to serve more of the food, and all of a sudden we listen to the other youth saying, "he left!" We look over, and he was gone! He just got up and ran away from the activity. Well to make a long story short, my companion and I got pretty worried. We grabbed the Young Men's leaders and ran over to his house to see if he was there, and luckily he was. We found out what happened, and apparently the boys were teasing him and that isn't really something he can handle. We said we were sorry, and I think we saved the situation, because he said everything was alright afterwards and that he was still going to go to church. It was a stressful situation for us, and let's just say I look forward to being a young men's leader when I get back (not).

This week I was able to interview someone to be baptized named Dinora. She had just got married the day before the interview to her husband who is a member of the church. She had been receiving the missionaries for 2 years and never thought that it was all true. But recently the missionaries arrived inspired and they helped her receive her testimony, something that I could feel while I was conducting the interview. It was a very great experience for me to see someone with a change like that.

We did have a miracle happen this week. We have an investigator named Miriam that Elder Ortiz and I found contacting about 2 1/2 weeks ago who we think is a chosen one. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if these things were true, and on Saturday she came to an activity that we had at a members house where we watched the 70 minute Joseph Smith movie. We took the chance and called her up in the morning to see if she was coming to church, and she said...."don't worry Elders I'm already ready! What time should I be there?" I just about screamed in the phone haha, but I held my cool and gave her the information, and she came to church! This week we are hoping to put a baptismal date for this month. I am really grateful to be working here in the area of Comayaguela because the members in our ward are really willing to work. This week we only had one lesson which we taught that a member was not present with us. All I can say is...we have people to teach and I am happy! The best is yet to come! I know that this church is true and I know that what I'm doing is what I should be doing. I love you all and hope that you will be careful.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham