Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! How are you all doing? I hope that you are passing this Christmas season with thoughts of reflection about how the year has gone for you, and that we may all think about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Things are becoming very chilly here in Tegucigalpa in the mornings, and the weather is just going crazy. It’s really cold at night and then warms up to being very hot in the afternoon. Desert type weather wouldn’t you think? Weird stuff since I’m in a tropical zone huh?
This week has been quite the frustrating one around here for my companion and I. A large chain of events that would just bore you made us have quite the difficult week this week, but let’s just say we’ve got plenty of room to improve! I guess it wasn’t exactly the whole week, but Sunday in particular. It was a little bit rough for us because all of the investigators we had invited and had committed to come to church this week cancelled on us, and we ended up only bringing one less active member to church with us. It was quite disappointing due to the large hopes we had, but we have made a lot of plans for this week on how we can improve. In addition to the bad luck at church, most of our appointments fell through in the evening so we weren’t able to teach too many people. We walked home saying, “Well at least it can’t get any worse!” But just like any other cliché, we were wrong haha. We got back home and realized that my companion had left open the water valve that connects to our tank to the shower, and found the floor soaking wet. We also opened up our closet and found it...flooded. All of my clothes were soaking wet! We sure had a fun time cleaning it all up haha. But now that I think about it, it’s a fun memory to remember.
Well, enough moping. I’d rather tell you all about the good stuff that happened instead. On Tuesday we held our monthly zone meeting with the zone in one of the chapels, and we decided to do it a little bit different. Elder Oritz and I decided to make a couple of rules so that we can be more spiritual missionaries in the meetings. We all arrived 10 minutes early so that we could read the scriptures and listen to prelude music, and we gave everyone the opportunity to bear their testimonies. Also, instead of instruction about Preach my Gospel like always, Elder Ortiz and I each prepared a small talk about Christmas, and how we can better enjoy it as missionaries. I really enjoy the words that Pres. Eyring shared, when he shared the song “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.” At first I felt sad reading that part, realizing that I will be spending yet another Christmas holiday away from my loved ones, but then I realized something else too. Our loving Heavenly Father desires that each and every one of us returns to live in His presence, and has prepared the way so that we can accomplish it. What I am doing is trying to help the people here in Honduras to be able to “return home” just like I am trying to achieve. As the song relates, I will be coming home for Christmas in my dreams, but I am also fulfilling my purpose as someone who helps my loving brethren return to their Heavenly Father’s presence for Christmas as well. It’s very satisfying.
This week I also had the opportunity to go on interchanges with Elder Paulson, my fellow Bingham High School alumni. We had a great day working together, and worked super hard. We also talked about beloved memories from high school, laughing and laughing about the funny things that happened to us back in the day. We have both been in the mission for awhile now, so we had plenty of experiences to share. Us 4 who were in the beloved Comayaguela house that night were, coincidentally, all Americans, and SpongeBob Squarepants fans...long story short we had some good laughs.
Tomorrow we are going to have our mission Christmas Conference with President Flores, I really hope that it’s going to be a great experience for me. Elder Tingey, Ortiz, and I are going to sing “O Holy Night” in Spanish during the meeting. We’re a little bit nervous but it will be a good experience. Speaking of singing, did I tell you that my companion and I sang a duet in church? If I didn’t tell you, just to be quick....about a month ago Elder Ortiz and I sang “O My Father” in our sacrament meeting, and it turned out to be really good. We got a lot of comments!
Also, we have some crazy plans this upcoming Thursday to come to the Mall and sing Christmas hymns by the giant Christmas tree that they have in the middle. The ones that can’t sing are going to be chasing people down for references. If everything goes well, we should get permission soon and we’ll be singing at the mall on Thursday! I’ll let you know how that goes.
Anyways, that’s all that I have for you guys this week. I hope that you stay safe! I love you all and pray for you often. Have a fantastic week!
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
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