Happy Mother’s Day yesterday to all of those mom’s out there! Especially to my own mother. Love you mom! Thanks for everything. It’s good to hear that the weather situation is somewhat calming down over there. Well....to give you info about Honduras and the weather....still hot haha. But, it rained for like 35 minutes yesterday! WOO HOO!
With respect to the missionary work. It was an awesome week reference wise, and a pretty rough one contacting wise. With the references, the members are really starting to get the ball rolling. This week we received a great reference of the family of a recent convert named Marvin. Marvin got married a little while ago and lives with his wife, they are both members. But recently Marvin has had the opportunity to speak to his family a little bit about the gospel, and we had the opportunity to join them! What really surprised me about the visit is the desire that Marvin’s mom, Miriam, has to read the Book of Mormon. She attends another church, but has a strong interest in knowing if the Book of Mormon is true. We basically just read a little bit with her, and then bore our testimonies about the truthfulness of the book, then left a chapter for her to read. I’m excited to go back on Wednesday to see how her experience went. They came to church 2 Sundays ago, and so this last week we went to visit them, everything seems pretty good!
Contact wise, well....wasn’t such a good week haha. Elder Hernandez and I have set some Super high goals for ourselves, and we are working on talking to everyone we see. In between appointments, in the street, neighbors, all around. We also found a ton of new investigators, but most of them didn’t want to allow us to come again. Even after clearly explaining that the Book of Mormon is necessary for our salvation, most of the people still reject it. It makes me really sad to walk away from those people knowing that they have rejected “the most correct book on the planet” and the book that helps us come closer to God than any other book on this earth. I mean, the Bible is great and everything...but it just seems like so little. How can it be that God only left us with such a small amount of information, if he is a loving God who wants us to return to His presence? The New Testament is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s basically just 4 books of 4 guys narrating the same thing, and then after that, like 10 letters that the apostles wrote to a couple of different cities To me, God had to have left us more than that.
My companion and I had a wonderful spiritual experience on Friday when we attended the Zone Leader Council in Tegucigalpa. April was..well not a very good month for us in the mission, and so President took the time to shave us up a bit, but really he gave us a ton of excitement to keep working as hard as we can. We watched a video that literally impacted my life, and I will never forget the feelings that I had in those moments. We watched a talk that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (it’s always him huh?) gave in the MTC in January of this year. Elder Holland compared us to Peter in the New Testament in John chapter 21. I love the part when Christ asks Peter 3 times.....Peter, Do you love me? Christ was explaining to Peter that he had previously made a covenant with Him that he would always serve Him. But, after his death, the apostles literally had no idea what to do, so they decided to go fishing again. And, when Christ returned, he reminded Peter that he had made that commitment. And so Elder Holland asked us all a question.....Elders and Sisters....Do you love Him? Do you really love Him? Have you been dedicating EVERY part of your being to the work, leaving behind ALL of your “nets, boats, fish, etc.,” to serve your God? Do you love Him?
Those words penetrated my heart with a force. I realized that I must continue working, and even work with much more force, until the final day of my mission. I love this work. I can say that I have put all of me into this great work, and that it hasn’t finished yet. I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down right now. I love all of you. Thanks so much for your support and love and prayers. I’m so grateful to be a missionary.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
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