Beloved Family and Friends....
Never really thought this day would come.....3 years ago I graduated!!! Haha just kidding....just trying to avoid the inevitable.
Well...this is my last newsletter that I will be sending to you guys. Tomorrow will be my last day of work, and I’ll be arriving home late Thursday night in the real world. Yikes! But it sure has been an interesting week! Let me tell you about it.
Early on in the week, I went on my final interchanges of the mission. I was with Elder Thompson here in Guaymaca and we sure had a good time together. We worked really hard together. When dinner time rolled around, we were heading over to eat at our neighbor’s house, but I didn’t feel like we had done enough work to deserve the food. Something told me inside... “you have to knock on somebody’s door first Elder Tinkham...knock on that door.” I obeyed haha. We found a lovely family named the Garcia Family. They are a young couple who are very cute together. Elder Thompson and I really enjoyed teaching them, we talked about eternal families and how they will be able to be together for all of eternity, we talked about prophets, and we talked about the Book of Mormon. Their names are Julio and Milagro (which means miracle, how ironic!) I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to listen to the Spirit and knock on the door of these chosen people.
To give you an update on the Hna. Santitos, the other chosen lady that found US, things are going well. We weren’t able to put a specific baptismal date with her because she has a few challenges that she needs to overcome first, but things are still great with her. She is preparing to be baptized, and we also had the opportunity to get to know her husband as well. Soon we are going to teach him the gospel as well, hopefully he will feel the Spirit too, because he has been reading the Book of Mormon!
This week we spent 2 days in Tegucigalpa in a couple of meetings that were established at the last minute. One day before we went to Tegucigalpa, I got pretty sick (yeah I know, pretty annoying for the last week in the mission!). Elder Thompson told me that its superstition and that all of the missionaries that are about to finish always get sick. I didn’t accept that answer because I knew that wasn’t bothering me, so we left to work. Well...we had to come in early that night, haha because it turned out that I had a fever of 102. On the way home we stopped by the medical clinic, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t dying of some disease. The doctor told me that I was showing signs of early dengue.....I was like, come on! This can’t be happening! I got myself a nice big shot to calm the fever, and went to bed! We woke up at the butt crack of dawn the next day to head out to Tegucigalpa. Before making it to our meeting, we stopped by the hospital where the missionaries can go and receive tests for free because the church has some kind of connection with them. I got myself a blood test and everything, but turns out that I just had a nasty case of strep throat that’s just about gone. I’m finishing up taking my medicine to get all the way better, so things are good now.
In the first meeting, we were with all of the leaders in all of the mission. Pres. Flores explained to us how to have better District Meetings and what we can do to bring the Spirit in these meetings, and carry it with us throughout all the week! We changed a couple of things on what we should do in order to bring excitement to all of the district meetings, so they should be much better now. That night I got to experience how to be an office Elder since the doctor wouldn’t let me leave to work. So I chilled in the office doing paperwork and all that jazz with Elder Hart from Holladay Utah. He is an awesome guy! Excellent missionary, he helped me out in more ways than one (you`ll have to find out later on that information!). We slept in the assistant’s giant mansion that night, and in the early morning headed off to the next meeting.
In the zone leaders meeting, we talked about how to teach the other missionaries how to marry people. Us as old and experienced missionaries when it comes to marrying families have had plenty of experience, but there are plenty of missionaries that don’t really know how to do it. We also talked about happiness. Pres. is getting worried because in our mission there are a lot of missionaries that aren’t as happy as they should be. He explained that we must ALWAYS have a smile on our face, and always share our message with such happiness, because it’s the most important message in the world! Luckily I know that is true, and I love sharing our message with everyone!
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to give 2 years of my life to the Lord. As Paul said....I have fought the good fight. I never thought this day would come, but all good books do have their end. At church yesterday in testimony meeting, I couldn’t hold in the pounding impressions of the spirit to get up and bear my testimony. I tried to contain myself haha but to no avail, I cried like a little baby. It’s very rare that I cry, but this time I couldn’t help it. I just love the people here in Guaymaca and in Honduras, it’s going to be so hard to leave them.
I’m coming home now, but as Kolipoki said.... It feels more like I am leaving my home. I know that this gospel is true. I know it as I know of my own existence. I have never been so sure about anything in my entire life. I can honestly say that I have honestly lost myself in this work, and by losing myself, as the scriptures say...I have found my life. I have received a remission of my sins, and I have found the true happiness in this life.
Thanks so much to all of you for supporting me in my labors. I could never thank you enough for all of your prayers, letters, thoughts, and anything else that you might have done for me. I will spend the rest of my life trying to pay back the favor. I love you all. And for the last time......VAYA PUES!
Elder Tinkham
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