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Despedida.....Adios Honduras!‏

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

May 30th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! First of all, thanks so much for taking the time to read this...I hope it means something to you.

Haha I’ve been a little bit sick lately, some people say that missionaries always get sick in the last weeks of their missions due to the large stress to work as hard as you can till the end, and also the “horrifying” thoughts of the real world, and re-entering it....ooo shivers.....anyways let’s not talk about that yet haha, that’s for the next letter.

This week we weren’t able to baptize Isaì. We decided that he wasn’t quite ready yet, and placed the date for this Saturday instead. We were a little bit disappointed, and he was too, but we felt like it was the right thing to do. Isaì is really excited for his baptism, and he already selected me to baptize him (he`ll be the last one for me!) We are still teaching his parents, but things are going a little bit slow. We are trying to use our patience and insistence to be able to help them out, we are going to keep trying!

But, we were able to help the other girl, Alison, get baptized. I don’t know what it is about these kids, but their testimonies are so strong. Can you believe that after her confirmation...little 8 year old Alison said the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting? And she did it very nicely as well.

This week, I was studying chapter 9 of PMG and trying to raise my faith that God was preparing people for me to teach. I spent the week studying chapter 9 and praying for those people that God will put in our place. I received an answer to my prayers! This week...I was able to witness a miracle. The other day, when Elder Hernandez and I were headed to an appointment, a lady stopped us on the street and demanded that we visit her the next day. So...we shockingly, but confidently put an appointment for the following morning. When we arrived the next day, she began to explain to us her story. When she was living in Tegucigalpa, she had a boss who was LDS along with his family. She admired her boss, and all of the good things that his family did for her and for others. After moving here to Guaimaca, she lost contact with him. But, after a couple of months, she had acquired a “thirst” to find and know the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. While contemplating how she could satisfy her thirst, or what church to attend, her thoughts returned to her boss. She was able to recognize that her boss and his family were “examples of the believers,” and decided that she wanted to be more like them. So, she began to search for us. Many times she had seen us, but was never able to catch up because we walk too fast. But that day, she saw us...and she said that she couldn’t contain the Spirit that she felt within her, and so she stopped us. Well...long story short...Hna. Santitos is preparing herself to be baptized in the true church of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that the Lord has permitted me to witness such a miracle. I thought that only in the Liahona did these types of miracles happened!

I love the mission. I wish it would never end. I have learned so many things in my mission. But most of all, I have learned how to receive a remission of my sins, so that I might stand worthy one day before the judgment seat of the Most Almighty...and he might declare unto me...Well done good servant. I continue to work because I fear the punishments of God that he places upon slothful servants. For that, I am grateful that the Lord has blessed me to continue to have such unforgettable experiences. I know that this is the true Church. How could I possibly deny it? The Lord has answered my prayers, and He has guided me to become the person that I only dreamt of becoming. I love you all, and I thank you for all of your support as well.
Vaya Pues...una vez màs!

Elder Tinkham

May 23

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! How is everything going? I hear that the weather is still pretty rainy around there. Well it’s pretty rainy here too! Rainy season has begun, and so it’s basically raining every day. My shoes are pretty muddy!

Last Tuesday I attended my final Zone Conference in the mission, it was fairly sad. We had a wonderful time learning about how we need to look for families to baptize, how we can use the promise of Moroni more effectively, and how we need to improve on our studies in the morning. And, as tradition always goes, I was invited to bear my testimony along with the other missionaries that are leaving this change. It was the weirdest experience I have had in my life haha, because afterwards President Flores was giving us advice about what we need to do after the mission and I was thinking “this information isn’t for me!” I guess you gotta start accepting these types of things once and awhile eh?

The next day I was able to do interchanges with one of the Elders in my zone, Elder Linford from Tremonton, Utah. He is a newer Elder. It was really fun to be with him and remember my old days of fumbling through Spanish and saying embarrassing things in front of the people. It was quite hilarious actually, in one of the lessons that we were teaching, Elder Linford asked the name of the lady we were teaching. After she told us her name, Elder Linford tried to compliment her on her nice name, but had some difficulties expressing himself and instead said, “What were your parents thinking when they named you?” I had a small laugh, but I helped him get out of it like a good friend. We had a fun time together because we decided that day that we were going to talk to everybody about the Book of Mormon, everybody we came in contact with. We gave away like 4 copies of the book, and also had some great experiences testifying the truthfulness of it as well. We contacted a member referral named Jaime who is super positive, and talked to her about the Book of Mormon. We used what we had learned in the zone conference about using the promise in Moroni 10. We explained to her that if she did exactly what it says to do in verses 3-5, there is no way that she wouldn’t receive an answer to her prayers. We hope that she will receive an answer soon.

We also have a baptismal date for this Saturday. His name is Isai, a 15 year-old kid who is super nice. He is another product of the Hna. Gissela, a lady that we found and activated (not to mention, she is now the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency). I sure do love Hna. Gissela and their family, they are referral machines! We are also teaching the parents of Isai, but they are a little bit more rough to work with. But, I think that the Book of Mormon lesson we had the other day really touched them, so we´ll have to see if we can get Iasi’s family to come to church too, at least to his baptism!

On the 21st of May, it was supposedly the “end of the world” here in Honduras. I’m not really sure if it was worldwide, but there sure was a big hubub around here in Guaymaca that the world was going to end that day. We got a good laugh out of it, and also used it to talk about the Plan of Salvation to everyone about what comes next after this life!

I sure do love being a missionary. I know that this work is true. I know that the Holy Ghost directs my very doings every day as I daily ask to be guided. Thanks so much everyone for all of your support. I love you all!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

May 16

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! If I am not mistaken this will be my 100th or 101st weekly report, for all of you that have taken the time to read everything I have said for these 100 letters. Don’t you have anything better to do with your time? Haha I’m kidding. But really, I hope that at least in 1 of these letters I have said something important that might help with some aspect of your lives. If not, I have failed indeed.

Last Monday it was my companion’s birthday, and the branch president invited us over to his house to eat a bunch of grilled meat with a special hot sauce that he makes. It was delicious! I can still taste those spicy pork chops! They had to roll Elder Hernandez and I out of there with a wheelchair haha. We had a lovely chat with the president and his wife.

This week Elder Hernandez and I held a zone meeting with all the missionaries so that we could transmit all of the information that we received in the leadership council the other week. We felt the task very difficult, because we wanted everyone else to feel how we had felt in the meeting (the Spirit was super strong). We were a little bit worried, but I think that the Spirit helped us to be able to share the lessons that we had received. We shared a theme called “From Doubt to Belief” and talked about faith. We explained to the missionaries what the difference was between a faithful servant, a normal or “useless” servant, and a bad servant that the Lord explains in Luke 17. It explains that, we as missionaries have duties, and if we get to the point where we are doing just what we are asked to do, we are normal or useless servants. If we do less than what we are asked to do, we are bad servants. But, if we accomplish what is asked of us and more, we become faithful and beloved servants of the Lord. I strive to become that type of servant.

That same day I was able to have lovely interchanges with my friend Elder Thompson, my ex assistant and current district leader. We had a great time in Guaimaca and worked really hard, and found 7 new investigators together. I sure love that guy, and he is a great missionary as well.

Lately my companion and I have been having difficulty finding complete families. We have found several people to teach and are increasing our teaching pool every day, but the problem is finding the married couples that want to listen. The trend these days is that the wives are super positive and always want to listen to what we have to say, but the second we try to talk to her husband....FOOM he goes flying out the door haha. It’s been a little bit frustrating, but also it’s increased my gratefulness for the gospel and the doctrine of eternal families. I know that we can be together with our families for all of eternity, so long as we keep His commandments and repent of our sins. My goal is to never stop preaching about the gift of eternal families, because I know that that is what we MUST have in order to really be happy in this life. It brings me sadness to hear the words...Until death do they part, because I know that death is not the end of all things. Christ was resurrected so that all of us could be resurrected as well, and be together with our families!

I love you all, thanks for all of your support and for reading these blabber fests!

Elder Tinkham

La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias

Quisiera escribir en español, es màs facil jaja!

May 9th

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

May 2nd

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there!

Okay just to start off......DALLIN!!! I CANT BELIEVE IT!!!! Something told me that you were going to join me in Honduras! I sure have a LOT to tell you! But I’ll talk more with you when I get back....but let’s just say.....start getting used to plantains now...and the extreme heat....and baptizing millions haha. I’m so happy for you. We are going to be in the same country together when I return for the dedication of the Honduras temple. Wow.

Alright now that I’m done screaming....okay one more...:WOO HOO!!!. Okay. This week has been pretty great for my new companion and I. Once again, I’m totally exhausted from all of the work that we have been doing. My new companion is Elder Hernandez, and he is from Mexico. It’s pretty cool because there are only 2 Mexican elders in the whole mission, and it’s my first Mexican companion. He is an awesome guy, we definitely have the same tastes. I’m going to love being with him during these 6 weeks. Elder Torres got sent off to my old area, Comayaguela!

The transfers meeting that we had was pretty intense. It was an all new system that was being experimented. None of us knew what type of changes we had or anything like that. The only thing that we knew was if we were leaving or staying in the area. So we all showed up at a church building in Tegucigalpa to wait and find out who was going where and all of that jazz. I was pretty happy when I saw that Elder Hernandez was going to be my companion, because he is a great missionary. This is his first time being a zone leader, but he is fitting the spot just fine. President Flores told us that from day one when we receive a new calling, we must prepare our replacement. I definitely have that chance at this moment. Since I will be leaving at the end of this change, as well as the 2 district leaders in the zone, Elder Hernandez will have a large responsibility next change with respect to leadership. So, I have to teach him everything I know, and fast. I don’t think it will be too bad, because he is definitely a better missionary than me.

This week I had another witness that God is ever so merciful with his servants. This Sunday for fast Sunday, Elder Hernandez and I asked for the people that we are going to baptize in May. At that moment, we didn’t know who these people where, and we may still not know quite yet, but that is not the point. We were praying for a good turnout at church, but to be honest, I didn’t have a lot of hope, because basically all of our investigators had cancelled on us the day before. I was shocked as the members entered the chapel that morning, that so many of them had brought investigators with them to church. As I sat at the piano as the meeting started, I counted 9 people that the members had brought to church. I was shocked! We were able to talk to all of them, and make appointments to begin teaching them this week. May just might be a lucky month for me! After the Sunday services, Elder Hernandez and I went on divisions. My comp went with a future missionary, and I had the special experience to leave with the Reyes Family. It is a really special experience to leave with a family that I was able to teach and bring to church. Sometimes I don’t know why the Lord allows me to feel such special feelings, but I feel that one day I will be able to understand them all. With the help of these amazing members that we have here in Guaymaca, Elder Hernandez and I are going to accomplish all of the high goals that we have set for ourselves.

I was thinking a lot this week about Humility (it’s funny how one tends to think about things that they most need to improve on). Being an “old missionary,” I often ponder what else I can do to “take it up a notch” or to “bring it one step higher,” things like that. I have strong desires to maintain a solid progression throughout all of my mission, therefore, that is what most of my thoughts go towards. I was reading something this week that really touched me. It is found in the beautiful discourse of King Benjamin. In Mosìah chapter 2, King Benjamin talks about how indebted we really are to God. In the verses 20-22 I found a part of my answer that I was looking for.

“I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render All the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to posses, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another-

I say unto you that if you should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--- I say, if ye should serve him with ALL your whole souls, yet ye would be Unprofitable servants.” (emphasis added)

We are all unprofitable servants, but all that he requires of us is “to keep the commandments.” I understand that I may think that I have done much in my many months of service, but really it is nothing in the sight of God. I am still completely in debt to Him, and I must continue paying that debt every day of my life. I love this work, I know that it is true. I know that if we work with all our might, mind, soul, and heart, that God will grant us the mercy that we SO need, in order to enter in His Kingdom.

I love you all, thanks so much for supporting me.

Vaya Pues! (get used to that Dallin!)

Elder Tinkham

April 25th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! I sure do love you guys, and I hope that you’re all doing well! I am doing just great down here around the Equator.

First things first, we received the changes last night. Transfers are this Wednesday. The new catch is that they are going to do the changes differently now. The only thing I know is that I am going to be staying in Guaimaca to finish the mission! Woo hoo! Elder Torres is leaving, but he doesn’t know to where, and I don’t know who my final companion is going to be either. But I am really happy that I get to finish the mission in Guaimaca. That is exactly what I wanted.

Well, this week was Holy Week......things were a little bit slow. Holy Week in Honduras is basically Spring Break over there in the States. Everyone goes on vacation, or leaves to the beaches to go tanning and swimming during the week. There were several reasons why the work was a little bit slow this week:

1. Real Madrid played against Barcelona twice this week, which is a HUGE deal here in Central America (dad you understand). So, that day, nobody wanted to receive us due to the super bowl type game. (Real Madrid won! Boo Yah!)

2. The electricity went out like 3 times this week! So, after 6:30 you can’t see anything! So we have to just stay home and do nothing, pretty boring.

3. During Holy Week, there are a lot of Catholic processions. In the processions, the devoted go out and make like 20 sand carpets in the middle of the road, and they serve kind of like stations for the Crucifixion program to go around all of the city and do their whole show. I won’t lie, it was pretty cool, the Catholics have some cool traditions around here in Guaimaca.

On top of that, we got a phone call in the middle of a lesson that one of the missionaries had been rushed to the Medical Center in Tegucigalpa to be operated on for Appendicitis. So, we had to make a bunch of phone calls to make sure that he was okay, how to arrange the trio for his companion, etc. But, when he arrived at the hospital and after a couple of exams, it turned out to be a false alarm, so everything is good there. They didn’t operate on him.

About Josè Carlos and Paola, everything is going just fine. The progress is a little bit slow. Let’s just say it’s going to be a little bit difficult to get them out of a couple of habits, but we have hope. We are going to keep working hard with Josè Carlos. The one time we were able to visit him in his house, he had a ton of questions for us. The problem is, the supposed “friends” that he was going to give us as references, turns out that they are just pastors that have been bugging him a lot lately with anti-Mormon stuff, and so that was why he had so many questions. But as far as we know, everything is still going great. Tonight we have a family home evening with them!

On Saturday, we held a Priesthood Grilling Activity at the church. The objective of the activity was to invite a ton of less actives, and specifically, adults or teens that have been baptized, but haven’t had the opportunity to receive the priesthood yet. So, what we did is huddle them all up and offer them food and sports! (It works with every guy doesn’t it?) A bunch of people came, and we slyfully slipped a bunch of the guys in for interviews with the Branch President! It turned out to be a great success. Carlos, El Chino, who we recently baptized, got his interview and is now a Teacher, AND he is attending seminary. YES!

On Sunday, I gave a talk in church about Home Teaching. In Honduras, Home Teaching is basically non-existent. But, in Guaimaca, we are making a breakthrough on how to make it work. The branch president asked me to speak about it, and I sure received a nice admonishing from the Spirit that I need to be a GREAT home teacher when I get back. Thanks for the good example dad! By the way, to all those who read this....GO and do your visits for Home and Visiting Teaching!

Also on Sunday, the Reyes Family gave us a reference and went with us to the house of a family member. It was touching to hear the testimony of someone that you were able to teach, it’s one of my favorite parts of missionary work. The Hna. Miriam gave her testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and how she came to know that it was true. It strengthened my own testimony as well.

Thanks so much for all of your support for me. Take care everyone. I love you all!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

April 17th

Hola a todos mis amigos y familia que estèn leyendo mi carta en este dìa. Estoy muy animado poder dirigirme hacia ustedes......hi....haha.

Well....several have asked me if it is still hot in Honduras.......yeah...it is. This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week), the hottest week of the entire year.

This week we weren’t able to have any baptisms. We have been having a little bit of trouble with Sandra lately. She doesn’t have a lot of education, and so she is not able to read the Book of Mormon, and she isn’t really doing her part to be able to receive a testimony. It seems like she is visiting a bunch of churches all at once, so that she might be able to receive “as many blessings as possible.” We had Elder Cardon interview her to see if she was prepared for baptism, but she didn’t pass. She didn’t come to church the next day either. So, we’re not really sure about her, we are going to keep working hard to have her understand the message of the Restoration.

This week we had interviews with Pres. Flores, my last one as a field missionary. We talked about what I can do in order to reach my maximum potential as a servant of the Lord. What we talked about was really good for me, and all I can say is, I have nothing holding me back from being the best missionary that I can be! I also took the time during the interviews to take a Spanish test by BYU which the mission provides. I will be waiting for the results, and then I’ll have to figure out what to do with them later haha!

After the interviews, Elder Torres and I knelt down to pray and asked for a family. We prayed so that we could be guided to find the chosen people. Immediately after the prayer, I felt the impression to go to a certain place that we haven’t really gone to before, and we began contacting. On the 3rd house, we found the family that we were looking for. We found them in a pulperia, which is a small store located on almost every corner of Honduras. Usually, it’s very difficult to contact and teach pulperìa’s, because they never close them, and so the people are always super busy. We taught a recently married couple with a brand new 2 month old baby. Josè Carlos, a fanatic of hunting deer, and he also collects guns (he’s got some nasty puppies in his house, by puppies I mean guns). His wife, Paola, is an inactive member. Her family has been inactive since she was 11, and now she is 22. She was really excited to get to know the church again, and Josè Carlos is awesome!

That day, we just talked to them for a little bit, and then we put the next appointment to get to know their house. On Friday we went to their house, which turned out to be Super far away. They live in a beautiful cottage house with lots of property out in the woods with nice scenery all around. We were in shock when we got to their house!

They came to church this Sunday too! I think we found our next baptisms for May. Today at night we are going to invite Josè Carlos to be baptized! He is good friends with a lot of people in the ward, and absolutely loved the meetings. We even put him in a home teaching pair (with us haha) to go out and visit other people, AND he already has 2 referrals of his 2 friends that want to get to know the church too! Man haha, and that is just after 2 times of visiting him! I love this family.

Anyways, that’s about all that I have for you guys this week. Things are going well for me, thanks for all of your prayers, because I feel them strengthening me as I go on. Thanks for all of your support.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

Baptism of Carlos

April 11th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! Another lovely week has passed us by. I hope that you are all doing well. The Vin Diesel look is still sporting (just to clarify I’m not way bald like him haha, because that would be against the mission rules!) The funny part is...mom and dad, remember the 2 bald spots that I have on my head from the IV that I had in my head? Haha well they are quite visible now, and so everybody thinks that I got shot, or stoned or something like that. So, it makes for some fun stories.

This week Elder Torres and I held the monthly zone meeting with everybody, so that we could hype them all up to do something incredible in April (fingers crossed!) We talked about our theme that we had created for this month. Elder Torres and I decided that the theme for the month of April was going to be Alma 37:6-7 where it talks about by small and simple things, great things come to pass. We plan on having some great thing happen, and so we have to focus on the little things in order to have success. Little things like “small rules” that some missionaries consider not too important. We feel like if we can make that happen, the Lord will consider us worthy of a blessing.

We have seen a LOT of trials come into the zone this week, myself included. As a missionary, we really are separated from the world, and we are able to have tons of spiritual experiences all the time. But, like the scriptures say, there is opposition in all things, and so we also see a LOT of not so good stuff too. Let me tell you, I’m getting a little bit tired of dealing with Satan, he’s got me exhausted, but I haven’t given up yet!

The other elders in Guaimaca, Elder Cardon and Elder Quinteros, changed houses the other day, and now live in a really nice apartment complex that even has a small soccer court in the complex. So every morning we go over there to play soccer, 2 on 2, to get some good exercise. It’s doing me good, and I’m also getting pretty good at soccer too!

In Guaimaca, once again we had a lot of baptisms this Saturday. Elder Torres and I just had 1, but the other elders had 7! It was a long day of interviews on Friday haha, but things turned out really great. The other Elders baptized a family, and a couple of neighbors that live next door to that family as well. Our baptism’s name is Carlos, but everyone calls him “El Chino” (the Chinese guy). Not really sure why haha, he does look a little bit Chinese, but here in Honduras the nicknames really stick with you haha. He is 15, and was a reference of the Hna. Gissela, the once less-active now active member that we were able to help out. He is her neighbor, and so we have been teaching him for awhile now. Everything went well with him, and I had the opportunity to baptize him because he had chosen me. It was a lovely experience for me.

Due to the amount of marriages, we have been going to the government building of the city, or whatever it’s called in English haha. Anyways, we spent a lot of time working on data of people with the secretaries there, and so we took advantage of the time to talk a little bit about the church. One of the secretaries, Angela, actually seemed to be pretty interested. Well, the other day when I was in interchanges with another Elder, we stumbled upon her house. We have now taught her twice, and everything seems to be going pretty good. She has a couple of doubts, but she is very sincere, and is willing to find out the truth.

Anyways, that’s about all I have for you guys this week. I hope that you take care, and that you have a wonderful week!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

April 4th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there in the world wide world of sports. Once again it is a great pleasure of mine to salute you this afternoon. To start out with a funny story, we just got back from cutting our hair. My companion decided to cut his hair kind of short, and he didn’t realize it was going to be so short, and so he was pretty freaked out and sad. So, I decided that in order to cheer him up, I would do it too! So, now we both look silly! (Well, he does...I kind of look like Vin Diesel haha).

Next weather report....it’s still super hot.

This week has been a total spiritual banquet for my companion and I. It was jam packed with meetings and travelling.

On Tuesday, we were in Talanga. We had the PMG fundamentals training meeting. President Flores presented some new cards of study of PMG, which are super cool. We have a new format in the mission on how we are going to study PMG together. We have a goal as a mission to become a mission of “Preach My Gospel,” I have read PMG 3 or 4 times in my mission, and a couple of weeks ago I put the goal to study PMG one more time before I finish. These cards and the new study format were the answers to my prayers! In 2 months I will finish PMG once again.

After the meeting on Tuesday, the luck fell upon me to babysit a future missionary. His name is Luis Miguel, and he is from Campamento. He was set apart right after the training meeting, and was due to leave the next day. It’s actually pretty historical, because Luis Miguel is the first missionary to ever leave from the Campamento branch on a mission. He came with us to work and sleep in the other elders’ house in Guaymaca. I was on exchanges with Elder Quinteros, a brand new elder, at that time as well. Let’s just say...I felt super old at that time haha. Luis Miguel is now in Ecuador on his mission!

On Thursday I had another opportunity to babysit as well! My friend Elder Quinteros has been a little bit sick lately. We thought that he might have appendicitis or something like that for the pain he was having. So, since I can speak English, I stayed with him to talk with the mission doctors while the other Elders left to important appointments. We went to the doctor together and took a couple of examens (tests), but they all turned out negative. We are pretty sure he has a hernia, or however you spell that. He’s doing alright.

We found a new family this week, named the Fam. Mendoza. Elder Cardon and my companion found them in interchanges, and they seem pretty positive. There are 4 people in total in the family. We brought the son of the family to the Priesthood session, and he seemed to enjoy himself. We’re going to see how the things go this week.

General Conference....what can I say. I learned so much. I already want the Liahona so that I can study it. The 2 things that I most learned were the importance of the duties of the priesthood and eternal marriage. That’s what had me meditating mostly. Well...learned that I need to respect my priesthood duties more, because when I was younger I was a slacker completely, and when I get home, I need to get married quickly and not waste my time haha! Thanks a lot Apostles! I love them.

Thanks guys! I love you so much every one of you. I hope you have a great week!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

Happy Birthday to Me!

Birthday Egg Bash!

Deja Vu from Last Time‏

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there!

I’ll start out with the weather report.....summer has started here....it’s really....REALLY....Hot.

With that taken care of, we can get started. I’m ashamed to say that we didn’t have any baptisms this week. But don’t worry! There is more where that came from in April! I don’t feel like stopping now. Right now we are kind of running low on investigators, so we have been contacting a little bit more often than usual. Let me tell you, it has been quite the experience for us. We’ve met some funny people, ignorant people, weird people (emphasis on that one), and some really great people too. This week I have talked to “prophets,” atheists, calvinists, anti-mormons, etc. It’s giving me a good refreshment on the lessons that I haven’t taught in awhile. Though, it seems that I always end up talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ when it all calms down. I figure that if the people have intricate questions that they want answered, there is no way that they are going to understand the answers completely if they don’t understand the basics.

Haha, My companion and I had a crazy experience on Saturday coming home from some baptismal interviews that we had in another city. First of all, we arrived super late to the interviews due to the lack of buses and difficulty finding baptismal clothes to give to the Elders. Since we got there late, the investigators got bored and didn’t really feel like being baptized anymore because they felt like we were trying to “put this together too fast.” We went to their house personally, and convinced them to come to the interviews. The interviews went very well, and the spirit was there. They decided that they would be making a big mistake if they delayed their baptism.

Anyways, so on the way home, we were waiting for a bus to come (as usual), when a nice looking Jeep Wrangler pulls up and tells us to get in the car. So, we jumped on in, and I noticed that the man driving looked kind of like my type of country-men. Then I noticed that he was wearing a T-shirt of the University of Utah. I said, “Where on earth did you get that shirt?” He told me that he got it in Salt Lake City. Long story short, we ran into a guy who lives in Herriman, Utah (in Daybreak basically) and works here in Honduras. He stays here for 30 days, and then goes home for 30 days. Turns out that he isn’t a member of the church, but has had a ton of involvement in the church. We talked to him a lot about testimonies, and how to truly obtain one. We also talked about a couple of other gringo subjects, but that’s not important haha. It was definitely the best ride I’ve ever received in the mission!

This week we had a roller coaster ride with the Reyes Family, our converts. Recently, they have been passing through a whole bunch of trials, and luckily we have been able to help them with every single one of them so that they stay active. But this week was just crazy. After a heated argument, the husband and wife got pretty mad at each other. The husband went out and drank (which he hasn’t done in 6 years), and the wife told us that she was going to leave the house. We pretty much freaked out, and went straight over there to talk to Hna. Miriam about what she would be doing to her family if she left. Well, our efforts were all in vain so we thought, because she told us that she was still going to leave.

The next day, Hna. Miriam called us and thanked us for all of the counsel that we had given her. We thought that she was talking to us from the pueblo where she moved to (where there is no Mormon church), but then something funny happened. She told us that she wanted to invite us over for dinner. We told her sorry, but we couldn’t leave our area to go that far. Then she said, “Oh, right...you guys still think that I left huh? No, I’m still here, I’m going to give it another shot.” YESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I shared a hug and party dance with my companion, and then that same night we went over and gave an amazing lesson about forgiveness, repentance, and that families can be together forever.

In church on Sunday, we had some great things happen too. I gave a talk on The Family Responsibilities. I tried to focus on the priesthood responsibilities of the fathers. I think that it turned out great. Also, Daniela, the little girl we baptized a little while ago, brought her mom to church!!! It was totally awesome, because every time we try to convince her to come to church, she never wants to because she is Evangelist. Daniela always goes with her Grandma, but her Grandma just left to visit her family in the US for a month. So, we talked to Daniela’s mom, Magdalena, so that she could do us the favor of bringing her. She first said no....but much to our surprise, Daniela convinced her mom to bring her! Another miracle of the week.

Today for my Birthday, I had a Deja Vu experience. Once again I got pounded with eggs. This time by the whole zone. I should have seen it coming....blast. But, they also made me a cake so that made up for it. I have some pictures to explain the Birthday Egg “Bash” that they did to me!

I love you guys, talk to you next week! Happy General Conference! I’ll be looking for you Brother!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

Baptism of cousins Seydi and Seyli

Baptism of Lizzie

Dear Family and Friends,

I’d like to start out with a joke, but due to the many people that have made fun of me for my lowly attempts (you know who you are), I have humbly declined this week. Haha

Anyways! Once again it was a wonderful week for Elder Torres and I. We had lots of work to do around this place. First things first, we had 3 baptisms this weekend. Seydi and Seyli, the cousins were baptized, after a little bit of stress. These girls are pretty darn hilarious. They are nervous girls, and so they were totally shaking at the moment when they were going to head into the baptismal font. I had the opportunity to baptize the shorter one, Seyli, and let’s just say she was really nervous. To give a little bit of backup on the story, I have a perfect record in baptisms in the mission. To make it more clear, I haven’t had to repeat a single baptism due to missaid words or body parts outside of the water. Well...we had a potentially dangerous situation here with Seyli...because she was really nervous. But I wasn’t about to let that ruin my record (haha!) Long story short, my record still stands baby! When Seyli came up from the water, she was flailing around like someone that was about to drown, but the good thing is that she was baptized! It was some small fun we had during that day of the baptism. Also, the little girl of the Hna. Gissela, the less active lady that I had felt the impression to knock on her door a couple of weeks ago, got baptized. Her name is Lizzie, and she is a super cute 8 year old girl that loves the church and is super reverent (Primary worker’s dream girl). I am grateful that the Lord led me to that house, because the Hna. Gissela really has changed a lot. She is preparing to receive a calling soon, and has also been bringing all kinds of people to church with her on Sundays! She’s one of my favorite activated members!

Elder Torres and I held a small activity in the house of one of the families of the branch this week. It was a small little fireside type thing where we all chilled outside and watched The Testaments with a bunch of investigators. We had some serious technical difficulties at the start, and so while my companion tried to work things out, I decided to get things going with the activity. As an introduction to the activity, I read 3 Nephi 11 to the crowd, and tried to do a small little act out of it, so that the people could better understand the true beauty of when Christ came to America to bless the people of Bountiful. It was a great activity. The Testaments is a great movie, my second favorite that the church has made (only Together Forever beats it).

Last week, when we arrived at some members house to visit them and share a small message, we found a lady named Veronica who was visiting. She is a friend of the family, and also works with the lady we were visiting, Hna. Dilma. We took advantage of the situation and applied the lesson to Veronica as well. In the end it worked out really well, and she invited us to come to her house the next day to continue teaching. She is now becoming one of our progressing investigators. The real irony of the story is that, the other day, when we arrived to her house to continue teaching, she was with a cousin of hers who lives nearby. We took the time to invite her to listen as well, applied the lesson to her as well as Veronica, and she invited us to come to her house and teach more! I learned a great lesson that it is always important to invite everyone to participate in the lesson.

On Saturday, I finished reading the Book of Mormon again! I truly love reading the BoM, especially in Spanish. As I read through the final chapter of Moroni, I read the verses that we missionaries read over and over again with the investigators so that they will pray to know that the church is true. But I found something very interesting in the next couple of verses that I had never really seen before. In Moroni 10: 21-22 it says: “And except ye have charity (...faith, and hope) ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God. And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair, and despair cometh because of iniquity.”

That is something that we can all take to heart. In Spanish, the word despair is used a little bit more commonly than it is in English. But it is something that we all feel in certain points of our lives. Many times we might blame the feelings of despair on other people. We always try to convince ourselves that it’s THEM that have caused the feelings that we have. Sometimes, we may even go as far as blaming the feeling of despair on God. But the scriptures are clear, the feeling comes because of iniquity. If we have these types of feelings, all we need to do is kneel down, and ask God that he may show us our weakness (Ether 12:27) so that we may repent, and then they will become our strengths. I love the Book of Mormon, it teaches me so many things.

Thanks everyone for taking to time to read this jibberish that I write every week. I love you all.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

March 14th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends! Yet another week has gone by. I begin to wonder if the Lord is punishing me by making the time pass by so fast, or if that is how it’s supposed to be haha. This week has been yet another busy week, and I know that what you all really want to hear is about my changes. But...I’m gonna leave you in suspense on that one.

My companion and I haven’t slowed down yet. We were able to put 3 more baptismal dates in our area. We have 2 for the 19th of March, and 1 for the 26th. A long time ago we were introduced to a less active family named the Sevilla family. We have been working with them for a while now, and it’s been a little bit difficult to be able to get them all to come to church. It’s not like they’re going to another church or anything, but they are just a little...casual about everything, you know? But we have had success recently, and 2 of the daughters, Seili and Seidi have accepted baptismal dates. I’m not really sure what happened, because before they really didn’t want anything to do with us. But now, they show up to church in their Sunday best, and without doubts they accepted the baptismal date! The Holy Ghost has a lot of power in us when we humble ourselves before God. The other baptismal date for the 19th is named Lizzi. She is the daughter of the Hna. Gissela, the less active lady that I told you about awhile ago that I felt inspired to knock on her door. She has now been completely activated, and we are currently teaching her daughter to get baptized.

For the 26th, we have a baptismal date with Sandra. She is the sister of Huri, the recent convert who I did divisions with last week. When we were on divisions we had the opportunity to teach her for the first time, and it was a wonderful experience. I knew that she would accept a baptismal date. Huri’s dad is a little bit more challenging, but we’re working on it! Sandra came to church for the first time this Sunday, and she already looks like a member!

This Sunday we had District Conference, the equal to Stake Conference. I was able to attend all of the sessions on Saturday and Sunday. It turns out I’m the only one that plays the piano for miles and miles, so they depended on me to be able to play the piano for the conference. I almost didn’t show up for the Saturday meetings because we had work to do in our own area, but I decided to go on exchanges with the other elders and play the piano for them. I am glad I did, because the spirit was very strong there. On Sunday, our whole little branch hopped up on a bus to head over to the city called Talanga for the District Conference. There were a lot of investigators from the zone there, and we were really happy to see everyone there.

This week, I remembered another spiritual experience that I had had the week before that I forgot to tell you about. The Fam. Reyes progress is still going great. Last week in church, as I was heading over to the Sunday School class to give my lesson, Sister Reyes pulled me aside to another room with a worried look on her face. I didn’t know what was going on so I was a little bit worried as well. But, when I asked her what I could do for you, she said...”Elder, I need your help to fill out the tithing slip so that I can pay my tithing. I’m not sure how these things work.” I think that I laughed out loud at that moment. Of course I would be overjoyed to help her. I love the Reyes Family.

Alright, so I guess I’ll tell you about the other news. The changes. After a whole week of suspense, wondering if I was going to be leaving to train or staying, the news finally came yesterday. I am going to be staying in Guaimaca! I’m super excited. Just a little bit disappointed that I won’t be receiving a greenie, but I’ll get over it! Not only am I staying, but my 2 new district leaders in the zone are my beloved Elder Cardon, and Elder Thompson, both from my group! I couldn’t be more happy! We are going to take fire in this change!

Well, that’s all that I have time to tell you about this week. I hope that you’re all doing well. I hope to hear from you next week. Love you and take care!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham