Hello once again to all of my family and friends. Yesterday I did not have time to write so I asked permission to write to today, I will explain more of that later.
Things are going pretty decent here in the horrid heat of Juticalpa. Seriously, I'm melting here, we have now officially begun the hot season, and wow. It seems to me like the shade is even hotter than the unshaded parts of town.
Anyways, let me get started explaining this last week I had. I'll start out with the special highlights. On Friday we had the opportunity to have interchanges, and I stayed in my area. Elder Loarca, companion of Elder Cardon, came over and we worked for a day. I learned a lot from him, especially a ton of contacting skills. Since we have been having some trouble finding new investigators, he helped me out showing me a lot of different techniques to "persuade," you could say, people to let us in to teach. We had a lot of fun together, and we ended the interchanges heading over, the 4 of us together, to a service project. We dug a pretty big trench that was about 20 ft. long and 3 ft. deep for a member to put water pipes that will run to his house. Whew, now that was a service project! I haven't been able to hit up the manual labor in awhile so I still have a couple of hand blisters, but it was really fun. I also get the chance to have interchanges again today, but this time I'm going to the other area with Elder Cardon! It will be really fun since almost surely one of us will be leaving soon. We will find out the transfers this upcoming Sunday, and I'm fearing that I might be leaving. I don't wanna but who knows.
We also had a really awesome activity on Saturday with all of the members in the branch. It's called the Mini MTC, and we taught all the members how it is to be a missionary. We made plaques for everyone that came and put them in companionships. We were the MTC instructors and taught a few classes such as: how to contact, how to answer your friends questions with the scriptures, and introduction to Preach My Gospel. We watched a couple of video clips to amp up the spirit of missionary work in the branch. All of the members said that it was a really awesome activity and we felt really proud because we planned a lot of the activity and put a lot of work into it. All in all, it was a success.
Things are going pretty good with our investigators. The Ruiz Matamoros Family are still looking good for their wedding on the 5th and baptism on the 6th, and Denia, well, were holding our breaths. She has a husband, but they are not married, and he lives in the U.S. working. So we had the Law of Chastity lesson with her the other day, and she really wants to get married to him when he gets back. She is praying and reading, and doing everything, so I REALLY hope she accepts the baptismal date for this weekend. Hopefully I'll have good news for you guys next week on that one.
So, the reason that I didn't write yesterday is because I had to go to Tegucigalpa, again! We had the trainers evaluation meeting/newbie meeting, and so we were there all day. I got up at 4 AM to get there in time at 10, and I was quite sleepy, but I did learn a whole lot. When I had my newbie meeting it was a whole lot more fun because we were newbies, but now that I'm a trainer, President is a little bit harsher with us haha. I left the meeting pretty shaved up, but hey it's what I needed in order to become better right? I learned a great lesson about obedience. Recently I have been doing a lot of justifying, in other words, there are a ton of small rules that the mission has, that sometimes the missionaries disregard. But if I'm not being 100% obedient, how can I expect to have true baptisms of converts without the Spirit? I learned that I should never justify a sin, even if it's the tiniest thing, because sooner or later it will get back to you, turning into a larger and larger sin.
Anyways, that's about all I have for you guys this week. I hope you are all doing well and taking care of yourselves. Until next week,
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
February 15
Another happy week to all of you family and friends out there, another week has gone by, oh how the time flies right?
This week has been pretty decent I guess, a few fun things that I have to tell you. So on Tuesday night, Elder Hansack and I planned with the Elders Quorum President for him to accompany us that night to our appointments. We told him to meet us at the church, and as we were arriving at the church, we saw a car. Elder Hansack asked me if that was Pres. Vallejo's car (EQP). I told him no, because it looked like the car of President Flores. It turned out that is was his car, and we had an interesting run-in. "President! What are you doing here all the way in Juticalpa?" Oh hey Elders, I was just having a couple of interviews tonight since I'm gonna be here tomorrow (we had interviews the next morning). And now, I would like to come with you for the rest of the night and be present in your lessons! Well, after brushing off the shock, I said that would be great and we headed off. Talk about nerves, about a million different things were going through my head that I needed to do in order to make this work. Luckily things turned out okay and the night actually went pretty well. The only problem was that that night he came to our house to see if it was clean, and since we were gone that whole day Monday we did not have a chance to clean it! Yikes.
But the next morning in interviews, President Flores congratulated me. He said I was doing a good job as a trainer especially since my companion is a little different and has a lot of needs. He also told me that I was doing pretty well here in Juticalpa. I told him that I felt a great weight on my back being a young trainer in a very difficult area, and that it was a grand responsibility. He told me that I was doing a great job and gave me a lot of council, and I really enjoyed the interview. I definitely left a better person.
Besides that, things have been going pretty normal for us. On Thursday we made a short trip to Catacamas to have a joint weekly planning session with the whole zone, and with the Assistants, so they could take a look at our area book and make sure we are filling out all our papers. We also got trained a little bit from the Assistants on things we need to do better with respect to planning. Haha I just typed all that and realized that only the returned missionaries are going to know what I'm talking about right here, sorry everyone.
Yesterday on Sunday we had a really good turnout of investigators at church. All of the Ruiz Matamoros Family showed up along with Denia and Sharon! It was a great day of success. We have also been working really hard to help arrange the marriage of the Ruiz family, and the date should be the 5th of March, with the baptism being the 6th! The only problem is that changes are the 3rd... so I might get hung out to dry again with a family baptism haha, but oh well, they are not my baptisms, but the Lords. Denia told us that she did not want to be baptized so quickly because she has only been going to church for 3 weeks and feels like she is rushing into it, but I'm not too worried because she always comes to all of the activities, church every Sunday, and is reading the Book of Mormon. I'm confident that one day the Spirit will touch her heart and we will see a baptism coming up soon. Possibly this Saturday, because she told us she'd get back to us soon on her answer. Other than that, "All is well in Zion," haha.
I hope you're all doing well, especially Grandma Jenkins (she was in the hospital for 3 days last week), give her special hugs from me at this time, and just know I'm praying for all of you.
Love you and be safe!
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
This week has been pretty decent I guess, a few fun things that I have to tell you. So on Tuesday night, Elder Hansack and I planned with the Elders Quorum President for him to accompany us that night to our appointments. We told him to meet us at the church, and as we were arriving at the church, we saw a car. Elder Hansack asked me if that was Pres. Vallejo's car (EQP). I told him no, because it looked like the car of President Flores. It turned out that is was his car, and we had an interesting run-in. "President! What are you doing here all the way in Juticalpa?" Oh hey Elders, I was just having a couple of interviews tonight since I'm gonna be here tomorrow (we had interviews the next morning). And now, I would like to come with you for the rest of the night and be present in your lessons! Well, after brushing off the shock, I said that would be great and we headed off. Talk about nerves, about a million different things were going through my head that I needed to do in order to make this work. Luckily things turned out okay and the night actually went pretty well. The only problem was that that night he came to our house to see if it was clean, and since we were gone that whole day Monday we did not have a chance to clean it! Yikes.
But the next morning in interviews, President Flores congratulated me. He said I was doing a good job as a trainer especially since my companion is a little different and has a lot of needs. He also told me that I was doing pretty well here in Juticalpa. I told him that I felt a great weight on my back being a young trainer in a very difficult area, and that it was a grand responsibility. He told me that I was doing a great job and gave me a lot of council, and I really enjoyed the interview. I definitely left a better person.
Besides that, things have been going pretty normal for us. On Thursday we made a short trip to Catacamas to have a joint weekly planning session with the whole zone, and with the Assistants, so they could take a look at our area book and make sure we are filling out all our papers. We also got trained a little bit from the Assistants on things we need to do better with respect to planning. Haha I just typed all that and realized that only the returned missionaries are going to know what I'm talking about right here, sorry everyone.
Yesterday on Sunday we had a really good turnout of investigators at church. All of the Ruiz Matamoros Family showed up along with Denia and Sharon! It was a great day of success. We have also been working really hard to help arrange the marriage of the Ruiz family, and the date should be the 5th of March, with the baptism being the 6th! The only problem is that changes are the 3rd... so I might get hung out to dry again with a family baptism haha, but oh well, they are not my baptisms, but the Lords. Denia told us that she did not want to be baptized so quickly because she has only been going to church for 3 weeks and feels like she is rushing into it, but I'm not too worried because she always comes to all of the activities, church every Sunday, and is reading the Book of Mormon. I'm confident that one day the Spirit will touch her heart and we will see a baptism coming up soon. Possibly this Saturday, because she told us she'd get back to us soon on her answer. Other than that, "All is well in Zion," haha.
I hope you're all doing well, especially Grandma Jenkins (she was in the hospital for 3 days last week), give her special hugs from me at this time, and just know I'm praying for all of you.
Love you and be safe!
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
February 9th
Hello out there to all of my family and friends who take the time to read this newsletter every week. Who knows how many people really read it, but really thanks!
Anyways I am writing this today (Tuesday) because yesterday I spent the whole day in Tegucigalpa in the immigration or migration center, whichever of the 2 is correct, applying for my residence card. Now that I have more than 6 months of being here in Honduras, I qualify to apply. It was really annoying going because I don't know if I mentioned that I do not like traveling to Tegucigalpa because its quite the trip (7 hours of travel if you combine the journey and return journey). So my P-day was completely wasted, and I'm scrambling to accomplish all the things that I need to this morning. But, the one good thing was that most of my good ole MTC district boys were there and we got a great opportunity to chat for awhile.
Anyways, about my week. Once again, this week was a very difficult one where very many challenges appeared. But, once again, it all turned out to work out for good. Funny how that always works out right? Basically the majority of our investigators live really far away, so we have to spend a lot of time walking each day to get there in the burning sun. We had a lot of challenges because after sincerely trying to put appointments with them that I would know they'd be at home, it still worked out in vain. We walked a whole bunch this week without being able to teach a lot of lessons. But, this week I'd like to focus on the amazing blessings, or good things, that have been going on lately, by explaining our 2 best investigator families.
The first is Denia and her daughter Sharon. They recently moved here from the capital. They are related to a few members here that we like to call the "Relief Society Corner," because on this street corner live about 6 strong members of the Relief Society and only 1 guy lives there, haha. So she moved into the Relief Society corner, and is family to the sisters. Easy baptism right? That's what you'd think haha. The members are doing a great job of getting her to come to all of the meetings though. She has already been to 2 sacrament meetings and 2 baptisms! The only problem is we have had a hard time being able to teach since we can't manage to find anyone male to accompany us around here. If I didn't mention before, I would love to see the stats of boy girl ratio here in Juticalpa, because I am positive that its HIGH above the norm of women percentage. Anyways back to the story haha, we have finally been able to teach her 2 times, and the lessons have been great. After a bad week of failure, Elder Hansack and I decided to have our fast that a miracle could happen and we could find some success that night. I did the best I could to follow the Spirit, and I invited her to be baptized with her daughter. She said YES!!! So there will be a lot more information on that to come, to see how I do to help her out with that.
Anyways, but that's not all of our success. Let me tell you about the Ruiz Matamoros family. They are extremely poor, but let me tell you I just love them to death. They are the nicest people I have ever met in my life. They give us food even though I know they don't have much, and with all the gratitude in our hearts we accept the food and pray that the Lord will bless them. The mom, Wendy, had a baby about 2 weeks ago and can't leave the house for about 3 more weeks. So we have a problem getting her to come to church. And the Dad, Jose Ramòn, has a meeting every other Sunday in the government building of Juticalpa for all the people that vend things. It has been a great struggle to get them to church, and I really felt bad about that. But I was guided in other ways in how I can help them. Josè Ramon can´t read, but we are leaving him with the scriptures on CD and he is loving it! I also put a baptismal date for them yesterday, but not until March because we have a lot of work to do with them before they can get baptized. We are helping them get married, and then they need to come to church as well. But all I can say is, amidst all the heartache and struggle we went through throughout the week, somehow the blessings came through again. I always seem to doubt that they'll come, but the Lord proves me wrong every week.
That's about all I have for you guys this week. I love you all and miss you all, take care of yourselves!
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Anyways I am writing this today (Tuesday) because yesterday I spent the whole day in Tegucigalpa in the immigration or migration center, whichever of the 2 is correct, applying for my residence card. Now that I have more than 6 months of being here in Honduras, I qualify to apply. It was really annoying going because I don't know if I mentioned that I do not like traveling to Tegucigalpa because its quite the trip (7 hours of travel if you combine the journey and return journey). So my P-day was completely wasted, and I'm scrambling to accomplish all the things that I need to this morning. But, the one good thing was that most of my good ole MTC district boys were there and we got a great opportunity to chat for awhile.
Anyways, about my week. Once again, this week was a very difficult one where very many challenges appeared. But, once again, it all turned out to work out for good. Funny how that always works out right? Basically the majority of our investigators live really far away, so we have to spend a lot of time walking each day to get there in the burning sun. We had a lot of challenges because after sincerely trying to put appointments with them that I would know they'd be at home, it still worked out in vain. We walked a whole bunch this week without being able to teach a lot of lessons. But, this week I'd like to focus on the amazing blessings, or good things, that have been going on lately, by explaining our 2 best investigator families.
The first is Denia and her daughter Sharon. They recently moved here from the capital. They are related to a few members here that we like to call the "Relief Society Corner," because on this street corner live about 6 strong members of the Relief Society and only 1 guy lives there, haha. So she moved into the Relief Society corner, and is family to the sisters. Easy baptism right? That's what you'd think haha. The members are doing a great job of getting her to come to all of the meetings though. She has already been to 2 sacrament meetings and 2 baptisms! The only problem is we have had a hard time being able to teach since we can't manage to find anyone male to accompany us around here. If I didn't mention before, I would love to see the stats of boy girl ratio here in Juticalpa, because I am positive that its HIGH above the norm of women percentage. Anyways back to the story haha, we have finally been able to teach her 2 times, and the lessons have been great. After a bad week of failure, Elder Hansack and I decided to have our fast that a miracle could happen and we could find some success that night. I did the best I could to follow the Spirit, and I invited her to be baptized with her daughter. She said YES!!! So there will be a lot more information on that to come, to see how I do to help her out with that.
Anyways, but that's not all of our success. Let me tell you about the Ruiz Matamoros family. They are extremely poor, but let me tell you I just love them to death. They are the nicest people I have ever met in my life. They give us food even though I know they don't have much, and with all the gratitude in our hearts we accept the food and pray that the Lord will bless them. The mom, Wendy, had a baby about 2 weeks ago and can't leave the house for about 3 more weeks. So we have a problem getting her to come to church. And the Dad, Jose Ramòn, has a meeting every other Sunday in the government building of Juticalpa for all the people that vend things. It has been a great struggle to get them to church, and I really felt bad about that. But I was guided in other ways in how I can help them. Josè Ramon can´t read, but we are leaving him with the scriptures on CD and he is loving it! I also put a baptismal date for them yesterday, but not until March because we have a lot of work to do with them before they can get baptized. We are helping them get married, and then they need to come to church as well. But all I can say is, amidst all the heartache and struggle we went through throughout the week, somehow the blessings came through again. I always seem to doubt that they'll come, but the Lord proves me wrong every week.
That's about all I have for you guys this week. I love you all and miss you all, take care of yourselves!
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Monday, February 1, 2010
February 1st
Hello once again to all of my family and friends. We have now begun the month of February, and all I can say is wow how the time goes fast. This week has gone by slightly better so don't worry everyone haha.
Anyways, one thing I haven't really mentioned, or that I don't remember mentioning before, is that we have been teaching a few teen aged girls this week, and we had a Baptism this Saturday! We baptized our investigator Kelin, who is a really awesome girl who is 11 years old about to turn 12. She started to listen to the missionaries when we were teaching a less active family (who by the way is now active!), and later on we decided to teach her, and this week she was baptized! It was a really crazy Saturday because there were 3 baptisms, 1 from each companionship here. The room was absolutely full of people and we all did not fit in the room for the baptismal service, but yeah so I'll try to include a photo from that event.
Things with Elder Hansack and I are going better. I'm still having a few problems here and there, but all in all I'm learning how to work it out. I've been really working on getting him to talk more and get to know the people so that he can enjoy himself while he is here. We're not really having any personal problems anymore, but we do have a bit of cultural problems haha, you guys might get a kick out of this one. So we found this new family this week and they are really positive, and we were super excited to find them. They live SUPER far away and it takes about 25 minutes to walk there, but it's worth it. The problem is that my companion Elder Hansack, when he learned how to speak Spanish, he only learned how to speak in Tú form, along with another form called Vos, which is unique to this part of Central America. This form is only spoken between really good friends, and people that..well...have a thing for each other, and us as missionaries are not allowed to speak in this form of Spanish. I never thought we'd run into a problem with this, but Houston...I have found a problem. With this family, they have listened to him talk, and I have tried to correct him, but it's quite difficult. But they listened to him talk, and now they only speak to us in this form. The daughter is starting to flirt with my companion and it's difficult to have a spiritual moment with them because apparently we're just among friends. But yeah, haha so we're gonna be working with that because my companion has a little bit more problems with Spanish than I thought.
Other than that, the work is really growing. I went from being really stressed out because we didn't have investigators, and not knowing what to do to train my companion, to having TOO many investigators and now not knowing what to do with them all! I have a ton a ton of work to do, and my stresses have been converted into a good stress, if you want to call it that.
This week on Thursday we had Zone Conference, and I had a really good time there. We learned a lot about the {secret combinations} of the mission, and getting rid of the Gadianton groups among the missionaries, and how destructive they can really be. I also got to see my trainer Elder Cobo for the final time, because he'll be leaving in March for Guatemala! So I gave him a good hug and he gave me some great counsel. All in all I had a good time and learned a whole lot from the meeting.
Sorry I don't have a lot more time to write more, but I hope everything is going well with you. I love you all and miss you.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Anyways, one thing I haven't really mentioned, or that I don't remember mentioning before, is that we have been teaching a few teen aged girls this week, and we had a Baptism this Saturday! We baptized our investigator Kelin, who is a really awesome girl who is 11 years old about to turn 12. She started to listen to the missionaries when we were teaching a less active family (who by the way is now active!), and later on we decided to teach her, and this week she was baptized! It was a really crazy Saturday because there were 3 baptisms, 1 from each companionship here. The room was absolutely full of people and we all did not fit in the room for the baptismal service, but yeah so I'll try to include a photo from that event.
Things with Elder Hansack and I are going better. I'm still having a few problems here and there, but all in all I'm learning how to work it out. I've been really working on getting him to talk more and get to know the people so that he can enjoy himself while he is here. We're not really having any personal problems anymore, but we do have a bit of cultural problems haha, you guys might get a kick out of this one. So we found this new family this week and they are really positive, and we were super excited to find them. They live SUPER far away and it takes about 25 minutes to walk there, but it's worth it. The problem is that my companion Elder Hansack, when he learned how to speak Spanish, he only learned how to speak in Tú form, along with another form called Vos, which is unique to this part of Central America. This form is only spoken between really good friends, and people that..well...have a thing for each other, and us as missionaries are not allowed to speak in this form of Spanish. I never thought we'd run into a problem with this, but Houston...I have found a problem. With this family, they have listened to him talk, and I have tried to correct him, but it's quite difficult. But they listened to him talk, and now they only speak to us in this form. The daughter is starting to flirt with my companion and it's difficult to have a spiritual moment with them because apparently we're just among friends. But yeah, haha so we're gonna be working with that because my companion has a little bit more problems with Spanish than I thought.
Other than that, the work is really growing. I went from being really stressed out because we didn't have investigators, and not knowing what to do to train my companion, to having TOO many investigators and now not knowing what to do with them all! I have a ton a ton of work to do, and my stresses have been converted into a good stress, if you want to call it that.
This week on Thursday we had Zone Conference, and I had a really good time there. We learned a lot about the {secret combinations} of the mission, and getting rid of the Gadianton groups among the missionaries, and how destructive they can really be. I also got to see my trainer Elder Cobo for the final time, because he'll be leaving in March for Guatemala! So I gave him a good hug and he gave me some great counsel. All in all I had a good time and learned a whole lot from the meeting.
Sorry I don't have a lot more time to write more, but I hope everything is going well with you. I love you all and miss you.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Monday, January 25, 2010
January 25
Good day to all of you family and friends out there in the world, how are you all doing? I hope well.
Alright, lets see if I can figure out where to start. The first 2 days of the week we spent running around teaching brief lessons, and saying goodbye to everyone for Elder Lopez and all that stuff, so all normal there. Wednesday morning, I left real early and traveled all by myself about 4 hours to pick up my greenie, very boring was that trip let me tell you. I finally arrived at the house of President Flores to pick up my new companion, and I got a surprise. To answer your question mom, he´s not gringo or Latino. Well, I guess technically he is Latino, but yeah let me explain. He is from Nicaragua, a city called Bluefields. In that city they only speak Creole English. He is really dark skinned and all of you who have no idea what Creole English sounds like, just imagine that I have a Jamaican companion. They speak kinda like that, but with a really thick accent and a whole lot of words are different. So he is learning Spanish just like me, it's kind of interesting that President Flores placed me, by far the youngest trainer of the group, with the only Latin who doesn't speak Spanish haha. Since the other trainers that are gringos are a released AP that is about to finish his mission, and the other that has about 18 months in the mission. Yeah, talk about how unqualified I feel as I have never even been Senior Companion.
Anyways, this week has been filled with big challenges. I'm gonna be pretty blunt and honest haha, I don´t like my companion very much. Lets just say he does not like to talk, and doesn't like it when people talk to him, and doesn't have a lot of interest to get to know people. It's kind of a lonely feeling when you don't have anyone to talk to all day haha. But let me explain a little bit more, because maybe this is all for a purpose.
So, this week I'm almost positive that I have learned more than all the other weeks in my mission. Why? Because I have really had to focus myself on the work. I am now doing all of the contacting, talking, directing, and all that, and those first few days of the week, my stress level was reaching danger points. I am doing all that I can possibly think of to help my companion out so that together we can have success in the desert of Juticalpa (by the way, forgot to mention, its HOT here. Just started heating up, and let me tell you, its HOTTTTTT). As of today, the relationship between us is getting a little bit better. Right now I went from not liking my companion at all, to being indifferent. I'm hoping that next week I can jump from indifferent to liking and then loving my companion, cause that's what it's all about. I'm trying to use every tactic that I have ever used here in the mission with my other companions, because as of this point I have loved all of my companions. I hope to continue saying that eventually. Anyways, now I'm sure you all think I'm a mean person haha.
Amidst all of this, we are seeing results here in Juticalpa. We have lined up three Young Women aged girls that have the desire to be baptized that we are beginning to teach, so we should be seeing baptisms soon. Just to finish up, I have been searching a lot for solace in the scriptures and the Liahona this week, and I found something in the Saturday Afternoon session that I really love. President Uchtdorf spoke about The Love of God, and I just want to share a quote that really struck me this week. God the Eternal Father did not give that first commandment because he needs us to love Him. His power and glory are not diminished should we disregard, deny, or even defile His name. His influence and power expand through time and space independent of our acceptance, approval, or admiration. No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are and who we will become. I know this Church is true, for that reason I know that all of these challenges are for my good, and I continue on. Through challenge after challenge, I continue onward.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Alright, lets see if I can figure out where to start. The first 2 days of the week we spent running around teaching brief lessons, and saying goodbye to everyone for Elder Lopez and all that stuff, so all normal there. Wednesday morning, I left real early and traveled all by myself about 4 hours to pick up my greenie, very boring was that trip let me tell you. I finally arrived at the house of President Flores to pick up my new companion, and I got a surprise. To answer your question mom, he´s not gringo or Latino. Well, I guess technically he is Latino, but yeah let me explain. He is from Nicaragua, a city called Bluefields. In that city they only speak Creole English. He is really dark skinned and all of you who have no idea what Creole English sounds like, just imagine that I have a Jamaican companion. They speak kinda like that, but with a really thick accent and a whole lot of words are different. So he is learning Spanish just like me, it's kind of interesting that President Flores placed me, by far the youngest trainer of the group, with the only Latin who doesn't speak Spanish haha. Since the other trainers that are gringos are a released AP that is about to finish his mission, and the other that has about 18 months in the mission. Yeah, talk about how unqualified I feel as I have never even been Senior Companion.
Anyways, this week has been filled with big challenges. I'm gonna be pretty blunt and honest haha, I don´t like my companion very much. Lets just say he does not like to talk, and doesn't like it when people talk to him, and doesn't have a lot of interest to get to know people. It's kind of a lonely feeling when you don't have anyone to talk to all day haha. But let me explain a little bit more, because maybe this is all for a purpose.
So, this week I'm almost positive that I have learned more than all the other weeks in my mission. Why? Because I have really had to focus myself on the work. I am now doing all of the contacting, talking, directing, and all that, and those first few days of the week, my stress level was reaching danger points. I am doing all that I can possibly think of to help my companion out so that together we can have success in the desert of Juticalpa (by the way, forgot to mention, its HOT here. Just started heating up, and let me tell you, its HOTTTTTT). As of today, the relationship between us is getting a little bit better. Right now I went from not liking my companion at all, to being indifferent. I'm hoping that next week I can jump from indifferent to liking and then loving my companion, cause that's what it's all about. I'm trying to use every tactic that I have ever used here in the mission with my other companions, because as of this point I have loved all of my companions. I hope to continue saying that eventually. Anyways, now I'm sure you all think I'm a mean person haha.
Amidst all of this, we are seeing results here in Juticalpa. We have lined up three Young Women aged girls that have the desire to be baptized that we are beginning to teach, so we should be seeing baptisms soon. Just to finish up, I have been searching a lot for solace in the scriptures and the Liahona this week, and I found something in the Saturday Afternoon session that I really love. President Uchtdorf spoke about The Love of God, and I just want to share a quote that really struck me this week. God the Eternal Father did not give that first commandment because he needs us to love Him. His power and glory are not diminished should we disregard, deny, or even defile His name. His influence and power expand through time and space independent of our acceptance, approval, or admiration. No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are and who we will become. I know this Church is true, for that reason I know that all of these challenges are for my good, and I continue on. Through challenge after challenge, I continue onward.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Monday, January 18, 2010
January 18
Good Morning and hello out there to all of my family and friends. This week has been an interesting one, and I hope it also has been for all of you. How is the snow treating you? I think I can point out a few vultures that are waiting to pick at me about now because of the weather here.
Anyways, well...you know how I was talking about last week how in a branch like this a missionary gets discouraged really easy and I was going through that? Well, this week I have been convinced that the Lord has a sense of humor. This transfer will be finishing up on Wednesday, and we found out that Elder Lopez will be leaving, and I have been called to train a new missionary. I don't know anything about him or even who he is, but I'll find out when I go to pick him up on Wednesday.
I was thinking a lot about the assignments the Lord gives to his people, and how they often come when the person does not feel prepared. I am definitely one of those people at this moment, who knows what will happen with me being the senior companion and trainer, but all I can say is, this is going to be quite the humbling experience.
Anyways, this week we had a small missionary activity to increase the investigators in my area. All of us 6 missionaries walked in splits in our area and contacted different barrios (neighborhoods I think). We got a whole bunch of referrals out of it, and have started to contact a few of them to see how it turns out. We will see if we can find anyone who wants to listen to us out of that group, so that we can have some investigators who want to progress and come to church. Our 2 major investigators have been gone this week. Yuliza left with her family to visit her grandma in a tiny village and will be gone 2 weeks, and Josè Martinez (part of the giant family of 20) has been impossible to find. So we have been starting anew this week. We decided as a companionship to branch out a little bit further and try contacting in the areas that are a little bit more out there. Since our area is so big, we have normally been sticking to the areas a little closer to the church, because since no one has a car, this is a big bonus for them to come. So we have been walking a whole bunch this week, really getting our exercise haha, to contact. It turned out that we had some success because we found a family that before had listened to the missionaries, and were about to get married so that they could be baptized, but it didn't work out because at the time she was about to have a baby and was always in the hospital. Later the 2 missionaries got transferred, and she was forgotten. Interestingly enough, we are now in the same situation. She is pregnant and about to have another baby, but we have started teaching the lessons to her and her husband, and they are quite positive. We are helping the husband Ramon quit smoking and he is taking it really well, he has got a strong will to stop, since he has already quit drinking, and quit doing a lot of other things.
This last Sunday we had a District Conference where my companion and I were in the choir. President and Hna. Flores came and gave small talks, and we also got to listen to Elder Don R. Clark, a member of the 70 who is in charge of Central America. It was really, really awesome. I learned a whole lot from that meeting because Elder Clark has a way with teaching the Latin people. He's the direct kind of speaker, kinda like Richard G. Scott, finger pointing direct "change your ways" type of speaker, but also finds a way to throw in a mountain of love as well. I hope to apply all of what he taught to my work here.
Anyways, that's about all I have for you guys this week, The work is moving. Maybe like a snail but hey it is moving, and I have the hope that one day it will flourish. I thank you all for your prayers, I feel them so warmly especially in this time when I will be training. I love you all and pray that you're doing well.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Anyways, well...you know how I was talking about last week how in a branch like this a missionary gets discouraged really easy and I was going through that? Well, this week I have been convinced that the Lord has a sense of humor. This transfer will be finishing up on Wednesday, and we found out that Elder Lopez will be leaving, and I have been called to train a new missionary. I don't know anything about him or even who he is, but I'll find out when I go to pick him up on Wednesday.
I was thinking a lot about the assignments the Lord gives to his people, and how they often come when the person does not feel prepared. I am definitely one of those people at this moment, who knows what will happen with me being the senior companion and trainer, but all I can say is, this is going to be quite the humbling experience.
Anyways, this week we had a small missionary activity to increase the investigators in my area. All of us 6 missionaries walked in splits in our area and contacted different barrios (neighborhoods I think). We got a whole bunch of referrals out of it, and have started to contact a few of them to see how it turns out. We will see if we can find anyone who wants to listen to us out of that group, so that we can have some investigators who want to progress and come to church. Our 2 major investigators have been gone this week. Yuliza left with her family to visit her grandma in a tiny village and will be gone 2 weeks, and Josè Martinez (part of the giant family of 20) has been impossible to find. So we have been starting anew this week. We decided as a companionship to branch out a little bit further and try contacting in the areas that are a little bit more out there. Since our area is so big, we have normally been sticking to the areas a little closer to the church, because since no one has a car, this is a big bonus for them to come. So we have been walking a whole bunch this week, really getting our exercise haha, to contact. It turned out that we had some success because we found a family that before had listened to the missionaries, and were about to get married so that they could be baptized, but it didn't work out because at the time she was about to have a baby and was always in the hospital. Later the 2 missionaries got transferred, and she was forgotten. Interestingly enough, we are now in the same situation. She is pregnant and about to have another baby, but we have started teaching the lessons to her and her husband, and they are quite positive. We are helping the husband Ramon quit smoking and he is taking it really well, he has got a strong will to stop, since he has already quit drinking, and quit doing a lot of other things.
This last Sunday we had a District Conference where my companion and I were in the choir. President and Hna. Flores came and gave small talks, and we also got to listen to Elder Don R. Clark, a member of the 70 who is in charge of Central America. It was really, really awesome. I learned a whole lot from that meeting because Elder Clark has a way with teaching the Latin people. He's the direct kind of speaker, kinda like Richard G. Scott, finger pointing direct "change your ways" type of speaker, but also finds a way to throw in a mountain of love as well. I hope to apply all of what he taught to my work here.
Anyways, that's about all I have for you guys this week, The work is moving. Maybe like a snail but hey it is moving, and I have the hope that one day it will flourish. I thank you all for your prayers, I feel them so warmly especially in this time when I will be training. I love you all and pray that you're doing well.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Monday, January 11, 2010
January 11
Good Morning Good Afternoon and Good Night to all of you guys out there wherever you are. I am happy to be writing to you today and hope that all of you are doing well. This week has been, well...alright I guess. Let´s see...where do I start.
Since our area is so large, it includes a few small villages outside the city, and we tried our first time going out there this week. Our ward missionary leader lives in one of them, so that makes a great bonus. This last Wednesday we visited the Sosa Lobos and La Granja (the farm). It is really sweet over there and Elder Lopez and I loved it. The people are incredibly nice. La Granja is actually anything but a farm haha. It's just a really small village out about 20 minutes from the city where there are a bunch of nice houses. You guys should have seen the pathway we have to take to pass from the Sosas to the Granja. When I have my new camera I will take a video of it and send it because it looks like I'm walking through the Amazon! It's a small dirt path in the middle of a small forest. But we visited a family that have been investigators for about 2 years (that just have problems getting married) and as well a member that lives that far out who want to go to the temple. The only problem over there is the transportation to get to the chapel. They have to take a bus to get to Juticalpa, and sometimes on Sundays the bus does not come to the villages (the people actually keep the Sabbath Day Holy here pretty well). If they walked it would take about and hour and half, trust me I walked back from the villages and it's tiring. We felt really bad for the members and investigators over there, and we are thinking about ways to get them to church. We have seen a few people that own small buses, and we are going to try and ask them if we can pay to bring people to church on Sundays with our own money. Who knows if it will work, but we just feel so bad because these families want to go to the temple, but aren't really worthy for a temple recommend because it's so difficult to get to church. Were going to do all we can with that.
With respect to the Joseph Smith movie we showed on Thursday, it was a big hit. We had just as many people present as there are in a normal sacrament meeting! The sacrament room (I forgot how to say that in English) was full to packed (well...its really small haha). But all I can say is that it was awesome, because hardly anyone had ever seen it before, and it really strengthened their testimonies of the true prophet of God.
The English classes have been suspended a bit, due to the fact that these last Saturdays we haven't been able to do it, firstly because Elder Lopez was sick, and this Saturday we had a Stake, well, District Leadership meeting in the neighboring city that we were invited to go to. There we talked to the members of the 3 branches here about how they can help out the missionaries. This zone is the most difficult zone in our mission, which averages about 3 baptisms every 6 weeks in the entire zone. So we took this opportunity very excitedly and did all we can to excite the members into helping us out. But we're hoping to get back on the English teaching soon. Haha except everyone wants me to start teaching piano lessons instead of English lessons because we have been singing in a choir these last 2 Sundays. We're going to sing for District Conference which is coming up, and of course everyone wanted me to play the piano, why is it that this talent must always be revealed to everyone!
Other than that, the work is going very slowly. Missionaries often get discouraged out here in the boondocks when the work is slow like this, but we´re doing all that we can to keep ourselves excited over here. With Yuliza, I'm not really sure what's going on, one day she has tons of questions and says that she prayed and knows its true, and another day she has no desire whatsoever to go to church. So, we still don't really have a baptismal date because things are going like a roller coaster with her. I'm really hoping that one day I will have some good news for you guys about the people here in Juticalpa. I was thinking a lot this week with a mind a little bit discouraged. "How is it that our Savior can love these people when their minds are the furthest thing away from living a gospel oriented life?" I went a whole day thinking that, and then something hit me... "How can a sinner such as I was and am, be qualified to preach the gospel, am I really qualified to do this kind of miracle work?" I just would like to say that the scriptures have the answers to everything. In Alma, Chapter 14 the prophet Alma explains that angels are preparing people out there for us to teach. They are being prepared to receive the gospel of Christ. All we need to do is repent daily, live a pure life, and love the work we are doing. I challenge you all to apply this in your lives as well, as the prophet Alma as well has challenged us.
I love you all, and I'll talk to you next week!
Since our area is so large, it includes a few small villages outside the city, and we tried our first time going out there this week. Our ward missionary leader lives in one of them, so that makes a great bonus. This last Wednesday we visited the Sosa Lobos and La Granja (the farm). It is really sweet over there and Elder Lopez and I loved it. The people are incredibly nice. La Granja is actually anything but a farm haha. It's just a really small village out about 20 minutes from the city where there are a bunch of nice houses. You guys should have seen the pathway we have to take to pass from the Sosas to the Granja. When I have my new camera I will take a video of it and send it because it looks like I'm walking through the Amazon! It's a small dirt path in the middle of a small forest. But we visited a family that have been investigators for about 2 years (that just have problems getting married) and as well a member that lives that far out who want to go to the temple. The only problem over there is the transportation to get to the chapel. They have to take a bus to get to Juticalpa, and sometimes on Sundays the bus does not come to the villages (the people actually keep the Sabbath Day Holy here pretty well). If they walked it would take about and hour and half, trust me I walked back from the villages and it's tiring. We felt really bad for the members and investigators over there, and we are thinking about ways to get them to church. We have seen a few people that own small buses, and we are going to try and ask them if we can pay to bring people to church on Sundays with our own money. Who knows if it will work, but we just feel so bad because these families want to go to the temple, but aren't really worthy for a temple recommend because it's so difficult to get to church. Were going to do all we can with that.
With respect to the Joseph Smith movie we showed on Thursday, it was a big hit. We had just as many people present as there are in a normal sacrament meeting! The sacrament room (I forgot how to say that in English) was full to packed (well...its really small haha). But all I can say is that it was awesome, because hardly anyone had ever seen it before, and it really strengthened their testimonies of the true prophet of God.
The English classes have been suspended a bit, due to the fact that these last Saturdays we haven't been able to do it, firstly because Elder Lopez was sick, and this Saturday we had a Stake, well, District Leadership meeting in the neighboring city that we were invited to go to. There we talked to the members of the 3 branches here about how they can help out the missionaries. This zone is the most difficult zone in our mission, which averages about 3 baptisms every 6 weeks in the entire zone. So we took this opportunity very excitedly and did all we can to excite the members into helping us out. But we're hoping to get back on the English teaching soon. Haha except everyone wants me to start teaching piano lessons instead of English lessons because we have been singing in a choir these last 2 Sundays. We're going to sing for District Conference which is coming up, and of course everyone wanted me to play the piano, why is it that this talent must always be revealed to everyone!
Other than that, the work is going very slowly. Missionaries often get discouraged out here in the boondocks when the work is slow like this, but we´re doing all that we can to keep ourselves excited over here. With Yuliza, I'm not really sure what's going on, one day she has tons of questions and says that she prayed and knows its true, and another day she has no desire whatsoever to go to church. So, we still don't really have a baptismal date because things are going like a roller coaster with her. I'm really hoping that one day I will have some good news for you guys about the people here in Juticalpa. I was thinking a lot this week with a mind a little bit discouraged. "How is it that our Savior can love these people when their minds are the furthest thing away from living a gospel oriented life?" I went a whole day thinking that, and then something hit me... "How can a sinner such as I was and am, be qualified to preach the gospel, am I really qualified to do this kind of miracle work?" I just would like to say that the scriptures have the answers to everything. In Alma, Chapter 14 the prophet Alma explains that angels are preparing people out there for us to teach. They are being prepared to receive the gospel of Christ. All we need to do is repent daily, live a pure life, and love the work we are doing. I challenge you all to apply this in your lives as well, as the prophet Alma as well has challenged us.
I love you all, and I'll talk to you next week!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Feliz Año Nuevo to all
Hello and Welcome to 2010 everyone! I am glad to be writing you today, so I'll start to get straight to my points of the week!
First off, one of the biggest news of the week, on Tuesday I had the opportunity to have interchanges with guess who? Elder Cardon! Him and I were reunited once again as he got to come over to my house and chill for a whole day while we labored in the work of the Lord. We even had a lot of success together finding people to teach and having the Spirit in our lessons. We loved the time we got to have reminiscing of the MTC, of our first areas, experiences we've had, and all that jazz, oh we also talked about the Utah Jazz (shhh).
Anyways, that was about the high point of the week, because the rest of the week was actually really bad haha. The next day, we met up to switch back companions at a service project, and I found out that Elder Lopez was sick. He got sick that night and couldn't sleep very well. I didn't think it was very bad, and I thought we’d just stay in the house for the afternoon....but we ended up stuck in the house for 3 days! He was in the bed the whole time and very sick. I have no idea what he had in English but he had Empacho, or was Empachado. So Dad, there's your duty of the week to figure out what that was.
{Phil: Empacho is a gastrointestinal illness which can affect anyone but is most common in children. It is characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It can be associated with an intestinal blockage or can be caused by swallowing food that is hard to digest; like popcorn hulls, chewing gum, corn husks, etc. It can also be caused by eating spoiled food (food poisoning). It usually will not go away on its own and needs to be treated. Common treatments are; massaging the abdomen to manipulate the blockage, laxative teas, enemas, and some pretty dangerous folk remedies that contain lead (but these are not very common anymore).}
I felt really bad for the guy and spent a lot of time praying for him, I think it was because he ate something really bad. He didn't eat for 3 days because with the sickness he had an extreme sharp pain in his stomach, and could not go to the bathroom, and everything he did eat he just puked it up. It was quite the nasty experience because none of the pills he took worked, and we were about to have to leave for Tegucigalpa to go to the hospital, but a member came over and gave him this crazy massage, because all the people here know this sickness and they say that apparently doctors don't accept it. But he finally recovered about Saturday, and we left to work again slowly that night. So I passed December 31st locked up in the house with absolutely nothing to do. The worst part about it all is that I was locked up in the house for 3 days without anyone to talk to at all, it was like solitary confinement haha. But I'm sure it wasn't as bad as the experience of Elder Lopez.
Anyways, other than that the work is going really slowly because not much was done this week. We have been working with a girl named Yuliza who is family of a recent convert here so that she can be baptized. She is really awesome and understands a lot that we teach, but the only problem is she is incredibly shy and just did not want to go to church because it scared her. But we FINALLY got her to come to church and she just loved it. I hope that we can build off of that experience.
Because there usually is not a lot to do here in Juticalpa as it is probably the hardest city for missionary work, we are finding other ways where we can help people out. We have been doing a lot more service projects, I have been teaching English and that is going alright, and the Latin’s have started to teach how to read while we’re teaching English. We are also going to have an amazing activity where we’re showing the Joseph Smith 2-hour movie in the chapel on Thursday. We invited practically the whole city and really hope it will strengthen the testimony of Joseph Smith of the members, and win over the investigators as well! I have also been helping out with the ward choir, since, um...they really need it haha, and they are ALWAYS asking me for my suggestions! Thanks a lot mom! (wink)
Anyways, that's all I got for you guys this week. I hope you are all taking care. You're in my prayers -
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
First off, one of the biggest news of the week, on Tuesday I had the opportunity to have interchanges with guess who? Elder Cardon! Him and I were reunited once again as he got to come over to my house and chill for a whole day while we labored in the work of the Lord. We even had a lot of success together finding people to teach and having the Spirit in our lessons. We loved the time we got to have reminiscing of the MTC, of our first areas, experiences we've had, and all that jazz, oh we also talked about the Utah Jazz (shhh).
Anyways, that was about the high point of the week, because the rest of the week was actually really bad haha. The next day, we met up to switch back companions at a service project, and I found out that Elder Lopez was sick. He got sick that night and couldn't sleep very well. I didn't think it was very bad, and I thought we’d just stay in the house for the afternoon....but we ended up stuck in the house for 3 days! He was in the bed the whole time and very sick. I have no idea what he had in English but he had Empacho, or was Empachado. So Dad, there's your duty of the week to figure out what that was.
{Phil: Empacho is a gastrointestinal illness which can affect anyone but is most common in children. It is characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It can be associated with an intestinal blockage or can be caused by swallowing food that is hard to digest; like popcorn hulls, chewing gum, corn husks, etc. It can also be caused by eating spoiled food (food poisoning). It usually will not go away on its own and needs to be treated. Common treatments are; massaging the abdomen to manipulate the blockage, laxative teas, enemas, and some pretty dangerous folk remedies that contain lead (but these are not very common anymore).}
I felt really bad for the guy and spent a lot of time praying for him, I think it was because he ate something really bad. He didn't eat for 3 days because with the sickness he had an extreme sharp pain in his stomach, and could not go to the bathroom, and everything he did eat he just puked it up. It was quite the nasty experience because none of the pills he took worked, and we were about to have to leave for Tegucigalpa to go to the hospital, but a member came over and gave him this crazy massage, because all the people here know this sickness and they say that apparently doctors don't accept it. But he finally recovered about Saturday, and we left to work again slowly that night. So I passed December 31st locked up in the house with absolutely nothing to do. The worst part about it all is that I was locked up in the house for 3 days without anyone to talk to at all, it was like solitary confinement haha. But I'm sure it wasn't as bad as the experience of Elder Lopez.
Anyways, other than that the work is going really slowly because not much was done this week. We have been working with a girl named Yuliza who is family of a recent convert here so that she can be baptized. She is really awesome and understands a lot that we teach, but the only problem is she is incredibly shy and just did not want to go to church because it scared her. But we FINALLY got her to come to church and she just loved it. I hope that we can build off of that experience.
Because there usually is not a lot to do here in Juticalpa as it is probably the hardest city for missionary work, we are finding other ways where we can help people out. We have been doing a lot more service projects, I have been teaching English and that is going alright, and the Latin’s have started to teach how to read while we’re teaching English. We are also going to have an amazing activity where we’re showing the Joseph Smith 2-hour movie in the chapel on Thursday. We invited practically the whole city and really hope it will strengthen the testimony of Joseph Smith of the members, and win over the investigators as well! I have also been helping out with the ward choir, since, um...they really need it haha, and they are ALWAYS asking me for my suggestions! Thanks a lot mom! (wink)
Anyways, that's all I got for you guys this week. I hope you are all taking care. You're in my prayers -
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
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