April 19

Hello on this lovely new day to all of my family and friends out there. I hope you are all doing well and are safe. I would like to start out with some great news....Tengo Frio!! (I'm cold!!!!) As you might have discerned, its true, I have been transferred. So I have a lot to explain about my new area, lets get going.

Well, I have been transferred into the city finally, but it's not really the city. I am in a city zone, but my area is still outside of the city about 30 minutes. My area is called Ciudad España, and for those of you Spanishally challenged ones, that means Spain City. My area is very interesting, it is a community that was built about 12 years ago by the Red Cross when Hurricane Mitch hit. Then later on more people came to live there and expanded the community. Everything is paved, I have running water in the house, and....its cold! I even got a small fever the other day due to the large climate change because it has been raining like the dickens in my area. All the houses look pretty much the same, and it's just a nice community. But yeah, if you think I can rest now, think again.

The attendance in Ciudad España has a norm of about 45 people, and there is no church building. We meet in a house, which shocked me at first, but I'll get used to it I think. The Branch President doesn't live here, and comes every Sunday as a special calling from the stake. My companion and I are the counselors in the branch presidency, and I am the 1st counselor. We also teach seminary, give talks about every other Sunday, and bless the sacrament, so yeah....I have a lot of work to do!

Speaking of my new companion, his name is Elder Torres from Guatemala. He has just over a year in the mission, and he is a good humble guy. I don't really know why he hasn't been moved up to Senior Companion yet, because he is a good missionary, but I'm not worried about it because we need 2 good experienced missionaries here in order to have success. This branch has almost been closed down several times, because the members are very few, and the branch just hasn't progressed. President has told us that he needs us to save the branch because he does not want it to close down. I'm determined to do all that I can in order to help the branch.

Right now we are having trouble finding genuine investigators who are willing to progress. We have a couple of investigators who are decent, but very involved in other churches, and they just don't understand why they only need to go to one church. Here in the community there are A LOT of crazy churches, and most of the investigators who have gone to church say that we are boring because when we sing hymns we don't jump around, clap, and yell. They say that we don't have enough Spirit in our church because we don't yell and scream and heal people on the spot every Sunday. We have been trying to teach them that God is not a God of disorder and absolute loudness, and are looking for ways to help them understand. We will see how that goes this week.

As for Juticalpa, I was sad to let all my beloved friends go. I hope to find out soon if the baptisms are still on and how the branch progresses over there. I made some great friends and hope to see them one day again. I'm going to send a picture of part of the house I built with Hno. Santiago and Hna. Ana. I love you guys!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

April 12

Hello to one and all on this beautifully, incredibly hot day in Juticalpa. I hope you are all doing well, and that everyone is taking care of themselves. Well, I'll start out with the bad news, the zone leaders haven't given us the transfers yet, so I won't find out until tonight if I'll be leaving or not. So sorry guys, until next week you'll have to wait to find out! The zone leaders are holding us out to sweat on this one. So if I'm outta here I'm gonna be having to say my farewells pretty quickly!

Anyways, this week has been pretty normal for us with respect to finding, teaching, and all that type of stuff. With a lot of heat, sweat, and everything of that nature. I'm gonna look pretty weird when I get back due to the food diet I have here. Everyone uses very large quantities of oil when they cook their food, so I have lost weight and, without bragging, gained a bit of muscle, except for this blasted pot belly that is coming in. The oil goes straight to the love handles, so I'll be doing a lot of sit ups when I get home!

Okay so I got off on a tangent there, anyways, now for the miracles that have happened this week. Here in Juticalpa we have a couple of investigators that we call "eternal investigators," these are those that always like to listen to us, and often go to church, but for some reason or another do not want to be baptized. We have been thinking a lot about them this week, and trying to figure out different forms that we might use to be able to reach them. Well...I'll admit it didn't work at all, but what did work was a couple of miracles. One of them is with a 17 year old named Brian. He is the son of a recent convert and of the family of Yuliza, remember her? Seems like forever ago we were working with her. Well anyways, the first counselor of the mission, along with a counselor in the branch presidency, were doing visits related to seminary attendance and invited the youth that aren't signed up to attend. They made a visit over there, and I don't know what happened or what they said, but he accepted. Later that day, the other Elders ran into him on the street, and he told them that he was finally ready to be baptized after all that he heard in the morning. The quick acting elders put a baptismal date right then and there in the street for the 23rd of April. Later that night they told me all that had happened, and I did not believe them at all. Brian tends to be a bit of a "deceiver" when it comes to this. But to my great shock and joy, when we went over there to investigate, it was all true! He even came to church with us this week for the first time in 2 years of listening to the missionaries! I could not believe it was really happening. To add to the shock, today he went to seminary for his first day. Wow! There will be more information on that later on...well...if I'm still here haha.

Another miracle that passed is that I think we finally had a breakthrough with Hna. Denia! The other day we were talking to her, and she told me that she is going to be baptized the day Norma is baptized. Norma is a teenage girl that she befriended the week of spring break, and is studying in Tegucigalpa. She has a large testimony of the church, but hasn't been able to be baptized because her parents will not allow it. Well I gave her a call, and she told me that her plans were to come down on the 20th to be baptized on the 23rd! So we talked to Denia and she told me, "alright elders, you got me this time, its finally going to happen." "That's right it is!" I told her. All in all the week passed by with a load of surprising things.

But, I haven't yet finished with the surprising things I have heard said this week. But this one is bad news... We had to drop Sara Torres and her family this week. I don't know what happened, but ever since she got back from vacation visiting her grandma in a tiny pueblo, she was different. And the other day we received a text message from her that said, "I'm sorry, but I am attending another church with my mom, so you don't need to visit me anymore." Well...it came to not much surprise because Elder Hansack and I could tell that she was different. The only answer is that someone in her family told her something bad about the church, and now she doesn't want anything to do with it. It was a heart breaker, but we have to move on right?

Today one of the sister missionaries that I have been serving with for 8 months, Hna. Alvarez from Guatemala, finished her mission. In the morning we had a surprise celebration for her. We told her that we were going to climb the mountain behind my house to show her all of Juticalpa before she leaves. Little did she know that we had cake and soda at the top waiting for her. It was a good time and we took some pictures before she left for her home.

To answer your question mom, yes we finished the house of Santiago and Ana. It's pretty good if I do say so myself. The Hna. Ana is always thanking us for our work, and that they would have never finished without us. We finished the work up by moving all of their things into the house last Wednesday. It was really hard since their house is on a slippery hill, and WAYYYYYY up there, the highest house up. So we sure had a good time carrying mattresses, a dresser, and a bunch of other things all the way up there. I thought of Dad and all the movings he has done with the Elders Quorum with the funny stories he has. But dad, that beats all of yours. If only you saw it haha!

Well, that's all I have for you guys this week, this turned out to be a long letter so I hope you enjoy it. I'll let you know about the transfers next week. I love you all!

Vaya Pues,
Elder Tinkham

April 5

Hello once again out there to all of my family and friends out there in the world. I just want to start off by saying I love you so much, and I hope you are all doing well. This week has been a, well, boring one haha. Let me explain... Due to the fact that it was Spring Break/Holy Week, just about everyone of our investigators left to go on vacation or to swim at the beaches. So we spent a lot of time walking, and walking, and walking, and searching, and knocking, and all that type of stuff haha. So I only have a little bit for you guys this week sorry about that.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had interchanges with the other new elder in my district, Elder Quinteros, from Guatemala. We had a pretty good time together, although it wasn't all that effective because everyone was gone. But we did continue working on the house of the Hno. Santiago again, we have just about finished it! I'm going to have to take a picture of it when they move in so I can show you "the house that Tinkham built." Carpentry here I come!

Ah, one thing I forgot, after we went to internet last Monday we went out to play the normal soccer for 2 hours, and it was pretty fun. I'm improving a little bit and a little bit every week that we play. But the funny part was afterwards, I found out that the other missionaries had a secret plan the whole time for me. After we got done playing, they blindfolded me and spun me around in circles in order to "do something fun." I knew what was coming, but let it happen anyway. They all nailed me with several eggs, and started to run. Luckily my agility has been increasing, and I caught just about all of them to get them a little bit eggy as well (except the Sisters cause that's just rude!). Later that night the members that live next door to us bought me a cake and sang to me, it was really special and I had a good time. Then they shoved my face in part of the cake haha, I ended up taking about 4 showers that day to get rid of the various food smells. But it was a great day after birthday celebration.

Anyways, the rest of the week is just about walking. Sorry mom there wasn't much big stories or any of that around here in Juticalpa. Since I'm so far away from the world here, everyone that lives here lives to go to the city, and that's why all the ruckus goes on there. I just stayed here in the devilish heat of the sun working on my tan. But I did get your package this week mom! Thanks very much! I enjoyed all of the candy and ate all of it during General Conference! I love you!

Speaking of General Conference, I absolutely loved all 10 hours of it. I took 9 pages of notes, and have a lot to study when the Ensign comes out (I'll receive that in like July haha). One of my favorite speakers is becoming to be Elder Eyring, I love his spirituality that he has and love for everyone. But seriously I can't pick a favorite. Once again we received a "Spiritual Beating" from Elder Holland haha, but that seems to be his assigned position these days right? I could talk about conference for hours and hours, the point is, I loved it! And I learned that I'm not a good missionary and have a lot to work on haha!

This week may be my final week in Juticalpa, it is a sad thing to think about, because I know that there is still A LOT of work to be done around here, but on the other side of things, I am ready to move on as well. I'm not going to think about that very much because I wont find out until Sunday night, but we`ll see. We have a lot of catching up to do this week since everyone is just getting back. So I hope I have a lot more to write to you guys next week.

Thanks so much for all of the prayers and love I feel every day when I reflect upon you. I extend my true love to every one of you reading this, and bear my testimony that the gospel is true. We have heard it from countless apostles and prophets and the most righteous men on earth. And I, as an imperfect, humble servant of the Lord would just like to add mine on top of theirs, that Jesus Christ lives. I know he lives, and loves us. I know this is the best thing I could be doing right now. Until next week.

Vaya Pues

Elder Tinkham

March 29

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there, I hope that you are all doing well and especially thank you for all of the birthday messages that were sent out to me. I haven't quite received the packages yet mom, but we'll see how long it takes for me to get them right?

Well..once again it has been a week of extreme work and extreme heat. Today is the start of Holy Week as they say around here, or basically Spring Break as you know it there. Spring Break is the biggest holiday in Central America, bigger than Christmas and all of the other holidays, and it is also the hottest week of the year. We'll see if I make it out alive right? Quite a few special events happened this week, and I have short amounts of time to tell you about them, so I'll get rolling.

This week for service we went back over to the house of the Hno. Santiago to help him out. I feel really bad for the guy because he literally doesn't sleep. He works on his house all day, then goes home to eat and shower, then heads off to work all night. On Wednesday we carried up an immense amount of wood up the very large hill that leads to his house. It was pretty fun, but definitely the most tiring service project we have been doing. We just ran up and down the mountain about 50 times carrying wood up, and sprinting downward to do it again. I left in much pain and sweat, but it was a good experience! The wife of Hno. Santiago is really awesome, her name is Ana Maria. We haven't been able to teach Santiago because he is never home, but Ana always listens to us and is really close to accepting a baptismal date. We have been talking about baptism and everything and she tells us that she is already decided to be baptized in the church, but we haven't been able to put a secure date yet. We still have a lot of work to do with them, we need to get them moved into their other house, help them get married, and then teach them the rest of the lessons before the baptism. I seriously doubt I'll be here to see the baptism, but I'm going to do all that I can in order to help them out.

We have been spending a lot of time these last few weeks in a neighborhood that's called La Sabaneta, and we are receiving a lot of reception from there. So consequently we decided to have a small fireside in the home of a member with all of the people from La Sabaneta. We spent some time planning and setting up, and we showed a small film called On the Way Home. I really love this movie it is one of my favorites from the church. It talks about a family that has been plagued with problems, and their decision to be baptized, and all of the things that led up to their great decision. We spoke about baptism afterwards, and are looking to put dates with them this week. Afterwards we made (or tried to) make a cultural food called Catrachas. It's fried tortillas with a little bit of sugar, beans, and a special kind of cheese on top. With the large help of the Hna. Rosaura, the member who hosted, we made them! Haha they tasted really good and all in all it was a really good experience!

I know I said that I was going to try and put a lot of baptismal dates this week...but I still have a bit of work to do with them. But we did put 1 baptismal date this week! And it was a great miracle. We placed a date with the Hna. Sara Torres. We had many interesting experiences with her. She has been an investigator for quite some time, but never went to church. We were about to drop her about 3 different times, but we always felt that it was important to go back. One day this week, we asked the Hna. Juanita, our neighbor whose mom always cooks for us, to come with us and help her mom out. Her mom goes to another church and is seriously considering baptism in that church, but is scared that it's not right. We went over there to talk to her about that, and on the pathway there, we found her walking to our church....she had lied to us. Well...Elder Hansack and I went to the appointment regardless, a little bit disappointed, to teach Sara, who we thought was already dropped and uninterested. During this very spiritual lesson, we found out that Sara had received an answer to her prayers, and knows that the gospel is true. Hna. Juanita, former missionara, helped us out with her amazing testimony, and she ended up coming to church on Sunday! It was amazing.

My birthday was a pretty normal day, since it was Sunday, not much celebrating happened. The present I got was I had to give a talk! Yikes huh? I gave a talk about the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, and then afterwards all the missionaries sang I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go. It was a tearful experience since I consider the people of Juticalpa my family, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to give a talk. All the other missionaries were really nice wishing me a happy birthday and everything. The only person that didn't wish me happy birthday is my companion haha, but like I said before he is a little bit of a grinch. I'm used to it, no problems there. But it was a decent birthday!

Anyways, that's all I've got for you guys this week! I hope you enjoy conference! My second one ALREADY in the mission! I'm so excited to be able to hear the voice of our beloved prophet whom I love so much. I hope you all can learn a lot from these great people. Until next week!

Vaya Pues!
Nos Vemoshmm
Elder Tinkham

March 22

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there in the world. Once again it is a great pleasure to write you this week, and I have a lot to talk about.

Well, like I had explained the last week about the service project we were doing the last Monday, this week has been nothing but pure service and manual labor. On Wednesday, all the Elders in the district and I went over to the house of the Hno. Santiago to help him build it. We placed the entire roof of his house! It took about 3 hours and a lot of work, but it was worth it. We have also been teaching them a few of the lessons this week in their temporary home. They live in these tiny little apartments in a very humble environment with a bunch of other people as well. That service project ended up being a great benefit for us, because from those little apartments alone we brought 6 investigators to church this Sunday! It was a miracle.

On Friday, we went to the house of a less-active member from the other Elders to help them fix their wood fence that they have because it was tipping over. That was also a lot of work, but it was also very fun. I wish I would have brought my camera because I had mud ALL over me from the down and dirty work we were doing! We have also been doing a lot of mini services as well involving water. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but in Honduras, and especially Juticalpa, there is a large water shortage problem, and very difficult to obtain. We have been helping the families in our area that don't have water stock up on river water and hauling it to their houses where there is water. We don't have much water either. This week we didn't receive water the whole week until Friday (running water doesn't exist here unless you have an expensive sisterna, so yeah). And when we returned to the house from the muddy service project on Friday, we opened the front door to a miracle...WATER!!!! The water was coming, and I took my first shower from the shower head in my almost 4 months in Juticalpa. It was a small treat to my day let me tell you!

So like I was telling you guys, we had great blessings with investigators arriving at church this week. Completely opposite of the other week right? We had in total 8 investigators, 4 recent converts, and 2 less-actives that ended up coming. It was very difficult catering to all of their needs and quite a stressful experience, but I'm still grateful for it! Haha and I'm looking forward to this upcoming week to put a whole bunch of baptismal dates! Hopefully I can put them all on what would be my ¨last weekend¨ in Juticalpa, according to my assumptions. So I'm really looking forward to that one.

Well, that's about all my leather worn hands can type for this week haha! I hope you are all doing well and I look forward to talking to you next week...as a 20 year old...yikes...never thought that would happen! I still can't believe that one!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

Baptism of the Ruiz Matamoros family, March 6, 2010

Jose Ramon Ruiz - 29
Wendy Suyapa Matamoros Matute - 29
Wendy Yakelin Matute - 10
Yaime Noelia Ruiz Matamoros - 2
Nayeli, the baby
Elder Hansack on the right and the District Leader, Elder Loarca on the left.

My "son" and I, Elder Hansack, after we climbed the mountain

Here is a great view of the neighborhood I live in in Juticalpa, and a part of the area I worked in. It may look like I'm getting chubby but it's the wind!

We decided to climb the large mountain that is just behind our house! That is a part of my area!

We worked all up and down this farm and so all of my city boy culture is now lost! We just finished ¨sweeping¨ the entire cow pen. For those of you non-farmers, that means shoveling out ALL the useable dirt to use it as soil to plant other things. We scooped it all up in big piles, threw it in a truck, then scooped it out in other parts! Yikes!