December 6

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! It’s definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas now a days. Even the Hondurans are getting up on the spirit this year with a couple of houses I’ve seen that have lights and everything! No one can escape the incredibly contagious Christmas fever...even the missionaries!

This week has been a spiritual banquet for me. I absolutely love being a missionary! If anyone would ever pass up this opportunity for anything else, they are really missing out on the thrill of a lifetime. I feel like I have been prepared physically, emotionally, and spiritually more than I would have ever been at home, and I definitely would never have arrived at such a spiritual high like I am right now. If I was spiritually dead before, I am as close to alive that I could ever be right now. Hoorah for Israel!

We didn’t have a whole lot of time to work this week, because we had another one of those new Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel training conventions again. This time it was only 2 days (well 3 for us) instead of 5 like the first one I went to, so we didn’t get bored at all. This time, every single one of my friends and companions from the MTC were in attendance! We took a few EPIC pictures of all of us...exactly 18 months later, in front of the Honduran flag at the chapel. I’m going to try and send a few of the pictures today. Which reminds me, mom the reason that I haven’t been sending pictures lately is just that I don’t have a way to send them due to the dirty rats that ate my camera cord, but today I’m going to do what I can to try and send them another way.

Now that I have been in the mission for 18 months, I definitely feel old. Ever since I entered the field of Honduras, I have always felt like a newbie and that I was just barely getting started in the mission, but ever since President made the declaration about us now passing into the “old stage,” it definitely feels uncomfortable haha. Anyways, the 2 days of training was really a spiritual uplift for me. We learned a whole lot of new things, and were also able to hear from 2 different ex-mission presidents on subjects like “The role of the Holy Ghost in the Conversion” and “Revelation through Prayer.” All in all we touched quite a few themes, but the ones that I especially enjoyed were how to ask inspired questions. We had a whole day and a half to listen to the lecture, practice, evaluate, re-practice, eat, and go through the process again! The practices really help because it lets me know what my weaknesses are, something that is really important to know.

The 3rd day we had Zone Leader Council, and that’s where we hear the “strong side” of President Flores haha, but I’m used to it by now. I have decided to change my goals as a Zone Leader, and from now on I will be focusing my efforts on the spiritual progression of all the Elders and Sisters. Now that I have thought about it, it’s so much more important than the numbers that I have to ask for every day. I never wanted to be a number hungry type of hungry, and I never really was, but I realized that I tried really hard to gain the respect and confidence from the zone, but now what I need to do is elevate, edify, and animate.

I received the Thanksgiving package this week, thanks so much! I don’t know where in the world you guys got that Miskito dictionary but thanks! And also the Italian dictionary came just in time, because I was able to get my hands on an Italian Book of Mormon on Friday! So now I have all the materials I need (for now) to be able to at least read and pronounce Italian, I’m very excited! I also decorated my tree last night and it looks very elegant.

To give an update on the new family we found with Ana Maria, things are still doing alright. We were nervous to go back that second time, because she told us that her husband was a “priest” of a Pentecostal church and that he doesn’t like Mormons very well. So what we decided to do is go in there with a spirit of love and not of contention. We shared the Restoration with them, and explained the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Afterwards I asked them, “After hearing the story of what happened to this young man, how do you feel?” They told us that they had never heard the real version of the story, and that they felt bad for ever judging the church based on the skewed principles that they had heard from other people. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon, and Ana Maria was especially excited to investigate what the Book contains. The husband is still a little bit rough to break, but at the least he heard us out, and is willing to learn more. The less active member Fernando that introduced us to them came to church with us on Sunday and got to know the leaders of the Elders Quorum.

This week, one of our “eternal investigators” named Sindy FINALLY came to church for the first time. It was a miraculous experience and I think it went well with her. With what I was able to observe, she was reading the Book of Mormon throughout most of the meetings, and also the Articles of Faith. She also had a couple of really good questions in the Gospel Principles class. We have been being really frank with her lately, asking her inspired questions and really trying to help her understand the commitments she needs to make. I think we might have made a breakthrough, and the next time we go we are going to teach the doctrine of Christ, I’m very excited.

That’s about all I’ve got for you this week everybody. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, for I have read it. I have examined its pages, and I know that no mortal man could be able to write such a powerful book. Its words are the words of God, and we must feast upon them. I love the words of Moroni 10:6. I love you all, and I hope that you have a lovely week. Take Care!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 29

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there on this “cold winters night” as you guys would say it! How are you all doing? I hope that everything is going well for each and every one of you. The Christmas season has officially begun, and even here in little ole Honduras you can feel the spirit spreading. No matter where you are, you just can’t avoid the feelings of jubilee that embrace the soul of every Christmas lover’s soul.

This week has been a learning one for me. Well, every week is a learning one, but this one has been a little bit more than the other weeks. It’s been a week of patience, enduring to the end, etc. Let me tell you why.

It’s been another slightly disappointing week for Elder Ortiz and I with respect to investigators. We got a little bit discouraged because we have been looking thoroughly to find new people during the time that we have to go contacting, and we haven’t had too much luck this week. We did all we could in order to find the people who were waiting for us, but most of the time we got the United States treatment...door slammed in your face. But... I do at least have one good story to tell you. On Sunday, we started up on our last attempt for the week to find some new investigators, and something very interesting happened. We had just left the house of some recent converts, and decided to contact the street of where they lived...well...I suggested to my companion that we do it. He told me...sigh...alright, let’s go....but I really hope that we can find somebody cause I’m losing my patience....put a prayer in your heart! Haha, so in that moment that he asked me that, about 5 seconds later someone was whistling to us to come over to them. Well...usually that means that some drunk guy just wants to talk to us, but it actually turned out to be an answer to our prayers. It turned out that the guy that was talking to us is a member that lived in a far away pueblo but had transferred to the city and lived in our area. He asked us where the church is, and presented us to his friends that lived right next door to them. We were able to have a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation, and set a date to come back on Tuesday. We were very grateful to have had our prayer answered by Heavenly Father.

This Sunday we had the Primary program in my assigned ward, and it was just hilarious! They had several songs which are just the funniest part, and they even had a part where they did some short dramas in the front part of the Sacrament Meeting. It reminded me of a very embarrassing moment that I had in a Primary program when I was about 9 years old. In that program I was dressed up as Wilford Woodruff, 4th prophet of the Church. I had a fairly long part to memorize, so I was a little bit nervous. I remember in the dress rehearsal, when I said my lines, I said, “My name is Woodrow Wilson!!” Everyone had a good laugh. We had been studying the presidents of the United States in my elementary class, so I got the names confused. The good thing is that I got my act together for the actual program and said my name right...whew!

For Thanksgiving this year, us 4 missionaries in the house decided to have a small celebration when we got home at night. We ordered KFC and timed it so that the delivery guy would get there right when we got home. Earlier in the day we made a flan cake with a homemade cookie crust and had it refrigerated just in time to eat at night. It was a delicious Thanksgiving “mock dinner” that we were very proud of. Sure it’s nothing like what most of you were able to eat, but it was a great moment for us!

Today for our P-day we went as a zone to the construction site of the Honduras Temple. They are actually doing pretty good on the progress! There are a couple of walls already built and it’s starting to get taller. I’m very jealous of the new missionaries coming in right now, because they will be able to see the completed temple. But at least we got to see exactly where it’s going to be at, and take some nice pictures. One day I am going to return to visit the temple here, especially because some of my converts are going to be able to go to the temple soon, and I want to be there when they enter, that would be a dream come true. Speaking of some of my converts, a couple of weeks ago I got a letter from Hno. Jose from Comayagua, one of my favorite converts. If you remember, he was the one that took us about 4 months to baptize due to the incredible challenges we had to get him and his wife married. He wrote me and told me that he is the Ward Missionary Leader and always accompanies the missionaries and is preaching the gospel to everyone possible. I shouted with joy!

I love you all. I know that this gospel is true and that I am doing a good work, and cannot be taken down. I wish all of you a lovely week, and I will keep you in my prayers.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 22

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there. I’m super jealous to hear about the snow that you’ve been having back at home. How I miss the snow....sigh. I think the only thing worth missing out on the snow is serving the Lord!

This week has been somewhat melancholy for Elder Ortiz and I. The bad news is that Hna. Miriam moved out of her house this week. The owners of the house kicked her out because she hasn’t been able to pay the rent on the house due to her unemployment. She asked for more time because she didn’t want to leave and she has been diligently looking for a job, but hasn’t had any luck yet. We were really sad to see her go, but we helped her pack up her things, and we even gave her a couple of references of work that I hope works out for her. She told us that as soon as she finds work she is planning on coming back, because she likes the neighborhood she was living in. So....sad moment for us, but we have hope that soon she will return.

Due to the moving of Hna. Miriam, we have been kinda hung out to dry with respect to investigators. We got left with basically nothing, so Elder Ortiz and I got back into our contacting routine from the start of last transfer. This time it worked out a lot better for us, and we were able to find 10 new investigators this week (and 2 families out of those 10)! One of our new investigators is named Iris, and she is a small person. She is 30 something and about 3 foot nothin! She is a really nice lady who lives with her sister and brother-in-law. We were only able to talk to her for a brief amount of time, but we hope to return soon. We also have a new family, a young couple named Seili and Antonio. They are 20 and 21, and seem very young to be starting their own family, but I’m not one to judge them. Antonio seemed to be one of those sports freak religion stinks type of guys, but he actually turned out to be pretty positive and had a lot of questions for us. We taught about the Book of Mormon and left a copy of it for them to read.

This week Elder Ortiz and I decided to focus all of our work around the Book of Mormon. In basically all of the lessons we taught this week, we decided to talk only about the Book of Mormon at first, and then leave a copy with everyone we talk to. Before we didn’t have that luxury because there has been a shortage of BOM’s in the mission for a long time, but now they are abundant and so were taking advantage of it. The Book of Mormon truly is the key to our religion. And so if the BOM is the key to our religion, and baptism is the key to the Celestial Kingdom, those are the 2 things that we need to most be talking about. It has been a great success so far.

This week I had the awesome opportunity to go on interchanges with the Assistants to the President. I worked with Elder Thompson, a great friend of mine from my MTC district, in his area. The area of the Assistants is pretty rough since they have very little time to actually work in it due to the extreme amount of office work to do, and so Elder Thompson and I spent most of the night contacting. We decided to let ourselves be guided by the Spirit. Well...we got to talking and lost ourselves in conversation while walking down the road. As we were walking forward, my legs strangely decided to turn. I told Elder Thompson I didn’t know why I was turning, but I think we need to talk to the next person we see. At that moment a lady walked out of her house and started down the street. We approached her and began to contact. It was a wonderful contact, and I felt the Spirit very strong while we spoke with her. We set an appointment for another day, and today Elder Thompson told me that they were able to teach her and her husband, and that it was very successful. It was a small miracle that I definitely will never forget.

This week we held a special Zone meeting in order to welcome the new elders and sisters into the district. We let the district leaders teach most of the principles in the meeting, and just decided to take a little bit of time at the end to talk about the Law of Consecration. We watched a short film called Treasure in Heaven (I strongly recommend it) about the life of John Tanner. We then explained to the Elders about the Law of Consecration and how we really are living it as missionaries, as long as we are doing everything we can in order to complete our purpose. I invite each of you to see that wonderful movie.

On Wednesday the Stake President of our assigned stake (Comayaguela Stake) invited all of the missionaries in the zone to go and eat lunch at his house. His wife made us a lovely lunch and even served us apple pie as a dessert! Our stake president is a really humble guy, and he shared with us several uplifting stories of his life. He explained his expectations for us as missionaries, and solicited his help in whatever we needed. It was a very pleasant lunch.

I have a strong testimony of missionary work. I know that it’s the Lords work and that He is our director. He guides us every day, because he has a great work and glory to complete. I love each and every one of you, and hope that you are keeping safe.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 15

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there. How are you doing? I hope that all is well in the real world. The weather has been absolutely crazy in Honduras this week. One day we wake up and I can see my breath and freezing my butt off, and the next day it's 100 degrees again. Mother Nature Honduran style is really bipolar, she can't make up her mind!

So to start off with the good news, the teens from the Cerrato Family were baptized on Saturday! After quite a bit of work we got the baptismal service worked out and it turned out great. We had quite a bit of challenges making it happen as the usual baptismal service is. For example, since we don't have a chapel in our area, we had to have the baptism in another church a little bit far away. Also, due to the Worldwide Training Meeting for the new Instruction Manual (they had that from 4 to 6 here in Honduras) we had to have the baptism at 7 at night. That is a little bit of a problem since the buses don't run that late. Well, with a couple of other challenges, we were still able to have a spiritual baptismal service. We invited the Hno. Lenin Cerrato (the guy that “kidnapped” us and took us to the house of the Cerratos (we would have never found their house if he didn't take us there!)) to the service, and asked him to talk about the importance of baptism. I wasn't asked to baptize this time so I had a lovely time sitting back and enjoying the spirit of the meeting. We were very happy to be able to hold the baptism this Saturday.

We had the intention to put a baptismal date with Hna. Miriam this week, but we ran into a couple of problems. She is a really great person and is still progressing, but I had always felt that something was still missing, because we had talked about baptism almost every appointment we had with her, and she feels like it's a good thing, but hasn't accepted the date. Yesterday we had a great appointment with her. My companion talked most of the time, but I had the continuing feeling that something was still off, so when my companion looked at me to begin teaching, I didn't know exactly what she needed, so I just began to ask questions...inspired questions. I felt the Spirit very strong in this moment, and then the Hna. Miriam opened up. She began to explain a couple of things that had gone on in her life. So now we have a really good idea of what she needs to hear, and how we will be able to help her progress towards a baptismal date.

This Wednesday we had the changes, and there wasn't too many changes in the zone. But Elder Ortiz and I had to go to the changes meeting anyway because of the new area they opened up in the zone. We went to pick up Elder Paulson (from Bingham High School!) and his trainee aka “son” to show them how to get to their new area. We got them situated into their new house and showed them how to get to the homes of the other elders in their ward. The only problem we still have with their house is that they don't have a telephone, so we've had a couple of communication problems for a couple of days, but today we were able to get them a phone. The new elder that is living in my house is Elder Martin, Elder Tingey’s (from my district) new son! Elder Martin is from Vegas but his parents are Latinos and so he already speaks Spanish. We have had a good time getting to know him and “initiating him in the mission.”

This last week I had my first experience teaching an investigator that has been exposed to anti-Mormon literature, and let me tell you, it was quite the experience. I haven't read a whole lot of it because I try to stay away from that stuff, but there is some absurd comments in those books. I try and do the best I can to not contend or “Bible Bash” with the investigators that want to “prove us wrong.” What I usually do is leave my scriptures in my backpack, I don't even bother trying to use them, because I know that it's not going to work. What you have to do with these types of people is be very delicate, calmly answer their questions, and bear your testimony like you've never borne it before! At the end of the lesson we at least accomplished something, we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so that he can obtain a real concept of what the Book of Mormon is. I pray that he will really read it.

Other than that, it’s been a little bit of a slow week for Elder Ortiz and I. Still lovin life and chugging along. I hope that you all take care. I love you!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 8

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there. I would like to start off by expressing my sadness of the Utes game, sounds like it was a little bit embarrassing, but at least I'm not there to worry about it. To start off with my usual weather report, I actually have a few surprises for you this week.....Its COLD here!!! This week a cold front moved on in that nobody was prepared for, and let me just tell you that this morning I saw my breath! Its not like its freezing, but the temperature got down to like 46 degrees, something seemingly impossible around here. I am zero prepared for this cold since the only type of jacket I have is my paper thin raincoat, so I had to borrow some clothes from a generous member that didn't want a poor Elder to freeze to death in his sleep. I feel like I'm camping at night all bundled up in a sweater and sweats, the only thing missing is the fire smell!

To start up the new month of November, Elder Ortiz and I held a zone meeting to give a little bit of excitement to all the Elders and Sisters. We're really excited about a new month and this time we are bound to have success. I love all of the missionaries in our zone, and am trying to look for new ways to get to know them better and serve them every week. We talked about a new action plan that we made, and gave a copy to every missionary so that they could have one in their homes. Hopefully it works!

Today we received the transfers, and as President predicted, there were very few changes in the mission this month. In the entire zone there were only changes in 2 of the areas. The interesting thing was that on Wednesday we will be opening up a new area in our zone called Pradera B. With the 3 changes (including the new area) that happened, all of the Elders or Sisters are going to be training, so there will be 3 brand spankin' newbies in our zone soon! I'm excited but it's also important that we have lots of training so that the new elders can learn the new style! We spent a bit of time as well looking for a house for the new Elders in Pradera, since they didn't tell us that they were going to be coming until about 2 weeks ago. We finally found one the other day, and so now we have to get all the paperwork done really quickly so that they can arrive smoothly!

On Friday we had our zone leaders conference, something that Elder Ortiz and I were not looking forward to haha. We presented our numbers for the month (that weren't too good) and then proceeded to explain what happened and what we are going to change this month. We had a great lesson from President Flores about how to make good decisions as leaders, and the process about how we should do it. But of course the best part was the lunch of Hna. Flores afterwards! MMMMMMM I can still taste it now.

With respect to our investigators, I am very content. I have a strong testimony that the Lord really does put us in the right place at the right time. Our 2 best groups of investigators, The Cerrato Family and Miriam, are still doing great. All I know is that I have a strong testimony that we really are instruments in the great plan of God. Elder Ortiz and I have had some serious problems contacting in our area, and almost no one has received us in the entire transfer when we have knocked on doors. I just remember the day that we found Miriam. We were walking by her house, and I felt a strong impression that I needed to knock on that door. Well we knocked on it, and she came out and invited us in, we got really excited but we could not go in because there wasn't a male present in the house. So we put an appointment for another day (something that almost never works out), and I left a little bit disappointed because I felt really good about knocking on the door. But eventually we did go back, and I now realize how true that spiritual influence really was! And with the Cerrato Family, if we wouldn't have gone over to an unknown street to contact, we would have never been run down by some random member from another ward so that he could take us to the house of some of his family. My testimony has really grown, and I know that God has a plan for every one of us. Being a missionary is an incredible way to know of that great plan.

Everything is going great for me here in Comayaguela, and thanks everyone for all of your prayers. I love you all and hope that you take care.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

November 1st

Good afternoon family and friends in the "Cold World!" Is it starting to get cold over there? I imagine it should be since we have now arrived to November, that's about the time that the good ole snow gets acomin. I feel like I'm always talking about the weather at the start of my letters, is it true? I guess it must be a good icebreaker if you don't really know what to say...(I'm gonna be a sorry date when it comes to talking haha). This week has been filled with good stories.

My reign as permanent interchanger has finally ended this week. On Tuesday I went on my last interchanges to an area called Flor del Campo (Flower of the Field). I worked with Elder Soto from Guatemala. He has just 3 weeks in his mission and is about 4 feet tall! The good thing is that his Spirit is about 8 feet tall! I enjoyed myself in that area because the bishop gave us lunch and dinner, and lunch the next day, and it was delicious. It was fun to be able to work with a new missionary again and to be able to teach a couple of things that I have learned around here. But of course, I learned more from him than he learned from me. I enjoyed myself that day.

Thursday was quite the interesting day for Elder Ortiz and I. First off, on Wednesday night we received a phone call from the mission doctors (Elder and Sister Garvis from Preston Idaho). They warned us that tomorrow morning we were going to have house inspections for the whole zone, and that if one of the houses in the zone were dirty, we were going to receive the scolding (uh-oh). So...when we arrived home that night from work, we immediately began to sprint to clean the house the best we could (not that it was that dirty, let's just say that Elder Garvis is ex-military and he gets a little bit angry). We also warned the rest of the zone so that they could have a small heads up. Well... they showed up at our house at 8 exactly the following morning, and we received an A! We jumped for joy. Then the Garvis`s told us to hop in their car and show us the way to all of the other Elders houses in the zone. For the next couple of hours we helped the Garvises inspect houses, some of the Elders houses were sparkling clean (especially the Sisters, geez), but other Elders did not do so well. The best part of it was that afterwards the doctors took us to Wendy`s afterwards (it's famous because it's the only one in Tegucigalpa).

Later that night, the Young Men of the ward had a special food making activity for mutual, and we decided to invite all the boys from the Cerrato Family to get to know all of the kids in the ward. We brought them over and everything started out well, but then I started noticing that Carlos, the oldest, stopped talking to people and just held his head down. My companion and I went into the kitchen to serve more of the food, and all of a sudden we listen to the other youth saying, "he left!" We look over, and he was gone! He just got up and ran away from the activity. Well to make a long story short, my companion and I got pretty worried. We grabbed the Young Men's leaders and ran over to his house to see if he was there, and luckily he was. We found out what happened, and apparently the boys were teasing him and that isn't really something he can handle. We said we were sorry, and I think we saved the situation, because he said everything was alright afterwards and that he was still going to go to church. It was a stressful situation for us, and let's just say I look forward to being a young men's leader when I get back (not).

This week I was able to interview someone to be baptized named Dinora. She had just got married the day before the interview to her husband who is a member of the church. She had been receiving the missionaries for 2 years and never thought that it was all true. But recently the missionaries arrived inspired and they helped her receive her testimony, something that I could feel while I was conducting the interview. It was a very great experience for me to see someone with a change like that.

We did have a miracle happen this week. We have an investigator named Miriam that Elder Ortiz and I found contacting about 2 1/2 weeks ago who we think is a chosen one. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if these things were true, and on Saturday she came to an activity that we had at a members house where we watched the 70 minute Joseph Smith movie. We took the chance and called her up in the morning to see if she was coming to church, and she said...."don't worry Elders I'm already ready! What time should I be there?" I just about screamed in the phone haha, but I held my cool and gave her the information, and she came to church! This week we are hoping to put a baptismal date for this month. I am really grateful to be working here in the area of Comayaguela because the members in our ward are really willing to work. This week we only had one lesson which we taught that a member was not present with us. All I can say is...we have people to teach and I am happy! The best is yet to come! I know that this church is true and I know that what I'm doing is what I should be doing. I love you all and hope that you will be careful.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

October 25th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there in the modern world. News tells me that you've had snow (well most of you), and I am extremely jealous.... going 2 1/2 years without seeing snow really traumatizes a guy. Good news over here is that I saw a cloud in the sky yesterday! First time in awhile for me. Anyways enough blabbering...lets get going on the week that I had.

I'm proud to say that Elder Ortiz and I have had visual success for probably the first time since Ive been in Comayaguela. We brought investigators to church (Hooray...the crowd goes wild!) AND have baptismal dates! 2 of the 3 baptismal dates that we have are the kids of a family that we found last week. They are the Cerrato family, a very large less active family. The whole family was baptized about 18 years ago, but they haven't gone to church for about 10 years. The mom of the children, Yeni, left to work in Mexico, and "didn't find" a church to attend there. They are a lot more positive than the majority of the less actives we find, and always give thanks that we came over in the closing prayer (very special). The 2 children are Karla and Carlos (Charles) Darwin....ironically I'm going to baptize the founder of Evolutionism! They are both very smart children. Only Karla and her mom Yeni came to church, but Karla had a good experience. They don't know anything about the Mormon church and so it was very important that they enjoy themselves. We were very happy to see people at church.

The other baptismal date that we have right now is Gabriela, the niece of a really cool family that are members of the ward. Gabriela is 16 and....well....is the typical 16 year old girl. The good thing is that she has an incredible support system in her aunt and uncle. If everything goes well she should be baptized this Saturday. She came to church yesterday, and also said that she had a good time.

In my tour of interchanges, this time I went to the area of the zone called La Pradera. I worked with Elder Passey from Draper Utah. He went to Alta High School (boo), but it doesn't really show because he is really humble (haha sorry Alta fans). I really enjoyed working with him because we have very similar personalities and had a great time chatting, but more importantly we put 2 baptismal dates! The work that we did in La Pradera really helped me out to have the energy to work in my own area so that we can get the train rolling!

I heard a great story the other day that I will try to always remember. Let's see if I can paraphrase it for you. Two best friends were walking together in a desert area. One day, one of the friends got a little bit mad, and slapped his friend in the face. The victim of the slap knelt down and wrote in the sand, "my best friend slapped me in the face," and they continued on. Later that day, after finding water, he knelt down to drink and fell in the water. He was about to drown, but his friend dove in and pulled him out. His best friend had saved his life. A few minutes later he wrote on a rock, "My best friend saved my life." The other friend asked him...Why did you write once in the sand and the other in a rock? He said..."when you write in the sand....the winds are forgiving and erases the error, and when you write in the rock, it is always remembered."

Let us always find ways to do good deeds to others, so that they will always remember them. And if our friends do us harm, let us write it in the sand.

I love you all and wish you a wonderful week.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

October 18th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends located around the world. I hope that you had a lovely week filled with memorable experiences. I often wonder about how things are going back there, but one day I'll find out! Another week has passed me by in Comayaguela, and that means I have 7 days worth of information to tell you about. Let's see how much I can remember.

I am still continuing my long run of interchanges that I need to do with the zone, and this Tuesday I was able to work with my good friend Elder Tingey! That makes 3 elders from my group now that I have been able to work with for at least 1 day, awesome huh? Elder Tingey is an amazing missionary, much better than I am, and always has a smile on his face while he works. They have a lot of people to teach in their area, and so we had a busy day going from appointment to appointment in his area. The sad part was that almost all of them weren't home, darn it haha. But, we did have the opportunity to teach a couple of new investigators. We worked hard to really gain their confidence at the start of the lesson. We asked them about their families and jobs, and talked to them about our own families for a bit. This is a great tactic because if the people that we teach have confidence in us, they will recognize us as servants of the Lord, and it will be much easier for them to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. I had a great time working with Elder Tingey, and it's always good to catch up on the MTC days (well...I do that every day since we live in the same house!).

We had interviews with President Flores on Thursday, and let's just say that it's a little bit rougher of an experience when you're in charge of other missionaries. Last time I was interviewed I was just Senior Companion! After a bit of...let's call it encouragement...I left with a great desire to increase my diligence and obedience. Like President Monson said in this General Conference...it's a lot easier to be 100% obedient than 98% obedient! I have been dedicating my time to learn more about all of the Christ like attributes, particularly diligence, so that I can become more like my Savior. Since the work in my area is a little bit....out of season for now, I am learning to never get discouraged, because I know that one day we will find the people that are willing to accept our message.

This week Elder Ortiz and I have been inviting all of Honduras to attend church with us on Sundays. One of our biggest Achilles heels is that we are really struggling bringing investigators to church. In all of my time in my new area, we have never brought a single investigator to church, something that has never happened to me before. This week we had plans to bring 5 people to church. We committed them to attend, they accepted. We had members commit to go and bring them, they did it. And....all 5 stood us up. It was really sad and we felt really bad about it, but what can you do. We did everything within our own hands, but we can't deny the agency of the people. All we can do is lift up our heads and keep trying, inviting more and more people to attend church with us until someone decides to come. We haven't given up yet, and we're going to try new tactics this week to find new investigators.

Yesterday Elder Ortiz and I found a man who was very interesting. When we contacted his house he immediately seemed to be just one of those contenders (Joseph Smith this and Joseph Smith that). But miraculously he decided to let us in. He told us that he is not going to any church (except Alcoholics Anonymous, one of our biggest competitions) because he wants to really study the Bible until he knows where God wants him to be. He told us that he was fine with whatever he told us, as long as he could find it in the Bible. Well, we started to explain to him the Articles of Faith, and it went pretty well. He asked us if we had a Bible Study in our church, and since we are studying the Old Testament for Sunday School, I invited him to come to church to study the Bible! Well, we didn't have time to make it to the Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon part, but we left him with a pamphlet and a copy of the Articles of Faith. We're going to call him back tomorrow to see what he thought! Elder Ortiz and I felt really good about the lesson, so my fingers are crossed!

To answer a couple of questions. With respect to my parasite, Terry is long dead. I stopped feeling the side effects from him about 11 days ago, so don't worry about that one! Also, the other question is where are we going to church now that they are remodeling our building. Well what's going on is that our stake rented a bus for our ward, and so now we have church from 11-2. We meet at the church at 10:20 and head our way up to another building in the stake. It's not too big of a deal, just the only problem is that the investigators feel like it's a little bit far to go to church...oh well.

That's about all I have for this week. Congratulations Dallin on becoming an Elder! Welcome to the group! I was really happy to hear that.

I love you all and hope you're doing well!

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

October 11th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! I hope that you are all doing well in your homes, works, and other places where you might be found at this moment. I'm imagining that the cold front is beginning to inch it's way over to the Western U.S. about this time, and once again.... I'm so jealous!

Anywho, lets get going on the weekly report. I never asked the Lord to be a Zone Leader, but now that He has called me, I need to fulfill my calling. On Tuesday I went to do interchanges with one of the district leaders in our zone. His name is Elder Canizales and he is from El Salvador. He is a great missionary, just a little spastic and let's say....antsy to be a leader in the mission. His area is called Tiloarque, and I had a lot of fun working really hard with him. His area has a lot of steep hills in it, and we had a lot of fun running up and down the hills all day (let's just say I'm a bit out of shape). They have some good investigators to teach and baptize.... I'm proud of my district leaders!

In our area, we attend the oldest chapel in all of Honduras (okay technically it's the 2nd oldest, but the 1st one was demolished and totally rebuilt, so that makes it the oldest!), and I feel very honored to go there. This week and last week we have been busy packing up a bunch of things and taking them all out of the church, because it's going to be taken down and remodeled this next week. We spent a lot of quality time with the Stake President talking about his family while we drove from the church to the warehouse to load and unload all of the things. I'll give more information on that later.

Elder Ortiz and I had been thinking a lot this week about some new things we can do as a zone in order to boost up the excitement and energy of the elders, because right now the zone is having a couple of difficulties meeting their goals they have set. What we decided was that for the weekly planning session, we were going to meet together as a zone and plan together, so that we could observe how they were planning and also watch a couple of tip clips from the PMG videos in order to help them out. I think it was pretty effective and the missionaries seemed to leave from the meeting content and happy. That's what I like to see! Speaking of Elder Ortiz, I haven't really taken the time to talk a little bit about him have I? Elder Ortiz is from Guatemala, and he is a teeny little guy. He is 23 years old (and frankly looks about 27), and has a great heart. We get along great together, and we're always working hard to strengthen our relationship. Every day my companion prays for me, and I pray for him, and we talk to each other often, always asking each other how we can improve. Elder Ortiz is a smart missionary, and he served as Branch President in a small pueblo in the mission for 7 months, so I have learned a lot from him. What I especially asked for help from him was how to improve and have effective baptismal interviews. I want to be able to have the Spirit within the interviews that I have, and I knew he could help me out with that. We're going to have baptisms in the zone this Saturday, and so I'll be able to show my new stuff soon!

This Sunday was the last Sunday in the chapel of Lempira. Every Sunday since 1972 the members have been meeting in that chapel, and it was a spiritual event to be there. A lot of the members were there and witnessed the construction of that chapel, and even helped build it! This was before the church hired other people to build the chapels, and so the members raised money, and with their own materials built their own beautiful chapel. As I was listening to their testimonies, I was reminded of the pioneers when they built the Salt Lake Temple. How would they feel if they saw their beautiful work of art still standing tall today? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has an incredible history in every country throughout the world. I am so grateful to be a continuing part of this history. As most of you all know, history is my favorite school subject and I just adore learning more and more about the history of God's creations.

I was able to participate in the setting apart of a sister missionary yesterday (here in Central America, for the setting aparts they have a special meeting and everything). Elder Tingey and I played the piano for her and it was a very spiritual meeting, the coolest part is that she is going to the Salt Lake Temple Square mission (to freeze her buns off)! Her name is Hermana (Sister) Perdomo, so if any of you ever see her at Temple Square, tell her that Elder Tinkham played the piano for her setting apart!

Today was a touching day for me, because I received 2 emotional letters from a couple of my beloved friends in Ciudad España. The first that I received was from Marino, the incredible 15 year old whom we baptized. He told me that he knows that the church is true, and is trying as hard as he can to get his family to listen to the gospel as well, and he told me that he is going to serve a mission. I cried. The second letter that I got was from Yasmin, from the couple of Yasmin and Cesar that we were still teaching when I left. That was a very sad letter. Yasmin told me that Cesar had died in August in a motorcycle accident, and it has been an incredibly difficult situation for her and her small child. I feel an incredibly strong desire to write her and testify of the healing power of the Atonement in our lives. As far as I know, the missionaries weren't able to find her for awhile to teach, but have once again started to teach her, and are going to invite her to be baptized.

I love this gospel. I love my mission. I am so grateful to be a part of the church's ever growing history. My testimony grows every day. I love you all, please take care.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

October 4th

Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! Yet another week has flown by, and might I add yet another beautiful edition of General Conference. GC is basically the Christmas for missionaries, and seems to be the best holiday in existence. More on that will come later.

So, as you all might have heard, I've received a promotion. I am now the Zone Leader of Zone Comayaguela, and my area has the same name. Let's just say it's been a crazy hectic experience for me. It's all quite new. I am carrying a cell phone in my pocket right now, which I haven't done since I left mine on our wooden dinner table 16 months ago. Our house is actually pretty cool and it's very large. We live 4 in the house (my first time living double) and I live with my good MTC buddy Elder Tingey! He is my district leader and does a great job.

If I thought my other area was city, I was just kidding myself. This time what I say is complete truth, I am in the depths of the capital city of Honduras now, and it's super different for me. My area is actually quite dangerous, and I'm pretty sure that's why the zone leaders are there because the gringos can speak fluent Spanish by now. But I'm not worried, most of the "sketchy" people seem to know who we are and we always say hi to them. I also have hot water in my house for the first time in the mission, what an incredible luxury! I think I have died and gone to heaven!

For those of you worry warts, I'll give you a quick update on my health. Well...my suspicions proved right this week, I had a parasite! I decided to name it Terry, and Terry lived with me for a little over a week. Let's just say, it was not a fun experience and I don't recommend it haha. The mission doctors gave me the murderous pills and I finished them off the other day (Nodik- I figured you'd be interested dad!), and now I feel fine. It didn't affect my work that much except for my last days in Pedregal. I felt horrible and did not enjoy packing all of my things haha, but it's all over now and Terry has now died. It was a memorable week for that.

Here in Comayaguela.....we basically have no investigators. I felt pretty bad when I got to the area cause I thought it was going to be loaded with awesome investigators, but I figured it was too good to be true since it has never happened to me before anyways. Let's just say that the missionary that I replaced finished his mission, and he had one foot in his house already, so I have been sent to start from ground zero. This week we started out by visiting a ton of members in the ward. We presented ourselves and offered our service, and began to train them so that we will be able to work together. The awesome thing is that there are a TON of members hungry to work with us and most of them, when we got there, said something like this... "Elders! Where the heck have you been? Why haven't you come over to ask us if we will help you out? We've been waiting forever!" I was completely shocked by these responses, and I don't know why they haven't been utilizing the members, but that is now going to change.

On Friday I had my first Leadership Council meeting with all of the other Zone Leaders, and boy did I feel as inferior as Courage the Cowardly Dog. We talked a lot about our goals for the month of October and what we wish to accomplish in our zones. I didn't participate too much since I had been there only 2 days, but I did mention our plans of how were going to carry out our goals. The best part about the whole thing is the lunch that Hna. Flores made us afterwards.....oh sweet mercy I can still taste it now......a giant, cheesy, scrumptious piece of lasagna!!! I think I could get used to that!

For General Conference, I was particularly impressed by the Priesthood Session, that was one of my favorite sessions. I took to heart what Elder Eyring said in the last session, and picked something from EVERY talk that I can apply in my own life, and change for the better. I received an incredible witness that President Monson is the voice of God on the earth today. I truly know that he is a prophet of God, and sustain him with my right hand raised high. The words of the prophets are more important than scripture, and the words of the current prophet are more important than those of the dead ones. I absolutely loved how I felt listening to the talks, and wish that feeling would never go away.

This change is going to be one of a lot of prayer and fasting for me. If the Lord trusts me enough with my new position, I must put all of my heart, might, mind and soul into what I do. I know that this gospel is true, and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and saw God and His Beloved Son. This is the true church on the earth today, and I will never tire in saying these things. I love you all, and wish you all a happy week.

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham