Baptism of Carlos

April 11th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

April 4th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

Happy Birthday to Me!

Birthday Egg Bash!

Deja Vu from Last Time‏

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

Baptism of cousins Seydi and Seyli

Baptism of Lizzie

Dear Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham

March 14th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vaya Pues!

Elder Tinkham