LAST ZONE CONFERENCE

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

This is a weird feeling. Haha. I still don't feel like I am going home. I feel normal! haha. Today we are saying goodbye to some old areas and I went to my first area and I realized just how much I am going to miss this. Yesterday was hard. It was testimony meeting so I bore my testimony for the last time in sacrament meeting as a missionary. But I could feel the love of the people and the feeling of an accomplishment. Im not sad to leave. Im excited. But at the same time sad. haha. I will definitely miss this. Thank you for being an amazing mom. You've taught me so much and helped me through a lot. I love you. Don't be too much of a wreck in the airport..... haha. I will be happy to see all of you!!! I love you and have a great week! Ill see you guys in 3 days on thursday!!!!! :) 



Food I would like to Eat:

Dutchoven dinner

Steak 

Salmon

Lasagna

Chili

Mashed potatoes

Roast beef

Five guys

Fudruckers

Buffalo Wild Wings

Outback

Ribs

Spaghetti

:) :) :) 

PICTURES FROM THE MISSION

Elder Russell M Nelson

Hey guys!! We had some success this week!! The wife of the family came to church with her daughter!! The guy was working... So he didnt go... But she said she liked it! We have a Family Home Evening with them on wednesday in a members house so we will be talking about eternal families. Hopefully they will see the importance of it. I met some people from Ogden yesterday in church. haha. They announced there was a family from Utah and so I went and sat by them. They were thr visiting his family. This week Elder Russell M Nelson came to our mission. We got to shake his hand and meet the are 70 also. It was a big multi mission conference. It was our mission, and the Tegucigalpa mission that were thre in the sam building, and then they sent it by satlite to missions in Guatemala, Beliz, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and the San Pedro Sula missions here in Honduras. Me and my companion were about 8 rows back from the front :) haha! But it was really cool! Just want to share something I found kind of crazy that he did. 4 elders from the Tegucigalpa mission sang a song, and they didnt even mention their names. So when he got up he called one elder up BY NAME and told him to bring his companion and as they were walking up he called his companion by name too.... And the only time he saw our names out of all 400 missionaries was when we shook his hand for 5 seconds!!! It was crazy!! At the end he made an Apostolic Promise to us that we would all finish our missions safely ad with success and return home to our families and continue having success. It was a pretty cool experience. Im not sure who pays bags I will ask this week. I love you guys and miss you!!!! Have a great week!!! 

WINDING DOWN!!!!!!!!!!

I loved Darin's letter today. It is exactly what I needed to hear.  I love seeing his stregnth and how much he has grown. I cant wait to have him home!!! 


So this is my last change and Im staying here in ********* and I stayed with Elder *******. I was thinking its so weird. You spend your whole mission never thinking that this moment would come, and here it is at the door. Its sad yet happy at the same time. I was thinking yesterday that I wont be able to make promises as a representative as Jesus Christ when I get home, and then see the people keep the commitment and receive the blessings. Yesterday we did divisions and we visited many less actives and we talked about praying and reading the scriptures a lot. It doesnt matter how busy our schedule is, we can always find time to read and to pray. To keep those 2 commandments. Thats kind of been my motto here in the mission. If you want to see changes in your life, read the scriptures everyday and pray. It helps with the temptations, with the sadness, with everything! And I can make the promise as a representative of Christ that they will receive many blessings. Everything is going good here. We have found some positive people and are going to put all our energy into baptizing them before I leave. haha. With Faith we can do it! If you dont believe you wont receive!

6/15/2015

Well our investigator Lurbin will be getting baptized on Saturday with her little brother finally!!! Me and one of the zone leaders and a member sat her down and we gave her a good talking to. haha. She said she was going to get baptized before I would leave the area but then I told her it would be better if she just got baptized as soon as possible. So she did what she had to do and then she has been telling us she needs to buy new clothes and stuff. haha! So she is definitely ready!! That was the best thing that happened this week. Other than the week was pretty normal. We found some more people and we are getting ready for changes next week. Chances are I will be leaving here and going to a different area. I miss you guys!! Emma looks cute with no teeth :) hahaha. Tell everyone I said hi and that I miss them! I love you guys!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week!! Happy Birthday coming up mom!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for being the best mom ever!!! 

WORKING HARD

The tree is right by the main building! :P You should have just asked somebody. haha! I remember TRC. Except we had to do it in Spanish :P haha. It would have been nice to do it in English. But now I could go back and do it without a problem. haha. This week was good. We have the same investigators that are progressing slowly but surely. We are trying everything we can with them. They just each have their own problems. But everything will turn out in the end. One of them should be getting baptized on the 13. We have faith! haha. She has some pretty big problems. But she can get over them. If she has the will and faith to change she will do it. She has been coming to church for the past 6 weeks. Everything is going fine here. Still haven't bought my camera cause there's no where to buy it from. Well miss you guys and love you!!! Hae a great week!!! Things are going good here. I have a new companion. Elder Linsenmann from Saint Marys Idaho. Yes we are both from Idaho!!! haha! Everyone cant believe it when we tell them we dont even live close to each other. haha. But we are making progress with some of the families we are teaching. He has just a s much time as elder Burnham, they were companions in the mtc, and to be honest, his Spanish is even worse.... haha. But its ok. Cause he at least tries to talk. He will be the one to start conversations and he will talk in the lessons which takes some of the weight off of my shoulders. But we both have the same interests and everything. But this is going to be a good change. I have 2 changes left after this one. So it is just working just as hard as ever. Its still hot as ever here. I havent been able to buy a camera yet cause here in Catacamas the cameras are waaaaaay too expensive. 150 dollars for a 70 dollar camera.... But I will just have to wait until I go to Tegucigalpa. I hope you have a great week!!! Love you guys and miss you!!! Tell Emma Hi for me!!! Give her a big hug and kiss for me!!! 

ANOTHER GREAT WEEK IN HONDURAS

We went to the temple this week and i saw the Stake presidents wife from one of my old areas and she says they're not taking care of me enough here cause I look skinnier. haha. But I am doing just fine on the food and everything. But I haven't bought my camera yet cause we haven't had a chance to go to Tegucigalpa... I would like another package. haha! A package with some good food :) however by the time I get it I will probably be a month from being home. So send me a package with stuff like food and stuff for my companion whoever it will be. Cause Im sure I will get one that will have some time left so he could use some things Im sure. This week has been good. We have found some good families to teach just the wife is more mature than the husband..... I hate that... He wont make a decision for his family and cant see the importance of it. But we are going to show the family proclamation to the world. I think that will help. We had a run in with one of our investigators sisters that tells her and everyone else that we are from the devil. That it was a devil that appeared to Joseph Smith. We taught her lesson one with some rude interruptions by her but at the end I testified as a representative of Jesus Christ, she blocked out the spirit and I could tell that the spirit was testifying that it was true. She is just so hard hearted she doesn't want to change. Thats the hardest part of the mission is that people have the agency and they always reject the spirit. I love you guys and miss you!!!!! Have a great week!!!!! 

CONVERSION STORY

Well this week was fun!! Its been raining everyday here too. Its rainy season here so it rains constantly. Its raining right now!! haha. Well not much to report on this week. Just one story :) We are teaching this family where the man has no arms yet he still drives and does everything else a normal person can and I am always amazed. His wife wants nothing to do with us, and she doesn't even want to get married to him so he can get baptized. He tells us he knows its true and its Christs church but he cant get baptized cause hes living with her. Their 12 year old son was baptized about 2 years ago, and last week started going to church again. This week we started his process of him receiving the Aaronic Priesthood. They have a 10 year old daughter that was too young to be baptized but we have started teaching her. SHe has a neighbor named Lessi who is extremely evangelical and is the sister of one of our investigators. She thinks we are from Satan and even burned the Book of Mormon. So we are always having to help our investigator understand that shes in apostasy haha. Anyways the little girls name is Breezy. Lessi tells her were from the devil and we worship Joseph Smith and all the reasons why our church is wrong. We have tried and tried and tried to show Lessi its false but she is too hard hearted. We told Breezy to pray and ask God if she needs to get baptized in our church and so she did. We came back the next day and she said she prayed and she got an answer! I asked her what the answer was and she said that God told her that yes, and that she shouldn't listen to Lessi. hahaha. We were like, YES!!!! haha. I loved it!! Then Lessi came by right after that and she was like "Lessi, Im getting baptized with your brother!!!" and Lessi got angry and now she wont even say hi to us. haha. Its kind of sad but hey. She has her agency. But this week has been great. I miss you guys and love you so much!!! I will make sure they send it to you.  haha. Well I hope you all have a great week!!!! Love you!!!! 

TRIALS AND FAITH

This week was much better. We put a lot of baptismal dates and found lots of new people, but I still feel like Im doing all the work, and no one came to church yesterday... :( oh well... Sometimes the Lord just tries our faith. Ether 12. We dont receive miracles until after the trial of our faith. But everything is going good. I gave my companion more times to talk. Sometimes he just doesn't want to. I remember my first couple months I was like him. Quiet, I would zone out because I just wouldn't understand what was going on, and I didnt know what to say. But my companion will get there quick. He is learning and sometimes I look to him in the lesson to talk and he just gets this scared look on his face. haha. He gave his first blessing ever this week and he was shaking and nervous and his Spanish wasnt that great but it was a good blessing. We found a little girl thats 15 years old who is the daughter of a less active and we asked her if she wants to listen to us. She said shes learning with the Jehovah Witness but she would love to hear about our beliefs as well. haha. She totally looks like a Jehovah Witness. hahaha. But we will help take her out of apostasy ;P Well I miss you guys and love you!! Everything is going well here. Yes I got the money. Thank you so much!!! Have a great week! 

NEWS FROM THE MISSION!!

Hey guys! Well this week has been alright. Its super hot here. The weather is a little bipolar... Its super hot and then it will rain and get super humid and then it will go back to being just hot and then rain again. Yesterday I was sitting at night not doing anything and I was already sweating.... So yeah... haha. Its hotter in the houses than it is outside. The mission this week has a goal of finding 50 new people to teach. So we will be focusing on contacting and finding the news. We had a few people that were going to get baptized at the end of this month, but they didnt come to church yesterday so they wont have the right amount of attendances to get baptized. So we have to wait for an extra week, and hopefully they will come this sunday. Elder Burnham is learning spanish quickly. Hes learning spanish and learnign what to say and teach. We are having fun!! Well I miss you guys and love you!! Tell Emma hi for me and that I miss her and love her. Give her a big hug and kiss for me!! Love you guys!!!!!! 

WHAT A WEEK!!!

Hey guys!! Well this week went good. We had 5 baptisms!!! Yay!!! I baptized 3 of them. I baptized Sandi and her son Denis, and then I baptized Nestor. We had a good week with the baptisms and it was pretty hectic. We have some baptisms for this weekend also but those will be requiring a little bit more faith. So pray for Kimberly and Anarda so that they can fix their problems to be baptized this weekend. We have been having a hard time finding some new people, but our stake is doing something this week where there needs to be 100 investigators in sacrament meeting this Sunday. So hopefully the members will do their part. That is the most frustrating part of the missionary work, is when the members don't do their part. How many sets of missionaries are in your ward?? Are they sisters or elders?? Well this week will be an even better week. I miss you guys and love you. I have a little bit less than 6 months left. Crazy :P the time goes by waaaay fast... A young woman in our ward just got her mission call yesterday so we went this morning to find out where shes going and shes going to Nicaragua in May. I remember when I was in that position. haha! But now Im coming closer and closer to the end. Changes are next Tuesday. I highly doubt that we will be changed but anything could happen. Love you guys!! I remember I wanted to lose my tooth at school so I could get a tooth necklace too! hahahaha! Shes my sister!!! ;) Tell her I love her and miss her and give her a big hug!! Love you!!!!

View from our House

Add caption

Our Apartment

Our zone

Tegucigulpa 

Members Tattoo

baleadas

our Chapel

Our Zone

17 Months!!!

This week was pretty good. We have 15 people with a baptismal date all for march, or the first week in April. Its pretty crazy! We were finding people all over the place!!! This week we are going to focus on keeping all of them ready for baptism and focus on helping them complete all of their goals. I hope you all had a good week. I miss you and love you guys!! Today is 17 months on the mission! :P Crazy!!! Ive been away for 17 months!! It sure doesnt seem that long. Next month, I will be completing a sisters mission. Haha. Tiffany will be at home by that time. Its crazy how fast time flies all the time. Sometimes you want it to speed up and other times you want it to slow down. How is everything going on there?? Is everything going good? Well I dont really have much to say... haha! We are going to play soccer today with the zone. It should be pretty fun. I will have to take some pictures and send them next week! haha. Well have a good week!!! Love you and miss you guys!! Be good Emma!! And Emma, Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!! 7 years old!!!!! Youre getting old!!!!! :) Have mom buy you something good for your birthday from me ;) haha. I wish I was there to be with you for your birthday, but next year! Next year you get baptized!! Wow!! Are you excited?? I am! Well have a good week Emma! Love you!!!! 

TRANSFERS AND NEW CALLINGS

Hey Mom and Emma!!! I hope all is going well in California. Well I am in a new area! Same zone as my first one so its a little dejavu but I like it!!! My new companion is Elder Alvarado from Costa Rica. Our area is Cerro Grande. We are opening this area. There haven't been elders here for a long time. Just sisters so president opened it up again this change and put me and my companion in here. And as if that isnt enough stress just starting from scratch, Im also the district leader! Im the district leader over 4 sisters, 2 elders, and me and my companion. 4 Companionship's. Its a little crazy sometimes... haha! Im adapting to the new leadership position. Idk if you remember Mark Mathieson, but hes my zone leader, and Im his district leader. haha! Well yeah. So this week has been crazy getting to know the area and finding new people to teach. We have found some really great people tho. We found a family that was being taught but when they took the missionaries out they stopped going to church. So we are starting over with them and all 4 of their kids are the ones that help us teach. They are all crazy excited to be baptized! haha. The parents might take a little bit more time but when they see the example of their children they will make the decision. But yeah pretty much all of this week was knocking on doors. We made 67 contacts. The mission standard is 70 but we didnt count Monday (old area). So we would have made it!! haha. Anyways everything is good here. I am liking being out of the office. Its more relaxing. I love you guys and miss you so much!! I hope you have a great week! Be good and always share the gospel with everyone!!!! 

Bienvanidos a la Mision Honduras Comayaguela

GOODBYE TO THE OFFICE

Making pupsas

It is with much sadness that I am writing this post. Darin has been the membership secretary in the mission office for the past 4 1/2 months. It has been wonderful because I have been able to communicate with him every day by email and we have been able to talk back and forth with things that he has needed. I felt like he was safe there and he made such amazing friends with the members in that area. I was fortunate enough to have met a family that was in his ward when they came up last December. It will be so hard for me to not hear from him daily and am now going back to watching for the Monday P-Day emails. I haven't really been keeping current with the blog since our emails are mostly personal conversations back and forth. Darin's duties in the office consisted of keeping the membership records in order, verifying that people were actually married or who they said they were, and filing papers at the court house for any legal matter and marriages. He also was responsible for subtracting the "wedding money" from the missionaries personal accounts before sending their monthly stipend out. It is weird to me that the missionaries pay for the weddings out of their own money but I guess that is how it works best. So, if a missionary has several weddings in a month, which costs around $50 then they are eating rice or beans or oatmeal for every meal that month. I asked Darin if he was excited to get back out into the field and he said yes and no. He will miss the luxury of the office such as having a vehicle to drive and washer and dryer but he is excited to be teaching again. I am missing him all over again as if he just left since I cant communicate with him but I am so grateful that he is loving his mission. He has grown so much and is becoming a better person while bringing families closer to God and our Savior. I know without a doubt that there is no better place for him to be. I cant wait to gather around the table again every Monday night to read his emails and to hear of his experiences and his thoughts.

I did want to write about what an amazing Christmas it was. Darin tricked us!! He told me that there was a family that wanted to meet me that I had mentioned before that came up in December. He said he was sending up some things that he didn't need or have room for. When we got there they brought out presents that Darin had sent up for each one of us. They were actually wrapped too so I was shocked!!! Yes, I got a bit teary eyed!! It was so sweet of him. So he told us not to open them until Christmas day. I waited until he skyped on Christmas so I could open the gifts with him. It was really special. I didn't even care what the gifts were, I was so happy to just be able to see my son and talk with him. He sent me his scriptures that he used his first year out with all of his markings and notes. He also sent me a woven bag from Honduras. I love reading though his scriptures and seeing his markings and reading the thoughts he had. I cant understand a lot of the words but do understand enough to figure it out. Thank goodness his notes are in English!! He gave Emma a bag from Honduras also that she takes to church with her and also a bracelet. She loves it. You cant go wrong with a purse and jewelry for Emma!!!

I cant believe he will be home in 7 months. His release date as of now is Sept 15. I cant explain how proud I am of my son. It is not easy for these kids to leave their families to go to an unknown place and to work harder than they have without hardly any communication home. It is a test of faith for them as well as us. We give our sons and daughters to the Lord for 2 years because we know that bringing our brothers and sisters to Christ and giving them the gift of the Gospel is the most important step for their salvation. You don't have to be called on a two year mission to do that. I know there are some that cannot officially serve in that capacity  but it does not diminish their worth or desire. We are all called to the work no matter where we are. My patriarchal blessing says that I will have many opportunities to bring the gospel to my neighbors. I definitely need to do better at this!! If these kids can go out with faith then so can we to those around us every day.