Honduras Here He Is!

Dear Missionary Families, 

We just wanted you to know that your missionary is safe and sound with us tonight in our home. We already love them and cannot wait to get to know them better. They will be going to a transfer meeting tomorrow where they will meet their new companion and then leave for their assigned area. Thank you for all your prayers and love. We are so grateful that you sent them to us. 

With love, 
President and Sister Dester

Week 5 CCM

AZ Bro's

Hola! Its my last P-day! I leave on Tuesday morning around 6:30! Im so excited to go to Honduras! I have been reading blogs from other missionaries and just reading about San Pedro Sula and man it looks really sketchy haha. San Pedro is the number one most dangerous city in the world besides a war zone....I'm glad I have the Lord on my side and i know he will protect me! They also eat alot of cat,dog and horse so this should be very interesting. The people are so open to get baptized its going to be amazing but the missionaries there have to focus more and reactivation then baptisms. In one ward they have 1600 baptized members but only 150 come to church! Looks like I have alot of work to do.

So this last week as been super fast and the Spanish we have been learning is so hard I think my Spanish is getting worse! But I can usually say what i need to. Its annoying not being able to say what exactly is on my mind and having to reword it to use words I know. People in English missions better count their blessings :) 

We have gotten new investigators and thats fun because the first couple lessons are easier for me to teach haha. We are teaching a older man who is married to a member and he has been going to church for 20 years with his wife but is not baptized. He says he wont get baptized because he was married before and his wife was a catholic and he thinks he has a promise with her that he needs to stay catholic. So I asked him if he believed and had a testimony about the restored gospel and the plan of salvation and he said yes. So I said "you know where you late wife is and you know shes knows the truth now. Dont you think she wants you to be baptized and receive all those blessings?" I could instantly tell from his face he knew it was true. And the lessons have been going AWESOME since then.

One of my favorite Elders here, Elder Tanner, had a really rough last week. Because of some medical issues the missionary department was sending him back home and he was going to have to submit his papers again and go to a states mission. It was hard because he was actually fine and the Lord knows all so he wouldn't of gotten called to a mission he couldnt handle and we didn't want him to leave. We all prayed for him and the missionary department decided that he could stay and go to his mission in El Salvador! It was so awesome!

So I guess there was a 7.5 earthquake just north of the ccm! We heard the sirens and had to run outside to the "safe zone." Some people said they felt it but I couldn't. I saw the trees and lamp posts moving tho so that was kinda cool! I know you guys were probably worried sick about me. ;)

Thank you so much for the Easter cookies! They were so fun! You guys sent like 500...I had to share or I was going to get fat! But really it was the best thank you!

The other elders and I loveeee to scare our teachers and the sisters in our district haha. Elder john is short so we can hide him just about anywhere we want. closets, bigger drawers, under a small desk... you name it and Elder John will hide in it. He's like our secret weapon. 

Again there are so many missionaries from Arizona! Its my favorite thing talking to them and seeing that we have mutual friends!

Well I think that just about covers it. I love you all very much! Thank you for everything!

-Elder Sessions

Jarom Houdini

4 Weeks Down at CCM - 2 Weeks to Go!

Hello!

I can not believe it is already p-day! This last week has been the most effective week so far. My comp Elder John and I decided that in our lessons to our investigators we would not bring any paper or our lesson plan to read. We just bring scriptures and teach through the spirit and it has made our investigators open up and to feel the spirit so much more! I truly have had many lessons where the spirit told me what I needed to say at that time and Elder John and I are just loving it! 

One of our investigators was very open to the church and had a baptismal date and everything but in our next lesson he said he didn't want to hear from us anymore and that the church wasn't for him. I felt so sad for him and the spirit told me that I needed to ask him to pray right there that moment. He prayed for 10 minutes and asked the Lord to help his family understand why he wanted to join the church. Nothing we could have said could of made him tell us the problem was his family, he just needed to pray! After that the lesson was so powerful and we were all crying at the end and it was just amazing!

I am sooooo glad I was raised in this gospel and that I have a family that is active and have taught me the principles of the gospel! It's amazing how much doctrine and principles I remember during my lessons that my parents have taught me. I wish you guys would of taught me in Spanish tho because that would help me right now :)  

Every Monday we have friends that leave and its the worst. We are almost the oldest people here and its so weird. We have added 2 new districts in our zone and you are only suppose to have 2 districts to a zone so church is gonna be crazy! We might have to use more than 2 pieces of bread for the sacrament haha. Elder Skylar Passey is in my zone and just got here yesterday! It has been so great to see him! 3 people from my school just got to the CCM. Now we have like 10 people all together! Small world! 

Everyday we do the same thing so I'm excited to get in the field and experience Honduras! Everyone is getting kinda bored so we pull pranks on each other everyday so I'm kinda on edge all the time. I'm looking over my shoulder every 20 seconds as I type this. Someone put a live cockroach in Elder Porter's shoe and when he started walking he felt it and screamed so loud! I've never laughed so hard in my life! Someone took all of our toilet paper out of our house and that was an interesting day haha..

We were able to go to the Mexico City temple this morning and it was so nice to get out of the CCM. The temple is closed for a while so we went through their awesome visitor center and it was great! This guy was selling churros and they said I couldn't buy any and I was upset because they were like 2 feet long and looked amazing! But its ok because I was able to come back to CCM and eat some cereal for lunch.

I love you so much  and miss you! i will keep praying for you guys to find someone to teach! Send me lots of pictures of what you guys have been up to!

-Elder Sessions

My District

Mexico City Temple

Elder Sessions and Elder Porter

Mexico City Temple

Service Day - Changing out old beds for new!

Old CCM

3rd Week at CCM

Hola Mother!

The weeks have been going by pretty fast and i don't think my Spanish is keeping up! But hey I've only been here for a little more than 3 weeks. Mexico moved forward another hour so i think I'm two hours ahead of you guys now. So the week started out really great, I was asked to become district leader and that has been something else let me tell you haha. Its weird and stressful sometimes because i don't like being bossy and i feel like we are all equal but it has been an awesome experience so far! Except i have to give a lesson every Sunday now....in spanish..so pray for me haha. The food here is getting worse. I eat cereal everyday! Its cafeteria food and I don't think our stomachs like it very much...but Tuesday is pizza day and I don't hold back, I wont eat breakfast or lunch just so I can save room for the pizza. 

It was one of the sisters in my districts birthday this week and it was so fun! This elder named Favila is in the room right next to mine and he is one of the funniest kids I know. And for this sisters birthday I helped him make a cake! But we don't have any ingredients or oven or anything but Elder Favila has a special talent when it comes to making cake. He was actually in jail for a little bit when he was younger and he learned how to make a cake from cookies and pastries and it was the coolest thing ever! This sister had told me earlier that she was a pastry chief and always made cakes for people on the birthdays but no one ever made one for her so it was awesome to bake her one! it was delicioussssss. 

My comp Elder John has had a really bad stomach pains and stuff like that this week so a couple days this week we had to stay home but it was ok! He didn't want my magic oils and the pills the doctor kept giving him didn't do anything. After a couple days I made him take some peppermint a couple times and lets just say that we didn't have to stay home the next day.

 WOW conference was amazing! Even tho i had to sit in the same chair for six hours and i couldn't fast forward the songs it was still great!:) Elder Nelson's talk was awesome! I bet dad liked that one ;) and it was cool to see Elder Zwick and that other Elder that spoke at our stake conference right before I left!

We have this friend that works in the cafeteria named Pablo and he hooked us up big time! We told him we were going to Honduras on our missions and he said he could get us Honduras soccer jerseys with our names on them! we just got them a couple days ago and they are sooooo cool! I will send pictures. Now i just need to learn to play soccer. I'm half way there! :)

My favorite time during the day besides class, personal study, and teaching practice is gym time! There are a couple of other districts that are awesome that have the same gym time as us and we have huge volleyball games everyday and I'm thinking about going pro. but before every volleyball game, Elder Porter and i have to get our ping pong practice in. Its essential to be an effect teacher. I hope they have ping pong in Honduras. I met this wonderful lady from Honduras that is serving a mission in the ccm and we talked about San Pedro Sula for a while and it made me so excited/nervous! The first thing she says when she finds out where I am going is "oh...there is alot of drugs there" so ya its gonna be great.

One night on our way back to our house after our classes we looked up at the big mountain behind the CCM and it was on FIRE! Like a lot of fire! And there are a ton of houses right next to it! No sirens no yelling no anything! somehow the fire went out after a while and the next day I asked my teacher what that was all about and he said "oh ya that happens all the time". Moral of the story is that Mexico is crazy.

Well family I love you very much! Thank you for everything! I'm trying not to miss you guys and its going pretty well for the most part but i really miss Barrett and Mom haha...I'm just joking :) 

Talk to you next week!

-Elder Sessions

He was having troubles downloading his pictures this time so this is all we get...until next week :)

2nd Week at the CCM

Mom! 

Thank you for all your wonderful emails! this last week has been so spiritual and amazing its been crazy. Im going to start with friday. Friday was a really good day and was very productive and it will be a day i will always remember. We had just finished our last class and we were getting ready to leave when one of the sister missionaries in my district came up to me. This sister is so amazing and has such a sweet spirit. She came up to me and said she was feeling really sick and she asked if I could give her a blessing. And in my head I'm thinking "me? why? maybe you can borrow some of my oils my mom gave me?" but i said yes and all the sudden the spirit was so strong and I knew I didn't need to worry what to say and that the Lord would help me. I was lucky to be prepared with my oil and I got my roommates and companion to help. This was my first blessing I have ever given and I was surprised to be so calm. I know the blessing I gave wasnt from me but was from the Lord and it was one the best spiritual moments of my life. My roommates told me after that my voice was the same but the way I said things was not like me at all and I know that the spirit was with us that night. I am so glad I had an example like dad to teach me about the priesthood and always being worthy to give me a blessing if I needed one.

Earlier that day I received a package from my best friends Chelsea and Ethan who are up in Provo. It was for my birthday and it was the most creative and perfect present i could have received! It was filled with letters and notes and candy and pictures! It was Jarom themed which was the best part. I will send pictures of it. I am so glad I was able to meet them and I know we will be friends forever.

Mom thank you soooo much for the Krispy Kreme! it was such a surprise and i miss american pastries! For our meals here in the CCM they serve "pastries" too but really they are just hard pieces of bread cut into different shapes. I was able to share them with the elders in my house that I liked the most (just joking i shared with everyone). I can't describe their joy to have american sweets for a change hahaha they were in heaven! They told me to tell you thank you!

The investigator we have been teaching is now one of our new teachers which is kinda scary because he knows our weaknesses and always messes us up haha but the teachers still don't speak any english really but my spanish has improved 500% so i can usually understand them. I miss our Latino roommates who taught us spanish. They were hilarious! They emailed me and I have no idea what they said. I'll get back to them in a couple weeks haha.

Do i have any new nephews or nieces yet? Don't keep me out of the loop people. We just got a bunch of new missionaries and sooo many of them are from mesa and gilbert! It's great seeing so many people I know all the time! Mom I met a sister missionary named Sister Olsen that says her mom works for  a orthodontist place and you guys know each other! I'll send the pic of me and her to you later. So the other district in our ward is leaving on monday and its gonna be sad because I love them and I'll miss them! but now we wont be the baby district so thats going to be nice haha.

Every Sunday we have a devotional and we say good bye to the missionaries that are leaving the next day. We have alot of polys (Polynesians) in the CCM and at the end when everyone goes outside they do the Haka and its so awesome and it prepares them for "battle" as they go into their mission field. My whole house is being taught it by Elder Purcell and we look goooooood haha We get to do it on sunday and I'm so excited! 

I don't know if you guys knew or not but the CCM was originally an LDS school. The kids would get dropped off on mondays and stay for the week then come home on the weekends. The whole campus is 90 acres its so massive but we have like 1/20 of the missionaries that provo has. 

Well i miss you very much and i love you a ton! Thanks for everything and thank you for your prayers! and study spanish so we can talk when we get home! Talk to you next week!

Donut Party!

Elder Garcia is the one who spoke good English and translated for them

Elder  Ramirez followed him everywhere and spoke zero English

Elder Tanner is from Gilbert. He and Jarom have a lot of mutual friends

Great picture of the houses on the hill with the trees in bloom. 

Most of the Mexicans in their house that recently left for their missions. Jarom will miss them.

Their "house" that they live in. The dorms are all being remodeled.

Thanks Chelsea and Ethan!