Dos Caminos Week 13

Duff and I eating these things called topogigigos... basically ice cream shakes
 but no ice cream in them haha!

Buenas! Well I didn't have changes thank goodness and I'm still with Duff in Dos Caminos! We got a lot of awesome goals this next change and I'm excited! We got another Elder in our house named Elder Moes! He's awesome!! Because he's a gringo and now we have four people in the house that speak English so we can just speak English all the time! Which is great but it's horrible for my Spanish haha and I don't get enough practice as I want. 

Last pic of our zone before changes!

This week our investigators have progressed a lot and its been encouraging seeing results to hard work! In the begining of the week we out contacting and it was just a bummer. It was the first time I've ever seen so many people say they don't want to talk to us. Usually they always let us in and then we take it from there if they want more or no. It has just been a ton of really mean people and I could tell Satan was just working so hard against us. It was really rough and we wanted to just stop. But we need more investigators so we finallyyyy came to a house that had 2 people that have been prepared so much by the Lord and it was just a really big burden off my shoulders to know that Satan might mess with us but if we just keep doing what we need to, the Lord with help us. 

Interesting story this week....Well before Duff came to be my comp he had a really bad experience with these infections on his face that really almost killed him. He was in the hospital for a long time but he got better and has these sweet scars. But this week he started to say he had this pain in his thigh and me- being- me said its probably nothing...but when we got home we looked at his thigh and he had a huge black hole that looked horrible and looked exactly the same as the ones on his face! So we got picked up by the president and went to the hospital. I sat outside alllll day. But it was actually nice because Presidents wife Sister Dester was with me! She loves to talk just like me so we talked the whole time and it was fun! She is so amazing and I'm so blessed to have her as my mission mom! Well Duff caught it soon enough so we were able to leave and now he's just on some meds which was nice so we didn't waste more days! Over all a good experience for me but I don't know about Duff haha!

Me and Hermana Dester in the hospital for Duff!

I'll give a summary of our investigator Isis! She's the Doctor. The last lessons have just been awesome. She trusts us so much and she continues to read the Book of Mormon. We last taught about the Word of Wisdom ( law of health revealed by the Lord for the physical and spiritual benefit of His children) and it was so different for her because of the coffee and tea. But we just had a really great spiritual lesson and she said that it totally made sense to her and she would work on it, which is so cool and rare! I just love sharing the gospel with her.

Another story about the Word of Wisdom. We have this investigator named Italia and we have taught her so many lessons but she just wouldn't pray to know for herself and its been very hard. But after the lesson about the word of wisdom, we found out that she drinks 8 cups of coffee a day. 8 CUPS. We challenged her to stop and pray about it . But the next week she said she was only drinking 2 a day! And I was just amazed because she said she loved her coffee. But she said she loves the way her life has been changing since she started the lessons and loves the way she feels when we are over. Since then she has stopped drinking it completely! It has been such a huge blessing and this is my favorite part about missionary work. Seeing these people's lives change, along with mine. 

I love you guys Thank you for the prayers! 

-Elder Sessions

Dos Caminos Week 12

The baptism with Victor and his family!

Buenas gringos!

This week has been very interesting...But I'm glad to see your guys week was awesome! So this week started off with interviews with President Dester which I loved because this guy is just a champ and I love him! But we got some bad news. One of the elders that lives in our house was getting sent home and Duff and I had to be his comp till his plane left on Saturday....yes a whole week with an angry missionary who didn't want to leave this house. Probably one of the biggest challenges I have had yet. It was very sad and our numbers where so low and we weren't able to go teach some of our investigators which was the worst part. But I look forward to this next week to get back to work! Changes are on Wednesday so we will see if I get changed or not. Pray for me that I can be with Duff one more change!

But one thing we were able to do this week was we cut down this massive tree. with a machete....only a machete....big it was actually fun just wacking these branches off and watching them land on Duff. It took a long time but we got a nice work haha. But this is not all. The elderly lady we did this for made us soup after. And soup here is pretty much what ever they had laying around from the day before im pretty sure. It just has chunks of weird vegetables and meat. And  this time the meat was cow tail. yes its was 80% cartilage and 20% meat. It was pretty rough to eat haha but i didn't get sick after and thats the most important thing:)

Me in the tree on a sketchy ladder swinging a machete haha

So one day our Zone leaders gave us a break from the elder going home and we went on divisions. And Duff and I went with Elder Pace! Yes three gringos walking around preaching the word and there was nothing stopping us haha. I love hanging out with Elder Pace he is just hilarious. Thats one of my favorite parts about the mission is meeting all these awesome guys. But when we went to bed that night we realized something. 5 Elders. 4 beds. so being the nice guy I am, Pace slept in my twin bed right next to me. Its better than the ground with all the bugs.  I woke up every 10 minutes with his foot in my face...it was a bad night.

Had a baptism this week for Hermano Victor. Hes a great guy and his whole family are members. It was great to see his son baptize him and seeing the family so happy. I cant wait for them to go through the temple! After the baptism they made baleadas so that was a plus haha.

Oh and a summary of our lesson with Isis and her cousin! Oh my goodness they are just solid. They have been taking notes from what they read and they have such awesome questions. They loveee the plan of salvation because their church doesn't talk anything about stuff like that. And the best thing was that they went to Tegucigalpa for some school classes this week and they decided to go to the temple and check it out! They bought hymn books and visited the visitor center and we were just blown away because we haven't even taught about temples yet haha. But I love teaching them and feeling their spirit. They will be able to attend church in September because right now they have school on sundays :( but the next missionaries are going to love them!

I am so thankful that I can be here in Honduras and everyday testifies to me that the Lord knows me and what am I going through. He sent me Elder Duff right when I needed him most and I feel so blessed to be with him. Recently I've been getting down on myself for not knowing spanish that well or not being able to teach that well and Duff just sat me down and helped me work on everything and the principles that I needed help with for teaching. I love this Church and I love you family! Thank you for everything!

Elder Sessions

Elder Espinosa and I at Pizza Hut after our meeting in San Pedro. 

Bringing out the boy scout in me and playing with fire (sorry mom)

This is a dancing drunk in the street haha I told him if he danced to this song I would give him some candy and it was a very funny experience haha

Dos Caminos Week 11

Howdy family!

This week was veryyy fast and it seems like all of you had a very busy and fast week too! It was a good and sad week for Duff and I here in Dos Caminos. Alot of our investigators are not progressing and we had to stop teaching most of them. For Dos Caminos there are 2 areas and we are in the area that the church building is farthest from and the people in our area don't have jobs and money so they can never afford to get a ride to church. The other area with the other missionaries is the rich area where everyone has a car. It really stinks because people will be so interested but they just can't make it to church. But we are continuing to work hard to find the ones the Lord has prepared. 

This week we had a cool experience. In the street we walked by a woman and she said she was a member and invited us over for lunch the next day. I dont know why no one told me about her but the next day came and we went to her house. And her house was massive! It had two stories and all new everything and she even had a computer haha. It was the first time I've seen a house like it. Well we came to find out that she has a boy on a mission! But she just wasnt that active anymore. Her son recently wrote to her that she should feed the missionaries more. Hey I'm good with that you know? haha and the great part was she came to church this sunday! and the bishop was so happy to see her because they use to be good friends. The Lord knows everything and I'm so glad we saw her in the street that day!

So this week we tried really hard to contact more people and get more references to have more people to teach. It was really great and contacting really helps my spanish because i always have to think on the spot and use different words. We contacted in this area high on a mountain where I have never been and it was the strangest thing. It was the first time people said they didn't want us to come by another time and teach them more. It sounds weird but it was so hard and they were very rude. We came to find out they all went to the same church and the pastor teaches anti mormon things and says that they aren't allowed to talk to us.....ya it was horrible. But I plan to go back this week and find the person or persons that are ready to hear this gospel.

We have had a lot of ward activities this week and its such a good way to meet more people! We had a couple soccer games that we were able to get references from and most of them were guys which is good because usually we are teaching girls... idk why but there are like 10 girls to 1 guy here in Honduras. Also the kids in our ward are saving money for EFY and we got to help make baleadas to sell to raise money! But I ate a lot more than I made.....oh well...

There is a family in our area that is just huge and i feel like everyone is connected like.. his brother is my cousin and his wife is the daughter of this guys sister. I don't know there is just a ton of people in this family haha. And we taught one of the daughters named Dora, not the explorer,(haha) who is around 25 years old. We taught the restoration and it was one of the best times I have ever taught it. The spirit was so strong and Duff and I were working well together. She stopped us towards the end at one point and said," I feel that a darkness has left me and I have this light inside of me". She looked so happy and I'm really hoping she progresses! I just love these type of experiences and it makes everything worth it.

I love you all and hope to hear from you next week! 

Elder Sessions

p.s.

So duff hit one year! Super exciting! Once you hit a year you burn a shirt! We wrote stuff about Honduras all over it then lit it to the skies to give thanks for a great year. It was super fun and he didn't want to wash his shirt anyways haha!

Dos Caminos Week 10

Hey family!!

I had a super fun week here in Dos Caminos! Thank you for your guys emails today they were great! You guys had  a break for 4th of july and got to party and I didn't even see one firework. But one family said" hey tomorrow is the 4th do you want to come over and make pancakes for our family?" so ya we brought pancake stuff and had an american breakfast for the 4th and it was the best! Duff made a mickey mouse pancake and blew their minds... they thought it was magic or something haha

My prayers were answered and I got my fan! It makes suchhhh a difference and now I don't have sweat drops on my scriptures in the mornings! We also figured out that our beds were bunk beds so we put them together and now we actually have rooms for our clothes! Only problem is that they have very very sketchy beds and some screws broke when we were putting it together and i have to sleep on the bottom....i mean Duff isn't a huge dude but I pray every night for protection.

So it looks like I'm following in Perry's footsteps in my mission. Sleep talking. My comps in the MTC said I would always sleep talk and then Elder Rios said i would say things but he didn't know what because he didn't know english haha. But now its at a new level because now I go to bed so scared sleeping on the bottom sketchy bunk that Duff says I scream at him to stop moving so he won't fall on me haha I even got up and moved his ladder and when he went to get down in the morning he almost fell! but I don't remember anything! ya its pretty crazy.

This week we have been trying really hard to get new investigators that really are looking to change their lives and the spirit is so strong with these people I just love seeing them grow and change. We have an investigator named Jamie and actually Rios and I contacted her my second day in Honduras and she is progressing so much right now and she has a date in a couple of weeks and she's awesome! She works every other 4 sundays so church attendance has been the hardest thing but she really wants to be baptized so I'm excited for her! 

So in the last email I talked about a sister named Isis and how awesome she was. Second visit was just as good! Her cousin is there with us too and is just as awesome! We asked them in our last lesson to read a little of the book of mormon and when we came back they actually read the first couple of chapters of the Book of Mormon! and even better they took notes! We had our lesson plan but we ended up talking about those chapters the whole time and about the life of Nephi´s family and it was so spiritual and I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon and the spirit we can feel when we read it. We gave them the lesson 2 pamphlet and I'm so excited for her to teach it to us this week! haha

Love you guys! I want to hear your member missionary stories! You all better write me!

(you can write Jarom via email at jarom.sessions@myldsmail.net)

-Elder Sessions

My organized desk area!

Duff and I about to leave for the day!

Right outside the window are 10 chickens that wake me up at 5 every single day and make noises all morning while we are studying. No amount of water I throw at them will ever get them to stop.

An area way far away were a man was chopping a whole entire mountain to plant some fruit tree thing!

getting a sketchy haircut by duff!