Dos Caminos Week 17

Like a real catracho ( a Honduras man) eating fried chicken and tortillas!

Hola!

Hows everyone doing?! This week had a lot of ups and downs but ended up being really awesome. It all started when we were teaching this family and this little girl coughed into our faces maybe 20 times. She has bronchitis. So of course the next day when we woke up we were almost about to die. We were coughing our lungs out and couldn't open our eyes. But we had a lot of appointments that day that we had to go to. The Lord blessed us with strength to finish the day but right when we got home it was just horrible. I had my magic juju oils and by the next day I just had a head ache but Duff didn't want to be healed so for the next 3 days he suffered. We all have our agency right? haha I'm just joking he just thought they smelled weird. Which is right I'm not going to lie.

So I had a lot of time for about 2 days while Duff couldn't walk so I did a lot of reading and studying. But after a while you just gotta move you know? So I decided to be productive and clean the whole house. Well I still had time after that so I decided to chop the front and back yard. Well I was almost finished and my foot landed right on the main water line for the house. Darn hondurans use PVC pipe for main water lines....who knows why..well we headed to the hardware store and bought new pipe and glue and borrowed a saw and fixed it but dug deeper in the ground so it wouldn't happen again. See Mom? This is what happens when I try to be productive. I break things.

One cool thing that happened this week was with 3 different times teaching the Word of Wisdom. Almost every single time we have taught this the investigator has had problems with coffee and tea. But the three times we taught it this week each person said they hated coffee and tea and that they liked juice better. Which was just a huge weight off our shoulders and was awesome for these investigators. I thought it was funny how each one said they liked juice better haha maybe they can become friends and have juice parties together and stay active in the church :)

We had a cool activity for all of our investigators this week. We had a movie night at the church and watched the Restoration! Man I love this movie. It was great because so many of our investigators showed up and they all had so many questions and they got all their answers! And the best part was the family Donaire gave us a ride home and they were able to express their feelings about Joseph Smith with out everyone else around and they said that they believe he was a prophet and are excited for their baptismal date! It made me super stoked and I'm so thankful for the spirit for touching this great family!

Had a really cool experience this week. I had divisions this week with my DL Elder Bingham. We were in his area and I loved meeting all these new people. Makes me excited for my next area. I had the great opportunity to meet this investigator that was about to get baptised. Before we taught the lesson I felt like she really trusted me and she went in detail of what has happened in her life in the last 6 months. She just had her baby 6 days earlier and now she has 4 little kids. Her husband was murdered 6 months ago and she hasn't had a job since because she has been pregnant. they live in this tiny tiny shack on the top of a huge mountain and don't have water. They have to carry water all the way up when they want some. I felt so bad for her and the hardest part was we planned to teach the law of tithing with her! It was a very spiritual lesson and at the very end after we taught where the money for tithing goes she said." wow that makes a lot of sense because there are a lot of people in this word that have it way worse than me". And I was speechless. I really just wanted to cry and thank her so much for being so amazing! Even tho she has this huge trials in her life she knew what was important. That is one of my favorite things about this gospel.

Love you all! till next week! (send me candy)

-Elder Sessions

A member during divisions gave us money to go eat at this place
that made super good meat!

Came over to our ward mission leaders house to talk to him
and found him asleep on the couch!

Our investigator Isis the doctora gave Duff a HUGE shot when he was sick hahaha it was hilarious

Dos Caminos Week 16

                             Average doors in Honduras

Hey family!

   Fast week here in the mission! It looks like everyone is having a great time enjoying the heat! Just know that it's not hot there at all. Come take a trip to Honduras and you will know what hot is! Except we have been having these crazy thunder storms that are just insane! The thunder is literally right over our heads and hurts our ears it's so loud. But don't worry I always have my emergency plastic bags for my books haha.

   This week as been full of blessings and great experiences for Elder Duff and I. One thing we love doing for our early morning visits is doing service. It's something Duff has taught me and has helped a lot in our area. This week every single day we had an appt. with someone to help with chopping their grass and things like that. We built a new wood fence for a sister and redid someones whole barbwire fence. And i love it! I get to work on my tan which is great but also the people start to trust us more and talk to us more as friends which is what our goal is through service! I also have you guys as great examples on doing service which I'm so thankful for! Can't wait to chop the grass at home back in the states with my machete ;)

   This last Tuesday my life flashed before my eyes and I almost died. No not really but it WAS scary. We stopped by this members house to teach a lesson and she had us wait while she put her dog back behind this cage thing on the other side of her house. Well this isnt just any dog....its a massive HUGE pit bull! The biggest scariest honduras pit bull you could imagine. So we start to walk around towards the back door when all the sudden we hear metal moving around and the sisters eyes get huge and she yells "Elders! Run! Get inside!" Then this insane dog comes bolting around the corner straight for me. In 2 seconds I jumped over this dog who wants gringo blood and jump over 3 stairs to grab the metal gate and swing inside like Indiana Jones. Duff was already in the house and was laughing like crazy at how scared I looked. I got a huge bruise on my leg from jumping on the metal gate. It was a great lesson we had afterwards though and we got a good reference haha!

The crazy Pit bull!

In our zone meeting this week we learned a lot how we need more confidence. Which I need a lot so it was great! When they asked what I had a problem with when contacting people I said talking to groups of people. So th y made me practice with the district like they were a whole family and I just got to know them and ask questions and teach a little of the gospel. It was great and I learned al ot and I got to practice it a lot this week! As missionaries we sometimes get scared to talk to people but it nice to know that the worst thing thing they can say is no they don't want anything. And that's not even bad because our job is to invite everyone to come to Christ! And as member missionaries you guys have the same purpose ;) just remember they can only say no or yes :)

One experience teaching this week was with the family Donire. They are one of the first full familyies that I have taught that have been progressing. They have a real desire to learn and be closer to the Lord and this week we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Which I love because its just the simple principles and they are easy to understand and know that they are true. They have an 8 year old boy who after we taught about baptism is said " I want to get baptised". Which was awesome! But he also said he didn't feel prepared yet. And it was great to teach that as missionaries we are here to help prepare you for baptism. They all accepted a date and they are loving coming to church! Those kind of lessons are the best in the mission. Love being here in Dos Caminos and I'm going to be sad when I leave! The spirit is so strong here! Love you all!

-Elder Sessions

Baby turtle they are watching for a few days

Sweet looking spider

Dos Caminos Week 15

Jarom and Elder Rodriguez

Hello land of the free and home of the brave.

So good to hear about your guys week! You all seem very busy which is good ;) I really had a great and funny week here in my area! There were 4 murders in my area this week and thats all anyone wants to talk about. It really is hard for the people here. Now I understand why whenever I say my area is Dos Caminos people always say, " oh where your life doesn't cost anything". its not the best thing to hear when you are about to walk home and its 9 o'clock haha. But we are protected by the Lord so no worries haha. 

Well the week started off with a muti zone conference with the President. And it was reallyyyy good. President Dester is the man and he really knows what we need to hear. So after the conference I had divisions! My zone leader Elder Rodrigues came to my area with me and Duff went to the other area. On the way back we took a bus and I had to sit next to this lady and her 3 year old kid. Well this lady is just shoving chips and pepsi in this kids face for his lunch I guess and this kids face is just like "mom please just feed me some normal food". Well he had his limit and threw up all over me.Yup right on my lap and shirt and shoes. But the best part was the mother didnt even acknowledge that it happened! and continued to feed him. So that's what I deal with everyday haha. After this we had such a great time teaching and I loved practicing my spanish more. Just picture a mexican santa clause and thats Elder Rodrigues. He's just a jolly positive man and we got along really good.

This mission has been changing me alot and I am loving it. But one thing I don't think it will change is my love for pulling pranks on people. And Duff and I decided Elder Moose was a perfect target. I changed our contact in his phone to say Presdent Dester and gave him a call acting as someone in the office. We told him that the president needed to talk to him as soon as possible and to come to the office right away. Well after the call he runs in our room freaking out that he is in trouble or something and we just kept saying hurry hurry get dressed! Well he was just about to leave and we couldn't keep it in any longer and just busted out laughing and I still don't think he has forgiven us. But man was it a good one haha. Dont worry mom I wont do anymore pranks on people....

Alot of progression happened this week and it has just been the best feeling ever! We have 8 people with a baptismal date right now and its been so cool to see the change in their lives. One experience I want to share is about our investigator Isis who I talk alot about, I'm sorry but I just love our lessons with her. So recently our lessons have been really easy for her to grasp and understand. She thinks its all great and has been praying and reading to receive answers to know that its true. Her answer has just been taking alot of time and she was getting discouraged so we decided to help her and we watched The Restoration video with her. The hour long one that is just full of the spirit. Well after the movie the first thing she says is " why are those people so mean to him! There is no way he wasn't a prophet". So I just asked, " If you believe he was a prophet what does that mean for you?" She starts looking at us and her eyes get huge and she had an "Oh Shoot" moment. She says " That means everything is true! He saw God and Jesus and your church is the only church with the power to baptize!" I dont think you could understand my joy or imagine how big my smile on my face was. She accepted a date for baptism and this experience just testified to me how important the restoration is and the role the spirit has in conversion. 

Until next week! Love you guys and thank you for your support!

-Elder Sessions 

my best friend Kennedy who always calls me dad...

...and then Duff let me cut his hair...it turned out ok I guess.. hahaha

Me playing with this cute cat at a members house!

Dos Caminos Week 14

Family!

What a great week! so many great experiences its just been awesome! We got a new zone leader after changes and we had our first zone meeting. It was a great meeting. All the new people and the zone leaders gave a great talk on our purpose and how to be more organized with the work. But on the way back Elder Duff lost his wallet and it had all of his money in it for the last 4 days....I felt really bad because we just ran out of food and the members dont usually feed us but we got through the week with zero money and bought sooooo much once we got money again haha!

So out of the 3 members in our area that are active we went out with each one to meet their friends and get referrals... And its we AWESOME. It was great having someone that they trusted testifying of what we were saying. We were able to get a lot of new investigators and a lot of them showed up to church! Just another testimony of how important member missionaries are!

There is this family called Donire and we started teaching them about 3 weeks ago. They actually came first to church sunday just to see how the church is and that was how we met them! They even live 3 houses up from us but we have never met them! Just a crazy awesome experience about how the Lord has been preparing people for us to teach. They have come every week since and have agreed to be baptized and we are putting a date for them in our next appt! I'm super excited! 

So this Sunday was fast Sunday and I've never had fast Sundays like this back at home. Missionaries here fast after lunch on saturday till sunday lunch. Well as soon as we started fasting I'm pretty sure the weather heated up like 20 degrees. It was the hottest day ever! And then on top of the heat we had two appts for service that afternoon to chop wood and grass. Now after this I felt like I was about to die of thirst. The sister even brought out water with ice in it and it was just right in front of our faces tempting us. But we powered through and had a miracle! The sister's friends come over and we were able to teach them and man were they ready for the gospel! and this happened throughout the entire day! It was awesome to see the Lord on our side when we do the little things.

We were in our neighborhood talking to a man about our church and inviting him to come this sunday when all the sudden Isis, the Doctor who we are teaching, walked up and joined the conversation! Turns out they are friends, and she literally says, " These men have a great message and you need them to come to you house, and I don't know if they have invited you this sunday but you have to come to church with us its so beautiful!" And I'm just like amazed at her for backing us up and it was just a great situation and he ended up coming this sunday! We actually had more investigators at church than members from our area haha! Love seeing the work progress and I love this church! Have a good week family and remember to write me! 

-Elder Sessions

making baleadas

This little girl insisted on giving Elder Duff this dragon tattoo and it was so funny!
Don't worry we washed it off right after ;)

The new Elder in my house Elder Moes!

A poster of the President of my branch when he tried to run for mayor!

Boys being boys

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!