Toys by the Sea

So of course I would start out by talking about peanut butter, but just really quick! So we had our noche de hogar with the obispo and other than the fact that their kitty totally fixed my horrible day, the bishop gave me a little jar of peanut butter! But not just peanut butter you guys... NC PEANUT BUTTER!!!! Totally made my night to be eating peanut butter from the good old homeland :) #littlemiracles

These past few days, more like these past few weeks have been really hard with my comp. Of course I knew this would happen, but we about killed each other like multiple times. I don’t know what happened, but Satan was totally working on us because we just got so frustrated with each other so many times. I tried to change my thought pattern and everything and tried to not think so much but sometimes I would just be sitting in the lessons watching her teach and then she just turns to me. So I read an article in the Ensign, (but really I did, it's not a joke) ;) about what a testimony really is. But the article really helped me. It basically talked about how a testimony is not an experience and how there is nothing more powerful than a short, concise testimony. Just some food for thought.

We did divisions this week and it was great! I got to get out of my area which was so nice and with Hermana B. I learned the importance of singing the hymns slowly and simply and listening to the people and how it's ok to laugh and not stress out. I mean I knew most of that stuff before, but it’s nice to have a refresher from someone with more time in the mission. I learned that I don’t want to sound like a robot and that I want to improve my prayers and not get repetitive. We laughed our heads off about how fat we're getting. Oh it was so great. Honestly I haven’t laughed so much in such a long time. Divisions are truly inspired.

I can't remember if I've already talked about this, but we're convinced as a companionship that we need a magic carpet to get to Lomas de Buenos Aires, a motorcycle and side car to the estaca, we're going to tame one of the wild horses here that just roam the streets so we can get to El Gonzalo eventually, and an ATV for La Residencia cuz we saw someone with one the other day.  But of course the motorcycle and sidecar wouldn’t be complete without huge black goggles :) Just something to laugh at...two sister missionaries getting around La Ceiba with random forms of transportation ;)

We had a cena Navidena this past Friday and three of our investigators went! The Young Men and Young women did a dance and one of the dances was to a Bruno Mars song. I was so surprised to see them all dancing cuz you never see the kids doing anything here, they just play on their phones or hack grass with machetes or play soccer! They served super good meat and chimole and tortillas and beans of course. And the juice was amazing as always. It was a good activity in general. We four sisters sang “Venid Adoremos” and we were about to do a little “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” dance but we decided not to since we didn’t know the music too well, but it turned out great in the end! A David Archuleta song was played and I totally thought of you mom!

We had a lunch appointment this week with M1. but we stopped by to teach a little something to B. our recent convert. Her mom at the end started to give us food and we were like ok but we have an appointment in 10 minutes! Too bad we were already late. We also told A. that we would go on visits with him at 1 which was in 20 minutes. After we ate, we booked it to our lunch appointment and started eating tajadas and I started to feel sick. Seriously though. So much rice and so many tajadas. Then the worst part was that M1 walked into the house (where we had just left)! She just started laughing and laughing and we were so embarrassed. She was like "these poor sisters are going to explode with food!" So there we are with A. waiting for us to eat, M2 not really knowing what is going on and M1 laughing. One of the most embarrassing times of my life. Of course it was on the mission. I honestly couldn’t eat anymore and my comp left me for dead. I tried to push some food onto her plate so it would look like we ate the same but she just got up from the table. So when I almost got sick I got up and started to rinse off my plate but I had to scrape some food into the bag which was the trash and of course the lady that randomly came to visit from El Gonzalo was watching me....she probably doesn’t ever have any food to eat so I was feeling awkward and horrible and embarrassed.

I bought spinach soup and I can honestly say I am a fan. Come to Honduras and suddenly the nastiest sounding stuff will become like gold when you're used to being fed guineos...which are like unripe bananas that have no taste at all! But how great is it that I like spinach soup!?

We got asked if we've ever cast out demons before...that was weird and uncomfortable. then the guy told us to come to church with him and we were like trying to explain to him for 5 minutes why we can’t go with him to his church and it's just like "who do you think we are? we're missionaries for our church, that's who we are!"

I asked two young boys L. and I. what their dreams are for their lives as we were walking down from Lomas the other night. It was nice. One asked me what my dream was and I said to have a family and be a mom and he was like "Yeah, but with your work..." and I was like well being a mom is work, but then I told him the other options I could have. It was nice :)

For some strange reason, the Relief Society felt the need to tape florescent green Christmas lights around the white board during the lesson on Sunday. For 1 hour I watched constantly changing, florescent lights! You better believe I memorized the pattern of the changes haha it was so crazy.

"Fat" comment count in one day broke a record yesterday I'm pretty sure. 5. Yeah if you want to feel bad about yourself, just come to Honduras. They'll tell you how it really is.

We were walking in the vascula this week when I saw a spoon on the ground. You better believe I went back and picked it up! It’s a metal baby spoon ring and I’m planning on making a spoon ring when I get back :)

We were in the house of the R. family last night and we were looking at their super pretty Christmas tree, when low and behold, there was the thank you card I had written to Hermana R., just siting there in the tree. They didn’t have any other cards on the tree, just that one :) It made me so happy :) then I saw the little card with the quote I had written for C. on her mirror. I thought she had thrown it away but I guess not :) and we gave L. a little purple construction paper heart and she put it on the outside of her cupboard. Little details that I notice mean so much :)

Yesterday as a zone we went and sang two Christmas hymns to the super poor kids that live near the ocean. We were in the zone of the zone leaders and it was so incredible to actually do something you always hear about. We sort of played around on the beach for a bit but then they got all the kids together and had them sit in a big group and the elders and sisters stood on the other side and one of the stake presidency members was talking to the kids and talking to them about Christmas and everything. It was so cute to just look at their faces. Then they asked if we could sing "I am a Child of God" and they asked me to direct:) so there I was directing “Soy un Hijo de Dios” to little Honduran kids on the beach! They all looked so different too, that was the best, one little girl was wearing a dress that had Fruit Loops all over it and other kids had different forms of clothes and some didn’t have shoes. It felt so neat. I thought, "This is what being a missionary in a third world country is all about" then we sang to them and "Santa" who was actually a woman, came and gave them toys. We served them horchata and crackers from an old abandoned boat on the beach. Can you believe that? It was the coolest thing! One of the best memories I have of the mission by far :) It just made me so so happy to be a missionary serving in Honduras and it made me so proud and I felt so lucky. It was such a hard day and I was super depressed and feeling sad and confused as to why I was there serving but then of course the Lord blessed me with an opportunity to look through the window a little clearer and realize my purpose :)

Love you all,

Have a very Merry Christmas :)

Love Hermana Despain