Who... who needs you? Easy... Everyone!!!

We just spent the day in Tela!!!! It was so so so so pretty and I LOVED being at the beach. I just know I have it in my blood, I felt so at home :) It was like an hour and a half bus ride that only cost like 50 lmps which is like $2.50 and it was so much fun! I love traveling but traveling here is the best. It's basically on the way to Ceiba, so it was nice to be back on that road. We took SO many pictures and videos and just had fun playing in the sand and playing volleyball and breathing in the salty air :) It's neat to think that just over a year ago I was sitting on the beach with my dad talking about what would happen in just a few months...that I would be serving here and talking with and meeting so many different people. I remember him giving me advice and us just sharing that moment together. Everything he said was true and I get where he was coming from. So much has happened in that year but I am so glad to be here. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. And with all this of me completing a year here in Honduras, I finally received my residence! I'm officially a resident of this crazy country I love so much!

The LICHAS are back!!! I was so excited to see them on the way to Tela today! Right as I bit into it, it brought back a flood of memories from Ceiba :) They’re a weird looking fruit but it's so fun to eat and it's so yummy! So thank goodness the mango season has passed, now its aguacate season and the bananas will always be in season ;)

One of our investigators we are thinking about dropping this week didn’t come to church, again, so we asked her why she didn’t go when we went to visit her yesterday. Usually they say they were sick or they slept in or forgot even though we are constantly reminding them...but her response was definitely new for us! "Ay hermanitas, me estaba muriendo!" (Oh Sister!  I was dying!!) So it was hard to keep a straight face. This lady is super tough and in good shape for being 82. But we'll see if she comes this week!

It's looking like we'll be able to have a baptism this Saturday for N___! He is our 75 year old investigator. He is super pilas and is such a blessing for us. Pray for N___!

Everyone here is randomly giving me names....apparently my name is now Christeli and I'm also named Estefany? I'm good with it :) They’re my catrachan names! They’re just investigators and members who are deciding that’s what I'm named...

We have a sweet older couple in our zone, They’re doing a great job I hear! This week we bought so many fruits and veggies! So we are filling up the fridge with papayas and bananas and zanahoria and zucini!!! :) I exercised almost everyday this week and actually did my language study everyday! Lots of improvement and I'm seeing the benefits and blessings! Maybe not every day was perfect but we met all the goals we set! ALL the ones we have control over at least! So that was really fulfilling and we felt so good Sunday night as we finished our week! Great way to start the week too. And Tela was fun to have as a motivator!

So here in the district we recite Doctrine and Covenants 4 and I don’t have it all memorized! Up until this point none of my districts have ever done it, but our DL encouraged us to study it so I did and now I'm memorizing it! I've got almost the first two verses down but I think I should be able to get it down pretty soon! It's super powerful and I really love how it sounds in Spanish. Sometimes I get so tired of Spanish but other times it's cool to notice what I like better about Spanish and how I've ditched some English from my vocabulary and substitute English expressions for Spanish ones! I've also noticed how at the beginning of my mission I couldn’t even handle talking in English for a few hours after getting up...I just didn’t feel like talking much. But I've gotten to the point where now I wake up in the morning and I just start spouting off in Spanish about a crazy dream I had with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, or about one I had a few nights ago where I thought someone was repeatedly stabbing me. Yeah. Not fun. But talk about making some strides...something that has been motivating me to get out the door in the blazing hot afternoon sun? I'm not making a difference or making memories in the house, so I might as well get out there.

Angels exist. We had a neat experience this week. Super dangerous actually. We were on the way to a cita after grabbing some dinner for like the first time in forever when a guy yelled to us from the street...that happens all the time so we just sort of ignored it and kept walking, but he ended up following us. He shouted to us again a few streets later and me and my comp were like "Ah, hermano, andamos de prisa, lo siento, tenemos una cita". (Oh hey, we're in a hurry we have an appointment.) He said he was from Mexico and was doing the same thing we were doing, that he was catholic and all this other stuff so we just sort of went along with it and let him know we needed to go and booked it for the house.Then my comp let me know Sunday night that one of the investigators of the Elders was a security guard that was actually on that same street. He said he saw the guy following us and that he actually left his post to follow us and protect us. He was with his wife when he was telling my comp about this and I was talking with another investigator after the gospel principles class...His wife was like "Honey they don’t walk with anything valuable" but he was like "No, but he could have done something to them". I just wanted to find the security guard and hug him when I heard this! He was protecting us and even left his post to make sure we were safe and that the guy wasn’t bothering us. So yes, angels do exist. And there are charitable people in Honduras.

A lady was trying to get all defensive with us this week and was giving us the classic "but I can't be going from church to church, that would be playing with the things of God..." and I was like "Yeah hermana...but it would be worse to be in a place that didn't have the power and authority of God". Sometimes you just have to give it to them short and sweet.

I left Sunday meetings feeling so good. I can't remember the last time that happened here. Normally we leave frustrated or disappointed that someone didn’t go or someone didn’t show up to teach the class or there was no reverence or some kid was slamming a door fifty times or we left late because an old lady wanted to share her life story, but the meetings were so great, there was a great spirit of unity and love and there were so many investigators between the 6 missionaries! Church is true :)

We were contacting closer to the church and we found a house that sells recuerdos (souvenirs) so we're really excited to go back during the week and buy some things! It's neat because the lady that sells them actually knows about what she sells and tells us the little stories behind each thing. We ended up talking with some friends or relatives they had visiting. One guy started asking me a bunch of questions like how it was that my family could let me leave the country and how "sipota" (childish) I was to be leaving my family. He started bashing on the American culture saying that we don’t really value family as much and I tried with everything I had to understand him and not feel frustrated with him for saying the things he was saying after beasting a year here in this country. I expressed my thoughts to him about how our culture is really great about establishing a sense of independence in young people and how we were called by a prophet because Heavenly Father knows that people here in this country need us and he was like "Who, who needs you?" .....Everyone!!! but I just told him how it was and I was like "creame hermano" (Believe me!!) ....my family loves me. they knew this would be a great thing for my life and that this short time would be something to help me. They love me so much and I know it." I felt so good after finishing talking with them and I tried to leave it on a really good, positive note. It was great to be able to express my feelings and be real with someone and talk about how strongly I value family and how I know that my family loves me.

We had the fumigador come and fumigate the apartment as normal and he had a guy come help him out, so we were chatting with him. He saw the pinwheels I had put up on string. I got them in a package like months and months ago after my sister got married and he asked us "Qué están celebrando?" (What are you celebrating?) and I was like "Uh, vida?" So really, we don’t need an excuse to celebrate something, we don’t need a holiday or a special event to send a nice card to someone or put up some decorations. What do you celebrate? Celebrate life!!!  :)

Con Amor,
Hermana Despain

PS. You better believe I grabbed some Tela sand!! ;)

PPS. Spanish word of the week "Volapie" half running, half swimming, half running.

PPPS. Obedience brings blessings. And makes the future a whole lot brighter :)