Patches of Light and Running with the Cows

If you want to know where Hermana Despain is at, at 6:30 in the morning....she's out running with cows and a little dog :) I went running 5 out of the 6 possible days this week and worked out after each time! I pretty much run back and forth on the roads outside our house because my companion doesn’t run..... I've been feeling great and it helps me have more energy during the day normally. I've loved getting back into running and working out. I feel so much better and it's helped me see why everything is the way it is in the missionaries schedule. But why the cows? One morning a man started turning the corner behind me with a huge heard of cows...they were so pretty! They were all different colors. We give a little service to the lady who owns the apartment we live in by taking her dog out to run in the morning so I'm usually the one pulling the dog along or trying to chill her out because she's straight up spastic, but it seems to be helping everyone! :)

Part of my whole "health surge" that I've had lately is exercising everyday, except Sunday, and I quit drinking soda! Completely! I've felt such a huge difference and I started the first day of September. It's been awkward at times in citas (appointments) or when we have dinner at a members house, (that only happens once a week for us, the Elders have lunch and dinner like everyday) but it's been totally worth it. So I'm calling it "No Fresco Septiembro" ;)

I celebrated 13 months in the mission on Saturday! Crazy how time goes by. At the end of the day I wonder if I'll be able to last another day, then the next minute I just want to put it all in slow motion :)

After we practiced for the special musical number one morning, we were packing things up and saying goodbye when I look out to the foyer (weird to use that word) to see the Elders with a chair against the wall and their foreheads against the same wall, and my first thought was, "what are these Elders up to now..." So then they were all like "Hermana Despain, you try, you try". Apparently you’re supposed to put your forehead on the wall, lift the chair and yourself up without falling....I thought they were just trying to make me look like an idiot....but then I did it! They were all like applauding me and everything it was the funniest thing. So I sent a video of it when I tried again with my companion in the apartment before we left to go work that afternoon :) Apparently the Elders found this book in their apartment of a bunch of like "impossible things" to try. But they said only girls can do the chair lift thing....idk something about center of gravity, but it was fun :)

We had the multi zone conference this week and that went so well. It’s always a big spiritual boost to get together with a bunch of missionaries, reminds you that you’re not alone, just you and your companion. But one part that I loved was when part of our zone sang "Señor Yo Te Seguire". They asked me two days before to play the piano for it so I had to learn the hymn super quick but in the end, everything was FLAWLESS. It was great! The Elders (and my companion) did a great job of singing and the Spirit was so strong. It fit perfectly with the order of the conference. The rest of it was fun as always and I learned a lot about not letting Satan get to us as President talked to us about the temple and how Babylon was overtaken within an hour. Satan doesn’t need much time to do his awful work, so we have to keep an eye on things! We had a little test of seeing if we could write down all the chapter titles of preach my gospel and then all the 42 principles we teach. It was harder than it seemed! They let us know beforehand but when we were handed the sheet I just wanted to ask, "Um...is there a matching part, mejor?" but I did the best I could! It was good to see what I remembered and what I still need to work on. Most of mine was like Spanglish but it was good. We also needed to memorize Mosiah 2:41:

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." 

It was rough and I tried in English cuz i about cried doing it in Spanish.  But it’s a great scripture. President also pulled me aside and checked on me to make sure I was doing all right and that really was so special. We didn’t say much but he said just what I needed to hear and it reminded me that he really is the father of 250 missionaries. It's incredible what he does for so many. He handed me a package of Pop tarts as we were leaving :) So precious.

We were running some errands here in C_____ this morning when we went into a thrift shop and I found some Juicy perfume that I used the summer before I left on the mission and I bought it for like 40 lmps! It was such a fun thing to find and brought back a little bit of home :)

I would not suggest swallowing a bug. I've done it like twice on the mission and it's actually really painful. Especially mosquitos. Those hurt.

Today for our pday, a few of us decorated Easter eggs with the dye kit my mom sent me back in March!!! So that was a ton of fun to do something different for a pday. I just didn’t like having to pick feathers off of the eggs we bought in C____...jajaja. But the Elders really got into the dying and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Then we all went to go eat at Pizza Hut so that was fun to play Uno while we waited for our pizza, then we all shared an ice cream!

After the multizone conference I was super determined to work so we went back to the apartment to drop stuff off and normally we would sort of take a bit getting things together but I made sure we were back out in like less than 5 minutes. It was great and the weather was great too :) So we were trying to find people to teach, trying to look for investigators and not having much luck when I looked at the mountains. It was a really cloudy day because it had thundered and rained a ton during the conference, but the mountains were pretty clear. All the sudden there was this little patch of sunlight on my patchwork mountains :) I call them patchwork mountains because they have little patches of different colors because they’re planting different things in different parts and it’s so gorgeous, with all the browns and greens and reds. But that little patch of sunlight, it was just breathtaking :) In all the shadowy, dark mountains, there was a little patch of sunlight that was just so bright and happy :)

As for a N___ update, he blessed the sacrament on Sunday! It was so beautiful to tell you guys the truth, to hear it in from an old man with his gentle little voice...he was practicing so hard so he wouldn’t mess up. It was the sweetest thing! He surprised us though, he had told us earlier that week that he would rather receive the sacrament than bless it or pass it, but then there he was in front, blessing the sacrament! He only stuttered a bit but he did such a great job. Then he surprised us again by bearing his testimony during the testimony meeting?! I had turned to my companion to ask her something or tell her something when all the sudden, there he was bearing his testimony! Sometimes converts tend to have pretty different testimonies because the language we use in the Mormon culture is a bit different, but his testimony was so sincere and just beautiful. He said something that really stood out to me, he said "Ha hallado todo lo que buscaba". That just made me feel so good, that he has found what he was looking for and that he feels good in the barrio :) He's made his other transportation payment to go to the temple the 11th of October :) One day we brought cookies to eat with him and he bought fresco. He is just the sweetest man. The other day he took us out to his little garden of a backyard and cut us a coco so we could have agua de coco :) I love it. Just another day in the mission field, drinking agua de coco with your recent convert like it’s totally normal :) That’s just what you get when you serve in Honduras. It’s the best.

Sometimes Heavenly Father blesses us with alleys. Most of the time we associate alleys with bad things and danger, but I learned this week that they can be a real blessing. We were in the sketchiest part of our areas, La C_________ at like 4 in the afternoon, when we realized that at one end of the street were a bunch of jovenes smoking marijuana, yelling things at me, then at the other end were a bunch of men smoking marijuana and drinking and watching us, so my comp was super good about protecting me and was like "not so fast Christeli (one of my nicknames)" and we ended up taking an alley out of the area. I've had some companions that have been really great with watching out for me and protecting me. In S___ R___, the other hermanas were always really good about protecting me and putting me in the middle when we would walk together and in parts that were a little more dangerous. Like a little baby elephant being protected by the mommy elephants :)

I watched the video about The Atonement and Missionary Work today and it brought back memories of when my parents showed it to all us kids one time. I just love that video. Love when Elder Holland says about missionaries: "They have every reason to stand tall". Sometimes it’s easy to look down at the dusty, rocky road because the sun in right in your eyes or you’re just tired from hearing your own steps or seeing the same palm tree, but it’s true! We have every reason to stand tall. Jesus Christ knows every bit of sadness, sickness, guilt and suffering we have experienced, are experiencing and will experience in our lives. It’s true that we just don’t  know how it could be possible, but it was possible through him. That’s the incredible thing. And like he says, when we have the tendency to ask why the work isn’t easier, why it has to be so hard, we have to remember that someone a lot greater and a lot better asked the same thing, a long time ago...So we're never alone. Repentance is hard but its worth it.

I hope you all have a great week and that you all work hard at what you’re doing and that you notice the little patches of light on your cloudy mountains :)

Love,
Hermana Despain