We had to go
on divisions (split up and go with a different missionary), much to our dismay...We were so sad to be separated, me
and my companion! It was awful! I hate divisions, it's like a temporary
divorce. But we survived and celebrated our being together again with
lunch at Burger King :)
But we've still been having a
ton of rain lately so the río has risen and fallen and risen and
fallen. But when we were on divisions towards the beginning of the week,
the river had risen a ton and the Centroamericana was flooded. So there
were a bunch of people in the streets and there were trucks from the
municipalidad (town) handing out "provisiones" and people yelling to "bring the
kids". Then we passed by a house where there was a guy chucking huge
buckets of water out from his solar that had flooded. It was literally
like a pool. It was crazy, it was like a disaster movie. It smelled awful
and I felt so weird walking through everything in my clean clothes and
once again it's like "Hi I'm a missionary, I don't have food but I have
the kind of food that will make it so you never go spiritually hungry!"
You feel sort of helpless in those situations. But just made me more
grateful for what I have.
But
Saturday afternoon we realized there was no water to fill the pila (font) for
the baptisms of the elders! With all the rain and flooding, there was no
water! So we said a prayer and thought of what we could do. We decided
it would be better to wait the next day instead of hauling water from a
place close by...but that night the other elders had their baptism and
they decided to try and haul water so we did! We went to a neighbor
across the street from the church and hauled water from their pila using
the huge jugs they distribute the water in. After about 20 minutes of
hauling water, the water came back and they were able to fill the pila
and have the baptism! I was soaked and my back hurt, but it was cool to
be a part of that miracle :)
But we've still been having a
ton of rain lately so the río has risen and fallen and risen and
fallen. But when we were on divisions towards the beginning of the week,
the river had risen a ton and the Centroamericana was flooded. So there
were a bunch of people in the streets and there were trucks from the
municipalidad (town) handing out "provisiones" and people yelling to "bring the
kids". Then we passed by a house where there was a guy chucking huge
buckets of water out from his solar that had flooded. It was literally
like a pool. It was crazy, it was like a disaster movie. It smelled awful
and I felt so weird walking through everything in my clean clothes and
once again it's like "Hi I'm a missionary, I don't have food but I have
the kind of food that will make it so you never go spiritually hungry!"
You feel sort of helpless in those situations. But just made me more
grateful for what I have.
One night all of our
citas (appointments) were falling through and we were getting pretty discouraged. I
looked around and felt like I caught a glimpse of the infierno (hell).
Darkness, a trash filled river that smells like who knows what, people
shouting, smoke, creepy men walking past, drunks on the other side of
the road, random lights coming from different workshops, and as always,
the garbage fires...it was pretty interesting.
Decided
this week that N___ just needs to be translated. That man is perfect!
Anytime we get discouraged, we look forward to visiting him. He's always
making us laugh and he's always so happy! He's been having some health
problems lately so we've been praying for him, but he's plugging right
along and doing his best :) He's making me a Honduran flag :)
We
did a lot more contacting this week and we ended up finding the soccer
players of Progreso :) They come from all over Honduras to represent
Progreso and they play in the stadium in the area of the elders on the
other side of Centro. It was really cool to talk with them and then hear
the shouts from the stadium that night and to know that they were
playing.
We taught the gospel principles class
yesterday and we taught about work and personal responsibility. We
focused a lot on finding a balance between work and family and giving
appropriate time to family. We used a few Mormon Messages and they split
into groups and we put little questions on backs of chairs like in
primary and everything :) It was a really great class!
The
stake here had a great Relief Society activity on Saturday and we went
for like an hour or so before a baptism of the elders. It was a great
success! Each ward brought the crafts or manualidades that they had done
throughout the year. They also shared food. So that of course made it
more of like a downtown market place to be honest. I don't know why, but
they decided to have a guy come talk in a microphone the whole time
saying a bunch of tonterías (silly things). It was honestly just more useless noise but
everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. I swear women go nuts
when there's food and music and a ton of people. It's like some inner
thing that comes out and they get into this weird like "girls catching a
bouquet" thing. So there were lines and lines for the food and we were
having to like squeeze ourselves through the crowds to get to other
places. It was fun though and the crafts were really neat! Some of the
foods were "arroz con leche", "pan de pan" and some little pastelito
thing.
I've been helping my companion with her
English lately. We had to learn the hard lesson this week that in order
to understand and learn another language, you have to understand your
own...So it's like teaching the gospel, you can't teach about something
that you don't know for yourself. We established what an adverb really
is. I think from that point my comp got a little frustrated and suddenly
was correcting my Spanish the rest of the day. Little frustrating but
you just roll with it and take the corrections. Learning a different
language is humbling and I think that's the hard lesson that Latinos
learn because they hate to be wrong and don't like to be laughed at. No
one does, but especially them. So that's usually the biggest challenge I
feel like, is helping them get over that fear. Then they realize that
us Nortes deal with feeling inadequate with the language 24/7, not just 1
hour a day, and that it always requires practice, and that yeah, maybe
people are going to laugh at you...but it's part of learning, and it's
hard and it's humbling.
You know you're a
missionary serving in a third world country when you ask a member to
come with you to a cita (appointment), but they cant because they have to go kill a
gallo (chicken). That was pretty nasty. To see the member leave with the poor
animal and come back with a huge bowl of who knows what...but we were
able to have a lesson with a member! :) She ended up making a soup
later.
During my personal study this morning I
was reading in Alma but then I got distracted by the Bible Dictionary
and got so interested in it! It was so cool! Seeing that "mammon"
basically means "riches". So in the scripture we read that we can't serve
God and mammon o sea que we can't serve God and have part of our heart
in riches, or things that won't last. But the definition for locusts made
me laugh..."having the taste of shrimp". But really though, the Bible
Dictionary is really neat and helps uno a entender todo mejor. (one understand everything better)
But
Saturday afternoon we realized there was no water to fill the pila (font) for
the baptisms of the elders! With all the rain and flooding, there was no
water! So we said a prayer and thought of what we could do. We decided
it would be better to wait the next day instead of hauling water from a
place close by...but that night the other elders had their baptism and
they decided to try and haul water so we did! We went to a neighbor
across the street from the church and hauled water from their pila using
the huge jugs they distribute the water in. After about 20 minutes of
hauling water, the water came back and they were able to fill the pila
and have the baptism! I was soaked and my back hurt, but it was cool to
be a part of that miracle :)
Hope everyone
has a great week! We find out today who has changes! I'll be sure to
take a ton of pictures :) Even N___ is praying that I don't have changes!
I wish you guys could see how me and my comp are. We have a lot of fun
together and we get along and work so well together. We treat each other
really well and are always helping each other out. It's really great.
But who knows if we'll be split up :( I'll do what the Lord needs me to
do...Love you guys!
Love,
Hermana Despain
