Monday, October 14, 2013

Bicycles, Big Spiders, and Rain Storms

Goodbye to Elder Amaya

Elder Amaya left this week, and it was a little sad.  The day he left with Elder Ortiz and Elder Vasquez (one of the Zone Leaders) was also the day of interviews with the president, so our Zone was all gathered together.  

I was on splits with the other zone leader, Elder Sears (de California), after they left, we realized that neither of us had keys for our houses.  So we jumped in the car with Hermana Hernandez (wife of President Hernandez) and drove through a freak flash flood kind of storm. We arrived at the bus stop and invited them to wait in the car for the bus with us.  The bus came, and because no one was out, it began to leave.  Being the closest Elder to the bus, I jumped out and ran to catch it (it being the last bus of the day to Tegucigalpa).  I then helped get Elder Amaya´s stuff on the bus.  I was only outside for about a minute, but I was soaked!  It was quite an adventure.
 President Hernandez and his wife with the bike pinata
The first and last bike I will use on my mission (it was a pinata).

Because our zone had the most baptisms last month we had a little party with the president during interviews. We bought a pinata shaped like a bike because we were told for sure that we can´t use bikes this week. There was a rumor floating around that we could.  Some Elders actually bought bikes, and now have to deal with the bother of selling them.  This is definitely a walking mission.

We have been visiting the pareja (husband) of a member this week.  He is interested, but always seems to not be there when we can teach him.  But she is a great friend of the missionaries and we usually talk with her.  She has been having a really hard time lately, wanting to follow all the commandments, but having a hard time with her pareja (husband).  This week she seemed especially down, and the scriptures and song we shared didn´t seem to do much.  

I was just sitting there, wondering what we could do to lift her, and I had a prompting to give her a blessing.  I remembered somewhere in the white bible that she needed to ask, so I quickly asked my companion.  I then explained a blessing and asked if she wanted one.  Her immediate answer was yes.

Then in a flash back to BYU days, we gave her a blessing, with my companion Elder Ortiz (de Pueblo, Mexico) as the voice.  I admit I don´t remember the words, and I didn´t understand much, but after she was crying tears of happiness.

I testified of the power of the priesthood, and that I knew that Christ had suffered this, and she could use his help. My voice got a little shaky because the spirit was strong.  I don´t know what was said, but I know we helped a child of God.  That was really special.

Other than that, a lot of normal work.

A tarantula that was in our house.  I offered to pick it up and put it outside, but was advised to use the broom.  It was definitely one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen.  I hope Jessica is ok.
Yo con la famila Pavon.  Great family in the ward.
The mark of an Elder here that was "Born in the south"  My iguana belt.
It cost 350 limpiras, or about 17.50, which is good for a belt.  I have been assured it will last longer than a leather belt, but I got it for the novelty, I will wear it to special days and such.  I was told by Elder Ortiz that this color (the deep green) is rare in iguanas.  This is an example of something cool I can buy only here.
The closest thing I could get to a sunset.
Yep, that´s Honduras.  I finally found a good scenery spot.