Post Christmas Blues

Things this week were pretty good, and mildly depressing.

Christmas was good, except for the fact that I never got to talk (to my family) on Christmas.  (Problems getting a good internet connection.)  I definitely felt better after talking (to my family) on the 26th.

This week was hard in general because we decided to leave some investigators for a time because they aren´t progressing.  The problem is that we don´t have that many in general, and we can now visit all our investigators in one day.

Although this has its advantages on Saturday when we invite people to church, it is sad.

With our remaining investigators we are working to do Noches de Hogar (family home evenings), to help them know the members and feel more comfortable coming to church.  It was interesting to see our weekly datos yesterday and be able to see a correlation between number of member lessons and progressing investigatores.  It really hit home to me how important the members (you guys) really are.  If someone has no one but the missionaries, their only impression is us.  They see us as predicadores (preachers), and it's difficult to understand what church is really like.

We also had a plan to help change how we work with the members in the ward, which was scrapped yesterday after talking with some members of the presidencies.  So last night we did an emergency missionaries of Tatumbla meeting to talk about a new plan.  We finally decided on a 40 day fast (again) with individual members rather than families.  This time we will just make sure it is widely published and announced.

Other than the sad parts of this week, I am really good.  I am looking forward to the new year, knowing that as long as I have a better attitude, it will be a better year.

This morning I had a beautiful confirmation while on the bus to Teguc that the sacrament really can wipe away our sins and mistakes.  Right here at the new year that was especially comforting.  It means that I can look at the past, see mistakes, and now I can fix them.

I know that you guys can too.

Elder Henrie

The pinata from the ward party.

Skyping for Christmas

I asked Graig what his favorite part of Christmas in Honduras was and he said, "Going Christmas caroling with the Hermanas".

First [Baptism] Dates for this area

The biggest news is that this week we got our first fechas (dates) in this area.  That means we committed someone to be baptized and we are preparing them for a specific date.  After many weeks without, it was good to call in our weekly datos (data) last night.  Our District Leader, who knows how hard we have been working, was proportionally excited.  So the first week of January, we will hopefully have our first family and baptisms!

In general, it is interesting to be near Tegucigalpa for Christmas. Some parts are very Americanized, and we see a lot of Christmas trees and Lights.

We are arranging to skype on Christmas Day.  We will probably do it in the capilla (chapel) with the laptops of members, so I can show you the capilla!  We might also do it in our house, but right now the capilla seems the best option.

I learned how to make flour tortillas last night, or at least half...to explain we had a noche de hogar con las Hermanas (family home evening with the sister [missionaries]) and we made Baleadas.  (Note from Mom: I assume there were members or investigators there as well.)  Elder Osmond was free to see how to make the dough, and then I was free to see how to knead the dough and cook it, so collectively we know now how to make flour tortillas.  We will share our knowledge tonight as we attempt to make some.

Q&A with Mom:

Q. I would love to hear your plans for celebrating Christmas and what you are doing with your investigators to teach them about Christmas.

A. Right now, our teaching hasn´t really changed much.  We still teach the same gospel.  We are kind of changing how we contact now.

Q. Any special musical numbers or ward activities?  

A. Our ward is doing a cena navideña (Christmas dinner) that we are inviting investigators to and we do have one number.  I am thinking of translating "Little One".

Q. Have you sung with Elder Osmond yet?  

A. Every lesson :)

P.S. Everyone is really jealous of how much Pouch I get.

A picture is worth a 1000 Words...

I guess that is what Graigry was thinking when he sent only pictures this week... no letter.

 me at the top of the Aztez temple

mi with my head en a snake at a old temple (that was created recently as a tourist trap)

The baleadas we made, that were heavenly.  I am learning to cook more and more.

A day late but all is well...

Well, first of all, sorry I didn`t write yesterday.  We went to the Picacho or a really large Statue of Christ, kind of like the one in Brazil, but in Honduras.  I did take lots of pictures, but I forgot my camera.  So...no pictures this week.

We somehow managed to have a perfect plan, eat a great lunch, and arrive late at the house.  So, we didn`t write yesterday.

The biggest news is that we had changes on Friday and I lost my trainer Elder Ortiz.  He went to Dan Lee (fondly called the east by the missionaries) to be a Zone Leader there for his last 4 changes.  I got a new comp here in Tatumbla, another gringo named Elder Osmond from South Jordan.  He is actually related to the Osmond brothers, They are his grandparents.  It is amazing how popular they are here.

We get along really well and we have really similar interests.  We both feel like we can work well together and we have made a lot of great plans for our area.  So far that means that we have been somehow been finding ways not to sleep, though I promise we try.  We always manage to have something happen, from planning a massive activity in our area, to the Hermanas calling us last night at 11:15 to make sure we remembered we promised we would serve with them this morning.

We both have less that 6 months in the mission, with Elder Osmond only having one more change than me.  Luckily we both feel like we have the language pretty good, but we did have to set some ground rules to make sure we both still practice and that English is not our priority.

We plan to have alot of fun together, and we decided that we are actually going to cook (a lot of Elder`s in this mission just have someone cook for them), so I will tell you how that goes next week.  So far we have only made pasta together, though it was fantastic.

To help explain our last days, we spent Thanksgiving in the house of a member, Hermano Wiltrago, who is the son in law of Abuela.  He has 3 kids living in Utah going to school at BYU, so they (he and his wife) are going to Utah on the 12th to visit them and they offered to bring stuff for me and to take stuff back.  I`m thinking of sending my Journals with him, seeing as I have already finished 2.  I am also thinking of sending all the pictures I currently have so that you guys can copy them to the home computer and then return him the memory, so I can use it again.

They will return in about the second week of January, so if you think of anything you want to send with them, its pretty direct, their house is like 2 blocks from ours.

I love you all and I know that every day I feel your faith and your prayers.

Elder Henrie

 mi y mi area

El Paraecho