Oh; What Joy

So I am just beside myself with glee right now. I can´t even keep it in.

First, right now I just got pics from my sister Raeanne with her fiancee. So wonderful. I´m way excited.

More than that, let me tell you about the week. Monday was Pday, and we went to Trujillo. There is a beach there, and we went. You all know that missionaries can´t swim... don´t worry, we didn´t. We ate at a restaurant on the coast and just chilled as a zone. I´d had kinda been too wound up, so that was super nice. I actually can´t tell you how powerful that recharge was.

Elder Polendo (my comp) and I have been getting along super duper this week, and I feel like he´s becoming one of my best friends. We got WORK DONE. It was nuts. We got stuck in Trujillo late, and missed our appts. that night. Kind of a bummer. And then we were late getting in on Tues. We worked hard and made up for lost time. Wed we couldn´t work the morning bc of District meeting. We still worked hard and met all of our goal that day (more or less).

Thurs is weekly planning, so we couldn´t work the morning again. We honestly lost a ton of time this week. Some of it was normal, but a lot of it was just weird.

But Friday we smoked it. We really had great stats that day. Saturday too, dispite the complications. By Sat, it was obvious that we were going to meet every single goal for the week, and we were super happy. The biggest worry was if we would have investigators at church the next day. If they don´t come to church, they´re not progressing. To put things simply, we haven´t had any progressing investigators officially on the mission yet (he has obviously, but I haven´t). You can guess what we fasted for.

Sunday, we went for investigators. We already knew that Fam Wilson (Vallecillo) was going to make it. He went with them to find a dress for a recently activated sister. She wants her two sons to be baptized! Score.

I went with a brother from the ward. The first investigator didn´t show... her boyfriend answered the door... great....Then we went to the Banegas´ house. They are a bunch of Women who live together (a mom and her grown up daughters). Two of them finally came with three kids (two of which are baptism age) after we waited forever for them. We ended up missing the first 40min of Sacrament meeting. Haha. But is was worth it bc we had a total of 8 investigators in Sacrament meeting yesterday!!! It was so great.

And there were 145 total people in church. Our goal was 130 and the average is 120. Probably a Semana Santa thing (Easter), but it was a great testimony meeting. Familia Wilson is set for baptism this Sat. They are still great. They are accepting everything we throw at them, and Hrm. Wilson is answering questions in church like he´s already a member. His 8 year old daughter even said the prayer in primary and she already has a bunch of friends. They´re too perfect to be true. I described them to Elder Savage, and afterwards he told me, ´´yeah, they´re probably selling drugs.´´ Haha.

On Saturday night we celebrated a bit early and bought baleadas in the Centre. They were the best I´ve ever had in Honduras. So good. After counting the numbers on Sunday, we broke every single goal for the week! We were so giddy. After closing the longest fast I´ve ever done (or least what felt like it), I fell on the couch and couldn´t stop smiling. It was the best week of my life I think. I finally can say that I am truly enjoying the mission. It was always a Spiritual experience, but the field is hard. This week has made up for all of it. People who say that the MTC is the refiner´s fire haven´t been to The Honduras, San Pedro Sula mission. haha.

Yesterday we visited a family we found this week. Familia Posa Martinez. After talking for a bit, the Dad said, ´´yeah, I´ve been to church before. I was baptized at 12 or something like that.´´ We were pretty confused, and had to clarify it yesterday. He is infact a member. His four or five sons and one daughter have never been to church. He went inactive what seems to be two years after baptism when he was about 14 because of his parents. He is not married officially to his wife. We talked to him, and he was super receptive. I told him super straight forward, ´´we´re here to help you come back to church and unite your family. Is that something you want?´´ He responded surprisingly in the affirmative, and said, ´´yeah, I feel like I´ve spent enough time away.´´

His family was dressed surprisingly nice when we got there, and it turns out that they were ready for church, but were going to be late, and didn´t want to show up late. I was surprised, but very pleased. We can help this family. They have DESIRE. We are going to help them get married and then baptize the wife and 2 or 3 of the sons. Then get them the priesthood. I haven´t been able to stop thinking about this family for most of the morning. I´m very excited.

March, we had zero baptisms. April, It looks as if there will be about five. I think that May will have eight or more. I really do.

I´m afraid of what I will do when Eld. Polendo leaves (probably in two weeks). I hope my next companion will work, because this place is ready for the sickle. To give you an idea, this area was closed for a while. Then there were no baptisms for six months. My comp. had about 7 or so when I got here, and that was after 4.5 months. We´re going to have 5 together it looks like, and then it will only go up from there. I hope I´m not killing you all with the numbers. We´re excited, and trust me, we´re not just crunching numbers.

These are outward indicators of success, and we LOVE these people. I have never loved so many people so much before. It was hard at first becuase the culture here is so laid back. But Elder Polendo is teaching me how to work with them effectively. I love my companion. I love these people. I love these FAMILIES. and I LOVE my Savior Jesus Christ. It feels great knowing that we are helping Him place these families on the path to eternity. I can see these people changing this nation. I can see their daughters marrying in the temple. I can see their sons serving missions. I can see our reunions in the next life and the joy we will have together. One more full week ahead. Let´s work. ¡Les Amo! Elder Kent Thalman