On Sunday we heard the story update on Adolfo. He´s the guy who sold us the pens and taught us lessons 1, 3 and 4. Remember? He´s mentioned a few blogs back. Anyway, he has absolutely no money to go to church, and he can´t be baptized because he´s married to someone, but his family and wife right now are totally different. Divorce is impossible and super expensive in Honduras, and he has no money. But, that didn´t stop him from going to church on Sunday. He lives very far from any church house. He in fact does not have one in his area. So he got up at 5am and started biking for the church house closest to him. He arrived at church at 10am! Holy cow! So I really pray that he can eventually figure out the baptism thing, because his faith is really inspiring.
On Saturday we baptized Olga. She´s an awesome lady who has been going to church for two years, and hasn´t been able to get baptized because her husband is a drunk who refuses to get married. But he doesn´t really spend time in the house any more and she told us that she is 100% living the law of chastity now, so she qualified. We baptized her and I can already see how she has changed. This Sunday I saw her receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I also had the opportunity to visit with all my other converts. I was surprised to notice that they all in fact looked different. People´s countenances truly do change when the Spirit of God dwells with them. Amazing!
After the baptism of Olga, we got some good news. But let´s back up. Early in the week, an investigator named Joselina told us that she would read and pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true. This isn´t mind-blowing, because a lot of people say this. Honestly, I believed her. Then she said, ´´and tomorrow I´m going to fast as well.´´ Woah. that´s one I´ve never heard. She just decided she really really wants an answer. So, we told her that we´d fast with her, and we did. We followed up with her, and she said she felt good, but she wasn´t quite accepting the baptismal date. So we tried to explain how she was going to recognize the answer. Basically we explained the Spirit. She said she was going to fast again (which in my opinion is too much fasting but I didn´t say anything...). On Saturday she came to the baptism of Olga, and afterwards said that she wanted to talk to us. She wants to be baptized! So we´re going to baptize her the 2nd of June. She´s awesome, and she showed a lot of faith. Honestly, I´ve not seen such faith demonstrated in an investigator to obtain an answer.
Another really great experience yesterday after church. We have a golden investigator who showed up at church two weeks ago. She´s named Saida (sigh da) and she´s the niece of the district president. She´s living with her aunt and uncle (the pres) ´til the end of the year, so we thought she´d be a good person to teach... duh. She´s actually really really receptive! And she understands way fast. We explain stuff to her, and then ask her questions to verify if she understands. She always gets it. Really cool.
So we were trying to commit her to baptism and then realized that we had effective skipped lesson one... Not that you can´t do that. Sometimes you can. But if they still have doubts, actually teaching the first lesson may be helpful... A tip for all you future missionaries out there. We taught lesson one on Sunday.
One of the best lessons that Elder Gomez and I have taught together. The Spirit was super strong. By the time we got to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (which she is already reading) I could just see it in her eyes. She could feel the Spirit. Her aunt was with us in the lesson. To give you some context, this women is a little obnoxious... is that a bad thing to say? Either way, usually she is a pretty boisterous person. Kinda loud. When we were teaching the end, she (the aunt) was in total silence. Afterwards, I realized that she was just crying her eyes out. We were saying goodbye, and all she said to me, in very soft tones was, ´´gracias.´´ It was pretty cool.
Another story. We contacted a guy on Saturday named Angel. Cool name.
He was in his backyard, and couldn´t hear very well. I wasn´t sure if he was all there, but the more we talked to him, the more I could tell that he was complete enough to continue with the lessons. We started talking to him about who we are and our purposes as missionaries. He told us that his wife recently died, so we started with lesson two. Seemed pretty obvious. I don´t remember what caused it, but eventually he started talking about how there are so many different churches in the world, and how they couldn´t all possibly be true. Pull back. Start lesson one: the restoration. Then he made some comment about how he has the bible, and the Book of Mormon. Pull back. Have you talked to missionaries before? I don´t think he remembers it, but he did in fact have a Book of Mormon. He showed it to us... I´m not sure he got it in this century. It was a 1980 print, and looked really cool. The pictures were still in the book with the corresponding stories. How Cool!!!
He´s honestly pretty golden, but the problem is he never leaves his house. Hard to baptize if they never leave. But he´s super funny. We would say something like, "we testify that you can live with you wife again." He´d respond, "Si, bueno, bueno, bueno, bueno... bueno." Haha. You just had to be there. I hate to say it, but he is like a funny character in a movie. I just love him. We´ll keep working with him.
Well, that´s quite enough stories for one blog I´d say. I hope you´re all happy, and hungry to read more. I really do hope people read this thing. Please tell all your friends to read this blog! Haha.
I left out some of the more personal stuff that was actually really hard this week. But I´m growing more here on the mission than any other time in my life. I love it here. I love this mission. I´m so blessed, and I know that these trials are shaping me. The price I´m paying to know God. I feel like I know Him. He is my Father. I know that He loves me. And honestly, this is the first time in my life that I can say that, and really truly mean it. Or at least it means more now than it did before.
I love and miss you all so much. I feel bad on how much you´re all missing. The mission´s the best. All you kids out there who are busy studying, keep it up. It´s hard stuff to go to school. I prefer this. :)
Les quiero,
Elder Kent Thalman
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