The Spirit has Called Him to Another Place

So... I got tranfered.  But honestly, the worst part is that they closed my area.  Bishop Funes and the Stake Pres called my mission pres to ask him not to do it, but we simply don´t have enough missionaries to keep it open.  Nuevo San Juan will still be made a branch, and i know the Lord will watch over His flocks over there.


Now for the good part.  My new area is La Florida (Flor EE da) in Copan.  If you know anything about Copan, that´s where all the cool ruins in Honduras are.  We are really close to all of them, and for pday, we will visit them all before we go.  I´m so excited!!!  My dad will be jealous. ;)


We´re up high in the mountains and it is really cool.  We also have air conditioning in the room where we sleep.  I´m blown away.  I feel like I live in another country.  My last area was so small.  like walk all the way around it in 30min small.  Here, you can´t drive from one end to the other in less than 3 or 4 hours.  Crazy.  Our branch pres lives 2 hours away walking.  He lives in the mountains where it´s impossible to drive.  We´re going to his house next Sat.  with the climate in this area, my skin is feeling a lot better, and the problem should go away now permanantly in just a few more days.  Hurray!


We have a church house in this area!  Who´d have thought I´d be so excited.  haha.  The branch is pretty small, and like always, a lot of less actives, but I love it.  The members are really excited to work with us.  They all like me and my companion.  We´re teaching a bunch of people, and this area is really stellar.  We had 13 investigators in church....  yeah.  that´s a great change from the max of 4 in my last area. 


My companion is Elder Anderson, from Idaho.  He´s a real nerd, and we get along great!  He only has a little more than 2 months more than me which I like.  The younger missionaries always work harder I find. 


My zone leader is... my DAD!!!  haha.  Elder Polendo, who trained me is already a zone leader, and he only has 10 months in the mish.  We all keep telling him he´s gonna be Assistant.  He doesn´t want to be.  He´s an awesome missionary, and I´m so glad I´ll get to work with him a little bit once again.  I´ve really missed him.


Story time.


We´re preparing a woman and her four grandsons for baptism.  Norma is the most well prepared investigator we have ever found in our lives.  she has such a powerful testimony and read the BOM like crazy.  We went to teach her the word of wisdom a few nights ago. Knowing the people here, we thought for sure she´d have a coffee problem.  Turns out, we explained a little to her about the word of wisdom, and she cut us off before we could explain anything.


"In this house we don´t drink alcohol, and there´s no tobacco.  Never.  And we don´t like any other drugs.  Tea and Coffee are bad too, and we don´t drink those anymore!"


"umm.... where did you learn that?"


She explained that she didn´t learn it in church. she just always knew it was bad and that she shouldn´t have been doing it.  We asked her how long it had been since she drank coffee.  she said she always knew it was bad, but knowing that she was preparing to be baptized, she quit.  she´s not had any for over a week now!  How nuts!  She taught HERSELF the word of wisdom and started living it before we said anything!  haha.  The Lord really does prepare these people.


Something else to give you a culture idea.  After that appointment, we left her house to visit a young 17 year old kid who wants to be baptized named Manuel.  Norma´s house is huge.  Nicer than a lot of houses I´ve seen in the states.  Manuel lives in a mud shack smaller than my room.  He said he didn´t feel comfortable going to church because he doesn´t have shoes...


The Lord´s children are one.  He can touch the hearts of the rich and the poor.  The bond and the free.  This is not an American church, nor is it for the rich.  I know that God loves each and every one of His children.  I´ve seen him touch the hearts of so many different people and different sides of the world... but it´s the same message.  It´s true.


I love and miss you all, and will try and find a way to send mail to the states so that it doesn´t get lost.  Please forgive me if you haven´t gotten letters from me.  Chances are, I´ve written you.  Continue in patience.  I´m so grateful and humbled by those who have written me with no reply at all.  thank you so much!


Mitra, and John Ross.  I still need your addresses if you read this.  Thanks.


Love,


Elder Kent Thalman

Open Houses and Open Hearts

So, I did not write a single soul last week.  I am sorry.


First, I will explain the Open Houses.  We started doing a little activity to try and excite people to go to church on Sunday.  Saturday at night we discovered nobody does anything, so we started showing cool church videos in the little house we call church.  The whole idea was to send less actives and investigators to bed Saturday night thinking about church Sunday morning.


Last Saturday we had our first try.  We basically spent the whole day just inviting tons of people.  Then, it started to rain... okay, people here really don´t go places if it´s raining.  Then, while praying that it would all just work out and stop raining... the power goes out in the whole are near the church!  No!!!!!!  Also, no power in our house.  So, you can´t really use a tv without power.  At the point of giving up, Hermano Tony calls us and says we´re gonna do it anyway.  In the end, we just did it in the house of a member that had a tv and power.  It was really great, and all the people at the activity came to church the next day!  We haven´t been able to get more than 30 people to church for the whole transfer.  Last week we couldn´t fit into the little house!!!  It was awesome!  46 people!!!!!  Who´da thought 46 was so many.  I was worried that it was a one time thing.


We did the activity again this Saturday with many more people, including several investigators.  Yesterday we had.... wait for it...
47!  haha.  I was stoked. 
Our little 16 year old Melissa came, and is totally ready for baptism this Saturday.  She´s awesome, and is already going to seminary and making friends.  she´ll be a great member.  We´re also working with our ward missionaries that we didn´t know we had.  We found out last week that Joselyn is a ward missionary, so we started bringing her to lessons.  She was really excited, and I can see how she is helping our investigators.  But more than that, she is more solid coming to church herself, and is activating other less actives.


In the end, we only have had one baptism in the last 12 weeks.  I´m really not used to that.  But we just got approval to be made a branch!!!  And they´re searching for a lot to put a building in the colony of Nuevo San Juan!  It´s gonna be awesome, and I know that a building will increase activity, organization, and baptisms.  It will also be great to have priesthood leadership in the area.  I´m so excited for the growth we´re seeing in this area.


Open Hearts.  We found a family last week that is pure gold.  We contacted the husband and then started teaching the wife.  They accepted to be married and baptized in the very first visit.  We haven´t been able to teach them in their home since, but the husband and daughter came  to the last activity Saturday and church yesterday.  Some people are just prepared.  I can´t wait to see what happens with this family.  His name is Alfredo.


I already told you about Melissa.  We also found a guy named Cesar.  Super cool!  His wife and him are planning on getting married.  She´s not all that interested, but he has spoken with missionaries before.  He said he almost became a member last time.  "What stopped you?"  He replied, "they took the missionaries out of the area, changed the building, and I started working Sundays.  But now my wife and I are thinking about getting married, and I don´t work Sundays as of last week."


"perfect.  So, we meet in a house in the 2nd level near so and so.  Do you want to get baptized this time?" 


"Oh, absolutely!"


Haha.  I love this guy.  We don´t know why he didn´t come to church Sunday, but I´m sure he´ll start progressing.  He´s been prepared, I think we´ll just have to fellowship a little bit.


I keep saying this to my comp.  I don´t want a change!!!  This area is honestly killing me.  I have had all sorts of problems with the sun killing my skin and getting sick before (I´m totally fine now, so please don´t freak out), but I love this area.  There are a lot of people that are so close to baptism and others that just started but are golden.  I really love the members here too.  Even investigators that don´t want to progress.  Sometimes we eat with people who don´t even want to listen to us, but love us and give us food.  Usually they are family of members, and really funny.  I love them all, even though it pains me to not see them progress.  I´ll let you all know next week about transfers.


I love and miss you all!


Quick shout out.  Mitra, Ariel Stewart, Amanda Mo, John Ross, Kyle Reis... and any other friends enrolled in college.  I have no idea where to send letters.  Please post your addresses as comments on this blog post and my mom will email them to me.  Thanks!!!


I have sent other letters to family and friends regularly, but no one has reported any reception.  I get all the letters you all send to me in dearelder and snail mail.  I think.  I apologize for third world mail.


Elder Kent Thalman

Don´t Freak Out. I´m Alive and Baptizing.

That´s right... we had a baptism finally!!!  That´s the first baptism in this area for seven months!  There hasn´t been one since January.  So we´re happy about that, and we are going to have more coming up soon.  One got baptized once and never got confirmed... and there is no record of her baptism, so we have to do it again.  haha.  How weird.  So that´s that, and we will baptize her without complaining. 


This week has been great, and I´ve been totally healthy!  However, one of the brethren in our ward hasn´t been so healthy.  He´s getting a tumor removed, so please pray for him.  His name is Antonio, and he is the most interesting person I have ever met.  When I met him the first time, I was shocked at how well he understood all the doctrine considering he is a convert.  He´s really quite old, and can´t even walk to church.  He was attacked by three men with machettes several years ago, and was hit three times in the neck, so his voice is really soft and a little raspy.  But also epic.


So we were talking to the Bishop about him, and he asked us if we knew his conversion story.  I thought I did, but I´m glad the Bishop told us anyway, cuz it turns out I didn´t.


When he was a lot younger, he worked in a factory, and Nuevo San Juan didn´t even exist yet.  There were no members in that area at all.  One day on the floor at work he found two pages of an unidentified book.  One was the testimony of three witnesses, and the other, a random page that had the words 2 Nefi on top.  He read them and immediately recognized that they were from God.  He tried, but had no way of finding out where the book was, or anything about it.  But somewhere in the pages he saw the word, "Mormon" and it stayed in the back of his mind.


Several years later, he returned home and greeted his wife.  She informed him that two younge men had just come by on bikes with some messages.  They were called Mormons.  He asked her which way they went and then bolted after them on his own bike.  He finally found them and yelled after them.  They stopped and he got to talking with them.  He showed them the two pages and asked if they could identify them.  They showed him The Book of Mormon and where the pages fit in.  They gave him a copy, and as he held that book in his hands for the first time, he stood there a wept.


Later, he was baptized and worked with the missionaries to try and establish the church in the area.  He worked with them all the time, and came under heavy criticism by his former religious friends.  He´s still a very active member (for his weak cercumstances) and his testimony is super powerful.  My comp and I went to visit him before his surgery to comfort him.  We just spent 30min listening to him share his testimonies of simple clear truths.  But the powerful spirit behind his words just left me and my companion in a dumb awe.


I love Antonio, and I am talking to the bishop about recording him sharring his conversion story and testimony on tape and video.  We want the church to publish it, because we know that it would be a powerful missionary tool all over the world.  I´ll let you know how that all goes soon.


This mission is amazing.  If I came here just to get to know that man and share his story, then so be it.  That´s why I´m here.  I hope his story will carry on, changing hearts as an eternal legacy of the Gospel truths that this man represents.  He never served a mission becuase he never had a chance, but how great was his mission.  God truly will let that man´s life stand to confound the false doctrines of the world and bear shinning testimony of the truest book on earth!


I love and miss you all, and hope that you will read that book!  How rare a possession it is! There should not a single day pass by without spending time within its pages.  I bear my own testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


Love,


Elder Kent Thalman