I will be serving a two year mission for the Lord and His children in the Honduras, San Pedro Sula Mission. My purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Jesus Christ. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Vinimos Juntos, y saldramos Juntos
So... I getting transferred. No!!!! Goodbye Olanchito... I have no idea where I´m going or who will be my companion. I am really going to miss this area. Olanchito is awesome. And, according to pattern, once I really start to become friends with my companion, I get changed. I learned a ton from Elder Gomez, and he´ll always be my great friend.
Well, this Friday we married the family Bienvenida Acosta. Saturday they were baptized, and Sunday they were confirmed. They almost weren´t confirmed because of how late they came to church... They live like 3-4 miles walking from the church and she is due for surgery in a few weeks. Incredible, the faith of this family.
This whole week we´ve been finding really good new families. I swear, there are going to be like 30 baptisms here next change and I won´t be here. Haha. Honestly, it doesn´t matter to me. I really hope that there is a lot of success after I leave. I know that I helped prepare a lot of these people for baptism, even if I can´t see them enter the waters thereof. What an incredible first 12 weeks. Speaking of which, I´m officially not a greenie! Haha.
So Cristi gave me the most offensive compliment I´ve ever received. "Se ve usted un poco más gordito." Thanks Cristi... So I think that due to the fact that she is my cook, this is a compliment, but I need to loose weight. I´m definitely gaining weight lately. My next area is going to be a cruel answer to my prayers. God´s gonna send me to a wasteland with a cook who gives me meager servings of rice and sardines. Haha. I love Honduras. I´m going to miss Cristi I´m sure!
Otherwise, things are normal. We just got 5 ward missionaries (I guess they are more like branch missionaries). A super huge help to the work here... and now I´m leaving. But this will really help, I´m sure. Elder Gomez will keep things rolling here. Olanchito won´t be known as an area where there aren´t baptisms anymore! There´s a reputation now, and I know that Elder Gomez will continue the legacy. :P
I love and miss you all. Please keep me in your prayers. Thank you for the ones you´ve already offered in my behalf. I feel them, and know that God is directing this work. Jesus Christ is leading this church, and no one can stop this work from progressing. There are literally miracles everywhere. I´ve seen the power of God work mighty changes in the hearts of men whom never have looked to anyone for help before. We asked a young family to start praying together before anything. They couldn´t be baptized because they weren´t married. They wouldn´t get married because they were fighting too much.
In one of week praying together, they told us that they had completely stopped fighting. We could literally see how God totally changed this family. Now they´re preparing for marriage and baptism. Amazing.
I know my Father in Heaven lives and loves. He loves me. He loves you. More than either of us even can understand. It´s my goal to live worthy to feel this love that He has for me more and more every day. Feeling this love more in my life has been the greatest blessing I have ever experienced. All those who live His gospel will also feel this joy. It´s a promise and an invitation.
Les Quiero mucho!
Elder Kent Thalman
Thursday, May 24, 2012
A Compiled History of The Week of Elder Thalman
So this week was... intense. That´s really the best words I can find for it. And there were lots of cool things that happened, so read on!
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
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
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Small Miracles
So this week was nuts. So much happened, and I can understand why the prophets of the Book of Mormon said they couldn´t write a hundreth part. I really don´t know what to include.
I´ll start with the first crazy, random miracle. I think it was Tuesday, Elder Gomez and I are walking down the street, and we hear a voice shout from behind us, ´´Elderes de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias!´´ We turned to see who it was, and neither of us recognized him. He started just talking to us like we were best pals. I interjected as nicely as I could, ´´perdon, pero no creo que le hemos conocido.´´ ´´Sorry, but I don´t think we´ve met you.´´ ´´really, I´m Adolfo...bla bla´´
He proceeded to give us a run down of the Book of Mormon, the Restauración through Joe Smith, etc. Then we eventually found out that he wasn´t a member. At this point, I was just thinking... ´´what the?´´ By the time he started explaing tithing to us, I was figuring he had talked to the missionaries before... He had. Once.
As it turns out, he lives in Jocón, where there are no missionaries. There is no ward either. Previously, some time, somewhere, missionaries gave him a stack of all (and it would seem to have been ALL) of the missionary panflets. He seemed to understand the doctrine great. I have to admit, I didn´t think that he was that golden at first because I figured that someone who knew that much and wasn´t already baptized just thought that the church was interesting, and didn´t actually want to change.
But... then he went into a whole story of this fight he had with his pastor, about how he started defending the church and pretty much bearing his testimony. CRAZY!!! Why wasn´t this guy baptized. That question isn´t as hard to answer as the other one I have. Why were my companion and I the ones blessed to find him? He found us in the street pretty far from his home. That´s a miracle. I don´t care who you are.
So by this time, HE gave us lessons 1, 3, and parts of four, shared a spiritual experience, and in a round about way, born his testimony. The kicker at the end was that afterwards, HE asked us for our info so he could come to church on Sunday. We gave him the info for the Elders in Bellavista (cuz they are closer to him) and we took his info as well. AMAZING!
More amazing was that he called us the next day, and the elders from Bellavista. Elder Dever just told me that he came to church yesterday with his whole family. He paid for a taxi... with the last money had. Turns out he has no job, but he´s trying to get one. He makes cool little pens and sells them for a little more than a dollar (I bought one). His plan was to sell pens at church to pay the way home, but the elders had to explain how he couldn´t do that. Haha! I love this guy. He´s incredible. So he wants to be baptized, and they are working out a way to teach him somehow. I think for a while they were trying to explain the lessons through the phone... haha.
Next story. Luckily, this guy lives in OUR boundries. :)
My comp and I were contacting doors. We hardly never do that because lately we´ve been blessed to have enough investigators to fill our day. But as it turns out, God had someone prepared for us and used this tiny window to lead us to him. Probably the third house we contacted was Pedro. (So much for the one in a thousand statistic.) We sat down, and the Spirit just got really bold. He seemed really receptive. We started off by just trying to break up the ice a bit, and finally he started to ask questions (which is what we wanted). He had a little bit about Joseph Smith. We explained it as fast as possible. ´´Oh, okay. They always told me he was your God, but I guess that´s not true.´´ Well that went well. So then we just started going through a quick lesson three. ´´Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?´´ ´´Claro que si.´´ ´´Well, then you need to repent of your sins and be baptized.´´ That is a condenced version of what took about 20 minutes from the contact to the closing prayer. ´´We always offer the invitation to come to church on Sundays.´´
That´s the hardest part. Getting them to church. We set a date for baptism right then and there, and he said he would come to church. CRAZY! His date is the 19th.
So we were fasting and working hard Sunday morning to try and get people to church. When we finally got Josue to church (which was way too much work, but now we can baptize the kid this week, haha) we started looking to see which investigators were there. We had a great turn out!
I was feeling great, thinking about those who were there. Naturally I started thinking about the ones not there. Pedro wasn´t there. I started praying hard. ´´Father, just give him the desire to come and to be able to get here.´´ Five minutes later, Pedro walked in. We´re definitely going to baptize this guy.
I just want people to realize at this point in this update, you (like Aaron) might be thinking, ´´Wow, you really must think you´re one stellar missionary.´´ And while I risk the appearance of arogance by adopting the response of Ammon, I honestly am sharing these experiences to glorify God. His hand is literally in everything! We´ve seen it every day this week. Miracles are following us around everywhere!!!
I really couldn´t be happier. Things are great. This church is true. These weren´t even the most spiritual experiences I had this week, but the others are too personal. In that vein however, I simply want to testify that God is our loving Heavenly Father. He´s my Father. He loves every one of us. I know He loves me and that I am His Son. Possibly, for the first time in my life I can truly say that without a single doubt in my mind. I love Him, and I love this life that He has given me. It´s really hard. But He gives me peace, and all that I need to be happy.
I love you all, and pray for you all, all the time. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the letters, support, and most of all the prayers. I can feel them. Know that God is answering them. Thank you.
Les amo muchisimo!
Elder Kent Thalman
I´ll start with the first crazy, random miracle. I think it was Tuesday, Elder Gomez and I are walking down the street, and we hear a voice shout from behind us, ´´Elderes de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias!´´ We turned to see who it was, and neither of us recognized him. He started just talking to us like we were best pals. I interjected as nicely as I could, ´´perdon, pero no creo que le hemos conocido.´´ ´´Sorry, but I don´t think we´ve met you.´´ ´´really, I´m Adolfo...bla bla´´
He proceeded to give us a run down of the Book of Mormon, the Restauración through Joe Smith, etc. Then we eventually found out that he wasn´t a member. At this point, I was just thinking... ´´what the?´´ By the time he started explaing tithing to us, I was figuring he had talked to the missionaries before... He had. Once.
As it turns out, he lives in Jocón, where there are no missionaries. There is no ward either. Previously, some time, somewhere, missionaries gave him a stack of all (and it would seem to have been ALL) of the missionary panflets. He seemed to understand the doctrine great. I have to admit, I didn´t think that he was that golden at first because I figured that someone who knew that much and wasn´t already baptized just thought that the church was interesting, and didn´t actually want to change.
But... then he went into a whole story of this fight he had with his pastor, about how he started defending the church and pretty much bearing his testimony. CRAZY!!! Why wasn´t this guy baptized. That question isn´t as hard to answer as the other one I have. Why were my companion and I the ones blessed to find him? He found us in the street pretty far from his home. That´s a miracle. I don´t care who you are.
So by this time, HE gave us lessons 1, 3, and parts of four, shared a spiritual experience, and in a round about way, born his testimony. The kicker at the end was that afterwards, HE asked us for our info so he could come to church on Sunday. We gave him the info for the Elders in Bellavista (cuz they are closer to him) and we took his info as well. AMAZING!
More amazing was that he called us the next day, and the elders from Bellavista. Elder Dever just told me that he came to church yesterday with his whole family. He paid for a taxi... with the last money had. Turns out he has no job, but he´s trying to get one. He makes cool little pens and sells them for a little more than a dollar (I bought one). His plan was to sell pens at church to pay the way home, but the elders had to explain how he couldn´t do that. Haha! I love this guy. He´s incredible. So he wants to be baptized, and they are working out a way to teach him somehow. I think for a while they were trying to explain the lessons through the phone... haha.
Next story. Luckily, this guy lives in OUR boundries. :)
My comp and I were contacting doors. We hardly never do that because lately we´ve been blessed to have enough investigators to fill our day. But as it turns out, God had someone prepared for us and used this tiny window to lead us to him. Probably the third house we contacted was Pedro. (So much for the one in a thousand statistic.) We sat down, and the Spirit just got really bold. He seemed really receptive. We started off by just trying to break up the ice a bit, and finally he started to ask questions (which is what we wanted). He had a little bit about Joseph Smith. We explained it as fast as possible. ´´Oh, okay. They always told me he was your God, but I guess that´s not true.´´ Well that went well. So then we just started going through a quick lesson three. ´´Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?´´ ´´Claro que si.´´ ´´Well, then you need to repent of your sins and be baptized.´´ That is a condenced version of what took about 20 minutes from the contact to the closing prayer. ´´We always offer the invitation to come to church on Sundays.´´
That´s the hardest part. Getting them to church. We set a date for baptism right then and there, and he said he would come to church. CRAZY! His date is the 19th.
So we were fasting and working hard Sunday morning to try and get people to church. When we finally got Josue to church (which was way too much work, but now we can baptize the kid this week, haha) we started looking to see which investigators were there. We had a great turn out!
I was feeling great, thinking about those who were there. Naturally I started thinking about the ones not there. Pedro wasn´t there. I started praying hard. ´´Father, just give him the desire to come and to be able to get here.´´ Five minutes later, Pedro walked in. We´re definitely going to baptize this guy.
I just want people to realize at this point in this update, you (like Aaron) might be thinking, ´´Wow, you really must think you´re one stellar missionary.´´ And while I risk the appearance of arogance by adopting the response of Ammon, I honestly am sharing these experiences to glorify God. His hand is literally in everything! We´ve seen it every day this week. Miracles are following us around everywhere!!!
I really couldn´t be happier. Things are great. This church is true. These weren´t even the most spiritual experiences I had this week, but the others are too personal. In that vein however, I simply want to testify that God is our loving Heavenly Father. He´s my Father. He loves every one of us. I know He loves me and that I am His Son. Possibly, for the first time in my life I can truly say that without a single doubt in my mind. I love Him, and I love this life that He has given me. It´s really hard. But He gives me peace, and all that I need to be happy.
I love you all, and pray for you all, all the time. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the letters, support, and most of all the prayers. I can feel them. Know that God is answering them. Thank you.
Les amo muchisimo!
Elder Kent Thalman
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