Fruits of Thy Labors

 

So, some really sweet stuff this week! First, we did not have a change!!! I´ve got six more weeks with Elder Anderson!!! We´re gonna tear it up! I´m super happy about it.

We have been working super well, but unfortunately we don´t have investigators coming to church...

Well, we had three, but we´re used to having like 12 or 14. But the members are finally coming again. I ended up giving a talk on Sunday, which was fun. Our last fam, Jaun and Maria didn´t come to church... and we can´t find their new house. Agh!!! But we´ll figure it out and I´ll keep you all updated.

On Friday I had a really cool experience. Melissa, the girl who got baptized that first Saturday after I left Nuevo San Juan called me! She doesn´t understand that that´s against the rules. So now she knows, but we got to talk for just a few minutes. She said, "they called me as a missionary!" I was like... I don´t think so.  She´s been a member for six weeks and is only 16 years old.  She´s a branch missionary!! haha. and she leaves (I think he means goes) with the sister missionaries out there all the time now. She already sounds like a missionary.  She said, "We´ve already had two baptisms this month!" haha. Nicol, whom we were working with forever finally got baptized!  Then she said she got a friend of hers from school going to church, and he joined!!! I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. A few people I think thought that she was only a flirt bc of the missionaries, but now both missionaries are gone and she´s helping the work progress in that area! 

 

Another really cool experience was on Saturday... the whole branch found out that it was my birthday,  and if you don´t know Central American culture, birthdays are a really big deal.  They threw me a surprise birthday party! haha. they smashed eggs filled with confeti on my head and gave me cake and pizza. It was a really sweet experience. I love them all so much, and I´m so glad that I´ll have more time in this area. It´s pretty much for sure now that because we didn´t get changed, that I will have at least 4.5 months here in the end.  Who knows. maybe six! But let´s not push my luck. haha.

And our zone leaders didn´t get changed, so that pretty much means for sure that I will have Elder Polendo as my zone leader for three transfers! I love that guy (my trainer for those who have forgotten).

Love and miss you all! Keep me updated!

Elder Kent Thalman

Teaching The Unlearned

So this week we have been working really really hard. We were able to break all of our goals, and we taught some lessons that were really powerful. We taught one to a really cool family, Juan and Maria. They can´t read, so we were nervous that they weren´t going to understand. We taught lesson one and when we were about to teach apostasy, my comp came up with this whole idea about agriculture and leadership, and applied it to authority and the apostasy. The guy understood really well, and the Spirit was super strong. One of the best lessons of all time. Super cool.

 

Sorry for the lack of time, but there have been some crazy tech. difficulties today. n

Next week I hope I can send you all the recording and some pics. I´ve not really taken any, but you should get to see Karina´s baptism. Love her so much. Her and her fam´s lives have changed so much! You can really see the change in her eyes, and feel the difference in her home. I´m always just so happy when I see her. She gave us tons and tons of references and was teaching lessons with us this week. She´s a great missionary!!! We just tell her to bear her testimony and she looks at the people and tells them, "I really can´t tell you how great this gospel is. It´s been the only thing to bring real change to me and my family. I can really feel the difference. I´m a different person. just try it out. Listen to the missionaries." I think she´s my favorite convert, if I´m aloud to have those... haha.

I love and miss you all!

Elder Kent Thalman

The Invisible Hand and the Spirit of Promise

Well, this week has been really awesome. We baptized Karina Sat!!! and we had 50 people in the room. Incredible! And a lot of investigators too. She´s an awesome member already, and I can see the change in her eyes. This Gospel truly changes people. I love it so much. There´s pretty much no better feeling than seeing the Spirit of the Lord truly enter into the life of another person and change their world. She´s so at peace and happy. I love it. I will never leave behind a single convert here. I love them all so much. I´ve even come to love some of the recent converts that were baptized before I even got here. Love them all!

So, I hope the title doesn´t sound like a science fiction thing. Haha. this week, we realized that there are some things here that we can do to improve the work. We´re pretty much out of good investigators and now we´re looking for more. Some are progressing well, but for the most part, we feel like we can do better. It hit us that we need to put the focus way heavier on FAMILIES. That´s where the gospel needs to take effect. We made a goal to get families, and the left. Everything....like EVERYTHING yesterday fell through. I looked at my comp and said, "mk, let´s get a new family." We went to visit Karina, and she gave us three families to go contact with recent babies. She´s awesome!!! Then we left. I saw a young guy, and the first thing that came to my mind was the word "priesthood!" haha. I contacted him, and he was really cool. We walked with him to his house and now we are teaching a new family! the Hand of God is truly moving this work. The Spirit of God inspires. I love this. Love it all!

I love this mission as always. Can´t believe now it´s a third gone! NOOO! I found out that they already opened my last area. I´m so grateful. I´m still writing some people there, and I hope it keeps growing. They put Sisters! Way better...

Os amo mucho,

Elder Kent Thaman

I have no Title Ideas!!!

So this week was so totally awesome, and I feel bad for not having come up with a title...

I just got back from the ruins in Copán!  they were totally awesome.  My camera was full, so all the pics are on my comp´s camera.  we´ll see if I can get them up.  His camera is fun.  Honestly, Honduras can be really loud and crazy sometimes.  But there in the ruins, there were hardly no people, and it was so quite.  there was one point where the others separated, and it was just me and my comp in a big green court yard surrounded by green and pyramids.  It was amazing.  I just was overcome with the Spirit.  I don´t know why it was such a great experience for me, but I was just blown away at how beautiful it all was.  I will be taking my family there after the mission, no questions asked.

So, this weekend... we baptized and confirmed four!  Norma and her three boys!  They are the best.  Really solid converts.  Also, Karina is totally ready for this Sat.  She is possibly one of my favorite people in the world.  her whole family is great.  Her 12 year old Jafet is way cool.  Smartest kid I´ve ever met.  We went and built an adobe house with him on Friday.  He´s totally going to serve a mission.  He was so excited to hear that his mom is getting baptized!  I love this area.  I love this people.  Love this mission.

I don´t even know what else to write.  I´ll post some pics and ... a voice recording!  I had that idea and thought it was great!  haha. (these will come in a later post)

I know that Christ came to these lands.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true.  I´m fulfilling the promises made to prophets of old.  I can´t even believe my life right now, but I love and miss you all.

Elder Kent Thalman

Amazing... That´s all I can Say

So, we´ve been having a really cool week, all topped off by a really neat Pday.  Dat´s right, just used the word neat!

We had been having problems setting a date for baptism for this lady and her four boys... mostly bc of the 16 year old boy.  He was just being sort of lazy about baptism... We had no idea what to do.  We finally got him alone and talked.  He had literally no desires at all.  Pretty weathy and said he´d never had any need for anything in his life.  Never had a trial.  Ugh.  So we spoke pretty blunt to him.  Tried to inspire him.  Tried everything.  In the end I just thought, "this kid just won´t give place in his heart for this stuff."  We knew he could holdup the whole fam in the end.  I thought "just have him read Alma 32"... and in the end he actually read it!  I couldn´t believe it cuz he said the Book of Mormon was too boring. haha.

We talked to him and he said that he knew he was ready for baptism but didn´t feel it yet.  When he read Alma 32, he said he realized that if he didn´t get baptized, it would just be a matter of time his his seed (tree) would die.  Awesome!  So that wasn´t what I was shooting for, but I guess what Elder Bednar said was true.  If you´re living righteously every thought is a Spiritual Prompting.  Love it!  So they are all getting baptized this Saturday!!!

Today I bought a sick Ranaldo jersy.  Real Madrid.  thats what´s up.

clearly i like jumping... and that last one is my dist leader.  haha.  Elder Shirley.  Totally awesome.  Here´s one with him and my comp and I.  elder Anderson.
I´m also in the one with the big pyramid.  I´m just really small.  haha.

This last one is my last comp and I and Melissa.  she got baptized the Saturday after they closed the area.  she´s really awesome. I called her last monday and verified.  She was really happy.  Love her to death.  Kinda funny.

I love this area. love my comp Elder Anderson. love this mission!!!



Love,

Elder Kent Thalman

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