Can't Stop, The Ball is Rolling

The ball is the Gospel! Sorry to give away the metaphoric title.

We baptized two this week, and We're excited for them. They were going to be three baptisms... but one almost died. We sent her to the hospital, but she still wants to get baptized, so that will be this week.

Maria was suffering from really severe pain when we found her, on the way to the church minutes before the baptism. We gave her a blessing and she calmed down immediately. I have no doubt that God's hand helped her immediately in this moment because of this women's incredible faith.

 I remember when she first told us about how she prayed after church a few Sundays ago about whether or not the church was true. She said, "I just felt a joy, and I felt happy for hours. I was talking with my friends and laughing like I hadn't done for years. I know this church is the true one." She has also said that she's been feeling better ever since we came to start visiting her, and that she knows she has to get baptized. I love her so much, and know it will all work out in the end.

Julia and Zenia are the two that got baptized Saturday, and while it was the most stressful day of my life, I wouldn't trade it. They were both happy, and it was so awesome to see Zenia the very next day in the dedication of the temple, Tegucigalpa Honduras! Saturday we watched the cultural celebration, and it was so cool. I got to see all the old areas where I have been participating. I almost cried. haha.

It was also cool to explain temple work to Zenia yesterday, considering her father has died. She doesn't totally understand everything yet, but I know that she will have a powerful testimony of eternal families because of the temple that now exists here in this country. I'm so excited.

Last night, we went to teach Juan Carlos again, and he's been reading more in the Book of Mormon, which is good. But he still falls when he doesn't read, and we had to reemphasize it again. In the end, he accepted a baptismal date! We're pumped.

 I remember when I first showed up in the home, I was talking to the wife before I had even met the husband. She said that he had talked to tons of missionaries before. I asked her if he had ever read the Book of Mormon, and she said, "not really." I told her, "Hermana, I feel that your husband will be getting baptized much sooner than you think."

We didn't do anything. We just got to know him, taught the Restoration, and hit the Book of Mormon as hard as we could. He read, and was converted.

 

We are teaching another "eternal investigator" who is the mother of a member who married a return missionary. They all say that she is progressing more than ever now, and think that she'll actually get baptized. I've concluded that eternal investigators stay eternal because they don't read. If ANYONE reads the Book of Mormon, they will be converted. Some won't make the decision, but if they keep reading, baptism and eventual progression are inevitable.

 The book is THE KEY to our religion, and there is a reason that it had to be finished and printed before the Gospel was restored.

We got a call last night that some old lady just moved here and wants to get baptized... this place is crazy.

I love this mission! It's amazing! You should go on a mission too!

Love,

Elder Kent Thalman

MIRACLE

 

You won't believe what happened today...

... I found whole wheat in Honduras! hahahahaha. Sorry for the let down, but I am so excited. I also found the courage to tell my cook to not give us soda at lunch, and water instead. And we got a good workout this morning! Yay for fighting becoming fat! fight the good fight... even if you know you'll loose...

Okay, missionary work.

This week, Zenia is getting baptized, who is the niece of a member. She is really cool, and has been so easy to teach and prepare for baptism that she doesn't come up on the blog often. And she's at that age where if she chooses, she could go on the mission! That would be awesome! But we'll see. She's shy. Haha.

Marcotulio is progressing super well, but we are fighting to soften the heart of the wife still. She's too afraid of leaving her current church we think... but luckily they're married. He's been reading the Book of Mormon every day, and is overcoming all addictions in a miraculous way.

We have and investigator with a drinking problem. I was with our branch president on divisions, and we only had about ten minutes to teach. This guy is pretty good at not drinking, but he had a random relapse. I looked at him and asked, "how's your Book of Mormon reading going?"

"Good. I read almost every day this week."

"Congratulations," I said. "When was the last day that you drank?"

"It was Saturday."

"And what day of the week did you not read?"

"Yesterday... (which happened to be Saturday)." At this point it was sinking in.

"Brother, my companion and I promised you that you will have the power to quit drinking through reading the Book of Mormon every day. The promise is of God and is true. Will you read the Book of Mormon every day this week?"

"Yes, I'll read it every day." The response was emphatic. It was a pretty powerful and short little lesson. I really love this brother and his family. I know that he's going to progress, and I wasn't as mean as I made myself sound in that dialogue. He's really cool, but doesn't like to take stuff very seriously, which is causing his wife to suffer a bit. But he's going to get baptized for sure. He's a good husband and father, and he's progressing in the Gospel.

I love this area and this mission! I love my comp, even though I'm nuts. He's a good comp for me. I've noticed that if my comps are silly, I get really serious. If my comps are really serious, then I get nuts and weird. Why do you think that is?

LOVE!

Elder Kent Thalman

Wheat pancakes... or coffee cake... or German pancakes... endless possibilities!

A Whole New World

 

While you all may be thinking that I've been subjecting my missionary mind to Disney Musicals, I've actually just been experiencing some transitional difficulties from being warped to another planet. Any similarities to Alan Mencken music is purely coincidental.

Dos Caminos is nuts. I don't know what to do with myself. We had another person come up to us Sunday in church and ask what she needs to do to get baptized. Wow... I don't know what to do with myself. I could literally sleep all week and baptize one a week here I feel. Scary place. Haha.

We are working with a man named Juan Carlos who's wife is a member and son is leaving for the mission is like two weeks. They are pretty much my favorite family ever! He is really receptive and we always feel the Spirit working with and testifying to him as we teach. Sometimes we don't know what to ask him in lessons. We just ask, "do you have any questions?" and he says no. We actually know he's telling the truth because the Spirit is just so strong and you can see it in his eyes.

 He went to church yesterday and he's actually been investigating for a long time, but never taken the initiative. People always tell us not to visit "the eternals," but I like it. We find out that they never get baptized with any of the other missionaries because they never ever understood the Restoration through Joseph Smith, and they never got why they needed to read the Book of Mormon... so they never did. They're too educated to get baptized just by being told to do so. So we just go in and hit lesson one hard and focus heavy on reading and praying for an answer.

 We set a date with him last night, and I think he's gonna make it. It's a bummer though because he's gonna get baptized right after his son leaves. But hey, at least he's doing it! I will be really excited when he gets baptized. He's one that I know will never go inactive, and it would seriously change this whole family's life.

We visited two very different families last night. The first was a married couple that have been members for years and years, but inactive for about eight years. They were really surprising because I couldn't believe that they were inactive. They have had so much contact with missionaries for years. They served as leaders and everything.

The second family were members for more than ten or so years. They're super cool. We visited them last night and I felt the Spirit so strong just coming in the door.

 We got talking to them for a while and they told us that we were the first missionaries to even visit them in their home since they moved there six years ago. They haven't been visited by the missionaries for six years! I couldn't believe it. They are way cool, and I'm excited to work with them.

I love working with the members of the church, and I've been able to see how the Lord pours out His love in working along side them in the work.

 I love it.

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!

Os Quiero Mucho,

Elder Kent Thalman

Oposite Day

 

(Sarcastically speaking)

Life stinks. Everyone in this new area is too excited about the gospel. They all just want to get baptized. So annoying. They all want me to help them do it. My comp is all cheerful and Mexican, and he only wants to speak to me in English. The seats in church are all cramped because everyone wants to come every Sunday... ugh.

The members keep trying to get us to eat their food, and I'm pretty much have no time to buy and make food myself. The selfish little kids in the USA want in on the cash cow of baptisms here, so they are having to divide the mission now.

I showed up, and a whole family of three wanted my comp and I to go watch them get baptized as well as another young man. Four people.

I want to go home really bad.

Don't write me.

Insincerely,

Elder Kent Thalman

;) ;) ;) ;) Oposite Day!

My comps name is Elder Rodas, and he's tight. My comp from my last area, Elder Young is now training. He's soooo cool! I miss him but I know that elder Rodas and I are going to tear it up here in Dos Caminos, zona Merendon. It's way hot though. I'm going to have to use sun screen so I don't repeat what happened in La Lima when I got scorched.

the family is Familia Melgar. they are so great! So pilas. They are really excited to be members and the dad already has the priesthood. they remind me a lot of the first family I baptized, and the branch loves them.

They are planning on building a building here in August and I know that after there's a building, we're for sure gonna be a ward. there is so much priesthood here. There are three missionaries in the field here, and four more leaving really soon. One just got his call this week, so that make five under call. there are like 40 youth, as opossed to the 5 in my last area, and all the young men want to leave and work with us. It's nuts!

I've never seen a branch like this anywhere in the world.

I love and miss you all, and am so proud of my friends who are going on missions!

Love,

Elder Thalman

Pics of the week

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

So, this week we are going to need to go three forward if we want progress. None of our possibilities got baptized, even though we did some good work.

We had a lesson on Monday with Rita. We immediately saw that something was different with her the moment we saw her. A good different. She just seemed so bright eyed. haha. That´s the best we can describe it. We taught her the atonement using Mosiah 3 verses 5-11, and the spirit was really really really strong. She knows it´s true. But she wouldn´t accept the date. We visited her quickly every day this week. On Friday (her birthday) she said, "I don´t think I´m getting baptized tomorrow (we´d been reminding her all week) but soon though." So we feel good that she at least has admitted that she will do it now. She puts up her catholic faith as a front, but now she´s starting to just accept that she can´t deny it any more. We ran by the house quick last night and shared 1Nephi3 verse 7. At the end we asked if she had any questions and she was just glowing...she wanted to say something but said, "no, I´m good." We left and looked at each other. "She so wants to get baptized now!" We both had the same thought. We´re going to set the date for this Saturday. But as it turns out, her nine-year-old grand daughter is a tough little cookie. She´s just too darn Catholic! haha. But she´ll come around.

Kevin will be getting the new job this week selling water, which will give him better pay, and free in the evenings and on Sunday. We´re really happy about it, and we know that it´s because Kevin is exercising his faith to live the commandments. He told us that what he´s praying for is a job that is free on Sundays, his own house to raise his daughter, and a wife who will marry him legally. Preferably who´ll go to church with him. We told him that those are righteous desires and that he should keep praying for those things. I promised him that if he lives the commandments, within six months after his baptism he will be able to move into his house with his little girl. Right now he lives in some tiny apartment and we don´t like the environment. But he already has a house, but there´s no floor or anything, and he doesn´t have the money to make it livable yet. God is really blessing him, and has really prepared him. He said that he´s was praying for months before he was invited to church to be able to find a church where he felt happy. SO COOL!

We are teaching a young thirteen-year-old named Nelcy who is really tight. She was a reference of a member, and we didn´t see too much in her at first. The second time we found her, we asked if she read the pamphlet, and we quickly realized that she is very prepared to hear the gospel. We taught her in the house of a member this Saturday, and we started the Plan of Salvation. She, at the end, bore her testimony to us. "At the beginning of this school year, I was thinking of not entering because i had nothing. I thought I would have to drop out. But then Reina gave me the shirt I needed, and Orbelina gave me the bag. Then someone gave me the skirt. I know that my Heavenly Father is watching over me, and it´s because of Him that I can study this year."

We hear stories like that a lot, and honestly, this was way more sincere. We both just felt the Spirit really strong, and we could feel the love that God has for this young woman. It was cool, and we feel good about it all.

This mission is the best. It´s really hard, and sometimes it feels like what we´re doing isn´t bearing fruit, but I know that´s not true. I can feel us changing lives. We will move forward!!!

I know that Christ is our Savior, the Redeemer of the world. He came to suffer for all, that His own may come unto Him and receive everlasting life.

Love,

Elder Kent Thalman

Priorities

 

So, we got really sick of people going right up to their baptismal dates, and then falling through for not going to church, so decided to put all we had in the three with dates for this weekend. It worked!!!

We have been really diligent with Rita and her grand daughter Gaby for a while now. They went to church all on their own this week! So, if they can get ready, they should be baptized this weekend. We love them, and are excited for them. One night, we didn´t have too much to do, so we went and helped them destroy half the house that they´re remodeling. FUN! We spend like an hour taking out a giant cedar post and got my shirt all stained up... but it´ll come clean. I hope. haha.

The other one this weekend is Kevin. We hadn´t been able to get a hold of him for a lesson for almost two weeks. He´s really cool, but every time we went to his place we felt awful. then we get him out of there, and we feel better. Some thing Saturday night. We got him to a house of a member, and he expressed all of his desires to still get baptized, but his work is killing all of his time, week day and Sundays. We taught him about the sabbath day and our member showed him the scripture about the guy getting stoned to death in the book of Numbers.. That´s why you prep the members before the lesson. haha. But... he went to church! And he´s got connections with a cousin of his for a job that will give him evenings and Sundays off work. So, he´s set up for this Saturday if he gets the job. We are really excited for him, and know that he´ll be a great member. He was the only investigator we had second hour in our gospel doct class, so we taught him lesson two, which he needed. It was really cool, and my comp and I now love teaching lesson two because of how excited investigators get. It´s really fun.

Missionary work is the best!

I love you all!

Elder Kent Thalman