Full Dam, Broken Dam (editors note; I think he means "overunning, not broken.)

It finally happened!  We made a plan to focus only on the investigators that were progressing and it worked.  We had many great investigators in church on Sunday.  I feel so happy that God led us to the ones who are truly searching for answers.  They are the ones that progress.  It hit me; we don´t really do anything.  There´s God´s work, which is the Spirit that prepares the hearts of men, and there are the people that receive that Spirit because of righteous use of agency.  In the end, we just work and try to be obedient so that God makes us tools in His hands.  I felt so blessed this week to see these people make steps towards repentance and baptism through faith.

Juan and Bessy are a young couple that are just ecstatic about the gospel.  They went to church, and what seemed like something difficult (getting them married) totally resolved itself.  After church, we taught them the Plan of Salvation and they mentioned marriage again.  She had already talked to her father, and he´s going to drive to Colón (really really really far) and back to take out the partida (marriage paper that you need here) so that they can get married!  What a miracle.  We love them so much, and the branch is excited to see a family come to church.

The futbol activity showed it´s fruits this week.  Three of the players went to church.  We taught two of them this week and one has a baptismal date with his mother and brother.  They are all very receptive.  The boy with the date is Mercado (not his real name, but we all call him by his last name).  He is 17 and played with us in Progreso.  It was way fun, and he seems like a very receptive cool teen.  I say that because he sort of acts cool and uninterested, but he´s really engaged in the lesson, and he went to church, which really means a lot.  He´s the most committed of his family.

The other is our magical goalie (portero, I don´t remember how it is in English)...  Richard.  He´s also 17 and really cool.  He and his younger brother live with two very catholic grandparents.  But they are receptive, and Richard went to church all on his own on Sunday.  We haven´t hardly taught him anything yet, but he´s great.

Our young Carlos is doing great, and went to church.  He said that he prayed to know, but didn´t get an answer. He said, "I just don´t have the faith."  I felt a little bad for him, but I know that he´ll get and recognize his answer soon.  We explained that reading, praying, and going to church (all three things that he´s doing) are great signs of faith, and that the Lord will respond if he keeps going forward.  He´s a really good kid.  I feel like all these young men are going to serve missions!

Iris is also great.  She went to church and is accepting the commandments.  She has been getting really hit by all sorts of trials (lost her job, brother got really ill), but she´s facing them valiantly and prays to be able to get baptized in every lesson.  It´s exciting.  She´s actually our next baptism, even though almost all the people I mentioned just now have dates.  There are a few more, but we´ll see if they make the blog next week.

The mission is pure insanity!  In a really good way...  My companion is awesome.  I often forget that I´m training.  We just work and work and work.  I love you all, and we´ll see what news there are in the next exciting chapter of Elder Thalman´s blog next week!

Elder Thalman

The Finals

We did a stake activity this week where we had to make a soccer team of young men investigators or in actives.

The fútbol activity was a success, and we brought a team of all investigators and inactives, about twelve. We got second place out of 14 teams if you wanted to know.  But they all seem like good kids, and this week we´re going to start teaching all of them and see which ones progress.  I loved rooting them on, and it was really intense when they got to the finals.  one of the funnest things I´ve done in a while.  I think that many will remember the church because of the experience (and we´ll see how many we baptize sooner rather than latter).

Mostly I feel like there are many great investigators that aren´t progressing as much as they should because we´re not focusing on them. This week we´re going to pull things back a bit, focus on the important ones, get them to church, and drop the ones that just won´t budge. Their are a lot of people here in Morazán that are ready for the gospel, so my idea is to leave the area book full of good recent converts and antiguos investigators.

I talked to Elder Ficklin and he let me know that Hogan and Vanessa got baptized!  And two of Moncha´s daughters this week are getting baptized.  Also, two other young women that we found are getting baptized next month.  I didn´t feel like I had much success there, so it´s such a blessing to see that it wasn´t at all a waist of time.  This is the Lord´s work.  He that sows and he that reaps are the same, and the blessings are eternal.  I won´t see the ends of all that I do, but the important this is to just keep doing it.  I love it here!  I love the mission, and the Gospel.  It´s a good thing that I don´t ever have to stop being a missionary.

Love you all.

Elder Thalman

There is Hope

This week had some major ups and some major downs.  Mostly, the down was that not one person came to our doctrine class, nor did any of our investigators come to church.  However, there is progress underneath.

Iris is a young lady who went to conference and loved it.  She told us ahead of time that she wasn´t going to make it Sunday.  But we´re very excited for here.  We asked if she had read and prayed, and due to her detailed responses we could discern that she was doing both.  She then shared with us that she had previously been in San Pedro and that she spent all of her money trying to find a job.  After giving up, two missionaries found her and gave a tour of the church randomly.  She was "prayed for" by a member (they may have given her a blessing), and then before leaving, the member tells her, "don´t you worry young lady.  You´re going to find a job very soon."  She hadn´t mentioned anything to him about her situation.  When she got to Morazan the next day, she got a call which was a job offer.  She told us that when our member invited her to meet with us and mentioned the name of the church, that she said, "send them here!"  She said that she´s known that this is the true church since before we were visiting here, and that she really wants to get baptized.

We found man on the street contacting.  His name is Juan, and we put an appointment to visit with him.  We miraculously found him in his house and he told us something amazing.  "Two days before you guys found me, I was experiencing great desires to visit a church.  I´ve never stepped foot in a church in my life!  Then you talked to me, and I thought that was incredible."  We taught them (he and his wife) the Restoration.  They understood great and committed to go to church next week and read and pray.  He prayed on his knees at the end of the lesson and asked directly if our message was true.  They have a baptismal date for the 16th of November.

I feel like if I write more, now one will read it.  I love you all, and know that I´m working hard and not thinking about home... so stop writing me about how little time I have left!  haha.

Elder Thalman

 

 

 

Conversion

I learned something about conversion this week.  I heard in conference, then tried it out, and I´m just a little more converted than I was before.

On the way home on the bus I got the feeling to stand up and present a message to everyone.  It took me nearly a half an hour to act on it.  I finally told my companion to get up, and did so very willingly.  When feeling the need to do it, I felt two things.  If you do, you´ll feel very happy afterward.  If you don´t, you will carry regret for it.  So after finally doing it, it really happened.  God fulfilled His promise, and I felt a peace confirm in my heart that I did the right thing.  That spiritual confirmation has converted me to believe that I need to do the things that only missionaries can do while I´m still a missionary.  I´m going to stand up on every bus from now until the end of my mission.  It´s better than waisting my time.

that´s how we become converted.  Every time we win a battle, and do the right thing, the Holy Ghost confirms in our hearts that we have chosen the right.  And God blesses us with love.  I have a hard time telling the difference between God´s love and happiness.  I think that it´s the same feeling when it´s true happiness.  This comes every time we read scriptures as a family, even if it´s too late, or the kids complain.  It´s what happens when we finally ask God if the Book of Mormon is true.  It´s what happens when we make that tough decision to go back to church even if it´s been a while.  Or perhaps when one of you who are not of our faith makes the leap of faith to visit us for the first time.  God wants you to be there, and He will let you know.

I´m converted to this Gospel.  It´s so much more than a testimony.  I´ve met inactive men with stronger testimonies than mine.  But that won´t save them.  It can´t save anyone.  Actually, all a testimony does to those who don´t live the gospel is condemn them unless they repent.  But I´m not the same as I was before.  I never will be.  I know what it takes to be happy.

Rosita is also converted.  She´s a recent convert who might be the best missionary I´ve ever met. 
She presented us to several of her friends this week.  She´s practically dragging the missionaries everywhere.  I think she walks more than we do, and I think she´s about 60 something.  Of all the investigators that went to general conference this weekend, she brought about 70% of them.  Amazing this woman!
I testify of the power of one converted member missionary!  It´s not necessary to have this badge to be a missionary.  I love this work, and if God ever said that I couldn´t participate, then this church wouldn´t be true!  I will share this gospel with every living soul to the day I die.

Love to you all.

Elder Thalman

Conference was a major boost for me this week.  We are working, but the inactive are a little tougher than I wanted to anticipate.  But we'll keep at it.

Sharpening the Blade for the Harvest

We worked tons this week with less actives.  We even got a few of those priesthood holders to go to church!  It was cool to see them there, and I really think that the little branch is going to grow a lot soon.  We have been finding a few of those people that are just too good to be true.  One is Martha, an investigator that used to go to the church actively but never got baptized.  She moved away, and they killed her husband.  Then she remarried and then she lost him a few months ago, so she´s pretty shaken up.  She didn´t know that the church even existed here anymore.  She accepted baptism with a date in the first visit.  Same with her daughter and grandson.

We´re teaching a young lady named Aby, a reference from her best friend (a member).  She seems really golden for baptism, but her grandma is pretty anti.  We went to teach her yesterday, and it was her aunt´s birthday.  I asked if it was that very day and she said yes.  I said, "me too!" ..... big mistake.  Note to missionaries around the world.  Don´t tell young latinas that are your age that it´s your birthday.  The typical response is a hug and kiss on the cheek! She was like, "congrats" and started in to hug me and I freaked out just ducked my head and stuck my hand out.  haha.  So rediculous.  She figured out that I really didn´t want her to hug me, and shook my hand.  I think I embarassed her.  But it was pretty funny.  There were two RMs with me; a couple; so they thought it was great.  What do they know?  They´re dating each other.  haha.

We feel like there are far too many men here to not have a couple dozen of them in the church, so we´re going to teach a doctrine class in the house (yard) of an inactive family.  We´re going to print off tons of invitations and then go old school and preach in the main center of town where there are always tons of men walking around.  Whoever shows up to the class will be a new investigator with, in my opinion, a high chance of progressing.

We are activating a young man who should be a preist named Roberto.  He went to church and brought his inactive mother.  They both seem really comitted to keep with it, so we´ll reteach the doctrine, and help the members love them into activity!

The mission is the best!  I love it here and I love Morazán.  Such a great place to serve, and pray that we´ll really be able make a huge difference here.  Love you all!!!!

Elder Thalman

 

P-day! (Preparation)

A very healthy meal!

Taken from under the water with Elders Stewart and Rodas.

Falls in Morazán

 

 

Morazán, Yoro

backstory... As of over a year ago, I was in Copan with Elder Young from Idaho.  We were talking about where I might end up in the mission.  He said that there was this place in Zona Progresso where the zone leaders worked every now and then.  They even baptized a young woman there.  There were apparently a bunch of super stalwart members down there that just were dying for missionaries.  I didn´t ever go there, but did open the area and sent two missionaries six months ago.

With Elder Young in Copan

View from Apartment in Morazán

 

Flash forward until this last Wednesday.  I packed my bags.  I am thinking, what zone am I going to go to?  I was looking at the zone leaders and not many had changes... they don´t normally drop you to lower position in this mission, but this mission president is a fireball, and has been throwing curves like crazy.  I love it!  Elder Limatu goes to Morazán 2 with Elder Thalman who is trainer and opening area...

The Morazán 2 District

 

It was like a blur.  I wasn´t expecting to hear my name.  Not expecting to train again.  But here I am!  In that same area that Elder Young predicted over a year ago, and I´m opening half the area and training!  It´s so awesome!!!!

Morazán chapel

Morazán is the coolest!  Honestly, who cares about being a zone leader!?  I´ve always wanted to train again, and Elder Limatu is the man.  He´s really really smart, and totally into working.  No complaints.  And thank goodness for him, because I´m horrible at direction, but he´s like a human computer, so he pretty much already memorized the area.  Amazing really.

The members here are golden.  I love them all already, and I feel like since Wednesday that I´ve developed a relationship with all of them.  They are giving references up the wazoo, and were just working with all inactives.  We went with a young man on Saturday to all the inactives and on Sunday they tell me that 53 is a record for this place!  That´s great!  We just have to double that before I´m gone.  My goal is honestly to leave the area with an attendance of over 100, 10 elders (or active future elders), and a more centralized church house just for meetings (not the home of a member).  I honestly feel that we can and will do it.  I feel very called to be here.  It´s something I´ve truly never felt before in my mission until now.  I love it here.

We found Emil, a less active man in his twenties.  We shared with him about how we were sent by Christ to him to invite back to full activity in the church.  We explained that the Sabbath day was a commandment from the beginning.  He accepted and was in church Sunday.  Our branch pres. interviewed him after so that he can know what to do to repent and get the Melchizedek Priesthood in November.  He is the first of many priesthood holders that the Lord is preparing here.  It´s a miracle!  No one even knew who he was.  The young man who told us about him said that he was a lost cause that he´s visited a million times.  haha.

Elder Limatu is really just a sponge.  He´s from Guatemala and a major in electronics.  He was teaching teenagers mathematics before the mission, and is only 18!  Just a baby.  haha.  But the best comp ever.

I love you all.  Happy birthday Grampa!!!  You´re the best and I love you.

Elder Thalman

National Pride = no one in church

Hurrah for Independence... boo for iniquity.  Basically, because of the iniquity of this nation´s high schools, the whole zone died in church attendance.  They obligate the youth and children to march or they suspend them... I told them all to still go to church, but most of them didn´t listen.  But there were still lots there, and after church was cool.  The ward members all got together and split up to give our tons of invitations to ward conference next weekend to the in actives.  I was happy to see that.  Elder Ficklin and I both asked ourselves, "why don´t we do this every week?"

Hogan and Vanessa gave Elder Ficklin dinner (baleadas and cake) for his birthday.  I love being able to see the love of investigator families.  It gives me a lot of hope for their progression.  Hogan went to church with his dad who came into town from the Cayman Islands because he´s going to Tegucigalpa to visit the temple for the first time.  He´s a cool guy with a very strong testimony.  Hogan is really really tall, so it was funny to see him put his head on his short chubby dad´s shoulder during Sunday School.  

We had to move a ton of stuff into new houses for the areas in the zone that are being opened... it was horrible.  So hot.  From noon to 4pm carrying furniture and stuff up and down stairs.  I was so dead afterwards, and so sweaty and dirty.  We didn´t have time to eat lunch that day, and I got sick randomly in the stomach.  And yesterday and today, I´m super dooper sore!  I´m so old and out of shape!!!  I look it a little, but I feel it a lot.  I just want to eat a room full of vegetables and fruits.  haha.

President Klein called us last night and scared us to death.  He calls and says he wants to talk to both of us, so we put him on speaker.  He says, "well, I´m going to talk to you two about something that I don´t want to talk about... you two are going home."  I almost died when I heard that.  It freaked me out so bad.  My mind went racing, thinking, "what have I done!?"  Then he says, "you two are in the same group for December 10th, right?"  Wheww!!!!  We both thought he was sending us home like Wednesday!  haha.  He just talked to us about having a life plan ready and stuff.  What a guy.  He´s super funny even when he doesn´t want to be.  But that wasn´t funny... it was scary (until afterwards, then it was like nervous laughter).

Thanks for your love, and I´m looking forward to those missionary experiences that I know are coming my way soon! :)

Love,

Elder Thalman