It's An Adventure

     Well, to tell you the truth I'm not sure what to share with you this week.... I forgot my journal to help me remember... so.... Today we had a mini district p-day. We went to see what there was to see at a little hotel and restaurant with the coolest view. You can see almost all of the playa from there.

     Sunday I got sick :P But the attendance was good--85 and a dog. It was a well-behaved dog, until they kicked him out of Sunday School. Then he just whined and whined and whined.

     Saturday was a regular day.

     Friday we made a whirl-wind trip to San Pedro. We had just finished the opening hymn and prayer in our lesson at 11 am when the secretaries call to tell my companion that she has to be in San Pedro at 1pm. It's a 2 1/2- 3 hr. bus ride. We ran home to change out of our rain boots and grab money, missed lunch, and ended up arriving in San Pedro at 2. I thought our trip was wild, but then in the immigration offices we ran into the hermanas from Roatan. Theirs was wilder with two boat rides and loosing a whole week's worth of work in their area. The good news is that my companion is now going to be a legal resident of Honduras.

     Thursday was a regular day, too.

     And then we're back to Wednesday when you heard from me last.

     Oh, yeah, but the coolest thing that happened this week was the branch temple trip. It changed the whole attitude of the branch. They were all much more friendly and made the effort to greet the investigators and less active members that showed up Sunday. They also shared their testimonies and it had a huge impact on one less active member that came with us. She left sacrament meeting a little teary-eyed and said that the next temple trip she wants to go.

     Sorry this is such an all over the place letter... but that's what life's like. It's an adventure.

Love,
Hna. Thacker

Service

Well, we don't have changes, so Hna. Orozco and I will be here for Christmas! And New Years! :) 

     Oh, and I forgot to share that our zone had a fun service project on the beach last week. We worked with a bunch of conservationists to plant coconuts--palm trees?--on the beach. It was fun and attracted quite a bit of attention. Three local news stations and the mayor came to see what we were doing.

     It was an adventure. The rest of the week members of the branch kept saying, ''Hey, I saw you guys on TV!''

      Oh, and I also wanted to tell you about Indira. We started visiting a part of our area that hasn't been worked in for a while, and we have been finding person after person who is an inactive member. I had no idea that there were so many members in this neighborhood. One of them is Indira. Her whole family are members, but she's been the most receptive. We felt like we had to kind of start from the beginning with her because she didn't remember much, but now she is progressing so well. It is neat to see her change and her attitude. Sometimes inactive members who start to become active again come at it with a wishy-washy attitude. They look at it as a ''we'll give this a second go, but if we don't like it or don't feel comfortable there is always returning to where we are at.'' Indira on the other hand, has had the attitude that if she is going to come back she is going to come back for good. It is so exciting! Yesterday we talked about missionary work with her and invited her to come with us to visit and teach. She smiled and said she was wanting to, but wondering if we were ever going to ask! Working with people like her is so much more fun. Attitude makes all the difference.

     Well, that's all I had. Not much more has happened in the days since I wrote you last... Just cambios. They were helping us develop Christlike attributes this time around becuase they didn't tell us if we had changes or not until YESTERDAY at 9:25 PM. Cambios were today, at 9 AM. It was quite stressful. We had no idea what to do with ourselves waiting for the text...

     Well, I think that's all for real this time. Love you!

Hasta la proxima,
Hna. Thacker

The Gospel Makes Us Happy

Well, the most important thing that happened this week was a baptism!

     So there is a recent convert that got baptised last February with her youngest son. She is amazing! She has such great faith and a strong testimony that this is the only true church. Verbally and by their example, she and her son have been sharing the gospel with their family. A few weeks ago they began to see the fruits of their labors when the second to youngest son started to come to church with them. 

     Wednesday this Hermana called us and asked if we could prepare everything because her son wanted to get baptised Saturday. ''I know you need to teach him and all, but he wants to get baptised Saturday,'' she told us. So in the end we showed up to formally teach him the lessons and Saturday he got baptised. He already had a testimony thanks to the wonderful example of his mom and younger brother.

     Attached is the picture. It makes me so happy that you can see that they are so happy! They actually smiled! (well, sort of. That's kind of a cultural thing that is difficult to explain, but take my word for it...They are smiling).

     The gospel makes us happy.

     This experience taught me how much of an impact the example of two good people can have. And the power of a mother's testimony has to change the lives of her children. It's been a good week. 

Hasta La Proxima,
Love, Hna. Thacker

ps. Have you shared the He is the Gift video yet?

Freezing in Honduras?

I'm not sure what to share with you all this week....

--I froze to death on Thanksgiving. I saw a guy on a motorcycle all bundled up in a coat and I laughed...at myself. I remember when I came. When I saw people bundled up in my mind I told them, ''You have no idea what cold is. If you are freezing to death in HONDURAS, you wouldn't be able to survive where I live.'' Now I watched the man with the coat and wished I had one too... and I just thought to myself, ''if you are freezing to death in HONDURAS, you won't be able to survive where I live.''

--I cried listening to a woman tell of her faith crisis when she came into contact with an anti-mormon newspaper article. She needed a good Elder Holland talk about holding to the ground that you already have, but I just didn't have the words to communicate that to her. 

--We had fun opening packages :)

--We laughed a lot. My companion is really funny and sarcastic like my sister. It makes all of the funny experiences even funnier.

--The primary program was quite adorable and helped us fill the chapel! We made to 104 in this little branch that a month ago hit a low of 48. In attendance were two inactive hermanas that we've been visiting. I was so happy to see them!

--We were able to reach almost all of our weekly goals this week.

--We successfully made tortillas again. I'm not sure how to communicate how big of an accomplishment that is... later I'll show you and then you'll understand.

     I've had a fantastic week. I feel like a missionary and I love it. Sorry this lacks something super inspirational to help you think, but this week was filled with thousands of little testimony strengthening experiences that are hard to communicate. Just know that I know the gospel has been restored through prophets in our day. It changes lives because it allows us fuller access to the power of the Atonement. And if we are willing to give our all to serve God with all of our might, mind, and strength miracles happen.

Love you! I hope you have a great week!

Hasta la próxima!

Hermana Thacker