Semana Santa=Vacation Week

     This week has been a little more exciting. It involved Semana Santa and the beach, contacting in the park, a GIANT Book of Mormon, and General Conference!!

     Semana Santa=Vacation Week. This is touristic and the best thing everyone says it has to offer is la playa. So this week the city was flooded with tourists. It was crazy!! Semana Santa tourists inspired the Webbs to organize a week of contacting in the park...

     This is Elder Webb with the big poster they had made. They got a whole bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon and pamphlets galore. The Zone Leaders organized everyone into shifts and we all took turns in the park contacting. This was one of our days...

     ​And here we are with the giant Book of Mormon and Indira. I'm pretty sure I told you about her. She came with us to help out. It was a fun adventure and a good change. The goal was to find references for all over and take advantage of the surge in tourists, but in the end more than 90 percent were people from here. About 50 of those were for my area. :) We have a lot of work to do these next few weeks!

     And then we had General Conference!! I love General Conference. For me there was a focus on the Plan of Salvation. It reminded me who I am and what Heavenly Father wants me to accomplish. One of my favorite talks was the one about Shiblon and the other about learning to hear the music of the spirit. What did you learn watching conference?

     Well, that's my week in a nutshell...

Hasta la próxima!
Love,
Hermana Thacker

Sleep Talking In Spanish and Learning English In Honduras

I think this week was a little calmer. I did get a little sick and we had divisions with the sister training leaders, but other than that it was pretty calm.

Cool things I learned this week:

 -following up is how we show the people we teach that we love them and have faith in the promises God has made.

 -the bus system is a lot more convenient than I thought. Mom, you asked about that. We usually walk. Before we always took taxi to go to centro and to our meetings. Now that I am learning how to use the bus system I hope we can take those more often.

 -helping someone with their English homework I learned when and how to use a/an. Who knew that would be on the list of things I would learn in Honduras...

 -Hna. Maria (she just barely hit one year of being a member) has a very powerful testimony. We had a lesson with her and her daughter. We asked her to share her experience and the spirit was strong as she invited her daughter to pray and ask if these things are true.

 -When I sleep talk my companion obeys me. :) Apparently I dream in Spanish :) I just told her that she needed to get up and go to another room because someone else was coming. She had just gotten back from a bathroom break and was half asleep. So when I told her to go she did! Once she got to the study table with her blanket and everything she finally woke up enough to think about what she was doing and realize it was silly :)

 -I had missed thunderstorms.

 -even though I haven't practiced in 6 weeks I can still make a decent tortilla :)

 -Linda is so happy and progressing very well. I am sad I am not going to see her baptism, but I know that is the day she needs to get baptised. I can see it in her face!

 -There are lots of cool scriptures in the bible. ex. ''Guardaos de los perros.'' (Philippians 3:2) and 2 Thessalonians 2:10-16 (This one is actually a really good one.)

 -In seeking the spirit your mind and body will be renewed.

 -I still have people I need to find here before I go home. So now I have to get to work applying everything I learned this week. I hope you enjoy your Semana Santa and General Conference this weekend!!!

Hasta La próxima!
Love,
Hermana Thacker

Getting On The Same Page

I have a new companion!!!! And I am back to working in my area!!!

But I forgot the pictures... So you'll have to wait.

This week has been crazy.

     Tuesday the hermanas dropped me off in la Lima where I was going to wait for my new companion. Then they cancelled the flight of all of the new missionaries that was coming in. The MTC sent them later on a flight that came in at 10:30 pm. That meant I had to figure out what to do in the meantime. So the hermanas from Porvenir offered to let me come with them. So I got to go back to Porvenir for a day!

     Wednesday in the morning I got dropped off in la Lima again to pick up my companion for real this time. And we got back to work!

     We have walked and walked and walked, gotten sun burned, had a good number of appointments fall through, (you know all of the usual stuff) but I am so happy to be back in my branch. :) The neatest thing I have seen is how Heavenly Father has continued to prepare His children. It has been interesting to see who has progressed without us and who has not. I was kind of surprised.

     One investigator we have been working with for more than two months has struggled with accepting a baptismal date. In our absence she has made plans with her aunt and they set a date. Our investigator is happily progressing.

     Another used to participate in the Gospel Principles class saying that he and his family is Evangelico and that he was only coming to church for his wife. This Sunday his participation was filled with, ''I used to be Evangelico, and I used to come for my wife...'' topped with invitations for all of the new investigators to pray and ask God. Testifying that they would get an answer.

     And then we have a new investigator. He showed up with his aunt and basically said, ''Here I am. Teach me. I want to know more.''

     Heavenly Father really is the one who is preparing the hearts of the people we are teaching.We just have to learn to get on the same page as Him. It never ceases to amaze me how perfect Heavenly Father's plan is. What miracles have you seen this week?

Hasta la próxima,
Hna. Thacker

We Can Feel The Atonement Work In Our Lives

Last week the Area President... This week an Apostle.

     We had a huge multi-mission conference with the missions San Pedro Sula East and San Pedro Sula West. Elder Andersen came with his wife, Elder and Sister Maynes, Bishop and Sister Davies, and Elder and Sister Ochoa. It was so cool!

     I learned a lot about the power and influence that just one person can have. It was a good reminder that ''the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.'' We talked about how important it is to help the people we are working with have a change of heart. That is the repentance that they need to become truly converted and stay active and progressing in the gospel. We talked a lot about the Atonement and how Jesus Christ is the center of everything we do. It was powerful hearing a Special Witness of Jesus Christ bear his testimony of Jesus Christ.

     Sorry this is so short!! But I'll end with my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He came to atone or us, and because of His atoning sacrifice we are able to become clean again and return to live with Heavenly Father. I love studying the Book of Mormon because it has helped me come to know and love my Savior. And I know that as we study it with real intent and put it into practice, we can feel the Atonement work in our lives.

Pues, hasta la próxima!
Love, Hermana Thacker

Oh! and this week I get a new companion! I am so excited! Oh! and the picture is a picture of our district...

Trusting in the Lord

     So... My companion went home last week. This week I have been working in a trio with the other hermanas that are in this same city. That means that we have been trying to work in two areas in two different branches on two different ends of the city. It has been an adventure....

     We also had a Zone conference with the Area President, learned how to take someone's blood pressure, scaled bathroom walls, a lady recited Psalm 23 for us and kissed my shoulder, and we worked with members I wouldn't have thought of taking with me to visit.

 It's an adventure.

 -My favorite part of what Elder Duncan shared with us was about vision. We have the right and to seek the Lords vision for our areas. He explained the importance of keeping in mind what can be achieved in one, five, or twenty years from now in our areas. Sometimes I get a little narrow minded and think of everything in terms of 6 week transfers and forget to look at the bigger picture. It was a good reminder to seek the Lord's vision of what can be achieved and not be so narrow minded.

 -One of my new companions is the mission nurse. A little old lady we visited had a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff and needed her blood pressure taken. But my companion had never taken blood pressure before. So we used the little that I remembered from my Anatomy and Physiology class, checked her special nurse phone, and took a lady's blood pressure.

 -The lock on the bathroom stall broke, so my other new companion had to climb over the wall to get out of the bathroom... Adventure.

 -Awkward. She was a little crazy but didn't want to accept the pamphlet I offered. I was just glad it was Psalm 23 and not Psalm 91.

 -Working with members--This part was really cool. There are two hermanas who live in the area of our branch but attend the other branch. I never would have thought to invite them to go visiting with us, but thanks to the circumstances I got to work with them this week. One was able to share a past experience and testimony that was exactly what my investigator needed. With the other we were able to have a really neat lesson with a strong spirit and I could see in the face of the member and the less active we visited that it was exactly what they both needed. It taught me that Heavenly Father knows  His children and what they need. He has a perfect plan.

     This cambio (transfer) has been one of the craziest, but I have learned that Heavenly Father loves us and has a plan. I have learned more about faith and trusting Heavenly Father. I have been able to see how Hna. Ruiz needed to come to the mission, have the experiences she had, and that she had to go home. This week I could see how this affected the area and how things are still happening the way they need to happen. Like the visits we had with these two hermanas. Things haven't happened by accident and I am so glad Heavenly Father has it all worked out.

Bueno, hasta la próxima!

Love,
Hna. Thacker

Book of Mormon Always Brings Peace

     This week has been super crazy!!! Actually this last month has been super crazy. But before this craziness all started we were asked to set a goal for reading the Book of Mormon before a Zone Conference in March. In the end the Zone Conference was cancelled, but the Book of Mormon challenge was exactly what I needed. I set my goal to finish before the 13th of March and figured out how much I have to read every day to reach that. In all of the craziness that we experienced and all of our trips to San Pedro I carried with me my Book of Mormon. I learned that no matter what was happening all around me and no matter what challenges were thrown at us, reading the Book of Mormon always brings peace. I love the Book of Mormon and I know it is true!

     I'm sorry this is short, but I've run out of time... I hope you have a lovely week!

Missionary Work Is More Exciting Than A Hurricane Warning

Exciting news of the week:

     This week we had a hurricane warning... Everyone we went to visit had thought we weren't going to show up. They thought we were crazy for being out of the house asked us if we were aware that they had cancelled school and everything. In the end it was a very less than impressive rain storm. So we got to continue being missionaries :)

     But even cooler than a hurricane warning was when German and Adonay showed up for church. They are a father and son that we have been visiting and they finally made it to church! Lots of members of the branch went out of their way to welcome them, and they left excited to come back next week! And the next! And to the Elder's Quorum Fishing Trip! They have so much potential and I am so excited to see their progress!

     We had a neat lesson with them Saturday and he asked us an interesting question. He always has lots of questions, but this was my favorite. We were finishing up the lesson when out of the blue he asked, ''What do you see in me?'' I was never expecting that question, but the words came to my mind to tell him that we see a child of God with incredible potential. We shared how we know that the gospel will help him reach his potential and that's why we visit him. Afterword he was quiet and didn't say much more about it, but the Spirit was there. I really love it when the Spirit testifies to the hearts of the people we visit that they are children of God. Those are remarkable moments.

     I know that God lives and that we are His children. As such we have amazing potential. He has a plan for each and every one of us. He loves us and wants the best for us. That has been emphasized in my week.

     Bueno, that's all this week, Hasta la proxima.

Love,
Hermana Thacker