I'm glad Spring has sprung
there. It sprung here about 3,000 years ago and it's been going strong ever
since. I take that back: I live in eternal summer. jaja.
I'm definitely eating. The Hondurans take good care of that. The only problem is that EVERYTHING is fried and they have two food groups: carbs and protein. Yes, it's delicious, but I miss baked, non-fatty foods. Also, I'm dying for some veggies and some more fruit. haha
I'm definitely eating. The Hondurans take good care of that. The only problem is that EVERYTHING is fried and they have two food groups: carbs and protein. Yes, it's delicious, but I miss baked, non-fatty foods. Also, I'm dying for some veggies and some more fruit. haha
I haven't had to put the snow chains on my tires (aka my shoes) here
, so we're good to go on that. hahahaha. The kids all sound like they're
doing great and growing fast. Wow. It's weird to think how much everyone will
have changed by the time I get back. Wowsers. That's great, though. I love when
I see people and they tell me I've changed since they saw me last; I always
think, "Isn't that the point?" Haha. God is a God of order, but He
encourages (and even asks for) change. That's one thing that's been slightly
frustrating about Latin America. Everyone does the same things as their great
great great grandparent and everyone else, and when you ask them why they do it
that way, they say that it's just the custom. They don't know why they do it
that way, and they don't think about how they could do it better, they just
keep doing it. In one sense, it's great taht life can be that simple. But for
an American Dreamer like me, I'm always trying to think of new ways of doing
things (and I tend to be pretty good at it too). Honduras stifles my creativity
in this sense. hahahaa. I have to do things according to custom, even if I see
a very different path. haha. Anyway, taht was a tangent. Thanks for the quote.
I absolutley love Mosiah.
Pasen adelante. :)
Macizo is a Catrachan (what the Hondurans refer to themselves as) word for cool or great. It's like a double s, unless you're from Spain, in which case it's a double "th," a fact which I pointed out to my companion. The English class is going great. I love teaching these loverly poeple, and they seem to like me as a teacher. We've been having 10-ish in class,a nd we think more will come. Hondurans don't commit to something until they're sure it's on the up and up, which means that they should start coming around. ahah
You'll have to remind me of USA manners when I return, because I'm going all-out here. hhahaha. As far as not having slobbery dogs, Rocky has this nasty white booger slime that he likes to get ALL over me. He likes to try to bite my hands and shoes (playfully) and also jump up on me, which means I'm usually covered with indescribable goobers. Also, I'm pretty sure he weighs more than me, so he's just a danger zone altogether. And he's only 6 months old. hahaha. He's a muscular dog, but he's also got chub on him, so he kind of waddles when he walks. (Like dad's dog kissy whose whole booty moved when he wagged his tail; Rocky does that when he walks, perhaps because he doens't have a tail).
LINDSAY WILLIAMS GOT A CALL TO JAPAN!!!!!!!!! Yeahhhhh!!!!!! That's so great. Tell her I'm proud of her, and that it'll be the hardest thing she ever does, but that she'll love it and the Lord will always protect her if she's doing His will obediently.
As far as people relating to me... I'm a white kid. haha. They're very polite here as far as conversation goes, but they assume that I don't understand them. Once they get to know me, they love me, it's just the first bit that's tricky. Lovey-dovey-doos!
Welps, I gotta go, but I hope you're all so good, and that you're soo happy. Final thought before I go. Sometimes we're more than willing to invite friends, family, and even strangers into our homes, but we're not willing to invite the Holy Spirit. If them, why not Him? Someone told me a story about a meeting in which, as a demonstration, the teacher opened the door to the classroom and "invited" the spirit to enter by telling Him to "pasen adelante" (like, come in). They said that the lesson was so powerful and that the spirit was present. I'm not suggesting that you do goobery things like physically invite the spirit in (unless you're prompted to do so by the spirit), but it was jsut kind of a nice reminder of how easy it is to invite the spirit; it's like opening a door for a guest. I hope that you all have glittery sparkly happy weeks and that you get a little dirt under your fingernails (those days are somehow always the best).
Pasen adelante. :)
Macizo is a Catrachan (what the Hondurans refer to themselves as) word for cool or great. It's like a double s, unless you're from Spain, in which case it's a double "th," a fact which I pointed out to my companion. The English class is going great. I love teaching these loverly poeple, and they seem to like me as a teacher. We've been having 10-ish in class,a nd we think more will come. Hondurans don't commit to something until they're sure it's on the up and up, which means that they should start coming around. ahah
You'll have to remind me of USA manners when I return, because I'm going all-out here. hhahaha. As far as not having slobbery dogs, Rocky has this nasty white booger slime that he likes to get ALL over me. He likes to try to bite my hands and shoes (playfully) and also jump up on me, which means I'm usually covered with indescribable goobers. Also, I'm pretty sure he weighs more than me, so he's just a danger zone altogether. And he's only 6 months old. hahaha. He's a muscular dog, but he's also got chub on him, so he kind of waddles when he walks. (Like dad's dog kissy whose whole booty moved when he wagged his tail; Rocky does that when he walks, perhaps because he doens't have a tail).
LINDSAY WILLIAMS GOT A CALL TO JAPAN!!!!!!!!! Yeahhhhh!!!!!! That's so great. Tell her I'm proud of her, and that it'll be the hardest thing she ever does, but that she'll love it and the Lord will always protect her if she's doing His will obediently.
As far as people relating to me... I'm a white kid. haha. They're very polite here as far as conversation goes, but they assume that I don't understand them. Once they get to know me, they love me, it's just the first bit that's tricky. Lovey-dovey-doos!
Welps, I gotta go, but I hope you're all so good, and that you're soo happy. Final thought before I go. Sometimes we're more than willing to invite friends, family, and even strangers into our homes, but we're not willing to invite the Holy Spirit. If them, why not Him? Someone told me a story about a meeting in which, as a demonstration, the teacher opened the door to the classroom and "invited" the spirit to enter by telling Him to "pasen adelante" (like, come in). They said that the lesson was so powerful and that the spirit was present. I'm not suggesting that you do goobery things like physically invite the spirit in (unless you're prompted to do so by the spirit), but it was jsut kind of a nice reminder of how easy it is to invite the spirit; it's like opening a door for a guest. I hope that you all have glittery sparkly happy weeks and that you get a little dirt under your fingernails (those days are somehow always the best).
Ahem. HELLOOOOOOO FAMILY! Or should I say Hola. :)
Guess what? This keyboard is in English, so you can expect mostly normal spelling today! Hooray! Ummm. I just sent un monton de fotos. There are more, but you'll just have to wait a year and a half to see those, cause I don't have more time to send fotos and they're not that exciting anyway. haha Except that I'm going to include one of Kathy Zabala and her cousin who loves having her picture taken.
Ok, before I respond, things I have to tell y'all:
*Funny story: Last week, when we were all at the fortress, I asked Elder Cervantes of Mexico (companions with Elder Rodriguez... they're the only elders in our district jajaja) to take a picture of ME right after he had taken a picture of someone else. The only problem is that I said, "Elder, puede tocar uno de mi?" (Not, "Elder, puede TOMAR uno de mi?") For those of you non-speakers out there, I asked the Elder if he could "touch one of me," not if he could "take one of me." He was naturally very confused, very flaburgasted, and slightly lacking in the ability to breath as a result of the guffaws of laughter he was trying so dearly to stifle. He was not successful. (And nor was I when I realized my error. Ooops. jaja)
*Por Favor: ask Ari and Tyler if they've gotten my letters yet. Also, tell Ari happy 3 years as a member!!!!! I know it was in February, but I don't think she ever got my letter, so I'm sending this late. :) I'm so glad you took that beautiful step into this beautiful church.
*Also for Ari: I met the Honduran boy version of you. When he found out that I'm from the US, he proceeded to tell me he's a music fanatic and that he loves to watch MTV all day. He then told me some of his favorite bands: Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance, Guns N Roses, and (prepare yourself) NIRVANA. He then proceeded to tell me that none of them even came close to his favorite singer, MADONNA. He then talked about how awesome Madonna is for about 3 minutes until I cut him off. Haha. If you ever meet him, you're going to be good friends. His name is Cristian and he's in my ward.
*I now know how to make tortillas, baleadas (the typical Honduran food: tortilla with beans and cream and sometimes other stuff), tajadas (fried bananas or plantains. Also a typical Honduran food), and by next week I will also know how to make Pupusas (typical El Salvadorean food).
*I found a plantain tree in my yard last night. That adds up to one enormous mango tree, 4 papaya trees, 1 mystery fruit tree, 1 alien-growing tree (nobody knows what the fruits are except that they're good for "medicine." My theory: they're growing aliens. If you saw them, you'd be in agreeance), and 1 plantain tree. Translation: awesome.
*Did I ever mention that the sun always goes down at 6:30 here? Because it does. Year round. It was weird at first, but now it's just normal.
*Funny/horrific story:
Our golden investigators have hit the road bump we were waiting for. Marina (the mother) ran away from home last week because of an argument over 5 lempiras (which equates to 25 cents). She went to live with her other daughter, who lives by the creepy toothy dolphin statue down the street. May I note that this woman is over 50 years old. And she ran away. I absolutley adore her. She's so crazy and funny, but underneath it all, she's very sweet and quiet. She has diabetes and lost her big toe over it, so the whole "running away" bit must have been tricky, but Sunday came and there she sat in the pew, waiting for us to arrive. Jajaja. Every time we see her, she says, "I'm going to be baptized." She's great.
Sadly, this episode caused some tension (obviously) between her and her daughter, to the extent that when Yilian arrived at church, she couldn't stand to sit in the same room as her mother and left (crying). We think the crying may have also had to do with the fact that she's pregnant, but one never mentions these kinds of things around an upset pregnant woman. This is going to be a fun week. haha. But no worries. They know the truth, they believe the truth, they just need to fix a few family problems in the mean time. They're still going to be baptized, and they're going to patch things up no problem. They're just being stubborn in the moment.
*It's bad luck to ask someone how many months pregnant they are. Don't ever do it in Honduras. They'll be very angry and lose confidence in you. (My companion made this mistake... apparently it's not rude in El Salvador).
Guess what? This keyboard is in English, so you can expect mostly normal spelling today! Hooray! Ummm. I just sent un monton de fotos. There are more, but you'll just have to wait a year and a half to see those, cause I don't have more time to send fotos and they're not that exciting anyway. haha Except that I'm going to include one of Kathy Zabala and her cousin who loves having her picture taken.
Ok, before I respond, things I have to tell y'all:
*Funny story: Last week, when we were all at the fortress, I asked Elder Cervantes of Mexico (companions with Elder Rodriguez... they're the only elders in our district jajaja) to take a picture of ME right after he had taken a picture of someone else. The only problem is that I said, "Elder, puede tocar uno de mi?" (Not, "Elder, puede TOMAR uno de mi?") For those of you non-speakers out there, I asked the Elder if he could "touch one of me," not if he could "take one of me." He was naturally very confused, very flaburgasted, and slightly lacking in the ability to breath as a result of the guffaws of laughter he was trying so dearly to stifle. He was not successful. (And nor was I when I realized my error. Ooops. jaja)
*Por Favor: ask Ari and Tyler if they've gotten my letters yet. Also, tell Ari happy 3 years as a member!!!!! I know it was in February, but I don't think she ever got my letter, so I'm sending this late. :) I'm so glad you took that beautiful step into this beautiful church.
*Also for Ari: I met the Honduran boy version of you. When he found out that I'm from the US, he proceeded to tell me he's a music fanatic and that he loves to watch MTV all day. He then told me some of his favorite bands: Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance, Guns N Roses, and (prepare yourself) NIRVANA. He then proceeded to tell me that none of them even came close to his favorite singer, MADONNA. He then talked about how awesome Madonna is for about 3 minutes until I cut him off. Haha. If you ever meet him, you're going to be good friends. His name is Cristian and he's in my ward.
*I now know how to make tortillas, baleadas (the typical Honduran food: tortilla with beans and cream and sometimes other stuff), tajadas (fried bananas or plantains. Also a typical Honduran food), and by next week I will also know how to make Pupusas (typical El Salvadorean food).
*I found a plantain tree in my yard last night. That adds up to one enormous mango tree, 4 papaya trees, 1 mystery fruit tree, 1 alien-growing tree (nobody knows what the fruits are except that they're good for "medicine." My theory: they're growing aliens. If you saw them, you'd be in agreeance), and 1 plantain tree. Translation: awesome.
*Did I ever mention that the sun always goes down at 6:30 here? Because it does. Year round. It was weird at first, but now it's just normal.
*Funny/horrific story:
Our golden investigators have hit the road bump we were waiting for. Marina (the mother) ran away from home last week because of an argument over 5 lempiras (which equates to 25 cents). She went to live with her other daughter, who lives by the creepy toothy dolphin statue down the street. May I note that this woman is over 50 years old. And she ran away. I absolutley adore her. She's so crazy and funny, but underneath it all, she's very sweet and quiet. She has diabetes and lost her big toe over it, so the whole "running away" bit must have been tricky, but Sunday came and there she sat in the pew, waiting for us to arrive. Jajaja. Every time we see her, she says, "I'm going to be baptized." She's great.
Sadly, this episode caused some tension (obviously) between her and her daughter, to the extent that when Yilian arrived at church, she couldn't stand to sit in the same room as her mother and left (crying). We think the crying may have also had to do with the fact that she's pregnant, but one never mentions these kinds of things around an upset pregnant woman. This is going to be a fun week. haha. But no worries. They know the truth, they believe the truth, they just need to fix a few family problems in the mean time. They're still going to be baptized, and they're going to patch things up no problem. They're just being stubborn in the moment.
*It's bad luck to ask someone how many months pregnant they are. Don't ever do it in Honduras. They'll be very angry and lose confidence in you. (My companion made this mistake... apparently it's not rude in El Salvador).
All my love,
Hna. Bayles
pasen adelante
Hna. Bayles
pasen adelante
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