Lightbulbs and pigs and the shower April 22, 2013

I don´t quite call my investigators by nicknames/name extensions, but sometimes I call my companion ¨shugs¨(like sugar but shorter) because one day she was freaking out in our apartment and when I asked her what happened, she answered ¨there´s sugar all over my foot and I don´t know how it got there!¨I was going to call her sugar-foot, but it was just too much work, so I shortened it to Shugs. haha. Sometimes I feel like a baseball player or a bandit in the wild west for having such a silly name to call her, but she thinks it´s funny and I mostly just call her Hna Blanco anyway.

That´s cool the experience you had with that sister at the temple. It´s too bad her family doesn´t support her yet; someday they´ll be eternally grateful for her courage and her faith. People have this crazy idea that the only pioneers inthe church are the ones who crossed the plains. What they sometimes forget is that there are pioneers everywhere and their journey is just as hard. I´m glad I get to find some of those pioneers.

That´s sad about the Lincoln Logs, first because you would hope that you don´t have to worry about things like theft in the temple and second because Lincoln Logs are really awesome. 

I love that scripture! i don´t know the reference off the top of my head, but it´s marked in my  scriptures. I´ll have to search it when I´ve got English scriptures with me. I hope you have agreat week and that you have a happy birthday. Tanks for always being so loving and supportive. :)

p.s. when the roosters crow here, they do it in the exact vocal pattern of someone saying ¨happy birthday¨without words. Urr Urr UUrrr Urr. I like to think of it as a personal message to you this week of your birthday.

That´s cool that Grandpa got to go to that rededication thing. He sure is a good man and has made a big difference in lots of people´s lives. I saw a man with a straw cowboy hat driving a truck the other day, and he looked just like Grandpa but more Latino. It was pretty awesome. Being here reminds me a lot of G and G Bayles, because this place is SO MUCH LIKE PAROWAN. It´s almost ridiculous. For example, the other day I met a woman named Esther. I don´t remember her last name, but she introduced herself with first and last name, then told us,¨but everyone calls me sister Té, so I guess you´d better call me that too.¨ Nobody really knows why she goes by sister Té, but she does. Even around non-members, she´s sister Té. Also, her father is turning 93 next week and he´s almost more healthy than I am. He can walk like a 20 year old, has the mind of a 30 year old. His only recent fault is with his eyes... he´s gone from the eyes of a 50 year old to the eyes of a 70 year old. I honestly thought he was like 60. Crazy stuff. It´s also awesome to me how everybody knows everyone. We went ¨contacting¨for about 5 minutes with our friend Alejandra, and every time after they yelled at us to go away, they´d get all grandma-and-cookies-nice and say ¨bye Alejandra! Tell your grandmother I say hello!¨ hahahahaha. (We don´t ever go contacting, and this wasn´t real contacting, if you´re wondering why i put it in quotes). 

That´s awesome about the baptisms and that´s wicked awesome about the skype lessons with the elders. The scriptures say that before Christ can come, every nation and tongue will have the opportunity to hear the gospel. A lot of people use that to say that the second coming is still far off because we don´t have missionaries in every country, but I tend to think that a lot more people are hearing the gospel through google and the internet than we think. Zenayda (one of my investigators from Puerto) greeted us at our first official lesson with, ¨I googled the mormons. Your website taught me how to pray. I also learned about tithing, priesthood, sacrament, Joseph Smith, and the organization of your church.¨ All that before we had even opened our mouths to preach. It´s amazing the power we have to preach the gospel without ever stepping out the front door.

That´s a cool lesson you got to give. The only things Marina (also in Puerto) could remember from our lessons was faith, repentance, and forgiveness. It´s amazing the changes she made in her life with just those three principles. The scriptures say over and over again to preach faith and repentance, and I think forgiveness is a given to go along with repentance. Wicked awesome. 

Hello the Marroquins!!! :) :) :) I just love our ward. I think no matter where I go in life, Fort Apache (well, Lakes) will always be my ward. There´s something special about that ward; it really is a family, and when I think of my family, there are so many more people than just my bloodline. I will forever be grateful that I grew up in that beautiful ward with all of those beautiful people. BTW, tell Sister Allen I was thinking of her this week and I hope everything´s going well for her. :) She´s a peach. I just love her.

Thanks for the prayers and support and love! I love you more than the price of parkplace and boardwalk combined (with hotels). 

Cleaning and organizing isn´t always fun, but I always kind of like just sitting on the floor sorting through stuff and listening to music. Be sure to listen to some good stuff for me. haha The only music I ever hear (aside from church stuff, of course) is blaring from the speakers of taxis, cars, or buses. It´s usually in Spanish, but if it´s not, it´s usually very profane (the people don´t know what it´s saying, they just like the beat lol). 

It´s funny what being on a mission does to you. I used to always think that my ideal school would be on the east coast, and that my ideal home would be wherever it was beautiful and exciting. Now I think the ideal school is as good of a school as I can find that is close to family, and my ideal home is no farther than the next state over to family. hahaha. You don´t realize how much family means to you until you have to leave it behind. Regardless, I am confident that you will make the right decision and that Heavenly Father will lead you where you need to go. You can´t really go wrong when an Omnipotent Omniscient Being is your eyes and ears. (And I like the details of your life, thank you very much. They´re not boring; they´re the lard to my tortilla... that makes way better sense if you live in Honduras, but I´ll explain: the tortillas without lard are so gross that the only living creatures who eat them are pigs, chickens, and green missionaries.)

You are wise, as ever, my brother. I hope things are going well for you and that you are happier than the Navarro´s pig (trust me, he´s very happy). Have a great week. I Lurve you! haha Tassielo.  

p.s. I just thought: what if Mrs. Tassielo married Nigel Thornberry? Their children would be kings among men. 

Honduras is great. It´s really hot here, but it´s so beautiful and fun. I´m in a little town called Olanchito right now. It´s in a department called Yoro. Cool story about Yoro: there´s a town called Yoro where it rains fish every May. I know it sounds crazy, but it´s true. Every May, something in the weather change causes a kind of suction-y hurricane thing at the lake next to Yoro, and the water and fish are sucked up into the sky. They then proceed to fall, the fish still living, until they reach the earth again. The people then go and collect the still-living fish from the street and they eat them. It´s the only place in the world it happens. There´s all sorts of folklore as to why it happens, including religious explanations. My question is, why can´t the scientific explanation also be the religious explanation? Anyway, I think it´s kind of cool and I bet you´ll think it´s cool too. Maybe if you have to do a science project this year, you can research the science behind fish raining in Yoro, Honduras. :)

I usually have between 7 and 10 appointments in a day, but we run into a lot of people along the way. Every day we talk to a whole bunch of people. In fact, we talk to everyone. 

I´m sorry you have to write a book report. The good thing is that you get to write it on Ronald Reagan. From what I understand, he was a good man. It´s always good to learn what you can from the good people of the world. If you get bored writing all the facts, maybe you can imagine what he did as a little kid. One of my favorite things about grown-ups is hearing their stories of when they were little. If you can´t think of what Ronald Reagan would do, ask Grandma and Grandpa to tell you stories of when they were little. I guarantee they´ve got some good ones. ;)

p.s. There are a few people here named ¨Celeste.¨ Whenever someone tells me that´s their name, I tell them, ¨that´s my niece´s middle name!¨

You´ve got it right, we´re pretty much living the dream here. hahaha. And to make it more exciting, this week is Carnival, which means loud roudy promiscuous parties everywhere else in Honduras. Here it means a ferris wheel and a mini carnival ride with Pooh Bear characters painted on the side. hahahaahhaahaha. Ohhh Parowan. Err, I mean Olanchito. 

It´s crazy to think that Noah´s 2. I was thinking about that, and about the miracle child he is. I´m glad he had such a fun birthday party. I¨m fairly well convinced that Andrew and Kristen throw the best birthday parties in the world. I´m glad Elise is doing well and loving the life of a not-so-little-baby. She´s super cute from what I can see in pictures. haha. There´s a really cute lil baby here who´s about the same age as Elise and I always hope that there will be an emergency in another room so her mom will have to say, ¨take my baby¨¨ and throw her in my arms. Hasn´t happened yet, but one can always hope. 

Opening an area is heavy work, and we´re finally starting to get somewhere with it (I think). haa. Our plan is going pretty well, though, and we´re loving life Olanchito style. 

That´s so cool that you´ve got this time with Arie. I bet those art projects, etc are going to be really fun, and I bet she´ll be a great help in story time. 

HELLO THE LUKERS! Awwww cute lil Nurse Lynn. I love her. :) What a sweety-pie. You should tell her to come be the nurse for the SPS-HON mission. The one we´ve got is awesome, but she always prescribes eye drops, ice, and peptobismol, whatever your ailment may be. Just kidding. But seriously. hahaha. Nah, she´s a great nurse. But the poor thing is going to lose her nursing certification in the States because of the mission. She´ll have to go through so much to get her license back when she returns. 

That´s cool about the new choir director. From what you said, she reminds me of the choir director in the MTC. Well, one of them. 

We had the same lesson in RS (bueno, SocSoc) this Sunday!!!!! I love that the church is the same everywhere. Granted, you probably understood your lesson better than i understood mine (cause mine was ina foreign language and all). Also, the people here tend to get a little Evangelical when they teach RS, so sometimes you feel like you should stand up and shout Halelujah! The good news is that Halelujah translates into Spanish, so everything´s good on that front. jajajajaja. 

Trust and humility, two of the hardest things to have. We say we trust the Lord and then we  make a backup plan for ¨if things don´t work out.¨ We say we´re humble and then we forget that the Lord is the one who makes everything possible. Someday I´ll be trusting and humble. Someday. haha. 

Thanks for the letter-sy-doodle-doo. Oh, speaking of letter-sy-doodle-doo, you´ll be happy to know that I am no longer the only person who adds cutesy endings to words (for example, bugsy-poo for bug). Hna Archila (from Guatemala) adds so many ¨ito¨s to her words that everyone just calls her Hermanita Archilita. hahaha. 

 

*Something funny: Familia Navarro (yes, the ones with the pigs) owns exactly one lightbulb, and when we go to their house to teach a lesson, they have to go get the lightbulb from the other room (effectively leaving the 25 other members of the family in darkness). This would not be at all funny if they could only afford one lightbulb, but as they have sufficient funds to buy a second lightbulb, I find it absolutely hilarious. jajajajajajajaja

*Another funny: There is a power plug directly above the shower head in our bathroom. Very poor planning if you ask me. The funny part, you wonder? The power plug has a large black scorch mark around one of the outlets, clearly meaning that someone tried to use an electronic device in the shower. jajajajajajaja Oh Honduras. 

*Another: My first day here, I heard a world war 2 type bomb siren. Naturally, I braced myself for whatever big secrets this little town had. Nothing happened. The next day, the same thing happened. Several times. But nothing happened. Same thing the next day. And the next. And the next. Turns out the town clock tower is a world war 2 bomb siren. hhahahahaha. It ¨rings¨ at 8, 11, 2, 5, and 7. Not even the town people know why it´s those hours. Not even the town people know why it´s a bomb siren. They laughed at me for 10 minutes when I told them I was expected ¨una bienvenida como una bomba¨ my first day.

*There are mudhuts and adobe houses here. I saw one that was about the size of a handicapped bathroom stall. 3 adults and a baby live in it. 

*Two people asked us seperately in one day if it was a sin to go to a different church once they had heard about our church. We weren´t really sure how to respond the first time. We thought a little harder the second time.

*We accidentally offended someone by not eating her nachos. We knew we were on good terms with her again when she gave us popcorn. It took some service and groveling to get there. We refer to that scenario as the popcorn after the nachos. Great title for a book chapter.

 

Love you all tonnnnnnnns!

Hna. Bayles