Monday, January 13, 2014

January 13, 2014


Hey-a,

I have lots to tell yáll, but I don´t even know where to start. First off, this week I went on divisions... with President and the Assistants to the president. haha. It was the first time I´ve been without a companion since the good ol´ days in the MTC when the ¨zone leaders¨ had to accompany me to my sister leader meetings. hahaa. The story is that one of the sisters needed a rabies vaccine and it just so happened that she and her zone had interviews with the president in the exact day that she needed it. It also just so happened that President had an extra seat in the car and asked me if I could just accompany him and the assistents (because we live with 2 other sisters and my companion could stay with them). I said yup. But I have to say, it was SUPER weird. But, like super weird. I haven´t been without a companion in over a year, and it was a very ugly feeling. I´ve really learned to love having a companion, and I didn´t realize it would be so horrible until I was stuck in a truck with no companion but the President and the APs. Sometimes the nurse has to do strange and unheard of things. My mission is so different from any mission I´ve ever heard of. hahahaha. 

Second, I went on divisions (with other sisters hahah) as usual this week, and for the first time in 11 months, I returned to my starting point in the mission, good ol´ Puerto Cortes. It was lovely, but really weird. We also had some really cool experiences in the division. For example, We were walking and i thought, I should talk to that young girl. I did and it turns out that her family just went inactive from the church after moving to Puerto after living in Tela. God really does think about us a lot, I think. 

Other than that, things are going really well. Life is even crazier than it was before, but I think I really enjoy it. 

I hope you´re all good and that you´re happy. 

Love, 

Hna Bayles 
 
p.s. I am officially a resident of Honduras. I´ve got a Honduran id and everything. Haha Helloooooo Catracha!


January 6, 2014


I´m sorry, but we had a small situation and as a result I really won´t have time to write today. I am doing well and working hard. I just have some insignificant news for you all: my return date is actually not the 23 of june, it´s approximately the 12 or 13 of June. As a result, I have a few favors to ask of yáll (mums and pops). They are as follows:

Please contact BYU to get me clearance to return for summer term (o sea spring semester) starting 23 of June. I deferred until fall term, but I think they´ll be understanding, and if not you can tell them that God is very disappointed in them. Also, please write professor Bill Zundell from the mmbio department or Dr. Andersen from the MMBio dpt to remind them to hold my spot for fall and winter as I will be entering the program to do that whole medical lab scientist thing. Also if you feel like hooking me up with housing and or work for summer term, that would be great. As of right now, I don´t think they´re going to give me my extension as it will mess with future missionaries´ability to enter and leave Honduras, but we´ll see. Nothing is certain, but for the moment that´s what I´ve got planned. If you´d like to register for my fall classes for me, Bill or dr. Anderson will have all of the info you need. 

Thanks a bundle, I love you a lot.

Hna Bayles 
 
p.s. I got the letter from Sandra ... please tell her thank you. Also please pay $5 in diezmo for me. 
p.p.s. Andrew and Kristen, thanks so much for the pakcage. Loved it.  :)


December 30, 2013


Hey everybody! :)

I was thinking this week about how 2013 is going to end in just a few days, and thinking about how it has been the absolute best year of my life. I started 2013 as a missionary and I will end it as a missionary, and for that, it will forever be my favorite year. I think back on this last year and think about how very much my life has changed in that short time. I was thinking about it a lot as I was talking to yàll on Christmas, how things there on the homefront really haven`t changed so very much. People are still doing pretty much the same things with pretty much the same people and they`re enjoying pretty much the same things. That`s not to say that no one`s doing anything at home... that would be just plain old silly. However, I was thinking about how the dynamic of my friends and family really hasn`t changed so very much, but how I have changed immensely. I hadn`t really thought that I had changed much in the mission, but talking to everybody really made me see that I`m not the same person at all. There`s still a bit of Maren tucked down in the cracks, but I really and honestly believe that Maren finished her reign on December 5, 2012. Now there`s someone different in her place who goes by the name of Bayles, and in about half a year, someone else will take HER place... a saber quien serà. I just... I just don`t know how to describe it except to say that I`m not who I was, nor do I see the world how I saw it before. I am changed, and I`d wager to say it`s a permanent kind of thing. Anyway. Enough of that. 

We passed Christmas well, hiding from loud explosions of fireworks and maniacally laughing Hondurans. All in all it was a wonderful night. We all had to enter the house early, so the ohter three sisters I live with and I all hunkered down and enjoyed a very Merry Christmas. Well, I suppose I should correct myself: I enjoyed a very merry Christmas with one house-mate who was only slightly baggy (o sea homesick, I suppose) as my other two house-mates were not very happy about being away from home for Christmas. I thought it would be very hard again this year, like it was last year, but honestly I don`t know that I missed home very much at all. Surely I missed spending time with my family, but to say I missed home enough to be homesick would be a bit of a misgiving. You see, I left one home to find another, and even though I couldn`t be with my stateside loved ones this Christmas, I was very much at home. After a sister missionary hits the one year mark, suddenly everyone begins to tell her, ^ya se va,^ or, ^yup, you`re about to go home,^ and everytime someone says that to me, it gets me. I suppose it would be wrong to say I never want to go home, because I certainly want to be with my family again and I know that at some point all things must end, but if you can all understand my point of view, you will understand me when I say, ^I don`t want to go home. I don`t want this to end.^ It`s a strange and interesting effect the mission has on you. 

Well, I suppose I should begin responding to you all. 

 

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!. O sea, Feliz año nuevo! Here everybody says feliz año close to the new year. They use it to say goodbye to people. For example, normally people say feliz tarde or feliz noche to say goodbye, but in this particular week of the year everyone just says, feliz año! So: FELIZ AÑO. 

Also, I saw a man in the bus today who was wearing a CTR ring, and i wanted to shout out to the front, Î`m Mormon too!^ but I didn`t. Pointless story, but I was just thinking about how sometimes we`re so afraid to share the gospel, but the mission makes us very bold. Before the mission, if probably would have sat down quietly and said in a not-so-loud voice, âre you Mormon? Me too^ However, those days are passed and now I share the gospel in a much more bold way. 

Pues. 

Eileeny! I was sad I didn`t get to see-talk to you in Christmas, but I totally understand. That`s nice that you got to spend some solid Hinckley time. I bet that was fun. I haven`t gotten anything from Sondra, but I`ll keep an eye out. I think a lot of things got lost or delayed in the mail becausee of that whole Christmas business. Also, I`m glad you liked my Christmas card. :) I had to make it back in November so it would get there in time, but I got a kick out of it. 

I`ve actually heard a lot about that kidnapping movie lately. I don`t know if it`s because it just came out or if it`s because the Johns (as senior missionaries) watch movies and everything and have talked about it, but I`ll look forward to seeing it. I don`t know if the public on the whole knows, but just a few months ago a pair of sister missionaries was kidnapped in Guatemala. It was amazing to hear about how the Lord really protected them in thesituation. It was also interesting to hear the business side of it. When the sisters were kidnapped, the first thing the mission president did was call the area presidency, and everyone went into action immediately to help recover the sisters. But the thing that was most interesting to me was what the area presidency asked the mission president. They didn`t ask a lot of questions, but they did ask one personal question about the sisters: are they obedient missionaries? When the mission president answered that they were very obedient, the area presidency responded with relief and said, ^President, they`re going to be just fine.^ It`s amazing how obedience brings blessings. 

anyway,  Ihope you have  agreat new year. Love you!

Pops, It was fun reading all of your insights about the grandkids (or in my case the sobrinos). I bet they`re all so fun and cute and rambunctious. They`re just all so big and grown up. :) It was great talking to yàll too. It was weird becuase I haven`t spoken that much ingles in about a year now, and it was interesting to see that I had to translate a couple of things into english in my head before I could speak. And just think, a year ago I thought I`d never speak Spanish. The gift of tongues is real. (funny story about the gift of tongues: today we were eating pizza and the word âlfombra^came to mind along with a mental image of shaggy carpet. I`ve never used the word alfombra before, although I`ve heard it a total of three times, twice in one day about 6 months ago. I asked my companion what it meant and she pointed to some carpet (a rarity in Honduras) and said that. It was kind of cool). Anyway, I`m glad yàll are doing well and I hope you`re all happy. Love you tons. 

Mumsie, I liked Lauren`s saying, although I must correct her in saying, my mission will end up being 19 or 20 months just because of the timing of change meetings and everything. Also, I`ve been thinking about whether to extend my mission or not, and i was thinking: the only thing keeping me from absolutely extending is the fact that I don`t want to miss Carlos` baptism. So I was thinking: is there any chance that Carlos would be able to be baptized in August instead of July? Here`s the thing. If I extend, instead of coming home June 28 or something, I`ll get home like August 8 or something. So, if everything works out for my extension, could he just be baptized one month later on the 10? I know you shouldn`t push back a baptism if you can help it, but it`s one month and it would make my life so much easier. Because honestly I don`t know what I`ll do for the whole month of July and august except go out of my mind before school starts. Everyone will be working except for me and I`ll get home too late to go up to school for summer term. Anyway, it`s something to think about, because I`m thinking more than very heavily in extending my mission; I just have to get the ok from my mission president. Anyway, I hope you`re all doing well. Love you mucho. 

Gwogurdy, Hi-a bradda. I liked your Paradise Lost PoGP connection. That`s something I was thinking about a lot back when I was serving in Olanchito, who exactly is my God. Sometimes we put so many other things in our lives before we put God that we unawaredly replace him. I think it`s for that that the 10 commandments say we will love no other gods before God, because God knows that His children often let other things replace Him. Sure we don`t worship planets or suns or animals or trees, but which do we worship more, God or TV, God or internet, God or fashion, God or a thousand other things that replace Him with. It reminds me very much of Jeffrey R. Holland`s talk back in October of 2012 when He spoke of Jesus asking Peter if he loved Him. It`s the same with our Heavenly Father: He asks us if we love Him, and if we answer yes, He expects us to leave our metaphorical nets behind. As C.S. Lewis noted, He (God) does not want a part of us, He wants all of us. He asked fishers to leave their nets, families to leave their homes, the wealthy to leave their riches, parents to leave their children. He expects us to love Him more than any other thing in the world, and for that He asked Abraham, who had waited hundreds of years to gain the identity of father, to give up his very identity in giving up his only son. God does not want fence-sitters. God expects us to choose this day whom we will serve and worship no other gods before Him. It`s a slightly terrifying but also inspiring thought. Anyway, I hope you`re super happy. If you want me to set you up with this Honduran named Lilian, I`ve already decided she would be an acceptable sister-in-law. hahaha Love you, bradda!

 

Anyway, that`s about all, folks. May you reach your goals this year and may you smile and laugh more in the year to come than in the year that has passed. I love you all oodly doodlies!

Hna The Bayles

December 23, 2013


I live here






Dear Famlings, 



I am Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime went on divisions in La Victoria. Optimus Prime had to ¨sleep¨ on a hard tile floor without any blankets or cardboard and Optimus Prime´s body didn´t like it. Optimus Prime and Optimus Prime´s companion ended up talking half the night because they could not sleep on the hard floor. It was awesome. 

New recliner, eh? Lauren´s picture told me. haha I dig it. :) You should put the old one on the back porch so I can Honduras it up when I get home hahahahahahaha. 

Welp, this week has been crazy crazy crazy (no surprises there, eh? jejeje). The elder who had his appendix removed is doing better, but we´ve had to work with him on a couple of things, and this week we had to send another sister home. She broke her ankle doing... well I´m not sure exactly what, but it´s broken. The bad thing is she has to go home. The good thing is she only had 7 weeks left anyway and this way she´ll be home for Christmas. Cheers for conveniently timed inconveniences. haha. The only really hard thing is that I was in divisions in La Victoria of Fesitrahn when all this happened, so I had to set everything up from outside of SPS. My new calling makes both of my old (and still active) callings a lot more difficult and complicated, but it´s good, I think. It´s really hard work doing everything I´ve got to do, but I´m sure yáll already know that I love a challenge and that I like being busy more than I like being bored, so it´s a good thing. I also really love it because I get to be companions with sister Morales, who is already one of my best friends in the mission. She arrived in the mission 2 weeks after me and we were in the same district for my first cambio. We´ve always kept tabs in the mission, and now we´re super companions. We teach really well together and more importantly in the sense of our companionship, we have a lot of fun together. (Although I will add that sometimes I worry that we have a bit too much fun. We often have uncontrollable laughter attacks, and they usually hit just as we are beginning to sing ëscuchad el son triunfal¨ at the beginning of a lesson... nobody really understands why. haha). Anyway, she´s from Guatemala City. She lives in a community that translates to mean Saint Nicholas´ forest, so I´ve been bugging her about having infinite Christmas Spirit. Which reminds me:

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ADAM!!!!! 

For those of you who don´t know of what I speak, Christmas Adam comes before Christmas Eve, and is therefore: today. Happy day. :) Other than that, things are pretty normal here on the Honduran front. The 24 we have to enter at 6 pm because Hondurans are so crazy (love them!) and the 25 is a normal day. By the way, we´ll be calling from our bishop´s house, so I´ll be calling at probably 2 or 3 my time, although we´ll be there at bishop+s house from 1 pm and on until we´ve all (me and the other 3 hnas I live with) had the chance to call. I know that´s a super huge time window, but I figure you´ll all be in the house sleeping or watching movies, so we´re all good to go. I´ll be calling from Google chat again (si Dios lo permite), so any of the sibs (or other familiares) that want to participate are welcome (and expected haha) to join. I hope to see and hear from you all. Mom and Dad, I got both of your packages, and Eileen, I hope you won´t be upset that my companion and I opened the package from you and we completely dominated that trail mix in one companionship study... haha it was really tasty. I did really like the decorated post card. :) 

This week will be a completely crazy kind of week. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve (which is to say, Christmas in the world of Honduras), so the whole world will be going crazy. Christmas day everybody sleeps, so I doubt anyone will talk to us as we wander aimlessly in the abandoned streets haha. I think we´ll probably just wake up all the members with Christmas carols and bug them to give us tamales. hahahahahahha. Life in Honduras. Thursday we´ve got a Drs appointment to go to, Friday we´ll be in divisions (and it´s also Hna Vance´s birhtdya... she´s one of my house-mates. We bought her a piñata of a tomato. She misses vegetables almost as much as I do. We´re gonna wallop it with a glittery stick. We´re thinking of filling it with carrots instead of candy. It´s gonna be sweet). Anyway, as soon as we get back from Choloma (where we´ll be in divisions) we have to start another day of divisions in San Pedro. That will be crazy, but it´ll be fine. Anyway, life is crazy. 

 

Eileen, That´s awesome about the temple. I tell everyone I talk to that the very first thing I´m going to do when I get home is go to the temple. I miss it so so much. More than my home-country, more than English, more than Christmas. I absolutely can´t wait to enter into the Lord´s Holy House again. I hope someday I´ll be able to work in the temple like you. :) Love ya lots!

 

Andrea and Jim, That´s too bad that Nigil had to get his appendix out, but I´ll be praying that he heals up nice and fast. Send some of that cold weather down here, will ya? haha A Very Merry Christmas to you all.  :) Love yous!

 

Mom, The iguana is named ¨What.¨ Hna Joaquin named it that... nobody really understands why. I don´t know if I¨ll be able to get more of the black and white nativities, sorry. I´ll try, but they only make like 10 every year and I already bought the last 3 they made. I´ll try to do some persuasion... I´ve got connections in Guamilito. haha. Taht´s cool about your dr story. I liked it a lot, although I was slightly preocupada when you started with ¨about three months ago I went to see my dr...¨´ haha. That´s cool, though. Loves you!

 

Dad, Phone call from Honduras, eh? I think you weren´t just talking to cualquier missionary... I think you were talking to sister Dester, the mission president´s wife. She´s the only other person who works on nursing stuff. She didn´t say anything about it to me, but that´s all I can imagine. That´s cool though that she called you. She´s one of my very favorite people in the world. We end up talking on the phone just about every night for nursing stuff. Sounds like you had a fun Sunday and tell Matt I say Hhola. :) Love you!

 

Greg, Sounds like that schoolin business is crazy. I´m glad you´re all done with the semester and I´m glad you liked your murse. I saw it in Guamilito and thought of you, especially when I saw the dragon things. They also had horses and stuff, but the force was with me and I went with Dragons (cause I know how you feel about them). Your next semester sounds rockin and if you feel good about a year off, you just go for it. That sounds good to me. Anyway, talk to you soon. Love ya!

 

I´ll talk to you all Christmas Day! (like 2 or 3 or 4 o´clock)

Lovesy doodles!

Hna Bayles

December 15, 2013


WOAH. This week was crazy. First, I have to tell you the best and most exciting news of all, which begins with sleep talking. This will be a bit of a spoiler, for future news, but my new companion was telling me that I´ve been talking in my sleep the last two nights or so, and when I asked her what I had said, IT WAS IN SPANISH! I´m so full of Spanish that it even leaks out when I´m sleeping. THAT´S what´s up. :) I think that´s one of the proudest moments of my mission. I mean, I´ve been dreaming in Spanish since the MTC, I think, but sleep-talking? That´s a new level of awesome. 

Secondly, (also a spoiler of future news) you will all be happy to hear that I am still enjoying the funny moments and happenings in Honduras. (as a side note, have I ever told you that I love Honduras and Hondurans? Cause I do. A WHOLE lot). I recently moved to a new house, a house which was built by and for Hondurans. I, though I try my hardest to convince people of the contrary, am not Honduran. What does this mean? That the wall of the bathroom was built far too close to the toilet for my freakishly long Gringa legs, and I must therefore sit sideways on the toilet. hahahahahahahahaha. I´m sending a picture. :)

Third. I suppose this is third and fourth. Third would be something that is actually old news, but I can´t remember if I told you all it or not, and that is that throughout the world, missions now have sister leaders. They´re somewhere between Zone leader and AP status and it´s completely ridiculous. Fourth would be that I am now one of those ridiculouses. Oops. haha. I´ve actually known I would be one for a while; President was chatting with me one or two changes ago and made an offhand remark about how he wanted me to be able to train other missionaries on a large scale (which is what these leader things do), but that he didn´t know how to work it out because he needs me as the nurse. The solution in my head was that I train a new nurse and get to move on to happy days without doing nursing stuff. President´s decision was a little more creative. To create a new breed of missionary called the Bayles who does everything all in one. Sneaky, right? So, I´m still the nurse, but I´m also one of four sister leaders in the mission. Also, I am officially the Gringa with the most time in the mission. Are we freaking out yet? Anyway, that means that I get to call all of the sisters throughout the week and see how they´re doing and help them out and stuff. I also go on divisions throughout the northwest part of our mission (the other sisters are working in the south part) with all them sister folk. Anyway, surprise. It´s what´s up. 

So I guess that leads to my other bit of news, which is that I had cambios and am now in Los Castaños (still in San Pedro), which is kind of fun, because it is where I spent my very first night in the mission and there´s a good chance that it´s where I´ll finish the mission. I guess we´ll see about that. Also, Eileen, the Bishop´s wife is one of the sisters you met a year ago in the temple. Also, hermano Romero, the one we ate dinner with, just came into the office and we chatted. He sends saludos and says he hopes you are well and happy. You´re pretty much a super star here. That whole family talks about you all the time. They always say you´re really beautiful and kind and loving and that you´re very elegant (which has several meanings here; the most common are: tall, white, beautiful, or elegant). 

My final news is that every single companionship of missionaries that I´m over (the sisters, of course) has at least one person sick, and my phone has been ringing non-stop. haha. We got another dog bite, and it´s just about the worst one I´ve seen yet. I¨d send you the pictures, but I think that´s a HIPAA violation, and even though HIPAA doesn´t exist here, my mission blog was created in the states, so when you all post this email, it will officially become a HIPAA violation. Weird, I know.  

My new house has a pet lizard... ok, giant tropical orange and green and grey iguana. It lives behind our pila where we wash our clothes and comes out during the day to soak up some rays. He totally loves me. He never comes out for the other sisters. Apparently I´m still an animal person. 

I can tell that Christmas is getting closer because Hondurans are so crazy and they get even crazier about Christmas. Fireworks and firecrackers and ¨fireworks¨ (they´re actually small bombs) go off every little while throughout the day and people run around crazy eating tamales. I love hondurans so much. They are such a joyful (and slightly crazy) people. I really just love them. 

 

Thanks so much for the emails

. Sounds like things are going well for you and that the family is cute as always. Thanks so much for the quotes. I will share one with you from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I´ve never actually read it, but a friend gave me this quote and I¨ve kind of made it my life recently. It reminds of one of my new favorite scriptures, in Matt 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.¨¨ This has become my life. It´s who I am. Maren ended on the 5 of December 2012, and I´m positive she´ll never quite come back. There´s someone new and different in her spot who wears two names: one for where she comes from and one for who she is. Bayles is where she started, and representative of Jesus Christ is where she´s ending up. Anyway, here´s the quote:

 

Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’


I made a purchase of about 30 dollars with my card today as a test and about an hour later I got a call from my mission president saying that my bank was trying to get ahold of me. I called wells fargo, but I think they still think I´m fraudulent. Anyway, if you get any word on that, that´s why. The good news is that I had to call WF, which ended up in them asking me for my SSN and my PIN, neither of which I remember(ed), however, after guessing about 8 times, I finally guessed my SSN and I took a risky guess on my PIN and it was right, so that whole business is fixed. :) Thanks for your help on that. The story on the boxes is this: they are and aren´t Christmas presents. One is a birthday-Christmas-life present for Greg because I saw it and it reminded me of him. The other is something for GGB, because I thought they would like it. The rest is a temporary gift, as in, it´s actually something I sent home for me (the nativities that were in the pictures I sent). BUT I sent it home in time for you to put it up in the house while you´re all waiting for your real presents, which will not arrive in time for Christmas. :( The thing is that all of these nativities are made by hand, so today I went to buy all of your nativities and each one is a little different. It´s kind of fun to see. But that means that you can´t just go pick up a million all at once, so I´m in the process of picking them up. I think I´ll just send them all to the Bayles hub and when I get home everybody can make their claim. You´ll only be able to have the ones I sent home up for this Christmas, but by next Christmas you´ll each have your individual nativities to put up. :) With the pictures, I try to show people how to take pictures, but they´re just so unaccustomed to taking pictures that they only turn out well when I take them. Anyway, we´ll definitely be talking by google chat. I´ll probably give you details next monday... I don´t even know what our schedule is like tomorrow, so we´ll see about that all when it´s closer. 


I got the packages today. Still haven´t opened them, but we´´ll see what´s up. Here they celebrate more on the 24 than the 25, so we´ll be wokring normally until about 6 at night, when we´ll enter the house and hide from all of the crazy Hondurans with their fireworks hahahaha. the 25 everyone just sleeps, so I think we´ll be doing something different. We are having Christmas parties with the President and Sister Dester this week, so that should be fun. :) Aside form that, Christmas is just a normal day. :) That´s cool taht you invited people to the Christmas pageant. You´re right in that the key to missionary work is diligence. Sometimes I feel like the most pushy bothersome person in the world, but in the end they love it. I was reading in Jacob 5 the other day about how the Lord waited until a tree had shown forth good fruits to nourish it and help it along iits way. I was thinking about how we have to do the same here. Some of the missionaries try to force poeple into the church, but the truth of the matter is that this gospel is such a blessing and treasure that those who are prepared to receive it will show forth fruits, and that´s when we really begin to push and noursih them. Man, I love being a missionary. Wepll for sure talk this Christmas. I don´t know what I´ll have to tell you, but I guess we´ll see. 

 

Anyway, I love you all ooooooodly dooooooodlies and I hope you´re having a great week full of love and candy. 

 
Also, a belated birthday wish to Greg, Kristen, Andrea, and Max as well as an early birthday wish for Heidi and my friend Holli C. Felicidades! Love yáll!

The Bayles. 

 

p.s. the picture of me being all wet goes with a story. My comp never carries an umbrella, and it began to rain like a quetzal in flight (side note: the quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, but there are more quetzals on CocaCola mountain here in SPS than in all of Guatemala combined), so we were sharing the umbrella. We arrived back at the apartment after walking through water up to our knees and rain up to our noses and the other sisters we lived with asked, ¨ay hermanas! ¿Que pasó? No tuvieron paragua?!¨ and I took one look at them and said, ¨oh no, we had an umbrella... imagine how we would have turned out if we had left it at home!¨ hahahaha I don´t know if that translates to be funny, but it was hilarious in Spanish. You can see that the only dry spot was were my mochila was haha. Taht´s what we call soaked. 

 

December 9, 2013


Sorry these blogs were late posting!


Dear family, 

We´re still in the paper age here. For example, they still vote by hand (well, by paper) so for the next three days after elections they all had ink on their pinky fingers from proving their identity. haha.
 
It is indeed hard to fit teaching and serving and contacting into the busy schedule of being the nurse, but we´re getting it done just fine. Honestly my first priority is still finding and teaching, just sometimes the sicklings get in the way (actually they get in the way a lot haha). 

Sometimes the Lord gives us big shoes, but it always nice to look back and see that you´ve fit the bill.

It´s always hard for me to be a part of sending a missionary home. I´ve had to send home quite a few, and it´s always a big struggle which requires lots of prayer and fasting. And no matter what comes of it, it always makes me a little sad to watch them go.
 
I forget that coldness exists, honestly. I´m sweating as I write this. haha (you all wanted to know that, I´m sure). I put up some decorations myself, although not many. Also, I have cambios this week, so all of that work was for nothing. haha. 

Christmas doesn´t feel like it´s coming up. Maybe it´s because it´s a million degrees with humidity or maybe it´s because I´m not really thinking about Christmas. Who knows? People here are crazy about Christmas, though. They eat tamales like crazy, they shoot off fireworks every 2 seconds, they put up so many Christmas decorations. It´s great. They also burn-blow up a piñata on new years eve to burn the old year and welcome the new. The piñata is normally made to be  a man, the devil, or the current political leader. hahahaha. Hondurans are so crazy and I love it.

I have no idea what time zone I´m writing on right now... I just know that right this instant it´s 5:16 and by the time I send this it will probably be like 5:45 or 6. I´ll let you know what goes down as we get closer to hablando, though. I hope. 

I´m glad mom´s song went well. She always does  agreat job. Yay for work being over! :) I did see the Christmas Devotional, but I watched it in Spanish, which always makes it different. It was good though. Thanks for everything.

We had a good Sunday. It was stake conference, so that was pretty chill. That´s great that Kathryn went to church with you. That´s one thing I regret more than anything: not sharing the gospel with more people before the mission. I look back now and think of some of my friends and they were practically begging to know about the church and I just didn´t get it. I always tell the members here, we should share the gospel like we share food. We are willing to tell people, ¨Hey , I just tried this new plac eand the food is AMAZING. I loved it so much. you should definitely go. In fact, I´ll take you! Let´s go right now:¨ And yet, when it comes to something so much more important and everlasting than food, we are timid and embarassed and shy about sharing. We should invite people to church like we invite people to eat; after all, isn´t it so much better than a burger?

I will get those nativities and I will keep an eye out for the packages. The cloth may be different for the different nativities, so you´ll just have to duke it out. haha. 

Angie is in labor?!!! Don´t you think about 6 months ago you should have told me that Angie is pregnant before telling me she´s in labor?! hahahaha Holy Cow! That´s great! I´m going to have a new adoptive niece! Woah! That´s awesome. :) Glad you said something, cause otherwise I´d get home and be like, who´s taht baby? Who else is marrying or pregnant?

I´m glad Elise is ok. Taht´s sad that she fell, but I guess that´s a part of getting up, eh? Que scary. 

I just barely received a letter from J_____, although with cambios this week, I don´t know when I´ll be able to respond.

Thanks for the love and support, I love you lots. 

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and that you´re loving life. Smile big and laugh hard for me. Love you all lots. 
love, 

Hna Bayles