Hi guys,
 |
| Roasting Marshmallows over a candle |
This week I think I want to send a few photos, so this might
be kind of short. I don´t have many photos seeing as we carry our cameras even
less here in Olanchito than we did in Puerto, but I´m going to send what I´ve
got.
Did I ever tell you all about the awesome adobe houses in my
area? Most of them are smaller than my bedroom back home, and most of them
house more than 4 people (let´s be honest, usually more than 6 or 8). The
majority of them are out in the campo in the colonia 25 de noviembre where we
don´t take our cameras, so I don´t have any pictures, but one of these days,
I´ll get a picture. We have three families we´re teaching out there, and one
less-active member, so we´ll probably be spending quite a bit of time down
there in the next few weeks. It takes a half hour walking to get there, so we
mostly visit all of them at once. There are a lot more houses with dirt floors
here, a lot more people without electricity and plumbing, and a lot more people
who cook their meals in an adobe wood-fire stove.
We did a service project down in the satelite de la 25 de
noviembre this last week where we patched up the spaces between the planks in a
tiny one-room wooden house. They said the light comes in through the slats and
wakes them up in the morning. We cut up a cardboard refrigerator box and nailed
it over the slats with shoe tacks to keep out the light. I was the designated
¨close to the roof¨ nailer, because I was the tallest. I had to stand on a
wicked old log to get some of the higher areas, but we got most of it done.
We´re going to go back and finish some other time when we have more cardboard.
It was a service project organized by the ward, and I think it turned out
really well; the family was really pleased and grateful. They´re like 60 years
old, but he got hit by a taxi last month and his leg is super gnarly, so he
can´t really do anything.  |
| Quidditch, anyone? |
We also helped clean the church building this week, because
it´s been under construction for a bit and there´s dust everywhere. It´s so
interesting to see how people clean differently here. For example, when we
cleaned the church building back home, we only ever cleaned the inside; I
suppose it never occured to us to clean the outside. Here, we cleaned the
outside for several hours, and this is how we did it. Spray with hose. Dunk
brooms in trash can filled with water and mysterious ¨soap.¨ Scrub every
visible surface with broom (walls, cement, walkways, planter boxes, roof).
Spray with hose again. The church looks great. For a while there, it (and we)
were very wet.
Started another English class.
We found a lot of new people yesterday. I think they have a
lot of promise for the immediate future, but who knows? We totaled 16 new
investigators this week, which is (a record for us!) good because we just
dropped pretty much all of our other investigators. We had so much hope for
them, and the saddest thing is that each person we had to drop had already
accepted baptism and had been progressing for this whole time. God´s timing is
God´s timing, but sometimes I just want His timing to be my own timing, you
know? But oh well. Someday they´ll get there.
4 of the news we found are punk teenagers. haha (aka future
missionaries and future priesthood holders). They´re friends of Edy (dunno if
I´ve told yáll about him?) who´s name, it turns out, might actually be Edil. It
sounds exactly the same, just saying. Anyway, we´ve been having to teach Edy in
the street lately because he´s not allowed to leave his neighborhood after dark
(which is to say after 6 in the afternoon). We usually find him playing soccer
in the street or just chilling with his friends on the side of the road. We
always invite his friends to join us, but they were usually too busy pretending
not to listen to actually listen, but this last week, they´ve been more and
more receptive. It finally got to the point where we were singing a hymn to
start the lesson with Edy on the side of the road when we realized that his
friends were starting to gather. Then Edy called over all the rest and said,
¨hey, quit playing futbol, we´re gonna say a prayer and learn about God!¨ We
were sitting on the curb and all of his friends were sitting crossed-legged
around us, like a kindergartedn teacher in front of her cute lil class (a
member who saw it said it looked like a bunch of chicks huddled around a hen
haha). Edy was telling his friends to be respectful and listen (and they did).
One of them who took particular interest in me (don´t worry, he´s a harmless
zipote) was asking us if we could get married while we were in Honduras. We
said no. He asked if we could have a boyfriend while we´re in Honduras. We said
no, that that was definitely prohibited in the mission. He asked us how long a
mission was. We told him a year and a half. He said, ¨man! I have to wait so
long!¨ (hahahaha). That´s when we decided to teach 10 teenage boys the law of
chastity, right there on the side of the road. hahahaha The best part is that
they were totally receptive and really seemed to get it. Of those 10-ish boys,
4 have been in other lessons consistently and carried over to last night´s
lesson. We were sitting at an old wooden picnic-style table in front of a
pulperia-food place teaching Edy when we heard the gate open and close behind
us. We were singing, so we didn´t really look up, but we heard it open and
close again and again and again. We finished singing and turned around to find
5 of Edy´s friends sitting there grinning. We invited them over, and they came.
They prayed, we taught them, they asked lots of questions, and they prayed
again. These Huirros. haha. They´re good kids. They all said they want to serve
missions (mostly because they want to go somewhere else in the world). We told
them that was a possibility, but they had to learn more and be baptized first.
hahaha. Anyway, we´ll see what happens with them.
MOTHER´S DAY CALL. I´m planning to sign on to my old gmail
account (the mjbayles one... hopefully the username and password are the same)
to use google chat with whoever is available around 6:30/7 Honduras time Sunday
night. I believe that Honduras is on the same time as Utah right now, but I´m
not 100 percent sure. You´ll have to check that out. If that time doesn´t
work... well, I dunno. (We´ll leave Monday or the next Sunday as a backup plan,
no worries). Eileen,
That´s cool that you got to spend time with the fam. We´re
finding the same ¨we´re Catholic, but we love what you´re teaching¨ business
here all the time. haha. The members are helpful, but the work would be so much
easier if the members were more involved in finding investigators and
friendshipping investigators/recent converts. It´s so true. Loved your puns!
haha Thanks for all the love and support. Love you lots!
Pops,
I loved your manly tree-ripping story. Reminds me of a book,
or a movie, or maybe just my imagination of some giant ripping trees out of the
ground. The Birthday celebration sounds fun. I hope all the fam is doing well.
That´s great that you got to see Nath for a bit. You´re ¨let it go¨ bit was
awesome. So true. And I´m grateful for the Harry Potter reference. I´m in
withdrawals. Thanks for everything! Love you tons!
Mumsie,
Hi the Lewises and Lukers! Love you guys!
Elise sounds like a doll. :) I´m excited to see all of the
annoyingly consistent videos you´re taking of her (HINT HINT) haha. That´s cool
that you got to go up to Parowan. I pretty much live there, just in Honduras.
That stinks about Greg´s superfrozen fingers. I´m just glad he´s still got ´em.
I´m glad your marriage class is rockin. I bet it´s super fun. Loved your joy in
the small moments thought. Thanks for that. :) Thanks for everything! Love you
mucho!
Lots and lots of love,
Hna Bayles
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