October 27, 2013

Hoi!

I would like to announce that this week I ate a chicken´s heart and liver (and ascending aorta if we´re being specific), something I´ve never done before. I would like to announce that I liked it. Also, I was extremely surprised by how very similar the chicken´s organs are to human organs. They´re exactly the same, just more tiny (thus more cute? I just don´t know, but that seems to be life rule #347, so I think I´ll stick to it...?). Also, I remember discussing in Physiology classes how very smooth the walls of the heart and arteries are. Little did I know, HE WASN´T KIDDING; those things are so smooth! I also ate a McFlurry this week. Who knew such sophisticated things exist here in Honduras?

I was remember something funny about Concepcion the other day and I couldn´t remember if I´d told yáll or not: Back when Concepcion was still a non-member, we went to visit her one day and found a water bottle looking thing filled with what looked like marijuana. Although it´s not that unusual to see marijuana here, it IS a little strange to see it in the house of your 85-year-old investigator who is working towards baptism, so we asked her, ¨Hey Concepcion, what´s that?¨ She looked at us for half a second and said, ¨Marijuana mixed with alcohol.¨ Oh. Ok. haha. We just looked at her for a minute to see if she was joking or serious, and when she made a slightly embarrased face and laughed a nervous laugh, we knew she wasn´t joking. She later explained that it wasn´t to smoke or drink or anything like that, but that she put it on her joints to make them feel better. She told us it was the ¨natural¨ remedy. hahahahahahaha. Whatcha gonna go? She´s 86 years old, she can do what she wants. hahahahaha

We hiked the CocaCola Mountain today, but the giant Hollywood style letters are down below in an area where you have to walk through ticks, stinging bugs, spiders the size of your hand, and poisonous snakes to get to them, so we just took pictures from the lookout above them. By the way, I saw the hugest spider ever today. Also, I saw a poisonous snake fly out of the monte (scrub? I don´t remember how to say it in English) and attack a bearded lizard who was running across the dirt path on his two back legs. My life is so Discovery channel. Or maybe Animal Planet. I also saw a goat today. 

Finally, yesterday I had the incomparable pleasure of hearing one of my recent converts giving a talk about the priesthood yesterday. He also asked the bishop for a calling in the church because he wants to serve. That is what I like to call Pilas.  :)

 

[In response to specific items within emails:]

scooter? Man oh man, I would give my left foot for that little piece of beauty. Augh. Also, I would give my left foot for full-time missioaries who search out people to teach. Man-oh-man. How awesome is that. Those little baby-folk sound pretty awesome. Thanks for the scriptures and the love!

Halloween weekend sounds like it was pretty fun. But isn´t halloween this week? Hmmm? I was thinking about the foam ghosts in the entryway and the spiderwebs all over the house. I´m bummed that they don´t really celebrate halloween here, but I´ll get another one some day. Remind me that I´m going to dress up as the sunkist raisin girl next halloween (one of the elders told me that I´m her hahahahaa). Elise´s tuotle and Noah´s donkey donk sound so cute. I miss those lil guys. Autumn. What is that? Oh man. Thanks for the love and support!

 

Woah-ho-ho]! That´s really cold [40 degrees F]. When I come into the office, I almost can´t stand the air conditioning. And that´s like, 75 degrees. Soooo coooooold. That´s cool that you got to go up to Parawon and that you´ll get to see grandma and grandpa. Take good care of my scoot scoot. You know how I love that thing. Hey, thanks for errthing! Lovesies. 

 

Adioooooooos!

Hna Bayles

20 Oct 2013

Hola familia!

Disease of the week: amoebic dysentery. That´s what´s up. :) No worries, he´ll be completely fine after these antiparasite pills. 

Another note: a woman from my ward here in SPS is going to be in Las Vegas 16 of November for like 8 days, so if you want to hang out with her or send something back with her, she´d probably be happy and willing to do it. She´s really great. She only speaks spanish, but her son (who will be with her) speaks english. 

This week, we saw two very fat chihuahuas this week. They looked like two very fat overstuffed sausages with huge round eyeballs. They were so chubby and over-excited. We´ve decided that if we continue in SPS, we´re going to be these two little sausage dogs. Companions and all. 

 

I really enjoyed reading your letter. Thanks for including the clip from Nigil. Man, if I could live in the MTC again, I´d do it. It´s such a spiritual and wonderful place. I had the greatest spiritual experience of my life in the MTC, and I don´t see why anyone wouldn´t want to be there. Man, what a place. I´m glad you´re enjoying the Youth Center. I know it´s a huge responsability, and probably something where you probably don´t see the fruits of your labor, but it´s such a beautiful and important calling. 

By the way, I met the Honduran version of you and she almost made me cry because she reminded me so much of you. 

Thanks for everything. I really am so grateful for your love and support and for everything yoiu´ve done for me. Lots of love. 

 

I really am pretty healthy here: I know yáll get to hear about the extreme cases, but it really is a pretty healthy place here. Lauren wants another dog, eh? That would be pretty fun. Grandma and Grandpa are always having adventures, eh? Poor things. They just have so many complications in their life right now. I really hope they´re happy and doing well. 

We had that same lesson this last sunday, and it was so good. I´ve heard that story before, but I loved hearing it again. It really testified to me that this church is not the church of any mortal man, but the church of Jesus Christ. That when one leader in the church passes away or has to be released, the church goes on. That to me is such a testimony of the Divine source of this work. Welp, thanks for the letter and for all of your love and support. Love you tons.

 

I liked what you said about that there is no easy passage through life. I think it was Brigham Young who said that every trial we face is NECESSARY for our exaltation. It really puts things in perspective, eh? 

So, what you´re telling me is that your marriage class was a ¨til death do you part¨ kind of assignment? bhahahahaha. I hope more people start going to your class and learnin how to be more lovey dovey. Tell them to read the family: a proclamation the the world. Then they´ll want to go to your class. 

I´m jealous of your pumpkin cookies. We definitely don´t have an oven. People don´t use ovens here. If they have an oven, they use it as an extra cupboard or pantry. I remember the first time I saw someone pull some groceries out of the oven, followed by a bowl and a spatula. I was so confused. How bout you just make me some pumpkin cookies in like a year. Sounds good. 

That´s funny that you mention the moon. I was looking at it with a grumpy old man named Ramón the other day and he said, ¨You´re parents are looking at that same moon right now, thinking of you.¨ I wonder if you really were looking at it right in that moment. Some day I´ll look at that moon and hope that Honduras is looking back at me. Funny how life does the old switcheroo on you. haha. Anyway, thanks for the letter and the love. Love you lots. 

 

To finish off, I just want to testify of the power of the fast. We were fasting to find new investigators this week, especially a family. We walked into one investigator´s house and found 3, two of which are part of a (hopefully golden) family that we contacted later in the week. The other is a bit of a funny story. About three months ago, we contacted a woman in the house of algunas investigators. We really wanted to teach her, but had to leave without getting her contact information. We then spent the next two weeks searching for her but never found her. For the last three months, I´ve been looking for her, and last week we walked into this investigator´´s house after fasting to find people who would progress and less than 2 minutes later, she showed up for an impromptu visit, saying she didn´t know why but she just had the thought to visit this person. God works miracles. I don´t know what will happen with this investigator, but I know God has brought her back into my path for a reason, and I intend to find out why. 

 

I had something else I wanted to tell you, but I can´t for the life of me remember what. Anywya, I hope you´re all happy and well. Love you tons!

Hna Bayles

 

October 14, 2013 - Columbus Day!

Flesh eating bacteria? Been there, done that. Some day I will send you all a picture of the poor elder´s leg. You know, back when I was studying parasites and microbiology, I almost didn´t believe that necrotizing fasciitis exists, and really it´s such a rare bacteria that it almost doesn´t exist... but here in good ol´ Honduras where everything is bigger, scarier, germier, and moister, it´s just something that I get to write home about. Cheers for that. We´ve also got an inexplicable illness going around (you know, going around central america) that absolutely destroys the intestines. It´s an unidentifiable, untreatable, unknown SOMETHING (probably a parasite) that is taking out a missionary or two every couple of months and leaving them with lifelong post-infectious IBS. Who knew being nurse in a climate and area that is a living growing petri dish could be so... exciting?! The good news is, things like these are a rarity. :) We´re healthy as a mission, for the most part.

 

Honduras also has a Florida and a Las Vegas haha. The story behind the name ¨Honduras¨ is that when Christopher Columbus landed here in Honduras, he said, ¨thank God we´re out of those stormy depths¨ or something like that, and the name ¨the depths¨ just stuck I guess. For that same reason, the cape where he landed is called ¨Gracias a Dios,¨ or ¨thank God.¨

Our investigators are suddenly very sparse. haha. We just had to drop every single investigator we had for one or more reasons, but we´re basically starting over at ground zero. The good thing is, we still have a good pool of less-actives that we´re visiting and we just found a bunch more. Anyway, it´ll probably be a rough start getting back up with investigators, but sometimes everybody just decides to be unprepared all at once. haha 

I´m glad to hear that Nigil is doing well and is safely in Columbia. Those first few weeks are super rough, cause you have no idea what anyone´s saying and you have no idea how to respond, but tell him it will come with time (even though it doesn´t feel like it right now). One day he´ll just wake up and realize that he´s fluent. It´s incredible. 

Sounds like all the family stuff was great. It´s small little moments like those that you miss in the mision, not necessarily the big moments. :) Take care and thanks so much for everything. Love you! (hey, by the way, you´ve been in my dreams every single night for the past 2 or 3 weeks. It´s nice to see you, even when I can´t see you. Also, Brian made a candid appearance last night, so that was a fun little reunion). 

 

You´re right about the admin bit, although I would say the frustration is mostly that being the nurse for the mission really should be a full-time calling (actually it IS a full time calling; Hna Tolliver´s mission call was to be the nurse, but to also be a missionary... I´m just filling in haha), which means that I can be a great nurse or I can be a great missionary or I can give a great effort at doing the both, but it´s a little tricky. hahaha. Add training a new missionary to that and you may as well just hand me my red boots and my golden lasso and call me wanna-be-wonder-woman. hahahaha Just kidding. If I had the super powers to do it all, then you I could earn my stars, as it were. Although I must say, the things I have seen so far count for about 20 years in medical practice, because I´ve already seen so many rare diseases and treated so many every-day occurances. I´m trying to thing if PA school will count all of these hours as Clinical hours.... That would be SPECTACULAR and would make it possible for me to go right into PA school after BYU. But that´s in the Happily Ever After part of this story, and we´ve not quite vanquished the villain yet, so let´s not get ahead of ourselves. 

The Primary President sounds awesome. I look forward to meeting her in the Happily Ever After. The seminary also sounds awesome (the biking one, not the boring bee-hum one). ;) I really miss riding my bike. I think when the opportunity presents itself, I´ll just ride my bike everywhere.    

Wow, I am so proud and excited for Josh. That is such happy news. Man, I just am so happy for him. Tell him I couldn´t be more proud and I know he´s made the right decision. 

I loved the scripture and loved the message. Thanks so much for everything, Pop-a-dooodle-doo. Love you!

I lurved the package, so thanks a bundle. It was really great. I also loved the picture, although I can´t say i say the message of the ants. I´ll have to look again. Another happy thing is that I got the package from La-dee. It was awesome. I absolutely loved the pictures of the kids, but the picture of Arie made me cry. She´s not a little girl anymore. Who gave her permission to grow up so fast and turn out so gorgeous? Augh, I can´t believe she´ll be in Young women´s when I get back. I just can´t handle that. Anyway, loved the package so tell La-Deee thanks a million. :)

That reminds me, I just sent my first package to yáll. This package is a test package of rubbage that weighed a fair amount so I can know whether it´s safe to send other things that are not quite so rubbishy. I talked to a bunch of other North Americans who say not to even bother because nothing ever arrives, but I´m trying it anyway. So, if a random pepto bismol box (yep, I sure am the nurse... we plow through that stuff in the mission) shows up addressed to Mumsie and Pop-a-doodle-doo, it´s probably from Honduras. Specifically me. 

Changes of the week, Ana, who has been inactive for 14 years finally came to church and loved it! Also, Joél is reading the book of mormon and is working on finding a new job so he can come to church. :) Baby steps, they may seem, but to me, they are 4 months of work finally paying off. I love my less-active members. I always knew Visiting Teaching was important. Plug for the relief society from Preach my Gospel: Harold B. Lee: ¨Missionary work is but home teaching to those who are not now members of the Church, and home teaching is nothing more or less than missionary work to Church members.¨

That is a cool and happy scripture. I love links between old and new and everything. 

Tell Sister Clayton and Gail I say OOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIY! (Hey!) and I love them. Whenever people see the pictures of the family that I have, I always just classify the picture of Gail and I at the temple as, ¨that´s me and my aunt,¨or some other family description. I´m glad you get to talk to Kathryn about church stuff. She´s such a nice and friendly lady. :)

Tell grandma and grandpa I say hey and I love them oodly bunches. I pray for them all the time and hope everything is good with them. 

It blows my mind that it´s not still summer there. I just. It´s still summer. Here. And will be. Forever. I just can´t quite understand it. haha

 

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and that you are loving life. I´m going to sign off now-ish, but first I want to tell you one little story. 

 

We went to visit family Moncada (Eileen, Hna Romero, the one I met in your house, was there, as were her sisters... the Moncadas are her parents and they´re in my ward here in SPS). Brother Moncada has had very serious health problems and had a very close call in dialysis this week. We sat and talked ot him for a bit and listened as he wept that he wanted to enter the temple one more time before he dies, and he still wants to serve a mission with his wife, and he doesn´t want to leave his greatest treasure, his family behind. I sat there and thought of the faith of this beautiful family,a dn the joy in knowing that, even though when he eventually does leave his family behind, it will only be for a moment because of the sealing promise of the temple. After a bit of time listening and comforting him, we asked him if we could sing a hymn. His wife told us for him, ¨he wants to sing his favorite.¨ We then turned to no. 137¨¨Tu me has dado muchas bendiciones Dios¨ and sang a hymn of gratitud. He wept and wept and wept. I cannot fully understand the unshakeable and determined faith of this dear and beloved family. They are truly a part of my family here in Honduras, and I hope someday to be a little more like them. 

 

Know I love you all tons and wish you all a very happy Columbus Day. 

 

Love, The Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria,

*Allan and Julissa with Cathy and Sarah. :)

*Me and family Guzman (minus hna guzman) Hno Guzman wears a periwinkle pooh bear backpack, which is perfect for him, because he reminds me very much of Winnie the Pooh. 

*I know it looks like my arm is around Allan, but no worries... it´s not. 

*Allan and the Hernandez family and Hno Guzman

*Sometimes I forget I´m not Latina. Then I see pictures of me with other people and I think, ¨who is that huge white person?!¨ 

*Baptism

*In the church

*E´ Lui. He´s one of my best friends in the mission. He used to be my district leader. Now he´s my zone leader with E´ Underwood

 

*Let´s just look at the a new planner and a planner after 6 weeks

*My halloween pumpkin is a mandarin orange with a face drawn on in pen. That´s what´s up in Honduras

*My companion loves her bed. She was hiding from the camera

 

 

Hna Bayles

Happy Conference October 6, 2013

Hola familia,

Estoy escribiendo con un poco de prisa porque tengo que regresar al hospital mas o menos pronto. Tuve que traer un elder al hospital por una operación. En otras palabras, esta semana ha sido locísimo con cosas medicas. jajja Tuvimos que madrugar y todo, y ha sido un día un pocito estresante. jajaa. Pero no se preocupan; todo va a salir bien. Tambien, yo tuve que enviar un OTRO misionero a la casa porque él vino a la misión con picazón de la piel, pero este picazón cambió rapidamente hasta cellulitis with lymphangitis, lo cual empezó a contagiar todo su pierna y... pues él se fue a la casa, pobresito. Hemos visto muchos problemas medicas recentamente, pero es increible como el Señor cuida a Sus misioneros. Realmente este picazón era una bendición por este elder, porque si no lo tuviera ahorita, probablemente lo tuviera más adelante cuando sería mas dificil ayudarle. Bueno.

I bet that was fun to spend so much time with the family. I believe family is the one thing that will bring me back from Honduras some day (nothing else could tear me away haha). I bet Nigil is going to do great, and I KNOW he´s going to love it. I´ll tell you what, those 6-week MTC missionaries can speak spanish faster and better than those with more time. It´s incredible how prepared they are in such a  short time. I loved the emphasis on the obra misional in this conference, and thought it was incredible. We work with the members every moment possible. In fact, I have yet to go contacting or tracting in the mission. That´s not to say that the members always support us 100%, but really we´ve seen taht the key to everything is meeting the members´ friends. Every convert I´ve had (minus one) has been the friend or family of a member (and that is why every one of my converts is going to stay in the church as well, if I have anything to do with it). If members would just make good friends and present them to the missionaries, the work would move forward so fast. Whatever person can receive these things in the right time and with the spirit and a friend. Easy. Just introduce everyone you know to the missionaries and it´ll be great. haha. Lots of love!

your California visit sounds awesome. I bet it was sweet takin the new little carito out, and all the food and fun sounds bodacious. The conference was amazing, and I couldn´t have been more impressed and proud of Elder Holland for his courage in leading by example in encouraging others to get help for a problem that is real and debilitating as broken bones. I was especially impressed with the talks this conference. I felt like they addressed real life issues directly and boldly, and for that I was very impressed. All in alll, I think it was an amazing conference. As far as finding a new place to live, we still haven´t found anything new, but, yes, it´s been a juggling game to find new areas and housing for the hermanas. I´m so glad I made the decision to go before the announcement. I know yáll were a little freaked out by how abrupt and sudden my decision  was, but looking back now, I know it had to be that way, and I know I had to leave exactly when I left. I´m glad to hear that G and G are doing a little bit better and I will be praying for them to continue recovering. Thanks so much for all of your help and support. I really am so lucky to have had the parents I´ve got. Some day I want to know your secrets, because I just can´t figure out how yáll helped little punk-kid Maren stay on a track to the temple and a mission after growing up in the middle of Sin City. It´s like a math problem without an answer. I just don´t get it. Miracle workers, that´s what yáll are. haha. Anywya, love you oodles!

Hey-a! I got the package and the hump day envelope! Thanks so much. That was AWESOME. I stillhavenpt gotten anything from LaDee, but that´s not to say that it couldn´t arrive in three weeks or so. haha. I especially loved the nutella and the t shirt. For Christmas, I want nothing more than Kirkland trail mix. Also, all the HOndurans want beef jerky and it´s making me wonder if my memory of beef jerky isn´t as good as it should be. Anyway.j hahah. yup. The german restaurant sounds awesome and I loved the pictures. Sounds like it was a fun birthdya. I bet that´s awesome, seeing Carlos play it up. I will forever be grateful for those screaming voices from the sidelines, ¨Come on girl! Woohoo! yea Bear!!!! Twenty bucks if you get a homerun!¨´ hahahaa (ask dad if he remembers that $20 homerun I got hahahahaha). I know it was probably miserable waiting in the bleachers in the heat and sun and cigarette smoke, but I really appreciate that you all took the time to be with me, even if you weren´t running on the field with me. Painting pumpkins. Woah. I forgot what October means in other parts of the world. It´s still summer here. Woah. Pumpkins. Man, I think I´ll miss Halloween. haha The Book of Mormon and the gospel have such power. If anyone ever has doubts or questions, just read the Book of Mormon and you´´ll be good to go. I loved General Conference too. It´s what´s up. The only thing that´s changed in my mission address is that you should put mission oeste on the package because otherwise it gets mixed in with everytiig from the other mission. Otherwise, it´s all good. Looove yooou!

Other than that, this week has been mostly just the norm. We didn´t have much proselyting time because of conference and new missionaries and people deciding to get horribly sick inthe mission. On the sunny side, Joel smiled this week. Like, really smiled and had light in his eyes. He´s reading and he´s changing little by little every day, and I couldn´t be happier. Life is crazy, but little by little we become who and what we need to become.

I love you all more than you can imagine. Take care and we´ll talk next week!

Love,

Hna Bayles

 

30 Sept 2013

Mi querida familia,

Hey y`all. How`s it goin in Gringolandia? It sometimes blows my mind that yàll all in, like, autumn or something... we`re still in summer here, but the wet version. And after that, we`ll switch over to summer... the dry version. hahaha. Anyway, things here are going. Allan got baptized Saturday and that was really awesome. He received the gift of the Holy Ghost and then the priesthood yesterday. So awesome. :) I can`t send pics because I forgot my card reader today, but I`ll send somethin next week I think. 

This birthday was... well... I think it was the worst day of my whole mission. hahahaha. Maybe I`ll explain someday, but no worries, it would have been a bad day even if it hadn`t been my birthday. I just don`t have the time or desire to explain right now. Mumsie, I still haven`t received the package or the envelope, but I`ll keep my eyesies open. :) Eileen, I did get your package and your card. Thanks so much. All of us office people ate all the candy in like 2 days flat. 

I`m excited to see my hump day pic, and I`m glad Sister Luker could use my letters in RS. If I could give a 10 minute speech to the church as a whole on any topic I wanted, it would include visiting teaching. 

I`m glad to hear that G and G are healing up better. I wish I could be there to help them out and all, but I`m glad that they live at least relatively close. Maybe they will be able to move closer so y`all can all party it up in Vegas.  

That was cool to see all those sisters singing for the SocSoc general conference. I didn`t cry, but >I did see two of my friends who I didn`t even know were going to serve missions, so that was AWESOME. (p.s. did Sarah-bear ever decide whether or not she wanted to serve?)

I hope yàll enjoy soCal. Sometimes Honduras reminds me of California (specifically LA and Valencia). Maybe yàll will think of lil old me. 

Lovesidoodledoos!

Hey, speaking of your friend Jeff Stewart, I`m friends with one of the nephews of one of your friends. haha Elder Bergquist, who also works in the office is the nephew of Mark Dixon. He also lived 5 minutes from us back home and went to the same high school, but we never met before the mission. haha. It`s fun talking to someone from home. It`s weird, but awesome. 

Sorry your finger got hurt. I have a hurt finger too, and it`s a bummer (part of the birrthday of doom hahahaha), but at least I don`t have to do dental work or type usually. 

That`s cool taht you got to teach and all. And even cooler about my scoot scoot registration. Does that mean that nobody`s been using it this whole time? What a shame haha. It`s like the funnest thing in the whole world. 

I think your thinking is great with the whole moving G and G down to vegas thing, but I don`t know what they`ll think about that. They tend to like where they are and everything. 

Your right about me being stoked for conference. I am so excited. And I`ll even get to listen to it in English. That`s what`s up. haha. We`re definintely inviting our investigators. There`s nothing like teaching someone about modern day prophets and then getting to show them who he is and what he`s talking about. We`re gonna get as many people there as we can. It`s gonna be so awesome. 

 

I love Primary. If every member had the faith and the excitement of the Primary, the church would move forward without obstacles into every nation and every corner of the world. The other day we went to visit a recent convert from the elders and her grandaughter gave the final prayer. In it, she said, ^please help las Mormonas to come back tomorrow and help them so the rain doesn`t fall on them.^ I was laughing, but it was honestly so sweet. The rain is a beast here. 

I`m glad you liked the pictures. Meylin is doing well, although she`s got a couple of questions and doubts. We`ll hope she goes to conference to get some awesome answers. :)

Elder John is a nice man. He`s Heidi`s uncle, too, which is kind of fun. we`re almost like family haha. 

I loved the women`s conference. I loved the emphasis on covenants. So cool. 

Love a dub dubsies!

 

Anyway, this week there are changes. My companion and I don`t have changes, but we`re really looking to move in this change. It`s killing us living so far from the area. It`s workable, but it`s a pain and it`s so expensive. We`ve got six of the new sisters staying with us starting tonight and tomorrow. the other three are going to stay with president. 

 

Anyway, what I really want to tell you all about today is Joel. Joel is someone I`ve now been working with for 3 months, and he still hasn`t returned to church, but this week something amazing happened. We went to his house with a friend and talked about the atonement for about a half an hour. Then we gave him a book of mormon and promised him that he would be able to solve all of his problems if he read the whole book through. Then we returned a week later, and after a week of reading the book of mormon, something had completely changed inside of him. He had such light in his eyes and for the very first time in these three months, he smiled a real and genuine smile. I don`t know what`s going to happen with Joel or if he`s going to come back to church in my time in La Primavera, but for one small moment, I saw change in him, and that is exactly what this gospel is about. Success in the mission is immeasurable. It is those small and tiny moments when God`s hand captures the weak and hopeless and turns them into something eternal and full of light. 

 

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. I love yàll oodly doodlies. 

Hna Bayles

 

p.s. Tell Jordan I got his last letter and I`ll be responding one of these days soon. 

Sept 23, 2013

Hey errbody. 

Welp. I´ll be doublin´ up on 2s in 2 days. Here for birthdays, sometimes they smash eggs on your head, so I´m keeping it on the down low hahahaha. Just kidding... they´re usually nice enough to smash an egg with confetti inside instead of a regular full egg, but one never knows. 

This week it´s rained like crazy and a couple people have gotten pretty beat up from it. Two ladies in our ward got swept off their feet (and down the mountain) by the current running through the streets. They got completely torn up, poor things. It really is like walking in a river when it rains here. Another person fell into a sewage hole and she drowned. What a way to die, drowning in a rushing river of sewage. I think Nancy had it better, personally. 

We´ve had a really cool week, but nothing too exraordinarily amazing. Well, ok. Let´s be honest, every moment of the mission is extraordinarily amazing and we´ve seen miracles this week, but nothing too out of the ordinary happened. We had a couple of amazing lessons, though. We had one with Meylin about the Book of Mormon, and the Spirit was so strong, I was surprised there weren´t angels in the room. Then again, who knows? Right after that we entered another house where we immediately felt the lack of the spirit. After that we had to machete her for not doing her part in our lessons. She was sad, but it was either that or leave her. 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, by the way. Mom, the package hasn´t arrived yet, but Eileen, your package arrived. THanks a bundle. 

Thanks for all the support and love. I will write yáll more next week. 

Love you tons and tons. 

Take care of yourselves. 

Hna Bayles

 

Here is a picture of a Licha. I think they´re tasty

P.S.  I am Elder John, serving here in Honduras with my wife.  I am the financial secretary, and my wife is the mission secretary.  As such we spend our days in the office and often get the chance to rub shoulders with your precious daughter.  She told me that she felt badly because she knew she was sending you a "lame" letter.  I asked if I could take a moment and let you know about your daughter.  I know that I am not telling you anything you don't already know, but she is a very special young lady.  A zone leader told me just last week that "if every sister missionary were like Hermana Bayles, we would love having sister missionaries in our zone."  She is an extremely confident and competent missionary.  Undertaking the task of being mission nurse without being a nurse previously would have been too much for any other sister in our mission.  Actually, what she is doing is quite remarkable.  

    Personally, I worked with the youth of the Church before I retired.  In so doing I had the privilege of meeting many of the best the world has to offer.  I just wanted you to know that Sister Bayles is one of those "great ones."  I've never seen her unhappy, moody, or demanding of special attention.  You did a fine job of raising her.  I imagine that she came that way, but you helped her maintain her premortal status.  

    Thank you for offering the sacrifice of your daughter.  May the Lord continue to pour out the blessings of having a missionary in the field upon you.  

 

Sincerely, Elder Wayne K. John

Sept 16, 2013 - The Week of Wishes Come True

God works miracles. Here are some I saw this week:

 

>Concepcion and Josué finally got baptized! She was insistent that they were going to be baptized the 6 of October, but this last Sunday, we went to her house and she said she couldn´t be baptized the 6. She asked when she could be baptized, and I almost jokingly said, ¨This Saturday if you want.¨ Then she said nodded her head and said, ¨Así sera.¨ I just about cried.

After months and months of her telling us there´s no possible way prophets exist in these days, that there´s no possible way the priesthood exists in these days, that there´s no possible way the church was restored through a modern-day prophet, we reviewed the baptismal interview questions, and when we asked her about Joseph Smith and the Restoration (if she believed that the church had been restored through him and that we have a modern-day prophet), she responded ïn an old-lady growl ¨seguro que si!¨ You´ve no idea how happy I was.  J She is so beautiful. Mi abuelita de la misión.

 

>This week I finally got up the umph to try out Sopa de Mondongo, which is cow stomach soup. It´s actually pretty good. One side of the cow stomach is all smooth and muscular and the other side is like a honeycomb of flesh and muscle. It was really fascinating to look at, and it tasted pretty good too. I was telling someone about it afterwards and they asked me, ¨oh, sopa de tripe?¨ It was only in that moment that I realized I had just eaten tripe of the cow variety. I know we always joke about people who eat tripe, but don´t hate it ´til you´ve ate it. Hahaha It´s funny. Some of you might remember my first-ish week when I ate chicken feet and was absolutely repulsed… now I see people boiling chicken feet and I almost want to try them again. I hear people talking about cow tongue and I get all excited. I hear about snail soup and I get all curious to try it. I think Honduras might be messing with my tastes in food……. Hahahaha

 

>Happiness is that moment when your recent convert shows up to church in a white shirt and tie and sits himself at the Sacrament table. Happiness is watching him worthily and respectfully parting and blessing the sacrament, then hearing him bear testimony twice of how happy and grateful he is for the gospel. Happiness is when he accompanies you to an appointment to teach another man of roughly the same age and spends the entire lesson testifying of the miracles and tender mercies that led him to be baptized. Happiness is when he tells you of his plans to marry his recently-active-again girlfriend in the temple in one year.  Happiness is when God takes over and we get to sit back and see the hand of God.

 

>We challenged Alan to be baptized. Alan, who didn´t believe a single thing we said. Alan, who had innumerable doubts. Alan, who rejected all we said. …He looked at us for half a second, then said, ¨Porque no?¨ He will be baptized the 28 of September, and receive the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood the 29. He has already told the whole ward and all of his friends. He is so excited.

 

>If you want to talk about faithfulness to the Lord, let´s just talk for a moment about Ana. Ana is approximately 1,576,248 years old. She can´t hear a thing, and she is always chomping gum with her slightly-too-wobbly-to-be-healthy jaw. She comes to church every Thursday, just to watch the kids play soccer and watch the Relief Society have their activity (which usually involves verbal cooking instructions for new and exciting recipes). She comes to church every Saturday, just to sit and watch the people come and go as they enter for Institute classes. She comes to church every Sunday just to sit in a Holy place for three hours. She doesn´t hear a single word during all three hours of church. She doesn´t come for the words; she comes for the spirit and she comes to obey the Lord´s commandment to keep the Sabbath Day holy. She shuffles to the hard metal chair in a room that is too hot and lowers herself painfully into a sitting position. She then sits, chewing her gum as she waits for the first hymn. I pass by to say hello, and she screams, ¨Mi muchachita! Cómo está? Cuando puedo invitarle a comer pollo?!!!¨ I give her a hug and a kiss and say, ¨Cómo está mi abuelita?¨ She pats my hand and smiles. She doesn´t hear a thing I say to her, but still she smiles as if she knows exactly what I mean. We all sit for Sacrament meeting and we begin singing the first hymn. She shoves her hymnbook in my hands and says, ¨Busquemelo¨ as she fumbles with her glasses. Then, with my finger tracing the words we´re singing, she begins croaking out a warbly testimony of song. Sometimes she gets impatient, waiting for the rest of the congregation to sing the words she´s already read, so she skips ahead of where my finger is indicating and sings as she pleases in her little croak of a voice. The whole congregation can hear her singing as they pause to begin a new line or verse. Some children giggle, some adults shift their eyes, but she just keeps on singing. The song ends and we pray. Later they pass the sacrament tray and she stops chomping her gum long enough to take the bread and water.

Faith is not going to church for the members or the songs or the talks or the benches. Faith is loving God so fully and completely that you would hobble your way to His house of worship, just to be able to feel of His Spirit and partake of His sacraments as you chomp your gum and make faces at the missionaries in your happy little world of silence. Who says the pioneers are dead and gone? Who says sacrifice ended with crossing the plains? Who says faith can only be counted if we´re pulling a handcart. May we all grow up to be a little more like mi Abuelita Ana.

 

These people are changing my life right before my eyes. I wish you could meet them and see the change they´d work in you. These people are family.

I love yáll oodly doodlies,

Hna Bayles

 

 

 

 

I sent a different letter separately, but just to respond to yáll and give you some heads-ups:

I have changed my pday back to Monday. It´s a long story, but from here on out, Monday is the day. You can still write me on Friday if you want, but I won´t be reading until Monday.

 

I´m loving being the nurse. It´s just enough of a dramatic change of pace every day that it´s keeping me moving like crazy and I like it a lot. Thanks in advance for the package. As far as Copan goes, I will probably not ever be able to go. Assuming I´m nurse for the rest-ish of my mission, I will probably not leave SPS for the next 9 months. That´s a bit of a bummer, but that whole ¨I´ll go where you want me to go¨ thing applies in-country too. haha. I´m sad to hear about G and G. I wish I could help them out, but God wants me here more than He wants me there right now. Take care of them. They promised me they´d be in my wedding, and we´ve still got a ways to go before THAT happens. hahahaha.

 

You can send things directly to me. They've changed the mission rules in the whole world if I´m not mistaken so now anyone can write me and I can write anyone. That doesn´t necessarily mean I´ll have time to respond to all those letters from the whole world, but I will always respond to your letters. :) You´re top 3 in the response list. Actually it´s about a tie for number one. I loved the quote and I loved the clothes story. hahahahaha. It´s funny how sometimes we say things without realizing how it sounds from the outside. hahaha. Whenever I wear pants, the whole world is suddenly very surprised that I have legs above the knee. Surprising, I know.

We´ve definitely had some wet weather these days. haha. But it´s not sooooo bad. We were completely soaked the other day because we gave our umbrellas to some hermanas and we were walking up the river, errrr street, in water almost up to our knees. haha And you thought Vegas flooding was bad. We went to Marina´s house and she just looked at us all confusedly as we dripped on her front step and wrung the water out of our skirts. hahahaha.  

Well, I love yáll lots and lots. Take care and do something crazy for me.

Adiooooooos!

Hna Bayles