Santa Barbara

Hola!

A little bit of change this week as I had the first change of the mission so far. I was in Castaños, San Pedro Sula and took a 2 hour bus ride southeast to a little cooler place called Santa Barbara. My new companion is named Elder Permenter. He is from Connecticut and he was born in the Chandler hospital!

This week as I said bye to many of the members in castaños I was surprised that a few cried and all expressed their gratitude for me. This was a shock because I felt like I hadn't made that great of an impact on their lives, but I was touched to see that they were very grateful for my presence in their area. 

The bus trip was a long 2 hour ride through the mountains of Honduras to the city of Santa Barbara. It gets nice and cool at night which is such a blessing. My companion is able to help me with other parts of Spanish that Latinos just cant explain and so I feel that I am learning many new things. E Permenter hurt his ankle last week on the way down a mountain and the Honduran doctor put a full on cast on a twisted ankle. We couldnt go out because he had to rest so we spent a lot of time studying. 

One thing that I find comfort in studying is the Book of Mormon and the New Testament. Recently I have been finding scriptures that we can use in lessons that are in the book of Mormon. There are tons of them in preach my gospel, and believe it or not, the scripture mastery scriptures are some of the best ones to use! I wish I would have payed more attention! ha ha but I also started just reading in Spanish. So if I don't know a word I ask or look it up in the dictionary. My testimony is growing more of the Book of Mormon. I think a lot of it has to do with being in or around the place where these events took place! Also, there are many scriptures and stories that testify of Jesus Christ. At first I thought the book of Mormon was just a bunch of stories. Which might still be true, but all of these stories are used to testify of the grace of Jesus Christ. It constantly invites us to change and to do what He would have us do. We often share with people Alma Chapter 32 which talks about having faith in Jesus Christ. 

One thing that I am also learning here is that it is ok to be uncomfortable. 1, Jesus was never comfortable, why should we be? and 2, we have been cast out of the presence of God, and therefore it is inevitable that we will experience discomfort and discouragement, pain and sorrow. It is by sheer love from Heavenly Father that we are ever able to find peace in this life. It is so much easier for me to say than to take my own advice, but discomfort allows us to grow and it is why we are here on this earth.

I hope all is well at home, go to In and Out and have a burger for me!

Love

Elder Dowell