Buenas Tardes

Buenas Tardes a todos en el mundo afuera de Honduras..

This week was a fun week for a few reasons! On Thursday was Marshall's bday!!! Happy Bday Marshy!!! the big 18!

 

There are always drunk guys at the neighbors house because they sell liquor so we took a selfie with that drunk guy. he is wasted from when we go to the gym at 545 till we get home! He must be rich because he drinks all day.

 

It was also ¨Dia del Niño¨ for everyone here. It is just a day to celebrate kids. EVERYONE buys piñatas, candy, toys, etc. and gives it to all the kids. Its almost like Halloween but it lasts for a few days. People would even come up and give us candy too! It was awesome! all the kids got to break piñatas in their school and when we went to visit people, members, investigators, anyone, they would give us a handful of candy! 

 

 

Elder Permenter going for the pinata

 

We met with our main investigator this week. Her name is Erika and she is 19. We challenged her to be baptized along with her mom and sister on the 26th! Her mom and sister are not progressing, but she is reading the book of Mormon, praying, and going to church, Elder Permenter and I are so thankful for her willingness to do what we challenge her to do, which basically is, change her life! 

Elder Permenter will have changes this week and so we celebrated his bday a little early with all the members and investigators we have, not all at once though. His bday is on the 21st but we celebrated on the 12th. For his bday I got him a funny catholic picture of the Virgin Fatima, and... I DRANK MY FIRST COKE IN 6 YEARS. Needless to say it was one of the best decisions of my life.. Honduran coke is better than America because they put way more syrup in it than they should.. and it tastes different in a glass bottle than in a plastic one.

 

We did a Family Home evening this week and usually family home evenings here are a mess. dogs barking, chickens crowing, babys whining, etc. and everyone refuses to silence the noise and so it is unbearable. but this week we had an awesome FHE with a family in our ward. we explained the importance of prophets and played a game where 2 people were blindfolded and they had to listen to who they thought was the prophet to get to their point. one person followed the right one and the other followed the wrong voice. I know youre thinking, Oh that's such a primary lesson. But that is the way we have to teach here to get our point across and so that everyone understands. 

 

We celebrated Permenter's bday with Hermana Sandra who makes us lunch every day, and familia Soto who always helps us out giving us something to eat when we pass by and stuff. Familia Soto made a piñata with E Permenter's face on it! it was awesome and we can really feel their love.

 

We also had the opportunity to check up on one of our investigators who was so sick from chikungunya that he almost died. He had it for like 3 months! I only had it for 3 days and I thought I was going to die. But we gave him a blessing 2 weeks ago and this week he has medicine and is noticeably better. we explained to him where the authority of that blessing comes from and my testimony is growing from experiences like that.

 

Elder Permenter will leave this week most likely because he has been here for almost 6 months. I am very sad for him to leave, but I know that we will be friends for a long time. I need to learn more things and so does he so I guess this is just a big opportunity to learn.. it is hard but I am learning that it cant be done without some divine help! I love and miss you all!

 

Love Elder Dowell

How 'bout them lemons?

This week we had a lot more success than we usually have! I still need to define my meaning of success, but 3 of our investigators showed up to church! 

It was such a blessing (and a surprise) to see them learning of how the church works. My testimony has been strengthened in these past few months of not just the doctrine, but church itself! I know there is nowhere more important to be on a Sunday morning that on the front right seat! (I don’t know if you guys still sit there)

 

Your guess is as good as theirs...what is hanging on that fence?

 

 

 Not sure that you should build the latrine above your house

One of our investigators is named Suyapa, and her little daughter that is 11 years old. They don’t understand ANYTHING we teach them, mainly because they don’t have too much education and it is hard for them to retain information, so it has helped us to teach them in very simple terms. 

Tiny Bananas

Our other investigator is named Erika. She is a super shy girl in her 20s who stopped us and talked to us in the central park of our area. We were on divisions with our Zone leader and she got to talk to Elder Permenter and the ZL while I talked to her fat uncle who is super catholic and asked me why we don’t worship the Virgin Mary.. But I guess their conversation with her went good because she showed up at church yesterday, and now we get the chance to teach her this week! She said she had a really good feeling at church.

We also had an investigator who came to church last week. We had promised them blessings if they came to church and we were walking in the street and it turns out he got a job as a guard that pays better money than his street vending tamales! Blessings of going to church!

We also had the opportunity to give many blessings to sick people this week. One was named Roger who has had chikengunya for 3 months and the doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him. The other is a special child of a family in our ward who got attacked by a swarm of ants. They were very humbling experiences to step in their houses and offer blessings.

Elder Permenter and I set a few goals this week, one of which was a health goal of not eating chips all week. It’s hard not to eat them because they are so cheap! But we ate healthy all week and we were tired every day because we didn’t have as much sugar as we usually do! But it was a good thing we did because we had more energy in the long run throughout the week. 

We had one of our Zone leaders named Elder Paraso stay the night with us and go to all of our meetings. He went to High school with Nedu! And it made me feel ok about Spanish because I was able to hold my part in the lessons. 

I am learning that even if my Spanish isn’t perfect, it is the spirit that truly matters. Everyone says that I know, but when they see that I am trying, I think they can see that our message is important.  I also have started to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish straight through. I have been reading it but not too fast. I want to pick up the pace and I am in Jarom right now. I think it will help more with Spanish grammar. 

 Elders Permenter and Dowell look like they borrowed shorts from Marshall

This week Elder Permenter gave me a blessing and it was of great comfort to me. I forget sometimes that I need to use the priesthood to bless my life too, not just everyone else’s! But they do come first.  I think Elder Permenter might leave in this next change on the 16th. I am sad about that but I probably won’t be too sad until we aren’t comps anymore.

This week has been a blessing because we are beginning to see the fruits of our labor!

I love you guys and miss you a lot. Stay safe!

Love

Elder Dowell