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

A good week

This week, starting last Monday night, started with a family home evening with a family up in our area called the Escondido. We shared the importance of being an eternal family. It built my testimony to testify of the blessings of having an eternal family. There are also about 10 little girls between the 2 families that we met with and they wanted to play games with us and ask us lots of questions. on Tuesday we went to Cofradia for a zone meeting and our new Zone Leader knows Chinedu! so that was cool to talk to him about Nedu for a bit. 

 

 

We decided to spend more time contacting this week so we talked to A LOT of new people. I am starting to like talking to people more, but it also makes me realize I have so much more Spanish to learn. we encountered a lady this week who was playing cards with her friends. she is like 50ish and she was hitting on Elder Permenter and I, saying she wanted to marry us. It was funny, but a little creepy too.

In our talking to many people, we need a reason to talk to people, so we have been asking people if they know anyone named Suyapa (mainly because it is just a funny name). But, we have had some success, and we now teach 3 people whose name is Suyapa! haha ask and ye shall receive I guess. But On our quest for a false Suyapa, we encountered 2 people who are actually interested in the gospel and they asked us many questions about the church and Joseph Smith! It was hard to answer a lot of the questions because they knew the bible pretty well. I need to study the bible more because there is a lot of things in there that people interpret different than we do. But we will see if they make it to church this Sunday! 

 

We also had many more opportunities for service this week. An older lady whose name is Hermana Troches had a wall built probably hundreds of years ago, made out of rock. so we offered to help build it again ( well my comp offered because I don't know how to build a wall out of rocks) so we get up to the wall and realize that it is not just built up of rock, but years of trash too! so we did a terrible job at rebuilding her Honduran wall because we were trying to do something in 2 hours that took 100s of years of trash to build! 

 

The lady that makes the Elders lunch has a bunch of pet rabbits

 

We also got to help teach an English class which was super fun because it made me realize I'm not too bad at Spanish, and It is fun to help people who really want a better life and see English as a way of having it. 

 

Although we don't have too many investigators, we have made many friends in our area. One including our banana man. He is a guy who sells bananas at the market nearby and we haven't had to pay for bananas for 3 weeks now because he always gives them to us for free! And we started going to this bakery store and yesterday the guy gave us cookies for free, i think because we talked a little with him about football! Little by little I think we are making a few friends.

 

I love and miss you all, have a great week!

The Work Continues

This week has been challenging for a few reasons, the ongoing heat being one, and the constant quest for people searching for the true church! Everyone we come in contact with is convinced that either it doesn't matter what church you go to, or that the catholic church is the true church. 

My new machete for "mowing" grass

This week we sat in a lesson with 2 old people. They had a dirt floor in basically a metal shack. they let us sit in their dirty plastic chairs and we taught them about the restoration of the gospel as simply as we possibly could and at the end of the lesson, they told us that the catholic church is what the bible always talks about and that it is the only true church. It made Elder Permenter and I very frustrated, but in that moment all we could do was give our testimonies and bare witness of Joseph Smith and the restored gospel, and that our message is true. We left discouraged, not because we knew they were wrong, but because they didn't understand. That seems to be the pattern of our lessons because we teach a lot of people who, although they have good intentions, they are not good learners! We teach them a lesson, go back and have to teach it again because they forgot what we taught the first time. we haven't had hardly any success this week, as we invite 20 plus people to church each week and none of them show up. It is frustrating but there is really no other option than to keep trying. 

 

Our room, the mattresses are off the floor to keep them dry and let the air move

 

We also have a few areas in the mountains. the 3 different areas take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes to hike to. We set morning appointments for one of the areas, got up and went out on our hike. When we got there, one of the families had left because they forgot about our meeting (keep in mind these people rarely ever leave their houses) and the other family was hiding from us! We have found that many people are shy or just don't want to talk to us so they quickly hurry inside and close the door, even though we just saw them, that part is a little bit ridiculous to me because we are just trying to help!

 

 On the road with Elder Permenter

 

I am thankful for the support of everyone at home, and for all the advice and encouragement. I have found comfort in the little things and I have faith that Heavenly Father gives us what we need.

Chikungunya strikes!

  

Family and Friends,

This week has been one of the harder ones in Santa Barbra. We had to stay inside all week because I got a virus called Chikungunya. It has hit a lot of people here in Honduras, and I think in central America because it is passed through mosquitoes. I had pain in my muscles, headache, fever, etc. until I could get an IV from a doctor. the doctor we went to wasn't too bad, he put in an IV and I felt much better afterward. Although I was a bit skeptical because he put in a medicine to kill the fever and I almost freaked out because it made me sweat a lot, but it worked and I am fine now so its all good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elders taking care of elders...Chandler at the Dr's office

The temperatures here are at a high, as I am sure they are in AZ, and it is rough! I wonder how some people can sit in their hot houses all day and just cook tortillas. I think they like the heat a little more that I do, but it is a good challenge. The only thing that bugs me is that I am never not sweaty! ha ha I could have all the fans in the world and as long as I am here, I will be sweaty. 

 

 

 Cooking a birthday cake

 

Other than that, I have gained a little more confidence in my Spanish speaking abilities, Although I still have a far ways to go. I wish I had more exciting experiences this week but suffering in the heat with a jungle virus is about as exciting as it gets this week. 

I love you guys and I am so thankful for your prayers!

Love

Elder Dowell

Buenas tardes de Santa Barbra!

This week has been long and hot but much different than in the city! I have had more time this week to explore the area. It is almost 100 percent mountains, so we do a lot of hiking. i am sweaty all day no matter what, I don't know if my body will adapt to the humidity but for now ill just have to stick with being sticky all day. 

View from the roof top

The area is much more poor than the last area I was in. Many people just live in a cement block in the shape of a square in the mountains. We eat mangoes all day every day, that part I cant complain about. If we get hungry we literally just pick a mango off a tree, and throughout the day people give us mangoes because they have so many. I am humbled that someone who can barely afford clothes for their kids will give us 3 or 4 mangoes when we come to visit.

 
That is another thing that I don't think I will ever feel comfortable around, which is, when it gets hot, so pretty much always,people don't put clothes on their kids. its very awkward. also everyone is missing teeth.

When we go t hike up a mountain, there is always people carrying things, usually kids. My companion and I decided it was because the old people don't want to have to scale this mountain every time they need some clean water so they just send their kids. 

  

Pigs on the road

I feel so bad for them because 1. they are carrying things for their whole family, clothes, food, water, etc and its pretty heavy for a 6 to 14 year old kid. 2. they are so malnourished that I don't know how they have the energy to do it!

The first time we saw a little girl who was 13, maybe half the size of savannah. we asked to help carry her things. half way up the mountain I was sweating profusely. the next fourth of the way  was struggling hard, and when we got to the top I was DYING! How was this little girl planning on carrying this up the mountain? 

Since then a lot of our service involves helping people carry their stuff to their house and talking to them a little on the way.

I am thankful for this experience because it is different than anything I have ever experienced. I a so thankful for the support from everyone at home. Happy 4th of July!

Love

Elder Dowell

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

Little by little

This week has been better than past weeks.. I am learning more Spanish little by little. This week I was able to baptize my first person ever! Her name is Meli Velasquez. I think I have talked about her before but she has had a very hard life. She is divorced, one of her sons was killed by the cartel, and she lives with 3 of her sons who are lazy and she does all of their cooking and cleaning. They are around 30 I think. She has a very strong testimony of the church.

We found her at a pulperia or a little street store. She came up to us and started talking about how dirty Honduras is. She is a little bit crazy. Our lessons would go over about 30 minutes more than usual every time because we could stop her from telling stories and ranting. She is very humble and is a great example to me.

 

 

This past week we were searching for her and we couldn't find her. We went to her house, the house she works at, and at her friends house. when we got to her friends house, we saw her inside, but when the owner asked if she wanted to talk to us she shook her head. We were sure we had lost her as an investigator. We let a few days pass. at 8:30 on Friday night, the night before her baptism, we had just finished a lesson near her house. I had the feeling we should go see if she was home, even though we had scheduled an appointment with a less active member. We rescheduled with the less active member and walked to Meli's house instead. It was like clockwork. I think the spirit told us to go there because we caught her in the street walking back from work. She explained to us that she wasn't at her house because she had been avoiding her son that she is fighting with and she said that she didn't want to talk to us before because she was very emotional. Luckily, she was still excited for her baptism. she has a very strong testimony of the church and I was so thankful to have the opportunity to baptize her. 

 

 

This morning we took a long hike to the Coca Cola mountains. The mountains are so green but almost like a rainforest. Super hot and humid and bugs EVERYWHERE. 

 

 

This place is growing on me but still has many customs that I am not used to. I think it is part of the culture to be rude. But it is nice to find the people that are willing to help us as missionaries. 

Have a great week everyone! I miss family and football but this week made it feel like it is worth it.

Love

Elder Dowell