Week 17 La Entrada

Did the baptism end up happening? Tell us about it. No it fell through of course, 2 hours before it was supposed to happen we get a call and was told that the mom had decided, “What is the rush”.  We pushed the baptism to January so we will see what happens. We had even checked with the grandma the night before and talked with M. and everything was fine. 

Did Elder C. get to visit with his parents? Yes he talked forever, I talked less than 54 minutes and he ended up talking over 2 hours. But all was well, he didn’t have very good connection with the Internet in the other house and he could only do picture for a few seconds and then he would just talk without video.

Did you eat all of the food that members have given you for Christmas? No we still have about 20 tamales left but we have been sporadically giving bags of tamales to the drunks. 

 Did you get the package yet? I don't think so but just asking. No I haven’t gotten the package yet.  I am hoping that I will get it this week, if I don’t I will call the person in charge and find out what happened.  I did open the package from the Isom’s on Christmas

What spiritual experience did you have this week? We had been visiting this family and they seemed really cool.  We taught them the restoration and all was well. We went back for Christmas and everything seemed fine, they gave us the most food of any family and a big piece of pork cooked in the horno.  When we went back, the husband was spent, he hasn’t slept in almost a week, he filled us in on all of the dirty things his wife has been doing. He even filled us in that one of his friends had been murdered and his wife had something to do with it. Well it is a little strange and he is really in a depression, I had never seen anything like it. We have been working with him a little bit, but we know way more then we need to know.  We gave him a blessing and just to see the power of the blessing. He said after the blessing he was relaxed and fine until his wife came back to the house and was really bad to him. One of our other investigators we think is bipolar because she is a completely different person sometimes and it makes it really awkward because she asks really bad questions and makes bad comments. We also had a lesson with hno A. and well lets put it this way we sat there for 35 minutes defending the church with our testimony’s, wow how much power we had when he was telling us that we are liars and that the Book of Mormon is a lie because it says that it can bring a man closer to God better than the bible.  This is true, the book of Mormon is more pure or more perfect, and well it is perfect.  It was a little hard and all I said was my testimony and invited him to read the whole book and pray to know for himself, his attitude was different after this, just for a few minutes there was no contention. Wow what power there is in a simple testimony and an invitation. 

What was the best food from Christmas? I think that the best food from Christmas was pollo hornado it is really good and has a good smoke flavor. The tamales are good but if you eat like 6 or more in a day you are guaranteed to have diarrhea, because there is so much fat in them. But it is interesting they put meat, potatoes, peas and cilantro inside, this makes them really good, and when there are no bones it is really nice. 

My favorite fruit is lychee it tastes like a giant grape.  We buy then in the streets they just have truck beds full of them, they cost 10 Lempiras per bag. They grow on trees. You have to crack them because they have like a shell. Can you eat the nuts? Yes only if there packaged commercially. 

It the branch president’s wife still washing you clothes.  Yes she is still washing our clothes for 200 Lempiras a month

How about your toe?  It is a little infected but not bad, if it gets worse I will call the infermera

We played soccer and went to eat at a played called asados la entrada it was really good. 

This is a picture of hno M. He is a member and he drove us home Christmas night, 

Can you get the torn pants fixed?  I don’t know, I should ask someone.  Grandma says you have enough money you can pay someone.  I hope it is not your suit pants, if you can't fix, throw them away.  No its not my suit pants, I only will wear them when I wear the suit coat, so it will be good the whole mission. Best thing is it was my least favorite pair of pants that I tore. 

Do the fireworks just make noise and not do any show any colors.  We can't believe the kids are so young lighting the Fireworks.   They have both types, the ones that just make noise are just the cheapest and they don’t do much when they explode.   There are ones that are like roman candles and all sorts just like we have, but all are made here or from China. Some of the fireworks are huge.  Do they ever start fires with them?  No I think it is impossible to light a fire here, it all just smokes and nothing burns if it hasn’t been dried for ages.  They all burn their trash in the roads or near the road in front of their houses and it really doesn’t burn it just smokes.  Here is a picture some kids lighting fireworks just in the day, one girl that is named A. and the other S.

Does it rain almost every day?  No it hasn’t rained lately just Christmas night.

Tell all the neighbors hello and thanks for their letters and emails. Well this is all the time that I have to talk. But have a good new year and have a good time in the snow. Remember that I love all of you. 

Elder Olsen