Merry Christmas Orta Vez!‏

I think I titled last weeks email Merry Christmas but I´m lazy and don´t want to think of another title so there you have it.

Tuesday was the Multi-Zona. IT was great. Zamora and I gave a workshop about Predicad MI Evangelio. At point we watching this video that showed all the missionaried giving service and we totally feeling the spirit but then there was a technical difficulty and the video froze. Esta bien. WE were waiting there reverently and then I hear behind me "It´s because the computer is a decepticon." I laughed so hard I was crying.

I ONLY ATE TWO TOMALES THIS CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!! Last I ate so much food the 25 that I was sick for days and had to ask my ZLs to give me a blessing but year people only gave me two and todo salió bien. Woo!

In latin countries people like to celebrate with fire works. On the 24 we tried to go to bed at 10:30 but it was super hard to sleep with all the noise. At midnight I woke up and ti sounded like World War 3!! Zamora went and closed the door but I realized I might never see this again so I planched, got out of bed, grabbed my camera and went ourside on our balcony to watch all the fireworks. IT was so loud Hermana Zamora and I had to screamto talk to each other. They weren´t the coolest fire works they are just super loud. At one point we looked down the street and said "there are three people over there and one of them looks exactly like Dispicable Me. Those are the elders!! They are planching too!" Eventually we went back to bed and nothing super exciting happened. 

The 25 really wasn´t that great. We did weekly planning then our lunch appointment wasn´t home and we spent almost the whole afternoon looking for a member´s house where Zamora could talk to her family. At dinner one of the elders told us he was getting emergency transfered the next day so we were all just super bummed. It was less than average day. 

But none of that really matters. Christmas is just another day. The actual day itself doesn´t mean anything. What really matters is that we are using that day to show people we love them share the light of CHrist. 

One good part of the day was that we were walking down the street and this van pulled over and who got out? Familia Mejilla! THey are a family from OLANCHITO! They got out and the mom gave a big hug and all the kids. It felt really good. Especially since sometimes I wonder if anyone in Olanchito remembers me because I didn´t talk much there since I didn´t speak spanish. We are going back to Olanchito on divisions this week and I¨m excited. 

This week I read a talk called "Choose Wisely" by ELder Cook, que salió in the priesthood session this october. IT is wonderful. At one point he talked about young people who put off getting married. I have members tell me all the time I shouldn´t get married until I´m done with school. Now I´m in no way saying that I¨m in a rush to get married but I agree with what ELder Cook said:

       "Some young people profess their goal is to be married in the temple but do not date temple-worthy individuals. To be honest, some don’t even date, period! You single men, the longer you remain single after an appropriate age and maturity, the more comfortable you can become. But the more uncomfortable you ought to become! Please get “anxiously engaged” in spiritual and social activities compatible with your goal of a temple marriage.

        Some postpone marriage until education is complete and a job obtained. While widely accepted in the world, this reasoning does not demonstrate faith, does not comply with counsel of modern prophets, and is not compatible with sound doctrine."       There you have it. Young people who are purposfully putting off getting married are purposfully being disobedient to one of God´s commanmends. IF you get married while you´re still in school está bien. 

Also, Elder Cook talked a lot about Merlin Olsen. Do you know where Merlin Olsen went to school?? UTAH STATE!!! They ate lunch at the BLuebird! Elder Cook made me a little trunky. ha ha

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a happy New Year. Can you even believe that it´s new years!! I can´t. Love you all.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

It's Christmas Time

This week was pretty good. Hermana Zamora and I are still trying to fill our teaching pool. When I got whitewashed in Santa Rita we found all the investigators of the hermanas who were there super fast but here we have only found a few. It´s a different experience.  In Ceiba people have money which means... no one wants to talk to you. The mission standard is that we have 35 investigators total, Zamora and I have 16. But we´re improving, last week we had 7. 

Tomorrow is the Multi Zona Confernce. Zamora and I are giving a presentation about pmg. It´s always super exciting when the multi zonas come around.

Speaking of STL duties. This week an elder called us because he is having a problem with a sister blah blah, no se que. He explained all the problems and I thought, "Freak, I don´t know what to do. HE should call the ZLs" and right after I thought this the elder mentioned, "I called the ZLs and they said I should call you guys" Puchica. Hna Zamora and I thought it was pretty funny.

So I have these really ugly, sturdy, sister missionary sandals, right. One day the Elders in my ward were making fun of them and said that Pedro (the apostle) would like them. At one point in the evening I saw elder Monterrosa talking on the phone and then he came over to me and said, "Hna it´s for you. It´s Pedro. He wants his sandals back." Super mean, va? But I have to admit it was super funny.

A girl in Las Colinas came home from her mission in Equador so there was an activity and the whole ward came and welcomed her and said nice things about her and I felt so weird to think that that´ll be me in five more months. Ahh! No me gusta.

We taught this old lady who prefers to speak english and let me tell you I can´t teach the missionary lessons in english, I don´t know how. This old lady was super funny, using all sorts of slang I haven´t heard in forever. Although at one point she started telling us her whole life story about her three different husbands, and it got into way more details then we needed to know. It got a little awkward. But it´s all good. THat´s the mission, right? A year and a half os awkward moments.

Also, she is selling her house, if you are interested in buying a 5 bedroom house for $420,000. haha

One of elders found out that his parents just got called to be missions presidents in... wait for iiiiiiiiit... Peru Lima City Central!! Shout out to Elder Salisbery!

This week the ZLs taught a lesson about overcoming the natural man and it was life changing. One of them talked about HOW the mission makes missionaries come home better people. He said that going on a mission for two years and baptizing tons of people does nothing to change you. What changes you is that during the mission you have such high standards you are forced to put off the natural man to a new level, which helps to feel the spirit more. I think we change as people because we learn to repent. We have higher standards so we have to repent more. 

Pues, that´s all folks. 

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

P.S. I have eaten 368 baleadas.

Not much to say

Pues, I wrote all the interesting stuff on friday.

My new apartment has one of those dangerous central american water heaters, so... I TOOK A HOT SHOWER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A YEAR!!!!!!! And I do it every day now and I looooove it.

A friend asked me last week what I learned about the Savior this week and I felt really awful because I thought about it and didn´t really have a good answer sot his weekend I made an effort to learn something about Christ. I was reading the NT and I like this scripture in Lucas 9:56. Christ doesn´t want to punsih us. Repentence isn´t about punsishement. He wants to help us become better. He came to save us not destroy us ans when He comes again it will be the same thing. His purpose isn´t to destroy it´s to save.

One of the new Elders lived in Puerto Rico for two years because he played the bongo drums for... wait for iiiiiiiiit... PRINCE ROYCE!!!!! I know, all you nortes are saying who is that. He´s like the most famous latin singer next to Enrique Iglesias right now. All  the teenage girls want to marry prince Royce and I have shaken the hand of a kid who was part of his band. And remember when I was in the CCM with a kid who was a werewolf in Twilght? Yep. My mission rocks.

That´s all for this week. Take a hot shower.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Surprises at Changes Otra Vez‏

 

This week has been absolutely ridiculous!

Normally they tell us about transfers the monday before.  Then you have tuesday to say goodbye, but the area seventies of central america feel like we are wasting tuesday saying goodbye, so now the rule is that no one is allowed to know if they are getting changed until tueday at nine oclock!!!!!!!

I knew that i might get changed so on tuesday we went to my converts and some of my favorite investigators and it was super awkward because it was all, "I might have changes so I´m saying good bye but I might not... so this is awkward." It was awful. The DL called on tuesday and sí, I hd changes. And I might add that we always taught a real lesson not just said goodbye so I´m being punished for others´ disobedience, but whatever, ya me voy.

We got there and when they annouced the changes the AP said, "Hermana Odekirk de Santa Rita 2 va como Líder Entrenadora a La Colinas 2 con Hermana Zamora quien es Líder Entrenadora." auitrhñiauwerhgtuiñaHWRJJDHDJFJSLhfejeahjfkaksalshkgjksgjksdjksds That. just. happened.

I´m Sister Training Leader now. and Hermana Zamora and I were companions before in Olanchito so that´s weird, but it´s all good because we are good together. Las Colinas is a ward in the beautiful city of LA CEIBA! It is one the biggest touristy cities in Honduras so it has everything: beach, a mall, pizza hut, whatever you want. Google maps it.

For those who don´t know Sister Training Leader is a new posistion where sister missionaries will go on exchanges with other sister missionaries and be a support system for the sisters and we attend Mission Leadership Council. (I think that is how they say it in english.)  Which means...

I GET TO GO BACK TO OLANCHITO!!! Zamora and I do divisions with Hermanas in Olanchito (which I love), Ceiba (which I don´t fell a love for quite yet but it is super awsome and the love will come), Trujillo (which I love), and Roatán (which I´ve never been too but I´m excited to go there). Yes, I get to spend three days a transfer in Roatán. I am so stoked. 

Another thing is we got white washed. Both of us are new to the area AND neither of us have ever been STL before so we have a lot to learn this change. But it is so exciting!

This week the leaders didn´t get pday on wednesday like a normal transfer week because we had a special pday. We hiked Pico Bonito here in Ceiba and it was super cool. Then in the afternoon we had the Leadership Council. To be perfectly honest I was a little nervous about going to the meeting for the first time but obviously it went fine.

Now to the funny stuff. On wednesday morning I called a guy who drives a mototaxi to come takes us to the bus station. When he came he put two of my big suitcases TOP OF THE MOTOTAXI!! He then asked if we had a cord but we didn´t so he just said we´ll drive really  slow. I was worried. my entire life is in those maletas!! Then este tipo took the rockiest bumpiest road I know!!! Hna Stott and I had to reach and hold them or they would have fallen. It was ridicuous.

At change meeting President Klein said that Satan is miserable because he is single. I thought it ws pretty funny, but then there was also this part of every one in the room that thought "oh no. I´m single. I´m going to be miserable for all eternity."

Well that all the excitement for this week. Also, I have 359 baleadas.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Transfers

Non of you have written me to tell when the seventh Harry Potter book came out! I need answers people. Please help me.

We were teaching this lesson to two of our investigators who are super close to being baptized when I met the most polite apostate lady. She a relative of our converts who was at their house. She kindly waited until we were teaching about the Word of Wisdom and got all Christ should be the center of your message, not José Smith. I couldn´t agree more that´s why we only mentioned Smith once and CHrist a bigillion times. She started asking us a bunch of questions about the Bible to try and confuse us but we anwsered them all. I tried to ask her if we could send the missionaries to her house is Progreso so she could learn more, but she said no. She then asked what Christ´s ministry was. I said to complete the Atonement firstly, also to establish his church and heal and bless people. She his ministry is to "free people" Then she went off about how in her church they heal people physically, because freed people from their sicknesses. To be perfectly honest I was almost upset that she would the act of healing people physically in this life above the act of the Atonement. Sometimes I meet people with the most interesting apostasy.

We were getting ready to leave this morning and I went to the bathroom. I then went outside and washed my hands in the pila and filled a bucket with water and carried it inside to flush the toilet. When I got back to the bathroom with bucket I realized that it was still morning and WE STILL HAD RUNNING WATER!!!! I could´ve flushed the toilet and washed my hands in the sink! I was so angry! We only have running water in the morning so obviously we like to take advantage, and I forgot! beh.

Sometimes we meet people and tell them we´ll come back another day and teach them, but sometimes we don´t remember the names of these people, so my planner is full of names like Roas de Arriba, familia de frijoles, hombre that was shaving, hombre that has three daughters, that poor kid, the lady that lives on the corner, grandma, parents of Cristian, the guy with the hat. haha I love the mission.

Transfers are this week so we are waiting for the call to see if I´m getting transfered. Either way I won´t be in a trio anymore because hermana Stott will get her new companion this week. I had three changes in Olanchito, three in Tela, and as of right now I have three in Santa Rita and I have three left on my mission, so we´ll see how it goes.

The Church is true. Jesus Christ is our Savior.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Cheque pues, this has to be super fast because I have no time.

I want everyone to know that Sierra Tracey still owes me a dress!!

Thanksgiving is not a thing here, so on thursday I made a hand turkey and for dinner Stott and Diaz and I went to a restaurant called MegaPollo. I ate fried chicken with tajadas. It was a nice catrachan thanksgiving. We each said what we were grateful for. 

Hermana Stott and I got in a fight about when the 7th Harry Potter book came out so I need everyone to look it up and tell me. Pleas and Thankyou.

In the Doctrine and Convenants DVDs on disc one there is this video about the 10 virgins and it ends with this song that´s all, "quien es prudente?? Quien no lo es..." and I´ve been singing it for months but I don´t know many of the words. Hermana Stott and sing it in the street all the time and Diaz just luaghs at us. So the story is that yesterday in Gospel Principles Elder Hancock taught a lesson on the second coming and he mentioned the ten virgins and started laughing because it reminded me of the song. I couldn´t keep my composure!!! I was all red and crying bacause I was trying so hard not to laugh. but the more he explained the story the harder it was to not laugh. "y en la medionoche, caundo llega el Señor la luz de rectituuuuuuuuuud nos guia a su mansioooooooooon." Go look up the song. It rocks my socks.

Yesterday we went looking for this recent convert that no one knows. She lives in Bella Vista which is on the side of this mountain. We hiked, literally hiked in dirt and rocks, all over that mountain for an hour and never found her. I wish I could explain to you what Bella Vista is like but I can´t.

I WENT TO TELA TODAY!!!!! We went as a zone to the beach in Tela. It felt good to be back there. I got to see my old comps Andújar and Cuc, and Elder and Hermana Webb. I even got to see Hna. Sosa.

On the bus ride there I was thinking about how totally not trunky I am right now. Ive been super trunky since the day I entered the CCM but once I hit a year that all went away. I was on the bus with my zone singing songs from EFY and watching all the banana plantations pass by and thinking about how sad it is that none of you will ever really know Honduras. You´ll never by a pastelito in Olanchito, never climb the rocks to Almedarez´s house in Tela, never hike up the mountain to Villa Adela in Santa Rita. It makes me sad. I´m glad still have plenty of time left.

Have a great week. Look up the video about the ten virgins.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

La Catracha, la nueva mexicana y la chapina‏

The last few weeks I´ve been saying "your mom..." a lot just because I know it irritates Hna Diaz and we laugh about it. The other day I making a bunch of your mom jokes and she was saying "ahh. Presidente Klein! Cambiame!!" So I said, "Tu me amas. Tu me amas y lo sabes." ( You love me and you know it.) Hernana Diaz just looked at me and said, "your mom lo sabe!" I´ve never been more proud.

I got gripe this week. I don´t remember what that is in english... I think it´s the flu. My nose was all stuffy, my throat hurt and it wasn´t fun. I was thinking about how much better it is to be sick when I´m at home and I can sit with a blanket and my mommy will bring me apple sauce. But I can´t do that here. I have to go out in the heat and find, teach, and baptize. It really wasn´t that bad, I mean, I didn´t throw up in the grocery store like Sierra did. ;) Zing!

According to the Republic of Honduras I am a man. My companions won´t stop laughing about it. I was showing them my awful picture on my Honduran residency card and Hna Stott noticed that her card has an f for feminina and my card has an m for masculino!!! I never noticed before because I think it was m for mujer (woman). The office Elder who filled out my paper work owes me big!!!!!

We were teaching this jewish lady (the only latin jew I´ve ever met) and I wasn´t thinking and said Can we sing a christmans hymn? Face palm. She then explained to us that although she doesn´t celebrate christmas we were welcome to sing a christmas song... she then explained to us that christmas trees are satanic. It was intersting.

There is this family with two teenaged sons. They told us that one is 17 and one 16, and that the one who is 16 is going to complete 17 this month. I instantly did the math and realized that if this is true they were only born 5 months apart... That makes no sense. So my companions and I went home and looked at the baptisimal registro for their dad to find their birthdays. We did the math and realized that the one who is 17 is actually 18!!! We have no idea why he is telling us the wrong age.

There is this christian church right by our house and they play their music really loud like all the churches here, except the catholic. We were in the middle of planning and I was singing along to their evangelical music. Hna Diaz laughed and said, "You know the words??" I said, "Hermana I´ve lived here a year. Yes I know all the wrods to all these christian rock songs." Then Hermana Stott (who has 15 months) said, "it´s true" Then start to clap and jam out to the christian rock. 

On saturday we visited one of my favorite investigators and I almost cried because she told us she specifically went and washed all her laundry that day so she would have time to go to church on sunday. I was so excited! ...she didn´t come to church yesterday. Thus is the life of a missionary.

We had interviews with Presidente Klein this week. It was great. The first thing he said to me was, "I forgot to bring you what you know I was going to bring you." Which means I didn´t get my traditional bag of twizzlers, but Jesus said to gorgive everyone, so it´s all good. I asked him where we are with opening Yoro. He said there are two missionaries he thinks of when he thinks about opening Yoro: me and Elder Moffit. So I was excited but then he explained. That although in the last year the mission has had 1,000 baptisms with 60% retention we aren´t seeing 600 more people in sacrament meeting (which means 600 people went inactive) and the area seventies don´t want to open Yoro if the church isn´t truly growing here. I still have fe. One day I´ll make it to Yoro.

I love you all. Don´t get dengue.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Firstly, everyone who can look it up I need to know if the french fries at McDonalds are actually potatoes or if they are yuca. Because we were all talking before DIstrict meeting about how we hate yuca and Elder Navas claims that the french fries are yuca not potatoes.

Being in trio has been. Good it is super fun, but it is also harder. Teaching doesn't flow as smoothly bacause you don't always know who is going to speak next, but it's all good. We are working both areas now so our area is super huge. We are still trying to get our schedule organized so that we aren't wasting tons of time walking all over the place. This week will be better.

On wednesday night (it's important to note that it was already dark) we contacted this lady. We were teaching her but she said she had to go down the street to watch the store so that her daughter could go run some errands. She said we could go with her and keeping teaching in the store. We went with her and when we got to the store we realized it was a liqour store!!! I thought, are we allowed to be in a liquor store? She told us to sit in the chairs in front of the store and that she was going to bring us juice. She brought a carton of juice and said she was going to get us some paper cups. We laughed until we cried at the fact that we were drinking Sula orange juice at the liquor store. Diaz wanted to take pictures but we told her taking out her camera with all these drunk people around wasn't the best idea. The lady came back with paper cups that had the Salva Vida logo on them!!! Salva Vida is the biggest beer company in Honduras. Hermana Stott started telling me to hide the cups in my bag so no one would see them. We were talking about whether we should just leave when this super drunk guy came up and tried to talk to us. We ran inside left the lady a pamflet and told her we would come back another day. IT was crazy, and scary, and super funny.

A lady taught me to use an old fashioned sewing machine. It is really hard to make the machine go only forward and not back and forth. 

Stake conference was this weekend. It was really good. Noris, one of my investigators who still isn't married, came and she really liked it. Pepe my convert came with his older brother Ezequiel, who is an investigator. 

On saturday the bus wasn't going back to Santa Rita until after the priesthood session so all the women just to sit around and wait. We were in Progreso so Stott, Diaz and I went to Little Ceasars!! Woo Do you know how long it had been since I had eaten little Ceasars? I don't even know!! It was so good. Then we bought two more pizzas and took them to the church for all the other women. I love Little Ceasars and it's super cheep. I am totally going to eat it more when I get home.

Right now I am in Progreso. We crashed the activity of the zone here. We went to a super pretty garden up on the mountain and played games and ate sandwiches. It was fun.

These last couple of weeks I've been thinking a lot about repentance and about it is our purpose here on the earth. We aren't perfect beings but we are trying to be. Repentance is the way to do that. When we have faith in Christ and his Atonement, repent, are batized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. Sometimes as missionaries we think that baptism changes people's lives, but it doesn't. It the preparation- the repentance that changes people. Baptism (or partaking of the Sacrament after you're baptized) is just the last step to repentance. Everything we do in the church: read the scriptures, go to church are simply just ways to help us live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love ya'll. Have a great week. Enjoy the "white death" that I love so much.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Trios

One of the hermanas I live with is from Choluteca Honduras and has been here waiting for her visa for Mexico. She got the call today and the secrataries are coming to pick her up so she can go to Mexico tomorrow. That means that her companion Hermana Stott is giong to be in a trio with us until the end of the change in december when they can get another hermana in here. This will be first time in trio and my first and probably only  time with an American companion. I´m exicted for this new experience.

Before my mission when I used to babysit my nephews I used to measure time by how many episodes of Mickey Mouse club house I had watched, "I´ve been here for three episodes of MMCH so Katie should be home in about two more MMCH. Last week my mom wrote me and told me that my family went to go see the third Hunger Games movie. I´ve now decided when people ask how much time I have in the mission I´m just going to say, "Two Hunger Games movies have come out in my time in the mission."

I´ve been feeling a little frustrated this week. I feel like I´m finally becoming the missionary I should be, I´m talking to more people than ever, I´m challanging more people than ever, I´m more obedient than ever and yet I´m not seeing any more fruits. I´m seeing less. No one is even close to getting baptized. Keep Swimming.

I made a goal this month to in PMG Charity and Love everyday. As couple days ago I read it but didn´t feel like I really learned anything new. Then I read in lesson three about repentance. It talks about how repentance changes how we see God, ourselves, and the world. Repentance helps us feel more love for God, oursleves, and the world, or sea more charity for God, oursleves, and the world. 1 Peter 4:8

I have eaten 321 baleadas. I love beleadas so much. 

I got  a bunch of music from my ZL and one of the songs is You Are Loved by Josh Groban. Any of my old roommates will be able to tell you that I love that song and that I cannot sing it quietly. Whenever we are listening to music in the house and that song comes on I have to turn it up and sing as loud as I can. Hermana Diaz keeps laughing at me. 

That´s all folks. I love you. Listen to You Are Loved, watch Hunger Games, cahllenge someone to be baptized.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

1 year, "miracles" and spirits‏

This week was really good. It is an interesting experience to be training for the second time because this is a completely different experience. I´m having to apply Teach People, Not Lessons in a new way, because how I an training Hermana Diaz is not the same way I did with Hermana Andujar. 

I recieved the following email from my lovely old roommate, Amy: "Sister Odekirk!!

I can't believe you just hit your year mark!! Remember when we went to Mission prep together and you couldn't even out your papers in for like a year?!" Why yes, I do remember when the teacher asked me where I was going on my mission and I told him that I couldn´t even start my papers for another eight months. This is crazy. That was two years ago.

Yes, I hit my year mark this week. It´s weird because sometimes I think about what I was doing a year ago: finishing my first semester of school, or that super crazy day I found out I was going to Honduras. But now when I think about what I was doing a year ago I was in in the CCM.

Also, I just realized the other day that Abby Spencer and Melanie Stark and all those girls are now Laureles!!! I was the weirdest moment of my life. I remember when they were first years at girls camp and taught them how to make knots. We are all getting super old and it´s werid.

It´s been cold this week and I´m saying that without the quotation marks because I think it was actually a little cold. I´ve been using my sweaters a lot. It has been raining a ton, we are walking through pure mud all day long. 

I was worried because my convert Pepe told us he wasn´t going to be able to come to church this week, but when we were waiting for sacrament meeting to start Pere walked up and shook my hand! And then 20 minutes later he passed the sacrament to me. Nothing is better than seeing converts use their priesthood. 

A couple of weeks ago Elders Marsh and Navas from La Sarrosa were walking through Santa Rita (because Sarrosa is so small there is no bank so they have to come here) and a man flagged them down because he wanted to hear more about the church. They called me so we could go talk to the guy because the elders didn´t know whose area the guy lives in. We took down his dats and told him the zls would contact him that night, since he lives in their area. This man came to church the next week and paid to go on the temple trip even though he couldn´t go inside and has a baptism date for the coming week. This man is a miracle!!!! BUT the story continues! dun dun dun Turns out the man is already a member!!!!! He got baptized about thirty years ago! He doesn´t know that we all know.  We are pretty sure he is pretending to be an investigator so he can try and get some money but we have no idea. I can´t wait to see how this all plays out. 

We were talking with one of my favorite investigators, Rosa, and she told us she would have been baptized a month ago if she didn´t have to get married. I cried, because her husband wants to get married and they have the money to do it, she just simply feels like she is too old to get married. She is just being stubburn. I´ve seen so much change in Rosa and I´ve seen that this gospel and her family bring her such joy she just feels like getting married is only for young people. The mission is the most frustrating experience of my life.

In Gospel Principles yesterday we were in lesson 41 about the Spirit World and I read that our spirits all have the form of adults. When a child dies when their spirit get to the spirit world it will be an adult. I looked up and said, "huh, I didn´t know that." and the sister that was teaching the class, "that´s why this is my class, not your class, my class." IT was super funny, and super facinating.

Also, in that class a guy was asking how we know if we are worthy to go to Celestial Kingdom and it turned into long conversation about how we aren´t perfect but we need to be perfect and it was really complicated, but the point is I thought about something really important during the conversation. A friend once write to me, "In order to get into the Celestial Kingdom, and live with God, we have to be perfect. (Or at least perfectly clean, maybe not perfectly developed.) So in order to enter the temple, which is a type of the Celestial Kingdom, we have to be perfect, right? NO! We have to be repentant. Basically, the point of this idea was that living a perfect earthly life is actually living a repentant life.

God never asks us to do any certain thing all at one time, it's all gradual. Especially when He asks us to be perfect. So when I'm actively and constantly repenting, I am fulfilling that commandment to "Be ye... perfect."" 

 God doesn´t ask us to be perfect, He asks to be perfectly repentant. I think about this email a lot, almost everyday, every time I want to sleep in just five more minutes or I think a not Christlike thought about someone. I just need to be repentant. That´s why God sent Savannah Odekirk to this earth. 

I hope you all have a great week. Wear some jeans and super cute boots! Because I can´t. Eat some ice cream. Repent.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Surprises at Transfer Meeting‏

Se fue! Mi hija puertorriqueña se fue. We got the call on monday and Hermana Andújar had transfers. I thought for sure she would be here in Santa Rita until february. The awesome part is she got transfered to Tela!!!! Whaaaaaa!! I know she is with my old companion Hermana Cuc and she is going to be teaching Familia Sosa and Horus and all my people in Tela. I am so excited for her but I miss her tons. I think I laughed with her more than any of my other companions.

We got to transfer meeting and my old companion Hermana Zamora was all, "Hermana Odekirk! That´s so great that you´re going to train again." I told her that I wasn´t going to train because normally they tell you that like a week in advance so you can go to the trainers meeting and no one ever called me about that. Zamora then explained to me that she meet all the new sisters yesterday and one of them was going to Santa Rita 2. I said "well, I guess I´m training again because I¨m in Santa RIta "

My new hija is Hermana Diaz. She is from Guatemala City. "El Capital" She is 24, and she joined the church about ten years ago. She is super sweet.

Something else I´ve been thinking about a lot lately: Yoro, Yoro, Honduras is a city in the middle of the Department Yoro that has never ever had missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in it. Ever There is no branch, nothing. President Klein told us all a few months ago that he wants to open Yoro. In order to do that we have to find refernces from Yoro of people who would like to hear the gospel and hopfully find a family of memebers there, so we can have sacrament meeting in their house until the church can find a house or building to rent. Yoro still isn´t open but I pray all the time that it can open soon. If you look at a map you will notice that you have to pass through Santa Rita to get to Yoro, so I meet people all the time who tell me they used to live in Yoro. I want to open Yoro so badly it´s killing me!!!!! Can you even imagine how amazing it would be to open the area and go to church with only like ten or fifteen people in it??? My old DL wants to open Yoro too. He is so crazy that yesterday he took picture in front of the white board at the church where he wrote "16 months" (because he has 16 months in the mish) and then under it he wrote #yoro2015. There it is folks. Pray for it: yoro2015.

Nos vemos. Love you!!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Armadillos, hammocks, and the "cold"

One of my favorite investigators (who never comes to church and it is sups (that was for you, SIerra) frustrating!) gave armadillo the other day. It was really good. She also gave us SOPA DE MONDONGO!! Nooooooo!!!! I ate it and it wasn't that bad. If I didn't tell you it was the intestine of a cow you would just think it is really fatty beef. In fact I think I ate it in Olanchito once but I only had a week in Honduras and didn't know what it was.

Region family history expert came to Santa RIta last week. I have now seen his presentation four times. He has come to every one of my areas and a zone conference. I really love family history work, but sometimes it is frustrating because I want to help people do it, but no one has a computer here and the chapel doesn't have a family history library, so it's not always easy to get people involved. The ward had a family history night before they went to the temple last week. THey had three laptops and helped the ward members get some names for the temple. Maybe we need to make that a thing we do more often.

We had this investigator who doesn't like el Libro del Mormon. She said she won't pray about it because she isn't 100% sure it's true. ugh. Praying about it is the way to become 100% sure it's true!!!!!!! I wanted to flip a chair! (Shout out to Moen)

Andujar and I were planing a lesson and we were discussing if we wanted to teach all of lesson one or just the first half and she said, "I think we should teach it until the Gospel of Jesus Christ." ...um... Do you mean Christ's Earthly Ministry? Or you do you want to teach all of the Restoration AND Plan de Slavacion AND Gospel of Jesus Christ? ha ha I've been giving her a hard time about it all week.

I've also been giving her a hard time because we were in a lesson with this lady. It was the first lesson and we asked her to pray at the end. The lady was praying and there was long pause and she laughed a little bit. This happens sometimes when people are praying and they don't really know how to end it. I thought she might be done and I should just say amen but I decided to wait, when all of a sudden at the exact same moment the Andujar said amen and the lady began to pray again, so the lady just said amen too. Andujar said, "oh, were you done?" They lady said yes eventhough we all knew she wasn't done. It was super awkward. hahahahahahahaha

We went to teach this family who have two little kids and are always watching disney movies when we show up. We went inside the house sat down and noticed they were watchign the Lion King!! Yep. BUT  the mom started fast forwarding through the whole movie! That clearly is not accaptable. I was in shock but then I realized she was fast forwarding because Lion King 2 came after it and she wanted to watch that instead!! Ah, tiene razon. She then said she would be right back and left us in the room with her two kids and Lion King 2. It was rough, I can't ask two little kids to turn off lion king 2! But as a missionary I also can't watch tv. So what do you do? I just sang along and enjoyed it while it lasted. The mom came back after a REALLY long time. Too much time and we only had time to teach her a really short lesson about how God is her loving Heavenly Father. I've been having a problem with watching tv the last few weeks. 

We went to go see our recent convert Pepe and ask him how it went at the temple. He said it went great and asked when he can go again! He's a good kid. And last night we found his older brother wants to start coming to church. I'm really hoping we can baptize the whole family. 

When we showed up to teach Pepe he and his brother were making a hammock! Naturally we said, do you need any help? and I learned how to make a hammock!! It really isn't that hard. I've decided that some day my kids will have fond memories of spending the afternoon making a hammock with their mom.

It's been cold the last few days. ha ha Like 70 or 60 degrees cold. I wore a cardigan yesterday!! Last night I slept in my hoodie that I haven't worn since february, and pants, and socks. "Winter" is coming.

Transfers are this week but we haven't recieved the call that says if I go or not. I think Andujar and I will both be here until december, but hna Rosales thinks I am going this week. Vamos a ver!!

Love you all. Don't forget the church is true. Do your family history. Eat armadillo.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

No marriages, no earthquakes, and no luz‏

Hermana Saylin, who went back home because of her knee and is now going to BYU just sent me the following:  "Uhm lets talk about how our QB broke his leg in the game against Utah State and our undefeated streak was broken by yalls crap team. 

Love you sis 

JESUS ES MI LUZ 

Jorge Lo!"  

Sí hombre-e hail the Utah Aggies 

My friend Kelene asked my why it is hard to get married in Honduras and I realized I´ve never explained that. Firstly, here are some things my fellow missionsaries have said to me in the last two days about marrying people in Honduras:

     "Marrying people in Honduras makes me want to pluck my eyes out.  It's honestly the worst."

      "It´s not worth it. You should just stop trying. If you meet a couple who aren´t married you shouldn´t even try to teach them because they´ll never progress." 

Yep, we have a lot of hope here. It´s hard to marry people because, uno, people just don´t want to. They tell me "I´m not really sure I want to spend the rest of my life with him" and I¨m like um... you already have four kids and fifteen years together!! casense ya!! And dos, it is SUPER expensive to get married here, you have to pay for a billion different things of paper work. Tres, birth certifiactes aren´t a thing here so you have to go all the way to the town where you were born and get this paper that verifies that you were born and all that jazz, and a lot of people don´t even have the time or the money for bus fair to go to the town, let alone the 200 limps to get that paper work. 

Hermana Andujar and I felt our desk shaking during language study in the night and apparently it was an earthequake in El Salvador. 

Mary Magdelene and Mary of Bethany (the sister of Lazarus) are NOT the same person! I feel like everything I know is wrong...

The followiing paragraph is a little gruesome and a little explicit. Feel free to skip if you feel so inclined. 

This week the 18 year old son of one of our less active families that we visit various times a week was killed. He was shot 15 times. We went to go visit the family and the mom was the most hysterical person I´ve ever seen. She screamed and cried so much she passed out about 8 times. They put hand sanitizer under her nose and she woke back up. He was killed in the middle of the night but at ten oclock in the morning his body was still in the road (I never saw it) Eventually the police took him the nearest corener´s office in the nearest hospital which is about half an hour away. When we went back later that night the oldest son asked us to keep his mom calm while they bring the body home and get it all cleaned and prepared. She started screaming and crying again. It was hard. The good news is that yesterday for the first time I saw the whole family in church. I am hoping that this can bring some blessings for them.

The word Mandrake is in the Bible Dictionary. Harry Potter is real.

We had baptisms on Saturday!! Full of miracles. Pepe who is 12, Fernando 9 and Zamira is 8. Finding baptisimal clothes can be the most challenging part of the baptism but we found all the clothes super fast!! It only took a few days. I was shocked. On saturday we were getting everything all set and the power went out. That always happens. The elders got a generator going but it only had enough power for the sacrament room, so our plan was do all the talks and stuff in the sacrament room and then use flashlights to go do the baptisms. We had all the talks and right as we were about to go do the baptism that power came back on!! Miracle!! It was so great to see how this event brought the Campos family together. Geraldina, who is the mom of Fernando and Zamira and less active, bore her testimony and it was so sweet. 

All three of them were confirmed yesterday. Pepe also received the aaronic preisthood yesterday because there is a temple trip on wednesday and he wanted to go and I was all, "yeah, Pepe you can go to the temple!" but I didn´t know that he has to have the priesthood first. The first counsler of the stake presidency said, it´s all good we´ll just ordain him after this meeting. He didn´t even get interviewed by the bishop first, the hermano from the stake said,  "Hermana, there are exceptions to the rules." So... Pepe, has the priesthood and is going to temple this week. Woo!

I have eaten 289 baleadas. Only 121 left to go to hit my goal of 409!

In District meeting we were doing mayordomias where we write on the board the people who have a baptism date for the next few weeks. I was writing on the board and I looked at Andújar to ask if we had anyone else and Elder Tezen said, "Maria! There is always a Maria" De hecho, we DO  have a Maria. There is always a Maria and always a Carlos. True Story.

It´s hot in all times and in all things and in all places.

The church is true. 

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Someone in this internet cafe was just listening to Call Me Maybe and I really enjoyed it for a minute.

This week had a couple of mission firsts in it. For the first time in almost a year I have used all of my 2,000 limperas of the pay period. I have to use my reserve fund to buy groceries later today. I had been so proud of myself and my money managing skills but I got a little too confident this week and accidentally used all my money. Let´s all hope this never happens again.

We had divisions this week and for the first time I left my area and went and worked in sister training leaders´ area in Palermo. Palermo is really great. It´s super pretty and the mountains to one side remind me of home.

I walked in the door to the STL´s house and I saw couches. Couches!! I have never seen couches in a missionary´s apartment, only on the District videos. When we got home that night I relaxed on the couch and I realized it was the first time I had layed down on a couch almost a year.  In the morning I did personal study at the desk but then I planched and did language study on the couch and it felt so good. It was so comfortable and I felt like I was back home doing homework on the couch. ha ha

Also in Palermo, for the first time on my mission I went running. I had avioded it this whole time. I do my exercise everyday but I don´t run. I went running with Hermana Ramos and it really wasn´t that bad. I don´t know if hiking up the mountains of Santa Rita everyday has put me in shape or if it´s just that the air is thicker here than in Utah but I feel like I ran pretty far; Nonetheless, I don´t want to go running again.

When Andujar and i got to Palermo the STL still weren´t at the bus stop so we went to the Texaco to break my 500 limp. bill and I realized that I am my mother ´s child. I went in with the intent to buy a bottle of water and a maybe a candy bar, but came out with a bottle of water, a Twix, a cookies and cream  Hershey´s and a bag  American Doritos. (This might explain why I spent all my money with week) I love Texaco because they always have american candy.

We have this investigator who is wonderful and takes really good care of us and makes us lunch when we come over. (I no longer have that problem where everyone gives us food and I have to eat four dinners everyday. No one feeds us here) SHe told us she wants to make dinner for all the missionaries in Santa Rita. Great! She also said she wants to make sopa de Mondongo!! Noooooo!!!! Do ya´ll know what mondongo is???? It is the intestine, stomach, and feet of a cow!! We were telling one of the other hermanas that this investigator wants to give us mondongo and all of a sudden we heard Hermana Rodriguez yell from the kitchen, "WHO wants to gives us mondongo??" and she burst into the room. I asked her if she has ever eaten it because she is from Honduras and got all, "jamás voy a comer mondongo!!" I don´t know how to translate jamás... But the punchline is we are all praying she doesn´t give us mondongo.

Fernando and Pepe are on date to get baptized this saturday! Fernando is 9 and Pepe just turned 12. Pepe reads everything and has come to church the last three weeks in a row. I am really excited for him. 

No one is married yet. Elder Navas said we should just baptize all these people anyway. He said we´ll get to judgement and God will just let it slide because He understands how hard it is to get married here. It was super funny. Full of apostasy, but super funny.

Have a great week folks!! THe church is true.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Another Week

Another week has come and gone and nothing really awesome happened, except we went to see a water fall this morning and it rocked. We took the bus an hour to Morazan and from their a member took us in his giant van to the falls. We climbed on the rocks and took pictures and ate snacks. Hermana Turner and I climbed to the top of the falls and while we were crossing the river I fell, so my jeans got wet. Que chasta, I know. But it was a good morning. 

When we were on the bus they had the raido on and I heard a song I had never heard before. It was all "When I met you in the summer, yada yada yada." I really liked it and I am adding it to my list of things to look up when I get home.

So... all you guys are sending me things about Halloween and until ten minutes ago I totally forgot that Halloween was a thing. 

My life plan has always been to have four children. The other day we went to visit Familia Campos and I commented to hna Andujar that no matter when we go Hermana Geraldina is always doing laundry (which she washes by hand like most of the people here including myself). Then we started helping do the dishes and washing all the baby bottles and I said to Andujar, "maybe I only want two kids." ha ha But then a few days later we were with this family that has six kids and the last three are really close together in age and they are best friends and it is cutest thing in the whole world. We were walking away from the house and I said "they´re so cute! I want six kids!" Andujar then replied, "I think I need to take you back to the house of Familia Campos and show you the baby bottles again." ha ha It was super fuuny. Good thing there is plenty of time before I´ll be making that decision.

Conference was this week end and it was wonderful like always. I don´t have my notes so here is what I remember.

   1. I loved Elder Christofferson´s talk about repentance and mercy vs. justice. I just thought, this is sociology, this is what I´m studying when I get home. 

   2. I also loved Bednar. He is my favorite. At one point he said, "Absolute truth exists." and all I thought was, "In a world where absolute truth exists but cannot be known one must live by reason and faith." -Delose Conner. Yep, I was a Layton Lancer

   3. It was super awesome when they gave their talks in spanish. We switched the channel to watch it in spanish during those ones. 

   4. Clearly I need to take the sacrament more seriously.

Hermana Andujar had a note from a guy in her ward back home who used to be a preacher. It said Remember what Paul said to timothy, "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Then we both looked at each other, whaaaaaa? That scripture is Joshua 1:9 Paul didn´t say that. Awkward.

Have a great week!! Eat something  delicious tomorrow, that always perks up my day.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Baleadas: 268

Weekly Update

I just read all my emails and eventhough I`m sure no one cares I wanted to share some of the emails I got today because they made me super happy.

1. CAssidy Lloyd Sent me a picture of a high school football game in Florida where she is serving a mission. Did you know I love high school football with all my heart? Especially when it`s with Caissidy Lloyd. "It was a Christmas Miracle!" " Fannypack fannypack"

2. "Sister Odekirk,

Hello! At the start of this semester I've realized how much I miss coming home and geeking out about trebuchets to you and complementing your superior sister missionary style. And trying to marry strangers. I'm living in Moen again, and I have five freshman roommates. They think I'm so wise and hilarious, so I like them. Now I know what Carol felt like. My sister got married to a motorcycle stuntman this weekend so I'm at home eating left over cupcakes. Anyways, hope the mission is going well. Send me the link to your blog!

-T-Harm

P.s. Oh and I'm turning in my mission papers in the next few weeks. Surprised? Me too.

P.s.s And I'm building the COOLEST trebuchet."

Did you know I conviced T-harm to become a certified minister on on True Aggie night two years ago so that we could marry a couple on the A?

3. Hermana Saylin and I were emailing about hymns we sing in Honduras todos los dias and the following conversation occured.

    Me: "I sing Te Damos Señor Nuestras Gracias about ten times a week

    Kate: "and they slide the gracias hahahahah"

    Me: "OH MY GOSH!!!!! I FREAKIN HATE IT!!!!!!! IT BUGS THE CRAP OUT OF ME EVERY TIME!!!! Beh. But they are children of God."

    Kate: "i can always count on you to be real with me. none of this i'm a missionary and i love everything crap. YOU ARE THE REAL DEAL.

MERICA"

4. From Deanna Wheeler (she just got married but I can`t remember her last name now, I think it`s Wilson... awkward.)  "PS- remember when we talked about getting on the Ellen show? I haven't gotten there yet, but if I ever do I'll be sure to invite you if I can!"

The point of all this being that even though I`m a missionary I`m still the same old Savannah Odekirk I`ve always been. It`s just that now I speak spanish and I love banana soda and I understand way more about the Abrahamic Covenant than I did before. 

You know you`re a missionary in Honduras when: 

  1.For part of District Meeting every week you spend time helping the latin missionaries learn english.

   2: The example sentences are: We do not like apostasy. We do not see our investigator. The pastor does not have authority.

Only in Honduras can you look at a taxi driver and say we don`t don`t have any money but can you take us to the punto and says yeah get in. People here are so kind.

Rosa and Heidi totally want to get baptized! But they have to get married. Rosa even told a lady at work, "i don`t go to any church but if I did I would go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." I love them tons. and they came to the women`s conference!! Which was a disaster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It 6:05 and I was all stressed because we were waiting for Heidi and Rosa and we were late. I got a call from the sisters from Morazan who came to watch the conference because they don`t have a chapel in morazan, and they asked if we were going to watch the confernce because the chapel was locked. Heidi and Rosa finally showed and we walkd to the chapel where all the Morazan women  were waiting outside (only one family from Santa Rita came btw) So I called the bishop  a thousand times and he told me that he was in  San Pedro so would have to go to his house to get the keys. We then did some unathorized splits so Andujar could stay with our investigators and I could go with Hermana Turner to get the keys. We called the ZLs to come set up the projector because we didn´t know how and we watched the second half of the conference. But at least Heidi and Rosa said they felt the spirit.

Transfers are this week and we are 99% sure that both Hermana Andujar and I will be here in Santa Rita six more weeks. 

Sorry it was a really long email this week. If you don't like it don't read it. The Church is true. Banana soda rocks.

Love, 

Hermana Odekirk

P.S. Baleadas eaten: 262 My rate has slowed now that we area making our own food.

Another Two Weeks in Santa Rita‏

So I´ve been thinking about it a lot for the last five months and I´ve come to the conclusion that the shower in my apartment in Olanchito was WAY colder than any other shower I´ve used. It was so cold my head would start to hurt when I rinsed the shampoo and I dreaded showering everyday, but in Tela and here in Santa Rita it´s really not that bad.

We were eating dinner with some members on Tuesday and we sitting outside, when all of a sudden their cat jumped on my arm and dug it´s claws in like my was arm was a tree or a scratching post because it was trying to eat my chicken soup. (Yes, Daniel, more adventures with wildlife) Also, yesterday I was sitting on this pile of dirt teaching a lesson and when I put my hand down on the pile I accidentally put it in chicken poop!! It was a pleasant experience. Then about four mintues later I had a giant spider on my scriptures, and on friday I had a cockroach in my scriptures and we had a bunch of slugs in our back yard. Yep, this is life in Honduras.

There has been marching band music EVERYWHERE this week because all the high schools were practicing for the 15 de Septiembre celebrations. It made be trunky because it made me think of going to footballs games in high school. We went to go watch the parade this morning and it was cool. They had the marching band and dancers and all the kids on the honor roll walked by. 

Wednesday was Childrens Day here in Honduras. At school they play games all day. We spent the whole morning helping a less active make hamburgers for all the kids in her daughter´s class. People have parties with piñatas. All the kids get candy and a new outfit. It is a really cool day. Hermana Andújar and I have decided we are going to celebrate childrens day our kids some day. 

Thursday we splits with the Líderes Entrenadoras. Andujar went to Progreso with Hermana Baltazar and I stayed here with Hermana Ashcraft. I had never really worked with Hermana Ashcraft before so it was fun.

We taught on of our progresing investigators the law of chastity and it was SO sad. We explained to her that she needs to get married if she wants to get baptized and she was so sad because she has a sincere desire to be baptized but her boyfriend doesn´t want to get married. We are going to try and get to know the boyfriend better this week because he runs and hides everytime we come by.

We are still stuggling with all our other investigators con fecha that need to get married.

On saturday we went to teach Mirsa. In our first lesson with her a few weeks ago we taught the Restoration and she said she believes that it is all true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I challenged her to be baptized and she said yes. I was hesitant to be excited though, because I meet a lot of people who say they believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and they want ot be baptized but they don´t really mean it. We came back the next day to pick her up for church and she said she was going to go to her church. Yesterday we went to teach her again and see if there is any real `potential there. We asked her if she had read in the Libro de Mormón and she said yes. We asked what she learned and she said about José Smith and la iglesia mormona. I asked her where she read and she then showed me · Nefi 11. FACE-PALM!! She didn´t read anything. Ay estas personas! Andúhar and I had a good laugh about it after. 

Well this is my life. Happy Birthday to the montón de personas that are completing años this months. You know who you are. 

Love you all. The Church is true.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

 

 

Bueno pues. 

I finished reading the Book of Mormon again and I read the Libro de Mormon in it´s entirety. I feel super accomplished. 

Eventhough our house has water we were still having to bucket water into the toilet because it wasn´t flushing but then I fixed it all by myself. As my aunt JeRee always says, "I am woman." I can fix a toilet. I really love having a toilet that flushes.

Happy big 20 to Sierra because she didn´t understand my spanglish.

I saw a kid with Lightening McQueen shoes and I started laughing. When Hermana Andújar asked my why I was laughing I said, "Because in spanish it would be Relámpagos McReina." She didn´t appreciate how hilarious I am. 

I finished washing my hands and naturally flicked water in Andújar´s face. I then asked "Ha visto Avatar: the Last Airbender" She then laughed and said, "Hermana, no vivo en la jungla!" (I don´t live in the jungle) I love the way she understands all my American references.

I took off the nail polish on my toes to repaint them and I realized that the nail on my second toe on my right foot is super gross and is coming off and the new nail is growing in underneath it. Bleh. I have no idea why. But I just painted over it and am letting it ride, so hopefully it all goes well.

Denison Lopez is my favorite. He is 12 and he is the only active member in his family. His mom is great too. We met his mom our first week here but she didn´t seem interested, but as we´ve been visiting Denison she has shown more and more interest. AND she came to church yesterday!! She said her three oldest kids have been members for four years but it was the first time she had come to church. We taught her the Restoration yesterday and we challenged her to be baptized and she said "yes, but I have to be married first." I´m so excited for her!! Yet another person I have to get married. Keep praying for marriage miracles.

We taught Heidy tithing yesterday and she was so receptive. Everything we teach her she believes. She quite drinking coffee. She has come to Noche de Hermanamiento twice but still hasn´t come to church. She has a real desire to get baptized! but... she has to get married! Ay! I´ve never had so many investigators with this problem. My DL has a year and he says he has never successfully married a Honduran couple. Keep praying. 

This morning we took the bus to La Sarosa and had a pday de zona con Presidente and Hermana Klein. It was so awesome. We played kickball!! Tons of fun.  I roled in there in my Utah State t-shirt and Presidente told me that Hermana Klein went there. I was talking to her about how wonder Utah State is (she has attended SLCC, Weber, BYU and she said Utah State was her favorite. Just BTW) and I found out she lived in MOEN HALL!! True story. Hermana Klein is just about my favorite person ever. She also brought us snack packs. Yeah Sierra, snack packs. 

We have three niños on date for el 8 de Octubre and they´re niños so they don´t have to get married!! They are so cute!! I love them.

Pues, that´s all for now folks. Remember the church is true. 

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

This week we had multizone conference and it totally rocked like it always does. You know you´re a missionary in Honduras when Hermana Klein gives hand sanitizer as a birthday present and you all say, "Yes!! Hand Sanitizer! I´ve been needing that."

The multizone made us all really trunky because Presidente Klein spent the whole time talking about the importance of the temple... and we can´t got to the temple."Very sad." ("Charlie died. Very sad." You´re my best friend if you know what that´s from) It was a really good conference though. I learned a ton. A family history consultant came to talk to us about the importance of working on family history with our recent converts and how to use family search. AND for lunch we had chicken cordon bleu! We always get to eat something from America when we go to multi.zone conference.

Also at the multizone, we were all getting ready to leave, but we wanted to go to the bathroom first. Hermana Turner was starting to open the bathroom door when all of a sudden I just started shouting "No, no, no, no, no!!!!" She stopped opening the door and realized that she was opening the door to the men´s bathroom!! She very promptly went into the women´s room with her companion while Hermana Andujar and I laughted so hard we cried. Meanwhile a bunch of Elders came out of the bathroom. We very narrowly avoided a very uncomfortable situation.

In Spanish endure to the end is perseverar hasta el fin. Presidente Klein once gave us a whole lesson about how it should be servir (serve) hasta el fin. If we are serving others and serving God and serving in our church callings we will never fall away. I really really liked that lesson and I teach this principle to people all the time, and I´m super excited because this week when I was reading El Libro del Mormon I found this scripture in Moroni 6:3 "And none were received unto baptism save they took upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end."

It´s been raining every night this week. One night we were walking under our umbrellas and I was shivering and Hermana Andujar just laughed at me and said I´m going to die when I get back to Utah because it´s not very cold right now. I just said, "Ya soy Catracha!" The most irrtating part is I don´t have anyway of knowing what the temperature actually is.

Our DL Elder Moffit called to get our datos on thursday and I was speaking spanish to him. At one point he realized that he was speaking with me and not with Hermana Andujar like he thought. He laughed and said that that means my spanish is getting better if someone mistakes you for your latin companion. Sí hombre!!

We went to visit a less active woman, we´ll call her Maria, and she is so full of apostasy I was astounded!! She got baptized a few years ago but went inactive after about a year. She started listing off all these reasons she stopped coming to church. One of which is that one of the members started telling her she should get her patriarchal blessing, that the patriarch will tell her when she´ll die, how many children she´ll, if she´ll be poor. She looked me and yelled that it was WITCHCRAFT! I´ve never met someone with so much apostasy. I calmly explained to her that I´ve gone to a patriarch and received my blessing and it doen´t tell me any of that. I think we are going to have some intersting visits with her in the future.

All of our investigators that have promise aren´t married, and you have to be living the Law of Chastity to be baptized. Do you know how hard it is to get married in Honduras?? There is a reason no one gets married here. Beh. Oh well, we´ll pray and figure it out.

Have a great week!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

No Subject

Well, folks things are starting to settle down in Santa Rita. I know my area a little better and we are getting a solid group of investigators. Hermana Babb and Hermana Villegas left us with some rock star investigators. (Yeah, Hermana Holdaway, they´re rockstars) I thought we would be doing a ton of contacting these first few weeks, but we haven´t really done that much. ALthough, we need to contact more because I hate it and it´s awkward and I need to get over it and do it. That´s probably why Heavenly Father sent me train while opening an area.

One of the rock start families that Babb and Villegas left us with is the familia Flores. We set for a baptism date for the 27 of septiembre. They are reading and praying and they want to do this together as a family. They´re awesome. The only problem is they need to get married and if there is anything a missionary in Honduras knows it´s that gettng married in Honduras is not an easy task.

The Ward Mission Leader introduced us to one of his friends (which has been a little weird for me because I´ve never really had a ward mission leader before so I´m learning to work with him  more). We gave the friend a pamphlet and made an appointment to go to his house and meet his family. When we went to meet them yesterday they were so excited to see us. One of the daughters went inside and pulled out three Book of Mormons (it´s Book of Mormons, not Books of Mormon because it is a proper noun, a title, just so we´re all clear). Turns out the missionaries were visiting them about a year ago and one of the duaghters said that she reads the Book of Mormon every night. I can´t wait to teach them more!! Miracle!!

Yesterday a stray dog wandered into the sacrament room in the middle of sacrament meeting. Honduras.

We went grocery shopping last week and Hermana Andujar wanted some mayo. She looked at it and said, "Mayonesa comes in a bag here?" I laughed for second because I legitimately forgot that in other countries things don´t come in bags. Here in Honduras everything comes in a bag: mayo, milk, sour cream, water. 

Hermana Andujar was telling me a story and she mentioned that she and her sister were going to go to Sam`s to eat pizza, and I said, "Esperese, Sam`s?" and she said, "Yeah, Sam`s Club." Most of my companions don´t know what Wal-mart is, let alone go get pizza at Sam`s club. It rocks having a companion from Puerto Rico because she understands a lot of things about my culture that my other compànions have´t understood. 

She also mentioned that in Puerto Rico they sing the national anthem of Puerto Rico and the United States. So we looked at the national anthem in my english hymn book and then I sang all three verses really loudly. Then I looked up all the scriptures on the pages of the patriotic songs and marked them in my spanish scriptures with an american flag. That´s right, Hermana Holdaway, `Murica.

I was reading a biography about Gordon B. Hinckley and I found out the B stands for Bitner. Bitner! If I remember correctly one of great grandma´s maiden name is Bitner. I am officially declaring it my mom`s job to find out how I`m related to President Hinckley.

I have over forty mosquito bites on my calves. I`ve had mosquito bites for the last ten months. Also, I hit ten months on saturday.

Have a great week! The church is true.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Aqui en Santa Rita‏

A minute ago Elder Moreno came over to me and asked me how to spell pamphlet/pamflet because he is trying to write to Klein in english. I responded, "Freak, hombre I have no idea. I think it is ph, but I can't remember." He then asked Hermana Andujar because her english rocks, but she didn't know either so they google translated it but it brought up brochure. After all this effort Elder Moreno just looked at me and said, "All I know is that God loves his children."

Santa Rita is the most rural area I've been in. We tried to go out to lunch today but we didn't find much. We are literally hiking through the mountains to get to parts of our area, it's super cool. The Hermanas before left us with a couple of really solid progresing investigators. 

Hermana Andujar is wonderful!! She is already giving really good ideas and isn't afraid to take the lead in a lesson. She is challenging people to be baptized y todo. She came pretrained.

We went to church yesterday it felt wierd because they have a Gospel Principles teacher, it's not just the missionaries. We had 88 people in sacrament meeting and they tell me that usually this ward has about 110 or 120. We'll get it back up there. I'm excited to work here in Santa Rita.

ON my birthday Presidente Klein called to say happy birthday and he also explained to me that strengthening Santa Rita is really important to being able to open Yoro, and I want my fourth area to be opeing Yoro so I'm going to work really hard here. 

He also told me to work with Clarity and Charity. Clarity tells us that church starts at nine o'clock every sunday, but charity tells us that it's okay to start at 9:15 so that more members will be there. THat's something I've really had to learn, that being a church of order is never more important than the people.

My birthday was great! I got lots of texts and phone calls from all my missin friends. In the morning I was about to go downstairs to start my personal study when the 3 hermanas I live with surprised me with a cake!! It was so cute!!

Also on Firday, we were late to Noche de Hermanamiento and the Elders called to ask if we were coming and I was all embarrassed for being late. We got there and the elders were in the foryer looking all serious. Elder Moreno said Suazo, You tell them the story. Elder Suazo proceeded with this really serious story about how they were walking... and they  were worried... because they realized... they hadn't wished me a happy birhday!! and then he pulled out a card they got me. I was super worried there for a minute. ha ha

Hermana Andujar speaks more spanglish than any missionary I've ever met. Voy a hacer mi personal study, or cuando yo estaba en high school. I love it, it's super funny. It's interesting to have her for my companion because it is almost like having a gringa companion, because Puerto Rico is almost like America. 

It's super weird to think that if I had never come on the mission I would be starting my third year of college today. Whaaaaaaaa?

Before my mission I bought some Teeva sandals for about $70. They're great! Hermana Davis has the same shoes, except she bought hers at a second hand store here in Honduras and the people running the store didn't understand how expensive these shoes are so she bought hers for $16. 70 to 16, you gotta love Honduras.

During personal study one of our neighbors was listening to The Reason by Ubistank. When was the last time you heard that song?

Well, have great week! And happy aniversary to my mom and dad!! I love them a whole heep.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

 

 

Changes Otra Vez‏

Pues... here I am in the beautiful town of Santa Rita. Today was the craziest changes of my whole mission.

I woke up at 4:20 and just layed in bed awake until 5.30 because I was so nervous I couldn´t sleep. WARNING: This next sentence gets a little graphic. My poop has been kind of diarea-ish the last few days and I think it´s from all the stress and nervousness of this cambio. I felt like I was going to puke the whole morning, but I didn´t.

We got to change meeting all normal. Right as they were about to start annoucing the changes I starting getting super excited and punching the air like I do when I¨m super excited. Then Presidente Klein got up to the pulpit and reminded us to maintain reverence during the meeting. He said, "I know you´re all excited but I don´t need to see it." and he was looking right at me the whole time he said it... oops. 

OH well, I met my new companion and she´s awesome. Her name is Hermana Ardújar and she is from Puerto Rico. She is 21 and graduated with a degree in biology. Her family has been members since she was 1 so she is my first companion that isn´t a convert. She has pretty good english since she is from Puerto Rico. 

We left the reunion de cambios and went to Progreso for lunch before our treck to Santa Rita. It started raining during lunch and didn´t stop for a couple hours. Normally that´s not really a problem but we had all of our luggage. The Zone Leaders were traveling with us since I don´t know the area. We didn´t want to walk to the bus terminal with all our luggage so we were going to take a taxi, but then someone said we could catch a bus outside the antorcha. So we waited there for half an hour getting all wet in the rain before Elder Moreno said that he didn´t think a bus would come and that we should go to the bus terminal. 

We found a taxi to take us there so Herama Ardujar and I got in the tazi with most of the luggage went to the bus terminal to wait for the elders to come after the taxi went back for them. I was really proud of myself because I when we got to the terminal I was talking to all the bus conductors and taking care of the situation all by myself. I can totally do this.

We finally got to Santa Rita and Elder Moreno said he was going to call a member with a taxi to take us to our house, only they don´t really have taxis here. All they have are those things you see on the Amazing Race in Asia where it has three wheels and isn´t fully enclosed. 

We live in the same house with two other Hermanas. The house is so huge!! It is biggest house of all the missionaries in the mission. It´s awesome but it doesn´t feel homey.

Yesterday, the RS president, Vicky, and the familia Garcia and the other missionaries in Tela surprised me with a birthday cake since I¨ll be in Santa Rita for my birthday. IT was really nice. Hermana Cuc and the elders smashed cake all ove my face.

I miss Tela a ton, but I´m tring to keep a good attitude about being here in Santa Rita. Now I just have to figure out what we were going to do at six o´clock when pday is over and we have to go work... Ay no!! I´ll go take a look at the area book and see what there is. e´ll see how this goes. Pray for me.

Have a great week!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Brace yourselves, grab some chips and some Pepsi (like a good catracho) because this is a long one.

BAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Tha's how I have felt the last 26 ours of my life. Yesterday was branch conference (which was wonderful) so Presidente Klein came. I walked into church and went to say hi to him. I shook his hand and said, "Presidente, como esta?" and he just smiled at me without showing his teeth like he does when he is about say something really important. He said, "Your dream is coming true." "what dream?" ÿou know what dream." So I said, "This means I have changes?" and he said, yes. "I'm going to train?" I asked.  He said, "Yes, you're a good missionary. You need to be training, but I need to take you out of Tela in order to do that."

I SSSSOOOOOOOOO sad to be leaving Tela. I absolutely love it here. I loved Olanchito but I would pick Tela any day. I've seen so much amazing growth here, in the branch and in myself.

Famila Sosa was baptized in May. a family of five. They are working in their callings and Nahomy on her Personal Progress. They are working on their family history to go to the temple in a few weeks and do baptisms. Hermana Sosa always tells us that their house it our house and it is true, I feel like I am with family when I am with them. I can't wait till they get sealed in a year.

Angel y Zulma were baptized in May. They two of the greatest kids ever, and I'll always miss singing I Stand All Amazed and doing our secret hand shake with Zulma.

Horus was baptized in June. I had to say bye to him last night and it was rough. I cried. Then he cried (then he suddenly went into the kitchen for a minute then came back. I think he was trying to gain his composure because he didn't want us to see him crying) then he cried again. His imediate family isn't very happy that he got baptized but he knows he made the right decision. I've loved seeing how strong his testimony is.

We reactivated Familia Garcia. Hermana Concha is second counselor in the RS now and Hermano Max was sustained as second counselor in the branch presidency yesterday. Max was giving his testimony about how they were inactive and they had all these problems but then the sister missionaries came and now their family is so much better. Presidente Klein was sitting on the stand listening to Max and he looked at me smiled and then I cried a little bit.

Familia Almendarez, Vanesa, Fausto, Marvin. Beh, now I'm getting all sad.

When I got to this branch there was an attendance of about only 50 people and yesterday we hit 100!!!!!!!  WE FINALLY DID IT!! 100 PEOPLE!!! IT was so amzing I can't even describe it. Presidente Klein said this is the only brnach/ward that has doubled in size in the last year. This branch is going to be become a ward some day, and I am so grateful that I have able to be a part of the work here.

I love this area so much, and I am so grateful that I'm going to have the opportunity to be a trainer even though I have to leave. Presidente Klein told me that my greenie is from Puerto Rico and that we've never had a missionary from Puerto Rico before. I AM SO EXCITED TO MEET HER!!

Now, onto the funny stories. I found a bunch of dead ants inside my pen during personal study. It was gross.

Before District Meeting on Tuesday we were chatting and some how we got on the topic of how awesome my dad because he's a pilot and Elder Nichols said, "All my dad does is pull out teeth all day." Then Elder Esplin said, "All my dad does is pull out babies all day."  Whaaaaa?  "... my dad's an obgyn."

The branch president wrote out the agenda for sacrament meeting and where it said who is going to lead the hymns it said, Hermana Odequier. Yep. I have name tag for a reason.

Also, I became ward choir director this week. That was a new experience. They wanted a choir for the conference and they asked me to be director. We sang I Know that my Redeemer Lives. It went really well. That's what I love about being in a tiny branch like this: I get to be a part of every facet of the ward. I've been ward choir director, sunday school teacher, family consultant, everything. It's been so cool.

Also, you know you're a spanish speaking missionary in Honduras when: on pday last week you all make baleadas and then Elder Esplin pulls out Elder Webb's 501 Spanish Verbs and then you play a game where Elder Esplin goes, What's the pasado perfecto subjuctivo de escribir? and then you have to give him the correctly conjugated verb. It got pretty competitive.

In my almost ten months as a missionary I have learned one thing: the church true.

Love,
Hermana Odekirk

No Title

This week was great. I am constatnly reminded that I made the right decision by coming on a mission, even though not every moment is perfect.

We met this lady on the street the day of transfers in July (it was funny because she asked Hermana Alfaro in english if she speaks spanish. Yeah Hermana Alfaro speaks spanish... she is from Costa Rica). Her husband died about four months ago so naturally I was really excited about teaching her the plan of salvacion. We got to here house and I was pumped up to have a "this is why I came on a mission" moment and bring joy to this mourning woman. She had questions about baptisms for the dead because they had mentioned at church on sunday. I normally don´t to talk about baptisms for the dead because it weirds people out but she specifically asked about it so we answered her questions, and she was all, " I don´t believe that. I would never be baptized for my husband." She also said that she has prayed about being baptized and feels like now is not the time. I guess you can´t win them all.

We have this family who has a date to be baptized but the parents have to be married first, and let me tell you after them talking to us about all their marital problems I will never become a marriage therapist. They already have 12 years together and August is free weddings at city hall, we just need them to realize how much the gospel will hep them in their marriage. But I´ve never been married, so what do I know?

The power went yesterday morning in the whole town so we had church without lights or fans or microphones. It kind of hindered our attendence. We only had 61. Poeple don´t want to come if there aren´t fans, but we are working on fixing the generator.

There is this adorable three year old girl, named Fanny, who is the duaghter of some investigators and everytime she sees us she looks up at me and whispers "quiero que me canten una cancion." It is so cute. So we sing her the first verse of I am a Child of God and she smiles. I just want to see her sing it primary some day.

Happy Birthday to my Dad!!!!

Love you all. The Church is true. Peace out.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

I hit nine months this week. Normally I´m the type of person who is super sentimental and I would spend the whole day reflecting on the last nine months, but I didn´t. We didn´t do anything special either so... sorry this paragraph is really boring. I´ll do better in the next one.

Apparently no one understood what I was saying about ALma 26. I meant that I would´ve been really annoyed that Ammon went on and on for twenty minutes about how he glories in his God. I just forgot that molested doesn´t mean annoyed in english. Shout out to Elder Sailsbery in Peru who laughed when I used the word molested.

ON friday I studied a lot about the preisthood (I almost wrote sacerdocio) and I learned lots of cool stuff, including how to write the word Mechizedek. Yep, that´s right. I just typed the Mechizedek without looking it up. I know, I know. It´s super impressive, you can all calm down now.

My study of the priesthood also lead me to a question. What exactly is the ministry of angels? The aaronic priesthood holds the key of the ministry of angels but I don´t actually know what that means.

My recent convert Daisy Sosa now has a calling in the primary presidency! Familia Sosa is progressing so well. They are trying to go to the temple in Tegu in a couple of weeks!

My investigators Marvin and Carlos were playing on Playstation 3 when we went to visit them one day. I told them about how when I was little I played an original playstation and THEN I saw that had Rayman!! I loved Rayman when I was little. My sisters and I played it all the time. It was a happy moment.

We only had an asistencia of 76 yesterday. Not our goal, but it is at least still an improvement for three months ago. I´m happy about it.

Onto my favorite moment of the week.  We were in RS yesterday and hermana ALmendarez shared an experience she had on thurday. She had been sick for about three days and had been in bed the whole time. She said she had prayed for help and just a little while later she heard, "Buenaaaaas" and the sister misionaries (Hermana Cuc and I) showed up at her house. We asked her what she needed and she said a blessing, so we called the elders. Before the blessing she had been moaning and breathing heavy but after the blessing she calmly fell asleep, and by sunday she felt well enough to come to church. She said that the missionaries were the answer to her prayers. That´s why I came on a mission.

Well that´s all for the super interesting stories. Except, I really had to go to the bathroom about twenty minutes ago. Normally I try not to use public restrooms in Honduras but this was an emergancy, so I used it anyway. I attached a photo of the bathroom. At least they had soap and little bit of water so I could still wash my hands.

Saludes a todos.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk