This week was pretty boring. And I don´t just mean that nothing exciting happened, I mean that I was super bored all week. We had a bunch of appointments that just weren´t home when we showed up and our contacting wasn´t as fruitful as it normally is. It was one of those weeks where we spent all day walking around in the hot sun not really getting to teach very much. But we all have those weeks though, right?

Luckily, though, we had some appointments on Saturday that made it all worth it. Marbel had tons of questions and was super receptive. AND she and her husband are already married, so that takes away half the battle of trying to get people baptized. We have another appointment with her this week and I am super excited about it. 

We also had a really great lesson with la familia Martinez! We taught the plan of salvation and I think it really made sense to them. Unfortunately, though, Louis kept asking to see sctiptures from the Bible so when we try to teach him the Restoration this week it might be a bit more difficult.

I have eaten 116 baleadas.

I have a love hate relationship with the shower. I dread showering everyday, because sometimes the water is so cold my head starts to hurt while I rinse the shampoo. But I also really love my shower because everyday I come home and I am so covered in dirt it´s like I just finished the pioneer treck.

Shout out to my sister Cory who turns 28 today. Feliz Cumpleaños! Ya queremos pastel!

Things I´ve Almost Stepped on This Week:

1. A snake slithering across the road

2. A dead mouse sitting in the road

3. A passedout drunk guy sleeping in the road.

4. The passedout drunk guy´s passed out drunk friend sleeping in the road

Mom´s here don´t pack there kids into the minivan to go to the store. I once saw Hermana Vega riding home on her motorcycle with her three kids on there too. I don´t know how they do it.

By the way, the temple on the cover of the Liahona for March is the Tegucigalpa Temple. Sí hombre-e!

I hope you all have an awesome week!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Honduras Gets Better and Better

WHO´S EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE???????? This girl is!! 10 hours of listening to the word of God! 10 hours of listening to the word of God in English! I can´t wait! 

The power in this internet cafe just went out... Oh Honduras.  But at least it´s back on now

In the CCM I usually just skimmed over the apostasy, but now that Im in the field I know that it is one of the most important things you can teach, especially when I´m dealing with a bunch of evangelicals. If people don´t understand the apostasy they aren´t going to understnad the need for the Restoration and that we are the only church with the correct authority. I am learing so much.

Teaching in Honduras is just like teaching in the south in the Bible belt with all the evangelicals and the baptists... It´s just further south and we´re speaking spanish.

We went  contacting and I got rejected for the very first time. "We´re catholics."

I told Hermana Zamora my middle name, Fay. And she said how cool that my middle name means faith. And at first I was confused but then I realized that although it is spelled differently (Fay and fe), my name means faith in spanish. Super cool, huh?

Hermana Zamora has really good english, but she does´t like to talk to the other gringos in english because she doesn´t like that she "doesn´t always understand."  So naturally, I said, "Bienvenida a mi vida!!!" I can´t even imagine what it must be like to not understand what the people around me are saying, wow, that must be rough. ;) 

Morning here smells different.

The sunsets here aren´t very cool, but I have woken up in the madrugada to take a bus somewhere enough times that I know for sure that the sunrises are maravillosas!!

I spent all week thinking "What is significant about March 14? I swear there is something!" Then Holdaway called and said Happy Pie Day!! Whew, so glad I figured it out.

For three months I have been saying, "Nada iglesia en ese tiempo fue la iglesia verdadera de Jusucristo." AND NO ONE CORRECTED ME!!! Finally a few days ago Zamora reminded me that it is Ninguna iglesia... She is so wonderful.

We have two baptisms set for the 29. Edgardo and Natalia. I am really excited. They are great kids.

We went to Tacoa for District conference on Saturday. The chapel there has two floors so I love the few from the second floor. You can see all the crappy tins roofs. I love Honduras.

On Sunday the conference was a broadcast to all the Central America. Elder Oaks and Elder Scott spoke. Oaks was translated, but Scott speaks fluent spanish so he just spoke. IT was an interesting thing to see. 

And finally, You know you´re in Honduras when: Elder Marsh says "That´s a nice tie." and Elder Passey says, "Thanks. I got it in my christmas package... last week."

Well, that´s all folks. Have a great week. Love you!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Ch ch Changes

 

We had changes this week. My new companion is Hermana Zamora and she is super awesome!! Exactly what I need right now. I would send a picture but this computer doesn´t have a USB port... She is from Costa Rica. At first she was pretty shy and I was kind of worried, but then we went to teach a family and she was super chatty, it is great. We only wroked together Wednesday night through Sunday and we stil taught 32 lessons!! We´ve done so much contacting this week it´s ridiculous! We´ve found some awesome people.

I almost got robbed on thursday. We were talking to some people on the side of the road, trying to fin the locksmith (our key broke it´s a whole other story) and these two eight year old on a bike rode up and tried to take my bag but I had it across my chest so it didn´t come off. The awkard part was the boy lost control of the bike and ran into the side of truck that was passing by. The guy is the truck, the little boys, the people we were talking and us all just kind of stood there awkwardly...The little boys didn´t seem hurt so the guy in the truck drove away, and wasn´t mad so the little boys just walked away. If it weren´t sad that those feel the need to steal from me it would be a super funny story.

I ate cow liver on Tuesday. It kind of feels like ground beef, but certainly does not taste the same.

My branch president asked me where I bought my pen and I told him I bought it at wal-mart in the U.S. and he didn´t know what Wal-mart is!!! We are not in Kansas anymore. Also, I had to explain what Harry Potter is to Hermana Calpa. 

Selvin and Elizabeth still didn´t get married this week. There are more things than I thought getting in the way of them being baptized. It just sucks because I know they both have really strong testimonies. Pray for them.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana Odekirk

Week 13

We had baptisms on Saturday! Our investigator Manuel for baptized and two of the investigators of the Elders. IT was really great! It is so great to know all the blessings that they are gong to receive.

Unfortunately, Selvin and Elizabeth didn´t get baptized because they didn´t get married on friday. Elizabeth´s dad couldn´t come sign the paper giving permission for her to get married because he had to work that day and he lives two hours away. We are going to try again this week. Pray for a miracle.

I had my first real power outages this week. The power has gone out before but only while we´re asleep or in the middle of the day so it´s never been a problem, but this week the power went out at about six o´clock and the rule is we have to go home when the power goes out, so lit some candles and sat around in the dark. That happened twice. The good news is we were all told the power was going to go out staurday at six so we were super strassed about how to do our baptisms since we had them planned for six, but then the power never went out that day. Tender Mercy.

We still don´t have a phone. Most of the people in town haven´t had a cell signal in almost three weeks. It makes missionary work a wee bit more difficult.

La familia Castallón are some of my favorite people in Olanchito. The grandpa is ninety something and the grandma is seventy something. They are the sweetest people. ha ha Hermana Castallón told me that if I want to find a husband I have to go to La Ceiba because the men are better looking there than in Olanchito. They have two grown children and their son has 11 kids and they all live in the same house. I love it when we go to the Castallón´s house.

I have offically gained an inch around my waist. Now I actually have to start paying attention to what I eat and exercise in the morning and all that junk. Oh, well.

I am surrounded by people relaxing in hammocks all day long, but I never get to sit in one.

On Wednesday we had an acitivity for all the investigators of the missionaries in our ward and for the members, so they could get to know people and we could gain some references. We played soccer at the church and I realized that I love sports! All sports, soccer, pingpong, whatever, I´ll watch it. I sat on the grass (or the closest thing they have to grass) and watched and it was so fun. Also, it´s funny because even the latin guys who don´t really like soccer are still really good at it because they´ve been forced to play they´re whole lives.

The sister training leaders came on friday and we had no idea they were coming because we don´t have a phone. I went out with Hermana Hill again. It was really great. I learned a ton of stuff that I can do better. But I also gained a lot of confidence since I had to take the lead in all of the lessons we taught. It was a really awesome day.

Elder Real was going to perform the baptisms on Saturday so he was standing there in his all white clothes and his companion Elder Passey walked by and said "Daaang, girl." I laughed so hard I cried. The next time you see the missionaries remember that, yes, we are representatives of Christ, but we´re still just a bunch of punk kids.

Also, I learned the correct way to cut a tomatoe. The mission is making me a better person in so many different ways.

Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk