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