La Ultima

Latins greet each other by kissing each other on the cheek. To be perfectly honest, I hate it. When I'm talking to other north american hermanas I like to take the opportunity to not kiss them on the cheek, but last week I saw Hermana Haight and it was just so instinctive that we did it and as we back away she just looked at me said super seriously, "What did we just do??" Ya somos catrachas. 

Remember the Ferviente Oracion song I love so much. Hermana Vasquez has it on her flash drive but it's in english and let me tell you it is WAY batter in spanish.

Our shower head isn't glued on or anything so sometimes when I turn on the sink in the morning the shower head just falls off and the whole bathroom gets wet and then I get all wet trying to put it back on. I love Honduras.

Our neighbor was burning trash the other day (a common occurence in Honduras) and the smoke came in our apartment and all my clothes smelled like I just got home from Girls Camp! (Hna Holdaway: Turn down the mormon)

On Thrusday I did my very last weekly planning session. We were making  our personal and companionship goals and I looked at Hna Vasquez and jokingly said, "I'm going to go on a date on Saturday!" haha I'm so funny! Aren't you all glad I'm going home and now you can all enjoy how funny I am. ;) 

When I got to airport in Mexico City my very first day of my mission we were all pushing our luggage up this HUGE ramp and the sister behind me said, "I can do hard things." In Olanchito I always said that to Hna Holdaway and this week she texted me and asked if we can just freak out because we're almost done with our missions and then she said, "WE DID HARD THINGS." Freak. I want to cry.

I called Hna Andujar in Tela yesterday to ask a medical question and she mentioned that Tela had a sacrament meeting attendence of 102 yesterday!! I'm so happy they are still progressing over there.

Today is April 27, 2015. According to my missionary certificate thingy the church gave me in the CCM today is my last day as a missionary. I just don't even know what to say. There were days before I came that I didn't want to come, but I felt so strongly that this is what my Heavenly Father wanted of me and now I know exactly why. There are things I learned here in the mission that I could've learned somehwere else. 

I'm trying so hard to put my gratitude into words and I just can't! Like Nemo. 

I just know that God loves me and that this is His church. Through Juses Christ we can become clean of our sins and become better people. WE can change. 

I love you all.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

P.S. I've eaten 461 baleadas.

No english, no snow, no sinks

This week in District Meeting Elder Morales was teaching the part where the latins learn english but we gringos need help. I know that "there's" is a word, but is "there're" a word. All the gringo Elders said it's not a word, but I think it is. No one remembers english.

I heard it snowed this week. God had a funny sense of humor. I literally prayed for it to snow before I went on my mission so I could see it one last time but it didn't anow until the day after I left! It's okay, I still know God loves me.

Today's happy/funny email comes from Kelene Fletcher who is currently sering spanish speaking in Virginia. i had told her last week that I heard that George Michael we love when I was in the centro and this week she wrote me this:

    "HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAA. that makes me so full of joy. When I get back, that's going as my ringtone. And on a completely slightly related note, I wonder if Guy on a Buffalo is still Bub's ringtone for me, haha. Remember when we watched that movie?

     I can't believe you are done. I'm dying. I still have a year left. WHAT IF YOU GET MARRIED. That would be exciting.

Also, the only thing I know about Honduras is what all the Honduranians here say, "It's a bad country, but I love it." Maybe I'll visit one day, haha."

     So everyone needs to watch Guy on a Buffalo. I literally can't stop laughing and I'm just remembering it. 

      So... let's just not think about getting married yet. Deal?

       That's a very true statement about Honduras. This country is terrible, but I love it with all my heart might, mind, and strength.

The last few weeks we've been helping a lot of people simply learn time management because they claim they didn't have time to read their scriptures. It just made me so greatful for my education and my mission and my family who taught me simple skills like that.

Go look up the word Charity in your Bible Dictionary. Right now. Did you do it? Bueno. On the mission I've learned about Charity. Charity is the higher law of love. It is what Christ feels for us. We are trying to get a couple married (what else is knew) and I finally realized they need to decide if they simply just love each other or if they have charity for each other. Charity is what builds real, lasting relationships among men. Charity isn't just giving service, it is learning to love people the way Christ loves them. 

  The first great commandment is to love God, which is faith. The second to love man, which is Charity.

Today I was reading the talk "The Priesthood Man" by President Eyring because I remembered that there is a really good part about prayer in there. I really love this talk, I don't even know how to explain why. Just go read it.

We went to Tocoa this week on divisions. I was doing companionship study with Hermana Bacon, who is from Provo and she shared that she read about the priesthood that day and how when she got set apart both of her grandpas participated and her stake president told her that she should appreciate that because on the mission she is going to meet so many people who are first or secong generation members and don't have any priesthood holders in their family. I felt so humbled as we sat and talked about how grateful we are to have so many wonderful priesthood holders in our lives.

We also went to Trujillo on divisions.... with Hna Babb and Hna Turner from the CCM!!! It was a wonderful reunion. But let me tell you, those two recently moved apartments and they now have the wost missionary apartment I've ever seen. In the whole apartment there is no sink. They have to wash dishes and brush their teeth in the shower. The funniest part is when I saw it all I wasn't even struck by it because I"m so used to Honduras. haha 

I've eaten 448 baleadas.

Have a great week!! 

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

 

 

Baggyyyyyyyyyyyyy‏

This week I´ve been kind of trunky for a number of reasons, one of which being that I received an eamil this week titled "Welcome back to Utah State University" Ay no, voy a llorar. On wednesday i took some time (with President Klein´s permission) to reigster for classes in the fall. Yep, it´s crazy.

On wednesday we were in Missionary Leadership Council and Presidente klein was saying that we aren´t allowed to watch disney movies on pday anymore and he explained it in this manner, "If you were going to go on a date you wouldn´t take a girl to the movies, right? How are you going to get to know each other in a movie? So how is your zone going to get to know each other better if you just go to the church and watch a movie? You should make pancakes!" so naturally hna Petersen and I were talking about how bad it is to go on a date to the movies and landed at "We should go on a double date when we get home!" Yep, she´s just as baggy as I am. ahah

Hna Vasquez and I had to spend the night in La Lima because I had to have my final interveiw and go to the doctor in San Pedro. I was talking President Klein about how he promised we could a have aFHE at his house but it never happened and he said we could do it that night! And he and Hna Klein said we could spend the night the night at their house!!!!! In most missions all the missionaries know the president´s but here in SPSEalmost no one gets to see president´s house before their last night when you eat dinner there. needless to say we had a say full of adventures!!

Presidente and Hna Klein gave a lift to doctor. When we came out the office elders were there! We waited for their appointment and then they gave a lift to the office. Yay for no rapiditos! Then we talked to President klein and I told what the doctor said and he said that having surgery in Honduras is not an option so it will happen when i get home, and I don´t have to go home early! THEN he took us to go grab Wendy´s AT THE MALL!!! We aren´t allowed in the mall without permission so I felt really weird. Then Hna Klein picked us up and I ate chicken nuggets and fries in the back seat of their car. It felt so normal, like something nromal people do. THEN we went with them to visit an Hermana who just came home from her mission that day. This Hermana lives in Satélite!!! All the members were shocked to see us because there are no hermanas in the whole stake of Satélite because it´s so dangerous.

THEN we got to their house and Presidente and Hermana Klein gave us ice cream and twizzlers and hot chocolate, and President asked me to play the piano. We slept in room with air conditioning. I used a BLANKET for the first time since the MTC!

In the morning we woke up, got ready, ate cereal with Hna Klein and then she took us to the mission office so I could have my final interview with Presidente Klein. I cried. THEN Presidente Klein took us to his favorite bakery and it was delicious! Then he took us to the bus terminal and we went home. It was a grand adventure.

Thursday and Friday were boring because the doctor said I needed to rest until friday so I just around and wrote in my journal and read Jesus the Christ and thought trunky thoughts. haha

I was thinking about it this morning and I want to go to Classic Skating when i get home. No one goes there anymore! I hope it´s still open. Rolling skating it totally under  appreciated in our society.

17 days.  Love every moment.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

The Church had a new inciative this month: Because he lives. We as missionaries were supposed to have pass along cards and videos and we have to give a report every week and how we are using the iniciative. Well, our pass along cards never came, we downloaded the video but none of our ivestigators have computors or tvs that work, so... we just didn't get to do it. #honduras Oh well, we just taught a lot of lessons about the Atonement. 

Bednar gave a talk once called The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality and it is life changing. Then this month in the Liahona there was an article about the difference between sin and weakness. I've been working on focusing more during the sacrament and these talks helped me remember that the Atonement isn't just for sins, it's for weaknesses, so that Sacrament is a time for self reflection about our weaknesses not just our sins.

I called the mission nurse on saturday to talk to her about a problem and she asked me "How much does it hurt from 1 - 10?" and I almost laughed out loud because i remembered how much my sister Hollie HATES that question. haha

I had to watch most of conference in spanish so i didn't feel the spirit as much as normal. I also didn't hear it when the people opposed the sustaining. The translator on saturday morning was obvisouly from spain because he basically spoke with a lisp the whole time and it was really distracting. I don't have all my notes with me so i'l give my confernce commentary next week.

We were teaching this old lady and her tv was really loud. WE asked her to turn it off, but she said she would just turn it down, but her remote wasn't working. We tried to tell her that she didn't really turn it down but she didn't believe us!! We tried to keep teaching her but it was too loud. We asked her to trun it down again but just yelled "I've already turned it down a ton!!" It was super funny.

We went to the Stake Center for the very last session so I could watch it in English and I ran into Aaron!!! He went to all four sessions and he has been going out with the elders. It was so great to see him again.

I have my final interview with President Klein tomorrow. Hijole!!

Have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Untitled Work

So this week not much eventful happened.

This week Hermana Vasquez and I did divisions with the sisters in good ole Olanchito! I love Olanchito with all my heart. It´s just a small friendly town. It was so sad to know that this really was the last time i´ll see Olanchito, and all the people there.

On Tuesday we had a really  inspiring Zone Meeting and I just kept thinking "maybe I should extend another month" and then we did the divisions with Hermana de Leon who was supposed go home with me but she told me she´s extending!! So on friday I shot President Klein a text and asked if it´s too late for me to extend and he called me and just said, "youre telling me this now??" We talked and... it{s too late because the church already had my plane ticket booked, so don{t worry. I´m coming home April 30.

It´s official: Olanchito is WAY hotter than La Ceiba. I was dying when we did divisions. I love Olanchito but at this moment I´m grateful to be in Ceiba where it´s not as hot.

On my ipod I have a song by Motab "Old time religion" and it says basically that the religion of Moses is "good enough for me" and I thought: APOSTASY If that were true we wouldn{t need a modern day prophet. 

Hermana Vasquez and I have been working really hard and it feels so good. I loved Las Colinas but it got me really disannimated. Being in this new big area has given me more ganas (I don{t remember how to say ganas in english... I´m not sure it exists)  to work. WE have a lot of new investigators but not a lot of progressing investigators. We two with a date, but our most promising has a problem and we all know what it is: he needs to get MARRIED!!!!!!!!! But really though this guy is amazing. He comes to church, he reads all his assignments and I know sometime his girlfriend will turn around and realize they need to get married. I have faith.

One the young women in our ward has a friend who is a foreign exhange student from ITALY. It was so cool to talk to her at dinner last night. It made me trunky because someday I´ll make it over to Europe.

Hermana Vasquez went to visit a family of members because he is the Elders Quorum President and she is the Relief Society President. It was such a great experience to be in their home. We walked in just instantly felt good, we felt the Spirit. They were all so happy and you could see that it is because they are living the gospel in it´s fullest. I wish ever home could be like theirs.

Yes, today I complete 17 months. NBD

Baleadas: 436

Enjoy General Conference. Eat lots of Rice Krispey Treats. Cuidense mucho.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Confused

The mission is a year and a half of awkward and confusing moments. This week was full of those.

I was with Hermana Orosko for a few days leading up to transfers. I really clicked with her and was really hopeful that she would be my new companion. My ZLs never told her where she was going nor her ZLs so we assumed she must be coming with me!! About 10:00 the day of transfers I called my new ZLs in La Ceiba to ask something about my apartment and I mentioned that we were planning on getting to Las Acacias about 1:00 but Elder Vargas was all, "Hermana your new companion isn´t here yet" and I asked him, "what are you talking about? Hna Orosko isn´t my companion??" "No, hna Vasquez is your new compnaion." "Entonces, where is Hna Orosko going??" "um.... I don´know let me call the APs" There must have been a last minute switch. So we put Orosko on a but Mezapa and I´m here with Hermana Vasquez. It was pretty stressful morning.

On tuesday we had the trunkiest district meeting in the history of district meetings. Elder Hansgen decided we need to live what we teach (which is true) and he wanted to focus on lesson 5. So do you know what he had us do? He made us each write a list attributes of the "ideal mariage" (because lesson 5 is when we teach about eternal families)  then we all had to go around and share what we wrote.

We got to our new area on Wednesday went to look in our area book and let me tell you, getting white washed after elders os AWFUL!!!!!!  They had about five teaching records, their progress form most recent was in october and the teaching records of the recent converts don´t have telephone numbers!!! It´s a little frustraing but we are making it work. They also left the house really dirty , but whatever, it´s all good now.

Sunday we went to church and it was so weird. Las Acacias is a ward of about 200-250. I´ve never been in a ward this big before. I felt really unneeded. In some wards the missionaries have to do so much but here they all function just fine without us. It´s wierd but it´s really great. They´ve already given us lots of refernces and we already have a full dinner schedule set for this week. What more can a missionary ask for, right?

I am now missing TWO girls scout cookie seasons in a row. So i need people to but aa box a thin mints and save me some!!!!!!

I was browsing through this book called "honduras and the world" and it said that there are only 6 continents because south and north America are just one continent. That´s not what I learned... 

hermana Zamora taught a new phrase I really liked. "El es mi gallo" o "He is my rooster" It´s saying that you put your trust in him, he´s a really a good guy. If he were a rooster in a fight you would put money on him because he is your rooster.

Now that I am serving in a richer area of Honduras i see lots women with really pretty clothes and it makes me really baggy. Sometimes I really excited to go home and where high heals again. and drive a car, and bake cookies and all that jazz.

I´ve been thinking that last couple of months that need to improve my sacrament meeting worship. Not just show up and listen, but really think about the Savior during the Sacrament and think about how I can improve. It´s a work in progress.

Enjoy your week! Love the snow.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Betooooooooooos!‏

These last two transfers I have been craving a egg and ham breakfast burrito from Beto´s all the time. Zamora and I were talking with a member who happened to live in utah for a couple of years and she was telling us this story and she was all "  We were at Beto´s, do you know beto´s?" I almost screamed!      "When  you feel Beto´s you Beto´s, but when you don´t Beto´s you don´t Beto´s." -Deanna Wilson

She was at the drive through at Beto´s and she didn´t speak english yet. She was there with some women who had been the states for years so she assumed they spoke english but they didn´t. They wanted 4 burritos so one of them said "how do you say burritos in english? I think it´s donkey" so they askedthe lady at Betos for 4 donkeys! Then the lady asked if they spoke spanish and they ordered in spanish. Hermana Leti and Zamora and I laughed pretty hard.

I want Beto´s so bad!

I went to Las Acasias twice this week to get to know the area. It seems really great! I actually feel a little intimidated because it is a ward of over 200 people and they want to divide it soon. I´m excited for another adventure.

yesterday Hermana Orosko and I (not Hermna Zamora because she´s ending her mision so I¨m with Orosko until wednesday) were coming back from Las Acasias in a taxi and I noticed the taxi driver had a Real Madrid Sticker AND an F.C. Barcelona sticker. For you Americans who don´t know soccer (like I was) they are the biggest rivals int he world. So i asked why he has both of the stickers and he laughed and said, "because I don´t who is going to get in my taxi!" He said that if a Real sees that he only has a Barcelona sticker they´ll find another cab so he has to have both, but he´s really a Barcelona fan. IYou had to be there. I love Honduras.

I SHOOK THE HAND OF AN APOSTLE!!! We got up at two in the morning to take a bus to San Pedro. We had a conference with "la otra mision" San Pedro Sula West. It was really good. I really loved that Elder Anderson only talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Sometimes in this Church we get so cought up in planning activities and procedures and all that jazz that we forget the point of it all: strangthening our Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

A received her mission call yesterday so we thought "yeah we can take 15 mintues to go watch her open her call" but we didn´t know how the catrachos do it. Her brother stood in front of everyone in the house said, "wlecome to this mission call opening. I am conducting. We aer going to have an opening hymn and opening prayer by tal person." Then we listened to a talk by her cousin about missionary work, then there was a musical number, then we all guessed where we thought she was going. I thought she was about to open it but then her mom did another musical number! She finally opened it but there wasn´t time for being all excited because then her grandpa spoke, then her grandma gave a talk, then her dad , then her mom, then her aunt, and then Hermana Orosko and I were all "whoa, Ain´t no body got time for that. ya nos vamos." and we left. 

This paragraph was really long because I want you all to feel who long the mission call opening was. (She is going to Guate East btw)

I start my last transfer this week. It´s weird.

I´ve eaten 427 baleadas.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

The surprises never stop!‏

So... do you remember how I said that President Klein said there is small chance he is going to close my area? Well, the APs called about an hour ago... Las Colinas 2 is getting closed and next week when transfers happen I am going over to Las Acacias. Las Acacias is another part of La Ceiba, but it is in another zone, so I´m really going to miss my zone and my district and the 2 elders here in Las Colinas. The good news is I still have a week and a half to enjoy my time here in Las Colinas. Hermana Zamora goes home next week so I´ll be getting a new companion. 

This Elder Duncan of first quroum of the Seventy came. He is also the President of the central american area. It was really great. He talked about how if we want to be good missionaries we have to have a vision of the perfect missionary. 

It was super funy because since the CCM we´ve been teasing Elder Marsh about how he grew up in the middle of nowhere because he is from Joseph Utah, and when we all got to shake Elder Duncan´s hand Elder Marsh said he was from Joseph Utah and Elder Duncan said, "where´s that??" Hermana Turner and I laughed so hard! Reverently, but hard.

Remember how I´ve been dreaming of opening Yoro for almost a year? President Klein talked to Elder Duncan and he said go for it!! I´m so excited that after all these years we will finaly see missionaries in Yoro but I¨m so bummed  I won´t be one of them. I walked up to President Klein and he just looked at me. Elder Moffit walked up and said, "It´s okay Hermana. I´ll take care of Yoro for you." Then President Klein said, "You can see in her eyes how much she wants to punch you right now." But haha to Elder Moffit too because he goes home the transfer after me so he won´t be able to open Yoro either. We did it guys. #yoro2015

So, Aaron got baptized that week and yesterday he BLESSED THE SACRAMENT!! We´re so proud! Also, we went to teach him Family History again and I expected that when I asked to his My Family book he wouldn´t have any of it done because no one ever does, but NO! He had made a chart with all his brothers, cousins, great grandparents, todo. And he had all their birthdays and where they were born. It was so great! We have an appointment tomorrow to get his Family Search account started. He is so pilas. I´m going to miss him so much when I go to Las Acacias.

I wrote my address worng on my mission papers and now every time I have to type my address I get really nervous and have to check like five times. ha ha

Enjoy your week!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Oceans, Zits, and Baptisms!‏

This week we were a teaching this 12 year old convert named Brigeth. So is super super smart but has a hard time staying focused. At one point she told Hermana Zamora that the siz on her chin looked like a heart. hahaha I then got a good look at it and it really did look like a heart.

This week we did divisions with Miramar 1 again. So I went over to Miramar with Hermana Turner. They live about 50 yards from the beach!! It´s pretty. In the morning Turner and i went running on the beach. It was cool but it made my knees hurt.

At lunch one day Elder Monterrose challenged Elder Clouse to put two corn tortillas in his mouth at one time. Elder Clouse said no, so naturally Elder Monterrosa and I started chanting Elder Clouse, Elder Clouse. and I told him that the whole point of this life to learn new things, like puting tortillas in your mouth!! We were all screaming and Hermana Zamora was screaming about how there are poor kids in africa because she didn´t want him to do it. Eventually, he shoved the tortillas in his mouth and Elder Monterrosa and I started cheering. Meanwhile, the sister who makes us lunch and her kids were watching and laughing the whole time. It´s a hoot hers in Las Colinas.

Cassidy Lloyd just told me that Layton High won the state basketball championship. That rocks.

My spanish is getting so good that one day Zamora and I were speaking english to each other and I used the word especially. 

Some elders in my zone baptized a 7 yeat old!! hahaha The family told them he was eight but when the ZLs were looking over the baptismal registro a few days after the baptism they did the math and realized the kid was really only 7!!! hahaah We´ve been giving those elders a really hard time about it. 

On saturday we had an AMAZING service project with the ward. The whole ward came out to help a family in our ward. They nine people living in one bedroom house, and they really don´t keep it clean. We built tables and picked up trash. It was so great to see how everyone came together. The elders quorum president was teaching the young men how to saw and the women were organizing the kitchen (which is outside) and the ysa and other youth were picking up trash. It was great.

During the service project I had a mission first: I CHOPPED!!! Here everyone cuts the grass and plants with a machete but I´ve never done it because that´s something people ask men to do. I picked up a machete and a yound woman and i started chopping. I mentioned to Elder Clouse that it was the first time I had chopped and he looked at ground I had chopped and said, "Yeah, it shows." I guess I need more practice.

Another mission first this week: I filled the baptismal font myself! Just out of coinsidence there has always been someone else who does it.

We had to fill it because Aaron got baptized on saturday!! It was the best baptism I´ve ever been too. Hermana Zamora and I found Aaron our first week here and it has been so amazing to he how he has changed his life. He understands the Atonement and the purpose of baptism so well. 

I hope you all have a great week!! 

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

 

 

Fotos: Aaron at his baptism

     The kitchen we organized in the service project.

Another Average Week

Hey guys, so nothing super awesome happened this week... except that Aaron is getting baptized this saturday!! I am so pumped! We met him our first sunday here in Las Colinas when his cousin brought him to church. Last week I asked him why he wants to get baptized and he said, "Because I´m trying to repent and I want to follow Christ." Well if there ain´t no better reason thatn that. hahah

The word for heart attack in spanish in infarto. InFARTo. I know I´m 20 years old but I can´t hear that word without laughing. I`m laughing right now just thinking about it. It´s like that time Sierra and i were in seminary that girl said do do in her talk and we couldn´t stop laughing. ahahahahah

We had interviews with Presidente Klein this week. I asked if I´m going to die here in Las Colinas and he said he´s not sure. buh. There is a small chance he is going to close my area but probably not. We´ll see.

Sometimes I read in 1 Nephi and notice all the times Nephi says, "i´m not going to go into detail because my father Lehi wrote that"   stinkin´ 116 lost pages.

Sometimes people think the missionaries are their personal marriage counselors... and it gets a little awkward. Dude, I´m 20 and I´ve never been married. All I am going to is tell you to read The Family: a Proclamation to the World and apply the gosple of Jesus Christ in your life. I don´t have any answers for you.

I really really the story of the Prodigal Son. It shows true human actions and feelings. a young punk kid who blows all his money and has to go back, a resentful older brother. It´s beautiful.

This week´s is short. Have a great week!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Do you guys even understand how much time I have in the mission?? This is how much: this week an office elder called me to ask which airport I want to fly home to!!!!!!! And then today I got my itinerary in my email! bah Scary.

I did divisions with Hermana Haight this week. At one point when we were home at night I went to put socks on because I was cold, but she only has a couple months and still hasn´t adjusted to the heat so she said I was crazy. When we got in bed I took my socks off and said her, "Hermana I´m taking my socks off because I´m not cold anymore." She just said, "you were never cold!!" ha ha We´ll see if she feels cold next Janurary!

We also did divisions in... Olanchito!! I love Olanchito so much, I can´t even describe it. And I got to dothe divisions with my hija HERMANA DIAZ!  I love her. We just laughed whole day. The last time we were in Olanchito I mentioned to the Hermanas about a part member we had been teaching a year ago, they went and looked them up and now they are going to church again. Diaz and I visited them this week and it was so great to them again. I really hope it sticks and Erika gets baptized.

When I was in Olanchito we baptized a guy named Manuel. I had heard that he moved to Sonaguerra a few months back, but in Olanchito Presidente Gomez told me he talked to Manuel last week and he is still going to church in Sonaguerra!! Then when we got back to Ceiba I asked Elder Clouse who just came from Sonaguerra if he knows him (I thought it was long shot) and he told me yes!! Manuel takes the bus to church every week and he bought the Elders a bag of lichas!! It made me whole day! I feel like I did what I came here to do.

I used to be really irritated that sisters can´t zone leaders and stuff like that because I thought I would enjoy it, but now I know that zone leaders are ALWAYS on the phone. They always have some problem to solve because some other elder is being an idiot. I´m so grateful to my Heavenly Father that women do not hold the priesthood and I can´t be ZL or Bishop or any other position that is super super hard. (Not that being ZL is as hard a being a bishop... you know what I¨m saying)

Sometimes we do language study at night, but I´m tired and I still want to write in my journal so I just write in my journal in spanish so I can count it as language study. My kids will have to google translate a few pages. hah

We went  to visit this woman in our ward who has been a little less active these last few months. We really love this family, they are super great, so us and the elders have been worried about them. We went to see them and that day their 1 year old son got out of the hospital. We taught the mom a lesson and she shared an experience with us. She said she was walking down the street crying because she didn´t have money to pay the hospital and the bank was going to close and she didn´t even have money to take a taxi to get to the bank before it closed, but then this random taxit driver pulled over and said he would take her for free. He explained that he offered to take her because he believes it is the christian thing to do. She cried as she told that in that moment she knew God loved her and is always mindful of her and her family. We felt the spirit so strongly I didn´t even want to speak when she finished, I just asked if we could finish with a pray. There was nothing any of the four of us could say to add to spirit in the room. 

I love Honduras. It´s a really crappy country but I love it with all of my heart. This morning we walked to the beach and tried to fly homemade kites but there wasn´t any wind. Then Zamora and I went to the centro and went shopping and I just loved it. I love that the streets are dirty and there´s way too many power lines. I love walking throught the park central and seeing the big catholic church and all the buses and people are always selling things, everywhere you go. I love this place.

Have a great week! Eat Church´s Chicken. Fly a Kite.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk 

408,409, & 410

Guess what happened this week!!! We were helping the elders sell pastelitos to raise money so their investigators can get married but we ran out of chicken so we made baleadas and the  member was all "hey do you guys want baleadas for breakfast?" I was all "yeah!" but then I shouted that I didn´t have my camera because I realized that I was about to eat baleadas number 408, 409 and 410!!!!! I did it! I did it!  Idid it! I did it! My goal was 409 and I did it! Woo hoo!!

This week was changes. andddddddd I´M A GRANDMA!! Hermana Andújar is training over in Tela so I have a granddaughter now. beh. I´m so proud. Andddddd Hermana Diaz is in OLANCHITO! Now both of my daughters are in my old areas. haha I told her our whole time together that someday she would serve in Olanchito and now she is there visiting Edgardo and Monchito and eating free food from Presdente Gomez´s pulperia.

Friday we went to Leadership council in La Lima. It was good like always. We were planning on traveling home with the elders but we didn´t realize they had already left. I called them to see where they were and they said they were in Maheco. MAEHCO!! That´s in San Pedro, the opposite direction. They went there because it is easier to find a bus in San Pedro. They said jump on a rapidito and come to maheco and we´ll wait for you guys here. I then reminded the elder that they had to be where we could easily find them because we didn´t have a cell phone (that´s another story). We hopped on a bus and when we got to maheco... we couldn´t find the elders. I didn´t know that maheco isn´t just a bus terminal, it´s a huge market that covers about eight blocks. We were two sisters ALONE in Maheco without a phone. I didn´t feel safe walking the streets of Han Pedro looking for the elders so we hopped on the first rapidito we saw and took it straight to the terminal  We got on the bus and the Elders from Tocoa were there. They asked us, "weren´t you guys meeting the elders from Ceiba in maheco?" I then asked him if he could call them and tell them we were on the bus to Ceiba. The poor elders had been waiting in Maheco for about an hour, but it´s their own fault bacuae they weren´t where we could find them.

It´s very common here to see pictures of Christ on a bus. On this bus to Ceiba i not only saw a picture of Christ, I saw the picture from page 6 and Evangelio de Jesucrist pamphlet!!!! It was taped to the wall. I´m happy he had it but sad that the guy ripped up a pamphlet to put it there.

Preidente Klein told us that he got an email from the 70 saying we are going to have a multi-mission confernce with San Pedro Sula West. He asked if Olanchito and Tocoa can come (because we didn´t get to go Elder Soares came) and the answer was "Yes, when an apostle comes everyone can come." Yes, that´s right, an apostle of the Lord is coming talk to us in han Pedro!! I´m so excited I want to cry! WOOO

Hna Zamora taught me a phrase they use in Costa Rica and I really like it. When you see someone who is a little prideful and they think they´re all that. Instead of, they think they´re "all that" you can say "They think they´re the last coke in the desert." ha ha Spread the word. And keep spreading turning the pig.

That´s all for this week. Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

15 months, 400 baleadas, and 10 lempiras‏

This week was the first full week we had working in our area in two months. It was hard. We are doing so much contacting and no one wants to listen to us, but we are just getting more creative.

I have eaten 400 baleadas! 409 here I come.

Last week Sierra wrote about the first questions she asks when she gets to an area, so I figured I would share mine too.

    1. How long is the bus ride to our area?

    2. Does our house have running water?

    3. Are the roads paved?

    4. Are there decent grocery stores or just the Dispense Familiar?

    5. What´s sacrament meeting attendence like?

    6. How much time do you have?

This week I hit fifteen months and had a missin first that day: I got robbed. We were walking down the street and this drunk guy was walking toward us. He walked up to us and had a newspaper in front of him. He said he had a 9mm shot gun behind the newspaper and was going to shot if I didn´t give 10 lempiras (which is basically nothing ha ha). I new he didn´t have a big shot gun behind that newspaper but he might have something so I started pulling 10 limps and i aksed him if he remebered us, because he is the brother of a member and we had met him before. He said no and i give him the 10 limps and Hermana Zamora and I laughed really hard when we walked away.

I was reading "Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority" by Elder Scott and it totally reinforced my belief that everything we do in this church, pray, scripture study, FHE are there for one reason and one reason only- to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement. Sometimes we forget the purpose. We get so cuaght up in planning YW activities and FHE that we forget that the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to help us develop faith Jesus Christ and His Atonement, REPENT, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. Everything should help us do these five things.

Also, EVERYONE IN THE WORLD HAS TIME FOR DAILY SCRIPTURE STUDY. As a missionary I ask people if they read and they say they had to work or they study. Boo hoo. If you really had a desire to read you could find ten minutes out of your day to read a little. I understand that you work all day and your tired but you can still do it. It´s a commandment.

I emailed my sister a copy of the draft of my resume that I made half an hour ago and this is what she said, "your english is pretty terrible so dad or I should just make a resume for you" Puchika.

My ward mission leader´s name is Juan Fernando. His son´s name is Fernando Daniel and the other son´s name is Erik Fernando. It´s a little confusing, but when in doubt just say Fernando.

a YW leader once said to me that it never rained before Noah and the Flood. Check BD Rain.

Cheque, that´s all for this week folks. The church is true. Christ is our Savior.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

It is 70 degrees and raining in Honduras. I brought one hoodie on the mish and ocassionaly I wear it around the house when it´s cold and today is the first day of my whole mission I¨m wearing it outside, with the rain jacket my mom mailed me last year. Two years ago in Logan I went outside in 32 degrees because I felt so warm and now it´s 70 and I feel cold. Yep. Bienvenida a Honduras.

This morning I had some extra time so I was using the coloring book my mommy mailed me. There are these pages where it gives you a picture of a reindeer and you have to copy it but I wasn´t doing them because I can´t draw, but then I realized I´m always saying I want to learn to draw!!!! What am I doing??? So, I copied that picture of Rudolph! and you know what? It turned out really well. :) Guess who has two thumbs and is completing her purpose on purpose on his earth by learning and growing. This girl.

In the liahona in Decmber there is a story about a potatoe for the teacher and it is REALLY good. You all need to go read it and then take action.

Last monday in our emergency meeting Presidente Klein talked about how we need two relationships: love God and love our projimo (other people). He explained that loving God is faith and loving your projimo is charity. I thought it was cool, but then it got even cooler on thursday when this member was singing the primary song "How could the father show the world..." and in spanish it says "what does He ask of us? Faith and charity." Boom. That´s what God wants of us: we strengthen with Him and love others. It´s so simple.

Hermana Holdaway goes to BYU and the other day asked me who BYU´s rival is. She didn´t know. So here is my thing, if you´re going to be a cougar, BE  cougar. If you going to be an aggie BE an aggie. If you´re giong to be mormon BE  mormon. If you´re going to be a catholic BE a catholic. I don´t care what you do with your life, but do it right. Do it with your whole heart, might, mind, and strength. If you go to BYU learn that your rival is the Utah Utes.

We went to Turjillo on divisions this week and it was great! I love Trujillo. On the way there this preacher got on the bus and started preaching (which is normal here in Honduras). He said a lot of things I agree with. He came by asking for money so we gave a few lemps, and said thank you for his words. Then hermana Zamora offered him a Book of Mormon and he not only took it but asked us, "Can you mark the scripture where is says if it´s a church of moses it would be called the church of moses and if it´s a church of Christ it would be called the church of Christ?" So we marked the chpater for him and offered him more pamphlets and then he got off the bus. He was a really good guy.

We had ward council yesterday nad it rocked! The area of central america is starting a bunch of new stuff that I think is going to be great. One thing we talked about it is that things like presidency meetings are not just to plan activities. I remember when I was Laurel president we just planned mutual activities but THAT´S NOT THE PURPOSE. THe purpose of ward council or whatever meeting we go to in the church should be about how to help the people in the organization. Recognizing specific needs of specific people and specific solutions. Great things are going to be happening in central america soon.

"Peace and blessings. Peace and blessings."

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

I'm Busy

Yet another week of being super super busy but not get a lot of work done haha.

I´m Sister Training Leader now (apperently Sierra didn´t know that, so I´m stating it explicitly, in english) so this week we did divisions in Roatán. There are two companionships of hermanas there so we were there three days. We had to take a two hour ferry over to the island. It is super cool. 

When you are in the streets where turists walk it is the cleanest Honduran city I´ve seen. There is no trash in the street. But if you go back to where the locals live all the houses are wood and everything is muddy and wet and it´s the dirtiest city I´ve seen and it´s sad. 

While in Roatán I completed one of my mision goals! I met gringo tourist members! One of my goals has been get stopped on the street by members who are here on vacation and it finally happened. Twice! One family was from salt Lake and the other from Idaho. Yay for a world wide church!

There are tons of cruise ships that stop in ROatán and seeing them all made me trunky. (This is the part where everyone convinces my  dad to take us on a cruise this summer *wink wink*)

In Honduras men only play soccer. That´s it. Hermana Zamora and I were laughing because in Consejo de Barrio we found out that the Bishop gave the young men a goal to learn a new sport and they didn´t do it. hahahaha

Preisthood session and general women´s meeting are not that same thing. In women´s conferences it´s all about "you´re beautiful daughters of God, don´t be so hard on yourselves,  you don´t need to be perfect..." but I was reading "Lord, Is It I?" by Utchdorf in the priesthood session and the differnce was apperent. He said to stop thinking about other people need to improve and really ask yourself what you can do better. It´s a really good talk, but the differnce makes me laugh.

Today is Tuesday. I couldn´t write yesterday because Presidente Klein called us to an emergency meeting to plan the trainers meeting. You know what that means: four hour bus ride to San Pedro!! We spent 7 hours talking about retention and how we can use the area book more affectively and improve the way we are training new missionaries. It was a good meeting. and I ATE MCDONALDS!! I hadn´t eaten McDonalds in over 14 months.

I frequently ask investigators, "For you personally, who is Jesus Christ?" the answer I receive most is "Jesus is everything, Él es todo" My purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ, so I ask people, "what did Christ do for you? How does He help you?" and it breaks my heart to hear everyday that peopel don´t really have a specific answer, they don´t really know who Christ is. They say, "he died for me" but they have no understanding of how his dying actually helps them. So here is the thing, Jesus Christ is your savior. He died on the cross to pay for your sins, so that you don´t have to pay for them. All you have to do is have faith in Him, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. Jesus Christ made it possible for you, YOU specificly, to become a better person, to overcome your faults. He loves you and wants to help you. Jesus Christ is your Savior and he loves you. Never forget that and never forget that it is only repenting and APPLYING the Atonement in our lives that we receive all the blessings of the sacrifice that Christ made for us.

Now I am going to bring up a question that will cause conflict at the next Erickson family dinner. I´ve been trying to mark in Book of Mormon every time is makes refernce to Jesus Christ but I have hit a snag: the word, "the Lord." In my understanding the lord can be used to refer to God or Jesus Christ. The Bible dictionary only makes refernce to Jesus Christ. So here is my question, in 3 Nefi 1:12 Nephi is praying to "the Lord" and "the voice of the Lord" says to him, "on the morrow come I into the world." THis is clearly refering to Christ, so the question is, in Nephi praying to Christ? All my knolwedge tells me no, but the wording of the scriptures make it seem like yes. I´m confused. Help.

Sometimes being a missionary makes you feel really bad about yourself because you are constantly hearing about how great the missionaries before you were. ALWAYS, but you never get to hear if the members in your old areas say good things about you, you just continue constanly hearing about how wonderful other missionaries are.

Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

P.S. 386 Baleadas

Do IT!

Yesterday at lunch Elder Clouse was telling us his plan to convince India to go war with China and somehow rule the world, so naturally I said, "The world is a mess and just want to rule it!" No one got the refernce!! I miss home where people get my jokes!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Hollie yesterday.

THis morning we watched Kungfu Panda 2 in the High Council room then we played Monopoly Deal and ate pizza. THings are getting exciting here in Las Colinas! *sarcasm hand*

Presdidente Klein dropped a bomb this week. From now on there will be no Reunion de Cambios. Now you just go straight from you old area to your new one. No traveling to La Lima, no seeing your friends or hearing tesitmonies of the missionaries who are leaving or seeing the presentation of the new kids. Nothing. It wil be interesting to see how things go this next change.

Also, the mission department cut the size of our mission. Now we´ll only 170 missionaries, so we´ll probably only have 20 or 30 hermanas in the whole mission. It´s going to be weird.

On Tuesday we woke up at 2:00am to go La Lime for Leadership council. The meeting was good, but the best part was when Klein LET US WATCH MEET THE MORMONS!!!!!! It was awesome!!! And he brought the twizzlers he owed me. Meet the Mormons is really good and ya´ll should go see it.

We finally left Lima at about four. We jumped in a rapidito to go to Progreso and find a bus to Ceiba. Normally from Lima to Progreso is about 20 minutes but there was a HUGE traffic jam. Our bus driver decided to go on the OPPOSITE side of the road to pass all the traffic. It took almost an hour to get to Progreso. We finally got to Progreso and waited on the corner for a bus to pass by. On came but before we could decide if we wanted to take it the driver got impatient and left. As they passed by the ZLs from Tocoa waved at us form inside the bus. I realized the elders from Tocoa left at like 2:00! They were in that traffic for THREE HOURS!!! We laughed until we cried, but ELder Brimmley pointed out that at least the Elders from TOcoa were in a bus and we laughed even more. We didn´t make it back to Ceiba until about 9:00 that night.

I am so excited to more Family HIstory when I get home! I was reading a talk called The Book, and I really like how he said that family history should be a part of our personal worship, the same as prayer or church attendence.

Have a great week! Do family history work.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

CHANGE YOUR LIFE

This week we are teaching a girl about how babies can´t be baptized because they don´t have sins and she looked at me and said, "Christ didn´t have pecados but he got baptized." Hna Zamora and I were both stunned. In my whole mission no one has ever brought up that point. But the differnce is that Christ had the ability to sin, a baby doesn´t.

WE did divisions twice this week. Once I went with Hna Turner it was super fun, but we should never be companions because we spent way too much chit chatting. haha

The second divisons were in OLANCHITO!!! Go ahead Hermana Holdaway, be jealous. ha ha It was wierd to go back there after eight months and yet not at all. It felt totally normal. I got to see Monchito and Edgardo. They are still both strong converts. Remember that little girl in march who said she prayed about it and God said she shouldn´t get baptized. She got baptized over the summer. I got to see a couple of members and it was really great. The Hermanas there are both super pilas.

While I was in Olanchito with Hna Morales (who is a missionary that I had only met once before) said to me, "I hear there is a sister who likes to dance in the street. You wouldn´t know who that is?" I have a reputation in the whole mission now. I may be a missionary but when I here that evangelical music with good beat I have to dance.

All of my companions can tesitfy to the fact that I NEVER remember that I am fasting. I start my fast and then someone offers us food or I eat breakfast in the morning and accidentally break my fast. So this saturday when I start my fast (latins fast dinner satruday and breakfast sunday, then they eat lunch. It´s better this way) I specifically prayed really hard that God would help me remember that I am fasting and I remembered the WHOLE TIME! I didn´t eat once. It was a small reminder that my Heavenly Father loves me and the He gives me exactly what I need when I need it. No more, no less.

On Tuesday we had district meeting like normal, but I was so confused. Elder Hansgen got up there and asked what we think CHrist did for fun? Then he started to tell us that our lessons need to be more fun because we are all broing teachers. Esta bien. I thought he would then proceed to give us some better teachign skills, but htat didn´t happen. He said we need to change. So I raised my hand and asked him what exactly it was he wanted us to do and he didn´t really have an answer. At one point he was all just have the spirit more. Then ELder Larson raised his hand and basically said "have a stronger testimony." At one point the DL was all, "I don´t even care about this district. I just want to you guys to make it to the Celestial Kingdom." I spent the whole day confused. That night Hna Turner and I were planning what we were going to study the next day and we dicdied to study "how to change our lives," and when we prayed I asked Heavenly Father to help know how we can get better and Turner almost laughed in the middle of the prayer. So we called the DL to tell him that we wre still confused and we had no idea what he was trying to say in the meeting. I felt really bad because I could feel the emotion he felt. I felt excited to change but I didn´t know how. He basically just told to get some personal revelation and make some new years goals. "Dicember 30, 2014 Distrito Miramar. That´s that day I changed my life" - my DL So we are changing our lives this week.

Also we went to Tela today and it rocked like normal.

The Church is true. Have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk