Igaunas, Baptisms, and Flooding‏

Brace yourselves, this is a long one.

Firday (in order of apperance): In the afternoon I watched a man kill an iguana by sawing off it's head with a machete. Even after it was decapitated it kept moving and twitching. It was gross.

     That night we had baptisms!!! Familia Sosa, Angel y Zulma, two investigators of the elderes: Elida and Henry. It was the most amazing night! There were smiles all around. The Spirit was so strong. It was so amazing to see these people make the decision to follow Christ. I can't even imagine the blessings and happiness that are going to come to these people if they remain firm in the faith. And the branch was so supportive. I think these baptisms were just the kind thing to get the members excited about missionary work and reactivation. It was a perfect night.

     Later that night we came home to flooded apartment. That morning one of us must have checked to see if there was water in the shower and forgot to turn it off when there wasn't any water, so then when the water came it poured out for hours while we weren't home, and our shower doen't drain very well so apartment was flooded! And our downstairs neighbor got all her clothes wet that she hung ourside to dry. oops. It turned our all right though. Nothing was ruined. Even the flooding couln't ruin our good moods after the baptisms.

Until this week only the APs, ZLs and the Lideres Entrenadoras had cell phones, but then on wednesday at multi zone confernce they put a cell phone in my hand. Now all the missionaries in the mission have cell phones. I sent a text to my DL on thursday and it felt super wierd to be texting. This is totally going to change the way we work. Instead of waiting for half an hour to see if a member is actually to meet us at the church we can just call and ask them if they are going to come. I'm excited about it. 

Also, on wednesday I heard Presidente Klein telling Hermana Trujillo that she has to go to Trujillo before she leaves. I marched right up to him and reminded him that I called dibs on going to Tujillo months ago. I mean I know I'm supposed to align my will the God's and all that but... I called dibs! Doesn't that mean anything to anyone these days??? I told him he should send Hermana Turjillo and I to Trujillo together. 

Yesterday a woman picked her nose and then shook my hand with the same hand. 

On saturday the elderes were walking down the calle about seventy yards ahead of us when all of the a sudden this vicious dog (Toby is his name) came out of no where! He was barking and running straight for the elderes. I'll never forget the sight of Elder Burwell taking of his backpack so he could use it as weapon if need be. I've never seen anyone quitar there backpack so quickly! Luckily Toby's owner called him back and the elderes were unharmed. Hermana Alfaro and I stood there laughing for a good five minutes. Then we serious and picked up some rocks in preparation to walk passed Toby, but luckily his owner had him tied up by then.

Apparently every year in some town in Yoro there is a day where is rains fish. People tell me that fish literally fall from the sky. I'm in the process of further investigation.  

The Church is true. Period.

Love, 

Hermana Odekirk

Hay demasiado a decir!‏

You know how when I hear some thing super exciting and awesome I start punchinig the air and flaling my arms like crazy person? There's been a lot of that going on in this week.

So, remember Edgardo y Ramon? The two punk kids in Olanchito who were going to get baptized in April but then never did? Well, just a few minutes ago I read an email from Hermana Zamora (my companion from back in Olanchito) and she told me that they both got baptized this saturday!!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR THEM I CAN'T STAND IT!!!!! I love those kids! And she says they are going to seminary everyday. I'm so proud of them.

Angel and Zulma are getting baptized this friday! I am so happy to see how excited they are about the gospel. Also, we have plans for la familia Sosa to be baptized this friday, but Hermano Walter might have to go out town for work. We are praying his trip gets canceled. Tengo fe.

The Elders also have two baptisms so that means the ward will have SEVEN baptisms this week. Presidente Klein is coming and everything. It's a pretty big deal.

Hermana Klein has a blog called themissionpresidentswife.blogspot.com and she has post on there where she copy and pasted a bunch stuff from the blogs of the missionaries in our mission. She talked about how some of them are super funny and some of them are spiritual and you can see miracles. I read them and realized that there were a bunch of spiritual quotes and only two funny ones... and both of the funny ones were mine. Si hombre!! I made her blog twice because I'm hilarious.

I have a lot of these air punching moments during emailing, like when I found out katie Kershaw got engaged! Or when Sierra Tracey says something super hilarious. Every week Sierra says something funny to me and I start laughing and everyone asks Que paso? but I can't explain it because it won't be funny to anyone else. "You're supposed to say hola!!" It's awkward.

Sometimes we plan when we are going to visit specific investigadores based on the fact that we know that they always give us food so we should go at 3:00 not right before dinner. 

We gave a family a Libro de Mormon and we were going to leave them Enos to read. Hermana Alfaro was taking forever to find Enos and I was thinking, "Why is she taking so long? Doesn't she know where Enos is?" So I took the Libro de Mormon to find it but... it went straight from Jacob to Mosiah... It was missing about 30 pages! ha ha Problems in the BYU printing department.

When invited Hermana Vicky the relief society president to come with us to teach la familia Sosa and it was amazing!! She bore her testimony about Joseph Smith. She was also super straight forward with Walter. She talked about how she married a Catholic guy and he doesn't have the priesthood and how she knows her children are missing out on the blessings of having a priesthood holder in their home. She told Walter that he has the opportunity right now to be baptized and to provide the blessings of the priesthood to his wife and daughters. I almost cried. The spirit was so strong. 

When we got home that night I couldn't stop thinking about how grateful I am that I was raised in a home with a worthy priesthood holder and how blessed I am to have such a great dad. And how  Vicky re enforced my determination to marry a worthy priesthood holder some day.  

My mom sent me Jelly Beans and I realized that a pack of Jelly beans is terrifying! I don't know if I'm about to eat a mango flavored one or a popcorn flavored one. Unfortunately, I accidentally left the bag open on my desk over night and woke up to a bunch of ants in my Jelly beans... oh well. They were good while they lasted. 

Sometimes I worry I'm the third missionary.

I saw a Honduran man cook this week. Pedro Pablo made us scrambled eggs and beans. I've never seen a Honduran man cook before. 

I saw a crab climbing a tree yesterday... It was weird. 

We won Zona Celestial last month, so our zone got a pday on the beach with Presidente y Hermana Klein today. It was super awesome. Hermana Saylin and I fulfilled our dream of playing volleyball on the beach on pday. It started pouring rain half way through the day, but I enjoyed the rain. 

I just spilled a bunch of nacho cheese all over this key board in the church... oops...

Well, that's all for this week folks. Sorry to all my missionary friends who don't have time to read my super long emails.

Love you all! Pray Walter's trip gets cancelled por favor.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Happy Mother's Day!

I know some of  you might not really care about reading this, but I would like to publically wish my mom a Happy Mothers Day. I have the greatest mom ever. Any time I tell people a story about my mom they tell me, "Wow, you´re mom sounds so funny!" My mom is absolutely hilarious and doing the craziest things, whether it´s buying an ice cream bike, or getting escorted of the feild at a Raptors game for trying to start the wave, or getting excorted out the backstage area at the conference center. But more importantly, my mom is greatest example I know of Christ like love. She is always serving those around her. When the rest of the family is talking about how inconvenient it sounds to do some act of service she is talking about much it will help someone. She is the woman who taught me that "fair doens´t always mean equal" and how to lead music and how to drive a car and how to do my own laundry. She is always so supportive and shows her love for me in whatever decision I make. I love her so much. Happy Mothers Day!

 

I logged on to my email and got all excited because I had 14 new emails!! ...But then I realized more than half of them were one-liners from Sierra... Thanks for always being there buddy.

 

Angel and Zulma are getting baptized this Saturday. They are two really cute kids of a less active family who live next door to us.

 

Also, the familia Sosa still has the goal of getting baptized on the 24. I am so excited for them!! They are the cutest family I´ve ever seen!

 

I have always really loved reading Enos. Everyone always talks about how it is about prayer, but this last time I read I realized I think it is really about repentence. Sometimes it`s a wrestle. Also, every time I read Enos I always end up thinking, "What was this giant sin you had repent of??" Do think when we`re in heaven if I asked him nicely he would tell me?

 

When I had my very first interview with Presidente Klein he challenged me to read the New Testement. I finally finished it this last Tuesday, which means that I have now officially read the entire standard works. I feel super accomplished.

 

The word for handcuffed and the word for newlywed are the same in Spanish: despojado. ha ha Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "The old ball and chain" right?

 

Shout out to all the "Friends" fans out there! I was helping Hermana Alfaro learn the days of the week in english and I taught her to say, "Monday oneday, tuesday twoday, wednesday what day? Thursday!!

 

Have a great week!! Love you all!

 

Love,

Herman Odekirk

Feliz Navidad! or Soy Come Jamo!‏

On the 30 of Abril I hit my six month mark. It's not weird to think that I've already been out six months, what is weird is that I'm going home in less than a year!!! I've done all the matematicas and transfers next Abril will be on the 29 which means I'll go home the 30. Exactly a year and a half! What are the chances of that!

Feliz Navidad a todos!! My christmas package got lost in the mail so my mom sent more and I got one of them this week!!

We had entrivistas with Presidente Klein on friday. That's always super exciting.  We just talked about how I'm adjusting to my new area and how excited I am to be in such a small branch and he said these exact words to me, "You're going to be a branch expcert!!" What does that mean?? Am I going to be in branches for the rest of my mission? Being in branches isn't a problem but that usually means being in smaller towns that don't have water and things like that. ha ha Vamos a ver. Good thing I don't have to worry about getting transfered for a while.

Presidente Klein also told me that we are getting a senior couple in the mission!! They aren't coming till July, but they're coming to Tela. I hope I stay here long enough that I'll get to work with them. Right now our mission has 0 senior couples in it. I always here good things from RMs who got to work with senior couples so I'm super excited about it. 

Funniest story of my week: We were teaching a recent convert named Fausto. He is 85 and hilarious. He mentioned that he has 11 kids, so naturally I said, Wow! That's a lot of kids. He then said, "Well back then we didn't have television or anything like that so we just went to bed early... that's why I have 11 children." Then he laughed super hard. We always laugh when we visit Fausto.

Our branch president's phone has that thing where when we call him we hear a song on our end while the phone is ringing on his end. That techno one that goes pow pow Americano, so naturally I jam out for a minute while the phone is ringing then he answers and all of a sudden I have to act a misionera again.

My Christmas package had new english scriptures in it. I was reading 1 Nefi 4 this morning and I realized something. In my old scriptures I have written at the top of that page, ''It's not a story about a journey, it's a story about faith." -Brother Slaughter  But I realized that that stroy is 100% about revelation. Everything Nephi did he did because the Spirit prompted him to. He needed to trust in revelation he had received, but that's faith, right? Turst. If you don't believe in revelation then you can't believe that this gospel is true. 

Shout out to Cassidy Lloyd who made my whole day by sending me the greatest sentence I've ever read in an email. "You just gotta free climb it."

And Shout out to Sierra who is going bowling on her pday. I told you bowling is awesome!

Well, that's all for now folks. Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

P.S. Baleadas eaten to date: 145

Lavadoras, celèfonos, y menos activos‏

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  Savannah Odekirk
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	Savannah Odekirk (savannah.odekirk@myldsmail.net)

Hermana Alfaro and I have really been trying to avoid having wash all of our laundry by hand, so we asked one of our neighbors if we could pay her so we could use her washing machine. So, this morning we went down there to use it and Hermana Alfaro said, "Enseña me." "No tenía una lavadora en Costa Rica?" "Sí, teniamos pero mí mama siempre lavaba mi ropa." We put her laundry in the machine and I taught her where to put all the switches and cheque. I asked her, "Do you want to go up to the apartment wait or do you want to stand here by this machine for the next for minutes?" T owhich she replied, "Qué!!! Es 40 minutos??" She thought it would take five minutes and we would be done. Ha ha I got a pretty good kick out of it.

I went on divisions with Hermana Baird this week. Usually I love divisions because they force me to be the person who makes all the decisions, I know the area and the people. But I had only been here a few days and Hermana Baird was the hermana here right before so she actually knew the area and the people better than I did. She was the one making the decisions. It felt really weird. 

This week we´ve been trying to find more less avtive people to work with and we´ve found a montón!! We got a copy of the ward dirrectory and it has over 300 families in it!! Yet our asistencia would never show that. Our asistencia yesterday was 64!!!! The progress is already coming. I also learned this that if you want more baptisms work find new less actives, because the less active families are the ones who have nonmember friends and family. We found the familia Rodriguez and turns out their two youngest kids never got baptized so we are teaching them now. The oldest son came to church yesterday and he brought a friend! Our goal is to contact a new less active family everyday this week. 

I miss Olanchito sometimes, but I am so excited to be here in Tela. We are seeing so many milagros and we are going to see so many more.

We had a lesson with the familia Sosa and was AMAZING!!. Presidente Leiva (the branch president) came with us. Walter keeps saying that he needs to read more del Libro de Mormón before he is sure he wants to get baptized, but he also said he feels peace when he reads it. In my head I thought, "What are you saying?? Peace is your answer that this true!!!! I´ve explained this before! Ugh!!!!!!!!" But then I calmly showed him Moroni 10:5 and explained how we receive answers from the Spirit. Then Hermana Alfaro challnged them again to be batized on the 24 May and they said yes!! I am so excited for them. I think they are the cutest family I´ve met here. We just need to teach them the Palabra de Sabiduría otra vez because they gave us tea. oops. 

That night was another testament to me that teaching people how to recognize the Spirit is one of the most important things I can do. I can teach them all I want but if they can´t recognize when the Spirit is talking to them then they´ll never recognize the truth. And what Im doing is useless.

Well, that´s all for this week. Nos vemos!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Hermana Alfaro and I were talking about cell phones, which is celular. And the word for telephone is teléfono. but I accidentally referred to a cell phone as a celéfono. ha ha Oh the advetures of serving foreign speaking. 

There is a HUGE differnce between morning tired and evening tired. Hay una diferncia entre I just woke up so I´m tired and I walked nine miles in 95 degree heat and have been working all day so I´m tired. I never noticed before now.

 

Have I mentioned I love Honduras?‏

Well guys, this week has been super exciting! Tela is great! I would say well over half of my area is paved here, so no longer feel like I just got off the pioneer treck everyday. We have only had running water in our apartment one day since I´ve been here, so it´s bucket showers with pila water for me. At least the water here is luke warm, I love it!

 

I am realizing that Olanchito was a lot like Utah. It is a valley surrounded by mountains. Even in Mexico I was surrounded by mountains.  It feels weird.

 

Sometimes I think it would be great to be serving in the states where I could have a cell phone and a car and someone to give me thanksgiving dinner, but then I go to the beach on pday and I remember that I don´t want to be anywhere except Honduras! Hermana Alfaro and I walked to the beach this morning took pictures and sat on the pier. It was super cool! Tela is so green and has tons of hills. Now that I´m over all the I´m- in-a-third-world-country shock that I got in December I am really enjoying being here in Honduras.

 

I  got an email from Hermana Zamora and she told me that my convert Manuel has a calling!!  He is in the young mens presidency! I am so happy for him. He is so solid.

 

In other news, I thought working in Bella Vista in a branch of 150 people was small but then I got to Tela where we had 53 people in sacrament meeting yesterday and my eyes were opened. Our branch president is 20 something years old. Elder Burwell and Elder Lopez blessed the sacrament and then one Deacon and guy who is about 50 passed it. The sunday school teacher for the youth didn´t come so we taught their class. We had all of the youth in the branch and there were five of them. One of Presidente Klein´s counslars came to our branch and we had a meeting with him. The first thing he said to me was, "Usted toca piano?" The hymns during sacrament meeting were pathetic and sad sounding so he is going to work on getting us a keyboard that actually works and Elder Burwell and I are going take turns playing. I should´ve practiced hymns more when I played the piano. He also said to us that we need to work with the less actives more. He said if we don´t baptize, esta bien, we don´t baptize. Elder Burwell said he wants to see this place have 100 people is sacrament meeting before he goes home in May, so I´m going to do everything I can to make that happen.

 

I am super excited to be here! There is so much work to be done, I´m going to get to do so much here. In the words of Hermana Holdaway, "The gospel is SO true!" Truth. Everyday my testimony of this gospel is strengthened. I am so grateful for it´s influence in my life.

 

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Pues... TUVE CAMBIOS!!!!

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! Yes, you google translated that correctly! I had changes today! Holy moly. I really didn´t think I was going to go, I wasn´t prepared for it at all! I am now in a town called Tela, right on the beach. I would tell you all to google maps it but we all know only my dad will actaully do it. I haven´t really seen much of town yet, but it seems really great. It seems to be a bit richer of an area than Olanchito was and it is way more green and pretty.

 

My new companion is Hermana Alfaro. She is twenty and she is from Costa Rica. Yes, the same as Hermana Zamora. We´ve only had a few hours together but she seems really cool.

 

Changes here are absolute chaos. We got on a bus at the chapel in La Lima that took us to Progresso and dropped us off at a place where we could get a cab. Then we put four Hermanas and six suit cases in one cab and went to the bus terminal to catch the bus to Tela. Well, it´s not really much of a terminal. You just stand on the side of the road until you can hale a bus down. It was only an hour long bus ride and we stood the whole time because the bus was so crowded. I flipping love Honduras! All the chaos is so exciting.

 

The last few days have been crazy. I know cambios are a part of the mission. I´m probably making way more of a big deal than I should but this is my first change, so I´m going to make a bg deal out of it. It still hasn´t really hit me yet that I am in a new area. It is slightly scary. President Klein always tells me that having changes is like  being a greeenie all over again. To a certain extent he is right, but I can already see that I am handling this way better than when I first got to Olanchito. I´m excited to get to work and meet all of our investogators and find some new ones.

 

I had a shot of going my whole mission with running water in my apartment, but I think that I am going to be taking bucket showers during my time here in Tela. I´ve only been in for about five minutes though so I´m not sure. Also, Hermana Alfaro told me that here in Tela the hermamas are home every night by 6.30 unless we have a firm cita. That´s kind of a bummer, but I guess it gives me more time for hand washing my laundry, right?

 

Well guys, I´ve got to go have dinner with my new branch president (oh, and the branch here has about 50 people in it). I´m super excited to tell you guys all at how this weekend goes. Remember the church is true.

 

Love,

Hermana Odekirk