Weekly Update

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

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

2. "Sister Odekirk,

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

-T-Harm

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

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

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

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

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

    Kate: "and they slide the gracias hahahahah"

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

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

MERICA"

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

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

You know you`re a missionary in Honduras when: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love, 

Hermana Odekirk

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

Another Two Weeks in Santa Rita‏

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love you all. The Church is true.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

 

 

Bueno pues. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

No Subject

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week! The church is true.

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

Aqui en Santa Rita‏

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

 

 

Changes Otra Vez‏

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week!!

Love,

Hermana Odekirk

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,
Hermana Odekirk