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| With Sister Alejandro |
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| Pacura |
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| The river at Pacura |
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| "Happy" in Honduras |
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| Walking with a bunch of Cows! (Nope, not talking about the Elders!) |
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| Swollen finger after falling off the mountain! |
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| Main Street in Olanchito |
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| Eating Wendy's with President Klein |
HOLA.
So yesterday I had the craziest P-Day of my life and I basically almost died. Multiple times. A bunch of the missionaries in my district were like, "Let's go climb this mountain!" And I wasn't that excited to go climb a mountain cause I'm me and hiking isn't really my thing and I like to sleep and eat food but I was like, "Whatever, I'll go." (Translation: I have to go because my companion is going and I'm a missionary and always have to be with my companion and I'm the junior companion so it basically doesn't matter what I think cause I just have to do whatever Hermana Alejandro does so I'll just pretend to be excited to climb this mountain even though I would rather spend my P-Day in my bed.) So anyway, we met up with the other missionaries at 6 AM and left together to go climb the mountain, Pacura.
And everything that could go wrong....went wrong. First we had to cross two waist-deep rivers. The first river had a bunch of rocks that we used to cross over, but I'm pretty clumsy and stuff so of course I slipped and jammed my finger. And now it's huge and swollen and probably the biggest finger I've ever seen. And this morning it's all green and purple and so yeahhhhhhh. That was fun. And then we had to cross another river, but this one didn't have any rocks so we all just walked across in the waist-deep water. Adventures in Honduras.
Then we got lost. Our guide kinda just ran off and we were like, "Okay, I guess we'll just go this way." And we ended up going the wrong way and getting lost and having to scale the side of this super deep mountain. We literally were going hard-core Bear Grylls. But it was so scary. Cause it was super steep and there wasn't a path because we were lost and we were literally climbing up on our hands and knees. The dirt was all slippery and I couldn't use my right hand because my finger was jammed and it hurt to bend it so I was literally praying so hard all day that I wouldn't fall and die. I just don't like climbing mountains where there's literally a death drop two feet away. But I mean, I'm alive so that's good. We made it. Lol, I did fall on the way down though. We were walking back down and we were almost at the bottom of the mountain and my foot slipped so I fell and rolled down the mountain for a little bit and then I just laid there and was like, "Why are we at this freaking mountain." But it was funny. Because I fell. And at first I was laughing really hard while I was laying there but then I wanted to cry. But once again, I'm alive and okay so everything's good. Adventures in Honduras.
Honduras has the craziest rain ever. Tuesday it rained so hard for over 24 hours without stopping. And then we didn't have running water or power for five days. And the streets were rivers. But we went out and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. And we got all wet. And it was a party. Adventures in Honduras.
The chickens here sleep in trees. Hermana Alejandro and I were teaching a lesson and I look over and there are like 15 chickens in a tree and I was like wait what. Oh! And I held a baby duck! It was so cute. I want it.
So yeah. Those were the highlights of my week. And I thought that I would summarize what I do every day for those of you who don't know. It's a partyyyyyyy.
6:30 AM: Wake up and get ready and eat breakfast.
8:00 AM: Personal study (read the scriptures, church history books, conference talks, fun stuff like that)
9:00 AM: Companionship study (read the scriptures together, practice teaching, plan our lessons for our investigators, etc.)
10:00 AM: Language study (Español, hombre)
11:00 AM: Leave our house and go to work! (teach lessons to our investigators, meet and talk with new people, share gospel messages, give service, visit members of the church, etc.)
12:00 PM: Eat lunch (aka get fat. Hermana Alejandro is always like, "A las 12:00 vamos a engordar. La verdad.)
1:00-7:00 PM: Work, work, work, work. We'll usually teach 5-7 lessons a day. Each lesson lasts for about an hour cause we always talk for a little bit before. Then we start with a hymn and a prayer and teach the gospel, answer questions, and all that good stuff.
7:00 PM: Return to our house early for safety reasons cause we don't really have enough time in our schedule to get murdered. Ain't nobody got time for that. And then we're usually pretty bored in the night time but life goes on.
"Remember the Lord has called you to succeed, not to fail. Sometimes it may seem terribly hard, but He wants you to grow. He will not abandon you. He inspired your call. He knows who you are. He knows what you need. He knows what He wants you to become, and this mission experience is an opportunity He has given you to discover things about yourself you never knew; capacities you never knew you had, strength beyond what you felt you had, and the capacity to love and serve which will sustain you throughout the rest of your life. Remember, you have been called and He will fit the task to your capabilities." - Richard G. Scott
At times I feel like I can't do this. Missionary work is hard. I'm working all day, every day to bring the light of the gospel into people's lives. I'm working all day, every day to help people grow closer to their Heavenly Father. I'm working all day, every day to give people the happiness and the hope that the gospel of Jesus Christ has given me. And it's heart breaking to see people reject it. People who I've grown to know and love. People who know that this church is true. But they reject it only because they don't want to change. As of right now, I haven't seen very much success with my investigators. And at times I wonder, "What's the point? Why am I out here every day doing something that's so hard if I'm not even doing what I came out here to do?" And these past five weeks have been the hardest and scariest of my life. But this quote made me remember that I have the Lord on my side. I'm stronger than I think I am. I can do hard things.
Until next time,
Hermana Holdaway
PS- I miss having first world problems. I'm having lots of problems down here in Honduras, but I'm for sure not having first world ones. Triste.
PPS- I GOT THE PICTURES TO WORK, HOLLAH, HOLLAH.
- Picture 1: Hermana Alejandro and I!
- Picture 2: PACURA. We climbed up to the peak. Literally the very highest point on that mountain that you see in that picture. Remember that there's always going to be another mountain. You're always going to want to make it move. It's always going to be an uphill battle. And sometimes you're going to have to lose. But it's not about how fast you get there. It not about what's waiting on the other side. It's the climb.
-Picture 3: Crossing the river at Pacura.
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