Monday, April 1, 2013 (Bonus this week .. pictures!!)

Well, this week was just fantastic!!! It started off super stressful, but it got real good right after we confirmed everyone today.

It all started Monday. Semana Santa was this week, which means a whole week of Catholics marching around with trumpets, drums, and effigies of Christ on the cross. Really helps you visualize the importance of celebrating the resurrection and not the death. Almost everybody celebrates holy Friday, but today was so different. Not to add to the point, but Semana Santa, holy week, shouldn´t start till today, technically, for the whole April 6 being the day of the resurrection. But whateves, plain and precious things. That's why we need modern day revelation.

Semana Santa also means that all the governmental buildings are closed, which means that all the papers you need for wedding are inaccessible. Literally. They don´t open for the whole week. So we were stressing pretty bad, because we literally had no papers for that wedding that we needed. I was super stressed, and had fasted and prayed for a miracle. Well, it came.

Monday we went to Teguc to see what we could do with the paper situation. While there, I was talking to another elder about the situation, and he told me that that had happened to him, and that the lawyer that the church here works with did all the paperwork with just copies of the peoples ID cards, and they took out all the necessary papers and did everything necessary afterwards. Technically, it means that they aren´t married, but....technically it does. The lawyer says they are man and wife, and so it counts. and even though we don´t have all the papers, its a higher law we are fulfilling. So we talked to the lawyer. He told us that He could do that, and he could get us the papers the next day!!!! MIRACLE NUMBER 1. But, he was really hesitant, because the mission hadn´t paid him in a long time for the other weddings that he had done, and he was really wanting money. made it sound like if he didn´t get the money right then, he wasn´t going to do it. Well, lucky for me, and this is MIRACLE NUMBER 2, I was only going to take like 200 limps to Teguc, but I felt like I should take all of what I had left for the quincena, which was 600 limps. So I did. And I was able to pay him right there, and it worked out just fine. BOOM!!! That was why we listen to the spirit!!!! And last but not least, we were wondering how we were going to get all the papers together for after the wedding, and just happened to go back to the office, I don´t remember for what. But the secretary that is in charge of that marriage stuff said, ¨Hey Glassett, what area are you in?¨ I responded Yuscaran B, and then he proceeded to tell me that he had found an envelope for us buried in the desk. He had only been there like three or four days, because he had arrived with no training in changes. He had no idea what anything was. Well, he hands me the envelope, and it is the most difficult papers to get that we needed!!!!!!!! We were able to get them to the lawyer the next day, and now we only need some little things to get all that done.

I have truly seen God´s hand in my life and in his work. This week was a testimony to that.

Apart from that, we had all the baptisms Saturday, and the weddings Saturday and Friday. We made cakes for the couples, and are super happy for them!!! One of them could be the next BP in Yuscaran. he has that potential and is just someone who has been prepared to do so.

That is really it for this week. All of our stuff that we did was prep for the weddings and baptisms. we did divisions, and I took more hitchhikes this week than I have in my life. No buses were going due to the holy week, and so we had to just catch rides with everyone. Crazy. I made the trip to ojo de agua more times this week in Jalon than I would like to in my life.

We are also teaching a new investigator that looks promising. His name is  ----. Everyone here calls him Pato, or duck. He is sort of,....okay, he is the town joke. This is the guy that wins the Ugly contest in the Mango Festival every year. This is a contest where people use masks, and he wins with his normal face, or so they tell us. But we have felt like he could benefit from the gospel, and we have been teaching him. he can´t read, can´t write, and is pretty uneducated, but he loves God and we have had some amazing experiences with him. We showed him the 30 minute restoration video, and he cried during the first vision part. He is a child of a heavenly king, and I have seen the love that heavenly father has for all of his children, and how everyone deserves the gospel in their lives, not just the people that everyone likes, or the well put together people. The gospel is for everyone, because God loves us all.

Our attendance is going up, we had 32 today, the highest in months. President Hernandez congratulated us on the attendance as of late. He never says anything like that. We never hear him say thank you or good work or anything like that, so it means something when he says it. We hit our goal this month of 5 baptisms and 1 family. 5 baptisms and 2 families. fruits of our labor, anyone???? We came into an area where people told us we would be lucky to get 1 or 2 in four changes. The field IS white and ready to harvest.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!! I hope that you all had a Happy Easter, and remember especially the Atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Chirst, the Messiah, and Only Begotten Son of our Father in Heaven. I testify that He did, in fact, die for us, and paid the price for all of our sins. He bled from every pore and was nailed to the cross on Calvary. But, On that Sunday morning, He crushed the head of the adversary and rose triumphant over death and sin from the tomb, and took upon Himself a perfect body, never to die again. He loves us, and wants us all to return to Him. I sincerely hope that we can all try harder to understand what He Truly did for us, and to apply it in our own lives. I know I have, and testify of its redeeming power.

Love you all, and again,

Happy Easter.

Zach

 

The Tegucigalpa Temple was dedicated in March.

Zach's homemade burger and fries.