Dear family!
This week has gone faster
than the ones before. I am definitely glad I have sandals. It's almost as if
the weather was waiting for me to have sandals before the sky just opened up
and poured. On Tuesday, we had a really strong storm that dumped lot of water.
The power went out about 4 pm and didn't come back until 9 pm. I was super
grateful it did come back so that I could have my fan on while I slept!
On Thursday, I had my first
mini lesson in making baleadas. We went to a member's house for dinner. She had
already made the beans and eggs and had the dough ready for the tortillas. I
got to practice stretching the dough out into a tortilla and putting in on the
pan to cook. My first attempt was rather a disaster. I tried to plop the
tortilla onto the pan and it folded over on itself and got all wrinkled. I
learned, however, the art of carefully placing the tortilla. I still need to
learn how to make the beans and the dough, but hopefully I'll be able to make
baleadas for you when I come home!
Since arriving in Honduras, I
have started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning in English. I
definitely read in Spanish, but sometimes I feel like I need to focus more on
the message and less on the words. Anyway, I feel like right now, I really
identify with Nephi's adventure of leaving the comforts of home in Jerusalem
and going to the wilderness and the unknown. At one point, I kind of wanted to
serve a mission in a church history site. But in some ways I think I am
learning more about church history by being here than in a Visitors' Center. I
am learning what it means to leave the comforts of home and rough it a little.
The church is relatively young here, so I am learning what it means to work in
a place where most of the people, including leadership, are converts. I am also
learning some pioneer skills like washing clothing and dishes by hand and
taking bucket showers. Luckily I don't have to haul the water from the river
and we do have sources to obtain purified water! But back to where I am
reading. I've heard this before, but I was struck by just how important it was
that the Book of Mormon begins with the story of a family who was asked to
leave everything for the gospel, because that's what was asked of every new
convert. And even now when we don't ask people to load up their handcarts, we
ask them to make a lot of changes. We asked them to get married and not just
live together. Here in Honduras, getting married can be a financial hardship
for a lot of people, and so often missionaries and wards help people raise
funds. We ask them to read the scriptures every day. This isn't a culture where
people read for recreation, so asking them to read is sometimes asking a lot.
And there are more things, but you get the idea.
Saturday, we spent much of
the day helping a couple raise funds to get married. We were a little more
involved in commercial endeavors than I would have thought missionaries would
be. In the US, I would never dream of helping sell stuff to ward members to
raise funds. But there is a precedent for it here, so who am I to question? But
the most interesting part is that because we had so many places to be on
Saturday, we rode around on bikes. Let me tell you, a borrowed bike and skirt
(with no helmet, because we don't believe in helmets or seat belts here) is not
my favorite combination. But I didn't kill myself. It was also great exercise,
because we were on the go all day. Bikes in the morning, walking midday, and
back on bikes in the evening. Also, in the middle of everything, we had to dash
to the chapel to speak at a baptism for a child in the ward. I found out about
the talk right before we left in the morning, so I gave a short talk on baptism
with zero preparation. (I looked for a scripture to use right before the
service started.) So Saturday was exciting.
Hna. Davis
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