Feliz Navidad everybody !!!

This week was pretty normal.  We walked around in the sun and I might be a little tanner... Haha that is not true. 

One thing I learned is that I will not ever drink alchohol. That is very certain. I have seen how it ruins people who could be so happy and I do not want that at all.  There really are blessings that come from the commandments. If it isn´t something new in your life, it is that it doesn´t take something away either. For example:

We found this cute little girl who wanted us to come to her house to talk to her parents and help them because they are alcoholics.  The mom is absolutely crazy as a drunk and her daughter who is 9 takes care of her as well as the father. Maybe the blessings wouldn´t be out of the ordinary for us, but the lack of those "ordinary blessings" like to be able to live in a family and take care of your kids and to be sober and in control of your life, is proof of the fact that there are blessings as we live the Word of Wisdom. (Sorry if it doesn´t make sense).

Everyone is in the giving mood and for this I am fatter. What they have here are tortillas but they aren´t like normal tortillas. They are super fat and thick and little. They are like rocks of corn, and yesterday, I had to eat 4!!!!  They eat them here to kill hunger and they sometimes cook them in a ton of oil and normally I only eat one on days when I am really hungry.  But yesterday, every two hours,(not kidding), we were given a whole meal complete with tortillas. Everything  was fried in oil and I haven´t seen a single veggie. I am going to die this Christmas. I have already told myself that I will not eat tortillas or bread this coming year. That is absolutely not acceptable any more. 

(Mom insert….In response to my request to know where her home is located so that I can try to find it on Google Earth, Joy responded with) …. Mom, I live by the hospital in the Avenida Utila (Utila Avenue).   There is a school behind us and we have a banana tree in the back yard. 

I want everyone to be very grateful this Christmas for what they have. I am so grateful for every one of you and I want you to all be so happy. I love you lots. 

Nos Vemos Domingo !!!!  (See you Sunday)

Con amor,

Hermana Ashton

First!!!!!

NELSON GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

I am so happy for him and hope that he stays so strong in his testimony. He is such a good kid. He has friends in the church which will help him so much. 

Haha something that was pretty stressful this week was that there wasn’t water in the  church for his baptism. The elders the day before were supposed to fill the pila (font), but they forgot so the morning of the baptism, they went to fill it, they started to fill it a little bit and left to eat lunch and when they came back, it was empty and there wasn´t water in the stake center. This happened at 1:30 and the baptism was scheduled for 3:30! The first thing I thought was "we are not going to have a baptism" and then I thought about all the people we invited and realized it was too late to cancel. Haha I was a little freaked out.

We called the bishop and he talked to one of the people in charge of maintenance in the church, but he wouldn’t be able to get there until 2. So we sat patiently waiting for a call that he arrived. We went to our appointments and called at 2 and there still wasn´t water. 

Finally they fixed the water at about 2:40 and started to fill the font. It was about half way at 3:30 and we ended up having the baptism at 4 but what a miracle! It made me think about Jensie´s story of the water for the baptism. Satan´s old tricks can fool us, but God is on our side ;)

We went to the hospital this week because  one of the scorpions finally got the best of us.

On Friday in the madrugada (dawn), at 1 am I woke up to Hermana Argumedo standing over me with the light turned on, gritting her teeth. She said that an animal had stung her and asked me if it was red. She had one sting on her arm and one on her side. I killed the scorpion and we called the nurse and she said that with stings we just wait. So I went back to sleep, but at 3 am I  awoke again with Hermana Argumedo shaking and breathing less so I called a member to take us to the hospital and they gave her a shot there. Apparently Hna Argumedo is allergic to scorpions! 

What happened was that she couldn´t feel her face, her arms nor her legs. I practically had to carry her to the car. It was a little scary. But, in the end, she is ok.

We also were walking one day and we found a garobo ( a very large lizard, an iguana, found in Central America). It was up under a roof of a house. They are so big and they are everywhere. Everyone says that they are really delicious. I don´t know about that.

We also had a Christmas devotional as a stake and it was good. We had a family come so that was cool and after there was something going on outside and there were huge fireworks. I loved them!!!

About Christmas, I still don´t know exactly, but probs in the afternoon. 

To be translated by someone because I dont have time to write it again in English:

esta semana estabamos buscando un antiguio investigador de la carpeta y no sabiamos donde la calle era, y habiamos buscado esta dirreccion por meses, siempre preguntando por la calle, y una noche cuando no pudimos encontrar nadie en sus casas, que habiamos planeado, empezamos a caminar mas cerca a la casa cuando una niña en una bici se paro y nos pregunto porque no llegamos a la casa. estabamos sorprendidas, pero feliz que alguien nos queria, entonces ella nos guio a su casa y nos presento a sus padres, suyos nombres fueron los nombres de ellos estabamos buscando! este experiencia fue super especial y ahora tenemos una familia bien positiva. quizas ahora es su tiempo!

Mom insert:

The following is a poor translation from google translate.  It helps us get the gist of what she is saying, but maybe one of you returned missionaries can do a better job than google.It probably has church lingo that google doesn’t recognize.

This week we were looking for a former researcher of the folder and did not know where the street was, and had looked for this address for months, always asking for the street, and one night when could not find anyone at home, we had planned, we started to walk closer to home when a girl on a bike is stopped and we wonder because we never got to the House. We were surprised, but happy that someone we wanted, then she US led to his home and presented to his parents, his names were the names of them we were looking for! This experience was super special and now we have a good positive family. Maybe now is the time!

That happened and it was a miracle too.

I love you all and I hope that this week is awesome. Remember to pray always and to choose the right. Read your scriptures and remember Jesus this Christmas. 

I want photos.

Love,

Hermana Ashton

This week flew by. I don’t know how but we are already at Monday again. I am now 1/3 of the way through my mission. That is so weird. I feel like I haven´t been here a month. Soooo fast. 

This week we worked hard with the members to try to get their support a little more. We are having family home evenings with them to invite investigatores and menos activos (less actives) and it has been pretty good. 

Haha this week we were in a lesson with the investigator Hermana Juana and she was telling us a story about how she heard someone talking bad about "the Mormon church" and she stepped in and defended the church and said that she was a Mormon! Hahahhaha she is so funny. She has only been to church once and says that she is Mormon. She is really great and we love her. But, she can´t get to church very easily.  We have had the members who have cars invite to give her a ride so there is hope. 

But milagrosamente (miraculously), in this week when we passed by the houses of people we had committed to come to church and none of them could come, we came upon one of our investigatores that we hadn´t been able to visit in the week and he was all ready to go to church. He calls himself "Percy" but his name is Porfilio. He climbed up the bus and we all arrived and had a good Sacramant meeting with two babies blessed and Christmas music. It was great up until the sacrament. We were all sitting quietly waiting for the deacons to offer the sacrament when a cell phone went off. The cell phone of hermano Percy.  When he took out his phone I thought he would reject the call but no. He answered and started talking on the phone when all was SILENT. I was horrified. I did not know what to do and I was trying soooo hard not to laugh out loud. The members all looked at us with frowns, with smiles, with confusion. What is more, he couldn’t hear the person on the other side of the call very well so he put it on speakerphone. "Yeah I’m at church what do you need?"  The other guy said, "Oh it is ok,  I just wanted to know what you wanted for lunch..." and the phone continued speaking "because there is a special here for sopa de gallina do you like sopa de gallina?" and percy responded "sopa de gallina? yeah!" and the conversation went on!  What felt like an hour was only two minutes, but the most embarrassing two minutes!  I did not know what to do. It was so painful and funny at the same time. 

Something that was very sad that happened this week was that one of our investigators passed away. It was a shock. His name is Hermano Jose and he had a problem with his kidneys. He had to go to the hospital for dialysis and was really quite bad.  We had no idea it was so bad.  Every time we went to visit, we found him outside with a smile. He was young too… only about 55 years old.  We were passing by his house when we thought we would check in on him because we had visited him with a member the week before and he looked healthy. 

When we got closer to the house we could see the candles and the very catholic sisters. I tried not to cry in front of them. Now we have to teach them the gospel so Jose can get baptized becuase we need their permission. But they don´t want to change. They are veerryy vveeerrrry catholic.  Jose was really hopeful because he had also had an experience with the missionaries when he visited California. But at least the sisters thanked us for helping him be happier. It hurt. But there is hope. God´s plan is perfect.

We went to the Colonia Kury (must be the name of the bakery), and we got conos (cones) which is what I was eating in the pictures. Super delicious.

There was also a mariachi band in front of our house this week. They were celebrating the birthday of one of our neighbors. They sang and played and it was really great. We entered the house when they were there and watched from our window. I took a video of them but the file is too big to send. I´ll show you in a year ;) 

But that is what happened this week. 

Our investigator Nelson got to go to the temple to see it with his friends that are in our ward. He really is progressing and he wants to know if the church is true.  We keep inviting him to read the Book of Mormon and he is little by little. 

I am praying for you all and I looooooovvvved reading all your letters this week and all the photos. Very cute. 

I loveeeeeeeeeeeee  youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Hermana Ashton