GOOD SUNDAY

Hey everyone! Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas back in the States! They don't really celebrate it down here:( But that's OK cause I made a Christmas count down chain in our house so I can count down the days haha! 10 more days!!! OK so this week went really well! We had a baptism for one of our investigators and had a HUGE church attendance! I was so happy! It was the most people at church that I have ever had! It was awesome! If all goes on the 27th we have a date for like 6 baptisms! SO I am just praying that all of it goes well!! One of our investigators with a date is like 75 years old. She is so funny! She's been to church 4 times now and she really wants to get baptized! Every time she has a lesson she asks "How many days til my baptism" haha! She lives really high up in the mountains and basically lives in a little Hut. Her whole house is less than half the size of my room:( but she is really happy so I guess that's all that matters! Now we just have to get her family too! Her 2 kids live like 1 minute from their house. The lessons with them always go really well but they never go to church:( So it does make me pretty sad. We even go to their house in the morning and they always fake like they are sick or something like that. I think it will help a lot once Victoria is baptized though! (that is the grandma's name) So this week we had a lot of fun too! We cooked dinner for 3 families and painted one of our investigators houses! We painted it like neon orange because it was his favorite color haha! It is so ugly looking but he likes it so that's all that matters I guess! The baptism that we had went really well too! I had the honor to actually baptize her! But that does not matter. All that matters is that she was baptized! A lot of the ward showed up and gave their support. EVERYTHING is going well down here in Good ol Honduras! Still hot but I'm getting a little used to it:) Oh yeah the water went out here, and it is still out. So we can't really take showers and wash our clothes.. SO that kind of stinks. HA who got my Pun! But the rumor is it is going to turn back on tonight so that's the best news ever! Well that will do it for this week! I love you all so much! Merry Christmas!!

EL ES LA DADIVA

So for Christmas this year the First Presidency of the Church told all the missionaries throughout the world (90,000+ now) to tell everyone about this new video that the Church has made. In English it is called "He is the Gift" in Spanish it is called "He is the Dadiva" it is so spiritual. Our mission president gave us these cards and we are suppose to hand them out to everyone so they can search the link and find the real meaning of Christmas. I think it's such a good video:)

So this week Elder Lopez and I went contacting in some really cool places. We went high up into the mountains and tried to find as many new investigators as we could! It is so crazy how some people live. We found people that live in little boxes basically. Dirt floors and walls made out of branches and mud. I'll have some pictures of where we contacted below. We found some new people so I'm excited to see where they go! This week Elder Lopez and I worked so hard. I swear we have walked an average of 20 marathons a day hahaha. But the Lord always blesses us with strength to press on. There is a video about mission work that talks about what we are to do when times get hard and when we want to sit down and take a rest. It talks about Christ. How his mission on earth was never easy. That when he was crucified and went up to the Spirit World he was determined to come back to earth and continue his glorious work. Christ was and will forever be the only perfect missionary. I will always look up to him and ask for help from him when times get hard out here on the mission. I'm not sure if you guys watched the Christmas Devotional the Church had yesterday but it was awesome. We could only go if investigators came too. So we invited all of our investigators and just about all of them showed up! But one awesome story was we have this family that we are teaching and we invited them to come to the Devotional. The Mom said she could not go because her 3 month old baby was sick. I promised her that if she went God would bless her baby and he would start recovering a lot faster. Well after the Devotional the lady told me... His fever is gone.. She couldn't believe it. I just smiled at her and said, "God loves his children more than we will ever know" That was an awesome experience!! Well I love you all! I'm going to send a lot of pictures for you guys! Oh yeah Elder Lopez and I are getting along really well!! We are always laughing and we teach really really well together. The APs went on divisions with us and they said that we are one of the best companionships in the Mish:) So that's good! I love you all

Love Elder Hess

Nice View

President Dester

Elder Martinez, Elder Chapeton, Elder Hess & Elder Lopez 

NEW COMP AGAIN

So first off this week I got a new Companion. His name Is Elder Lopez! He is form Guatemala! He is super short like my other comps too haha! He is unreal at soccer. We played today and he beat me so bad that I wanted to sit down and cry haha! We play pass all day long in the street (with our feet) with rocks! It's fun! I think I'll be better than Matt Coffey by the time I get back;) He teaches in a different way than all of my other comps so I am learning a lot! He's way funny too!! The only problem is that he can eat a lot:( So he never has left over food to give me:( But we are getting along really well!! I was sad to say good bye to Mart but I think I will enjoy this next change! If I make it through the Change. Something very scary happened that could give me Emergency changes to get me out of the area. I wont say what happened though. I don't want mom to come pick me up haha! So we started teaching this new guy who is very interested in the Church. He asked us if all sins are forgivable. We told him yes. He then said, even if I've killed people. We were like uh yeah... Why? He then told us that he had killed more then 50+ people in El Salvador. And for that reason he moved to Honduras. My comp wants to stop teaching him but I want to keep on going. He wants to change and I know that we can help! He was part of MS13 back in the day. He showed us all his crazy tattoos. So that's cool. I hope that we can baptize him! This week was thanksgiving as you all know so I would just like to tell all of you what I did. I'll keep it short and simple. We got permission to go to Wendys (Yes the Wendys in the States) and bought 25 cheeseburgers... And then we went to Dunkin' Donuts and ordered like 20 donuts. I have pictures but I forgot my camera:( So I'll send them next week. I didn't finish all the food but I ate all I could. It was a rough night after we were done eating. I felt like I was going to die. But after throwing up for 20 minutes I felt good again haha. So that's twice now on my mish that has happened. I love all of you and I am so happy to be out here on my mission. I will never forget these two years. Carl Budge sent me a letter when I first got to the MTC. He told me something that I will never forget. He said "When your mission is over your going to want to look back and say Lord, I gave it my all." That little quote has pushed me every single day of my mission. And I know that It will continue to push. I love y'all!! Merry Christmas!! Remember the real reason why we celebrate this amazing holiday!! 

Love Elder (10 pounds heavier) Hess

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

So as most of you know. This was the week that Chandler Webb passed away a year ago. At times throughout I would get upset and just think why did all this happen. I was reading a lot of scriptures to calm me down. I found a lot of scriptures about missionary work in the Spirit World. I know for a fact that Chandler is doing missionary work on the other side. He is making our Heavenly Father very happy right now. I am very proud of him too. I know he is Preaching the Gospel in such a fun loving way:) If he was willing to give his life for this Church I can definitely give up 2 short years for our King.

Ok so this week was good. Not to much happened. Most of our investigators are improving a lot! The only sad thing is that Elder Martinez is probably going to leave this change. Which is really sad:( We had a lot of fun during these last 6 weeks. (Man times goes by so fast) I'm going to share a really funny story that happened this week. So a couple of days ago we were walking back from a lesson and this drunk guy started yelling at us! A lot of crazy things that I can't write haha! But he loved us so much. He kept on telling us that he serves a mission everyday in the Morning at 4. I could not help but laugh the whole time. So we kept on telling him we had to go but he never listened to us haha. So I shook his hand to say goodbye but he would not let go. So I just started to lean back while he held on to my hand. I looked like Michael Jackson doing "the lean" but going backwards. If he would of let go I would of landed straight on my back haha. Martinez honestly was crying he was laughing so hard. So later we asked him if he could take pictures with us so I'll send those all to you guys haha. We were about to take a picture with him and he just fell over!! And when he was on the ground he was just yelling take the picture!! So that will explain the picture when he's on the dirt. So when we finally were about to leave we gave him a a Pamphlet. And he just got so serious and wanted pictures with him and the Pamphlet so I'll send those too hahaha! It was a funny day. And oh man did he smell bad when he hugged me. Ok I got to go But I love you all!!! AND Happy Thanksgiving!!

PS he kept on showing us how much money he had haha. All that money in front of him all adds up to be less than1$

Mitch with the drunk guy!

NEW FAMILY

Alright so I will start off this email by saying Happy Birthday to my Dad and shout out to Tiff for getting engaged!! And for Lexi W for cheering in her first cheer game! Abel cannot get baptized. So he is so awesome. He is 100% converted and wants to get baptized. BUT. It turns out he doesn't live in this area. We just figured that out when we were going to do the baptism interview. He is always at this house because he is best friends with the guy that lives there (that's where we were teaching him). So we called the APs and they said they were going to talk to President Dester. Well the news came back and it turns out we can't baptize him. It has to be the missionaries in his home ward. But guess who is serving in his home ward? Elder Chapeton! My first companion! I thought that was so dang lucky! But when we broke the news to him he was super sad. He wanted one of us to baptize him so bad. He said he is going to wait til' the changes to see if one of us gets transferred to his home ward so that we can baptize him. It's almost impossible but it is possible I guess! But the good news is that he will get baptized and that is all that matters. He said once he is baptized he is going to keep on going to this ward cause he loves it so much! Our ward is pretty sweet:) So that was sad news but in the end all that matters is that he is baptized and makes those sacred covenants with the Lord. Alright so Elder Ririe and I were knocking doors. We had divisions. We came across this one family that is so awesome! We knocked on the door and she was just like "OH come in" we were so confused. I turned to Ririe and said "uh are they members?" Because they were acting so casual. We started talking to them and they just straight up told us that they think our church is true and that they were waiting for us to knock on their door... So I was so dang happy!! They went to church and we have another lesson planned. We are going to talk about the Libro de Mormon and talk about lesson 3 (Baptism). So I'm so excited to get back to that family and start teaching them some more. Today we went to this huge Waterfall for P day! That was Legit. I'll show you guys pictures below!

Love Elder Hess

MUSIC ACTIVITY

Had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission this past week. Two wards in the Stake and my comp and I put together a music activity. I'll explain what we did. So every person in the Ward got an invitation and were suppose to hand it out to a friend or family who was not a member of our Church! The whole idea was to get a whole bunch of NEW investigators coming so we could get there information and start teaching them! Anyways, the Ward did a great job inviting people! Like 200 people showed up! So we got a boat load of new investigators! So that is so great cause we didn't have that many! Anyways the activity went so perfect! The Mission President gave the whole zone permission to go and watch the activity and to have a mini choir and sing the song "The Army of Helamem" (but in Spanish). So the whole activity was just singing and in between every song we would show videos of all of our lessons but in great detail yet still simple for our investigators. The songs that the wards sang went super well too! The were practicing everyday for 3 weeks because they knew how important this activity was. So right before the activity started President Dester walked in. I don't know if I've talked to much about him to you guys. But he is the most Holy and Spiritual man that I have ever met. He carries this Spirit with him that is unreal. I promise that he is a future General Authority in the 70. I had no clue he was coming so I got pretty nervous cause I didn't want him to think I was the worst singer in the world haha! He gave a talk and the Spirit was so strong! (If you've served a mission or serving right now you know how big of a deal it is if your Mission President shows up) Anyways at the end of the activity we played our last video Because of Him. If you haven't seen this video stop reading this and go watch it. The second the video came on I got the chills and when it showed Christ in the Tomb I could not hold back tears. The Spirit was so strong. I have a good feeling about all of our new investigators because they've been to the church and they know exactly what we believe in and I know without a doubt the Spirit was testifying to them that this church was true. I'm so happy that I got to be a part of such an awesome event. Something funny that happened this week is that Elder Perry and I (Gringo) went on splits. He is a blonde so the whole world knows he's American. Any how we came across this drunk guy and he said that he wanted to learn English! So we taught him the words "Bling Bling", cause he had a bracelet on hahah! It was so funny cause he was so Drunk and he was just screaming at people "I've Got Bling Bling!!!!" way loud. We gave him a word of wisdom pamphlet and left. But it was so funny I was laughing for 20 minutes haha! Ok so those are the highlights of my week! I love you guys! Remember Go Jazz Go Utes and Buffalo Wild Wings is the best restaurant in the world.

ps I found a Dunkin Donuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's so cheap!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Hess

Elder Martinez (my comp)

Donuts are his favorite!

THE GOOD OL' MISSION

So this week was Halloween and I hope all of you ate 684 pounds of American candy for me cause all the good candy doesn't exist down here hahaha. So we had a good week! On Monday we had a Noche de Hogar and it went so well! These little girls put on a talent show for us and they sang "Let it Go" from Frozen! It was the cutest thing ever! Its called "Libre Soy" in Spanish. I actually got a little teary eyed just seeing how happy the whole family was. They live in such a small house without a kitchen and they were all just so happy. It was weird but the spirit was so strong when they were singing Let it Go. At the end me and all the little girls did a little concert but I sang the song in English. It was super fun:) Also the ward down here really wants to learn English. So once or twice a week I am going to have an English class at the church. We are telling all the members to bring non member friends because everyone wants to learn English here. They are going to make invitations that say free English Classes from a real Gringo hahaha!!!!! So I'm excited for that. We have an investigator named Abel and he has been progressing really fast. He's bien pilas ha. But he now has a baptism date in two weeks and he said there is no doubt in his mind that this church is true! Other than that we have been knocking a lot of doors to try to find new investigators. It's actually pretty fun. We always switch off days that we decide where we're going to contact and I always choose to contact in the craziest places haha! Like on Friday we were literally contacting on a cliff just because I knew that missionaries have never been up there. And because I feel like I'm in a movie. It's so cool. Well I just want to say this. The blessing that I have seen serving a mission leaves no doubt in my mind that this church is true. The only true happiness on this earth exists in this Gospel. While I've been out here for these 6 months I have seen how much God and Our Savior loves us. I've learned a lot about the life of our Savior Jesus Christ and how he gave his life for us. His love is unfailing. We never have the need to feel that we are alone or unloved because we never are. We can Always feel the Love of God. I love this church and I am so happy to be a missionary.

Love Elder Hess

The Picture with the Girls at the Talent Show:)

SICK

OK so this week I was super sick. I went to the hospital and they didn't know what I had. But I'm doing 100% better and I feel good right now! I was so sick that I couldn't even leave the bed for three days. I felt like every single thing in my body hurt. Even my bones were in a ton of pain. I was so dang hot but I couldn't use the fan because the wind from the fan literally hurt my skin, so I just had to wait it out in an oven basically. The really bad thing is that whatever I had is super contagious. Whatever I had is now doing its work on 8 other missionaries. So I feel bad about that :( It's because I went to zone meeting when I obviously shouldn't have. But the only day that we could leave was on Saturday. And that's because we had a baptism! So that was for sure the highlight of my week! Not really anything to talk about cause that's all that happened this week... But I'll send a lot of pictures! It rained super hard one day and everything flooded. 

Love Elder Hess

Elder Martinez and 12 yr old Even

That little thing in the water are the taxis here:)

Baptism of Even on (10/25/2014)

I've gotten really good at polishing my shoes! I thought you would like this picture!!

CHANGES

So first shout out to the U. Ryan told me that they are in the top 20 and are going to have College Game Day at the U again. Some times I just feel bad for BYU fans. Anyways! I got my new area and comp! Super Huge! My area is unreal big. Literally a 100 times bigger than my last area and I thought my last area was big! The good news is we live right in front of the church! So we don't have to walk 789 miles to go to church activities and what not. This area is in the Mountains. We have to climb and walk uphill all day long! I have a picture down below that shows stairs going up the mountain. This will give you an idea how straight up the mountains are. It's kind of like Brazil in the movie Fast Five. Just houses on top of houses! I thought the heat wouldn't be so bad here because we are kind of high up, but it's exactly same. So that stinks a whole lot. My comp is named Elder Martinez! He is from Mexico! He's super tall too. A lot taller than I am. It's weird cause my other comps looked like Frodo and Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings. He is a super nice guy! He really is a giant Teddy Bear! He talks really weird too. So I feel like my Spanish is struggling:( But It will only help my Spanish so it's actually a good thing! He has 14 months in the Mish and is DL, so that's cool! Oh yeah and my zone has other Americans!!:') I can talk English!! And talk about American Sports!!! Oh my gosh it feels so good to speak in English! The only problem here is that we don't have ANY investigators. Well we have 1. And she is a contact that we contacted the first day here. Everyone says that this is one of the hardest zones in the Mish. But I'm not going to listen to that. I'm in Central America, home of where the Book of Mormon was written, I know there are a lot of people here that are ready for the Gospel! We just have to find them! The house is OK. It's painted green so I feel gross when I'm inside. And we have to shower with a bucket. Which I actually enjoy so that's not a bad thing. We only have water in a little font outside. We can only fill the font at like 10 p.m. cause that's the only time there is running water. I'll send pictures below! We have electric wire surrounding the house for protection. My comp told me I have to touch it before I leave cause it's a tradition. Ya right, I'm not touching anything that hurts worse than those little pens that shock you. I hate those things. Ok so one funny story to end. My first day sleeping in my new house my fan fell on my foot when I was sleeping. The fan was on the end of the bed so it would hit my whole body. The fan is missing the front part which blocks anyone from touching the blades. Ok so at like 3 a.m. the fan fell on my foot. The blades all just whacked my foot. And since it was on full speed all of the blades broke off. There were plastic pieces of the fan all over the room. My foot hurt pretty bad but I'm OK hahaha! Well it's impossible to sleep here without a fan so the next day I went and bought one with the money that I have. It's the size of an apple. I'll send a picture of it too. I love you guys!

Wow STAIRS

Little font with running water once a day

New fan with protective cover (hope it doesn't fall again)

This is my house:) Cool right

NICE WEEK

So this week I'll just start off by saying that we had 2 baptisms!! WOO it was an awesome day. Two little girls Karawin and Ashlee. The parents still haven't been baptized but we are going to continue working with them! We were actually really surprised when the parents said they could be baptized! We have been teaching them but there hasn't been much progression. But when we read Juan 3 V5 the parents decided that the kids were ready to be baptized! The problem with the parents is that they were already baptized... SO they don't feel the need to. But with time I know they will come around! So this week we had divisions. I went with an Elder named Avalos! He's from Mexico! We had a good time! It was weird teaching in a new area. But the cool part was people thought I was from Mexico Guate and all sorts of Spanish countries hahaha! That made me really happy! So this week we are going to have transfers. I really love my area. Its going to be sad leaving it. I've gotten really close with the members and I love all of our investigators. I want to keep on teaching them. But I know that the Lord has other plans for me in different areas. I'll let you guys know who my new comp is and how my new area is next week! I actually have to go because I have to pack. I love you all!!!

Love Elder Hess

Karawin and Ashlee

Elder Gonzales

THOMAS S MONSON

This week was so awesome!! General Conference was unreal!! (I watched it in English) I was the only one... People in the ward would take shifts with me during the session so that I could watch it in English. They had Spanish subtitles so that the Latinos could understand too! I had a room with AC and with a "Rolley chair" So I was living the good life haha! Ok so a lot of things really stuck out to me. But the message that I want to share is the message that our prophet said. In his talk this morning, President Monson invited us to follow in the Savior’s footsteps, to follow in the path He walked. He said that we don’t need to travel to Jerusalem or Galilee to walk in his footsteps, but rather we need to follow His perfect example of love and kindness, of obedience and submissiveness. And he concluded, “His path will take us safely home.” The path is there for all of us. And it is a perfect path. The next thing we need to do is decide if we want to follow it or not. It's not the easiest thing in the world but our Heavenly Father will bless us so much if we do. Not only in this life but for eternity!! That was the thing that really stuck out to me. Ok the the best thing in the world happened this week!! We were knocking doors and we had a feeling that we should back track and knock on a door that we missed. When we knocked a lady answered the door. She instantly said I'm not interested. The next thing I said was. "Cual es su nombre Hermana" she said Dallas. The next thing I asked was who else lives in this house with you. She responded my 2 kids. The second she said that I knew that I had her locked in for a lesson. We talked about her kids for about 5 minutes and she was so happy. We then got to the point in asking her if she knew who we were. She got a mean look on her face and said Jehovah's Witnesses. We told her no we're the "Mormons" then she got a huge smile on her face. She said that she was praying in the morning about what church was true. And a thought came in her head that said "The Mormon Church." We had an amazing lesson with her and she was basically crying the whole time cause she said that God answered her prayers. We have another lesson with her Wednesday so I'm super pumped!

So on Thursday we were walking in the street and we came up on these group of guys. I walked up to them and started to talk. My comp started acting really weird and kept on giving me faces like we needed to go now. I ignored him because I wanted to give these guys a pamphlet cause there were like 10 of them. One of the guys said. You better get out of here right now. I then said OK I just want to leave a little book with you guys before I go. The guy said again NO! And then he flashed the 18 symbol thingy. They were all gangsters hahahahahahaha!!! Not like Gang members in Utah. These guys literally have the police running scared. So that was really funny. So I gave them all a hand shake and said maybe another day. So that happened. I love you all so much!!

BIRTHDAY WEEK

First I just want to say Thank You everyone for all of the Birthday Wishes!! It really does mean a lot! So this week was a boring one except my Birthday!! It was boring because my comp has dengue... So we couldn't leave all week. Only on my birthday! I thought I was going to be locked up all day in the house on my birthday but my zone leader randomly showed up at my house and he asked what my plans were for my birthday. I told him ¨Nothing, we can't leave cause my comp has dengue.¨ He then said in English (remember he doesn't speak English at all) ¨DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I AM THE ZONE LEADER OF VALLE DE SULA! IF I SAY THIS MOUNTAIN TO MOVE, IT MOVE. AND TOMORROW WERE TAKING YOU TO KFC¨ HAHAHA I was laughing so hard cause I know that he had rehearsed it a million times hahaha! So we went in the morning and dropped Elder Gonzales off with another Elder who has Dengue so they weren't alone, I don't know if that was the best idea. But the ZL said it was ok. Then we took a bus to KFC. And I ate 5 pieces of chicken. Which was a bad Idea. I'll tell you why at the end of the email. After that I went on splits with the Zone Leaders. We went to a couple of Citas and after that we went to one of my investigators houses. I walked in like normal and everyone just started throwing confetti at me! And the whole house was full of balloons and stuff that said Elder Hess. I was so happy, I had no idea that was going to happen. They fed me a cake and a HUGE plate of rice. I ate so much. Bad idea. After that we went to a couple more lessons and a Baptism. Honestly a perfect day. Oh yeah and every house that we went to I was served a HUGE plate of rice and beans. I had never been so full in my life. The second our investigators would hear it was my birthday they would run straight to the Kitchen and bring out whatever food they had as a present! Oh and in the morning when I was already all the elders threw eggs at me for a little present. So that happened. Ok so this part is Gross. But. When I finally got home I was laying in my bed because I wasn't feeling to good. I was super Hot and felt like I was going to explode from all the food. I went outside to cool down and just threw up everywhere! HAHA I honestly almost ate myself to death! So that was my birthday. I don't have anything else to write about because all the other days we were locked up in the house. I ask for everyone to pray for my comp that he will recover fast so we can get back to work. I love you all so much!! Thanks again for all the Birthday Wishes!!!

 

Birthday Decoration

GRINGO

Ok so this week was a weird one. It was really weird getting to know my new comp. He is so different from Chapeton! But he is a really good guy!! Something cool about him is that he was on the Nicaragua soccer team when he was 17 years old! So that means for sure he will play for them when he gets back! He is honestly so good. He's the best one in the whole mission! He really likes sports so that we do have in common! Alright so Ramon had a slip with alcohol this week. I was so sad cause we had an appointment set for 3 and we called him and he didn't answer. We called him again and he answered, he was acting a little weird but I didn't think that he would be drinking. We visited him the next day and he was 100 percent gone. It was so sad. I've never seen a person drunk like that in my whole life. We gave him a blessing and left. But before we left we left a picture of Jesus Christ on his door in his room. We have a another lesson with him today so I'm really excited for that. We're just going to show him love. Just like Christ would. The Highlight of my week was running into this guy who knows 100 English. I asked him a question like what calle is this and he responded in English. I asked do you know English and he started laughing and said I KNEW YOU WERE A GRINGO! Well we talked for about 20 minutes and he updated me on everything in the sports world cause he loves Football and Basketball. He got deported from the States like a week ago hahaha so that was so awesome! I was a little sad cause he doesn't live in our area. So we can't have anymore lessons with him=( Well that's it for this week! Sorry its short! We have to leave early today! I love you all!

Love Elder Hess

FAMILIES ARE FOREVER

First I want the Coffey Family to know that I love them. I can not imagine what you guys are going through right now. I just want to say this. Families are Forever. I know for a fact that you guys will see your Dad again. I know that it's really hard. I lost my Father too. He was my Best Friend. It was the hardest thing I have ever gone through. But, the thing that put me at the most peace was dropping to my knees and saying a prayer to our Heavenly Father. Asking for peace and asking for comfort. God loves us, more than we can ever understand. And he always answers our prayers. I remember my Dad wrote me a letter and said "I'm your biggest fan, I'll be cheering you on throughout your whole life, I promise." I know that Dean is going to be doing the same thing for you guys too. Dean was one the happiest people I have ever met, literally. He would be laughing 24/7 and was always wearing a smile. The thing that I admire most about Dean was seeing how much his children looked up to him. He was such an awesome man and Dad. And I hope one day I could be a Dad like him. I can picture Dean up in Heaven right now with my Dad just saying a million jokes and laughing so hard they both have tears in their eyes. Families are Forever. When I look back on my dad I always think of the amazing memories we had. A lot of people have told me, I feel so bad for you, I can't imagine losing a parent. And I always respond, "I feel like the most blessed person in the world. I got to have the best Dad in the world in my life for 11 years" I know that I'll see my dad again and I know you will all see your dad again too. And with time those tears will turn into smiles. I love you Coffey family. With all my heart. 

Hi mom. Thank you so much for calling my mission president. He called me and the phone call went very well. It would have been a lot harder to read it over an email. I emailed Matt and told him some very personal things about Dad. He actually wrote me back and said that they are in high spirits and they know that everything is going to be OK. I love you so much mom. Please be safe. You're the person I love most in this life and I can't have anything happen to you. I had a hard night last night just because l feel so bad I wasn't  a better son mom. I love you so much and always remember that. I hope all is well back home. I hope you get my long email! How is tennis going? Good? Still Kicking Butt? You're the best Mom in the world mom. Never ever forget it. Every morning you should look in the mirror and say "MAN I'M BEAUTIFUL AND I'M THE BEST MOM IN THE WORLD" Do that for me OK mommy!? I love you I hope all is well! Tell the coffeys I love them. You're my best friend.

So this week I got my new companion. His name is Elder Gonzales. He is shorter than Elder Chapeton so yeah... He is from Nicaragua and comes from a family with all in actives. He loves this church and  is going full speed in his mission. I look up to him a lot even though we've only been companions for like 4 days. He knows ZERO English. So that's kind of hard but I know that it will help my Spanish a lot. He also talks really fast. Not just to me, but everyone says he talks fast. Some times our investigators don't understand him. And they look at me and say "What did he say?" In my head I'm thinking "Uh if you don't understand him then I 100 percent for sure don't know what he's saying" haha. But the highlight of my week was Ramon. He is so ready for this Gospel. He even corrected the teacher in Priesthood, so that was the best thing in the world haha. I have a really strong feeling he will be bishop sometime in his life. Also he has asked us to visit him everyday for this next week. Of course we said yes. And in the lessons he actually gives us a little lesson on what he has learned in the scriptures that he has been reading. He is so awesome. He was an alcoholic for 37 years. He started when he was 11 years old. He never had the strength to stop until we gave him a blessing 2 months ago. He is so happy and just has this glow in him. He has such a strong testimony about the priesthood and can't wait to receive it. This church is true and I know it with all my heart. I love you all.

Love Elder Hess

TRANSFER

Hey y'all!! Ok so this week we have transfers so I don't have that much time to email!
First, shout out to LEXI W. for finally making it to BYU HAWAII!!!!  You are awesome Lex! Ok so went on splits this week with one of the APs. He's from Utah and knows English so I was so happy hahaha. He was such an awesome missionary and knows so much!! He gave me a million tips about Spanish and tips on how to teach. What I like the most about him was that he had no fear in asking questions. Like the baptismal questions. Sometimes it's a little scary to do that but he said it every lesson with so much confidence. So I'm going to try to do that this up coming week!! Also this is the week that Elder Chapeton is leaving. He has been here for six months and that is the max amount of time in an area. It will be sad saying goodbye to him but I know that I have another awesome missionary on the way! I hope.. So the same old with Marta. Her husband/boyfriend wont have anything to do with this church. But dad wrote me an awesome email about just leaving it in the lords hands now. And Isaac said he does not want any more lessons. But it was really weird cause he said ¨I know that the Book of Mormon is true. But he didn't think our church was true." Weird right! A missionary here made a joke and said ¨Maybe The FLDS church is true after all¨ haha cause they believe in the Book Of Mormon too! Well I thought it was funny. But I was very upset about Isaac. I feel like our investigators progress so much and then something comes up and we can't progress because of a husband or their neighbors tell them a bunch of anti-Mormon stuff. The most frustrating thing here is people saying, I know this church is true. But so is every other church that believes in God. They say they pray, receive their answer, and then just think all churches are true. Even after we tell them to pray if this is the ONLY true church. Satan works so hard on everyone to try to keep them hidden from the truth. But I wont give up on our investigators until the Holy ghost tells me you've gave it your all. Just let the lord take over now. Well that's about it for this week! I love you all!! Sorry this was short but we have to get home to get Chapeton all packed!! Remember everyone. Work hard, then play hard.


I love you mom. I'm sorry for all the times I treated you bad. You didn't deserve any of it... You're the best mom in the world! And I thank God every single day that you are my Mother and that you raised me. I love you so much. You will never understand how much I love you Mom. I just wanted to say that before I leave the computers I love you!!

Love Your son, Elder Hess

Brown Town

Showering in the Rain

SPANISH

So This week I feel like my Spanish impoved so much. Without even realizing it I was talking to people and saying things that I didn't even know I knew. I was pretty excited. But I still have a lot of work to do with it. My Spanish in the lessons is pretty good. All the Gospel words I have down! But I've had those down for awhile. I'm just excited that I can have little conversations now with people. And when Chapetons not right by my side I'm not having a panic attack haha. I can't wait until I just have all of this down! It's going to make the mission so much better! Alright so this week was good and bad. Good because we have this investigator named Ramon. We've been teaching him for a while. My whole time since I've been here actually. He has been having missionaries over for over a year now. He knows the church is true but his problem is he's an alcoholic. He has been dealing with that now for 20 plus years. He would go to church sometimes but not all the time cause usually he was drinking. Well 4 weeks ago he stopped drinking. He got rid of all the alcohol in the house too. We were so happy when he told us all of this!! When we asked what made you want to change so suddenly he said. I was reading the Book of Mormon and this feeling came over me. I know that this book is true. And if this book is true Jose Smith was a prophet of God. And if Jose Smith is a Prophet of God La Iglesia De Jesucristo De Los Santos De Los Ultimos Dias is true. And since I know its true I want to change my life. He has a great testimony and is going to be baptized the following month! The only problem is he has a wife that lives Teguc and he wants to divorce her but she want let him. He is living with another women right now so that's the problem.. But he said his wife is finally going to let the divorce happen and then he can get married to his current girlfriend! We're hoping this all happens within a month! He said it's his number one priority in his life right now so he can finally be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost!! So that is the Highlight of the week. The bad part of this week is Marta. She knows the church is true and she wants to be Baptized! But.. Her "Husband" isn't really her husband. They have just been living with each other for 20 plus years. And he doesn't want to get married. No matter what he doesn't want to get married. He's a strong Catholic and wont take lessons from us too. So I'm not sure what we have to do with Marta. Marta even said she was thinking about leaving him so she could be baptized. But she doesn't want to do that cause it would be really hard on her daughter. Well that's the good and the bad of this week! The power is doing a little better and the water hasn't been cut yet so that's really good!

I love you guys. I know this church is true. And just like Ramon said. I know the Book of Mormon is true. And if the Book of Mormon is true then this church is true as well. I know it with all my heart. 

Love Elder Hess

30TH

Hey everyone!! Had an awesome week this week! But this email is going to have to be kind of short cause we didn't have power all morning so I couldn't write but now the powers on so I have a couple minutes! So this week Marta committed to be baptized!! AND so did ISAAC the plan is on the 30th of this month. They have to attend sacrament 3 Sundays and they have already been twice so I'm feeling good about their baptisms! Marta and her daughter want to be baptized more than anything. We had a lesson with them yesterday after church just to check up and see if they had any questions for us. The question the daughter asked was when can I get baptized? She's only nine years old, but she already knows this church is true. The holy ghost has already testified to her this is the thing she needs to do in her life! I thought that was really cool!!! Also Isaac is doing awesome as well! We had lessons with his whole family but they all stopped listening. But he always wanted to hear more. He's 15. He wants to be baptized too. He said that when he reads the BOM he feels this peace come over his whole body. He said it was a feeling he's never felt before. He loves learning about the Holy Ghost. Whenever we share scriptures about the Holy Ghost he says "That's it! That's the feeling I get!" Its really special to be teaching him. We asked his parents if he could be baptized and they said yes. But about a month ago they said "I don't want Isaac to have lessons with those Mormons, they are bad people" or something like that. But we kept on pushing and now he is going to be baptized. How cool is that! And now we're trying to have lessons with his parents again! But they keep on saying no. But were not going to give up until we feel like we've done all we can. This week I also had the opportunity to go on splits with the Zone Leader. I learned a lot of new ways to teach. And I can't wait to use those new skills. He only has 3 months left in his mission but he's awesome. He also helped me a lot with my Spanish. So no really cool stories this week. Just the power stinks here. Well I love you guys! I'll see you in 7 days!!!!

Love Elder Hess

NO HAY LUZ

Hey My beautiful family =) HAHA jk. So it's been a really good week! Did I tell you guys about Marta? The lady who walked up to us and asked what exactly we did? I think I did. But anyways she attended church! And she said she loved every second of it! She even shared her testimony. She said she knows this church is true. She shared a story in church that I thought was so cool. So one day she was praying and was asking Our Heavenly Father which church was true. And if the Libro De Mormon was true as well. She said the second she opened her eyes she heard two voices outside. "BUENAS!!" Elder Chapeton and I. She said I know God answered my prayer that this church is true. Seriously how cool is that story. She shared it with us for the first time on Sunday and I was blown away. The spirit was crazy strong too. It's moments like this that makes me so proud to be apart of this church and share this gospel with the world. I know with all my heart this church is true. So this week we were teaching a less active member who hasn't been to church in forever. He said he doesn't believe in God because he's had so many problems in his life. I shared with him some very deep stories that I've had in my life. I talked about Dad, Laurie, Rick, Grandma and Grandpa and Chandler. I explained that I don't know why things happen. I don't know why God took my dad when I was so young. He was my best friend. I don't know why this life can be so hard at times. But I do know that God loves you more than you will ever know. And he would never give you a challenge that you can't overcome. The spirit was so strong and everyone in the room had tears in their eyes. Well anyways the next Sunday he attended church! He was so happy! He's praying again and said he's going to try to change his life back to the gospel. A great experience!

Ok well the title of this is No Hay Luz because every night this week Honduras cut the power in our area to save energy. They don't have any energy because they sell energy to the rest of Central America. And we can't work when there's no power. So everyday this week we've had to be in our house at 7. I hate it. I want to go to work so bad but we can't. But it's for the good because yesterday someone was killed really close to our house about 15 minutes after the power was cut. And the rumor is the water is going to be cut too any day now. If that happens I have no clue what we're going to do. We would all smell sooo bad hahaha. Ok well I love you all!!!

Keep it real back in the 801!

The missionary is going to be ok!!!! Yeah we have candles. I bought so many they cost 5 cents a piece. And they're big too! And yeah I have my flashlight! It's helped so much! And I can't go to bed early we have to wait til 10:30 which I don't understand why. And yeah I only drink bottled water I promise! The tap water smells like crap and has crap in it haha! It's in Pizza Hut! We had to go on a bus just to get there but it was all worth it just for the wings!! My spanish keeps on getting better too mom! I have not gotten the package, we get packages on Tuesday! So Maybe tomorrow! I'm about 30 minutes away from the mission home, I'm really close actually. I love you mom!!!

Love Elder Hess

Sure hope that's not where he lives :/ 

Pizza Hut chicken wings! He's so happy! Me too!

Missionary pinata!

SUCH A FAST WEEK

Where did this week go! During the week it feels so slow but after it's done I realize how fast it was! So I had a good week. Elder Chapeton is staying one more transfer whoooo. I was pretty scared when they announced the transfers that he would leave. So I'll have another 6 weeks with him. This week we had a goal to try to find a LOT more investigators, because a lot of the investigators we have now are slowing down and losing a lot of interest. Its super sad. I don't know why but Elder Chape has been really down lately. Ever since the last P day. I think something is going on back at his home, but he won't tell me. He keeps on saying oh I'm fine. So remember to keep him in your prayers! Thursday was an awesome day! Well it didn't start off awesome. So from when we left the house until about 5, almost all of our investigators said "Oh I'm so sorry can we reschedule? I'm really busy." It was so frustrating. But after another family said "I can't today" Elder Chape and I decided to say a prayer in the street. Asking for guidance and what we should do next. About 18 seconds later this lady comes up to us and says "Excuse me, you guys are from the Mormon church right?" We said yes and explained what exactly we do as missionaries. She was so excited and asked if we could have a lesson with her and her family on this upcoming Tuesday. So we are so pumped for that! And we also have a pretty good idea on what we should teach her. So tomorrow should be a good day. That same experience happened twice that night. But the other was with a really old women. She actually seemed a little crazy and I think she was on something. But she walked up to us just like Marta. That's the name of the woman who walked up to us. So we have some potential with her too haha. All in all we had a good week. Even though some of our investigators are losing interest the others are exploding with interest. Ok so a funny story that happened. We were at this house with a new investigator and we asked if we could have an opening prayer. They said yes of course and right when I started praying the grandma in the family just started screaming Hallelujah!!! Praise Him!!! PRAISE HIM!!!! Literally screaming. I was so scared! Well after I finished my prayer she kept on going. Screaming all kinds of crazy stuff haha. I didn't know what to do so I just kept my head down and let her finish. And when she was finished  Elder Chape and I said Amen. We literally had no idea what was going on. Anyways that was really funny and that family is actually making a lot of progress! We just have to teach them how to pray! Well I love you guys! I'll see you next week!

Love Elder HESS

AWESOME WEEK

Had an awesome week! I can't believe its P day again. These weeks fly by so fast. But the days really do feel like years. So I feel like all of our investigators improved a lot this week! But not so much Antonio. Turns out he loves to bible bash. It was so frustrating when he started pulling out all these random scriptures in the bible to try to prove us wrong. But we shared our testimony with him and left on a high note! I feel like that's all you can do in a situation like that. Just share your testimony and leave. But probably the highlight of my week was finding a new family to teach! They are so funny and love that I'm from the States! We have only had one lesson with them but I feel like it went really well! They really wanted us to return for another! There are four girls in the family, all under 10 and all of them know just a little bit of English. Like probably 15 words. But they absolutely love talking to me in English. They'll ask a million questions, how do you say this, how do you say that haha! It's a good time! Their name is Sabinon. Weird name. But I really hope we can convert this family, I feel like they would fit in so well in the ward! And the fact that their souls are on the line. HAHAHA oh man that sounded really weird. This week we have transfers and there is a little chance that Chapeton is going to be transferred. I really hope he doesn't. We are such good friends and work really hard together. But whatever happens happens. Honestly I don't think he will cause I still don't know this area perfect. And I think my President knows that because nobody can memorize one area in 6 weeks. I just hope in this next transfer an American or somebody who knows English gets transferred to my zone. I'm the only American in my whole zone! But it's really good for my Spanish! I feel like I'm improving really fast now that I got the basics down! So something kinda crazy happened this week. We were with an investigator when we heard this really loud car coming down the road. I thought nothing of it but our investigator yelled get in the house!! And we all ran in the house. I asked what was happening and she just said, whenever you hear that sound hide. I asked why and she just said because that's one of the leaders of MS. So kinda scary but pretty cool too hahaha. Well I love you all!! I'll talk to you again next week!

Hey Mom!! I'm learning spanish by speaking it 24/7 and for studying 1 hour a day with this HUGE spanish book that I have. I feel like my spanish improved a lot this week! I always feel good! Just tired. But it would be weird if I wasn't! My weight is dropping cause I'm losing a lot of muscle. And yes I'm working out haha, it's just impossible without the weights that I used at the LC. I'm happy everyone is doing good! I love you mom! Chat with me if you can! I feel like my spanish jumped a lot this week! So that's really good! I LOVE you mommy! I pray for you everyday!

"Getting Creative"

BIRTHDAY/BAPTISM

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had an awesome week! So first off Happy 28th Birthday MOM! I love you so so much! I carried around a picture of you all day so I could show people who my mom is! It was great! I Love You so much! You're the best mom in the world! So this week we finally baptized Antonio! I was so happy! The whole Primary showed up just to give him support, so that was awesome. Antonio was so nervous, but after he said that he just felt peace in his heart. We told him that was the holy ghost and that he could feel like that at all times if he HLJ. It was a special day. So we also found another investigator this week who I feel awesome about. He's 50 something and he has always wondered "who the boys in the white shirts are" hahaha. He's so nice and loves to feed us so I love him. Oh yeah Antonio is his name. Hahaha I guess that's just the name to have! But everything is perfect in San Pedro Sula. Only a couple of sketchy things happened which I'm not going to share cause I don't want mom to freak out and come pick me up hahaha. The sun is still blistering hot and my Spanish keeps on improving little by little. OHHHH and Porter called me this week! It was so awesome! We talked for about 20 minutes! He gave me a lot of tips on learning Spanish and told me how much better things will be once I know the language, so I can't wait for that day to come!

I love you all, have an awesome week!

Antonio's Baptism

WEIRD SUNDAY

So this week was pretty good. All of our investigators went to church and progressed a lot this week. We also had a Baptism, his name is Coto. He's been raised in the church his whole life but asked if Elder Chape could baptize him! It was really special to Elder Chape because Coto doesn't have a Dad. He looks up to missionaries a lot. I'm pretty close with him too because his mom cooks lunch for us everyday, so we're with him a lot. The baptism went well because Chape only had to dunk him once. LOL. Ok so Antonio is doing so awesome! He's actually 9 years old. I don't know why I said he was 12 in the last email. Anyways, he is so interested in the Book of Mormon! He told us he wants to read the whole book by the end of the year, and he's only nine. We always give him a little scripture to read and  he always ends up reading the whole chapter or more! I wish all of our investigators were like this. But he's ready for baptism, his big day is this Saturday! I can't wait for that day to come. He also asked us when he could serve a mission like us. He already wants to be a missionary, how cool is that!

Mmmk so on Wednesday in the morning, probably around 7, I was putting on my tie when I saw THE WORLD'S BIGGEST FREAKING SPIDER!!! Yes... In my house !0_O I'll have a picture below. I honestly screamed like a girl when I saw it. Elder Chape thought I was dying when he heard me haha! So we got a lighter and some lysol and torched the thing, but that didn't kill it. I'm not kidding this thing was like Superman's son. After a quick prayer we ended up smashing it with a broom, but even that took like 10 tries. So that was a fun/scary experience. So Sunday. First, after church Elder Chape and I were knocking doors. We went to this one house and some old man answered the door. He was so friendly! Until I told him I was from the USA. He started yelling AAAAHHHH LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE, YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME!!! Elder Chape calmed him down a little bit and said Elder Hess is a good person he's not going to kill anyone. But the man refused to believe I was safe. He claimed that I had a chip in my head and the CIA was controlling me and that I was going to kill everyone and take over Honduras. So he was a no go. Later that day we had a meeting with this lady and her son. She asked where I was from and instantly I thought "ah crap here we go" I said the USA. She jumped out of her seat and grabbed these pictures that were on the table. It was a picture of this 14 year old girl. She asked do you think she's cute? I said yeah she's a cute little girl. She looked like a child. She then left the room and brought back the girl in the picture and then the mom said "Will you marry my daughter?" yeah really awkward. I didn't even respond Elder Chape just said, we have to go. So that was so weird and on the way home from her house a gay man started to hit on me.. Trying to touch me and stuff. So we had to run away from him too. So that was Sunday hahaha. I hope all you guys had a little better Sunday than I did ha. 

Everything is well here in Honduras, I hope everything is well back home. I love you all.

Love Elder Hess

And my camera is dead... so crap.