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