THE HEART OF SAN PEDRO SULA...

Alright so everyone knows that I'm serving in the San Pedro Sula Oeste Mission. But I've actually never served in San Pedro Sula.. Until now.. I AM RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY!!!!!! (It is honestly so dangerous it's a joke..) You know how people say that this is the most dangerous city in the world.. Yup, they're right haha! I'm not going to tell you guys what I've seen here (in just 5 days) but it's so insane. I'll tell you guys the stories when I'm home:) So I am serving in the Stake San Pedro Sula, and our ward is called "The San Pedro Ward." It is so awesome. Our church is also the biggest Church in Central America... I'll send a picture of it. It's massive. Also my new comp is Elder Toolson!!! He is the Man! He works so hard. I love it! We talk to EVERYONE on the street! (Unless they have tattoos on their faces..) We are working as hard as we can so that there will be no regrets out here. The only problem with San Pedro Sula is that the people are all Catholic. More Catholic than the Pope. So we actually find ourselves teaching a lot of people about the Great Apostasy. Elder Toolson has 20 months in the mission too! So we are actually going to go home together! I am very excited for this upcoming change:) So this week I had to say good bye to one of my best friends in the mission. Do you guys remember Elder Chapeton? My first companion? Well he just finished his mission this week. When he said Goodbye to me we both just started crying. He helped me so much in my mission. He really did shape me into the missionary that I wanted to be. He showed me how to work and how to have the Spirit with me at all times. When we talked about all the memories we had we both had tears running down our faces. I told him he could live at our house in Utah if he wanted so get ready Mom. Well I'll keep you guys updated on everything that is going on here! I'll see you guys next week.

Elder Chapeton (first companion)

Last Comp (Elder Lorenzana) New Comp (Elder Toolson)

Stake Center San Pedro Sula

SISTER SHARON

Well this week went really well:) I had an awesome meeting with President Dester! I always learn so much from him when I talk to him! Also Sister Sharon was baptized! She is an awesome person! She was a reference from one of her friends! She has always had the faith that this Church was true. One of the main reasons why she was baptized is because she said that she loved seeing how happy all the people in the church were! I love it when people say that about us:) We really are the happiest group of people in the world! I am very excited for her to progress in the church! Also Brother Muñoz is the biggest example that any person in this whole country has given me over these last 19 months... He is amazing. (He is going to the temple in 2 weeks) No matter what happens to him he always has a faith that could move mountains. But I have bad news... I am going to have changes. So I am not going to see him anymore. He has been such a big part in my mission. I am going to miss him so much. At the end of my mission I am going to visit him. I have too!! Also I am very sad that I am going to be leaving Elder Lorenzana... I love him so much. He has been my favorite comp. I already know I'm going to break down crying when I say good bye to him haha! He is the man. I learned so much from him. I hope I get to be friends with him for the rest of my life. He is just a happy person. If I had to describe him in one word it would be happy. I will never forget these 6 weeks we had together! Well that was my week! Things are going great out here!!!!!!

Sister Sharon Baptism

The Crew

Elder Lorenzana takes the best selfie!

THANKSGIVIN'

Well I hope that everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving... Because I know I did! Lets just say that I bought an 18 pound Turkey. HAHA it was so yummy! We had a service day too so we did service for like 5 hours. My buddy Elder Bate and I cut wood with an axe for five hours for our Stake President. I felt like I was in Man town the whole time. I had my blue jeans on while wearing my John Deere hat. It was pretty cool. I'll send some pictures below. And the food was so dang good!! But not as good as the Turkey back at home:) I didn't get as full as last year:( But it was really fun and I felt really good about it after! We invited 3 families from the ward to come over to share thanksgiving with us and they had the Packers game on... NO I did not sit facing the TV hahahaha! Sorry Mom I know I shouldn't of done that. Alright well things are going great over here in good ol´ Yojoa! We got one of our investigators to accept baptism:) So this Saturday we should have a water day:) Also on Thursday when I was buying the Turkey guess who I ran into.... VICTORIA from Las Flores!! I was so happy! She is active and is loving the Church of Jesus Christ:) That is such a blessing to see as a missionary! She even told me that she said the Prayer in Sacrament meeting! I was so proud of her! I'll send you a picture. When she saw me she screamed and said Elder Hess!!!!!! Get over here!! She was so happy:) Seeing her and hearing that she was active made me realize the importance of contacting because we found her from knocking doors. I love her so much!!! Well a lot of other stuff happened this week but I'm going to end this now because I don't want to put everyone to sleep. I love y'all:)

Love Elder Hess

Thanksgiving in Yojoa

CHANDLER

Well it is so hard to believe that Chandler Webb passed away 2 years ago. I feel like that day was yesterday. That was a really hard day on me 2 years ago. And it is still hard on me 2 years later. I love him to death and I feel so blessed that I have him in my life. He was and still is my Brother. I loved every second with him and he always lifted me up when I was down and put a huge smile on my face. I think 95% of the things we talked about were about the Utah Jazz! I miss him a lot. Well coming to internet today I got many Emails that made me the happiest person on earth. Chandler Webb got his endowments done. What a peaceful feeling that is knowing that he is clean and ready to be standing before Our God. Gracie Amacher sent me a picture with all of the Boys from the Crew standing in front of the Temple after Chandler's endowments. I'm not going to lie, when I was looking at the picture I could not help but cry. I love looking at all of my friends dressed with ties on standing in front of the House of the Lord. I'll send the picture to you guys. I just want to say thank you to Chandler, Brandon, Marsh, Austin, Davis, Parker, Lexi, Kolton, Jordan, Ryan, Braydon, Col and Matt for helping turn me into the man that I am today. I love all of you guys so much. I am the missionary I am today thanks to all of you. Every single one of you guys are part on my family. Thank you, for making me the Elder that I have always wanted to be. I look up to all of you so much. I can't wait to come home and Beat every single one of you guys playing 1 on 1. I love you Chan, you're making me so proud up there. And GO JAZZ!

Well this week Maria got baptized! WOW did I feel like that was a miracle... The missionaries have been passing by her house for 5 years now and she finally decided to get baptized. What a blessing it was. The baptism went great and the following day she received the Holy Ghost. It was amazing. Other than that every thing is going good! I still am trying to improve every single day I am out here. One of the things I really need to work on is to stop drinking Coke. I'm 100% addicted. So if anyone has any tips let me know. Poco a poco va. I love you guys. And I love our Temples.

Baptism of Maria

Crew at Chandler's Endowment

BROTHER MUNOZ

This week went so well for so many reasons! First off, we worked so hard with all of the Members in the ward to try to get some help in our area! We visited just about all of the members in Santa Cruz (the Ward next door) to try to get some help in our area. Because here in Yojoa we only have 3 active members. It's a hard task but we are up for the challenge! Well long story short we had 45 Members come to Yojoa to help us Contact and to Visit the Less Active members in our area. It all went so well! We found around 30 news and visited ALL of the Less active members. It was a very very good Sunday! I am super excited to visit all of the new people that the members found this week!!! OK and now I want to talk about the Brother Muñoz.. He really is the best example to the whole entire world. First I just want to say that since the day we found him, he has not missed a day of Church. He always goes and wears his biggest smile. Brother Muñoz  comes from a very very poor family. This week we learned that he has not eaten for over 5 days. When we were in his house we saw a little fish that was the size of my finger. I asked him what he was going to do with the fish and he told us that he was going to feed it so it would get bigger so he could eat it in about a month. (During all of this it was raining and his house was 100% flooded) We asked him if there was anything that we could do to help him and he said "Lets have a Prayer, because I love praying with you guys!" I was waiting for him to say something like, "I need food" or " I don't have any money"... But no, all he wanted from us was a Prayer. We finished up the lesson and I could not stop thinking about how much faith Bro. Muñoz has.. He has NOTHING in the eyes of the world but in the Eyes of God he has EVERYTHING. He is one of the happiest people that I have ever met. I love him so much and I feel so blessed that he is in my life. I want everyone back at home to remember that the only true happiness comes through this Gospel. The Brother Muñoz is the perfect example for us. He might not have anything, but at the same time he has absolutely everything. I love my mission so much because I love being around people like him. I love you all and I hope you all have an amazing week!!!

Love Elder Hess

Elder Hess and Elder Lorenzaza

BROTHER MUNOZ BAPTISM

Well I think I had the best Halloween ever out here in Honduras! To start the day off we had 2 amazing lessons in the morning! In the afternoon we also had a couple more awesome lessons. While we were walking to a lesson that we had planned, we walked passed Brother Muñoz house. Guess what he was doing? He was outside reading the Book of Mormon. It was such a good peaceful feeling seeing him Study the Book of Mormon without us being there. I even took a picture from far away haha I'll send it to you! We ended up talking to him for a little bit and just made sure that he was ready to get baptized! He said that everything was perfect! Mas tarde we had his baptism. It went perfect. He gave me the blessing to do the ordinance too. So I felt very blessed. I only had to ¨Dunk¨ him once so that was nice haha! Right after he came out of the Water he turned to me and gave me a BIG BEAR hug. And while he was hugging me he said ¨Thank you, Thank you so much.¨ It was amazing. I love real conversion. It's little experiences like that, that make me love this work. Brother Muñoz, to finish the night off, shared his testimony with us. He said a lot of great things. The part that stuck out the most to me was when he said ¨I am Clean. Thanks to my Savior.¨ I felt the spirit so strong when he shared that with us. It was an amazing Halloween. My comp and I even got dressed up.. we switched Name tags hahahaha! Oh yeah and I have a new companion. His name is Elder Lorenzana. He is the man! He is actually from Honduras so that is kind of cool! We are getting along great and its only been 5 days! I have a really good feeling about this change! He has a lot of energy which is exactly what this work needs! He has 18 months in the mish too! Just like me! And he's a UTAH JAZZ fan so I love him to death. HAHA well that was the highlight of my week! I had a great Halloween:) I love you guys!!!

Love Elder Hess

Baptism of Brother Munoz, Elder Lorenzaba

Brother Munoz

YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Had a great week this week. To start off this Email I want to talk about a picture that I said I was going to post last week. Well this picture was taken in Copan. The picture is actually kind of famous in the mission! President Dester even asked for it. Well as you can see, the Lady in the picture looks so Happy. She actually had tears running down her face. Her name is Sister Sandra. She was an Atheist her whole life. Not only did she not believe in God. She hated people who did believe in God. Well we knocked on her door one day and we were very stubborn and would not leave her alone until she let us give her a lesson about Our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Well we all now know how it ended. She was converted and was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ. The only Church the Christ Leads personally. Four months later Sister Sandra is now the Primary President in Copan. She actually called me the other day to let me know about her new calling. She said she loves it because she gets to teach the Gospel in a simple way. She actually said, "I teach the Gospel just like you taught me Elder Hess, in a simple but Powerful way." It made me so happy when she told me that! Alright so I'll go into the picture details now. Sister Sandra was in Darkness for about all of her life. She really was missing the light of Christ. In this picture right after her baptism she has "The light of Christ." Her face is glowing with his light. It's not photo shopped. It's real and it's my favorite mission picture. I love this Gospel. In the New Testament in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 5 versus 14 and 16 say "Ye are the light of the World. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." I know and I testify that Sister Sandra is part of that City on top of the Hill. This is the Church of Jesus Christ, it is the Church he established 2,000 years ago. A Prophet named Joseph Smith Restored this true Church though the Power of our Father and his Son Jesus Christ. I love this Church. But more than anything else. I love my Savior. I know he died for me and bled from every pore. Just for me. And he did the same for you. SHINE YOUR LIGHT. We are the city that is on top of the Hill. We have and know the truth. Share this truth with everyone you can. It will only make you happier. I love my mission. And I love my God for calling me to serve. WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

Sister Sandra baptism

ELDER OLIVAS

This past week I had the opportunity to go on Divisions with an Elder named Elder Olivas. OH MAN did I have the best time of my life. He is such a good missionary. To start the day we had a lesson with a girl named Paola. It was the weirdest lesson ever because she actually read the whole pamphlet and took notes and read every scripture. HAHAHA that never ever happens! Every question we asked her she knew the answer and we were just sitting there like "UH.... You already know everything haha.¨ She actually is going to get baptized this upcoming Saturday!:) And I'm going to do the interview:) SO I am excited to see her and feel her testimony again. Ok so second lesson. We visited some less actives and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had. The Family that we were teaching said that they don't go to church anymore because they are sick of being made fun of and being spit on and having rocks thrown at them for being a member of this Church. Well I talked about Christ and how his life was never ever easy but he kept pushing until he finished his perfect life. But they didn't really relate to it. I was a little lost and I was thinking "What do they need, what is it that THEY need to hear." Well, Elder Olivas was up. This is what he said "Going to Church is like when somebody is really hungry. When we are Hungry we eat." He then went on to say "Personally when I am hungry I want a big Pizza. But to get my Pizza I have to get up and walk to the Pizza restaurant and sometimes it is pouring rain. But that does not change the fact that I am hungry and that I want my Pizza. So what do I do?? I walk to the restaurant and get drenched. When I arrive I sit down and Enjoy every second of the Pizza. I walk out with a smile on my face and a full stomach.¨ He went on to Explain that's how church is. How it's not easy. But in the end it is all worth it. And eventually the sun will always come out. OK so saying it in English sounds so weird so I hope you guys get what I'm trying to say haha! Well the family was in tears and they all said "you're right... I want The Lord in my life and nothing can or will take him out of my life.¨ Long story short they all went to church this Sunday with huge smiles on their faces with a very full spirit. Being from Utah we don't really get attacked for being a member of this church. But the people down here are worriers and don't let a little egg slow them down. SOY MORMON! It was such a strange example but it touched every one's heart. I could feel the spirit so strong during his whole example that he shared with us! Its been a great week! Lots of ups and downs with the Goozman Family.. But we are working through it. I'll just say they looked up a Prophet on the internet and read a lot of garbage.. But light will always overcome darkness. In fact I have a picture I want to send you guys. But I'll have to send it to you next week! I love you guys!

Love Elder Hess

The view

Elder Olivas

Waiting for the bus

Pday

The boys

NEW PEOPLE TO TEACH

Well this weekend we contacted a ton! For like 5 hours a day.. We are trying to find a whole new group of people to teach! I am feeling good about it! We found someone who is very prepared to listen to our message. He went to church and loved it! He wants to get baptized! So I am very excited about that! He was actually a referral! His brother called us over and started off, the first lesson went great! After the lesson when we were walking out of the house the brother who is a member came running out to us and said Elders Wait. He stopped us and gave us both a huge bear hug. With tears in his eyes he said "Elders Thank you so much for sharing your message with my brother. You two are going to change his life for all of eternity!" It was a very touching moment for me. I loved it. It made me realize how we should treat every investigator that we have. We are all children of God. And we are all very important. Well that was the Highlight of my week! I love you guys!!!!

Love Elder Hess

#LDSGC

How is everyone doing in good Ol AMERICA! Wow, I just feel happy right now! I am currently writing this Email with a HuGe smile on my face:) How good was Conference... I loved it so much! I took a billion notes!! I learned so much. I wish more than anything that I understood the importance of General Conference when I was home.. It can build ones faith so much if they listen and study the words of the Prophets. I love our Prophet Thomas S. Monson so much. I know he is a Prophet of God. I know that God has called him to guide his people here on the earth. ALL of us should study and listen to his words. He has all of the Keys in this Church and he will not lead us down a wrong path. Well I loved the Talk by Elder Holland so much. It even made me cry a little. It talks about all the Mothers in the World. MOM, I want you to know that I love you and that I am so thankful that you raised me into a missionary in the Lord's Church. You are the best Mom on the Planet:) I'm sad its going to be another 6 months until the next Conference. I am so excited for it! This week was a good one! We focused a lot on working with the less actives in our area! It is always sad to talk to a member who has let go of the Iron Rod, but there is always a path back! We are trying to show them that path. We actually got a couple of them to go to Conference:) I love this Church so much. It is perfect, why? Because it is the Lord's Church. He guides it. He is the one that gives the Prophet's revelation. We are the only church on earth who has that wonderful blessing. We all need to go to Church as much as we can. We all need to take the Sacrament. I invite all of you to read the Sacrament Prayers and to study them. I think it might help you understand the importance of the Sabbath day. Well I love you Guys!:) Have a great week!!

GC gringo room:)

LAS FLORES

So this past week I got to go visit Las Flores! One of my old areas! Also my Favorite area! We had to teach the Stake President and all of the Bishops in the Stake. Yeah I was stressed. Anyways it was in Las Flores at 2:00 p.m. When I walked in all of the members were still there. They all just screamed "HESS!!!" It put a really big smile on my face. I saw all of the converts that we had and ALL of them were active with callings! That was such a big blessing to see! I also saw the Hermana Wendy!! The Lady who visited our house! I took some Pics with her so I'll send those to you guys! So a fast update on the Guzman family! They are getting married! Last Tuesday they sold 55 Baleadas. They  raised over 1000 Limps just to get married! The goal is to get them married on the 17th of Ocotber and to have them get baptized the next day! So awesome! Oh yeah so I have a new Comp! His name is Elder Paredes! He is super cool! We get a long great! And he is a work horse! So it's really fun to be with him! He is from Guatemala and has 22 months in the mission. He loves soccer just like the rest of em and has big plans in life! He is the man! I love you guys! I'll send you all some pictures!

All the Food they made to sell:)

 Hermana Wendy

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES

Alright so I had an awesome week! But something awful happened. I'll start off with the good news first:) So.. Sister Elcisa got baptized! It was such a shock! We've been passing by her house for 6 weeks now. She has always gone to Church, but... Always rejected being Baptized. So we actually stopped passing by for a little bit. Then last Monday we passed by and gave her some homework. We told her to read 3 Nephi 11. When Jesus Christ came here to the Americas. Well I can't remember exactly, but Christ himself mentions the word baptism around 20 times in one chapter, and the importance of it. Well we stopped buy again on Wednesday and we wanted to set another baptismal date with her on the 26 of September. When we told her that she said "NO." I was just sitting there like "Why doesn't she feel this?" But the next thing she said was "I want to be Baptized this Saturday." I was blown away! I was so happy! I actually went over to her got on my knees and asked her "Sister how did you get your response that these things were true?" She said "I felt that the Book of Mormon was true while I read Chapter 11 in the Book of Mormon." How awesome is that!!!!! I was so excited! Her baptism went great! A lot of people showed up and she was glowing during the whole service!!!! So that was for sure the highlight of my week! OK... And for the bad news. Mom, you might want to sit down. So, on my camera I had over 1,100 pictures.. Well a little girl (13 years old) Deleted ALL of my Pictures. I just about died. But I've sent all the good pictures home already so its OK Mom:) But yeah. HAHAHA but it was a great week! I do have a picture of the Baptism though!:) (Because we retook it the next day in Church haha) I love you Guys!!!!!!

Love Elder Hess

Sister Elcisa

PRAYER

SO this week was hard but everything turned out perfectly at the end:) So Carlos is doing great! He has a Baptismal date in 3 weeks! He has to repent for some things but he's 100% awesome:) He was so sad that he could not get baptized this Saturday. At the end of the lesson (when we told him he had to wait) he told us that he wants to give the Prayer in front of everyone at sacrament meeting! 3 weeks ago he was way to scared to even pray in front of us!! He is progressing so fast it's amazing! He also went to church and gave all the members hand shakes with us haha I love him so much. The Goozman Fam is doing great! They all went to church and Liseth even invited her sister to come! Now she wants to listen to us!!!! I LOVE THIS AREA!!! I feel like it was yesterday that I knocked on their door to contact them:) And now I've known them for 4 weeks! This week we found some awesome new people as well:) I hope they all progress like Carlos did hahaha! I love this Obra. Es la Obra mas importante en el Mundo. I love y'all!!

Love Elder Hess

LIGHT

Sup Chikis! This week was awesome! I learned so much. I want to update you guys real fast on the Family Goozman. So we had a lesson with them and my Comp asked them if they had a bible that we could use "to show that it's the same Bible.¨ Anyways they said ¨No.. but we have this one book that's like the Bible that we found years ago.¨ I was like.. OH boy its probably some crazy catholic church bible haha! But they brought out a Book of Mormon. It was like 40 years old. It looked nothing like the Books that we have now. I was going crazy. Before telling her that it was a BoM I asked her, have you read it. She said yes. I then asked, do you feel like it is the Word of God. She replied to me, Yes I do. It talks about Church a lot. We then told her it was the Book of Mormon and that it's the same book that we gave her 2 weeks ago. They already had a testimony of this Church and they didn't even know it. We then went on and talked about if the BoM is true, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that Jose Smith was a Prophet of God. And if the Book of Mormon is True this Church La Iglesia De Jesucristo De Los Santos De Los Ultimos Dias is the only true church that is true over all the face of the earth. The whole family wants to get baptized!! We just have to get them married. Which we will get done in 3 months. Also this Sunday was insane.. So at 8:00 a bus for the church always passes by all the houses of our investigators and for the members because we live really far from the Church. Well the Bus never passed.. SO NOT ONE MEMBER OR INVESTIGATOR went to church this Sunday. Except Carlos. He went because we saw him riding his bike in the morning. Anyways we went to church on a different bus and my comp and I were both pretty upset-mad at the bus that never came. So when we got dropped off Elder Roldan told me ¨Satan Won Today.¨ I was thinking the same thing. But right after he said that Carlos said something that taught me a lesson that I will never forget. Carlos told us "Elders... I've been thinking a lot this past week.. And I want to get baptized.¨ When he said that, he got the chills, and told us ¨Look how I get when I talk about baptism.¨ I didn't even know what to say. Before in my head I was thinking that Satan won that day, Until Carlos told us that he wanted to get baptized. What I learned from that is that Light will always overcome darkness. God will always overcome Satan in all things that we do if we are obedient. I learned that even if everything is going wrong God knows what he is doing and it is part of a plan. A perfect plan. I know that God lives. I know that we are his children and that He Loves us and is always with us. I love this Church!! I love my Savior and I love my Father.

Service

CARLOS

Hey Guys! SO We had another great week! We found a man named Carlos! He is an older man but he is amazing. We found him one day in the street, it was night time so he actually looked pretty scary to talk to haha! I didn't want to talk to him because only the Crazy people are outside at night time.. But the Spirit told us to go over to him and contact him. We asked him where he lived and he just said ¨come here tomorrow at this time and I'll be waiting here.¨ So as a missionary everyone knows he's not actually going to show up.. But we went to the spot the next day at 7 PM and he was there waiting!! Well we actually showed up 20 minutes late and he was still waiting! The lesson went great, the spirit was so strong. We invited him to Church and he showed up the next Sunday. During one of the classes he told the teacher that he wanted to be baptized.... Yeah. I was going crazy I was so happy! He is pure GOLD!  I can't wait to keep on teaching him! He is so humble and he always has REAL questions. I love it so much when people ask us real questions!!! He is great and I really do love him. Also the Family Goozman went to church too!!! The whole family! They seemed to love it. We have a lesson with them tonight (Noche de Hogar) so I'm excited for that! Things are going great! I love you guys!!

Little Member

Elder Ola

Elder Chapeton

YOJOA LIVING

Well this was a good week! Starting to get to know the area better and all the Members! Which isn't that hard cause there's only 12.. HAHA but its great! So this week we found an amazing family.. I'll tell you guys a little about our first lesson. So I was on division with this kid in my area named Elder Pocock (From Ogden) his mom actually went to our stake for some reason and took a picture of my missionary picture thing and sent it to him to see if he knew who I was! Small world right! Anyways, we went out to contact at 10:00 and in about an hour in we found them. It is a family of 5 and they could be golden. When we first met her she got super excited and told us to come in. (the MOM) She said "I've always wanted to know more about your church." Well the spirit told us that we should talk about Families. So that's exactly what we did. For about 30 we just talked about families and how they really can be together forever. To finish the lesson we sang the hymn "Las Familias Pueden ser Eternas." During the hymn I couldn't help but cry. That hymn means a lot to me. I think just about all of you know why. But as we sang that hymn the Spirit just took control and everyone could feel that these things were true and that God loves us and that This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that we are members of his church. It was a special moment for me in my mission. They went to church on Sunday too, and they loved it! Well that's about it for this week! Everyone help the missionaries in your wards! Give them FOOD!!

Love Elder Hess

CHANGES

Well guys I'm in a new area and I have a new Comp!! My area is called Yojoa! It's pretty cool:) It's just so dang HOT!!! Copan was so cool at night.. But here I'm honestly dying. Like I might die of the Heat. One of the Elders here actually got sent to the hospital because he got heat stroke. And he's not allowed to work while the suns out for at least two weeks. So that will give you guys a clue of what we are going through right now haha! But the area is awesome! It's really BIG! We are part of a ward, but we're an extension... So that means we go to the ward but were technically not part of it. If that makes any sense. We have about 12 members! But we are going to work our name tags off so we can help this area grow! My comp is ballin! He's from Guate (No surprise there) HAHA just about every missionary here is from Guatemala hahaha! His name is Elder Roldan! He's cool! He has 20 plus months in the mission! So I feel like all of our lessons go really well! We both have the same thoughts during the lessons so I have a good feeling that we are going to have a lot of fun and Success this change! So some thing that's kind of crazy and scary about this Area is that there are a ton of Dogs here... I've already almost gotten bit 3 times. I actually drilled one in the face though with a rock hahahaha! It was so funny! It actually fell over when I first hit it. I thought I killed it. But it got up and just ran away. I knocked it out for like 4 seconds hahaha! My comp was just like "Do you play baseball?" SO not too much happened this week. Just a lot of traveling and getting to know members and investigators! But it was fun! I'm loving this work!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! And something cool! Elder Vasquez is training!!! So I have a Grandson in the Mish!!!

Saying good bye to Copan

Las Flores Group! 

New companion, Elder Roldan

QUE VIVA LOS JAZZ

Had another good week this week But.. The Hermana Belkis fell again with the Word Of wisdom.. Which means she wasn't baptized this Saturday. And I have changes this week too.. So I wont be able to see her get baptized:( I hurt so bad when she told me. We were so close to getting her baptized. I was pretty upset when I realized I wouldn't be able to see her and her family get baptized. But while I was doing my nightly prayers I realized that It doesn't matter if I'm there to see it. It only matters if she's baptized. So I still have a big smile on my face when I think of the Hermana Belkis:) I don't think that I have ever told you guys about her. But one day while we were doing service she came up to us and started to just talk. It was kind of weird because no one does that.. Unless they're Drunk or Crazy. She actually invited us over to her house. Her 2 kids love us so much and want to get baptized so bad! And Sister Belkis actually gave up Coffee in one day after we talked about the Word Of Wisdom. Her problem is something else. It would probably shock you guys if you knew what it was. The good thing is that she still goes to Church every Sunday. Shes also made a lot of friends here. She loves everything about this Church. In one of her Testimonies she said, "I know this Church is true. It just makes sense. I don't get why other people don't get it." HAHAHA That made me laugh. So I'm pretty sad about leaving Copan. It is a very little Branch FULL of Humble People. Just about every member here lives in a Mud House with very few with electricity or none at all. I would say 90 percent of the members live in mud houses. And they are all so happy. Why? Because they have Our Savior Jesus Christ in their lives. They know the truth and they live the truth. They walk the streets with smiles on their faces. You can just tell that they have the light of Christ with them at all times. I love this church so much. I know that it is the only True Church over all the face of the earth. I love you guys. I'll tell you all about my new area next Monday:)

Love Elder Hess

Hermano Manuel. Member

President of the Branch. Love him to death.

This is the mud house that I was helping build about 3 months ago! It's almost finished!!

NO TIME

Hey everyone! So I have no time this week! SO I'll just send everyone some pics of the week!

President of the Mission took us out to eat:) MMMM

President and Sister Dester

Green wall. Elder Canel

SISTER MARIA AND SISTER SANDRA

WOW! So this week was so awesome! Every single day this week I went to bed with a huge smile on my face:):) The Highlights of the week were for sure the Baptisms of the Hna. Sandra and the Hna. Maria. I'm just going to tell you all a little about them. Ok so first, Sister Maria. She's 72 years old and has a HUGE testimony of Jesus Christ. She lives about 3 seconds from our house. HAHA right in front of the house actually! She has lived in that house for years and NO missionary has ever contacted her. They have all talked with her but no one ever taught her anything about the Gospel. When we asked her when we could stop by to visit her she was caught off guard. She said "You guys want to teach me?" We just told her of course!!! Because all of the other missionaries never taught her. Well she is my Favorite Person her in Honduras. She makes me laugh so dang hard it's a joke hahaha! Every word she says puts a smile on my face. So about 5 days ago (Before her Baptism) she was VERY sick. We stopped by and she was actually crying. I felt so bad. We were talking to her and she looked at us and she said "Elders I think I'm going to die soon" it was so hard to hear. I just sat there with a tear running down my face. And then she looked at us again and said "But I will die a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I will not miss my Baptism this Saturday." Her testimony is so strong and I love her to death. She claims that she is going to talk to President Dester and pay him so that I don't ever have changes hahaha! I love her. And for Sister Sandra. Well I'll just start off by saying that she has been an Atheist her whole life. She had 0 faith in God or in Jesus Christ. The first time we contacted her she said some very mean things to us that I can't write over this Email hahaha! But we did some service for her so that she would let us teach her (that's the secret to have people listen to you). There was no water passing by her house at this time so we offered to do some service and she accepted. We ended up bringing her 65 gallons of water. In one day. It took us 6 hours in the morning. And we had to hike up that HUGE hill that I always talk about. And we did it all by hand. I was so tired that I was going to Die haha! But she listened to us the next day so it was all worth it. For about 4 weeks all we taught her about was that God is our Father in Heaven, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that the Holy Ghost can guide us in all things. The lessons were all so simple. We never had to teach her that the Book of Mormon was "Also" the word of God. We just taught her that The Book of Mormon and the Bible were Scripture. When we taught her about Jose Smith she never had one doubt that he was a Prophet of God. Because as she says "It all makes Perfect sense" Without Prophets God does nothing. (Amos 3.7) And that's all she needed to hear. Well with a little time Sister Sandra was baptized. She may not have a huge knowledge about the scriptures or the teachings of Modern day Prophets, but she has a testimony that God lives and that Jesus Is our Savior and that this is the Church that Jesus formed over 2000 years ago. She is such a strong member and I know that she is only going to get stronger. Well I'll wrap things up now. I testify that this Church is true. I know it with all my heart. I know that God is our Father. We are his Children. Jesus is the Christ, and because of him we all have the chance to live with Our God after this life. I love this Church. It has blessed me in so many ways I can't describe it. I love you guys so much! 

Love Elder Hess

Sister Maria and Sister Sandra

Copan Branch

Helping Sister Maria get down to the river

Clean:) (without sin)

Helping Sister Maria

Oh yeah and today we went to the Ruins for Pday

We Killed two Chickens for Dinner. Don't get sick.

They told me to cut its heads off.. So I did.