Thursday, January 29, 2015

FOUR MORE ADDED TO THE LIST IN HEAVEN

WOW this week was honestly so hard. We had to work so hard with our baptism. We went to the house on Tuesday to have a lesson and the first thing they told us is that they didn't want to be baptized. I was so scared and confused. We asked them for like an hour what changed their mind but they wouldn't tell us. Finally they did. The Priest at their old church started to pay them not to go to our church. Yeah I know. So we had to talk to them about how we all need to put God first no matter what, they then said yes. And when we came back the next day they told us no again because the Priest doubled the offer. So we had to go back and do the same lesson. At the end of the lesson they agreed that nothing matters in this world.. The only thing that really matters is trying to return and live with our God again. So we had the baptism! I was so happy! I went first and baptized Jamie and Estaphani. It was amazing! I love sitting in the font watching the rest of the family be baptized after baptizing other people. It was so special. We only had to baptize all of them one time so that's good too haha! That was for sure the highlight of the week. Oh yeah! After the baptism was done all of the family shared their testimonies. The highlight was when the little boy Alan said, I'm really happy because I feel clean. It was special hearing that from one of our investigators. After the baptisms the Bishop gave a talk and he was talking about the Priesthood. He talked about how this is the only Church on this earth that has a list of members on this earth AND in the Heavens. It sounds really cool when you say it in Spanish but not so much in English. It was another awesome week in the Mission. Oh yeah and we dug a 16 yes 16 foot hole for a service project. It was the hardest thing ever and I am so dang tired. My hands were honestly bleeding from digging so much dirt haha! But it was a really good experience! Well I love you all! Keep on Keepin on!!

Love Elder Hess


Baptisms of Jamie, Estaphani and Family


Elder Hess and Elder Vasquez

Monday, January 19, 2015

BEST SUNDAY...

Ok so I want to start off this Email by saying Congrats to My Sister Tiff for getting Married!! Wow that is so awesome! On the day of your wedding Tiff I ate two doughnuts to Celebrate! WOOO! Welcome to the Fam Andrew!! It's Super Crazy but you will love it! Ok so I'll tell you guys why I had such an awesome weekend! Victoria and her family received the Holy Ghost. It was special. After she received it she stood up smiled at the whole ward and then looked at me and mouthed ¨Gracias.¨ That was awesome. And not only that, we had a TON of investigators show up to Church! Because we left the house at 6 to get all of them. We walked in the church about 3 minutes late but we walked in with a train of investigators hahaha! The train was a total of 15 people. I was so happy! The bishop stopped what he was talking about and just said ¨We welcome all of the people that are attending church for the first time and we hope you feel at home¨ I was so happy! But the best part was that after Church all of them said that they wanted to come back! This Church is true. I know it with all my heart. If we do our part the Lord will do his. He is bound when we do what we are suppose to. So this week we have four more baptisms. Familia Lopez.. We found them by talking to a drunk guy haha.. While we were walking the drunk man home we found this family! It was like a month ago! I'll tell you guys the whole story about them next week after they are baptized! It's nuts.. I'll just say that they are just like Victoria. A rock that can not be moved! I love you all! I'm sure loving this Mission life. There is a quote down here that I love. If we want to return and live with Jesus Christ again, we need to live this life how Christ did. It's so true, if we follow Him we will all see Him again! I love you all have the best week ever!!


Love Elder Hess

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

ECUADOR

So this was easily the best week in the Mission. For many reasons! First I got my new companion! He's been in the country for a total of 6 days now! His name is Elder Vasquez and he's from Ecuador! He's the youngest missionary in the mission too. He turned 18 the day he got set apart so he's just like a little kid still! He looks 4 years old. And oh man does he talk weird.. He says so many words that nobody here understands haha! It's super fun training him. When you get a brand new missionary you become a Dad in the mission! So now I have a son! It's kind of funny! The missionaries were calling him Hijo de Hess but I told them to stop haha! I love trainin, it's so fun! The second thing that made this week awesome was we finally baptized Victoria, Victoria and Jasslin! By far the best Baptism I have ever had. I feel so close to this family it is crazy. When the little girls see me they come running and just jump all over me. There are 5 total! We had the baptism on Saturday and it was the best experience in my mission. I also let my comp baptize Victoria the Grandma. Just to get him pumped for his mission! He had his first baptism in 3 days. So he's way excited haha! So I went first in the baptism. I baptized Victoria and Jasslin first. After I baptized them it was Victoria's turn. The two little girls and I waited in the corner of the baptismal font while we watched Victoria be baptized. I was smiling so big and even cried a little. That moment was so special for me. She was so ready. And after the baptism she said something amazing in her Testimony. She said "I don't know why but there were so many people telling me so many bad things about the church. It was hard for me. I didn't know who to listen to, the missionaries or my neighbors. Elder Hess told me to Pray to God and ask him if these things were true. Because only him knows all things. I prayed and got my response. So now I don't care what my neighbors say." Then she said the best thing ever "Today when I was coming to the baptism one of my neighbors came out of her house and said where are you going (because she had her Book of Mormon in her hand) she told me I told you that the Mormons are bad people and tricking you!!" She responded, "I'm not just going to the church.. I'm going to the church to be baptized!" When she said that the spirit was so strong! The members all looked so happy! We had 58 people come to the baptism because we invited the whole ward the day before!! She is 100% converted. I love her so much and I am so proud of her. This church is true. This work is true. I have never been so happy to serve our King. I love you guys:)



Baptism of Victoria, Victoria and Jasslin

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

TRANSFERS

First off HAPPY BDAY TO MY BROTHA RYAN!!! I look up to you more than you will ever know Ry. I love you so much! Someone make sure to take him to Buffalo Wild Wings and celebrate!!! So guys I'm going to have to keep this email short because there are a lot of things that I have to do today. We have transfers, Elder Lopez is leaving and I am getting my First Hijo. I'm going to be training for the first time. Oh man am I nervous. So Lopez has to pack and get ready to go to his new area! New Years was great, lots of bombs and drunk people yelling things about Jose Smith haha so funny! We have a Baptism this Saturday! Victoria and 2 of her grandkids! I am so excited! This Sunday she actually showed up to church 45 minutes early because she wanted to get a good seat haha! I think she was the first one in the building haha! Awesome! I love you all so much! I'll see you next week!

Elder Hess

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

GOOD CHRISTMAS

So I had an awesome Christmas. Talking to my Family was the best thing in the whole world haha! Oh man was it hard to hang up.. And I received an awesome package with so many treats! That made me so happy! We had a baptism on the 24th which made it a White Christmas down here in Honduras. It was so great. It was a ward baptism but they had the missionaries run the whole thing. The Mom of the little girl, her name is Nauma, gave us Santa Hats for the pictures so it's a pretty awesome picture. I'll show you down below. So I'm going to explain to everyone how a normal Christmas is down here in Honduras. So I always heard that in South America they light off a ton of Fireworks on the 24th to celebrate. Well I guess it's kind of like that down here. But instead of fireworks all they use is bombs haha! It was honestly the craziest thing ever! It sounded like we were in the middle of "Call of Duty" the video game. Just huge bombs going off left and right!! The Big bombs that they used would actually shake our house. HAHA I honestly could not stop laughing, it is crazy how different this country is than the States. On the 25th everyone was just sleeping all day. Nobody was in the streets the whole day. Oh yeah and all they eat on Christmas is Tamales. I ate like 25 on Christmas Eve hahaha!! I love the food down here so much. Over the Christmas season I had an amazing time sharing my testimony with the people that Jesus is the Christ and that this Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints is the one and only true church on this earth. I'm trying to help people come closer to Christ. Serving the Lord on Christmas was such a great blessing. I wouldn't have had it any other way. So the Spiritual High this week would have to be on Sunday. We have this investigator named Victoria. She's an old lady that WILL get baptized. Well she had dengue the whole week over Christmas and could not leave her house. We asked if she wanted a blessing but she said NO just pray for me please. So on Saturday we passed by her house to see how she was doing and if she could go to Church on Sunday. She was still very sick and couldn't really move cause her body hurt so bad. So Elder Lopez and I thought there was no way she was going to church on Sunday, but at 8:00 a.m. when Church was starting we saw her walk into the sacrament room. PS she lives on a huge hill and it's super hard to climb down from there cause it's all Mud. Even for me. Ok so when we saw her I was shocked. I ran up to her to help her to her seat. I asked her are you feeling better?? She told me NO. But I know God will bless me for coming. She walked a long way down a huge muddy hill in the morning with Dengue just to go to church. She really is a special lady. I can't wait for her baptism. It's going to be a great experience. Well I love all of you so much! Go to Church this Sunday!

Love Elder Hess



White Christmas