THE SIGNING

Well everyone this is it. It has been two years out here. I still remember everything from the MTC in Guatemala, to my first area in Valle de Sula and my first companion Elder Chapeton. That was 2 years ago. My Companion Elder Vasquez in Las Flores. That's when I felt like my mission really started cooking. That's when I got the language down a little better as well. Oh man did I love my time with Elder Vasquez. Two of the best changes from my mission from Elder Vasquez to Elder Olaveson. He will forever be one of my best friends and we just happened to serve in Copan. "The Dream" 3rd Nephi 11. Those 2 areas, Las Flores and Copan will always be my favorite areas. I fell in love with those people. Just like my other areas as well, but there is just something special about those 2 areas:) Next up Elder Lorenzana and Elder Toolson, two other amazing companions. In my personal opinion I think Elder Toolson is the best missionary who has ever passed through this mission. I learned so much from him. He really is the man. I love this country. I love these people. I love San Pedro Sula. The best two years…. They were the hardest two years, they were the most trying two years, they were the two years where I was stretched the most, they were the two years in my life that I was focused and dedicated to something like no other in my life! I have tried to  help others change their lives and in the process I have been changed also! I have become sanctified as promised in the oath and covenant of the priesthood. That sanctification comes as we selflessly serve and faithfully obey the spirit as it reveals, guides and directs us. During these two years I went from a boy trying to become a man to becoming a Man of God! A man who knows who he is, where he is going and most importantly how I am going to get there from here. “there” is any place or endeavor I decide to embark upon and the paths that God will call me to. How we do things is more important that what we do. God will reveal to us how we are to do the things he asks us to do and inspires us to do. I know this church is true. I know God lives. I know this Gospel is his. I know he owns and directs this work. I have loved these past 2 years. I love My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He Lives. He is the Christ. I testify of all these things. In the holy name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

For one last time, Elder Hess

GOOD WEEKEND

Well I had a great weekend this week. I love General Conference so much. I received answers to questions that I have been having for awhile now. Now I can just say that I feel at peace. I went into Conference with a prayer in my heart hoping that I would get an answer. And just like always I did. I know that our Prophet Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet of God. He is the only man on this earth that has the keys to all the powers of the Priesthood. I also know that the 12 Apostles have been called of God. I love our leaders in this Church, but more than anything I sustain them. They are all servants of God. I know that Jesus Christ directs his Church through his Prophets and Apostles. I testify that all of the men who talked to us during this last weekend are called of God. I love this Church so much. It is insane how a testimony can constantly grow in these things. Little by little we all can get closer to Our Father and His Son Jesus Christ if we follow the Savior. I know this Church is true, I don't have one doubt in my heart about it. I didn't bring my notes that I took in Conference but my favorite quote was this. "God knows ALL of the things that we don't want anyone else to know. Even so, he keeps on loving us with a prefect love." When I heard that it really hit me how much our Father in Heaven loves us. We are all imperfect people trying to live such a life that we´ll be in the presence of a Perfect God. "Life is not fair and I am thankful for that because if life were fair none of us would even be close to living with our Father and his Son."  Christ suffered for all of us. So much that he bled from every pore of his body. He made it all possible for all of us. That is why He is called the Savior. Christ has done his part. Now it is our turn. I Love my Savior, I know that He lives and that if we live life in his Gospel we will all be saved. We will see loved ones that have past on to the next life. But more importantly we will walk and live with The Creator of all things, with perfect peace and with perfect joy. This is the Church of Jesus Christ, He is at the head of this Gospel. God is the author and Director of the Plan of Salvation. We are all Children of a God who has all Power and all Knowledge. I love you guys. Remember to serve our savior as often as you can. It will put a smile on his face.

Just so everyone knows. My favorite part of conference was the end of the Saturday morning session. When the Mormon tabernacle choir sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. I had tears flowing down my face. When the Hymn was over I looked at everyone else and everyone was crying. It was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. Everyone go look it up when you have a chance.

Love Elder Hess

BROTHER MANUEL

Hey everyone:) So good news! Brother Manuel got baptized on Saturday! It was an awesome service! Like 50 people showed up too!!! Manuel is so awesome! He was a reference given to us from his sister:) His sister was baptized 6 weeks ago in a different ward! But now they all live here in San Pedro Sula! We met Manuel 3 weeks ago, and now he's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ! It is so crazy how fast this work grows when everyone works together! We visited Manuel 3 times a week for 3 weeks. Now we are going to focus on his Dad. He doesn't really like us but we are going to see what we can do with him:) This week was "Semana Santa" and holy cow did everyone leave San Pedro. There was nobody here all week... It was kinda a hard week on us but it all paid off because we had the baptism. During Semana Santa the whole world here goes to the beaches to relax. Oh and another thing... It is so hot.. I can't even sleep at night because the heat is so strong. I showered 3 times in the middle of the night the other day because I was so dang hot. It's insane.. I have never gotten use to the heat down here haha!! Well I love you guys! That was my week!!!! Everyone Watch conference and take notes!!

Love Elder Hess

Baptism of Manuel

SANTOS AND RICARDO

So things are going great down here like always. Still just trying to find new people to teach.. But this Saturday we should have a baptism:) So that's cool:) This week Brother Santos and Brother Ricardo both put the biggest smile on my face... First off in church Brother Santos showed up with his tithing. I helped him with it. He was giving his 10%.. It wasn't too much but it was very special to see a man like that paying his full tithing when he almost has nothing to his name. The members have given him 3 white shirts and a pair of shoes for church:) It's so awesome:) I love him to death. I look up to him a lot. He is a man with TRUE faith. OK so Ricardo was bearing his testimony in front of a class about how happy he is for being a member of this church. He started crying and looked at me and said "Thanks to you Elder Hess I am a member of this Church. I used to be a drug and alcohol user. But thanks to that man right there I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ." I started crying. It was very very special to me. I love this work so much and blessing the lives of the people around me. 

Love Elder Hess

RICARDO AND DANIELA

Hey Guys!! Well we had an awesome week! Ricardo and Daniela got baptized!!!! Ricardo was a huge miracle because he stopped smoking in just two weeks! How cool is that!! It really was a miracle! When people have smoking problems it usually takes them months or even years to stop!! So I was so happy! The only reason that he was able to stop is because he has so much faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I love him and I am so happy that he was baptized! Also Daniela! She is just 9 years old but she is the man! Her whole family was inactive for years and just a couple visits with the Bishop and us they were all activated and Daniela was baptized! It was so awesome! It's crazy how fast this work moves forward when the members support us in this work!!! OK so on Sunday the craziest thing happened ever.. So ALL of Central America had a huge conference with the Apostles from Salt Lake. Instead of having a normal Sunday we all just went to church and watched the Conference with the Apostles. They all talked about how we can grow as a people and as a Church if we CTR! So while Elder Anderson was talking he was talking about a family that was baptized in a small Branch in Central America.. I was just listening and thinking "Huh, that's kinda weird, that sounds like Olga's family" and then he said "this family lives in the Copan Honduras Branch, Sister Olga and Sister Luz!" I literally screamed in front of the whole stake when he said that hahaha! Elder Ola and I baptized that family!! I have no idea how their story got all the way to Salt Lake but it did! I was so happy!!!!! I wish I was in Copan to see the reaction of the little branch when the Apostle said that!!!! It was so Cool! I was floating for the rest of the day after I heard that! After he said that, I got like 6546 phone calls from all my friends in the mission to ask me if I knew that family! Gosh it was so dang cool! Well that was my week! I love you guys!!

Love Elda He$$

Baptism of Daniela

Baptism of Ricardo

 Companion Elder NcNeely, Elder Hernandez, Elder Ledesma, Elder Hess

with a balloon heart found at church

MS

Alright so I had a crazy week........... I couldn't really leave because MS13 was on one. The Police killed 4 of their members so MS13 sent out a notice saying that they were going to kill anyone they saw in the street just to get back at the police. They also killed 40 plus people on a bus on Thursday. So that's crazy! We were working at like 7:30 and everyone was screaming at us to go home because MS was coming haha! We just ran to the nearest member's house to hide for a little bit. Big Joe has our back though so I'm not scared at all;) We couldn't leave for a little bit just to be safe. Also our member were sent to jail for killing a taxi driver. He was cool:( (well I thought he was cool). Also this week we should have two baptisms! So I'm excited! This Country is insane haha!!!! I love it:) All the Members of the Church are really cool! I love them all! They don't have much in their lives but they have the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is everything! God always protects them as well! I love you guys!!!!

Love Elder Hess

BRO. RECARDO :)

Alright so this week was a very long one until the very last lesson that we had on Sunday night:) I think I've already told you guys about Brother Recardo. Well, he's been going to church and has been progressing very very fast! Well this Sunday (yesterday) he decided that he wanted to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be Baptized:) He called us over to his house at 8:30PM because he said that he wanted to talk about some things with us. Well the news was that he wanted to be baptized. He read the Chapter in the Book of Mormon that we left him:) 2 Nephi Chapter 31 (this chapter is a missionary's best friend:) Well he said that if Jesus had the need to be baptized then he definitely had the need to be baptized in Christ's Church. He even set his own date! So on the 27th of this month he is going to be baptized:) He's a 20 year old so the next goal is to get him out on a mission!!! His Mom was baptized over 6 years ago and he FINALLY decided to get baptized:) He is the man!! He always had the best questions. I love it when people are real with us. I'll give a list of good questions people ask us and AWFUL dumb questions people ask us.

The Good

1. How can I know if Jose Smith was a Prophet?

2. Why is this the one and ONLY true church?

3. Who is Jesus Christ to you guys?

4. How can we know what is the one and only true Church?

The Bad -_-

1. If Coffee is a sin so is Coke. 

2. You guys are Jehovah's Witnesses right-_-

3. Didn't Jose Smith have like 68628 wives

4. My Pastor said you guys are from the Devil..

We get dumb comments like those every single day haha! Usually people just do it to make us mad. SO we've learned perfectly how to respond to them now:) Well I am so  excited for Recardo! He is going to be a great member of this Church:) I love him to death! I'll send you guys a picture of him next week!:)

Love y'all, 

Love Elder Hess

ZIKA -_-

Do you guys back in the States know what the ZIKA is?? Well every Honduran in the world has it-_- It's really hard because now nobody will let us in their house because everyone is sick. It's really really sad because it is really affecting the work out here. We're trying to offer prayers inside their houses so that people will let us in but it's not working to great as of right now! We are trying to come up with new ideas to get in the houses though! If any of you guys have any ideas let me know!!:) Well besides the Zika we had an awesome week!! Brother Davis was baptized:):) The service went so well and everyone showed up to support David. He is going to be a future Missionary one day so that's the coolest thing in the whole entire world!!! I can't now wait to see him as a missionary in just a few years! His family invites us over every single day haha!! We usually try to stop by 2 times a week though:) This week we also found two awesome new investigators:) Brother Rigoberto, and Bro Recardo! Both of them are awesome and have very high potential to progress in the church:) I'll keep you updated on them over the next couple of weeks! Well that's about it! I love all of you so much! Thank you all for supporting me 24-7 out here!!! I love you all!!

Love Elder Hess

David's Baptism

TOO HAPPY RIGHT NOW:)

Well right now I am on top of the world! I feel so happy for so many reasons:) I love all of you back at home for always supporting me so much in all that I have ever done out here:) Alright so this week was a good one! The Hermana Cilvia is so awesome! She is getting baptized on the 27th of this month! We are waiting a little bit because she has to stop doing a could of things (Word of Wisdom-_-) But she is amazing! I love the Lessons with her so much! Just so you guys know she was the contact that Elder Toolson did the day Elder Toolson Left!! We are thinking that we are going to be able to baptize her whole family too! We just have to talk to them! They work a lot so they aren't usually home:( But we are working on it!! Also David is going to get baptized this Saturday!! Elder Toolson and I also found him the week he left! He is 10 and is the funniest kid I have ever met hahaha!!!! He's super chubby and he always talks about how much he loves to eat and he plans and gaining more weight hahaha!! We actually have a cita with them tonight:) This Saturday at 5 he is going to be baptized! So everyone pray that the plans that we have will actually happen:) Well that's about it for this week! I love you all so much! Always remember to CTR!! 

Love Elder Hess

David

The whole zone

NEW COMP

I want to say congrats to Brandon Amacherlyson for finishing his mission! He really was such a great missionary and I look up to him a lot! Also this week I got my new Comp! Elder McNeely! He is awesome! We were actually good friends before the mission so we are pumped that were comps! He's from Utah so we have a lot in common! He loves soccer too so its fun to play the kids in the street because we actually win sometimes haha! He has 18 months in mission as well:) OK so this week went great! Sister Cilvia went to Church like she said! And she loved it! I'm going to have to take a picture with her soon so you guys can see what she looks like:) Also Angel went! He has been out of town the last two weeks because his Grandma passed away:( But he is doing good! We have talked to him a lot actually about the Plan of Salvation! We have found a lot of people the last couple of weeks and we think that some of them are going to start being baptized! I am so happy:) This Friday I think we should actually have one! His name is David! I'll tell you all about him next week! Well that's about it for this week! We are still just knocking on a whole lot of doors! Everything is going great! Well I love you guys!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Hess

CHANGES AGAIN:(

Alright so this Change has now come to an end.. Which means that Elder Toolson and I are going to have to split up:( I'm going to be getting a new companion tomorrow. This will also be my last companion, so I am praying that he is a good one. Elder Toolson and I worked our backs off for 6 weeks straight. We gave it our all. We contacted for about 6 hours a day every single day. The people in San Pedro Sula are a little harder to teach. But that's OK:) Because Elder Toolson and I had an amazing experience yesterday. We were out contacting like normal and we came across this one house with a green door. Before we knocked on the door, I looked at E. Toolson and told him "Im feeling really good about this house." Well, this Lady named Cilvia. We talked to her for a little and she let us in her house. She lives with her Brother and her cousin. They were all so excited to listen to us. So what they told us was that the day before they had been talking about how they need to start going to a Church because they needed to act more on the faith that they had. Well we gave them a lesson about the Restoration. They all loved it and they told us that they were going to go to Church this upcoming Sunday! We also set another lesson with them this Wednesday:) I am so excited to go back! They really were the nicest people on the planet! Also that was the last contact that Elder Toolson and I did together! It was late and we had another lesson. It is so weird how God works. We had been working as hard as we could for 6 weeks straight and on the very last door we knocked on was the house that we needed to go to. I learned a very big lesson after that. We might not understand why things happen. But in the end God has a plan for us. A perfect plan. And if we keep on doing what we are suppose to. If we keep on following our Savior. God will ALWAYS bless us. I know this work is true and I know that God is the Author of the great Plan of Salvation. I love this Church and I sure Love my Mission. I love you guys. I hope everyone remembers to "CTR" this week:) 

Love Elder Hess

WORKING WITH THE MEMBERS

So in San Pedro Sula it is hard to find new people to teach. Because most of the people in the city are hard core catholic. Elder Toolson and I have been contacting a lot and it hasn't been working that well.. SO now we are working with all the Members so that they can give us references! So far it has been working! SO we are all really excited! This week I had the chance to go on divisions with a guy named Elder Cerros! He's from Australia:) I had a really good time with him! HAHA he always says a lot of bad words in English because he said in Australia it's not swearing haha! When he said the first swear word I just looked at him and said "Are you serious?" HAHA and he told me that everyone always gets mad at him but in Australia it's a normal word HAHA! Well we ended up finding a couple of people to teach but no one said we could go back:( But the highlight of the week was Angel:) He is a 45 year old man who is very interested in the Gospel and says he's going to church next Sunday!!!! We found him on Sunday! He said that it makes sense that Christ would come here to the Americas:) So  we are off to a really good start! He is the type of guy that could be a future bishop here in the ward!!:) We are going to work as hard as we can so that he can get baptized as soon as possible!!:) Well I have to go now I love you Guys!!!

Love Elder Hess

2016

How y'all doin? Sorry I have not emailed for the last little bit, I don't really have too much time. I'll give you guys a quick update on what I have been doing!! Well Santos got baptized:) He went to church 3 straight times and was baptized! He's 72 and has been waiting for the truth ever since he was born! And now he has it. He said something that I will never forget. When it was time to baptize him we asked him "Brother Santos who do you want to baptize you" and all he responded was "Somebody with the Authority of God." So it might not sound like much but when he said that my Comp and I both just kind of froze. I looked at Elder Toolson and said, "He understands it" I got a little teary eyed because it is so special when people understand why this is the only one and true church. Also New Years was great. We were locked in but I still had a good time in the house. The first was an insane day though... We walked around for hours trying to find someone to teach but everyone was way to hung over hahahahaha! So we just helped a lot of drunk people out who had passed out on the street. We moved them to the curb so a car wouldn't hit them. It was fun. Well that's about It! I'm happy and I'm loving every second of my mish!!!!!

Love Elder Hess

Selfie

Baptism of Brother Santos

Soccerrrrr