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