AWESOME WEEK

Had an awesome week! I can't believe its P day again. These weeks fly by so fast. But the days really do feel like years. So I feel like all of our investigators improved a lot this week! But not so much Antonio. Turns out he loves to bible bash. It was so frustrating when he started pulling out all these random scriptures in the bible to try to prove us wrong. But we shared our testimony with him and left on a high note! I feel like that's all you can do in a situation like that. Just share your testimony and leave. But probably the highlight of my week was finding a new family to teach! They are so funny and love that I'm from the States! We have only had one lesson with them but I feel like it went really well! They really wanted us to return for another! There are four girls in the family, all under 10 and all of them know just a little bit of English. Like probably 15 words. But they absolutely love talking to me in English. They'll ask a million questions, how do you say this, how do you say that haha! It's a good time! Their name is Sabinon. Weird name. But I really hope we can convert this family, I feel like they would fit in so well in the ward! And the fact that their souls are on the line. HAHAHA oh man that sounded really weird. This week we have transfers and there is a little chance that Chapeton is going to be transferred. I really hope he doesn't. We are such good friends and work really hard together. But whatever happens happens. Honestly I don't think he will cause I still don't know this area perfect. And I think my President knows that because nobody can memorize one area in 6 weeks. I just hope in this next transfer an American or somebody who knows English gets transferred to my zone. I'm the only American in my whole zone! But it's really good for my Spanish! I feel like I'm improving really fast now that I got the basics down! So something kinda crazy happened this week. We were with an investigator when we heard this really loud car coming down the road. I thought nothing of it but our investigator yelled get in the house!! And we all ran in the house. I asked what was happening and she just said, whenever you hear that sound hide. I asked why and she just said because that's one of the leaders of MS. So kinda scary but pretty cool too hahaha. Well I love you all!! I'll talk to you again next week!

Hey Mom!! I'm learning spanish by speaking it 24/7 and for studying 1 hour a day with this HUGE spanish book that I have. I feel like my spanish improved a lot this week! I always feel good! Just tired. But it would be weird if I wasn't! My weight is dropping cause I'm losing a lot of muscle. And yes I'm working out haha, it's just impossible without the weights that I used at the LC. I'm happy everyone is doing good! I love you mom! Chat with me if you can! I feel like my spanish jumped a lot this week! So that's really good! I LOVE you mommy! I pray for you everyday!

"Getting Creative"

BIRTHDAY/BAPTISM

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had an awesome week! So first off Happy 28th Birthday MOM! I love you so so much! I carried around a picture of you all day so I could show people who my mom is! It was great! I Love You so much! You're the best mom in the world! So this week we finally baptized Antonio! I was so happy! The whole Primary showed up just to give him support, so that was awesome. Antonio was so nervous, but after he said that he just felt peace in his heart. We told him that was the holy ghost and that he could feel like that at all times if he HLJ. It was a special day. So we also found another investigator this week who I feel awesome about. He's 50 something and he has always wondered "who the boys in the white shirts are" hahaha. He's so nice and loves to feed us so I love him. Oh yeah Antonio is his name. Hahaha I guess that's just the name to have! But everything is perfect in San Pedro Sula. Only a couple of sketchy things happened which I'm not going to share cause I don't want mom to freak out and come pick me up hahaha. The sun is still blistering hot and my Spanish keeps on improving little by little. OHHHH and Porter called me this week! It was so awesome! We talked for about 20 minutes! He gave me a lot of tips on learning Spanish and told me how much better things will be once I know the language, so I can't wait for that day to come!

I love you all, have an awesome week!

Antonio's Baptism

WEIRD SUNDAY

So this week was pretty good. All of our investigators went to church and progressed a lot this week. We also had a Baptism, his name is Coto. He's been raised in the church his whole life but asked if Elder Chape could baptize him! It was really special to Elder Chape because Coto doesn't have a Dad. He looks up to missionaries a lot. I'm pretty close with him too because his mom cooks lunch for us everyday, so we're with him a lot. The baptism went well because Chape only had to dunk him once. LOL. Ok so Antonio is doing so awesome! He's actually 9 years old. I don't know why I said he was 12 in the last email. Anyways, he is so interested in the Book of Mormon! He told us he wants to read the whole book by the end of the year, and he's only nine. We always give him a little scripture to read and  he always ends up reading the whole chapter or more! I wish all of our investigators were like this. But he's ready for baptism, his big day is this Saturday! I can't wait for that day to come. He also asked us when he could serve a mission like us. He already wants to be a missionary, how cool is that!

Mmmk so on Wednesday in the morning, probably around 7, I was putting on my tie when I saw THE WORLD'S BIGGEST FREAKING SPIDER!!! Yes... In my house !0_O I'll have a picture below. I honestly screamed like a girl when I saw it. Elder Chape thought I was dying when he heard me haha! So we got a lighter and some lysol and torched the thing, but that didn't kill it. I'm not kidding this thing was like Superman's son. After a quick prayer we ended up smashing it with a broom, but even that took like 10 tries. So that was a fun/scary experience. So Sunday. First, after church Elder Chape and I were knocking doors. We went to this one house and some old man answered the door. He was so friendly! Until I told him I was from the USA. He started yelling AAAAHHHH LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE, YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME!!! Elder Chape calmed him down a little bit and said Elder Hess is a good person he's not going to kill anyone. But the man refused to believe I was safe. He claimed that I had a chip in my head and the CIA was controlling me and that I was going to kill everyone and take over Honduras. So he was a no go. Later that day we had a meeting with this lady and her son. She asked where I was from and instantly I thought "ah crap here we go" I said the USA. She jumped out of her seat and grabbed these pictures that were on the table. It was a picture of this 14 year old girl. She asked do you think she's cute? I said yeah she's a cute little girl. She looked like a child. She then left the room and brought back the girl in the picture and then the mom said "Will you marry my daughter?" yeah really awkward. I didn't even respond Elder Chape just said, we have to go. So that was so weird and on the way home from her house a gay man started to hit on me.. Trying to touch me and stuff. So we had to run away from him too. So that was Sunday hahaha. I hope all you guys had a little better Sunday than I did ha. 

Everything is well here in Honduras, I hope everything is well back home. I love you all.

Love Elder Hess

And my camera is dead... so crap.
 

SO HOT!

Hello brothers and sisters! What up with thee? Things are still blistering Hot here in San Pedro 0.o I don't think I'll ever get used to the Heat... Shout out to THE JAZZZZZ for getting Dante Exum. The future league MVP. Also to Brandon OmAKur for also serving in San Pedro haha that's kinda cool.

Alright so this week went really good with all of our investigators! All of them were keeping all of their commitments and progressing really well! Well Sunday rolled around and not one came to church. Elder Chapeton and I even went to their houses an hour before church and they said they were coming but when 9 o'clock came around none of them showed up. I was pretty upset. So after church we went back to all their houses and asked what happened. Well about 90% of them said ¨we were watching the Mexico game.¨ It turns out the people of Honduras freaking hate Mexico haha. They were all watching just to see if they lost. I didn't know what to say cause if I were them I would have done the same thing hahaha just kidding. But we ended up teaching them the blessings of going to church and it ended up being OK. Right now we have a 12 year old investigator who is the coolest little kid ever. It's weird cause his whole family is catholic but they don't care that Antonio has lessons from us, in their house. But oh well, after we convert Antonio we're going after the rest of the family. But the highlight of my week was two days ago. We were teaching this old man and his wife. Oh and PS I literally cant understand one thing old people say. I don't know why. Anyways after the lesson when we were saying goodbye the man grabbed my arm and said in ENGLISH. Thank you for that, I was shocked he spoke English! And I said ¨whoa you speak English blah blah¨ then I said for what because I didn't speak much. He told me ¨every single time I looked at you, you were smiling, and you were glowing like an angel and I could feel something different in my heart. I don't know why, but there is something special about you.¨ OK so I'm not sharing this story to brag or anything like that, but it was just really awesome to have him say that to me after not participating too much in the lesson. I just want to say that I know this church is true. And I now know that Christ lives. I love Him so much. Because of Him everything is possible. Everyday I give thanks to our Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to serve Him, even when times are rough. I love you all very much.

Love Elder HESS

This is Elder Marte. He is from the DR and knows Parker Morgan.

[Of course, pics of food]

"I'm really healthy, all the Latinos in our area are sick, including Elder Chapeton.

But not me! I told you my stomach was superman!!"

FIRST BAPTISM

HELLLOOOO!!! First thing I would like to do is give out some shout outs again! Shout out to Lexi Watts for getting her patriarchal blessing and for getting a scholarship to BYU! Second, GO GO USA! Third Kimi and Nate. You guys are perfect and I'll always look up to you guys. Congratulations on your big day!!!

Alrighty, so this week was very special. I got my first Baptism. Her name is Iris Sulay Afaro Moreno. She is a mother of two and they are both members. We have been teaching her a couple times a week. Randomly the Spirit just told Elder Chapeton and I ¨ASK HER RIGHT NOW TO BE BAPTIZED¨ so I did. And the spirit was so strong. She started crying and said yes. Everyone was so happy. After that I shared my testimony, in my broken Spanish. She started crying again. She then asked, Elder Hess can you baptize me. I couldn't believe it. Tears still come to my eyes when I replay that moment. It was so special. Well on Saturday was when she was baptized, turns out she's scared of the water... The first time I dunked her (that's what they say here) she freaked out and started splashing and caused a huge scene in the font. Well just about nothing was under water so I had to do it again. I was literally dripping wet because of how much she splashed. Second time she did a little better. But she still freaked out and we now have to do it a third time. So the third time I just dunked her as fast as I could so she had no time to freak out. And it worked hahahaha. Oh man it was crazy. After, when I was changing I felt bad that we had to do it 3 times and one of the members came into the bathroom and said ¨are you ok¨ (but in Spanish) I said yeah, I just feel kinda bad. He then said "don't worry, she must of had a lot of sins if you had to do it three times" hahaha oh man I'm still laughing! I literally died and had a laughing attack when he said that to me hahaha!! But all in all it was a very good day. This week was good. I'm always so tired at the end of the day because of all the millions of miles of walking. It's hard work out here but I know this church is true. I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life and I've only been out here for 2 weeks. God is so good and we are all so lucky to be apart of his one and only true church. OK I'm running out of time so I have to end. I love y'all. Be strong and always remember... GO JAZZ!

First Baptism (6/21/14)

HE'S IN HONDURAS

Mom I made it! I'm going to start doing what I've been working for my whole life. This church is true and I know it. The spirit tells me everyday. I love you so much. I hope you get the other email. It has all the info you want in it.

Love Elder Hess

[the other email]

Well I'm going to first start off by saying Happy Father's Day to my Dad. I hope you had the best day in the world. You have better of spent the day fishing. I love you and miss you papa Steve. Second, shout out to the SPURS!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! Third shout out to my boys wearing red white and blue. They better kill Ghana.

Ok so I'm here... And mom and Lexi your not going to like this. There is this part in San Pedro where all the people hate Americans. There has been more Americans murdered there than any other place in Honduras. Valle de Sula, Montefresco. No American has ever served there cause it's so peligroso. Well guess who got called there!!! WOOOOO!! I was so stoked!! All the Missionaries were saying "You're making history!" So I'm stoked! I'll have pictures at the bottom of where I'm serving. The first day I got here I was so tired. I had to wake up at 2:30 in the MTC to catch the plane. When I got here the president was waiting for me. His name is President Dester. The nicest man in the whole entire world. No joke. We loves the missionaries so much. We went to his house and had some meetings and some food and right after they put us to work. I was running on about three hours of sleep. I was literally dead, but I pushed myself so hard to keep on going and finish the day strong! The second day is when I met my comp. Elder Chapeton. He is from Guatemala and speaks very little English. But he's so nice. He always hugs me and says things in Spanish which I think are nice things haha. The second day was my first real day and holy crap it is so hot here... I'm literally going to die of heat stroke. Anyways, we had 7 lessons that day. He did most of the talking. I have no clue what anyone is saying... They talk so dang fast! But Chapeton talks slow for me so I can pick out some words. The spirit was so strong in all the lessons! Even though I had no clue what anyone was saying. 6 weeks in the MTC and they never taught me one word that people actually use. The third day was great too. We had dinner at a member's house and holy goodness the food was unreal. I think I'm going to gain 497 pounds. This day we also challenged a girl to be baptized. And she said yes! I had the biggest smile on my face and  the spirit was so strong. That's been the highlight of my week! The fourth day is when I met Lupe. She is so funny and she loves that I don't know Spanish. She tries so hard to teach me and it's actually been helping! She's inactive but she loves to have the missionaries over. Her son recently passed away so the next lesson I'm going to share my story about loved ones who have passed on and how families can be together forever. I can't wait to share that with her. Sunday was a little scary. For a couple reasons, it was my first day at church! And the bishop in the middle of sacrament said we have a new missionary! Come up and give a talk! Yeah. It was the worst thing in the world. I didn't know what to say and no one laughed at my joke. But other than that church was awesome! All the kids loved talking to me haha! They have so many questions about the States and if I have seen all the famous people haha! We couldn't do much on Sunday cause Honduras played. So we had to stay in our houses. I wanted to go work so bad but the President said it was too dangerous. So I just did a lot of studying and cleaning on Sunday. And the scary part of the days was at night. I don't know what happened but right in front of the house people started shooting. Elder Chapeton and I just hit the floor. It was so scary, but we're all good:) Today not much has happened. It's P day so Chapeton took me to the main part of San Pedro. WOW, I feel like I'm in Haiti again...

This is Elder Liavi everybody, my comp in the MTC. Elder Chapeton and I pulled some weeds for one of our investigators just so we could have a lesson with her. At first she said no but after we asked if we could do some service and then have a lesson she was all for it haha. Oh yeah, and when it rains here... IT RAINS!! Everything floods and you can't open your eyes hahaha. The Lady we helped. The street we live on. Our kitchen, yeah I know, it was like this when I got here. Our Bathroom. We have to shower with cups cause we don't have running water.

[These are the pics Mitch sent. I didn't get all the ones that he talked about in his email. I think we didn't get the end of his email.]

His companion Elder Chapeton

The flooding rain

The lady Mitch helped 

LEAVING MTC NEXT WEEK

To answer your questions I do get to exercise everyday! But I haven't been able to play basketball for a week cause it rained everyday. The Mission President here is really cool! He is so pumped for me to get in the field. He is an awesome example to me!! And I can't sleep. It's too hot. And Honduras is 20 degrees hotter so... crap. So this week was the same as all the other weeks. Just school for 14 hours a day. I shared my testimony in sacrament this week! It was so scary cause it was in spanish. But it went well. I also got another one of my investigators to commit to  baptism! Those moments make me so excited to actually serve. Also there is a kid here named Elder Davis, he's from Utah. He  knows everything in the world about the Jazz so he gave me an hour long run down on everything that I've missed for the past five weeks! So I love him. Elder Liavi and I had a hard week, he almost went home. But I had a very good talk with him so he ended up staying. I just told him how important this work really is, and how he's going to change peoples lives not just in this life but for eternity. Long story short he's going to stay! Other than that everything has been the same. But I do need something from you that is very very important. I need the dates I got my Typhoid shot and my Tetanus shots. If you could please please send them to this email maureen.burbidge@myldsmail.com and my email too! She needs them by this friday. Or we're going to have issues getting me out of here. Well I Love you mom I pray for you everyday.

Love Elder Hess.

PS I'm not sure if I can email next week cause that's when I leave here!! So if you don't get one thats why! Don't feel sad at all!