NEW FAMILY

Alright so I will start off this email by saying Happy Birthday to my Dad and shout out to Tiff for getting engaged!! And for Lexi W for cheering in her first cheer game! Abel cannot get baptized. So he is so awesome. He is 100% converted and wants to get baptized. BUT. It turns out he doesn't live in this area. We just figured that out when we were going to do the baptism interview. He is always at this house because he is best friends with the guy that lives there (that's where we were teaching him). So we called the APs and they said they were going to talk to President Dester. Well the news came back and it turns out we can't baptize him. It has to be the missionaries in his home ward. But guess who is serving in his home ward? Elder Chapeton! My first companion! I thought that was so dang lucky! But when we broke the news to him he was super sad. He wanted one of us to baptize him so bad. He said he is going to wait til' the changes to see if one of us gets transferred to his home ward so that we can baptize him. It's almost impossible but it is possible I guess! But the good news is that he will get baptized and that is all that matters. He said once he is baptized he is going to keep on going to this ward cause he loves it so much! Our ward is pretty sweet:) So that was sad news but in the end all that matters is that he is baptized and makes those sacred covenants with the Lord. Alright so Elder Ririe and I were knocking doors. We had divisions. We came across this one family that is so awesome! We knocked on the door and she was just like "OH come in" we were so confused. I turned to Ririe and said "uh are they members?" Because they were acting so casual. We started talking to them and they just straight up told us that they think our church is true and that they were waiting for us to knock on their door... So I was so dang happy!! They went to church and we have another lesson planned. We are going to talk about the Libro de Mormon and talk about lesson 3 (Baptism). So I'm so excited to get back to that family and start teaching them some more. Today we went to this huge Waterfall for P day! That was Legit. I'll show you guys pictures below!

Love Elder Hess

MUSIC ACTIVITY

Had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission this past week. Two wards in the Stake and my comp and I put together a music activity. I'll explain what we did. So every person in the Ward got an invitation and were suppose to hand it out to a friend or family who was not a member of our Church! The whole idea was to get a whole bunch of NEW investigators coming so we could get there information and start teaching them! Anyways, the Ward did a great job inviting people! Like 200 people showed up! So we got a boat load of new investigators! So that is so great cause we didn't have that many! Anyways the activity went so perfect! The Mission President gave the whole zone permission to go and watch the activity and to have a mini choir and sing the song "The Army of Helamem" (but in Spanish). So the whole activity was just singing and in between every song we would show videos of all of our lessons but in great detail yet still simple for our investigators. The songs that the wards sang went super well too! The were practicing everyday for 3 weeks because they knew how important this activity was. So right before the activity started President Dester walked in. I don't know if I've talked to much about him to you guys. But he is the most Holy and Spiritual man that I have ever met. He carries this Spirit with him that is unreal. I promise that he is a future General Authority in the 70. I had no clue he was coming so I got pretty nervous cause I didn't want him to think I was the worst singer in the world haha! He gave a talk and the Spirit was so strong! (If you've served a mission or serving right now you know how big of a deal it is if your Mission President shows up) Anyways at the end of the activity we played our last video Because of Him. If you haven't seen this video stop reading this and go watch it. The second the video came on I got the chills and when it showed Christ in the Tomb I could not hold back tears. The Spirit was so strong. I have a good feeling about all of our new investigators because they've been to the church and they know exactly what we believe in and I know without a doubt the Spirit was testifying to them that this church was true. I'm so happy that I got to be a part of such an awesome event. Something funny that happened this week is that Elder Perry and I (Gringo) went on splits. He is a blonde so the whole world knows he's American. Any how we came across this drunk guy and he said that he wanted to learn English! So we taught him the words "Bling Bling", cause he had a bracelet on hahah! It was so funny cause he was so Drunk and he was just screaming at people "I've Got Bling Bling!!!!" way loud. We gave him a word of wisdom pamphlet and left. But it was so funny I was laughing for 20 minutes haha! Ok so those are the highlights of my week! I love you guys! Remember Go Jazz Go Utes and Buffalo Wild Wings is the best restaurant in the world.

ps I found a Dunkin Donuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's so cheap!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Hess

Elder Martinez (my comp)

Donuts are his favorite!

THE GOOD OL' MISSION

So this week was Halloween and I hope all of you ate 684 pounds of American candy for me cause all the good candy doesn't exist down here hahaha. So we had a good week! On Monday we had a Noche de Hogar and it went so well! These little girls put on a talent show for us and they sang "Let it Go" from Frozen! It was the cutest thing ever! Its called "Libre Soy" in Spanish. I actually got a little teary eyed just seeing how happy the whole family was. They live in such a small house without a kitchen and they were all just so happy. It was weird but the spirit was so strong when they were singing Let it Go. At the end me and all the little girls did a little concert but I sang the song in English. It was super fun:) Also the ward down here really wants to learn English. So once or twice a week I am going to have an English class at the church. We are telling all the members to bring non member friends because everyone wants to learn English here. They are going to make invitations that say free English Classes from a real Gringo hahaha!!!!! So I'm excited for that. We have an investigator named Abel and he has been progressing really fast. He's bien pilas ha. But he now has a baptism date in two weeks and he said there is no doubt in his mind that this church is true! Other than that we have been knocking a lot of doors to try to find new investigators. It's actually pretty fun. We always switch off days that we decide where we're going to contact and I always choose to contact in the craziest places haha! Like on Friday we were literally contacting on a cliff just because I knew that missionaries have never been up there. And because I feel like I'm in a movie. It's so cool. Well I just want to say this. The blessing that I have seen serving a mission leaves no doubt in my mind that this church is true. The only true happiness on this earth exists in this Gospel. While I've been out here for these 6 months I have seen how much God and Our Savior loves us. I've learned a lot about the life of our Savior Jesus Christ and how he gave his life for us. His love is unfailing. We never have the need to feel that we are alone or unloved because we never are. We can Always feel the Love of God. I love this church and I am so happy to be a missionary.

Love Elder Hess

The Picture with the Girls at the Talent Show:)

SICK

OK so this week I was super sick. I went to the hospital and they didn't know what I had. But I'm doing 100% better and I feel good right now! I was so sick that I couldn't even leave the bed for three days. I felt like every single thing in my body hurt. Even my bones were in a ton of pain. I was so dang hot but I couldn't use the fan because the wind from the fan literally hurt my skin, so I just had to wait it out in an oven basically. The really bad thing is that whatever I had is super contagious. Whatever I had is now doing its work on 8 other missionaries. So I feel bad about that :( It's because I went to zone meeting when I obviously shouldn't have. But the only day that we could leave was on Saturday. And that's because we had a baptism! So that was for sure the highlight of my week! Not really anything to talk about cause that's all that happened this week... But I'll send a lot of pictures! It rained super hard one day and everything flooded. 

Love Elder Hess

Elder Martinez and 12 yr old Even

That little thing in the water are the taxis here:)

Baptism of Even on (10/25/2014)

I've gotten really good at polishing my shoes! I thought you would like this picture!!

CHANGES

So first shout out to the U. Ryan told me that they are in the top 20 and are going to have College Game Day at the U again. Some times I just feel bad for BYU fans. Anyways! I got my new area and comp! Super Huge! My area is unreal big. Literally a 100 times bigger than my last area and I thought my last area was big! The good news is we live right in front of the church! So we don't have to walk 789 miles to go to church activities and what not. This area is in the Mountains. We have to climb and walk uphill all day long! I have a picture down below that shows stairs going up the mountain. This will give you an idea how straight up the mountains are. It's kind of like Brazil in the movie Fast Five. Just houses on top of houses! I thought the heat wouldn't be so bad here because we are kind of high up, but it's exactly same. So that stinks a whole lot. My comp is named Elder Martinez! He is from Mexico! He's super tall too. A lot taller than I am. It's weird cause my other comps looked like Frodo and Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings. He is a super nice guy! He really is a giant Teddy Bear! He talks really weird too. So I feel like my Spanish is struggling:( But It will only help my Spanish so it's actually a good thing! He has 14 months in the Mish and is DL, so that's cool! Oh yeah and my zone has other Americans!!:') I can talk English!! And talk about American Sports!!! Oh my gosh it feels so good to speak in English! The only problem here is that we don't have ANY investigators. Well we have 1. And she is a contact that we contacted the first day here. Everyone says that this is one of the hardest zones in the Mish. But I'm not going to listen to that. I'm in Central America, home of where the Book of Mormon was written, I know there are a lot of people here that are ready for the Gospel! We just have to find them! The house is OK. It's painted green so I feel gross when I'm inside. And we have to shower with a bucket. Which I actually enjoy so that's not a bad thing. We only have water in a little font outside. We can only fill the font at like 10 p.m. cause that's the only time there is running water. I'll send pictures below! We have electric wire surrounding the house for protection. My comp told me I have to touch it before I leave cause it's a tradition. Ya right, I'm not touching anything that hurts worse than those little pens that shock you. I hate those things. Ok so one funny story to end. My first day sleeping in my new house my fan fell on my foot when I was sleeping. The fan was on the end of the bed so it would hit my whole body. The fan is missing the front part which blocks anyone from touching the blades. Ok so at like 3 a.m. the fan fell on my foot. The blades all just whacked my foot. And since it was on full speed all of the blades broke off. There were plastic pieces of the fan all over the room. My foot hurt pretty bad but I'm OK hahaha! Well it's impossible to sleep here without a fan so the next day I went and bought one with the money that I have. It's the size of an apple. I'll send a picture of it too. I love you guys!

Wow STAIRS

Little font with running water once a day

New fan with protective cover (hope it doesn't fall again)

This is my house:) Cool right

NICE WEEK

So this week I'll just start off by saying that we had 2 baptisms!! WOO it was an awesome day. Two little girls Karawin and Ashlee. The parents still haven't been baptized but we are going to continue working with them! We were actually really surprised when the parents said they could be baptized! We have been teaching them but there hasn't been much progression. But when we read Juan 3 V5 the parents decided that the kids were ready to be baptized! The problem with the parents is that they were already baptized... SO they don't feel the need to. But with time I know they will come around! So this week we had divisions. I went with an Elder named Avalos! He's from Mexico! We had a good time! It was weird teaching in a new area. But the cool part was people thought I was from Mexico Guate and all sorts of Spanish countries hahaha! That made me really happy! So this week we are going to have transfers. I really love my area. Its going to be sad leaving it. I've gotten really close with the members and I love all of our investigators. I want to keep on teaching them. But I know that the Lord has other plans for me in different areas. I'll let you guys know who my new comp is and how my new area is next week! I actually have to go because I have to pack. I love you all!!!

Love Elder Hess

Karawin and Ashlee

Elder Gonzales

THOMAS S MONSON

This week was so awesome!! General Conference was unreal!! (I watched it in English) I was the only one... People in the ward would take shifts with me during the session so that I could watch it in English. They had Spanish subtitles so that the Latinos could understand too! I had a room with AC and with a "Rolley chair" So I was living the good life haha! Ok so a lot of things really stuck out to me. But the message that I want to share is the message that our prophet said. In his talk this morning, President Monson invited us to follow in the Savior’s footsteps, to follow in the path He walked. He said that we don’t need to travel to Jerusalem or Galilee to walk in his footsteps, but rather we need to follow His perfect example of love and kindness, of obedience and submissiveness. And he concluded, “His path will take us safely home.” The path is there for all of us. And it is a perfect path. The next thing we need to do is decide if we want to follow it or not. It's not the easiest thing in the world but our Heavenly Father will bless us so much if we do. Not only in this life but for eternity!! That was the thing that really stuck out to me. Ok the the best thing in the world happened this week!! We were knocking doors and we had a feeling that we should back track and knock on a door that we missed. When we knocked a lady answered the door. She instantly said I'm not interested. The next thing I said was. "Cual es su nombre Hermana" she said Dallas. The next thing I asked was who else lives in this house with you. She responded my 2 kids. The second she said that I knew that I had her locked in for a lesson. We talked about her kids for about 5 minutes and she was so happy. We then got to the point in asking her if she knew who we were. She got a mean look on her face and said Jehovah's Witnesses. We told her no we're the "Mormons" then she got a huge smile on her face. She said that she was praying in the morning about what church was true. And a thought came in her head that said "The Mormon Church." We had an amazing lesson with her and she was basically crying the whole time cause she said that God answered her prayers. We have another lesson with her Wednesday so I'm super pumped!

So on Thursday we were walking in the street and we came up on these group of guys. I walked up to them and started to talk. My comp started acting really weird and kept on giving me faces like we needed to go now. I ignored him because I wanted to give these guys a pamphlet cause there were like 10 of them. One of the guys said. You better get out of here right now. I then said OK I just want to leave a little book with you guys before I go. The guy said again NO! And then he flashed the 18 symbol thingy. They were all gangsters hahahahahahaha!!! Not like Gang members in Utah. These guys literally have the police running scared. So that was really funny. So I gave them all a hand shake and said maybe another day. So that happened. I love you all so much!!