SISTER MARIA AND SISTER SANDRA

WOW! So this week was so awesome! Every single day this week I went to bed with a huge smile on my face:):) The Highlights of the week were for sure the Baptisms of the Hna. Sandra and the Hna. Maria. I'm just going to tell you all a little about them. Ok so first, Sister Maria. She's 72 years old and has a HUGE testimony of Jesus Christ. She lives about 3 seconds from our house. HAHA right in front of the house actually! She has lived in that house for years and NO missionary has ever contacted her. They have all talked with her but no one ever taught her anything about the Gospel. When we asked her when we could stop by to visit her she was caught off guard. She said "You guys want to teach me?" We just told her of course!!! Because all of the other missionaries never taught her. Well she is my Favorite Person her in Honduras. She makes me laugh so dang hard it's a joke hahaha! Every word she says puts a smile on my face. So about 5 days ago (Before her Baptism) she was VERY sick. We stopped by and she was actually crying. I felt so bad. We were talking to her and she looked at us and she said "Elders I think I'm going to die soon" it was so hard to hear. I just sat there with a tear running down my face. And then she looked at us again and said "But I will die a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I will not miss my Baptism this Saturday." Her testimony is so strong and I love her to death. She claims that she is going to talk to President Dester and pay him so that I don't ever have changes hahaha! I love her. And for Sister Sandra. Well I'll just start off by saying that she has been an Atheist her whole life. She had 0 faith in God or in Jesus Christ. The first time we contacted her she said some very mean things to us that I can't write over this Email hahaha! But we did some service for her so that she would let us teach her (that's the secret to have people listen to you). There was no water passing by her house at this time so we offered to do some service and she accepted. We ended up bringing her 65 gallons of water. In one day. It took us 6 hours in the morning. And we had to hike up that HUGE hill that I always talk about. And we did it all by hand. I was so tired that I was going to Die haha! But she listened to us the next day so it was all worth it. For about 4 weeks all we taught her about was that God is our Father in Heaven, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that the Holy Ghost can guide us in all things. The lessons were all so simple. We never had to teach her that the Book of Mormon was "Also" the word of God. We just taught her that The Book of Mormon and the Bible were Scripture. When we taught her about Jose Smith she never had one doubt that he was a Prophet of God. Because as she says "It all makes Perfect sense" Without Prophets God does nothing. (Amos 3.7) And that's all she needed to hear. Well with a little time Sister Sandra was baptized. She may not have a huge knowledge about the scriptures or the teachings of Modern day Prophets, but she has a testimony that God lives and that Jesus Is our Savior and that this is the Church that Jesus formed over 2000 years ago. She is such a strong member and I know that she is only going to get stronger. Well I'll wrap things up now. I testify that this Church is true. I know it with all my heart. I know that God is our Father. We are his Children. Jesus is the Christ, and because of him we all have the chance to live with Our God after this life. I love this Church. It has blessed me in so many ways I can't describe it. I love you guys so much! 

Love Elder Hess

Sister Maria and Sister Sandra

Copan Branch

Helping Sister Maria get down to the river

Clean:) (without sin)

Helping Sister Maria

Oh yeah and today we went to the Ruins for Pday

We Killed two Chickens for Dinner. Don't get sick.

They told me to cut its heads off.. So I did.

CRAZY OLD LADY

Ok so I'll just jump into what happened this week with the "Crazy old Lady." At midnight I was happily sleeping when I heard a HUGE BOOM on the front door.. (It scared me to death because in Honduras you never know if people are shooting other people right outside your house) So I got up super fast and ran to the door. I could only hear screaming. All I heard was ÄBRA LA PUERTA!!!!!!!! (Open The Door) And the person on the other side was running into the door trying to knock it down. Well I was about to die I was so scared I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife we had and opened the door. It was this 100% insane old lady who was "Looking for her Tortillas" Yes that's what she said. She thought that the Tortillas ran away into our house... Well I was still scared and I just told her to leave and she left. But I was watching her outside the window for about 30 minutes. Randomly she just comes running back, picks up a rock and is about to throw it at our window! When I saw her running at the house full speed I literally screamed I was so scared haha! I opened the door and said "Ey Que estas haciendo!!!! Largo De Aqui!!!" (Hey what are you doing!!!! Get out of here!! She dropped the Rock and just looked at me and started walking at me... I picked up the knife to try to scare her away but she kept coming.. During all of this my comp was just in the back ground praying haha. So I dropped the knife and was getting ready just to tackle her and call the Police but she randomly stopped and said "Ï know where my Tortillas are" and left. I ended up staying up til 4:30 in the morning watching the window making sure she didn't come back... She never did.. But I got a picture of her when she was walking away. She really was the scariest looking person I have ever seen.. But on a spiritual note things are going awesome in the work! We have some big Plans this next week so I hope they all fall through!!! I love you Guys!!

Love Elder Hess

PS I have a lot of pictures this week because I didn't send any last week:)

Going to Zone Meeting

My boy Vasquez.. He just went home :(

SUD (LDS)

Sister Sandra

Sister Maria

The psycho old Lady:( How scary looking is this Picture.

AMERICAN

Hola Chikis:) So to start I want to say Happy Birthday to my MOM!! I know it's not til Sunday but its this week SO I have to do the Email now! I love you so much Mom. Te quiero con todo mi corazon y espero que tengas un cumpleanos increible:) Thats just for you Mom:) I don't think anyone else will understand it haha! Also Shout out to America for winning the World Cup and for being the best country on earth. Ok so this week went really well.  Had so many lessons that went just about Perfect:) and had such a crazy Sunday Morning. OK so getting people to church is not an easy thing in the mission. Ask any RM. So on Saturday night from 6 to 8 we went around just reminding our investigators that we have church at 9 the following day. Well just about all them had some lame excuse why they couldn't go. So on Sunday morning before church we went to work so they couldn't have any excuse not to go to Church. So first we woke up at 4:45 to go to work. The first thing we did outside the house was set up this big stand that sells makeup. We had to do that because Sandra (one of our investigators) had to help her Mom set up the stand in the morning. The mom is like 128 years old she couldn't do it by herself. From there we went to Sister Luz House. We had to bring her 10 gallons of water so she could take a shower. That was her excuse. We had to bring the water from our house up this HUGE HILL just to get the water to her. It was the worst thing ever haha. From there we went to Maria's house and cleaned her whole house and locked all her ducks up so they wouldn't run away. That was so hard! Ducks are super fast and bite so flipping hard! Then we went to another Maria's house and made 5 pounds of tortillas. Yes I can make tortillas by hand now. I'll send a video some time. It's pretty cool. But we got all of it done and they ALL went to church WOOOOOOOO!! I was so happy! Sundays are always crazy I love it!!! Well that will just about do it! I'll send you guys a picture of the Hill we climbed to bring the water to the Sister Luz! Oh yeah ran into a Utah Family, they were all members and they went to church as well:) Well Love you guys! I'll see ya next week!

Love El Unico

HERE ARE LAST WEEKS PICS

Had a good week. But I haven't been feeling so well.. I'm not sure what I have but I'm sure I'll be feeling better soon. So this week we found a Golden investigator.. We put a date down the first lesson and he accepted. He also came to Church this Sunday.. So we are stoked. Also Belkis and her son are doing great too! They also have a date for their baptism! They went to church this Sunday and we watched the Restoration (With Jose Smith) And afterwards she was so happy. She looked at me after the video and said "Jose Smith saw the Father" I just told her yes. That's why we're here, all thanks to that moment in History. She just said "I believe it." It was a very special moment and I could not be more proud of her. I don't know if I told you guys this, but she actually came up to us and contacted us hahaha! Crazy right! It just shows that the Lord has a time and Place for all things. Her kids are so funny too! They always ask me if I know English and I just look at them and say "Yes" they are so cute! One is 9 years old and the other is 6! AND THEY LOOOOVE THE PRIMARY! Hna. Belkis told us that the kids wake up at 6:00 a.m. to start getting ready for church haha! So we're are all very excited! Also this Saturday (Fourth of July) WE should have another Baptism! I'm going to bring my American Flag. Well I love you guys all so much! Here are all the Pics from last week:)

CHENNY AND DIXIE:) 2 MORE MEMBERS IN HEAVEN

Yoo Whoo! SO I want to start this Email off by saying Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there! But more than anything to my Dad:) I love you so much Dad and I could not be more thankful for everything that you have done for me!:) And for all the things that you are still doing for me. My cousin Abbie sent me a really awesome Email, and I want to share with everyone what she said. "I am happy for the Father that created me, and for the two Fathers that raised me." When I read that it really did touch me. I have three fathers in my life and I could not feel more blessed. The three best Dads in the World. Happy Father's Day Guys:) Alright so we had a great week this week! The baptisms all went through!! WOOO! And we took some amazing pics so I'll make sure to send those when I can. Not right now because I forgot my camera. Yeah, I know. They were all so happy after their baptism and Sister Chenny shared her testimony with us after the service. It was so strong. I could feel her power, it was crazy. The best part was after the baptism 2 of our investigators who went said "I'm ready for this step in my life." I've learned that bringing investigators to baptisms is the best thing in the world to help build their testimony when they are having doubts over any little thing. This week we found a lot of news and 2 of them have told us that they want to be baptized. I am so excited!! WOO! Also I don't have changes. So I will be here for another 6 weeks! Living the Copan Dream! Oh so on a crappy note. All of my clothes have this Black awful Fungus growing on them.. SO today I spent like 5 hours (not kidding 5 hours) washing all my clothes by hand... But they are all better now:) I hope.. Well that's about it! Love you guys!

Love Elder Hess

GUS.. GUS.. GUS BUS.

Well I think Megan and Lexi are the only ones that will understand my title but whatever haha! Ok so not too much happened this week. I was only in my area for 2 days because I did divisions Tuesday. Went to do divisions Wednesday. Went to San PedroThursday. Did more Divisions Friday and did more divisions Saturday... Yeah what the heck. And I was never in my area for any of the divisions, but I had a good week and learned a lot:) I had a fun time in San Pedro:) We had a leadership Conference and President Dester spoke. So the Spirit was really strong:) I love going to San Pedro so much. It really is such a thrill to be there. Everything is so Crazy and dangerous haha! I was there for like 5 hours and in that 5 hours some old guy grabbed me and was screaming at me to help him haha. I just gave him a little push to get him off me. And that was that. Pretty funny though. So good news with Chenny! She is going to be baptized this Saturday with her daughter! WOOO! But her Husband no.. We are still working on the Word of Wisdom with him. But with time he will be a member of this church! Church this Sunday was great:) Gave a talk (didn't know I had a talk until he called my name at the beginning of sacrament), gave the Sunday School class, and then gave the Elders Quorum lesson, and then did Tithing, and then Cleaned the Whole Church. So it was a fun Sunday:) I love all of you guys so much! Have an awesome week!!

Love Elder Hess

Elder Chapeton (My Trainer)

Elder Perry (One of my BFFs in the Mish)

And Elder Coe De New Zealand. Also my BFF for life;)

No I'm not in Africa

New puppy at the Hernandez home:)

Pollo

Just what everyone wants to find on their bed right before they go to sleep.

I didn't sleep all night because I was so scared... I HATE spiders.

SERVICE FOR DAYS

Hey Y'all:) Well this week was so crazy. So much happened. I'll sum it up then I'll go into detail. We built a mud house. Married a couple (in the Church), built a street (as in road), and saved like 20 houses from flooding. Ok so first, building the mud house was so cool! It is crazy how they do it down here! What they do is form mud out of wood boxes (about 2 and a half feet long). From there you let the mud dry for two days. Then you just stack them like you are playing legos! To stick the blocks together we used more mud as a cement to hold everything together nice and tight! Really cool. Cant wait too see the end result. I'll send you pics when it's all done:) Ok so Chenny and her husband got married!!! It was so cool! We had the wedding in the Church. The weddings here are a lot different hahaha! Basically you just sign a paper in front of everyone and that's it. It's not really a party type thing. But after the wedding they handed out Chinese food to everyone:) So that was really yummy! Their baptism is this Saturday. But it turns out El Chao (the Husband) is addicted to smoking. He never told us until now. So right now we are deciding if we should just baptize Chenny and her Daughter Dixie or if we should wait until he stops smoking... Really hard situation. But we are helping him as much as we can to stop smoking! He has already stopped drinking coffee so we have a lot of faith that he can stop smoking:) Ok as for the street that we are making. It's hard work because there are no tools to help us, we just use our bare hands to get the job done. First we have to level the road. And then move huge rocks and place them in the road so we don't use a lot of cement. From there we just drop  a ton of cement on it to level it all out. Really cool. Doing service is one of my favorite parts of my mission:) And for the Flooding. The biggest rain storm of the year hit this Wednesday. It was coming down so hard.. At first it was really cool! We couldn't even hear each other talk because it was coming down so hard. We were walking to a lesson that we had planned but we got stopped by a little kid who was trying to dig a ditch so the water didn't flood his house. He was trying to make the water flow in another direction. Well, at first we weren't that worried but then the rain started coming down twice as hard. Then we realized, "Ah flip it really is going to flood all the houses." We dropped all of our stuff and started digging. We did that for an hour and a half and saved all of the houses:) Other than that we had a lot of great lessons and got most of our investigators to church yesterday:) It was a really good week! Well I love you all!! Hope you guys understand this Email haha! 

Love Elder Hess

The Road were building

Right before it started dumping down!

Saving the houses from Flooding

Workin

Selfies:)

The Wedding:)