Aaaaaaaaaaaalright! I cannot believe that yet another week has passed by us! I feel like just yesterday I was playing with the iguanas! But...life goes on unfortunately. As for this past week, I hope that it found each and every one of you at the top of the tops!
As for this week, well, it was a week found to be quite excellent. On Monday after writing in internet we hopped in the car of Elder and Hna Roper and we went to explore the island. First of all, we went to Wendy’s. Now, American restaurants are very expensive here in Honduras...especially Roatan. But, Elder Roper said that he invited us, meaning that he would pay. Sweeeeeeet! Then, we headed off to the iguana farm. That place is super cool, and has iguanas just walking around on the ground. And there are a TON. They also have monkeys, giant fish...a lot of stuff to see. We stopped by, took some sweet pictures, and as I was sitting there taking pictures of the iguanas, one runs up to me. Well, I held out my hand, and it started licking my hand. But then, suddenly, it bit me! I tried to grab it, but then it took off running. Then, we went to Fantasy Island, a suuuuper sweet hotel that, just outside the back door, is a beautiful beach and view of the ocean. Then we continued to explore and got to see Jonesville, Oak Ridge, and finally Punta Gorda. All in all a successful P-Day.
Then came time to work. We took advantage of the fact that we don’t have meetings as missionaries on Tuesday to go and buy a fan, because we only had one and we were suffering from the heat of Holy Week. But, while there, we ran into a lady who had received everything of the lessons from the missionaries, but couldn’t get baptized because her husband didn’t want to marry her. Well, she broke it off with him and came here with her little girls. So, she came up to us and asked us where we were located. So, we set up an appointment with her, and we are quite sure that very quickly she will be baptized. Also, turns out she was the investigator of one of our Zone Leaders right now in another area.
Then on Wednesday we contacted a ton of references from the members, and had a great turn out. We saw a lot of success come through that and a lot of new investigators come into our pool.
On Thursday we had our "Family Home Evening" in the church at night. Elder Roper and Hermana Roper told us they would do it. So, they showed a video of the Good Samaritan and talked very briefly about helping your fellow man. Then, we played a game called Fruit Basket for some 20 minutes. All in all it was very fun, and we even had several investigators come!
On Friday we did splits for the first time in Roatan. I got paired with President Zelaya, the branch president here in Roatan. I was pretty excited, because he is branch president and all...but there is one thing. President Zelaya is deaf. He can read peoples lips really well and understand, but the problem was that it was already night time and hard to read lips, and that we didn’t really have time to plan our lessons beforehand. But, it turned out really well. We went and visited some less actives who ended up coming to church on Sunday, and even some investigators. It was a great experience for me to have to literally do all the talking instead of doing splits and only having to do most of the talking.
On Saturday we went to give service. We showed up and the lady wanted us to take down an entire wall of her house and move it further to the side to give them more room in their already pretty big house. Well...the problem was that we showed up with one hammer. And that is it. So, we began to get ready to go grab more tools from Elder Roper’s house. But, then, upon further inspection, we found out that it was the load-bearing wall of the house. So, then we explained to her that the act of tearing down the wall would cause the house to collapse. Even if we took it apart slowly, she wanted us to move it onto her porch where the wall would have no support underneath. So, we ended up just repairing the wall that she and her son had begun taking apart. But, a pretty great experience because we brought a youth investigator with us.
Sunday...well...Sunday was funny. We went to leave with an army of members to visit references from all of them. We all packed into Elder Roper’s 5-person car and got to an area called Policarpo. Well...the thing about Policarpo is it is a new place. But, it is all built upwards. In a mountain. With a narrow and dangerous path. But, super cool. I’m pretty sure it is the highest point in Roatan because if you look in any direction, you see the ocean. We meet a ton of new investigators, but it may be tough for them all to come to church. We shall see.
And the courage of the heart...well, turns out that on Saturday we are enjoying our chicken soup from Sister Sorto, our cook. Well, a brief explanation of what is "soup" in Honduras is that they drop in huge chunks of meat, giant pieces of potato and "yucca" (I don´t know how to explain that haha), it is boiling hot, has a ton of carrots and rice...it is basically a concoction of whoever it is that makes it. Well, turns out it is delicious. I was finishing this delicious bowl when all the sudden my spoon meets something that I am not familiar with. As I raised my spoon to put it in my mouth, my companion gives me a nervous look and Hna Sorto begins to explain how she put chicken heart in the soup. So...swallowing my fear, I stuck the spoon in my mouth and began eating the heart of a once live chicken. Turns out...it tasted a lot like chicken haha. I did actually like it...which is pretty weird.
Anyway....that is about all I’ve got for this week. I hope that you enjoyed another installment in the life and times of Elder Tinkham, missionary in Honduras, located in Roatan. I hope that you have an amazing week this week and that all your dreams will come true. If you vote for Pedro, it will happen.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
