This week was pretty great! Saturday we had the baptism of Jose, and it was so cool. An 18-year-old in our ward baptized him, which was pretty cool to see him be baptized by his friend. Jose was an investigator of Hermana Montalvo and Hermana Mamani before I got here, but my first day I taught the Restoration with him. It has been so cool to see him make the changes in his life necessary to be baptized and really see his conversion take place. 

He bore his testimony during the baptism and expressed how grateful he is to have the truth and the opportunity to make this covenant with God, and that he knows that it's only the beginning to his path to live with God again. For those of us who are baptized members of this church, we take our covenants for granted sometimes. We take for granted that we have the truth, that there is a plan for each of us to live with our families for eternity! That we have a loving Heavenly Father who gave His Son to live and die for us to make this all possible. It's an incredible gift to know that because of Jesus Christ, we all have the choice to make these promises and to return to the presence of God free from the burden of sin and regret. It's quite beautiful. 

Also, today for Pday we went to Amapala, an island about an hour in bus and half-hour in boat from our area. There are 2 elders from our zone there. It's so beautiful! We played on the beach for a little while and then explored a little cave nearby. It's always fun to get outside of our area and see new places. 

That's pretty much it for this week, not a lot of variety going on here. We are praying for rain, since we haven't had any for a good 2 weeks. Last night there was a lightning storm but no moisture. We heard that when Elder Nelson was here he left a blessing for rain and we have faith that it'll come true. 

Have a wonderful week!

             Love, Hermana White-But actually more Red

The new member's full name is Ericson Jose Garcia Enriquez (3rd from left). 

 On the island of Amapala.

Hermana Garcia & Hermana White.

Greetings!

This week really flew by! I can't believe it's already Monday again. 

My companion had changes this week so Wednesday I got Hermana Garcia, she's from Guatemala and she's great! She's in her last change of the mission, and I've already learned a lot from her. I'm lucky because she's not baggy yet (ready to go home) and she is gung ho for working hard here in our area. 

Saturday we had a conference in Teguc with Elder Nelson and Elder Duncan, our area authority. It was super cool, and we learned a lot. We had to be at the chapel at 5 AM to catch the bus that was taking all the missionaries in the south. Our alarm didn't go off and so we got up at 5! It was crazy, we prayed a lot and grabbed our things and luckily made it to the bus. Hermana Garcia directed the music and so us both sat up on the stand. We had all the Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela missionaries there and also it was broadcast to the other Honduras missions and some other missions across Central America.

It was really neat the specific direction that we were given, and how we can be better missionaries and really help the people here. We were taught to choose to have joy in our work, work with ward leaders, and Elder Nelson gave us specific topics from the Guide to Study the Scriptures (Kind of like the topical guide and bible dictionary, its included in all the Libros de Mormon) to study and teach to strengthen less active and investigator families to get to the temple. He stressed the importance of having the goal of temple covenants, not only getting people baptized. We all got to shake his hand and he read our names and looked into our eyes and thanked us for our decision to serve and it was so special. I could really feel the love of the Savior in his presence. 

Also I spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday. That was interesting, I was worried I wouldn't have enough Spanish words for a 15 minute talk. But I made it through!  I only hope they were able to understand me and learn a little about the Sacrament, which I spoke on. I used a lot of Sister Esplin's talk from November 2014 conference, which I highly recommend reading! 

This week we have a baptism scheduled for Saturday! Our joven [young man], Jose, is 18 and is really cool. It's been fun to see how the youth in our branch have befriended him and made him feel part of it all. He always has super good questions about what we can teach him more and he's expressed a desire to serve a mission!  It took him a while to make a decision to be baptized but ever since he has been really anxious to learn more. 

Well, that's pretty much it. I shall now send un monton de fotos [lots of pictures]. 

Have a lovely week!

 Amy's district?

Adios to Hermana Montalvo

 New companion, Hermana Garcia from Guatemala.

I have no time, it took us forever to find internet today, but I wanted to drop a quick note to everyone to say that I'm doing great! Not much to report for this week, but it was better than last week! Hopefully we will have a baptism next week. Jose our investigator set a fecha [date] last week during a lesson and thanked us for bringing him this Gospel, and it was way cool. He just needs to go to church this week and he's all set for the 29th!

Next week I will report on our conference with President Nelson and also send pictures! 

Have a wonderful week! Love you all!

Amy

Greetings!

Another week has come and gone and I'm carrying on in the obra misional [missionary work]. We had some hard, hard days here, and yesterday after all our appointments fell through and our investigators didn't go to church and an investigator was literally hiding from us, I turned to my companion and said that maybe we had this week to be humbled. She then confessed to me that she had been praying for humility and charity this week and we laughed about how she should have warned me! But things are good. We focus on the blessings. 

As of Friday this week is the San Lorenzo Fair, so its been pretty crazy. There are lots of people in the centro near our casa and we have had to be in early for the nights which is a bummer. There have been parades and music and fireworks which is exciting though!

This week the hermanas of Obrera had a baptism in our chapel and one of our investigators came to watch it which I think will really help him! He has a testimony of everything and always has great questions for us, so we hope he will progress. 

Sunday we made Spaghetti for the president of our branch president, with fried eggs and tortillas. I guess it's Mexican? So my comp tells me. It was good. 

Also on the 22nd we will have a conference with our whole mission and Comayaguela [the 

Honduras Comayagüela Mission] and we are having an apostle come! We are pretty pumped about that. 

I'm grateful to have a companion who makes me laugh and to be in this great area! Being a missionary is the best. Also, in one of our lessons this week they asked me to pray in English and it was so hard to think of the words, so I think my language is improving! 

Attached are some pictures of some of my favorite people here and also li'l ol me! The kids are Ashley and Seysa, some little ruffians in our branch who remind me of Ellie and Henry, they're pretty funny. Another is my good friend Nancy, and I imagine that Laura and Nancy would be quick amigas. She has special needs and  a remarkable spirit. She sits outside her uncle's pulperia and whenever we pass we sit and sing her a hymn. She's sharp and she loves to pray with us. She isn't a member but she has a great knowledge that she is a daughter of God and that He loves her. 

Have a wonderful week,

    Hermana White

Hello! One of the four computers in San Lorenzo is down today so I don't have a lot of time to write, since my companion needs to use it after me. 

But anyways! Things are chugging along down here. We had Zone Conference in Choluteca, it was fun to see a new part of the country and to be edified together with the missionaries of El Sur. President Bowler gave us some great counsel on how we can improve and we left feeling ready to challenge the world to baptism! We learned how we can better work with members and our companions and above all the Spirit in the work. We also talked about how we have angels working with us on the hearts of these people. 

A cool story from this week about one of our families we are teaching. We found Fanny, a 12 year old girl, a couple of weeks ago and later her mom and her 4 sisters, during different street contacts. Our first visit with them was incredible, the Spirit was so strong and really testified to them that what we were sharing was true. When we gave their mom, Ana, the Book of Mormon she held it in her hands with such reverence and told us she already knew it was true. In subsequent visits we've only been able to meet with one or two of the sisters because it's harder to find the whole family all together. 

The other day we were teaching just Fanny, and when Hermana Montalvo and I walked into the house we both noticed a picture of a girl on the wall. When we were talking after we both said we couldn't keep our eyes off of it and we both received the impression that this girl had passed away. During the lesson Hermana Montalvo asked who she was and Fanny told us that she is their cousin who was like a sister to the family and had passed away in a tragic accident a year ago on July 21st. We shared part of the Plan of Salvation with her and it was incredible. 

Later, when we were looking through our agendas, we realized that we had found this family exactly one year after this cousin had died, on July 21st. We firmly believe that we have a team of 3 working with this family, and that we are receiving help from the other side of the veil. I sincerely hope they can keep progressing because I know they will have the opportunity to be a forever family! 

The work is great, and I am humbled and extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be a missionary during this time. The language is still a huge struggle for me, and I have lots and lots to learn still, but it's all taken in stride. 

I hope you all have a great week and remember to take the time to recognize the mercies of the Lord in your lives! 

Love you all!

-Hermana Blanco

Dad: Thanks for all the pictures !  Is that one pic where you use the internet?

Amy: Yep! And behind me is our apartment.

Zone Conference in Choluteca

Translation: "And you? What will you do to change the world?"

Across from Amy's apartment is Lillian's Beauty Salon where they use the internet on P-days