Hermana Bodine got to go to the temple!
Oh man what a crazy week it has been.
We had zone conference and divisions and exchanges and the temple and training
conference and pday on Thursday!! Let’s just say that missions can be pretty
crazy sometimes. But I have loved every minute of it!
To start, zone conference was awesome.
We have the best APs and President Hernandez is amazing and such a great
President and his wife is so great! It is funny because she is the one who is
forward and strict and tense about being exactly obedient and following all the
rules! This time she talked about the way we present ourselves by how we dress.
She stressed this and was very brunt and forward about it. But she is also
loving and after lunch she just came up to me and talked to me and made sure
that I was doing alright!!! She is truly a mother to the missionaries.
The Aps talked about how we have to be focused on the work and not focus and
think about any distractions and also they talked about how we have to
´sacrifice what we are...for what we want to become¨ I truly loved that because
the mission truly is about sacrifice. I love it! I want to sacrifice what
I am because I want to be better. I want to live up to my
potential. Side note, I taught some kids a little lesson with Hermana
Molina when we were on exchanges and we talked about how they and all of us are
princesses and princes because God is the King of the World. They truly loved
that and in my mind i was thinking of your phrase, ¨be loyal to the royal in
you¨¨. Back to the zone conference. It was great! It was fun to be with
other missionaries and be spiritually uplifted.
We had divisions on Monday and Hermana
Bitter, the sister AP, (the hermana whose blog I read before the mission) came
to Santa Lucia and spent the day and night with us. It was weird to work with 3
and it just shows that every person teaches differently and everything!! I
liked it and she is an awesome missionary but it was just different and I am
really grateful for my companion and how we have worked to unify our teaching together!!!
Tuesday was just another normal day in
the mission field. We worked hard and had a really positive lesson with
Hirminio who is blind (there is a living area for the blind in our area). He
was so receptive to the message of the restoration so hopefully he will keep
progressing.
On Wednesday we had a training
conference and had to go to Tegucigalpa for the conference. Everyone who
came from el CCM with me was there so it was so fun to be reunited and hear how
everyone was doing. Everyone said the first two weeks were way tough but
now pretty much everyone is happy!! I love that!! Everyone has had spiritual
moments that have made the mission worth it!! Believe me sometimes there are
more rough tiring days than good days but the good days are beyond good and
make it all worth it. It is just a matter of counting your blessings,
thinking about the good, and working hard.
After the conference, we spent the
afternoon in Villa Olimpica where Hermana Maggoon and Hermana Barrios live and
work. We needed to stay there because in order to go to the temple on
Thursday or today we had to be at a church building at 5 in the morning and our
area was too far away to go so we spent the afternoon and night with Hna
Maggoon, Barrios and Hna Molina and Hna Vasquez de Santa Lucia A were with us
too. We decided to split up 3 and 3 and just go contacting in the afternoon in
different areas (we are only allowed to knock doors with members). So Hna
Molina, Barrios and I went together. We went to a neighborhood in the city and
just decided to talk to everyone we passed.
Wednesday continued to be great and
then came today!!! What a marvelous day. We got up early and left for the
temple at 5 in the morning to get there to watch the sunrise. The Tegucigalpa
Temple is unlike any other. It stands high upon a hill and overlooks all of the
city. As we drove up to the temple, the full moon was still in the sky
and we arrived just as the sun was coming up on the opposite side of the
temple. It was so beautiful and the sunlight on the temple was just as
beautiful. We took pictures and just felt the spirit that was on the
temple grounds. We enjoyed our baleadas and juice has we continued to watch the
sunrise over the temple. Then around 7 we (my zone and another) entered the
temple.
Inside, the temple is even more
beautiful. There are paintings I have never seen before and the session rooms
and dressing rooms are upstairs. But the baptistery font is truly
beautiful as well. It is simple yet clean and pure. There are no
words to describe the beauty inside the temple. The session was in Spanish,
which was also different, but great! I loved it! Sitting in the session and
trying my hardest to understand the Spanish and fight the sleep was hard and it
made me think of life. Our life is tough and we have many struggles but
as we work hard on the daily and endure to the end, we can enter the celestial
kingdom and there are people there every step of the way helping us. We
have so many blessing and tender mercies in life. And there is no greater
feeling than entering the celestial room. This room in this temple is
tall and has a beautiful window and chandeliers.
Today in the celestial room was a
little different. I thought of my investigadors, Rosario, Hirminio, Marvala,
Anael, Santos, Luis. I pictured them in white. I pictured them as how they
could become. Their divine potential. I promised that I would do all I could so
that they could have the same experience in the celestial room in this
temple.
It is truly amazing that the Lord
blesses you with more love and more charity when you serve and think of
others. The love that I felt for the people of Honduras in the celestial
room was greater than ever before. And then I thought of my family and how the
greatest gift is that we can be together for all eternity. It was such a blessing
to go to the temple and I am so grateful that there is one here in this
country. I hope that my family can see this temple one day because it is
truly unlike any other. Such marvelous works are happening here in Honduras. I
am so grateful to be part of the Lord´s army. I know this church is true
without a doubt in my mind. It has truly been an amazing week and my
testimony has grown so much!
But things
are great here! Honduras is truly becoming my home!! I love that! It is
different here and I am starting to see beauty in a different way! People will
no teeth are beautiful and the sipmle houses are beautiful! Life here is
completely different and i wish you could see it! Maybe one day!!
I miss all of you so much and love you
all! You are in my prayers and on the prayer role in Honduras. Hope everyone
has an amazing week.
All my love, Hermana Bodine
Sunrise
From Oakland to Honduras
All the Hermanas
Jenn with a baleada!!
Companions
Hermanas with their Zone Leaders
With Hermana Molina, who she met at BYU!
MTC Companions reunited!
Thank you for sending us these beautiful photos of the Honduras Temple. It is so tall and majestic and white. What do you suppose Lehi and Nephi and others are thinking as they look down upon this area, the Lord's vineyard. Jenn, you look so beautiful and full of the spirit. And your hermanas look like such wonderful missionaries.
ReplyDeleteWe said goodbye to Stephen today and he entered the MTC at 1:00 p.m.
We send our love to you. You and your companions are in our prayers.
Grandpa and Grandma Hart