Way too many awesome things!

 

Elder Morales & Elder Henry

 

Hello Gringos!

     So this week was pretty interesting, just as I expected it would be. Tuesday we had our district meeting and everything like normal, and Wednesday at 7 AM we were on the bus headed to Puerto Jimenez. It took about 3 hours to get to a school where we got down and President Conejo picked us up in his minivan. Puerto Jimenez was awesome. It was pretty strange not really working, but we went and found a house for the missionaries and for the chapel, and met the members there. It's a pretty strong little group there, 4 faithful families. We got to see lagoons, the gulf, and mountains! so it's got a little bit of everything there. it's right on the peninsula, so one side is the gulf and the other is the Pacific Ocean. In my 1 day stay there here's a few of the things I saw:

Alligator

some cool 1 foot lizards

a pet porcupine (I held it!)

like 50 parakeets flying over (it's fun to see them because they're always coupled off)

Macaws (beautiful, beautiful creatures)

Scorpion! That's a fun story. We layed down to sleep (we slept outside on the balcony in a cabin-like house) and right where Javier was gonna sleep next to his sleeping bag was a scorpion walking on by! So I told him to get up and we stomped it dead. Luckily, there weren't any more scorpion incidents in the night.

And a hermit crab! on the beach.

I also got to open coconuts with a machete for the first time in my life, eat green oranges, see the cocoa plant, and see a gorgeous view of the gulf from the mountainside.

Also, there's a palm tree that has a red trunk. That's pretty cool.

So that was a fun day. In the night some ticks got hold of my ankles, so I'm suffering from that, but it was totally worth it.

Thursday was a bus ride to San Jose, which, since Puerto Jimenez is farther away, took 9 hours to get there! Woohoo!

Friday we had Mission Leadership Council. It was so wonderful. President Hayes teaches doctrine that's so awesome and makes you realize that you don't know ANYTHING about the scriptures! haha. He talked a little bit about Holy Week and what happened when there and the last supper and sacrament and how all that got started. That was really interesting.

He also talked about something which I absolutely loved. He mentioned how missionaries will have success when they be themselves, because when you're yourself you gain the confidence of people. It's so true. I spent a nice chunk of time trying to be the perfect missionary instead of being Elder Henry and it makes a big difference. In Paso Ancho I really love that I was myself and I could love the members being me and they could love me. It's so much more enjoyable that way, and that's really how it should be. God gives us personalities for a reason! So he encouraged us to help our missionaries recognize that.

Apart from that, Friday was another 7 hour bus ride into the area. Saturday we divided and conquered. I was really happy to go to a less active's house who had come to church the week before. I explained the lost sheep parable and just kept telling her how happy I was that she came, and that that's how it is when the lost sheep comes back. And I was really happy to see that yesterday she came again, all on her own :) so that was fun.

We have some great people in our area but we have a lot to do this week, since we didn't have almost any time last week. I went to see some investigators and realized that we hadn't gone there for 2 weeks or more! Craziness.

So that's life this week. I'm enjoying being out here in the jungle :) I know that some people would get annoyed by the heat or the bugs or whatever but there's way too many awesome things to spend my time grumpy for those little things!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Henry

From his letter to his dad:

Oh, a funny thing that happened that I think you'll enjoy this week

Yesterday we had the group meeting in the farms, but nobody brought bread or little cups for the water, so it was a sacrament meeting without the sacrament. Oops!

Funny little thing from his email to me, he says his new shower is nicer but he laughed when I asked him if he has hot water now (that was a "no way Jose" haha).