Monday, February 24, 2014

Pato, pato, pato, GANSO!

Emily Pickett
2:01 PM (1 hour ago)

to me, Rodger, Annie, becca, Casey, Mary, Kathleen, Rochelle, Teri, Megan, Cara, Kristine, Ethan
Wow! February goes pretty quick, doesn't it? Copan is proving to be one of those areas where I feel like I just got here and yet I feel like I've been here forevere at the same time. Especially when we are climbing up a mountain. Then I feel like I've been here for an eternity, or at least climbing that mountain for an eternity. But no, it's only been three weeks, so we're chill.

Hra. Cumatz and I are doing our best to stay busy. We had our first real baking adventure last week and made bread. That was pretty cool. It was just funny when it was done baking after 25 minutes and Hra Cumatz said, "I think we can cook it and eat it in less time that it took to prepare." But we made that loaf of bread last for a whole week! It was pretty incredible. The other loaves we gave away to two families in the branch and we took one to our district meeting. This week's project is banana bread. They actually sell browner bananas here (all of the bananas in Campana were fresh off of the tree) so that should help out.

We're seeing the steady flow of investigators this week. We keep finding new ones, but we keep losing people, too. Hra Cumatz explained to me this week that the Evangelicals here have a system wherein as soon as we start visiting someone, first a neighbor, then a couple of friends, and then a minister from the local church will come to visit our latest "vicitim" and begin to explain to them to web of lies and trickery that is the visits of those sweet little Mormon missionaries. Dang. They have us all figured out. But you know what, it's chill. Because we don't convince people. We just bring them opportunities to feel the Spirit and then let them decide for themselves. So it's cool.

Sorry, that last paragraph savored strongly of bitterness. Not bitter. Loving life. Mostly this week we've been doing lots of walking, lots of gospel sharing, and lots of mission enjoying. I've been falling down a lot, though. There is one particular hill that always gets me. But I didn't fall all the way over the cliff and other than some scraped up knees and elbows I'm fine. It's like I'm a little girl all over again: I bleed for a minute and then I keep going! But that wonderful phenomenon of healing worked its way into my talk this last Sunday (Hra Cumatz and I found out we were the speakers for this week at 10pm on Saturday night, and I decided what I was going to speak about/prepared my talk after preparing my primary lesson on Sunday morning. Branches are great!), so all is well. Primary is getting a lot more manageable. This week we played Duck, Duck, Goose (or pato, pato, ganso) after we finished the lesson. Unfortunately, the three little boys who came to class this week didn't grasp the concept of lightly tapping each person's head, so my I-actually-put-in-effort-because-it-is-Sunday hairstyle died pretty quickly. But we had fun, so it was worth it.

I had a pretty good revelation yesterday as we climbed up a mountain (that really is not an overstatement). I was quite a ways ahead of Hra Cumatz, because she was kind of dying in the sun (her hometown is not very sunny, surprisingly) and I was singing A Child's prayer to give myself a rhythm to keep putting one foot in front of the other. We had walked quite a ways to get to where we were going, and I realized how many lessons I could have had in Campana with all this time we had just used to walk (and sunburn lightly). But As I was struggling up this mountain, it hit me. It doesn't really matter. The number does not matter. Copan is not Campana, and maybe I can't do missionary work the same way I did it there now that I am here. But it isn't my work, and my way of doing it isn't what is important. It is the Lord's work, and the Lord's way. If we are being obedient and putting in our might, we are doing what He asks. He will do the rest. He will prepared the hearts of His children here. He doesn't not leave us alone to labor in the vineyard. He labors at our side. So as I was singng Father, in prayer I'm coming now to Thee (in a slightly breathless manner, as I was just about at the top of the mountain) I decided to stop stressing and come to the Lord, and trust in Him that His work will move forward in Copán Ruinas. One mountain at a time.

So yeah, life is great. They have Chinese food here in Copan and we ate some today. It's no Panda Express, but it was okay. Hra Cumatz and I are working on her English, and she randomly says very cute and slightly incorrect phrases like You is my best friend! Oh, I just love that Chapina.

I hope that everyone is loving life and enjoying your own opportunities to labor in the marvelous work and a wonder. The Lord has blessings waiting for every one of His missionaries, including those without a plaque. I love Him, and I love His work, and I love his Copaneca children.

Have a wonderful week! And go eat some real Chinese food and enjoy it for me in proxy!

Love,
Hra Pickett

Monday, February 17, 2014

Happy President's Day!


We ran out of money so we made baleadas. Cheap and delicious! Get ready, America, because I'm bringing these babies home with me! 


I live on a mountain, surrounded by mountains! It's awesome!


And Happy late Valentine's Day, too! What a festive week we are passing! They do celebrate Valentine's day here in Honduras. It's called Día de Cariño. Hra Cumatz and I made heart shaped pancakes--it was pretty sweet. (note: I just had to ponder that spelling of pancakes for about 3 minutes because we never use the letter K in Spanish, so using it now is super weird. Fun fact.) 

It's been a fun and full week of hill climbing and gospel teaching here in Copan Ruinas! It's really sweet when people decide to miss lessons here, because our investigators live a lot further apart and people don't just hang out infront of their houses waiting to talk to us like they did in Campana, so changing plans takes a lot longer, but it's chill! The Lord's work is getting done! And somebody actually came to church this week, so that was a blessing. It's just pretty funny to contemplate how big of a deal one person coming to church is when, upon asking Hra Harmon how many people came to church in Campana the otherSunday, she said "Oh, it was raining, so we only had 13". But hey, the worth of every single, solitary soul is great in the eyes of God. GREAT. I'm glad that I have a better opportunity to appreciate the one, because I'm not sure how well I learned that in the land Bountiful (or, in other words, Campana). 

We got to take another long bus adventure on Tuesday to attend our district meeting in La Florida (which is not pronounced like a US state, so as you read this mentally, go back and correct yourself. I have to do that every time) We arrived early enough to take the right bus this time, which was cool. But I couldn't fall asleep on the morning bus, and you have to fall asleep on the morning bus, because falling asleep on the afternoon bus is not an option. Allow me to explain: There are great big coach buses, that are like paradise and are only available at7:00 because they run all the way from Copan Ruinas to San Pedro Sula. Then there are normal sized buses. And then there are little buses, which are basically vans. And the people who run them will cram every body they can onto these buses. It's like playing tetrus, but with people. So as we were cramming into one of these little bus/van contraptions for the 1.5 hour trip back to las Ruinas (bad luck on our part) and as I'm contemplating where I am going to squeeze myself in, a slightly creepy Honduran man pats the eight-ish inches of seat next to him as if to say, Come hither. And I'm like, No. Gross. But he hops out and explains, you can have the larger part of the seat. I'll squeeze into the eight inches. And then the cobrador (not the guy who drives the bus, but the guy who shoves customers in) starts shoving me into the bus, so I got in. And those eight inches were looking pretty small. Elder Wing, who was sitting behind me, says "So, now he's going to sit on your lap." Luckily, he didn't. But the tiredness from not sleeping on the morning bus kicked in after the first half hour of the trip, and because this guy was way inside my personal space, when my head drooped down in sleepiness, it drooped right onto his shoulder. Awkward. And within the first milisecond of contact with a male, my sister missionary instincts kicked in enough to wake me up and jerk my head of off the still slightly creepy Honduran man, but then I'd start drifting off again and the whole process would repeat. It was kind of like I was playing Whack-a-mole on this guy's shoulder and my face was the mallot. Whoops. But eventually a few people started unloading and I got my personal space back, so that was nice. Life lesson: sleep on the morning bus. I don't know how applicable that is to anyone reading this letter, but if you find yourself feeling tired on a 7am bus in Honduras, you might as well sleep. 

We've been trying various tactics (started typing varios maneras, but then I remembered I was writting this letter in English) to create some excitement about the branch. We can't have branch activities in the church building, because nobody comes, so we have them in member's houses instead. This week we had one FHE, one Noche de Hermanamiento (which would be night of fellowshipping...I think) and one Noche de Traje, which involved bringing a little gift and exchanging it with someone else. We had that for Valentine's day. And Hra Cumatz and I (upon arriving very late and very stressed out but with one investigator in tow, so it was worth it) ended up quite embarrassed because we were almost the only ones who followed the branch president's guidelines that the gift should be something like a piece of fruit or chocolate. People put a lot of effort into gift giving here. We both handed over our meager presents with the promise to bring something better another day (which I made good on, so it's chill). But we couldn't have done much better than we did, because we were really out of money. Hra. Cumatz got pretty set back from going to San Pedro and back (that's super expensive) and she ran out a long time before I did, but then I got pretty set back paying for double the groceries. There was definitely a day that I left the house inAnd Happy late Valentine's Day, too! What a festive week we are passing! They do celebrate Valentine's day here in Honduras. It's called Día de Cariño. Hra Cumatz and I made heart shaped pancakes--it was pretty sweet. (note: I just had to ponder that spelling of pancakes for about 3 minutes because we never use the letter K in Spanish, so using it now is super weird. Fun fact.) 

It's been a fun and full week of hill climbing and gospel teaching here in Copan Ruinas! It's really sweet when people decide to miss lessons here, because our investigators live a lot further apart and people don't just hang out infront of their houses waiting to talk to us like they did in Campana, so changing plans takes a lot longer, but it's chill! The Lord's work is getting done! And somebody actually came to church this week, so that was a blessing. It's just pretty funny to contemplate how big of a deal one person coming to church is when, upon asking Hra Harmon how many people came to church in Campana the other Sunday, she said "Oh, it was raining, so we only had 13". But hey, the worth of every single, solitary soul is great in the eyes of God. GREAT. I'm glad that I have a better opportunity to appreciate the one, because I'm not sure how well I learned that in the land Bountiful (or, in other words, Campana). 

We got to take another long bus adventure on Tuesday to attend our district meeting in La Florida (which is not pronounced like a US state, so as you read this mentally, go back and correct yourself. I have to do that every time) We arrived early enough to take the right bus this time, which was cool. But I couldn't fall asleep on the morning bus, and you have to fall asleep on the morning bus, because falling asleep on the afternoon bus is not an option. Allow me to explain: There are great big coach buses, that are like paradise and are only available at 7:00 because they run all the way from Copan Ruinas to San Pedro Sula. Then there are normal sized buses. And then there are little buses, which are basically vans. And the people who run them will cram every body they can onto these buses. It's like playing tetrus, but with people. So as we were cramming into one of these little bus/van contraptions for the 1.5 hour trip back to las Ruinas (bad luck on our part) and as I'm contemplating where I am going to squeeze myself in, a slightly creepy Honduran man pats the eight-ish inches of seat next to him as if to say, Come hither. And I'm like, No. Gross. But he hops out and explains, you can have the larger part of the seat. I'll squeeze into the eight inches. And then the cobrador (not the guy who drives the bus, but the guy who shoves customers in) starts shoving me into the bus, so I got in. And those eight inches were looking pretty small. Elder Wing, who was sitting behind me, says "So, now he's going to sit on your lap." Luckily, he didn't. But the tiredness from not sleeping on the morning bus kicked in after the first half hour of the trip, and because this guy was way inside my personal space, when my head drooped down in sleepiness, it drooped right onto his shoulder. Awkward. And within the first milisecond of contact with a male, my sister missionary instincts kicked in enough to wake me up and jerk my head of off the still slightly creepy Honduran man, but then I'd start drifting off again and the whole process would repeat. It was kind of like I was playing Whack-a-mole on this guy's shoulder and my face was the mallot. Whoops. But eventually a few people started unloading and I got my personal space back, so that was nice. Life lesson: sleep on the morning bus. I don't know how applicable that is to anyone reading this letter, but if you find yourself feeling tired on a 7am bus in Honduras, you might as well sleep. 

We've been trying various tactics (started typing varios maneras, but then I remembered I was writting this letter in English) to create some excitement about the branch. We can't have branch activities in the church building, because nobody comes, so we have them in member's houses instead. This week we had one FHE, one Noche de Hermanamiento (which would be night of fellowshipping...I think) and one Noche de Traje, which involved bringing a little gift and exchanging it with someone else. We had that for Valentine's day. And Hra Cumatz and I (upon arriving very late and very stressed out but with one investigator in tow, so it was worth it) ended up quite embarrassed because we were almost the only ones who followed the branch president's guidelines that the gift should be something like a piece of fruit or chocolate. People put a lot of effort into gift giving here. We both handed over our meager presents with the promise to bring something better another day (which I made good on, so it's chill). But we couldn't have done much better than we did, because we were really out of money. Hra. Cumatz got pretty set back from going to San Pedro and back (that's super expensive) and she ran out a long time before I did, but then I got pretty set back paying for double the groceries. There was definitely a day that I left the house in the morning with the equivalent of 50 cents to my name. But the money came in (yay!) and we are no longer desitute, so don't worry about us. We're fine. We had to be very creative eaters this week, but we're fine. 

It's a very different gear here in Copan, but it is still the work of the Lord and I still love it. The people here are wonderful, even when they trash talk Mormons (happens) and close the door in our faces and don't reopen it (definitely happened). Or when they station their kids in the street to warn the family that we are coming so everyone can hide. That's my favorite. But I am so glad to be a missionary and to be serving here. I love my Heavenly Father and I love this labor He has given me. It's been a lovely week in the vineyard! I am so psyched to have so many more to look forward to. 

Oh! And here's a life note. We had this family in church yesterday from the States (weird!) The father works in the US Embassy in Guatemala, and so they just came over for the weekend. They were really wonderful to talk to, their nine year old daughter was a joy to have in my primary class (which was slightly less insane but still needs work) and they were kind enough to give us actual American candy to buoey (I don't know how to spell that any more) up our spirits. So, when you are on vacation, go to all three hours of church, because all of them are important, and especially if you are in a foreign country, give the missionaries some love. We all know they need is. Thank you, Barney family. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! ¡Que le vaya bien! 
Love, Hermana Pickett     the morning with the equivalent of 50 cents to my name. But the money came in (yay!) and we are no longer desitute, so don't worry about us. We're fine. We had to be very creative eaters this week, but we're fine. 

It's a very different gear here in Copan, but it is still the work of the Lord and I still love it. The people here are wonderful, even when they trash talk Mormons (happens) and close the door in our faces and don't reopen it (definitely happened). Or when they station their kids in the street to warn the family that we are coming so everyone can hide. That's my favorite. But I am so glad to be a missionary and to be serving here. I love my Heavenly Father and I love this labor He has given me. It's been a lovely week in the vineyard! I am so psyched to have so many more to look forward to. 

Oh! And here's a life note. We had this family in church yesterday from the States (weird!) The father works in the US Embassy in Guatemala, and so they just came over for the weekend. They were really wonderful to talk to, their nine year old daughter was a joy to have in my primary class (which was slightly less insane but still needs work) and they were kind enough to give us actual American candy to buoey (I don't know how to spell that any more) up our spirits. So, when you are on vacation, go to all three hours of church, because all of them are important, and especially if you are in a foreign country, give the missionaries some love. We all know they need is. Thank you, Barney family. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! ¡Que le vaya bien! 
Love, Hermana Pickett    

Monday, February 10, 2014

I'm on top of the world!







Had to say goodbye to Hra Harmon. Love this sister! 

New compas: Hra Neibar, Hra Harmon, Hra Pickett, and Hra Cumatz


Sadly, my feeling that my time in Campana was drawing to a close was quite correct, and we learned after writing last Monday (but a loooooooooooong time after writing. Like, not until 9pm. We did not handle that suspense very well) that I indeed had a transfer. So that meant that on Tuesday I had to go around and say goodbye to people. Saying goodbye to people is the worst. Especially when Araceli and Cecilia and Julia and pretty much all of fam. Huezo started crying. But the really cool promise of the gospel is that, if we do what we need to do, we never ever have to say goodbye to the people that we love. We can have them always. Separations aren't permanent, and the people we love never truly leave us (Remus Lupin taught me that, but the Plan of Salvation backed it up) (that was a joke, worry not).

But after the run of saying goodbye to people, which was tough, we woke up early on Wednesday and headed to yet another cambios meeting in San Pedro Sula. I knew I wasn't training, and one of the APs made an offhand comment to me that I had an awesome area, but other than that I had no idea what was waiting for me. And for some horrible reason, my name finds its way to almost the very bottom of the cambios list every time we do this, so that's always difficult, but a fin de cuentas I was assigned to Copan Ruinas with (the most ADORABLE chapina in the world) Hra Cumatz. Let me tell you: this is probably the most highly coveted area in the mission. Another sister jokingly (mostly) said "Hra, I'm going to kill you! Why are you going to Copan and not me?" It was half joking in the same way that in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding the brother and cousin are always saying "Hey Ian! We're gonna kill ya!" Pretty much like that....But we took last pictures and hugged goodbye (Hra Harmon's new compa is named Hra Neibar and she seems pretty legit, so I'm trusting her with my area/hijastra/fam. Huezo) and loaded up on a bus out to Zona Copan. Because it is very far away from everything. It's like Honduran Timbuktu.  We stopped at a mall in San Pedro to eat mall at the food court before heading out there. That was SO WEIRD! I was going up an escalator and thinking "What country am I in?" We ate at KFC because, even though Hra Cumatz always forgets how to say that, she loves the food there. And I got a pretzel from Auntie Annes for dessert, and I broke of a piece for Hra Cumatz and as she's chewing she said the equivalent of "Okay, wow, I love this." Too bad there definitely is not an Auntie Anne's in Copan. The bus ride out here has two parts: three hours to the stake center in La Entrada, and then another 1.5-2 hours in a different bus to Copan Ruinas. That's a really long time in a bus. But I successfully did not get sick (most people get sick) and I just kept looking out the window in shock and awe because it is GORGEOUS here.

Chapina de fuego! I love this Guatemalan girl! 


Run-down on las Ruinas: The town is called Copan Ruinas because there is a huge Mayan ruins site here. It makes this one of the more famous places in all of Honduras, and I now see at least one white person every day. That's weird. But I officially speak enough of Spanish and English to be an effective translator/peace keeper (we had a tough time with a Canadian on a bus from La Entrada the other day) so that's pretty cool. The city is built into the mountain, so we walk up really, really big hills between every appointment. Turns out my "totally out of breath" face is a smile, so Hra. Cumatz says if I die, I'll die happy. Let me tell you, if I die in Copan, I'll die happy and I'll die skinny, because the hills here are kicking me into shape. We have four missionaries here: yo, Hra Cumatz, Elder Pace (who is the same Elder Pace who was my district leader for 3/4 of my time in Campana and is now my DL in Copan, it's pretty funny) and Elder Wing. We have a branch of about 40 people, and around 120 inactive members. It is incredibly beautiful, and the work is incredibly difficult. No one wants to listen to us. The people here are actively set against the LDS church. Awesome, right? But the four missionaries thing is pretty recent, and I feel pretty sure that the Lord has some big plans for this area. So it's chill. Something's coming. Vamos a ver.

The good news is that, if this area is going to be difficult, living with Hra Cumatz definitely will not be! She is seriously one of the sweetest, most adorable people I have ever met. She's from Guatemala, she's probably right around 5 feet tall (maybe a little shorter), and when she teaches, she teaches with the power and authority of the Spirit of God. The funny part is that her nickname is Chapina de fuego (Guatemalan of Fire) and when something makes her mad, like creeper guys whistling at us in the street, she gets pretty mad. But a pretty mad, 5 foot 90 lb Chapina is kind of like a really small dog barking: You get it that they're annoyed, but it's kind of adorable at the same time. She made me a really cute card yesterday for my cumplemeses (I've got 7 whole months on the mission!) and I am really excited for  our next six weeks.

I still love being a missionary. Even if the people here don't want it right now, I know that we are bringing the true and everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that our Heavenly Father has done everything and given everything and continues to do all for our happiness, and we have the gospel as the instructions to living joyfully. I know that families can be forever, that God loves us, and that if we follow in His way, we can be happy forever. I know it. I taught it to the primary class yesterday.

If anybody is praying for the mission force down here, now is a perfect time to start praying a little harder. I'll keep you posted on the Copan adventures. Next stop eternity!

Love, Hra Pickett

PS Somebody tell Graham happy birthday for me!

Monday, February 3, 2014

With 15 seconds to spare


I raided Hra Harmon's camera this week and I found this picture from Christmas. Thanks for the trader joe's chocolate, it was amazing!


So we had a pretty strong feeling this week that it was going to be my last one in Campana, so we decided last Thursday that we were going to make this week count! Hence, we set a higher goal for lessons, street contacts, and references than I have EVER set in my mission! This week was insane!

I love being busy. It's the best thing ever. Which is good, because this week we were busy. Every night this week we have come home ready to die, we are so tired. But we received a talk to read two weeks ago by Elder Callister of the presidency of the 70 and he said that we need to be consecrated missionaries, and consecrated missionaries put EVERYTHING on the alter of sacrifice, which means at the end of the day, there shouldn't be anything left to give. That about sums it up!

We are still working hard with Johana and her family, and on Monday we visited them after having our first "official" FHE with fam. Huezo. That was awesome. Fam. Huezo is actually a neighboring family to Johana, so we take them with us when we visit them now. And fam. Huezo is the best collection of member missionaries I have ever seen! We went one night with Yeimy and Odalis and right away they were saying "We are so much happier now that we are baptized. You should get baptized. Are you not sure? You should pray. God answers prayers. There's this verse in James, it's 1:5..." And then we went with Maria. Oh, Maria. First, here's a Spanish principle. There is Usted, which is You but formal and polite. There is Tú, which is You but in a more familiar way, usually for family and friends but never used here, except in prayer. And then there is Vos. And you only use Vos for your closest and most basic relationships, or its super disrespectful because it's so casual. I have talked to a lot of people who say they won't even talk to their spouse in Vos because it's disrepectful. So Maria is saying again and again to Johana's husband, "Marry her!" and she's saying it in Vos. It will always bring joy to my heart to think of Maria saying "Casáte!" over and over again. But the good news is that, after we left, the two of them talked it out and they want to get married and baptized. Johana told us the other night that out of the blue, Miguel just got a really good and really stable job, and she feels like God is already blessing them for their choices to be obedient. We testified that He is.

We also had our first lesson with Candy Huezo's husband, and the two of them are already golden. His work schedule is pretty hectic, but they are already married, so a bad schedule is definitely the least of two evils. Kendi and Mexi, our two little girls out in Puente Alto, have gotten over their fear of getting water in their ears and nose and are psyched to get baptized soon. Laynie, I showed them a picture of your baptism and that helped a lot. Thanks for making righteous decisions :) We had  couple of really cool first lessons this week: Karen, who is Julia's sister, Cyntia, who was listening to the missionaries in Fesitranh before moving away and already wants to be baptized, and fam. Oriana. Get this: it's eight people! And they have numerous family members who are converts to the church and who are super excited to help us teach them. We are so pumped!

We had a pretty sweet experience with one of our less active members this week, Alba. She has been promising missionaries for years that she'll come back to church, and she doesn't come. So when we went to visit on Sunday afternoon, ready to talk about Día de Reposo (the sabbath day) again, she looked at us and said, "God must be pretty angry with me, right?" And I decided that no, God isn't angry with us when we fail Him. It's pretty hard for us to understand that, because even with the people that we love, we can very easily get to frustration and anger when people don't do what they said they would. But, with His infinite and perfect love, our Heavenly Father does not turn to anger, but rather to heartbreak. He is not frustrated, but He is deeply saddened. We shared with Alba the blessings and purpose of the sacrament, that we can be clean and happy again, and one of my favorite scriptures from 3 Nephi 9. It is a plea from the Savior that says in essence (I don't have my English scriptures, sorry) Will you not repent and come unto me, that I may heal you? He wants to help. He wants us to be happy. We just have to walk far enough forward that His arms may envelope us, and we can be healed. It's a miracle, and it's the sweetest truth in creation. I love that I get to tell people about it all day. I love this work!

But amidst all of these wonderful moments, we started feeling a little bit of pressure to meet those insanely high goals we had set for this week--namely, the 60 lessons we wanted. At 7:00pm, we had fulfilled our visits with recent converts and less actives, but we needed two more lessons, and the first one fell. It was chill, we found another one. But it ran a little long, and then our guy for the last visit, Pablo, wasn't where he said he would be. Two problems: we can't look for him, because we don't know where he lives, and we didn't have time to look for him, because consecrated missionaries are exactly obedient and enter their house at 8:00 or 8:30 if they are in a visit. So we had to find him before 8:00. It was impotant. We searched around a bit and started to feel pretty tight on time, but at 7:55 our stake president's wife called from her house, "We found him, Sisters! He's here with us!" So we had that lesson with Pablo and the stake president's family (pretty awesome teaching companions, right?) but Pablo was rambling about very off topic things and we had to cut him kind of short at 8:25. And his prayer/ Saida's explaination of how we pray took about 2 and a half minutes, so we shook hands and cheek kissed and RAN home, but we made it! With 15 seconds to spare! It was pretty awesome, and we feel like we used every bit of our time optimally this week, which was great. But we moved the goal down a little bit for next week, so Hra Harmon's new compa won't have a heart attack.

I love this work so much. I love the Lord, I love this time that I have to serve Him, and I love His children that I am with here. It will be pretty hard if I have to leave this week, because over the last five and a half months (it's been a while here in Campana) these people and this ward have become like my family. But the Lord has made a way for us to always be with those we love, even the people we meet in Honduras and might only know for five and a half months. I am grateful for every moment that I have spent here. I am grateful that the Lord continually puts a mirror before me and shows me that I have such a great need to change, and then He helps me do it. I love Him and I know that this gospel is truly and uniquely His.

I hope you can all stay busy in the work of the Lord, be it in your home, your job, school, or just in the crazy opportunities to meet one of the Lord's children in the street. It's the best way to spend a week I know!

Love,
Hra Pickett

My "twitter" umbrella finally died, after 6 months of fighting bravely. #Restinpeace

So on Monday I had to desfrost the feezer part of our fridge with Hra Harmon's blow dryer. Eventually, I could just pull out huge chunks of ice. It was sweet. 
 I am so grateful for this time that I have had with Hra Harmon! She is such an incredible blessing and I wouldn't have rather spent the last 8 weeks with anyone else! 



Huezo baptism! I had to do some serious deep breathing to chill out from all the stress, but seeing all of them in white seriously helped :)



We saw this great view of the mountains as we walked one day and both of us stopped and said, "Wait, we're actually in Honduras. Weird. Let's take a picture!" 
We are teaching these two sweet kids, Ronan and Isabel. They said they want to be missionaries, too, so we lent them out tags.