Maiz: It's What's for Dinner

Fellow daughters of Hra Escalante! I'll take Hra McCuistion for my sister any day! 

Happy last day of March! It's true what they say about March going out like a lamb--a sizzlingly, almost overly roasted lamb. But April is the hottest month of the year here in Honduras (the climax is la Semana Santa) (which is the week of Easter) so we're almost through the worst of it.

To finish up our P-day last Monday, Hra Cumatz and I definitely had a letter-worthy adventure. Upon walking home, she said: Hra Pickett, I want bangs. Will you cut them for me? So we came home and cut some bangs, and I said, I feel like these would work better with layers. And she said, have you cut layers before? And no, I had not, but I told her I was pretty confident  I could figure it out. So we cut layers, too. And you know what? It turned out pretty cute. So, sorry, future children. At least for your childhood, I'm not paying somebody to cut your hair.

Haircutting adventures! 30 Lempira for a haircut is overrated.

This week we once again had the opportunity to have divisions with our Sister Leader Trainers, which is always fun! The only bad part was that Hra Escalante has since finished the mission (Mommy!!!!!!) so she couldn't come, but I got to spend the day with Hra McCuistion, who was also trained by Hra Escalante and who is a total boss. So it was a pretty epic day. The funny part was that, in the evening, upon finishing our baleada feast, there was an awkward moment wherein we had to decide who was sleeping in the actual beds. Being the excellent hosts that we are, Hra Cumatz and I had long since decided that we would be sleeping on the mats that we had borrowed from the elders, but  Hra McCuistion and Hra Morales felt bad about making us sleep on the floor. In the end, Hra Cumatz and I waited until they were both brushing their teeth, jumped on the mats, made ourselves comfortable and yelled "Buenas noches!" Worked.

We passed another fun day of contacting in Santa Rita, complete with an accidental hour spent with an evangelical. Oh, evangelicals. They just make my life more exciting. There is a note in Preach My Gospel about what to do when someone spins the lesson waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic and you lose control of the conversation. We tried all of the tactics to get back on the right track, but in the end we had to resort to "Lo siento, Hermana. But if we don't leave now, we'll miss the last bus back to Copán." The plus side is that one of our investigators there, Carmen, sounds 95% sure that she's coming to Church this week. And this week is general conference, so that's a good week to come to church.

I am psyched for General Conference. Epically psyched. Just saying.

The big highlight of the week for the branch was a Branch Movie Night, which had an emphasis in inviting less actives and nonmembers (we are pushing ward involvement in missionary work). Hra Cumatz and I recruited one of the young women from the branch and walked way out to the member's home where the activity would be, in a suburb of Copán called Rincon del Buey, which is like Ox's Corner or something like that, but it is really far away from civilization. But we hiked out there to find this poor sister who now had the responsibility to cook for a branch activity with no one there to help her and she hadn't even finished making a meal for herself and her family. So we helped. We made a lot of tortillas and washed lots of dishes and got beans out of their pods. It's like of like shelling peas, but requires a little more effort. On the plus side, I now know where beans come from. So we spent about four hours there, went back to Copán to teach a little bit, and then hiked back out to Rincón del Buey for the activity. It turned out pretty great. We had a good number of non-members were there (although the elders met all of them first because we were helping with food--I think there will be some compensation blessings for that), we watched Finding Faith in Christ and The Restoration, and we got to sample this very, very good Honduran delicacy called Shepes. It's like a tamale, but just with the corn masa and beans. Really good.

And then on Sunday, one of our investigators came to church! It's the first time in six weeks that we've had an investigator in church! It was great! We went out of Nueva Esperanza to teach some lessons (which fell through--darn) and contact some new people. We met a sweet couple and their children, the fam. Lopez, who didn't have very much interest in hearing about the gospel but are avid lovers of corn and were happy to share their love with us, in the form of toasted corn on the cob (which is really good) and atol dulce (which is really not good--imagine white playdough soup again, but with sugar in place of salt). By the time we left, stuffed to the brim with two cobbs and a large bowl of atol each, we were saying "And for breakfast, corn! And for lunch, corn! And for dinner, corn! And for dessert, more corn!" Think Better Off Dead when Lane's mom is saying "French bread, french dressing, and to drink, Peru!" Because they really do have a drink that that they make out of boiled corn and cinnamon. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Well, I still love my mission. The gospel is still true. God lives and loves us, and this is His true church. I know it, because every time I testify of those words to someone here, the Spirit testifies of them to me. I love the Lord and I am so glad that He has given me this part of His vineyard to labor in, even if these trees are growing on very, very steep hills. I haven't broken my ankle yet, so we're good.

Oh, and next week I won't be writing until Tuesday!

April fools!

Much Love,
Hra Pickett