And Hermana Pickett prayed, Let there be light

Sep 8 (This one is out of order)
Hello family and everyone else interested enough to read this letter!

It's getting pretty late in the afternoon here in Honduras, so here's the fun story--sometimes (or rather, all of the time) in this lovely little town of Santa Barbara, the power goes out. And we can't use the internet if the power is out. So we went to write at 2 pm, our normal writing time, and the power went out just before we arrived. It stayed out until 4:30, and we go out to work at 6, so there is a fire under my tail today!

In regards to changes, we didn't have one. Davila and Pickett are passing another 6 weeks in Santa Barbara. We had a pretty normal week, if any week in the mission is normal. Axel and Walquidia are still progressing nicely (maybe a smidge too quickly) toward their baptism, which is planned for this Saturday. We found lots of promising new investigators, I didn't hurt myself any worse (major achievement, if you're me) and did our best to build the Kingdom.

Here's a funny moment from this week: One day, as we had not been able to find the people with whom we had appointments, we contacted a woman in the street and asked if we could come back in the coming days. We went back, found her house, and sat down to start a lesson. And then her dad came in. Little did we know, he was the founder and pastor of the Evangelical Christian church across the street. The next thirty minutes were really not very uplifting. It became increasingly clear that this man had no interest in hearing us. On the contrary, he continually tried to take possession of the lesson and convert us to "the truth". His favorite question was "But have you really accepted Christ as your Savior?" I figured out why people get baptized in Evangelical churches here. It's because, no matter what you say, the pastor is there to convince you that, no, you haven't accepted Christ as your Savior, and that you need to do so right now. When we finally found the oppportune moment to end the lesson (we had been trying to do so for twenty of the thirty minutes) we politely asked this man if he might offer the closing prayer. Enthusiastically, he almost shouted "Yes I will! Stand up! (we reluctantly stood) We're all sinners, but right now you're going to confess your sins and accept Christ! Father, say Father! You do believe in the Father in your church, right?" Yeah, we just left. We shook hands and smiled and left. We have now named that neighborhood el mar de apostasía, because the people there are spiritually drowning. We hear he is bragging that he beat the Mormons. When I heard that, I just thought about Moroni's promise that one day we will meet at the bar of God, and we will know who was right. I'll just leave that there. So, long story short, I didn't convert to Evangelicalism.

I'm sorry this letter is short and lame today, but I prayed fervently that the power would come back on so that 1. I could read my letters from all of you and 2. My parents wouldn't worry that I was dead (guys, I'm not dead), and now I've fulfilled that. So I got what I needed. While we were waiting for the power to come back on and accepting the reality that it wasn't going to happen any time soon, my companion offered the wisdom, Well, you can't always get what you want. In response now I can confidently offer (and I would sing this if I were telling you this story face to face) you can't alway get what you want, but you get what you need.

I love my Heavenly Father, and I am so profoundly grateful and awestruck that He has trusted me with this corner of His vineyard. I hope I can prove better for the task. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana Pickett