Sick Days Stop Being Fun After High School

Intrigued, aren't you? I know. But that story doesn't start until Wednesday, and all things must begin at the beginning.

Entonces, after writing last week, there was a MINDBLOWING surprise. Hermana Gisseman and I were both absolutely sure that we wouldn't be getting transfered. Sin ningun duda. So when we went out to work on Monday night and Hermana Gisseman was feeling a little frustrated with herself at the end of the night (for those of you who have never been a new missionary, especially a new missionary speaking a new language, it's an incredibly oportunity to be frustrated with one's self) we were prompted to have a long talk about my job as her trainer and that I was indeed there to help her, and we talked about how we could improve our communication skills in order to improve our companionship and get her off to sailing smoothly as a missionary, and it was a very tender experience, and we hugged and told each other we loved each other and it was great. AND THEN about an hour later we received a text message (note: we had already received the text message with the names of people who were getting transferred that day) that said "Surprise! Hermana Gisseman also has changes" Que!? But Hermana Bahr made the suggestion that we had learned something from each other between 3pm (when the first text came) and 9pm (when the second text came) that was all we needed to learn from our time together as companions. We think it was the hug. And probably the conversation helped, too. So that was my mission movie quote moment that can only be explained by the wisdom of Nanny McPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, then I will stay. But when you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go. It's kind of sad, really, but there it is." It is kind of sad, Nanny McPhee. But I am glad, at least, that the lesson was evidently learned and that my first attempt at training a nuevacita did not end in her calling the president and asking to go home. Or dying. Those are the two worst case scenarios I was dreading.

  here is the bus ride to our last district meeting and the bus to cambios meeting

On Wednesday, then, we embarked for San Pedro Sula at 7ish and arrived without any problems. I think the other sisters were a little wary of my ability to tell the bus conductor where to let us off after my story of last time, but I learned from my bad experience and we successfully did not get lost. Transfer meetings get more and more fun as I gain more time in the mission, because there are just so many people to see that I haven't seen forever! Sister Porter and Sister Curtis were both there! It was so magical! And I just about died when Hermana Escalante showed us, and I sped walked right up to her and told her "Estoy veniendo para usted!" And there was hugging. That meeting was marked by lots of hugging. But Hermana Gisseman was transfered to Santa Rosa de Copan, which is actually really cool because that's where the Mayan ruins are and it's not very hot there, so the people who serve there all say it's paradise. I've started referring to it as the land Bountiful. But for my new companion I receieved the "hija" (trainee) of Hermana Gisseman's "madrastra" (not the person who started your training, but the one who finishes it). So the two of them sort of switched places. And this new hija is named Hermana Harmon and is she down right adorable. The next two months are going to be a blast. Especially because we had another mindblower and we received Hermana Gardner as our third companion and we are now a trio! Crazy, right? Just living la vida misional!

But, as to the sick days referenced in this week's title: we came home from cambios meeting, excited to see how this three missionaries/combination of two areas thing was going to work out, and took some time for Hermana Harmon to start unpacking. And I just started feeling weird. So I sat down and then laid down, hoping that the weird feeling would go away. But it didn't. And by the time that we had planned to go out, I was shaking uncontrollably from a fever. Awesome, right? I know. So, owing to the fact that I was shaking too hard to walk, the other sisters informed me it would probably be for the best if we just didn't go out that day. I didn't love the idea, but I thought "I obviously need a little time. So I'll stay down for an hour, and after that we'll go out." That is never a good strategy. I didn't wake up until 7:30. But I would not let my sickness deterr the work! So for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, various Young Women and younger members of the relief society came over and babysat me. I can't find a better word for that. And while the other sisters went out with an attitude to conquer the world, on Thursday night, Hermana Gardner got bit by that same dog that got me. But he got her really, really good. So that impeded the work, and me being sick impeded the work. Hermana Harmon is doing great, though! And I finally got out to work yesterday, but some YW came anyway because pobrecita Hermana Gardner was in too much pain to walk. Sounds like a really great week, right? I'm feeling like I'm living in the Isn't It Ironic? song again. But the consensus between me and Hermana Gardner that staying home from a day of missionary work is the worst ever. You sit/lay there, trying to sleep but failing, and thinking "This is so not what I should be doing right now." And that's frustrating.

But there was a very sweet miracle this morning. My mission president called me up and said "Hermana Pickett, I've had the prompting several times this last week to give you a call. How are you doing?" And he assured me that it is more than okay that we give ourselves time to heal when we are sick or dog-bitten, and that both he and the Lord were so happy with the work that we are doing. So I feel a lot better. Parents, if you are ever worried about me, don't worry. The Lord gave me a pretty great mission president.

I hope everyone's week and everyone's health is a little bit better than mine! Even with all of the fun times I spent with my fever and upset stomach, I am so grateful for all of the blessings that the Lord has given me, including my trials. The mission is a time to become the person God wants me to be, and He knows just what I need to go through to get there, so I have no doubt that the last four days of feeling pretty bad did me good in the end. And here's a life lesson: find out what pills you are taking for sure before taking them (because acetomenaphin and anti-diarretics are different things) and if you must take pepto-bismol, it's a lot easier to swallow if you keep it in the refrigerator.

I love the Lord and I love my mission! I can't imagine anything I'd rather be doing than serving these people right now. Next week I'll be sure to fill up my email with stories of wonderful Hondurans--I just didn't have the opportunity to interact with too many of them this week. But shout out to Carol, Ruth, Katerin, y Lilian, who all served a term (Ruth did three!) as my caretakers and never complained about it once. That's Honduran charity for you. I hope I'm as good as begrudgingly giving service as the people here are when I get home.

Love you all! Beware of stomach flu and dogs!
Hermana Pickett

It's already December!

Hello, hello!

So best news first! This week we were incredibly blessed to see the baptisms of Angie and Victor! Apparently the water was freezing, but they were both happy and glowing with the Spirit. Victor stood up to bear his testimony yesterday for Fast Sunday (the last one of 2013--pretty crazy, right?) and said "I would just like to give my simple testimony that I know I have just been confirmed a member of the true church of Jesus Christ." That was pretty cool. I have this fun habit when we first meet people of imagining them in white at their baptisms, so it is a beyond fantastic moment to actually see what I had imagined. But so much more than people being baptized, it is a miracle to watch people being changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and choosing to follow Him. I know that this week, two more precious children of our Heavenly Father entered in by the gate to the path to eternal life. And I am so grateful that I could be even the smallest part of the circumstances prepared to help them along the way.

And now the funny story for the week (because it involves pretty much the whole week and a bit of the previous one). So two Wednesdays ago, we were approaching the front door of an investigator and as I stepped around their sleeping dog, she jerked awake and snapped at me. And with the snapping, one of her teeth scratched me. But there really isn't a word in English or Spanish that can say "scratched me with her teeth" and communicate very well what happened (the closest I can think of is grazed, but that still necesitates mentioning teeth), so I had to call the nurse and use the word bite. She was a little worried, but she told me that if the dog lived a week, I would be fine. So last Thursday, when we saw that said dog was still alive, I was feeling pretty great about not having rabis. But then, we went to visit this kid named Danilo (he's the one who came to church and had Breny ask if we could visit his family) and Danilo's rather violent dog was not chained up. Why he was not chained up, I will never know. But I took one step inside the yard to verify for Hra Gisseman if he was chained up, and the rather violent dog came running. Most of the bite was deterred by my skirt, which now has three little holes and one big one, but he got me a little bit. Whoops. So I was properly bitten by a dog this week.

 here's my dog bite! Mostly, it just looks like a bruise, so that's anticlimatic. 

But the fun doesn't end there! So after determining that we could not teach that lesson with Danilo (Hra Gisseman blatantly refused to come within twenty yards of that house) I was taken to Hra Breny, who is a nurse and a kind soul. So she washed my wound out pretty well and put some gauze on it and fed us some hot chocolate for the shock and sent us on our way. But I called up the nurse again to tell her I had been bitten again (she was the first of maybe five people to say "Are you kidding me?" I don't see how that would be a funny joke) and she wasn't satisfied with saying "Okay, well just watch it and if it's alive in seven days you're fine." So on Saturday, we took the bus to San Pedro Sula and, after getting lost and spending about 20 minutes hunting for the stake center and asking for directions in Spanish, we met up with the nurse and I got a tetnus shot! But I'm counting that as a blessing because my last tetnus shot hit five years on Nov 10 or something like that, so I needed one anyway. And then, just to wrap up the list that Hra Gisseman and I were making of things we weren't sure we could write home about, the crazy bus drivers of Honduras finally went one step too far and the front end of our bus drove into the side of another bus attempting to merge. Nobody got hurt and the busses weren't even that damaged. It was just a funny sort of day. I kind of felt like I was living in that "Isn't it ironic?" song when everything goes wrong at once.

So, yeah, those are the highlight events of the week. We are continuing work with fam. Buh because even though they are really ready to be baptized, they need to come to church so that we can be confident that they are ready to come every week after being baptized. We are pretty excited about fam. Huezo, although we have a bad habit of being there for more than an hour answering questions. It's not that the questions are bad. It's just that we need more time in the day! We also have a new investigator named Carol who is really progressing rapidly. She can totally already feel the Spirit testifying of the message and I really have high hopes for her.

We took a day trip today to a place called Omoa and saw a fort that was built there in the 1700s. It was pretty fun to keep saying "We're just on a roof. On a castle. In Honduras." We definitely had a party taking pictures. We went to the beach for lunch and ate at a restaurant that is right on the water. Normally people get seafood when they eat right next to the ocean, but our bus ride to San Pedro and some other circumstances this week had put me a little low on funds, so I opted for the cheaper carne asada plate. But it was still wonderfully delicious so we're good. It smelled just like it smells in Edmonds, though, so that was a moment of me feeling a little baggy (that is the name here for the emotion of "Oh, I miss home!") But it only lasted a second.

 here is the picturesque beach at Omoa!

This is how we sister missionary!

I love being a missionary. I am so glad that I am here and that the Lord is trusting me with this work. Claro que sí, I love and miss all of you, but I am so happy to be here. I know that the Lord is blessing me in this service and that He will continue to do so for the next 13.25 months and beyond!

I know that this church is true. I know that it is the same church that Jesus Christ established personally upon the earth and that it contains the same gospel that He preached. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us, and He has given us His Son so that we can come back to Him, and He gave us this gospel so we can know how to follow Him. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that today, this line of prophetic authority continues in Thomas S. Monson. I know it, I live it, I love it!

I hope you are all doing well and not being bitten by dogs or mosquitos or hormigas. But if you are, welcome to the party! Viva la misión!

Love, Hra Pickett

So we missionaries are pretty good at funny pictures when the opportunity presents itself! Hra. Gardner and I got "locked in" to one of the armouries

 Our ZLs, Elders Williams and Bailey, opened the scriptures and laid down the doctrine when we visited the fort's chapel

I had to document how nuts Hra Garner was about being precariously close to the edge of the roof. Hra Bahr was pretty scared a couple of times!

Turns out Hra Gisseman is a pretty handy photographer! Fun pictures in a castle!

¡Feliz acción de gracias!

Hra Escalante and I waiting for the bus to take us to cambios meeting. I miss that Mexican mamá of mine!

Hola!

So this is one of those times that an American holiday (which is one the bigger deal side of American holidays) is coming up and, because I'm in central America, it's like that holiday doesn't actually exist. Fun, right?

There isn't too terribly much to report, as our week was a bit shorter than usual. On Friday we had a multi-zone conference (which was awesome) for most of the day and then we didn't go out to work this last weekend, as it was election weekend and there wasn't really a point. (Mind you, we didn't make that decision in our individual companionships. Those were our instructions. But don't worry about it). Anyway, all is well! Hra. Gisseman and I are doing the work and loving it! I really am enjoying living with three other sisters and there is a very good vibe in the Campana house right now, so that's cool.

So here's Hra Gisseman! That first one is Hra Escalante and I with our new companions (hers is Hra Tolliver and they are Sister Leader Trainers!) and the second is Hra Gisseman and I at our P'day fútbol activity

This is pretty disappointing but I really can't remember very much to write about this week. Victor and Angie are both sailing smoothly and confidently toward their baptisms and beyond. It really is wonderful to see the confidence that comes from faith and repentance. Fam. Buh is doing great and they were our only two investigators to come to church on Sunday, so we were PSYCHED to see them! (Sunday was the day of the elections, so church attendance was pretty sparce). And we are finding new people every day, which is crazy. One of the sisters at church came up to us with this little boy and said, He is my neighbor and he would like you to come teach his family. (To which we responded, OK!) We also have a new investigator who we thought was just hitting on us° but it turns out he's willing to hear the Gospel. And Senia, a woman who we met on Hra Gisseman's first day, is blowing our minds she is SO prepared! I love doing the work here. There are miracles every day--I've got the best job ever!

(°So, brief explaination of Honduran men (Hra. Behan, this is going to sound familiar). The kind of wolf whistling, cat calling, lip smacking behavior that would be kind of objectifying in the States is totally fair game here, so whenever we walk past males over the age of 15ish, we expect that sort of behavior. Also, in the case of gringas, it is a common occurance to hear a small, slightly nonsensical slew of English. So when our new investigator called out "Where are you coming from?" we just kept walking, because that's what we do. And when he continued to yell "Hello! Hello!" we still continued to walk. But there was a little prompting that said "Hey Emily, humor this one." So I said hello, but I spoke in Spanish. Which started the conversation which explained the fact that he learned English in the States, so he was actually asking us seriously where we were coming from. And that conversation is going to be continued tomorrow when we go teach him and his family. Boo-yah)

I also learned this week that I will have incredibly impressive grades when I return to BYU, because I can't just spend free time anymore. Our three days in the house were fun because we were all together but whenever we weren't actively doing something I was dying! How did I used to pass entire Saturdays like that every week?! So yeah, parents, prepare for a very active daughter when I get home, because doing nothing will no longer be my forté.

I love being here. I love this work and I love the Lord. He continues to amaze me with His love and patience for me and all of His children, and I am so beyond grateful for this opportunity to serve. This acción de gracias is going to be a pretty astonishing one for me, because while I won't be feasting on food, I have SO MANY blessings to feast upon! I love you all and I hope that everything is going great!

Les amo muchísimo! Hra Pickett

 And Hra Bahr put up a Honduran flag in our front room and we took lots of pictures!

Hra Gardner and I took a fun picture with the flag

Hra Gardner and I took a fun picture with the flag and here is our celebretory feast of the end of our días encárceladas! Pizza Hut delivers!

We found this set of stairs that go on forever, and we didn't climb them but we did take a picture! 

I´m a ''MOM''!

Hello from Honduras! Pretty crazy week! Why, you ask? Well, in the training booklet for missionaries there is a little sentence that says "The goal of your training is that you can become the kind of missionary in twelve weeks who, if called upon, could train another missionary". AND IT´S HAPPENING! And it´s insane! 

So last monday after writing we found out that Hra. Escalante was being transfered and then a few hours later that I was going to be a trainer. And the Elder telling says " Are you excited, Hermana?!" And I´m like "...Yes?" He didn´t think that was a very convincing response. But let´s break this down. I was TERRIFIED! I kid you not, I was scared to pieces. I didn´t feel qualified for that at all. I still don´t understand Spanish perfectly (we´re at a solid 80% ish), I have a lot of stuff that I need to work on in my teaching, and all of the people here clearly love Hra Escalante a lot more than they like me. To their credit, it might be because I don´t know what they´re saying 20%ish of the time. So I was really freaking out. But then we went and had a lesson with Maria Lusia de Urquia, who was just called to be a teacher in the Sunday School. And she was really scared, because she was feeling inadequate, as a recent convert, to teach people who had been members of the church for a lot longer than she had. But we were bearing our testimonies and I said, "Hra, the Lord calls us in our weakness, and He will give us everything we need to fulfill our callings." And then I thought (or, more likely, the Spirit gently rebuked) if I can make that promise to someone else, I have to believe it for myself. So I started trying my best not to freak out, to trust in God, and to prepare to be a good mamá (that´s what we call trainers here). 

So on Tuesday we taught super short lessons so Hra Escalante could spend a few minutes with as many people as possible (we did get stuck at a house for an hour and a half helping a sister make dinner. Hra. Escalante was kind of upset to use so much time there but I am now a boss at making tajadas. Get excited). And then on Wednesday we took the bus at 6 am to get to San Pedro Sula for my training meeting at 8:30 (well, a little earlier than that so we could get breakfast). But our training meeting was really, really good. President Dester talked about the kind of missionaries we need to be in order to be trainers and how the Lord has confidence in all of us to fulfill this calling. After that we went to la reunión de cambios and I got to hang out with my friend Hra Curtis from the MTC (who isn´t training but had a transfer). Before the cambios are announced we listened to the testimonies of all the missionaries leaving, and there were 14 so it took forever! They were really good testimonies, but I just couldn´t handle the suspense! Por fin President Dester announced the cambios, and I´m watching the sisters up on the stand and counting down until I had to say to Hra Escalante "Wait, are there any more Latinas up there?" And she said no, and we´re both like "I´m training a gringa? Whose idea was this??" But we know whose idea it was, so it´s all okay. And I am training a gringa! Her name is Hra. Gisseman, she´s 19 and from Georgia and she´s great! I love her already! I feel a little more comfortable with the idea of being a trainer every day and I think we´re going to be fine. Better than fine! We´ll be great! 

So the last couple of days have been work as usual. There isn´t really the concept of easing into the water on a mission. Hra Gisseman is kind of psyching herself out about Spanish and the work and having things to say, but there is a certain amount of expected shock upon entering the mission field, so I think after the next week or so she´ll be feeling a lot better. We were supposed to have two baptisms this week, but one, Heydi, is moving to Santa Barbara and won´t be anywhere near a church, so she doesn´t want to get baptized with the full knowledge that she won´t be able to fulfill her baptismal covenant (they take their promises very seriously here, which is cool) so that´s sad but I´m proud of her for making the tough decision. Our other baptism, Angi, is waiting until next week. I can't say why--she´d be mad at me if I did. But it´s kind of funny and it´s no question of worthiness, so she´s good to go on her baptism this week. 

It´s pretty weird to live in a whole house of gringas in Honduras, but we´re all getting along just fine and life is good. I love our ward, and our district and zone are great. Today we went and played soccer for P-day, and while I am seriously uncoordinated (Becca, we need to work on that) it was really fun. 

I love this work. I love the Lord and I am so grateful that He has given me this time to serve His children! We´ve been talking a lot this week about the power of positivity and gratitude, and that is such a powerful principle. Seriously. I feel so much happier here, and I know it is because we really take time to notice our blessings. And in the moments that I am annoyed or frustrated, I take a second to ask myself if I am feeling grateful, and the answer is always no. But I count my blessings and then I can´t keep from feeling happy! We were hanging out with fam. Urquia last night and Hra Maria Luisa said to me, Hra Pickett, siempre anda con alegría. (Which literally means you are always walking with joy, but the feeling is more like you always have an attitude of joy). And I realized that that´s exactly the kind of person I want to be for all of my life--the one who is always joyful. And really, that´s who we should be as followers of Jesus Christ--full of joy! And then people will see that, they´ll notice it just like Maria Luisa did, and they´ll think "What has she got? I want it. I want that happiness." And then we have missionary experiences and we help other people walk with joy also! The Lord is changing my life and my perspective and my heart mightily, and I am so glad that I have this time for Him to do that. 

I love and miss all of you. It´s crazy how fast the time passes here, so I know it will feel like no time at all before I can share my mission adventures in person! 

Les quiero mas que nada! 
Hermana Pickett

the computer is being really dumb, so I´ll send pictures next week. Sorry

addition to family email

And I made cinnamon rolls today! And they were delicious! Can you forward that piece of news to the family? Because I'm gonna send pictures soon!

So Hra Gardner helped me make the dough and then helped the elders make the frosting, and here she's being my emotion support while I rolled out my dough with an empty pill bottle (what's that saying about necessity and invention and genius?). The other missionaries all reported that the cinnamon rolls were delicious! Victory!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Tortillas de harina! I'm gonna be a pro!

The love and fun in the Campana House!

More sister silliness! Hra Gardner tried on Hra Bahr's glasses and said "This is my natural reaction" and Hra Escalante put on her headband as a "corona" (crown)

Again, points to Becca for my knowledge of American holidays. But also as a title for this week, I finished four months in the mission! That was pretty quick, right? It feels pretty quick here, anyway.

So this week was magical, of course. All of our weeks are magical. The rain has continued (YAY!). Someone asked me if I can handle this kind of weather and I said, "I'm from Seattle. This is how I live my life." And when it's not raining, usually it's quite a bit cooler. I've been using my raincoat and some scarves and one day (get ready for this) I even wore my sweater. Wow.

Last Monday I had another bread attempt. It went a lot better. Turns out eliminating the 5 hours in the refrigerator really helped. And I rolled out one of the loaves and put cinnamon and sugar in the middle, so we had cinnamon sugar bread. I need to experiment with that more, but it turned out pretty delicious. We demolished it in about 5 minutes. Especially because the grocery store was having a blowout sale on Nutella (one of the normal sized jars for 45 Lempira! That's hardly more than $2!) And EVERYTHING tastes good with Nutella on it. I think that jar of nutella might have been a bad idea, but I just won't buy another one, so we're good. We had another Noche de Hogar that involved making baleadas, and my tortillas are starting to be circular more often than not, so I feel pretty accomplished about that.

We were blessed to see two of our investigators be baptized this week! Denia from the fam. Mancia Garcia and Leyser, Heydi's younger brother, were both baptized on Friday. Leyser had really started reading his BoM on Tuesday and just like that he said, Hras, I want to be baptized. And then he stopped drinking coffee and started being nicer to his older sister and by the time he had his interview on Friday morning, that kid was crazy ready to be baptized. Talk about a mighty (and fast) change of heart. And Denia realized pretty early in the week that her husband would be working during her baptism, but she was determined to be baptized anyway. We went to visit her on Thursday night and we sang Abide With Me, 'Tis Eventide (still my favorite, though the following hymn, Abide with me, is a close second) and talked about how the Lord doesn't abandon us in the night times of our lives. And she said that she knew she needed to be baptized, and had prayed that her husband would be able to come, so she was just going to keep moving forward. So then on Friday, when we were leaving for the baptism and he still wasn't home, she was kind of down (we were all kind of down. Friday was grey and miserable all day long--I had to sing The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow more than once). But we got to the church and who was waiting at the gate? Denia's husband! It was a miracle of the Lord and true love! The baptisms themselves were kind of tough, because the kid who was baptizing hadn't had very much of a warning, so the words took a few tries, and Denia's first time in the water was no good. But the real trouble was with Leyser, because no one told him (or so he says) that he had to put his head under the water. So that took about seven tries. And I wish I was exaggerating. But he went in eventually, and both of them were confirmed yesterday (Leyser was blessed to serve a full time mission) so it all turned out well.

Diana and Jose Buh came to the baptism too! Their son is David and their little girl is Cesia

 Heydi and Leyser. They aren't really good enough friends to hug in pictures yet, but we're working on that!

CUTE picture of Denia and Jose--Jose loves having his picture taken! 

We found a goldmine of investigators this week: Last week we contacted a girl in the street (we kind of got in her way when she was trying to cross a bridge and shared the message of the Restored Gospel...we do that) and she invited us to come back and meet her family. There are SIX people in that family. Six! And all of them wanted to listen to us! Unfortunately, only two could come to church. But they are super ready to hear this Gospel. They have lots of questions, but they ask because they really want to know, not because they want to prove us wrong. And they were really receptive about the First Vision (although the mom, Maria, asked in the middle if we wanted baleadas, so we had to ask her to focus) and they were really excited for us to bring them a copy of the BoM. So we're pretty excited about them. But the dad, Marco Tulio, has some sort of problem with his left eye, so we're never really sure who he's looking at. It's led to some kind of funny awkward moments.

Also on the topic of great investigators, Angi and Heydi are planning to be baptized this Saturday. Angi is helping us to start teaching her mom, Maria, and we think being involved in the conversion process will be really good for Angi as she starts out her membership in the church. We've been spending a lot of quality time with fam. Buh, and we got a little scared for a minute, because they really were not pleased with the baptism on Friday. It was the first baptism they've ever seen, and the fact that there was so much of a struggle for the baptisms to get done and that the members present were kind of giggling at the sheer number of times that Leyser almost was baptized didn't sit very well with them. But we had a talk about how the Church is perfect but the members aren't and apparently the ward mission council (most of which are teenaged ward missionaries, and they're the ones who come to baptisms) got a stern talking to about reverence and setting an example yesterday. So hopefully that doesn't happen again. That's a kind of tough thing about the mission: you can work really hard with your investigators and do everything possible for them, but eventually you have to entrust them to the members...and you never know what's going to happen next. But we're all in this together, and it's fine! And Diana blew our minds yesterday, because we were started to talk about Word of Wisdom and we said, "So can you guess what sort of things God would tell us about how to care for our bodies?" And she pretty much hit on every point of the WoW. Talk about pilas!

We had splits with the Sister Leader Trainers on Wednesday and Sister Lopez told me she thinks I'll be a sister leader trainer (which is kind of like a female ZL but different) very soon. Terrifying! I asked her to take things one step at a time.

 Exchanges! I love Hra Lopez! (Mom, the first one is really just for you so you can see the skirt I bought. Pretty cute for an Honduran thrift store, huh? I think it's very Maddi Raleigh)

Mary, this one is for you and Jordan: we were teaching one of our investigators about the Word of Wisdom and he had a very casual attitude about throwing away his cigarettes, making a plan to avoid buying them, etc. He said he could just stop and that having them around wouldn't be hard for him. So I told him Coach Gelwix's story about Don't Play With Snakes. So now Coach Gelwix's wisdom has been imparted in Spanish/ in Central America. I thought you two might like to know.

I really love it here. We don't know what our cambios are yet, but Hra. Escalante thinks she's going to leave and I'll get a little Latina to train. I think that would be really scary but I'm ready to accept whatever job the Lord wants to give me! I love this gospel, I love this work, I love these people, and I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I am so blessed to be a fellow laborer in the vineyard (I read Jacob 5 in like 20 minutes the other day and it all made sense. I can liken it now!) and to have this time to be molded by the Lord. I miss you all but I'm so glad to be here and I know it's only going to be all the sweeter when we see each other again!

So much love!
Hra. Pickett

And I haven't had much use for my hat, because I'm not allowed to wear it proselyting, but it's pretty good for washing clothes in the rain.

Emily's weekly update, no catchy title this week

So this week, I had another one of those moments like "Wait a second. I'm in Honduras, in Central America, as a missionary. I'm really on a mission. And I'm gonna be here for kind of a long time. Whoa." Those moments are always special.

Anyway, pretty great week! I feel like the vast majority of our planned lessons fell through, but we just found other people to teach and kept on keeping on. The fam. Mancia Garcia family had their baptimal date set for this last Saturday (there's a really handy word in Spanish, anteayer, for moments like that--it means the day before yesterday), so we visited them a lot. We have this sort of machine gun, rapid fire teaching habit for people coming up on their baptisms--they see us everyday. Sometimes they see us more than once everyday. It's great. We also went for a lot of lessons with Angi and Heydi (Maria Lusia's nieces--see last week's letter if confused on family connections here). Their baptisms are programmed for this Friday. But Angi didn't  come to church this week. And Heydi's feeling kind of timid on the whole "Have you received an answer to your prayers about the gospel?" topic, so...we'll see what happens there. But things happen in the Lord's own time, so it's fine! And we seriously love the family Buh (Diana and Jose--they gave us hot chocolate, remember?) They are golden. They didn't come to church yesterday because he didn't get home from work until really early Sunday morning and she can't drive their car, so that's pretty sad. But again, the Lord's own time! It's happening!

Also, for the record, not everyone couldn't come to church. We had a lot of people at church. And we're really stoked about that. Sorry for the moment of negativity.

So, let's talk about fam. Mancia Garcia. Like I said, their baptismal date was set for anteayer. And they both really have received strong testimonies about the Gospel. And we went through the baptismal interview questions with them and they have a crazy unshakeable knowledge of the principles and doctrines therein. But Jose smoked, so he wasn't ready to be baptized. And Denia passed her interview with flying colors, but she wanted to wait for her husband, so they didn't get baptized on Saturday. So we're really sad. Not that they didn't get baptized, because we know that that's going to happen (at this point, Denia says she's getting baptized this week, no matter what, because she knows it's what she has to do). But we're sad for Jose. He really wants to change. He really wants to stop. But he can't just shake his addiction, it's got too good a grip. But we are so proud of him, because he knows that he could stop for a week and be baptized and start smoking again, but he won't do it. He says if he's going to make a promise to be obedient, he's going to be baptized when he's confident that he can live up to his promise. Pretty pilas.

On the homefront, we the Sisters of Campana are doing great. Poor Hra. Bahr felt really sick this week, but I think it's sick season in Honduras. Angi's daughter and Gladis Ardon and one of Hra. Escalante's convert's sons (that's a mouthful) are sick also, so maybe it's just that time of year. Hra. Bahr and Hra. Gardner cleaned our pila, and that was nothing short of a miracle. Because a pila should look kind of like a pool or a bathtub on the inside, but ours looked more like a garden pond. Or a swamp. Whichever of those makes you think ew more vehemently, it looked like that. Hra. Escalante is doing great, and continues to be a blessing and a friend. We're coming up on cambios soon and we've been pondering about who is going to be transferred. She's been here in Campana for six months, so she thinks it's gonna be her. But if I stay here it is highly likely that I'll be a trainer (scream of terror!) and I really don't feel prepared for that blessing yet. If the Lord gives me someone to train, I'm sure He will also bless me with the necessary faculties (and the gift of tongues) to fulfill that calling. All the same, I'm a little scared. Guess I need more faith!

Our investigators are all really great and really loving. We had a family night with Denia and her son (Jose was working) and with Fam. Buh and it was ridiculously fun. We played this game called I've Got Mail that involves chair switching and being the one left without a chair, and we decided that after your second time in the middle, you have to have a castiga (punishment). So Denia had to sing the Honduras national anthem and Hra Escalante acted like a frog and Jose (Diana's husband, that Jose) acted like a chicken and Diana spoke like the commentator in a soccer match (GOAL!!! GOAL TO HONDURAS, SEÑORES!) and I had to sing Brittney Spears. For the record, try to sing Hit Me Baby One More Time without dancing sometime. It's really difficult.

Quick note about Diana's Jose. We watched the Restoration film with them at the beginning of the week because he just started the lessons, so Diana really has a head start and we needed to catch him up. And after the movie, he's got this smile on his face that people usually have when they're thinking "Yeah. Ok, sure. That totally happened" (sarcastically). But we started asking him questions and we realized, little by little, that he wasn't thinking that at all. I felt like saying "Wait, are you smiling because you're happy? Because you can feel the Spirit!? Oh my gosh, you're actually feeling this right now?!!" So yeah, that family is awesome. Diana told us she always knew she needed to be baptized and she's always felt like church is good, but she has never felt the urge to be baptized or believed so vehemently in the word of God like she does now. So yeah, that family is awesome.

I found a spot to put my hammock, and we all made it through our fast without achieving unconsciousness. I can see the blessings of the Lord so strongly in the people here and in my own life. I know that I am where the Lord wants me to be, and I know I'm doing what He wants me to be doing. And knowing that it great! I love being a missionary, I love this work, and I love these people.

And oh! Here's a funny story. When we teach about the Word of Wisdom, we include a kind of vague closing statement (it's kind of like that vague 10th ammendment to the Bill of Rights) that the WoW discourages us from anything that harms our bodies. And Hra. Escalante usually says "So if I know that eating spicy food is going to make my stomach hurt, even though it doesn't say Don't eat spicy food in the WoW, I shouldn't eat it. Taking care of your body like that is part of the WoW." So ion Saturday we had dinner with the sisters and the two sisters in charge bought Coke for drinking and I had a glass of that, and I was up almost the entire night from a combination of caffine and serious stomach pain. I will now abstain from Coke and other caffinated soda on the grounds of keeping the Word of Wisdom. (Unless, Mom, we are driving at night and our lives depend upon me staying awake. That would be a reasonable moment for Coke.)

I love you all! I hope you are all doing great! Can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love, Hermana Pickett

P.S. Katalyn! Have the happiest of birthdays this week! I'm sorry I can't be there to celebrate with you but know that you are receiving good wishes from Honduras! Love you!