Mason's Letter -- November 30, 2009

Hey Fam,

How was everyone's Thanksgiving weekend? My Thanskgiving was just another old day here in the mission, I actually forgot that it was Thansksgiving until we went to one of the wards for an activity. and it said on the board Happy Thanksgiving. haha Then they asked me to talk about Thanksgiving in America and give a message to the ward. So that was kind of hard, but I did a pretty good job.

This Wednesday at the ward activity in Independencia (we have 2 wards) I have to give like a 20 minute message. haha So that kind of freaks me out, but it will be fine.

So yeah this week was good, I'm in the flow of things now and learning a lot. We have a about 10 investigators right now I think. We found most of them this last week so that was good. I really hope they will be baptised. We were supposed to have a baptism this last Saturday. So we were excited about that. But it fell through. Her name is Rosa, and shes 33 yrs old. Sh has been living with her boyfreind who is a crappy person for a while but finally broke it off and decided to get baptised. But unfortunatly on Friday we went over to visit her and her sisters told us that she has moved to Mesquitia with her boyfiend.

So I don't understand how zall that happenend. Mesquitia is a place way east in Hondo where there are no missionaries. They speak Mesquite and are all of African decent. So that was dissapointing for me. haha But funny thing, when we went over to her house we talked to her sisters for a while. we were playing with this 2 yr old named Kendrick. Anyway this little kid was not playing nice with some other kids so his mom tryed to dissipline him, but he kept hitting this other little kid. so my comp grabbed him and gave him to his mom. he didnt like that so much and go t way mad. so he grabbed a toy and threw it at me but i caught it. so then he dropped his pants and tryed to pee on my backpack. luckily I grabbed my pack away from the line of fire just in time haha it was crazy.

Yesterday we had to stay in our house all day, except for going to Sacrament meeting, because of elections I dont really know why, it was all chill here, but just for safety I guess--it was just for that one day. So yesterday was boring. but kind of a nice rest.

This week it has done nothing but rain. Today is the first sunny day this week. and when I say rain I mean rain. It's the tropics, what more do I need to say. but I kept fairly dry with my jacket and an umbrella. The roads here are mostly dirt. so they fill up with water and turn into giant lakes in places. So it's pretty hard to contact people. But we did it.

One day we were in a new place contacting and it was about 6:30 at night and it was already dark. We got to one of these huge lakes in the road and stopped. we werent having much success at all in this area. actually none at all. so we were kind of dont with that area. but there was one street where we hadnt really been because of this giant lake. so my comp asked me if we should turn back or go for it. i just looked at him and said, "anything for Jesus." haha So I went first. There were some reeds on the one side and i thought there was ground there for me to walk on safely. besides most of the puddles aren't really that deep. so I took and step thinking I would be ok and my leg went shooting into the water. It was super deep and it went up to my knee. haha so I just kept walking through this lake/river until I got to the other side.

I was soaked. haha my comp just yelled and asked me if it was ok, I yelled back NO! haha but we went on and got wet anyways and it was really funny. We had a good laugh. Anyways we ended up knocking on like only 4 more doors and got an appointment for each one and even taught someone a lesson. He was a really good kid, really smart, and 22 years old. He has a friend on a mission in Panama and he seemed ready for the Gospel.

We only found him and these people because we went the extra mile and didn't give up when we wanted to. Imagine if we had been wusses and gave up? So that was a fun experience for me. My shoes are still wet from that day.

Now for your questions:

- No I can't see Roatan from here. I think its too far away, I'm not sure. I haven't really looked for it though.

- Yeah it's just me and my comp here in this area. We have 2 wards, Miramar and Independencia. but they are only about 5 minutes from each other in a car. So I dont ever see other missionaries except today and tomorrow for meetings.

- We have lunch everyday at a member's house who we pay for the meals. So she cooks for us and their family is awesome. For dinner we either get invited over somewhere, which usually happens. or we go to the Pulperia for dinner. That is like a little tiny convenience store. There is one about every block here and sometimes 2 or 3 on the same street. They are everywhere.

- We have a pretty good teaching pool right now. We contact quite a bit though. but it's really hard to set appointments with people here because people don't really have calandars or clocks or anything. They mainly just do whatever whenever. So a lot of our appointments fall though because people never remember. Well I think that's all for today.

I hope I answered all the questions and I hope everything is great at home. You all are so awesome and I'm lucky to have you all.

I love you. love Elder Mason Hanks Cardon