We each have great potential...

This week was full of experiences! Happy, sad, off the wall, but thats what the mission life is! 

Someone thought I was 17 years old the other day. Normally people guess 18 or 19, but 17. Wow. 

We went out with a young woman member named Edith who loves to do missionary work and is excited to share the Gospel. We contacted an Hermana named Carmen and she was in the middle of cooking so we offered to help. A lot of people here don't have stoves, they have little clay homemade furnaces. Carmen lives in a really humble home with her furnace in the corner of her house. As soon as we had a couple of seconds we asked to share a message. We talked about her background and covenants we can make to come closer to God. We challenged Carmen to baptism and right when she started to respond Edith yelled ,"Hermanas!" The wall of Carmens house started on fire! We quickly grabbed a bucket of water and put it out. Luckily it didn't do any damage. I don't even know how it was possible, but I think a spark flew out of the furnace onto her wooden wall. I guess Edith was calling out about the fire for a while, but we have learned to drown out noise as we are in lessons especially here in Honduras. Long story short, Carmen accepted her baptismal challenge! We are now in the process of helping her prepare. Now as I look back, its easy to see how hard Satan works during our lessons, especially during the most crucial moments. In the end, light overrules darkness and good is going to triumph the bad. 

One day last week, we were out working in the afternoon, when a couple of our appointments fell through. We decided to head for a recently converted family a little farther out. As we were walking we heard someone yelling, "Hermanas!!" We turned around and met with an Hermana we contacted a while back but whenever we passed by her house she wasn't there. She invited us in and we got to share a small message about the Savior and what He can do for her. She broke down and told us about how hard her life has been and how she went to the doctors earlier that day.  She had an operation earlier in the year in which they took out a 6 pound tumor on her side, and now they discovered she has one on her other side. She told us she felt something in her chest as we spoke with her and we were able to explain to her about the Spirit. We then challenged her to baptism and she accepted! I know Heavenly Father is aware and loves each and everyone of His Children. I know this because I can feel it when I serve them. We can never doubt His love for us. It is there if we want it or not. We each have great potential. "When you put limits on yourself, you put limits on God."

Love,

Hermana Sherman

"The decision to serve a mission will shape the spiritual destiny of the missionary, his or her spouse, and their posterity for generations to come." -Elder Russell M. Nelson

Things we learn through the Spirit, will stay with us forever...

Hi!

Yesterday, we had a multi-zone conference with Elder Amado. We got to hear and learn from him all day, which was awesome. We talked about what the Spirit guided him to talk about and he told us not to focus so much on what he says, but on what the Spirit says to us because things we learn through the Spirit will stay with us forever. We talked a lot about after our mission and how we can apply everything we learn during our missions for the rest of our lives. 

We found out about another inactive family of 5! When we went to find them, it turns out they live next door to the other inactive family we found last week! The Hermana let us in because she said she saw us doing service and washing clothes for her next door neighbor last week! We really are always being watched, even when we don't expect it. It made me realize how important it is to be a representative of Jesus Christ 24/7. Even if we aren't serving full time missions, people are aware of the ¨Mormons¨ and its so important that we are always good examples. Who knows how many little seeds we can plant by our actions.

Honduran experience of the week: I went to grab something out of my medicine bag that I had put on the shelf in our kitchen. As I opened it I thought to myself, ¨Why is there rice in my bag?¨ I then saw literally thousands of the biggest, ugliest ants starting to freak out and crawl everywhere. It was not rice in my bag, it was hundreds of nasty ant eggs. We have bug poison, so I just went to town on the little guys. 

Weve been teaching this amazing investigator named Xiomara. She is 28 years old and lives with her boyfriend and they have 4 children. She has mastered every commitment we've given her. When we give her a pamphlet to read or a chapter in the Book of Mormon to prepare her for our next lesson, she reads the materials over and over and by the time we get their to teach, she already knows everything. I love teaching Xiomara because she has such a spiritual hunger. We finally had a lesson with her and her boyfriend Oscar for the first time and he is just as awesome! They made up there minds on their own to get married, because its against the commandments of God before we taught the law of chastity. Lessons with people like Xiomara and Oscar makes up for all of the bad ones. There is no better feeling than leaving a lesson spiritually uplifting and whole. 

Missionary work is great. I love my calling and being able to bring this great message of the Restoration into peoples lives. I know that the Lord restored His true church on the earth through a modern day Prophet and that we now have the power and keys to carry forth this great work. 

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Our normal walk to an appointment with the company of cows

A sugar cane! You just bite a chunk off, chew the juices, then spit it out.

Never doubt His love for you...

Ello there! 

This week was a little different. We were doing swell working with all of our investigators and recent converts... then BAM! We lost almost all of our investigators. It was pretty rough to have appointment after appointment fall through. However, whenever an appointment falls through, Heavenly Father seems to have something better in store. We just have to follow the Spirit and find out what it is. The other day almost all of our appointments fell through so we were just walking trying to find opportunities to talk to people. We passed a house pretty far back in our area and there were 2 sisters washing clothes. We asked if we could help and they said yes. We told them to take a seat as we washed their clothes and began to talk to them. It turns out they are inactive members of the church for 5 years and a family of 6! We were able to build confidence with them and made appointments to teach them. I know that we were suppose to meet them for a reason and that the Lord is aware of His lost sheep.

We had a couple of the youth go out and work with us. It amazes me how prepared these youth are! They are so excited to do missionary work and arent scared or ashamed to share the Gospel with their friends. They are so strong in their circumstances and such good examples to me. Alma 37.35

All of the mosquito eggs hatched, so now there are literally clouds of mosquitos. We are learning to bathe in repellent which helps a little. Im trying to admire and love ALL of the creations of God, but Im having a little harder time figuring out the purpose of mosquitos. 

Hondurans or catrachos are hilarious. Im learning the differences when the Latin women are mad and yelling and when they are just talking loud. When there is a lot of women in a room and want to talk, they just talk louder so everyone can hear them until eventually everyone is yelling. I cant help but laugh sometimes. The women are so strong here due to their difficult circumstances. They are great Mothers and Daughters of Heavenly Father. 

One of the greatest parts of being a missionary, is that we can feel the love Heavenly Father has for His children. I know that Heavenly Father knows each and everyone of us personally. I also know that He will never get sick of us praying or asking Him questions. He will always answer our prayers in His own time and by His own will because He knows whats best for us, and sees  the whole picture. Never doubt His love for you. It´s there even if you dont want it. 

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Our investigator Jorge makes things out of soda lids! People drink soda like water here.

He also has the ultimate stoop

Dont know why, but im obsessed with this tree.

For Relief Society, we made headbands out of tshirts

Instruments in the Lords hands

Hello there!

This past week we were able to teach a street contact reference from the other Hermanas. Her name is Xiomara and she is awesome! She is drawn to the church because of how pretty the church buildings are. They truly are the Lords house! We have high hopes for her. but found out that shes not married either! So we are working with her.

We werent able to see Caesar for more than two weeks, and two weeks in mission life without seeing someone, is like a lifetime. We fasted and prayed specifically for him. While we were fasting, ALL of our appointments seemed to have fallen through. It was hot and we were all light headed and dizzy, We were led to the last street of our area where we were going to try and visit one of our investigators. She wasnt home either, so we were walking with our heads down humming the Charlie Brown song when a recent convert passed us. We said hi and asked him where he was going. He said he was headed to Caesars house! We asked if we could join him and he said yes. We FINALLY got in to see Caesar! We were able to talk about where hes at and his needs. I know that it wasnt just a coincidence. The Lord put us in the right place, at the right time. Ohhhh the church is true!

We also still meet with Santos as much as we can. I always love visiting him. Even though hes 82, he is so excited about learning new things. Whenever we walk up to his house whether its in the morning, evening, or night, he is chilling on his hammock reading the scriptures or the gospel principle book. He told us he is studying as much as he can about the Priesthood because he is going to receive the priesthood! He knows that its a precious gift and the power of God. He also said that he is going to go to the temple in march so he is going to work on his family history. I cant even explain how happy we are for him. Its the best feeling in the world to know we were instruments in the Lords hands in bringing someone the fullness of the gospel.

I just love being a missionary! 

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Some kids sitting in a tree eating the fruit like little monkeys.

Trying to catch a bunny for Randi :)

 

The difference in the water from the tap and purified water that we drink.