🔥🙏LIVING ON A PRAYER🙏🔥-TOCOA Week Fifty Two

 

1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, or 3 and a half summer vacations🌊🔥. However you want to count it. ONE YEAR AS A MISSIONARY and lets just say time flies when your having fun and slows down when you ain't

 

President Christiansen and these amazing Elders

This years been goofy everything was so different then I imagined. Like whoever is spreading the lie that people are fluent after one year in the mission. LIES, if any spanish speakers understand the difference between "fue" and "era" pls send help and yes I know they are preterit and imperfect but that means NOTHING LITERALLY NOTHING

 

Sister Christiansen and some amazing Elders playing games

I sometimes feel like i haven't changed at all over this year but I know that can't be true I just don't know exactly how I've improved, guess we'll see in another year BUT missions dope highly recommend to everybody considering it. the beginning was so brutal like first 6 months was a fight but it's gotten alot better and im excited to see what happens in THE SECOND HALF YESSUR

 

He is half way.  See you next July

Shoutouts to the boys who have helped me this year

-ELDER BASHAM❤️❤️❤️

-Elder hiraldo

-Elder argueta👀

-Elder paredez

-Elder Jorgensen

-Elder Stout

-Elder Peery

-Elder Leavitt

-Elder Lyman

-Elder milla

-PRESIDENT/HERMANA OSTLER AND CHRISTENSON YEEEE

And literally so many more people from the mish and back at home. Every email sent has meant SO much

 

 

Dead dog=church attendance-TOCOA Week Fifty One

 

I'm dying

 

Probably got one of the worst fevers ive ever had yesterday after church and ofc its zone conference pday today and conference tomorrow so the travels have not helped but we up🔛🔝

 

Sporting some Binance Soccer Jerseys

This family we are teaching were the mom is super inactive started coming to church consistently over the last month and none of her kids are baptized so big miracles coming up. Lowkey super cool story cause at first the kids wanted nothing to do with us but we kept visiting and kept inviting and now whenever we visit they always super hyped to see us so cool to see the lord softening hearts

 

Also lots of USA🇺🇲🏈🔥 hate recently. Probably asked like 6 times my thoughts on trump recently and its hard to tell them I support him💀💀 nah i just stay quiet but its a tough subject for the hondurens right now. Everyone keeps saying they want to throw me out of their country because we re throwing them out of ours😁😁 

 

We also were about to put a fecha with this lady and her phone rang and someone told here that her friend died. Dont know if satan or god interrupted but we skirted outta there.

 

Lotsa contacts this week, we working hard but the area is kinda slowing down right now. This one lady who going to the envangelical church listened to a lesson from us and we invited her to church and she goes "you know what, I do want to go to your church. I like how you teach and I want you to teach all my family too."

 

Beautiful Honduran Sunset

OHHH craziest story

We go to this inactive families house that always talk to us and let us share messages. The 5 year old son opens the door and goes "our dogs dead" I was like "what??? It was alive last week" then the mom comes out and says "come in side ill tell you the story"

 

Keep in mind this is the nicest dog I had ever met

 

Here's what happened

 

-her neighbors (also inactive members) complained about her dog always leaving and biting people, they went over to her house to talk to her about it

-she defends her dog and for some reason these 2 neighbors start being her up

-they throw her to the ground and her dog now starts bitting them because his owner just got beat up

-the two neighbors leave and this lady calls the police (who do nothing because police here suck and are corrupt)

-then the next day she walks outside and her dog is dead on the side of the road(the neighbors killed it with drugs)

 

So yah crazy but plus side this family came to church on Sunday for the first time in like all my time here so thats dope

American Fork Caveman appearance in Honduras-TOCOA Week Fifty

 

Ya so maybe craziest story of the week is after district counsel I was walking and chatting with some missionaries when this dude in a motorcycle was driving towards me. I noticed his shirt and was like yo I know what that logo is, and then it got closer and closer and the dude passed and it was an American Fork high-school shirt. I stopped in place and processed what just happened for a sec.

 

I'm in a third world country and this random dude on a motorcycle passed by in my high school shirt. Crazy

 

Lowkey makes sense tho cause millions of those shirts probably get donated to desert industries and then get sent to these types of countries but still threw me for a loop. I was tempted to run after the moto and ask for a picture but I decided not to. Still crazy tho.

 

Elder Shanklins district out for lunch

Other than that lots of contacting this week. Contacting is always brutal for me cause my whole mission I've never had a contacting success story. Other missionaries always share this miracle lady that got baptized 2 weeks after getting contacted but I have never once had someone progress to baptism from a contact. Part of the learning process, gotta keep going and having the faith even if its never happened before.

 

We got bible bashed twice this week and they both used the same argument: praying while standing.

I didn't think that it was a big cause for debate but some people find it disrespectful here so best believe I offered to say a closing prayer and stood up for it. Nah I'm jk we kneeled.

 

Always get a peek at the beach whenever he can

 

One thing I've realized is that people have a tough time accepting the mercifulness of good. People really do not like the idea of baptisms for the dead and the spirit world. And this has made me realize how grateful I am for a loving and merciful God and savior. Who gave us the chance not just to repent in this life, but in every moment until the second coming of Christ. The parable of the prodigal son is real. No matter how late you come back home, God is watching and welcoming you with open arms. But at the same time there will always be a brother who doesn't believe the father should be so merciful. Always go back to God guys, he wants you back.

 

 

-e shank

TOCOA-WEEK Forty Nine

I'm alive

Sushi boat pt2 

Pray for Yessica and Mario pls

 Love you guys

Begging for baptism🌊🙏🫂-TOCOA Week Forty Eight

 

Chill week

 

Highlights

-transfers and im staying in my area finishing training🔥🔥

-some lady stopped us in the road asking to get baptized(look farther down)

-my zone became a gringo zone with transfers

-elder stout staying in my zone

-we have 4 baptisms for next sunday🌊🌊🌊

-FISHING ON PDAYYY🐟🐠

-caught my first fish ever in my life in honduras(not a proud stat)

-gotta see elder jorgensen and all the office boys for 5 semanas(meeting for new missionaries and trainers)

-11 months in mish

 

Lows

-so much traveling

-5 semanas

-buses without air conditioning

-fricking elder peery going home#keep shooting🏀

NO SE VAYA PEERY😭😭😭

-houses without air-conditioning

-People not wanting to go to church

 

So yah this week was 5 weeks and we had to travel 8 hours to San pedro sula on Tuesday and then 8 hours back on Wednesday. Worth it cause gotta see elder jorgensen(goat) and then gotta chat with all the other office elders. The bus back to was full so we stood for 4 hours👁👄👁

 

MIRACLEEEE

k so one day all our plans fell(normal) and I got the feeling to visit this member. I lowkey didn't want to cause hes a yapper but I was like alright we got nothing else to do. Well on the way some lady waves us down her motorcycle. She calls us over and goes "Hermanos! I want to get baptized, what do I need to do?" And before we can answer first off my mind exploded but then she goes "and my husband wants to get baptized and we want to get married" my brain then exploded again and I had to process what she said for 10 seconds before saying "uhh we can help with that" okay so maybe I fumbled the response but we got her number and have visited her and her husband twice. Super nice fam and they didn't go to church cause they already had a trapped plan but please pray for Yaneth and Mario. I wanna marry a couple so bad on the mission and they are so nice and would benefit from the gospel🙏🙏🙏

 

Us after the lady stopped us to ask for baptism

MARIO AND YANETH🙏🙏

That's it

 

If you wanna see the huge fish i caught join my photos

Red but mostly WHITE AND BLUE🇭🇳🇭🇳-TOCOA Week Forty Seven

 What's up guys welcome to July and the 2nd half of the black out year time is currently cooking rn so thats always good, missing 4th of July however not good. I never cared for the holiday before the mission but now WOOOOO might cut the mission short just to make the next one

 

Nah but after 2 years outside the states I will never disrespect the states again that place fr is holy ground

 

ALSO shoutout to the new mission presidents the Christensens. Apparently president has read every single email I've sent out so thats kinda scary so WHATSUP PRESY if you reading this. I wouldn't mind elder jorgensen as my comp

 

But speaking of president reading my emails we worked SO hard this week i cant even describe. Obedience also🆙️🆙️🆙️🆙️ my son has never been trained so good

 

Elder Shanklin & Companion

But fr we had some miracles this week. Lots of family's appearing and a random grandson spawning in who wanted to get baptized. He's now on date for the 20th so hype.

 

Elders are having a good time

Coolest story might be that in the mission we are ALWAYS told the work always matters cause we are planting seeds. Maybe someone rejects us but in 2 or 3 years they remember the encounter and talk to the missionaries. Basically its just to motivate us to always keep working. We'll about 2 months ago in the same area I'm in we visited a family that was inactive and not even on the map. Just a random contact. The mom however had not been baptized. She loved the church and had assisted for 5 years in the states before coming back to honduras

 She said the church had different vibes here and didn't want anything to do with it. Well this week I had the feeling to stop be her house for the first time in 2 and a half months. I sent my comp and DL over cause we were doing divisions and they told me she was so open to the church and wanted to come on Sunday and get baptized. We visited her on Saturday night and it was alot more enthusiasm then when I had visited her 2 months ago. Turns out the mission president's right. People always change. Womp womp tho she didn't come to church but I got hopes still, all her kids are already baptized and they want to start coming to church too. Anyways pretty dope.

 

That's the week so far. Transfers coming up but I bet im staying

 

-elder shank

"Yooo are you guys a couple?" TOCOA Week Forty Five

Welp my email streak is over sorry mom for missing last week🤫🧏 I dont remember what happened 2 weeks ago we just gonna go into THIS WEEK

 

Lowkey flew by as a week which was a shocker, I read smth that when you get in a schedule the time goes by faster cause there's less big moments or memories you remember and lowkey thats what this week feels like cause nothing crazy happened we just grinded

 

I think spanish may actually be smth I understand now cause this week we would spend maybe an average of an hour in every lesson and I'd be talking the whole time and just FLIES by🆙️🆙️

#giftoftonguesreal

President and Sister Ostler with Elder Shanklin
Going home after three years as mission leaders

 

Yah but heres the highlights

 

our penchinista left us to go to the usa🇺🇸🏈🦅so we needed to find someone to make us food, that night we were teaching a lesson to a member who has 3 kids and tons of stuff have happened recently that have made her not able to work. I was sharing a scripture about god being with us in all times and then I got the thought to ask her to be our penchinista and she was THRILLED, she apparently studied how to cook and now has a way to earn money, so dope to see god looking our for his children through other people. AND WE GOT FOOOD✅️🆙️🔛🔝

 

Missionaries≠Gay

So me and my comp were flying through contacts one day when I was like I want a popsicle🍦 so we went and got a popsicle and my comp got one too. So there we were two missionaries eating popsicles walking down a honduras road and I had the thought "this feels kinda gay right now" and then right after that thought a dude in fluent english yells "YOO ARE YOU GUYS A COUPLE" caught off guard so im like "WHAT?" and then he repeats his question and starts talking about how Trump doesnt like gays and he was warning us that in honduras they aren't welcome either. I was so confused so I explained we weren't gay and then i just started talking about Jesus and then I had an hour conversation with this dude about the trinity and then he said he would come to church(spirit) but yah kinda weird interaction but if he comes to church I'll take being called gay.

 

The guy who was worried about us being gay

So we returned to visit that dude and had a 2 hour lesson(rare for hard working missions idk bout you state side guys(tyler)) and bro was 100% like he's going to church(update he didn't but high hopes next week)

 

GRATEFUL FOR 0 ASSISTENCIAS 

So we had like 8 people confirmed coming to church... 0 came but lowkey a blessing cause maybe one of the worse church experiences I've had. It was stake conference and they transmitted the video to our chapel but whole bunch of technology problems and 7 people showed up in total: 6 inactives and 1 member. Yes I've listened to uchdorfts last conference talk but yah lowkey was kinda glad our investigators didn't come lol🔥🛶🌊

 

That's my week we at the ocean right now fishing with
some other misioneros for pday so dubsss, my mission pres and his wife go home in 3 days so we'll see if my new president pulls a "better that one man perish than a whole nation" and sends all the disobedient elders home. Mom you might be seeing me soon

 

Have a W week

-elder shanklin