Miracles Surrounds Us at Home, in Bolivia, and in Honduras!!!

Dear Family and Friends,
What a week it has been.  Thank you for your thoughts and kindnesses in regards to my dad.  The funeral was nice and I think he would have been pleased.  on our way home on Sunday we hit ice just above Plymouth.  We spun off the road and rolled our truck.  God was watching over us.  He protected us in so many ways.  I know we were blessed for many reasons and one of them is because of the service of our missionaries.  We emailed them about the accident.  Chris got the email before he wrote back, but Isabel did not...so she still has to hear about it all.  I am going to post Dave's letter to them in between the two letters.  He really puts it well.  We walked away from the accident, our truck is a total loss.  How blessed we were.

Here is Isabel's Letter.

it has been such a sad week and such an amazing week. and im feeling guitly for all the money and resources that i have at some point in my life wasted. we were preaching to this young family and when we were about to leave this little old lady that looked like a cute old bird soaking up the sunshine on a rock with her pollera (skirt) and grey braids yelled in a sweet but weak voice "mamitas que van predicando?" sweeties what are you preaching? i saw her and immediately my heart was filled with love for the grandma i went over to her and sat down right next to her and felt like i should hold her hand while i shared the message of the restoration my comp was taken aback by how familiar i was getting with her. she told us she was sick and was sitting in the sun to feel better she has herpes and a bad leg she is like 80 and still gets ready in the morning to sell in the market her veggies to make a living. hermanita Antonia takes pain medication that sometimes makes her very sleepy and to see her get all her little rags to put her veggies out on the ground in hopes to sell at her age with her curbed back brings tears to my eyes. she told us about her 5 kids and how only the last two boys remember to visit her and how even though she has asked for forgiveness her other kids hate her because she left them in the care of her mother and she left to argentina to make a living with her husband who ended up telling her that she wasnt worth all the trouble and left her there by her self to fend for the 5 kids. her little broken heart has so much guilt and pain and loneliness. i spent most of my money buying her yogurt and bread and eggs we visit her once a day to give her a big hug and kiss and make sure she hasnt died. she came to church this sunday we invited her to be baptized and she said to be born again sounds beautiful i think im going to die soon i want to be right with God. she is no longer selling on sundays to come to church to be baptized. its been wonderful to help her heal her wounds and feed her belly and clean her. some elders think that the priesthood authority is more powerful than priesthood power. but its not the case in the relief society i know we have the priesthood power and we can offer prayers onbehalf of the hands that hang down and the bellies that growl and the back that are broke and trying. i know that the lord hears us and answers us all. this christmas i dont want anything but money and things to make others burdens light please. 1 dollar can give a little family some relief 4 apples a bag of milk and 6 pieces of bread. there is another lady that has been sick because her husband left her 5 years ago cutting by half her income and still leaving her with 4 mouths to feed and so as a mom as a women she has gone without food to feed her kids and now she is "sick" and really all that she has is severe malnutrition yesterday we felt prompted to take a pharmacist to visit her. she said i waited for you this morning to go to church and you didnt come.. i thought about what you said and i do need to show my faith by actions to get blessings. we were so heart broken to know that she was ready and we forgot. but here is the amazing part the pharmacist had been mission leader and had seen a foto of this sister a long time ago when other sister missionaries told him she was in need. when i looked on her table which is her kitchen it was empty and they hadnt eaten anything. he called out brach pres. and we gave her out promise to help her with rent, food that members gave us to give her and this thur. she will get 150 bolivianos to start her business again. what to her was too much and overwhelming to pay equal like 55 dollars. rent food and work... 55 dollars. the lord blessed her. and her kids. and us. i know that he answers prayers. i love you all but have to go. chirs i love you too i have been writing my journal like letters to you. i will send the letters i have written to you when i have money again. i love you so much and pray for your safety always. janice please send him my address. but i havent gotten any mail bcc it goes to the mission office in cochabamba. mami ponme en wellsfargo. janice i have gotten wierd email adresses from you so i think its spam have you written me


forgot to mention i had two more baptisms this weekend will tell you later bye les amo!

Dave's Letter to the Kids
Oh kids,
The Lord protects us. I'm sure you've noticed this already on your missions. Last night he protected us.

If you felt a "tremor in the force" to quote from the Star Wars movies, I'll tell you why. (Isabella be calm, "all is well.")

Last Tuesday afternoon Janice's dad passed away. Tuesday evening she drove up to Idaho Falls in the Truck. I came up on Wednesday afternoon with grandpa and grandma Finch. They were going up to see Courtney compete in the Miss Hillcrest pageant.

Jan was at Richard's house every night starting with Tuesday till Saturday. We came home on Sunday.

I went to the pageant. Jan was with her family working out funeral details.

The viewing was Friday evening. They made Richards body look so much better than the last time we saw him. We had taken the previous Friday off and spent the day with him. Janice got to spend some quality tender time with him. They teased and had other conversations.

Monday evening she called him and only had a brief conversation with him. The call was basically an exchanging of "I love you's."

Jan and her cousin gave the life sketch at the funeral. I sang a solo called "Together Again," an old Buck Owens song. Another fellow sang an opening song. The choir Rich was a member of sang the closing song. A fellow who was the branch president of the singles ward that Rich served with as a councilor with also spoke. The current Bishop also gave comments.

Rich touched everyones life for better. He had many, many friends. He will be missed.

He was buried on Saturday, November 20th. Exactly 21 years earlier jan's mom had died on that date.

Jan got through to the Honduras mission office on Wednesday. She requested to talk with Chris about this event. His mission president gave him permission to call. He call at an almost perfect time. We were at the funeral home. We had just been shown in to view Richard's body for the first time. That's when Jannie's cell phone rang. We got to visit with Chris. It was wonderful. I think the phone call was more consoling to his parents than the parents consoling the son. Chris said some profound things. I'll paraphrase. "I was sad and emotional at first, then I realized he was with grandma again. What a beautiful thing.". And "I've been missing Isabella for only four months, they've been apart for 21 years."

Thanks for your comforting words, prayers and feelings Christopher.

We left to come home in a blizzard. This was no biggie. We've done this in the past. We had the back seat packed with all the family pictures and Jan's share of her mother's porcelain dolls. We left traveling 40 mph on the freeway. We drove with 4 wheel drive engaged. This was bad. We saw numerous slide offs between Idaho Falls and Pocatello. Then the roads improved. You could see all the lines on the road the yellow, white and dotted white lines. I increased our speed some. We got to and over Malad pass without any problems. I'd slow and engage 4 wheel drive when the roads looked bad.

Just before Plymouth we hit some ice. Whew no issue. The truck swerved. I engaged 4 wheel drive. Then we hit a patch of more ice. The truck fish tailed. I corrected. The truck spun the opposite way and we were out of control. We were heading towards the side of the road Sid ways. I told Janice "we're in trouble!". I pleaded with Heavenly Father for help out loud as the truck slid down the side of the road. The truck turned over and landed on its head. It rolled over on the passenger side and broke out that window. None of the other windows broke out during all of this. We were both wearing our seat belts. We were both hanging upside down from the seat belts. I was able to release mine. We asked each other if we were ok and we both were. The truck was now on it's cab pointing perpendicularly towards the freeway. I said some more prayers. We were both a bit panicked. We tried to stay calm. The ambulance had been behind us and saw the whole thing. We were out in about five minutes. They checked us out. No problems. Some scrapes and bruises. They took us to the hospital to wait. I called grandpa finch. They came and picked us up. We went to where the truck was towed to get our belongings. None of the pictures nor porcelain dolls were damaged. On the truck no damage was to the hood nor the bed. The box where the people sit was wrinkled, but it held it's shape. Thanks be to the Lord and Ford.

Today we'll hear from the insurance company. We'll let you know what happens.

The Lord protects us. We think that's the lesson to learn from all of this.

Again we are ok. Please thank the Lord for protecting us.

We love you both,
Dad


Christopher's Letter
 

Buenas,

I hope that you are well after the funeral and an accident. Wow. To read that and then to read the story from Isabel is all really touching.

I miss you all. I am a little home sick to be honest. I miss you, mom and Dad. I miss Grandma and Grandpa. The sound of your voice.

It is kind of like the smell of "ripe" rain. Sometimes the memories of you are all lost in the work and the wind, but...there is nothing like being with family.

This week we brought (almost) two families to church. We had more attendence of new investigators than Monterrey has ever had.  15 souls, 11 of which could take the decision to be baptized (usually which has been 2 or 3 or 0). Mario, the dad of one of the families, said that he has intentions to stay in the class Gospel Principles.

Isabel, from the Fam. Flores, the other fam, said that she loved how we gave her a bible (book of mormon) and taught her the way to read and understand it. She said that when she went to Catholic church as a young girl, her mother or the paster of the church simply gave her a bible and a peace of paper with scripture to memorize and said,"You need to memorize this to be confirmed."...With no explanation. Her son Orlando told us that he felt at home especially in that the opinion of every person matters. In the class for Priesthood, he loved that everyone was participating. I hope that both of them find what they are searching for. They are both beautiful families. Both Family Flores, too (but different families). Mario and his wife work really, really hard in their resturaunt, and you can tell they both want to rest because they work so very, very hard. And they deserve rest.

The husband of Isabel left her when she had 30 years or something, with five kids, nothing to eat at all. And she told us that she threw her self on her bed and pleaded with the lord,"I have nothing. You need to give a job so that I can feed these kids." And 3 days later she found work. And ever since has worked. And now her kids support her, I think. People have hard lives here.

There is also a family here, Family Medina. 3 siblings of 24 to 33 years old that live with their mom. Bellinda is the oldest there, and is also married. The brother below her is 27, Jose Luis. And their sister Jizel lives with them with her boyfriend or something and their child. Anyway, we have taught this family a lot. I mean, a lot a lot. They love us a lot and always want us to come teach, but one day forever ago, jose luis told us that he wanted to just be friends, that we can share our testimonio and what we have learned, but just friends...Kind of weird. But here is something really interesting. They are siblings with Mario of Family Flores. he is the oldest. and yesterday we taught Bellinda, after we had eaten dinner with them. And we had a very spiritual experience of bearing testimony. And really, breaking down the walls as much as possible. She has doubts and has always asked things like,"Well, where is that in the Bible?" Which yesterday we were pleading with her, because recently we discovered that their dad had died two years ago and it has really hurt the family a lot, that she should have faith and for the sake that she could be with her dad again to pray about the book of mormon because when she receives the answer about it, then she knows that she can be with her dad again. And with tears running down her cheeks, she said yes. And with tears in my eyes, I bore testimony. And it was really special, because there is so much love and respect in between my comp and i and this family.

So we are working with 3 really awesome families right now, and I cant wait for them to receive their rest in their souls. That is one of my favorite things in the book of mormon to research. "Rest." I recommend researching it in the scriptures, Book of Mormon, D&C, Bible. It is really beautiful.

I love you all. I am really, really glad that you are all safe. Please dont do that again. Haha. It sounds like all went well with Grandpa.

Sincerely, Elder Hill
(this is an email to Isabel....some of which I am deleting...it is between them....but he tells a wonderful story I want to share.)

Babysweet,
...I am so happy that you are helping "the cute little people with cute little hats." What you wrote to my mom and everyone reminded me of this lady that has a tiny little house which is more like a garage in the states. She is very old and frail with black spots all over her skin. But she always wears a really nice dress and red knitted cardigan, with a handmade hat like someone might wear by the sea. One day I sat by her, as she was all alone. We talked about God a little, her light raspy voice telling me about God has always loved her. And I told her that I loved her and that God loves her. She told me that I was guapo (handsome) and she leaned her head into the fore of my shoulder and I put my arm around her. We just sat there for a while, Elder Christensen, this lady and me. She has never told us her name, because i think that she is somewhat incoherrent. But since then whenever she sees me, she waves and points her finger to the sky and then to her heart. And I dont really know in words how I would describe it, but I know that my redeemer lives and loves her.

... almost everything here brings utterance to the stories you told me about Colombia. This morning I washed
my garments and socks by hand for a few hours. I drink water and milk from a bag. And pinol. And San Concho or Sopa de reis. I eat fresh lyches and lemons and all kinds of things. There is an old man that sells fruits named Miguel Angel, who wears handmade cowboy hats of straw and leather. And everytime I see him, I think about your mom for some reason. He looks very native and he has 70 years. And he loves us. And we love him. And he loves to tell us about fruit and how he wants us to visit his tierra of fruit down the river. And I want to. The sad thing is that he is too afraid to not sell every day, because he has had to work so hard everyday of his life. But he loves God. And he wants us to baptize him, because he knows its right. WE have been teaching him to read so that he can read the BoM so that he can have a testimony of it. I love him, and know that we knew each other before this life.

I am always tired and always excited to work. This week also, I ate noni and fresh cacao smoothies everyday which was fun. the cool part was... it was a gift from someone in the ward who has a cacao farm... And they live like two houses down from us.

I work really hard until I cant anymore, and I am always tired. I am always excited to do the work. To be yours in the future is all I could ever hope for after this. that and I want to be mission leader when I get back. haha.

I love you sweetie. Take care. Know that I love you and that I know that you love me. see you soon, baby!

Isabella, Grandpa Hatch, & Christopher
June 2010

A Phone Call From my Bear!

As most of you probably already know, by father passed away two days ago.  I really really did not want to tell Chris in an email.  I have been telling him that Richard wasn't doing very well.  Anyway, I decided to call the mission office in Honduras and see if they would tell him.  An Elder answered the phone in Spanish and I just started talking English.  He instantly changed.  Such a warm and kind Elder, I am sure his mother misses him too!  So I explained what happened and could they please get a message to Chris.  He promised they would and that he would talk to the mission president as soon as he returned.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed...so hoping they would let me tell Chris.  Well anyway I called on Wednesday fairly early and by today at 4 or 5 we hadn't heard anything from him.  So I figured they would just relay the message.  We went to the funeral home to view Richard's body and make sure everything was like we would want it to be and right in the middle of it all....Christopher calls.

So so wonderful to hear his voice.  He said Mom when they told me I was a little emotional, but then I remembered that he was with Grandma Again....I felt so happy!!!  It is such a beautiful thing he said.  I had to smile because my thoughts have many times run down those very thoughts as well.  He told me I have missed Isabel for 4 months...I cannot imagine 20 years like Grandma and Grandpa have been a part.  I love, love this boy.  He sounds amazing, happy, excited, and it is amazing to me that he loves this work so very very much.  I am so grateful that he knows and that I know Families are Forever.  He ended with his best Russian accent telling me (Natasha you look beautiful in your new coat!  (his dad put him up to it of course!) Crazy kid...now I suppose Dave will mail him a picture of me in my new coat.

December is coming and I can't wait for those phone calls from the both of them.

3 Weeks in Sucre, Honduras Miracles, and Moms of the Elders Get to Meet!!!

Today has been an eventful day in our world of missionaries.  Early this morning we received the following email from Miss Izzy.

hola familia, everything in sucre is going great the weekly goal of
investigators in san jose california was 2 here in bolivia its 12 and
last week we had 14, we have 6 baptismal dates set. one girl named
scarlet has grown very close to me she said that when we spoke she
felt us lift her burdens with our words and that our hugs that first
meeting we had were healing to her. that was so humbling to hear. you
walk out the door in the morning wondering if you are making a
difference or not and then the lord prompts his children to encourage
you with their words. bolivia is interesting i have only seen two
western unions since ive been here and one was out of order. to use
the bathroom you have to pay and you skwat down and then you fill up a
jug and flush your mess your self, people pee on the streets with no
shame and boobs i think i´ve seen everyones by now no joke people have
no reserves about breast feeding the food made me sick the other day i
was going to the bathroom every 20 min the pres wife was scared and
couldnt understand why i was going through that with no fever or pain.
niether do i but i got over it with a blessing of health and some
treemate tea. also they dont accept debit cards or credit cards and no
one gives reciepts. to be honest i miss gringo food. and the hat i had
on was a school project the lurdes thought i would look pretty
wearing. but different parts of bolivia they wear different hats.
people here are facinated by my curly hair, like im doing a door
aproach and after 5 min of talking they interupt me and ask if my hair
is naturally that way its funny. also if i ask the price of something
my comp tells me no they gave you that price bc they know you are from
the usa let me ask prices. and there is an elder in the zone who says
hi im elder claybaugh and im from the usa and people let him in
because of that. ha ha people are have lots of time on there hands
and chores so we get to talk to alot of people and they all welcome
prayers and lessons of christ. there have only been a few of people
who were rude. there was a great experience the other day i called
this investigator named griciela and her son derek to confirm the
appointment. derek was out because he went to do his first comunion
they are very catholic and graciela has a young son that has down
syndrome and we play all the time well this time when i called she
broke up with us told us that she no longer wanted us to come over so
of course i asked her if she read the book of mormon the answer of
course was no i asked her if she prayed like we showed her again her
answer was no. when people dont do those things they break up with
us... but here is the amazing part. she said í want to return your
bible back (i dont know how many times we went over what the book of
mormon was she still didnt get it bc she didnt read it or pray) so i
said sure well go over to pick it up. she said okay. as we walked over
i prayed like ammon did pleading with the lord to save my sister and
all the walk over was in ernest prayer and i begged to have the right
words placed in my mouth as we knocked i asked it in the name of
jesus christ. when graciela opened the door the first thing she said
was well could i buy the bible from you? and i said actually graciela
its not our bible and you would know that its simly another testament
of christ if you had read it, she seemed emarrased and then i said
plus it was an excuse just to come and see you because the book is
yours. i dont know all that i said but before i knew it she allowed us
to come in and we talked more and testified of the books and the
savior and told her maybe the time wasnt now but soon she would come
to know the trithfulness of the book and his restored gospel and she
even prayed before we left. it was amazing to see the lord work on the
heart of his daughter and his servent. and even though we droped her
on her request i left with inmense peace knowing that she would
recieve the gospel soon. jana please send me the address of rogelio
and mabel griselda i need to write them tell them i love them and pray
for them every day, and who did you drop janna? i can still have you
jumped ha ha no actually im just curious. chris i love you baby work
hard mete tu hoz con toda tu fuerza. i will write everyone today and
it should get there in 10 days so be patient its easier for me to read
your mail and then write one email back in english.

A few hours later we received the following from Mr. Chris.
hola padres, como esta?
This week we´ve been working with a familly. Familia Flores. Ellos son... I mean they´re chosen.
Elogidos, se llama. There is a grandma who is named Isabel. Her son and his family. Orlando.
Noemi, his wife. Their kids Christian and Emily. So we contacted Isabel 2 or 3 weeks ago in the
street and she was receptive to our message. We passed by a couple of time but we never entered
into her house because there was never an hombre. However, last week on Sunday, we passed by
her house because one of our appointments fell through. We left with some new converts, family
who has two kids who want to serve missions but it´s hard to get them out of the house. The parents,
however are really, really ready to help. Especially the dad. Anyway, we went with the dad, his oldest
son Edwin and his girlfriend to visit this family. They received us. Herman Noemi was sick with
a migrane headache. We offered to give her a blessing after we explained the scripture in James
about sending the elders to bless those who are sick or afflicted. So we gave her a blessing, and the
spirit was really, really strong in this house. I honestly can´t remember what happened step by step
but Isabel told us that the night before she had a dream about us. In that dream, we were leaving her
and not waiting, that we had sometihng she needed but we weren´t waiting for her. And we left her in
her dream. But we taught abou the Restoration a little bit and then left two pages of a pamphlet to read.
The next time they kept their commitments to read. And this time we taught all of the restoration, asked
them to read the part in the book of mormon where christ comes. Before we left they asked us to give two
more blessings. We did and the spirit filled this house like water in a balloon. It was a blessing to be there.
All of them commited to come to Church and only the grandma came. But I only have two minutes so let me
smmarize a bit. She came and she was asking questions like,¨So, what do WE believe in... that Jose Smith
was a prophet?" like it was already HER church. Haha. Anyway, we taught last night and she read her part
that we had left a few nights before. Hermana Isabel was reading Saturday night in the Book of Mormon. HEr son had just left. He has problems with gangs, drinking and just got in a knife fight a few days ago. he also has some pretty serious cuts with stitches. But he had just left her house this night. She was reading, put the book down and began to pray to the father with her hand placed on the book,"Father, I want to know if this book is true return to me my son to where we went. Ten minutes later, she hears a knock on the door... It was her son.

Anyway, miracles are happening and it´s wonderful to be in the bosom of the lord´s work. I love you all. I´m grateful for this work and for your support. Isabel, te amo babysweet. I´ll got all of your letters. I love you so much and you look more beautiful and more happy than I hve ever seen you. I promise to live the life that will make us happy like we could only together and in the work of the lord. Tambien te necesito sus direciónes de Bolivia por favor. Also, in this package would you send me like 1 or 2 pounds of sea salt, pleace. They have bad salt here. Love you all. -Chris


Not to long after I read his letter I got a phone call on my cell phone or I should say that I missed it.  Well I didn't recognize the number so I hurried and called it back.  The lady on the other end of the phone said this is Diane Christensen and our sons are companions in Honduras.  I just got an email and they told me to call you.  It was a fun visit to talk about the "boys".  We are going to meet sometime for dinner.  She also said give me your email I have some pictures to share.  So here is what she shared with me.  It made my day!!!

Amazing Children...all of them in these pictures!!!  I miss mine as I am sure the other mothers of those children miss theirs!  Pray for them, for their continued miracles, their health, and safe return.

Tender Mercies and Miracles

I don't have a letter to post or pictures from the kids, but I wanted to share something that happened today at school.  I also wanted to record it here for Christopher and Isabel to read when they are home.  I want them to know of the blessings happening here at home because they are there serving.  Each day that I endure my missing kids...and I do miss them...I am also strengthened in becoming so aware that our Father in Heaven is so aware of each of us and our needs.  Anyway, if any of you know me well or even just know me you know that I WoRrY and wOrRy some more.  I come by it rightly...my mother was this way.  When the kids told us they were going on missions I worried about lots of things like missing them, them missing each other or losing each other, and of course as always money.  The Lord and I have an interesting relationship when it comes to money...not from His end though...He is always on the right path of the promise thing.  It is I who struggle to be strong and have faith in tithing, offerings, and yet again missionary payments.  Now also knowing Christopher as a teenager you would understand that saving money for a mission was not something he did or we did.  It just didn't seem possible in my mind....this is where that miracle comes in.  The miracle of change because of the atonement and the miracle of events and possiblities because well, the Lord follows through with all promises.

So Christopher and Isabel have been gone approximately 3 months, and I want to add so many people are helping keep them out there....the list is so long but Grandparents, Us, Isabel's Family, and wonderful ward members who are nameless and if you are one of them thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart.

In those three months tender mercies and miracles have occurred over and over.  Things like, I chose to take all of my quality teaching pay in one lump sum...it was deposited the day Chris called for help to recover from the white clothes and pen catastrophe.  The money was there to help him.  Chris' work put in a dollar for every hour he worked this year.  Out of the blue Dave has received two bonuses (never has happened before) for a project he is working on for work.  And then today....

I went to work as usual this morning with things on my mind.  The holidays are coming and of course I am trying to do the mothering thing and make sure no matter how far the kids are that they have something to open Christmas morning.  So things were traveling my mind like....I need to get our tithing paid, I need to also do monthly mission payment, mailing the packages is going to be costly....you know the WORRY thing.  I have really tried hard to be faithful and I in no way begrudge paying for these things...but I do worry about ends meeting most every day of my life...it is just my nature I think...I do this no matter how good or bad the financial times and budgets are at my house.  Anyways, I had just set down at my desk and was getting the computer running and just getting ready for my day when a fellow teacher of mine, who was once Jared's teacher, and I have spent so much time with students in her class, came up behind me and put her arms around me.  She told me that she loved me and she was always thinking of me.  She put an envelope in my hand and on the front was written for Chris's missionary fund.  I was speechless.  I opened the envelope and inside was a hundred dollars.  Later on one of my aide's received the same for her son as well. 

This particular teacher lost her husband two years ago this month.  I suspect this is what she does in his memory.  She is an amazing lady and I wish I could thank her in a more deserving way, but thank you Mrs. Cowlishaw.  Thank you for just being you and for listening to the promptings of our Heavenly Father.  You were part of a miracle today.

So Chris and Isabel when you read this, know that you were watched over on these missions and your families were too.  May we each listen to the promptings we are given so that we can be part of the Lord's tender mercies and miracles here on earth.

Thanks for listening to my rambles.  I just thought it was somethings important to share.  Love you all!!!

Janice

PS  My step-dad, my eternal dad, is in the hospital fighting cancer and is not doing so well...please keep him in your prayers.  Please pray for the Lord's will and Richard's comfort in whatever path we are asked to travel.

Pictures of Isabella and Bolivia!!!!

Today (as in Monday) we received this email and pictures from Isabella!!  Love the pictures!!

hola papa y mama en roy como estan? are you really sending us xmas packages? i thought it cost too much, i still havent been able to mail any letters bc the post office is way far and all the zone leaders plan really long and lame activities and we scarcely have time to wash a clothes by hand... i already complained ha ha we´ll see if things change. well remember how i bought like everything on the list of my calling papers and then some well im glad bc the markets are like really badly supplied here like yogurt eggs and soap  and  cookies are everywhere but american products are like way expensive. i do need some hair gel herbal essence makes this one called set me up. and thats all i can really think off. óh and crayons and coloring books not a ton but some you know how they have those party favors for kids at walmart if i could get some fun things for the kids that would be a great xmas present for me kids here are so poor and they play with junk. this week was great we met this girl named teresa who is only here till dec 24 so we have to teach her before she leaves who is 17  and read the restoration pamphlet and confessed that she wanted to be a nun when she was little and when her brother told her that she couldnt have a family if she did become a nun she was crushed and asked us if we were married and so we said no but soon! we taught her about heavenly fathers plan for us being centered around the family she was so thrilled she said i read your pamphlet and i love it what do i need to be a sister missionary. well this email has to be short sorry i will write more tonight and will try to mail soon.

She looks wonderful!!!  This last one is my favorite.  Well until next Monday!!!

Wise Men & Marriages in Honduras

We received this email from Christopher Bear today! Enjoy!

Wow! The girls are so big.  It´s crazy that when we return they´ll be a lot bigger, too.  I miss them a lot.

So, mom and dad, if Dad can, could he translate my letters and send them to the Family Florido. That would be awesome and then he can practice his Spanish too.  Which reminds me, mom, have you gone to the Spanish branch yet?  I get the feeling that you haven´t. 

Anyway, the area that I live in is called Monterrey.  The neighborhood is called Lomos de Nauvoo, because it was established by one of the apostles or seventy.  Hence, it´s called Nauvoo.  You can try to google map it.   Something like... Lomos De Nauvoo, Comayaguela, Tegicigalpa, Honduras.   I don´t know.  We don´t have mailing addresses here.  Granted the wise built his house upon the rock, but the wise men here have been drunk for some time.  There is no order to the way the houses are structured here for nothing!  I promise you this. I have a testimony even more so that Utah was built by a prophet with such order because, well, yeah.  Haha. 

So... It´s Monday.  The "taco" here is called a Balliada, which is really good.  You should google it.  Although I think that I told you this the last time.

Good news!  We´re marrying someone this week.  Johnny Bueso y Maria Lena Alvarado.   Si, hombre! (which is basically my most favorite thing to say here... that and "nombreee!!!")  Haha.  They´re going to get married Thursday or Jueves.  Hooray for that.  No more breaking the law of you know what!  

We actually baptized Johnny, last week.  He´s 33 years old and in just two weeks the change in just his eyes is heavenly.  There´s something that you can´t quite define with words, just with smiles and emotions.  It´s beautiful.  He´s truly my first convert baptism, because I asked him to get baptized and baptized him.  He has two kids with Maria, y she has two others that love him.  So, today... Oh, wait.  Crap.  I don´t have my camera.  That´s bad.  I was supposed to print pictures for him.  Anyway.  Don´t worry about that.

Our other baptisms were two teenagers of a friend who´s a member, Erick.  His friends are called Luis and Eduardo.  Both are awesome.  But let me tell you the story.   Erick used to be inactive for a long time.  My companion started to visit him before I got here.  When I got here, we visisted him all the time.  Then his friend.  And then his other friend.  And these two have actually received lessons from the missionaries, a year or so ago.  But we began to teach them Luis with Erick a lot in the last few weeks.  We passed by Erick´s once on a Sunday before church just to stop by.  But he had awoken with some kind of fungus on his skin like ringworm.  I asked him if he´d like a blessing, and long story short we gave him one.  He didn´t go to church that day, but he gave his mom a written testimony (because it was fast Sunday).  She didn´t read it, but the next day gave it to us.  In it, he said that he knew that Elder Hill and Elder Christensen were called and inspired by God.  Which was pretty amazing to read.  He said some other things, but!  To move on to other miracles:

With Luis, the first time that we prayed to know that the book of mormon is true, he thanked God for the two angels that had come into his life.  So humbling, so wonderful.  And so, this is what happened. We invited him to be baptized, like, 6 times.  Always he said no or I´m not prepared or whatever.  But we asked Erick one night before a lesson if he´d invite his friend to be baptized.  He felt nervous but said that he would.  During this lesson, at the beginning Luis was invited to be baptized by us, but again said no.  At the end of the lesson, Erick asked Luis to be baptized.  Luis looked down and was playing with the Book of Mormon with his hands.  he turned it around and placed his thumb at the bottom of the book where it says the name of the church, covering the part where it says, "of latter day saints" as it simply read,"the church of jesus christ."  he smiled at me, at my comp, at erick.  and said,"me bautizo."   !!!!  miracles.  And actually, I wasn´t there, but I can remember like I was.  Haha.  We did changes that night, sadly, but miraculously maybe.

The second thing was that two days later, when we did changes again and I wasn´t there,  Erick answered the door when my companion and Elder Dardon arrived, "Hey, Luis invited Eduardo to be baptized.  Can he get baptized the same day?"  And my companion said, "yeah, just call him."  And as friends they do this thing where they make a rrrrrriiiit or something, like a hiss mixed with a whistle.  And there was Eduardo waiting for us to arrive.  And that´s the miracle that members can have on their friends.  I promise that if you invite more people who aren´t members to church and testify of the miracles that you´ve had in your life, you´re going to see miracles.  You have more power than the missionaries.  And Dad, you should go out with the missionaries as much as possible.  What a blessing it will be on our house.

Anyway, I have to go.  For Christmas, you can send me 5 pounds of maca and goji berries.  They have cacao here.  :)   I love you so much.  

Christmas Packages

Dear Family & Friends,

I have looked in to sending packages to Chris and Isabella.  It is about 65.00 for a standard size 2 day shipping box here in the US.  Not overly big.  After talking to some family members it has been suggested that we all send what we are going to send them in one box and share shipping costs.  So I am happy to do that if you will get to me what you want sent to them within the next 10 days or so.  Cards, letters, small gifts, treats, whatever you can think of.  If you want to donate to the shipping...that is very appreciated (these missionaries are just a little pricey at times :0) ).  We need to get the packages shipped soon so that they recieve them.  Just a letter takes a couple of weeks to get there.  I would like to ship these no later than Friday, November 12th.  That will give them almost 6 weeks to get there.  If you want to mail stuff to me then send it to Janice Hill  5601 South 3850 West Roy, Utah 84067.  Of course you can always come see us as well.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers, contributions, thoughts, and letters for Chris and Isabel.  I know they appreciate all that you do.

Love,
Janice

3 Baptisms, Coke Bottles, & Life in Honduras

This evening we received this from the Bear. Please pray for his continued success and his safety!!!

Hey, how are you all?  I´m honestly really tired and not tired at all.  Sometimes life is like a haze and I´ve falted in not writing much. First off, I want to tell you that we´ve had some great success in the mission.  This weekend, I baptized 3 people.  2 young men of 16 and a man of 33 years who is trying to earn back the respect of his family.  All of which was a really beautiful experience and I´ll write about more in a bit.  Today we had a meeting with Presidente Flores, His Family, and my old district. It was our birthday of 1 month.  Haha.  At the end of today, Elder Hart told me, You´re Spanish is SO sick.  Haha.  It was funny but nice to hear. 

So I´ve lost some weight.  I don´t know how much.  Everynight our diet is different.  Usually we eat fried plantains, beans, rice, tortillas, and sometimes salsa or avocado, which is really expensive here by the way. Where I live in Honduras is really peaceful.  The area can be dangerous.  There are a lot of gangs in Honduras, a member of which we´re teaching right now, who is awesome and loves the book of mormon.

There are lots of banana, coconut, orange, lime and other fruit trees everyway.  Saturday I tried my first fresh cacao fruit, which is deliciously amazing.  Haha.

A lot of times at the houses of our investigatores, it smells like BO or pee, but never does it destract from the lesson.  Every now and then people give us fresh, crisp, hot to the touch tortillas with this sweet, fatty sour cream called montequilla, which is the word for butter in Spanish, which here butter is called margarina.  And the hospitality of the people here sometimes is unmatched.  However, the other day we were called false prophets by a young man who was burnt really bad when he was younger playing around with fire.  He said that we were going to go to the infierno.  Haha.  Scary.

I have only met one person who does not believe in God here, who was an old professor who was missing one leg. So everyone believes somewhat blindly in God, which is truly bittersweet, because they understand you but the restoration of the gospel doesn´t always hit home with people.  But it´s okay.  We still work really hard.

There are dogs EVERYWHERE and they poop EVERYWHERE.  Haha.  And there´s trash everywhere!  Which comes from this idea that you can return what the earth gave you to earth.  Which with fruit peels and skins makes sense because it composts, but coke bottles don´t.  At least don´t very rapidly.  Haha. Which reminds me!  People here are short, but like a few inches shorter than I am. And every day you see these people with giant bags of plastic coke bottles that are 3 times there size, like Santa Clause without his fat tummy. 

And we´re about to go teach right now.  You should look up some Honduranean things: mantequilla, balliadas. Anyway, my comp wants to go.  So I love you and here is a little bit of the mission.  I´ll write more later about the baptisms and send photos.  Tell Isabel I love her, and yeah.  Love you, Bye.

From Cochabamba to Sucre

This morning we received this email from Isabel. Please pray for her...for her success and for her safety.

Good Morning so i was only in cochabamba for two nights and now i am in sucre bolivia its kinda nuts i havent been in south america for so long and bolivia is poorer than costa rica and colombia so i wasnt expecting this... its all i ever wanted! the only thing is that here it gets cold and i didnt expect that either but right now luckly its spring right now. here there are tons on dogs on the street and just as much sheep and pigs eating the garbage on the street and some donkeys here and there. some places smell like egg because of the water and the trash it produces this gas like smell, regardless the view is amazing most people have unfinished houses and no glass windows so its a great view. the first night i was in jaihaico and had to move my bags 5 flights of stairs and i thought that was bad then i get to sucre and everything is up and down a hill... pretty legs here we come! my companion is bolivian!! hna choque yay i am so glad and she speaks quechua and i am learning just some basic things. and people here are short like at my shoulders and speak spanish very different so i find myself lowering myself and peering into their face really trying to understand what they are saying its funny no matter how much a am trying i stand out i can only imagine what this must be like for the north american elders that came the same day. the food is great well i really like it. it has more veggies and feels good in my stomach even when i am stuffed i dont feel like am going to die. so the first afternoon here i met valeria she is uneducated really poor sweet as can be but ultra shy we taught her like we would a 5 year old about prayers she still wouldnt do it on her own without our help. she has a fig tree and underneath it two sheep and yesterday when we stopped by there was only one and what was left of the other was the soaking skin and four little feet from the other sheep (my comp grabed them and started to play with them i laughed really hard and she said i grew up like this so these are toys to me which made me laugh harder) they killed it in the morning for the day of saints what in mexico is the day of the dead they prepare food that their dead would like to eat a nd they expect them every 31 of oct. and they make little porcelain faces and they make little bodies for them they call them thhanta wawas meaning bread children they make stair of bread to help them make their way up to heaven again and they pray specific prayers. here the little women with the braids and the colorful skirts and little hats are called cholitas which in san jose and mexico means gang member. it is kinda dangerous here first off there are no stop signs and hardly any traffic lights you ja walk every street and hope that everyone saw you. and then some men drink alot and well they give you the creeps one kid probably 13 walked close to us and i wanted to say hi how are you? instead there was something different about him and i just stared and but i didnt know what before i know it he reaches over to grab me.. there. i turned my body quickly and he only grabed my thigh but i got so heated in just a second i thought i´ll kill you (meaning i would grab him by the hair and punch him a couple of times) and then i thought you are wearing a missionary plaque and people didnt see him grab you and will think that you are beating a bolivian boy so i didnt. i did however yell who do you think you are you idiot. my comp says that that sadly has happened to her as well. the interesting thing is that president has sent us here because its safer than other places. and people have told me do carry two wallets and never my camera unless we are on prep day on mondays with elders which i will follow for sure. the other thing that was cool was that before leaving the states i got some crayons and some a Christmas coloring book and when i go to the tiny houses when i let the children pick one page to color and keep they think that im a teacher and they color it with such carefulness to be able to put it on their wall. and they take really good care of the crayons and i gave away the little mustang that you had sent me in my package and the little boys name is also david which i thought was perfect. luckily there is plenty of service you can do here because people have alot of chores, but even though the president tenorio says that we are to be successful here because there people have blood of belivers (like in the book of mormon) im finding some of the same things as in san jose california and on top of that there are always dogs right infront of out contacts! anyways i need to go. i love you all. familia no me han escrito pero janice si entonces por eso estoy ecribiendo en ingles
 
janice, david please fwrd this to the emails below.  love you!