ANOTHER NEW YEAR IN THE MISSION

Dear Family,

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed a happy new year back home. Sorry I didn’t write last week, there were no internet places that were open. Well, these last few weeks have been some really amazing weeks of my mission. I will have to say this was the funnest, most spiritual, rewarding December I have had in my life. The Lord really blessed us, our zone, and all of our people we are teaching. We ended up baptizing 55 souls as a Zone in December! That was the most baptisms in the mission. Our hard work and a lot of sacrifices were so worth it...seeing families and more people enter the waters of baptism this past month. About two weeks ago, we baptized a family in the ocean. It was great. It was a really fun and a spiritual experience. The 29th of December, we also baptized an awesome family of 4 in the river here in my area. They are the Familia Rosales. This family had a lot of difficulties. They really weren’t sure about getting baptized or married. We were praying so hard and trying to do everything we could to animate the family. They finally told us they wanted to get married and baptized. They had so much light in their eyes and were now really excited and positive about doing it. It was really a blessing from Heaven. So, we took them to get married in this one place, but they wouldn’t do it because one of the birth certificates wasn’t complete. We then traveled to another town to see if we could do it there. They wouldn’t do it. This happened all day, about two Fridays ago. So after all day of traveling and talking with people, nobody was going to help us with this family. So, we went back to the house at about 7:00 and started calling a whole bunch of people to see if they knew anyone that had a license to marry. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone. So we prayed, and left the house. We had an appointment at 8:00 with a family. As we were walking to this appointment, I saw a man, and I remembered that in my first week in this area, my companion told me that this guy was a lawyer. So I went up and started talking to him. I explained to him the situation. He got on his phone and made some phone calls. He told us that he would be able to marry them the next day, but his office wanted 4,500 lempiras ($250) We took it up, because this guy really was put in our path. (maybe the money price didn’t come from God, but he did) So, to make a long, long story short, I had to take 4,500 lemps out of my account. But maybe you guys can put $250 back in, and that will be a little IOU after the mission. To me, that family was worth more than my digital camera that I need to buy. So they got married the next day, and we took pictures. Then we walked them back to their house. At 4:00, we passed by to pick them up. We walked to the river with the whole family for their baptism. We arrived at about 5:30 right as the sun was going down. I love this family that got baptized. Watching and participating in the baptisms was worth more then anything in the world! They are a family of 5 but only 4 got baptized, because their other little girl only has 6 years. After the baptisms, we all walked home in the dark. We went and got little fruit juice frozen thingies that we bought at a nearby house. The following day, in church, they were confirmed and  received the Holy Ghost. After church, we had another baptism right there in the Pila. We baptized a 40-year-old man named David. He was a reference of a man we baptized about 3 weeks ago named Miguel Angel. Miguel was the first person I ever talked to here in Tocoa. Anyways, so this month was absolutely awesome. On Tuesday, the second day of December, we all got dressed up as a Zone in our white clothes and took a “Celestial Photo” for the “Vision” (a little newsletter book of the mission that comes out once every 3 months). They always put the "Zona Celestials" in there. I will send you all some pictures of everything that has happened in this miracle month. This month we also broke the mission record as a whole mission. The whole mission baptized 325. The highest before was 270. Well, the 3rd of January, we had changes. My companion left, and a lot of missionaries in my Zone left. I am now training a new Zone Leader and a new District Leader here in the Zone. They put a whole bunch of newer Elders here in our Zone. I am way pumped and ready to go into this new month of January. A new month, a new year, and some more new goals. The mission really is the greatest thing. It's like a non-stop football game. I know you all can't believe it, because a lot of you haven’t experienced it, but to those of you that have lived your mission to the best, know what I am talking about. I wish everyone in the world had the chance to serve here in Honduras. It’s the most wonderful place in the world. I never imagined it like this. When Chris told me it was better than winning the state football championship game a long time ago, I thought he was crazy. But here in the mission, it's like winning state every week, except even better. Well, I am really running out of time. Sorry Bugs, for the little phrase I put in your letter about the “boys dancing around in your hands”.  I asked a new missionary that came from the states, and he said he had never heard that in his life. So, I guess that expression doesn’t exist in the English language. But it does work here in Honduras in Spanish. When you got someone dancing in your hand, you pretty much own them, and they do what you want them to do. Anyways, hope your leg gets better. I love you all. Thanks for all your letters. Oh and Mom, you can hold the bag for me at home. I will use it later. I already have some nice little Honduran bags. Well gotta run. Love ya'll. Have a great week. Love, Elder Lee  Here are some photos:  1. Familia Rosales 2. Cute Little Girls!...Happy to be Baptized. 3.We had water problems, so we had the baptisms at the river.