HONDURAS

To the Greatest Fam,

How is everyone doing? Sounds like everyone is really busy. That is really good. Time just keeps flying by. I cant believe another week just passed by. We are already in the month of March. That scares me. Anyways, this week was a little wild. All of Tocoa flooded this week. It rained 3 days straight and the rivers rose up and flooded everything. The river took out the bridge, so there was no transportation out of Tocoa. Our house is pretty high and it's built up on a lot of cement. The water was about half an inch away from entering our house. Every neighborhood below my house was flooded. The water was as deep as my height. My backyard was a running river. I thought it was pretty cool. There were little kids inside of old refrigerators going down the river in the streets. The local churches here in Tocoa opened up for people to stay, and they brought all kinds of clothes and food. People that didn’t even get flooded out got hooked up with food and clothes. When they heard "free food and clothes", everyone and their dog went running. We even had some church members going through the clothes looking for white shirts. But anyways, right now everything is alright, the water has gone down, and they fixed the bridge. The only bad thing is the water system got filled up with dirt, and we haven’t had water here since Monday. Monday night, I took a shower, and then again on Saturday Morning, and today in the morning with buckets of purified water that we bought. We have no clothes that are clean, but that is alright, they don’t stink too bad. Well, this week was a good little week of work. This weekend we are going to baptize a 23-year-old girl and a 9 year old little kid. We also have another lady and her daughter that could get baptized this upcoming weekend. This 23-year-old girl lives with her mom and her brothers. Her dad died 6 months ago. As we were teaching her, the Spirit was so strong, and when I bore my testimony about eternal families her eyes filled up with tears. It was a really special lesson for my companion and me. Right now, we are also teaching her Mom, who is a really special lady, but she hasn’t gone to church yet. On Saturday, two couples got married and baptized here in Tocoa. In the baptism a little kid showed up that is 9 years old. He stood up and told us he wanted to get baptized and go on a mission. I thought, "Who is this little kid?" He looked really familiar, but I didn’t know who he was. After the baptismal service, he grabbed a mop and started moping the church, and the bathrooms because they were wet and dirty. He helped us clean up and lock the church. The whole time I was just thinking, "Who is this little kid?" He is awesome. I asked him where he lived and who he lived with. He said his parents are already members of the church, but they never come. He said that he comes every once in a while by himself on Sundays. Oh, and the little kid wanted us to go meet his dad at his house. We had another appointment, but we couldn’t turn down this little kid who spoke with such boldness with a smile on his face always. So after we locked up the church we went and talked to the Dad of this little kid. When we knocked on the door a man with a beard answered the door and let us in. The little kid, Onan, looked up with a smile on his face and proudly said, “That’s my Dad!” The man was dirty, shaggy, and wasn’t very happy. To see the smile on the little kid's face still, almost mad me cry. The little boy was so happy and proud of his Dad. His dad, “Isabel”, let us in very nicely, pulled up two chairs for us to sit down, and he sat across the table from us. He was looking down in his lap and looked very sad. My companion and I introduced ourselves and we started talking. We taught him about the love our Father in Heaven has for him and his family. We found out he was baptized a long time back, but has been inactive for a lot of years. He said sometimes members of the church pass by, inviting him to church, but he just doesn’t feel the excitement to return to church. I looked this man directly in the eyes and bore my testimony. After, he said, "Elder, I just need a little more time." I wasn’t going to settle for an answer like that. I kept talking and talking. He said, "I always have thoughts of returning back to church, but I just don’t feel ready yet." I don’t really know everything about this man, but I did feel something special there in his house. I just looked at him and said very boldly, "We will wait for you tomorrow in Church. Tonight, get on your knees, and tell God you want to change, tell him you need strength to get on your feet in the morning and get ready to go to Church." I then said, We will be waiting for you and your son at 9:00 AM." He looked at me and said, “Esta Bien" Through out this whole time, Onan was just sitting next to us with a smile on his face, and happier than ever. Just to know that little kid, and see his excitement, and his little acts of service, and his love for his Dad, has made me just think and ponder about a lot of things. I now want to completely forget about myself and do whatever to make others happy. Life is so much better when you always have a smile on your face. And to see how proud he was of his Dad, made me even more grateful for my Dad and for all of our good old family trips, fishing experiences, wrestling tournaments, football games, baseball games etc. To a little kid, a Dad is the greatest thing! Now the best part of the story is, we left with a prayer, and at 8:55, Sunday morning, I saw a clean shaven man with a smile on his face, his hair sharply done, holding the hand of the same little smiling kid, walking through the doors of the church. I walked up to Isabel and his son and took them through the doors of the sacrament room and sat them down. I know he got on his knees that night after our visit, and felt the Spirit of God again in his life, and that’s what got him to church the next day. After Church, the District President's wife told me a little more about the story of this man. Supposedly, a long time back, Isabel and the District President's wife were leaving to serve missions at the same time. They went to the MTC in Guatemala together, but when they arrived, the bus people lost his luggage, and supposedly that was all the clothes this kid had. He got really mad. He went back to Honduras and never got his luggage back. He got really discouraged, and went inactive. He met a girl, got married with her, baptized his wife and had kids. His wife left him and went to Guatemala with the older daughter a few years back, and so, he got bummed out and went inactive again. But anyways, we are going to keep working with this man. We are going to get him an interview with President, so he can get his life in order, and start being a Man of God again. I know the Lord sent that little kid to the baptism Saturday night, because he has something special in store for that kid and his father. I love missionary work. It’s the best work in the world! I never want to stop being a missionary. Well I gotta run, my time is running out. Love you all. Have a great week. 

Love, Elder Lee