Feliz Navidad from Tela--Dec 28, 2015

Christmas Day in Tela

This week has been weird for sure.  It's been pretty difficult, almost everyone is at the beach or out of town.  But we find stuff to do.  There's a ton of fireworks here for Christmas--all night long.  We spent a lot of time with a really awesome family, and my comp and I spend two hours translating The Tale of Three Trees to share with some different families.  That was awesome!  

The people here celebrate Christmas Eve, almost more than Christmas.  Tons of fireworks and music.  They also make mannequin things that they are apparently going to burn on New Year's Day.  (shoulder shrug)

We didn't eat with anyone on Christmas Day so we splurged and went to Winger's.  The nuggets tasted heavenly! 

Me at the beach for Christmas (how weird is THAT?)

 I think the skype call went well!  It was awesome and easy (until the last minute or so) and it definitely went fast!  But it was even better than I expected, and I expected a ton!  Just seeing your faces and talking was great!  It hasn't made me homesick--we are working too hard for that.  :)

Putting his arm around Hannah

High-fiving Sam

My comp has been great.  It took a while to warm up to him, but right now, things are smooth and easy.  The language has definitely gotten easier, that helps our companionship a lot.  He's a little more serious than my last comp but pretty similar.  He works really hard--he's going to ruin his legs walking.  He uses two knee braces and his legs are about to fall off.  I'm glad we're working though.    For Christmas I gave him 3 or 4 presents plus we share most of the food I got.  He didn't get anything from home.  

BYU gear that Grandma sent!

Me sleeping in a pile of Christmas presents

My tree--sent from Idaho!  Ornaments made of pics of friends and family--
one for each day as a countdown to Christmas

And today we met with a bunch of elders from Progreso and went to the beach and then ate at a super fancy restaurant. We played frisbee and soccer and took pictures.  I was bummed we don't do more on P days the first couple of weeks, but now I appreciate the time to relax.  

Yesterday I taught the gospel principles class for the full hours, and actually ran out of time!  It was about prayer, so it was pretty easy.  In church we sing acapella, usually really slowly, and usually really poorly.  :)
We don't have anyone close to baptism at the moment.  It's pretty common for a person to accept all the lessons and then afterward say they don't want to get baptized, even though they agreed to earlier.

So yeah, I found a double banana!  I was freaking out but no one else thought it was cool.  Apparently it's pretty common here.

So yeah I found a double banana!!  And its apparently common. No one else thought it was cool, and I was freaking out!

Something funny that Wilks said today, "I don't think I'm going to write my family this week.  I'll write them next week, I doubt they'll mind."

I don't think either of us will ever get to that point--what do you think Mom?  :)  It sounded absolutely insane to me!

I'm definitely happy.  It's easy to be happy here--the chance to sit down, the shade, every lesson we teach.  I'm happy pretty often.  :)

I miss you guys a ton, but in a good way.  Not sad that I don't see you, just looking forward to seeing you again.  Love you!

Elder Ben Gozart

An impressive stack of bills--except they're $1 lempiras and the whole thing is $3-4.00.  I also have a bag of coins I'm going to bring back home.  You'll never see such useless coins.  The quarters are about 1 cent, the nickel is 1/5 of a cent--not much!.

Our stove sitting in a drawer so we can reach the microwave

The Reese's cake you sent for Christmas

An awesome lunch

A sign my comp made for our district:  Faith is the power, obedience is the price, love is the motive, the Spirit is the key, and Christ is the reason.