Wow I feel like I have so much to say and no time to say it!

My comps are awesome. I actually can understand them really well, even Hermana Rosales who is from Nicaragua. She is so funny. Last night we were finally climbing in bed and there was this gecko on the ceiling. Hna Rosales sleeps on the top bunk and so it was right in front of her face. She HATES geckos so she was screaming for me to get it but those little suckers are FAST. So then we were moving the beds to try to at least get him out of the room we were sleeping in...all the while Hna Orgill was in the bathroom. Well, then the gecko ran over to Hna O's side of the room under her bed. When she came in and we were in bed with the lights off Hna Rosales said in a sing song voice, "Hermana Orgill, Feliz Noches con su gecko!!" Hna O was so confused. It was SOOOOO FUNNY. I died laughing.

Oh man-- the mornings here when we are in our casa are so hot. Nobody stays inside here because the homes are like ovens. It's fun though because everyone stays outside and it's very social here, but when we study it is just like sitting in an oven. You are just drenched in sweat. At night when we are asleep I always wake up so so so so ho, especially when we don't have power and can't use our little fans...it's so hot. Could you look up how hot it has been lately? I can't figure it out because with the humidity it is hard to know.

Our power goes out whenever it rains and this morning we didn't have water. That was a bummer because I spent the whole morning outside washing my clothes by hand for about 1.5 hours so i was itchy from the bugs and grass and so, so sweaty from the heat. All I wanted was a shower! I prayed that the water would come back on...and it did! I have never loved a bucket shower so much!

It really is so fun and so different here. Every time I think I can't take cold bucket showers and not have AC for 16 months then I just think wait, NO. I totally can do this! I have always said there is nothing I can't do for the Lord! Then i just love it here. I just love my cold bucket showers and my using hands as a washing machine. It is so great.

Our bucket we use to shower is kind of like what you buy cookie dough in but it's cracked on both sides so you have to pour fast! It takes your breath away it's so cold.

There is this family that I LOVE. We see them almost every day because they just barely joined the church. They have 3 little kids. Erick is 9, Jamie is 7 and about to be baptized, and Mari is 3. Oh, Mari. We are the bestest friends. She sat by me in church on Sunday and used all my hand sanitizer. The people here always ask me what I am putting on my hands. I guess this isn't a thing here?? Anyway, the first night we went to have FHE with the Bautista family and Mari ran right to me squealing and giggling. At the end of the lesson she looked at me and said, " Te quiero muchucho!" Everyone laughed. My heart melted. She is actually the cutest little girl I know. Jamie always wants to braid my hair. Yesterday night we sat with them and taught them the importance of family prayer and I was able to share my experiences with all of our years of family prayer. I literally couldn't be more thankful for those memories! So when you guys are on your knees as a family just know it is going to bless families in different parts of the world wherever we all serve!

We play this game called La Bomba with them. It's he kids favorite. It's like "Don't eat Pete" but you play with random items around the house and you have 2 teams. It was hard to understand at first because it was my first night and I didn't understand anything they were saying, but they are my favorite people here.

We only have one paved road here! Crazy.

I taught the first vision to this girl one night. It was late and the sun was almost gone. Here is this moment that I have dreamed of all my life. Sitting in my mission teaching someone the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and then.... well okay. In Texas whenever we would teach about the first vision the phone would ring, the dog would bark, the baby would cry...etc. So I was prepared for something to happen right before I taught it. When I started to say, " Vi una columna de luz... "the biggest beetle thing flew smack into my left eye. I am not kidding it was in there good, but the spirit was so strong and I just couldn't stop teaching, so I taught the first vision with a beetle in my eye-- one eye open, one eye closed and watering. It was really...spiritual. Oh well. Nothing ever goes the way we plan. I am literally walking truth of that!

We are teaching this man named Wilmer. He has a little girl who is about 4. He lives with this lady that he calls his wife, but they aren't married. He wants to get baptized but his wife says she will never marry a man like him. He doesn't want to leave because he believes it will be bad for his daughter. It is so hard to know what to say in a situation like this. We just keep saying God knows your heart, and He knows your trials, and He knows what you need but it is a hard situation.
Everyone we invite to be baptized says yes. Everyone we ask if we can come in and share says yes. This culture. I love it. My heart...i just love it.

 BALEADAS and Topogigos! I am in love. It is all so good. Topoigos, or however you spell it, is just milk, corn flakes and sugar in a bag and is frozen. They only cost about 2 Limperas and they are the best when we are dying of thirst. Everyone sells them from their houses. We also don't have a supermarket anywhere close by so when we went to El Progresso by bus, we just bought food from there. Never again will I complain about grocery shopping in America. Here you can't bring your purse in the store because they are afraid you will steal. So you leave your purse with this army guy with a huge gun and go shop and then you pay. Then you walk a mile to the bus stop with all 50 pounds of your groceries. Then you get on a bus with about 400 people per seat with all of your groceries. Then you ride in the bus for 45 minutes with people trying to sell you stuff on the bus. Then you get off the bus and walk a half a mile to your house with all your groceries. Then you carry them inside and put them away. All the while it is 100 degrees and humid! Quite the adventure. I love it. I am learning so much.

We go on splits a ton because the YW always want to go out with us. It ends up just being Hermana Rosales and me. We have so much fun. I love all of her stories. She wants to get married in the SLC Temple. It feels so much more real and I feel like more of a missionary when it's just the two of us. But I do LOVE Hna O as well.

The members don't feed us here so that's kind of a bummer.

I will never forget Rosalita Cruz because she is the first Honduran person I could actually understand and talk to! I really like her but sometimes she says she can't understand me! ahahah. She is 18 and a member here.

Hna R's favorite food is green mangos with LOTS of salt and pepper. She eats them all the time since everyone grows mangos in their yards. Anyway...I think it's nasty. I almost died when I tried it.

Everyone says,  "Da me sus ojos!" here and everyone stares. It's especially bad when Hermana O isn't with us when we are on splits. The men are kinda nasty. They say "ay mami" and whistle and cat call. But I never feel unsafe. This is one of the safest places in the mission! We are really lucky. Anyway, people say they are jealous of my boyfriend all the time. It's like they have never seen a white girl before.

I can kind of snap like a Latino! All the missionaries do that here.

Church was awesome. I love our branch and the little house we meet in. There are 2 Elders and 5 Sisters in just one little branch! It's fun because Elder Bray and I were good friends in the CCM and now we are in the same district. He has been really sick lately and he is so skinny... uh oh.

I am teaching Hna R some English but she always says to Hna O, "You have food in your face." It's super funny. Hna O always has food on her face.

I cried when I saw Hna Odekirk at zone meeting Tuesday. I can't believe I finally made it. It is literally driving me NUTTY that I haven't been out six months like I should have. Like literally anxiety. I am praying that the Lord will help me not feel so anxious about it.

I wish people would just get married here. People live together for 50 years and never get married. It's because it's expensive and you have to have a birth certificate to do it. Birth certificates cost money and you have to go to the city you were born in to get one. So if you were born in Tegucigalpa you have to leave your job, risk getting fired and also don't get paid for the days you're gone, find money to get on a bus and go to Tegucigalpa, pay for your birth certificate and then come home and get married. It's just too much for these poor people.

My throat and cold sores and better! My knee...its doing okay!

We taught this family that had a bunch of kids. They live in a concrete shack that is half the size of our family room. They had 2 twin beds for everyone. They were pushed up against one wall together. They didn't have chairs for us so we sat on the beds and I realized they were only cardboard with holy sheets over them. Their roof fell off a little while we were teaching. I can't believe how people live but they are actually THE HAPPIEST people I know. It just goes to show you it's not what you have, it's who you have. And they have family, and Jesus and that's enough for them.

Nobody here pronounces their S's. So its SO HARD to understand them. I can understand my comps easy. No problem. I am actually suprised at how much I understand especially from Hna R. They say An Pedro Ula instead of San Pedro Sula. And Entonce instead of Entonces. So it wasn't until Saturday that I could even kinda understand a word they were saying. I am praying and working so hard for the gift of tounges. Sometimes it is so frustrating not being able to express myself... but speaking Spanish is kind of addicting and I love it.

I am happy, sweaty, and loving it here. I miss America a little but I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and there is nothing that He can't ask me to do. I keep telling myself that when the moments get hard. Mostly the only thing that I have a hard time with is that I should be going home in March and I'm not. I'm going home in August. It shouldn't bother me. I should be not even focused on that part. But really, it's hard.

We have interviews with Pres. this week in El Progresso!

Will you send me pics of our whole family?? I don't know what happened to mine. If you could send them through the mail that would be awesome.

No piano here in Mezapa ):

Well, my fingers are tired from all this typing so fast! I am trying to think what else to say.
Look at my dropbox. This is my vaca friend. He's a cow. He was eating garbage just like all the other crazy animals here.

I have so many bug bites. ugghh

And my tan lines!! Wowwowowowww.

I love you guys so so so much!
Loves and loves from Central America!!
Hermana Saylin