I got cold in Honduras!!

So this week was chilly, ya that's right, cold, cold in Honduras. No worries I lived haha. It rained for like 2 and a half weeks straight, and its just finally stopping. I didn't see the sun for a while, and I think that's why it was so cold. The sun couldn't break through the cloud cover. I had to use a jacket like all the other people here, I felt so weird, like the Utah part of me died like 4 months ago haha.
This week we should have two baptisms, but I am so so so worried about them. The baptisms are a aunt and her niece, Maria and Isis. They are family of a family of recent converts. They know the church is true and they are reading the Book of Mormon everyday, but they are going to move sometime this week, and there baptism is Saturday. I'm scared that if I baptize them, they'll move and never attend church here the Villeda or there other ward, ever again. I will let you all know what happened next letter.
We have been struggling to find new people to teach. We had a baby die in our branch this last week, and everyone in the ward and the community has been doing things to help the family ,Everyone has just been really busy, including us. I hope that this week things will calm down a bit. Who knows maybe with the death of this baby more people will want to know about the church and what we believe about death. I'm Just being positive!!

I gave a 17 min talk in church yesterday about the talk from Elder Perry called, Raising the Bar. I hope that it made an impact on the young men in our branch. They all need to serve missions, that cant even imagine what the mission can do for them. I also taught the Sunday school class for the recent converts, with my companion. It was on the Millennium, The talk and the class went well. I feel pretty good about my Spanish now, I think people can actually understand me haha.

So the last thing I want to share with you is some of the weird customs here that I have learned. The first is called something weird in Spanish, I don't remember exactly, but its when you eat a meal but in the incorrect hour, they say that your stomach is all messed up and that someone has to massage your stomach with oil to fix it, ya weird. I don't want anyone rubbing my stomach with oil.

The other is with babies. Here they believe if you stare at a baby to long, it will get sick, so to protect against this they put a bracelet on the baby's wrist. This Bracelet has like a Giant seed on it and supposedly this protects the baby. Literally every new born has this.

And the last one is how they propose engagement. The man has to go gather wood, like a bunch of sticks, the more the better, and place them in front of the door of the brides house. If the father approves of the wedding, he will take the sticks in and use them for fuel, if not he will just leave them in front of the door until the poor wannabe groom figures out that he isn't getting married. These are all things that most of the people believe in, with all there hearts they think its true. Its quirky but I like it, it makes them unique.

Anyways I gotta go eat some good food, I love you all so much, thank you for the prayers and support. I am so glad to be a missionary our here in Honduras. Take care, be safe, make good choices!!!
With love from Honduras,
Elder Nathan Lynn Ahlborn