Feliz Navidad!!!!!!!
Hermana Oram
Hola, My name is Sydney Oram. I am have been called to serve in the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission.
Alright, this week has been really good and fun. We are working a lot in our area, which is a miracle! I am still trying to get used to the city life. It is weird here. We have to take a ton of taxis and cross streets really fast dodging cars. But it is really fun! Well yesterday was the Christmas party and the hermanas enfermeras had the blessed opportunity to help make a sign picture deal (it is kind of hard to explain) but we didn’t know about it until late in the afternoon and they needed the next day so lets just say some late night crafting was going on to get it all finished...office life is weird. I am so so grateful for the protection that we receive as missionaries. I have always had faith that Heavenly Father protects that but I never have really had to exercise that faith until I got here to the city. In my other areas it was super calm nothing ever happened or was going to happen because it was so safe but here.....well I have to exercise a little more faith that we will be protected...and pray a lot. There are lots of prayers being said for protection here. But don’t worry it is the safest area in the city. Well we have an awesome little investigator she is 82 years old or something like that but super super smart and walked all the way to church and is super awesome she will get baptized soon. But the best news is WE HAVE IN-N.OUT IN OUR AREA AND CINNABON THE ONLY IN THE COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!! but the downside is that I am a poor missionary with a humble allowance in a big city with outrageous taxi fares. But we might splurge a little for Christmas. But yeah I am living in a civilized city with malls and hotels and restaurants. It is a big change from the mountains. But I love it here! I love Hermana Lara she is super awesome. I am learning a ton of things I never thought I would learn on my mission but I am so grateful that I am here and that I have this opportunity.
Feliz Navidad!!!!!!! Hermana Oram
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Alright well I am writing you this Saturday morning because well I had changes on Wednesday. I was super shocked becasue well I had just gotten to Danli a few months ago and I was excited to have more time there... But the Lord always has a different plan. I got changes to the office here in the city and I am helping Hermana Lara my comp as the nurse. So that means my P-Day got switched to Saturdays that's the deal here in the office. Well our area is Palmira and we actually have a lot of time to work in our area. We havent had to do very much lately all the missionaries are real healthy. But it was a complete shock all of it but office life is fun. We just run around doing little errands really but we have found lots of investigators the last few days and I am really excited about working in Palmira it is the oldest ward in Honduras or something like that but there is lots of work to do. My companion is super awesome she is literally the greatest and we get along super well and thanks to the appendicitis deal a few months ago I already have spent lots of time with her and I know the hospital like the back of my hand so I haven't gotten lost there yet. But the best best best part of all of this is that our house is really nice and we have A HOT SHOWER. I haven't taken a hot shower in over a year. I have never been so happy. We also wash our clothes in a laundromat so I get to say goodbye to pila washing all morning. Lots of big changes are going on but it is fun. It is going to take a little bit to get used to city life but I think I will like it here. Well there isnt much to write because I have only had like 3 days but it is all good. From now on I write really early Saturday morning.
Hermana Oram Well, Thanksgiving doesn’t exist in Honduras neither does turkey....So that was sad but I took it upon myself to teach the members a thing or two about gratitude and made a little classic hand turkey. They loved it. But we had a district meeting on Thursday so we decided to go as a zone to Pizza Hut and it was almost a Thanksgiving dinner. Almost. Pizza is a close second to pie. But yeah it was a chill week here in Honduras. We made a goal to talk to everyone that walks past us and we pretty much met our goal now there is no one left the work is done hahah, just kidding , there are a lot of Hondurans that still need saving. But we had a miracle happen this our little Maria de Los Angeles that got baptized a month ago took one of our investigators to church with her on Sunday along with her daughters so pretty soon we will be preparing their baptism. The members are helping us so much now and I am so so so grateful for the members and their help in the missionary work in this ward. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have here. We have been working so hard and really it is starting to pay off. Also many of my old investigators in other areas have been getting baptized...I think sometimes that I am just a sower but sowers are cool too I mean the harvesters get all the glory but if you don’t plant a crop it will never grow. Actually I really don’t know anything about plants but there is a rumor around here that there is a tree that can grow 3 feet in a week. Not quite sure that it is true. Oh and fun fact someone told me the other day that Oram in Japanese means dance of the fisher. Apparently we are from Japan now.
Well everything is all good here in Danli. Be grateful. Eat pizza. Dance like a fisher. Hermana Oram my turkey nacatamales are the tamales here and they are super good but only are a Christmas thing. Alright well after some exciting days lost in Tegucigalpa for a few days in the richest part full of mansions and Mercedes and 5 star restaurants I made it back to Danli and quickly fell back into my little missionary routine with my new companion Hermana Rodriguez from Progesso, Honduras. She is super super sweet and has 3 months in the mission and we are just seeing miracles and miracles and we have only been back 3 days. We have an investigator that is from Jordan and only speaks Arabic and English so it is a little interesting teaching a lesson solo but really my English is so bad that I can hardly teach good but the spirit is really strong in our lessons and he has been brought to tears a few times so I know he understands just a little bit... or at least he can feel the spirit. Well the peeps in Danli are a lot more receptive when you have a Honduran companion that is for sure and the taxis don’t charge as much either when you have a native haggling their fares down. But Saturday the elders had a baptism and we went and saved the baptism ...again thanks to Hermana Oram who is always prepared! Lets just say the elders thought that a 14 year old girl would fit in an a jumper adult size XXL. But all was good she got baptized and it was a beautiful baptism. But Sunday was perfect we had two little surprises when some members brought some super prepared investigators to church and they are super ready to get baptized. Then Maria de Los Angeles who got baptized last week got sustained as the second counselor in the relief society and then Diego passed the sacrament my other little convert!! These are the moments that make everything worth it!!! Also we had a lesson last night of the first vision and the spirit was so strong like way stronger than I have felt in a first lesson in a long time. Sometimes I just get in a routine and for get how really truly amazing this gospel is we just teach and teach and teach and forget about why we are doing it. But when I have a good lesson when the spirit is really there I know that this is all true and that I am not wasting a single second here. It is hard but it is so worth it.
Hermana Oram Well it is all good in the hood aka Danli. We are doing good and finally my *house arrest sentence* was released and I can leave the house without pain or problems. It has been a super fast recovery and I feel great I even played a little soccer today (but don’t worry I am still ¨taking it easy¨ ...whatever that means. But really it feels so good to be working again. It is a depressing thing to be stuck in the house all stitched up and sore but now we are working and finding investigators and getting a couple ready for baptism this month and the next. Well this week I have some great phrases of the week.
Hermana Oram: ¨there are tons of diseases spread by mosquito bites like chikungunya, west nile and malaria and they all start out in Africa¨ Hermana Blanchard: ¨yeah that is true....wait but West Nile virus didn’t start in A............... wait ya it did¨ Hermana Oram:................................... and then last night when a ten year old was telling us how he is going to leave his girlfriend ¨half-way abandoned¨ when he goes on a mission and pray she doesn’t write him a dear john.... or a querido juan But the best conversation of the week had to have been in the surgeons office on divisions with Hermana Beitler as the doctor explained to us how appendicitis happens and that I shouldn’t believe the people of Honduras that say it is caused by eating finger nails and watermelon seeds... although I am a culprit of both those things I is caused by random things that just happens to lucky people like me. But we slyly turned the conversation about colons and stomach walls to the temple and how she and her husband could be sealed there as a family for the eternities. There are missionary opportunities everywhere you just have to find them. I mean it is sometimes easier with a black badge on your chest but really that is just a piece of plastic that gets really dirty really fast (fun fact: toothpaste whitens the name engraved part real quick) but really it is just a piece of plastic and is not even necessary to share a testimony or invite someone to church. You just have to invite them... they might not go like this last week we invited over a hundred people to church and only one of them actually showed up. THAT IS A LOT OF REJECTION. But it is always worth it for that one person. Thank you so much for the prayers and warm wishes. Stay cool and stay out of hospitals. This week definitely has been the craziest of my whole mission. But there is probably no other way Hermana Oram would celebrate 1 year in the mission. It all started Tuesday night when I thought it would be fun to have 2 dinner appointments and well I really don’t like to tell people no when they offer me food so we ate a ton on Tuesday night. Then Wednesday morning I woke up with a bunch of stomach pain and I thought that it was just from the excess amount of food and I felt guilty about the overload the night before so I started the repentance process of overeating and did about 300 sit ups and then the pain got a lot worse so we called the nurse of the mission and she said to do lay on my back and rest for an hour and then see where the pain went well at about 12noon the pain was super sharp on my lower right side and I was dying with pain and so my companion Hermana Blanchard called the elders to come give me a blessing they at first thought that it was just a stomach ache that didn’t need a blessing but after some insisting they came and gave me a blessing about the tome that the nurse said I had to go to Tegucigalpa really fast because well in Danli there is nowhere even qualified to take out appendices. So we got a ride with a member to Zamorano where Elder Oldroyd took us to the Hospital In Tegus it was a really nice hospital and they took me to emergency and run blood tests and ultrasounds and all that and then a CT scan and everything came back normal except my white blood cells were really high and I was in a lot of pain and every pain killer they put in me didn’t help at all so then at about 7 they told me that they were going to keep me over night and if I still had pain in the morning they were going to see what they were going to do. Well at about 9 or 10 I was up in my room with my comp and I was literally dying or thought I was with pain and I called the nurse and they called the doctor who came in and said they were going to prep me for surgery and not wait until the morning well they took me into surgery and everything went good and about midnight I was out and like 1 in the morning back in my room with three holes in my stomach but they are tiny. The doctor said my appendix was attached to my abdominal wall and it was swollen so it was appendicitis. The next morning we left the hospital and went to the mission home and then Friday morning we came back to Danli and have been resting here but we also went to the baptism of Maria de Los Angeles that was a whole other story my awesome companion totally kept planning the whole baptism from the hospital room and we ended up having a super pretty baptismal service. I still am in a little pain but we went to church yesterday and worked a little it was super nice to get out of the house because recovering from an appendectomy isn’t that fun with mission rules and just studying and sleeping hahah but it should be a quick recovery and I should be as good as new soon. Thank you so much for all the prayers. I am glad to leave a little part of me here in Honduras! I can’t believe how fast time has gone by but I am so grateful for this last year and the crazy things I have learned and all that I will learn in the next 6 months!!!!!!
DONT EAT 2 DINNERS! It always ends up bad. Hermana Oram Well this week was as fun as the last full of foot fungus, blisters, lots of doctors appts. (not for me don't worry) and well I got hit by a car not like super dramatic I don't even have any cuts or bruises just a dumb car came out of nowhere going about 10 mph and hit my shoulder and hip and back but i dodged out of the way super fast so my foot didn't get run over but yeah the drivers here aren't the greatest. But I am fine dont worry. This week we had to go to Tegus and on the way back we got to go with the married couple missionaries in there car and we got McDonalds and we had Wendys the night before. I have never been so happy as I was with my giant frosty. I miss american food sometimes....its rare but sometimes I miss it. Well then we had zone conference and learned all about health and how we need top take care of our bodies and that there are tons of diseases here. Really my health has been so good here in Honduras I have never had anything serious and i am so grateful for that. This week I also had divisions with Hermana Alonzo mi entrenadora and mama en la mision. We had a fun time talking about all our memories in Zamorano. She is super awesome and way pilas and i learned a lot. Well I am learning a ton and I am so happy that I am here the time has gone by so so so fast I cant believe just a little more than 6 months left. But I am so happy to be here in Danli and to be able to work here we are preparing for another baptism this week and we really have seen so many miracles here!
Watch out for cars! Hermana Oram Well I am a firm believer in MIRACLES. This week was full of them. First off I just heard that our investigator back in Cerro Grande that walked super far to church just got baptized Saturday. Of course i wasn’t there but I am a so so happy for him!!!!! He is so great and I know that the sister missionaries that are teaching are the ones who needed to be there to baptize him. We are working so hard here and there are some small obstacles to overcome as a two gringa companionship but we are working through it all. People aren’t super open to us because well... we are weird but we have been praying for opportunities to serve and have more investigators and well we found 16 NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK!!! And a ton went to stake conference and the adult session!!! We were so happy and then last night a true miracle happened after talking all day about how ugly and torn up my shoes all were we found a little old lady at about 6 at night shoveling a ton of dirt well we asked to help her and she said no at first but then I just took the shovel and insisted we helped so we dug and dug and dug for about an hour cleaning out the gutter in front of her house and we were so happy because no one ever lets us serve them but as we were shoveling she started talking about a pair of shoes but I didn’t really pay attention then she brought our a new pair of perfect missionary shoes that were my size and said she had been waiting for someone to come to her house for years that the shoes would fit. I was so shocked and after denying like 50 times because she lived in really humble circumstances I finally agreed to take the shoes they are so perfect and such good shoes and she was so nice to let us do service and give me the perfect shoes. Well everything is good in Danli it is raining a lot but we are doing good and staying dry. THE BEST NEWS OF THE WEEK I FINALLY GOT MY HAMMOCK HUNG UP!!!!!! So now Hermana Oram will be chilling in her hammock in the super safe gated community without a worry in the world.
Keep safe. Drink water. Shovel Dirt. Hermana Oram Well Saturday we had baptism! Diego got baptized he was super prepared he is 14, and I kinda swept in for the kill when I got here to Danli. My comp and Hermana Gutierrez had been preparing him a ton and he just had a few little things to learn and then he got baptized!!! He is super cool and the baptism service was good Hermana Blanchard and I spoke about baptism and the Holy Ghost typical baptism haha but it all went good and he was super excited. I was too I always love baptism day and this was the first time that there wasn't any problems on baptism day so that was good I guess there are perks to meeting in the stake center. Well then Sunday we had a meeting with all the future missionaries of the stake and all the missionaries in the zone we sang and President Bowler came and then they asked me to give my testimony on why I decided to go on a mission and how the mission is and all that. I got all nervous and talked really fast but that is typical Hermana Oram. But this week was super rough we didn't have that much time to work because we were preparing for baptism and everything. But this week has been a little raining but not too much. I really don't know what to say this week was super exciting and cool. My comp went to Tegucigalpa to go to the doctor and so I stayed here with an Hermana in another part of Danli and we walked home all the way across the whole town. I love being where there are people but it was a little weird to go to church yesterday and have more than 9 people in relief society. The church is growing so fast here in Danli there are so many wards and members and it is so cool to watch. I am so happy here!!!!
Nothing crazy happened this week so we are all good. Hermana Oram First off I am in Danli in a ward where 230 people go to church it is a big change but I am excited we share the ward with a comp of Elders HERMANA ALONZO IS THE SISTER TRAINING LEADER HERE. There are lots of friendly faces in the zone of missionaries i have served with before and I guess with time in the mission I kinda already know everyone. Well the biggest shock of the whole thing was my companion Hermana Blanchard.... a gringa. Gringas are never together. But here I am in Danli our house is super cute and purple it is in a gated community with armed guards so we are pretty safe. We have 2 investigators that just in these 3 days have accepted to be baptized this month and are super set and super prepared. These are miracles I have been waiting my whole mission for and I showed up here and it just happened. But I am so happy with the ward yesterday it was full for conference. But I didn't get to watch the afternoon session or part of the morning session. When we were in the stake center (which is where our ward Barrio Danli meets) a sister missionary passed out and kept passing out and passing out so me and her companion carried her (because we were the strongest sisters hahaha) and took her to the hospital in a members car and were in the hospital with her all afternoon, but we taught all the ladies in the little hospital and sang songs but it was all so crazy, but the hermana is fine now. This area is super cool and the weather is awesome I am seeing so many miracles here and the gringa thing is working out to our advantage because all the members are concerned about our safety so we have lessons with members like everyday because they just want to always be with us.... it is super safe here like super safe they are just paranoid I think but my English is going to get way better know that talk in English half the day! I love Danli and I am super happy to be here!!!
Hermana Oram |
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May 2016
Hermana OramI am from Queen Creek Arizona. I am a student at BYU Provo, and I am currently serving in the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission from October 2014 to April 2016. Categories |