Bienvenidos a La Esperanza

The Esperanza Elders eating our last hostess cupcakes ever... :(

So I finally got changed.  I'm now in the Esperanza!  Or the hope as we gringos call it.  It is freaking freezing here!  you don't even know.  I did not think it would ever be this cold in Honduras.  It's sort of ridiculous.  So now I feel dumb for sending that jacket home haha.  In the city I was like wow I never use this, theres no way I'll ever use this on my mission.  But here it is way cold!  But it's ok, cause we have hot water in the shower :)  I mean, it's not like you guys who if you're cold you just turn up the heat and the entire house heats itself up, but it's still something right?  aka be grateful!!!  Haha but it was awesome here.  There's way more nature than the city, and it is a nice looking place.  The esperanza is sort of near the border with El Salvador.  It's in the department called Intibucá if you want to look me up. 

My new companion is Elder Sensenbaugh.  If you didn't guess, he's white as well.  He's from San Diego, in miramesa.  He is way cool, and we are gonna get along great.  He is a cool dude.  We've been enjoying the cold together, and getting new investigatores and such.  the only bad things about the changes is that I had to say goodbye to the canales family, the investigators that we had.  They were so cool.  But we'll get to visit them in like 10 months.  Also, in 12 months I'll come back for their sealing.  haha that's gonna be cool.  ALSO, now that I'm like 4 hours away from the city, I'm not gonna be nearby when the temple gets dedicated here, aka its probable that I won't get to go to the cultural night.  :(  So will you guys please pray that there will be some way that I can go to the cultural night?  it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

I read a sweet talk in the january liahona that would be cool for you guys to use for family home evening tonight!  it's by Neil L Andersen,and it's called reverence for god is the beginning of wisdom.  cool.  Read it.  Love it.

So here in the esperanza we have a little branch that is growing, so we help out a lot.  we taught priesthood class, and we taught the young mens and young womens.  After church, we also got to help with counting the tithing, and today we're gonna go get the reimbursement for some ward activities that they did.  Haha we're basically the bosses here. 

mom.... can you send me pictures of the whole family please if you haven´t already? :)  Muchas Gracias.

I'm jealous that you guys are on a cruise, but it's ok, cause when I get married, I'm gonna go to a SUPER sweet place on my honeymoon, like france or something, and I'm not gonna invite ANY OF YOU!!  (except for my wife).  Speaking of marriage, I was thinking about how sweet it would be to get married in the Honduras Temple.  It probably will never happen, but I can dream can't I?  Anyways, I'mma try to send some pics right now.  I love you all tons!  thanks for being awesome.

Elder Sensenbaugh and I in our sweet cleaning the house uniforms

Love, Danny "No bullets in the chamber" Harding

23-- cuz you KNOW I never leave a bullet in the chamber

So dad, first off about your question about the tree of life.  You asked which of the groups of people are the happiest, and why.  I found like 5 or 6 groups (you know me, I just had to one up you) and there were TWO happy groups.  obviously the ones who ate of the fruit and enjoyed it.  But then there was also the group in the great and spacious building.  It kind of made me think for a second why the prideful were happy as well.  And it even bugged me a little haha, cuz you would think that they should NOT have happiness cause they`re NOT following the gospel.  For me, it all came down to pride.  The humble ones KNEW that they couldn't find happiness for themselves, that they had to go to the source of true joy, (the love of God), in order to be happy.  Some people went to the tree, but not with that humility.  They went just to try, and since they were prideful and didn't really care about the tree, they just wanted to test it out, they just immediately got lost in strange roads.  (those people that got lost because of the darkness or in the river were the LEAST happiest by the way)  The ones in the building were happy for their own successes.  They thought that THEY had done everything, and so their joy came from themselves.  Which is a joy that can't last, because we're imperfect.  that joy has a limit.  But they were getting happiness as well for making fun of others.  So yeah, sure, you can be happy in the world, but it won't get you anywhere.  There will always be a limit.  And you`ll be a jerk, so no one will want to be your friend.  God's plan is EVERLASTING progress, and EVERLASTING joy, the joy without limits.  That eternal progression can come only through turning to the only EVERLASTING and ETERNAL being in the universe.  So Yeah, go ahead and forget about God, and live in the world, and enjoy your time there.  But you will never make it past your own weaknesses.  You will never make it past the wall that your own natural man has built.  And you will stay there, with a false, incomplete happiness until one day you come craying back to your father, as did the prodigal son, Finally ready to truly accept what you should have been heir to all along.  Thanks for telling me to read that dad, I hope that's a good enough analysis for you :)

Anyways, now that I got the spiritual stuff done, I'mma tell you how my week went down.  First of all, this business with 23.  Well 23 stands for the record that Elder Sensenbaugh and I set of the world.  We got 23 new investigators this week! And 4 new families!  Cause you know we don't leave bullets in the chamber! It was so sweet!  And it's not just like oh, yeah we taught them, all these people are positive! President fortuna told us that when he was in a small branch like this one, he had THIRTY investigators in church one week.  That's gonna be my goal here.  Yesterday we had 6, so it was a good start.  We are on a role. Or as we say here in Honduras, estamos echando fuego!

 As I opened my email today, I thought about how cool it would be to get a letter from my brothers every once in a while... but alas...  Tyler I almost took you off of the list to send the emails too!  I expect a good excuse.  and NEW GIRLFRIEND  does not count as a good one.  anyways, curtis and tyler, I need EXACT scripture sizes.  and which ones you have.  thanks broders!  and curtis, did you ever send those letters from EFY last year? 

otros asuntos: the hot chocolate here is not that great, so can you send me some of that GOOD stuff from costco?  thanks. I don't want to have to resort to Coffee.

I love you all, thanks for everything, peace out homies

Con amor, Danny "Super Baleada" Harding

ps the canales family got baptized in my old area.  good for them!  the dad stopped drinking and everything.  I'm so happy for them!  Welcome to the kingdom of God Familia canales!