Merrill & Colleen's Honduran Adventure

  Monday January 30, 2023 Today was P day,  our first real Preparation day.   We had lunch with the Elders in our District at a taco place.  They were really good Mexican style street tacos.  That is the first place I have seen here that has Mexican food which is very different than Honduran food.  Here there is what is known as "baleadas". which are tortillas with refried red beans, with cheese or chicken or scrambled eggs, and avocado, depending on how much you want to pay and which meal it is.  Baleadas are breakfast lunch and dinner 😀.  After that we all went to the church so that they could all call home and send emails etc.  While we were there our Mission President and Hermana stopped by for a minute,  They have family visiting them for a couple weeks so they were showing them around the mission.  After that we went to get a haircut. My first in Honduras.  We went one place where Elder's go, we waited a while but t...

 Sunday January 29, 2023 We have had some wonderful experiences this past week.  I will try and capture what it has been like for us.  Monday morning we packed our bags and drove out to a rather distant part of our mission.  Our mission President and Hermana as well as the 3 assistants to the President were in their car and we traveled together, somewhat.  Driving / road trips, are an experience here.  Roads are very narrow at times, semi two lanes at times, have many potholes, many speed bumps inside towns, are not marked with lines in the center or on the edge,  people drive on the sidewalks at times to get around traffic, it is just crazy.  I don't mind driving during the day but nighttime driving is one thing I really do not like. Thank goodness it is not often when we had to be out after dark. There are people walking along the side of the roads which you cannot see until you are right next to them,  many of the motorcycles, of which the...

 Sunday January 22, 2023 We went to Church here in Tela Honduras today to the Telamar branch.  We were the only ones who got to church in our own car.  There is no real parking area, you pull into the fenced gated church property and park on the basketball court.  What a great experience!  There are two Branches of the church here in this city.  Tela is a town, with a population of  38,030  (2020 calculation) thanks google! Tela is a municipality in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast.  There are 4 Elders serving here, each assigned to a different Branch, and we are to be a part of both, alternating where we attend church and are here to help out in both areas.  After church today the Branch President, President Sergio Wilfredo Mencia Caraccioli,  asked if he could meet with us and the Elders.  He was super nice but he sat us down and asked... What is your assignment here in Tela?  So we just told him that w...

 Thursday January 19, 2023 This week has been so awesome!  We have been going every day all day.  We are still with President and Hermana Ostler so we are on their schedule but it has been so great to get out and meet with the missionaries and get to know them and their areas where they are living and working.  We are finding out more and more what life is like here for them as well as for the local people here.  So the missionaries all live in apartments where there are either 2 or 4 in the apartment.  They have no hot water, just the tap water temperature which is not cold but for a shower it might be a little cooler that what I am used to.  Most do have running water in their apartments, but not all.  They say that the water is usually pretty clear until it rains then the water comes out of the tap a reddish brown water because somehow the rainwater drainage gets into the water system.  Sounds interesting.  Also they all have a "pensi...

 Sunday night, January 15, 2023 It has been a wonderful day.  We are still staying with our mission president and wife so we are like luggage they have to carry around with them.  They are so awesome to us in every way.  We went to Stake Conference today with them where they both knew they were speaking.   After arriving at the church and meeting people, the Stake President asked us if we would share our testimony, 😟 so on our first Sunday here Hermana Chappell shared her testimony in Stake Conference with me translating for her, then I did the same.  The people here are so friendly and warm and forgiving.  They all said we did great.  I don't really know if they understand my spanish or if they just smile and nod.  The conference was really good, and there were alot of people there.  They went all the way to the back and even had chairs set up on the stage at the very back where people were sitting too.  The entire Zone of mi...

Saturday January 14, 2023  What a crazy past 24 hours has been.  Yesterday, Friday January 13, we had finished up the training in Salt Lake so that was our day to make final preparations before leaving. We checked out of the hotel where we had been staying and picked up some final prescriptions to bring with us that were finally ready.  Then we went up to Heber City to spend the afternoon with Colleens parents.  Her brother Ray was there as well as her sister Carrie so that was awesome to be there together.  We had lunch, did laundry one more time and said our goodbyes. I called them see you laters because it really isn't that long till we will be all back together again.  We then went to Barrett's house, where Christine met us and brought us dinner.   We loaded up all our luggage in to Barrett's car and He and Christine took us to the airport where they helped us in with everything and stayed with us while we got everything checked in and we were...

  Sunday Jan 8, 2023 We have completed one week of MTC training in Provo, and are now in Salt Lake for one more week of training before traveling to Honduras.  Last week while at Provo, the focus was mostly Preach My Gospel.  Which will be a huge part of all we do.  It teaches not only the missionary lessons, but how to be a more effective disciple of Jesus Christ. We were divided into 4 couple districts, so 8 of us in the classroom setting each day.  We are going to Honduras, one couple is going to Louisiana Baton Rouge to serve in the Bishops warehouse, one couple is going to New Zealand to serve as Church PR. and the other couple is going to be Area Medical advisors of the Caribbean area.  Then we had the opportunity to get to know one other assigned couple who we practiced, getting to know them, helping them with a challenge, and giving them a meaningful invitation to come closer to Christ to help them in their particular challenge.  The couple we ...

  January 1, 2023 Sunday, the first day of the new year, a new beginning, in a great big way this year!  Tomorrow morning we are to be at the Provo UT MTC between 10:20 and 10:30 am.  We are beginning our mission to the Honduras San Pedro Sula East mission, which is to be for 18 months.  We are scheduled to be in Provo for one week then in Salt Lake for one week then we travel to San Pedro Sula on Friday, and Saturday, arriving there around 12:30 pm on Saturday.  We were set apart this evening by our Stake President, President Kolling.  Todd and his family were here and Meggan, because of covid was not able to travel here to be with us but thanks to FaceTime was able to participate that way.  It was a great experience and Colleen and I were each given a beautiful blessing that I know will help and sustain us while serving the Lord in this new capacity.  I am so thankful that they could participate in this special event with us.  It is going t...