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 we are here to help out in whatever we can do to help the Church and The Lord and the missionary effort here.  It was a good way to get a feel for the area and the missionary work here.  They are well organized and have a great start.  He has been a Branch President off and on since his baptism 25 years ago.  There were probably around 50 people at church and there was at least one lady there with the missionaries visiting for the first time.  In Elders Quorum we talked about III Nephi chapter 11.  The teacher, who is the Elders Quorum President is the son of the Branch President, (keep it all in the family 😀😔😀). He served his mission in Brazil, then when covid hit he finished out the last 6 months here in another mission in Honduras.  This Wednesday is the celebration of I don't remember how many years since they organized the seminary and Institute program in Central America. So the focus of sacrament meeting was encouraging youth to attend seminary.  They released the previous teacher and sustained a new seminary teacher.  It must be that each Ward/Branch has their own class.   School starts again here at the first of February.  They have been out since November,  that is their school vacation, like we have in the summer, here it is from November to February.  There were about 15 or so youth that stood when asked to stand so that we could all see who the youth were eligible to attend class.  They asked us to come to the pulpit to introduce ourselves, that was fun, Colleen said the first part in Spanish then I translated for her, then I took a minute.  They are all so kind, there was a wonderful lady named Doria Lybby Castro Ponce, who goes by by Lybby,  that invited Colleen to attend Young Women with her, she speaks some English so that helped Colleen to feel a little more comfortable.  There are 4 Elders serving here in this City.  We met them last week in a Zone Conference.  They came over yesterday and helped us here at our house getting things figured out.  We have to watch for the water truck to come by in the mornings to get a new bottle of water, which is the only really clean drinking water.  The tap water is not safe to drink but that is what we use to wash dishes in and to shower in.  The shower is another story, there is an electric apparatus attached to the end of the shower head that is connected to electric box above the shower that heats the water (a tiny bit) as it comes out of the shower.  I suppose we are lucky to have it as the missionaries do not even have one of those heaters, some do not even have running water in their apartment.  We are lucky to have a nice house, condo. There are four in a row, we are number 2. Two floors, living area and kitchen on the main floor and two bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs.  

We are going this next week with President and Hermana Ostler out to two other areas in the mission for Zone Conferences.  It will be great to see other areas of the Country and to meet with more of the Elders and Hermanas of the mission.  Whenever there are Baptisms, they send out pictures to the whole mission.  There were several pictures that showed up today.  They use Whatsapp to communicate with each other, both text and calls.  It works great to connect with family and friends back in the USA also. We spoke with Ardell and Kenneth today for a minute, which was so great so see a familiar face and hear English.  It was interesting to think about when she asked me how Honduras compares to how Spain was 45 years ago, I feel like Spain even 45 years ago was more advanced in so many ways than Honduras is now.  Of course there is internet and cell phones now that were not around back then but infrastructure, plumbing, fresh clean water, mobility, there are so many things that I have always taken for granted.  Fresh clean water, a hot shower, clean safe food, are some of the things we are trying to figure out here.  There are so many here who live in complete poverty. It is a whole different world.  

It has been a great Sabbath day and I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for its teachings that give us hope and faith for a better tomorrow.  I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church restored in these last days to help us to live with joy and hope.  I am so thankful for that knowledge and hope to share that with all around us here.  We also enjoyed studying John 1 for Come Follow Me and it was a great experience in Priesthood meeting to talk about III Nephi 11 which is one of the most touching chapters in the Book Of Mormon.  

 

We had to take a selfie while the Elders were here!  One from Mexico, the one standing by me, Elder Lopez, one from Guatemala the one stooping down, Elder Pineda,  one from Hawaii,  the one standing in the back, Elder Wolfesberger, and one from Arizona close up on the right, is Elder Penrod.  This is inside our house.  

This is outside our house, we open the locked gate, park the car inside this area then lock ourselves in. 

This is on the road while driving out to Tela,  It is not uncommon at all to have people riding in the back of trucks. They pass on the right side or sometimes on the left, you never know for sure where you will encounter another vehicle, or motorcycle or even someone riding on a bicycle.  

It is so green everywhere, the mountains are covered in palm trees, no pine trees at all here that I have seen so far.