Sunday March 19, 2023

What a great week this has been.  We had the wonderful opportunity to attend two wonderful multi Zone Conferences this week.  Elder Giuffra and Hermana Giuffra of the seventy were here this week for a mission tour.  So they combined all the Elders and Hermanas into two main areas and held a conference where we heard from President and Hermana Ostler then Elder and Sister Giuffra.  It was such a great experience to be there and hear of their instructions and to feel of their spirit and love.  We went to both of them because Hermana Chappell has had several sick and injured missionaries that she really wanted to see and to just be able to talk with them and see them in person.  We have had two Elders get bitten by dogs recently and that is such a scare for the question of whether they might have rabies.  As it turned out thankfully neither of them did but it was not a pleasant experience for the Elders or for Hermana Chappell to work through.  Luckily, and thanks to the watchful protection of a Loving Father in Heaven who by the way is ALWAYS watching over His missionaries, They were both healing well and did not have to deal with what could have been a much bigger problem otherwise.  One was bitten on his arm and the other on his calf.  

Back to the conferences,  Elder and Hermana Giuffra are from Chile.  Their calling takes them all over Central and perhaps South America lending love and support to the Stakes and missions of the Church.  After leaving here, they had to meet in Guatemala with the missions there.  He said that to get there they had to fly from San Pedro Sula Honduras to Miami Florida, then catch another plane to Guatemala City Guatemala.  A long ways to fly to only get to the next country over.  They have family in Utah and were planning on being in Utah the next week to visit with family and to attend General Conference in Salt Lake in April 1 and 2.   We took a group photo of our Zone while we were at the conference.  It is kinda funny because Elder Chappell and I were trying to get on Family Search to do the Relatives around me thing they have on there, which we couldn't get it to work, but they called us and said, hey they are doing a picture of your Zone, get in here,  so we went in and took opposite sides of the middle line.  So we made it in the picture as bookends.😁

It wasn't quite as scary to drive out to La Ceiba and into La Lima this time,  much more of the traveling was done during daylight hours which is so much better, and the second time is better than the first.  Practice Practice Practice, right?   This is such a beautiful country.  It is so pretty to see more of the area around here.  We will have to drive out sometime when we are not in a hurry to get to a meeting and take pictures.  We are getting a bit more used to the area, the culture , the food, and the traffic.  There are no lines on the roads here, not in the middle, not on the sides and no reflector posts along the roads.  It is just a scary experience at night.  It is just amazing to me how many cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, carts, bikes, pedestrians, donkeys, horses, cows and who know what else there are on the roads with no lights front or back side or anywhere.  You drive along and all of a sudden there are people or a truck or whatever right in front of you.  Then there are some busses that are all lit up like a police ambulance fire truck Christmas tree.  All colors of lights flashing, spinning,  shining everywhere,  You never know if what you are seeing is a cop, an ambulance or just someone's obsession with bright spinning flashing lights.  It is just a crazy experience.  This mission has been such a great, learning experience for us in so many ways.  We have days without water,  or water that has as much sand as water, or without power or internet.  Which is not terrible but it is just that you never know what is going to happen next.  Last night there was a thunderstorm that came through.  At 3:30 am there was thunder and lightning and rain pounding on the rooftop.  Thank goodness we don't have a metal roof, it would have been so much louder.  After church today we had the missionaries over for lunch and we were talking about the thunder.  The Elder from Mexico, Elder López thought the thunder sounded normal but Elder Steel from St George and Hermana Chappell and I thought it was so much louder and rough sounding here last night.  It sounded to me like big huge rocks rolling around in a big barrel.  It rained for a couple of hours.  then we just got back to sleep then Hermana Chappell's phone started ringing with sick missionaries.  Colleen had to talk in Sacrament meeting today in the Telemar Branch, she did really really great.  She started out in Español and shared her testimony at the end in Español.  She did really great.  

Today, March 19 is Fathers Day in Honduras, no matter which day of the week,  Father's day is always on March 19.  So after sacrament meeting they had all the Fathers get together for a group photo.  The sisters had a cake they had made and they had a little bag filled with candy they gave to us.  It was a great day.  They had more cake, so the primary girls served the cake to everyone in Sunday School, both men and women, then they came in with cups of pepsi for everyone,  it was great!  Since I don't eat anything with gluten in it, I gave my cake to Elder Lopez,  He was happy!   We then had the two elders from the Telemar branch over for lunch,  It is always so awesome whenever we can spend time together.  Elder Lopez who is from Mexico speaks great English so he likes to practice, so whenever we are together we speak in English.  It is awesome to have conversations in English with others.  Crazy the things you miss about being home.