Merrill & Colleen's Honduran Adventure

  Sunday April 30, 2023 We had a great baptism yesterday for David Antonio Martinez Juarez.  It was a great opportunity to be with them and to participate in the service.  Since there are Sister (Hermana) missionaries in that area now they asked me to perform the baptism.  I was happy to be able to have that experience, one that I really didn't expect to have while here.  Then today in Sacrament Meeting I confirmed him a member of the Church.  I always thought that his dad, Doris' son Pedro was a member but they said yesterday that he is not, so David is the only member in his family.  His grandmother Doris is the sweetest grandmother ever.  She helps with those kids in everything.  David's younger sister, Tatiana, the one in yellow, turns 8 on the 14th of May and she says that she wants to get baptized too.  Davids younger brother Aaron keeps saying, "Next month".  So who knows when next month will ever get here.  David was al...

Sunday April 23, 2023 We were with the Elders this week and we were driving down the road next to the beach and Elder Martinez said, "Wow, the beach!  Look at the waves!"  This was the first time he had ever seen the ocean and he was so excited!  So we walked out to the beach and onto the pier for a few minutes.  It is always great to be here with the missionaries.  Elder Martinez is from Mexico and was pretty excited to be near the ocean.  I don't know what part of Mexico he is from but apparently not a coastal city.  He has told us the name of the city where he is from but I have never heard of that name so I don't know where exactly it is.  The pier here as you can see goes out a ways into the ocean,  which is really the caribbean sea here,  but there are no handrails on either side of the pier,  it is fun to go out there to see the water from there but also just a bit scary because of no handrails and not a very smooth walkway....

  Sunday April 16, 2023 That picture is a great serene way to begin this week's post I would say.  This past week has been mostly tranquilo.  Up until yesterday after English Class our Branch President in Tela pulled me aside and said that the Stake President was going to be in Tela tomorrow and he would like to meet with you and your wife tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 8 am. at the church.  So of course I said great, we will be here.  There had already been rumors of being called to help with the Telemar Branch as a counselor in the Elders Quorum so I thought that is what was going on except that I thought it odd that they would be in Tela insead of Telemar, which I thought was odd, but oh well, What do I know?  So we get there this morning and we sit down in the Bishops office and he starts talking about the branch presidency how they are going to make some changes, so I am thinking ok, fine, why are they talking about the Tela branch all the time.  So...

Sunday,  April 9, 2023  Easter Sunday Hermana Chappell has been planting flowers.  Aren't they pretty?  We had a hard time finding a place that sells live flowers/plants.  There are all kinds of trees, shrubs, flowers etc. here so we knew there had to be someplace to buy living plants,  google saved the day.  It is not always what it says on google here though.  It listed three nurseries nearby but when you turn the map into satellite view,  it is obvious that some of them are not really nurseries at all.  We did find this one not too far out of town.  The selection wasn't great but we got three flowering plants.  So we got them planted in this pot that was already sitting here in the front yard.  the small succulents,  were sitting here inside little plastic containers so we put them into the ground also.  I think they will do much better in the ground rather than how they were.  The two taller pots were he...

  Sunday April 2, 2023 This has been General Conference weekend which in the mission field they call it our Superbowl Weekend. 😁 It has been a great weekend filled with conference sessions and being with the missionaries.  There are three now in our area here that are latinos so we had it on the TV in Español and mom and Elder Steel listened in English.  Colleen fixed both lunch and dinner yesterday for everyone and then again today she fixed a great lunch for everyone.   The Sunday morning session the missionaries all went to their church to watch it there, then we all gathered here for lunch and then watched the afternoon session here together.   After conference today they all went out to appointments and we went with the Elders to a part member family.  It was a great discussion and the couple were challenged to get married so that she can get baptized.  It seems like the majority of the people here are not married but just live together...