Sunday May 7, 2023

Hello once again.  Another week come and gone,  just like that.  They seem to be rolling along.  

We had a Zone Conference in Progreso this week on Wednesday.  This is our Zone picture taken after the conference.  We always enjoy these meetings with the missionaries.  This one was directed by our Zone leaders, they always do a great job getting everyone more excited about doing missionary work and doing it more effectively.  We have so much love and respect for each and everyone of these young missionaries.  They all come from such diverse backgrounds but all come committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ with that love and commitment in their heart.  There is a young man in the Telemar branch who is now preparing for a mission we just found out today of his goal and ambition.  We are happy for him and hope that he can serve in that way.  The Hermanas next to Hermana Chappell are in our district here in Tela and there are two Elders in the back row that are here with us too.  It is funny to look at now, the Latinos all are on one side and the Gringos on the other side even though the companionships are I think all of them one Gringo and one Latino, except for the Hermanas, there are no gringo Hermanas here in our mission.  

We finally got started on our missionwide English class.  We do that over zoom with all the Latino missionaries that want to join.  It is a English language course provided by BYU Pathways.  For a person to apply to BYU Pathway, they need to be somewhat fluent in English because all the courses are taught in English.  If a person takes these classes and passes the level exam at the end of each of the three levels, they are automatically given a discount on the cost of their education as they pursue  their online education with BYU Pathways.  So the Church or BYU provides for all missionaries the opportunity to learn English and pass these course levels while serving a mission.  It really is a great opportunity for them to learn English not only for the classes we teach but also mainly because they have the opportunity to be around English speaking Elders most every day.  So it really is a great time for them to learn the language.  There are some who come here speaking English very well and others who do not know a word of English, so we have all levels of learners in the program.  The lessons come from a book, called English Connect 1,2, and 3.  We are teaching level 1, now all online every Tuesday, Thursday Friday, and Saturday mornings from 10:00 to 10:30, which is the time slot when all missionaries from whatever background to study language.  The Gringo missionaries are supposed to use this time to study Spanish and the Latino missionaries are supposed to use this time to study English.  There are of course varying levels of commitment to actually study English and Spanish during this time but that is the prescribed study time for language learning.  

The Hermanas,  (Full time sister missionaries) hosted a Family History Branch activity yesterday, Saturday in the church in Tela.  There were not nearly enough people there but it was really well planned and prepared to help us to understand the importance of Temples and family history. We enjoyed being there and having those discussions with them.  There is a building excitement to go to Tegucigalpa in June to the Temple where we will have the opportunity to officiate in the ordinances of the Temple in behalf of our deceased ancestors.  

 After our Zone Conference we always get lunch, most of the Elders like to go to Pizza Hut or Popeyes which sounds great but I can't eat at either place so Hermana Chappell is wonderful to always help me eat Gluten Free. There were these two Hermanas who didn't want to go to Popeyes with the Elders so they asked us if we liked Mexican,  I do but Hermana Chappell is not to fond of Mexican but we went anyway. Where else are we going to go?   I had Tacos, she had Nachos I thought it was great.  Hermana not so much but it was fun to be with these two Hermanas to share lunch and a great conversation.  The hermana on the Left is from Tegucigalpa Honduras and goes home in June, her companion is from Guatemala and she showed us a picture of her and her family when she left home for the mission.  I love these pictures because if they are from Guatemala they are dressed in their "Tipica" dresses which are so unique and beautiful.  It was a great day!!!!

We have made a tradition here to have all the missionaries over for lunch just before transfers to share a great meal and just to be together in a family environment.  This week Elder Martinez who is from Mexico made dinner for us, a favorite from home, Tacos.  He had his mom on the phone walking him through all the steps.  It was a pretty good meal even though it was cooked mostly by a 19 year old young man.  😆 We all enjoyed the meal, enjoyed mostly just being together and had a great bonding day.  We do these dinners on Monday, our P day.  Preparation day, when they have time off from the regular mission teaching searching days.  They also all call home in the afternoons on Mondays so it is always a fun day to be together.  After the meal when we all get finished eating,  (These young missionaries, both the Elders and Hermanas can put away a lot of food!).  Colleen and I just have to look at each other and say wow,  we don't eat like that any more.  I guess that happens when you get old.  

So after we get finished eating, we each take turns telling about a miracle or spiritual experience that we have had either while serving here in Tela or somewhere else here in the mission.  I like it when they share something that happened while serving here in Tela because we have likely shared in the experience and it is very meaningful when we are sharing about the same experience.  It is always so great to have this spiritual sharing experience.  I know that we are going to continue with this tradition because it is so awesome.  

This week Hermana Rosales who is from Guatemala shared an experience that began at birth but she received a huge blessing and miracle from our Heavenly Father while serving here.  She was born with only one ear.   Then when she got older she has had several surgeries to try and correct the issue as well as a plastic surgery to create for her an outer ear.  It doesn't open into her head but it looks like a normal ear.  She only hears with a hearing aid in her left ear.  Since she was very young and throughout her life she has had lots of bad headaches, or migraines she called them.  They always told her that she should stay out of the bright sunlight and get plenty of rest and stay in cooler places so as to not get overly hot.  Her home in Guatemala she said is a very mild climate where it very seldom gets very hot or very cold. So she said that it was fairly easy to stay out of the heat and the hot sun but she continued to have headaches a lot.  When she got her mission call, and saw that it was in Honduras she looked up what the climate was in the northern part of Honduras, which is where our mission is.  She was so scared and shocked almost, to see that the climate here is very sunny and hot.  She said that they were so shocked, both her and her family to see that the Lord would call her to come to Honduras where the climate is so opposite of what she felt like she needed to have in order to feel well.  She left home with a blessing from her father as well as a blessing from her Stake President and they both blessed her that she would be able to be well and to survive the hot sun and hot weather here.  She said that she was so scared to leave home and come on her mission because of her headaches when she gets too hot.  It is impossible to not get hot here. Both her and her family were all so nervous for her to come here.  After suffering for about two months and fasting and praying for relief she said that slowly she started feeling better and better and pretty soon she said that she had no headaches at all.  She said that it was truly a miracle from our Heavenly Father to bless her to not have migraine headaches all the time.  She is such a sweet, humble, devoted, committed, sweet young lady.  She was crying as she was sharing that tender miracle in her life, which of course made all of us cry.   I love the Lord and know that He is always here alongside all of us as we make our way through this life.  It is filled with difficulties and challenges but we will with the Lord's help get through it.