Sunday June 11, 2023

This sweet sister has completed her mission and so she was asked to share her testimony at a zone conference we had this past week.  It is always so interesting to hear their wonderful testimonies as they come close to the end of their mission.  They are always soooo good.  I think that at the end of the mission service they are all so close to the Lord and are so used to prayer and scripture study every day and are so involved with serving others, all those things that we are all supposed to do, to be close to the Spirit.  They have such sweet humble testimonies.  As they talk about like this sister did that the time goes by so fast and that they are so thankful for this experience of being a missionary.  This Hermana is from here in Honduras from Tegucigalpa. She said that she is so grateful for all of us here in the mission that sacrificed of their time to come on a mission to her home country to help her people to know more of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I thought that was so very nice of her to feel that way.  When she left home to come out on her mission she was the only one in her family to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  About a month after coming on her mission she was surprised to hear that her mom had decided to get baptized.   Now in her testimony at the end of her mission she shared that she has been involved with the missionaries that are serving in her home area with the teaching of her Dad and this past week she was able to in a zoom conference call with the missionaries and her family she was able to get her Dad to agree to a Baptismal date.  She is so excited to be able to witness her dad getting baptized the day she gets home from her mission.   I can't imagine the courage and commitment some of these missionaries have to leave home to go be a missionary when they don't have the family support at all.  I feel like that is such a great help for us is to know that we have the love, prayers, support from our loved ones, and family back home.  It truly is an inspiration for me to hear the words of these missionaries always but especially in this time that they are getting ready to go home after completing their mission.  

It was Aaron's birthday this past week, he turned 10.  So together with the Hermana missionaries we got a cake and went out and had a small birthday celebration with them.  He was happy and from the comments made probably would not have had birthday cake otherwise.  It is so humbling to think about how so many of those around us have so very little and everything they do have is for the bare necessities of life.  It has been such a wonderful blessing for us to get to know these families here.  I hope that in some small way we are a help for them but at the same time I feel like they are teaching us so many important life lessons. 

These two pictures are just views down the street and then on a busy street corner both of them in Progreso.  Everyday life here as we serve in Honduras.   Who would have ever thought that Colleen and I would have this experience!!!!  Colleen gave a talk here in Tela in sacrament meeting today.  Her topic was "Temples".  She did so very awesome,  she did most of it in English while I translated it into spanish.  She did read the primary song, "I love to see the temple" in spanish and a few other things as well, she always does such a great job.  She is always so busy with the medical issues of the missionaries here.  Sundays and Mondays are usually pretty quiet but the rest of the week there are always things going on.  From ingrown toenails, to dog bites, to body aches and probably most of all is stomach aches and headaches.  It is so hot and humid here you aren't outside for very long at all and you are sweating, and they have to do that every day all day.  They are pretty resilient but they do get sick sometimes.  Some of them more than others, but it is really helpful for them to be able to have Hermana Chappell here to help them when they need a mom and their own mom is so far away.  We got a call the other night at 9 pm from the Hermana's here in Tela.   They started out by telling us that Hermana Ortega was sick with such and such symptoms, so Hermana Chappell told them what to take then asked if they had any of that in their house.  They said no so Hermana Chappell said that she would go to the Pharmacy and get it for them and bring it over. Then they said, since you will be out anyway, could you come over and pick us up and take us home?  They were in a kind of a far out area from where they live when she got sick so they just stayed there hoping she would get feeling better soon, but she just got worse as the evening progressed.  So we went out to the Pharmacy, picked up the medications and went out to "La Quince" and picked them up and took them home.  Hermana Ortega was so very pale, for a Latina she really looked like a gringo, she was so pale looking.   We are so very glad to be able to be here and help out where we can here in Tela Honduras!!!!  They both made it to church today, she said she was much better.   Hermana Chappell did it again!  She keeps them all up and running 😃