Sunday June 18, 2023

This has been a busy week.  Can we just start there.  Not so much with missionary work but with the carnaval de Tela here this week.  It started Wednesday and finally ended last night.  Before we go there though I want to share an awesome experience that we had with this good man in this picture.  His name is German Madrid.  We met him the very first day we were at church in Tela. He has been Branch President here in the branch I don't know how many times, he is one of those people who is so very friendly and open and just great to be with.  He and his wife live very close to the church, and she has health problems to the extent that she pretty much never leaves the house.  He takes care of her and gets out some.  They were of the very first members of the church here in Tela.  He remembers the first missionaries who were here which are the ones that baptized them.  He likes to say that they were what the missionaries referred to as the "Golden family".   He and his wife were married and they had two children.  They were interested from the very first time they met the missionaries and were soon baptized.  So they know basically the entire history of the church here in Tela.  He went with us and showed us all the interesting historical places concerning where they have met over the years before the church building was built here.  There is a fairly large hill here where this picture was taken. It is right in the middle of Tela with the town built all around and now on top of the hill.  At the time when the missionaries first arrived here, in I think it was around 1979,  they came to the top of this hill and offered a prayer and dedicated this area for the preaching of the gospel to this people here.  There are buildings and streets all around and on top of this hill now so it was hard to decide how to take a picture of the hill, and there is no way to know where they were anyway so this is a picture of brother Madrid and I standing together on the side of the road there.  He took us to the different areas where they met for church, which was in rented houses around town.  It was a very interesting experience.  We were together about 3 hours and enjoyed every minute of it.  Here are some more pictures. 

This is a building where they used the bottom floor to host a conference of some sort, they had a choir which both brother and sister Madrid sang in and he said that there was a large crowd. 

It was in this house where the Elders first lived and they held church in here as well for some time until they outgrew it, the house still looks pretty nice from the outside after all these years. 

This is another location where they held church after the house got to be too small.  He said that the front of the building used to be open but they have closed it all off now.  

I honestly don't remember what he said about this location. 

This last one is a picture of the beach where the first baptisms took place here in Tela.   He took us out to this area and had such a smile on his face remembering all these places.  He said that they set up a little frame with sheets hung on the sides to give them privacy to change into the white clothing for the baptism then to change back to the regular clothes after getting baptized.  We spent a while here on the beach talking about his experiences.   It is also cooler while at the beach anyway so we were glad to spend a little time there.  

On Tuesday we took a sick Elder to San Pedro to a specialist Dr.  They did not keep him in the hospital but it was so late by the time we got out of there we stayed the night with President and Hermana Ostler at their house.  Which was a good thing because by the next morning the elder was even worse than he was the day before so we went back and spent a big part of the day at the ER with him.  Finally we felt he was getting better and had received the needed medical help so we headed home.  We got back late Wed night and part of their problem is that the Elders have had no water in their house for a week, including up until last night.  So after coming back on Wednesday they have been staying here with us so that they can shower, and wash their clothes etc. Water is such a necessity, and when you have to go without any it is not good.  We always have to buy water to drink but when there is no water in the pipes in the bathroom and in the kitchen it is not good.  So they have been here with us. It has been great to have them here with us.  They are both such awesome young men.  The one is still not getting much better,  I don't know what will have to happen with him but as of now they have gone back to their house. Hermana Chappell is always so worried and concerned about these Elders and Hermanas, especially when it is one that lives right here close by.  We are glad we were able to help them in to see the Dr and to be with them this week.  Hopefully he can get feeling better and be able to do what he needs to do while here.  

So we get back Wed night,  we are all tired and we go to bed.  At 2:00 am there are huge firecracker booms and car horns blowing and weird syren type sounds that some of the cars have here that went on and on.  finally around 4:00 they stopped.  It was so noisy and at that hour it was not a pleasant experience.  We still don't know what that was all about, Colleen thinks maybe they were protesting because of all the power outages we are having here lately.   But I really do not know what was going on.  Then on Thursday afternoon they set up a carnival grandstand and tents and tents and tents all up and down the main street right outside our house.  All the tents had tables and chairs set up inside with their gas grills to cook on and big coolers.  The Carnival moves from location to location throughout Tela during the Carnival week.  Thursday night is was our turn here in barrio la Curva.  We found out after talking with a few people that this was going to be all night music up until 5:00 in the morning.  WHAT?  from around 8pm until 5 Friday morning.  Oh boy was that ever fun. NOT.  We have videos but they are too long to put on here so here are some pictures.

This one is after they left, they didn't clean up very well.

Part of the parade, there were dancing groups which was fun to watch for a minute. 

Then on Saturday afternoon they had a parade down the street with  lots of horses, dancing groups and floats on semi trucks. Hermana Chappell was about to kill me,  "If they make noise all night again tonight I am going to kill someone!"  Thank goodness they moved on to the other side of town for the grand finale on Saturday night, so we finally got a bit of rest last night but after this week we are both rather tired. 

 We had church this morning which means we are up early again to help get families to church.  After church today we had both the Elders and Hermanas over for lunch, which for Hermana Chappell is always the biggest meal of the week.  It was so great to be with all of them and to share these experiences with them.  The Hermana's have been struggling with a few things here lately and it was very therapeutic for all of us to be together around the dinner table to enjoy each others company and to be able to share our deepest feelings and know that we are loved and needed.  It is so beneficial to know that we are each a part of a bigger whole and that we love and appreciate each other.  We are all somewhat isolated out here, even though there are 160 or so missionaries scattered throughout our mission it is rare that we get together in bigger groups.  There are the zone conferences every 6 weeks, but for us and for them it is nice to be together with like minded  friends and to be able to share our thoughts and feelings with each other.  It really has been a great day.  

We called Colleen's mom and dad a while ago to wish him a happy Father's day, it is always great to visit with them.  We are so grateful for their love and support.  We also look forward to talking with Todd and his family and also with Meggan and Janice later.  Life is good,  I am so grateful to have such wonderful people around me to share this journey with. I am so thankful for Colleen and her love and support always.  I love you all!!!