Sunday August 13, 2023

I remember a picture that Todd sent us one day while he was in Guatemala on his mission that was similar to this one.  Todd and his companion were walking down a dirt road and I remember thinking "That is probably what they do a lot of the time,  a lot of walking down dirt roads contacting people out in all parts of the world."  These Elders and Hermana's in our mission do a lot of walking up and down and all around this country, exactly like missionaries throughout the entire world, I suppose.  Searching out anyone willing to learn more about Jesus Christ and His gospel.  In this picture it looks like Elder Martinez is holding hands with the young man walking with them, but they are not holding hands.  The young man is Manises who was coming with the Elders to English class which we do every week on Friday at 4:00 at the Telemar branch.   There are between 2 and 10 people that come on any particular day but it is always a great opportunity to meet with the branch members and it is also open to anyone in the community who wants to come out and practice English.  There have been converts to the church who started out learning English then progressed with the missionaries to learn about the church as well.  

It was Hermana Doris's birthday this past week so we took a birthday cake to her and sang Happy Birthday.  For some reason when we first got here in Tela we were taken out to meet this family and we have made a quite a connection with Hermana Doris, a widow of about 4 years and she has three sons and two daughters who still live there with her.  The two young boys in the picture are her grandsons.  She is 58 now, and has emphysema and a bad heart, but strong faith and commitment to our Heavenly Father.  It has been a blessing for us to get to know the family.  Here is one of Hermana Chappell with Doris and her next door neighbor, who is also Doris. 

For P Day this week we went as a District to the local Aquarium, which is free and doesn't take a lot of time.  It is always fun to spend time with the missionaries, they are young and happy.  

Elder Valenzuela from Argentina, Elder Martinez from Mexico, Me and Hermana Chappell,  Hermana Seb from Guatemala, and Hermana Gomez also from Guatemala.  They all speak a little bit of English but it is most always everything in Español when we get together.  I try and keep up and translate for Hermana Chappell but with the way they all talk when they get together it is impossible. Our worlds have totally changed places, I am the one doing all the talking and Hermana Chappell is now the more quiet one.  Who would have ever guessed that that would be the situation in our lives. 

Hermana Chappell was supposed to speak in sacrament meeting today, so she had this wonderful talk prepared from a talk that Julie B. Beck gave at a General Conference titled, "Mothers who know". She had her testimony all written out and was going to do the whole thing in Español. Then we get to church and there are three people there from the Stake who want to take some time in the sacrament meeting, so they went first.  They ended up taking the whole meeting which was great because their messages were very good to hear and so very important and relevant to the branch members here who seem to always be struggling with commitment and whether or not to participate.  So it really was a good meeting but we didn't get to hear from Hermana Chappell, maybe next week.  So I am going to close with her testimony which she wrote to give in her talk.  Amen and Amen.

Tengo un fuerte testimonio de la bendita función de las madres en este evangelio.  Creo que nosotras como madres tenemos el trabajo más importante que hacer en esta iglesia y para el futuro del mundo.  Mi madre me enseñó a amar el Evangelio y cómo enseñar el Evangelio a mis hijos.  Siempre ha sido un gran ejemplo para mí y doy gracias al Señor por bendecir mi vida con una madre valiente.  Es una madre que sabe.  Tengo un testimonio de la veracidad del evangelio.  Sé que esta es la verdadera Iglesia en la tierra hoy.  Sé que debemos esforzarnos a diario por vivir de acuerdo con las enseñanzas de nuestro Salvador y Redentor.  Este es Su trabajo.  Testifico que murió para salvarnos a todos.  En el nombre de Jesucristo Amén