Sunday Oct 15, 2023
We went to "Miami beach" this week. It is west of Tela, in a more remote area. You have to go down a dirt road for maybe 15 kilometers but it is really pretty. It is on a narrow peninsula where the ocean, caribbean sea is on the north and a big freshwater lake is on the south of this narrow piece of land. There are people who live out there but it is very sparsely populated. It seems that here the outer more rural areas are where the black people live. Here they are Garífuna people, which is an Afro Caribbean race. They speak spanish but their native language is Garífuna. They live here in Tela as well, and there are several who are members of the church in each of the branches here. In fact the Bonilla family that I talked about last week who had the accident on the motorcycle are of that race. The mom was on the phone with someone while we were taking them out to the hospital and she was speaking that language. It is not like spanish at all.
These are some pictures we took while we were out there. I didn't see any power lines going out there so I am pretty sure they have no electricity. I have no idea how they would get fresh water either. There are some homes that are cinder block but mostly they are made out of bamboo walls and palm tree fronds on the roofs. It was fun to get away for a while. The power was out on Thursday so that is what we did rather than stay in a hot house.
The branch had a fund raising activity this weekend where they made chicken tamales and then sold them to the branch members who wanted to purchase some. This is to raise money to help pay for a Temple trip that the Branch is going to do in November. They only charged 15 lempiras each so we bought 10 and gave some to the Elders and the Hermanas. They were very good, they wrap them here in banana leaves rather than corn leaves like in Mexico. They bought corn then had to mill it into a flour masa. There is a family here in the branch that has a big milling machine so these two pictures are of them making the corn masa.
Yes, that is Hermana Chappell helping Dilcia. Then they took the masa out to a the Romero families house to put them all together.
They had a goal of selling 200 tamales and when it was all over and done with they sold 262 tamales. The orders just kept coming in. It was a lot of work for these dear sisters but they all had a smile on their faces as they worked together to make them. We were going to help them but ended up having to go to Progreso so we missed that part of the process. This next weekend they are going to make donuts to sell and they expect to make even more money doing that. It will also be a lot of work but probably not as hard as making the tamales. It is a big deal to be able to get a bus and go to Tegucigalpa to go to the Temple. The last time the branch went together was before the pandemic. It is interesting how "The Pandemic" is a timeline used to describe events here but it was a life altering event for all of us and it was quite severe here, they all have family and friends who died because of what they call the pandemic rather than Covid like we do back home.
We also had Zone conference in La Ceiba this week where we had the opportunity to say goodby to several missionaries who are going home this transfer which is this next week. It is amazing the closeness we get as we serve here together. Elder Castro truly is a mature, thoughtful, kind young man. He is from Panama, we will miss him for sure.
There are so many great missionaries here, as I am sure there are throughout the world but there is something about going through this experience together that ties us together. As we go through the good and the bad, the trials, the blessings and the miracles of serving together.
There was a lunar, annular eclipse that was right over Tela Honduras. I am pretty sure it was a full eclipse in Lyman also, this time which is crazy. We were able to watch it and it was pretty cool. I am glad that we were able to see it. The shadows of the leaves even had the shape of the eclipse in the shadow. It was fun to watch.
We had a very special miracle happen this week where the hand of the Lord was very evident.
Hermana Chappell got a call late afternoon on Friday, "Hermana Chappell, my companion just got bit by a dog, what are we going to do?" This is an all too common question she gets, but most of the time they know the owner and they say that yes the dog has had the rabies shots, so they hope and pray that they are told the truth and so if that is the case then they just clean the wound very well and get an antibiotic ointment to put on it and take an oral antibiotic for a week or so. This is the second time though that it is just a random street dog that just runs out from nowhere and bites them. When it is like that, then you get worried that there is the possibility that the dog has rabies and then you have to get the series of rabies shots to prevent the missionary from getting rabies. The problem is that in the entire country of Honduras they say, "No, we don't have any". Apparently they don't take it very seriously here, but as many wild, stray dogs there are everywhere here, for sure there are health concerns. Also for missionaries there is no way we are going to say, Oh well, it will be ok. The missionary department takes things like this very seriously and they take very good care of the missionaries. So Hermana Chappell called an area medical Dr. that is in Guatemala who she had contacted when this happened before. He called back about an hour later and said that the medication will be arriving at the airport tomorrow afternoon at 2:00. There was a missionary from Honduras that had been serving in Guatemala who was on his way home and he would be bringing the medication here with him. What are the odds that the very next day the medicine would be able to be delivered to San Pedro from Guatemala. But there it was, and within 24 hours of getting bitten, he received the first of the series of 5 shots. It was truly a miracle that everything worked out so that he is going to be fine now. The Lord is aware and makes it possible for us to have the needed help. He was pretty stressed out but is doing fine. He has only been here in Honduras 11 weeks, He has a great attitude and we are sure that he is going to be a great missionary.
Comments
Post a Comment