Merrill & Colleen's Honduran Adventure

 Sunday Dec 31, 2023 Christmas morning Dec 25, 2023 at the Chappell home in Tela Honduras.  Our Zone leaders, more specifically,  Elder Williams,  who live in Progreso couldn't stand to not be at the Chappell's for Christmas,  so at the last minute invited themselves to Tela to spend Christmas with the Tela district and do cambios with the missionaries here.  Hahaha, just a guise to be here for Christmas because they know that Hermana Chappell fixes wonderful meals for the missionaries here.  So we got an extra Christmas stocking for each of them and got two extra shirts, like the ones we had printed up for the Tela missionaries.  We had a great day with them.  We all got matching T shirts, with Tela and Telamar on the front and Feliz Navidad on the back.  I thought they turned out great.  Elder Williams made his "Famous Crepes" for brunch, then we all went out to the beach and flew a kite and just had fun on the beach.  It was...

 Sunday 24 December 2023 We are joined today for our Christmas eve lunch, with four amazing people.  We are so grateful for the blessing to be here in Tela Honduras this year with these wonderful young missionaries to celebrate Christmas together.  Today is Christmas eve so there was only a sacrament meeting at church.  Four of the youth that attended the "For the Strength of youth camp" spoke in church. The camp was this past week, it was 4 days in San Pedro Sula.  They all had a great time and got to know a lot of other youth from the Northern half of Honduras all together for a week.  It is great that the church has these camps for the youth to give them exposure to church activities, and experiences that they will always remember.  We have so many missionaries here in this mission that say that their experience at the FSY camp was what changed their life and helped them to decide to serve a mission.   Then Presidente Garcia gave  a t...

  Sunday Dec 17, 2023 Guess who finally got baptized!!!!  Aarón Enrique Martinez Juarez was baptized this past Wednesday Dec 13, 2023.   We are so happy for him.  His older brother David was baptized last April, then his younger sister Tatiana last week on Wednesday then finally this week Aarón was baptized.  Their mother and father are separated so they are raised by a single mother who tries really hard to give them a good life.   She has a decent job, but with three kids and rent etc.  she does amazing with what little they have.  Neither the mom or dad are members of the church, but their dads mom is Doris who is an amazing grandmother for all her grandchildren.  She has nothing when it comes to earthly possessions but she gives everything to her kids and grandkids.  So since last January when we arrived I have baptized 5 of her grandchildren.  It has been such a blessing for us to have been a part of their Eternal pro...

 Sunday December 10, 2023 Genesis Tatiana Martinez Juarez was Baptized this week on Wednesday.  She is another grandchild of Doris Funez,  she is slowly getting more of her grandchildren baptized.  This picture shows more of her family, David was not able to be there for his sisters baptism, which I felt bad that he wasn't there but he had something going on, and for some reason the family support here is not what it is back home.  Oh well.   Tatiana's mom has never attended church yet but I feel like one day she will.  The son between David and Tatiana, which is Aaron, will be baptized this week on Wednesday, so that makes all three of her children baptized which hopefully will be even more reason for her to participate.  Tatiana was so happy today at church,  She was confirmed in sacrament meeting today and then participated later in a presentation for the Central America area plan.   President Garcia is on the Left.  oo...

 Sunday Dec 3, 2023  This past P Day we went out to a place on the beach where none of us had ever been before just to get out and do something different together as a district. It was a very pretty rocky point just outside of Tela.  We had a great time being out together.  It was fun to get out and do something different.  A normal P day is we start laundry then go to Pizza Hut or Wendy's for lunch then come back to our house and turn on a movie while they each take turns talking with their families.  They are each allowed 2 hours to talk with family every Monday.   That is since about July, when they opened the Pizza Hut and the Wendy's here.  It has been nice to have American options for lunch.  This next week is transfers so who knows what we will look like as a district this next week.  I don't expect it will change too much but we shall see.   President and Hermana Ostler and the AP's came to Tela and interviewed the...