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.  oops, I cut his head off.   Then there is Tatiana, who was just baptised so she was the one who had just entered the covenant path by getting baptized, which is the first covenant we make.  Then there is Brandon Castro, a young man who has the Melchizedek priesthood and is preparing to go on a mission,   which is really not a covenant but a part of where the covenant path takes us.  Then next to him is Hermana Lopez, a full time missionary who is well on her way on the covenant path.  Next is hermano German, a member who holds the melchizedek priesthood and is preparing to go to the temple, which means getting ready for those covenants that are made there.  Then next in line is Paula, and Joel Romero, their darling cute one year old is sleeping in the little chair thing on the floor between the benches.  They represent a sealed couple who are sealed and beginning their family.  The next couple are Marta and Manuel Mendoza, a couple who are married and are preparing to go to the temple to be sealed.  Hopefully that will happen soon.    I just thought it was a great example right here in our small Branch of how the covenant path takes us from baptism right on through life as we progress through the covenants and life, and the enduring to the end challenge that we all deal with.  

We had such a great time with Marleen here.  She left on Tuesday to go back home.  We are so grateful for her and that she was able to come and spend a week here with us here.  It was so fun to have so much English going on besides all the fun places we went and the people we saw.  

This was our goodbye at the airport,  another tearful goodby.  But it will only be a few months and we will be back in Utah.  We are scheduled to fly back to Utah on July 4, 2024.  The whole country will be celebrating our return, ha ha ha.   There are a big group of missionaries going home that day,  lots of them going to Salt Lake so that will be a fun experience to share that ride with so many of them.  

After leaving the airport we had to stop by the mission office where we met two Hermana's that are going home the next day.  Colleen has such a great relationship with them, it is always a tearful goodby when goodbyes are said and farewell hugs are given.  Many of these young people have Facebook accounts so Colleen looks later at their facebook pictures as they are met by family at the airport.  It is always fun to see pictures of them with their families, they always look soooo happy.  

This week was transfers so Wednesday was P day.  They wanted to go out to the Lancetilla reserve,  It is so pretty there, with the birds, and green everywhere.  I always like it when we can go out there, I like being out in nature and it is a pretty place.  Hermana Tzep who is in the front in this picture was transferred this week to La Lime and a new sister came here to take her place.  When there are transfers, which is every 6 weeks, all those getting transferred and their companions who are receiving new companions from all over the mission go to Progreso to the main bus stop and bring all their luggage and meet up with their new companion then get on another bus and move on to their new area.  We have never gone before but this week because of the baptism Wednesday evening we had to take the Hermana's there early on Thursday morning so they could get their new companions.  It was crazy seeing so many of them together like that with all their luggage.  They are always so excited to see old companions again and catch up with each other, it really was fun to be there and see that.  

It was great to see Elder Martinez and Elder Valenzuela again as well as many others that we haven't seen for a while.  We will have Multi Zone conferences again this month so we will see then again soon, but it was fun to see them all.  

It is always hard to say goodbye and we know that we will be seeing them all again at the next zone conference but is is still hard to accept changes in life.  Most of them we will see again soon, what is harder is when you realize that you will probably never see them again in this life.  We always say that in the millenium we will all get together again.  Wow what a reunion that will be, so see all these wonderful people again in that type of a setting.  Of course with the hopes that we will all be gathered together there.  Doris is already talking about how hard it is going to be to say goodbye, and it will be, we get so attached as we serve one another here in this labor of love and service.  

At the park in the middle of downtown Tela they have a lot of christmas lights set up.  It is fun to see the lights and decorations that they put up for Christmas.  A lot of houses have lights in front,  a few fancy ones and a lot with just a string or two.  We have a small plastic tree with lights and decorations,  we look forward as we always do to Christmas.  We have watched a few Christmas movies and have christmas music on.  Today there was a branch choir that sang a Christmas song at church.  

The Tela and Telamar branches have tried for months now to get things ready to go to the temple in Tegucigalpa. There are lots of obstacles, from getting enough money to pay for the bus, to food while traveling, It is a 8 hour bus ride and they want to take food on the bus so they don't have to stop and buy something along the way.  Plus the biggest challenge is getting everyone's recommend active and getting the prerequisites in place to do ordinance work for not only themselves but for their kindred dead.  They all have parents, siblings, grandparents etc that they want to do temple work for.  Many have more than they will be able to complete on their own in one day there but it takes time and we have had a date set to go since last July, then it was moved to Sept, then Dec, now it is January 20.  Every time we say, that will give everyone enough time to get ready.  Well there are people in the branch who do not read or write, who have no access or know how to even get ready, so those who do know how have to help them get ready and it just takes forever.  I really think we will get there in January.  We were talking with some friends back home about the challenges they have here to get to Tegucigalpa and that the Branch members are doing fundraisers to get money to pay for the bus and food.   One week they made Tamales and sold them, then they made donuts and sold them, they really put a lot of effort in to doing all that but it was not really making very much money, mainly just a lot of work.  So some wonderful friends from Utah,  Megan, Reggie, and their son Wyatt said that they would make carmel apples and sell them to raise money for the branch to help pay for the bus.  They raised $500.00  for the Tela branch temple trip.  Wow, that was so good of them to do all that work to raise that much money.  I took it to the Branch Council this afternoon and told them about what they have done to raise the money to help them pay for the bus.  They were all so grateful for the donation to help them.   It will go a long way towards helping them get to the temple.  I will make sure and send pictures when that happens.   Here is the donation envelope they use here for their church donations with the money in it that I took to the Branch.  Thank you so very much Reggie,  Megan and Wyatt!!!!!  Here is a picture of Wyatt taking the money to the bank, and a picture of me taking the money to the Branch Council.  They were all so appreciative when I explained to them what this wonderful family in Utah had done to raise money for them to be able to get to the temple.  Hermano Mendoza said that he would say in his prayers a great big thank you to the family in Utah that is helping them get to the temple.   They are very grateful for the help.