Sunday January 21, 2024

We actually made it to the Tegucigalpa Honduras temple as a branch.  In Psalm 24:3-5 it says; "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;  who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.  He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.   I love how that describes the people who prepare themselves to go to learn at the temple of our God.  Isaiah 2:2 and 2 Nephi 12: 2,3 - "And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."  This has been the manner of speech for some time now in our branch and among the members here.  Let us prepare, and go,  of course this is not the end of the road but only another beginning, we need the blessings of the temple in our lives and that needs to be a continuing process.  I already knew that the name of our State of Utah came from a Ute Indian word but I did not know until this week that that Ute Indian word that we pronounce as Utah, means, " Tops of the mountains."  How fitting then is the fact that the Lord did establish his latter day Kingdom in the tops of the mountains, as the Ute Indians called this location where the Salt Lake temple was built.  How grateful I am that I live in a day when those same truths and blessings are being offered throughout all the earth more and more accessible to worthy members everywhere including those here in Tela Honduras.  

 Also the same day there was a large group from the Stake in Progreso that were there at the same time. It was a big busy day.  I don't know how many ordinances were performed there that day by members of the Branches but it was an incredible experience.  Both Tela and Telamar branches went on a bus that left Tela Thursday night at midnight, 12:00, and they arrived at the temple in Tegucigalpa at 6:00 Friday morning.  They then had an hour to pretend they were awake, get something to eat, which they had brought with them, and get ready to go inside and get busy.  I am not sure what time the bus from Progresso arrived but pretty much at the same time.  The Stake people were there to be trained and do some practice runs to be temple workers.  They are encouraged to return I don't know how many times, but the assumption is that they are going to be prepared to be temple workers in the San Pedro Sula temple when it opens.  They are telling us that when branches or wards attend the temple it will be with their Stake people who are trained workers to help with the whole temple experience, so each stake provides the patrons and the workers to work together.  I am sure they have other temple workers there all the time but apparently it is the stake that is supposed to provide the workers for the patrons from the same stake.  I don't know exactly how that is supposed to work but I guess they have it all figured out.  

We drove to Tegucigalpa on Thursday,  Hermana Chappell and I and Doris and Yarani, and Anthony.  The patron housing was full but there is a couple that works at the temple who live close by and they rent rooms in their house so we went there to spend the night.  We had reserved a room there two weeks ago so it was planned that way.  I was glad that we had that option otherwise I don't know where we would have stayed.   It was nice, we didn't sleep really great but way better than those who were on the bus all night.  It was funny, not really but it was kind of, how when we went to the endowment session at 9:30 there were a lot of people sleeping.  I felt bad for Brandon who I was helping through as he was there for his first time, he was excited and wanted to absorb the whole experience but during the endowment he slept through the first half,  I am sure that none of them slept at all on the bus the night before.  If fact I asked several of them if they had slept on the way down, and they all said that they hadn't slept at all.  It was funny because before the trip they would all say,  yes, we just get on the bus, sleep all night and wake up and there we are all ready to go.  In reality it isn't quite like that.  We did his initatory at 7:00 and he was so excited to be there.  He is a 19 year old young man from the Tela Branch.  He is unsure about a mission but he is a great young man.  He has been a member since he was 8.  His older sister was also there to receive her endowment at the same time.  Their mom is a single mom with 4 children, two boys and two girls.  She is currently serving as the Relief Society President and they are all active and very knowledgeable about the church.  From our Tela Branch they were two of four who were there to receive the endowment for the first time.  The other two were a husband and wife who after receiving their endowment were sealed.  It was such a great experience to be there for that experience.  

This is Manuel Mendoza and Martha Torres, and his lifelong friend, I don't know what his name is but he is a sealer in the temple and he is the one who sealed them.  Manuel has been a member for years but spent 25 or so years inactive.  Since we have been here they have been attending and preparing for their sealing.  The branch has had like 4 different dates when they were going to go to the temple but it just never did work out for several reasons, mainly because of lack of preparation from branch members with their recommends and their personal information being added to their church account.  Not that difficult but there are several people here who do not read or write so they need the help of others and it is just hard to get to everyone.   Money is another reason why there hasn't been a trip to the temple.  They each have to pay so that between everyone they have enough to pay for the bus and meals.  We are so very lucky and blessed to know wonderful people like Reggie, Megan, and Wyatt who after they heard that the branch was trying to raise money to help pay for the trip to the temple, they had several fund raising activities to raise money which they then sent to us which was used to help pay for the bus.  It helped so many here to be able to go whereas otherwise may not have been able to go.   

These three men have been lifelong friends, Manuel and his wife newly sealed and the other two men lifelong active members.  They had a quite a reunion together in the temple.  I hope that they continue faithful and active in the church, as that will help them through life's difficulties.  They are raising a granddaughter who is now 6 as well, and their children are not active so they have a lot of challenges in their life.  

This is a picture as they boarded the bus to go back home, I think some of them were tired enough that they may have slept on the ride home.  

We left there at the same time.  When we got to Progreso, the famous Progreso, we were stopped in traffic for two hours without moving at all, then when we did start moving it was stop and go for two more hours, then finally when we were further out of town we were finally able to get going.  By the time we dropped off Doris and the kids we got home at midnight.  We slept in on Saturday and are still tired from the long two days.  So many branch members have talked about their sacrifice to attend the temple.  Those with more years of being a member talk about the trip they made to Mesa Arizona, and how special that experience was for them.   Others talk about their trip to Guatemala to attend a temple.  How long it took them and what a sacrifice it was for them.  They talk about what a sacrifice and how hard it is for them to get on a bus and go to Tegucigalpa.  They announced in church today that those interested in participating in the choir's for the open house at the new temple in San Pedro Sula could be at the stake center in Progreso in February where they will be preparing special musical numbers for when the temple there is ready to open.  Depending on traffic in Progresso it should be a 2 - 3 hour trip each way to San Pedro Sula and back, so in a single day they could travel, attend the temple and get back home in a much shorter time span.  Libbi was saying today how wonderful that will be, she has the goal of attending once per month and how wonderful that will be.  She then asked how long it is for us to get to the temple, I said that in Provo there are several temples all within 30 minutes.  Wow, she said, what experiences you are having here to see the sacrifices that members in areas like this in Honduras have to get to the temple.   It really has been wonderful to hear of the experiences of these saints out here,  there are so many wonderful faith promoting experiences that they have that they share with us as well as what we are participating in while being here.  

We met two returned sister missionaries at the temple, one that we had planned and the other totally unexpected but wonderful. 

It was wonderful to see and visit with these two wonderful Hermana's, they were there with their families, it was nice to meet their families.  They talked about how hard it is after the mission,  with life decisions, dating, jobs, school, and everything else.  

The temple grounds were so pretty, they had pretty red poinsettias planted all around, it is like a whole different world when you get inside the temple grounds.  I am glad we had that experience, especially with the branch members from Tela and Telamar.  We will not soon forget these wonderful people and the experiences we have been able to share with them.  

Right after we got to the temple on Thursday we went to the distribution center and bought a new white temple dress for Doris.  The one that she had from years ago no longer fits her so she needed a new one. The temple does not rent the white temple clothing like some places do, everyone has to buy their own white clothes.  The price is very low so it is more affordable for them.  The white dresses they have only come in one length so they had to cut off the bottom 8 inches or so and Hermana Chappell spent the next hour heming up the bottom of the dress by hand.  In the picture her eyes are closed,  she was so tired but she did it anyway.  She is our Saving Angel over and over again,  She is always helping and serving others.  No matter what the task is, day and night, always helping others.  I am eternally grateful to have her as my companion.  I would not be able to do half of what I do if it wasn't for her.  Thank you Colleen for making my life complete.