Sunday February 25, 2024

I love this picture!!!  Our Todd, Meggan and Jayden were with us here in Tela Honduras.  I still can hardly believe they were here with us.  We had such a great time being together, it was so fun to be together laughing, talking and experiencing a bit of Honduras.  On Monday we spent the day here around Tela.  We went out to visit Doris and her family..

Then we went to a tourist place and they got some things to take back home with them, then we went out to the beach.  It was cloudy and very cool for Tela weather.  Everytime we got in the car I turned off the AC, and Meggan was always wanting it turned up,  I was cool but everyone else was hot.  It is going to be an adjustment going back to Utah, but the good part is that we will get home in July when it will be hot so I will have the summer then the fall to cool down and adjust.  In a way I have enjoyed the year and a half of summer, but I really do miss the seasons.  That is one great thing about Utah is that there are four distinct seasons.  Even though I have never really been a fan of cold weather.  

There are some fun places here to take pictures so we took advantage of them all and took a lot of pictures,  I just have to say again how great it was to have them here with us.  I enjoyed every minute of the short time we had together.  Jayden was determined to get a coconut from a tree, and he was successful with a little help from his dad, he got two a green one and the other more ripe.  

We got back home and he poked a hole in them and with a straw we all tried the coconut water.  I am not a big fan but it is fun to try it anyway.  When we have been to families here who have shared a coconut with us, after drinking the water out of them they take their machete out and cut them in half then we eat the soft coconut meat out of the inside, which is kind of an odd texture as well but fun to try.  Since we don't have a machete we didn't cut them open to try that.  Oh well, it was fun anyway.  Jayden is a daredevil and got out on a part of the pier that was from the broken down part.  

He even pulled his shirt up over his belly like the men do here when they are hot, a rather odd thing but you see it all over when it is hotter weather.  Either they pull their shirts up over their belly or they just go around with no shirt at all which is very common here as well.  Todd mentioned that it was really strange to see so many people without their shirts on.  And it was cool and rainy every day they were here and not even nearly as hot as it gets a little later on in the year when they really do wear less clothing here.  We got to sit around the table and play games and  just share life together, it really was great. 

They got to try baleadas, which is the food they all eat here three times a day.  A flour tortilla with refried red beans, a sharp dry grated cheese, then you can add scrambled eggs, avocado, chicken or beef.  We are not big fans of them but that is what they eat here all the time, like pupusas in El Salvador or Tacos in Mexico  I suppose.  They liked them, like the missionaries all like them at first then after a while they would really like to eat something different.  There is a lot of fried chicken, fried fish, chinese rice, fried green banana and baleadas, that is about the extent of the meal options.  

They also load up their trucks sometimes just as much as they possibly can, it is almost funny to see how high they can stack things and tie them on.  This is a truck we saw the other day on the road.  

We sadly took them back to the airport on Tuesday.  We left early on Tuesday with plenty of time, but with the mess there is in Progresso with the roads there, we had to take a big detour out around, and through the woods, and through the river, then finally got back on the main road and then got to the airport.   The final pictures and goodbys were hard, but we were and still are so happy that they were able to come here and spend that wonderful weekend with us.  I can't thank them enough for the effort and time and money it took for them to sacrifice what they did to be able to come here and be with us.  We are so blessed with two of the best kids ever!!!  Even though they are not kids anymore, but we are so thankful for them!! The last picture before they went through security then,  the other picture if you look up in the upper level through the shaded glass we waved our goodby's one last time.  

It was a sad goodbye but the great thing is that in July we will see them all again, and July really isn't that far away.  

The missionaries had a baptism this week, and they opted to do it in the ocean.  I went to our Tela branch presidency meeting which was at the same time while hermana Chappell went to the baptism and took some great pictures.  It was a young man that was baptized, and Elder Neilson was happy to do the baptism in the ocean, since it is so inviting but out of bounds for the missionaries, but it is an approved location for a baptism if the Branch President approves it.  So they were all happy to have that experience.  The two witnesses, one of which was Elder Lazzo were happy to get out in the ocean as well.  The water is warm and the day was beautiful.  

Today being Sunday, and the last day before transfers we had our Sunday "Last Supper" with the two Elders and two Hermana's, we are pretty sure that Elder Lazo and Hermana Lopez will be leaving this week on Wednesday.  It is always such a wonderful experience to share testimony around the table before they leave.  We will find out on Tuesday night what the changes are and who will be coming her next.  This is Elder Nielson, Elder Lazo, Hermana Recinos, Hermana Lopez, Hermana Chappell and Elder Chappell today.