Sunday March 10, 2024

This past P day we went out to La Lancetilla as a district, since none of the current missionaries had been there.  There are two new missionaries here in our district,  an Elder from the Dominican Republic, Elder Rosarios, and a new Hermana, from Guatemala, Hermana Puac.  It is a fun new group.   We enjoyed a couple of hours in this beautiful park getting to know each other better and enjoying being away from people, work and the regular life for a while.  It is so quiet and peaceful there, with so many birds chirping and a beautiful semi cared for, forest, garden, mountain area.  

Tomorrow is P day again and they all want to go out to the Aquarium, another fun place to visit when you are in Tela.  It is getting hot again here and that means that weekends, especially on Sunday there are busloads of people that come to Tela for the beach.  The law of the Sabbath is not obeyed very well here.  I suppose that is one of the biggests challenges for people here and the customary activities.  

The Elders had a baptism yesterday, a young lady who is 21 years old.  Her sister was baptized about a month ago and now she has decided to do the same.  They live with their mom out in a very rural town out in the woods.  They have cows and live on the income that they provide.  We went out there last week with the Elders and had a great lesson with her, she seems very interested and ready to commit to the gospel.  To get to their house we have to walk down a trail and through a small creek/river.  The 4 wheeler was not there to take Colleen across this time but with strategically placed rocks and careful steps no one got very wet.  It was late by the time we got out there and we saw fireflies for the first time here.  I didn't know they lived here but they live out there.  It was fun to watch them in the dark.  

This picture is up there with the other ones from La Lancetilla, but I need to explain that it is a lacy spider web with the spider on it.  I have never seen a web like that before.  

This cute 5 year old boy had a fun shirt on, he is guapo and he knows it, he has a very fun personality and he comes with his brother to almost all the branch activities.  His name is Marco.  The shirt says, guapo - adjective....  like any other guy, just way hotter,  see also  handsome hot, good looking.  The funny thing is that this shirt is in English, except for the guapo word, which means, "Cute kid".   That is my definition.   Almost everyone here wears t shirts from the States with all kinds of logos on them, so many that are just random businesses, school, shirts that somehow were donated or sent to the DI and ended up in central America.  Of course there are the traditional Nike and Adidas shirts which cost more but the random generic t shirt is everywhere.  In fact one day we saw someone walking down the street here that had a tshirt on that said.. "IHC something clinic Provo Ut". 

This past week Hermano Madrid asked us if we could give him a ride out to the neighboring town which is called "Arizona" .  Every town and city here has their own rules and regulations to get married.  They make it so difficult here to get married that most people just don't even try.  Here in Tela for example after you submit all the required paperwork and the wedding actually takes place, it takes 60 days before they give you the marriage certificate saying the wedding really happened.  So if you want to go to the temple to be sealed you have to wait at least the 60 days to get the certificate in order to go to the temple.  Whereas in Arizona, they tell you that it will be 15 days till they give you the certificate.  It also costs less and requires less paperwork.  So the reason for going to Arizona was to get an authentic paper from the city with the requirements.  Hermano Madrid already had the list of requirements from Tela and wanted to compare the two.  In order to be baptized, if you are living with someone, you need to be married, as most people here are not married because of lots of reasons, but one being it is too complicated.  He wanted to get the exact requirements and have the paper showing what is required to give to people who really do want to get baptized and want to get married.  So that was wonderful for two reasons.  One,  he is engaged and wants to help others get married and get baptized, and  Two,  it was a great experience for us to spend a few hours with him in the car as well as driving around Arizona a bit with him and listening to his stories.  Years ago, he had a business where he would buy items,  I don't know what, then load them up in his bicycle cart and peddle out to Arizona where he would then sell them to the pulperias there to make a small profit then load his bike cart on to the bus and ride home in the afternoon with a few Lempiras to provide for his family.  He said he had many friends in Arizona and that those were difficult but good times to remember.  

Hermana Bajarona gave Colleen and I T-shirts to help us remember Honduras,  I am pretty sure we will never forget Honduras but that was very kind of her.  It has been so wonderful to meet so many good people that we have grown to love here.  We were able to listen and watch the sacrament meeting in Lyman today where Jeff and Julie Chappell reported their mission to Lima Peru where he was serving as Area Medical Advisor for from 8 to 18 missions, but they were scattered throughout 5 countries in South America.  Their calling was two years but I think they served a little longer than that while the new Dr who came to replace him arrived.  It was great to hear of their experiences and to hear from them again.  It has been really great for us to have been in touch with them as we have been here in Honduras.  The app "WhatsApp" is used extensively throughout South and Central America.  It is a free app that you can you for calls, video calls, and messages.  Thanks for that technology we have had video calls with them several times.  It has always been so uplifting to visit with them and receive help from his medical expertise as well as to just share experiences.  They are back home in Lyman in their home which they had rented out with AirBnB.  I think he plans on working again at the clinic in Bicknell.  He is a few years younger than I am and wants to keep working for a while.  He did say in his talk today at church that he would like to serve another mission and that he was working on his wife in that regard.  

While we were at the baptism yesterday we had a fun experience.  Hermano Medina said that yesterday, March 9 was the anniversary of him and his wife's baptism, 38 years ago.  He loves to talk about that experience and how it has been such a wonderful thing in their life and it has helped them in every way imaginable.  He said that he recently received a picture of the baptism from the son of the brother that baptized his wife.  Hermano Medina's son and the other man's son recently discovered the connection and he had this picture from his dads personal belongings.  His dad is no longer living but this son shared this picture with the Medina family and he had a lot of fun showing it to us.  As he was looking for it on his phone he had a big smile on his face and he said, "You are going to laugh when you see this."  He finally found it and as he showed it to us he had the biggest smile on his face.  He is about our age so he and his wife obviously look  different 38 years ago,  just as we do.  He and his wife were both young and thin in the picture, with the typical dark black hair.  He has gained a fair amount of weight since then,  and they have both got grey hair now.    There was an Elder here who, not to his face of course, but he gave Hermano Medina the name, "Papa Smurf"  because of his rather large belly.  I thought it was wonderful that he shared that picture and those memories with us.  It really is for me a great experience when someone shares their conversion story with us.  They almost always remember the missionaries names and where they were from, even after many years.  What makes their experience even better is that they have remained faithful and active these many years.  They have a wonderful family with children having served missions and they even have a granddaughter who recently returned from her mission.  It is blessing for me to meet and to get to know wonderful people like the Medina family who inspire me.  They help my faith and my testimony to grow.   I know God lives.  I know His Son Jesus Christ came to earth, taught his gospel, and gave His life in the ultimate sacrifice that thanks to Him we will all be resurrected.  I am thankful for this mission experience to be able to help in some small way the wonderful people here in Tela Honduras to learn more about our Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel.  I am thankful for covenants that we can make with Him that help us along our covenant path.  We have one more General Conference to experience while here on our mission, coming up the first weekend in April that we will be able to watch and listen to.  I enjoy those weekends, 10 hours of church meetings on a Saturday and a Sunday!  What a feast.