Merrill & Colleen's Honduran Adventure

  Sunday April 28, 2024 We went out to visit a family that is a part member family this week.  They live way out in the jungle close to the beach in a shack, at the end of a trail through the jungle.  There are a mom and a dad, and 4 young boys.  They were all excited because they had recently caught a turtle, and they had it in a 5 gallon bucket with some water in it.  I expected it was going to be a small turtle and I asked if I could look at it.  They were all excited and so they took me over to where it was in the bucket and I looked in and this big turtle was sitting in the bottom of the bucket with barely room for the shell part, with no room at all for it to extend its head or feet.  I was like wow, that is a big turtle.  Was it hard to catch?  I asked, and they all laughed at their experience and said that it was fun to chase after it and they finally caught it.  I said, I thought that turtles walked very slowly and they all laug...

 Sunday April 21, 2024 When young missionaries go out on their missions, they may get transferred every 6, or 12 or 18 weeks, some even stay in a single area for up to 6 months, or 24 weeks.  We have had several Elders who have been here in Tela for that long, then there are others who are transferred after only 6 weeks in a particular area. Hermana Chappell gets very attached to the ones that stay of a long time. It seems as if she is sending them off to college or a mission. When they leave it is like doing it with one of your own all over  again! Not easy for Hermana Chappell, it is painful at times! With each transfer they have to get to know their new companion, and / or a new city and area of the mission.  We are so blessed that as a senior couple serving a mission, we get to stay in the same area, Tela, and best of all we get to keep the same companion for the entire length of the mission.  WOW, so awesome to have had the blessing of not only spending the...

 Sunday April 14, 2024 Our district looks a little different again, we had transfers. Now in our district is from L to R,  Hermana Chappell, Hermana Chajchalac, from Guatemala, Hermana Puac, also from Guatemala, Elder Rosario, from Dominican Republic, and Elder Estrada from Mexico, and Elder Chappell.   Wow, no more English,  Hermana Chappell is sad now that there is no one here except me that speaks English.  It was always nice to have gringo missionaries here so that they could speak English and talk about things from back home, the next 6 weeks are going to be so different.  Elder Rosario does speak some English but not really enough for a conversation, so I expect that our Spanish will improve and hopefully their English will improve a bit during this next 6 weeks.  It is always great to get to know new missionaries a bit better, and to get to know more about them.  Elder Estrada is a jokester, you never know if he is telling you the trut...