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 truth or not, he likes to laugh and have a good time, but at the same time he seems very committed and obedient, so I think it will be a great group.  He is the District leader, and he has been out on his mission for 15 months now.  We have pictures on the wall and on the fridge of our family, and whenever there are new missionaries here they always are interested in our family.  We always enjoy telling them all about our children and grandchildren.  We have the pictures of everyone and we love to tell them all their names and how old everyone is.  So today while telling the two new missionaries our grandchildren's names, we got to Myaela, and Elder Estrada got a big smile on his face and said her name is Myaela?  We said yes, and he said that he loves the name Myaela, he has a cousin who is named Myaela.  So that was interesting and fun to know that there is another Myaela out there somewhere in Mexico.  I don't know that they would spell the name the same but that is how he said the name, exactly like we do, so that was fun.  

In other areas of the mission, the missionaries have to be totally self sufficient, but here, with the Chappells, we pick them up at their house with their luggage and take them to the bus stop and see them off.  The Ostler's tell everyone that we spoil the missionaries here in Tela, and I agree, I think that we do, but here we are doing the best we can to help them with everything they do.  We love having them over for Sunday dinner each week and then again on Mondays when they come over to do their laundry and when they call home.  Elder Nielson said after he heard that he was getting transfered, he said, "I guess it is back to the real mission again."  I think he enjoyed being with gringos and having gringo food every Sunday.  We feel the same, it is great to connect with these wonderful young men and young women.  I think that today was the first time that Elder Estrada had ever had a baked potato, he didn't quite know what to do with it.  

Elder Mecham got Hermana Chappell's phone and said,  "Look how awesome we are!"  He is from Salt Lake and will be on the same plane home with us.  Speaking of which, we received our flight itinerary this week.  Of the 22 leaving the mission on that day, there are only 4 of us going to Salt Lake.  That surprises me but I suppose that is how it is.  In our group, there are 11 of us that are going to the USA.  So that many of us will be on the same flight from San Pedro Sula to Atlanta, then from there we will all split up go go our different ways.  There are also 11 Latinos going home that same day too.  

I am sure you can't see the mangos on these trees, but there are a lot of mango trees here in Tela.  On almost all of them there is the more yellow color vine which grows on the mango trees,  I don't know why you only see it on the mango trees, but the vine on some of the trees almost covers the whole tree,  I am sure that it is not great for the tree to have this vine growing all over it but it is very common to see them growing together.  The mangos from most of the local trees are small mangos but they sure are sweet.  Later on in the year when they all get ripe and fall off the trees, there are mangos covering the ground under so many of the trees here.  Like some fruit trees in peoples yards in Utah, they have way more than they want to eat and they don't take make the effort to harvest them and sell them, so they just rot on the ground.   I quite enjoy the mangos here,  we also really enjoy the pineapple which they also grow a lot of here, and of course the bananas,  those are my three favorite fruits here.  

Driving through Progreso this week Colleen got a picture of this park area that we have driven by lots of times but never got a picture.  We had to go to La Lima twice this week so we have been in the car a lot, which is not good for Colleen's back but what do you do?  

There was this families home we got a picture of on the road between Tela and Progreso that we got a picture of also.....  mom and dad and three kids sitting out in the shade, enjoying the day.   

At the end and the beginning of another week, I feel like these weeks are going by way too fast.  We are so happy to have been able to have been here on this mission in Tela Honduras.  It has not been easy, especially for Colleen,  but I am sure that while here, we have been able to help in some small way to further the Lord's kingdom here in Honduras.  There have been so many missionaries that Colleen helps every single day, not to mention the branch members, new and old in these two branches, Tela and Telamar.  It has been such a wonderful experience to get to know the wonderful people here and in some small way to have been here to help and support them in their efforts to spread the good word of God here in this area.  We loved watching the General Conference last week from Salt Lake and to have heard the good messages from our Prophets and other leaders in the church.  Now it is time to get out there and put in to practice all those things that they talked about.