Sunday June 16, 2024

We are going to start out with a great missionary story today.  Elder Quirós is currently serving a mission in the Honduras San Pedro Sula East mission.  He and his mom were baptized about 18 months ago by two missionaries who came to their home tracting like missionaries do.  They live in Costa Rica.  The picture on the left,  Antes (which means before), 0was taken on the day that he was baptized, the picture is of the missionary who is from Guatemala, who taught and baptized the mom and Elder Quirós,  a bit confusing because I don't know what his first name is, but I hope it makes sense.  Then the picture on the right , Después (wich mean after), was taken about a month ago, is of the now Elder Quirós, who is now serving a mission and the missionary who baptized him, now a returned missionary who came here to visit him.  I don't know the name of the young man from Guatemala, but what an experience it must be to have taught a young man and then within a year of his baptism, he goes on a mission himself.  That is like everyone's dream, to have that kind of an experience.  Elder Quirós said that a few months after getting baptized, he went to an EFY,  PFJ, in español, where they invited everyone there to pray and ask Heavenly Father if they should serve a mission.  He is a little older than the average missionary, and he had his own taxi business and had already decided that he was too old to go on a mission, but he accepted the invitation and he said that he received his answer that he needed to go on a mission.  Which really surprised him.  He is a great young man and is a wonderful missionary.  It is so great to hear the conversion stories of these young Elders and Hermana's .  Of course there are some who were baptized when they were 8 and grew up in the church but there are also a lot who were baptized a little later when the missionaries taught them and they joined the church either on their own or with some family members.  There are so many of them who come from part member families, some with, and some without the support of home and family.  

We had a multi Zone Conference in La Lima on Tuesday of this past week, our last one here on the mission.  We took so many pictures with so many of these wonderful young Elders and Hermana's, so this is going to be a long one this time.  It was hard to know that for so many of them we will never see them again.  Some of them are on facebook and that will make it easier to keep up, but there are also a lot of them who do not use facebook.  

Elder Ovalle, Guatemala

Elder Hiraldo, DR

Hermana Coy, Guatemala

Hermana Gomez, Guatemala

Elder Vargas, DR

Elder Martinez, Mexico

Elder Nielsen, Salt Lake City

Elder Blattman, Poway, California

Elder Randolph,  Ivans, Utah

Elder Martinez, Mexico, Elder Valenzuela, Argentina

Elder Agüero, Draper, Utah

Hermana Millan,  Huancayo, Peru

Hermana Tzep, Guatemala, Hermana Recinos, Guatemala, Hermana Lopez, Mexico

Hermana Ortega, Mexico

Elder Borders, Tooele, Utah, Elder Lazo, Huancayo, Peru

Hermana Davila, Guatemala, Hermana Lopez, Mexico, Hermana Chappell, Hermana Gramajo, Guatemala, Hermana Martinez, Guatemala

Elder Rivas, Guatemala, Elder Rodriguez, Guatemala

Elder Borders, Tooele, Utah, Elder Stallings,  Sandy, Utah

Hermana Navarrete, Costa Rica

Hermana Brito, Mexico

Elder Pritz, Guatemala

Hermana Gomez, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Hermana Lopez, Guatemala

Elder Alvarez, Guatemala

Hermana Shallenberger,  Heber City, Utah

On Wednesday we had district council then we went to Pizza Hut for lunch.  While there in the parking lot, I noticed the progress on a large building they are constructing nearby.  I thought it was worth a picture of the tall block wall they have made with the scaffolding all along the wall and the 6 rows of men passing buckets full of cement up, up, up, and then an empty five gallon bucket back down to be refilled and passed up the scaffolding again, talk about manual labor.  After lunch we took a picture by the famous Tela Steps. 

This is the street in front of our house that was closed later on Wednesday for Carnival Tela, 2024.  If you will recall last year we survived Carnival Tela 2023, but we were not anxious nor willing to experience it again this year, so we got a room at the Indura resort which is on the beach about 5 miles outside of town.  We were not going to be up all night listening to that loud music, and everything else that goes along with the party of Carnival Tela.  So Wednesday night and Thursday night we took a mini vacation at the Indura resort.  It was so quiet and nice there.  We got tons of bites from the "no-see-ums" the little biting bugs that live in the sand along the beach here, but it was so nice to not be here at the house during Carnival.  

It was quiet and so nice there, almost like being on vacation, except that the missionaries continued to have health concerns, that part never ends.  But it was really nice.  So then we came back home Friday afternoon to what was left of the party that had been happening in front of our house,  

One year of Carnival was too many,  I guess I am too old fashioned or something but I don't see the point in all the partying that they do.  

Then on Saturday we had to go to Progreso to give an I.V. and medications to Elder Rivas who has had dengue since last Sunday night, usually after a week, the fever goes away and they feel like they can eat and drink again, but he just was not getting better.  So the plan was that he was going to get the I.V, then get feeling better.  They had a baptism scheduled for that evening at 5:00, so they really wanted to be feeling better to be able to go and do that.   We dropped them off at the church and they did participate in the baptism service.  The only thing was that later Saturday night, he wasn't any better, and then this morning, on Sunday he was still not feeling well so they ended up going to San Pedro to the hospital there where they are keeping him over night and treating him.  Hopefully, he will be able to go back home tomorrow and start to feel better soon.  

Today was the primary program for sacrament meeting, it is always a favorite sacrament meeting I think for everyone.   They did a really great job with all their songs and their scripture readings.  There were a lot of people there at church today, that is always great too.  Aarón was the narrator, he did a really a great job, I am so very proud of him.  We are going to miss these families here that we have become so attached to.  

Colleen and Tatiana are such great friends.  She is so much fun to be around, so happy and friendly.  

After church we all came here and had lunch.  Colleen has feed missionaries since day one, what a tradition we have had here.  

Today, June 16, is Fathers day in the USA, not here in Honduras, it was back in March.  Meggan called, and we had a great visit, then we called Colleen's mom and dad and wished him a Happy Father's day, then Todd called and we got to see the grandkids, we can hardly wait till we are back in Utah.  They will all be in Utah for a few days when we get back home.  Todd, and Meggan and I don't know who else will be at the airport when we get there on July 2, Tuesday at around 10:30 pm.  It is going to be so great to see our family again.  Tonight we got a video call from the Elders and Hermana's in our district, they wished me a happy fathers day, that was so nice of them.  They really are great kids.

For the last picture of the day, is the view we have whenever we go anywhere here in Tela.  Crossing the bridge over the rio Lancetilla, as it goes out to the ocean, the Caribbean sea. That is a view that I never get tired of, and it is always beautiful no matter what time of day.  Sunsets are always so beautiful.