Sunday June 30, 2024

What a great week this past week has been.  There was a "Mission Week" initiative here in the Central America Area where missionaries and all members were invited to do certain things each day.  Then yesterday, on Saturday the Hermanas, had a double baptism, Grandma Marina, and her granddaughter, Allison.  The Elders baptized them then President Mendoza and I did the confirmations.  

On Monday it was to hold a family home evening and invite friends and neighbors, Tuesday was to give someone a Book of Mormon, and every day was something simple and easy that we all can do to share the gospel with others.  We had a great week with the Elders and Hermana's de Tela and Telamar.  We started out the week with a family home evening at Doris's house with all her grandkids, it was so awesome to be there all together with them, I'll add some pictures.  It was nighttime by the time we took the pictures so they are not great but it really was a nice evening having a gospel centered conversation as well as a good-by evening, even though we have always said that we are not going to say goodby, only see you later.  Although after Church and as we left the Quince for the last time, it felt like good-by.  It is a bittersweet experience knowing that we will never see these wonderful people ever again.  Some of them are on Facebook so we can keep up somewhat that way, but it is never the same.  

After a great family home evening and trying to get everyone excited about attending church, we had hoped that today we would have a car load of family to take to church, Juan even told me that he would be there.  But guess what.... it was only Doris, Yarillani and Carla.  The grandkids are having a hard time being committed to attending regularly.  We had high hopes that they would all attend today, maybe next week.  

We had a great time with the Elders and Hermana's, we were together it seemed like every day, doing activities, and visiting people and just being together.  They wanted to get together last night after the baptism and have dinner together again so we all went to Wendy's and got food to take back to the house, then after dinner they had a t-shirt for all of us.

The shirts are great, they have all the little pictures and sayings that we go to and see and say a lot here. It was so nice of them to do that for us, they are nice shirts, they are a great reminder of our time together in Tela.  This has been a really fun group this time, they are all great in their own way, but some are more fun than others.  Hermana Chinchilla has such a fun personality and loves to joke and laugh, it has been so great for Hermana Chajchalac to be with a great companion.  We all went out to the pier on Wednesday after district council and got a few pictures.  

Elder Cruz bought me and him a matching tie, that was fun to be with him this past 6 weeks, he is a great kid, from Dominican Republic.  They are sort of a different culture, those from that country, so fun and happy.  

We took a lot of pictures today after church but they were all on different peoples phone's so we don't have very many pictures, we asked everyone to send us copies and they all said, yes we will, but so far we don't have very many.  We took a picture with President Garcia and his wife and another one with President Mendoza, but so far we don't have the picture,   I'll have to add them later if we get them.  

President Garcia and his wife are so great for the Tela Branch, they are young and energetic and they both have wonderful strong testimonies and a lifetime of experience.  They are both returned missionaries and they both have a strong commitment to continue on with the work of the Lord.  It has been a great experience to have served with him this past year in the Branch Presidency.  I haven't been released, I suppose that now that we are not there anymore, that makes it an official release.  

Today after church we finished packing everything up and cleaning up and all that there is to do when you move out of a house and try and put everything into a suitcase to go back home.  We took the leftover kitchen stuff out to Doris, so that their family could use up what we had left over.  The Hermana's and the Elders took a lot of the food we had left over as well, we didn't really have that much because we have known for a while when we would be finished but there is always the staples that are a part of having a kitchen. 

On Friday for English Class we combined both the English connect 1 and English connect 2 groups and had a combined despedida (Farewell) for the Chappell's.  It was a great tribute that they prepared for us.  The hour long class period was so wonderful to hear from so many of these wonderful young Elders and Hermana's.  There are a large group of them that have worked so hard to learn English.  So many of them have worked so hard to study and practice English in this time that they have here on the mission.  There are those who did speak pretty good English when they arrived and there are others who did not know a word in English when they arrived and now after being here for a few months, they are doing so well.  Elder Cruz is a great example of learning English while here on his mission.  He does really well.  We actually asked them to come over this past week and give a blessing to Hermana Chappell and Elder Cruse did the anointing and he did it in English, then Elder Slade gave her a blessing.  This process of leaving all these wonderful missionaries is not easy, plus you add to that leaving the branch members from both Tela and Telamar, and it is just hard.  Leaving Tela was hard but not,  It has been so hot, and humid and that has been hard for Hermana Chappell.  This heat has not been good for her.  The house did have air conditioning but so much of the time she has not felt great.  The blessing helped her feel better,  I hope that when we get home she will be able to feel better.   We are now at the mission office in La Lima, but we will be going to President and Hemana Ostler's home tonight.  Then tomorrow we will come back to the mission offices where they have final interviews and then we all get on a bus and they give us a tour of  San Pedro Sula, and we get to go by the temple and take pictures.  So that will be great.  It would have been great if we could have been here for the open house, but it didn't happen.  It is scheduled for September.  Everyone asks if we are coming back, but I really don't think that we will.  We have a missionwide zoom devotional tonight where those finishing up their mission share a testimony so we are going to be participating in that.  They are always such a great experience to here from the missionaries as they are leaving the mission and going home.  There are 20 of us leaving this week so with such a great group there was a devotional last week for 10 of them and then tonight the remaining 10 will share testimony, and we are included in tonight's devotional.  Our flight is on Tuesday, leaving here shortly after noon, going to Atlanta, then from there to Salt Lake where we are expected to arrive shortly after 10:00 pm.  We are so excited to see Todd and Chelsea, and Meggan and Janice and I don't know for sure what other family there will be, but it is crazy thinking about being back home again.  

This mission experience has been such an adventure.  We are glad to have been able to serve the Lord in this way.  I had never really expected that we would serve a mission together.  For several reasons, but here we are at the end of an 18 month mission to Honduras.  I am glad that we have had this experience, we have both grown in so many ways.  It has been interesting to see the church and the mission from the perspective of being a part of the mission here in Honduras, in the South America Area.  These missionaries and their testimonies have strengthened us and our testimonies greatly.  To get to know the members and converts here have also given us a greater love for the gospel and what it does to help us in our individual lives no matter where we live or what our standard of living is.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone, anywhere, no matter what.  It blesses the lives of anyone who learns about our Savior and desires to follow Him.  I am so thankful to have the knowledge that I do and to have had the gospel teachings to help me throughout my life.  I am so thankful for Colleen and this time that we have had to be together everyday all day for the last 18 months,  I think I have just about driven her crazy.  The good thing is that we are still together.  We survived, and have grown stronger because of this experience together.  I am so grateful for our children and grandchildren.  They bring us so much joy, and happiness.  We are so thankful for the love, support, prayers and help that we have been given.  We love our Heavenly Parents, and our savior Jesus Christ and look forward to the next chapter in our lives.