STAYING BUSY

Our mission is somewhat like the Old Testament - a lot of mundane stuff with an occasional burst of excitement.  We stay busy every day, but often we just spin our wheels.  This week wasn't much different. 

MONDAY...  P-day was spent partially with the Elders.  We ate at the Bananarama Resort where one of the owners is a member of the Church.  They allow the missionaries to eat free each Monday.  They are reported to have the best coconut shrimp on the island.  However, neither LaRae nor I ordered that because it exceeded the free $10.00 limit.  "Mancos" is still my middle name.

In the afternoon we had an appointment with a young man and his wife we had hoped we might lead into becoming leaders - Tulio and Saidi Brenes.  We have tried repeatedly to meet with him.  Again, he ditched us.  So often people promise to meet with us, but aren't there when we come.  Too bad.

TUESDAY:
LaRae has been assigned to visit teach three families. One lives in town, the other two live so far away that the only way to visit them is by car.  And... because we have one of the few cars in the branch, they, of course, were assigned to her.  Today we visited one of them - Carolina Padgett and her two daughters, Paula and Denis .  Before we went there we had kept ourselves busy with a couple of missionary discussions and trying to obtain our credit cards.  This was the day for which we had waited.  We finally got our cards, paid $42.00 to get them (and a piano instruction course) out of the customs office and then anxiously drove home.  We called the bank, activated the cards, and then tried for two hours to renew our phone subscription because today was the very last day we had USA phone service.  They never would accept our card.  Can you spell: F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N!!!
After a month of waiting for these cards to arrive, they don't work.  Bless Jennifer's heart, she used her card to give us another month of phone service.  Thanks, sweetheart.

WEDNESDAY:
    Although our cards never did work over the computer, we still had hopes that they would work in the store.  We started this morning by going to the grocery store, carefully selecting a couple of items that we knew we had enough money to cover (We are down to our very last few bucks) and then tried our card.  IT WORKED!!  LaRae gave me a high-5 as we walked out of the store and then drove straight to the other grocery store to stock up.  We bought everything in sight fearing that the card may only last for another moment or two.  Happily it has worked ever since and our pantry is filled to the brim.

That night we had Young Women's presidency meeting where LaRae and Zulema Zelaya met with their new counselor, Aminda Garay and also P.E.C. meeting.  It was a very interesting evening.  Without much notice we found out that they were having a bachelor/bachelorette party for Merlon and Tania Orellana that night.  So, we held our meetings and then divided men and women for some moments of sage wisdom given to the soon to be wed couple. This became almost like a sacrament meeting as hymns were sung, testimonies borne and wisdom shared.  The couple was very gracious and accepting.  We had to leave before the refreshments because we had a late night appointment with Carlos Ocampo.  We are hoping that he will stand up and become a leader.  At least, he was home.

THURSDAY:
Much of this day was spent in the house preparing seminary and priesthood lessons for this weekend, but we did get out and get some work done. I taught a piano lesson and then came home to watch the BYU football game on our big screen TV.  BYU won! 30-6. 

FRIDAY:
LaRae finished up her visiting teaching but because her companion was getting married today at 3:00 she had to go alone.  I waited out in the car while she gave the lesson and chatted and then we headed back to Coxen Hole where she had an appointment with Davinia Flores to teach her how to make cheesecake.   Sister Flores was thrilled to see how easy it was and I am sure that they truly enjoyed the treat that we left them. 

That night we were invited to the wedding banquet of Tania and Merlon Orellana.  This sweet couple have been separated for over a year now.  Tania wanted marriage and after a year of separation he finally came back to church and agreed to marry her.  This evening was a fun affair for all.  You could see how happy they are.  We have seen miracles in this moment coming to pass.  He is "on fire" in the gospel again and we are excited to see him progress.  He was ordained a priest this past Sunday.  We dined on steak and shrimp at Gios - reportedly the best restaurant on the island. 

SATURDAY:
This day is always the busiest and hardest for me.  It started with private piano lessons, then a group piano lesson and then seminary class and finally MIA.  There are a couple of young men who have some talent on the piano and one, in particular, that I believe will be able to play simplified hymns in a couple of months.  The group lessons are fun for them and they are learning a lot about music.

We were supposed to have a baptism day.  Olga Fernandez, the wife of Aaron Fernandez, was supposed to be baptized, but at the last moment backed-out for some reason.  We actually don't know why.  I had started filling the baptismal font just before seminary began and I completely forgot about it.  LaRae was in the office with the Elders and neither of them thought about it either.  Pretty soon the water began to flow over the font and out into the halls.  We had quite a mess trying to clean up all the water.  The young man in the blue shirt - Oliver Flores - had to go swimming to pull the stopper out because the chain broke.   Our Young Men's/Young Women activity was a joint activity with a panel discussion about the respect that should be shown to women.  It was very successful even though one of our panelist couples (we only planned on two) decided not to show up.  The Elders stepped in and covered the subject from the young man's point of view.

SUNDAY:
Our Sundays are very much like yours.  We wake up in the morning, get ready for Church, attend our meetings, go home (or somewhere) for lunch and then go out and visit people.  We don't have family around that we can visit, but we do have people here that love us.  Today we ate at the home of Dustin and Lacie Mitchell.  Afterwards, I took Dusty around to meet some of the prospective elders in his quorum.  We visited five or six.  He is going to do wonders for this little quorum of elders.  We are very grateful to have them here in Roatan. 

This is our opening exercises in Priesthood meeting.  Dustin Mitchell is in front with the purple tie.

Well, that's what we did this week.  We didn't change the world very much, but we tried our best to change it a little.  There is an ebb and flow here in Roatan.  One week there is a positive feeling, and the very next there isn't the same feeling.  But, we are happy and grateful to be here.  Good things are happening.