MISSIONARY WORK IN PARADISE

We have received several blog comments that indicate that you think we are having too much fun down here in Roatan.  Believe me, it's no vacation.  Yes, we live on a mostly undeveloped tropical island, but we don't just lay around on the beach.  We decided to share a step-by-step account of our week so you might get a better understanding of what we do, where we go, and the people we meet.

If you look real hard at this picture you will see a house off in the distance.  This picture was taken after we had already walked more than a mile over this trail to find a little member family.  They had eight children and live completely alone on the top of the mountain.  They offered us sugar cane and water after our hike to meet them and we were glad to receive it.  This was only one of dozens of visits we made this week.  Here is the list.
(2) We met for the first time Bro. Vidotto who is now a 7th Day Adventist, but was once the first Branch President of this branch.  We asked him to fill out a questionaire about the early days of the Church here in Roatan.  He graciously agreed to do it.
(3) We tried to find our little nurse, Kate, but she was sick at home.  LaRae had been so sick last week that she didn't dare get around another sick person, so we just texted her.  No response.
(4) We visted with Olga Fernandez who told LaRae that the reason she didn't get baptized last week was because she didn't want to give up "dancing."  LaRae had a short heart-to-heart with her about how our church not only allows dancing, but we sponsor dances.  That brought a smile to her face.
(5) We dropped in to see Suyapa Lozano who told us that her "investigating" mother got so sick that they had to take her to the hospital in La Ceiba for an electrocardiogram. (Try saying that in Spanish)
(6) Visited with Kensi Losano and found out that she is 14 years old - not 13 like we had believed.  We bought a huge papaya from her for $2.00 and chatted while she nursed her baby.
(7) We made Rice Krispie squares and took them to the new USA family, Louis St. Louis.  He is 1/9th owner of Banana-rama. 
(8) We dropped-in to see Angelica Zelaya and to make a map of where she lived.  We met her completely inactive 16 year old grandson, Russell.  We encouraged him to come back to church.
(9) We quickly visited Jeison Martinez, my 14 year old inactive teacher.  He was washing (in a bucket) but I chatted with him and got him to promise that he'd be in church this Sunday.  He may have agreed just to get rid of me so he could continue bathing.

(10) Spent an hour with Brittany Webster helping her prepare her Sunday School class.  She is teaching an English Sunday School class and has never had any experience doing it before.  She is a bit nervous, but will do a good job.

(11) Stopped by the home of Dominga Gonzalez.  She is the original "pioneer" of this branch.  We enlisted her help with the ward history program that we are involved with right now.  We left with a sack full of bananas and a papaya.  They treat us like angels.                                                                                                   (12) We next visited Naomi Gonzalez and spent a few minutes cooing over her darling twin grandsons.  She watches them every day from morning until night, so her two daughters can work in their little downtown sidewalk store.                                                                                                       (13) We visited with Rony and Zulema Zelaya for an hour.  He has a great knowledge about the ward members.  I asked him to go through the ward records with me to see if we could determine who still lives on the island.  He was the last branch president.           

(14)  We ate dinner with the Zelayas.  They fixed us baleadas.  LaRae and I both got the chance to form and cook our own tortillas.  Mine ended up a bit too burned, but they were still good. We ate by candlelight because this family doesn't have the money to turn on the electricity.  Their daughter, Daritza, is in LaRae's YW class, so they had a blast talking while we were doing the records.  LaRae made her show her that she had cleaned her room.                                                                                                 (15) We telephoned an old American LDS couple who moved down here a year or so ago.  Somehow the elders had met them.  They are from Wyoming and weren't too receptive.  I think they were bothered that somehow the church had found them.  We did offer our help though, because the wife had been sick for a month or so.

(16) We luckily located a new LDS couple that had just moved to Roatan this very day.  He is the former missionary companion of Herbert Fernandez.  They will be a great addition to the branch - he actually holds the priesthood!   Yeah!

(17) We stopped by the home of Johanna Zelaya to ask why she wasn't in church last Sunday.  She said that her little daughter, Naomi, was sick.  There is a lot of sickness going around.

(18) We called the elder's quorum president, Dusty Mitchell, to inform him that he had a new elder coming this next week.  He was thrilled.  We also called to ask about his little sick son, Brigham.

 

 

(19) We walked along this open sewer drain to get to the home of Ana Maria Lopez.  She lives in a little one-room cement bunker with her two daughters and her two grandchildren.  One of the little boys was a cute, happy little boy who didn't have full use of the right side of his body.  They would love to come to church, but it would cost them about $3.00 each to pay for the taxi rides and nobody has that kind of money on this island.  The buses don't run on Sundays.

(20) We drove to the home where Yesi Padilla lives.  She is one of LaRae's young women.  LaRae needed to inform her of the change in YW activity.  Her story is a sad one.  She hasn't been able to afford to go to school, so she is now 17 and in the 3rd grade.  She wants to be an architect and has now moved out of her family home and in with a teacher who is tutoring her.  She is our only Laurel and our class president.                                                                                                           (21) We visited the home of Karina and Lauritza Alaya to ask why they didn't come to church last Sunday.  They told us that Karina's two little children were both sick.  Lauritza is a Mia Maid and is also taking piano lessons.                                                                                                               (22) We spent a full two hours looking for the home of Edgardo Nunez.  He is an elder but hasn't been active for quite awhile.  We drove all the way to the end of a half dozen dirt roads before we finally found it.  He wasn't home, but their lovely daugher, Astrid, was.  She should be another Mia Maid.  She was thrilled that we had dropped by.  She wanted to come to church, but knew that she had to get permission from her mother.  Apparently, her mother is a bit antagonistic, but her father wants to come back to church.  We'll see.  This is one of the very few families in Roatan that are married, hold the priesthood and are all members.

(23) We quickly stopped by to see the Zea family.  Both boys are in my YM group.  Christian is one of my two priests and Joshua is my only active deacon.  However, they hadn't come to church last Sunday.  I gave the priesthood lesson to them that they had missed.  The mother, Karla, told LaRae that her fiancee was going to get baptized this next week.  They are planning on getting married in December.  That was all brand new news to us.

(24) We passed by the home of Joyce Saunders, but she wouldn't come to the door.

(25) We hoped to get a chance to visit with Leticia Cerrano.  Like so many on this island she is the only member in her family.  She wasn't home, but we did have a very pleasant visit with her teenage daughter and invited her out to church.

 

 

(26) This is the home of Jose Brenes, an 82 year old who just accepted a call to be the Sunday School President.  I spent 30 minutes outlining his duties, and copying pages from the Church Handbook of Instructions in order to be able to train him.  Our branch President said it was a "miracle" that he accepted this calling, but we are happy.  One of our biggest points of effort is to get people callings.                                      (27) We spent 45 minutes with Enrique and Sandra Galo.  He is our 2nd counselor, but because of work and lack of support is going to be released in a couple of weeks.  We are very concerned that now he will completely go inactive.  He will be embarrassed.  We teased with them, laughed with them and loved them.                      

(28) I gave a 45 minute private piano lesson to Daniel Garay.  He is progressing quite nicely.  He is learning to play "Thank Thee, Oh, God, for a Prophet."  I will give many more of these lessons this week.

(29) We received news that our renters are going to break their lease, so we called Rodney and asked his advice as to what to do.  We also called Kevin to ask him to fix a couple of problems with the house.  All the Utah kids have been wonderful to help us.  Even though we are far, far away, there are still matters that require our attention and time back home.

(30) We filled our gas tank with 10 gallons of $5.70 per gallon gasoline.

(31) We drove into El Swampo (the Swamp) to search for a couple of new families.  We had a sweet experience in doing this.  Elder Barba was with us.  He told us he was sure that a member family lived in a particular area.  So, we stopped and he asked people if they knew any Mormons.  One little 6 year-old boy pointed to an alley way.  We entered, and sure enough, he not only found a family, it was a family that he had known in his previous area.  The Lord is working with us. We often  go out with the Elders and work this way.                                                                            

                                                                                     

 These two elders, Elder Barba from Mexico, and Elder Dever from Provo are two hard-working elders.  They don't miss an opportunity to share the gospel.  We are proud to work with them.

(32) As darkness sets in, it is more difficult to be out on the streets.  A different element comes out at night, and typically we try to either be in the church or at home.  So, we drove by the home of Maria Eugenia Matute.  She, like 90% of the island, has no husband, an illegitimate child, no income, no hopes of a bright future.  She lives with her non-member mother, who tells us that she has read both the Book of Mormon and the D&C 10 times.  She wants to get baptized, but she too, is living in fornication.  So very, very sad!!

 

This was just Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week.  The other days are similar.  Along with all of these visits we also have to eat, sleep, buy supplies, prepare YW, YM, Seminary, Piano and Teacher Improvement lessons - all of them in Spanish!  We attend weekly PEC and YW presidency meetings.  We plan and attend the mutual activites.  We study our scriptures, give priesthood blessings, are compiling a ward directory that includes pictures of all the members and maps to their homes as there are simply no addresses here on the island, and we talk to everybody that we meet along the way.  We have become friends with the people who live here in our complex and have invited one sweet couple, Doug and Shona McClure, into our home for dinner.  They have been wonderful to have as neighbors.  We train the leaders every chance we get and honestly have learned to love them.  They have a difficult life here in paradise, but they are faithful members of the church.  We are sure that Heavenly Father is pleased with all that they do.

 

Do we live in paradise?  Yes, we think we do.  But, the "paradise" we have found doesn't lie on the white sandy beaches or in the luxurious resorts, but in the impoverished homes and charitable hearts of the people.  We love them with all of our hearts. 

 

Are we having fun? Yes!  But at the end of every day we are hot, sweaty and ... well, the picture says it all.  Our feet may be dirty, but our faces have a smile.