NOW THAT'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT!

On a rainy Monday morning this week we drove by one of hundreds of little news stands that are placed at most of the busy intersections of San Pedro Sula.  We saw the following headline: "It ruined my life when I killed four people."  We thought, "Now, that's an understatement."

It started us thinking of how many things we have mentioned in this blog that are actually understatements.  Here are a few.

These missionaries are amazing!  Now, that's an understatement!

On Tuesday in a pouring rain storm the four secretaries drove to the bus terminal to send out some packages to the outlying areas of the mission - Copan, Colon and La Ceiba. We were able during this past couple of weeks to finally receive 120 microwave ovens.  We worked hard to get the area leaders to approve this purchase.  We figured that our missionaries needed microwaves, and we knew that the Church had already approved that they could have one in their homes, but the area leaders in Tegucigalpa weren't too sold on the idea.  We jumped through all kinds of hoops to get them.  But, they're here and the missionaries are very grateful!  Trying to fit 27 microwaves into the back of a Toyota Hilux didn't prove easy.  Elder Jose Rangel from Madero, Mexico, who is right now working as the immigration secretary, helped Elder Cannon from Santa Ana, California to stuff the microwaves into the Hilux.   As Wayne trudged back and forth through the rain carrying in the microwaves, Elder Cannon was busy doing two things.  First, he bartered with the bus attendant to lower the price of sending the microwaves and, secondly, he taught the first discussion.  It was truly amazing!  These missionaries are absolutely spectacular! They are diligent, devoted, happy, self-driven young men and women. Just saying the missionaries are amazing is a true understatement.

It rains a lot in Honduras.  Now, that's an understatement. 

Actually, it doesn't really rain a lot of days, probably not much more often than in Utah.  But, when it rains, it really rains.  It began to rain Sunday night and didn't stop until Wednesday morning.  Monday night Wayne put a cup outside to act as a crude rain gauge, but Tuesday afternoon the cup had filled to the top and overflowing.  The road we take to work crosses over this normally dry river bottom.  The runoff had filled it to the point of nearly overflowing the road.  We can only guess, but it must have dropped fifteen inches of water in those three days.  Saying that Honduras gets a lot of rainfall is definitely an understatement.

The people of Honduras celebrate Easter.  Now, that is a major understatement.

   

The roads at mid day were totally vacant yesterday as the Easter celebration entered its fifth day.  Some days are more holy than others.  Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and it was celebrated by many, but Good Friday was celebrated by all!  You couldn't find a store that was open.  The entire City Mall was closed, Diunsa (their version of Walmart) was closed, the grocery stores were closed - everything was closed.  Most of them will open again on Sunday, but just saying that these people celebrate is an understatement.  They completely vacate the city of San Pedro Sula.  We weren't there, but the few people that were still around, told us that everyone heads to the beaches.  The only people that we could find who were working yesterday were the security guards and us.  And they weren't really working either.  Apparently, even the thieves take the day off.  The very few places that were open were those with ties to the United States.  For example, we were able to find some Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch.

We occasionally have to take our work home with us.  Man! That is a true understatement!

We have known for about a month that we were going to get kicked out of our office pretty soon.  We found out on Thursday that we had to be out of the office by Monday.  Luckily, we have been taking things to our home for three weeks now. But, yesterday we spent the entire day moving.  Wayne had been asked to teach a couple hours of Especially For Youth, but when he showed up they told him that they didn't need him anymore.  It was a shame because he had spent time preparing, but he wasn't shaken up about it.  By the time he got back to the office the move was well underway.  President Veirs told us to dress in P-day clothes and he was there all day helping us.  We carried shelves down the three flights of stairs, (until our last trip when we realized that the shelves fit inside of the elevator), filled the truck and both of the cars with stuff and made several trips back and forth to the office.  Elder Cannon used his computer knowledge to connect all the computers together somehow and get all of them up and running.  What he did in six hours would have taken us six months.  So now we have six computers set up in our home, three copy machines, a cabinet full of medicine, several shelves of CDs, DVDs, garments and books that line our walls.  The next three months we will have secretaries and APs in and out of our house at all hours.  It is going to be a real mess, but hopefully we won't get on each other's nerves.  We will be cramped, but we'll survive.

The greatest of all understatements is that we love this work.  We have tough days and often feel overwhelmed and under qualified, but we are fully invested in this work.  We just hit our 10 month mark.  We have 13 more months left to go.  It has been a blessing in our lives to serve the Lord here in Honduras - and that, our friends, is a true understatement!