OCUPADO! MUY OCUPADO!!

Each Monday morning we get our week started with an office staff meeting. This week, however, we didn't have time for one.  Some weeks and periods of our mission service are so busy that they become a blur.  These past two weeks have been such for us.  It began with three more multi zone meetings. We traveled with President and Sister Dester to four different locations to participate in these conferences.  We didn't play a major role in these conferences, but we did each teach a portion each time. We started in the Copan zone on Friday of last week.  Elder Lui, one of my former seminary students and one of the very finest missionaries that we have is a zone leader there.  Then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we  had zone conferences in the other areas.   Following our presentations we would hustle back to the office to try to get our regular work done.  On the days we are required to be out of the office to do extra things like these conferences, our work just piles up.  It doesn't go away.  So when we get back to the office we have to work hard.

On one of the days of conferences LaRae surprised me with this birthday cake.  Elders Bryce and Lorenzo called Elder Erickson and me out of the audience.  They then sang to us, and everyone enjoyed a piece of my birthday cake.

 

Keeping up with the house inspections is nearly a full time job for us.  This week we spent a full morning seeing some of the houses in the Choloma zone.  This is the house in Choloma 2 where we presently have Sister Vasquez and Sister Casteneda living.  This house is one of the good ones and they do a good job keeping it clean.  Others - not so much.

 

Wayne got a surprise call from the Area Offices in Tegucigalpa who announced that David Hernandez would be dropping by to do an audit of the financial records.  Even though Wayne has everything in excellent shape, these are always stressful moments.  He is very thorough and checks everything.  After six hours he announced that there wasn't any further need for review.  "Bien, hecho, Elder John," he said.  (Well done, Elder John).  It wasn't terrible, but it did add to the pressure of a week that was already too full. 

On Friday we spent the entire day driving to Tegucigalpa with Elders Rodriguez and Guevara.  Elder Rodriguez had arrived in the mission field with out having been through the temple.  President Dester asked if we could accompany him and his companion.  It is always a joyful experience, but it did take a full day.  While we were there we dropped into the Distribution Center where LaRae met with Hermano Bonilla.  He has been such a great help and support for LaRae in keeping our proselyting materials stocked.  He was sad to know that very soon we will be on our way home.  He has loved having a mission secretary with whom he could that was organized and got all of her reports in to him in a timely manner. 

While all of this was going on LaRae was busy trying to finish up the history of our mission since it was divided in June 2013.  (43 pages) She had only recently completed the 134 page history for the San Pedro Sula Mission for 2012 to give to the Area Offices in Guatemala.  Now, they wanted this one!  Finding all of the pictures and statistics was no easy task, however, she got it done in time for President Dester to hand it over to Elder Duncan at a training meeting on Saturday. 

 



We had to bid farewell this week to two very special missionaries.  Elder Larsen and Elder Cluff have been the financial and general secretaries in the San Pedro Sula East Mission for the past six months or so and have now been sent back out into the field with different assignments.  They have worked side-by-side with us to get these two missions running smoothly.  In our opinion, they are two of the very finest missionaries we have known.  And we are going to miss them!



Elder Cluff and Elder Larsen

On top of everything else we normally do in a week (the delivery run, the mail services, picking up name tags, paying the bills, getting two houses painted and several windows repaired, filling out reports, inputting baptismal records, doing inventory, making orders for more materials, and a myriad of phone calls and challenges) these extra things made for a busy but happy time. 



WITH ALL OUR HEARTS, MIGHT, MIND AND STRENGTH

As we have written this blog over the past, nearly, two years we have been aware that many of those who see these words, either by accident or design, are not members of our faith.  Some have relatively little knowledge of the Church we represent and do not understand why we would offer such a large chunk of our lives to this service. We answer, sincerely, that we believe that we were called by the Lord Jesus Christ through a living prophet upon this earth to offer this service.  And we have made every effort to serve Him with all of our hearts, might, mind and strength. This week has given us many opportunities to serve Him in each of these four ways:

OUR HEARTS:

From back left: Elder Rodriguez (ZL Cofradia), Elder Contreras (ZL Valle de Sula), Elder Esperanza, Elder Zura, (ZL Merendon).  Front from left: Elder DeGriselle, Elder McRae, Elder Loyo (AP), and Sister Ramirez

On Wednesday of this week we bid farewell to nine amazing young men and one sweet young lady.  We have grown to love them with all of our hearts.  Elder McRae, shown with me on the left, holds a very special place in our hearts.  The way that he served and the example he showed for all of the other missionaries, will always be special to us.  Sister Anna Ramirez, shown on the right with LaRae, truly was one of the sweetest sister missionaries we have known.  We will miss them all.  With every group that goes, another arrives, and relationships of love are quickly formed.

 

 

Twenty-two new ones arrived from a myriad of different countries to spend the next two years of their lives here in Honduras.   We received three missionaries from the USA (one, Elder Lund, is from LaRae's old home town), others came from Panama, Guatemala, Paraguay, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador and even from a different location here in Honduras.  Here they sit, anxiously waiting their assignment to a companion and to an area of service for the next six months or so.  They are nervous, but eager at the same time.  Sister Virula (shown here with Sister Zelada) is one of these new missionaries.  Her new companion is Sister Zelada.  Immediately, their new companions take them under their wings, accept them, make them feel comfortable and loved.  Sister Zelada is truly one of our very best!

 

From left: Elder Loyo, Elder Mower, Us, Sister and President Dester, Elder Coronel and Elder Zitting

With this week's changes our old office staff was disbanded.  Elder Loyo left us for his home in Mexico, and Elder Coronel was reassigned to another area.  This group has worked together really well and we have come to love them all.

 

MIGHT: 

Elder Mower and Elder Zitting with Wayne hauling boxes on their P-day.

Hauling boxes around is a part of our weekly task.  This week was no different.  Fifty two boxes of pamphlets, Bibles, Book of Mormons, and other materials arrived on Tuesday.  The building manager won't let us use the elevator to left these boxes, so we haul them by hand up three big flights of stairs.  Wayne isn't as fit as he used to be and this is an increasingly difficult part of the job. 

 

MIND:

 

We have learned so many things while serving on this mission.  This week Wayne stood in utter amazement as he watched LaRae manipulate formulas in her Excel Spreadsheet. This may seem so simple to many, but these are things that we "old dogs" have had to learn since we arrived. 

 

 

Our minds are stretched every day by our work, and we have had to devote all that we had mentally to this great cause.  On Friday we began the series of multi-zone conferences throughout the mission.  This first of four conferences was held in La Entrada, Copan.  We both had a presentation to teach. Wayne taught about cleaning their apartments; LaRae taught about how to correctly fill out baptismal records.  We used PowerPoint presentations to add to the effectiveness of our teaching. Of course, all that we teach and all that we write has to be done in Spanish. 

 



Every day we answer dozens of questions from these young missionaries.  Learning to understand them has been one of the great challenges of this mission.  We've used every little bit of our minds.

 

STRENGTH:

Home inspection in Monterrey.  Elders Best, Vermont and Arnold

Our days are long.  There always seems to be a deadline that we have to meet.  LaRae had to have the mission's 2013 history completed by Friday; six new apartments had to be furnished by Tuesday; the presentations had to be ready by Thursday; all the financial deposits had to be approved by Monday; Wayne had to be ready for an audit of his books by Thursday.  We work every day with all of our strength.  We spent four hours driving around doing home inspections with President and Sister Dester.  Office staff meetings are held each Monday.  We delivered both breakfast and lunch to the 22 arriving missionaries on Tuesday and do a training session with them that afternoon.  LaRae had to have all of January's baptismal records submitted to the area offices in Guatemala by Wednesday.  Honestly, we get home every day about 6:00 p.m., drag ourselves upstairs, do another hour or so of work on our home computer, try to eat a bit of dinner and then crawl into bed - exhausted. 

 

SO IN CONCLUSION:

Is being a senior missionary hard work? Yes!  Are we tired? Yes!  But, it is a good kind of "tired." This has truly been a remarkable experience for us.  We have probably never been happier than we are now.  We have learned all kinds of things; our minds are sharp and clear; we have done things that we would never would have done had we not come here to serve.  We have met and loved hundreds of wonderful missionaries and Hondurans.  Having served these two years here in this foreign land and having done the things that we have been asked to do, would we be afraid to do it all over again?  No!  This service has been a privilege and a blessing.


One last sweet thought: Every missionary loves a candy bar! However, they are way too expensive for them to purchase.  We decided to bring them a special treat this week to eat during a break in their zone conference at Copan.  OH!  How they shouted for glee!  Sweet is the work!

QUAINT: STRANGE IN AN INTERESTING OR PLEASANT WAY

The definition of "quaint" is something that is unusual, but is rather pleasant.  Honduras is full of such things and people.

Men who walk the streets selling brightly colored cotton candy, signs that make you chuckle, horses occupying the main streets side by side with the cars.   These are some of the things that make Honduras quaint.

Stores filled with carved wooden boxes - always priced differently dependent upon where they are being sold.  Three wheeled taxis called moto-taxis by the missionaries, and fruit stands selling the fruits of this abundant land.  There is always something in season.

Phone lines that resemble a tangled ball of twine and the traditional Honduras breakfast of beans, eggs, tortillas, cream, and fried bananas add to the quaintness of this land.  We have grown accustomed to its many differences.  In fact, we hardly notice them anymore. 

 

 

This picture that we have "borrowed" from President and Sister Klein's blog from the Honduras San Pedro Sula East Mission perfectly illustrates the tiny differences in this land from where we call home.  Yes, they are quaintly unusual, but you have to admit they are pretty cool!

 

 

Honestly, the most unusually quaint thing you can find here in Honduras is a senior missionary couple from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We've been the only ones in all of Honduras for the entire two years we have been here. There are mission presidents and their wives, and there are couples who serve inside of the LDS temple in Tegucigalpa, but we are the only ones who do what we do.  We sure could use some more senior missionaries here in Honduras.