21 de FEBRERO

In front of 21 de Febrero building

Today our assignment was to go to 21 de Febrero and attend two Sacrament Meetings. 21 de Febrero is actually the name of the building. It is in the city and is in the Country Stake. The reason it is named that is...you guessed it....it was dedicated as a brand new building on the 21st of February this last year. It is a beautiful chapel and is 2 stories....the chapel and offices are all downstairs, and the classrooms are on the upper floor.

We had an amazing time. The first meeting was the annual Primaria Programa. I was playing the piano for the meeting, so I helped out with some of the songs for the children. This program was actually the absolute best Primary Program I have EVER seen. Every child had their part memorized and the singing was unbelievable. You need to remember that they learn all their songs to a tape...no piano in Primary. I recognized some of the songs that I helped with in our Primary this last year. I know that it sounds like I am exaggerating...but it was really one of the best I have ever seen.

The Primary Program children

(You really need to make this bigger to see their faces)

Every one of the girls was in a pink dress (I have no idea how they pulled this off) and each of the boys was in a white shirt with a pink tie. They had made little corsages for each of the girls....even the teachers had pink on. The chapel was packed...standing room only. After their program, we went into Primary and told them that it was one of the best that we had ever seen. We asked if we could take pictures of their Primary so that we could send it back to our family at home. The girls just wanted to talk and the boys slapped hands. It was so fun.

She is absolutely adorable!!

And remember...they don't speak any English!!

The other meeting was great too. Two young girls spoke for Sacrament meeting. They were really prepared with their talks and then the Bishop ended up by letting everyone know that they were expected to go to the sessions of Conference that will be broadcast at the Stake Center next week. Now remember...most of these people don't have cars, and getting to the Stake Center might be hard for some of them.....

There were three sets of our missionaries at this building today. They were surprised but pleased to see us show up for their meetings. One Elder was so disappointed because none of the people that they had been teaching showed up for the meetings as they said they would.

View from the building

Have a great week preparing for Conference....and wasn't the Relief Society Broadcast great?

DRIVING IN HONDURAS

We have put off blogging about the driving here because it is a book in itself. We have finally realized that driving rules in Honduras are non-existent. There are NO RULES. It honestly reminds me of adult bumper cars at the fair. We are putting this t-shirt on the blog so that you can see some of the rules along with some additional things that we have observed:



Do not stop for stop signs...merely glide through and state your right-of-way.

If you are turning left, you should be in the left turn lane. If not, turn left from the right lane and cut off those turning from the left lane.

The first and most important thing you need to know is how to use your horn. Use it for good beeps and bad...but mostly to let people know you are there.

If you miss a turn, expect to go at least 2-3 kilometers before you can reach a RETORNO to make a U-turn. If you are lucky, there will not be three lanes of traffic in the U-turn area.

They don't use maps in Honduras...and do not label streets. No kidding, Wayne has looked in every store to buy one...they are not to be had. You cannot ask for directions because there are no street addresses. Once you find a place one time, you are the expert and can tell others how to find it.

If you have an accident DO NOT move the cars. If you do, the police cannot tell what happened. (Fortunately we have not had this problem...just the traffic congestion that results from it.)

This is an accident we viewed from the Mission Office
It only took the Transitos 20 minutes to arrive

When passing on a stretch of highway, only pass on a blind curve while going uphill with on-coming traffic. I wish that we could take a video of this phenomenon. It is amazing the passing that occurs. People just expect that there will be room for them. This makes it very hard to relax while driving through this beautiful country.

To pass or not to pass.....of course you do!!

There are millions (literally) of motorcycles. When the light turns red, they migrate to the "front" of the line. By the time the light turns green there are between 5 and 10 ready to go! When the light turns, they look like an army of ants racing to the next red light.

If you have a child serving as a missionary in Honduras who has had car privileges, DO NOT let him drive for at least two weeks upon his return home.

Have a travel prayer every morning before leaving and a prayer of thanksgiving upon your return.

Remember: Wayne's two favorite pastimes are driving and rollerblading. He can't rollerblade here.

Enough said.

HAIR UPDATE

Can you believe I'm smiling through this?

For those of you still wondering....yes....I did get my hair done. Wayne and I spent Monday afternoon coloring my hair. Just as we were starting...dye mixed, hair ready, etc...President Gomez called and asked if we could do something. I felt sooo stupid telling him that we were in the middle of hair dye....but he understood (he is married).

Wayne did a great job and is actually looking forward to the next time. Sara sent great mixing instructions, and the color looks great. We did not realize that we were supposed to do it on dry hair (my hair was wet)...but we will do that differently next time. We even managed to take pictures using the timer on the camera. Oh the joys of missionary life.

Wayne is now scheduling appointments!

TACO BAR

It seems that there is a universal law with missionaries. They can and will eat anything and everything. Last week for Honduras Dia de Independencia we had the office missionaries over for a taco bar. Wayne has perfected the salsa that he has been working on for a few months, and we made tacos with all the trimmings.











It was amazing what these eight missionaries ate. We fried up over 50 taco shells…hard and soft ones. They ate all of those and we didn’t even count the flour tortillas that were consumed. They were great. We had chips and salsa, tacos with everything, dips, etc. To top it off there were HUGE brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup. What a feast. What a great group of missionaries.

SAGA OF THE PACKAGE

Who would have thought that getting a package from there to here would be such a trial. Sara has been trying for about a month to get me some hair color. Most of you know that there is a fine line between the day you might need color and the day that IT HAS TO BE NOW! Well, I have passed that line a couple of weeks ago.

We sent a package (thanks to Amy) here about two weeks ago. That in itself was a nightmare. It was unbelievable expensive to send (I won’t even tell you how much it was…it was so terrible). Once it got to the country they held it at customs. Not sure why, perhaps because it was dye and hair product. By the time we found out about it, we needed to claim the package that day to avoid a US $700 charge. It took two of our office Elders six hours one day to get the package. It also cost an additional $50 or so to get it. What a nightmare.

Now…if we can just get Wayne to do the color this weekend. The next step is getting someone who can cut hair.



Here are Elder Perez and Elder Euteneier. They are the Elders who spent a whole day getting the package. They were rewarded with homemade chocolate chip cookies.
THANKS ELDERS!!!

HERMANA ESPINAL

THE RELIEF SOCIETY OF
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

are beloved spirit daughters of God,
and our lives have meaning, purpose, and direction.
As a worldwide sisterhood, we are united in our devotion
to Jesus Christ, our Savior and Exemplar.
We are women of faith, virtue, vision, and charity who:

Increase our testimonies of Jesus Christ
through prayer and scripture study.

Seek spiritual strength by following the
promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Dedicate ourselves to strengthening
marriages, families, and homes.

Find nobility in motherhood
and joy in womanhood.

Delight in service and good works.

Love life and learning.

Stand for truth and righteousness.

Sustain the priesthood
as the authority of God on earth.

Rejoice in the blessings of the temple,
understand our divine destiny,
and strive for exaltation.

I had the greatest experience the other night. As you know if you have read the blog, or if you have listened to me moan in my letters, I am pretty much frustrated that my language skills aren't coming as quickly as I want them to. I have determined that Heavenly Father is teaching me patience again, and that I need to learn that things can't always come easily for me.

Well, the other night we got a call from President Gomez that one of our Senior Single Sisters needed to go to the hospital. She was experiencing chest pain and just not feeling well. We met her and the APs at the hospital. Sister Espinal is from Honduras and her assignment is working in the Employment Center here. She teaches the classes here on developing the skills you need to find employment, etc. She teaches about 15-20 people a week, and she says that about 1/3 of them are not members. She gives those contacts to the missionaries.

When we got to the hospital, I went into her cubicle at the emergency room. Immediately I knew that we were sisters, and that the bonds of that sisterhood were there. I had only met her briefly for a few minutes in the office before this. As I sat there holding her hand, I knew that I was supposed to be there at that moment for her. And then the amazing experience happened....I was able to communicate with her in Spanish. My Spanish seemed to be the best that it has been the entire mission. I was able to ask her questions, understand what was being said and even communicate with others. It was truly a gift to me. It helped me see that my efforts were being rewarded by the Lord, and if I continue to work, I will indeed be able to have the gift of tongues.

They decided to have Hermana Espinal spend the night. She needed additional tests. At her request, I spent the night with her at the hospital. Sisterhood and compassionate service knows no language barriers. What a true blessing in my life this experience was. I felt so privledged to be able to help her. I even thought of my good friend Maurice and her recent hospital experience and how frustrated I have been about not being able to be there for her. Maybe this was the Lord's way of helping me feel useful to Maurice.

I will post a picture of Hermana Espinal as soon as she feels better. She is scheduled for some preventive surgery today on her heart. Remember her in your prayers.

NEWS FLASH....ELDER TOMKINSON IS A MUSICIAN!!!

Hermanas de la Cruz, Barrios y Julio

Just wanted to update you after our morning at church. We had a great day at the La Pena chapel. It is a building in the middle of a very old area of town. The ward we went to today had three Elders and three Sisters there. When we got to church, the bishop had just informed the missionaries that they were going to be the speakers today. So Hermana Julio and Elders Nicolosi, Waldron and Miskin were planning talks. They then decided that I would play the music for the meeting. They have one of those new electronic piano/organs that was fun to play. As the Bishop was starting the meeting and announcing the first hymn, he said that Elder "Tomson" would lead us in the music. I have never seen such a look on Wayne's face. He was totally in denial. Here we are waiting for me to start the introduction to the hymn, and he is just sitting there. I think he thought that if he ignored it, it would go away.

After what seemed to me an ETERNITY...Wayne walked up to the front, looked at me with HELP over his face, and just started beating in rhythm. We actually got through 4 songs for the meeting. I think that President Gibson needs to know that he has a new Stake Choir director on his hands!

Elders leaving the La Pena building after
Zone Conference

We wanted to show you where the church building is. The pictures were taken the other day after our Zone Conference. The elders are going down the street next to the building. The fence on the right is actually the church grounds. They were so excited...they were going to go tracting in the area.

NO SUCTION, NO ASSISTANTS, SMOKE BOMBS, AND THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Elder Uribe, Elder Arriola, Hermana Franco, Elder Juarez and Elder Gomez
Photo Collage by Dundoo - MySpace Editor

This last Monday we were able to do work on five of our missionaries. This was no small feat, as Monday was the first day of school...complete with a strike, smoke bombs and no suction in the clinic. It took the missionaries two hours to get through the lines of police/strikers and then Wayne worked hard getting all of their work done in 2 hours. The clinic is only open in the morning.

It was no small feat. He has decided he definately misses Tomi and Kim. I was trying to get trays set up, instruments cleaned, and just trying to find things. It was a great day. With the missionaries and their companions we had 10 missionaries in the clinic. They had a great time taking pictures of each other in the dental chairs and just teasing each other. I told them not to worry...Dr Wayne was rapido and suave...(fast and gentle)...and when they were all done they actually believed me!!

Elder Arriola and Dr. Wayne

This week we only will be able to go into the Clinic for three days...Monday is National Independence Day for Honduras and Tuesday is a teacher holiday. We are excited to see what happens on their Independence Day celebrations. We are thinking of a quiet day at home or at the mission office for us.

"THAT IS BEAUTIFUL"

Dr. Wayne with his students
Dra. Michelle clinic director, Anna, Vicki and Sonia

I am constantly reminded here of the things that I have been blessed with in my life. This past week Wayne was cleaning and checking out some used handpieces that were sent to him for use in the clinic here. Thank you LDS Academy of Dentists!! As he was working, the three students who work in the clinic came over to see the handpieces. They were amazed to see so many at one time, and picked them up with reverence and honor. One of the students said, "That is beautiful" as she held the handpiece.

What a joy to be able to see such simple things become blessings in others' lives. I am truly humbled by what I have been given.

Two Steps Forward....One Step Back

Today marks two months on our mission. The last couple of days we have been preparing for our second round of Zone Conferences. Wayne has to give a part on feeling the Spirit and heeding the promptings. I am going to give another health blurb. We are hoping that our Spanish has improved enough that we can tell a difference in our deliveries this time.

We spent yesterday (literally all day) preparing the basics of our remarks and translating them into Spanish. After having spent the entire day meticulously translating my remarks into Spanish, I looked on our Google Translate on the computer. Boy was I glad that I did. In talking about how our body gets rid of things that might be harmful to it, I said that the body will get rid of EVIL things that are in it. I also was trying to get across the idea to the missionaries that they need to be careful of their feet (athlete's feet is a common problem) because they walk through water and puddles all day long. I told them that they were WALKING ON WATER.

Oh well...just when you think you are making progress......

WE LOVE THOSE GUYS!!

Elder Mautama

This is Elder Mautama. He is from New Zealand. He is one of our office elders. Elder Mautama loves the gospel and loves missionary work. He has just received a package from home from the Young Men in his ward. They sent him letters of encouragement and telling him how much they admire him. All he could say in return was how much he loves them and how they support him.

It is amazing to us how much these missionaries love to teach. They would rather be out on appointments in the rain than sitting in the office doing paper work. Last week we went to church with Elder Mautama and his companion, Elder Mears. They were like proud parents during the investigator class. Everytime their contact participated, they were beaming. We love missionaries. We love to watch them and their enthusiasm for the gospel. Wayne is teaching them that sometimes we have to do our duty (their office work)...it makes the fun stuff that much more fun!!

Elders Mears and Mautama

Elder Mears is leaving the office this week. He doesn't care where he goes...the further away from headquarters, the better. He is a great missionary, and will be able to help wherever he serves. News flash...before I published this we learned that Elder Mears is going to be a trainer for the newest missionary to arrive in Honduras! He will be great!