RANDOM THOUGHTS

First of all, I can't believe that it has been an entire week since my last blog. I guess it really is true that when you are busy time just flies. It seems that is happening to us. I get up in the morning and before I know it, it is time to go to bed again. We are busy in the dental clinic in the mornings, at the mission office in the afternoon and in our area in the evenings. In between all that we are fitting in doctor's visits with missionaries, checking out new apartments for the missionaries, running the office (Wayne) and teaching piano lessons (Suzanne). We don't have time for much else. It is wonderful. Those of you who are wondering if a mission is for you.....DO IT!!! What a blessing this experience has been for us and our family.

Just a few comments on what we have been doing along with some random thoughts and some pictures to go along with the commentary:

DENTAL CLINIC

Working on one of our futuro misioneros

After a month of teacher's strikes and a flood in the clinic we are back to being open all morning. Wayne is at his best when he is able to be at the clinic every day. I have started doing some assisting and that is fun. We have been working on the missionaries from the two missions in Tegucigalpa as well as future missionaries. We have met with all the Stake Presidents in the area and have told them to use us for their missionary needs. We have also worked on some members. It is so wonderful to get to know these dear people. We had three new students start this week in the clinic, so Wayne is really busy helping them. I wish I could take a picture of him surrounded by his students and you could hear them all say "Dr Wayne" with their Spanish accents!!

KRISTIN AND NICOLE

We were able to celebrate two baptisms these past two weeks. First our very first grandchild was baptized on November 9th. Kristin Riggs was baptized by her father Rusty Riggs. Although it was hard not to be there for this special day, we were so pleased with the choices that she is making and loved hearing about her day. The other baptism was our dear Nicole Flores. She is the little girl that we befriended and then later were assigned to her ward. She was baptized last Friday evening by her father Mario. They included us as members of the family and invited us over to their home after the baptism. Nicole is so much like Kristin, and we felt that by going to her baptism we were able to see how the day was for Kristin. What a blessing this younger generation is going to be for the Church. Their testimonies are so strong. They both received their own personal set of scriptures are were so excited about it. We are proud to be associated with such fine young women.

ORPHANAGE EXPERIENCE

This week we visited an orphanage with one of the LDS students from the dental school Oscar Campos. He spends his afternoon there helping the orphans and wanted us to see the facility and if there was anything we could do to help. We were delighted to see that it was the same facility that our friend Dave Sheets has put so much time, effort and money into. Wayne has visited it on his other trips to Honduras. How wonderful to see one of the dental students making such a commitment to the community he lives in. I just had to include a picture of me with the babies.





TEACHING PIANO LESSONS

I have started teaching piano lessons to five teenagers...Blanca, Harold, Benjamin, Cinthia and Yanori... in our LaVega ward. It is so fun. They have completed the church piano course and want to learn more. We are working on their left hand, rhythm and right now we are working on Christmas carols. We are going to try and play a rendition of Angels we have Heard on High for the ward Christmas Party. It is really fun, and is a bright spot in my week. Today we talked about using the pedal on the piano (they all play keyboards). I told them I wanted them to practice on the "real" piano so that they could practice the pedal. They were so excited.

Learning to teach all over again in SPANISH!!

MISSIONARIES, MISSIONARIES, MISSIONARIES
Elder Waldron asleep in the President's office
after a middle-of-the-night run for a sick missionary

The highlight of our days is being around the missionaries. We are truly blessed by their spirits. We are now getting to the stage where so many of the ones that have become dear to us are going home. Our second "batch" of returning missionaries leaves next Tuesday. We will need to say goodbye to Elders Miskin and Elder Waldron. We have already said goodbye to Elder Nicolosi.

These three "gringo" missionaries have made the transition from senior citizen to senior missionary so much easier. They have been great helping us with our Spanish and adjusting to missionary life. We miss them already. We are trying to get all of the returning missionaries into the clinic before they go home, so that they can at least have their dental work caught up!! We did six of them on Monday.

Elder Miskin with Dr Wayne.....Elder Waldron getting his teeth done with our three new students