Mission Leader P-Day

On Monday, we had all the Elders and Hermanas (30 missionaries) from the Mission Leader Council over for breakfast and to play games at our house today.  Yesterday the Elders told us that we usually do this for P-Day but that we didn't have to do it this week since we just got here but that everyone really likes it.  What could we say?  We pulled something together and had a great time getting to know the Elders and Hermanas. Our complex has ping pong, foosball, pool, a soccer field, tennis courts, and a basketball court.  Unfortunately there were no equipment for most of them.  We will have to find some supplies before they come next time, We had a basketball, soccer ball, and 2 ping pong paddles so we still had a lot of fun.  

 

Baptisms for the Week

Look at all the amazing people that have entered the path and chosen to follow Christ this week in our mission!

 

Zone Conference with Zona El Carmen and Zone Satélite

Today was a repeat of yesterday.  Short zone conference followed by interviews.  I am so impressed with all of the missionaries and how hard they work and how much they have had to overcome to be one their missions. 

El Carmen Zone

Satélite Zone

We met with Brother Medina who is one of the counselors in the mission and his family, his wife Desiree and his two daughters Camila and Lisa.  They were so nice and so excited to serve the missionaries. 

We went to Pricemart after the zone conference.  While we were in there, a nice worker found us and told us he was a member. It had started pouring rain while we were shopping so he helped us find a covering for our car and helped us load our groceries.  He had a cute picture on his phone of when he was younger and was wearing a missionary tag.  President Christensen encouraged him to go on a mission. 

Our first dinner in the mission home.

The AP's eating baleadas for dinner.  Elder Paredes reminds me so much of our son Garret.  He is so positive and just loves everyone and thinks the best of them.  Plus he is always touching and hugging them just like Garret does. The AP"s are amazing!

 

Zone Conference with Zona La Paz and Zona Planeta

We started the first day off running.  We had our first zone conference with the La Paz and Planeta Zones.  They meet at the building that the mission office is in the area La Lima.  We had a short zone conference.  I shared a short message followed by President Christensen.  Then we did interviews of all the missionaries in the 2 zones.  One of the missionaries talked to President Christensen while their companion talked to me.  My questions are much easier, and I gave them brownies (a tip from Sister Oster) so of course they like me better. 

Planteta Zone

La Paz Zone

We met Elder Halls who knows our friends Scott and Suzanne Flake

After the zone conference it took us almost 2 hours to drive back to the mission home and I poured rain.  Welcome to Honduras.

 

We Made it to Honduras

President and Hermana Ostler and the AP's Elder Milla and Elder Paredes were at the airport to welcome us to Honduras.  We are finally here! We are so excited (and nervous) to serve with the missionaries in San Pedro Sula East.  Ready or not, here we come. We get to spend the day with the Ostler's before they head home to Utah tomorrow morning.  After they picked us up, we went to the office.  We met all of the office missionaries.  Elder Tosca who is over housing, Elder Jorgensen (who crazy enough is from our stake back home and was our trek son in 2019) and Elder Wheeler who are the mission secretaries, Elder Leland who is over finance, and Elder Choc who is over immigration.  The ZL's from this zone were there too Elder Carreto and Elder Dayton.  They are an amazing group of missionaries.  I can't believe all of the hard things they do.  After we went to the office, the Ostlers took us to the mission home.  It is such a nice home and has an amazing view (I will put photos of it later.). The Ostler's took us to dinner and to the grocery store all the while trying to give us as much information as possible before they leave us to fend for ourselves tomorrow.  

We were welcomed at the airport with this amazing Honduras banner

President and Hermana Ostler

At the mission office

Left to right:

Elder Tosca, Elder Paredes, Elder Dayton, Elder Wheeler, Me, President Christensen, Elder Milla, Elder Jorgensen, Elder Leland, Elder Carreto, Elder Choc

The office elders were so cute when we got there.  They had a welcome sign for us, had bought us Honduras soccer jerseys, gave a basketball they had all signed, got us our first baleadas (yummy Honduran food that is a flour tortilla with mashed beans and cheese in it), and got us a tres leches cakes.  They also sang us I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus.  It was so sweet and thoughtful and made us feel so welcome. 

Honduran soccer jerseys

Basketball signed by the office elders

Tres leches cake.  It was so delicious

Our first baleadas

At the mission home. The Ostler's and the AP's helped us get all of our luggage up to the apartment and helped us get settled in.

 

On Our Way to the Mission

Today our daughter Katie and her boyfriend Kyden dropped us off at the Salt Lake airport after our short trip to Vernal to visit President Christensen's family.  We said good-bye to Katie at the check in desk.  Garret, our son,  was flying home to Spokane, so we said good-bye to him at his gate.  He is going to do home MTC with my parents in Spokane starting June 30th and then fly to the Mexico City MTC on July 10th.  He is serving in the Chile Concepcion Mission. It was so hard to say good-bye to my kids.  

President Christensen's friend from his mission, Jared Justice picked us up from the airport in Atlanta, and we spent the night with him and his wife Claudia.  It was so fun to see him.  It's awesome that President is still friends with his mission buddy. 

 

Day 4 at the MTC

Today we got to hear President Nelson speak at our sacrament meeting.  He was not there in person unfortunately, but it was still amazing to hear a video of him speaking just to the mission leaders. We had lunch and then the seminar was over.  Most of the leaders are heading to the mission tomorrow morning.  We arranged a few more days and are heading to Vernal to see President Christensen's family and then we fly to Atlanta on Wednesday and spend the night there and then to Honduras on Thursday morning. 

President Christensen's friend from high school Aaron Jenne.  He works from the quorum of the 12 and is an area seventy. 

 

Day 3 at the MTC

Day 3 was another great day at the MTC.  In the morning we heard from President Oaks, Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Stevenson, Sister Emily Belle Freeman, and Elder Kearon.  Then in the afternoon we had a discussion panel with Elder and Sister Basset, Elder and Sister Budge, and Elder and Sister Ringwood. Then in our break out session we were taught by Elder and Sister Palmer, Elder and Sister Wada, and Brother Droubay.  Then we went to a fireside with all the missionaries in the MTC.  Elder Soares and his wife spoke.  It was so cool to sing Called to Serve with all the young missionaries.  They sang To Bring the World His Truth for the closing song and instead of singing "we will be the Lord's missionaries", they sang "we are now the Lord's missionaries" to bring the world His truth. After the fireside we had dinner with Elder Gong and all of the mission leaders going to Mexico and Central America.  We sat with Elder Nash and his wife Shelley.  It was really sweet, Elder Gong and Sister Gong bore their testimonies in Spanish. 

Taking the iconic picture at the MTC pointing to the country we are serving in.

Funny fact about President Christensen.  He does not like sheep in pictures of the Savior.  He said there were way too many sheep in this picture. 

Elder Kearon did a role play of his conversion story.  It was really impactful. 

President Christensen played a prank on me when we got our mission call.  He put a fake call in an envelope.  The fake call was to Bengaluru India.  I freaked out when I opened it.  He found the President who is actually serving in Bengaluru India and took a picture with him. 

Fireside with all the missionaries in the MTC

Lori and Broc Hiatt. They will be serving in the San Pedro Sula West mission

All of the mission leaders serving in Central America that are in the MTC now and Elder Gong and his wife and 2 of the members of our area presidency and their wives, Elder Ryan Olsen and Julie Olsen, and  Elder Gregorio Casillas and Alma Casillas.

Kirt ran into the missionaries that we taught the 1st day and visited with them.

Kathleen, my niece,  met me at lunch time for a hug and a picture.  She works at the MTC as a Finish language teacher.