Missionary work is ever changing and evolving. When I first served as a young missionary here in Central America between 1992-1994, our only communication was a weekly, mailed, letter to the Mission President, in person meetings, and nightly check in phone calls on old-school rotary phones, usually in the house where we ate dinner.
Our planning was all done on our blue agendas, one for each week. If you wanted to plan ahead, you kept the current week and the next weeks in your shirt pocket. One side contained the calendar where you would jot down appointments and meetings, and the other side was a roster list of people in teaching. That was it.
Now every single missionary has a Smart Phone. This leads to quite a few discipline and technology problems, which we won’t go into here, but while there are some serious downside issues, of course, there are many more miraculous advantages to be gained by having almost instant communication with every missionary. We use WhatsApp for almost all communication. It’s video calling, audio calling, and text messaging in 1 app, for free. We also use tools like Zoom, for our online meetings.
At about one month in the mission, near the end of July, Emily wrote this:
“We talked about having some mission wide devotionals. A quick devotional the Saturday of before fast Sunday to start the fast off with a mission wide prayer. Another devotional on the 2nd Sunday of the month to do preach my gospel teaching by the president. And a 3rd on the 4th Sunday of the month to share mission miracles with all of the members in our area and our family back home.”
So, we’ve been doing that ever since! The biggest hit has been our “Night of Miracles” that we do every 4th Sunday of the month. It’s been an insightful way to close out the month, talking about specific miracles missionaries have seen in their teaching. We invite all the local members and the families of the missionaries, so we usually have a few hundred people on the Zoom!
On Sunday, August 3rd, we attended church in “La Aldea” Ward, and there was a young man that had received his mission call, but had waited 6 full days to be able to open it with his family and the Ward at the same time… We thought it would be a quick, 5 minute deal, so we happily stayed after the Meeting Block to watch him open it. The Bishop, it turns out, really likes meetings, so we had a full set of hymns, prayers, and even a talk from the Bishop and a talk from me, before the young man got to open his call…
We were all very excited for him to receive his call to Costa Rica San Jose West! That’s where I served as a young man as well.
Elder that got called to Costa Rica, along with his family
We drove back out to La Ceiba, this would be our second time in the first month, to conduct interviews and to do our Multi-Zone Conference.
We are very lucky, in that our Mission has 2 sides of the Mission, “City” with 7 zones and “Country” with 3 zones. The 3 “Country” zones are also quite large, and a few of the “City” zones are pretty small, so it’s not quite as lopsided as it might appear. About 100 missionaries with the “City” side, and 75 missionaries on the “Country” side. This makes it so when we conduct our Multi-Zone Conferences, we only have to do it twice, usually in back to back weeks, with the Interviews thrown into the mix at the same time. It makes for a very long two weeks!
P-day in La Ceiba, at the Miramar Chapel
The normal routine that we’ve gotten into for Multi Zone Conferences is to go on the road for 5-6 days to La Ceiba, and meet up with 3 zones, do the interviews, the Conference, and head home to San Pedro Sula. The next week, we do the same thing, but with even more interview days, since we have more missionaries here in the San Pedro Sula (City) side.
Here’s Olanchito Zone, our most remote zone:
I try to get out and work with the Elders as often as I can. My goal when we started was once a week, but I’m waaaay behind on that. Between meetings, calls, emails and the rest, it’s a never ending treadmill of energy and work. If all I did was sit in the office and respond and update reports, I could stay on top of that part, but obviously the missionary work and connection to the mission would not be great. Or, I could spend all day doing things with the missionaries, the APs, ZLs and DLs and Sister Training Leaders, but I’d never have time to do any of the paperwork and reporting… So, it’s basically 2 jobs in 1.
Out working with a member family in Luisiana, and Elderes Alonso and Warren
Our missionaries always enjoy a chance to laugh, have fun, and enjoy life, in between the grind, pressure and effort that it takes to preach the gospel…
Since the Postal system in Honduras is so poor, as in, I’ve still never received a letter while I’ve been here, and I know that several people sent us Christmas cards, there are member-owned delivery services, mostly people that live in UT, and for some or another, make a somewhat regular trip to Honduras… When they do, they bring packages and drop them off at the 4 Mission Offices around the country.
One of them, Nephi Castro, always makes sure to rent a cool car from the rental agency, and then each Mission Office basically poses like they are doing an “album shoot” and then they share the pictures between the missions to see who’s picture was the best:
Elders Doing Their “Album Shoot” w/ Nephi Castro’s Rental Car
A time honored tradition in the mission, is to commemorate the different milestones… Typically that involves burning a tie for 6 months, a shirt at 1 year, and a full suit at either 18 months, or the 2 year mark. I was very surprised to learn of another tradition, at least in this mission… At the 18 month mark, the Elders put on a dress and take a picture…
Elders Garcia Montes (Mexico), Presidente Christensen, Turcios (Honduras)
Celebration of 18 months in the mission, the length of a “Sister Mission”
We have a Branch in the Mission in a small town, called Coyoles… One year ago, the branch was nearly dead, they have a chapel and everything, but it’s a small town, and attendance was only about 20.
One year later, with some amazing members, and hard-working missionaries, they’ve had nearly 50 baptisms, and attendance is approaching 220. The crazy thing, is that only 90 people fit in the Chapel, so it’s fully packed, and the rest watch on a monitor in the Relief Society Room on the other end of the building!
I made the trip out there, it’s about 6 hours away on the shortest road, which turns to gravel for about 50 miles…
High up in the Honduran Mountains, on the Way to Coyoles, the “Back Way”
Baptisms in Coyoles, with Elders Turcios & Lopez
LDS Chapel in Coyoles, Honduras
Spent the Night in Yoro, w/ Elders Faise, Gomez Pinchilla, Garcia & Miles
Morning Study Time w/ the 4 Elders in Yoro
On August 14th, we were privileged to have our first visitors to Honduras! Emily wrote up the trip as follows:
“Tanner and Emilie found tickets to Honduras for low miles back in May. They reserved them even though they didn't think there was any way that it would work out for them to come and visit. But miracles happen and everything worked out for them to come. To say I was so excited was an understatement. I got to meet my grand baby!! She is so adorable. We went back to the house and had lunch, took naps, and hung out at the pool.”
Picking up our Visitors at the Airport
At the Mission Office, at “Ground Zero” for the HSPSE Mission
Elder Quej (Guatemalan, and about 5’2”) measuring up to Tanner (6’10”)
Beach Time in Tela, About 1.5 Hours from San Pedro Sula
Beach in Tela
Lunch (and Hike) at Angeli Gardens, Such a Cool Place
At the end of August, the 21st and 22nd, we had our very first “Mission Leader Seminar” in Guatemala, with the other 7 couples that just started this year.
(These meetings are organized by the Area Office, which makes it super nice, we really only have to show up at the airport, and they take care of the rest, including booking all of our travel, hotels, transport, and they even fill out our immigration cards to travel between countries.)
It’s a wonderful chance to meet up with the other mission leaders, and all 19 mission presidents and wives get together along with the Area Presidency, every 6 months, usually in a different location around Central America… The Seminar in April 2026 will be in Roatán, part of our mission, and a place we go to all the time!
These seminars are intense, we flew in Thursday morning, met all afternoon, had dinner until late at night, and then a full day Friday, and back to Honduras early, early Saturday morning!
Dinner at the Giratoria Restaurant, Overlooking Guatemala
City, it Rotates 360 Degrees every Hour
Guatemala City
President Christensen in a demonstration w/ Elder Casillas and Elder Olsen
Front row seats at the seminar, it’s all assigned, you sit where your name tag is, alongside our friends from Costa Rica, serving in Nicaragua, President & Sister Venegas
Boarding the Plane to Guatemala City w/ the Aguilars (Service Mission Advisors & Former Mission Leaders in Costa Rica)
The Viejos Going Home on August 27th, 2025
Every day on the mission feels loooong, lots of hours, going non-stop most days. The days that aren’t non-stop are spent catching up on the piles of documents to sign, paperwork to file and planning that has to be done.
…But each week, month and especially the 6 week transfer cycle, fly by. Once we get our transfer board done, conduct the week of transfers, dig into planning for Zone Conferences and conduct Interviews, it’s about time to start it over again!
These young men and young women are the best of the best. We love them with all of our heart, and are so proud of the hard things that they do. This is NOT an easy mission, but it’s extremely rewarding, we are seeing miracles, small and large, routinely. We see new and old members putting their faith in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, and that makes all the difference in their lives!
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