Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Oldest Honduran RM
Hey Everyone,
Wow well I cant believe im writing you guys on July 4th, and at this time id be willing to bet your all down on the University Ave in Provo watching the big parade, when we left our house at about 9 I figured you were all just leaving the house to head down there, if you werent there already. Sadly this time around, for my second year im missing all the July 4th celebrations. Thats alright though, this is my last one I have to miss though, I guess thats the good part. This week went by super fast. On tuesday me and Elder Wasden went around saying bye to everyone because he figured he was gonna be leaving the area and get changes... but after 2 dinners, a cake and lots of years.... he never ended up having changes. Elder Wasden and I are gonna be together for another month and a half. The truth is were really excited and happy to be together again, its gonna be a really good change. We didnt have the best first week but were ready to start another week.
We and Elder Wasden though had a really cool experience on tuesday though. We got a call at 6:35 in the morning as were still crawling out of bed and it was an older guy and wanted to go out with us later that day to go visit with a member that is less active and so I didnt think much of it and we had a normal morning and went and turned in all the marriage papers for the wedding we have this friday. Later in the afternoon we met up with this man and he just says ´´follow me´´ and he took us up a bit and then sat us down to talk to us. He begins by telling us that he is the oldest living Retuned Missionary in Honduras, he served in 69-71 and then he takes out some very old pictures of baptisms and points out a young looking girl in the picture and explains to us that she is still alive today and that this picture was taken March 21, 1953. He was about to take us to the house of the oldest living member of the church in Honduras who was baptized by the first 2 North American Missionaries who in the 50´s served for 30 months. Me and Elder Wasden just looked at each other and we couldnt beleive it. Now the thing is that she hasnt been to church in over 40 years and neither have her kids. Her and her whole family got baptized in the church, and the first Sister Missionaries lived in her house in the 60s. We ended up going and meeting with her for over 2 hours just trying to create the friendship with her. She is well into her 80s now but remembers everything and it was really fun to go talk to her for a while. We were hoping to get her to church for the first time in over 20 years and prepare her to go through the temple when the temple is here and finished. For one reason or another we werent able to get her to church this sunday but we are gonna be working hard with her this week. Its just cool to be able to say that we went with the oldest living RM from Honuras, to visit with the oldest living member of the church. She has even out lived one of the missionaries that baptized her, he passed away in 2006. The other Elder is a twin, and him and his twin are still alive and already have their plane tickets payed for by the church to come here and be part of the Temple Dedication. This man that went out with us is currently writing the Honduran Church History Story, he has a ton of pictures from RM´s and many stories. Its already over 250 pages and he is about to finish it. For going out and visiting with him, he put our names in the Ibook that he is making.
That was just little story that I have been excited to tell you guys all week. I wish Grandma and Grandpa Adams could meet him cuz they could talk for house. He is a church history fanatic, just like my Grandparents and I told him all about them. We had a really good time gettting to know him and Antonieta.
I love you guys sooo much, were gonna have the marriage and 2 baptisms this saturday and were super excited about it. We have been working with them ever since I started here. Dont have too much fun without me today celebrating the freedom of my beloved country!!! I gotta go, thanks for the prayers!! This church Is true!!!
Love Elder Gardner
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