We had to wait a long time for a taxi-moto to come by so we could take our tired bodies home. Then we shared the taxi-moto for part of our ride. This is a view from the inside of one. Great way to travel--and the price is right! July 11th and 12th
Our trip every other weekend is down to Esquipulas (as in towards the south), or up to Esquipulas (as in an elevation change of maybe 3000 feet in altitude). As I have stated before, it is about an hour and 20 minutes depending on the “on and off” stops. Sometimes it’s kind of wild on the curved roads. It is a beautiful ride, especially during the rainy season.
Now, at any moment if this report starts to gag you know you can stop reading. Hang on if you will.
When we left Saturday morning with our suitcases (Jeanine always packs three nice meals in a little ice chest), I wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t be a let down from out other memorable trips. But we called the elders and asked them to show us where President Lajpop does his electrical repairs. He wasn’t really encouraging, but indicated we should head out to Valle de Maria, about a 15 minute taxi-moto ride away (Q10 or $1.20 each way). I said “sure” (like I was sure I could ever find my way around and/or find the homes (I had been out there with the elders on other trips, but Jeanine had never been there—taxi-motos restrict you to three adult passengers). I didn’t tell Jeanine that I was very unsure about it (she usually does the navigating). We did find the first home. No one was there. I was still putting on an act about how to get to the other homes. We tried to go around to the left and then to the right and then back tracked a little and then to the left and to right again (praying inside for some divine help). We came to a house that I remembered. We rang the bell and there was no answer. I told Jeanine to wait there and I ran around the corner to look for other landmarks (houses of members). Things clicked, I motioned for Jeanine to come and we went to the third house/store front. We had a nice religious conversation with the store attendant, but the member family was gone and wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours. We went to the fourth home as I remembered it. As I looked through the door, it did seem familiar. The children (los patojos) were playing marbles and said they didn’t know where the mom was. Originally one had indicated she was there. We played word “games” telling them to go back again and look because we had come a long way and we wanted to see her. They won the game. Maybe she was and maybe she wasn’t in the back of the house. Well, did we come to Esquipulas and then out to Valle de Maria to just wander around? We started trudging up the dirt street thinking maybe we’d see a taxi-moto. There was a father and kids unloading some reject stalks of bananas. I greeted him and chatted about the bananas; and what would they do with them, and how I love the little stubby bananas. There is a name for this type of banana. They are extra sweet, but don’t keep very long at all. He was responsive in the conversation. We told him who we were and asked if he knew something about the church and then if they would let us give them a message. He invited us in. He and his wife were nice. We started in on the first lesson. He was willing to give the prayer and both of them gave intelligent answers. It was a good discussion. They invited us to come back. We joked about giving us one of those bananas. We’ll go back!
Since some time had passed, we thought we’d check back at some of the doors. No change at the fourth door, then to the third door—nothing, then to the second door and nothing. We were getting ready to go back to the first door, when a truck pulled up beside us—the Santo family (door number three). They had neighbors with them and they were bringing home sacks of beans to sell at the store. Black beans are the staff of life here.
We followed them back to their house and had a wonderful visit. They introduced us to the neighbor friends and we talked about the church and sang a hymn and had a prayer. It was a wonderful feeling. They came to church today. Just a little background information: Hermana Santos was very ill two weeks ago. That is the day the elders and I visited. Hermano Santos was out of town on a work project. We gave her a blessing—and never knew the results until this weekend. She had recuperated rapidly and that is what precipitated a nice conversation with the store attendant. I think that is also why Sister Santos was willing to come into the living room to join in our gospel discussion. She has some hard feelings about past events. She wasn’t among the two families who came to church, but it is progress. Another day I will tell you about her hurt feelings. But her husband came and brought the nonmember neighbors.
We had to work at finding a taxi-moto to go back to the hotel. It was the wrong hour (about 1:30, which is during siesta time). Where I am going with all this trivia of time delays is this: we were being guided during the time we were in search for people. We needed to come in contact with them and be of service, but it needed to be at the right moment when these people could be found.
Let me illustrate further. We had another appointment with a family for early afternoon. But after walking so much that morning and from the lack of good sleep Friday we were really tired, but we ate a quick lunch that Jeanine prepared and then went on to our appointment. This visit involved another long walk to get there and we used a 30 minute Book of Mormon film. It was good. Then we walked to the Supermercado for a couple of perishables that we didn’t want to bring from Chiquimula. Then we went back to the hotel for a much appreciated siesta. When we got up it was around 4:30. Hang on, I’m getting there.
We made our last effort to see a less active family, which turned out to be a wonderful visit. We took a taxi-moto there and found all of them home except the father (who really needed the visit the most). But just as we were starting, he returned home and we were able to show our Book of Mormon DVD and sing and pray and encourage.
Now back to all the little time delays. Each delay, it seems, was needed so that we could make the timely visits that we were blessed to participate in. The trip I had been worried about turned out to be such a blessing.
That night we fabricated an excuse to call a Sister about the Sunday School lesson and asked her to encourage her less active husband (my chauffer from the last visit) to come to church. He was there this morning and he even took time to visit with the non-members that came with Julio Santos. He did some great fellowshipping.
The investigator family that came with the Santos has three children. I took the teenager to Sunday School class and supported the teacher and helped them sing better. The class might have been a disaster otherwise.
Jeanine was happy when a Sister came and introduced herself—identifying herself as Hermana Blanca from Altulapa. That is the family I visited on our last trip – who had the ducks! It was dark in their house that night and I didn’t even recognize her this morning at church. Thank goodness she made the effort to connect with Jeanine.
One more thing! If you are gagging now, you can go. On the way to Esquipulas Saturday morning, I read Sister Barbara Thompson’s Sunday morning conference address. I was so impressed with it. I told Jeanine, in an inappropriate way, that it was a wonderful talk, considering it was given be a Sister! I said I might even give it myself sometime. Comments like that put a little fire in our marriage. We laughed and talked that one through. Well, as we arrived at church this morning, I was asked to fill in a gap in the Sacrament Meeting and give a talk (one speaker failed to show). I had no idea what I should talk about. Jeanine said “Well, now is your chance to give the talk by a Sister from General Conference.” And so I did. Sister Thompson gave a great talk and I was able to follow her lead and create something to use in Sacrament Meeting. One more blessing from the Lord.
If you don’t go on a mission as an adult, life is passing you by.
Love,
Dad/Spencer
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