We normally would
have heard from Dallin on Mother’s Day.
We had Skype ready and we had his face on the screen. After ten minutes of staring at him, the
screen went black and he was gone. He
called us later for literally one minute and told us that widespread storms had
knocked out the power throughout Honduras.
He said that power outages were normal.
He told us that he would call us the following week. We were able to talk with him last Sunday
(5/21).
It was great to
talk with him. We were surprised how
mature he looks and he sounds great. It
was great to see that he is happy. We
enjoyed listening to his Spanish accent.
He speaks better Spanish than English.
He also indicated that he has been healthy for 4 months or so now and
feels like he is used to the parasites down there.
As of May 1st,
Dallin is in Portreillos, Honduras. Portreillos
has a population of 25,000. The area is
rural and very spread out. He is in the
city itself, which has a population of 5,000.
Portreillos is about one hour north of San Pedro Sula. Dallin said that members and non members
alike are extremely kind. He said it is
interesting because many houses also double as a “restaurants” where people go
and eat.
As far as the ward goes,
he said that the size is similar to US wards.
They receive a lot of help from the members and he says his Bishop does
a great job serving the members. In
addition to his mission responsibilities, he has been playing the piano in
conferences and during ward meetings.
They have been working hard and have many investigators to teach.
Dallin’s new
companion is Elder Tahay from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. They get along very well and enjoy working
together. Dallin said he is very
grateful because he has liked all his companions. He and Elder Tahay are very grateful because
they have to cook very few meals. They
are invited to people’s homes for both lunch and dinner. Dallin lives in a duplex style
apartment. He says it is nice and they
have access to a washer for which they are very happy. He told us that the city is very safe. It is very green and there are many rivers in
the region. Unfortunately, it is still
very hot. It is so hot that he had to
buy long sleeve shirts because his arms constantly burning outweighed the
desire to have short-sleeve dress shirts.
He says there is no other heat like Honduras. The other feature they are grateful for in
their house is that one of the rooms has an air conditioner in it.
Dallin mentioned a
couple of fun facts. He said that they
went sightseeing and ran into some people from Saskatchewan. He enjoyed seeing them and being able to speak
English with them. Right now, he speaks
no English except when he is helping his companion learn English during
language study each day. He also
mentioned that the ride into the city is very interesting. They get in vans that are made for 12 but
never have less than 20 in them. He said
it is quite an adventure. According to
Dallin, seat belts do not exist in Honduras.
