From Tegucigalpa to Washington D.C.

Monday, December 16, 2013

A sweet sister in our ward offered to drive us for groceries today so that we didn’t have to take a taxi. Two of her children were in school and the two-year-old came with us. She is of Mexican decent but moved to Utah with her parents when she was two years old and was raised in Salt Lake where she attended West High.

Of course her English is great since she was raised in Utah, and we had a delightful morning. She stopped at Little Caesar’s Pizza on the way home and treated us to pizza for lunch. While we were there, she shared her story with us about how she and her husband ended up in Honduras. It is rather lengthy and some of it is terrifying, so it is hard to know just what to share.

Her husband is from Honduras. They met in Utah after his father and family, who had a thriving cheese-making business in Honduras, were robbed, threatened, and his mother kidnapped for days and then just left along the roadside. This woman managed to survive. Just prior to this experience, the husband was able to get a gun away from thieves who were robbing tithing money from the Church. They made terrible threats against him. After his wife survived the kidnapping and beating, he gathered his family and fled to the United States where they developed a good business but did not get citizenship.

After the young couple, who met at West High, married, they had three beautiful children, a home, and a good job. Both of their families were close by and all seemed well. However, her husband encountered some difficulties—texting while driving—and after swerving his car, was arrested for a DUI and sent to jail for three months. No one would believe he wasn’t drinking—a little racial profiling perhaps. It was a terrible time for them. She had to work two jobs and take care of her children and worry every day about what would happen to them.

Well, he was turned over to immigration and given eight months to get the family’s affairs in order and then return to Honduras. Neither of them had U.S. citizenship even though this mom had been raised in the U.S. since age two. So, two years ago, they came to Tegucigalpa leaving behind their families and the life they had known. It was especially hard for her because she had never lived here. He works for the Church here as a contractor and serves as Elder’s Quorum President in our ward. They are a beautiful little family.

This is an extremely dangerous country where people are threatened, robbed, etc., etc., every day. Law enforcement does little to help and gangs are rampant and ruthless. Even here her husband has been threatened and she is afraid to let her children play outside. They ask to go to the park like they did in Utah, and she has to say no. It has been so hard for her.

She has an amazing attitude and we were so impressed by her strength and great outlook, knowing that she can still help people here and serve the Lord. Her patriarchal blessing has given her great peace about their situation. I know she is homesick and misses her family and her life in the U.S. But she showed no anger or bitterness as she told us her story. She is a patient mom who loves her children and will raise them in righteousness.

The kids, Moroni--7, Malorie--8, and Darwin--2 helped her make chocolate chip cookies tonight and they brought us a plate about 8:00 p.m. and sang “We Wish you a Merry Christmas.” I finally had kids to hug tonight, and they had “stand-in grandparents” to share their cookies with.

Darwin warmed up to me and I finally had a child to hug!

Scenes like this still amaze me. It is like this all over the city and I'm surprised the whole city doesn't blow-up!

This is Lupe--the friend who took us to get groceries today and shared her story.

Our FHE group went to the City Mall and had dinner together. This is only part of the group. The van that was hired to take us all together didn't show up, so we had to come in shifts in smaller cars.