Sunday In Honduras

Sunday we attended a branch about an hour away from Tegucigalpa in an area called the Valley of Angels.  We loaded onto buses and drove through the countryside to the church building.  It was a very nice building, but small.  We attended sacrament meeting with the branch members.  After sacrament meeting the branch members were able to go from one classroom to the next and we had items to give to them.  They started with a family picture that we took and then printed and framed for them to take home.  It was such a neat experience to see their reaction as they received their pictures, I'm sure most of them had never had a framed picture of their families.  Some of the things they received were toys, stuffed animals, princess outfits, aprons, schools kits, blankets, soccer balls, books of mormon, jewelry etc.

Jon and I were assigned to help hand out stuffed animals and candy to the kids in one of the rooms.

Heidi stayed in the chapel and played the piano as the families sang and waited for their turn to come to each of the classrooms.  She also played the closing song for sacrament meeting.

The kids were so cute!  

After sacrament meeting we were able to go to the Tegucigalpa Temple and spend some time walking around the temple grounds.  

This is the neighborhood around the temple.

The trees and plants around the temple were beautiful.  Heidi loved the palm trees!

After the temple we got on the buses again and headed to a fireside.  It was a fireside for the youth on missionary work. Elder Laboriel who is the area authority and Elder Ochoa who is in the area presidency were the speakers.  

We had dinner at a restaurant on top of a mountain that overlooked Tegucigalpa.  It was a long day but a wonderful day of church and service.  

Children's Orphanage Visit Honduras

One of the days we were at the clinic we were able to leave for a few hours and visit a children's orphanage.  Dave Sheets is the one that organizes these humanitarian trips, he has been very instrumental in helping this orphanage improve the conditions that the children are staying in.  It was an eye opening trip for us to see these kids that all had disabilities and have been orphans since birth.

We delivered a new pillow, pillowcase and blanket to each child.

One of the rooms the children slept in

These are the girls that take care of the children.  They were also orphans and were raised in an orphanage.  Now they are here helping raise these orphans.

Everywhere we went we had two police escorts.  We never once had to stop!  They said it was too dangerous to have us stop so they kept us moving at all times.

Honduras Clinic Days

We worked in the dental clinic for 4 days.  They were long hard days, but very rewarding.  It is amazing to see the faithfulness of these young men, young women and their leaders.  Some of them would travel as far as four hours away to be at the clinic early in the morning.  Not leaving the clinic until late at night to travel back home.

We had kids that were local members that came and helped us with translating.

I worked the registration desk, where all the kids came first to get their paperwork done.  I had to assign them a number and then organize all the papers and then they headed to get a haircut if they needed one, a picture and then to the medical Dr. for a physical and lab work.  From there they went into the dental clinic area to start the long process of dental work.  

This boy looked just like LeBron James

The kids were always asking to take pictures with us.  

Heidi worked in the x-ray area

As the Stakes would arrive each day they would take a group picture of them.  Then they would sit in the waiting area outside the church to come in and register and go through the clinic.

Where we ate lunch and dinner each day 

Outside the church we were working in for the four days

Abby a translator that worked with us

Registration Area

Oral Surgery Recovery Area

Heidi taking x-rays

Oral Surgery Area

All the x-ray team

Jon and Davey the oral surgery recovery workers

We had armed guards surrounding the church each day

Each day after I got everyone registered I would go into the clinic and work with these two ladies.  We ran patients back and forth to dentists, hygienists, endodontists or oral surgery.  Ellen (on the right) was in charge of  making sure we got all the patients through the clinic each day.  It was a very stressful job keeping the clinic flowing and kids going through as fast as we could so they could get home.  Each day we saw about 180 kids.  

Oral Surgery

The boys loved to take pictures with Heidi

Heidi and Johan one of the translators

The board in the clinic that informed the dentists how many patients we were seeing each day and how many were left during the day.  The sticky notes we gave to the kids as they got done with x-rays so we could keep them in order of how they came into the waiting area.

The waiting area before coming in to get registered

The Dental Clinic

X-ray Area

Jon taking a break from his job!

Jon and Antonio a translator that worked with him in the oral surgery recovery room

There were two kids that didn't do to well after all the work they had done.  Jon was able to use his skills and put an IV in them.  These kids are amazing, they are in the dental chairs getting work done for many hours then they go straight to the oral surgery and get their wisdom teeth pulled.  Many of them haven't eaten anything since the day before.  They have no idea coming into this what is going to happen to them.  They probably have never been to a dentist before.

The board on the last day of the clinic.  We saw 717 kids and 421 of them had oral surgery!

It was sad to see our service come to an end.  We enjoyed each day and got to know and work with some great people.  In a matter of just about an hour the church was back to being a church and we were all packed up and on busses back to the hotel.  

On the bus the last night with all the dentists luggage with all their equipment and supplies