Honduras News

Deric has been in Honduras for a little over a month now. We have been able to "talk" to him through e-mail the last 3 weeks. It's fun but probably a little hectic for him. I am at home, Conrad is at work and Felycia is at school. Depending on the time, all three of us are sending e-mails with questions for him and he is trying to answer all of us. I got a taste of how he feels yesterday when Conrad and Felycia started sending me questions while I was trying to send notes to Deric.

Yesterday, Deric's important question was, "What can replace shortening in a recipe?" I told him that applesauce or butter would probably work. Last week, he said that the food is hard to get used to. He doesn't eat enough fruit and vegetables so he needs a way to get more fiber in his diet. He thinks the snacks are a little strange and has asked for better stuff. I gave him recipes for 1-2-3 Sugar Cookies and Peanut Butter Cookies. Besides the shortening and brown sugar, all the other ingredients are quite common. Deric and his companion have a cook. I think he was giving the recipes to her to let her try them. We'll see how that works. Conrad tried to have his cook in Chile make pancakes with his mom's recipe. It didn't come out so great.

Deric is enjoying his mission. He has celebrated a birthday for one of the Sister Missionaries. The zone had a group p-day and watched Charly. They play a lot of soccer. Next week, they are going to golf with the zone leaders at the 'country club'. I'm surprised that he hasn't asked for his cleats and shin guards yet.

There is political strife in Honduras right now. I think Deric is protecting his Mom. I asked if he knew anything and he told me he didn't. However, Conrad and Felycia got different responses. I probably know more than all of them because I keep up with a news feed from Honduras on the Internet. I check at least once a week. So far, the problems in the capital, Tegucigalpa, are not really causing problems in Deric's area. He is not too far from San Pedro Sula, but it is fairly rural in his area. Mostly, life is carrying on as usual. I don't worry about Deric in Honduras. He knows that if he follows the rules and the Spirit he will be fine.

Thanks for your support.

Best Vacation Ever

Conrad and I are going on our first real vacation ever. We are going to spend nearly two weeks in Kenya, Africa. It is really going to happen. We booked our plane reservations on Friday. We get to go on a three day-two night safari in the Masai Mara Game Reserve. We will have plenty of time to see the sights in Nairobi. We want to visit the National Museum and the August 7th Memorial Park. We are excited to shop at the City Market and tour the Kazuri Bead Factory. However, the most exciting part of our trip will be spending all that time with my parents on their mission. They have been there for about 6 months now. By the time we get back home, it will be close to their halfway mark. Lots of photos and updates will be coming in November.

College Stuff

I just got a text from Felycia. Her microwave started sparking when her roommate tried to heat something up. I guess it's a good thing we are going up this weekend. We'll just get a new one.

Felycia had her first math test yesterday. She was very concerned that she wouldn't do well. She ended up with a 90%. That's great because she said the class average was 60%.

Felycia and two of her roommates came down here for Labor Day weekend. We had lots to do. We went to a high school football game that was called after the 3rd quarter because of lightning. We drove down the strip so they could see all the people and the lights. Too bad that none of the attractions (Sirens at TI, volcano, Bellagio fountains) were going. We did see the cops arresting someone. That was a big deal. We went to a baptism on Saturday and church on Sunday. Monday, we went to a soccer game for Allyssa. It went 8 rounds in a shootout before Allyssa's team won. It was the championship game for a tournament. The girls spent some time doing homework before they headed back to school.

Felycia is working at Desert Edge Dance Company. She teaches a couple of tumbling classes on Friday afternoons. It seems to be going well and it gives her a little bit of spending money.

Felycia loves her ward and is having fun at all the ward and Institute activities. She is doing well in all her classes. I am still the proofreader for her papers. It just has to be done through e-mail now.

News from Honduras

ElDeric has been in Honduras for three weeks now. He is learning the language and sweating up a storm. Deric let us know that he taught about 30 lessons the first week he was there. On Saturday, he had three baptisms. He was the one who got to do the baptizing. He said he didn't even mess up the prayers. Pretty cool.

ElDeric sends his weekly e-mail to us at about the same time every week. We watch and are able to "talk" to him via e-mail. It was really fun yesterday. Conrad was at work, I was at home, and Felycia was done with class for the day. We spent about 2 hours. Poor Deric had to keep track of three different conversations. We printed them all and are putting everything in a binder to keep for when he gets home.

I have a list of things to buy and try to send. I hope a package will get to him.

Thank you to all of you who keep him in your prayers.