Oct. 27, 2013 - A Trip to Honduras

This week, I spent Wednesday Thursday and Friday in Honduras. Can't really say I cared for the place all that much. But then again, I didn't see any of the tourist attractions. Just flew into the airport, took a taxi to Marriott Hotel, and had a bunch of meetings in lawyers offices. I did get to go see a couple of the properties that are the subject of litigation so I'm involved with, and I also was driven up to the brand-new Honduras temple (see photo below).  In one of the lawyers offices, I saw proudly displayed a picture of the lawyer greeting the Pope in Rome, and snapped a shot of it (see below). Look at the expression of complete reverence on his face. You can tell this meant a lot to him.  I don't know how he rated in meeting with the Pope, but he comes from a very prominent family in Honduras.

 

 

Tegucigalpa is not a very attractive city. It is built on hills, and the streets are narrow, winding, filled with potholes, and lined with trash.

In our meeting with one of the attorneys who represents the church, Jorge Burgos, I heard a story of his having received a priesthood blessing from Dick Johnson and one of the local church employees there a couple of years ago. He had been diagnosed with a heart valve condition for which surgery was required. But after the blessing, he was pronounced no longer in need of surgery, and in good health. He is a Catholic, but he believes that God intervened on his behalf through the intermediaries of our church. This, unfortunately, does nothing to persuade him to be baptized. He is one of those people, of whom there are so many these days, who believe that what church you belong to doesn't matter as long as you are a good person and believe in God.

I also found opportunities for gospel discussions with several other people while on this trip, including a civil engineer named Ivonne Cañas. She is a very nice, single, 30-year-old who had two lessons with the missionaries before they unaccountably stopped visiting her. We talked about the book of Mormon, I promised to send her one. I plan to try to arrange for the missionaries to start visiting again.

I also spoke with another of the attorneys, a shoeshine boy, and anyone else who would listen. As I started to talk to the bodyguard for one of the judges in the country (one of eight who always accompany the judge everywhere he goes) he told me he was LDS before I could get very far! That was nice.

It was great to get back to Guatemala, and to Kate. We are now off for church, and after that will head out for a few days in Antigua. The weather is supposed to be bad, but will have a good time anyway.