Easter Sunday

Our Easter Sunday this year in Roatan was quite different from others we have had in the past. Below is a letter Dustin wrote to our family back home regarding our experience but we wanted to save it in our blog also as a journal entry.

Here's a few pictures we also wanted to remember.....

Even though it was very scary his first Sunday, every week now Ethan plays the closing hymn during our church meeting.   He also plays the prelude music as people enter in....

He also finds the time to teach the kids new handshakes......

Journal Entry - 4/20/2014

I thought I would share our experience of Easter Sunday this morning down here in Roatan...quite different from any other I've ever attended.  But what started out as an almost comical experience for me turned into one of the most meaningful Sacrament meetings I've been to in a long time.  

We showed up this morning about 10 minutes early because Stephanie is the new "Audio Technical Distribution Engineer".  That's a fancy title that we made up for audio translator headphone passer outer.  Because this is a tourist stop for many of the cruise ships, we always have visitors from the states who are passing through, or here for a week on vacation.  This is the only branch or ward in Honduras that has these headphones in Sacrament meeting.  So she passes them out to the visiting "Gringos" and welcomes them, etc.  A perfect calling for her, she loves it.  

As we arrived it was raining, and no one had opened the windows in the chapel, so it was like a sauna inside with all the humidity.  I opened up all the windows, and there were probably about 10 other people there.  

The branch president was gone, as was the first counselor, so the 2nd counselor was in charge.  He didn't seem in too much of a hurry to start, and at 9:15 he finally got up to ask everyone to move up, since there was only a handful of people.  As we got up to move up, a dog pranced into the building (there are dogs everywhere here) and started heading into the chapel like he owned the place.  Someone shooshed him out before it got too crazy, and so we all moved up.  I smiled as I thought, "don't think I've ever had that happen before."  Five minutes into the meeting, the rain was coming down so hard that the power went out.  Fans, lights, the microphone, everything.  So we had to open the two front doors to let some light in, and it was still a little obscure as we began the meeting.  The sister missionary got up to lead the music with no piano accompaniment (Ethan usually does the last hymn, and every week I feel a twang of guilt like I should be helping with this as well) and most of the members sing off key, so it is always an experience.  

The branch president had told me yesterday that we would be having a quasi-testimony meeting and hearing from those who had gone on the temple trip the past few days.  As I looked at the small #'s in the congregation (it's usually packed to the rafters with people), I realized that other than our own family, there were probably about 3 other people in the congregation who had been on that trip.  I started thinking, "uh oh, this is going to be a short meeting".  I advised the kids that we were going to need to bare our testimonies regarding the trip, and asked them to be thinking about that.  

And so we began the administration of the sacrament, with no lights, no fans, no microphone, and it pouring rain outside with the doors of the chapel open so that we could see.  I smiled and shook my head at the thought of the grand Easter Musical Programs I had attended in the past and thought how different this was.  

But something amazing happened as the Sacrament prayer started.  This humble man who struggles to read the prayer each week began, and the Spirit washed over me.  I felt an immense gratitude to him for administering this sacred ordinance, and making it possible for me to participate in it.  As the bread was passed and I partook, I thought of the Savior and His sacrifice, and especially his resurrection which we were celebrating today, and the Sacrament took on a meaning that I had never before experienced.  As I thought of the covenants I was renewing, I was so grateful to Him for all He did for me.  

After the Sacrament, I was still somewhat emotional when they invited us up to bare our testimonies.  Brother Sanchez, who is the translator, and one of the only other ones who was at the temple excursion looked at me like, "Please come up and go first".  So I went up and bore my testimony about the experience I had just had, thanked the priesthood for administering it to us and then bore my testimony of the wonderful temple trip that we had had.  I was so grateful to so many of them for the sacrifice they make to go to the house of the Lord and make covenants.  The trip cost our family about $500, which was a lot for our budget this month, but we had faith that all would work out.  But I then realized that $125 per person for these humble people is probably more like $1,000 to us.  And yet they are SO excited to make the 10 hour trip each way in taxi, ferry & bus in order to attend the temple.  How many times have Stephanie and I thought, "eh, we could go to the temple...or we could go to the movies...(which are right next to the temple in Boise)  Maybe we could just go to the temple next week?" We like to joke.  haha.  We've never skipped the temple to go to the movies, but I realized how much we take it for granted because it is so close.  And how much of a sacrifice it is for these humble people.  

After that, Stephanie got up and shared a beautiful spiritual experience she had had in the Celestrial Room of the temple, and then Ethan got emotional as he shared his testimony of how a simple act such as doing a baptism for a stranger can effect their eternity and free them to continue in their progression.  

Several others shared their testimonies, and I felt the spirit so strongly in this unorthodox Easter Sunday sacrament meeting, devoid of any grand musical #'s, eloquent talks on the Savior, or even air conditioning, lights or a microphone. But the witness of His divinity, sacrifice and resurrection was there nonetheless.  

Happy Easter everyone.  He lives!