A Busy Week in the Mission

The first part of last week we traveled to Corozal so Elder Magnusson could set apart this missionary before he departed for his mission to Honduras.  His father was one of the first members from Belize to serve a mission.  This young elder will be serving in the same mission that his father served in many years ago.     

When we were in Corozal and Orange Walk this week, we used our pickup truck to move furniture between missionary apartments.  Thankfully we were able to have some branch members to help us move the heavy furniture.  

Elder Magnusson went back to school! Our church's Humanitarian Program donated the funds to have library bookshelves constructed by the Belizean Mennonites for the St. Matthews Government Elementary School. Here, the elated school principal Michelle Gordon meets Paul Woods (center), church temporal affairs administrator in Belize, René Gomez (right), church public affairs director and Elder Magnusson (left) first counselor in the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission presidency.

As part of the church's donation to the school, students also received kits of school supplies.

The Mennonites are known as woodworking craftsmen in Belize; they discounted their furniture for this donation. 

These beautifully stained, hardwood bookcases will serve St. Matthews Government school for many years.

This wasn't the first collaboration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the Mennonite community. Desks on the left are what the students have had. New, church-purchased and Mennonite-built desks on the right are sturdier and contribute to a better learning environment for Belizean youngsters.

Here is a video that was posted on Facebook about the event.

You can also see the video by clicking here.

On Saturday, we had a zone conference with all the missionaries serving in Belize.  President Adams, the assistants, zone leaders, and sister training leaders taught us well.

 The missionaries practiced with each other what they learned in their training.

We were in charge of feeding the missionaries at the end of zone conference.  Sister Flake made yummy homemade frosted sugar cookies that were a big hit. The chips of preference?-- Cheetos, of course!

Tonight we attended a baptism.  One of Elder Magnusson's first teaching visits when we arrived in Belize City was with this brother.

When our children served their missions, we had a missionary board set up in our kitchen that helped us think about them and their service in their missions.  It was fun to receive an email with this picture of our missionary board Lisa made for us that is in Rachel and Lisa's home  Salt Lake City.  

We are watching and praying for all those who are affected by the natural disasters that are happening lately.  We felt the earthquake that occurred on Wednesday in Mexico 500 miles away. We are monitoring the many hurricanes that are forming in the Caribbean.  As far as we can tell, none of the new hurricanes will affect Belize.  

We are proud of our church's involvement through our humanitarian outreach and the Helping Hands program.   This video talks about how the Mormon Helping Hands lifted hearts in wind-damaged South Texas.  

You can also see the video by clicking here.

Click here to read another article about 11,000 Mormon volunteers who worked this weekend to help save Texas homes from being destroyed by mold from the hurricane flooding.