Mission Summary

I can’t believe that the last two years have passed so fast. It feels as though the day would never come, but somehow it finally did. After the two years I finally saw my family again, and had the opportunity to go back and see members that I had met throughout my mission with my family. It was an awesome time to see my family in all of the teaching settings where my companion and I shared the gospel. 

 There is not a way to express in words what a mission is. I can’t describe how hard it was, but it is also impossible to express how happy one can be serving the lord. This time has taught me that the things that matter most in this life only come through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that no happiness comes freely, it all depends if we are willing to continue following the Lord.  

Sometimes we may feel like God is punishing us when we receive hard trials. The mission seemed this way to me. But with time I came to realize that these hard trials would become some of the most defining moments of my life.  

I am ever grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission. I will never be able to repay what the people have given to me, all of the meals, time, and their friendship. I will never be able to repay our Heavenly Father for this blessing. 

Hasta Muy Pronto

This is Sam's final letter. What a journey it has been! We are so grateful for everyone who has supported Sam. We appreciate everyone who kept him in their prayers. I know there were letters of encouragement written that got him through difficult times. There were letters written to Val and I that kept us from flying to Nicaragua and bringing him home. We appreciate all your love and support.  

Sam's service has blessed our family in many ways. It has strengthened our ability to trust our Father in Heaven and Savior. His example of obedience and service makes us want to be better and try harder. It is humbling to witness the selflessness of the missionaries that are out sharing the plan of happiness.

Sam will be giving his homecoming report on Sept 25th at 1:30.  We would  love for you to join us for lunch at our house after.

Love you all,

Val and Sheri

Well, I know this is definitely going to be the longest week of the mission. Really feels like a dream it is finishing so fast. I remember in Tipitapa I felt like it was never going to end, buts its finally here! This week was one of the best weeks so far I would have to say!

 First off, on Sunday morning some really big tank looking things were imported, and transported to another location. They were so big, they took up the whole road! We got some really bad traffic and arrived to the Zone meeting about an hour late. Oops. The zone meeting was great, i really like our zone leaders.

   Then later this week, we did divisions with our zone leaders and i went to Chinandega to be with Elder Castro from Panama. It was really fun and he taught me a lot on how to be a better missionary and invite everyone to be baptized.

  The best part however was the baptism this week! We have been teaching the mother of a less active for almost six weeks now named Sara, and she got baptised on Saturday! Just her family showed up to the baptism, but it was so great and spiritual, i really think that they enjoyed it. I cant wait for you guys to meet Sara in the week that comes. She owns a litter dinner on the side of the road and also teaches special ed students how to paint nails! Oh, and her house also doubles as a beauty salon. She is super Pilus (Awesome) She loves to read, she even asked for a gospel principles book after church yesterday.

 A Really sudden storm came into Corinto Yesterday, so fast within ten minutes a blue sky turned into a really big rain strom. Luckily the owner of our house just changed our roof, so we did not get to wet like before!

 I feel so lucky to have been able to finish my mission here in Corinto, I know that this is a very special place, and I do love the people that i have taught here. Thank you all so much for your support and your emails. This experience has blessed my life more than i ever imagined it would. I miss all of you so much and cant wait to see you in the coming week. See you Soon! LES AMO!  

Semana Milagrosa!

Oi Familia! Hows all going back in Utah! Crazy its freezing at night. Here a really cold spell came in with the ran and I had to lower my fan from level three to level two at night. It probably got down to eighty degrees at night! 

 This week was something else, packed with lots of meetings and baptism! First off, we had  news meeting for Elder Hendrix in Managua, so I got to see a bunch of my buddies for the last time before I head home. President Poncio and Mrs Poncio did great jobs delivering their messages. I learned a lot about how to be a better trainer. Then on Friday we had another multi Zone meeting with president again. We practiced teaching in groups and things we can do to be better missionaries. The mission has been really struggling in baptizing lately, but I feel like we are doing well as a companionship. 

 

 On Thursday I worked with Elder Ferrin my old MTC Comp in his area, it was great, we taught a really cool family of theirs, and had a great time.

     This was probably the second most stressful incident in the mission after the incident with the wedding in Leòn. First off we had this investigator who is super awesome, always goes to church and even stays for the classes. We put the baptismal date for the 26 which was on a Friday, because she didn't want to many people to be in the church to see the baptism. Then we found out we had the meeting on Friday, so we moved it to Saturday. Then Friday after the meeting we did divisions, I went to Realejo to do some interviews for some people who were also preparing to be baptized. Then that night a big rain storm came and did damage to the chapels electric system, so the pump for the baptismal font was not working, so we did not have water to do the baptism on Saturday. Luckily the power was restored that night and we filled up the font so she could get baptized the following morning right before sacrament meeting. So Sunday morning we called her and her son to tell them that all was ready for the baptism. 

   The day before the chapel was under maintenance, and they were doing work to the doors. That morning when we went to get the baptismal clothes from a little closet that only the missionaries have keys to, none of our keys worked! They had accidentally switched the door knobs with the primary. So we called the president of the primary to come running with her keys so we could still do the baptism. We started the baptismal service at 8:30 and finished right at nine, minutes before their confirmation in Sacrament meeting. It was a miracle that all worked out, they were so happy to be baptized, it was awesome. Cant wait for you guys to meet them when you come.

Today we just went to the bridge to the island of Corinto and walked across the man bridge. Hope you like the photo, the bay is really beautiful. Then we went and chilled out a little bit with our lunch appointment. It was a really good day. Now we are in the cyber just writing in the AC, really nice. 

Thanks for everything, See you Soon, Les Amo!

 

 

Tres semanas mas!

Hello Utah! Its been a great week, lots of sun and even a bit of rain. I'm really sorry if my emails are sounding the same, but really every week is really much like the last. The biggest milestones are the baptisms though. Unfortunately we have not baptized these last two weeks, but we have some really cool investigators coming up. Some that we have been working with for a while.

 Elder Hendrix is doing well, learning more and more Spanish everyday. Its been so fun talking in English these weeks, even though i know I'm going to miss speaking in Spanish when I get home. Its really ironic, when you get to the mission you want to speak in English because you cant speak Spanish, but when you are finishing you love to speak it and then you get sent home, where you cant anymore. Bittersweet. 

  I want to talk to you guys about how great our lunch appointment is. You have already heard about them (The ones that had to move their house when the ocean rose). Last week they made us some Nica cake (Torta) as a special gift. They are so considerate to us, it feels like we are living in our own home. The members here are the best. Only thing though, they make me feel really trunky when they are watching the Olympics, the other day they had the diving and volleyball on in there house. The mother also washes our clothes, and sometimes we get get extra garments from the family, haha. I cant wait for you guys to meet them, the dad speaks a little English, he is hilarious. 

 Any way, we also have an investigator named Sara who is super awesome! She reads a ton and owns a cafetin. Well have to step by when you come and try it out! We hope that she will be getting baptized in the weeks that come.

   Those photos of Elder Monsons homecoming were cool, seeing all the people back together again. We all served in Puerto together which is really cool. I'm glad that it all went well. 

Today we went to the plaza in Chinandega to eat, and I ran into my old friend elder Cedeño who started his mission here in Corinto and now is in another part of Chinandega. We had pizza and had a good chat about the mission. Elder Hendrix got sick and his eyes are swollen so he wears sun glasses everywhere he goes! Haha, man new people get sick always. Prepared to get sick! Just kidding, just got to make sure you stay away from anything questionable food that is.

      Love you all tons and see you soon! 

 

 

Hola

Hey fam, thanks for all the great news that you have written, glad to hear that home is still home and not to much has changed... I hope. 

   This week was really great. We have been working with a bunch of people for a while and this week we worked really hard to put baptismal dates in the weeks coming. Most of them accepted a date, but are quite nervous about the goal. An experience that was really cool this week was we taught a lesson to an investigator her sister that is a member. We talked about if she believes if the book of Mormon is true, and if the church is true and if she feels like she needs to be baptized. The spirit was so strong that she started to cry, and put the baptismal date for the third of September. I am really excited to see this investigator to get baptized, because she reads above and beyond what we leave her in the book of Mormon.

    The weather has been really hot this week. We got rain at the beginning of this week, but just hot heat afterward. It always looks like rain is coming, but the clouds just seem to navigate around Corinto, leaving us with plenty of sunshine. That's ok though, a little sun don't hurt. 

  This week Stalin our convert received the priesthood, his mom even invited us to lunch on Saturday. She normally sells something called bough on Saturday, which is beef, yucca, and cooked bananas. It was really good. She gave us so much though that I could not finish it all. 

    We had quite a miracle as well. At the beginning of this week, a member who runs a tricycle for a living stopped us to have us say a prayer for his cousin who was in the hospital. Then later that week we were looking for a guy who showed up to church with a member. This guy just so happened to be the uncle of the girl who went to the hospital, and the night we got to his house the girl just got back from the hospital. Small world in Corinto. This family has once been really associated with missionaries, so hopefully they will progress. 

That's all for this week. The photo here is of us two at the end of this giant rock spine that goes out into the ocean. The other is with an English professor at church.

 Love you guys all so much, have a great week!  

Bautismo!

Querido Amado Familia. 

            I cant tell you how happy all of your emails make me! Davis sent me a bunch of video clips from back home, and I cant lie, it sure makes me excited to come back. It feels almost like a dream, something that when I started felt like it would never end. Only five weeks left now. Cant wait to see you guys!.

     This week I went to Managua to pick up my new trainee missionary! It was a really long ride all the way from Corinto to Managua. I stayed with Elder Mejia from Spain and we left at three thirty in the morning to get to Managua at 9. We thankfully arrived on time, and all was well. We then had a four trainers meeting before we got to know our comps. Then we joined the two groups of trainers and trainees together and received the new missionaries. My comps is Elder Hendrix from Georgia. Hes a really nice guy who loves martial arts and has a southern accent. After the meeting a few buses took us back to the bus terminal and we took the 4 hour bus ride back to Chinandega. Before we got to Corinto the buses had ended so we stayed the night with the zone leaders. They didn't have a lot of fans so we slept  outside on some mattresses, only to wake up to a huge thunder storm that got me a little soaked! And lightning that made the car alarms go off.  We left to Corinto the following morning and all was well.  had a great week together.

     Our investigator Stalin (Whos Latino and Russian hence the name) Got baptized this week! He is such a great kid. His baptism was also on his 13 birthday, so we had a party afterward. His grandpa is a member of the high council in Managua, so he came to do the baptism and the confirmation. It was a really great experience. Hes really excited to get the priesthood this week as well. 

   Joselyn who we baptized a few weeks ago is moving to New York today to live with her parents. First shes going to Salvador, then from There to New York. Sad thing to see the converts take off so fast.. 

All else is really great here. Yesterday was a scorcher, i`d say the hottest its been yet in Corinto. Hopefully we`ll get some cool weather soon. 

 Love you all so much and  cant wait to see you soon.

 

 

Voy A Entrenar!

Hey familia, thanks for the emails that you sent me, they make me smile every time! All is great here in Corinto!

First off, we had quite a miracle this week, we have been teaching a mom and her daughter for the last month, and they have been super awesome! They always went to church and had a baptismal date. Then all of a sudden they didn't come to church one week, and we could not find them in their house. We thought they lost interest in the church and we stopped visiting them. Then our friend Andres Brought them to the church activity on Thursday, and they loved it. We talked about their baptismal goal, which was in two days from this Thursday. She said it came really quick, but was really excited for her baptism. They were both baptized on Saturday. And seeing that she is from El Salvador, she wanted our zone leader Elder Alvarado from Salvador to baptize her. He is finishing his mission today, so it was his last opportunity to baptize here in Nicaragua. The baptismal service was great.

Also, we had changes and guess who is going to Puerto Cabezas! Elder Paau my companion! So i am going to stay here and train a new missionary that's coming tomorrow to Nicaragua. I believe his name is elder Hendrix. Its going to be so great. In the meantime, I am chilling out with Elder Mejia from Spain in Corinto. He is going to train as well. Im really excited to train a Gringo! We will have to practice lots of Spanish so he can learn quickly. 

That's all that's happened this week. I love it here in Corinto. And I love all of you Guys! Thanks for Everything!