Feliz Navidad Familia!

I hope the Christmas spirit is really good back there in Utah, its all great here. People  are so poor, there is not much for presents and other festivities. What is great though, is that everyone here still loves Christmas here, because everyone is Christan! Its really cool to see that here, many people get lost in the idea of presents, and festivities. Here, the people only have Christ to look to, because no one really has money to do other things. I got a photo of the Christmas party, you all look a bit older, especially Daniel and Ike. 

 A Christmas miracle happened this week. I lost my hymn book .... again.... about four months ago at a baptismal service, I left it on top of my bag, and when i took my comp clothes to change because he baptized, it was gone. Well, my friend elder Martell from California was visiting some less actives, and he found it! A little girl robbed it when she went to the service four months ago. Its a little dirty from all the little children, but is still good, and has the note that aunt nick wrote in it. 

Our other miracle was we had a baptism this week. When i first got to Puerto, we visited this lady who did not want much with us. She always said she would go to church, but never ever went. We eventually left teaching her, until this change. Then almost out of nowhere, when we decided to visit her a few weeks ago, she was ready to accept the gospel. Then, she even had her 10 year old baptized this week. It was great to see how some people are not ready to accept the gospel now, but in time they can change. She has not missed church since we first visited. 

Marcos our recent convert is doing good, he came to church twice each Sunday for the last two weeks. Here is a photo of him and my comp. We also had some heavy raining, A members house looks a bit swampy, doesn't it? 

Thanks for all that you guys do, have a great cold Christmas this year, and always remember that giving is always better then getting. Love you all!

A la Muelle

Hola Amado familia!

   How has the Christmas season been going up there in the freezing cold. Always hot and sunny here in Nicaragua. This week has been super great with my new comp Elder Torres. He is just a ball of energy, who loves to work and is always happy. It is great. 

   We had a baptism this week with a guy named Marcos. We found him about three weeks ago with Elder Shawcroft. This guy was so excited to be baptized and change his life. What amazes me is how much he has changed. Before, people say that he would wander around town drunk, doing nothing. But then he had a change of heart over the past few weeks. He has been sober since we found him. Even though 99 percent of the people we are trying to help reject it, the one percent makes up for it. We did have some problems though... When we got to his baptism at 9 am, the font was completely filthy, full of dirt because they had recently cleaned the water pumps that pump for all of Puerto. We had to spend and hour and a half draining and cleaning it and then another hour to fill it. Marcos and his mother waited 2 and a half hours for him to be baptized, it was great. He then went to church Sunday morning, and then again Sunday night! What a miracle. 

   Today my comp and I went out to meet our friend Chester on the Pier of Puerto. I snuck in some photos as well. Almost all the money that comes from Puerto comes from the sea. Today we seen a guy dragging a train of 6 gigantic turtles up the pier. They will surely end up as lunch tomorrow. It is kind of sad, but the people got to eat something more than beans and rice. 

Thanks for all the emails. I feel really distant from you guys. Cant wait for the 25! We will make plans next week for when we can talk. Any time is ok for me. Love you all, have a great week!

 

 

Lots of coke and our friend Frank

Adios Shawcroft

Elder Shawcroft and Elder Croft

 This week was great, we worked really hard, have a lot of people investigating the church, and even have many people getting ready to be baptized in the upcoming weeks, then disaster happened, Shawcroft got sent to estali, outside of the zone. It was so sad, all he kept saying is that he wanted to be in Puerto Cabezas for Christmas. Its a big bummer to see him leave. The photo included is Shawcroft and I with Puerto in the back. Today I got a new companion called Elder Torres from Guatamala. He is a very nice guy from what I can tell, but I only have 3 hours with him. He is 25 years old, but I know that my spanish is going to improve a lot having a latino companion again. 

Funny story, we had to got to the police office to get some papers for Shawcroft's Visa here. When we were waiting in line, a big fat rat came running around the floor over peoples feet and hid behind a board in the office. Luckily an office worker quickly jammed the board into the wall, squishing all of its contents (The Rat). Pretty gross, those things are everywhere. We seen three of them in the rafters of our house the other night chasing one another fighting. 

A big fat dump truck got stuck in our area this week, it was tyring to go over a small bridge this week, and it did not support its weight, and the little passover broke. The truck had to empty all its garbage over the street when they were getting it unstuck, so it was like a little dump in the middle of town, not that much different than other places, because people throw their trash on the ground anyway. 

 Its water pear season, so some of these trees give off these pink needles where the flowers are, after they fall off, it looks a bit odd with these patches of pink on the ground. 

Our new branch presidency is doing well, but Francisco has gotten an infection around his hip, it looks pretty bad, and he does not have any money to treat it. It is so sad how poor some are here, he did not have 35 cents to get an injection to help the pain before we went to his house. They are absolutely broke, I think he only lives off of rice and beans, like many others here.

Thats all for this week, thank you for all the emails. I know that it gets kind of boring having to write me each week, but I really appreciate it. It is so nice to hear what is going on back at home. I already know i have forgotten a lot about that place, it feels like it has been forever since i have been home. In three weeks we can talk on Skype again, that will be great. Thanks for everything, love you all! 

Dia de gracias!

Happy Thanksgiving for all of you, and hope that el espiritu de navidad is there in Utah. Christmas is starting to be seen around here, most people are so poor that they don't have decorations, but others go all out. Thanks for all the emails you sent me, sounds like all is going well at home.

This week we received a new presidency in our branch. President Glen was ready to have a break, all of the pressure was on that family. Whats crazy is that all of the new branch presidency is new converts! All of them! That means all of them have less than a year as amember. Even crazier is that Accordino and my convert Francisco was called as second councilor. He had never missed a day of church until the day he was called, because he got really sick this Sunday... que suerte. But it is so great to see new people taking on great roles in the church.

Mom and dad, I had been afraid to tell you that i lost my baptismal clothes a couple of months ago, we had a baptism, and i could not find my pants for the longest time. This week Elder Monson had a baptism with his new companion, and they had the family who washes our clothes baptize their new convert. Afterward, I found my pants hanging out to dry, full of sand because the baptism was at the beach. I was really happy about that. 

On Thursday we had a Thanksgiving breakfast! My friend Elder Walker from South Carolina cooked crapes for breakfast, they were great.

 On Friday we went to the hospital to find a recent converts mother who is very ill, we searched for an hour, but could not seem to find her. The hospital is so out of date, and dirty, no one really wants to be there, but people dont know how to take care of themselves here, so everyone ends up going all of the time. We did however find another member and their baby sick in the hospital, and talked with them, then even crazier we found a member of the district presidency in the hospital with appendicitis! We gave him a prayer, because there were to many people around to do a blessing, but he looked really sick, he could not even open his eyes due to the pain. 

The photo I am sending was at lunch in a place called membreños, We are all in the same district. There's Elder Shawcroft from Colorado, Shirlee from Idaho, Accodino from Saint George, Walker from South Carolina, and Baltimore from Florida. Our district is super great, and we are all really good friends. We all have more or less the same time in the mission as well. 

Thanks for all of you guys, miss you all a ton. I cant wait for next years thanksgiving! Love you all!