¿Frió en Nicaragua?

Well, this week was sure full of a lot of miracles. For once in my mission I have felt the cold. A cold front came in on Saturday with lots of wind, and has cooled things down quite a bit. The wind knocked the cables lose at our house, so we did not have power for a night, but since it was cold there was no need for fans. Just something really weird her, everyone had on their jackets and sweatshirts at about 65 degrees.

We had some good baptisms this week, one was a guy named Johnothan who is about 20 years old, and a girl named Samantha from a member's family. They are such great people, Johnothan came and visited people in the morning with us to invite people to church, right before his confirmation. As my calling as secretary in the branch, I'm in charge of baptizing the eight year olds as ward baptisms. Her mom told us she just completed eight years old, so we took her to baptized. We did not realize till a day later that she was actually 9 years old! Funny how people can lose track of how old you are, birthdays are not to big of a deal here, especially when some families have 7 kids!

This next week is changes, I hope that I don't have to leave, but I'll go where the Lord Needs me. I think a lot of my friends are going to be leaving Puerto this change. We all have from 8 months to a year in this zone, so we might be out of here real soon. 

Today we had a meeting broadcasted from Managua to us from Elder Christensen from the seventy. We could not hear much, but it was fun to have the zone together.

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

 

 

2/3

I did not have a cool topic this week, but i am going to be done with two thirds of the mission this week. These last 8 months flew by so fast here in Puerto. Thanks for all the emails you have sent me, they have been really great this week. 

 

  This week was really average, nothing new happened, and we did not have any baptisms this week. Hopefull next week we will. We did have emergency changes though in the zone. A new guy came in one the airplane today, he is from Alabama, and sure seems happy to be here. 

 On Friday morning a freaking huge spider scared me really good. It was a few inches across, and only had four of its twelve legs. We killed it with some permethrin in the house. For some reason lots of bugs love to live in our house, thank goodness for mesquito nets. 

I got some letters from Bishop Peterson, Chocolate from Ed Kinzey, more letters from Aunt Sharlene, and a letter from the Deyoungs. Please tell them i am very grateful for their letters of support. I cant believe they still remember me after all this time. If you have the email adress of any of them, that would be good, but if not dont sweat it. But plese tell them thankyou for me.

Today we played soccer at the church and cut our hair for forty cords. That about $1.50, what a deal. Im going to miss stuff for so cheap. I am so grateful that we have minimum wage where we live. People work 8 hours a day and make $20 if they are lucky. We are so blessed. 

Sorrry for the lack of stuff this week, nothing new is happening. Love you all so much!

Semana Milagroso

Well, this week was one of the best ones I would have to say. First off, we were working really hard this week to baptize. We have been working a lot with a less active whose husband passed away about a year ago, and she has gone inactive since. She also had a daughter who accepted to be baptized about two weeks ago, and she was baptized this Saturday! It was so great, the zone all baptized together at the chapel, and all went great.It is amazing to see the change the gospel can make in peoples lives when they accept to follow the lord and obey his commandments. Anyone can change. 

  We are also visiting a family that lives a little ways from the main part of town out in the jungle/ plains. They are so poor, it is so sad. If you can see, they live in a hut made of metal laminate, and black tarp. They all came to church this week, which was so awesome. Usually after the first time of church we spend the hours after inviting the people who didn't go to go in the evening. It was a big miracle this week, because almost everyone went this week. Our attendance for our ward was 105, one of the highest it has been for a while. 

  President is also coming this week, that should be great. He is going to do interviews with each missionary to see how they are doing. It is really nice to learn from him, he knows so much about missionary work. 

Today we went and played soccer on the beach. It was cloudy and began to rain. We all got a bit soaked and really sandy. The beach away from the center of town is gorgeous, just wish we could swim. The water is really warm. 

We have also been working with a 12 year old who is from blue fields and speaks English, its pretty fun teaching in English! 

Thanks for all of the emails and everything, I cant tell you how glad I am to read them Love you guys! 

Felis Dos Mil Dies y Seis!

Naksa Pamaliki! Thanks for all of your emails and sharing all of your new years events! Sounds like Wyoming was quite a blast and that the snow is tumbling down. Yesterday we also had quite a freak storm. The dry season is suppose to be on, but we had plenty of rain yesterday!

Well, tons has happened this week, first off the best is that we had our amazing Christmas party with the zone puerto cabezas. Here included are some crazy photos from Christmas, and my comp in his turban. President came and we had a blast. He gave us a basket full of grapes and apples, which is a delicacy here, because an apple is 3 dollars and grapes even worse. He also gave each companionship a microwave, we have yet to open it, because we don't know what to cook in it, but we will by something today! After that we at lunck at the hotel and watched Big Hero 6, the first movie in a year. It was really good. Then we had a talent show, everyone in the zone had to participate. Our district did a swimming show behind a bunch of blankets. It was really funny, and lame at the same time. Then we sang some songs and ate dinner. It was a whole day without having to do anything, like a mini vacation! 

 We got our Christmas packages this week, thank you so much mom and dad. Elder Torres about peed his pants when he opened it. He wore the tie he got three out of the seven days this week, so you cab coclude that he loves it. He did not even get a letter from his own family, but other families of missionaries wrote to him to wish him a merry Christmas. All in English so I had to translate. Thank you so much for all the stuff, im going to get pretty fat with all that candy, and the tie is amazing. The best was the photo though, I love it so much, thank you. 

The sister of Chester our convert got married this week. They had quite a wedding bash. We just showed up and the mom gave us dinner, it was great. What was weird is that the girl is 15 and the dude is 40 years old, just a bit of a gap. They were all very nice though, and it is really cool to see people getting married instead of just living together.

Fast Sunday happened, hope that all of you guys love to fast as well. Luckily the rain came in and cooled things down a bit, so it was not to bad. But only 66 people showed up to church, so the rain put a little bit of a damper on the attendance. 

The best thing of my mission is the converts. We do everything for them here, it so so cool to see them progress. If you remember Francisco, he was baptized back when I was with Accordino, is the second councilor of the branch. When he was first baptized, he was so shy to share his beliefs and quiet when he spoke. This Sunday he bore his testimony in both of the meetings we had. He spoke with lots of energy and testimony. I could not understand him though, because he spoke in mesquito, but it was awesome! I could understand a few words, and he was talking about his conversion. 

New years was good, tons of fireworks, but all went well. A member got pretty burned up by his fire crackers, not to surprising seeing that ten year olds play with them here. 

Thanks for everything family! I hope that all is great at home, remember how blessed you all are, and love the snow!

Feliz Navidad Y Prospero Ano

Well, Christmas here in Puerto is great, Christmas eve was a huge firework party for everyone, and then drunk people filled the street. Everyone in Nicaragua loves fireworks, little kids playing with fire crackers, and the older people use these bazooka type fireworks that make a really nice bang. Its quite different than back at home, that's for sure. At midnight when Christmas begins, everyone sets off fire works at the same time. I slept through it this year, but I remember last year was nuts. 

  This Christmas our zone did a gift exchange. I gave one of the latino companios an oil container that I had, and he loves it, wears it everywhere. My old Companion Elder Accordino gave me a bunch of cereal, I'm really excited for that. Our lunch appointment also invited us to lunch on Christmas, she bought a bunch of new condiments, and even made us a salad, which is really expensive for these people. They are so kind, the members will do anything for the missionaries here, even if they are really poor. They sure show the Christmas Spirit of giving. Most of the kids don't get anything for Christmas here, so all of you be grateful for what you got. 

  Our lunch appointment even gave us a reference for a baptism this week. Her name is Zelanda, and she only speaks mesquito. Teaching her involved a lot of espanito, Mesquito mixed with español(spanish).l But with the help of the family, she received all the lessons, and was baptized on Christmas. We have had a hard time finding news lately, but many new people came to church last week, we will see where that goes. 

  Christmas can be really hard for the people though, many fell into the temptation to drink, including some members. Alcohol is a big problem here. We ran into about 5 drunks on Christmas that stopped us in the street, all ask us for money. Its really sad. 

    Tomorrow we will have our Christmas party, so that is going to be great. Just us and President here in Puerto. A little late, but i am so excited. The best thing about Christmas was skyping Chritmas morning. After 7 months, the family begins to look a little different, but to see them again is worth any Christmas present. 

 Thanks for all the letters you guys send, love you all, and hope that your holidays are great. Adios!