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!

And they sing, and sing, and sing!

Family,

Great week again as always. We have been working really hard this week to find some news, but with little success. We have however found some people that are amazing with the faith that they show. This week we had a great lesson with one of our investigators named Yarkha who is 19, we taught the lesson, felt the spirit, and even asked her to baptize. Sadly something was keeping her back from it, but we did not know why. Then, as we were leaving the mom came up to us and told us that we cant come back to visit her anymore because they are evangelic o. Sad stuff, but luckily our investigators sister is a member, and she still went to district conference! It is great to see that there are those people in the world that look for God on their own, and not from family tradition.

  Other news! I was going to be released from my mission on Aug 30 2016, but the MTC is having a change in the time missionaries are going to be there. So... we have been given two more weeks to work here in Nicaragua! So I will now be leaving around Sept 12. Its only two weeks more, and i left on the 17 of September, so its not to much more to do. 

  Conference was so great this week, We rented four buses to go all around Puerto to bring members, and we filled up the whole chapel! Lots of the recent converts received the Melchizedek priesthood this week, which was great. We don’t have to much priesthood power here. As you know, about 75% of the members are women, what a shame. Some people from Managua came and talked with us this week about what Puerto can do better. The Missionaries have a huge roll here, every branch has either two or four missionaries. And we run almost everything.  

 

Here are some photos of my house, we have a mentally challenged neighbor named Debra that comes and tries to visit our house all the time. She usually just stays at the window and talks to us in Spanish and mosquito. Its so funny. 

 

Also, the Baptist church is located right in front of our house, they sure love to party, and sing. All the time the pastor is singing Venga los Niños Vengan los niños que aman dios! And they sing, and sing, and sing! Their church is just so different then ours its crazy. We focus on doctrines,  commandments, ordinances, and feeling the spirit in a solemn manner. This church is all about loud music, dancing, yelling as pastors, and going to the front and bowing down on their knees at the alter. Its really different.

That’s all for this week, have a great Thanksgiving! Les amo!

Lluvia Sin Fin!

What a rainy week it has been. Every night and day some big showers are coming through, and our area is a mud hole. As you might now, all of the mesquites (people of Puerto) here build their houses upon tall stilts so there house does not get flooded. For good reason too. A members house, named Hermana Sandina, was flooded all around, like a pond in the front yard. We had to scale up the side of the porch, because the stairs were swamped. Luckily we both have umbrellas, so we don't ever get too soaked. I have heard that we are nearing the end of the dry season, but I think the man upstairs kept the best for last. 

We had a few miracles this week. We were visiting a members house on Tuesday, and found a 19 year old by the name of Edgar. I could not believe how ready this guy was to be baptized. He read all of the pamphlets that we gave him, and even accepted a date to do it. Sadly, he had to move back to Managua today, so that was sad. He said he wanted to be a missionary some day, hopefully the missionaries will teach him when he gets the reference.

Due to the rain, the church attendance at 9:30 on Sunday was about 12 people. But luckily it stopped and by ten there were 60 people! This is some serious Mormon standard time, considering Church starts at 9:00. Everyone always come late, all the time.

We have some new really cool investigators that Elder Shawcroft has been teaching for a while. We had a ton of investigators come to church which was awesome! Two are brothers named Moises and Victor. Moises came in the morning session, and victor came in the evening. These brothers are references from A recent convert of Shawcroft named Enoc. Enoc is 20 years old and is crazy about missionary work. He brings a friend to church all of the time, and is planning on serving a mission next year. Ill try to get a picture of him this week. 

Thats all for this week, thanks for all of the emails. I love you all so much. Don't forget how blessed all of you are, the people here really have nothing. Love you all!

Lots of weddings....

It sounds like there are a lot of people getting married up there in the
U.S, and there is no difference here! We sure had a bunch of miracles
this week, because some of our investigators were ready to do it
themselves! On November 7!

    We have been teaching two couples for the last few weeks, and this
week they were ready to be married and baptized!One of the families had
great opposition in their family to be baptized, because the parents are
Adventists, and they would not allow it. This couple had so much faith
though, that they did it even with this opposition. Afterward they had to
leave back home to Corn Island. It was sure a miracle that they were
baptized, because we contacted them one of the first days they arrived,
and baptized them on their last day here two weeks later. 
  After the other couple was confirmed on Sunday, they invited us over
to eat with them for lunch, it was great! They were our neighbors, so it
was really cool, right there on the beach.

More news, I no longer live on the beach.... we had changes this week,
the mission is combining the area with another, so i am staying in the
combined area, but had to change houses. I also have a new companion
named Elder Shawcroft from Colorado. He is a very nice guy, i am sure we
are going to do great. At least the new house has running water, but it
does not have the stereo or couches.
 Our neighbors kicked their drunk neighbor out of their house, so he is
sleeping on the deck of my old house now. it is so sad to see how
alcohol can destroy families like that. 

   We are have been battling the rats in our house this week, as well!
Late, on Friday night, we returned home, and there.... on my counter
top...... rummaging around my tooth brush.... was a big fat rat!!! I
quickly grabbed the broom as Elder Accordino grabbed the Baygon. The rat
took off, running up the window curtains, but with no escape. Accordino
tried to spray it off the wall, but it dodged his attempts. Then the rat
took the only way out, running on the floor. My comp and I both stomped
on it several times as it ran off, but it somehow survived, climbed up
the wall, and disappeared into the crack in the wall, luckily my new
house is rat free as far as we know. 

 Thanks for all the emails, I love you guys so much, have a great week!

Die de Muertos

Feliz Dia de los Muertos! The only sight of celebration here for Halloween/Day of the Dead is that the mayor house was closed so we could not retrieve the certificate from the marriage a few weeks ago, what a bummer. Well, at least everything else was good. 

This week we were passing for the family of a guy named Pablo from Corn Island. They live right on the beach so it is pretty sweet to visit them. They are all so great, the seven of them went to see the baptisms on Saturday and all went to church on Sunday. What a miracle. One night walking back from there house a few drunks from the street began to yell and chase us. Luckily drunk people can’t run to fast, so we made it out scratch free.

Last night though, My district leader Elder Chen was robbed by a bunch of guys in the street, they got all their money robbed along with their phone and some bags. Luckily the guys just threw some of it in the street, so they got it back today.

I went on divisions with Elder Chen this week, and it was great. He only has 19 weeks left in the mission so he knows a lot. I feel like I am always still learning how to be a better missionary. Sometimes when we don't have success it feels like I am doing something wrong, but all missionaries go through times without success.

Today was kind of frustrating because we took a taxi to go and buy food, and my cell phone dropped out of my pocket in the seat. We tried to call it a little later, but it was already turned off by someone. 

I want to thank you all so much for all you guys do for me. I love you guys so much.