Corinto and Realejo

Hey Family, thanks so much for the emails that you have sent and for all the support as always. This week was been really great. Lots of contacting and getting to know the port town of Corinto. 

 Super exciting news, Noel who Elder Sirrine and I were teaching since we started in Leon just got baptized this week. Even though I was not there for the baptism, it sure made me happy to hear that he was baptized. I know that some people just take more time than others to prepare. I love seeing the miracles that happen to people after they have felt the spirit in their lives. He is sure one of my favorite people I have thought in my mission. The other investigators that we left behind there are getting ready for baptism as well.

I did divisions this week in a place called Realejo between Corinto and Chinandega. I went with an Elder called Elder Gibbs from Georgia. It was really cool there, just a small little pueblo. Funny thing, someone was shipping their cows in a trailer full of cow poop. When we walked behind the trailer, the cow kicked back and flung a ton of the cow poop, caking elder Gibbs. Luckily he covered me from the crap, and he had extra clothes back at the house. Then we went to a child's baptism in Chinandega that he had been teaching the following morning. 

Corinto has had some record high tides over the past few weeks. Over the past ten years the beach on Corinto has receded about 500 meters back, its slowing dissolving away. Due to these high tides recently, lots of the people are having to find new places to live. Our lunch appointment Christen or Papa Gordo as we call him had to move their house this week, because the ledge down to their beach is creeping closer and closer to their house. We have helped them twice to move their house using a big cart to haul there belongings in. This morning we went with them. The attendance in church plummeted due to everyone working on their houses. There are some big waves here in Corinto, but no one really swims. There's actually a lot of people here that don't know how to swim quite ironically. 

Well, Corintos awesome! We have a member named Andres that goes and works with us for a lot of the days. He never goes to church alone either, he always brings his friends. The water is so pretty here, nice and blue. Its a little like paradise.

Today we played a bunch of goofy games  in Chinandega as a zone. Then we went and ate lunch with a few of the other missionaries. My really good friend Elder Walker is also in Chinandega! It's pretty sweet to for him to be in my zone again like back in the times in Puerto Cabezas. Love you guys so much!

 

 

 

 

Out of the Inn and back to the Beach!

This week was a blast! We have a really amazing family that is progressing a ton! We had a family night with them and another family that lives nearby. The mom is a schoolteacher and her 18 year old son works on a farm during the week! Its the same family that invited us to dinner the other week. We watched finding faith in Jesus Christ for the video, its a really good one about believing in Christ even though we cant see him. I think the family loved it, because they went to church on Sunday as well!

  This week we also went to hear president speak for the very last time, which was pretty sad, but his advice was really powerful. Everyone was a little emotional, it's so sad to see him go, I am so lucky to have had him as a mission president. I saw a bunch of my friends from earlier in my mission there as well, Like elder Fairborne, Shirlee, Pilling, and some other dudes. 

  As you can see from my heading, We had transfers today. I think this is going to be my last area. I'm now in a place called Corinto, which is kind of like a peninsula to the main land. There are tons of semi trucks here due to all the shipping that comes in to this port town. We can see the beach from our lunch appointments house, so that's really cool. I have been so lucky to have such great areas in my mission. 

That's all I can think of for this week. Have a great Fathers day Everyone! Hope that June is cool for you guys. 
Love you all so much!

Leon

      Hey Family, thanks all a ton for the photos, they make me really happy to see that you guys look pretty much the same. Hope the fair went well for bubba d, and he sold his vaca (cow) for a good price. Lake Powell must have been really fun. I heard from Sirrines family that it is really hot down in Arizona as well. It hit 118 where he lives, and in June as well.
   This week we have had a lot of rain. Its for sure winter now, most nights the thunder storms come in. We did divisiones again in Poneloya this week. The bus ride is so beautiful, so much greenery and semi tropical plants. Its not rainforest. but there is for sure no absence of plant life. Poneloya was great, they baptised a family this week, so that was exciting. And when we retired to go to bed something amazing happened. An Earthquake happened! The house shook a little bit, and you could hear the tin roof shaking on top of the walls, but luckily it was only a 6.1 magnitude, so very week. It was a little unnerving though, because they live about 100 feet from the ocean, and i didn't want to be hit by a tsunami. Luckily no tsunami came either.
   We have been having a really hard time baptising, we have only baptised one person in my time in Leon, which is really bad. But, I think we found a wonderful family that will get baptised in these coming weeks. Its the same family I told you guys about when all the lightning storms were happening. The kids went to church this time and loved it.  We are going to do a family home evening with them on Wednesday I believe. Yesterday they invited us to fish, which is a rel treat for these people. The custom here is to eat fish that have been gutted and scaled, then fried in the pan, so you have a nice fish head and fish skeleton when finished. It was delicious.
  Today we returned to the cathedral, but this time we went above on the roof, from the top you can see many surrounding volcanoes on the flat landscape. I is all white and very beautiful. I hope you like the photos. You can see more on google. It is the largest Cathedral in Central America!. Then we ate some smoothies afterward.
 Well, I love you guys so much. Cant wait to see you soon. Changes are next week, I really hope I don't go, I love it here and really want to see them get baptised. I've only baptised two families out of puerto, and one is already inactive. This family is going to be the best. Love you guys, see you in a few months! 

Winter is definitly here

      Hey familia, thanks for the emails this week. Sounds like the weather you guys have been having is about the same as here. We have had some really big rainstorms. This Sunday we got pretty wet in the morning trying to invite people to church. I'm so glad I got my hush puppy boots, because I would have been soaked without them. 

      We contacted a guy at the beginning of this week, and he said we could go visit him on Friday night. The rain was really coming down, and it's culture here that the rain will make you sick if you get wet. He was surprised to see as at the door, he told us he couldn't believe that we arrived. We taught a really spiritual lesson, continually interrupted by super loud thunder that shook the house. At the end we invited them to be baptised, and they said that they wanted to visit church before they made that decision. It turned out that the son had to work, but the mom came to church with some members that own a car. It was so cool, because the members that picked her up worked with her at a school as teachers! She was so excited in church.

     Even with the weather, five of our investigators still made it to church, which is still really good I believe. The attendance plummeted though, only sixty people in a ward that should be getting over a hundred each week. Shows who's faithful right?. 

  Today was the best, we had an activity at the stake center which lies right in the middle of the market. We did a bunch of goofy games like drinking coke the fastest, or eating bananas the fastest. Then we ate some really huge burgers. Huge as in bread that is. Burgers and hotdogs here are famous for being all bread with a little meat. That's probably why there so cheap. 

 I also did divisions with my Zone Leader. Hes named Elder Robinson from Some place in southern Utah. It was really fun working in his area. The second pic is him and I.

Well, I sure love you guys a lot. This time away has sure helped me to see how great you really are. Some of these families don't get along too well, I love how the church helps families love one another. I can see such a difference in the families of the church than those who do not have christian lives. Thank you so much for your examples to me. 

My comp received his itinerary, cant believe that us two are almost there. Elder Sirrine only has 8 weeks left, then I go one change later. See you in a little while, Love you!

 

 

Fútbol

    Saludos Familia! Thanks for all the great emails as always, that's always the best part of the week. Sounds like everyone is having their own adventures. Hope that you are enjoying the warmth after the cold winter. 

   This week we went to Chinendega for a multi zone conference with president Collado. It was so great, i feel like we learned a lot on how to be better missionaries. He also talked about his departure that's coming in a few months. I'm going to be really sad to see the Collado family leave. He has been a great president from the start. Luckily I had him for almost all of the mission. 

   Elder Sirrine and I have worked really hard this week to find some new families to teach. Those that we had are not really progressing to well. We have had a really hard time baptizing, but this week i think we will have one. We are hopefully going to have a marriage and baptism if all goes well.

  Today we went and played a game of soccer on some AstroTurf courts. That's right, AstroTurf in Nicaragua! It was by far the best fields i have seen here. We did a soccer game between the missionaries. We had the companionship with an Elder From the University of Utah soccer team, so we won. We sweated so bad, my shirt was soaked. It was pretty gross, but really nice afterward to take a shower.

  We did divisions again in Poneloya, when its not tourist season  there, its kind of a ghost town. We walk all day and only pass a handful of people on the roads. Anyway it was beautiful. In the morning we ran on the beach for exercise. We also ate lunch at the house of some recent converts. We got some pork chops that still had the skin and hair on it, so I did not have to much of an appetite. That's kind of a delicacy for these people here. 

Well, the time left in the mission is passing really to fast. I thought that when i started my mission I would never finish, and I could not wait to finish. Now that has turned to be the quite opposite really. I feel really nervous to end and go back to the normal world. I have grown to love these people so much, its going to be really sad to leave them.

  Thanks for all you guys do, love you all a ton!

Un Cambio Mas!

Well, changes happened today and it turns out we are both staying here in the Posada! I'm so excited. We did not start out with many investigators, so we did not have much success last change. This change is going to be different though. We have some really great people that I believe will be baptized this month.

   Skyping yesterday was so great. Cant believe it was already my last skyping in the mission. You guys all look about the same. Not to much has changed. Maybe in person you guys will look a little different.

  Not really much happened this week from out of the normal. Our friend Elder Pilling is leaving to Chinendega Oeste, so that's a bummer. 

  

   Yesterday we went to the councilor to the stake presidents house to Skype. They have two really funny kids named Walter and Lehi. Ya, they're pretty Mormon. lol After we made hamburgers that were great a some jello to eat afterward. They were nica hamburgers. Sometimes they use slices of steak meat instead of ground beef.

That's all i got.

 

 

Cathedrals En Leon

     Hola Familia! This week has been a really good one, we have had lots of success in preaching the gospel and finding new families to teach.   

 

     This we did a service project for a wonderful family we are teaching. This family has just barely moved in to the neighborhood and built their house out of some wooden poles, sheets of metal, and some thick plastic. The dad works as a tricycle driver ferrying people from one end of Leon to another. I believe one Monday the rain finally came, and since this family lives at the bottom of the street, lots of water entered their house. So this week we built a large barrier out of some roofing and a whole lot dirt. Hope that it works, we will see shortly!

   The weather has dramatically changed, the rain storms are getting pretty big with lots of lightning. The other night I woke up at two am to find a waterfall in our house landing on my bed! Well, not a waterfall, but I did get a little wet. Those leaky roofs. Last night another big storm came in as well, its so nice because the weather is a lot cooler. 

  We also had a visitor in our house as well. When we got home one night Elder Sirrine had to use the restroom and he found a big fat rat behind the toilet. He armed himself with the broom and I got a plank of wood. We scared it out from hiding, and with the sacrifice of a broken broom, Elder Sirrine smashed it. I think that was the first time we actually got one without a trap or poison.

  We also got a new bishopric this week. After seven years of this one, it was time for a change. I could not believe it when our friend Ismeal was called to be bishop. He is only 29 years old, so it is going to be a blast as him with bishop. We went out visiting yesterday to a family that lives nearby his house. 

  Today we went to the Cathedral, it was quite spacious and really cool. Its the biggest cathedral in Central America I believe, so it was really cool. I put some pictures in as well of us inside. 

  That's all for today, love you guys so much, have a great week and cant wait to see you guys this weekend on Skype. We will be on at around four if you can. If not email me soon as possible! Love you!