Listening to the Prophet Changes Lives for the Better

My folks talked about Star Wars Day (you know, "May the 4th be with you") and mentioned that they saw the Avengers 2 movie over the weekend, but for some strange reason, I am not that caught up on missing those movies right now, ha ha. It might seem kind of strange, but I really feel more excited on all that's going on here in Nicaragua. I never would have guessed before my mission that I would feel this way. Anyway, a lot of people here in Nicaragua have seen Star Wars, but it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal here, or with Star Trek or some of those movies either.

Me, Jose, O., Olga, M., and Elder Salmeron
at the baptismal service this past Friday

OK, so about our week.... we had another baptism service this past Friday for 4 more of our investigators. First is Olga and her two neighbors, O. and M., who are good friends. I've known them since my third day here in Sandino. At first, they were just friends with us and nothing more, and they weren't interested in hearing about the gospel until Elder Salmeron and I invited them to watch General Conference with us. Olga had previously attended church many times with some friends a few years ago, but she never did get baptized until now. The gospel is changing her life for the better.

Second was Jose, who is the one who accidentally drank some coffee last week, but he honestly was the most positive person I have met since I have been here in Sandino who wanted to do everything he could to get baptized. In a way, we kind of accidentally met him on the day of General Conference. His family was actually committed to come with us to General Conference, but they backed out on their commitment and sent Jose in their place without us even meeting him yet. Later he told us that he was drunk "off his butt" when he attended Conference with us, but we couldn't tell and had no idea. We were just desperate to have enough people with us so that we could watch Conference. Well, during the session of Conference with us, he said it was a life-changing experience, and he hasn't touched alcohol since that day. The coffee last week really was an accident as someone in his family gave it to him and he didn't realize it was coffee until after he drank it, so he wasn't really drinking it because of an addiction. This guy wanted so badly to get baptized ever since that day in Conference, and every Sunday he comes to church all by himself. In fact, on the day of his baptism, he wanted to prove to us that he is committed and will always go on his own, so he walked alone all the way to church for his baptism and we were there waiting for him! His life has changed so much from the gospel, and it all started when he listened to the prophet in General Conference.

Our district celebrated our success in April by playing some soccer
in the morning, and then Pizza Hut pizza for lunch!!! 

This past week we had a Zone Conference on Friday. Every Friday we have District Meetings except for one week during each cambios when we have a Zone Conference in Managua, so about every 6 weeks we have Zone Conference, and ours was this last week. The Mission President had some very nice things to say about our district and he announced that with 19 baptisms in April, we had more success than any of the other districts in the mission, as did our whole Managua Zone with 31 baptisms last month. He told the Zone Leaders that he was happy with our hard work. Not only that, but we have already started off very well for the month of May as our district had 7 more baptisms this first weekend of the month. I am focusing very hard right now for a few more investigators to hopefully be baptized by the end of May, so to do that we need to make sure we bring a lot of people to church, and, well... I am happy to say that Elder Salmeron and I broke our record again with 14 investigators at church yesterday!!! And 8 of those 14 investigators were there for the first time and are continuing to progress with us!!! So, we might have a little break in the middle of May, but hopefully by the end of the month we will be able to help a few more to be baptized. However, I am also very happy to report that all of our new converts are still staying very active and strong! The bishop had interviews with some of them yesterday to extend callings to some of them (including the Familia Hernandez who were baptized last week) because many of them are already paying their tithing and keeping their commitments!!! It makes me so happy to see them progress in the gospel. I really hope I don't leave Barrio Trinidad yet when we have our next cambios in the middle of May. There is so much work that we have started -- I don't want to leave!!!!

This week, the Rainy Season finally started, and when I say rain, I mean 20-minute hurricanes with flooding roads that look more like rivers! Plus, when it rains here, the humidity jumps to 100% and so, even though it is not quite as hot, I still find myself sweating even if I am just sitting in a chair... so that's fun! I am still super excited to talk to everyone on Mother's Day next Sunday! I can't wait for that!! Well, this email was super long, but we have just been so incredibly blessed by the Lord, and I am so grateful to be a part of this great work here.

Three Baptismal Services and a Wedding

Another beautiful day here in Ciudad Sandino!

OK, so for this week, the good news is that Elder Salmeron and I had five baptisms, plus Elder Hinojosa and Elder Roundy had five baptisms!!! The bad news is that the couple we tried to get married last week asked us not to come by any more and one of our investigators who was going to get baptized last Saturday drank some coffee, so we had to postpone his baptism (he is one of our investigators that came to General Conference with us). BUT, we helped the Hernandez family, Rosa, and a boy named D all get baptized last Saturday.

Our Saturday morning baptismal service!

The Hernandez family! I love these guys, and they are practically our neighbors.

We actually had three baptismal services this week. We helped Elders Hinojosa and Roundy with the first service on Thursday night when they baptized 3 people. Then, we had a second baptismal service on Saturday morning at 10:00 in the morning with 2 more of his investigators, the Hernandez family, and D. Then, at 5:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, we had a wedding for Rosa, followed by her baptism. So Saturday was s super crazy day! Then, on Sunday, we had 10 confirmations during Sacrament Meeting!!! As a result, the meeting went about 45 minutes after the hour with all of those confirmations, ha ha! Oh, and I forgot to mention that Elder Salmeron and I brought 13 more investigators to church yesterday, and Elders Hinojosa and Roundy brought 12 more investigators, so in addition to all the baptisms and confirmations, we had another 25 investigators at church this week! The Barrio Trinidad (our ward) is so cool and growing incredibly fast -- it is awesome!

Me, D., and Elder Salmeron.

So we started teaching the Hernandez family and D in February. The Hernandez family actually live in our little neighborhood (where it is super hard to work and find people who want to listen). In fact, they are only about a 1-minute walk from our apartment, ha ha! They are such a super cool family, and they LOVE the Church and even love staying for all 3 hours on Sunday!!


We actually lost contact with D for a little while -- he was in that big group of investigators we took photos of in March (he actually took a lot of the photos). He was in the big group of people we baptized last month -- he is a good friend of the kids in those families -- but he stopped coming to the lessons. When Elder Salmeron arrived, we decided we should go track him down and we found him! He decided he wanted to get baptized, and now he even wants to serve a mission in 4 years when he turns 18!!

Rosa's wedding.

With Rosa, her new husband is going to prepare for baptism maybe next month, but he has some problems to overcome with smoking, so we will see.

Rosa's family just before her baptism.

One bad thing that happened this week is my companion, Elder Salmeron, lost all of his money! Which was bad because we had to pay for bunch of taxis to go to other ares for baptismal interviews, and we had to pay for the wedding and cake on Saturday. I wasn't very happy with him for losing his money, but he is really poor and isn't able to get much money from his home, so I took some money out to help him this week. Otherwise, I was pretty happy with our little district of 8 missionaries as we were blessed to finish the month of April with 19 baptisms!! Elder Salmeron and I are hoping to have 4 more baptisms this next Saturday, and other missionaries in our district have 5 scheduled, so we will be busy doing more baptismal interviews (we are hoping to hold the baptismal services before the next cambios in the middle of May). So it should be another crazy week!

Elder Hinojosa and I were a little tired by the end of this week!

Well, I hope everyone is well back home! I am not having any stomach issues right now from the food, but I am constantly worried about the work, or investigators, or being a District Leader. We have been so incredibly busy, but it has been an awesome experience and one of the highlights of my mission so far! I guess you could say that even though I do miss home, I am losing myself in the work like crazy right now, and it feels good to be so busy!! The work is still blazing strong here in Ciudad Sandino in the Barrio Trinidad!!! Thanks again for the emails, letters, and packages from home!!

The missionaries of the Barrio Trinidad: Elders Hinojosa, Salmeron, Roundy, and myself.

Also, a pic of all 8 of the missionaries in our awesome district! We've had a super busy month!

Ward Conference, Care Packages, and a Great Work in Sandino!

So first off, the baptisms we had planned for this past Saturday didn't happen. The couple was planning to get married to each other and then baptized, but they had a HUGE problem come up last Thursday. Turns out they are not so sure that they want to get married to each other after all, which would be sad for the whole family, and they asked for a little more time to work everything out. We even had the AP's (Assistants to the President) come and meet with them to try and help them talk through their problems, but it wasn't enough. The bottom line is that they aren't sure about marriage now, and they want some more time. Unfortunately, they didn't come to church yesterday, either... BUT we brought 11 investigators to church again!!!

I plan on getting one of these when I get back home.
I call this one: "Slow but Sure."

Between me and Elder Salmeron's 11 investigators, and then Elder Hinojosa and Elder Roundy also brought 11 investigators, so we had a total of 22 investigators to the Barrio Trinidad this week for church!! We had our Ward Conference yesterday, and all week the Bishop had been telling us he wanted to have a large turnout. Well, our chapel only holds about 170 people comfortably. We don't have rows or benches, but it is all folding chairs set up in rows in the Sacrament Hall. As it turned out, we broke the record for Sacrament attendance for the Barrio Trinidad with 248 souls in the congregation!! Our Bishop was so happy -- we literally had NO SPACE left in the chapel, so we missionaries and some of the ward leaders had to stand in the hallway with the door open to listen because there were no more chairs left, and even if there were chairs, there was nowhere left to put any more. He was talking about how the Barrio has had 23 new converts the last 4 months, and each week we have been bringing a ton of investigators, so it is insane to see all this growth! He was so happy that he invited us missionaries to a dinner at the end of the month.

Well, a lot of our investigators are making great progress with their commitments, and as a result, we have 6 more baptisms scheduled for this next Saturday (and possibly 8 if we can help the couple resolve their problems and change their mind about getting married -- we still haven't given up hope on them and plan to keep working with them). Plus, Elder Hinojosa and Elder Roundy have 3 baptisms scheduled, and possibly a fourth one for next Saturday!! Right now, they all look pretty positive!! Overall, our district of 8 missionaries brought 34 investigators to church yesterday, so we have been so blessed to have this whole area in Sandino catch fire with the Spirit!

Our anti-coffee "Care Packages" we give to our investigators.

I included a picture of some of our "Care Packages" (LOL -- Call of DUTY reference) that we give to our investigators to help them break the habit of coffee every morning. Coffee is a HUGE problem here in Nicaragua with almost everyone growing up drinking it for breakfast, which makes it tough for them to break a lifelong habit and give it up for the Gospel. Additionally, coffee is the cheapest thing you can buy here for breakfast, and they don't have a lot of money to begin with, so we missionaries will drop in "care packages" the week before their baptism to help them. The packages include various drinks and breakfast stuff, ha ha. We have had to buy so much lately with all of our investigators, I wanted to take a pic and share it!!

So my folks were a little worried and asked me if I have experienced any problems with getting mugged or robbed. I guess in this area of Sandino, there have been many muggings and crime with past missionaries, but it sounds like a lot of them happened more to the Latino missionaries for some weird reason. Actually, there have been very few times where I was worried. A lot of the same drunks or gangster hobos have seen me and my companions walk by a million times, and we frequently talk with some of them and have made a few friends. In fact, we have a small "gang" that watch out for us and say they will "kill" anyone that tries to rob us, ha ha. I'm serious, though -- they say that they are our "eyes and power" on the street -- LOL. However, I am a lot bigger than most of the people here, and none of them can afford guns -- only machetes and rocks, so I think my size helps deter some of them. We still do have half of our area that we "shouldn't enter" after 6:00 PM. It is called Nueva Vida and is super poor and a little dangerous, but we usually end up working there all day and don't leave until it's time to go home, ha ha. It was restricted for quite a while, but now it is just a warning. Heck, I have been here almost 4 months and nothing has really happened since I have been here, so don't worry about that!

My parents also asked about the heat and the people loving soup. Yes, even though it is super hot right now, they do eat a lot of soup here, but not very of the soups taste that great. I can sleep OK at night so long as I have a fan blasting directly on me, but without a fan, forget about it! We even played some basketball this morning for P-day, but it is so blazing hot, and you get tired faster, and literally, completely drenched in sweat, ha ha. 

Overall, I'm all healthy, and my companion is really starting to be fluid with me. I had to reteach him a lot of stuff, but he's getting it better now, and we have so many investigators that are progressing!!!! I'm definitely feeling the responsibility as District Leader, but I'm in one of the happier times I've had in the mission so far. Things are going really well right now, were baptizing, and this ward is amazing! I won't lie -- the whole ward loves the tall chelle (spanish for white guy ha ha). But hey, the mission is nothing like how I thought it would be. It is definitely a TON of work...holy cow, it's a lot of work, but it's all worth it. I've had a few rough times in this (almost 8) 7 months here, but I'm so happy I'm here doing this great work. Anyways, I'm out of time for today and I got to get back to work now! Love you all back home and thanks again for all of the emails and letters!

We still helped Elder Hinojosa and Elder Roundy with some baptisms this past Saturday.

El Fuego de Sandino, an Egg War, and a Trench!

Check out these cool parakeets!

Cleaning the font early Saturday morning to
get ready for our baptisms!

Hey!!! First... DUKE basketball -- champions!!! :) How cool is that? However, I'm super depressed that I missed watching the championship game (my Dad sent me a news article talking about it). Dang I miss basketball.

Elder Hinojosa, Me, Y.L., Elder Salmeron, and Elder Roundy

OK, so for my week!! Well, I am proud of my district, because we're currently number 1 in the mission! This past Saturday, we had 4 baptisms in the district, including one for me and Elder Salmeron. Also, between the 4 companionships in our district, we brought 36 investigators to church yesterday -- we are so incredibly blessed, and we're trying to work hard. Plus, Elder Salmon and I have two more baptisms and a marriage scheduled for this Saturday. The couple even went to church yesterday, and we made sure we invited the Bishop and his wife to be there, ha ha. Our Zone Leaders are super happy with us, and I guess our Mission President (President Russell) and the A.P.s (Assistants to the President) are even a little surprised because in the past, Ciudad Sandino has usually been one of the lowest in baptisms and a super hard part of the mission, but right now Sandino is on fire!!!

Being a District Leader is pretty fun and keeps us busy. In the Managua Zone, there are 4 Hermanas and 29 Elders, and there are 8 Elders (including me and Elder Salmeron) in my district.

Y.L. has become a good friend. He is a Mesquite Nicaraguan,
and he is almost as tall as me, which is pretty cool.
We have been teaching him since January, and he
finally felt ready to be baptized!!

Yesterday was the birthday of Elder Hinojosa (one of the Elders in our district who serves in the other area of the Barrio Trinidad who came here with me in the same cambios and has become a good friend of mine. He is from California, but has Mexican heritage, and his name is from Spain, and then he kind of looks Asian, ha ha.) Here in Nicaragua, when you have a birthday, you have to smash eggs on their head (it's rather weird, but it's what everyone does here, ha ha). So Elder Hinojosa and some of his converts planned an egg war. We worked super hard all day, and I did 2 baptismal interviews for them, and then we made sure we had all of our numbers reported before we let loose. It was super fun, but we sure didn't smell very good afterwards. They also resorted to smearing shoe polish on us, with mustard and mayonnaise mixed in, and then they threw glitter on us! It sure felt good to take a shower that night! Ugh! It also happened to be the birthday of the daughter of a super awesome family that fixes us dinner 4 times during the week, so we celebrated with them also and it was pretty cool!

This is Elder Hinojosa and the family's daughter that we
celebrated their birthdays together. Not sure why she
didn't get some eggs too?

For P-Day today, we had to take the bus into Managua so Elder Salmeron could get his ID, so it was a rather long and tiring day, ha ha. We did take some pics of Lake Managua in between busses on our way home. I'm also happy to report that I have not felt sick at all this week. I have just learned to avoid eating heavy, greasy food late at night when people are trying to feed us, ha ha, and then I am all good.

This is the trench we dug so our investigators could come to
church with us. It was super hard and soooo hot!!

Also, this past week we did a service project and dug a trench (see the pic). It was super hard and incredibly hot! We sweated a ton! The family committed to go to church with us on Sunday if we would help them get the trench dug. We dug it, and they all came to church! It kind of reminded me of working in the yard with my Dad back home when we had to dig trenches like this one for our sprinklers and fence posts and various things, ha ha.

Soaking up some Nicaraguan rays!

Well, hope my little brother had a great birthday last week, and my little sister has a great birthday next week! Also, good luck to my older sister, Erin, on her finals this week, and Drew in the school musical! Have a great week everyone! Thanks for all your prayers, emails, letters, and packages! I love them all.

Lake Managua on our way back to Ciudad Sandino today.

New Companion, New District Leader, and Semana Santa

The four of us missionaries from the Barrio Trinidad shoved into
a three-person moto to go to a birthday party for one of our
recent converts on the last day of the cambio.

Hey!!! SO... I had a crazy week! Firstly, we had cambios last Wednesday, and Elder Rodas was transferred while I am staying here in Ciudad Sandino in the Barrio Trinidad (Trinidad Ward). My new companion is Elder Salmon, and he is from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He turns 19-years-old next month and he just finished his training, so he has about 3 months in the mission.

Getting the cake ready for the birthday party.

AND something else a little crazy... so our District Leader, Elder Hironaka, was called to be our new Zone Leader for the Managua Zone (no surprise because our district was on fire). So they had to call a new District Leader, and it turns out it is me! Overall, the district is the same with 4 areas and 8 missionaries, but there was a change with all of the companionships, so we were all mixed up a little and we're having to make adjustments. I can't believe that I only have 7 months in the mission, and I'm already called to be a District Leader -- super fast!! Well, let's just say I am a LOT busier now! I have already performed 3 baptismal interviews this past weekend! I also found out that Elder Hansen (we flew out together from the Salt Lake Airport) was also made a District Leader down in Bluefields, which is cool. Also, Elder Bradbeer, from my district in the CCM, is in my district, as well as another missionary I knew during my training while I was in Diriomo!!

More of the birthday party

Another duty as a District Leader is that I have to take numbers every night from my district, and if we aren't getting our goals for lessons and contacts, or getting baptismal fechas (dates) every day, I get macheted super hard... makes me frustrated, but it happens!! Today for P-Day, I also had to go to the Mission Offices in Managua and it took up almost the entire P-Day. When we got back, we went straight to a cyber and I barely have time to write my emails.

BUT, we're working super hard, and our district has 4 baptisms planned for this coming week, including one for me and Elder Salmon. Our investigator is named Y.L., and he is a Mesquite Nicaraguan from Porte Cabeza, which is near Bluefields. He's also really big and is almost as tall as me! We have been teaching him for a super long time, and he has had difficulty attending Church every week, but we brought him with us to the Priesthood Session of Conference and he loved it a TON!! Now he is super animated about getting baptized this Saturday! The hard part will probably still be Sunday morning getting him to church for the confirmation, ha ha.

Me and my new companero, Elder Salmon.

Loving the new backpack -- thanks Uncle Jared!

Well, with the baptism interviews and General Conference, I was super busy. Conference was pretty awesome, but it also kind of stunk. Our Mission has a rule where you are required to bring 4 investigators to each session of Conference (different 4 for each session), and if you don't have the 4 investigators, you don't get to stay and watch Conference (with the exception of Priesthood Session and one session on Sunday of your choice). So, we tried incredibly hard to bring as many people as we could, and in fact, we brought 9 investigators total for the weekend, but I didn't get to stay for either of the Saturday sessions because of the stupid rule. I was only able to watch the Priesthood session and then both sessions on Sunday, which were all really good. I can understand the Spanish 100%, so it was cool to listen to it in another language. I must admit the Priesthood session of Conference did make me pretty trunky because it made me think of going to the Priesthood session back home with my family. So I won't lie, I was super sad afterward and missed being able to go out to dinner with my family (I knew they would go to Panda Express!).

So here in Nicaragua, they don't really have Easter like we have it back home in the U.S. In fact, I didn't even realize it was Easter until they mentioned it during the Sunday morning session of Conference, ha ha. Here, they have the Semana Santa (Holy Week), so stuff has been going on all week (mostly seems just like they have weird food every day), but seriously it seemed like it really had nothing to do with Easter. Some people say it is a bigger celebration than Christmas, and there are supposed to be processions that recreate events from the Bible, but I really didn't see any of these. It is also the week of Spring Break here, so everyone gets the week off from work and school and most people go to the beach!!

My folks asked me about getting some mangoes from that family we baptized back on Valentine's Day. They have been super awesome and almost always go to church (well, mostly the 2 daughters every week because their brothers have special needs and can't always make it). We also talk to them all the time about getting to the temple, and they have set that as a goal. However, they did bawl their eyes out when they found out Elder Rodas got transferred (they were a little attached to him), so I hope they keep going even after I leave too! At any rate, no more mangoes because the season is over to harvest them.

Well, congratulations to my cousin, Michael, on his graduation last week! Sorry, that's about all I have time for this week! I will try to make sure I get a pic of our new district next week. Take care! 

Yummy chocolate-covered bananas!

Crazy Week of Baptisms and Super Glue

Me and Elder Rodas with the four people we baptized on Saturday.

Later on Saturday, we had a baptism with D. and the rest of our District.

Hey!!! First I want to start off with how bomb this week was!!! So, me and Elder Rodas had four baptisms this past Saturday!!! We found one family just after the last cambio while we were looking for newbies to teach. The Mom and oldest son were baptized about 10 years ago, and the Dad was baptized with them, but he never was confirmed. So we had to baptize him again and this time make sure he was confirmed, plus their daughter was baptized. Then, we also baptized a boy and his grandma, and they have just LOVED the Church! The boy's mother is one of the investigators we are trying get the paperwork sorted out so she can be married, and then more of the family can be baptized, but the paperwork is still piling up. We always have about 20 people listening to the lessons with this family when we teach, so these 4 were part of these families. Also, it was the boy's 10th birthday ON the day of his baptism, so we got him a piñata and a birthday cake, and after the baptism we all celebrated with him!!!

Me, D., and Elder Rodas. D. has become a super good friend and he
is preparing to serve his own mission.

The other elders in our barrio also had a baptism last Thursday, and then two more on Saturday with our four baptisms, and then they had one more baptism a few hours later on Saturday (I actually got to baptize him and he is one of my good buddies here). So once again, the elders in the other area of our barrio took one of our baptisms. This boy, named D. (18-years-old), was a reference from the Bishop's family back in February. We taught him 2 lessons and helped set a baptismal goal with him, but then we had to give him up because he lives in the other area. BUT, we see him at church every week now, and he is even preparing to serve a mission! Also, he asked that I baptize him, so that was still pretty cool, and tonight we are having a Family Home Evening with him and getting pizza, ha ha!

Getting ready for the baptisms.

As you can tell, we have been super busy, and it was a crazy final Saturday of this cambio for our District and Zone -- in fact, it was so busy (and this is the reason this also makes this week so bomb) that our District broke the record for most baptisms in one month during March. Our District ended up with 21 baptisms this month, and our Zone (consisting of 4 Districts/28 missionaries) had a whopping 48 baptisms in March, which shattered the record for this Zone. We have been so blessed! On Sunday, it was even crazier because we had 8 confirmations in our barrio and it took about 25 minutes, ha ha. Overall, it has been an awesome week -- probably the best and craziest week of my mission so far!!

This is the pro kitchen of the family we baptized. They made dinner
for us on Sunday night to celebrate (see below).

OK, well, sorry, I just had to tell you how awesome this week has been, ha ha. Now, for next week, we do have cambios on Wednesday, and we are all pretty sure my comp, Elder Rodas, will be going as he has been in this same area for the last 6 months, and it is the only area he has served in so far on his mission. I would be pretty surprised if they moved me, and I hope they don't because we have been having so much success and have a lot of people progressing right now. We even brought 11 investigators to church again yesterday, with 2 families progressing!!!! Other than cambios, not much else will be going on this week as far as meetings and such. So more than likely I will be getting a new comp (or moved, but I hope not).

This is the soup/stew thing the family made for us.
I have no idea what was actually in it, but it tasted OK.

Got some super glue?

Last, my parents asked me how my shoes were holding up and to send a picture of them. Well, I have two pairs of shoes. One pair I keep nice for when we have to go to Managua or for meetings. The other pair of shoes I work with every day, and I have used about 4 bottles of super glue to keep the tips from splitting more, ha ha. I pretty much re-apply more glue almost every week (these are the same ones I had re-sewed in Masaya) because, yeah, we walk a lot and work super hard, ha ha. BUT, they are still usable and I don't think they look trashy. They should last a little longer so long as I have some super glue.

See, they don't look too bad yet.

So that's about it for this week. I should add that I have been feeling much better and no sickness this week! Although I have been lacking some sleep because of how busy we've been and it is just so blazing hot at night, ha ha. Anyway, have a great week every one, and Happy Easter!!!

The Multi-Mission Conference and Pancakes

This is the main road we walk every day to get from our
apartment to the area where we proselyte.

Wow! I got a lot of emails this week!! I love to read them all -- best part of my week!

Oh no! I was sad to hear that Micheal Jensen's grandfather passed away. I got to meet him a few times, and he was a really cool guy. I'll have to send a note, but my condolences to the Jensen family again.

One of the side paths off of the main road to get to our area.

OK, so for my week this past week. Well, the Multi-Mission Conference was really good, but there was no announcement for any new Nicaragua Managua West Mission. I got to see Elder Hirschi, one of my friends from Copper Hills who is serving in the Nicaragua Managua North Mission, and we overlapped 2 weeks in the CCM. He is really the only missionary I know in the North Mission. At any rate, there wasn't a single, official word said about a new West Mission, but that doesn't mean they won't announce it in April or May. A lot of missionaries now think it might just be rumors and speculation, ha ha. BUT, all of the Zone Leaders had heard stuff about the new mission, so we'll have to wait and see. We also had a nice reunion with our CCM District, with the addition of Elder Sanchez because he arrived alone at our cambio, and sadly, we were missing Elder Bronson. I sure hope he is doing well.

Our CCM District and Elder Sanchez reunited at the Multi-Mission Conference (except sadly minus Elder Bronson)

So this is a picture of us playing soccer with one of our investigators
in this big peanut field. They do grow peanuts here, but at the time it
was just soft dirt. It was hard to play and we got super dirty, ha ha.
I am not in this picture because I am the one taking the picture
with my camera, but I was really dirty.

Another awesome thing about the Multi-Mission Conference is that I got a bunch of packages!!!! THANK YOU!! I have already read through all of the articles, and I am slowly eating the chocolates. My Dad burned a CD with the homecoming talks of my sister, Erin, and my cousin, Kaitlyn, when they returned home from their missions last November and December, and those were sweet!!! My sister served in Peru, but her Spanish has such a gringa accent and it's awesome!!! The absolute best part, though -- not gonna lie -- was the new Ogio backpack from my Uncle Jared!!! Holy cow it is amazing!! Everyone wants to buy it off of me, or trade me for it, ha ha. No way!! I'm in love with it!! I also like the ties from Uncle Joel! Also, I did get a letter from my cousin, Hollie, but I still don't know where to find a post office here in Ciudad Sandino to mail any letters back home, so I haven't been able to respond yet. In fact, I sent a letter back in November to my cousin Jeffrey, and it came back to me unable to be delivered. Not sure why, but please tell him that I am trying to respond still. The mail is just a little more random here in Nicaragua, I guess, ha ha.

As for the work in our area, we have three people scheduled for baptism, with two more possible, this next Saturday (all from the same large family of investigators that we have been working with). We are also still working on the weddings for this family, but so far none of the paperwork has been started by the lawyer. That will be a problem and take some time unless a miracle happens, so prayers would be appreciated. We also rebounded a little bit from last week and we brought a large group off people to church again yesterday, with this large family as well as some new people. We'll see how much progress we can make with all of these people this week!!!

Also this week, I got sick again!! It was the same stomach issue that I had in Masaya. One morning I threw up about 10 times, and since then I haven't puked, but my stomach has been bothering me. I was supposed to go get checked for a parasite, but last time the doctor just assured me it was not a parasite and told me that the food is too greasy and I don't get enough fruit, so it is really hard on my digestive system. So I have already tried to change my diet again here and I have been eating some of the more expensive, packaged American food lately. I am already feeling a ton better -- I just need to be careful what I eat until my stomach is back to 100% again, ha ha.

My District Leader, Elder Hironaka, and me holding up a plate
of some of the pancakes we whipped up.

Today for P-Day, we went had a super fun day with our District Leader and almost our whole district.  Our District Leader is Elder Hironaka, who has become a super cool friend. He is originally from Arizona and also had Elder Castro as his trainer, so he is my brother in the mish, but he finished his training just before I came to the mission. First, we played baseball and basketball in the morning. After that, our district went and ate pancakes together at a member's house that let us use their "kitchen" area to cook them up. This family had never eaten pancakes before in their whole life! Pancakes are a rare, special treat here. So we bought the ingredients and made a big stack of them for everyone to eat.

Well, that's about it for this week. I got a lot of people to try and write today. Thanks again for all of the packages from everyone back home!!!

This is (most of) our district eating pancakes for P-Day today!!