No Groundhogs in Nicaragua

Trying new foods...,

Well, this past week was really tough.... A lot of the Hermanas' baptisms fell through at the last minute, so for January we ended the month with the low number for our Zone. The Zone Leaders and the Assistants to the President were calling me and asking what was going on and why the baptisms didn't happen. All the Hermanas were struggling last month, and Elder Smith and I haven't had a baptism since December.

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However, coming up in February, we should have a really great lady and her granddaughter get baptized. They came to church with us again for the third Sunday in a row, and they are really excited for their baptism. Unfortunately, the grandmother has to travel to Costa Rica for a week, and we are a little afraid she won't be able to come back. So we're praying like crazy she will be able to return to be baptized with her granddaughter.

We actually have a few other investigators who want to be baptized, but they will take a few months because they are waiting for their divorce to finalize, or they don't want to get baptized and just want to learn more about the church. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of pressure lately to increase the number of baptisms, but Rivas is a difficult area and we are working our tails off. This next week we will be doing divisions almost every day so that we can find more new investigators. I'm a little nervous about our interviews coming up with President Russell later this month.

Sounds like my folks had a great Stake Conference this past weekend with some really good talks. My dad said the Salt Lake City West Mission President talked about many of his missionaries come from broken homes and desire to have a strong family like some of the examples they see in Utah. Well, nearly every family here in Nicaragua is broken apart. Even when we find someone who accepts the Gospel, it is pretty rare for the whole family to become members.

So kind of a frustrating week, but happy February and too bad there aren't any groundhogs in Nicaragua!

Exhausting Interviews and Multi-Mission Conference

Me and my buddy/Zone Leader, Elder Scheffler

Well, this week ended up being a pretty good one. First off, we had cambios... but neither me or Elder Smith were transferred. So at least one more change together, which is strange because I have been his trainer and usually they switch things up once the training is finished. Whatever, not a big deal, but we will both have 6 more weeks here in Rivas.

Nicaraguan roadkill -- check out the fangs!

Neither of the Zone Leaders were changed either, so Elder Scheffler (he is the Elder I replaced here in Rivas when he became the Zone Leader) came down for 2 days this week and we tracked all over Rivas doing 10 interviews and visiting with the most important investigators of the Hermanas, and even some from the missionaries in the other District here. It was very exhausting. Meanwhile, the other Zone Leader and Elder Smith worked in our area and we were able to bring a decent number of investigators to church on Sunday.

Unfortunately, our super-cool investigator, J., had to move back in with his mother, who is really anti-Mormon, and now he doesn't want anything to do with us. Which is sad, because he had stopped drinking and started changing his life. We are still looking forward to at least one baptism in February of a really great lady who came to church for the second time yesterday. Plus, she is inviting all of her family to come with her to church. The only problem is that she has to travel to Costa Rica at the beginning of February, so we will have to wait to baptize her when she returns... but she is becoming converted more each week!

Today we had the Multi-Mission Conference with President Christensen of the Seventy. It was pretty cool, but we didn't get back to our apartment until 5:00, so we really didn't have much of a P-Day today (which is why I don't have time to write much). Anyway, President Christensen talked about how we need to not only have more baptisms, but also have better converts because the retention rate is really bad here in Nicaragua. So it is tough here on the front lines in the mission field, and Rivas is a little difficult, but we are just working hard and doing our best.

Oh, I did finally get all the rest of my Christmas packages, and I also got the envelope with the copy of the Christmas slideshow. Tell everyone back home thank you so much for all the presents and things. Also, there has been a lot of wind here lately, and it is even a little chilly in the mornings as it has cooled down some. Anyways, I am out of time -- have a great week!!

One more selfie with Scheffler (say that 5 times really fast).

Mission Celebration at the Playa Gigante

Sunset at the Playa Gigante

Our mission celebrated exceeding our goal for 2015.

I feel bad that my Dad broke his foot back home, but it's kind of funny because I have also had some issues with my foot this week. I got an ingrown toenail and it was so much fun! It wasn't really big or ugly, but it hurt really bad and I had a rough few days there where I couldn't walk until it was removed. Luckily, the wife of one of our recent converts was able to remove it without much pain and now I'm all good.

Some of the members cooked us some sweet water lake fish
for the mission celebration party.

So this past week was our Mission Celebration and the Playa Gigante was pretty sweet. Because the beach is in our Zone, we got to go down early and set stuff up with the office Elders and President and Sister Russell. We had a nice BBQ and played a bunch of games. Unfortunately, the heat was pretty miserable and we were on the beach during the hottest hours of the day, but we all stayed dry and nobody got sent home. After it was over, we got to stay and help clean up, so we also got to see the sunset and take pictures of the water.

The baseball team here in Rivas is in the national championship, and
every house is going crazy for baseball right now.
I got myself a T-shirt with the baseball team name.

We also had a lot more success this week with several investigators who came to church with us yesterday. We started teaching a few new people that want to get baptized in February.

Cambios are this week and we are all pretty sure my companion, Elder Smith, will have changes, along with Elder Jensen who has been here a while. So come Wednesday, we will likely have two new Elders in the apartment. Also this Wednesday we get to attend a Worldwide Mission Broadcast, and then we will be having a Multi-Mission Conference one week from today. Otherwise, we're just working hard in our area this week.

The missionaries of the Rivas Zone, at least until cambios tomorrow.

Rough Week in Rivas

A cool mural on the side of a building here.

So because of our Mission Activity this Wednesday, we didn't get to have P-Day today like we normally do. We spent most of the day contacting people without a lot of success. Yesterday we didn't have any investigators make it to church... nobody kept their commitments. Even J. didn't make it. He was supposed to attend today so that he could be baptized this coming Saturday, but he got called into work 2 hours before church.

This is in the middle of a big round-about on the main
highway that goes through Rivas.

So it has been a pretty rough week, but we have been able to find a few new people each day. This area is pretty tough, but Elder Smith and I were able to give out 8 Book of Mormons, so we did find a few interested people. It just seems a lot of them don't have the faith or understanding of the importance of going to church yet, so it can be a struggle.  I'm trying my hardest, but it just seems a lot of the people don't follow through very often. Such is being a missionary, I suppose. Like Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "Salvation isn't a cheap experience... it wasn't easy for Him (the Savior), so why should it be easy for you?" So we are working hard to take more investigators to church. At least the hermanas all have some baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, so I was busy all day yesterday doing interviews, and then we will be helping with the baptismal service next week.

Another cool mural of the beach that is here on the side
of a building that we walk past every day.

I also wore out another pair of shoes (one of the ones I just bought in Masaya). They were starting to hurt my feet because the sole on the bottom was breaking down from walking on all the rocky paths and the heat. So another pair of shoes down. I will have to see if I can find another pair of shoes here to last the rest of the mission.

For our Mission Activity this Wednesday, all of the missionaries here in the Rivas Zone get to go to the beach early to help the Mission Office Elders set everything up, and then we get to stay after the activity to help take stuff down. Elder Jensen and I had to charter some buses to take us down early and then back late.  I will hopefully also get the rest of my Christmas packages. It should be a lot of fun, but our Mission President warned us that "where the water begins, your mission ends" (that is exactly what he said). So I won't be touching the Pacific Ocean, but at least I will get to see it!

Adios, 2015! Bienvenido a 2016!

This was one of our New Year's Eve dinner appointments, and it was big. We were invited, along with most
of the missionaries in Rivas, to the home of two of our baptisms from last week, and then one of their
friends who is an investigator of one of the Hermana companionships.

Another picture of the dinner appointment.

Well, the best part of New Year's Eve was that we received multiple invitations for dinner. We ended up accepting three of the invitations, ha ha. After dinner, there wasn't much to do so we made our way back home. We did buy some ginger ale to toast and drink in the new year, plus we ate the rest of our candy from Christmas, so it was a pretty good night for eating.

This past week was pretty tough with the holidays and all the parties going on. We weren't able to bring any investigators to church, and the ones we have been working with gave us all sorts of stories and run-around, so I was pretty frustrated. Luckily, some of the members of the ward brought 3 referrals for us of people to work with.

Missionary Dummies -- just a silly pic of
our name badges on some dummies that were
prepared for the New Year's Eve celebration here.

Despite not coming to church yesterday, we do have two investigators that are pretty positive for baptism maybe later this month. First is J. He has come with us twice to church, but we couldn't find him this past week because he was partying with friends, so we obviously have some work still to get him ready for baptism. Second is R. who is a good friend of B. (the man we baptized on Christmas). He was sick yesterday so he couldn't come to church, but he told us he wants to get baptized and we are hoping he might be ready by the end of January.

Lucky for us, we just got through the toughest time of the year to work with people because of the multiple holidays, festivals, and parades. My last area, Masaya, and this area here in Rivas are both really Catholic, so the holidays have been especially challenging. Now hopefully things will start to get a little easier to find people home.

Some of the cool sights from Central Park here in Rivas.

We got an email from President Russell that told us we will be having our mission celebration not this week, but next. We will be going to this place called Giant Beach where we will spend the day playing games, eating, and hanging out. The cool part is that it is in my District and only about 20 minutes away, so it will be a short trip for us to get there.

I took some of my Christmas money and did a little shopping today. I bought a new side bag to use while proselytizing. It only cost about 500 Cordovas ($15). Now don't get me wrong, I love my Ogio backpack, but I might take a little break from it while I am here in blazing hot Rivas (the black backpack on my back gets pretty miserable some days). I also took some money and bought a new pan and spatula. We also went to Burger King for lunch today, which is the only American restaurant here in Rivas and is a little pricey (I should say priced like it is in the US). We also used some money to buy a few small church supplies for our recent baptisms.

Otherwise, nothing super special going on this week -- just lots of work trying to find more people to teach.  My 'son' is almost finished with his training. It is hard to believe we are now in 2016. I still feel like it is 2014. Enjoy your cold weather back home because we are going to start getting even hotter here in Nicaragua. Usually after Christmas, the weather gets hotter and hotter until Semana Santa, which is in April...miserable. Hope everyone had a great New Year's.

A Feliz Navidad Indeed!

Pic with President and Hermana Russell at the Multi-Zone Christmas Conference

Having a super nice dinner with all the missionaries in Rivas.

This past week was fantastic! First, we had our Multi-Zone Christmas Conference, which was awesome. Plus, President and Hermana Russell gave us all microwaves for our apartments! We also got our Christmas packages and letters from our families.

We were fed again later in the evening on Christmas Eve. Great food!
Elder Jensen, me, Elder Foster, and Elder Smith.

On Christmas Eve, this wealthy guy from Managua paid for all of the missionaries in Rivas to have a super nice dinner, and it was a lot of fun getting together with all of them. We were invited to another dinner later that evening, so we ate well.

Then, Christmas day was the best because we had a baptism (see below) and then I got to Skype with my family. Although, after I finished talking to home, I thought of a billion things that I wanted to ask about. I was a little disappointed because I forgot all my questions.

Skipping with my family on Christmas Day.

B. and his family at B's baptism on Christmas Day.

On Saturday, the day after Christmas, we had three more baptisms. On Sunday, we were able to bring 6 investigators to church and all of our baptisms made it so that they could get confirmed.  All 4 of these baptisms will be some of the strongest converts of my entire mission. They all have goals to go the temple or mission plans one year from now! All of them were "eternal" investigators that have been working with the missionaries for many months, or years, but these past 2 weeks that I have been here, it has been cool to work with them and help them take that step to be baptized. It just seemed like it was a series of miracles throughout the week after they decided to be baptized, so it turned out super awesome, so I can honestly say it was a great Christmas.

Elder Smith, along with C, J, A, and myself
at the baptismal service on Saturday.

The first baptism, named B., seemed like he was pretty much ready for his baptism on Christmas by the time I arrived here, but the other 3 baptisms on Saturday were complete, last-second miracles. So, B. was asking us a lot about tithing because he wants to buy some land next year, but in the end he told us, "if I'm gonna have enough money for that, I will have to pay my tithing and receive the blessings" -- that is just how cool he is! He took this long to be baptized mostly because he had a hard time giving up smoking cigarettes, but he quit over 2 weeks ago so that he could be baptized on Christmas, which is a small miracle, and he is still going strong. His wife is also a recent convert who was baptized about 6 months ago. She has a calling in the ward and is always cooking dinners for us, so they have become another one of my favorite families here in Nicaragua.

On Saturday, two of the baptisms are sisters -- A. and C. They have wanted to be baptized for a while, but their parents are Catholic and very against them joining the church. The sisters are 18 and 20, so they didn't necessarily need permission from their parents, but they were hoping they would still consent to their decision. Elder Smith and I helped them see the importance of baptism and faith in the Lord, and they proceeded even though their parents were not happy about it. But both of them had finished reading the Book of Mormon and knew it was true, and now they are super happy to finally be baptized! After their baptism, they asked us for Triple Combinations so that they could start reading the Doctrine and Covenants.

Three of the people that I had been working with in Masaya who all got
baptized on Saturday. 

The third baptism on Saturday was a lady named J. Her husband had been baptized about 8 months ago, but she didn't want anything to do with the missionaries for a long time. However, one of the members of the ward helped out a ton so that we could finally teach her, and another miracle -- she decided that she wanted to be baptized during the Christmas holiday as well. I also just found out from Elder Nolasco that three people in my last area in Masaya were also baptized. I had been working for 3 weeks with a couple who we committed to be married and baptized last Saturday, so I was super happy to see that they kept their commitments and also got baptized this past week. So this past week just seemed to be a total series of miracles and it turned out to be a great Christmas.

One of the cool Nicaraguan traditions is placing these dummies filled with fireworks all around town.
Then at midnight on New Year's Eve, they all get blown up. Awesome!

A Christmas Miracle in Rivas

Our District here in Rivas

So our apartment here in Rivas is pretty nice. This is our kitchen area.

This past week, we had to go to Managua for the Newbies Meeting for my companion, Elder Smith. We had to wake up at 3 AM to catch a 3-hour bus ride to get to Managua for the meeting which started at 7 AM. The meeting lasted until about 2 PM and then we caught a bus back to Rivas that was so crowded we had to stand the entire ride. It was a pretty miserable journey because I am too tall and I don't fit, so I had to hunch down the whole 3 hours back home. As for the meeting itself, Elder Smith did great in the practice sessions, and they gave us Burger King for lunch!

This is our study.

Yesterday in church I got to meet a lot of the members of the ward, and a super rich family invited all of the missionaries in Rivas over for dinner on the 24th, so we should be eating well. We also found some way positive people that will hopefully come to church next week, so the area will start going better here in a bit, but this week might be a little rough on the area with all the conferences and Christmas and stuff, ha ha.

The house even has a big backyard.

We did have something super crazy cool happen this week -- really you could call it a miracle. So this eternal investigator decided she wanted to get baptized on Saturday, and we missionaries really had no hand in it. She said she just got in the holiday cheer and decided this would be a good week to be baptized. Plus we will be having a baptism on Christmas evening, so Elder Smith and I will be having two baptisms this week! Complete miracle!! My district also has 2 other baptisms, so we will end the year with a bang and a holly, jolly Christmas!!!

We got the Christmas ambience going in our apartment.

In fact, as a mission, we achieved our mission goal of 2060 baptisms this year, and as a result, the entire mission gets to go on a trip in January to San Juan del Sur, which is the nicest tourist place in all of Nicaragua. Funny thing is that it is located in my district boundaries (although we are forbidden to go there on P-Days, sadly), so it is just a 20-minute bus ride from where I am at here in Rivas. Also, because we are so close to San Juan del Sur, they have a lot more American brand items here because of all the tourists, so I will probably take out some of my Christmas money and buy some neat stuff and more food.

So the family of our investigator who is getting baptized on
Christmas cooked us some dinner and it was actually
super good. They are very, very poor, so it meant
a lot to them.

Tomorrow we have our Multi-Zone Conference and we will be leaving Rivas about 4 AM again. The conference is supposed to be exactly like last year and we should be getting our Christmas packages from home tomorrow. Anyways, so we have people feeding us on Christmas and we should have our packages, so this Christmas should be a good one, and I won't lie, this year I'm not nearly as sad as last year. Can't wait to Skype with my family on Christmas, and I hope everyone else has a great Christmas as well!

Elder Smith, Me, Elder Foster, and Elder Jensen, who is the District Leader of the other district here in Rivas
and who was in the CCM with me.