Multi-Zone (Spiritual) Machete and a Baptism

This past week we had the baptism of the girl we have been working with and now she is officially a member of the church with the rest of her family. The baptismal service went well, and afterward, we ordered pizza to celebrate! She wants to go on a mission of her own when she gets a little older, so it turned out pretty cool.

After the baptism on Saturday, we had a pizza
delivered to the house to celebrate with the family.

Next week, we have another baptism scheduled with the family I was telling you about the last few weeks, which should be awesome! They came to General Conference and then to church yesterday, and they are super excited to be baptized and have loved coming to church. We are also going to have their wedding the same day before the baptism, and we are still working on all the paperwork for that, but it should all be good for Saturday. This family also has an in-home "smoothie shop" and they make us smoothies every time we visit, which are so delicious! Anyway, we are support excited for the baptism, plus the Zone Leaders have a cool guy, and the Hermanas also have a family scheduled for baptism this Saturday, so we will be doing them all together at the same service and we are planning to buy two giant cakes from the Costco-owned store here to celebrate.

We also had a few new people come with us to church yesterday, but we are struggling to find many new people. This area in Masaya is more difficult than Bluefields or Trinidad Ciudad, and the Catholic holidays aren't helping, but hey, we're seeing the Lord's blessings with some people ready for baptism! A new bishop was also called in our ward here yesterday, and he is going to be a great help!

Also this past week, we had our Multi-Zone Conference last Thursday. President Russell gave a really good talk from the book, "The Fourth Missionary," and told us how to be a consecrated missionary. It was basically a machete for everyone, but I liked it a lot. We all got copies of the book to take home with us, and then after 5 hours of classes and training, we got to play some games! They were a bunch of different "Minute-to-Win-It" types of games that were a lot of fun, and then we finally got back to our apartment around 8:00 that night.

Just glad he wasn't hiding inside my shoe....

One other thing we received at the Multi-Zone was a bunch of bug spray and repellent. This chemical spray came from the States and when we got home, we used it to fumigate our apartment so now hopefully the tarantulas and cockroaches shouldn't get to us anymore :). Out apartment is a little small, but honestly it is not all that bad and I kind of like it, especially with fewer bugs and spiders. Me and my comp, Elder Nolasco, are both doing good and getting along really well. I have had a nagging cold for about three weeks now, but I think it is finally starting to go away. Well, glad to hear everyone at home is well. That's about it for this week as I am about out of time.

The Masaya Zone riding on the bus coming back from the Multi-Zone Conference.

Conference Weekend, Bow, and Pupusas

In the jungle, the mighty jungle... this thick jungle drop-off is the backyard of one of our investigators.

Often it will rain so hard here that the streets turn into rivers.

This is called "bow," or at least that is how you pronounce it.
It is a plate of yuka and plantains cooked for a few hours in
a crockpot. It wasn't too bad.

With General Conference this weekend, our mission president wouldn't let us attend more than one of the sessions unless we brought at least 4 investigators with us, and well, our Conference weekend... was a success! We got to watch 3 of the 4 sessions, as well as the Priesthood Session on Saturday night. We were able to bring at least 4 investigators to the Saturday morning session, as well as both sessions on Sunday. However, we didn't get to just sit and enjoy the talks because we were busy giving up our seats to our investigators or other members, and we kept leaving to go get more people or help usher and all sorts of stuff... but I was able to listen to some of the talks. I really enjoyed the ones I got to listen to. Of course, they were all in Spanish and I was able to understand 100% of them without any problem, but I have realized that it is more difficult for me to actually remember the talks as well when I hear them in Spanish. I did happen to notice President Monson struggling a little bit during the end of his talk, and I really liked Elder Bednar's talk at the very end where he talked about the last few Apostles who passed away, showing their pictures and sharing parts of their last Conference talks. Overall, I enjoyed Conference a lot, but it was still rather stressful!

I know it's Catholic, but it's pretty dang cool looking:
La Iglesia San Sebastian, Monimbo Barrio, Masaya.

This past week was difficult because they held Catholic Festivals pretty much every day, with a new saint and new parades each day, as well as lots of beer and craziness. So trying to contact people was rough because it seemed like nobody was really interested in our message. Otherwise, it was just a normal week in our area, just trying to work around all the parties and festivals, which makes it stressful to try and get our goals for the week.

A pretty view of Laguna Catarina today.

This next Saturday we will be having a baptismal service along with the Hermanas in our ward (our area is half the ward, and the Hermanas have the other half). We will be baptizing a Young Woman who is part of a family of active members, but she hasn't been baptized yet. The Hermanas also have a few investigators planning to be baptized. Also this next week we will be having a multi-zone conference on Thursday, so I will get to see some of my friends from other zones.

Today for P-Day, we went with the Zone Leaders to Catarina Laguna, which I also visited when I was here in Masaya last year. Afterwards, we went to a place that serves pupusas, which is an El Salvadorean food, in honor of my companion's heritage.

P-Day pupusas.

Last, I had an experience this past week where I actually used the scripture my family is studying this next week. The Hermanas were struggling with a family that is committed to be baptized soon, but they have had some problems and the Hermanas asked me to come and try to help them. The father of the family was having some issues, but I urged him to realize that their family needs to have a firm foundation, with him leading the way. I used Helaman 5:12 as the base of my message to them, and we also read from the "Family: A Proclamation to the World." After we visited, the family decided to continue working with the Hermanas and strengthen their family, so it is cool that this was the same scripture my family picked for this week.

Mission buddies -- we all met up and took this pic while we were on divisions with the Zone Leaders.

Deja Vu and Eclipse de la Luna

This is P., the newest Young Woman in the Barrio Monimbo,
along with Elder Nolasco and me.

This past week was good. We had a baptism and brought a new family to church for the first time! In fact, every area in my district had baptisms this past week, and President told me he's happy with our progress and he told me that I am doing a great job here in Monimbo.

Kind of like Deja Vu all over again -- August 2015.

We looked super hard this past week for some new investigators. We found quite a few, but a lot of them dropped out on Sunday. This time of the year is pretty difficult in the areas with a lot of Catholics. However, we did find a new family that is really cool. They are the familia Jimenez and they are planning to get married and baptized in October. What touched them the most as we were teaching them was the Plan of Salvation because their first daughter died in childbirth, and they were crying as they talked about her. They even came to church Sunday by themselves, which is always a really good sign.

November 2014.

Today for P-Day, we played more soccer in the morning with some of  our Zone. My trainer, Elder Castro, even showed up. He is living here in Masaya now at the home of our lunch citas, so I will be seeing quite a bit of him again.

This next week we don't have any baptisms scheduled, but we do have a few planned for October 10th! Besides, it is General Conference this weekend, and I can't wait to find out who will be called as the 3 new Apostles. However, just like last year, we have to bring 4 investigators with us to be able to attend each session, or else we can't attend, so we will be working extra hard to get people to come with us.

Time is going kind of fast here in my new district and it is hard to believe I have already been here 2 weeks! It is a little bit different having Hermanas in my district (there are 3 Hermanas). I have to remember to be sensitive with them and stuff, but these Hermanas in my district are super obedient. They just baptized 4 people last Saturday, and then they have 5 or 6 more scheduled for October 10th! These Hermanas are almost done with their missions, so I have to make sure they don't get "frito" as they say here in Nicaragua. Still, these Hermanas are pretty cool and a lot of fun.

A view from Nicaragua of the lunar eclipse last night.

I heard from Elder Rushton that last Saturday they baptized another one of my old investigators back in Bluefields. This lady was so awesome, and she cried when I left Bluefields... it would have been so neat to see her get baptized. She is going to be a really active, incredibly strong member of the church.

We did get a chance to see the lunar eclipse last night as well. It was pretty cool. Also, I can't believe how tall my little brother is looking in the pictures from home, but on the other hand, I am pretty sure I have grown a little bit also because I had to have a lady in our ward extend my suit pants a little longer this past week. Thanks again to everyone for your emails and letters. They mean a lot to me!

The Zona Masaya -- lots of familiar faces, including my brother, Elder Sanchez on the far left,
who trained with me in Masaya at the start of our missions.

Adios, Bluefields -- Back to Masaya!

Back to Masaya, Nicaragua, but this time in Monimbo.

Pics of my new apartment

Our bathroom....

So this past week was cambios, and sure enough, I was transferred from Bluefields and now I am back in Masaya again, which is the zone where I first started my mission. This time I am in an area called Monimbo, which is the neighbor area next to the Zone Leader's area (which was my first area). As a result, I already know a ton of ward members, and it is still the same lunch cita and the same lady that helps with our laundry. I got to know a lot of this zone last time I was here because I was always going out on splits with the Zone Leaders, and I even already slept in this apartment once before! One other good thing is that Masaya is not as hot and muggy as Bluefields, so I am not sweating nearly as much (it is still really hot, though).

My new companion is named Elder Nolasco and he is from El Salvador. He started his mission the same time I did and he even trained in the Masaya Zone like I did, but in a different area. So Elder Nolasco has been in a little trouble in the past with the Mission President, but it's not really been his fault as his senior companions have not been the most motivated to work. So President Russell told me at cambios that I need to help shape him up!

Our study area....

I am still a district leader here, and our district consists of the Zone Leaders and their companions, my area, and then another area with a trio of sisters. Both of the Zone Leaders are super cool, and one of them, Elder Kleiner, was one of my Zone Leaders when I was in Sandino, so its gonna be a blast! Also, Elder Salmeron, who was my last companion in Sandino, is a companion of one of the Zone Leaders here, so I am his district leader and I am always around him again.

There are lots of Catholics here in Masaya and it seems
like they are always having these parades or processionals.

Another thing that President Russell told me at cambios is that he knows that the problems our district was having in Bluefields weren't really me and Elder Rushton's fault, but being the district leader there was a learning process for me to grow. So now he told me to tear it up in Masaya also and I'm feeling a lot better about the whole transfer now. Yesterday, a new stake presidency was called here in Masaya, and now some of the wards are temporarily without a bishop, including the ward I am in, so President Russell was telling be that he will be coming to Masaya quite a bit the next several weeks to train the new leadership.

Let me tell you, that last panga ride leaving Bluefields last week was a looong and sad ride. Elder Rushton told me that he and my replacement, Elder Bradbeer, did baptize 5 of my old investigators last Saturday in Bluefields, and they have one more of my investigators scheduled for baptism next week, and they brought 14 of my old investigators to church yesterday in Bluefields! The area is still progressing great out there and I am a little sad to not be in Bluefields. Masaya is quite a bit more difficult... the land of the Catholics... and it is a little more difficult to baptize here. When I arrived in my new area last week, we only have 3 little kids that are progressing and will be baptized shortly (hopefully 1 this next Saturday), but Nolasco and I will work hard to find some adults and families to start teaching! My new comp really seems to have the desire to work hard so far, so we are already off to a strong start here.

Caballos, ha ha, giddy up!

Goodbye, Bluefields :(

G. is a 15-year-old, future missionary who returned to Bluefields and was baptized this past week.

Well, unfortunately, I just got the news that I will be transferring this next week for cambios. I'm pretty disappointed and it's all I can think about right now, so I'm having a hard time writing this email. We had as many as 6 baptisms scheduled for last Saturday, but only 1 of them happened. He is a teenager named G. who Elder Passey and I had taught, but he left Bluefields for about 1 month and then came back last week. He is really cool and has a lot of friends with the Young Men in the branch, and he is even talking about serving a mission. 

A cool pic of a rain shower moving into the bay.

Unfortunately, we had to postpone the other 5 baptisms thanks to coffee! So we have to keep working with those investigators and we had to postpone their baptism. Plus, we got word that another guy we were teaching about 2 months ago is returning to Bluefields this week and wants to get baptized next Saturday, but it looks like I won't be here now. We also had a bunch of investigators in church yesterday, and we have some really cool investigators progressing and saying they want to get baptized the end of September and first of October, but again, I won't be here to see it happen.

This is a picture of one of the little, red worms in our drinking water.
We found tons of them in the well and cleaned them all out, but not after
Elder Rushton got sick.

My parents read my companion's blog from last week and he talked about getting sick. We discovered some little, red worms in our drinking water, and he had been sick all week last week. We went to the landlord, and she had her cousin come and help us drain the water well and then clean it out as much as we could. The water is still pretty disgusting in general, but at least the little red bugs are gone. I have been drinking the water the whole I time I have been here and, fortunately, I haven't been sick at all. Elder Rushton also mentioned that he had bed bugs, and yes, I had them also, but I didn't want to say anything so that my Mom would be worried. Those are also gone now, but I will be leaving tomorrow for cambios anyway.

So I finally got the rest of my birthday presents last week when we went to Managua for interviews with our mission president. I can't say my interview went very well because even though Elder Rushton and I have been working hard and keeping the mission rules, he wasn't happy with a few things, like keeping our area book up to date. So kind of a bummer this week. I guess I will let you know next week where I end up and who my new companion will be.

We finally got to try turtle rondon and it was pretty good.

Loma Fresca, Bluefields

This is a cool lake we found in our area.

We worked hard all week this past week and were able to bring 11 investigators to church yesterday. We are hoping to have as many as 6 baptisms this next week. Two of our investigators are returning to Bluefields and we were able to confirm that they will be back. The other four are references of children from less-active families. When the branch asks us to find and teach these kids and their parents, and work to get them coming to church again and the kids to be baptized, we are more than happy to oblige!

Up in the mountains of Loma Fresca, Bluefields

So kind of a short email today because we have to leave in about 90 minutes on a panga headed for Juigalpa. We have interviews with President Russell tomorrow there. Normally he doesn't pull us out of Bluefields but normally just visits every few months, and he is coming in October, but we got called in....

Loma Fresca is located in the other half of our district.
We went on divisions this past week and went up there.
It's basically hiking around looking for shacks in the jungle
on top of the hill like this one.

Other news is that after we finish our emails today, we will be eating lunch with a family in the branch who is going to fix us a typical Bluefields meal called "rondon," and this kind is going to be made with turtle! I'll take some pics and let you know next week how it tastes, but I am super excited to try it! Anyways, sorry for the short email, but we're pushed for time.

A Week Full of Baptisms and Instruction from an Apostle

A beautiful Caribbean sunrise here in Bluefields, Nicaragua!

So this past week was pretty eventful! We knew we would be leaving on Friday to travel to Managua for the missionary conference and wouldn't be able to have a baptismal service on Saturday, so we planned to get our investigators ready to be baptized earlier in the week!

Here are the two sisters who got baptized on Wednesday night,
along with their mother who doesn't exist
according to the Nicaraguan government.

Me and E. all dressed up and ready to go
before we left his house for the church on Thursday.

First, the family who was closest weren't all able to get baptized because when we tried to get the birth certificate and ID card for the mother, it turns out she doesn't exist in the government records. When she was born (in a tiny shack), her parents never took her to the hospital or doctors, and she never went to school -- ever -- so she was never entered into the system. So now we have to start a very long process with some expensive lawyers to get her officially entered into the government records so that she can get married and then baptized. However, we were able to have a baptism service for her two daughters on Wednesday, and then we had another baptism service on Thursday for her niece and nephew (who live nearby). It was awesome because we had a huge turn-out from the branch to support both baptisms.

Here we are with E. and his sister at their baptism on Thursday night.

On Friday morning, we left Bluefields on another long trip and arrived in Juigalpa later in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day helping out our Zone Leaders, Elders Hansen and Hartley, in their area. Then we got up super early on Saturday and left for Managua. The missionary conference was incredible because it was conducted by President Russell M. Nelson, who is the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (kind of like Peter in the New Testament), and he told lots of cool stories and instruction on the things we need to be teaching the people in Nicaragua so that they can be truly converted and get their own temple one day. He showed us many terms in the Spanish version of the Study Guide in the back of the Spanish Book of Mormon, but he went into a lot of detail on about 10 or so of them. He told us to really teach them about tithing and commit them to pay their tithing because that is the reason they don't have a temple in Nicaragua yet.

President Nelson also shared a cool experience when he and Elder Hales came to Nicaragua many years ago to dedicate the country for missionary work. At the time that they came, Americans weren't being given visas to enter Nicaragua, but they were allowed into the country "for a few hours." So they showed up to the airport unannounced and went to a park in Masaya. Nobody in the whole country knew they were coming, so it was literally just a little group of church leaders that spent a few hours one afternoon and dedicated the land of Nicaragua for missionary work and to open the doors for the teaching of the restored gospel.

Funny thing is we spent about 17 hours traveling for a 2-hour meeting with President Nelson, but it was totally worth it, and I got to shake his hand! After the meeting concluded, they fed us Subway sandwiches, but of course we also had to stop by the McDonald's in Managua to grab something to eat on our way back to Juigalpa. As we left the meeting, our mission president told us not to go back to Bluefields that night, but to wait until early Sunday morning. As a result, we knew we wouldn't make it in time for church Sunday morning so we wouldn't be able to help bring our newly baptized members to church for their confirmations. So let's just say that while we were helping our Zone Leaders in their area again on Saturday night, I was making a ton of phone calls to commit people and members to help bring the new members for their confirmations. So when we got off the pangas on Sunday about 1:00 PM, we were thrilled to find out that we still had 5 of our investigators show up to church, and 2 of the new members were able to make it to church and get confirmed. It wasn't perfect, but it could have been a lot worse! Next week we will get the others confirmed.

This was so incredibly tasty! Hmmmm...good!
A delicious fish and fried tortilla dinner!

So now for September, we are working really hard to find more people to teach, plus we still have another super awesome family we have been teaching that should get baptized a little later this month. Super cool how the work is coming along here in Bluefields!!! This next week we don't have anything too special planned. We are still waiting on a few investigators to return to Bluefields so that they can be baptized... still waiting, so hopefully this week they can get back in town.

More fish for dinner, but this time with teeth! Ack!
I didn't eat this fish though, ha ha, luckily the family didn't offer it to us!

Elder Rushton and I get along really well together -- he is just super crazy, and his Spanish is horrible, but he is really cool and we are working really hard. He is a great missionary, which is why I am so surprised we are both together as companions here in Bluefields, because we are both missionary leaders who have been on our missions for a while, and so it is great to be able to just take advantage and work hard with someone who also loves to work hard. Well, this Thursday will be my official 1-year anniversary of leaving on my mission... crazy, right? The time is flying by now, especially because I love it so much here in Bluefields so it seems to go by even faster!

Bus full of Zone Juigalpa missionaries!