Squeezing the Juice Out in Grenada

Well, happy Father's Day, Dad! I hope it was a good day yesterday for you -- I had no idea it was Father's Day as they don't celebrate it here. Glad Mom had a nice birthday, too.

Well, this week was pretty awesome. We were able to have 3 baptisms last Saturday, along with 2 other baptisms in my district, so it was a really great Saturday! We are also preparing for another baptismal service next Saturday. We also brought 9 investigators to church yesterday and they all really liked the church service and are progressing with the lessons.

My companion has 3 weeks left in the mission, and he is getting more and more tired because of how hard we are working, but I'm squeezing the juice out of him. Tomorrow is his final interview, and rumor has it that the new mission president will be arriving this next week.

So anyway, the area is progressing really well right now and I will have to take some more money out because we have been paying for lots of transportation with all the investigators, baptismal interviews, and meetings.

Looks like our tickets arrived for August 25th today, so I am assuming you guys got those also. Well, hope you all have a great week back home!!

Chicken Head and Foot Soup -- Mmmmmm, good!

Fresh fruit for breakfast -- mmmmm, good!

Our District here in Grenada.

Adios to President and Hermana Russell

June 13, 2016

First off, happy birthday, Mom!

So within the city of Grenada, the church is organized into one giant district with four branches, rather than a stake and wards. The biggest problem here is the retention rate, which translates into the lowest church attendance in all of Nicaragua. The people here are super humble and generally receptive, and this area has had lots of baptisms in the past, but they have a hard time returning to church on a consistent basis. In a way, that is kind of how most of this mission is anyways -- always trying to help the people understand the baptismal covenant and why they need to renew it each week in Sacrament Meeting.

This past week we had a multi-zone conference. After about 4 hours of lessons and training, President and Hermana Russell told everyone goodbye. It was pretty sad. He also showed us pics of the new mission president and his family. His name is President Brown. He is from Utah and he is only 41-years-old with 4 kids all under the age of 15, so he is probably going to be way different.

My companion is doing well. He is not "dead" yet, but he is a little trunky.  We have found some pretty awesome investigators and we are working hard to have 3 baptisms this next Saturday. We even took 9 investigators to church yesterday, which is the most I have taken in a long time! I am really loving this new area and the people here with how humble and teachable they are.

Yesterday was also our District Conference at church, which is like a Stake Conference. President Russell was here for all the sessions. I couldn't believe how few people attended from all of Grenada. There were only 30 people at the Priesthood session on Saturday afternoon, and 12 of us were missionaries. Then on Sunday for the General session, there were only about 200 people, and that includes us 18 missionaries.

So that's the struggle here. The people are really receptive to the gospel message and we are working hard. I did hear about the shootings in Orlando here because everyone here thinks the United States is about 80% Miami, 10% Orlando, and then 10% New York. A couple of people here even asked me if I knew where the bar was where they had the shootings. Pretty sad. Well, that's about it for this week. Have a great Father's Day on Sunday!

Welcome to the Swamp

Bienvenidos a Granada -- so my new area is in Granada Zone on the outskirts of Granada City.

One of my good friends in Rivas who I
will miss a lot.

Well, some good news as I got transferred to a new area this past week. I am re-opening an area in Granada with a new companion named Elder Jimenez who is from El Salvador. I guess a few months ago, some missionaries got in some big trouble in this area and they shut it down and pulled the missionaries out. Elder Jimenez knows this area pretty well because he was trained here 20 months ago, and then he served in other parts of the Granada Zone for an additional 5 months, so he already knows the whole Granada Zone and a lot of the members here. And yes, if you do the math, I am "killing" Elder Jimenez as he goes home next cambios on July 14th, and then I will be going home the one after that on August 25th. Even though he will be going home soon, my new companion is still pretty awesome and we are making sure we stay focused on the work. In fact, we already found a ton of new people that we have started teaching, and some of them are already planning to get baptized the end of this month.

Some pics of my new area on the outskirts of Granada

Granada is the poorest area in our whole mission, and as a result, the people here are very receptive to the Gospel and this zone usually has the most baptisms each month. It kind of reminds me of parts of Ciudad Sandino, but definitely very poor people here that live in the middle of nowhere. There are only dirt roads in most of our area and when it rains, this place turns into a swamp. In fact, my area is on the outskirts of the city of Granada in a town that when it is translated into English means "the Swamp," and it has lived up to its name this week. Since I arrived last week, it has rained every day, so it has been a lot of fun. They also say that Granada is the hottest part of the mission, but I still feel like Rivas was hotter than here, but we'll see when it stops raining.

More pics of my new area.

I am still a district leader, but the Zone Leaders are in my district and in my ward at church, and they are both buddies of mine, so it should be a blast. Also, church doesn't start for our ward here until 2:00 in the afternoon on Sundays, so they say that makes it easier to bring people to church each week.

Granada is also the most dangerous area and missionaries get robbed here all the time, so we'll be careful, but it has also been a long time since they had a white missionary in this area. Even still, Granada will be awesome to end the mission because in the middle of the city itself, there are a ton of restaurants and some tourist attractions.

Our poor shoes... it definitely is a swamp when it rains.

On a bad note, on my last P-Day in Rivas a week ago, I lost my little passport zip bag while I was riding the bus, which had my Utah ID, my temple recommend, and all my money that I withdrew that day. Luckily, my Nicaragua ID was in another place and was fine, but I had to withdraw some more money for cambios.

The Cathedral of Granada off in the distance.

We did take a few pics today as we visited the city for P-Day, as well as some pics as I was leaving Rivas, but I won't be carrying my camera around as much in this new area in case we  get robbed. Anyways, I am about out of time for today. Thanks everyone back home for your prayers, letters, and support. I miss everyone, but I still got 3 more months to tear up the area here in Granada!

This is Xalteva Church on the
western side of the city.

View of Granada from the Xalteva Church tower.

Nothing New in Rivas

Well, I don't have my camera today, so sorry there are no pictures. Not a whole lot to report on this week.

We do have cambios this Wednesday, but we won't find out until tomorrow if I am transferring. There have been some legit rumors saying that I will be staying here in Rivas, but we will see. I really hope not because I have been here 6 months now and I am more than ready for a change.

So our baptism for last Saturday was postponed. The AP's were even down helping in our zone this past week and they stopped by and visited with the little girl and her parents, but in the end, they still decided to wait on her baptism. On a positive note, the little girl and her parents did all come to church again yesterday.

One of the companionships of Hermanas had 2 baptisms last Saturday, and we were helping them out with that. Me and my companion found a few new people to teach, but nobody super positive at this point, and none of the new investigators made it to church yesterday.

Today for P-Day we had a zone activity in Jinotepe and we played soccer with water balloons, which was a lot of fun. But otherwise, not much else going on this week. We will see what happens with cambios on Wednesday.

Travels to Jinotepe

P-Day activity today....

Well, this week was an exhausting one. We had to make three trips to Jinotepe, the main area of the Zone, which is about 80 minutes each way. Our first trip was last Monday for the district leaders to meet with the Zone Leaders and discuss things we're doing to meet our baptism goal as a zone. Then we went again on Tuesday for our interviews with President Russell. Then we travelled there a third time on Friday for Zone Conference with the whole Zone. The topic of our conference centered on doing all we can to reach our baptism goal as a zone. Of course, for my whole mission, most of the zone conferences have focused on finding and baptizing more, but this zone, Zona Jinotepe, never has had a lot of success like in my other areas.

Me and Elder Cuyan

My interview with President Russell actually went really well. I was pretty nervous going in, but he didn't talk to me about baptisms. He talked to me about developing more leadership skills and helping the Hermanas in my district more, and at the end he talked to me a little bit about school in the Fall. But it was a little bit sad knowing it was my last interview I will have with him. When I have my very last interview of my mission, it will be with a new mission president that doesn't know me at all, so it turned out to be a nice interview and a little bit sad. I will miss President and Hermana Russell.

So during this past week I worked a lot with the Hermanas because they have quite a few possible baptisms for next Saturday, so I was going and helping them work with their investigators to keep their commitments. As May comes to a close this week, we have a few positive investigators we have been bringing to church, but we haven't really found anyone new to teach this week. We are also planning to have a baptism of our own this Saturday of a 10-year-old girl who's mother is a member, but she hadn't come to church since she was baptized about 17 years ago. We are also teaching the mother's future husband, but he has a lot of issues to work on before they can get married and eventually baptized as well. However, their daughter is still planning to be baptized this next week, so prayers would be appreciated that everything works out for her.

So my eyes are doing better. I have been taking all of the drops, so the redness and itchiness has gone away. Honestly I think when I get transferred from Rivas, my eyes won't be bothering me as much anymore. This last week it hasn't rained a drop here and it has been blazing hot and sunny and miserable to be outside. It is also pretty miserable inside as well even with a fan. In fact, all of our investigators and contacts turn their fans on us when we enter in their homes. Still, pretty hot and miserable.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, this past week we watched some of the members shoot a pigeon with a slingshot and then they immediately cooked it and gave some to us. So I also tried some pigeon for the first time in my life. Seriously, though, it tasted just like chicken.

Lame Week in Rivas

Well, this week was kind of a bummer. Our baptisms scheduled for Saturday fell through as the grandmother felt she wasn't prepared enough yet. Even when the Zone Leaders came for the interview and talked with her, she just didn't feel ready for now, so we will have to keep working with her and her grandson to help them feel ready.

Iguana for dinner! Tasted pretty good.

We also spent about two-and-a-half days outside of our area this past week so that we could work with the Hermanas, and then another day with the Zone Leaders in the Hermanas' area again. We also spent one day going to the hospital for my eyes again. By Friday, my eyes were really bad again, so we went to the hospital and they gave me 3 more types of eye drops. I have to put in like 8 drops per day between all the medicines. At least my eyes are feeling better now.

Elder Cuyan enjoying his iguana dinner.

Tomorrow we have our interviews with President Russell. This is his last full month as our mission president, and the new mission president will be arriving soon. However, in preparation for our interviews tomorrow, all the District Leaders were called in to a meeting this morning and it took most of our P-Day today. We had to review our numbers and how many baptisms are scheduled, and then to prepare for how upset they will be for not having more baptisms scheduled.

On the other hand, my companion is awesome. He is not one to take the lead, but we get along really well. He and our roommates are teaching me a lot of Guatemalan sayings. As for any Guatemalan food, they all basically just complain about the rice and beans here, but none of them has money to buy the food to make any Guatemalan dishes. Still, they are a lot of fun.

Well, sorry for the lame email this week, but that is about all that is going on for now. Hope everyone has a great week back home.

Iguana: The Other, Other White Meat

Wow, it was sure great talking to my family yesterday. I might need a map just to find my way around the house as my folks have been busy remodeling. I also can't believe how much my little brother and sister have changed. I can hardly recognize them! However, I am pretty sure I am still taller than my brother, and now I might even be taller than my dad.

So last week I printed off my re-acceptance letter to BYU and was showing it to some of the other missionaries and members. Even though I don't have my exact release date yet for when I am coming home, my mission president did say I would be home in time to start school at BYU on August 29th, so he told my family to go ahead and start making preparations for school in the Fall. It should be exciting even though I plan to go home as many weekends as I can to chill with my family.

Well, this past week, our investigator who had committed to getting baptized last Saturday changed her mind at the last minute. I guess her extended family convinced her that she will be a Catholic until the day she dies. Her son is a member of the ward and he said that she has done this before, so unfortunately we didn't have a baptism last week.

However, we have 2 investigators scheduled to be baptized next Saturday. They are a grandma and her grandson. We found them a few weeks ago, and they have been coming to church and finally feel ready to be baptized, so prayers for them would be great. Overall, I think the area is going a little better, but we are still searching for more new investigators.

Also this past week, Elder Martinez (the other District Leader who is in our apartment) had to travel to Granada for a leadership training. Glad to say that I got to experience Granada before I go home because everyone says it is the hottest city in our mission, but I didn't even break a sweat when I was there. Doesn't seem to really be much different than Rivas, but it has a lot more tourists and attractions there, and the LDS chapel in Granada is much bigger and nicer than the little chapel in Rivas. So it was a bit of an adventure.

Last Saturday we did help the other Elders in our apartment with a baptismal service, and after the meeting was over, we went out on the grounds of the church and caught an iguana. The cool thing is that our pensionista said she would cook it for us to eat as they are supposed to be quite tasty. Then today, we played soccer at the church for P-Day, and when we were finished, we caught 2 more iguanas. So now we will have 3 iguanas to eat tomorrow night. I'm pretty excited to try it.

Well, I had to reassure my family that I am not getting trunk yet. All is well here in Nicaragua. My eye infection is getting better, and I'm going to work hard these last 3 and a half months to bring a few more souls to Christ. Well, have a great week everyone!