Hello Family,
So It's very exciting to be able to Skype (google hangout) with you guys on Friday. I´ll probably call at 6 or 630ish but could call as late as 7. Sorry that's as much detail I can give you. The times I gave are Nicaragua times by the way. I think you guys are 1 hour ahead.
So on Monday night, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we just worked as normal, teaching investigators, finding new ones etc. Nothing notable really happened.
On Friday we went to San Marcos for District meeting and then Elder Nave stayed there and worked with Elder Henriquez for the day and I came back with Elder Avila from Guatemala and worked in the area with him all day. It was good, and I enjoyed working with Avila. It was a bit scary because I still don´t know the area that well but everything went fine. Tomorrow I´ll be working with him as well. On Saturday we found a recent convert´s pet turtle so we had to take some pictures with it of course. We just spent all Aaturday going by everyone we had committed to church and making sure everything was ready.
Sunday was crucial because we have four inveatigators that have been to church two times that are supposed to get baptized this week, but an investigator needs to go to church 3 times to be baptized so in order for them to be baptized they had to go to church yesterday. So the first was Carolina, we went by to bring her to church and her recent convert family just said she wasn't there and they hadn't seen her all morning. So that sucked. Then we went by Jeffryn, the kid who´s grandma is a member, the grandma said he was gone in Managua with his parents. So we were already 0 for 2. The two kids in the family Arias that could be baptized this week did come though so that was good. The part that was not good is that only those two came from the family. So we get to the church with these two kids and I stayed with them and another priesthood holder member while Nave went with another Priesthood holder to try and get Carolina in case she came home. She did. So they got back late but we got her to church and she will be baptized this Saturday. Alfredo and Victoria (kids from familia Arias) are getting baptized on Christmas so when I Skype my hair might still be a bit wet. Also we got another lady named Reina but we´re waiting for her partner to get back so we can get them married. The real miracle of Sunday was a guy named Anyel that showed up with a member. He is 14 and super cool. We went by his house later Sunday night and he is literally the most prepared investigator possible. He was telling us about how he wanted to change because he knew something was missing from other religions so he was talking to his Mormon friend and just knew that he needed to learn more. We happened to be carrying a Book of Mormon when we started talking to him at his house so he´s like oh, that´s the book that Joseph Smith translated huh? and we´re like yep. Then he had a question about the validity of his baptism when he was 4 so we just turned to Moroni 8 and explained it and he believed us without any sort of doubt. So the soonest he can be baptized is January 9 so we asked him if he would prepare to be baptized on that day and he was super disappointed because he wanted to do it this week. Then he told us he wanted to be a missionary and asked us what he would have to do to become one. Then he told us when his friends ask he just tells them he´s a Mormon. It was really cool. If everything continues to go well and he gets baptized he´ll be one amazing convert. But when people ask what we did as missionaries to help him be so cool and prepared I´ll just have to say, we literally didn´t have to do anything, the Lord just prepared him perfectly. He "was delivered up into our hands". See 1 Nephi 4: 17 and replace Laban with Anyel. But don´t go on reading verses 18 and 19. So ya that was a cool experience.
So this Thursday all day will be the multizona for Christmas. we´ll play games, eat food, get to listen to President and Sister Russell and then get presents. The mission will give us some presents and we´ll also get the Christmas packages that came in the last week. Then Christmas we´ll have District meeting, the baptisms of Alfredo and Victoria, work a little more, then skype. I´m super super excited.
So ya be sure to pray for Carolina, Alfredo, Victoria, Anyel, and all of the Family Arias.
Love, Elder Smith
PS Sorry I couldn´t figure out how to rotate the pic. Also sorry if my tie doesn´t match my pants. I would be lying if I said I knew if those colors matched.
The Christmas song I miss the most that I haven´t heard here is O Holy Night (but not the Steve Mauden version, I think that's the name of the guy). I don´t know if this would surprise you but I always sing with my comp (Hanson and Nave) when we finish a lesson at investigator´s houses. It´s all good if we sound bad because the Nicas can´t sing so they think we´re amazing. Haha I like the swan club, it´s a very Doug-like thing to start. Yes unfortunately I heard about the BYU-Utah game. The only bright spot is that Bronco didn´t get 100 wins. Haha I'm glad Bronco took Robert with him..
You´re right, the temps are very mild and pleasant here, some nights I don´t even use my fan. How humid is it anyway? I don´t really notice it anymore. What does the temp feel like with the humidity?
I´m glad you got to go to the Motab concert mom, that might be one of the Christmas things we do that I miss most. Being there in temple square with the family listening to Motab cCristmas music. I´ve realized here that it´s the sensations of Christmas that one grows to love. The fireplace, snuggled up with Bo watching tv, eating all the sugary crap the neighbors bring, walking in the cold with a beanie on, the pain after you just finished your 4th 400 IM in a row. Ok not the 400 IMs but everything else, yes. The breakfast you made sounds really good... We had waffles the other day at an Americanish restaurant. That was nice, they weren´t good by american standards but they were amazing because it was actually an American type of food. Also we had a rib for lunch today. I realized how much I miss BBQ.
The ward didn´t have a Christmas program or anything but there will be a nativity thing party thing on the 23rd. The recent converts will be José and Maria and Elder will be Jesus. Apparently in real wards missionaries don´t have to speak so I´ll just share my testimony in testimony meeting maybe and we´ll be good there. The Spanish is fine, I just need to learn how to speak in normal conversations and stuff that isn´t gospel. I really hope my next comp is latino. But working with Avila all day was fine, I can say whatever I want, sometimes it´s just really choppy. But sometimes I say something and I´m just speaking really fast, good, spanish without even thinking and I´m like wow, that was pretty good cody. I just need to learn how to do that all the time. This ward has a huge youth program and IDK about primary. It´s actually a lot more like a Utah ward, and the chapel is really big too.
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