Cody's Mission Blog: Happy Halloween!!

October 31, 2016

Hello family!!

To respond to the 5 billion people that have asked, no, Nicaragua doesn't celebrate Halloween. But they do have a day of the dead thing in November. They don`t understand how we Americans celebrate it and they think we worship the devil and invite evil spirits that day. It's kind of funny.

So on Thursday we had a ward activity that we've been planning with the ward leaders for a long time. It was a pretty big deal for us to try and get some references and stuff. We had three rooms set up, because we answered the questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? and Where are we going?. So each question had a room with a teacher that was decorated according to the question. Me and Elder Evans taught what is our purpose on the earth and decorated our room up real nice with the few available materials (picture attached). But, only 13 people showed up. A handful of recent converts and a couple less actives. But between them they brought 3 people that weren't members to check it out. Out of the three one of them ended up being cool, accepted a fecha easily, and went to church yesterday. I don't want to call the activity a failure by any means because we have a cool new investigator (named Alejandro) but it would've been optimal if the members would have been valiant enough to show up and bring some friends to get to know some of the teachings of the church. So, a little message to anyone that reads this email: Please be valiant and invite your friends to experience the happiness that we feel here! They can't be converted until they start to experiment!!!

Also, Nathan went to church again and seems to be progressing well. He could get baptized this Saturday but I'd say it`s more likely that it will happen on the 12th. And we got a guy to church by the name of Carlos. It was a bit of a struggle because he's half paralized but he loved church and he deserves the blessings of the gospel just as much as the next person. I'm not worried because several people in the ward have vehicles and regularly make rounds to get handicapped people to church on Sunday mornings.

Due to Nicaraguan elections this Sunday we have to come to the house at 7 pm every night for the next couple of weeks but to make up for it we`ll leave two hours early every day and do the study at night that we missed. On Sunday we'll have only one hour of church at 8 am and then we have to go back to the house the rest of the day. I'm not sure what I'll do all day but I'll finally get that Sunday nap I've been dreaming about for the last year:)

Ummmm what else.... I'm not sure...

Happy Halloween!! If anyone doesn't want their candy just send it to me in a package or something and I won`t complain!!!

Love you!!

Elder Smith

p.s. Tonight in honor of our Papa Murphy's tradition we`re going to order Papa John's!! And I might splurge on some slightly overpriced American candy and drink a ton of rootbeer.