Interviews. And Managua... Again

March 13, 2017

Hello family!

  We had a great week!  Although we had less time in our area than normal we got a lot done.  On Wednesday we had interviews with President Brown.  Me and Elder Lunt had to be there with him all day to make sure the missionaries from the zone came at their scheduled times and to make sure that everything went smoothly.  Because we have a large zone it took almost all day (9:30 AM to 7 PM).  My interview was awesome as always.  President Brown is awesome.  

   On Thursday we went to Managua to do divisions with the APs.  I worked with Elder Diaz from the Dominican Republic.  It was good.  Managua is hot.  It's nice to be in Masaya.  We took advantage of being in Managua and stopped at McDonalds and got triple bacons. 

   In stake conference  yesterday we had three investigators, Myra (who came with her RM fiance), Areceli (who came with her husband Sylvio), and the mom of a recent convert.  The conference was good.  President and Sister Brown spoke and did a great job.  The stake presidency also did well.  

   This Saturday Myra is going to get baptized.  She's very ready and excited.  We had a funny experience with her this week.  We were teaching her on a bench in the park (they were working in her house where we normally teach so we couldn't there) but there was a lot of music in the background from some catholic festival that was going on and it was hard to hear.  And we were teaching Word of Wisdom and she had some doubts about coffee.  Then this random guy (not drunk surprisingly) came up and shook our hands and asked, "Are you guys preaching?" So I was like, "well ya I guess".  So he just sat down and was like I want to hear.  I was kind of worried because we were just talking about why coffee is bad and that's all the guy heard.  He stayed there for a couple minutes then his wife came and he just left.

  

   Areceli is doing great.  She stopped drinking coffee completely since we taught her Word of Wisdom and she hasn't fallen even once.  Her baptismal date is for the 25th.  

   Oscar and Margarita didn't go to church.  We've gone by a lot this week but haven't really found them so I'm not sure what their problem is.  

    For my personal study I started doing something that President Nelson did that showed up recently on LDS.org.  I think it's called like 2,200 scriptures about the savior in six weeks.  I'm just going through the topical guide and looking up all the references under all of the Jesus Christ sections.  I think it'll take me more than six weeks though.  It's already helping me have more faith in the Savior and understand his mission better.   

   On Saturday I got pretty sick.  I think it was another bacteria.  My stomach had hurt pretty bad that day, and then at night I just felt weak and I got really cold (which doesn't happen here) and altogether crappy.  I had a fever of like 102 so I went back to the house and just laid in bed.  And under my covers I was freezing.  It was the weirdest thing every because it was probably close to 90 degrees outside and I was under my covers with my fan turned off.  But I took some tylenol and my fever was gone by the morning.  I did have to get up five times during the night to go to the bathroom though.  Maybe not details you really want to hear... Sorry.  In the morning I popped some anti-diarrhea pills and more tylenol and I was good enough to survive all of sunday.  Now my stomach has just kind of hurt off and on for a while.  I'm really just treating sympoms and not the problem though.  Oh well, we'll hope my immune system get's rid of the problem.

   On Friday night when we were in the house I heard an awful scream from Elder Lunt.  I went over to investigate and he screamed because a huge tarantula had crawled over his foot while he was standing at the sink.  He felt it, and then freaked out.  The tarantula went and hid in the corner.  So I killed it with permethrin.  He put up a valiant fight though, it took a lot of permethrin to kill it.  

   Also we haven't had water like half the days in the last two weeks.  Which means.... Bucket showers!!  Those are my favorite!  Not.  Oh the joys of living in a third world country.

   Other than that things are going  pretty good.  Have a great week!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Love,

Elder Smith

Selfie

Taking a selfie of the sisters taking a selfie

Tarantula in the apartment

Nicaraguan tacos for lunch

Back to Managua

March 6, 2017

Hello Fam!

  I made that the subject line because I've been basically going to Managua once a week.

  So we had a pretty boring week this week.  The only thing that changed it up was consejo de lideres (leadership council) on Tuesday.  We went in to Managua at like 9 and first had a meeting with just the zls, sister leaders, APs, and president.  With that group we discussed the goals the different zones have for baptisms this month and set a goal for the mission for March.  It was very spiritual and we received definite confirmation from the spirit that the goal we set was what God wants.  That took longer than expected and then we had lunch and then the DLs joined us and we had a training from president Brown and the APs.  It was good.  Then we went home at like 5 (we took advantage of being in Managua and got McDonald's on the way home:) )  There must have been a crash or something because traffic was at a near standstill from Managua to the entrance to Ticuantepe.  We didn't get back until like 8 o'clock.  

   We've been getting used to the new schedule and waking up at 6 every day.  It's pretty tough to get up at 6.  But leaving at 9 to proselyte is nice because the people have been pretty receptive and a lot of people like meeting in the mornings.  After lunch the nap before doing comp study is really nice as well. 

    On Sunday, because our areas havent been changed to accomodate the new ward boundaries, we went to both churches.  Monimbo and Cuatro Esquinas.  in the morning we had Areceli come with her husband, and she liked testimony meeting.  She even stayed for the classes.  I had to lead the music in that sacrament meeting. This week Areceli received her answer and she's going strong for her goal of getting baptized on the 25th.

    At the second ward at 2 pm  Myra came with her now-fiance.  She also got her answer this week and is pumped to get baptized on the 18th.  She liked church as well and was even participating in Sunday school like a normal member.  

  Unfortunately Oscar and Margarita didn't show up, and we still don't know why.  They were very committed to coming.  

   After church (ended at 5) we took numbers which took a long time because someone in our zone had emergency changes and the APs forgot to tell us so we had to figure out who was actually in our zone.  Then we ate dinner with some members who gave us Honduran Baleadas.  

   Today we didn't do anything as adventurous as recent pdays.  Sorry I don't have cool pictures like the last few weeks.  We just stayed close by and played basketball with some other missionaries and then got pizza. 

  This week we have interviews and we're going to go in to Managua to do divisions with the APs (to cover our weekly trip to Managua).  Should be good.  On Sunday we have stake conference.  

Have a great week!  

Elder Smith

New Schedule and Volcanos

February 27, 2017

Hello family, 

   I'm actually pretty happy to hear about all the snow we've been getting, but I'm sorry it's been cold.  Don't worry, spring will come.  

    Our week was pretty good, on Tuesday we had a multizone with us, and zona Granada in Managua.  It was awesome.  ​We learned about a lot of stuff like goal setting, helping people receive an answer to their prayers about the Book of Mormon etc.  Also president revealed the new schedule.  It's pretty interesting... Now we're going to be waking up at 6 every day, exercise and breakfast and personal study as normal, and then at 9 in the morning we leave to proselyte until 1.  At 1 we eat lunch and at two we have a half hour of comp study and at 2:30 a half hour of language study and we leave to proselyte again from 3 to 9 and then we go to bed at 10.  It's pretty weird.  But we'll see how it works.

   We made good progress with all of our investigators this week.  Oscar and Margarita are still talking about marriage and baptism but unfortunately they weren't able to go to church this week.  Oscar is a lot more positive and receptive than Margarita.  Margarita's dad is a convert of about a month and is really cool.  Yesterday I helped him make a family history account and got some names for him to send to the temple already.  

   The family with Sylvio (less active) and his wife Arecele (investigator) is doing awesome.  They´re both reading their Book of Mormon and they went to church on Sunday.  Also we´re teaching the girlfriend of a return missionary in the ward named Myra and she went to church for the second sunday in a row but she wasn´t really home this week and we couldn´t teach her at all.   

     The really crazy thing that happened this week was that on Sunday they split the ward.  They split it in half in a line that cuts the old ward in half North and South.  The north section is ward Monimbo (like before) and the new one on the south is called Cuatro Esquinas (4 corners, There´s a local landmark called 4 corners so the name makes sense.)  I´m pretty sure we´ll end up being assigned to cuatro esquinas and the other sisters that are in the other area from Monimbo will have Monimbo.  So we´ll lose about half of our area and pick up half of what was the sisters´ area.  The only investigator we´ll lose is Areceli which is a huge bummer because they´re going to get sealed in the temple eventually.  I can feel. it.   But the sisters will do a good job with them.  And we might pick up some of the sisters´ old investigators.  But the division isn´t official yet.  It´s possible we´ll end up in ward Monimbo instead of Cuatro Esquinas.  

   Today, now that pday officially starts at 8, we went to the church in the morning and played basketball.  Then we went to Volcán Masaya.  The volcano was awesome but not quite as cool as it was when I went last year because you couldn´t see as much lava today.  Apparently a couple volcanoologists (or whatever those guys are called) got stuck in the crater when there was a small landslide that messed up their ropes.  But they got them out.  They still weren´t too close to the lava.  

Then after we went to an awesome restaurant called El Bucanero that has an awesome view right on the edge of Laguna Masaya.  We´ll definitely go there when we come back to Nicaragua.  

   Well have a great week!!! Love you!

Elder Smith

MOMBACHO

February 20, 2017

Hello Family!!

   I apologize in advance because the keyboard in this internet cafe thing is pretty awful.  We had a great week, and were fed spiritually on many occasions.

   On monday that awkward little patch on the back of my neck that my dress shirt collar covers and my t shirt doesnt got fried when we went to the laguna and that bugged me for a couple days.  But now it's just a beautiful tan.  I've definitely gotten a lot tanner already in my week and a half in Masaya.  

   The highlight of the week was Tuesday, when Elder Rasband, President Christensen (presidency of the 70), Elder Duncan, and Elder Ochoa (central america area 70s) came with their wives and spoke to the two missions in Nicaragua.  The other authorities respectively gave the majority of the time for Elder Rasband to speak and he had a great message.   He doesnt speak spanish so he had an interpreter.  He explained that he came to Nicaragua to speak to the President, Daniel Ortega and his wife.  We're hoping he's working on opening the doorway with the government so we can get a temple here.  PRAY FOR NICARAGUA!!!!  We want a temple!!!  So that was awesome.  

   We're also doing a lot better in the area.  We visited Oscar and his partner with a cool family from the ward and talked about marriage and going to church and I guess the lesson went well because they both went to church and want to get married.  Oscar's partner's name is Margarita.  Also we got a reference for a lady named Myra, who is the girlfriend of a return missionary here in Masaya.  She's really positive and went to church with her boyfriend.  We also have another part member family we're  teaching from a reference but unfortunately they weren't able to make it to church.  

   We did divisions with two of the district leaders in our zone this week and it went very well.  One was with Elder Vasquez who was in Juigalpa at the same time as me in my training.  I love the guy.  We found a ton of new investigators in the divisions but none of them turned out very positive.  

This Saturday the youth in our stake had a fundraiser where they raised money for a youth camp by cooking traditional foods from other central american countries.  They made a good attempt but it all ended up tasting like the same old nica food to me.

   Today we've had an awesome pday so far.  We took a bus up to the top of Mombacho (a dormant volcano)  We hiked around one of the craters and there was some really cool jungle stuff and the view from the top was incredible, you could see Granada, lake Nicaragua, Masaya, Volcan Masaya etc.  The top of the volcano was about 4,200 feet, which isn't high for us utahns but for Nicaragua it's super high. We were in the clouds for a while and it was probably the coldest Ive been in Nicaragua other than in my cold showers.   Then we went to papa johns (you can't get mad because I know you're at taco bandito!!)  

   So ya!!  I'm doing great!! 

Love you!

Elder Smith

ps tomorrow we have multizones

MASAYA

February 13, 2017

​Hello family!

   Well, I got changes.  I found out on ​Tuesday afternoon that I was out.  I was kind of worried about going to a difficult area because a lot of the ZL areas are pretty tough.  So I got to the change meeting and found out I was going to be the ZL of Zona Masaya with my comp, Elder Lunt the other ZL.  I was stoked because me and Elder Lunt are really good friends from when he was a DL in Managua a couple changes ago.  But... I knew I'd be stuck with a tough area because the ZL area in Masaya is notoriously difficult.  But then we found out that they moved the ZL area from Masaya to the neighboring area called Monimbo.  So I'm in an area in the city of Masaya that is called Monimbo.  If you look on a map of Masaya we're from central park, to the south and west is all our area.  The area extends to laguna Masaya to the west (with volcan Masaya overlooking us on the other side, and yes it's the volcano I hiked up last year and looked into the lava pool and yes, you can constantly see smoke coming out) and to the south extends to several little towns outside of Masaya like Niquinohmo, Nandasmo, and San Juan del Oriente (Niquinohmo and Nandasmo actually used to be in my area when I was in Masatepe but the boundaries changed).  I'm excited because I'll finally have a big area again and I'm out of dirty, scary Managua.  Masaya is nice, smells way better, and is way prettier and less like a big city.  And it's nice because more on the edge of Masaya the houses are humbler and the people are more receptive.  Central Masaya is notorious for being very catholic.  There's also a ton of tourists here and it's weird to see a bunch of hipster European backpackers all the time.  There's also a huge market here with everything you can imagine.  It's awesome but I think if you guys came and shopped in it you'd just be kind of freaked out and think it's scary and stinky.  But I think it's nice.  We've already had a bunch of adventures this week like going to Tisma (where Elder Evans is DL and training) to do a baptismal interview.  Also we tried to take a shortcut through a jungly thing because we were kind of lost and it didn't work out very well and we eventually came through somebodies back yard but we just said, "Con Permiso" (directly translated means with permission but it basically means excuse me) to the guy in is house and he happily let us through back to the street.  The people here are so laid back!  Luckily they didn't have guard dogs.  

    So My comp is Elder Lunt who has 6 weeks more on the mission than me and goes home in June.  We think it's very possible that we'll be comps here for three changes and he'll go home then I'll be here one more change and then go home.  This could very well be my last area.  I'm excited to be here with Lunt because we get along very well and it's definitely a relief to have an experienced comp and not be training because there just isn't quite as much pressure.  He's from Gilbert Arizona.  We realized that there are a lot of things that either of us could do but it doesn't really matter who like who takes sunday numbers or who has to do the baptismal interviews so we made our "magic quarter" which is a quarter that has an L on one side and an S on the other to decide who has to do everything.  I had to do the first baptismal interview and he had to take sunday numbers.  

The ward here is really cool.  It's probably the biggest ward I've ever heard of here in Nicaragua with around 250 active members.  There's talk that it'll get split soon.  The church is also really nice because it's a stake center and it's like half a block from our house.  We have one investigator named Oscar that went to church for the first time on Sunday and really liked it.  He's really the only positive investigator we have right now because the other missionaries didn't leave us with much.  

   For Pday today we shopped for a bit at the market and I got some new fake vans for like 15 bucks that look pretty legit.  Then we went to a town called Catarina that has a cool overlook of a lake called laguna de apollo (I went there once last year)  we hiked down a bit and saw some monkeys and found out we were on the wrong trail and had to turn back.  But it was an adventure.  

Well I love you!  I'm sure there's questions I didn't answer but I'll get to them next week.  

Elder Smith

Taking off the skirt

February 6, 2017

Hi family!

  So yesterday I completed 18 months and took off my skirt, which is a mission-term meaning that we Elders that serve 2 years instead of 18 months have become real men and entered into a time that sister missionaries just can't understand and will never have the pleasure of experiencing.  Since I couldn't buy anything yesterday, I'll be celebrating my 18 month mark with Papa John's.  WooHoo!!  If I was a sister I'd be going home on Thursday.  But I'm not a sister and I've got the best 6 months ahead of me still! 

    So this week was kind of tough.  We found a lot of new investigators and got a lot of references from the ward.  Basically everyone initially accepted us well but decided they weren't willing to do anything about it.  I  encourage everybody who reads this to be doers and not just listener.  As it says in Matthew 7:21 "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."  

 Anyway, church yesterday was very interesting...  There was a big leadership meeting with all of the local stake presidents, the two mission presidents in Nicaragua, and an area 70 so all of those guys were in our ward on Sunday to take the sacrament before their meeting.  We've been teaching a very sick inactive lady but she's been too sick to go to church but she has a brother who is perpetually drunk.  He told us all week he was going to go to church and then he pulled through and showed up.  Unfortunately he was drunk.  Towards the end of testimony meeting he went and bore his testimony.  It was very interesting.  He told a story of how he went to the beach to sin and then got bit by a cobra and everyone told him he was going to die until he ran into the missionaries and God saved him (If this story actually has any sort of truth to it he was talking about different missionarires because I've definitely never seen this guy with a snake bite nor have I seen him anywhere near a beach) After going on and on the bishop stood up and kindly invited him to take his seat in the congregation and he happily complied.  This guy picked the perfect Sunday to pull this so all of the church leaders in Nicaragua could see him.  

   We've had a lot of really great spiritual experiences this week, a lot of them actually came when we were teaching with members and they testified of the restoration and shared their own conversion stories.  There were a lot of people this week that were very prejudiced against us without even knowing anything about us, just because of the crap the other churches say about us but simple testimony about the restoration and support from their member friends was able to help a lot. 

   Elder Gonzales got his first experience with the unseen forces of parasites and bacteria.  Poor guy.  

   This week we have changes.  I'm not sure if I'll have changes, or if Gonzales will, or if neither of us will.  We'll see where the Lord wants us. Have a great week!

Elder Smith

Today's lunch.  It is called indio viejo.

New Schedule!!! Eventually....

January 30, 2017

Hi Family!!

   So on Wednesday we had the big broadcast that it sounds like you heard about where they announced some of the big changes they are making to our daily schedule and some of the numbers we report.  Basically now during the day we don't keep track of how many lessons we teach or people we talk to or references we receive, we just report how many new investigators we find, how many people have a baptismal date, how many come to church with us, and how many we baptize and confirm.   I like it because it gives us more trust and I feel like I can better focus on my purpose as a missionary during the day.  The goal is to invite people to come unto Christ... convert people, and teach them to repent, not just to teach 7 lessons a day.  So I'm good.  The new schedule changes are customizable according to the missions and President Brown is still experimenting with the schedule that will be best for us.  Me and Elder Gonzales have actually been involved in top-secret experiments where we have been trying out different schedules and reporting back to President how we like it.  I'll tell you more about that when I'm allowed to...

   After the broadcast where they announced that on Wednesday we had our interviews with President Brown.  As always it was incredible. I love that man so much. 

    I'm doing better health-wise, I've had nothing wrong with me this week.  What a miracle 

   On Tuesday I did divisions with Elder Seneca from Virginia.  He's awesome.  Everyone here is awesome.  

   On Saturday was Calixto's baptism.  He was super ready and excited and it all went well.  His grandpa baptized him.  After the baptism the family brought cake and cacao (a drink here, just google it) which is one of my favorite drinks here.  Also on Sunday after church a lady from the ward brought everyone cake and more cacao for her grandson's birthday.  I'm not complaining:)  I had three more cups of cacao.  And then last night, a couple from the ward that got married this week brought us leftover food and cacao from the wedding!!!  I'm in heaven but I'm probably going to get fat.

   Grettel didn't go to church this week but is adamant that she wants to get baptized on February 11.  Hopefully she'll be ready because going to church is a pretty big deal.  She already received an answer from the Lord that this is His church so now we're really trying to help her understand what that means and what He expects of her.  Pray for her. 

   That's about it for this week.  Other than the stuff I mentioned we just taught people and looked for news.  We're excited for tonight because we're going to go with a member to visit five different references she has for us.  Hopfeully some of them turn out positive.  Member missionary work is the most effective way to do missionary work!!!!!! Give the missionaries references!! 

Love you!

Elder Smith

Tub of Cacao from the baptism