Malecón

October 24, 2016

Hey family!

  Well to explain the subject line, for pday today we went to a little park thing called Malecón.  It has a miniature replica of the "old Managua" which is basically just Managua before the earthquake destroyed everything in 1972.  And they have an old 737 there that you can go in and look around and stuff and that was really cool.  It made me kind of trunky though lol.  But I took pics!!!  

  We found a really cool new investigator this week named Nathan.  He's 28 and lived in North Carolina for like 5 years so we teach him in English and it's pretty weird but Elder Evans really likes it:)  He's really positive but on Sunday morning he got pneumonia which threw a bit of a wrench in things but he still came to church.  Unberto didn't...  I`m not sure what happened there, he just kind of disappeared at the end of the week.  Church was interesting because it was at 8 in the morning and our ward was combined with the neighboring ward and the power was out so there was no light.  But the backup generator kicked in and powered the mic and the AC which I guess are the essentials.  

   It's still a bit of a fight to find new investigators but we did a bit better this week, but Nathan was the only one that ended up going to church.  

  We did see a really cool miracle  yesterday!   We were teaching some really cool converts and they got up to go buy us a coke.  We politely explained how we prefer not to buy things on Sunday and explained the doctrine of the sabbath day in a little better detail to them.  In there defense this was the first time anyone has ever explained that we don`t buy on Sundays to them but they accepted it wholeheartedly and agreed completely so they didn't get us anything to drink.  Well... not ten minutes later this guy's grandson comes up with a two liter bottle of Pepsi and a bag full of cookies that his mom had him bring to this guy for no particular reason.  We decided that God was confirming that we are blessed for keeping his commandments and he`ll always provide for us.  It was cool and it was a cool miracle to point out to this family. 

  What else... umm... I bought more Rootbeer to make sure my awesome deal I found doesn't go out of stock and run out.  I'm pretty sure I`m getting it cheaper here than it sells in the US (less than 20 cents a can).  I'm going to get fat.  

That's about it I think... Sorry you didn't have any luck with the deer hunt family but good job braving the elements and chasing them around.

Love you!!

Elder Smith

ps

They don`t celebrate Halloween here but some stores sell a bit of Halloween decoration stuff.  They have dia de los muertos on November 1.  

We've had a tone of rain the last month but here in November the rainy season ends and the dry season starts.  It'll cool down a bit and not rain at all for months.  That's the difference in seasons, half the year is rainy season and half is dry. 

 

Interviews

October 17, 2016

Hello family

  Well you guessed it, we had interviews this week and they went really well!  I felt the spirit really strong and President answered some questions I had been having about some ZL stuff. 

   But we had a pretty ok week.  We're still struggling a bit to find new people but we´re finding some.  On Saturday I did divisions with Elder Turner in my area and he's a cool kid.  He's in his training.  We found a really positive lady and put a super easy fecha with her.  When we came back on Saturday to recommit her to church she was sitting outside and when she realized we were coming she scurried inside and hid even though we were twenty feet away from her when she left and we obviously saw her.  Then her family told us that she wasn't home.  It was.....  kind of irritating.  She didn't go to church.

  Guillermo, Guillermo Jr., and Katherine went to church but we had to sit down and have a talk with them because they actually live in the boundaries of another ward and we aren't allowed to baptize them outside their boundaries without weird special permission that´s almost impossible to get.  So they agreed to start going to the other church.  So now we won't be able to baptize them but their in the APs area so they got an awesome gift.  It doesn't honestly matter, as long as they get baptized.

  Also we have been teaching the dad of a recent convert named Unberto and he went to church this week and the ward really latched onto him and he had a great experience.  Literally every member of the ward shook his hand as they entered the sacrament meeting room.  And he left the church with a teachings of Howard W Hunter book and a Gospel Principles book.  Pray for him.  Since the other investigators will go to another ward now Unberto is basically all we have left.  But yesterday we found a cool guy that we taught in English that lived in North Carolina for a while.  He was awesome and asked us when church was and if he could come before we even invited him.  His name is Nathan and we're excited for him.  But ya... Please pray that we can come across a lot of new people to teach.  That would be appreciated.  

  What else happened...  Well I've been wanting to go out and get to know the zone a little better but I can't find a stinking bus card so I can't go on the buses and I finally found a store today that had them and they were out. 

Ummm mom don't worry the house is pretty nice and there aren't any weird dirty secrets that I'm not telling just to not scare you.  Everything's clean and nice and our shower is decent and we have a sink and we don't have all of the mesquito larvae.  I sleep on the top bunk of one of the beds and Elder Evans sleeps on the bottom bunk of the other because it's the best way to work with the fans and the limited outlets in the room.  The apartment is the bedroom, the study room, the kitchen (with fridges and sink and cupboards) and the bathroom (with a toilet, shower, sink, and mirror),  The rooms are all fairly small but it´s not that small.  With just two of us it´s really good.  There used to be four in the house because there used to be two zls and their comps in this area but it´s so small they took out the other zl and put him in the next door area.  That´s where Elder Bachez, the other ZL is.  There´s a parakeet outside and two cats. 

  Today the zone got together in the church and we made Baleadas, which is a Honduranian food which is like a burrito but without meat and with eggs.  Or better said, tortillas with beans, cheese, and scrambled eggs.

Well sorry, that´s all I can really remember from last week.  Sorry if I left out some vital piece of information!

Love you!!

Elder Smith

ps 

Some zl duties are...  Do divisions once a week, verify district meetings and once a month do zone meeting, take numbers and report them every other night.  Get macheted by the APs if anyone does anything stupid in your zone.  But we do get a little more money every month.  Oh and a highlight of today is that I found AW rootbeer at the store for only 5.75 cordobas a can.  Which is cheaper than water.  So I bought 40 cans.  Its around 20 cents a can.  I think the store just made a mistake with the price.  

Sorry I forgot my sd card converter so no pics today!  Sorry mom!!  

This is weird

October 10, 2016

Hello family!!  Happy birthday yesterday mom!

  Well...  a lot has changed haha.  I'm not in the office anymore obviously.  

  My new area is Las Palmas, which is just like two wards to the North of San Judas, still in Managua.  My new companion is Elder Evans.  I'm finishing his training.  He got to Nicaragua last change.  I'm a ZL now in Zona Managua so I'm  learning a lot about my responsiibilities and stuff very quickly.

  Elder Evans is from Fresno california and studied at Arizona State University for a year before coming out.  He's actually like a month older than me.  He's awesome!  I couldn't have asked for a better son.  His spanish is pretty dang good for the time he has on the mission and he works really hard to improve it, he doesn't have any fear or anything of teaching, he just goes for it and it's awesome.  We get along really well.

  The area is a bit of a tough one.  It's pretty hard to get people to let you into their houses and teach them but the members and ward here are awesome!  They love giving us references and helping us out.  Las Palmas is actually the first ward and chapel that was made here in Nicaragua.  The chapel is really big (it's been rebuilt already since the first one that was constructed) and has AC (hallelujia (sp?))  We have some investigators...  A bunch that sucked yesterday and wouldn't go to church and then a really cool guy named Guillermo and his two kids, Katerine (age 19) and Guillermo Jr (11) that comes to church on his own every Sunday.  Unfortunately we can't teach them during the week due to a home situation but they study the pamphlets we leave during the week and we also teach them in the church on Sundays.  The two kids have a fecha for the 22nd and the dad will be a bit later.  The ward meets at 10 and another ward meets in the same building at 8.  I'm happy we get to go at 10 and not 8:)  For how great the ward is it's pretty small, only 60 people were in church on Sunday.

   The house is really good for a normal missionary house.  It's just me and Elder Evans in there so it's a lot quieter than I'm used to.  The food isn't nearly as good haha.  I'm back to rice and beans and meat, and I'm remembering very quickly that I don't like rice anymore.  But I still like beans.  It's not a big deal that I don't have a hot shower anymore because now that there's no AC either a cold shower is very refreshing.  And it's really not even that cold.  We live on the same property as some pretty well off members.  We pay them to make our lunch and they usually just throw in breakfast most mornings as a treat.  I've also noticed that I'm way more hungry now that I'm actively working so much more every day instead of sitting in front of a computer or going everywhere in a taxi.  For dinner I'm pretty  much still on the same chips and coke routine I've enjoyed my whole mission.   You can't beat it.  

  Today for Pday the zone got together in a restaurant in my area and we had lunch.  I just got burgers, fries, onion rings, and ice cream.  The onion rings were the best part.  

  Tomorrow we have interviews with President Brown which I'm looking forward to.  President Brown is awesome.  

  I'm sure I left out some sort of vital information so make sure you just respond with some specific questions so I can fill you in.

Well, have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Smith

Elder Evans and Elder Smith

Typical Lunch

                                 This cat was watching us eat lunch

Zone eating lunch

Goodbye San Judas

October 4, 2016

Hello family!

  Well, it's been a bittersweet week.  I'm optimistic to be able to start a new  chapter of my mission with lots of opportunities, but it was sad to say goodbye to those that I drew so close to over the last 9  months.  The highlight of the week was obviously general conference.  We were able to listen to all of it, three sessions in Spanish and two in English (priesthood and Sunday afternoon).   There was a designated English room for the white missionaries but if we brought investigators we sat with them in Spanish.  Spanish was great still, I understood it all no problem.  Mario, Berta, Jessica, Tania, and Allison all went plus someone in the ward brought her 13 yr old nephew Mitchell.  All of our investigators really liked conference and the talks talked to them about what they were fighting for.  Elder Cook's talk was really good for Mario.  I had an awesome experience in conference as well.  I went in with four questions and as I received answers I wrote them during all of the sessions.  I designated a sheet of paper in my notebook and all of the sheets were really full for each question I had.  It was awesome.  I loved the emphasis on the restoration and Plan of Salvation.  Dad, I thought of you in the opening prayer of the priesthood session when he prayed on how men can better serve their wives because we always joked to mom about how they just talk about how men need to be better to their wives.  But you're a great example of that dad:)  Also I loved the reference to Gothenburg with Elder Renlund.  The talk that I liked the most was the Book of Mormon talk by Stevenson, I also loved sister McConkies talk on prayer, Cook's, Holland's, Bednar's, President Monson's.  Everything was great.  It was definitely my favorite conference so far.  It really helps to go into conference prepared. 

   It was also great to see and take pictures with several converts that went to conference.  Rosa and Coco went and are doing great, so did Noel.  Veronica and Mel came and Mel just received a great job he had been needing.  I think from that blessing he's thinking a lot about how it came from God and he's going to be more open to getting baptized and stopping smoking.  I know one day that family will go to the temple.  Also Hazel and Jazmin came which was super cool since they moved to a different ward in the stake right after their baptism.  Their ward over there is doing a great job of keeping them involved and included and active. 

   Yesterday and a little last weekend we went around saying goodbye to people.  Berta and her daughter Nathaly (I finally verified the spelling on that name) did something really cute and made a sign that said "Gracias Smithis 1 y 2" because we always called me Smith 1 and my comp Smith 2 since I´ve been here longer.  And they made us a nice little dinner.  I brought them a can of rootbeer and had them try it. They actually liked it, which is rare for Nicas. They think it´s really sweet.  Last night we also said by to Familia Cruz which was hard because they´re like my second family.  

   Well, I´ll let you know where I end up and who my comp is.  Wish me luck.  Also pray for poor Elder Smith, they´re coming in and doing an audit in his first week alone as finance secretary.  That´ll be rough for him.  I got lucky and never got audited.

Anyway, love you!!

Elder Smith

Last pday in the office

September 28, 2016

Hello family,

  Well today is the last pday I'll have in the office.  I might be able to get permission to get on real quick maybe next Tuesday because changes are next Wednesday and, being in a normal area, my next pday won't be until Monday.  That's like 11 days without a pday.  But I'll survive because I plan on throwing all of my clothes in the washer next Tuesday so my clothes will last.  It's not official technically that I'm leaving the office because you don't know until we get the changes but obviously since I'm training Elder Smith it's very likely.  But the Lord could always change his mind.

   So the members of our ward know we're secretaries and they know what responsibilities we all have.  So they know that right now me, Petty, and Aitken are training our comps to take our positions.  Which means they know we're out of here.  Anyway on Sunday President Brown came to our ward and since we have conference this Sunday it was the last time we'll be in that ward on a normal Sunday.  So the bishop asked me, Petty, and Aitken to come up and share our testimonies since we'd be leaving.   Almost every time I've gone up to the pulpit on my mission so far the mission President has been in my ward.  I have good luck I guess.  It was cool though to see President Brown there with his family.

   On Sunday Jessica went again, with her daughter Tania and Tania's friend Allison that is living with them.  Berta also went but Mario got a last second work call and couldn't go.  After sacrament meeting Jessica, Tania, and Allison had to go to the police station for a problem she had had with an ex-boyfriend.  And Berta had to go somewhere after sacrament meeting for her daughter as well.  So even though we brought four people to church President wasn't able to meet any of them in Sunday school.  Gospel Principles was actually kind of dismal because this Sunday almost none of the recent converts showed up and investigators left after Sacrament meeting and so it was the 6 missionaries, President and Sister Brown, three converts and one investigator of Isham and Aitken.  And the teacher and Mission leader didn't show up so a teacher was assigned from the ward that wasn't prepared.  But whatever.  We're trying here.

   We've been working hard to help Mario and Jessica stop smoking.  They're fighting valiantly and actually keeping their commitments and it's awesome to see the changes they've already been making.  Please pray that they can have the strength to stop smoking.

  What else happened this week...  ummm  Well for pday today we had to help with the monthly leadership council so that took a bit of time.  But after we went to the fruit stand and bought some fruit.  They didn't have as many options as we expected so we ended up buying pineapple, bananas, a watermelon, and a pitaya.  And we were too lazy to make smoothies so we just cut them up and ate them as they came.  But they were still good.  We cut the watermelon into huge wedges and me, Aitken, Smith, and Isham had an eating contest with them.  It was fun.  

   Well we'll see if I can send something next week...  If not I'll talk to you in a while!

Love,

Elder Smith

Cody and Elder Isham in the Hilux

Rootbeer was almost half off at Walmart so we bought 26 cans between us.  We got a lot of weird looks from the Nicaraguans because they don't even know what Rootbeer is.

Juice and donuts for a training meeting at Pricesmart

pineapple, bananas, a watermelon, and a pitaya

                               Look what I found on the street!  Never expected to find one in Nicaragua

Grilling burgers last week for a p-day BBQ

I Don't Have Parasites!!!

September 21, 2016

Hello family!!

   Well, to explain the subject line... I had a little scare and some gnarly symptoms.  So I took the poop test and I'm parasite free!!!  But I did pick up some type of bacteria.  So I took some pills and they cured me overnight!  Yay!

Anyway...

 We had a good week.  We didn't find a lot of new investigators this week but we made some great progress with those we have been teaching.  Berta and Mario came to church with their little 5 yr old daughter Natalí.  Also Jessica came again with her daughter Tania.  Her partner Joel will come this week.  Also Alexander (husband of member) came to church again.  This week we had stake conference in Altagracia.  A bus took our ward there so we had to meet by the Ceibo (big tree in our area) for the bus to come pick us all up and go to the church.  It was kind of a rush to get everyone to the ceibo and not miss the bus but due to some miracles we made it.  At one point Tania was out looking for something and we had to wait for her to get back to go.  We were waiting there with Jessica outside and everyone was starting to get a little antsy because she had been gone for a while.  So I said a prayer in my mind asking for her to come back. Literally less than one second after saying please bless that Tania can come back really fast she came around the corner.  No joke less than one second.  The Lord doesn't delay in answering prayers!!

  All of the investigators are super positive and very excited.  They are all going to fellowship night on Thursday this week and then to church again on Sunday (hopefully...).  Basically their common problem is Word of Wisdom.  Please just ask that all of these people can find the strength to overcome their addictions, especially smoking.  That would be very appreciated.  

  This week we have the last two of the five multizones.  Yesterday was my actual multizone so we did everything we could to be at as much of the classes as we could and I was able to hear almost everything.  The theme of the multizone was working with members.  We learned how we need to work with the mission leaders to make sure every single investigator has a member that attends every lesson with them and takes them to church.  We learned how sometimes circumstances in the church in Nicaragua are sometimes less than ideal and how to adapt to unique circumstances (ie if your ward doesn´t have a mission leader).  It was really good and it´s always great getting to hear from President and Sister Brown.  

   Also it rained a lot last week.  There were a couple times we were walking and even with umbrellas we got soaked to the bone.  It kind of made me think of Forest Gump when it rains in vietnam and the rain comes from the bottom, the side, above...  Also my shoes stopped being waterproof when I waded through streets that turned to rivers and the water went several inches above my heel.  But it's ok... We put our scriptures and stuff in bags.  It's just a pain getting the shoes to dry overnight.  Sometimes we just put them on the fans.  I think I just need to find a bag to put myself in when it rains...  I have started bringing a change of socks in my backpack.  Despite the rain I've decided against using my rain jacket because it would just suffocate me and make me too hot.  It's better to just be wet.  But the last couple of days it hasn't really rained.

  Today was kind of a fun pday.  We had a little barbeque and played around in the back yard and stuff.  It was nice.  I think next week we´re going to buy a ton of awesome tropical fruit and make smoothies.  I'd tell you what kind of fruit we're going to buy but I don't know what these things are in english (calala, pitaya, guyaba etc).

Well...  I hope you all have a great week and stuff!

Elder Smith

Chocolatito won!

September 14, 2016

Hello family!

   To explain the subject line, Nicaragua's national pride, Chocolatito (a boxer, to Americans it would be Román Gonzalez) beat some Mexican this week and everyone got really excited.  He grew up in my area and his mom still lives here.  They set up a big screen in front of her house for her to watch the fight.  So on Saturday night all of Nicaragua was watching the fight and getting drunk. 

   We had a pretty good week.  Yesterday there were multizones but we were able to leave after lunch and get some stuff done in the office.  We're realizing that there are only three weeks left of the change and my time to train Elder Smith is winding down quickly.  We have another multizone on Friday and two more next week.  Now the multizones only have two zones every day so we have to do 5 sessions of it. 

   In church we were able to bring a new investigator named Jessica to church and her daughter Tanyuska I think is her name.  When we contacted her she was weird and kind of got mad and bitter with us for no reason and normally we would have just left right then, but me and Elder Smith felt we needed to stick it out to the end and put a return cita with her so we did.  When we passed by again she forced her reluctant partner to join us in the lesson and we had a pretty good lesson.  She's actually doing a great job keeping with her commitments (obviously her partner isn't because he didn't go to church).  They really liked church ( in spite of the fact that there was some stuff said at the pulpit which was definitely not doctrine) and felt good.  We also got a gift from a member that brought a neighbor.  He's named Jason and we´re going by to visit him tonight so hopefully he´s cool.  

   The ward started doing Noche de hermanamiento at the church on Thursday nights.  I think it´s something like fellowship night in English.  Basically they share a quick message and then just go and play games.  It's basically just a ward bonding opportunity so everyone can talk and the recent converts and investigators can get to know the members.  I was a bit skeptical about it but it´s been pretty successful.  A recent convert family from our area has taken it upon themselves to be BFFs with all of ours, and the other Elders´ investigators and it's awesome.  We´re teaching a family (Mario, and Berta) that hasn't been able to come to church the last two weeks but could come to the noche de hermanamiento and they loved it and it´s really helping them.  Now just pray that they'll actually be able to come this Saturday and Sunday (we have stake conference this week).  Last night they gave us some food which was rice, beans, tostones (fried, smashed, then fried again platanos, just google it), pico de gallo, and fish.  The fish looked really nasty, it was just like a one inch cross-section of a big old fish.  It was pretty bony but the meat wasn't that bad or too fishy and I survived it.  

  Today we went to the grocery store and I bought stuff to make BLTs with my bacon.  I ate one pound out of my three this week.  I felt kind of bad because I was just eating it plain so I bought stuff to go with it.  I also bought cheese and eggs so I can scramble some eggs.  I think I'm going to miss some of this stuff when I get changed.  But who knows maybe I'll still be in Managua.  

Sorry I can't really think of anything else....

Love,

Elder Smith

 Cody and Elder Alcerro

The big tree by Chocolatito´s house