January 18th Hermana Ortencia Baptism One Year Mark

Hey everybody, this week we had many miracles and many awesome experiences. We wanted to help a family of 2 get baptized, but in the end only the mom Hermana Ortencia got baptized. She is an awesome lady of about 5o years. She lives way out in the middle of no where with her family but she has a lot of  fight in her. She has come to church with us without fail for 3 Sundays in a row. My favorite thing about her is that when we pass by our other investigators to bring them to church, she shoots down their excuses. Sometimes they come out with a headache or clothes to wash, and she walks up to them and says "we are going to church though right."  She taught Elder Williams and I an evangelical song about oil from heaven it was pretty funny. When she got baptized, our recent convert Juan showed up. Juan has helped us out almost every single day this week. He wants to be a missionary, so he is reading and helping us teach. Every day we can see that his knowledge of the gospel is growing.

Watching a Video of the Restoration
Notice the Chair

The biggest thing Elder Williams and I learned this week is that we need to pray to receive help from God, but we need to pray for specific things. Before we have been praying very very generally and working in a very broad unproductive manner. We decided to pray and ask where we should go, ask to put people in our path. We presented a plan and the lord helped us find a whole bunch of people who are super positive.
I asked him a few questions in my letter and these are the answers.
Here are a few of the things that surprise me about the people in Nicaragua. For example, people here have a ton of superstitions. People don't like to drink cold stuff or shower at night because it will make them sick. They also don't eat very much chili because it's bad for your kidneys.  So dad raised me to drink stuff super fast and devour food. Elder Williams eats very slow and drinks stuff sip by sip and it bugs me so much, but it has grown on me, now I sip my food and eat slow, I get less sick in the end and I have more food. I think I'm going to miss all of the families we have baptized. Our recent recent converts are really awesome so it will be tough to leave them.

Chinese Food Celebrating One Year Mark
Scaggs/Williams

January 11th

So this weekend the greatest guy in the world decided to get baptized. His name is Juan and he is one of the most honest and most dedicated converts we have had. He works with us, talks with us, and actually wants to learn, instead of saying yeah yeah mhm  si si claro que si. He plans to be a missionary and he is already working with us in La Paz to help build the rama (branch).

 Hey guys this week was a fight to the death to keep our head above the water, We had to look, teach and prepare for baptism. It all worked out really well but it was tough. At the end of the week we managed to bring Hermano Juan to baptism. He is a great guy and loves to learn. He is also very humble which has allowed him to forget about the worldy things that hold us back and seek our Heavenly Father. We have seen others who want to change but cannot manage to leave the world behind. Elder Williams and I are working hard here in La Paz. I'm really thankful for my companion Elder Williams. This week he has really taken the lead while I have been sick, and in the end he has learned a ton and is super awesome. I'm excited to see where he will go and who he will become in the mission. He teaches in a  very clean very direct manner which causes the people to think and to act in a very secure and sure way. We have finally gotten down a pattern of teaching and we are making it work.

Frijoles con Crema

 So the converts that I relate to the most are almost all of them. I really love spending time with them and I've been here for a while so they feel like the are my family. For me its really hard not to spend two or 3 hours with them. One family talks to us and asks us questions so that we can't leave. With the family of Juana and Jose she always invites us over to eat tacos.  We try to split up in the mornings so we can pass by more people, but basically we go to the most positive people and wait and walk with them to church.  So, unfortunately New Year's is a lot bigger than Christmas, but it's still fun. Everybody buys fireworks and gets super super drunk and they blow up scarecrow doll things that represent the old year. They make the maniken look like an old man and they fill it full of firecrackers and blow it up. We were sleeping by that point but we definitely heard it.

January 4th

 Sunday went well. We had pretty good attendance and we brought some investigators to church. We bare our testimonies every week.  So, being a "father" for another missionary has helped me learn a whole lot more and get better. New Year's Eve night we hung out with some members and our investigator Juan.

Hey guys!!!! This week went great. It was tough but it was great. We finally found a way to work efficiently. Before we couldn't crank out many lessons. Right now we are doing things short, and simple. We met some awesome people this week and are helping them progress towards baptism. One awesome awesome guy that we are teaching is called Juan. He is the brother or cousin of one of our recent coverts who is named Felipe. When we first met Juan he was a very gruff looking bago( street walker). One day we we started talking with him, which led to  a lesson, which led to him putting a goal to get baptized. He has not had much experince with churches but he has a fairly strong background in the basics. He prays alot and even prays over his food which is amazing! He learns very fast, and once you get him interested, he reads, investigates, and studies without us pushing him along. He is one of our favorite investigators. We have another family that lives out in the boonies.

Being Ridiculous with Maricela

We have David, Maricela, Urtencia and Ceiner.  The single mom that leads the family brings everyone along behind her. More than anything I learned how to keep the hope and excitement going even though the circumstances are so incredibly draining. I found a scripture that teaches us that we should be happy, we should not fear because our Lord is with us and understands us. If we are obedient, everything will work out fine even though we may need to pass through some tough trials. 

Williams, Scaggs, DeLeon, Ward, Spence, Crane

 Love you guys a ton see you later

December 28th

Hey guys,

Yep, I really enjoyed the call yesterday. It felt great seeing you guys again. You are so awesome, when I heard your voice again it made me so happy. I miss you so much. It's not a super horrible missing feeling but I definitley miss you. Thank you so much for arranging that mom. I could tell that you put in a lot of effort to coordinate it. Also, thank you for helping it to be organized mom, you are awesome, I love you so much. We are doing our best down here. On Sundays we usually get up and eat breakfast, then we leave the house at about 7 to bring people to church. Just recently we decided to sit with the families and actually walk them to church in the mornings. Every Sunday we end up blessing the sacrament and teaching the priesthood class. There are not many people in the church so the classes are pretty quiet. This past Sunday we brought one of our investigators named Juan. He helped us out a lot and brought some animation to the group. The Christmas party was fun.  We watched minions and had a talent show. They gave us microwaves and a fruit basket with apples grapes and chocolate. We also ate delicious Christmas food, like chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. I sincerely loved the packages, I love them everytime. They're awesome, but the truth is, to be happy here I don't need packages. Getting packages is awesome but it makes other missionaries feel bad, like the Latinos. They receive maybe one package in their entire mission. Also, to send a package, it costs 20 to 50 dollars. With 20 or 50 dolars here we can pay for a wedding, we can feed a few families, we can help a lot of people out with it. The gospel helps people a million times more than money because they have the opportunity to pull themselves out of sin and out of poverty. When we give people money its like a soda here a bag of bread there, a wedding here and dinner there, or we buy snacks for an activity. WE DO NOT NEED MONEY WE ARE NOT ASKING FOR MONEY,  but I would rather the majority of the money that goes to me for packages go to the people here. Plus, like I've said before, packages are cool but the only thing that I really want is to be with you guys again and its still not my time to go. Dad I like what you said about the Santa thing, we could do that but it would  be in a different more secretive way, so that instead of the money being linked to elder Scaggs or the missionaries, it shows up in the form of surprise food visits or activities with food and stuff. Dad I LOVED HOW WELL THE POLAR EXPRESS TURNED OUT. That is such an incredible experience. I'm sure that polar express movie made that kids year. The Polar Express is getting bigger and bigger each year. I'm so excited for you dad.  I can see that the Polar Express is making a big difference in the community. Thanks you for being such a great example to me dad. You have a natural way of just knowing how things work and you have touched a lot of peoples lives in the process. You have taught me a lot just by being the way you are. Keep being awesome dadeo.

December 21st

What is up my friends,
This week, Elder Williams and I had a great amount of success. It definitely was not easy though. These past couple weeks we have had a lot of trouble with people saying that they will go to church with us BUT in the end never go. Our leaders called us Sunday night to help us out. They gave us a couple of awesome awesome tips, things that were exactly what we needed. Throughout this week we have been trying to mention church a lot. We commit them to go to church on Monday, Tuesday, and throughout the week we continually commit them to church. We also make plans to pass by them on Sunday to bring them to church. We have found that once people hear we are going to pass by and bring them, the truth comes out. Sunday church attendance is so important if we want to keep our people active. We plan to do the same thing next week but secure the plans days before. This week we managed to bring 3 investigators to church, they were ready and excited to visit. We also had some killer experiences with investigators and less actives. One family, that showed up for church last week, after years of non attendance, told us this week that we showed up at the perfect time for them. Their marriage was at the point of going under permanantely. They told us that it was because of our persistence that they finally got something done. Obviously it was not thanks to us, God did all the work but I feel pretty happy that we managed to do something right for the big man down here in La Paz Centro. Other than that not to much has happened. Lots of praying and lots of scripture study got us through the week. By Sunday morning both Elder Williams and I were running on fumes. I know that God has our back and wants to help us out but we just gotta ask and take action.
 love you guys  

December 14th

Lagoon by our House

Hey guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
It's almost Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This week went pretty well. We worked pretty hard. We talked with our leaders this week to get some help with our investigators and I know we will kill it this coming week!!!! Honestly, nothing too crazy happened. We did however reactivate 2 families!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of them has been inactive for ages years really and the other has been inactive for a couple months!!!!!!!!! We are most proud of the Juarez family. The parents are named Edi and Claribell. They have 3 kids Jose Antonio, Juniet, y Alison!!!!! We finally managed to have a lil sit down with them 3 or 4 weeks ago. We didn't teach much we just got to know them. In the end of the first lesson we taught a lil bit but not much. The second go around we taught only one principle which was prayer but it was so dope. Everyone was honest and their questions were legit. Every lesson we have with them is so so so dope we learn so much and it just makes us feel great. This Sunday they finally went to church, oh man it was so great!!! That day we did not have much success but the one step we made with Edi and Claribell was
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
  
Guys love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tarantula Found  in Elder Williams Shirt

December 7th Volcano Erupts

I asked him some things in my letter and these are the questions and his responses.    Where did you get your boots?  What did they do with the boa constrictor after they killed it?  Have you gotten any packages lately, and if you do, please keep them until Christmas unopened if you can, so you definitely have packages to open Christmas day.  What do you do when you get up in the morning, what time do you usually eat lunch and how do you do that, do you still have  a lunch cita?  I got my boots at a paca, its like a Goodwill ! They left the boa constrictor in the street, I don't know why, they made a pretty big deal about leaving it right in the middle of the street. Oh man I got the Jurassic world package........I about died when I saw all the stuff.

 I wear the Jurassic world t-shirt to bed every night, and I love looking at the dino pics in the books!!!!!!!  Also, I loved the candy, cliff bar, and missionary book, it's helped me a lot with the work!!! So, I get up in the morning. I pray, and I work out. I do push ups lunges , jump rope and pull ups with a thick rope thing that hangs from the ceiling!! I've dropped ten pounds woooooo!!!! The chocolate milk diet!!! Our lunch cita makes us gallo pinto with cheese, and rice and beans, maybe some talks(?). Lots and lots of rice and beans. That's basically all we eat, but its not too bad. When we eat Burger King it makes us want to cry. It's super hot, not to humid right now because the rainy season is over, but wow its pretty hot,Chinandega was hotter though, when I was in Chinandega within five minutes of leaving the house sweat would be pour from my face and arms. There are a ton of stray crazy looking dogs here in Nicaragua. It makes me miss the clean ones! We have a real shower and it's it amazing!!! The area is pretty dope, the people we teach and the recent converts are like family to us. It's going to be tough leaving. I'm going to be here until Februrary! Love you guys you're AMAZING KEEP BEING DOPE, you have no idea how much I loved the messages and packages!!!
Nothing to crazy has happened this week other than that. We work we sleep and try cool new foods. 

This is what he wrote with this next picture.


also the volcano by our house blew up.......much love

Here's the link to an article about the volcano, nothing crazy happened this week my foot:)
Link to article on the volcano eruption.
Another link, this one has a video.
Well guys this week was a tough one. We were soaring pretty high then dropped super low. But no worries. We have plans to turn everything around. Nothing to crazy has happened this week. We are working more with members so that the church here has more of a base. We have seen that people are getting baptized but they are not staying because there is no friendship. The atmosphere on Sunday is very isolated and negative.

On Wednesday we all headed to Chinandega for a multizone conference with President. President dropped some serious bombs on us. He started by telling us that he has something for us that will change our mission. He told us that we need to work more with members in any form that we can, contacting with them, getting to know their friends and talking to all the people that live by them. We have seen how that has helped a ton. The people we find have a  friendship system set up. He also told us that if we want to bring families to church, whether they are members or just investigators we need to talk with the men. The men are the most difficult to change and the most dedicated. If we can bring one man to church he will bring his family and his friends. President has also told us that there are families waiting for us.  There is one family every week who is ready to be baptized. Our goal and our purpose is super easy and super simple, find them, teach them, and baptize them. Elder Williams and I are doing our best in La Paz. This week has not been the most successful but we know that this up coming week we will have a lot more success!!! 
Have a killer Christmas guys!!