November 10th Training Elder Williams

Hey guys
I had a crazy week and I couldn't write so next week's letter will be extra dope.  So......... Lopez left and I'm training a new kid.  (In the mission field missionaries who are training new Elders call their trainees their kid)   Yesterday I couldn't write because I was in Managua.  I'm with Elder Williams and I'm still  in La Paz Centro, this keyboard sucks so I can't write much.  My comment to him was...... It's OK,  I teach 2nd grade so I can decipher bad writing really well.

its        allbgoodb imsadb andb excited bbutb                i got bto go loveb                    you untilb monday

I didn't edit this part because I thought it was a good indication of how bad the keyboard really was.

November 2nd Baptisms Jeffery Cherlin

What's up guys!!!
This week has been pretty good. Elder Lopez and I have worked pretty hard this week. There is always room to improve. In my opinion we have just cracked the surface of the things we can do. As of right now we are working hard to turn La Paz Centro into a ward. We need 100 people for attendance and 15 priesthood holders who are active and paying tithing. Right now we've got 8 or 9 and we've got a few lined up for baptism. This week we learned that to be a successful missionary you gotta learn to to work efficiently and you gotta be obedient with exactness. Before Elder Lopez and I were not the most obedient and we had some success. Now Elder Lopez and I have commited to be more and more obedient everyday. With this combo we are metaphorically cooking with gasoline. This week we have found so many `people who are just so dope and so ready. I can now see that obedience allows us to work harder and see more miracles. It's tough but the rewards are pretty sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys this week we had some baptisms, we baptized 2 Jeffery's and a Cherlin. Two were from a less active family that just recently reactivated. Its a family of three, the father Jader and his 2 kids. They are incredibly poor but have a ton of faith. The other young man is named Jeffrey and he is from another less active family. We are working to get them back to church.  To finish off I have some cool stories. Today we ate this super weird meat that looked super sketchy its called sawana or something. It is super good and cheap . I'm hoping I don't get sick. Also, I'm working on my paca purchasing skills. A paca is basically a used stuff store. They are everywhere here. Today we were walking and I spotted a Jurassic park bag that is super small and perfect for my scriptures and pamphlets boom!!! Right on the spot, I bought for a few bucks. Earlier,  I got a Deadpool shirt which was pretty sick. I'll keep you guys posted !!!

I forgot to tell you guys that they do not celebrate Halloween down here. They think everyone in the states are weird and crazy and worship the devil and witches because we celebrate Halloween. Today is the day of the dead . Everyone goes to the cemetery to clean grave sites and adorn the graves with flowers.

New Investigators

Love You

October 26th

Meeting in Managua with Cliff Bars from care package!!!

Hey guys whats up!!!!
So this week we had a few people who were preparing to get baptized but unfortunately they were not able to. We have been looking for a ton of people and putting a bunch of baptismal dates, but unfortunately we forgot to take care of those who we found. We had been teaching them, but not as frequently as we should have, we had been focusing too much on finding. But it's all good, we will turn things around this week. So this week we had interviews with President and they went well. President showed us somethings that we can do better and we plan to make it happen. On Saturday we went to Managua to listen to a couple talks by general authorities. They talked about a ton of stuff and everyone learned a lot. The coolest thing that happened this week is a less active got reactivated. This less active had left his family and was roaming the streets. His marriage was in the dump and his family was suffering. This week he talked to the stake president in Leon to get things straightened out and now he is a new man!!!! He now smiles, he laughs, he talks with his family, he talks with his wife like they are best friends. I have seen a huge change in him and he didn't need to do much. He took a small step and that step changed everything with the help of God of course.  

Bus Ride

Some other things that happened this week, Snickers are imported to Nicaragua so they are pretty expensive and rare.

Snickers Bar

We can only find them in big grocery stores, so my comp and I bought a few there so dope!!!!!! The whole zone had interviews on Wednesday, it was pretty cool.  We are all in the bus in the picture. I got  a lil carsick on that ride but other than that its all chill. I found a sick gecko in the house and it peed all over my hand  I got a killer package with Poptarts and gummie sharks and a whole ton of cliff bars, so dope!! and a Jurassic park shirt!!!
That's all for this week...oh wait I forgot to tell you guys that here in Nicaragua a popular name for Jesus Christ is Papa Chus I love it!!!!!!  This little guy is the son of one of our investigators.

October 19th

Whats up guys!!!!!!!! nothing to crazy has happened this week, Elder Lopez and I worked pretty hard every day. This week we worked on putting fechas on contact and working with people who are the most positive. Last week we found a place called El Cruze or something like that. Its a super small little vilage in our area. Its not village but a little strip of land with a bunch of super poor families. Some people live in tin house with blanket doors. Pretty crazy stuff. We have found a ton of positive people and we have put a lot of fechas. Unfortunatly we found that putting fechas is super cool and all but when we don't have time to teach them they start to fall. We also found that those who are most positive, go to church, so we are working to get them all to church. It's all pretty chill though. On Saturday we bought some ice cream for Elder Lopez. He turned 23 and we had a lil party for him. If you guys have time, try coco puffs with ice cream, it's pretty sick. This week we are going to try to pull off a miracle with our investigators. I know it will all turn out well.
Love you guys

October 12th La Paz Centro

Hey guys, we had a pretty cool week this week.On Tuesday, Elder Spence and I crushed during intercambios here in the Paz. We found a ton of super cool people and managed to place a few baptismal dates. The rest of the week Elder Lopez and I have been working pretty hard. Right now we are trying our best to place baptismal dates on contact. I have seen that this helps us find the people who are looking for the truth and only need help. Before, we spent a lot of time trying to work with people who simply weren't ready. Every lesson was super tough and we barely made any progress. Those who we are working with are progressing much faster. Oh man, this Thursday our district had a meeting with President Collado to present what we have done in the past 3 months. Last time we had this meeting my results were not the best so I had a little bit of fear going into it this time. Elder Lopez and I had some great baptisms, and we lifted the attendance in sacrament meeting. It was awesome. President told our district that we are doing well. Now that my companion is district leader, and we have had a lot of success, President had us raise our goal pretty high Converts are doing well. Jose is killing it, has gone to church every Sunday and has gone to every meeting, he's so dope. Elder Lopez has a lot more work to do, but he is enjoying it and has learned really fast.

I have not bought anything in Nicaragua lately, but this Saturday I'm going to throw a party for my companion.  It's his birthday, he comes from a poor family and hasn't celebrated his birthday super special in a long time. Nothing to crazy has happened. In the meeting President asked my opinion on why Elder Lopez and I have had success.....that means I'm  doing something right!!!!!!!!!!! Dude, guys thank you so much for the updates I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every word, every comment makes me so happy, you have no idea.  Mom I love you so much, you keep everything moving in the family, you are amazing.

Love you guys

October 5th La Paz Centro

Well Guys this week was pretty cool.
We haven't seen anything too crazy but we have definitely learned a lot. My companion is District Leader now, so he has been adjusting to that and he is doing great. When it comes to numbers at night it turns into a team effort, I add things, he adds things, and in the end it all works out. So... we went to Leon with all of the zone, we played soccer and it was so sick!!! Then, after words we went to Burger King and we used coupons, you'd be proud of me (I always use your card when going to BK). We also used coupons in the grocery store then we headed home!  We started contacting in another poor area in La Paz Centro called El Granero and 17 de Julio. These areas aren't as poor as el Kilombo, but its pretty poor. The first day we started contacting there we found a couple positive people and set a few baptismal goals with a family. They are progressing pretty well and have gone to conference with us. Like our recent convert Jose, this family does not have much knowledge of the scripture.  They are learning fast and its solid.

I love all the times we spent watching conference in the house!!!! My companion and I headed to the stake center in Leon to watch conference it was pretty cool and we learned a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our recent convert Jose went to the priesthood session on Saturday and both sessions on Sunday. He is awesome and is super dedicated. When we called him to ask if he was going to go with us he simply said yes without excuse or complaint. He is super awesome and I know he will be a killer member and leader of the church!!! Conference was so dope!!!!!!!! Recently, Russel M. Nelson visited the mission in Nicaragua.  When I asked Easton how it felt to see him on TV during conference, this was his response. It was weird, but it was cool, I felt like I kinda new him lol.  I loved all the talks from the first session on Saturday.  The talk about "ponderizing" scriptures was amazing.  I learned so many things and I plan to make a lot of changes to my life as a missionary and in my life as a person and Son of God here on Earth.
Love you guys a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep rocking it

September 28th Baptisms La Paz Centro

Hey Guys,
So we finished up with another change in Nicaragua. Elder Lopez and I are still together and he is now District Leader. We are both excited for this change, and we expect to have a great amount of success. So this week was pretty awesome. On Saturday, the family we have been teaching got married and were baptized as well.

The couple that got married are awesome, they are named Juana and Jose! Their daughter Gretel was baptized too. Before they finally got baptized a lot of things happened. During the week we passed by their house to teach, prepare, and prevent them from falling. Everything was super chill until Friday night. After their baptism, they told us that Friday night they had a little argument that turned into a huge fight, and Juana had decided that she was not going to get married or baptized, and was going to leave.

The truth is they were fighting over something super small and sort of funny, but somehow it exploded. Jose was thinking clearly and told Juana that satan fighting to prevent them from taking this step in their lives. After Jose spoke to Juana she realized that the argument was nothing and they made up, after that everyone was chill again and were determined to get baptized. I feel like I did not explain what happened very well, but do your best to imagine it.  From our experiences with Juana and Jose I have learned that some people learn faster than others, intelligence has nothing to do with it.

Last week they told us that they wanted more time because they didn't want to take such a huge step with out being super prepared. We had almost taught them everything at that point so we knew they we ready and only needed to take a step of faith. Jose told us that he did not understand baptism very well and did not understand why it was important for them to get baptized. He also told us that he was smoking and didn't want to get baptized with this addiction. We explained everything and we challenged him to stop smoking with a goal and stick to it. We asked if he was willing to get baptized with his original date and he told us " ya i will do it" without hesitation. Juana did not say yes and told us that they would talk together later and give us an answer the following day. Everything worked out and Jose quit smoking long before his baptism.  Jose is super dope and has plans to be a teacher in the church. He told us that he feels completely changed and has a desire to serve. He is going to kill it and we are going to help him.