Another week down and a
super tired Elder Moser. I want to apologize right off...I discovered I
wasn't keeping a very good count of the foods that I have eaten. The
accurate count as of last week was Elder Moser-4 Nicaragua-1. I am happy
to report that I have had yet another experience that will change the
score. This was probably my easiest competitor yet. It was my first
authentic gallo-pinto. It's really nothing too fancy, just a precise
mixture of rice and beans with specific Nicaraguan measurements. Like I
said, easiest competition yet! But that puts the score at Elder Moser-5
Nicaragua-1. Also I hope you appreciated the spelling out of the
punctuations last week. I didn't have much of a better option.
The start of this week was really an interesting one. Like last week, we had to go to Managua on Tuesday,
but fortunately this time, I was included in the meeting. It was a
meeting for all of the companionship's that are training and trainees.
Basically just like you would imagine a meeting for missionaries:
talking about how to be good missionaries and stuff like that. (Funny
story to come later).
After the meeting we were supposed to go out and
work with the AP´s in their area. But we had to wait for a little while
because after the new missionaries meeting, they had to have another
meeting with the president. Elder Alfaro and I didn't want to wait
outside where it was super hot, so we waited in the back of the chapel
where there is air conditioning. We spent some time talking about what
we should focus on in the week, and then Elder Alfaro decided he wanted
to kind of listen in on the meeting, so we just sat back there quietly.
At one point, Elder Alfaro said to me that he wished he was part of the
meeting, because he had an idea that he could share to help improve the
problem that they were currently discussing. Then, literally not 10
seconds later, president said ``Elder Alfaro, Elder Moser, why don't you
guys come join us for this, to see if you have any ideas to help us
out.´´ It was inspired! haha and Elder Alfaro got to share his input and
we were in this meeting as if we were Assistants to the President too.
That was pretty sweet!
We got to work with the AP´s after, but because of the meeting we
only had one hour to work with them. That was enough for them I guess
and we were permitted to leave the next morning. I guess we were doing
everything right ;) haha
After that, we got a good start on our week. The
goal for this week was to focus on the people we brought to church last
week and find a lot of new investigators. This is where the kind of sad
part comes in. We had only 2 investigators at church yesterday. Yes, 2
is better than 0, but that isn't really what we were expecting. Let me
explain. Cesar and Belsabet had pretty much been avoiding us all week
with excuses, and we finally met with them on Saturday and
they just weren't really interested anymore. That was really kind of
sad. Most of the others that we had last week just weren't available this Sunday, so none of them could come. Most of our finding efforts turned out to be a bust this week, seeing as how none came to church.
The two that actually came was a girl named Dahomi
and a little boy named Kenneth. Dahomi has been an investigator for a
little while now and has just been busy each Sunday until
yesterday. She is one of the few people in Nicaragua that actually read
some of the Book of Mormon the first time we gave it to her. She is
currently in chapter 21 of 1 Nephi. The other, Kenneth, is an 8 year old
boy that is part of a less active family. His mom came up with an
excuse not to come to church in the morning, so we told Kenneth that he
was like the Nephi of the family, setting a good example to all of the
others. Basically things just kind of dropped off here and we don't
really know why. We will have to find out why this week.
As far as Elder Alfaro goes, he has been trying a
lot harder lately to be better about his sleeping habits and stuff,
which has been really nice. He was telling me not to get down too much
when families all of the sudden decide they don't want to investigate
anymore or things like that. He told me that things would work out if we
kept working hard. In my head, I was thinking that I don't get down as
much when families stop investigating, but when he is sleeping in the
morning during study time. Yeah it is sad when families stop
investigating, but it makes me miss home and stuff for some reason when
he doesn't use the morning time effectively. Luckily he did a lot
better this week! So that wasn't really a problem!
A little pre baptism selfie :)
To quickly answer your questions about church: We
are in a branch, and the typical sacrament meeting attendance is about
85, with a large standard deviation (the attendance wavers very much).
There is not a piano in our building, so all of the hymns are just sung
acapella (that is a hard word to spell...). The people here in
Nicaragua have beautiful singing abilities (that was my best attempt at ''e-mail sarcasm''). I hope that answers any questions. I will try to
remember to take pics of it next week.
On a good note, Enrique and Lupe did indeed
get baptized this week! I got to baptize Enrique and Elder Alfaro
baptized Lupe. They were so ready and anxious, that Enrique tried to
immerse himself in the water before I began saying the prayer! haha.
They are such a nice family, and after church on Sunday, they invited us over for some celebratory soup! I was soooooo hungry, so the soup tasted soooooo good! haha
At the baptism of Enrique and Lupe. You can just tell that they are so exited to be baptized by the HUGE smiles on their faces ;) I don't know why they all ``smile´´ like that here....
The baptism was great and of course, but the true
highlight of the week is that... wait for it...... I GOT A WATCH!!!
Today my only goal for this pday was to buy a watch, and I found myself a
watch for $5!! That makes me kind of glad that I waited until here to
get it! haha but I am finally informed of time whenever I want to be!
And the moment you've all been waiting for... My new watch!!!
Funny Story: (This is very possibly a ``you had to
be there´´ kind of story, but it´s the best I´ve got this week). So, in
this new missionaries meeting in Managua, President had us do a little
``exercise´´. He had every companionship write down on a piece of paper
the percentage of their investigators that were keeping their
commitments. After discussing a bit, Elder Alfaro and I decided that we
were at about 75% of our investigators. President then had people start
showing their numbers one by one. 25%, 35%, 23%, 38%,40% and so on like
this. We were one of the last to show, and we put up our 75%. After
everyone showed, President asked Elder Alfaro to stand up, and then
asked him how many he baptized two months ago. He answered 7 people, one
family. Then he asked one month ago, and Alfaro answered 3 people one
family. And then for the next weekend, answering 2 people, 1 family.
President continued having Elder Alfaro say some of his numbers that
were pretty impressive, and then he said for me to bring our number 75%
up to the front. He asked everyone that was in the meeting why was it
that our number was so much higher than the rest, and someone answered
timidly that we were not spending time with the people that weren't
completing their commitments. President ended this conversation with
saying ``its because they aren't stupid!´´ That was quite the confidence
booster to have the president of the mission tell Elder Alfaro and I
publicly that we aren't stupid ;) haha Anyway, that's the extent of the
story, so if it was indeed a ``you had to be there´´ story, I apologize.
haha
Spiritual Thought: This week Elder Alfaro and I
talked a lot about feeling like we wanted to rest because we were
working so hard. But then I was reminded of my thought from last week,
to remember the Savior and his difficulties, and how he didn't get to
rest. Also I thought more on this. I remember back in my swimming days,
one of the big concepts in practicing for swimming is this: when you
feel tired and think that you have given all that you have, that is the
critical moment when you decide that you are either going to improve by
trying harder and giving a stronger effort, or maintain your current
abilities by taking it easy and giving yourself a rest. This same idea
applies when we feel like we have worked so hard in a church calling, or
in service to others, or anything in our lives for that matter, and
think that we deserve a rest, that is the critical moment. We can decide
to serve more, to try harder, and become better people, more Christlike
people, or we can take a rest and just remain as good as we already
were. Our goal on this earth is to become the best people we can be. To
become as perfect as we can possibly be. To do this, we need to always
be trying harder, always giving a stronger effort. This is not
easy....at all! But this life wasn't meant to be easy. We are here to
prove ourselves worthy to live with God in His kingdom. We do that by
trying harder and harder every day to be more like His Son, Jesus
Christ. This thought is what helped me to have the motivation this week
to keep working hard, even when we weren't necessarily having the
success we were hoping for.
Love you all and hope your week is filled with blessings!
Love
Elder Moser
Elder Moser
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