So
yes, this week was kind of weird and I don't know exactly what to think
about it. Basically it was a lot of figuring things out. The whole week
was basically me showing Elder Rodriguez around our area: where the
members live, where the recent converts live, where the investigators
live, the good places to eat, the dangerous areas that I like to travel
through more frequently to keep my life exciting, and other important
things. It was weird because I almost felt like the Senior companion,
but I'm almost as far from being that as a missionary can be.... I am
the junior companion in training, and my companion is the District
Leader... so he actually has some rank in the mission ;) haha but he is
figuring things out just fine around here.
I presume the big question of many is, How is the new companion?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I guess I will answer that. He is from El Salvador, and he is 23. He is
super awesome and I already know that my time with him will be really
great and I will benefit a lot! He has been out here in the mission for
almost 20 months. Sometimes he likes to say 31 months cause he had to go
home for a while to have surgery on his knee, and so if he counts the
time (he likes to count that time to impress others) than it is 31
months haha. He only speaks Spanish (YESSSS!!!! for real) so I will
really have the opportunity to speak Spanish always and improve so much
quicker. He also likes to talk a lot, so that is good too, we are always
having some sort of conversation, and it is normally about nothing. In
this process, I have discovered that I am very proficient with my
Spanish. There are some things that I don't know exactly how to say, but
I can always find my way around words that I don't know.
My new companion Elder Rodriguez
Elder Rodriguez has
brought with him many expectations from his area in Managua. Lets just
say Managua is a bit stronger in the church, probably because there are a
ton more people in Managua. But regardless, something that he did a
lot there was work with the members, and that is something that I have
wanted to do here, buuuut Elder Alfaro didn't exactly have the best
relationship with the members, so that was difficult. But as soon as we
got to church yesterday, Elder Rodriguez began to change that. By the
end of church, thanks to Elder Rodriguez, we had about 4 different days
planned to work with some members in this week! haha SO all in all, I
think things with him are going to be very good.
Having 20
months in the mission, he is very slow to do things. haha I have found
that when he walks, it is super slow, when he teaches, it is at a slow
pace. So that is something different than Elder Alfaro. I don't really
know if that information is something you would even care about, I'm
just writing stuff about him :) haha
Anyway, this week was really eventful. As I mentioned (I think) I was working on Monday with another missionary here in my area so that we would not have to wait around in Managua, which was nice, except on Tuesday we had to meet up with our companions in his new area, about an hour south of Estelì. So we left on a bus at 7am to go to their area to meet up with our comps. They said they would be there around 8:30 but
they were not there for a while. We had to wait an hour and a half on
the side of the street because they didn't show up until 10. Anyway, we
finally got back to Estelì and Elder Rodriguez unpacked and we had a
deep cleaning of the ``Bunker´´ our room. It was really needed because Elder Alfaro decided that since he was leaving, he could just leave all
of his trash and stuff everywhere. So we cleaned it alllllll. The room
actually feels slightly bigger now haha.
Most
of our days this week were spent helping Elder Rodriguez get to know
the area and people like I mentioned, so there isn't a whole lot to
report in that respect. But all week we had been preparing a boy named
Kenneth for baptism for last Saturday, and things were going super well.
We were also working on helping the mother to reactivate in the church.
All week she had such a good attitude. That is until Friday night
when we had the baptismal interview planned. Then she seriously got
super negative and told us that she didn't want him to be baptized and
that we needed to just leave. That was really surprising, and really sad
too, because her son really wants to be baptized, but just because she
was having a bad day, she won't let him.
But on the bright side, we have also been working with Dahomi this week, and she has finally accepted a baptism date of the 23rd of August.
She is also going to participate in the choir that they are going to
have for the district conference here (like stake conference, but with
branches). And she is going to start up in seminary too! soo super cool!
On Thursday,
I had a really interesting experience. Elder Rodriguez had to go to
Managua for a meeting and one of the other district leaders did as well,
so I was companions with an Elder Cayax here in Estelì for the day.
Something interesting about him, he has been here in Nicaragua for a
grand total of 5 days. Yes he is brand new, and he is a latino. He was
super funny, because he was always asking me what we were supposed to
do, like every 5 minutes. It was funny at first, until it got really
annoying because he literally did it all day..... I really wanted to say
to him not to worry about it, cause he was in my area so he didn't need
to preoccupy himself about it, but I withheld :)haha I figured that
would be a little rude. But it was really weird to work with someone
that had less time than I did in the mission... I really was the senior
comp for the day, and I was the one with more experience haha. I kind of
liked it, but at the same time, I felt like there was a lot more
pressure!
To
keep you informed about the other investigators that we have, we really
haven't been having a lot of luck with all of the people that we found
last week, so really we have a few investigators that are progressing,
but like always, we have to keep finding!! The beauty of missionary work
is that when you don't know what to do, there's always one solution,
find more people to teach! haha
The
rain has been staring to come pretty much every day consistently now,
and when it rains here, it raaaaaains! haha luckily I never got tooo
wet, but it is really hard to avoid the rain here unless you are inside a
house, because the wind blows in every direction, so the rain goes
everywhere haha. pictures to follow :)
The rain was craaaaaazy haha and flooded the street just a bit!
Also,
this morning I got my first haircut here in Nicaragua and it was much
needed!! haha I have been meaning to get one for like 2 weeks now, but
things have always caused that I was not able. But I forgot to get a
picture.... whoopsie :) haha sorry bout that one.
Funny Story:
This
week I guess I have been a little stressed or something, and how do I
know that? Well, I talked in my sleep, apparently, according to Elder
Rodriguez. He said that he was awake at like midnight,
and all of a sudden he heard me talking in my sleep. I said ``El
problema es que yo conozco el area muy bien, pero no conozco donde viven
los miembros.´´ (The problem is that I know the area really well, but I
don't know where the members live.) YES, IT WAS IN SPANISH TOO!!!! haha
I was so proud of myself! haha That is the second time in my life that I
know of that I have talked in my sleep! haha
Spiritual Thought:
So
this week I read about the stripling warriors and how they were so
faithful. I was thinking about them, and how they were taught by their
mothers to be exactly obedient and always have their trust in their
Father in heaven. I have seen that here in Nicaragua that is a problem
with some people. They are good members of the church, but in two
instances that I have seen, something difficult happens in their life,
and they decide that they don't want to go to church anymore! This is a
problem no? They are slightly confused, because when they are having
these problems, they ignore God and the help that he can provide. They
think too much about themselves. In reality, when we have times like
this, we need to be stronger, try harder to have a better relationship
with our Father in heaven. Go to church looking for spiritual comfort,
remembering that it is through faith in God that he can help us.
Remember this , like the stripling warriors, (the sons of Helaman as he
calls them,) remembered when they were battling with the Lamanites.
They were all preserved through their faith that God would be with them
in their obedience.
Love you all!!
Elder Moser
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