Getting to know Nicaragua!

Well this was one heck of a week. I was all over town! I will give you a rundown.....

Monday I spent all day in the mission home working with president and some missionaries on some missionary things. not too exciting, but it took the entire day.

Tuesday I headed to Tipitapa to do divisions there. I worked with an elder that is called Elder Sirrine. He is awesome! He was my zone leader while I was financier in the office, so I know him pretty well already. We went to work in a part of their area that is like 20 minutes away in bus from the main part of their area, it is called San Juan Del Plywood. yeah kind of a funky name!! haha but I really enjoyed that little pueblito! It was super secluded, and there were no cars or buses, just the one that passes on the main road to take people to and from the town. not even any taxis are there! We had a couple sweet lessons there! The people in that town are very humble, but not a poor humble, more than anything, they are just loving people whether they were poor or not.

Riding in a tricycle taxi haha!

This gives a small idea of what it is like in San Juan del Plywood!

Well, we found the turkey but just a little too late for Thanksgiving!

There was a random horse in the street.

We got batidos to finish the night off!

Wednesday, I woke up bright and early at 5:30 to go back to Managua and then head off to Chinandega to be part of their district meetings and see how they are doing! It was great and all. We drove there 3 hours, sat in their meetings, talked, ate lunch at Burger King, and then headed the 3 hours back to Managua. So that was a really interesting day.

The drive to and from Chinandega

In the night time we had time to work in our area, and I worked with Elder Neilson. We are both new in the area as of 2 weeks, so we just went around visiting the members and asking for references. When we kind of ran out of plans, we stopped at a pulperia and bought a small snack, and this man rolls up on his moto. He spoke fluent English. He said that he was looking for cigarettes and that because he saw us, he got distracted, and didn't even want the cigarettes anymore. He wanted to talk with us and get to know us more! So we set an appointment for Friday!

Thursday I went on divisions with Elder Nelson in Villa Flor! It is just another part of Managua, but we had a wonderful time! We got to know a really crazy drunk man who almost fell in front of a car that was passing. That was pretty crazy but sadly, also kind of normal for here in Nicaragua. The poor guy thought he could speak English but really he was just kind of blabbering......

Friday we had a super awesome chance with an investigator of Elder Nelson. We invited him to pray with us to ask if the church was true and if the Book of Mormon was the word of God. So he prayed and basically did three prayers, all attached. He said amen, then started again immediately, and then started again and then said amen, a total of three times. After he finished asking about tons of different things, all individually and specifically, he said that he felt the Spirit and that he knew that it was the truth!! Pray to know that this is the truth! God will answer your prayers!!

We taught Reynaldo at night time when I got back to my area. (the English speaker that we met on Wednesday on his motorcycle.) He was super awesome! He and his wife really want to learn more about the church so we are going to help them do that. We shared with them a lot about the restoration!

So overall a super busy week, and I got to travel to a lot of different places! It was pretty exciting, but it is taking some getting used to! I just know that the Lord is here to help me out! If we trust in the Lord, he can make our weaknesses strong unto us! (Ether 12:27) I know that I am not qualified for great tasks, but with the Lord I am! We can do anything that He commands us, if we have sufficient faith!!

Love You All and hope that you all enjoy this Christmas season! Remember who it is that we remember for Christmas, and why we celebrate! We are celebrating the day that Christ was born!  In this sacred time of year we all want a lot, and that is ok, but we can't let that distract us from giving to Christ. He is the person that deserves presents more than anyone else at this time of year!

Merry Christmas!

Elder Moser

Other pics this week...

Happy birthday Elder Pilling and Hermana Collado! :)

Back to Managua

Well it is true...I have been taken away from my home in Puerto, and they dragged me back to Managua!! Ahhhh! I miss it so much! :( I miss all of the people and the investigators and the missionaries and everything! It is so stinking sad! But little by little I am learning to cope with it!

There they all are saying goodbye!!

Today Levi is going to get baptized! And so is Nelsia!! I don't remember if I talked about them at all, but they were two of my investigators in Puerto. Nelsia was going to get baptized last Saturday before I left, but she ran into some difficulties with school and never had much time so in the end we decided it would be better for her to have another week to learn more of the doctrine. But she was awesome because we contacted her in a pulperia. She asked us for a pamphlet and if we could come by and teach her more about the church on the first contact. And we had put the baptismal date with her in the contact about 4 weeks ago now. So she learned a lot and always had super good questions that showed that she was really interested and actually learning when we taught! I love it when the investigators show a great interest like she was. Anyway, she will be getting baptized later tonight!!
Levi was also super awesome! He was a contact from the Watson family. They had brought him to church and we met him there. In our first visit with him we taught him the restoration. He told us that he had posted on Facebook that he was going to get baptized in the Mormon church, and that all of his "friends" told him that he was crazy! But he wanted to anyway. Then in the second visit we put the actual date with him. He was like, "look, I want to get baptized, how long do I have to wait to be able to do it." So we told him when he could do it, and he said, "I will be ready for that date." He was super awesome! He helped me learn more about how to properly cut open coconuts. I got pretty good just as they took me out. But he was so accepting of the doctrine, and he totally showed fruits of repentance every time we talked to him!

Goodbye to the Watson sisters and the whole family!

My bffs Shana and Quincy. Many great memories with these two little kiddos.

I am enjoying things here in Managua, but sometimes it is hard because I miss Puerto. I miss my comp Elder Monson. We only got to be together 4 weeks, but they were 4 of the greatest!! He is so awesome! I was hoping to be with him at least one more change! But I know that he is doing well out there still.

The first (and last) Managua trip with Elder Monson!!!!

  

Saying goodbye (not really yet, more like just taking pics) to the comp Elder Monson!

Just two pesos chele! Just give me two pesos.... por favor!

Saying my goodbyes after the Christmas devotional! To Elder Sherle!

Here in the new ward, Maximo Jerez, we are seeing greatness in the work!! The ward here is so willing to work! And it is very unusual for me to have that haha. And I love it! The other day we were walking and I called out to this man to talk with him. His name was Alberto. After getting to know him a bit, he seemed quite interested, telling us about how he has always wanted to get to know the church a little better. Apparently the church gave him a little support at some time in his life, and he wants to visit and get to know a little better because of the charities he received in the past. So little miracles. We receive a lot more references here than in the past, so hopefully that will convert in to EXITO!! haha Working with the members!

This week I began the Book of Mormon again and I am reading through with a special emphasis on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is seriously so amazing. It is the only reason we have hope of a better future. We are weak little humans, and we are not even close to perfect. We would never be allowed on even the front porch of Gods Kingdom if it were not for the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid for us! It was not easy at all, but I imagine that it brings a feeling of satisfaction to Him each and every time one of us takes advantage of that sacrifice He made. We must accept that we are not perfect, but we must not be content with our imperfections. We must strive to be better and look through our Savior Jesus Christ to make it possible!

Have a great week!

Love Elder Moser

Other pics this week...

We got our shoes shined by a man with one arm! He really impressed me! Just proof that there is work out there for everyone, even if you have a little disadvantage holding you back a bit!

We found a sweet rope swing back in Puerto!

That one time a garbage truck drove into a ditch and couldn't get out...gross!

The first of the goodbyes! with the kids of Felipe and Lesbia!

My last lesson with Nelsia. She is getting baptized today!

The pink carpet that falls from the trees!! It is very interesting :)

Saying goodbye to mis chapines! haha I love these three guys!

And there is Felipe and his boys in style! All in their shades!!

ZL's 1-3 :) haha

I am going to miss these guys!!

Beach Baptisms

Well this was quite the week!! We actually managed to have a little Thanksgiving celebration! On Thursday, we got together with our district and we made Crepes and potatoes and smoothies!! It was super awesome because we got to celebrate in our own little way! And we all had a lot of fun! Elder Walker put on his pilas pants and made a bunch of crepes (40) so that we could all stuff our faces and have a good time. So it was a Thanksgiving to remember!!

Our Thanksgiving day crepe making! Super fun and super good! Riquísimo

Us making the crepes.

Our Thanksgiving "feast!"

We are officially blue collar workers now! We had a sweet little service project on Saturday! We helped out the Watson family! They are reconstructing a part of their house so we helped them set the foundation and put in some bricks! It was a lot of fun and I actually broke like 15 sweats! They are an awesome family and they are also helping us a lot with some of our investigators!! But it turned out to be a super fun little project! Elders Walker and Sherle helped us out as well!

We had baptisms in the ocean this week! There has not been water in Puerto for like 9 days now, so all of the tanks in the church are sucked dry and we could not fill the baptismal font. Luckily we are blessed with a nice "plan b" and we could take them down to the ocean!! The normal service went alright, but then there was a companionship that wanted to baptize in the evening so we stayed down there and helped them out! I got to be a witness in the ocean! :) It was awesome and really tempting just to swim but I didn't...haha

A little beach baptism flex going on! 

 When I was a witness for the baptism at 7 at night! :)

So I have been working on being more patient and this week in particular I have noticed that I have been much more patient in general! I have not gotten angry or frustrated at all! I just feel a lot happier! So my challenge is...try to be patient and you will be happier!! Christlike attributes! they work :)

Love You !!
Elder Moser

Other pics this week...

They finally decided that we walked too much so they got us a much more efficient mode of transportation!

My new bike to get around to my appointments! ;)

I am thankful for the mission!

Well here comes Thanksgiving! Even though I am not going to do anything for it, I am really thankful for my chance to be here! So yeah, for Thanksgiving without turkey and gravy and stuffing and potatoes! Anyway, enough of that stuff! Thank you to everyone that is supporting me always and praying for me. I am grateful for you guys!

So it rained every day again this week and I had to wear boots again all week! Apparently there is some sort of storm coming in. Not a hurricane or anything, but just a big storm. They say that the rainy season is over but that this storm is here. So yay for rain!!!

Here we are, the suits with boots crew!

Elder Monson got a pretty sweet dog bite this week! It was pretty lame how it happened. All we did was just walk in the street and it was resting and out of no where it jumped out and grabbed Monson by the pants and a little of his leg! It ripped his pants from his mid shin all the way up to his mid thigh! Luckily the dog wasn't sick or anything.

This was quite the week!! We had district conference! That was actually pretty stressful but also pretty exciting! Andres showed up very well dressed! He looks great in a shirt and tie! Elder Compton left a shirt and tie for him and he started using them now!! They look nice!! He is super awesome!

With Andres at the district conference.

I really feel like this week, I learned the importance of something. We have so many things in life that we complain about and that we can complain about. It is the same in the mission. Elder Monson told me this week that the mission is like walking through a field of roses. As we are going through, all we feel are the thorns and the pains. It hurts, it is hard. The beauty of the situation seems small. But as we take a look back to see what we have gone through, all we see are the beautiful roses, the wonderful blessings that we have received, the awesome testimony builders. All is so beautiful! It 's the same with life! It may hurt as we are going through, but if we just push through doing our best we can look back and have wonderful memories.

Love you all! Have a great week and a happy Thanksgiving!

Other pics this week...

At the house of Andres!

Teaching Hilario. That pile of stuff on the deck is turtle shell!

The turtle shells.

At the barber shop.