Patience

Well this week just flew by, and as I meditated on that thought with my companions, we realized that we are already basically 4 weeks done with this transfer and it has gone by like a few days. That scares me, and it has brought me to two feelings, that are polar opposites.

The first, I am really excited, because I am only 2 weeks away from knowing who will be my replacement. And when he gets here, I will begin the training. It has been a long awaited moment to find out this information. Just to have it written to the public, I have had one guess since October 26th of who it was going to be. Elder Hobbs. I know the date, because that is the day that I met him, as he stepped foot out of the airport here in Nicaragua for the first time. From the moment I saw him, and ate dinner at Rosti Pollos with him his first day in the mission, I decided that he was going to be the next financier. But anyway I will know in 2 weeks. :D And that is why I am excited!

Now the other feeling is that I am a little scared. I am scared that 4 weeks of my mission passed by so quickly like it has felt! I don't want it to go by so quickly! I almost feel that I have been robbed of some time. But at the same time, in these 4 weeks we have been working harder than any other time I can think of yet. We have taken advantage of almost every minute, and with that being said, we have many new investigators!! But that is why I feel a little scared from the 4 weeks passing so fast!

So as some results of our hard work this week, we ended with many new investigators! The first is Carlos! He is an older man, and very enthusiastic. We met him on Saturday, and after talking with him for a short time, accepted to be baptized on the 11th of April. When he showed up to church on Sunday, he entered the chapel (a little late) and said in a powerful voice "Good Morning, God Bless us!" I won't lie, it was pretty funny! haha So we went and accompanied him to a seat. He is really accepting to all of the things we are teaching him!

We are following up a lot with a young man named Cristofer. He is a good friend, and lives two houses away from Jose Antonio and Everth, the two young recent converts that we baptized in October. So he came to church with them and all is going well with him, he accepted to be baptized when he knows that the church is true. He told us that he really enjoys learning about all different religions to see what their doctrine is like.

Willian and Mayella are a couple that we found just chilling in the street one day. I told my companions that I wanted to go contact for a bit in a part of the area that I have only been to like once before, and they thought it was a good idea. They were the first family that we talked to. And they totally were super receptive to the message of the Restoration. They couldn't come last Sunday to church because they already had a commitment, but they are coming this Sunday. She told us that she is really looking for an answer to her prayers too. So we left them with an assignment to read in the Book of Mormon and the desire to know if it is true.

One other person that we have started to visit is the girlfriend of a 19 year old in the ward, Freddi Garcia. He and his family were inactive starting about 1 month before I got here to Ducuali. And then after the many visits that we have payed them, and that the members have payed them, the switch in their heads just turned back on and they remembered the importance of the church in their lives. So the whole family re activated about 1 month ago now! And Freddi has been bringing his girlfriend to church. She said that she was not opposed to the idea of getting baptized if she learned more about the church. She likes it and all.

So something I have learned this week, is that miracles come through working harder than we think we are capable of working, and that we need to be patient and take advantage of the time we have in the moment. Even though I have been working hard, I think that I have had a focus a bit heavy on things to come, like who will be the person that will replace me and things of that sort. But as I reflect back, many things have happened in this week that were awesome, and this I have enjoyed. If we get too caught up in the future, we lose the blessings and joy of the present.

I hope you all had an awesome week this week, and I hope all is well! Love You!

Elder Moser

Pics this week...

I really don't know what this is, but I like it! :)

Elder Fairbourn taking out the packages at the post office.

Driving down the streets of Managua. Some pretty sights!

 More of the streets of Managua!

Taxis in Managua.

We are kind of like the Avengers... If you don't look too closely!  :)

 The Aguileras let us play with their bunny while we waited for Jose Antonio to get ready!

A sad attempt at a foto. Freddy Blandón giving us some Bleu Cheese dressing to spice up the food here! haha

The Barkers are Back in town!

I am so happy! The Barkers are back!! haha Now we are not running this ship with a lot less help! I don't remember if I ever mentioned, but they got a little "vacation" from the mission for the last 3 weeks. Their daughter was getting married, and of course, they wanted to go so badly, so they worked a deal with President. They decided that if they were permitted to take this "vacation" to go to their daughters wedding, that they would extend from 1 1/2 years service to 2 years! So now they will be here until right before I leave! Like I think they leave the change before I leave. But more than anything, it was really lonely in the office without them here helping out with everything. So now that they're back, everything is so much better.

We also had a mission conference, and although an apostle did not attend ours, it was still pretty awesome! It was actually a multi mission conference, and the authorities that visited us were Elder Ochoa, the first counselor of the Area Presidency of Central America. And also The Bishop Davies, I think second counselor of the Bishopric of the Church. And they were great. They just talked about how much they love us and what we are doing. So it was really just a big compliment throwing meeting.

With the Bishop Davies.

With his wife, Sister Davies.

With Sister Ochoa.

With Elder Ochoa.

I got to be in the choir so that was pretty sweet I guess. We only botched the first song super hard...... like honestly it was pretty bad. But that is ok, the good thing is we really showed what we were made of the second time around when we sang "I know that my Redeemer lives". So yeah.

Singing in the choir!

yeah! Singing rocks! ;)

Then afterward there was a huge surprise for the whole North mission!!! Flu Shots!!! As we were closing up shop, the nurse of the mission, sister Barker, said that someone needed to give her the shot, so I volunteered jokingly. She didn't   think I was joking and actually let me do it....... Yeah, I know, she has great faith ;) haha but all went well! And she said she didn't even feel it. Maybe I have dad´s touch with the shots? I don't know.

Giving a flu shot! :)

After many intents to talk with Helen throughout last week and the beginning of this week, we were starting to lose hope, because she was always "gone or sleeping". So we were passing by one day, and decided to see if she was there, and she was! So we were going to tell her that we probably wouldn't be able to pass as much anymore, because if she wasn't going to decide to be baptized, than there wasn't much more we as missionaries could do. But in talking with her, she actually agreed to come this Sunday to church and to be baptized next Saturday, hopefully with her daughter Saraí. So we will see there!

We also found this other family, and honestly, it is weird how the Lord works. On Tuesday of this week, we went to visit a member, but he wasn't home...and we didn't really have any other plans for the moment, sooo we decided to contact a few of the neighbors. We contacted one, Alexander, and put an appointment to come back. When we came back, Alexander wasn't there, but there was an older couple, Ulga and Julio Cesar, there that lives there too. They were happy to receive us, and we taught a lesson with them and all. They even accepted to be baptized! So through a fallen appointment with a member, we contacted, and through that fallen appointment, we found a couple that is very interested! So I just love the little mysterious ways that the Lord likes to test us to see if we will be persistent.

Oh and just a side story! My companion got bit by a dog yesterday!!! hahah But it only bit his shoe, so he is totally fine. But that was the first real dog attack I have seen in my entire mission, and let me tell you, it was awesome!!!!! hahahah

Anyway, I don't think there is much else to report for the week.

Love Elder Moser

A couple more pics...

You already know...... the office life, such exciting pictures!! Sorry, I'll try to get better!

I love to see the Temple!

Ok well this week I have really been thinking a lot about the temple. For those that don't know, Nicaragua is the only country in Central America that does not have even one temple. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, they all have a temple, but Nicaragua no.... I miss the temple so much!! It is really such a blessing how close we have the temple in our home. Only like 30 minutes away, so a trip to the temple takes about 5 hours total more or less. But to put it into perspective for you...back a long time ago, like 40 years more or less, the nearest temple to Nicaragua was the Arizona temple. What did that mean; that meant that aside from all of the money, papers, and hoops to jump through, people had to make a one month journey just to go to the temple. It took two weeks to get there in bus and two weeks to get back in bus. Imagine trying to get work off for a whole month...But then a miracle happened, and a temple was built in Guatemala!! A lot less paper work, and a lot less time!! It only took 1 week and a half to get there do the session and come back!!! Not to bad right? Compared to the one month trip they used to take. But then things were made even easier, with the construction of the Honduras, Tegucigalpa temple. Now the members of Nicaragua only need to sacrifice 3 days of work, money and time to go to the temple. Just three days. For them that is nothing!! It is better than what they have ever known. But because it is rather difficult, they aren't able to go often. Imagine, something we can do in 5 hours takes these people three days to do.

With that said, I want to extend an invitation to all. Take advantage of how close you live to the temple. Go and serve in the temple. Take 5 hours out of your week or month to be able to go regularly. There is no better place to be on this earth than in the temple, serving. NO PLACE. I miss the temple so much. It is the house of the Lord here on the earth. There is a spirit there that cannot be felt in any other place on earth. The veil is so thin in the temple. So take advantage of the blessing it is to have a temple near to you!

Now about the week. Honestly nothing really big to report. The companionship is going great. Elder Fairborne the newbie in the office is having a tough time adjusting. He doesn't like being in the office a whole lot, and is always dying to just go to the area! So that is really nice. It doesn't take much effort for us to get over to the area now and we have had a very good amount of time there even though this week has been super busy with multi-zone conferences. So all is well with the companionship. We all get along just great so far. They are doing great with learning the responsibilities that they have.

With Helen, this week was really interesting. At this point, we still won't be having the baptism. We taught her a really good lesson on Wednesday night. She told us again how she knows without a doubt that the church is true, and that she needs to be baptized. She is just scared about falling after. So we taught really powerfully and after she agreed to pray vary sincerely that night, and that she would tell us when we would be having the baptism. Sooo we still haven't been able to contact her yet, because she wasn't at home yesterday when we passed by. But all will be well with her.

On the other hand, we have been working quite a bit to visit new investigators with members. To have them introduce the new people to us. And it has really been quite effective this last week. We have a few new investigators that the members took us to that are actually very interested!! So that will be very awesome! I will keep you all updated on that in these coming weeks!

Something exciting happened this week...we were in the airport again yesterday morning and we met another member of the Seventy! I think I have met more general authorities in the airport of Nicaragua than anywhere else...haha! His name was Elder Coleman, and he was out here on a charity trip. But the cool thing was that he gifted a tie to Elder De la Cruz. And seriously, you should have seen how happy Elder De la Cruz was!! haha He was like shaking because he was sooooo happy that he just received a tie from Elder Coleman. Anyway, he was super nice, as all general Authorities are haha!

At the airport with Elder Coleman!

I think that is about it for this week.

Love Elder Moser

Heaven is full of good works, Hell is full of good intentions.

Well this was a really really busy week with a bunch of unexpected changes. I really don't know how to start, but first of all I have a 2 new companions. So that puts the count up to 9...which is kind of a lot, considering that I have 9 months in the mission. That is one per month! Wow. I am really getting to know like all of the missionaries. Haha So anyway, right now I am in a trio again, with Elder De La Cruz, and Elder Fairborne.

Elder Velazquez was getting kind of sick, and all of a sudden it kind of blew out of proportion, big enough that he actually had to go home to take care of it. So that is why he is not with me anymore. So we had some "emergency changes" on Monday, and I was put into a trio with these two.

Elder De la Cruz is from the Dominican Republic. He is a vary large guy and he loves to eat...a lot! :) haha He speaks really good English. I may have actually talked about him before, because he has been in the office as a materials secretary for a few months now. So I already knew him. He was changed to be the records secretary now, which was a bit of a surprise. And sadly he got like no training to be the secretary, so I have to help with a lot of figuring out how to do things... But he is cool. He actually got to Nicaragua the same day I did, so we have the same amount of time here! That is pretty interesting.

Just messin' around with the new companion...haha! Elder De la Cruz from Dominican Republic

Elder Fairborne is from Utah, and he is really new! He is actually the new materials secretary, and he was going to be comps with Elder De la cruz in that, and I was going to keep moving forward with Elder Velazquez, but one thing led to another, and now Elder Fairborne is jumping into it without any training either! haha But that doesn't really matter, he will figure it out. It is funny to see new people in the office and how they react the first time they get to ride in the truck, or when they go to the mall to run some errands. It is probably exactly how I reacted my first few days, but it is funny now to see it from the other perspective! :)

Just some informational stuff, President already informed me that in the changes in April, I will be receiving the next financier as a companion to train him. And then in the change after that, on May 25th (80 days, but I'm not counting) I will finally be changed to be a non secretary missionary!!! Yayyyyy! :) haha

Changes came this past week, and it was a really good thing that I was really prepared for them this time. With the whole situation about changing companions, it would have been super difficult if I would not have been ready and had lots of experience with how the changes go. So honestly everything went fine. We received lots of new missionaries (19 to be exact) and also many left (23) so there are lots of things changing in the mission!

As far as the area goes: We finally got the opportunity to go visit with Helen last night, and she accepted to put a goal to be baptized next Saturday, the 14th of March. We will be praying hard for her. She told us a while back that she knows the church is true and that she knows that she needs to be baptized. She really is just scared to do it. So we promised her that if she continued to pray asking for comfort, that she should be baptized on the 14th, that she would not feel scared when the day would come around. I have complete faith that it will happen!

Other than that, there are some investigators that I need to get to know, because they were investigators of Elder De la Cruz. So these next few times in the area, we will be getting to know the investigators and the work of each other in the area, and Elder Fairborne will have to learn it all!! Haha!

As far as the subject for the week, our mission president sent us a text message of something to ponder, saying "Heaven is full of good works, Hell is full of good intentions." What a powerful statement. It is basically James 2:17 in stronger words. Faith without works is dead. There is something a ton of people do here. They tell us that God understands when they can't keep his commandments, He understands when they are too busy or too sleepy to go to church one Sunday. When they have other things to do so they can't keep the commandments. But I always tell them the reality. What God understands is that they do not love him enough to do what He asks. Like in 1 Nefi 3:7, he always prepares a way for us to keep His commandments. Like the story of the lady that stopped her soda selling just from the temptation of selling on Sunday. It all plays in the same game. Without works, we will not be worthy to enter into God´s kingdom in the end. So just remember: "Heaven is full of good works, Hell is full of good intentions." It is not enough to think about choosing the right, you must do it!

Hope you have a wonderful week. I love you all very much!

Elder Moser