Recovery Mode

Hello family and friends!!!

So I will begin with answering a few questions. First, I don't think that the camera will be going anywhere. It served me well, and I just had a short dumb moment and I payed for it. I am in Managua today for a meeting leadership council that we have once a month so I am hoping to have some time today to look for another camera here. As far as how things are in Puerto, I am doing awesome. I absolutely love it here. I am doing a lot better sickness wise. Don't worry! I am still alive and getting way better now. I just have a small appetite now and am trying to gain my energy back. But I have lost some weight. I haven't checked recently, but I have only received about 30 comments that I am skinnier now... yikes. I am trying to eat more!! I promise! hahaha

The time here in Puerto is an adventure. I feel like I am always in the jungle! hahah well sort of. There are definitely a ton of areas that are just like little squares of a house built in the middle of nowhere and then there are areas where it is kind of up to date!! Like people actually have a door! I absolutely love it here though. Not really exaggerating, my house is probably nicer than like 90 % of the houses in Puerto.

This week went really quick, and I didn't have much happen. I did almost get bit by a dog. I kicked right where he was coming at me, and then he ran in fear...that was exciting.

We baptized Julio! He is so awesome! Right before his baptism, he was interviewed by the branch president because we had some time to kill. He came out of the interview wanting to serve a mission!! He is 21so it is still not too late! So he was super awesome. He shared a story with me in the week about how he looked up baptism on the Internet in class one day, and he saw the picture of Jesus touching the door. Someone had commented that it could not be correct because it did not have a handle on the side of the door, and the person that had posted it said that was how it was supposed to be. Explaining how only Jesus can open the door and what not. He remembered when I had explained the exact same thing to him and then said that he now knew for sure that this was the correct path, and he truly felt it!! It was such an awesome experience!!

At the baptism of Julio!

So yeah, over all an awesome week!

Love you all! Elder Moser

One more pic...

Doing numbers on Sunday nights! soooo much fun!

Not laughing so much anymore.....

Soooooo I don't have any pictures this week.... again....I left my camera in a bag of rice for about 4 days, and it did not survive. It gave a good effort, but actually it doesn't even show any signs of life. I took it in to this little place here that "fixes electronics" so we will see how they do. They can give it to me tomorrow....But I am in like a fourth world country if that even exists......So yeah, that is the update on the camera.

The week was good, but at the same time, kind of not...... Funny you should ask THIS WEEK exactly if I have gotten sick. If that would have been asked any other week in my entire misión, I would have gladly (and quite possibly pridefully) responded no! That I am going strong and my immune system can't be beat. But this week I was hit, and I was hit hard.......

Before you go calling the misión department, hear me out. I was/am hit with two sicknesses this week... not fun! On Thursday night, sickness number one, the common, but treacherous stomach bug. We were having actually an awesome day visiting tons of people and all that good work that missionaries do until about 6 o'clock, all of a sudden( and I mean all of a sudden) I feel terrible, like I am going to blow chunks. We were teaching. From that momento on in the lesson, I could not really teach anymore. We finished about 10 minutes later, and we aren't walking for 3 minutes and I unloaded. I felt like everything I had eaten in the last 3 days came out in one single moment. It was definitely the grossest experience of my life. But all of a sudden I felt like a million bucks. Until about 15 minutes later, the feeling came back. And we rushed to the house..... Lets just say that about every 15-25 minutes I was in the bathroom dry heaving (because everything was out in the first one) until 4:00 exactly in the morning. Yes, that is a long time. I wasn't feeling very solid either, if you know what I mean. So that was attack number one. Of course the next day, I had 0 energy, and I still haven't been able to eat a whole lot at a time now.

Attack number two: This morning.... well last night I was starting to feel it a bit. I have currently what they call chickengunya. I wrote that as it is pronounced, not as it is actually said. So I woke up this morning with a fever, and pain in my joints and muscles all over my body. That is chickengunya! :) But here's the bright side! With some Acetaminophen and gatorade, it helps me feel temporary relief! hahah The other bright side is that I would rather have this than the stomach bug that I was attacked with on Thursday! So yeah. I have gotten sick on the misión now. But don't do anything rash! I AM JUST FINE! I PROMISE. I am just getting stronger!! hahaha

I just want us all to learn from this that 1) when we are prideful (even if it is about how we haven't gotten sick in Puerto Cabezas yet....) the Lord will find a way to bring us down. and 2) it is through our trials that we become stronger!!

President and Hermana Collado and the APs are coming tomorrow! I am excited to get to spend some quality time with Elder Hirschi and Elder Jacobsen.

Love You!!
Elder Moser

Beach Bum

Well this week was just swell! haha We are really just doing awesome over here in Puerto. One of the things I was able to do right at the start of the week was go on divisions with the Elders from Bilwi, which is the area that is the beach! AHHHHH YES!!! And the best part of it all is that they have a few investigators that live right on the beach, so it was super awesome! I really like the beach a lot and even though this beach is not really the prettiest one out there, it is better than no beach!

Also another surprise!! On Saturday, we found out that the chapel did not have wáter in it at all! So that meant no filling the baptismal font! So that meant no baptizing in the building. We were forced to take extreme measures! haha Under the direction of President Collado (siempre) we were authorized to have the zones baptisms in the ocean!!! Is that awesome or what?! We actually found this little river that leads into the ocean, and it really reminded me of the River Jordan in the movies of Christ. It was super cool, and I am glad that I got to attend to support the baptisms.

It has been raining a lot and I just love it so much! haha We are having a grand old time here and I absolutely love the people here! They are so nice! It reminds me of when I was in Esteli and everyone was willing to hear the Word of God. It is the exact same here. Now those that will accept it is a different number. But anyway, I don't really have a whole lot to tell this week. Nor do I have much time. I have some pics but my camera got wet.......so I can't upload them quite yet. I have it in a bag of rice in the mean time, and I don't want to turn it on yet until I have given it plenty of time:) haha I hope I will also be laughing about this subject next week!

Anyway, I just wanted to mention how important faith is! Faith is the first principle of the Gospel. Without faith we will not be driven or even have the desire to do anything. Faith is often a frustrating thing for missionaries. Maybe not for their own faith, but for that of those that they teach. Many people think that they have a lot of faith, but all in all, they do not act. Faith without works is dead! Faith is not works. Doing things doesn't mean you have faith. But if you have real faith, you will be driven to do works! For example, many people say that they have a ton of faith and that nothing can shake their faith, but they don't go to church, they don't study the scriptures every day, they don't pray often. That is not having faith. If you do not act on your faith it is not strong and true faith. If you do those actions, but in a leisurely and lazy and sloppy manner, that is not strong faith either. Faith is something we do not finish developing, and if we stop developing faith, it will diminish away very quickly.

Love you all! Elder Moser

Pics this week...these are only the ones from my comps camera. I still have not been able to get my pics from my memory, but I have them)

Enjoying the beach on Pday!

More at the beach!

last one at the beach!

So Much Rain!!!

It is definitely rainy season here in Puerto, and Nicaragua, and it doesn't mess around here when it rains!! Holy cow!! When it begins to rain, you either find shelter or you are completely drenched in the next minute. So yeah, I have been getting pretty stinking wet lately! But I got myself some rain boots for $8 today, and they will be serving me really well for the next year! :) haha

This week has been super crazy. Like I mentioned, we had to go back to Managua for a leadership council meeting, so that kind of took out a good 2 and 1/2 days of our week! that is never fun, because time is precious here!!

In the plane back from Managua.

The view coming in to Puerto.

The airport from the plane! haha

So we had to make up for that time, and we did. We worked super hard this week and were praying for many miracles and the Lord provided!!We were able to baptize 5 people this weekend. They are all family of some less active members that we are activating, and they are totally awesome! Some of them are already talking about going on missions. They are Selma 13, Nayely 13, Jimmy 13, Dexter 14, and Neils 11. They are super awesome and we gave the three boys white shirts to wear to church on Sunday for their confirmation. They looked like some little future missionaries. The baptismal services here in Puerto are a bit different than the ones that I was having in Ducuali. First of all, because we are the Miskito Branch, we don't really have many people with callings. The District President is basically the Branch President. He is the one that takes charge of all the stuff. So we didn't have much help from the members to plan the service. But it was nice anyway. We did what we could to make it a spiritual service.

The baptism of Selma, Nayley, Jimmy, Dexter,and Neils.

Preparing the font for the baptism!

Getting them to church on Sunday presented a bit of a trial of our faith, because two of the 5 were in charge of taking care of the house while their aunts were out running an errand. So they couldn't leave until they got back...... church was supposed to start in an hour. So we left for a few minutes and then came back and MIRACLE the aunt was home, with about 10 minutes to spare before church! So we all ran to church as fast we could and all was well!!! haha

This week was full of funny experiences! One being the funniest. One day when it was raining really hard, we were walking by this part of Puerto that has a small stream that normally runs though it, about 10 feet deep of a canyon type thing. We saw it that day, and more than just filling up the stream área, it flooded a ton!!!! But Elder Compton wanted to take a pic next to it, in a tree that was just past the bank of the wáter. So he jumped to the tree and it was a bit slipperier than he thought..... He fell into the wáter, and it got super deep super fast. Just about 2 feet out, it was like 3 feet deep!!! so he fell in the wáter and got everything wet....... it was pretty funny, and there are pics :)

The flooded part of Puerto that I was talking about!

Right now I just really love these people! They are soooo sweet and even the rude ones aren't very rude compared to some of the people in Managua. So I just love it here. The language is going.... I feel like a brand new missionary again because I have to learn a whole other language. I don't remember seeing that in my call. But whatever. Miskito lantakisna. Miskito aisaras, pero lantakaia nitsna. Kasak ba dauks. :) haha that is some very very basic Miskito. But I am learning a little at a time. A lot of it is based off of English! So that makes it a little easier!

I love the gospel and I love the Christlike attribute of patience! It is so necessary. If you are not patient, you can't really develop many of the other attributes. It is hard to have knowledge, love, be humble or diligent if you are not patient. Sooooooo be patient ;) hahaha

Love, Elder Moser

Pics this week...

Just some drawing in the dirt. A 5 base.

Playing in the rain with  Elder Hirschi in Managua! :)

Busy Busy Busy!!

I LOVE PUERTO CABEZAS!! This week was super crazy and busy! I have soooo much to do here! First of all, I am a Miskito missionary. The idea of a miskito missionary is like the Spanish missionaries in the states. The entire "Stake" is my area. And I am in the process of learning Miskito. It is hard but yang miskito aisaia wantsna :) I am super motivated to learn it because I know that I have already learned one language here on the mission, and I know the power of the gift of tongues. But basically we have to be careful with having the entire zone as our area because we can get caught in the trap of a lot of walking if we are not careful! So far, we have been good at controlling that.

My companion is Elder Compton. He is from Brigham City Utah, and he is super outgoing. He has been in Puerto Cabezas for about 5 months now, and knows it very well! He has been a Miskito missionary for about 3 months now. So his Miskito is pretty good, and he can talk a lot of the more basic things pretty fluently with people. But we both have a lot to learn! He did parcore before the mission and he is really good at motivating me to do exercises :) hahah That is a good thing. I have been told that I am already losing weight. I hope that it is just fat and not anything else! :)

The people here are soooooo awesome! I seriously love it here! Everyone is always so relaxed and so open to hear us teach. They almost all speak at least a bit of Spanish. Probably 10% of the people only speak Miskito. 88% speak Spanish and Miskito and the other 2% speak English Spanish and Miskito. So Spanish is very well understood. But at the same time, people are so much more loving and impressed  when someone is speaking Miskito to them there. It is awesome because when Elder Compton speaks Miskito in the contacts,  people are so much more excited and enthusiastic to talk to us. They really appreciate people who speak Miskito.

I got to fly back to Managua this morning for a leadership council...so I am back in the home base for a bit. It is kind of annoying because I just wanted to leave, and I finally did, but now I am back for a few days. But I will be back out there soon.

I really just wanted to share briefly of the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. We put a small focus on a younger couple this week that is going inactive. They haven't been to church in like 2 months. So we went every day this week and read the Book of Mormon with them for about 10 minutes, ended with a prayer, and then left. We would commit them to church each time. And when it came to Sunday, they were already ready and were waiting for 30 minutes when we arrived at the house to go to the bus together. And all just because we went each day, shared a small spiritual moment with them, reminding them of the importance of church, and then prayed! and Boom! They came to church!! Reading the Book of Mormon is super important!

Love you all!!

Elder Moser

The letter that President Collado sent me informing me of my changes

The last pic with President Aristomene from Ducuali.

Arrival to Puerto!