Happy Birthday to me! :)

Lately, we have really made an effort to involve the members in our preparation day to come play soccer with us for a few hours. That is something that I really enjoyed when I was in Puerto, and when I arrived back here in Managua I thought that I was not going to be able to play soccer again on Pdays because our pday is Saturday, not Monday with all the other missionaries. But my companions enjoy soccer as well, so we found a way to invite the members and still be able to play a lot. I think I might reconsider my career in professional soccer, I have seen much improvement! :)

Last Sunday we had stake conference. It was an awesome experience because I was able to see so many people that I know from some of my previous areas in the mission. Basically all of the members from Ducuali, and a few members from the Rotonda. As I was standing up saying hello to some people before the meeting, Alexis, one of my first converts came up to me and said hello. It was so awesome to see him and he told me about how he has the Melchizedek Priesthood, and how he is close to filling out his papers for a mission. He is just looking for a job at this point to be able to contribute for his mission. He told me that he never has and never will forget the elder that baptized him. There is no greater feeling than hearing a convert say those words! We also witnessed the creation of the ward Ducuali. Beforehand it was always a branch, but after some time of hard work, they have qualified to be a ward. It was so exciting to see progress like that in one of my past areas.

I got to see Alexis at Stake conference today!

Also got to see the family Miakel and Eva!

This week we have been focusing a lot on working with the members. We started to do an activity where we share a small message and then sing a couple hymns. The message shares about the topic of the importance of sharing the gospel with others. Then while we are singing the hymns, the members write down as many names as come to their mind. We have actually seen much success in doing this so far. One of the members, when we visited his house, wrote down 19 names. We have made plans to visit a few, but we will be able to go out with him a lot to get to know many of his neighbors. I know that this new idea is a recipe for success.

As I have a mentioned, we have been working hard on preparing Mari Luz and Jairo to be ready for baptism. Sometime ago they had accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of February, but when that date arrived they decided that they were still not ready. So we called in our district leader the following day to do the baptismal interviews and talk with them to help them clear up any doubts that they were having. After talking with both of them, they both said that they wanted to be baptized on Friday the 26th, what a good day. We made some quick arrangements so that we could have a good baptismal service. They wanted the bishop to baptize them, so we gave him a call and he was glad to help. They have a really good member friend whose name is hermana Candida and she helped them out a lot before the baptismal day and on the baptismal day. The baptismal service was very great, and you could see that they were very happy! They may not show it in the photos because that's how the people are here, but they were actually very happy. I don't know why they decide to make the most serious and angry faces for the photos but it does not express at all their actual feelings in the moment.

Baptismal prep!

At the baptism of Mari Luz and Jairo.

So it was also my birthday on Friday. I kind of forgot when I woke up, but when President Collado texted me I remembered. Aside from the baptism nothing too special happened on my birthday, but that's okay because I'm a missionary and nothing else special needed to happen.

I love when Alma is talking to his sons, because he shares some awesome doctrine and some awesome experiences and all. I have been sharing a lot from Alma 36-42 lately. They are great. But I love Alma 41:10
10 Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.
We must remember that our actions in THIS LIFE determine our state of happiness in THE ETERNITY. So yeah, that is a pretty bold statement. I think that that is a lot of motivation to keep on the right track and always repent. It is for me at least.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Moser

Other pics this week...

Good week last week with Elder Cuevas!

Cortando leña! Cutting up some firewood at our lunch cita!

Some interesting curtain made out of straws, bottle caps and bottles of soda.

So this is Gadea´s burgers! It is the greatest burger joint in the maximo! We are known there! haha

Eating some fruits! I like it!

Nothing like a P-day car wash!

Watering the almost dead plants...practicing for the future! haha That is such a "dad" type of picture with the dress pants and flip flops with socks. Nice one!

We almost bought matching robes! haha

Shaking in my Boots all over Nicaragua

Well this was a really short week! We had many days dedicated to meetings this week and they took longer than we even thought. On Tuesday we were back in good old Esteli for a multi-zone conference with Esteli, Ocotal, y Matagalpa. Most of my good buddies from the mission are in those zones. Of course I have got a few others in other zones, but a lot of the missionaries from those zones are good friends, like Elder Hirschi, Jacobsen, Hobbs, Ferrin, Chen, Alfaro, Knight, Choque, Sotay and so on! Lots from those zones. The focus of the meetings is to fully present the plan of the mission for this year! Our main focus in the plan of the mission is to remember the things that we have learned in the last year or so from the visits of general authorities. They always come with good revelation for us in the mission and we seem to be great and diligent at applying it for about 2-3 months, and then we kind of leave it behind or forget to continue with it. President has such an awesome way to teach and keep the missionaries interested. He always has some little activity or game to express a principle. But Elder Boice and I also had our moments to teach and that is always cool. Oddly enough I kind of like it haha. But then on Friday we headed to Chinandega for the multi-zone conference with Chinandega, Chinandega Oeste, and Leon. We ended up getting home pretty late because they are both a 2 hour drive from Managua. Actually Esteli is a little further. But in Chinandega, Hermana Collado decided that she was in the mood for a really nice dinner! So we headed out to Corinto and had dinner at this place called Espana. Holy good! I got some stuffed chicken, and it was heavenly! And Sister Collado got a fried fish, and let me have a bit, and it was also super tasty! I recommend it to anyone that is ever in Corinto. But anyway, lots of traveling this week!

 Dinner in corinto after the multizone conference!

 I got stuffed chicken and it was so good!

 Elder Boice chose a 1.5 lb fish to eat haha it was actually really good! He let me have a little bit!

The scenery of the restaurant!

The church in Central America has implemented an activity that is done weekly called noche de hermanamiento. And sometimes it is great, and other times it is kind of boring. So this week, it was the elders quorum turn, and they blew it away! Such a fun evening! The idea of the activity is that people enjoy themselves but also have an opportunity to feel the Spirit. So what did they do this week? They put on a little play! It was great, a bunch of 20-60 year old men acting out the parable of the meditator! (Not sure if that is a direct translation or not, I don't remember what it is in English.) But it was quite the enjoyable event! And there were refreshments! Who wouldn't be happy with that? If we keep having activities like that one, more people will come for sure!

Some pictures from the play of the Elders Quorum.

A picture with the cast after the show!

So this week we have really been looking for new investigators and it has been a bit of a struggle. We have some great investigators, but we want to have more people to teach so we have been looking! On Thursday, out of nowhere a man yelled out "Elders" in a complete gringo accent. After looking for this mysterious voice, we discovered that a man named Enrique and his wife were visiting from Miami. He is a less active and his wife isn't a member. So we talked to him for a bit, and tried to get him excited to come back to church, and then he presented us to his family who lives here in Nicaragua. That was a really cool experience, especially in this time that we were really looking for new investigators. Elders Neilson, Ramirez and Cuevas (our new comp for a bit) went yesterday to teach them and actually put a baptismal goal with some of them! Nice one!

Today we played some soccer with Enrique! He is one of the new investigators from yesterday! He showed up and a few others from the ward to play some soccer! It was a blast! I really enjoy playing soccer, and I can see that every time I go to play I am getting a little better little by little! But after we were finished we had to go talk to a member and when we found him, he was contacting a friend of his and inviting him to the Stake Conference we are going to have today and tomorrow! Sweet! There are just some small little blessings coming in! I love it! 

I don't think I mentioned, but last week there was another earthquake! I feel like I respond so incorrectly in the face of an earthquake, because instead of finding shelter like a madman, I seem to always just sit there in awe that I am in another earthquake. So for this one, (I think if I remember right it was like a 4.1 or something) Elder Boice and I were sitting enjoying from a hole in the wall burger shop that we love ( I think I have already talked about it, Gadea's Burgers) and it started to shake and Boice and I just look at each other and smile! And then it stopped......I honestly think that they are pretty cool. That is Sacramento talking though, because I have never actually felt an earthquake before the mission!

So something that President Collado talked about this week in the meetings that we had was about how sometimes we misinterpret the principle of faith, thinking that if we have "enough faith" that we will always have our desires come to pass. Or that we blame failures on "a lack of faith." But success is not 100% determined on a level of someones faith. If it is not the will of God, than it won't happen no matter how much faith we have! For example, one time someone was sick and prayed to the Lord that he would take the sickness away from him. But the Lord responded that he had not learned yet what he was to learn so he continued sick. That was not because he didn't have faith, but because it wasn't what the Lord wanted in the moment! Just remember, faith is trusting in the Lord, holding to the rod in times of trouble. It doesn't mean that there will not be troubles, or that we can cast the troubles away when they come. Strengthen your faith in Christ ALWAYS!!

Love, Elder Moser

Other pics this week...

All of the boys in our Nicaragua baseball jerseys. I am slightly jealous of the one that Elder Ramirez has from Puerto Cabezas...

This is how they mix their cement here. And to make it go further, they add a lot of sand and rocks into the concrete mix. Then they make it into a volcano looking thing and then mix it little by little! I did it a few times in Puerto, but never actually took a picture until now!

Just a little bit about what the scenery looks like here in Maximo Jerez!

Here is the typical Sunday morning venta! Basically, just a person that sells food out in front of her house. There are a lot of them here. 

The cutest little boy ever! His name is Donovan.

A random blue light taxi selfie! :)

Another Week on the Grind

Hello all,

In this week we have been teaching Ricardo a lot. He is one of the coolest investigators I have ever had. Something awesome about him is that everytime we leave a home work assignment to read, the next time we come he has already read it. Also everytime we put an appointment, he is always there when he says he will be. On top of that, he has gone to church and every activity that we have invited him to. He has not failed a commitment yet. He learns so quickly and for that we have taught him so much in just this week. One of the homework assignments we left him was to read Mosiah 27. Every time we leave an assignment to read, we ask what he learned and he teaches us so well exactly what he learned. When we came back the next day and asked him what he learned from the assignment, he explained to us the entire story. He told us about how there was a prophet and he had a son who was doing bad things with his bad friends. The prophet was praying a lot so that the Lord would help his son. The Lord helped his son and converted him by the visitation of an angel. He was struck dumb for some time and through that time he repented of his past sins. Ricardo felt that he as well could repent of his past since just like Alma the younger and the Sons of Mosiah. And as we had taught him earlier in the week, he knew that it was through repentance and baptism that he can be clean, to be able to make it to the celestial kingdom! He even bought a protective case for his Book of Mormon and the pamphlets that we have been giving him.

We also have been teaching Kevin this week. He is the husband of a member, and they are just moving into the ward boundaries. He has only been to church a few times and has not received the lessons from the missionaries yet, but we jumped on that really quick. He was very receptive to the lessons that we teach, and his wife helps out a lot by sharing her testimony and helping him do the homework assignments that we leave.

Mary Luz prayed this last week and received her answer to know that she needs to be baptized. She explained to us that she had a dream where she saw Jesus descending from the sky and she was in a river. There were also a ton of missionaries surrounding the river, and she said that she had a very good feeling and felt like it was something that would make her happy. She had that same dream three nights in a row and feels that the Lord is telling her that she needs to go forward and be baptized even though she was baptized in the past in a different church. She has recognized that this is the true church with the authority of God to be able to perform the ordinances that will help her receive salvation.

Juan Tenorio and Karen are also doing great. They are always very busy with their children, but we find time to be able to teach them. They love having visits with us because they are very receptive and want to learn lots about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. They always have several questions that help them learn very quickly and help them stay interested in what we are teaching.

Overall we have some awesome investigators, but we are always on the search for more to be able to help as many people as we can to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love Alma 26: 22.
22 Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.
In order to be a better missionary I am always working on those things.

Elder Moser

Fire in the Maximo

What an awesome week!

This last week we were able to see many miracles. Starting with the baptism of Eliot y Melody. They are the grandkids of brother Sanchez. He is the high priests group leader in the ward. It was really awesome because he prepared Elliot and Melody for their baptism, we just helped to guide him to know what to teach. Their parents are not very active but Melody's mom came to the baptism on Saturday and to church on Sunday. She really enjoyed it and said she wants to come to church again this Sunday. Brother Sanchez also performed the baptism and the confirmation. It was really great to see him helping more of his family to accept the Gospel and follow the example of Jesus Christ.

All of us and the family at the baptism of Eliot and Melody!!

At the baptism.

This week we had changes. Elder Neilson is back in the companionship! Remember that we are 4 in one companionship. It is really odd sometimes. But in the end it is really awesome! We are trying out a new method of getting the missionaries to their new areas when there are changes. In the past missionaries could not travel solo. But now it has been authorized for a missionary to travel enable us alone. Now when a missionary has a change from Matagalpa to Leon, they just take a bus directly there with someone waiting for them at the terminal. The only problem is when the missionaries are sent and there was bad communication and no one is there to pick them up. Elder Boice and I were in charge of picking up the people that came to Managua without a companion. At some points it proved to be rather difficult because there are 3 different bus stations that missionaries come into in Managua. But in the end everyone made it to their new area and it was a lot easier for most of the missionaries.

On Tuesday we had the trainers training meeting. It turned out really well. It was really exciting when the new missionaries showed up because there were 31 of them. So that meant that 31 missionaries got to train new missionaries this change. Each and everyone of them were so excited to train. We made sure that they were ready to take the responsibility head on. We focused a lot on obedience and did an activity to remind the missionaries how much of an impact their trainers had on them personally. We had them think of and share experiences and things that the learned or still do because they learned it from their trainers. Things both good and bad. That really helped all of them remember how important it is to be a great example to the new missionaries in their training.

On Thursday we had an awesome lesson with Juan Tenorio and Karen. When we arrived, they were waiting for us with juice and torta in hand. We talked to them a lot about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a little bit about the restoration because they had questions about prophets and things like that. They also invited their house owner to join us in a lesson. As we were finishing the lesson, they took the initiative to invite her to church on Sunday. They said to her, "We would like to invite you to church on Sunday with us. We will be going, and it starts at 9 o'clock in the morning. Will you come with us?" When the lesson was over, Juan Tenorio made a call to a friend of his that lives in the States. She answered and we begin to talk to her, and she greeted us saying, "hello this is Sister Chamberlain." I don't know why but it was kind of weird to hear someone say that. But she was very nice and told us that she has been working with Juan for a long time to try to get him to accept the Gospel. Lately his son has been sick and she recommended that he look for the missionaries so that he could get a blessing for his son. That same day the missionaries knocked on his door, and those missionaries were Elder Boice and Elder Gonzalez, our companions. We were looking through the old teaching records in the area book, and we came across his record and decided we should pay him a visit. The Lord works miracles. After all was said and done, he invited us to a hamburger in the park by his house, and told us all about his past life and how he wants to change so badly. I know that he is going to be so converted!

We had another awesome lesson this week with a man named Ricardo. He is a new investigator that we met on Sunday. Brother Fitzgerald brought him to church, and while there, he presented him to us. We visited him with brother Fitzgerald and his son Leonard Fitzgerald in the week. We taught him about the importance of following the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has a desire to follow Christ more in his life. He accepted a baptismal date for my birthday!

I know that the Lord's hand is in this work. And I feel so blessed to be able to be His servant.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Moser