Semana Santa y Fructífera

So this week had several miracles and Enrique was one of the first. On Sunday morning we had seen him in the street as we were passing by to go with investigators to church, and we asked if he wanted us to come back and go with him to church, or if he would be good to just come alone. He said that he would just come alone, so we were all good there. When we finally show up at church, he wasn't there yet! So taking advantage of the fact that he lives close to the church, we ran to his house to see if he was still there! When we got there, his grandma said that he had left a little bit ago! So not knowing what to do other than return to the chapel, we started. But we decided that it would be a good idea to say a prayer too. So we sat down in the street, said a quick prayer, and as we turned the corner onto the street where the church is, we see Enrique walking in the distance entering into the chapel! Prayer answered immediately!

Aaron, a convert from back last May who I actually got to know through a few visits when I was in Ducuali, is back from his trip to Costa Rica! He went there to work about 2 months ago, and after just a bit of time, he decided that the conditions weren't what he wanted, especially because his wife, Karla could not go with him. So he is back! And when we passed by to visit, he greeted us with some Spanish Tortillas! Just like Bryanne made a few times!! So good. Aaron is actually a professional chef too, so he is really good at cooking! Tasty!

Here is the chef at work!

Here it is! So tasty and some chile jelly! Yum!

So this week we had an interesting encounter. Wednesday night we made some friends with some gangsters. Elder Neilson and I were teaching this 17 year old boy out on his from porch, his name is Bryan. And it was about 9:05 at night. Soooo we are finishing the lesson and we wanted a lesson 3 pamphlet to give to him to read, and neither of us had one. Out of nowhere we see Elder Boice and call him over go give us one. As he comes closer he asks us what he should do about the guys that were following them, and next thing you know this drunk guy who was following them gets in Neilson and my faces. He asked if we knew 'David' so I said yeah, just to please him. The guy turned and whistles to his friends. One friend, David, come to us, so now we are dealing with Javier and David. We probably should have left when Javier called David over, buuuut I wanted to get the pamphlet to Bryan and I also wanted to invite him to seminary. So we stuck around. They were telling us that it is dangerous to be there because of the drunks that walk around robbing people (they are the drunks that rob people) but while I distracted the bagos with Elder Boice, Elder Neilson invited Bryan to seminary and snuck around to Elder Boice to grab a pamphlet to give to Bryan, so he could go in his house. Then a member that lives nearby, a 65 year old woman named Adelina, came out with a big stick and told those bagos to go home and leave us alone.... They both left at that point, with pamphlets in hand :) haha! Honestly in the end it was kind of funny. But literally the whole time I was just trying to figure out how to invite Bryan to seminary and give him the pamphlet.

On Thursday, we were walking right in front of the church when this man who is always drunk and smoking came up to us. The interesting/cool thing about this guy is that he comes to church every week, and he is not a member! But the sad thing is that he is not always fully mentally capable because his constant drinking has given him problems even when he isn't drunk. But point of the story, is that we were walking in front of the chapel and he was walking the other direction towards us. When he reached us, the first thing he said was, "Brothers, I want to be baptized! Take me to be baptized right now. I want to do it right now." He kept repeating such phrases. Elder Boice and I kind of sat there confused. Obviously we weren't going to take him right then and there to get baptized, so we both sat there not knowing what to say. But here we are in our area with people begging us to be baptized! :)

On Friday night I actually had a really nice experience. I was out on divisions with our Leader missional and Elder Neilson was with another member. So we were walking and passing by a pulperia and I was hungry, so we stopped by and I asked if she had any torta, which is basically like sweet bread, consistency of like a cake or something. So she said they had it for 13 cords a slice. I didn't want to pay that much so I asked if she had any for cheaper because depending on the type it can be as cheap as like 5 cords sometimes. She told us to come in and look, so we did and she gave us each a piece of torta of the ones that cost 13 cords. I asked her, slightly confused and wondering if there was a misunderstanding, how much it would be. She said the 10 cords in my hand, took it and said that that was how much it costs. So obviously very thankful, We left that pulperia! Not 10 seconds later, these kids were yelling, "the lady is calling you! heyyyy the lady is calling you." Slightly worried that we did something wrong, we returned. She handed us two juices that cost 8 cords each, and told us that the amount that we gave her was enough for the juices as well! SO KIND! In the end she gave us 42 cords worth of stuff for only 10 cords that I was holding in my hand! It was something that literally made my day! And even my Leader Missional was blown away by the kindness! Awesome!

So this week is the 'Semana Santa' of holy week. And when there is vacation in Nicaragua there is party in Nicaragua. But typically, the parties in the Semana Santa take place where there are beaches, because it is hotter than Death Valley here. I am so grateful that I have gotten used to the heat now because if not I would be dying around here! I remember that last year around this time I felt like I was swimming all the time because it was so hot! But not anymore! Now I am better at not sweating. Hopefully I will be ready for the heat of Utah come winter time...haha!

So for the last little while we have been working a little bit with a young man named Jimmy. I think I had mentioned, but I will mention again. About 2 months ago, I asked a young man in the ward named Fidel to think of a friend and tell me his name. He immediately said "Jimmy", so I told him that he needed to invite Jimmy to church for that Sunday! He did it, but Jimmy didn't show up to church. He came up to me in church telling me that and I told him that he needed to keep trying. So about a week later, Jimmy shows up to seminary! And he starts in seminary for like 1 week and then we jumped in and started teaching him. When we first started teaching he told us clearly, "I don't want to get baptized, I am just curious to learn about your church." Yeah, we'll see how you feel about that in a few weeks :) haha! So he kept listening, and about 2 weeks ago all of a sudden he wanted to be baptized, but when he asked his Dad, he said he could not. So we created a plan with the Bishop who actually knows his dad and he went to talk to Jimmy's dad on Tuesday, and after he did, he informed us that Jimmy had permission to be baptized. Today about 2 hours ago Jimmy was baptized! The Spirit can work miracles if people just let it touch their hearts! Amazingly, in his time as a non-member, Jimmy was actually the first of the students of seminary to go around on his bike and pick up the other youth to go to seminary! He loves it, and has come to know that this is the true gospel! And his dad was able to come to the baptism, and says that he will be going tomorrow to see the confirmation as well! It may not be long before he gets converted too!

At the baptism of Jimmy. the one that baptized Jimmy is Guillermo Gutierrez.

Fidel with his friend Jimmy.

The baptism of Jimmy!

You may remember Jacobo from a few months ago. He is also getting baptized, tonight actually. But I will save his story for next week! The work is moving forward!

Love Elder Moser

Enrique's Baptism

So this week has been pretty awesome with Ernesto and Alison. They are very quick learners, and they have lots of knowledge of the church already. When we talked to them about the plan of salvation, they had many opinions that were in line with church doctrine. In one lesson we only had like 10 minutes and l made the mistake of mentioning temple work. Not that it is a mistake to mention it, just that they are the kind of people that have lots of questions, and of course they would have questions about temple work. That is not a 10 minute lesson.... But we managed to do a decent job in 10 minutes. At least enough for them to be slightly satisfied. But they want to understand more. They came to Enrique's baptism, and helped us out by setting up some chairs in the room even. They are very cool and like to talk with the members, I can see them becoming great additions to the ward family.

Antonio Vigil is a new guy that we met this week, he is actually really awesome, and already knows a ton about the church. He contacted us, but oddly enough he is a good friend of our mission leader, Heyler, and his brother Leonard. When we taught him, it was pretty interesting. He works in and always hangs out at a gym, so we go there to teach him. He had an interesting doubt that I haven't really had to answer yet on the mission. He was curious why in the Bible, the names of all of the cities are the same as today, but that in the Book of Mormon there are no cities name Zarahemla or anything like that. Think on that one. It really has to do with the fact that almost all of the people that knew the names of the cities were killed off, and then many years later Columbus came and renamed everything. But the cities in the Bible have always been largely populated, and no one has had to come up with any new names. He also told us about Lehi's dream. Remember this was the first visit!! He is a very smart guy! We left him with some great answers and he is excited to read 3 Nephi 11 to learn about when Christ came to the Americas. Nice!

This week we had a ton of meetings! We went to Esteli, Leon, and Chinandega this week, and all on different days. The idea of the meeting is that everyone is using the correct form in the district meetings and that they are doing practices as well so that we can become master teachers. More than anything I enjoy it because I get to see all the missionaries and also I get so see the areas! We went to Esteli, Chinandega, and Leon. It was actually the first time that I went to Leon in my whole mission! And I really like the city. To eat lunch, we went to this place in the center of town and there was a little plaza that reminded me of the place there in Sac where the good bread store is. (Lohman's Plaza) It wasn't really the same but that was what came to mind there. Chinandega and Leon are really really hot, I am kind of glad I have never actually been called to serve there, because it is hot enough in Managua, and it is hotter in those 2 cities. Anyway, I took a little tour of the mission this week.

So this week was Enrique's baptism! He is so awesome! On Thursday we went with Elder Lee, the senior couple missionary to visit him. Elder Lee is the one that has to do the baptismal interviews for our possibilities, so he came with his broken Spanish that he learned in Mexico quite a few years ago and did the interview! And it turned out well. Enrique said that he was just a little worried that he wasn't ready yet or something but we talked with him and reminded him all that he had learned. And reminded him as well that baptism is the first step, and it comes before the Holy Ghost, the Aaronic priesthood, the Melchizedek priesthood, the temple, the mission, marriage and the sacrament every week. So it is important that he can do it. At that point all doubt left him and he said he was ready to do it on Friday at 7 PM.

So then came baptism day, and Satan was not sleeping. At 6:20, Elder Ramirez calls and says that there is no water in the chapel and that we would have to find water from the members or to do it in another chapel. So Elder Boice and I raced over and analyzed the situation. We got to the tank to see and there was still a little bit of water, it just wasn't high enough to reach the tube where the chapel connections are. So with the help of Heyler and Leonard, 6 of us begin a process of pulling water out with two 5-gallon buckets and rope, and the other 4 carried garbage bins full of water from the tank outside to the baptismal font. When Enrique arrived, one of the awesome parts was that he saw what was going on and immediately jumped in to help out! He is an active 17 year old boy so his strength was greatly appreciated! That is pretty cool to say that the one that was going to get baptized help overcome the obstacles Satan was trying to put. So like I said, the tank was practically empty when we started, but we managed to fill it up to about knee height. Yes that is really low. But it is enough to submerge a body, I was a witness so I can testify of that one!

Here was the water pulling out process...one bucket at a time!

This is as full as we got the water. But they managed to do it! As Ernesto, an investigator, put it: "It was a little different the way that it was done, but in the end it brings the same result!"

The water level only made it up to here...

At the end of the baptism, right before the closing hymn, Enrique asked if he could have some time to share his testimony, so he got up and shared a cool little testimony. He basically said that the power of the scriptures and Jesus Christ are grand because when he had some bad habits in his life, reading the scriptures helped him lose those bad habits! We were all pretty impressed that he wanted to get up and share. It was awesome.

Such a happy and hard worked for baptism pic!

This week I decided that I needed to do something to help me finish off my last few months of the mission at full force! I made a small list of things that I am not allowed to talk about so that I can keep myself from any of the major or small distractions about home. I call it my "consagration list." They are basically the things that I am putting on the alter of God so that I fulfill in my commitment to serve everything until the end with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength! And I actually really like it! Sometimes there are small things that we don't want to give up in life, but when we do we actually start to feel better! It is a great feeling!

Love,

Elder Moser

Other pics this week...

The oh so famous Huembes. It is like what you know as a flee market I guess. It is just one gigantic market. We come here almost every Pday for almost everything. 

More of huembes...

This is a member that works here in Huembes shining shoes. He did a pretty dang good job and it only cost about 35 cents in dollars...really cheap!

 Graffiti is asked for here...and it looks sweet!

Painting the walls!

Ricardo gets BAPTIZED!

The big miracle this week was Ricardo and his baptism. He has been on quite the journey. Ever since we started teaching him he has been really interested and he does all of the homework assignments so when we had already taught the 42 principles we put a goal with him to read the Book of Mormon from start to finish. He is currently in like 1 Nefi 21! But he finally had an opportunity to get the final processes done to be able to get baptized! And he was all good to go! So we planned the baptism for Friday. He was super excited all week and when Friday came, all went according to plan. There was a slight worry that there would not be enough water, and sure enough the water ran out just and I mean just as the font finished filling! Phew! A good amount of members showed up, and we had a very reverent baptismal service. Brother Fitzgerald was the one that Ricardo wanted to perform the baptism. He is the one that presented us to him and everything. So that was really cool for him. We also had a few other investigators there to see! Jimmy, a joven who goes to seminary, got to see it! He is really cool and loved seeing the baptism. Also a friend of Mari Luz, named Ricardo as well, came to see the baptism.

Ricardo's baptism!!

Jimmy is so awesome. He is a friend of a member.  I think that I mentioned a little while ago, but I told this member to think of someone to invite to church, and immediately he said Jimmy. So he invited and he didn't come. Then he invited again, and he didn't come. But he then invited him to play soccer...and he came! Then he invited him to stay for the classes of seminary. He decided that would be okay, so he had been going to seminary like 1 week when we then started to put appointments and teach him. Then, after weeks of patience for Fidel, his friend, Jimmy came to church! He wants to get baptized, just that his dad isn't quite on the same page, so we want to go with their neighbor, the bishop :) and he will help us out because he already knows the family of Jimmy better than us. It's great to have the support of the members.

Ricardo, the friend of Mari Luz is pretty cool! He loves listening and actually he has already listened to us a lot! He was in on the visits several times in the past but he just never would come to church. It was probably because we were never focusing on him as much. But now we are, and he is fulfilling commitments now! He is a poet, so occasionally we ask him to share some poetry. It is quite the show there!

So this week, the beloved Elder and Sister Barker finished their mission. :( They will be missed around here! We have a new senior couple in the mission, and they are the Lees. I am sure they will be great. They are wonderful people, and they have been here for about 10 days now, but we sure will miss the Barker's! I have tons of great memories with them because of all the time we spent together in the office!

Goodbye to the Barkers. We will miss them around here!

Welcome Lee's!

We did a lot of meetings this week, and one of them was in Matagalpa. We were planning on getting home at like 3 or maybe 4, but we got out a lot later than planned and we didn't get out until like 5 which meant we didn't get home until 7:15..... Long day. I have gotten to work with a ton of different missionaries this week for many different reasons. And in reality this week just flew by. There was not a single normal work day this week!

Just a little taste of Matagalpa!

We played soccer again this morning, and it was really hot. Upon checking how hot it really was, we found out that it is 105 degrees outside. That is really really hot.

A little soccer on Pday!

All in all, made for a short week! It is amazing how time just goes faster and faster every day! Be careful, because sometimes we think that all we have is time, but we blink and all of the time is gone! I love this Gospel so much!!

Have a great week!

Love Elder Moser

Savior, Redeemer of my soul

Hola a todos! Gracias por desearme un feliz cumpleaños!!

The birthday celebrations arrived! This week when we were in our weekly meeting with President on Monday, we were talking about some business when out of nowhere, Hermana Collado and the rest of the office crew came in singing happy birthday with a gigantic cake. So there it was, I had my birthday celebration. Then on Wednesday, I finally got my package. Woohoo! Obviously I opened it right away, and that night I made the Reeses bars to celebrate a little birthday myself. All in all my 21st birthday was a success.

Package received!

That was a funny joke! haha

I love Hi-Chews!

Sunday ended up being a great day! The most important thing that happened was the confirmation of Mari Luz and Jairo. They were so happy when they got confirmed.

On Monday, when Elder Boice and I went out to work, we had quite the extravaganza of Nicaragua food. On our first visit, we visited Ricardo. Out of nowhere his dad brings out a gigantic plate of yuca and queso quesillo for both of us. For those that don't know, yuca is like a flavorless potato with a really gross texture like chewing on a ball of rubber bands and it is dryer than Death Valley. Queso quesillo is really not the bomb either. It is better than yuca because it is not so dry, but it is like the texture of a laffy taffy loaded with 4 lbs of salt. The two of them together make quite the dream team! I put my man pants on and scarfed it all down in about 2 minutes. I thought it was a over, but then we went to the Guadamuz' house. We show up and they offer us some 3 inch thick tortillas with a brick of salt cheese inside. The salt cheese is commonly known as cuajara. Luckily I have gotten myself used to that food. When I started my mission that would have made me throw up. But now my stomach is trained to put down the most flavorful food there is in town.

So we found Ricardo again after a week of being lost. He is doing awesome and he is super excited too! He has changed so much and it always makes me so happy when we visit him. We put a new goal with him that he could read the entire Book of Mormon from start to finish, and he has taken that challenge to heart! It has been like 4 days and he is already in 1 Nefi 14! He is so awesome!

So when we went to visit Mari Luz and Jairo on Wednesday it was pretty cool. We sat down like normal and talked about fasting and what not, and when we finished the lesson Mari Luz told us that Jairo actually had a gift for us. So we waited for a few minutes while Jairo went into his room and then he came out with 2 pair of shoes! So cool. And he told us that they were for us to have because they were too big for him. I thought it was nice because he could have easily sold the shoes and made a little bit of extra money but he felt like he wanted to give them to us! I love the people here because they are so giving!

We have been trying to visit a less active lately but it is tough because he never has time to visit with us. Or at least he says. So we showed up by surprise to see if we could catch him in a free-ish moment and he pulls the "I'm busy" card like normal. We still tried to take advantage and talk for a bit through the window of his workshop, and through talking he started to ask some great questions about the plan of salvation and what happens after this life. So Elder Neilson pulls out the Book of Mormon and says that it can answer his questions. The less active drops everything that he was doing and comes over to open the door and tells us to pass to sit and talk. The Book of Mormon has power! Use it!

So the elders quorum put a pretty high standard in the activity of Noche de Hermanamiento two weeks ago. Now the organizations are more motivated to do fun activities and get more people out to the activity. The Relief Society put on a game this week where everyone got a paper and it had a word on it. They had to describe the word without saying the word, and the first person to guess it would get a point. It turned out really fun and everyone had a great time!

So yesterday night, one of the last things of the week to include, we contacted a reference of a recent convert named Evelyn. She presented us to this new couple that lives in her house and they are super awesome. But the point is that they began to share with us about how they already knew the church and stuff. Their names were Ernesto and Alison. Alison's parents are actually members and her dad was in the young men's presidency of the stake and her mom in the primary presidency of their stake. And she shared some stuff about her family and their history in the church but she was not a member and so on. But I was thinking about how recently I had heard this story before, and then I remembered a taxi that we went in on Monday of this same week and how the 17 year old kid said the exact same things! So I asked if by chance it was her brother and she said that she had a brother who was 17 and a taxi driver! It was cool because it established a good level of confidence just for knowing her brother! haha It is interesting how God prepares small things to help us in the work!

We shared so much this week about the plan of salvation! I really love it so much because it actually gives us a reason to try! It gives us the hope of knowing what lies in store! But it is only possible through Jesus Christ and his atonement. I love the song "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" because it just talks about how Jesus is so important in our lives! How he lifts us up, makes bitter sweet, and makes us "fit for the life above."

Love Elder Moser

Other pics this week...

The zona Bello Horizonte! My zone. We broke the record of baptisms of the zone in a month since the last 2 years. It was 22, but in Feb. we had 24!

We killed a dear and now we will hang it on the wall!

Playing with Niko!