Hello!

This week was pretty smooth. Ha Not too many super awesome or terrible things happened. Yes, Im still healthy and havent had any issues there. I eat everything drink water from the gutter. Joking about the gutter, but I do eat everything ha, except this milk directly from a cow that was practically straight curd with sour cheese. Ha

Last week, Monday, we walked about 3.5 kilometers down a steel hill to go to a laguna, or a lake that has a hotel there. I dont remember what it is called, but I wouldnt suggest it as a resort ha Although I did see a MONKEY!! hahaha It looked like a mini lemur thing from Madagascar movies. I didnt have my camera out, and it scampered away in the trees pretty quick. It was such a nice walk down the steep, steep, and long road. We stayed about the bottom for about 30 minutes only because we were late. We thought the bus would take us down and back up, but that wasnt the case. So we walked back up after taking a few pictures. Ill tell you what, the exercise I do in the morning helps haha

In addition to that! We had a baptism this past Saturday for Wilber. He has been friends with a member, who is now in the stake presidency, for 17 years (since elementary school mas o menos). In two weeks, we taught him and he baptized himself. Well, the reflexive form of spanish doesnt really work in english... He was baptized ha. And he shared his testimony to another investigator we brought to church, Lloyd from Jamaica, and dang. It was super powerful. Only about four sentences, but when he said ¨Sé que esta iglesia es verdadera.¨ or Ï know this church is true¨ It was straight from his heart.

We also have three more baptisms this saturday. One eight year old and two nine year olds. Yeah, the chillun gonna be baptized. So its been pretty fun to teach little kids the lessons of the gospel simply haha

This 19 is going to be the end of my in field training. This transfer is 1 week shorter to allow the missionaries who are soon to go home to spend this christmas with their families. If it was a normal transfer, they would spend 3 christmases away from their families, so its all good with me to have this transfer be a week shorter haha

To all who read this blog, I have a challenge for thee. The next time you see the missionaries in white shirts and ties and black plaques or sisters in skirts with black plaques, tell them you know a missionary who is serving and he (I, Elder Mann) told me (you, the reader) to say that to you (the missionaries). It makes a missionary´s day lol.

Speaking of making a missionary´s day. Thinking of a package idea? A small box with a jar of Goobers (peanut butter and jelly) is a perfect gift. Want to give more? An ugly polyester tie from the D.I. or goodwill is even better! Haha

 

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Love,

Elder Mann

Shorty's Baptism

Book of Mormon Cover

Looking for an investigator on the lake

At the lake

My District

The walk down a steep road to the lake

The cab ride back home 8 missionaries in a Kia Rio size car

 

November 26, 2012

Hola!

This week was amazing. Mainly because of yesterday, Sunday. We have been teaching a number of investigators that have been prepared to hear the gospel, seriously. Elder García and I still retain doubts or uncertainty because of how many people profess to know the truth and whatnot. Pero, One couple, two other sisters and one brother all went to church for their first time yesterday. It was the most investigators from a separate family that we have had. I defintely understand when I heard missionaries say that when you have investigators at church you just focus and them and what they are thinking, how they are accepting the lesson, ¨oh shoot, we havent taught that yet¨ and all the things like that. I was like that for the second hour. Before and After that, I just relaxed and felt the spirit, knowing that Heavenly Father has a promise that He will undoubtadley fulfill. Side note- english is no longer my native language, hence the poor spelling and grammar and two, the keyboard is different, so the symbols and misc things are there and I choose to not spend the time to fix it lol. Anyway, it was a great experience yesterday at church. Felt the spirit, we met with one of the investigators after and he told us that he received some answers to his questions which was phenomenal! Woohoo!!

Thanksgiving-wise, they do ¨celebrate¨it here. Mainly just a prayer of thanks. But we were invited by a member family that is like a second family to eat with them. The husband knows a lot of random stuff about America and always tells me something different every time I go, its the family that makes the catchers masks and baseball gloves. Anyway, we sat down as a family, the parents and daughter- one daughter is serving amission- and the boyfriend of the daughter. They had some fried chicken, beans and crackers, and plantanos with some soda to drink. It wasnt grand or glorious or an excess of food, but it was so sweet. The dad said a few comments about how he doesnt know much about the reason why we in america celebrate it and how he knows the chicken isnt turkey, but we can pretend it is a small turkey hahaha, but that it is a day to give thanks for our blessings. It was really sweet and really fun. All but one part:

Aunt Lorrie and Kristen and Mom, dont read this part lol
I wasnt feeling so well that day. That morning I woke up with a pain in my stomach and needed to use the bathroom every 20 minutes. Just a dull pain in my stomach that was annoying. We still went out to work, but late around 3pm. Normally 12. I was okay, just a little off during hte day. We had the dinner around 8 and we walked home as usual. I wasnt feeling good at all at that point ha. Elder Garcia took my bag because I felt like I was going to vomit as we were walking and almost did a number of times. Got home where the sister that we live with was finishing her birthday party. Three of the guests were doctors, and two stopped by and talked to me. I had a blessing from Elder Garcia and the brother we live with. One of the docs lived down the street and so we went over there because I needed to do something. I threw up a little bit and still needing to use the bathroom and cosas como eso. He did a simple exam and through the course of an hour I drank two pictchers of a drink with electrolytes, two whole pitchers lol. and he gave me 6 pills to take for 3 days. Ha. Went back to the house. And I rid myself of the 2 pitchers of the drink and continued to use the bathroom for another hour or so. Fell asleep sitting upright on the sofa in the front room haha Woke up, used the bathroom a few times, but around 3pm the next day, completely fine. Havent had a problem since. Haha. The doc and the people here said it was a stomach infection or something. Normally cheles, or white people, have something like it, but less severe, in the first week. They dont know exactly what caused it because I didnt eat or drink anything out of the ordinary. Yeah, so that was my sickness haha

But yes! This week was great! I loved it haha! And thanks mom for sending me the story of your experience here. You should post it if you havent already.

Shouthout to Hermana Clement in DC!!!! Wooo!!!! The family I live with is looking forward to when we come back to Nicaragua after our missions hahaha

Some questions and answers;
We eat with a sister from the ward, she lives about a 5 minute walk from our house. Yesterday she made *Super Hot Dogs¨ two for each of us. Two footlongs haha I only ate 1.5. Delicious, but really different haha

The familiy we live with cooks for us too. They give us something to etat when we return home or when we are studying, as they make stuff they share it.

And I cant remember the other questions... email me with random questions if you want to know about the culture here! Its really neat actually.

Love,

Elder mann

 Chilling and getting fanned, lol

 New investigator from Jamaica

Teaching the Plan of Salvation

November 19, 2012

Buenas
Esta semana fue muy bueno. Gaah.. Quiero escribir en español haha Hay muchas personas que me pidan ayuda con su tarea de íngles o misioneros que me pidan ayuda con su íngles y cada vez yo apriendo que íngles es muy feo. Me encanta español mucho más.

Translation- This week was really good. I want to write in Spanish. Haha theres many people that ask me for help with their english homework or missionaries that ask me for help with their english and every time I learn that english is really ugly. I love spanish much more. Its true haha The grammar, the spelling, the pronunciation, I love spanish.

We have an investigator right now who was born in Jamaica, lived in New York but lives here now. He´s big, short, and black. I say that because Elder García has a weird fascination to black people. He just likes to talk to them and wants to teach them really bad haha No sé porque. Anyway, he has a doctrate in Psycology and has three schools here to teach english, but has major problems with his visa and passport, so he might get deported or something soon. He nor we are sure. Anyway, its pretty funny because Elder García talks to him in English then translates into spanish for his wife, who is from here. And I only speak to him in Spanish haha I also had splits with the district leader last friday, hes from Colorado and played lax too (yeahhhhh). After we were done working for the day, we were sitting on the couches in our house and he wanted to talk in english. I told him he could, but I was going to continue talking in Spanish haha He wasnt the happiest with that, but we still talked haha. The next day Elder García and I passed by some contacts we made earlier. I also passed by their house with the district leader. When I was with E Garcia, the lady told me that she can understand me so much more than the other ¨chele¨ or ¨white person¨. I thought it was interesting because he has 9 months here and I only have 8 weeks... No sé porque puedo hablar español sin mucho desafíos, pero me encanta el idioma todavía.

Entonces!!!!!
MOMMMM!! You came to Nicaragua?!?!?!? Whaaaaaa????????? How was it? How did you make it to the mission office??? Who helped you? hahaha
My first day here was crazy. The cities are super different and not like any place ive been in the states. The bus stops and taxis and whatnot are not as... ¨regulated¨ like there. Yeah, let me know how that experience was haha
Thank you sooooo much for the food! The suitcase and the other bag is almost like a years supply of food... but ive already eaten a good portion of it. Haha. I havent cooked any of the pastas or canned food yet, but Ive enjoyed the ritz and power bars and juice boxes haha The back scratcher is also my friend near the end of the night haha
Dad, thank you so much for sending your gospel cd. I feel like Jeremiah because I keep playing track 8 ¨mountain!!¨multiple times in the morning haha
Mac, I loved your letter in the suitcase. I am going to keep it for sure to remind me of whats important.

Oh yes, so our area was split last week, with the ¨cambios¨or transfers (every 6 weeks), but I remained in the same area with Elder García thank goodness. With all that extra food, Im not sure how I would have transported it haha I didnt take any pictures this week. We were busy with the area being divided, moving in the new elders and cosas como eso.

So here´s something I have learned and compared slash contrasted in the way of life here and the way of life in the states. People work their lives away. Here it is more noticeable because they stay in their house and just work. Taking one day of the week to go deliver their goods or whatever they make. Its amazing because the markets here are stock full of handmade stuff that is really beautiful and such an art, but its all the people do. Make the goods, sell the goods in the market. Literally when a person says ¨Trabajo en el mercado¨or ¨i work in the market¨ your heart just strains... Some families wake up at 2am and work until 10pm. Doing the same exact thing every single day. The difference at home is that we go to some building, do practically the same thing and return home. We just have the illusion that we can be promoted or receive some other type of recognition. But in reality, the hardest thing to try and have people understand is what is significant in this life. ¨You can live forever with the family you love¨ ¨uh huh... ¨*clang clang clang* goes the hammer on a sandal. Its sad. Its difficult to try and wake the people up to the importance of eternity when their heads are focused on what their hands can make. Life isnt about what we can make nor leave behind because of the work of our hands. Its about what we can make with our hearts. If we can truly generate a love for the eternal perspective, we will never lose what is important.

Every time I study this gospel, every single day, I see this more and more and have a stronger desire to help people understand that. But its up to the person. For those of you who read this, please take the time to consider if what you do for your life (not your job or your hobbies), but what you do with your heart and your love is going to be worth it. If there is a doubt, resolve it. I have no doubt that this gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I have no doubt that I need Him in my life. I have no doubt that I love Him and will do my best to return and live with Him again. That is what is important to me.

Hasta proxima semana,
Elder Mann

Teaching a dance lesson

Teaching a class

 

Everybody has a motorcycle

Active Volcano

Inactive Volcano

Bible book cover

Book of Mormon Cover

A family makes Catcher's mask

On the way to the Volcano

Splits with Elder Batz/Mann

November 12, 2012

Hello hello

This week was pretty good. We have lost quite a few investigators. They just dont want to change or keep commitments or appointments. Ah well... We´ll find more ha

The area is going to be split into two this week either Tuesday or Wednesday, so last Friday we has exchanges or splits with the zone leaders so Elder Garcia could show a ZL the houses we found and he could pick which. Entonces, I went to the other area Masaya (the main hub of our zone) and was with Elder Batz. Hes from Guatamala, but his name is from Germany. For that day, we were Elder BatzMann hahaha We had a good time. Lots of the appointments fell through so we were walking and contacting quite a bit, but still enjoyable. We were walking and I saw a family sitting in their patio (like an arizona room in the front of the house). We literally went three steps past the door and I said "family" so we turned back to go greet them. Once we turned around I saw the back of the mom running around the corner and all four of the rocking chairs where the family had been were still rocking. Hahaha Guess we scared them. We did have a Family Home evening and as we were walking to the house Elder Batz asked me if I had a game to play to represent repentance (I taught the lesson in district meeting and we played other improv games too). I thought of one and we played Bippitiy Bippity Bop with the family. Its a real simple fun game to just gab and laugh. They loved it haha

So the activity! The dance! It was pretty darn... different. Haha. Only 4 investigators showed up because the members didnt invite non members. Only their families.... So that part fell through. Then the dance part... Only the kids participated with about 8 hermanas tambien. All the rest sat and watched. Way different than other dance lessons Ive taught, but I understand it a bit haha They were laughing, talking. Elder Garcia was going off and helping other people in the middle of other things for stuff that wasnt important (ie how far forward to put your foot when standing still) haha and yeah. So I just sped through the lesson. Normally takes 45-60 m inutes. I think I did it in 15 or 20...ha In the end, they wanted a demonstration, so Elder Garcia and I danced for a good minute to "You Didnt Know Me When" by Harry Connick Jr (a member got me a cd of swing songs) until he was all confused from spinning and turning haha He bowed out and then they asked me to do a solo.... soooo I did a variation of the Tranky Doo which was pretty fun. For those of you that know, they love when I do the "shorty george" ha Youtube it if you dont know, its fun. But yeah, that was that dancing experience there. Probably not going to do that again fora while...

Oh, we also saw one of our investigators, we havent taught him since the first week I arrived, a bit tipsy in the street a few days ago around 2pm. That was a bit disheartening. Then a few minutes later after we escorted our tispy investigator across the busy street, we saw another young man we are going to teach who was almost baptized in Guatamala before moving here standing on a street corner with a cigarette behind his ear. Palabra de Sabiduria lesson coming up.

Considering this, but knowing the rest of it. I had a good week. Im excited to continue on and be able to focus more on one area of our mission that is not so big. Thatll help things out a bit. Hope youre all doing well. Sorry I havent sent out any letters. I have to buy the envelopes individually and I dont really have time to write on Pdays because we do things as a district or go to the markets or something that takes all the time. Hypocritically, please keep writing! Haha And if you send packages, ties would be awesome as well as any food. Fruit snacks, peanut butter, crackers, candies, lifesavers, dried fruit, banana chips, trail mix, etc. Ha.

Enjoy the pictures too! Sent quite a few this week.

Elder Mann

Top photo: cooking Elders, District Photo, handwashing his towel, dancing Elders (Bishop Approved)

 

Week 4 Nicaragua

Wow. Its pretty much already been a month here in Nicaragua. Only a few more days. Happy Halloween everyone!

So this week was interesting, as always ha.

For one, we were almost robbed... almost. We were walking back to our house to grab a quick bite. We were walking along the main road with tons of cars and plenty of people walking. A group of about 8 turned from a sidestreet and we were walking together. I put my hand out to the guy walking next to me and said Hola Hermano. From the way he raised his hand, and shook mine with a slurred Hola amigo... I could tell he wasnt all there. Not sure from what, but he wasnt coherent. I didnt say anything more and he just started talking to us in a not so pleasant manner. He was asking us for stuff and Elder Garcia kept telling him we dont have any "No tengo" "No tiene", but obviously he wouldnt believe us... so he started yelling and threw his cigarette at E. Garcia which hit him in the back of the neck. We wakling quicker. He followed right off my shoulder. I wasnt looking at him to not encourage him and all the sudden I feel something moving in my back pocket with my wallet. I spin around and slap his hand away. He didnt grab the wallet, and just kept following us. I buttoned the pocket and we kept going, quicker. He kept pace and was right off my other shoulder and reached for me. I slapped his arm away again. He grabbed my backpack and a slapped his arm away. This whole time he was either just glaring at us or saying stuff I couldnt understand. After he grabbed the straps of my backpack, E Garcia looked at me and said "Corra" which means to run... So we did. The would be robber took a few stagger steps after us and laughed. We only ran about 10 seconds or so to put distance between us. And that was the end of that... Ha

Then a few days ago I woke up and my hands were massive. Haha. My CTR ring wouldnt fit on any of my fingers. The swelling went down just enough I could squeeze the ring onto my ring finger, but it wouldnt budge after that. Im not entirely sure why, but it was apparently some type of allergic reaction or some bug bite. I had a rashish thing down my forearms too. Probably from tracting in the jungle lol The next day my feet were swollen too. That was an interesting day to walk haha. Nevertheless, we walked and worked and yesterday my hands were normal when I awoke.

We had a zone meeting -normal called a zone conference- this Friday. My zone is really cool. They are all really supportive and super excited to be here. We shared some lessons and did some activities and ate crackers and took some photos.

So, we have a 12 week "in field training" booklet to continue in the manner of the MTC. Its just a book of assignments to slowly transistion the newbie into the field with "start contacts" "lead discussions" "answers questions during lessons" etc. One of the assignments is to have an activity in the ward to invite nonmembers and investigators to. E Garcia and I were talking about it and guess what our activity will be on!!!!!!! SWING DANCING!!! Hahahaha Yeah. So almost every night for the past 4 nights Ive been teaching him the follow part to be the girl. Haha Hes actually doing really well. The family we live with knows I danced before my mission and I mentioned the final dance I did with Rinna at Kats Korner and that the video is on facebook... So they watched it, a few times haha. So ive been able to dance here in the mission for the sake of inviting investigators. We have a flier and whatnot and the bishops permission. We brought it up the the ward counsel - which we as the missionaries had to organize... weird- and all the leaders of the organizations seemed enthused. The family we live with is going to get some of the songs I used to teach when I was home, so hopefullly they can find them. The dance will be on the 10th of Nov. And we are going to have a presentation of the church and a tour and what we believe too, not just the dance ha

On a less happy note, I gave a hard candy to a little girl during a lesson because she looked pretty sad (only 5 or 6 years I think is how many she has) ... and she started choking on it about 5 minutes later. We were watching the video of the restoration when she went to the brother we were teaching who just had a tooth yanked that morning, so he couldnt talk and he started smacking her back. Her mom rushed in and picked her up and wailed on her back. The grandma was yelling and the girl started breathing again. Im not sure whether she swallowed it or it came out, but I felt awful... We finished watching the video and at the end of the lesson the mom of the girl asked us about infant baptism. E Garcia said we will answer it when we come back and have studied it to find scriptures and she cursed at us. I didnt understand, but E Garcia told me after. So, wasnt a pleasant lesson... The girl is okay though.

Oh yeah, questions from my mom-

Elder Garcia has 16 months in the mission. Hes from Managua, but lived in Costa Rica. He is really awesome. We havent really butted heads at all. Just a little grumpy here and there in the morning, but we work well together. He sings well too haha

I write letters from various computer shops that have 10 or so computers each. 10 or 15 cordobas for an hour

3 months is the longest for a package, and yes mom, a donkey might be faster lol

Pouch mail and regular mail seem to be the best way to send me mail. Its difficult to read and type a lot in one hour.

Humidity is alright. Just sweat a lot... a good oceans worth depending on the day haha

And yes, we have found someone to wash our chonies.

Oh Aunt Lorrie and Selina! Thank you for the letters. I really enjoyed them and am glad to hear about the blessings in your lives.

Thats it for this week! Keep sending letters and dearelders! I love hearing from all of you!

-Elder Mann

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Reply to: MacGyver Mann All

Reply to MacGyver Mann

Week 3 in Nicaragua

Hola! Firstly, Id like to congratulate my cousin Allie and Jono on their wedding! Super glad I was able to make it! I wish the best for you two!

This week has been really awesome haha for multiple reasons... and this email wont really be in any actual order because im trying to send pictures at the same time in another window... so!

The mode of transportations here are mainly taxis and buses as I said, but there are also motorcycles galore and horse drawn carts. Not fancy meant to be drawn carts, but a thing of metal or wood with sometimes uneven wheels smacked on the sides ha Its pretty interesting. My companion detests animals of pretty much all sorts, so anytime one goes past us he gets waaaaay out of the way and I get a good distance ahead of him while he waits until the horse (or cow) is clear ha

Oh, the place that I live in is called Masaya. Its about two hours southish of Managua, the main city. The house I actually live in is supposedly on google maps, but all I know is to tell the cab driver to go to the house Masimfa and then give him directions as we get closer.

I had a slip in my Spanish a few days ago for pretty much the first time. We saw a man cutting a bush on his fence with a machete, so we offered help and picked up what he cut off. We started talking and introduced ourselves, he is really nice. I asked if his wife was here. He said yes, so I asked if we could meet her, but I asked in this way ¨¿Podemos prestar su esposa?" which means "Can we borrow your wife?" instead of "presentar"... He said Of course and understood what I meant as my companion started laughing ridiculously after the man left to get his wife. Theyre both school teachers and really nice and we had a good short lesson with them. But other than that I have had a solid amount of compliments for how well I speak and how much I can understand ha I really appreciate it.

Oh, quite a few people here have been asking me about the microchip going in americans hands next year, but I dont know anything more than what the families here tell me. There are a lot of people saying the end of the world because of the boook of revelations and the prophecy in there, but yeah... a littl emore information would be helpful if that could be sent my way haha

Oh, MOm could you send me a recipe for something with the Herdez green salsa? They have in the Maxi Pali (walmart miniturized to the minimum- the "office supplies" consists of a few pencils and a few bottles of glue) and the family we live with wants me to make them something haha

We sang, my comp and I, in Sacrament. We sang "come thou fount" and himno 14 in spanish mixed. Haha it was actually pretty darn good if I do so say so myself. Almost every lesson we start with a hymn because my companion loves to sing, which I am SUPER GRATEFUL for... the songs in spanish have different meanings but are powerful nonetheless. So yes, we sang in English and im sure the majority couldnt understand it, but thats okay. I like the song. We both started off in tenor, because thats his voice range and ive been improving mine every day because I sing with him every day, and then I dropped to the bass after two verses to sing the last two dos octaves lower than him haha It sounds really cool. Wish we recorded it, but oh well.

I sent a picture of me washing my towel by hand. Holy mackeral that is ridiculous!!!! THe concrete washboard alone with how much you have to scrub the thing back and forth (hard, not wimpy like wiping the towel over it, but like trying to start a fire with it) made me tired. THen you soap it, scrub it, rinse off the surface soap and then spend 20 minutes scrubbing it until no bubbles come out. Then you rinse it more. Wring it. Squeeze it. Put it in a pictcher with some freshner thing for a while (i went to bed haha) and then hang it to dry. Phew! Im glad to pay a kind lady to wash all my clothes like that. Its ridiculous ha

Oh mom, could you also send a few envelopes and ibuprofen in the next package?

SPeaking of that! I received the package you sent in September today! Woohoo!! Hahaha I also ahve a number of cards and letters and dear elder. Thank you Tyson, Bamma, Julie, Mom and the Clements! Im sorry if you dont get a letter back until this time next year... but thats possible haha I loved the package, im with my district right now writing this email in an internet-electronics shop. We pay about 10 cordobas for an hour. roughly 23 cordobas is a dollar... Yeah. Im retiring here. Just joking, im oinly going to visit ha The package was fun, we all had a cookie because yesterday was my companions birthday (22)! The last one of his mission. We sang in church the song, and we had the baptism this weekend and im going to buy him icecream later today.

One of the interesting things that I suppose I should have expected is the whole "Bible! We have a Bible! There cannot be any more Bible!!" argument that people will stop us in the street to tell us. We actually contacted a Jehovas witness man, aged in his years, and were going to teach him the first lesson about the restauration of the book of mormon and he just kept saying the bible the bible and that we are going to review a couple passages of the bible. Wait, lets read this one more scripture here in the bible... We left soon after. He didnt want to receive our message. A man yesterday asked me what this evil spirit is that is here right now. I didnt understand, but he was calling us devils. He was also a bit intoxicated.

Oh, more gunshots last night. We were in the familys home that was just baptized and we were just singing hymn after hymn because we were all excited and their 6 year old girl kept humming different ones that she liked ha. While we were there with the door open (normal) people were throwing rocks at each other. Trying to seriously injure with big rocks too. About 3 minutes of that and then a gunshot. We shut the door and kept singing. Ten minutes later another gun shot. And then silence for about 15 minutes. We sang and talked then heard some yelling pretty close to the door. Another gun shot. Dust fell from the walls and ceiling and the door and window rattled ha. We were singing at that time and just kept singing. Pretty interesting. We stayed there for a bit llonger to make sure all was quiet. Didnt see anyone injured and we were all good. Ha

Yeah, this life is amazing. Its funny to think sometimes "I wonder what this person is doing right now?" and think of my parents or a friend and if theyre eating at their house or at school or something. I wouldnt want to be doing anything else right now. The joy when a person says "I feel something different, something peaceful when you two are talking to us" is unparalleled. This is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and I love every moment I have to share it.My family is amazing and know that I think of all of you every day and pray for you every morning and night.

Love to you all! (Hopefully you dont mind my long emails haha)

Week 2 in Nicaragua!

Me walking through trail in the jungle/ pathway we use. Only a few parts of my area as jungly as that ha ha. Its kinda fun.

Here is a pic of a baby chick. We were teaching a recent convert and they were all over our feet, so Elder Garcias grabbed one and I took a picture with it. You can barely see the head in my hands haha

Hey! This week has been really awesome. I had my first baptism with a young family. I baptized the mom, Suyen, and her husband is going to be baptized this Saturday. It was really neat. The baptism service went well, we had a few speakers and a 'choir' which had a few people off key... but there was only about 6 people in it, so with a few people off key... the thought and heart was there for sure. I am starting to grow to appreciate an love the people here in Nicaragua. The culture is quite different, but enjoyable to learn. Ie asking people if they're married isn't offensive nor is asking for peoples ages, which we do almost every contact. Its interesting and fun. Also people set off fireworks throughout the entire day. Not flashy ones, but just ones that make noise or go bang. The entire day. A kid threw one a yard or two from my feet, not intentionally I think, and my left ear was ringing for a few minutes ha
Last Monday after I emailed we had a lesson. It was about 730 8 at night and we were in an investigators home. We were having a really good lesson and just after I recited the first vision of Joseph Smith where he saw God and Jesus Christ, a gun went off in the street. Then another. We just continued as if it were nothing... I stopped counting after 7 or 8 gun shots. Eventually we heard a siren and saw some cops barging around in a truck looking for people. We left soon after. The next night we were having another lesson, just up the street, and a few more gun shots rang out again. Only about 3 or 4 this time though. Ha, so yeah. That was a good jolly time. Were all safe and we didn't see anything horrific.
Well, speaking of the culture still, moms just feed their babies on the porches without any reservations or any worries at all. We were invited into a members home to give a sick little baby a priesthood blessing of health. She was screaming and crying, so the entire time our hands were on her head they were moving every which way. Like a cat trying to catch a laser pointer. Elder Garcías anointed the oil and sealed the blessing as well so we could continue to our next lesson quicker. In between the two, the mom who was sitting with the baby in her lap decided to try and make her baby stop crying by feeding her the good ole fashion way... while we were standing right there about to give the child a blessing. Yeah, a little different.
Oh, if you use Purina Puppy Food or Dog food, the factory is in my area. Just so you know.

This week really was good. We confirmed baptismal dates for a few families and three of our investigators attended church too. Church is a little different, but mostly the same ha I blessed the water for the sacrament. First time in Spanish woo! But it really was such a blessing to hear all the testimonies from the members about the gospel. We meet many interesting people as contacts or in lessons that squint their eyes at us and tell us 'the bible says ...' and that we are not good people and whatnot. Or we called out 'Buenas!' at a door and the man in the house instantly replied '¡SOMOS CATOLICO!' meaning 'were catholic' We just shrugged and smiled and kept walking ha ha

The bucket showers are something I actually look forward to because it is cold. Its nice to feel cold ha ha It hasn't rained a horrendous amount or even much at all, but there is still water in the air in the blessed form of humidity. My companion and most people I talk to, don't understand when I say that it is hot without the humidity at my house.

We haven't had a zone conference to receive the mail yet, but thank you for your prayers and for your kind thoughts. I'm really loving my experience here. Many times during the day I just have the opportunity to think 'Im a missionary' and I get really excited. ha ha

Love to you all!

Week 1 Nicaragua

I shower with a bucket.

Bueno.
This first week has been really amazing here in Nicaragua. This place is hideously beautiful, charmingly scary, richly poor and just plain odd. Haha I dont even know where my area is in relation to Managua. It takes two hours to travel there, thats all I know. No idea which direction or whatnot. I havent asked my companion that yet. Anyway, getting here was an adventure in itself. Cancelled flight Monday. Two super delayed fligths Tuesday (we ended up sleeping in the airport because the shuttles to the hotels stopped at 10 when it was 1230 when we finally got to the curb). We made it. Only one bag out of all of us was left in Miami, but he has it now.
The culture is super different, almost surreal. I felt like I was walking in a James Bond movie in a third world country because I guess I was. We only take taxis and buses and they are always filled to capacity. In fact, its hard to not touch the people surrounding you if you want to sit. The buses are sometimes 10 passenger vans with about 18 people in them (standing room only lol) with a guy hanging out the window yelling where we are going to try and pick up more people.
When we finally got to our area and then our home, I saw where Id be working for the next session of my life. We live with a member family and have our own room that has a bunk and a dresser with a mini fridge (I just bought boxed milk and cereal and finally found honey today). Then we use the front room with a few couches and two tables to study. Its actually pretty nice considering. The bathroom is the most interesting part I think. We dont have running water during the day, only in the morning, which it is only a drip then. So we turn on the shower in the morning to fill a janitor sized trash can that is in the shower to use as our water for the day. Theres two bucket in it. One to fill and wash our hands in and the other to dump water over our heads for showers and dump in the toilet after a... it has been used. Since thats the only water pressure, we also put the toilet paper in a trash can right next to the toilet, dont flush it haha. Its different, but interesting.
The area in which I live is super different from any other place I have ever been to. The majority of the homes have earth for floor and maybe one of what you could consider a room. All of them have tin roofs or tarps over them and tin walls or shantily tied together branches or sticks. Its super interesting the standard of living here. I used a hole in the ground with tent as tall as my shoulders as a bathroom the other day at the Bishops house... That was neat.
But yes, the people here are much more approachable. We have the areas where we only walk fast and avoid any eye contact, especially at night, but most of the time we talk to most people. The mission here is focused on finding families, so thats what we do. We look for parents and child and just walk up and talk to them. Oh yeah, since the houses are how they are, we dont knock necessarily. We just walk up and say 'bueno!' at the gate or beginning of their property. We have a HUGE area. Its really sweet actually. We have the variety from walking in literal junge with a truck path to walking in dirt roads surrounded by houses with floors (thats how I have learned to judge the quality of a home). All the members here are really nice and help us out plenty. One family in particular just loves working with us missionary (La familia Lira). Ive eaten pretty much everything that has been put in front of me since the day I got here because of my experience the first day. Apparently my companion pretty much only ate lunch before I came here. No breakfast, no dinner. So we didnt have any apointments to eat or food to eat in our mini fridge when I arrived. My dinner the first night was four ritz crackers haha But sicne then I have been well fed. And he is starting to eat dinner too. My bowel system has been working pretty well too, no major mishaps or irregularities.
We do have to find a new lady to wash our laundry though. We went tehre this morning to drop off another load and pick up the previous and she didnt really tell us why, but just that she wont do our laundry anymore. So this will be interesting the next few days to find someone haha
Spanishwise, my companion and almost every one I talk with is surprised at how well I speak for only having been here less than a week. The hard work in the MTC paid off! Understanding is a little more tricky because they drop the ends of the words and slur it all together like we do in English, but Im picking up more and more every day. My companion speaks a decent amount of English, but I havent talked to him in English yet and dont really plan to unless we are trying to translate something. Im grateful that he does so he can help me find the words I want to say. Hes from Managua and lived in Costa Rica for a while, working with some Americans to sell houses (thats where he was able to build his English pretty well in addition to school). He actually reminds me of my cousin JJ with how he looks and even just his personality. Very calm, quiet but loves to smile and share.
We have a baptism this weekend too! A young family is being baptized. The parents are, the daughter is only six. My Companion, Elder Garcias, told me I was going to do it haha That would be awesome to be able to have that experience, but its possible I will baptize one this week and he will baptize the husband next week. In addition to baptisms, Ive given two blessings in Spanish for health. People are talking as we are in a house or in the church and Im just looking trying to understand and I see my comp grab a chair and someone sit down and they both look at me. Bueno. Ha, its actually been really amazing. Every time we have given blessings (Ive given two so far and E. Garcia has given 3 I think) I feel really peaceful and am reminded that we are here as representatives of Jesus Christ and are here to bless the people.
I asked my mission president how long mail or packages take to get here and he told me an interesting time length. Guess. Alright, heres the answer: 3 months maybe. Thats what he said... so if you want to send me a christmas present... send it now! Ha and a birthday present (March 18), send that tomorrow lol. The packages and mail are sent to the mission home where they give it to the zone leaders and they give it to us every zone conference which is roughly every 2 weeks. Entonces, itll be a little difficult to reply quickly to your letters... and I only have an hour on the computer every week, so sorry if I dont reply. I will do my best!
We also receive 2300 cordobas, the money here, every 15 days. Its roughly 100 dollars. We have a chart for what its for regarding meals, laundry, etc and I could see how it would be easy to spend it all. Theres a pulperia (mini mini mini store ran out of someones home) almost every three or four houses with snacks and whatnot. Havent bought any of the chips or anything yet, but I will.

Well, thats all I have for you this week. Hopefully that gives you a picture of how my first week was.
Mom and Dad, I brought the wrong cord for the camera to send pictures... but it looks like I can put my card in this comp (I dont have really any pictures from here yet though)... and I guess you could send the water filterpitcher if you want. We use the bottle with a filter we got from the MTC pretty much, not really and cups and whatnot at home. That might change with each area though...

Love you all and hope all is well! Remember that Jesus Christ is your Savior and that this is His Church. He can help us in every single way and aspect of life if we ask Him and live righteously.

Love Elder Mann

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Reply to: MacGyver Mann All

Elder Mann's Mailing address

Elder MacGyver Reed Mann
Nicaragua Managua South Mission
De la Retonda del Periodista
150 vrs al Sur Ofiplaza Suite 725
Managua, Managua
Nicaragua
Please do not use FED EX, UPS, or DHL.  Use the US Postal Service.  Cards and letters are about $1.15 to send regular mail.  You can also send him an email still at dearelder.com
chooose Nicaragua South from the drop down menu.  Or you can use snail mail.

LAST WEEK IN THE MTC

Hola!!

This is it. This is the final email from me from the MTC. Crazy, no? I've got my travel plans, but not with me so I don't remember exact times and flight numbers.

Anyway, flying out Monday morning. Checking into the travel office here at the MTC at 5am.

First flight is around 8am to Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; then to Miama, Florida; then our final flight to Nicaragua. We will be travelling in a group of 14 missionaries (two are in my district going there too, so I have them to talk to for sure). We will land in Nicaragua around 7:05pm, their time. Probably buy a donkey with a pair of gym shoes and then ride that for a few more hours until I see someone in the middle of nowhere who I can teach the gospel to. Ha So it will be a full day of travel. The MTC doesn't have a policy on calling home from the airport, but I do have a prepaid phone card thing from the bookstore here. So mom, dad. I will be calling you at some point from a payphone Monday. I think 4:40 to 6:30 Miami time is when I will have time to do that. That's our longest layover. 4:40 we arrive, and 6:30 is when we depart, so there is a little bit of a window to talk. I'm not sure how many minutes are on the card either, so if it just hangs up... sorry. I'll try to find that out before I make the call. Can't wait to talk to you two!!

Also, we were able to watch the dedication of the Brigham City Utah Temple on Sunday. It was really neat. We arrived quite early into the auditorium/gym with bleachers and chairs that we have our devotionals and whatnot in to get good seats. We went as a zone (some 35 missionaries) and sat in the same area. Elder Baldwin sat on the opposite of the end of the row of me which was fine because we were with our zone, but I had saved a seat for him next to me. Empty seat next to me. So, we had plenty of time to relax and wait for the dedication to begin, so we were just talking when I saw Hermana Clement walking down at the front of the bleachers (I was about the 5th row up). I see her. I see my entire zone (all 31 elders and the 4 sisters) see her and then I see them all turn and look at me. I waved to her as she looked for a seat when a number of elders called out "He's got a seat right there!" "Go sit there!" "Yeah, look at that! Perfect!" She became all giddy and started making her way towards me, I didn't know if she was actually going to do it. She did. She plopped down right next to me and we were both grinning ear to ear, but I still felt every single eye in my zone (including our presidency [the old guys to take care of us]) staring at me. We shook hands and I expressed I didn't know if we should do this. A presidency member and his wife were sitting right behind us and his wife said, "It's okay, sister. We're right behind you! And these are good elders!" A sister in my district sitting next to the wife leaned over and whispered, "That's Elder Mann's girlfriend." She fell silent ha and I looked over to the other side, and Elder Baldwin was standing up with a stern "What in the world do you think you're doing?!" face with another presidency member standing up behind him shaking his head in a very strong manner. Yeah.... I sighed and said, "Yeah, we can't do this." The three elders to her left shuffled one seat over towards me and she ended up sitting three seats over in the aisle, right behind her companion. Yup. That was interesting. Haha, wish we could have sat next to each other, but alas we did not. Oh well, we can at least stand next to each other after the mission without getting stared at by everyone surrounding us. Looking forward to that day haha

Oh! I also saw someone I knew from Utah here. Mom, Dad and Mac you'll probably remember them. When we lived on Standard Ct in Magna, my best friend at the time Colton Squire is here! It was so weird! I was standing in line for ice cream when I heard someone call me and I turned around and here's this young man with the same face (minus some 5 o'clock shadow) that I used to hang out with every day way back when. That was so sweet to see him, I was in awe. Now Sage is coming in today (he might already be here). I haven't seen him yet, but I'm definitely getting a picture with him before I take off. Speaking of pictures, I tried to send them earlier when i was doing laundry, but the SD card readers weren't working. I even have good pictures this week! I have a few with Rinna in front of the big map and one with Squire Elder (he's going somewhere where the name comes first, weird huh?).

I taught our Sunday School lesson on Sunday for our district. The subject was the Book of Mormon, so instead of solely flipping pages in the BoM, I decided to make it more of an "object lesson". I explained a little bit about my flight training experiences and where I trained, what some of the basic instruments were and whatnot. At the beginning of the lesson, I had them make a paper airplane to represent themselves in the flight of life. It's hard to explain without me drawing it up on the board, but I drew the routes I flew to practice and what each area represented. IE The runway was heaven, since we were there before this life and we are going to return. A certain mountain was baptism that we had to fly over to get to the practice area which represented life because of all the different maneuvers and whatnot we practice there. Yeah, so it was a really fun lesson. I have forgotten a TON about aviation. It kinda made me sad, but as the lesson went on, I remembered more and more. After the lesson, we all went out into the hall and tossed our paper airplanes down the hallway to see whose plane would go farthest and flip the most and things of that nature. At a random point in my lesson, i remembered a letter my mom sent me about my dad's calling to teach the 13-15 year olds for Sunday school. How she went to go drop something off to him or pick something up or tell him something, and when she opened the door he threw a paper airplane across the room. Hahaha I love you dad, I'm so glad you did that. While, I was teaching this one, I thought "Holy cow, I'm just like my dad. Making paper airplanes for a church class" haha It made me really happy. He did tie it in somehow, but I feel it was kinda like mine, more for the fact that they could make apaper airplane.

Well, I have started packing and getting everything set in order. We have a new district coming in today, so Elder Baldwin and I get the opportunity to give a tour and show them around again. It is such a fun thing to do. I'm so excited.

Special shout out in appreciation for someone reading my blog every week: Grandma Heyman!! I love you and so does Taylor!

Love to you all, and don't worry about me going to Nicaragua. I'm really not nervous or worried myself, I am just excited to go help people in a different world. I'll be safe and keep my head up.

Love you all!

-Elder Mann

Picture of Elder Mann and Sister Clement in the laundry facility/Below Elder Mann doing a flip off the wall in the MTC hallway

Week 7 MTC

Hola!
Zone leader stuff. We have a new district and they are SO AWESOME! We had a fun time showing them around the campus and where to do what (like freshman orientation). When we were having a meeting with them and going over the rules, doing a demo companionship inventory, we had them do a mock when where they just asked funny questions to their companion for a while. One of the questions was "What animal would you be if you could be an animal?" We had some funny responses. One that has actually stuck as a type of nickname is one small little Elder who chose the animal a "sparrow" because they're small, they fly, and I always see them diving through the cars, sometimes they get hit, but they are just so cool and I've always wanted to be one since I was little." Hahah the best part is that the Elder is really small. Like only 105 pounds and just a little guy with a lot of spunk ha He goes full out in soccer and we call him sparrow by reaction. They're really an awesome district though. We have one of the best zones in the MTC, by far.

I believe it is official now, I have spent more time in the MTC than I did outside the MTC with my call. That's weird. But it happened. I'll be getting my travel plans to Nicaragua either tomorrow or this weekend. That's super exciting! Next week our schedule is a little different. One day we will have an "in field orientation" where I believe we go on "splits" with actual missionaries in Provo. We will pretty much just tag onto an elder who has been an elder for a while and go to his lessons and meetings with different people. That's what I think is going to happen anyway. Haven't heard too much about it. SUPER EXCITED to finally get to Nicaragua though. It's cold here in the mornings and I have absolutely zero warm clothes haha Jeans and a tshirt conclude my list of warm clothes. Normally we would go outside in the morning at 7 for an hour of personal study time, but now we kinda just stay in our residence halls and I have a blanket wrapped around me as I study haha

This Sunday will be interesting for a few reasons. First, we get to watch a temple dedication. I don't remember which one it is, but we get to watch it in our big conference gym/room on the big screen. That'll be neat. Then, I'll be singing a duet with another elder in our sacrament of "Come Thou Fount". He did musical theatre before he came here. He was actually the Phantom in the Phantom of the Opera. Haven't really practiced it yet, but we will get some practice time in tomorrow and the weekend before we sing. Not sure how we are going to do it, but I have faith it will turn out well. Haha Pray for me still.

Something cool we have done as a district is memorized Joseph Smith's first vision of God and Jesus Christ in Spanish. I hadn't even memorized it in English before my mission, but now I have the whole thing in spanish. It's super powerful. Not too much longer in the MTC, so I am trying to crank down on my study time and learn as much as I can. I feel confident in my Spanish, but know I'll still be in for a shock when I get there. I'm looking forward to it though. I can't wait for the challenge. Nicaraguan spanish is going to be sweet!

Love to you all, thank you for the letters and dear elders. I know there will be a lag time, major lag time, between wherever you live and Nicaragua, but know that it always makes my day to receive mail!

I know that what I am doing is a good thing to do and that I am in the service of my fellow men.

Love,

Elder Mann

Week 6 at MTC with 3 Weeks left!

Hello hello!

First off! I haven't seen Corrinne yet!!! GAHHHHH!!!! It's wiggin' me out that she's here and I haven't seen her. I wanted to be at the curb a bit early, but I wasn't able to be. My companion was writing an important letter to his family and I didn't want to take him away from it... so we arrived there about ten minutes after she said her drop off time was (12:30)... and waited. It was terrrribbbleeee. I can't wait to see her, hope I'll recognize her haha

Oh and Cameron, I need your address too, so if you could send that to me that'd be great.

Alright, so one of THE COOLEST things I've learned here in the MTC is how to study. That sounds really weird, but it is true. This morning I had personal study time and I just had my scriptures, my notes from the devotional last night and the missionary manual Preach my Gospel. I was flying through everything. I studied obedience which is the most preached topic here in the MTC. "Be obedient, it's important. Do it. Be obedient. Don't be a robot, be obedient." But most times with a loving heart and good intent. Anyway, I was studying the Book of Mormon a bit more about it, just started with a scripture reference in PMG and fwoo! I can't even express what I have learned about it, other than why the heck wouldn't we want to be obedient to God's commandments? If we follow them as best as we can and understand the principle of forgiveness and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can literally live with God and our families forever. Then I also studied patience (something Taylor has/had to learn in Chile already apparently haha) and that is going to help me a lot on my mission.

Zone Leader status: Okay, oday is Wednesday. New missionaries come in. They get to do a lot of neat things in a huge group (pretend to teach investigators as one huge companionship of like 40... when I did it, it didn't go well at all ha Too many ideas, too much "this is what I know" stuff... Rinna will have fun in that for sure. She might be the one talking the whole time =P) But after that, they'll go to a welcome thing from the MTC presidency and then to dinner and class. In class, solely their mission language, it's a blast. I loved it. Then at the end of class, Elder Baldwin and I will swoop in and talk to them about the in's and out's of the MTC. What to do, where to go and what not. We will also give an example Companionship Inventory (I think I already explained that previously). Then tomorrow night we give them a tour of the MTC. We also show them our residency room to show what it should look like (ours is actuall ypretty darn clean thank you) and review the rules of the residency (no dormitory behavior pretty much). Which reminds me, mom and dad, that flange ball squeezie thing you sent me has disappeared. I used to throw it at my companion in the morning to make sure he was up, but we don't know where it is at now... and it's not in our room haha we looked. Sorry, but there aren't supposed to be "toys" in here anyway. The mexican jumping beans also died. Sadly. They used to be clicking and hopping in my drawer all through the night... maybe I'm not so sad those thigns are gone ha

I did choir for the first time finally. I went on a companion exchange with another elder in my zone (Elder Jepsen) because my companion wanted to do language study instead. Choir is SO FUN! I want to learn how to actually sing so bad. That's really the only form of creative expression here in the MTC and Elder Baldwin is already sick of my "not cool oldies" songs that I sing often. Soo.... Hymns in Spanish are next, I just want to sing them right ha

Only 3 weeks left, ya? Weird. We're the oldest district in our zone now. It's a weird thought because it seems like all the elders we knew and looked up to were here yesterday... but they're all gone and a new group is rolling in. The MTC seldom has a shut door, always revolving.

The firesides have been amazing recently. I think one reason why is because I have been able tos tay awake for them all, regardless of the speaker. Well, for the past two weeks at least, which is an improvement. I love learning and learning from others is a quick, sure fire way to get topics to study further and discover on your own. Remember I had my notes in the second paragraph? Or did you skip that part? Yeah, our last speaker has spend almost four decades in the Army as a financial advisor or something. He was a super dry speaker and didn't change his inflection more than twice throughout his whole 35 minute talk. I thought I would fall asleep, but I stayed awake and now I know why. The principles of just being able to do something, be able to be told and taught why a commandment is important, or a personality trait, and just following through on it. Something else he commented on is that so many people say "Congrats, you made it here in the MTC"; he said that then followed with "Now do something about it" or something to that effect. Yeah, we don't want to waste our time here. I'm trying to not waste my time at all and through a number of conversations with my district, I appear to be very diligent, but there is always room for improvement.

Before I forget, Mom, do you remember those colored pencil things we bought from Deseret Book? They're plastic and have like the lead insert in them? blue, orange, green, purple, yellow and red? Could you send me another package of those please? I have almost worn through mine entirely. I made "Google Scriptures" which are awesome, and I will just send a picture of them back some time instead of explaining i right now.

Something else, that Samoan elders grandparents' names are: Ese (grandpa) and Sowe or Sone (can't read his writing).

As a district, we have designated Mondays and Thursdays to be Spanish Only for the entire day, except when in class to make sure we understand what is being taught. I love it. I love Spanish so much. I have read Taylor's experience of people just not trying to talk to him because he is handicapped with the language... and I think the same thing will happen to me. It's gonna be funny. I feel like I can speak fairly well, but if any of you are familiar with the subjunctive tense, that's difficult. Moreso when to use it. So that may be the major flaw in my Spanish right now, but I can still get my point across. In addition to that, we have been learning how to teach more simply. Something I took for granted, but I suppose words like "restoration" "priesthood" "gospel" and such are not exactly normal everday words (which I only know a select few normal everyday words in spanish), so we are trying to do that now. It's great.

Funny experience in a lesson with one of our investigators:

Normally, I don't do this. I try to be very careful with my words and mostly get my message across without saying a ton of dumb stuff. This was actually probably my first "dumb" thing I said in a lesson and Elder Baldwin lost it hahaha

So, we were teaching the word of wisdom, which is a commandment of God telling us to not drink Alcohol among other things. Our investigator said he drank alcohol with his friends, but that it wouldn't be a major deal for him to stop drinking it because he understood the importance of it. I intended to ask him this "Would you like to stop drinking alcohol?", but I mixed up some words in my head and asked "Quiere tomar alcohol?" And if you know spanish, I recently learned that "Le quiere" is like the "I love you man!" thing, so I slipped that "quiere" is "you want" instead of "you like"ish... So I asked "Want to drink alcohol?" during the lesson. The investigator looked baffled and said "ahora?!" "Now?!" "No no no no no no no!!! Lo siento!!" Yeah... that was funny. Oh well.

Time to go, adios! Hope all of you have a great week and thank you for the dear elders and letters. I have a good time writing back!

-Elder Mann

MTC WEEK 5

Hola!!!

So, I want to start with this:

Our district has been quite sick recently. 4 of the 9 members have a cough, one in our district, Elder Smith, is the start of this Plague (other districts are now catching the black death). Our branch president, President Hollister, who is a really amazing man and he knows how to speak to missionaries, told Elder Smith this as he was leaving our class one day: "There's plenty of priesthood around; if you die, we'll raise you.'' Hahaha I loved that. It made me laugh at the delivery of the line. Anyway, continuing from quotes from President Hollister, dont tell but Elder Baldwin and I are going to be assigned as the Zone Leaders (over all the districts). One week break from District leader and then Zone Leader. But don''t tell, no one in our zone is supposed to know besides my companion and I and the current zone leaders who are leaving Monday to go to their missions.

In our interview with Pres. H, he pointed out a few thigns about being a zone leader and then made the following comments which I found interest in: "[Elder Baldwin], youre more of a loving, happy-go-lucky guy and [Elder Mann] youre more of a disciplinarian... Theyre going to have to feel love from you and you [Elder Baldwin] are going to have to learn how to be a disciplinarian." Yup, I suppose that is about right,and I guess I have some lasting effects of leading from lacrosse? Maybe. Anyway, I thought it was a bit funny, so take it as you will.

Secondly, Jake Holme: Write me! haha, my address is on my facebook. I wanna talk to you!

(And Jonathan L., Jesus V., Dabs!! Send me a letter so I can get your address or DearElder.com me)

Ah, back to Elder Smith. I had the opportunity to give him a priesthood blessing. It was my first one that I have ever had the opportunity to give. He asked Elder Brown (one of his companions) to anoint him with the oil and me to seal the blessing. I was honored at his request. Just after a class, we had all of the district in there. All of the elders laid our hands upon his head and I started to offer the blessing. It was an amazing experience. I really believe in the power of the priesthood because of all the times I received a priesthood blessing before being hauled off to a hospital after an accident in a lacrosse game or something (Curtis and Ray Heyman, thanks! ha). Anyway, as I was giving the blessing, I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to say a few things that were rather unrelated, but related, to his health. In fact, I blessed his health in the beginning and then started talkinga bout his mission. How he is needed int he MTC, how the people in Chile (his mission) arebeing prepared for him to arrive and teach them because of his personality. It was such a neat thing, I took almost no thought beforehand of what to say (the request for the blessing and the beginning of blessing itself took place in a matter of minutes) to ensure I would speak by impressions of the Spirit. I really enjoyed the experience and although he isnt at full capacity yet, I believe he will be soon.

So yes, being called as zone leaders on Sunday. We will pretty much go to all the leader ship training classes they ahve on different days of the week with the district leaders. We will attend the meetings where we discuss the members of the zone and how we can help them in any way. We also meet with each district leader each week to see how their district is doing and to offer advice. Additionally, we show the new districts entering what to do and where to go (we give a tour of the MTC) and we even give a preview of Companionship Inventory (in the real world, it is similar to a ""determine the relationship"" to make sure both companions are on the same page and openly discuss any issues, but to also share strengths and good attributes of your companion. Its a really good thing, I like it. We also escort the Coordinating Sister (the district leader for the sisters) to her meetings because you cant be alone in the MTC pretty much at all. Only in the bathroom. That actually applies to the whole mission. Yes, I have spent 6 weeks x 7hours a day with my companion. And sorry, the keyboard Im using is not very good. Im blaming that, especially the quotes. Not working.

CORRRINNNNNENEEEENENENEEENENEEE YOURE GONNA BE HERE INA WEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!!! Youre gonna love it here. I promise you, its amazing. Know that. =D

Also, we had a workshop like every Tuesday. This one we made a question that we would ask God if we could sit down with him. We watched a few clips on revelation through the Book of Mormon and then we were told to study for 8-10 minutes on whatever we feel like we need to study. We were also told that we would be answering the question of another elder without knowing his question and vice versa. I made a question, What should I do when I am discouraged on my mission? I studied about a different topic and then we moved around to sit with someone we didnt know. The elder taught me about the wise man building his house upon a rock and expressed that in any time of trial or discouragement, we should just remember what we are here for and why we are doing what we are doing.I felt like it was a really good answer and he actually used the word I had in my question: discouraged. That was really neat. Definitely, go to church or study the scriptures with a question and look for the answer. You''ll find it. Its there.

Hope you liked the pictures! Hopefully my dad and mom got em posted. I didnt have much time to make sure they are actually the good ones, but I sent them off anyway. Now my blog page thing should look a little more personalized. I''ll send more when I actually remember to take my camera places (probably not until the last week).

Sunday was probably my favorite day at the MTC (minus my first day). It was fast sunday, but it was just a really spiritual and a really wholesome day. OHHH and we watched President Monsons Celebration of Life thing. (its on lds.org) for our Sunday devotional. It had REAL MUSIC in it!!! Whoa!!! They (Mormon tabernacle choir) sang a variety of songs from Broadway because President Monson likes broadway. My favorite one that was done was ""Bring Him Home"" from Les Mis (the lead actor from the musical even sang it) it was amazing. I almost cried. Seriously, the sound of the music was such a blessing to my ears. They talked about Pres. Monson''s life ab it and mentioned how he met his wife at a dance. When showing pictures of it, some big band music started playing and my district looked down the row at me and expected me to start dancing. I almost did. How I miss dancing. Haha I''ll get over it eventually, or I''ll just keep doing the tranky doo and shim sham over and over and over again.

Pues, thank you for you letters and love. Feel free to drop a letter or dealelder.com at me, my info is on facebook or probably on this blog page somewhere. Ill write you back (you actually have a 95% chance which is pretty good).

Also, Kristen, sister, send me a letter too please. I''m calling you out too. I know I don''t really write you when you were in France, but I will write you now haha Love you

Yo se que esta iglesia es verdadera. Mis experiances en el CCM son marvelloso. Les amo ustedes y gracias por su amor tambien. Por favor, saben que Dios les ama y puede ayudarles con cualquier. Es posible por ustedes a reciben respuestas por sus preguntas por medio de oracion. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

PS Spanish is super fun. I love it. Not fluent yet, but getting there (until I get to Nicaragua, then Im no where near close)

PSS Quick story, on Sunday an elder said this "Estamos agradecidos estoy aqui"" which translates to ""we are all grateful I am here"" Hahah I don''t think he meant to say it, but only me, and hermana in my district and our Presidente caught it and laughed. Oh the woes of learning a language... its actually really funny

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Hola! Como estan?

This week was a pretty good week. I feel like they are getting more and more productive with each passing one and that means that I will be super effective by the time I leave... Only to realize that I only know barely the basics and Spanish is way different in Nicaragua. We taught at TRC (church members come in and volunteer to take a lesson from miissionaries in training). My comp, Elder Baldwin, and I taught a man from Chile, where Taylor Heyman is at RIGHT NOW! And he "swallowed" all of his s's. It was weird. I was translating his words into the Spanish I know and then that into English. Haha. Good luck Taylor, I know you'll get it! Not too bad, but just different from how we learn it here.

We have a new district of 12 elders that came in last week and another district of 8 just arrived today. Our branch that was once small is now growing into a bunch of elders and the 4 sisters in my district. Kinda fun. We as a district have been trying to speak solely Spanish this week on Monday, Wed, and Friday mornings until lunch time. It works decently. We don't talk nearly as much as normal and some of us forget a good deal of the time. Slightly distracting, but we still push on and try to improve. I'll be released as District Leader this Sunday and another elder will have that opportunity to conduct the meetings and get the mail. Looking forward to see who it is (I have a little say in the decision I think in my weekly letter to the Branch president that I'll be sending after this ha).

Just returned from the temple where we did sealings for families that have passed beyond the grave. It was really neat again. This is our second time doing it. It seems amazing that we have this ability to join families together forever even after they have passed, but I always think of my family when we go and how I will be with them always. I love you all, and I am very elated that we are sealed for time and all eternity. =)

I sent some photos, sorry if they're not the best. I am not exactly a photographer, and neither are the missionaries we ask to take pictures haha. I have a few more, but I didn't want to spend all my email time just sending pictures, I hope all of them made it! The group of people I'm with is my district, the 5 elders and 4 hermanas. Now you have the opportunity to see who I spend almost 16 hours a day with! They're all great. We mix very well together still and just had the slump of being almost half way through in our productivity, but all is well. We had a church service and a devotional about the topics we needed help with (importance of setting goals and keeping the spirit with us by not making innappropriate [mainly sarcastic] jokes).

Lessons in Spanish are going so well!! Seriously, they're amazing. I love speaking Spanish. It's so surreal. I know that words don't translate directly over to Spanish and that even a word doesn't fully define an action or idea in the world, so learning the concepts and words are a little easier for me than for those who think it should be translated word for word. They'll figure it out eventually and I'll be humbled once I get to Nicaragua haha

We had an AMAZING devotional on Sunday! The speaker was the managing director of the church's missionary department or something. He gave an amazing talk! It was very inspiritational and very influencial. I am so glad we had good seats that had air conditioning. He also had people stand up if they had done this, come from here, going here, had this much family, etc at the beginning of the talk, so it would have been difficult to fall asleep. Yup, I stayed awake fully in that one and took quite a few notes. I actually just reminded myself to look over those tonight. In addition to his awesome talk, we were able to watch a talk from Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve that he gave last year on Christmas, which was a Sunday. He spoke about the "Character of Christ". It was the most amazing talk I have ever heard. He focused on the Savior and the amazing characteristics he has. The overall tune was that Christ ALWAYS turned outwards whenever us, or the natural man, would turn inwards. AFTER He suffered for all of our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane, AFTER His closest friends could not wait up with him to be there for him, AFTER one of His disciples betrayed Him, AFTER He was surrounded by armed guards and a disciple, Peter I believe, cut an ear off of one of the guards, He stopped and healed the guard that was taking him to be crucified. Jesus Christ is the most pure and best example we could ever have on this earth. In the Missionary handbook that we teach and study out of called "Preach My Gospel" there are attributes of Christ in one of the chapters. As a district, we have decided to work on "Charity and Love" for each other. Simple things. Taking someone's tray after lunch to the wash room, picking up a "pocket puke" (where an elder leans forward and the contents of his pocket spill out), or even sharing the dulces that our families send us. It really makes such a change. It makes me feel the Spirit and feel like I am accomplishing the will of the Lord, where I am furthering His love to His children in the smallest of manners. It's such a wonderful feeling.

Well, I am almost half way. Once Saturday (which is the 1st, right?) hits, I'll be starting a one month countdown.

Love to you all, know that our Heavenly Father loves you and wants you to be happy,

Elder Mann

PS Thank you so much for all the mail, it brightens up my day so much. Even just a simple postcard makes a difference in a day =D