12/23/2013

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

This week has been great. Thursday was the ward Christmas party. More people showed up to that than to sacrament meeting. More investigators too. Wonderful gift. There were some short acts, some songs, and fun stuff. The bishopric asked us to participate, so I took my uke and we did a smashup of ´Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells and We Wish you a Merry Christmas´ Turned out well. No one understood a word and no one knows anything about music, so we got a ton of compliments on how well we did hahaha 

That day we also got a message from the assistents to the president that there would be a special choir. The choir was for a dinner/meeting that President Russell was having with all the stake presidents and Elder Maravilla from the 70. Who was chosen to participate? 5 elders and 4 sisters. 1 Elder was from El salvador. The other 4? Polys. 2 Tongans, one from Fiji and me. Hahahaha That made me laugh so hard, especially because 3 of us have never had any official training or anything. We were just chosen because we have poly blood. Literally I believe that was the reason. Why do I believe that? Because the person who chose the choir was Sister Russell. We had to sing 4 songs. We had practice at noon the same day, Saturday, then we went to President´s house that night. We sang- We Wish you a Merry Christmas, Venid adoremos, escuchad el son triunfal, noche de luz. Or in english, Come let us adore him... hark the herald angels sing and silent night. It was really fun and we didnt do half bad. We utilized everyone for a solo or for some part. My solo was reading Christ´s birth in Luke chapter 2. Yeah, that didnt really surprise me haha but the more fun part was actually going to the presidents house. One of the assistents took us in the mission truck and it was just so fun. Talking about food, luaus, puligi, pork, potato salad, corned beef (one tongan got that in a care package and we was REALLY excited to eat it hahaha). Yeah, I cant explain it all, but it was just hysterical. Just a side note, the guy from Fiji is like 6´3¨ and was 340 lbs before the mission (HUGE). He´s lot 100 lbs here. (Still huge). 

Other than that, we got CHRISTMAS this week! Dont worry mom and dad, I just bought a present today... so... Ill just bring it with me when I get back in July to not cause any shipping delays haha Just joking. Im super excited to see you wednesday! Ill be here about 12:00 nica time. If things work out and Rinna skypes at the same time, who knows, but Ill be happy both ways. 

Yeah, see you later!

-Elder Mann

12/16/2013

Hey... mom and dad? What time do you want to skype next week? haha Really weird that Im already going to see you guys again. I honestly feel like I just skyped all of you haha But its awesome that that time has already come again.

Well, Elder Parrish is gone and home. He already sent me pictures of him and his girlfriend... Yeah, its just to help keep me focused and keep me focus on my goal (Hey Rinna...) haha. So now I have 6 companions. The first 3 were latinos. The last two and now my current one are white. Yeah. Half of my companions have been white. Now I am with the famous Elder Walton from Garden Grove (home turf!) He´s famous. Why? He looks like a famous soccer player named Messi. Look him up, he looks exactly like him haha He´s a new zone leader so Im training him. The cool part is that we have been out for the same about of time in the mission (16 months) and I was his district leader in my last area in Sandino. So we already were great friends). He´s pretty funny. We are definitely wayyyy different. For example, he always asks ´hey do you remember when team x went to the play offs and player y scored z points in 1998?´ ´Nope... Havent the slightest clue... but have you heard of Glen Miller?´ ´Nope...´ ´Oh... ok´ haha 

With every change or transfer, many other things change. So many missionaries went home and now there are so many new zone leaders and district leaders. Seriously, a whole new generation. Going to be really fun haha. And even though its the most wonderful time of the year, we have no time to rest. We are constantly going, constantly running, teaching more, contacting more, doing more. Never resting... well, my comp is still getting used to it (see the picture of him). There is no rest in this work here in Nicaragua. Our zone was doing good, baptizing about 10-12 people every month, and now we have to kick it into high gear. There is a lot of iniquity I guess you could say. Now is the time for the Purísima, a catholic tradition. People have like a halloween event. Lots of people put up shrines to the virgen mary in their houses. People flock over, sing to the idol, then receive candy or food. Tons of people flooded the streets. Tons. A bunch of fireworks too. 5 year olds in the street with roman candles, fire crackers and sprinklers. Yeah, I almost got shot in the head haha Guess its a consequence for being tall. 

We have also ran into a lot of atheists recently. When I say a lot I want to say 2. Really strange people. One was a nurse for like 50 years (she was like 80 years old). I asked ´youve probably seen a number of miracles in the medical field working as a nurse for so long. ´ to which, she replied ´no. miracles dont exist. everything has an explanation in the medical field.´ ...okay. Kinda sad, but she was pretty set in her ways. 

And yeah. We have a leadership council tomorrow. We talk about how the mission is doing in baptisms, people with baptismal dates, statistics and everything. In each one, there is always a ´dynamic´ or a game. Well, recently... they just call me and ask ´hey.. Elder Mann... can you do the dynamic again?´ and I heard another zone leader say today ´If there is anyone that can come up with a good game, its Elder Mann´ Yeah... thanks comedy improv, preppin me for life! haha I feel like thats what happens to Hna Clement too. ´Hey shes a theatre major! She can do this.´ Feel for you. 

And yeah, thats the news. Merry Christmas! Remember the real reason! Read Luke chapter 2 to find out why we celebrate!

Adios! (enjoy the pictures)

12/02/2013

Ive got 16 months now in the mission. If I were a woman, Id be going home in February. But hey, Im not, so its 8 months more. 

We had a good interesting week. To start off, I sent a ton of pictures from a place called Tiscapa. Its just a hill in the middle of the city. We dont have a lot of neat places to visit in our zone, so we just climbed up there. Pretty neat and worked well. They tried to charge us all a dollar to get in because we are all foreigners but we all have our residencial licenses, so the lady just got mad at us and told us to just go. Haha

This sunday was also pretty interesting in church. The word Testimony isnt well understood in the church here yet. In the other churches here it just means a story about a blessing or a miracle, so normally thats what happens all sunday. This time we only went about 15-20 minutes late, but definitely the one that stood out was the one of one of our converts. Hermano Javier that studied in Jerusalem and with the rabbis and everything. He got up there and just started shouting... about Jesus and the gospel, but he was without a doubt shouting. Not so much a testimony, or a story, but rather a furious sermon. Shouting things like- Dont get discouraged! Christ will save you! Dont get discourage! His blood cleans us! Dont get discouraged! etc... After about 10 minutes, he asked a question like- are we the saints of Christ?! YES OR NO?! (or something similar to that question, i dont remember exactly). IF YOU DONT SPEAK NOW THEN FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE! YES OR NO?!

Finally the bishop stood up, whispered something in his ear and our convert just smiled and ended his testimony quietly. My comp and I just looked at each other... Hes going to learn. He has learned a lot, but he has a lot to go still. He also got a calling this week! Ward Mission Leader! So yayyyy!!! We are going to be working with him a lot haha. Hes great, really a great guy. Just has some evangelist habits about sermons and speeches were he currently believes that shouting is necessary... but... well yeah... he will figure it out soon. 

Three of our other converts from Belize went back to Belize this week too. They just got there today (they gave us a call). It is good, they werent too happy here with the schools and work system, so they went back to where their roots are. Everyone else that we visit keeps reminding my comp that he is leaving in a week and a half. That he should just stay and not go, or if he feels really homesick and is excited to see his girlfriend haha Its great, he is doing well still being focused in this, his last full week. 

We had our zone meeting this Friday too (every last friday of the month). President showed up (only known to us beforehand) and we think quite a few missionaries... well got a little scared to see him walk in the room haha But he is such an amazing motivator. We have highered goals now in the mission and that day we had a huge spike in the accomplishments of the day in what we report every day. The first time we asked him if he wanted to share a comment he said  Of course! Its like offering water to a man in the desert. 

Oh and for thanksgiving, we ate dinner/lunch together a zone. All catered and fancy. The best part was having good ham and mashed potatoes. Delicious. 

Oh and mom and dad, Ill be skyping the 25th. I believe I can choose the hour, so just let me know what is best for yall. 

Love you! Enjoy the pictures! 

PS those fotos of my shoes are because I sent one pair to get repaired because there was a ton of holes in it. But apparently the member that repaired it didnt have size 47 soles to put on it, so he put a sole size 43. Now they dont fit me at all. The actual shoe part, yeah, but now my pinky toes hang outside the soles. Even so, the soles are super thin and would not last more than two weeks here... so... Im gonna look for someone who needs a good xmas gift haha