9/23/2013

 At a multizone activity getting an award for being there

 My shoes a month or so ago (now there are bigger holes)

 Jeffrey and Sandy tying their ties before the baptism. Jeffrey had to tie Sandys hahha it was pretty funny. Sandy made himself a noose because he couldnt do it.

 Waiting outside the bishops office for a meeting (note the chlorine stained socks

 Then the baptism picture.

  Eating in the restuarant El Eskimo

 wet from the daily rain...

 Baptism of Fransisco (the older one) 

Hello!

Well, we had a really great week. We baptized Hermano Fransisco (Saying Brother Fransisco just sounds weird). It was a really good service.

When I came to the area, he already wanted to be baptized, so we just taught him and something changed within him to accept it all. He stopped smoking (he had smoked all his life) and we helped by passing by practically every day and we gave him a bag of hard candies every week to suck on instead of smoking. He´s super funny. I dont know why, but all of our converts or investigators love making fun of my companion with me hahaha Just little things. Its hysterical. Todos me caen muy bien, me encanta. haha

We have an elder in our zone. Elder Kersey from Cali. he is a lot like Elder Calhoun from The Best Two Years. Super sincere, so kind and so excited to be here. He has about 8 months in the mission. Not the best spanish speaker, but he has the biggest heart...also the biggest backpack. Literally, its the size of a small washing machine and packed with supplies to live for a week. He´s awesome. Just wanted to throw that note in here.

We did divisions between zones today. I went with an argentino in his area. We had the goals of contacting 8 families, teaching 2 new families and puttinga  baptismal date with a new family. We were the only ones to achieve all of the goals and more. like 9 contacted, 3 new families taught and 2 new families with baptismal dates. What a great experience. I love inviting people to be baptized. Its so great haha 

Mom, I got the easter package. Thank you! I will be using the crunchy peanutbutter as soon as I can and the chipotle tobasco sauce wont leave my backpack until it is empty haha

Congrats to my parents for moving to a new house! Hope the clements treat them well hahahaha, its so funny they are in the same ward... hahahha....

Aaand  yeah. The mission is pretty busy. The assignment of a zone leader is fun. Its great showing up to a companionships house to do weekly planning with them, they dont answer the door, you call them to ask where they are at and they tell you they moved a few weeks ago without us knowing... Thats great. Normally we have to approve all of that fancy stuff, but hey, theres a lot to learn. 

We are also putting that video we made on dvd (so maybe ill be sending that home so you all can see it)

Yeah... life is good.

Adios!

-- 

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

9/16/2013

Hola mis amigítos y familiares!

Firstly, I´d like to thank the young women of pleasant second ward for the card and Tobasco Chipotle sauce! That is a great act of charity, of which all should follow suit. Thank you young women of Chandler, AZ.

Secondly, we had two baptisms this week. I´ve already explained a little bit about the two we baptized, but it is just so strange and amazing that I have written the story like 3 times in my journal already and I still struggle to believe it. The two are med students here in Nicaragua. One is like 30, nicaraguense, speaks english because he had a tutor for a few years, but just learned english by watching movies in english hahaha 

The other, Jeffrey, is 70 years old. From Michigan. Studying to be a med student in Nicaragua. He left his family in the states to come here, married a Nica that doesn´t speak english. He says the only thing she knows how to say is ´Jeffrey, need money.´ hahaha But she helps him out a lot, always cooks and cleans, and does the shopping and what not. He is a grad student from some university in Michigan I believe and he is just hysterical. He said ´The only spanish I knew when I came here is what I could remember from the Taco Bell menu!´ He is always picking on my companion hahahaha because my companion is so chill that he speaks a bit slow sometimes and has the appearance of thinking slow, but he doesnt. He just speaks clearly. My comp asked Jeffrey ´Was Woodstock in the 60´s or 70´s?´ Jeffrey just stared at him, appalled and asked ´Are you american?´ Hahaha And the jokes just kept coming afterward. I love being with him haha. He also loves jazz and swing music. We were talking about Count Basie and Glen Miller Sunday at church. Wow that brought me a many memories. 

But its just a straight miracle that they decided to be baptized now in their lives. I am so intrigued by the plan of our Heavenly Father to bring them the gospel at this time in their lives. They are sponges, learning everything they can, reading everything they can (they read a ton. and they assisted Institute every Friday and Saturday too) haha Its amazing. 

To celebrate, Elder Parrish and I went to a ´fancy´ restaurant we have here in our area. Its called Eskimo. And it was great. Looking over the menu, there were a few 4 or 5 dollar burgers and sandwiches. I was having a hard time choosing when I asked, ´Do you do halfsies?´ ´Oh YES! That´s a great idea!´ Haha I just said ´Im glad we both have girlfriends... we learned well.´ Thanks Rinna, because of you I could both a club sandwich and a bacon burger. Then I had a banana split for dessert. Delicious. And worth the 8 dollar bill. 

This weekend we have 2 more baptisms, Hermano Fransisco and Hermanita Maria. The brother is of age too, about 60 and is awesome. He isnt working and lives alone, and we visit him about every day to share something. He doesnt know how to read, so we always read with him the scriptures. The other is a niece of the family we baptized a few weeks ago. She´s also ready to be baptized.

So, by the end of this next week, Elder Parrish and I will have baptized 8 people together in 1 transfer. That´s the most people I´ll ever have baptized in one transfer. 1 transfer is 6 weeks. There is power when the Kens are together, let me tell you... hahaha

Hope you all enjoy this week! Im going to have a great dinner of rice and beans, be jealous. its actually quite appetizing (even moreso when we pour a bunch of bbq sauce on it).

See ya!

PS Thanks JayJay for writing! I loved hearing from you! Gracias por tu ejemplo y felicidades por comprometerte. 

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

9/9/2013

So we finally ended the video last Monday. We spent 5 hours editing it. Yeah, it was the longest time I had been seated a computer in a year. Not as fun as it was before the mission. But it was the best video. Worth the sacrifice. We had an activity with 3 zones in it and we presented our video last. The funniest video in Nicaragua. I lent my usb to the assistents to show to the rest of the missionaries for the next few days. It was a success. Many enjoyed the nicknames of the companionships, and thought that my companion and I ´The Kens´ was the best hahaha

Oh, and I dont think Ive said it yet, but Rinna and I have a funny similarity in the mission. She is in the mission where the president of the US lives. The president of Nicaragua lives in my area. We still havent passed by his house because many have passed and none have been accepted, but I want to do it at least one time while being here. Theres just a bunch of police with AK47s and shotguns in my area too. Very secure. Literally, theres a mini army here. Always. 

We had an amazing experience Friday too. We are teaching two med students. One guy from Michigan that doesnt speak spanish. Friday, we were studying as a companionship in the morning as usual and the phone rings. I pick it up and its one of the two guys we are teaching. He explained to me ´Hey, Jeffrey and I have been thinking a lot about the baptism thing and about the church (They had a baptismal date the 19 of october which is way far in the future here and seeing that they have already gone to church 3 weeks in a row). We were thinking and we both received the answers that we were searching for. We want to get baptized.´

I stopped breathing. ´What?´

´Yeah, we want to get baptized, but our friend (thats a member) said there is an interview or something to do. So, what do we have to do?´

I explained what they have to do still and how we are going to do it. Basically, we taught them all the commandmants we obey as members of the church Sunday after church (they are only here saturday and sunday) and they didnt have any problem whatsoever with any of the commandments. When one of them had their answer through a dream Tuesday, he stopped drinking coffee that same day without us even inviting them to do so yet. It was seriously a miracle. As we talked to them in the lesson and at church, they had such a sincere feeling to do what Christ expects of them in order to have a better life. I also feel like I have a little bit of an idea of what its like to teach in the states... well, because hes from Michigan and a med student, and we taught in english. It was really interesting. 

The bishop also asked my comp and I to talk this past sunday. The night before, my comp starting writing down some ideas and asked me ´Are you one of those people that doesnt have to write anything down and can still give a good talk?´

I just shrugged because the topic was missionary work... and I didnt feel a strong need to write down what we are living...

He replied ´I hate people like you.´ Hahaha But he said it in a loving way hahaha

This week was really great. But as always, I can´t explain everything in writing... It´ll just come in moments after the mission when the experience will be necessary to share. 

I hope all are well! Feel free to send a message or email my way, I´d love to hear from you.

Adios! 

-- 

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

9/2/2013

13 Months.

Wow... I got some of the best news of my mission from my dad today hahaha that we are going to be neighbors with Rinna. YES! Hahahaha 

Ahem... In the mission, all is improving. Well? Not the best. We lack much faith in this zone. As a zone, we havent baptized much in the last transfers or even months even when there are so many people here. President sent me a strong letter about faith and what we can achieve, so I now have the new determination to improve this zone to be the pride and joy of the mission. We have put goals, and some plans, but I know we will need more plans that are more creative and more exciting to get the missionaries excited to work and love the Lord. 

To help in that, we have a multi zone activity tomorrow (like a big training with about 60 missionaries) and we have to do a presentation as a zone. So we are making a video. Well, we have all the individual parts of the video, and now my comp and I have to put it together today in like 2 hours. I hope we can do it because there is a lot of film to go through. Basically, its a funny video to the music of ´yakety sax´ to introduce every companionship and then ´you raise me up´ by josh groban with funny actions associated with the song. Just imagine missionaries lifting each other up, dancing with buckets on their head, sister missionaries prancing with flowers, and the like... yeah, we are going to edit it today and get that ready for tomorrow. 

We followed up with Jeffrey and Sandy (Jeffrey being the white guy from michigan), my english was a bit better. We read the pamphlet in english before the lesson to practice the words again. I can only imagine how I´ll be after the mission, after another year of just spanish... So Rinna, keep up your spanish skills because you are going to translate for me (especially because we are NEIGHBORS!!!) 

We found an amazing family here too. The both are so humble and so kind. They both said ´we want to go to church. I dont mind getting baptized. I just want to know the church first, BUT´ (This was the but that killed) ´we arent married. (which is normal here). And we arent married because he got married when he was drunk like 15 years ago and doesnt remember what day or month it was. And we kind find the records of his wedding, but he knows he got married by the coast (really far from here).´

Dang. This family is so positive, and this is a great challenge. Thankfully we have la Hermana Betty in our ward. She does all the immigration work for the missionaries and members of the church and knows the system of law really well. We are going to be asking her for a miracle soon enough. 

I really am loving this part of the mission. Being zone leader is great. Its pretty fun. The only downfall is when something bad happens somewhere in our zone, its our fault. No matter what it is, so we have to be well informed about everything... sometimes the missionaries dont like saying what they are doing... so its a good learning experience. But My comp and I are really good together. We are extremely similar in so many ways haha Its ridiculous. Even our girlfriends are similar (they both have 2 years more than us). Its weird, but we laugh and get along really well. 

Also, my convert in Ciudad Sandino, Hno Miguel was let out of jail this week. They found out he was innocent, so they let him go without problems. I hope he comes to visit soon enough (Im in the same stake, just a little hop away). I also saw my second baptism. We were walking along at night (we dont have car fasts... we just walk... always... and we are grateful for the buses haha) and walked past a semi. Someone yelled ´Hermano Mann!!!´ I looked and it was Yader!!! I felt so happy to see him. He hopped down and I gave him about 10 hugs in 5 seconds for being so excited to see him. He was working, driving the truck. Unfortunately, he and his wife are still studying english sundays so they arent going to church, but it was marvellous to see him. 

In short, it was a great week. 13 months now and this month Rinna completes 1 year. Gettin´ up there! Haha

-- 

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo