11/28/13

Halloween is this week! Also Nov 2 is the Day of the Dead here. We were going to baptize one of our investigators that day, but there is a stake activity about the book of mormon that day too. His wife was really excited ´You are going to die!!! But youll be resurrected!!!´ hahaha For halloween? I dont know. People are terrified of halloween here. They are all super supersticious thinking its just about the devil, witches, and spirits. Worst of all- Theres no candy involved... :(

We are prepping Hermano Alejandro for baptism this week. He´ll be baptized Friday if all goes well with the wedding wednesday and what not. Yeah, being a missionary here, one learns a lot about the divorce, marriage, and legal process. Pretty interesting. He´s the brother of Javier that was baptized the past week. We had a strong lesson with him yesterday. We passed over the baptismal interview questions to make sure he is all ready and good to go. He bore a strong, strong testimony that he knows this is the true church. He knows Joseph Smith was a prophet. Sometimes, I marvel myself by hearing the testimonies of the people we get to teach. They have such a short time knowing the gospel, but it really shows the power of the Holy Spirit that just testifies to them and lets them know that this is the truth. Its such a great feeling to hear the testimony of an investigator or convert. Especially, when we had to fight and work hard to help that person. I mentioned the divorce... yeah, we woke up two days this week at 4:20ish to go meet up with a lawyer who had to travel to another city in bus to give her papers she needed and whatnot. Yeah, waking up two hours early makes a difference. Mainly just after lunch. Thats when the anvils decide to sit on the eyelids. But no, we didnt sleep. We just kept going on and today we are going to take time to relax and rest haha

Yesterday we were also talking about the transfers that are coming up. There are transfers (or changes) every six weeks where missionaries move from area to another, old ones leave and new ones come in. There are changes in the second week of November, Second week of December and the first week of February. In these 3 changes, 50 missionaries are going home. 50. That´s a ton. and only 30 are coming in to the mission. 50 doesnt equal 30. So? The President is going to have to close areas until new missionaries come. And I bet that just sisters are going to be coming to the mission (thats the pattern. 1 to 3 elders, and 8 sisters come in every group). ThPresident said that in a year, half the mission will be sister missionaries. Wow... So yeah, that a little tadbit about the politics of the mission haha

Happy Halloween! 

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

10/21/13

We had a baptism this weekend! Hermano Javier Fernandez! He is a very interesting man. He has pretty much dedicated his whole life to the bible, studying it, teaching it, learning from it, etc. His whole life. Doesnt have a family, and his job is teaching bible classes en a church (that´s another story). Basically, he is the brother of another guy we are teaching. The other guy, alejandro, came to church with his girlfriend because he wants to get married and baptized. So we are in the process of that (there are some complications in the marriage), but we went to their house, met his brother, Javier and started teaching him too. He knows so much about the bible. He knows SO much about the bible. ie the girlfriend asked why sometimes sunday is the first day and sometimes monday is the first day of the week. He answered by saying ´thats the romans fault! In the year 327 they made changes to the calendar due to... ¨ and the whole story afterward. My companion and I just looked at eachother not knowing anything to say ´yes´ or to say ´no´ haha He studied 10 years in Guatemala with pastors and one of those pastors sent him to Israel to study with the jewish rabbis for 2 years. Yeah, so he went to israel and studied with the jews... that´s why he knows so much. 

But when we showed him the book of mormon, he accepted it right away, knowing that the bible isnt complete. Hes been reading a ton and has read through 2 Nephi already, marking something on every page haha Seriously, I never thought I would meet anyone like him and less baptize someone like him. But every point of doctrine we teach, even the lesser known stuff, he says ´Yeah, that´s right. I knew that. That´s in the bible in this book and that chapter.´ It´s so weird... but amazing haha

In our zone, we just had our zone activity. Elder Parrish and I planned a whole bunch of fun different activities. We played Ninja, had a paper airplane contest, a contest of the most consagrated missionary (run, put on a tie, eat breakfast, find a scripture, etc that type of race thing), a race with human bobsleds (if you dont know, dont ask), and a bean bag throwing contest (bean bags made of rice and beans haha True Nica style). It was really funny. We had a good time and I believe it was something good because there were a lot of various activities. 

We are also pretty animated... well excited because we baptized 9 people this weekend and we have a few more people that we are going to baptize this next week. Its a good accomplishment. 

But yeah, a good week! Hope all is well back home and that the good keeps going on. 

Also, congrats to Taylor Heyman for becoming zone leader!!! Now he´ll learn that it just means answering phone calls all day, sleeping fewer hours, and not having as much time in your own area to work... oh the joy. Haha.

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

 One, this is a missionary house. I went there in divisions... or like ´splits´ I think they are called in English. Not sure. But yeah, someone just wrote that on the wall, and they only have 1 lightbulb in the whole house. And if you turn on the fan, the light gets dimmer, and the higher you put the fan, the lower the light gets... High class apartments here haha

 The other is in our church. The word pila means fount. Bautismal means bapstimal. BUUUUT BauStismal I havent a clue...

 2- Making paper airplanes in the zone activity

 Eating pizza

 Zone activity

 Zona Managua

 Zona Managua

 Eating pizza

 1- baptism of Javier Fernandez

Zone activity eating pizza then all together

10/14/2013

Well howdy ho!

Uhh... A decirles la verdad, no he pensado para nada de lo que podría decirles esta semana. Normalmente, lo apunto para tener un idea al sentarme en frente de la computadora... pero... bueno. Está bien, solo voy a escribir algo. 

Jeremiah has the coolest Halloween costume ever! That is awesome. Ninja Turtle!!! Way to keep to the theme of the family haha

Elder Parrish and I have started doing work outs, as evident in the moustache photo. He wants to try and gain weight before he goes back home haha We both know its pretty much impossible here because its pure rice and beans and fried platanos that we eat every day. But hey, at least we can pretend like we are getting stronger haha

One thing I have learned the importance of is studying the scriptures. It´s really something amazing to just see the doctrine of Christ so plainly laid out. The need of the Book of Mormon is great. Without it, there are so many misinterpretations of the bible. Thats why so many churches exist. But with the Book of Mromon, the doctrine is clear and the church is one.  I have never, never understood the slightest importance of scripture study until I came to the mission. Nor the importance of home teaching, preparation for sunday, etc. So many aspects of the church I just would not be able to understand if I had not come to Nicaragua. Its such an amazing organization. The bishops have such a great... cargo... to care for so many people and they have a great need for the help of the rest of the members. This church is definitely not a passive, go and return, church. The church of Christ requires action, requires dedication and a desire to help others. I can only imagine how it was in the beginning with just Christ and his 12 apostles. How much they depended upon the spirit to guide them daily to organize and maintain the church pure. Obviously, they did not succeed for more than 100 years, but what they established has been restored today; and it won´t be taken off the earth until He returns again. 

We are working hard. The zone leaders get all the strife if the zone is doing well or doing poorly. Its pretty interesting. The weekly letters from president have a different tone. We talk to the mission nurse (a missionary) quite often and actually one of our missionaries is going home soon because he suffers from migraines that cant be treated here in the mission. Its quite sad. A long struggle with that to see if he could stay, but alas he cannot. 

Also, congratulations to Rinna for being a trainer in her mission!! She´s so amazing. I knew she would get called to be in a position like that in her mission. She´s a born leader. 

Have a good week!

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

 My companion and I slept in the chapel today because it has air conditioning. A few missionaries from our zone took photos and videos from when they woke us up. Hahaha

 Im the Joker this week. I dont know why it turned out like that. But its pretty creepy haha

 A spider we found while cleaning the baptismal room

 A view of Lake Managua when I went on divisiones with another missionary. We visited people that lived right on the edge of these shrubs/trees

 Remember this? The kids do it. Not sure what it means, but they just go street to street banging the drums as the tall women whips around looking everywhere and the little guy follows up chasing her. Some people give them money... I dont know why.

 We eat cup of noodles pretty often for dinner... haha... but the other day she did make home made tomato soup with grilled cheese! Special request!

 This is LA TIA!!!!! She cooks for us and washes our clothes. She has done it for 7 years now. She´s super funny. And here she is holding a tamale that I put in my cup of noodles.

 Working out. We made a bench with boxes full of pamphlets and old magazines. The bar has concrete in the form of empty paint cans. Tshirt compliments of Rinna. Moustache compliments of Mom. Glasses compliments of Elder Parrish.

watching conference in English

 Our converts and us are the only ones that were suit jackets to church.

This is Elder Kersey from California. He´s so funny. He always has that huge tie on. Always. 

10/7/2013

Well, Elder Parrish didnt have changes. He just had this change and one more in the mission. He is going home 12 de diciembre. So, Im going to ´kill´ him. aka Im his last companion. Its cool because he is super awesome, but it stinks because he will probably get real home sick in the last few weeks and itll be hard to focus him haha but I hope not. It doesnt seem like he will get like that... but it does seem like we will keep laughing for the  rest of his mission. The other day in weekly planning (planning for the week... it takes like 3 hours... just sitting at the desks... it can get a bit boring), he reclined in his chair like always, putting the back against the wall. As he started to talk about 2.5 hours into the planning, he opened his mouth, I looked up, and he just shwwwooooooop! out of sight. I just heard a quiet ´oww....´ and busted up laughing. hahahaha He fell hard hahaha

I got the shoes mom!!! They are amazing. i felt like I was walking on clouds all day. First time I´ve ever had slip on dress shoes too. Pretty convenient. 

CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!! Wooooooow!!! I cannot even express how amazing it was. But here are 3 basic things I felt and heard and noted throughout the conference- 

1- The family is the most important thing in the world. Above work, above careers, above egos and pride, above recognition or personal ambition, the family must be first. The mother caring for the children and the father supporting the mother in every step with the priesthood.

2- Now is time to presevere until the end. The faith we have is enough to keep us moving forward, but we need to constantly increase that faith. We must not doubt our faith just because of the upcoming persecutions, but rather doubt the doubts. We know that this is the true church, God has said it. What more evidence need we?

3- The missionary force is the focus of the church now. More than ever people and families need the joy of the gospel in their lives and everyone must take part. Members need to present their friends to the gospel and the missionaries. 

and many, many other things, but it was just fantastic. (and the  BYU game announcer distracted me a bit. ´Let´s look at the gameplan. Exclamation point!` haha)

So, I dont know if anyone remembers, but wayyyy before the mission. Rinna went to the Mesa Temples visitor center and met a Nica girl there. We were going to go there so that I could meet her too and talk to her about nicaragua, but we never went in the end. But this sunday was conference, so all the wards came to the same chapel. I was standing by the door when I just a voice say ´Elder MANN!! I FINALLY FOUND YOU!!!!´ And there was the ex misionera standing there looking like shes ready to attack me with a hug. I shrugged back a bit into the wall from fear that she would actually do it and stuck my hand out. She shook it vigorously and explained that she knows me. ´I served in Mesa´ ´Wait! You know my girlfriend!´ ¨Yeah!!! Sister Clement!!!!´ and then I got all happy and we talked a bit. 

It was a good week. It was really fun. Our converts Jeffrey and Sandy are hysterical. They make me laugh so hard. 

The people in this ward are so great too haha All have such a good sense of humor. 

Have a good week!

Ill send pics some other week because I dont have a cable or adapter here.

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

9/30/2013

Bueno.

So we had another Leadership Council this week. Where all the zone leaders get together and talk about the achievements of every zone, the difficulties, and how we are going to get better. We also get the announcements from President about things that are going to happen in the mission, rule changes, etc. This week we got the announcement that in stead of 3 or 4 transfers/changes in one area being normal, its now 5 or 6, which is like 7-9 months. I have 4 transfers in Masaya, 4 in Ciudad Sandino and now I believe I will be here in Managua until March or so haha Its a long time. The reason being so we can gain the confidence of the members and teach their friends and family. 

We taught a few interesting lessons this week. So, the country of Nicaragua is very religious at every level. The president has the slogan ´christian, something something (i dont know the words in english), but its obvious he is chrisitan. As is every other person here, very few atheists and I havent even met a jew. Just christian and catholic. But, that being said. Everyone has their own church. There are normally 2 or 3 churches every block. Each pastor teaching different doctrine than the next and the people change churches just depending on how the pastor talks to them, so there is a blatant example of apostasy here. Churches start for lucrative purposes, for abusing the law of tithing, to gain the interest of men, to be reknowned, etc. Because of that, we have to correct a ton of doctrine that just straight up isnt correct. One being the formation of the church of Christ. Christ was a prophet as well. He called 12 apostles. That was the guiding head of the organization, of the church. Today, how many churches have 1 prophet and 12 apostles ordained by the laying on of hands? One. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Its so obvious, but people dont understand. 

We teach ´Christ had a prophet and apostles in his true church right?´

´Yes´

´Does your church have a prophet and 12 apostles?`

´No but I have a pastor and thats all I need?`

Wheeereeee.... wheeeeere in the bible does it teach that there is no need for prophets and that only pastors suffice??? It doesnt teach that! 

Yeah, doctrine vent right there. Thanks for reading. If you arent a member and are a bit confused, talk to the missionaries, they understand. 

But on the upside, Nicaragua is progessing in technology. We now have bus cards. The buses dont use coins anymore (only a few). Which is awesome and it isnt that great at the same time. Its like a key swiper thing that you just put the card next to the proximity scanner and it shows a green light. Simple right? Well... here its difficult for a few people... It is sad watching someone push the card on the monitor screaming it doesnt work as the bus driver is screaming to put the card lower on the scanner for 3 minutes as every car in the nation is honking its horn because we are in the middle of a tiny street in an old school bus. Yeah... its not happening so much anymore.

So yeah, it was a fun week. The whole ´Elder Ken´ thing is quite popular among the missionaries after seeing our zones video where that name appears. All of the other zone leaders just call us that haha 

Hope all is well. Best of luck getting ready for halloween, dont get robbed. 

-- 

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

 Last Monday, I was Superman. 

 Today, I was Hitler. 

Today, I was Hitler.