11/18/2013

I had two amazing experiences today- 1 I went to an evangelical church. 2- there were ordinations to the melquisedek priesthood. 

So one, the rule is that we can attend another church if the person that invites us commits themself to attend our church. A family invited us, we went. It was such an interesting... interesting experience... It wasnt like another church I attended in the states that had a band and everything, that was more calm... This was like a concert. A full band, lead singer, 3 back ups, two keyboardists, guitarist, bass player, drummer and bongos (yeah i dont know why there were bongos). The first hour was just full of songs that were all practically the same or had the same message. A few of the lyrics that just repeated the whole 5 minutes (with guitar solos thrown in) were the following ´Christ lives! Christ lives! Christ lives!´ ´My god is strong! My god is big!´ or ´I feel my savior in my hands, my feet, my being´(a few steps like the Hokey Pokey were associated with that song). I dont say this to criticize it necessarily, but just to give an appropriate idea of how it was. Its true, it is a false church. There is a great lack of knowledge and understanding. Because when the pastor got up and starting preaching, he shared 3 scriptures on faith with the message that ´If you have a problem, pray, and God will take it away from you.´ Taking away the whole purpose of agency and acting for oneself, and just stripping us of personal responsibility. The people were happy, they were dancing, grooving to the beat, but the spirit wasn´t present. There is a great confusion with what the real spirit is, its not just an adrenaline rush or even a physical reaction, its not something that can be measured or calculated or commanded. Its something completely independent, its brought about by the truth, by pure testimony and sincerity of heart. It confirms only that what is truth, it cannot bear testimony of false beliefs that´s why it wasn´t present. 

On the second note, there was a general stake priesthood meeting. We were able to go because of the sole reason that our white convert Jeffrey doesnt speak spanish. So I translated in the interviews for him and the actual conference (just imagine leaning over for an hour and a half hearing words in spanish and translating them to english without ever having heard the message or understanding the point before for four different speakers). From that experience, I know I´m not ready to translate general conference yet, but some day. Afterward, they had the ordinations of about 12-13 men. The ward Im in is in the same stake as my last area. Of the 12-13 men, I knew 10 of them personally. I did their baptismal interviews, i taught them first before passing the reference or before leaving the area, or I always saw them in church. It was such a miracle to see all of them there. One of them was a young man that was married to an ex missionary a few weeks ago, I think I wrote about it, where they found me on the street and told me he was baptized and that I taught them the first lesson before transfers... and to end the lesson they asked me to give them a blessing for each one. Yeah, he was there too. Just before they went to ordain him he leaned forward (sitting on the bench behind me) and said ´Because of your blessing, I´m here.´ I cannot begin to describe how I felt. That feeling of the spirit that can only be felt when in the truth, enveloped in the truth and sustained completely by the truth is what I felt. A strong surge of love from our Heavenly Father. Four of our converts in this area received the priesthood and 6 others from the area in Ciudad Sandino. I know that the priesthood is a real power. it is the power by which the Lord works miracles. He blesses us with his love through it and it is how we are filled with light.

I just wanted to share these two experiences with all of you. If you are curious about the spirit, please talk to the missionaries, they´ll let you know how it is. that´s a promise. If you havent felt the spirit in a long time, go to church Sunday, and just sit in the back and focus on the talks. 

Que les vaya bien y que Dios me los cuide. 

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

11/11/2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS PAPÁ!!!!

Don´t get too sad that you have white whiskers now... just think that next year you can be a legit Santa Clause!

Well we had a really full and interesting week. I´ve noticed a great pattern in the workings of the things here with our converts. We visit them and visit them most times daily at which ever hour of the day because they dont work, they dont study, they dont do anything, just talk and watch tv. We do this for like four or five weeks until they get baptized. During that time, they dont have any problems going to church. Then, when they get baptized, everything changes. A job opens up, a class is cheaper, a family member starts to visit them that is against the church, or something. SOMETHING happens so that the convert doubts his faith, or chooses the job on sunday in stead of church, or he chooses to study in stead of going to church. SOMETHING. It´s happened with almost every single one of my converts. The ones who chose church over the job or put their faith in the Lord are still active in the church. Sadly, about half of my converts are not because they chose the other route. There is always SOMETHING. So, we had to tackle a number of those issues this week. To visit those who needed visiting and to remind those who needed reminding. 

As a zone, we are doing well. We already have 9 people baptized this month (normally all the baptisms happen at the end of the month) and we are doing well, constantly progressing forward. With that, this is the last transfer or change with my companion Elder Ken... I mean, Elder Parrish. Time flies. He goes home the 12th of December. So yeah, he´ll be home for Christmas hahaha (Dad, we listen to the christmas songs every day hahaha) It´s been really great with him. We have 4 weeks left and we are going to baptize at least one more person. At least one more so he can go home baptizing haha. That´s the plan. 

This week was also pretty funny too because we did divisions, or splits, for the first time with members here... but the members were friends from my previous area, Ciudad Sandino. They came over here (its a short bus ride) to go do visits with me hahaha It was really fun. Carlos, el gordito, came out along with David, a future missionary from the family I baptized in Sandino. Its pretty funny in the sense that we should be working with members from the ward here, but due to our lack of planning, lack of coordination and just lack of communication, we havent been able to do it for these three months, until I called my two friends from my last area and they came right out without problems haha

So yes, the mission is going well. I´m hoping that all are doing well and that they know they can email to let me know how they are doing, its not a sin to do that. Haha

Hasta la próxima! 

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

3- My shoes now. Apparently the concrete is much harder than the dirt from my other areas because they are wearing out preeetty quick.

 2- The roof is being redone in the tia´s house, and water poured in on her room... so they were doing a quick fix.

 1- the flooded street during a hard rain storm. Couldnt leave for a while

 4- I didnt have the heart to throw the moustache away, so now I have a friend at my desk always

5- Just ironing on my desk, no big deal (the power went out in the neighborhood where the tia lives... so we just took the iron home to do it haha)

11/04/2013

Yeah, I have 9 months left. A group of like 15 missionaries leave in 10 days and my comp is gone in 6 weeks with his group of like 15 too. As Jim Carrey said in Dumb and Dumber ´I hate goodbyes!´

We had a great week! It was really busy with various activities, so unfortunately we couldnt work 100% in our area. But we did have a good halloween, put on a mini stage show, and have a wedding and baptism. 

For halloween, we just studied ´in costume´ (see pictures). Then later that day as we went to dinner we had a plan. I had a few more moustaches left over, and my comp has that alien mask, so we brewed up a plan for la Tía (the sister that cooks for us always). I went in the kitchen and called to her telling her I had a gift for her. She put out her hand, and I gave her a moustache. She had no idea what it was, but I explained it to her and convinced her to stick onto her face for a picture hahahaha (she´s really funny). As she posed for the picture, back to the door, I counted out really loud and hit ´record´ ¨Uno! Dos! Tres!¨ and when I said ´Tres´ Elder Parrish had crept in with the mask and a towel wrapped around his head to cover his hair, he screamed in her ear. She welped and hid her face, sttunned haha. When she looked up, she just saw the alien face and screamed again. She took a swipe at him and then started laughing with us. It was HYSTERICAL!!!!!! All on tape hahahaha

Other than that, halloween was normal. Just a few people asked if witches come out or if zombies exist or stuff like that. There were a few signs here that said ´Halloween is a satanic party. Its a trap for your soul!´

But hey, we also had a baptism for Hno Alejandro! Finally his papers come through on divorce and marriage and whatnot, so we had the marriage wednesday. Nice and simple. In the church, a cake from Price Mart (the Nica costco) and some soda. Friday was the baptism. There were three parts of the baptism that were really powerful. One, the testimony of his wife, Carmen. She was less active but has come back to church and they are going strong. Second, was literally power haha Alejandro stuck his foot out the first time the bishop tried to baptize him, so the second time the bishop shoved him under quickly and firmly to make sure it was good. Third, the testimony of Alejandro. He is normally the ´tough´ guy, always establishing that he knows well and has experience, but when he gave his testimony, tears came to his eyes as he confessed that he knew that this was the truth. He testified that this was the true church and that he had received a remision of his sins. It was a very spiritual moment.

Thirdly, we had an activity of the book of mormon at the stake level. Each ward had to prepare a performance explaining a certain part of the book of mormon. Parts such as- when lehi leaves jerusalem, lehi´s dream, prayer of enos, baptisms in the waters of mormon. Christ comes to the americas, Moroni buries the plates and (our part) Joseph smith uncovers the plates). Each ward had a room of the building and all was decordated to style. We did the first vision and when the angel Moroni showed J. Smith to the plates. I was the narrator and read the 8 minute play. The stake choir participated, singing parts of Josephs smith first prayer and other parts. It was pretty good. I loved doing it again. Building the set was fun and reminded me of my good ol´AYT days. We had a little dark young man be J. Smith as a youth and then my white comp be J. Smith grown up. Flowed well, the scenes. Haha

Aaaaand to sum it up, we also had interviews with President. It was pretty simple as zone leader. My interview was a whole of 8 minutes. Nothing big, just an encouraging visit. We have a good zone, we´re baptizing qutie a bit, we just need to keep finding new people to teach. 

So yeah, hope all is well with you. Congrats to my dad for finally becoming a US citizen!!! Too bad you wont get deported to a tropical island now, but just go to prison... oh well. Worth the trade, right? Haha

Adios! Les quiero mucho y buenos suerte a mis amigos en todo el mundo. Especialmente a mi primo Keagon que acaba de empezar la misión! Será magnifico, primo. Te lo prometo.

--

Elder Mann

Nicaragua Managua Sur

La Mejor Misión del Mundo

 1-The baptism of Alejandro. The Bishop baptized him.

2- The wedding of the family.

Me, Javier (The guy who studied in Israel), Alejandro, Carmen (the couple), Elder Parrish, and her mom.

 6- The cat we give the chicken bones to every day. It waits on top of the house.

 3- Halloween stache!!!

 5- We studied like this. 

4- My comp´s halloween costume!

 2- The baptism of Alejandro

 3- Spray painting a bush

 3- Spray painting a bush

 5- Putting up the set. ´Fake trees? Who needs fake trees? I have a machete and there are plenty of trees outside!´ (true story)

 6- Making the golden plates with Bishop Vanegas

 7- The cast and crew of our little shindig

 My comp as Joseph Smith and me with a microphone (in case you didnt see it)

 And that´s our Angel Moroni. hahaha That guy is super funny and weird... he was eating leaves back stage hahahaha (and he looks like he is from starwars)

 7- The cast and crew of our little shindig

 7- The cast and crew of our little shindig

7- The cast and crew of our little shindig