2/17/2014

What a week! We completed with our duty as missionaries with exactness!! Haha, what I want to say is that we have the standards of excellence in the mission and this week we completed with them every day. Every day. Phew...

The standards are at least:

6 lessons with investigators

3 lessons with less actives or recent converts

10 contacts (talking with someone in the street and inviting them to church or to hear our message) each missionary every day. Normally, a companionship has 2, so its 20 for the day, but we are 3 so we have to contact 30 every day.

In the end, we did it. We talked to 188 people just this week. We did the math and it seems like if we complete every day for the 12 weeks of trainig for our ´son´ (the newbie) he could contact 2000 people in his first 3 months of his mission. A ton. 

it was hard, but we did it and I feel very satisfied.

In other news, we had a great lesson in priesthood sunday. It was about having a family and being good dads. Im very thankful I had such a good example in my life for that and Im rather excited to see how I fare in that same area. 

We are working really hard and getting used to everything new. The area here is much more beautiful, much more natural and a full array of trees, fruits and flowers. Every day someone gives us like 10 mandarin oranges. Im getting my citric vitamins in.

Congratulations to Rinna for her mission. Im very proud of you and hope you havea  good time there with your parents! Let me know how it goes!

-Elder Mann

 Melodica and the Uke

 my comps

 tricycle ride

 goofy stuff with companion

 more goofiness

 back to work

 just hanging out

companion's glasses

2/24/2014

Well I had a good week. We baptized a little girl named Nathali that is 9 years old. Her dad is an ex missionary and her family is all members. They were just inactive for a while and they recently became active again. The little girl is so nice and so smart. She loves answering questions haha I think she is the smallest person I have baptized in the mission. And because she is the first baptism of my second ´son´, he was able to baptize her (remember the rule here that the missionaries no longer baptize). So it was his first and last baptism of his mission! Which is pretty funny because my first ´son´ baptized a little girl for his first baptism too. Wow that was longer than a year ago! Haha Its also great because he completed 1 month on the 22nd too! The sister Raquel from my last area called saturday too. Her husband and her daughter were baptized. I was able to talk briefly to them before their baptism. It was absolutely astounding to hear the difference in her husband. It was hard to say goodbye to them when I had changes there, but I am overjoyed to know that he is a convert to the gospel and not a convert to a missionary.

Other than that we had an amazing experience in a family home evening in the bishops house yesterday (sunday, but... what is important is that we had a FHE). Anyway, Elder Augustin brought his Melodica (see pictures from last week) and I brought my ukulele. We played ´Where can i turn for peace?´ I love that song. Just instruments for the first verse, I sang the second, then Elder Willden and I sang in English for the last verse. It was really good. Haha Not to brag, but the spirit was strong. Afterward we shared a message about the atonement. Thats when I noticed a great difference in my mission. Before, when I was starting we would teach the atonement to teach it and mark it off the list because everyone here knows that Jesus died for us. The difference last night? The personal effect of the atonement. We read in Alma 7:11-13. Then we each shared a testimony to say the least. When I invited the bishop to share his testimony, I felt the difference in the room. The topic of the atonement can´t be taken lightly nor explained quickly and be justified. Ive come to learn that. The difference from the beginning of the mission and now? Before, I explained what I had read. Now, I explain what I have experienced. Now, I don´t claim to understand it perfectly, nor near perfectly, but I do say that I understand it better. More than I did before. That´s one of the greatest changes Ive had in my mission. 

I hope all is well. Give Rinna a good home coming party! Somebody hug her for me! haha

-Elder Mann

02/10/2014

Well then,

This week was very, very interesting. Why? I had changes. Yeah. I am no longer in Managua or in the Las Palmas ward. That was a tough announcement to get. We had already left to go work and we were visiting at the time when my comp got the call and answered. We continued as he talked off to the side and my heart just sunk when I heard him say my name. I wasnt expecting, nor hoping to have changes. I had just assumed that I would stay there one change more according to something President told me in an interview, but I suppose I interpreted incorrectly or he received new revelation. So yeah, we ended out the rest of the day. I didnt get to say goodbye to all my converts there, but at least I was able to say goodbye to the bishop and the other leaders (thanks to ward council) and one family (the last sister that I baptized. Her and her family were the last ones I visited). For the others, I just left some pictures with my info on the back off we went the next morning.

And now? Im in the Zone Carazo, in the stake of Jinotepe in the ward San Marcos. Way different than Managua. I think we are about an hour south more or less. The biggest difference? Its cold here. Haha. Not in comparison to AZ winter or Utah winter or nothing, but it sufficeth me to say that I wrap myself in my blanket in the morning and at night. I also have a bigger, much bigger house, full equipped with a hot shower (hallelujah that thing is pure glory) and two hammocks (perfect for taking numbers in the night). 

My new companion...s are Elder Willden (Utah). He has 2 changes left in the mission, or about 3 months. AND Elder Augustin (guatemala). Hes new. Brand new. Yeah, we are training. Our son (he´s got two dads... hahaha) is awesome. He is super funny and super excited to be here. The great part is that we practiced putting baptismal dates (inviting someone to be baptized a specific day) in the morning on his second day here in the field. That afternoon, the very first person he invited to be baptized accepted without a problem. He was jumping with joy after leaving that lesson. 

My area is like going back to my first area. I have a part that has paved streets and pretty decent houses. Then we just have straight field status. Plastic houses with trees as corner posts. Gotta love diversity. Im pretty excited to work here, almost everyone has accepted us so far (not so much in the city) and people are everywhere! Literally, there is at least 3 families in the street at all times. My last area? We had to search for an hour to find a family and now its so easy here. Helps too that in the ward there are a good number of ex missionaries. At least ten. 

In short, Im pretty excited for these next few changes. Its probable that this will be my last area. It appears to be that I am on a 4 change every area plan for my mission haha. 6 months in Masaya. 6 in Ciudad Sandino. 6 in Managua. and now I have 6 months left... We shall see. 

 Elder Reine (the tall one)

 Elder Bateman (texas)

 Then the poly pic at changes meeting. 

My companions

02/03/2014

Changes are this week. Its quite probable I will stay here. I had asked President in my interview a few weeks ago if I would have more time to complete an assignment I had with working with my companion (ie if I would be with him for another transfer period) he said I would. Because of that, Im not expecting changes, and I really dont changes right now. We have seen so much progress in our own companionship (especially working with 3 missionaries) and in the ward. If I stay, itll be my 5th chang e here. Thats the most time I will have ever spent in one area. We do divisions or splits almost every day. Literally, almost every day some members goes and visits with us. Last week we had 5 members working with us. There has been such a drastic change here in this ward and I honestly feel such a great love from the members, especially the bishop. He invited us over last night for dinner, and we shared a short message of gratitude for the work he is doing as bishop (he´s an amazing bishop. Such a humble, loving and righteous man. So funny too (see the picture with his fishermans hat as we make the golden plates)). He has a great heart for the misionaries.

Even more, in this week we had the visit of Elder Amado. The ´workshop´ or ´conference´ he gave was miraculous. Really astounding. He spoke of many topics from marriage (I am a missionary of great faith if I am planning to be married soon after the mission haha) to constant prayer to understanding the depth of a person. I loved it. It has encouraged us a great amount to improve ourselves as missionaries and we had a very successful weekend because of it. Each companionship had at least  6 lessons with investigators, 3 lessons with less actives or recent converts and contacted 10 people each day (those are the standards of excellence for our mission). It was the first time we have ever had such great success in a chain of days like that. 

Im starting to change my focus to seeing the deeper spiritual side of our investigators (we have a number that are so close to baptism they are just waiting for an answer) instead of looking at the surface level challenges. Thats going to be one of my focuses now. 

We are also hoping to get another good companion to stay in a trio this change. We hope to train... and two polys are coming in (one from hawaii and one from tonga)... so we´ll see. We also had a fun pday playing ukulele, settlers of cataan (addicted to that game... Clement family, I hope to play with y´all after), and two sisters in our zone made us chocolate chip cookies and blue berry muffins because we beat them in the board game last week haha (I also won 10 instant noodle packets from a little bet I had in mini basketball with our 3rd companion. Today he gave me all the noodles! :D)

So yes, we are having great successes recently in our zone, companionship and ward. I thank the Dana park ward for sending the christmas ´card´, the long fold up paper. I was really glad to read a bunch of unfamiliar names written by loving people! Haha Hope you had a great christmas.

Congratulations to Hermana Clement as well for ending your mission so well and so strongly (even while being sick)! Cuídate mucho y te quiero muchísimo. 

- Elder Mann

my comp sleeping during planning session

 One sister made a piggy bank out of an empty coke bottle

 Elder Baldwin (comp from the MTC) and I worked together FINALLY

 our zone in Managua

 my tiny house in Managua

 My comp and I with our zone tshirts we made (frat boy style) hahaha

This is Elder Ruiz, we were in trio with him for 2 weeks. Hes from Guatemala. 

01/27/2014

Hello!! This week was really special. Friday, we had a mission conference with the North mission too. There were about 350 missionaries or so all together to hear President of the Seventy, Elder Soares. In addition, the mission presidents and their wives talked and Elder Ochoa and his wife. This was the first time that Sister Russell gave a talk in all spanish too. Normally, president Russell translates for her, so it was really special. Its been difficult for her because she doesnt speak it every day and doesnt have as much interaction with the locals as a normal missionary. It was really amazing to hear her speak in spanish and see the courage she had to do so. 

The talk from Elder Soares was also very, very inspiring. He, to my surprise, utilized the same format that we use because its found in Preach my Gospel. He taught a principle, asked a question, cleared the doubt, bore testimony with a personal experience and then extended a commitment with a direct question. It was neat to see that format applied during the talk. We sang a choir as well and thats always a blast. We have to prepare two more songs within 3 zones for a multizone activity we are having wednesday. The thing is, in the 3 zones there isnt anyone who has actually ever directed a choir... and I may just be that ignorant fearless one that attempts it hahaha Hope it goes well. At least we have someone that plays piano pretty well. We are going to have to prepare 2 songs like an hour before the activity. Yay! 

Just to share a neat experience that I had... this week we went and visited the son of the ex-ex bishop. His family (himself included) no longer attend church for some petty quarels they had years ago with other families and the new bishops, etc. The son we visited was a missionary too, but he was returned from the mission two times. One, because he didnt clear up what he should have before going on the mission, so he repented correctly. Two, what appeared to be an injust act of a great misunderstanding. He expressed to a great... sorrow for having been wronged. He told us that he felt that God had forgotten about him. He had doubts in his faith, in God and was just unsure of the reason of why he was here. We talked with him for a bit. He explained that 7 pairs of missionaries had passed by, that one time a group 17 missionaries passed by him the street, all of them stopped, went back and talked with him not knowing why, and that the members still tell the missionaries that members live in ´that´ house when they walk by. We were able to help him see that God had not forgotten him at all, but rather has been calling him in various forms for a long while. We helped him feel that he had a purpose in his mission, that there was a reason for being sent home early for the second time, and that he has a purpose now with his wife (also a member, that he baptized) and his daughter. It was a very spiritual experience as we ended the visit. We offered a priesthood blessing which he accepted and he committed himself to return to church soon. He is just waiting to end the semester as a teacher. Tonight, we are going back to share another message with him and his family. 

What did I learn from that experience? Too much to write. Basically, that our Father in Heaven never forgets us. We are the ones troubled enough to not see the saving light that he send our way. 

Hope all is well. Enjoy your ´pday´!

 More! the one on the far right is the pianist

 This is from the special christmas choir where Sister Russell chose the polys of the mission haha

She gave us snickers after we sang our songs :D

01/13/2014

Another great week. Most important (short on time)- we brought 4 families to church and 11 people in total to church. How amazing! That hasnt happened in this ward since forever ago. We are so excited. Why did it happen? We are using the members so much. We just assign members to pass by and take them to church. Works so much better. They also teach them with us and they are just so great. We have had so much confidence with the members and they love us so much haha I love this ward. The bishop told me Sunday in his office, and he said it in a like a lovingly concerned way ´Elders, I want to invite you to do something, but its just an invitation. You dont have to do it if you dont have to. I want to invite you to eat dinner at my house. Elder Mann, you look really skinny. Are you okay? Are you eating?´ I just laughed ´Yeah, Im fine. There is always food, we just are working a ton. Thank you, we´ll call you if we can come eat dinner some day.´ Haha

Well, first, this is more important. BAPTISMS!!! A muchacho and a lady were baptized this Saturday. We had two services for their schedules, but YES!!! Francisco G. and Raquel were baptized this Saturday. They were so excited. Interesting parts? Francisco is the son of the leader of an evangelist church here. Like a HUGE church that covers all Nicaragua. His dad has houses in Brasil, spain, missouri, etc. SO Rich. SO Rich. But, he said ´do God´s will and Im okay with it.´ Haha

We are working with Raquel´s husband to baptize him too. He´s a bit tougher, but hes progressing a ton recently. 

We also had interviews with president. Great experience. Good talk with him. Better part? As my comp was being interviewed, I just talked with Sister Russell. She talked to me about marriage and how my future wife should be. I know someone that fit all the details PERFECTLY. It was a great talk. She´s definitely my mission mom. So dont worry mom, she takes good care of me and even gives me girl advice (haha). 

Oh, and just for the last second- Mom, my comp doesnt believe I had long(er) hair. Can you find that picture of Taylor and I when we are in his house and my hair is all flared up. It was like senior year. I know its on facebook... Just shows how long my hair is... can you email it to me? Thank you!

Love you all! 

 Messing around with the funky glasses

 Francisco Gonzales!!! He´s 17. Great kid.

 And thats the elders quorum president. He showed up to the baptism dressed like that. Hahaha I just had to take a picture of it. Just wait, in a few years, youll see another picture like this, but Ill be the one with the aloha shirt and fedora and some slick boat shoes with khakis hahaha

 Thats the sister we baptized (we are teaching her husband there and the daughter in white too. The daughter is 8.)

The little lady is her neighbor, an awesome member that helps us out a ton (shes so short)