Christmas 2013

Christmas was great. I loved talking to the fam. Thank you everybody for you love!!!

The family Heather lives with

We got invited to the house of a member with lots of other missionaries for Esteli. Also 2 companionships of Elders from Ocotal (2 hours away ) who got stuck here for Tuesday and Thurday after the mission activity on Monday because there weren't any buses those days... (=

       

Fancy Christmas Dinner at a hotel in Managua
Held on Monday Dec 23rd, 2013

Heather and Sister Livingston

She said the best part was
seeing her friends

Mission President and wife

 

 

 

The Patricia's

Each missionary was given a gift
of a pillow from the mission Pres

Setting up the Pinata

Quick update on some cool families we're teaching:

Max continues to come to church but doesn't want to get baptized. Really he's not sure he wants to change his life yet, he likes partying a little too much. Ena is a little shy and filled with evangelical pressure from Max's family so she's a little harder, as far as getting her to come to church. We're trying to do some fellow shipping though. 

We baptized the 10 year old son of Ana Patricia the member we live with. Her husband came home from working in the states for 41/2 years. (He wanted to be baptized by his dad). The dad was the first one to find the church in the states. That was cool.

We found some cool new families this week. Maria and Geraldo are really cool. He accepted to be baptized and they were going to come to church but... He has a lot of questions about after this life and loved the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully we can do some friendshipping and get them to come to church this week. 

Hermana Merrill

Feliz Navidad!

Wishing you all a feliz Navidad! The first picture is at the Christmas mission activity, and the second at 5 in the morning with some really cool people in our ward. We went caroling to lots of members houses!

Thank you all so much for you love!

Hermana Merrill

Street Corner Wonder

As far as the package we only get packages when we go to Managua and so no one has gotten Christmas packages yet, so don´t worry about that. It could be there in Managua and I wouldn´t know. Belen and Reinaldo are married so that´s really cool. Slady and Ronald (that´s actually how you spell her name) aren´t married. 

Our miracle families are having a few problems, mainly a lot of other conflicts on Sundays. They´re still real cool and we´re working with them. We learned this week that Reinaldo is a leader in his church, but the second visit we had with him he accepted a baptismal date if he received an answer from God. They´re really humble and willing to listen even though he is a leader. 

We also found another really cool family this week--Max and Ana (I think that´s what her name is, we just met her yesterday and she says her name really quiet) Max is always sitting out in front on the corner of the house of Claudia. We always say hi to him as we pass and once we had a short conversation with him, but we´ve never really talked before for very long. He met other missionaries in the states 2 pairs. He´s attended a college ward and always hung out at 5 guys with some elders in Minnesota. He speaks perfect english but never got baptized. He´s afraid of messing up after he´s baptized. He said he lost his faith in the army (he also served in the US army). We had the most spiritual conversation we´ve ever had on my mission on Saturday night on a street corner. I was almost crying. And the next day he came to church and brought his girlfriend too. His girlfriend loved church. One thing I know for sure is that God loves that kid. I hope Max knows it too because he´s definitely been followed by the missionaries. It was also really cool to speak in English.

Hector finally came back into the city from working and I think we´re finally going to get started on this divorce of his. Maybe someday he´ll get baptized.

Grisel´s not doing too hot. Ernesto cheated on her. Live the law of chastity, it brings blessings. They have a lot of problems.

This week in Esteli was all about the Purisimo. All about the virgin Mary...

Love you all sooo much!

Hermana Merrill

Week of Miracles

So this week was a week of miracles. 

One day we set out and that day we really needed to find and teach a new family. We spent almost all day contacting and... nothing. 8:45pm we were a few minutes away from our house and decided to contact one more house. When we yelled "buenas" they came to the door and they said it would be okay if we shared a message. They let us in and they both sat down and listened to us. They came to church this Sunday on their own and are so cool. Their names are Belen and Reinaldo.

We also found another really cool family this week. With the help of some of the cool members we were able to bring them to the Christmas devotional. Their names are Esleydi and Ronald--they have 2 really little kids so it was really awesome that the wife of the family that helped us bring them to church, is the Primary President and she helped them all through the devotional. We have a family home evening with them both tonight. Cool.

A move, a baptism and a doughnut for Thanksgiving

So this week Yasmina got baptized!  Nope, not using the mosquito net. We moved our house this week, the same day that we had the baptism of Yasmina.

We have the coolest new Sister training leaders, Hermana Kendel and Hermana Miller. They're some of my favorite people here on the mission. Actually I've got a lot of those people.  Also Hermana Raymand (grandma, do you remember her?) is the sister training leader for all the girls here on the mission. She is one of the sweetest, Christ-like people I've ever met and one of my sweetest best friends here. She flew on the plane with me and the other 6 sister missionaries you met at the airport if you remember. 

I got a text from Grisel last night telling me she won't be coming back to church. I think it's for problems in her marriage. (they're not married and Ernesto is not sure about either of the desicions, baptism or marraige). Tonight we're going to go visit them.

We're living in a new house now. 

Love you all

Hermana Merrill

P.S. there was black friday here

I ate a doughnut for thanksgiving (=, they don't sell pie

Cool Week

There´s a cool lady named Yasmina that´s going to get baptized this Saturday. Hermana Chinchilla is done with her mission this week. The Primary Program was this week and all the kids did so awesome!

Grisel and Ernesto her husband are cool, I love that family so much. They´ve come to church two weeks in a row and super awesome. Grisel is this really spunky lady who really wants to be baptized so bad, but her companion didn´t want get married. Ernesto I think is softening up, and I hope they get baptized soon!

We also found another really cool family this week. We gave them a BOM in a contact which is something we don´t normally do, but they were interested in it and really grateful for it when we gave it to them. When we came to their house for the first time, they had read the introduction and the testimonies of the 3 witnesses.

I love you all so much!! 

Hermana Merrill

PS  Other things:

My hair is super blonde )= 

There are Christmas trees and lights up here

Good Week

Well this week was good. I was in Managua, AGAIN... I´m always in Managua these days. I´ll be in Managua on Tuesday and Wednesday for meetings. 

Highlights of this week-

Baby Shower for one of my recent converts, Nazerely.

The husband of Grisel (Ernesto) came to church this week. (Although they live in a different branch but Grisel refuses to go to the other branch because her aunt goes to ours. That´s always a mess and I´m not sure exactly what to do).

Yasmina- we found her this week, she accepted a baptism date and a member that lives close to her brought her to church this week!

Hermana Merrill

Divisiones and Fruit Basket

Not a whole ton happened this week. We worked a whole ton with members, and I did divisiones in Ocotal which is 20 or so minutes from Honduras. This week I get to do divisiones with my mother, Hermana Chinchilla in good old Managua! 

Thanks for all your pictures, I love them. There are Christmas trees up here in Esteli as of 2 weeks ago. 

Oh, the Relief Society put on an activity this week, they danced and made food and turns out the Nicaraguan women like to play fruitbasket too... (= . They weren´t doing anything at the beginning, just sitting and hardly talking so I taught them how to play. Aleida loved the activity and has some good friends now, so that´s cool! (we´re going to work on the divorce situations between them still).

Love you all a ton!

Hermana Merrill

Mucho Pictures

So this week I spent 2 days in Managua for trainers/trainees and one for leaders meeting. Not much happened besides that. This weekend was a little rough as far as investigators and things go, we don´t have a whole ton right now.  

Thanks so much for fasting for me. I really felt blessed. I really, really did. I felt physically and emotionally uplifted. I didn´t know why until you all told me you were fasting for me, I really felt blessed. So thank you!

I´m going to send pictures.

And Thank you for the pictures.

Hermana Merrill

Beautiful Nicaragua

Seeing friends again as we get our Visas

First Converts for Hermana
Merrill and Ochoa

Trainers/Trainees

Volcano in the distance

Armageddan! No cockroaches in my shower! 

Success!

  

Heather's current companion Hermana Aparicio 

                

Hermana Aparicio,
Ochoa and Merrill
 (Generations :) )

Riding home in the Branch President's truck.
 It rained all the way to and from the farm

  Great Day on the Farm picking coconuts, mandarin oranges and limes. Then cooking hot dogs over the fire with these great missionaries from my Zone

Hermana Ochoa, she has 3 months on the mission.
She´s so nice, funny, happy, teaches incredibly,
 and I finally have to speak spanish all the time!

 On Top of the World 

Bus load of Beaming Missionaries

Encounter with a Bull 

Petroglyphs Mimic

Adventures on P-day

Learning to Train

Remember that really cool family? Well now they don´t want to talk to us )= 

We have a total of 4 recent converts in our area (all of them came to church this Sunday!!!). Also a lot of menos activos too!

 I did divisions with the training leader of the training leaders this week. She´s really cool and I learned some good things. Also did divisions with Hermana Ferring a new girl in our Zone. We had fun and saw lots of miracles together. She´s a really really tall girl from the states who is feeling a little like a deer in the headlights right now. Reminds me a bit of how I was in the beginning. Did I ever tell you all that Hermana Chinchilla (my mother on the mission) is a training leader of the training leaders so I will get to do divisions with her once in a while!

This week I´m going to spend 2 days in Managua, one for the leaders and the other of the trainers. There goes my missionary work for the week. (= 

I got to see Hermana Mcdonald (Mindy) this week. (we had a multizone conference in Matagalpla) It was fun to see her again! (Heather played some years of soccer with Mindy)

And thanks for the package! (NIKKI TOO!)

Hermana Merrill

Training in Esteli

So. This was a crazy week! Well the lastest and greatest is that I get to train a newbie!

 I get to be a mother! Not only do I have the best awesome

daughter ever, but I was also assigned to be the training leader here
in Esteli. (It´s a new position if you haven´t heard of it). Basically
I´m supposed to do divisions 2 times a week to help train the
Hermanas. (Once I get a hang of it, I´ll be sure to let you know (= )
Although I wasn´t really ever told what I´m supposed to do, it´s good
we have a leaders meeting coming up in a week. My new companions name
is Hermana Aparicio. She served a 4 week mini mission in Panama where
she´s from before she came here to Nicaragua. She is so awesome and is
pre-trained. I love working with her and am so excited I get to train
her.  Remember all the girls that were in the airport with us the week
I left on my mission? They´re all training too! It was fun taking a
picture with all of us and all our daughters.

Updates on the families we´re teaching:
Hector and Aleida
They were so ready to get baptized this Saturday. Then I found out
that he was married before. And isn´t divorced, which means he can´t
get married. (There are a lot of couples that "se juntan", or are just
living together. So many times they get married and then baptized to
obey the law of chastity before they´re baptized). I thought they were
clear as far as not needing any divorces, but alas... The divorce
process is 3 or 4 months and longer if they have kids which (I also
found out, don´t know why I didn´t know before, he has 2). He´s going
to go and talk to his wife this week, he´s ready to take the
initiative which is good especially because divorces are expensive as
well.

We also found some other really awesome families this week, the most
noteable family being Jose Miguel and Maria Torrez. They really needed
the gospel. We´ve had some really spiritual lessons sitting on the
cement front porch of a neighbor/friend. They don´t have a house of
their own, and the people they´re living with are of a different
religion and didn´t want us teaching in their house. They came to
church this week (alone!) with all 3 of their kids and said they´re
coming next week. We´re going to have a family home evening with them
tonight.

Our p-day today was really cool, we went to some really cool
sight-seeing spots in Nicaragua. I´ll send pictures next week.

Con mucho Cariño,
Hermana Merrill

Miracles and "Meri" or "Maria" the Nun

So this week was a week of miracles. This crazy family just showed up at church on Saturday, I´m pretty sure they didn´t even know there was conference. I was sitting in the session and I hear my name from the door, "Meri". (Nobody can actually pronounce my name so I get all sorts of things from Maria to most common-Meri. I usually just introduce myself like that now.) They´re really cool, their names are Hector and Aleda and they have a little boy named Lestor. They loved conference. Hector is so funny. He talks SO much. Basically he repeats the restoration of the gospel and well, all of our lessons, every lesson. At least we know he understands them. Aleda basically doesn´t talk but sometimes nods when in agreement to something her husband says that she said (=. Lestor is super cute and their grandma who comes to the door always calls us the nuns. "the nuns are here, or the nuns passed by" (= 

Also the son of one of our awesome recent converts and girlfriend came to conference.  And as well as 4 or 5 more investigators or people we talk to on the street a lot. I love conference for many different reasons here on the mission. 

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Hermana Merrill

Neighborhood Visiting

First, thanks for all the letters from the family reunion, I loved them!!

Highlights:

Today I remembered the game Jones when it says "you spent the weekend cleaning the mold out from your apt" as I scrubbed out our shower this morning.

A less active who is really active now turned to me during church and thanked me for helping her. I love her a lot, her name is Claudia and we´re teaching her husband, aunt, uncle, and grandma who aren´t members!

We´re also teaching a cool family that lives across the street from us. This week we went and talked to all of our neighbors.

I´m so excited for conference!

All the lights went out on the first try of this letter and I got to write it again! Gotta love Nicaragua!

Hermana Merrill

Wow Week! Farm Fun, Visa and Baptismal Date

Sorry lots for not writing back to you last week, but I promise I read all of your letters, I printed them out cause last week I just didn´t have time! Last week we went to a farm in our zone and picked coconuts, mandarin oranges and limes and then cooked hot dogs around a fire as a zone. The bus didn´t come for a long time so we were cutting the missionary deadline pretty close. It was really fun though. We got very soaked. The president of one of the branches drove us in the back of his truck and it rained both ways, to and from the farm. 

This week I spent a lot of time practicing for the district choir, I was playing the piano. Also President Collado, (mission president) came for interview and some training. I learned a lot and was really grateful for the visit. 

I am finally a resident of Nicaragua, I have my ID! Today I spent the day back in Managua getting it. We took an express bus from Esteli to Managua, which is about 2 hours. We left at 4:45 in the morning and there weren´t any seats and so we got to stand the whole way! It was also quite crowded in the aisle. It was really fun, and my comp felt stomach sick the whole way..

Yesterday Jaime, uncle of a less active who finally came to church this Sunday for the District Conference, accepted a baptismal date! Also the less active, Claudia, loved the conference and said she is going to come every week now. She said she knows that God wants her family in the temple. Her husband isn´t a member, but we´re teaching him right now. She wants to start reading the BOM with her fam, and do FHE every week. It was really cool to see that change in her! Also her aunt wants to be baptized but isn´t married to her husband (like they say here). She also loved the conference and was super excited afterwards. We´re going to start teaching him though. We have a FHE with them both tonight, I´m hoping both the husbands will be there! 

Things you asked about last week:

The woman with a baptismal is a little scared right now, but we´re working with her. Our problem more than anything is getting people to come to church!

We live with 2 awesome Hermanas, Hermana Pearson and Hermana Corzantes.
 Our clothes are washed by the cutest lady in our ward that helps us so much with missionary work!  I definitely use the rain coat and my comp found a use one day for my crazy rain boots (=

We have two little burners, a sink and a mini fridge.  Our sink empties into a bucket and we get to empty it out when it gets too full. We fill up tons of water bottles and put them on the counter for when the water goes out so that we can shower. Our food cita is by the same lady in the branch who does our clothes.  My comp´s awesome.

Love you all!

Hermana Merrill 

Excitement for Esteli

I got transferred to the best area in the whole mission, Estelí. (= It´s so pretty here, and way less hot than Managua. Esteli gets lots of rain too, lots more than Managua! It´s much more of a community, farther away from the city, less dirty, and there are mountains! I can´t decide if my area in Managua or this area is more rich though. I still haven´t seen poor Nicaragua. My companion is super awesome too! Her name is Hermana Ochoa, she has 3 months on the mission and she´s so nice, funny, happy, teaches incredibly, and I finally have to speak spanish all the time! (= 

Esteli´s great, we have a really awesome recent convert family that are seriously so awesome and pilas and were so prepared. Right now we are teaching both of their moms and one of them accepted a baptismal date. We don´t have any super awesome families we´re teaching right now, but we´re teaching quite a few really cool investigators. Most of them we found through reactivating menos activos, members, and recent converts.

I really want to start and finish this area with faith and excitement. Some days I feel like I never stop praying, it´s just that I definitely figured out that I can´t do this alone. Every single minute matters on the mission, and I can´t convert people, and I´m not close to perfect, so I definitely pray a lot!

I love you all so much!

Hermana Merrill

La obediencia es el precio, la fe es el poder, el amor es el motivo, el Espíritu es la clave, y Jesucristo es la razón.

News Flash, Being Transferred!

So about the food, I usually only send pictures of food that is abnormal. Whether it is real typical American food (like the tacos and pancakes-- those were really awesome meals) or if it is really weird Nica food. (like the crazy soups)

This week Elder Ochoa of the seventy came and visited us. I learned so much!

News flash, I have transfers tomorrow!

I don't know where I'm going!

Thanks for everything! Love you all

Fun Nicaragua Facts and Rainy Day Contact

Fun Facts:   We live close to the Rotunda (a round about) which is basically the center of all the action here in Bello Horizante. At precisely 5pm every day hundreds of pigeons fly in and sit on all the power lines, they stay until sometime in the night because in the morning they're gone. The street has white lines directly under all the power lines from all the bird poop. We walk very fast through that area.

Nobody's house is closed in completely. All of them are open to the fresh air. Bugs in houses are very normal.

Pulperias: they're little stores that are on every corner. They are very convenient. My favorite thing to get is polvoron, it's a cookie of sorts that's not as sweet as normal cookies. They're one cortaba each one and the milk kind tastes like big soft nilla wafers. there are other kinds too- ones that taste like gingerbread and another that's kind of coconutty.

More Nicaragua eats,
that I'm sure she enjoyed

Here in Nica there's a verb for chilling. (like to chill out-- I'm just chilling out) It's chiliar.

Cool experience:

Well this story starts bad. 

Rosa and Alfonso, a family that's super awesome doesn't really want to listen to us anymore. When we went by to teach them we ended up just talking doctrine, also Rosa didn't even come out for the lesson. This is the story of this family: One day we contacted them, but since they lived kind of far away we didn't go back to visit them for a while. One day we were walking to someone else's house and as we passed their house I just randomly said, hey do you want to visit the fam we contacted here? So we changed our plans and visited them. The first visit they were so cool. He said he believed that there should only be one church of God he just didn't know where it was. He also liked the idea of eternal families. They were both very sincere and the cutest couple. And they're married! Most aren't here. We had 2 lessons where we were with another couple from the church and both were horrible! The first lesson the members offended them by making a comment about the evangelico church. And in the second the member macheted (reprimand of sorts) our investigators. This last lesson we had with them Rosa didn't even come out of her room to have a lesson with us and the lesson was horrible. He has changed and now believes what everyone believes in Nicaragua, that every church is good and every baptism saves and God is in all of us but doesn't guide us today directly. I call it the hippie belief in God. Free, there are no rules, God loves everyone and will save everyone. Read second Nephi 28.

So Sunday night both my comp and I were low on faith after that lesson on Saturday and after the 2 families that we had committed to church fell. Also our recent converts decided they didn't really want to come either. When we went out to work on Sunday night we visited a family we contacted in the rain the night before right after the super frustrating lesson. They were really awesome, open to the idea of baptism and coming to church and we have another appointment with them tomorrow. 

Blessings from God. They're real. Thanks mom. I love that quote.

Hermana Merrill

(I just posted more pictures on last week's post...scrolling down will take you to them)

 Companion Hermana Rochelle

From Pleasant View, Utah

Nicaragua to be flooded with Hermanas

 Not Ultimate but water balloon
 volleyball in the rain

We played ultimate frisbee this week with the zone! It was so fun, I love P-days!

P-day Fun

-

Our Mission President said that Hermanas can go to Puerto Cabezas (the coast) now! Puerto Cabezas is soooo poor, and people speak mosquito when they go there. Previously they didn´t send Hermanas there because its supposed to be more dangerous. The people are so humble and ready for the gospel there though, the Elders who go to Puerto baptize many many families. It´s supposed to be so pretty, kind of a jungle. (The area I´m in right now is one of the richest areas in all of Nicaragua. The people are more intelligent, but are definitely harder to teach because they´re not as humble-- my companion had a hard time coming from her area of Matagalpa to here. We get a lot more rejection, and the people we teach definitely take a lot more work.) The first two Hermanas will go to Puerto this change in 2 and a half weeks. They´re already chosen, but nobody knows who they are. dun dun dun...

Our mission was chosen to be one of the missions with half Hermanas half Elders. A whole ton of Hermanas are going to be coming in and goodbye to the Elders. There are going to be so many training Hermanas! 

I´ve been here 5 months tomorrow, time passes so fast!

This week a returned missionary brought her brothers wife named Rosemary to church (we had had a FHE with them the night before). It was really cool because we had helped activate her 2 weeks before. She´s going to church and has a calling now! 

Love you all so much!!!

Hermana Merrill

P.S. I would love The red refill of the scripture marker pencil. (I use that one the most and because sometimes it gets jammed and breaks in half the pencil stuff I´m almost out of that color)

Doug, Congragulations! That is super tuanis and lots of work! Say hi to your kids to me.

Erika. Good luck in School, I´m sure you´re going to do fantastic! I love you. Remember to love every minute of it and don´t get married! 

Dallin

I can read behind those letters of yours and can feel in every part of my soul that you are so excited for school!!!

Nikki

Good work with all your softball. Thanks for being such a light! Never stop!