Heart or Head

Jimmy and Sadia didn´t get baptized this weekend.  But they had a date for this Saturday but it wasn´t  super firm. They say they just need some time. I know they know it´s true, they´ve both said as much and I know they´ve felt it! Just scared to take that step! Arenoldo got baptized and he´s going to be an awesome strength to the ward, (he comes every week already very consistently). 

The conference on Sunday was super super awesome! The Lord is at the head! I thought of you guys being at the conference at the same time as me! Our next mission president was there at the meeting- my comp picked him out out of all the mission presidents. I think if we can get some of their ideas rolling here in Nicaragua it would be super tuanis! I feel like in my area is a little stagnant right now, not exactly sure why. We're not having too much success finding new families to teach and all the families we are teaching seem to have continuing problems of why they aren´t progressing. Something I learned this week. There are 2 distinct types of knowledge. Heart knowledge and head knowledge. Most people believe the concepts of the church with their heads but not their hearts. Head knowledge can be given to people, can be shared. Heart knowledge is much more personal. Lots of times I think about this person or that person--if they only knew how much God blesses the people that follow him, they would... I can say this because I have received these blessings, I have seen the reward from the obedience. That step from head knowledge to heart knowledge, is always a leap of faith. It is after the obedience that we realize the blessing and look at our past actions and other people and say, "If I/ If they only knew!" After the faith comes the blessings, so have faith, leap and have obedience and the Lord is waiting to bless us!

Maria, had her baby this week! He is so tiny and cute! The people here in Nicaragua think that babies will get sick if someone who´s been out in the sun all day and looks at their baby will make it sick. They put a little bracelet on their babies with rocks and if someone does look at their baby it´s supposed to explode or disintegrate I think and protect their baby. 

I wish the ice cream here tasted like Breyers... (I don´t like it as much, but the McFlurries compensate... there´s a Mcdonalds in our area and sometimes we get some--yea, you don´t need to worry about me getting fed enough=) 

                                                Love you all so much and love your letters!

I know a lot of things are going to change when our new mission president comes! That conference yesterday was the highlight of my week! It made me really excited to be a missionary at this time of great change. I remember stories where prophets or Christ is in a city and people flock to them, or they teach a whole ton of people on a hillside, or cities converting, or 3 thousand people being baptized in one day and wondering could this happen here, and if so how?! The conference reminded me that this truly is the Lord´s work and he is directing it, and I wrote down a few things that we could do better to work with the ward and members. and yes, we were listening to the same thing, at the same time (I thought about you guys watching it too!) the only difference is that I was listening to it in Spanish. (= My Spanish is not terrible (actually I´m sure my grammar is terrible) but I can usually convey what I want to and understanding is coming too. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I understood of the conference. President Arredondo confirmed that yes Hermana Chinchilla is having changes this week. It will be good because Hna Chinchilla needs a new area, she feels like she´s contacted everyone here.

Hermana Merrill

Commitments

So... I didn´t have changes this week! I still have my same companion and Jimmy and Sadia have a baptismal date for this Saturday along with a man named Arenoldo we´ve been teaching for a long time! So excited. Thanks for everyone that´s been praying for them and please keep praying for them so that this thing will happen! Jimmy was talking with his pastor for a long time there and wouldn´t open his heart a lot to feel the message, only wanted knowlege. I really fell thought that he has started feeling the message and he´s prayed about it and is still reading the book of mormon and I just sense a lot more peace in him. I am so excited for that family! A week or so back he said that if he becomes a member he said that he would be an hundred percent member not a 20% or algo, but a 100% member. They are seriously so awesome! Arenoldo is really awesome to. He comes to church every Sunday and bears his testimony on fast sunday and really can talk. and talk. and talk. (= He just had some problems we had to work through, but he has a firm date for this Saturday and it´s going to be awesome!

We have a farewell for President Arredondo this Wednesday. I really hope our next President focuses on retention and activation. I want to baptize people who will stay in the church, I want to focus more on building up the church in this area and retaining the people we baptize and having the wards help us with the missionary work. Hermana Chinchilla is more likely than not going to have emergency changes on the 27 and I´m going to get a new comp here in Bello Horizante. President hinted at that during changes meeting. (He consequently also told Hermana Chinchilla she probably ought to buy a house here in Bello because she´s been here so long (= ) Love you all, sounds like you´re all doing fantastic things, Hermana Heather Merrill

His will becoming my will

Answers: Yes I definitely enjoyed the pollo. (she is responding to question regarding the whole chicken delivered to them) Yes we play sports on p-days. This p-day we played futball and I whipped all the elders (Just Kidding, solo un broma). We´ve also played kickball and volleyball. We were able to find some good prospects for investigators this week. We tried to visit some of them this week, but haven´t had much success reaching many of them in their homes. Lately seems like I´ve been led to study mercy and justice, obviously in connection with the atonement. It´s been really awesome. I love love love the study time in the mornings, definitely the highlight of my day. And about the ward. I play the piano every week in Sacrament meeting and this last week for the choir, because it was a ward conference this week! Sadia and Jimmy came to the church this Sunday which made me really happy. They came 30 or so minutes late, but miracles happen! I´m not sure what to do for that family, Sadia is so ready for baptism, but her husband has so many doubts. He´s evangelicist and knows the bible really well. He listens to his head more than his heart. He is open to learning our message, and much of the time really likes the knowledge. He doesn´t feel the message though, and still has many doubts and questions. his preacher also gives him lots of doubts. MY comp says this about him. If he wants the answers in the bible (which he usually does), we can give him the answers in the bible, that´s the great thing about the message, it´s perfect. The bible supports everything. Until he really feels the message though, until he knows in his heart that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the BOM is true, that we have living prophets today who receive revelation, he´s not going to make any progress. He need to open his heart just a little bit. I totally know what you mean about prayer. Whenever I go into a prayer wanting to ask for something, I usually come out with a better way or like you said a heart more aligned to the will of His will. That is if I am willing to listen to him. Submitting my will to His is definitely one of the things I´m am learning to do on my mission. Trusting Him that His way is better than my way, and that if I put my life in his hands he will direct is better than I ever could. I´m not talking about part of my life. I mean all of my life, all of my desires whether they be bad OR good. All of my hopes and dreams changed for His hopes and dreams for me. That takes trust. Trust that He knows best, that that will make me happy, and even if not, that I should do it and in the end will be the best for me. Because really, who know best, me or God? God does want us to be happy though, and so when we trust his will over our own, we will be happy. Exchanges are this Wednesday. Which means more likely than not I´m losing my comp because she´s been in Bello Horizante for 7 MONTHS. This bishop likes to call the mission president and request that his missionaries (the ones he likes) not be transferred. So she´s been here for a long time, but at the last changes, Presidente said it would probably be her last. She great though, and we´re really starting to have fun and make progress together so I´ll really be sad to see her go. The other scary thing about her leaving is that I will need to orient my new trainer to the area. I will need to remember where all the houses of RC and families we are teaching as well as bus stops to the different areas and Hermana Chinchilla knew where lots of the members and menos activos lived which could make our days really productive. All I had to do was ask who could do this for us, or is there a menos activo that lives in this area we could visit, and she had a name and knew where to go. She´s super awesome. Hermana Merrill

Whole Chicken for Starving Missionaries

This week there´s not too much to talk about, we didn´t have very many people in church, ok 0. It seems like everyone that we´re teaching right now all the sudden decided to have problems. Love it. Something funny that happened this week--- the members who the elders are staying with asked them who they have dinner with. They told them they don´t eat dinner. The members asked why and Elder Stark said it was because they didn´t have enough money (which isn´t true, the elders just spend it all at the beginning... (= ). The family told the bishop this and they announced it in Relief Society, and asked for help from the members. (We weren´t in Relief Society this week). We got a call from an Hermana in the ward who said they had a whole chicken for us. (Don´t worry it was cooked). So we have a chicken sitting at our house right now, and when my comp got off the phone and said the Ortegas have an entire chicken for us, we both just started laughing. We had a paint war for P-day to day.... Some interesting food I had this week. This is traditional soup, or sopa. It was actually quite good I enjoyed it a lot. Hermana Merrill Love you all.