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

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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!

Prayer & God's love

A spiritual experience I had this week was on prayer. 

I've really been trying to work with the members, hard work and effective. I was trying to be creative. We were receiving referrals. I tried to make sure that all our members that had investigators brought them to the church.  I didn´t know what to do differently, to do better, or how to change the results. I was definitely being taught a lesson though.

Before I was trying to rely on the arm of my own flesh when the person you really need to be listening was God. These are his children, not mine. So finally I gave Him control. Friday and Saturday instead of running from one place to another trying to do everything, trying to follow my own schedule, I tried to follow the program of God. Saturday night I prayed, really prayed for each of our investigators and God worked a miracle. We had 0 families committed to go to church, and on Sunday Rosa and Alfonsa were standing on the sidewalk waiting for us, ready for church. And on the way to their house one of the families from our ward asked if we needed help bringing someone to church. We delightedly said yes that would be awesome, and por fin (at last!) we brought a family to church! (but not really it was God that brought them to church.) Miracles happen. God was taking my pride and taught me to trust Him. You see, after I learned the lesson that God really does love and has a plan for all of His children. I didn´t know where my role was in that plan. If God loves all of His children and has the perfect plan for them, why will my prayers make a difference? I still don´t really understand why prayer make a difference, but I know it does. I know part of the answer is that when I find out what God wants me to do with my time, I find the people that are ready for us. Things happen a lot smoother and progress happens. Also I learned how  important it is to pray for what we should do, praying for it so hard that it will work, that hearts will changes, that they will listen. I didn´t pray for that before because I thought people have their agency. I can´t change that with a prayer, and if God has a plan for this child of His, He will work a miracle in their heart. But prayer really changes hearts. It just does. I don´t understand it completely. So thank you for all your prayers.

When I first came to Nicaragua I was learning the lesson that I thought I knew but I didn´t know well enough. God loves all of us. Trusting him to take care of his children. There are lots of people in Nicaragua and I stressed out about every single one of them. The physical and spiritual well being of all of them. I grew up being taught that God loved me and I could feel that love, but when I cam to Nicaragua I questioned that. I saw lots and lots of people that had a lot less than me. God blessed me even in the tiniest details of my life. How come these people didn´t have the same? So I questioned that God loved me and that he loved all his children here in Nicaragua. It was funny, the answer to my prayer in this aspect was not to see lots of baptisms or successes in the missionary work, to prove that he really loved his children. Rather it came when I prayed for me and for other people, I'd have an over whelming feeling of love. Also studying and praying about the atonement really helped.

Anyway that was my week. The mission is the best. The mission is a rollercoaster. 

Also, thank you Nikki Merrill and Megan Stout, and Heather Brinkerhoff, and Dad for your letters. They are the best. Seriously letters keep a missionary going!

I love love love you all!

Hermana Heather Merrill

Three Experiences to Share

Well we taught a really cool family a week back that still hasn't come to church, there names are Alfonsa and Rosa. He really is looking for the truth and they are a really sweet Christian family. The problem is we haven't been able to teach them for a while because we can't ever find them home. Also I think the mom of Alfonso doesn't like us and that complicates things a little bit. Alfonso has dreams. He said he knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Another cool person we're teaching is Johanna. She accepted a baptismal date. Her husband Martin is Catholic and is a little tougher. 

Experience of the week. Jarom got baptized! (He is the son of Maria and Felix). Maria's baby was blessed in church and Felix did both of the ordinances! It was so cool to see. Maria first getting baptized, and Felix getting activated and worthy to baptized his son and bless his baby. They have a goal to go to the temple as soon as Maria has been a member for a year!

2nd Experience of the week: We tried to visit Alfonsa and Rosa this week with the Patriarch and his wife, but Alfonsa and Rosa weren't there. Instead the patriarch suggested we stop by a less active. Her name is Maria Hooker. She is a returned missionary that is going through a divorce. We had a really good lesson about the atonement and the blessings that the sacrament can bring into our lives. For the first time in a few months she came to church. She's going to be recieving a calling next week and we're going to have a lesson with her and one of her nonmember friends this Saturday. She bore her testimony during relief society. That was cool to see.

3rd experience: This one I still don't know how it happened. One of our recient converts that I'm not sure if she has come to church since her baptism came to church this week! We didn't have anything to do with it. I had about given up on her, I just felt that when we visited her it didn't make a difference and that she didn't want us there. It's a good thing that God never gives up on his children. 

We're still trying to work out how to bring families to church, it's been so long since I've brought a family to church that I can't remember how to do it I guess (=. Maybe this will be the week.

 I love you all!!!! You´re emails and letters help me so much. Keep the faith, God loves all his children.

Hermana Heather Merrill

Goods and Bads

Well there were some goods and bads this week. I didn´t get transfered
and niether did my comp, our district leader got changed to a
different district, and our district only has our companionship and
the companionship of our district leader who was in our district
before. They are 2 more Hermanas living in the same house with us and
the members. All of the people in the office the AP´s and everyone is
now in our zone. This makes our zone meetings really little because
they can´t come to those meetings (at least they didn´t come to the
last one). They´re the Elders that share the ward and area with us. I
really respect our new mission president. He really cares for the
individual. He has a different district at his house every p-day to
have lunch with him and his family. He also wants everyone to follow
all the rules which I´m definetly okay with because it makes it easier
for me to follow the rules.

The more I learn on the mission the more I learn how much I don´t
know. There´s so much to do all the time and not nearly enough time to
do it. This week we had some people in church, not a family though,
but one of our recent converts that
haven´t been for a while came! Remember Jimmy and Sadia? Well Sadia
told us that she feel like our church is true and Jimmy told us he
loves us for who we are and what we do but is very happy to be
evangélico. We haven´t visited them in a while, but asked a family in
the ward to visit them once or twice a week. Sadia got me really
excited and then Jimmy broke my heart. Saida said she can´t make the
step alone without her husband. I´m going to follow this family
throughout eternity, one day they´ll see. (= Well I´m conviced that
this month is going to be a good one. Just got to figure out the key
of bringing families to church.

Love you guys lots!

Don´t have to fun without me at Bear Lake. And save 2 cache valley
milks for me (rootbeer and strawberry) Oh and maybe a famous raspberry
shake.

Hermana Merrill

New Chef and Awesome District Leader

To start with, a few answers to your questions. The chef cooks for 4 of us, it´s usually traditional Nica food, just usually really good Nicaraguan food. He used to work on cruise lines and he´s from the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua. The people from the coast are usually black and speak either mosquito or creole depending on where they´re from (and usually spanish).  He and his family speak english creole. I basically don´t understand it. It´s kind of a mix of english and spanish without any grammar rules. They also speak spanish though, and as a rule they understand our english pretty well. They´re a really awesome family that have a goal to go to the temple and the best thing about his cooking is that we get vegetables a lot. But they´re really good. And the frescos they make are always super rico. Frescos are the best part of Nicaragua. When you went to go eat Nicaraguan food at the house of Hermana Arcia, did you eat gallo pinto? If not, you should try it sometime else. It´s basically just fried rice and beans but it´s one of the best things here and I definitely look forward to eating it. And pupusas. And cacao, (that one´s a drink). Sometimes we make food, but usually just on P-days sometimes. We eat in the night after we get back to the house for the day and then we plan for a half hour. So if we finish on time it´s 9:30 before we decide to get something to eat. I´m usually so tired by then, so if it takes longer than 45 seconds I generally don´t take the time. Cause I still need to write in my journal, and get ready for bed before I die for the night and resurrect the next morning. I don´t know if I told you guys this, but every morning except Sunday we get up and go play sports at the church with whoever wants to play with us at 6am. (sometimes people from the ward come, but more often then not, it´s usually just the Elders in our area). But it´s fun, we play basketball and soccer and workout (run and do ladders). We´re all really out of shape... (=

 This week was a better week than last. Still didn´t have a family at church, but we had a few investigators and some cool experiences this week. It really, always just seems to come down to having faith that He will fulfill his promises. And the cool thing is He always does. We have a cool district leader that really helped our area out this week, basically sacrificing all his time in his area to help our area out. When he first came to our district I thought he was all about numbers and what we like to call a machetero (I´m not sure the exact translation in English the root word is a machete, basically a person who machetes with words, it´s good and needed at times--think about President Holland, it can push people to change for the better--but bad when used too much). He changed though when he realized that our district really and truly was trying, and what we needed was not a "do better with your numbers speech", it was direction and help. 

There was a cool family that gave us a key chain from Nicaragua and made us dinner this week. The dad was ready to give up his bible for the Book of Mormon when he read the BOM title page with us... He´s a little extraño but he makes really cool things and his family is super nice. There were 2 teenage girls that walked in the pouring rain to church with us, happy about it. (That´s really strange because Nicaragüenses as a rule hate the rain). They´re really cool though. 

Changes are this week. I might have changes. They usually don´t keep 2 Gringas together for too long so I have a feeling one of us will change areas. I kind of want a latina comp that doesn´t speak English. That would be helpful with learning Spanish, and it would force me to speak Spanish all the time. It´s really easy to speak English with an English speaker... (My whole mission)

I love you all. 

Good work Nikki and Dal

Hermana Heather Merrill