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