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