Rollercoaster...

The mission is a rollercoaster... (= Just when you think you are handling everything just fine, God hands you another challenge.  This week was a lot better than last week for my companion, she seemed a lot better, a little happier although she still cries a lot, It´s just not  at crisis level. 

We´re teaching an Hermano whose name is Fransisco. He`s the dad of our bishop and he is so funny. He has problems drinking. But he wants to change his life and get baptized. He is hopefully going to get baptized at the end of this week. He almost went this whole past week without drinking! Before he drank every day. I wish you guys could meet him. He`s like a grandpa. And is so ready to change.

Love you guys so much!!

Hermana Merrill

PS  Please don`t worry about our safety. It's safe here, and we always have the protection from God.

Chinandega Craziness

Well this week was quite a week. My companions name is Hermana Wilkins. She's from Texas, she's really awesome, speaks Spanish so well, teaches from her heart and is really funny. She's also having a really hard time adjusting.

 First of all, it wasn't the best warm welcome because  we are re-opening up the area and I had no idea where we were going. There were elders there before so they couldn't show us around the area since we're not allowed to be in 2 and 2. So it was up to us to find all the recent converts, investigators and members. The other craziness that happened this week is that initially our area was La Florida 2, but when we got there and met our bishop he was really upset that they put us in that area because he thought it was more dangerous and there were less members. So he called our mission president and got permission for us to change areas. So we packed our bags and changed houses. Then some member took us around to get to know about 20 member's houses (ask me if I know their names and directions (= .... ) Hi this is... Hi this is... Hi this is... That was our first crazy day. 

Then the second day I had to go to a leaders meeting in Leon and we were supposed to leave our companions in our area, So, I left her with a member and I left for Leon. Turns out that while we were gone our bathroom flooded 2X and my comp just started crying, poor girl. She's cried almost everyday since she's got here. The next day we did divisions. That was actually a better day for her because she went to a different area with an awesome girl in our zone that actually knew her area and had cool investigators. She's also terrified of our area because all of the people we meet tell us that we shouldn't be here that it's dangerous. In general the people here in Nicaragua say that because they are a very cautious people, but I feel like even more here. We've started having members visit with us everywhere especially at night time so she feels safer, because she has panic attacks. She also misses her family soo much.

I just wish I could help her feel better. She really could bless the people here in Nicaragua so much, she has so much natural talent for this work.

It was kind of a stressful week but we also definitely saw lots of miracles. We were able to bring some really cool people to church including this guy whose name in Fransisco. He seemed really really stubborn at first, he's the husband of a member. All of the family had given up on him as far as him converting. But he went to church and accepted to be baptized!! miracles!!! 

Love you all!!

(Weird... today we saw the family of an Elder that's finishing the mission, they came and picked him up from his mission... It felt so weird to see him with his parents) It was cool though!

Hermana Merrill

Final Transfer...Chinandega here I come

This week we saw so many miracles!

First we had 4 baptisms!!! 

Oralis- She's so awesome and was so excited to get baptized! She got married Saturday night, and baptized Sunday after church along with the rest. Although, she did give us a scare that she wasn't going to show up because of an emergency that happened in the Morning.

Maria Louisa-  She's the sweetest little girl ever and was so excited to get baptized. This week her dad went to church as well and loved it! 

Yader and Jose!!!

Jose is our champion. From the beginning he said that he wanted to get baptized and that he wasn't going to go to the catholic church. But every time that we came Yader would say yes and then no. Depending on his mood. He's a clown. (= But in the end he decided to get baptized too!

AAANNNNDDDD........................

I have transfers... )=

I have absolutely loved my time with Hermana Morales. And I've absolutely loved LEON!

This is my last transfer. I'll be serving in Chinandega (a place of miracles, but even hotter than Leon). and I'll be training a newbie as well as continuing as a Sister Training leader for the girls in Chinandega. I'm a little nervous. I know that God will help me, but I haven't trained for so long and have been so long with sisters that have been such a strength for me that this will be an interesting adventure. From the name of the girl, I think she's from the states as well. CRAZY!!!

Love you all so much!

Hermana Merrill

Life's good. Miracles exist.

This week we saw a lot of miracles!

We found some really cool families 3 of which accepted to be baptized!

Oralis- Her husband is a member that hasn't gone to church for a long time, but he said that he wanted to start going again. The first time when we taught Oralis she said she wanted to go to chuch, but absolutely not to get baptized. The second time we went with a member that shared her testimony with her and she accepted a baptismal date! (not sure if it was the member power, but either way it was cool) And the third time we visited her she said she had prayed to know if the church was true and she said she knew it was. That was a miracle and a half. We were outside of her house with her husband. It was really dark outside their house, but we were with a member. He said that she wasn't there, so we started giving a lesson to him. After about 10 minutes she came out of the house. She had been sleeping but said she had heard a voice that told her to get up and go outside her house. She obeyed and we were out there. That is when she told us of how she had recieved her answer. It was actully really funny.

She said, " I want to be honest with you guys, I'm going to stay in my church" (we all just stayed really silent... my comp and I thinking, what church? I didn't know she ever went to a different church) We didn't know what to say, so I asked her. "Are you still going to go to church with us this Sunday" (because she had said before that she would) and she said, "Didn't I tell you that I was going to go before? Yea I'm going to go to my church" and then Hermana Morales, "Did you pray and ask God like we invited you to do" (we were still a little unsure if she was talking about our church or a different one) "Yes, how did you think I found out that this Church is true?" She was already saying that this was HER church. (= The sad part about this story is that Saturday was a holiday in Nicaragua. Free buses to Managua to be at the event. She went, and so was sleeping Sunday morning. (as well as a lot of our investigators... Obstacles)

We're still teaching Yader and Jose, it's still quite crazy, but when the mom and the grandma are with us, it's usually a bit better (=

We're teaching a family of Maria's and their husbands. Maria and her daughter Maria went to Church this week and are excited to get baptized!

We had President interviews this week. It was really good. I love President Collado.

(Sad story of the week: remember how we got pedicures last week? Well the lady who did the foot of my comp pulled out a lot of skin from the sides of her big toenails. One of her toes got infected, and so she was in a lot of pain walking around... She wore sandals around all week and our walking pace was quite slow.)

Life's good. Miracles exist.

Lots of Love

Circus, Chinandega and Dust Storms

WOW There's another español(a) in the fam!!! cool!  (For those that don't know...Erika received her mission call this week and will be going to Malaga Spain)

Well I'm good. This week we found some really cool families to teach and right now we're teaching a family of less actives and their kids who aren't members. And, they went to church this week! The lessons are soooo crazy. Rebeka is the mom of Angie. She's a singer, really funny, and basically lets the kids do what they want. So when we teach it's like a circus. It doesn't help that across the street there's a real circus so the music is always playing. (= They've seen the circus and one of the kids, Yader, knows just how to act like a clown. Jose is the calmest, most well behaved child. He got the genes of his mom Iraida who keeps the house from catching fire. They are very smart and learn, but I always leave that house very tired. (=

This week I got to go to Chinandega. We're now doing divisions with some of the girls from Chinandega. Now I've been to every zone except Puerto Cabezas. Cool! (BTW, there is now an Hermana Norte in Puerto Cabezas-Hermana Pochop who came with me, she was so excited!)

This week there were dust storms all week long due to the wind and lack of rain and the farmers preparing the fields for the peanut harvesting. It was incredible. The skies were brown with dust and I couldn't keep my fingernails clean. And my feet, normally dirty from the dirt, were just plain filthy this week. 

So this is what we did for pday...Nicaraguan style pedicure (see Picture)

102 FAMILIES!

I thought I'd share some Miracles of the week.

Last week as a mission we baptized (in the month of June) 102 FAMILIES!!!

Our mission president and his wife even did there contribution as a family. (= I love them so much. Even with all that they do for us, and all their meetings they go to with missionaries and stake/branch Presidents, and take care of their young family, they took time to find, teach and baptize a family! 

Remember Roberto? We were teaching him with Hermana Tarax. He got sick and so was in Managua for a week, but told us he was going to come back for his baptism on the 28th but then we thought he left for good. I passed by his house this week just out of plain curiosity and he was there and ready to get baptized! This Saturday he got baptized. His eyes are injured and so he has a hard time reading, but even so he's read from 3rd Nephi 11-22. That's huge, especially for the people here who aren't accustomed to reading, but he loves it! I'll send you the pictures next week. (He always wears glasses because of his injured eyes)

Another Miracle: We have a recent convert whom I have never seen go to church and always looks so sad when we visit her. Sometimes we find her drinking when we stop by. But these last 2 Sundays she has gone to church! 

I'm good. Love you all lots!

Hermana Merrill

Terrific Week

So guess what?! My new companion is HERMANA MORALES!!!

We're comps AGAIN! I'm so excited. I loved bing her companion and I am so excited to be her comp again.

 

Hermana Tarax will be home this Thursday. She was so nervous lo leave. (=  Not sure exactly why, but according to the nurse nearly all the missionaries get nervous before they go home. Also she's a worrier. She hasn't had communication with her parents for her whole mission either and wasn't sure what she wanted to do when she got back.

 

Right now we're teaching a cool girl named Celeste, she's gone to church twice, but has only been able to stay for the first hour. We're also teaching her mom Vilma, but she hasn't gone to church yet. We have some lessons with members scheduled this week with her so that I hope that will help encourage her to come.

 

This week was really,  Terrific.

 

3 people I'll introduce to you:

 

Henry- when I was doing divisions this week with an Hermana, we contacted him and he accpted a baptismal date in the contact. He understands so well the doctrine we teach and is reading the book of Mormon and went to church this week. He will be baptized the 12 of July. He is 24ish.

Mileidi- She part of a familiy and is our Sunday miracle. Her and her husband were commited to going to church, but we hadn't found them in their house on Friday or Saturday, so we weren't very hopeful about them going to church. When we passed by their house on Sundayshe was sitting in her front room and she wasn't sure about the church thing, but she went with us! Hopefully the whole family can go with us this week. She is a really good person!

Alex- Alex just has style. (= He teaches music lessons in this tiny little room (where he sleeps as well), and has dredlocks but is the kindest guy ever. He accepted to be baptized and is reading the book of Mormon. He was going to go to church this week, but I'm not sure exactly what happened.

Other cool event that happened this week- we are teaching a family whose names are Donald and Migdalia. Donald is our little incredulous one, but is reading the Book of Mormon. We've been teaching them for a while but they haven't been able to come to church yet. This week we were hoping was going to be the week. We had invited them to a baptism on Saturday at 6 and they had said they would come. BUT... later in the week the baptism got moved to a different day. We had forgotten we had invited them to go to the baptism, so when we showed up to teach them at 6 on Saturday, they had gotten all ready to go to the baptism. We weren't sure exactly what to do, so we invited them to tour the church building. We had also invited our Stake President to teach them with us, and at that point they were in the church waiting for us to go with them to the appointment. In the end the Stake President showed them around the church building and then led them to his office and we had a really spiritual lesson where we talked about families that can be forever and they accepted a baptismal date, BUT in August because Donald is leaving for his work for 15 days... It was a lot of events that were crazy and unplanned, but in the end a miracle took place. Also, really cool Stake President who takes the time even though he works in Managua to teach a family of ours.

Love the mission, and you guys, and the Nicaraguenses and the Lord. A lot. (=

Hermana Merrill

Obediencia es el Precio

Fe es el Poder

El Espíritu es la Clave

Amor es el Motivo

Trabajo es el Secreto

Cristo es la Razón