Numero 65 ~ Love the scriptures

Hey fam!

This week was a good week! We had some really sweet lessons with our investigadors.

We are teaching two families that are really cool. They are really Moravan though. But we are starting to see a lot of positive signs of their progression. I can feel the spirit working with them every time we go there. One guy named Francisco went to church this week and it seemed that he had a good time at church. He came up to us after and asked us when we could go by his house again. We set a meeting with him on Wednesday. We are going to see how he is doing. He has a baptismal date for this weekend so we will go see if he has the desire to do it.

The other family that we are working with was sick and couldnt go to church. My comp passed by in the morning because we do divisions in the morning and they live in Elder Walker's area. So he passed by them and they were really sick and said next weekend they would go. We are going to visit them tomorrow to see how they are doing and to teach them more. We introduced the book of Mormon this week with both families this week and they both seemed interested. President has been telling us a lot that we will be able to establish the church better and have stronger converts if they read the Book of Mormon and learn about it more and ask God if the book is true. He has been telling us that true conversion will not come without the Book of Mormon because it is what holds our religion up. Its either true or its a lie and we need to ask God personally to find out which. So we are puting that into practice in our area trying to focus more on that. I have come to love the scripture here on my mission. I love reading them and learning new things about the gospel. I can feel the spirit every time I open up the scriptures and read them to my investigadors. They seem to have all the answers of our lives. They help us know what to do and to receive guidance in our lives. I love the time from 8-9 every day to read the scriptures. I dont think i would have ever said that before my mission.

This week was District Conference for Puerto Cabezas. We went to the first session of the Priesthood and it was a little sad. There wasnt a big showup. Most of the priesthoods that showed up were the missionaries. The second counselor of President Collado came and kind of chewed out the priesthood because he said that if we want a stake here in Puerto we need to have a strong priesthood. There is a lot to do still here to get a stake but little by little we are getting there. One cool thing was my convert, Ceferino, was there and he received the Melchizedec Priesthood and said the opening prayer in the morning session on sunday. he is so awesome. His wife just got home from the temple on saturday and he told me that once august comes this next year he is going to go get sealed with her.

We are struggling a little bit finding cool new investigadors in the area. A lot of lessons fell through this week but this week we are going to plan a lot better so that we find more and work with the members more. I am praying that our posibilities will go through this week because they are so close. Just got to have some faith.

I love you guys! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Sherle

Numero 64 ~ Don't wait, Do good

Hey fammmm! It has been another good week down here in Puerto, as always.

So like I told you guys, we had to combine our areas and now we have to do what 4 missionaries used to do. It has been a little difficult as we have had to balance my area and his area. This week we did one day in my area and one day in his area. I liked doing that but at the same time it was hard for me because are people that I want to visit every day but I couldnt. We will see how we do it this week. In both our areas we have good investigadors so we cant just ditch one. We are going to look for a base in the area so we have a main spot where we work so that we dont waste too much time walking to meetings. I think just with a little time we will get the rythmn of things over here.

On Tuesday, my first contact in my comp's area we found a cool family and the best thing was we were with a member and so we shared with them a cool message and they accepted to be baptized. We sang a hymn and I could really feel the spirit in the lesson and the member helped us with the Miskito so it was a great lesson. They are really cool family but they are from the Moravan church and are really strong in the church. They know that they have to follow Christ and do what he asks them to do, but they are having a hard time coming to the conclusion that they will have to change religions. Here, there are a lot of traditions. The people say at whatever church the parents died thats where the kids need to be and if the kids move from that church they will be cursed or something. So it is really hard for people to not follow in their tradition and change something that they have always done. But Christ says "I am the way the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me", so following Christ is the only way we are going to make it to our father.

Only the wife went to church this weekend and she said she liked it. We also had 8 other people in the church so it was a successful day for us. We were really happy with that because of all the changes in our areas but the Lord provided and we had success.

This week the attendance at church was pretty low. I think it is because it did not stop raining all week. It is crazy. I have been in my poncho and my rain boots every day. It rains so hard here. So i dont think a lot of people came because on Sunday morning the sun was out for the first time in the week so everyone was putting up their clothes to dry and washing all their clothes. Just so everyone knows, everyone here washes their clothes by hand and they use the sun to dry them so they took advantage of the sun and didnt go to church. I guess that is a good excuse. If you dont have clothes, you cant go to church. So hopefully this rain will stop for a little bit this week.

I want to share with you guys a cool scripture i found this week. Its in D y C 58:26-28

26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is aslothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

I like this because it says that we should never have to wait to do good works. We should be anxiously engaged in doing good works and choosing the right. It should be the desire of our hearts to follow the Lord and not have to have someone tell us to do so.

Thats what I got for you guys this week! I hope everyone has a great week!

Kaiki Was!

Elder Sherle

Numero 63 ~ New lunch cita

Well fam! hows it going?? All good over here in Nicaragua. Let me tell a little bit about my week.

Well to start off the week, we changed our lunch cita. We were really annoyed with our last one and so we decided to change to a new family that lives really close to the church. It was a great choice because she cooks us such good food. Since ive been there we have had some steak, lobster, and a famous plate here in Puerto called Rondon. Her food is so good! Her name is Ericka and she is a recent convert.

Thanks for the Halloween package guys! I forget how good some things from america taste! haha. I ate one of those jolly ranchers and i remembered how good american candy is. Thank you so much guys!

This week Elder Maughan and I worked really hard, like always. We went back to one of the dudes that was supposed to get baptised last week, Mario, to see if he was ready. He said he was ready now and he wanted to do it on Saturday. So on Saturday at about 7 at night he was baptised. It was cool to see him get baptised. We really had to show a lot of faith and a lot of patience with him to take that step but he did it. We were really happy. The bad thing was on Sunday he didnt get confirmed. I dont know why he didnt come to church to get confirmed. He hid from us on Sunday and we found him and he didnt want to go. He said he had a problem and he didnt want to tell us why and for that problem he couldnt go to church. I honestly was pretty disappointed because he didnt want to go. Like why get baptised if you arent willing to do the whole thing?? I guess we will see what happens this week if he gets confirmed.

So this week was changes. It was big changes here in Puerto. Every companionship except 2 had changes. 7 left and 3 came back. 2 areas shut down. One of which was mine. The saddest part was that Elder Maughan left Puerto. It was super sad saying bye to him. Him and I worked so well together. He taught me so many things and helped me so much be a better missionary. I really respect him a lot. After the sacrament meeting he had to go to the airport and almost the whole branch left the church with us to say bye to him at the airport. Its always hard saying bye to comps. Its like a brother leaving you. Also, today Elder Chen left back to the Pacific. Its like all my good friends are leaving. I got a couple friends here still but they might be going here soon in the next couple changes.

My new comp now is Elder Walker. He is from South Carolina. I wish i had my camera to send you guys a pic of me and him but maybe next week. We are going to combine my area and his area and it is just one area. So we have a lot of work ahead of us. I got to get to know his area and he has got to get to know mine, members, investigadors and all that good stuff. The best thing is that we are going to stay at Erick's house to eat! haha.

It was a good week. I was sad to see Elder Maughan go but now we are on to a new chapter in the mission.

Well, thats what i got for you guys! I hope everyone has a great week!

Love you all!

Elder Sherle

Numero 62 ~ John Dillon

Hey fam and friends! It was another good week over here in Puerto! 

It has been so hot this week. We had a lot of trials of faith but in the end it worked out good. 

Before I start, i just want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. They dont celebrate Halloween here so we didnt get to do anything. Right before we went to bed my comp told me happy halloween hahah until then I remembered it was Halloween. That was my last Halloween here in Nicaragua. 

This week when we were contacting I was walking through this guys backyard (which is perfectly normal) and my comp was behind me and then a dog comes out of nowhere and bites me in the back of the leg. I had never been bit by a dog before until that day. I tried to kick it but it ran away too fast. The dog had its shots and everything and didnt get me too bad but it freaked me out. I hate the dogs here so much haha.
We showed up to one of our less active families and one of the daughters had a baby of about 2 months. She told us that the baby didnt have a name and that she was waiting for us to give it a name. So we named the baby John Dillon. My name and my comps name. We wrote it down for her and she said she was going to write it for his birth certificate. hahaha i named a baby. It was awesome. 

I lost my wallet too. I went to buy something from the pulperia and i forgot to put it back in my pocket. A kid took it and i didnt have it for 2 days. I got everything cancled and everything and then the next morning a member called us and told us that they had it. Some kid recognized my face on the id and gave it to the members. It was definitely a blessing that he gave it back because usually the people dont give stuff back like that. I was so grateful to get it back. 

At the end of the week, we had the blessing to baptise these 2 brothers, Javier and Enroy. We had 3 people to baptise in the morning on sunday before church and so i went to go get a guy named Mario and my comp went to get Javier and Enroy in divisions. So when I went to Mario he told me he had to go to his dads house real quick before he could go with us so I had to wait there for forever and he came back and told me he didnt have time and by that time the other two had been baptised so I wasnt able to see them get baptised but the most important thing was that they got baptised. It was sad because Mario didnt get baptised and he was so close and so ready to do it. I dont know what made it so that he didnt get baptised. But the Lord blessed us with that miracle to be able to baptise those 2 brothers. It was very stressful and very tight on time but we got it done. We will go to Mario's house this week to see what happened to him and if he still has the desire to do it. We found some other cool people this week too so we are excited to go back to them to see if they are going to progress. 

So that was my week for you guys! Full of crazy things as always. Full of stress and trials but all in all it worked out how the Lord wanted it. All we need to do is trust in him.

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Sherle

Numero 62 ~ Mom came back

Hey fam!!! How are you guys?? Another week down! 

This week Elder Maughan and I worked really hard. There was a couple cool things that happened. 

Oh first off, those 3 little kids that lost their mom, their mom came back. Hmm, I guess she just went on vacation or something haha. We saw her this week when we walking in the street. Good thing is those 3 little kids got their mom back. 

If I wouldve had my camera I wouldve been able to send you some really cool pics of me and a monkey. When we went to our little activity "mutual" thing at a members house, they had a little monkey that they brought from the mountains and it was pretty well trained. So we got to play with it for a little bit. I honestly might look into a monkey when i get home hahah they are so awesome. Its like a dog that has hands and is really smart. They are so fun to play with! haha

I went on divisions this week with Elder Monson. The good ole MTC comp! I love Elder Monson. He is an awesome missionary. It is crazy how much we have grown. We had a good time together. For some reason, all the dogs have something with Monson so the whole day we had a ton of dogs trying to attack us and bite us. This one dog came booking at us and Elder Monson just drills it with his foot and knocks it over to where I was standing and so I kicked it pretty good too and it ran away crying. It was good teamwork by the two of us hahaha. 

This sunday was pretty stressful. We had this family that we going to try to baptise. It was a mom and her two sons. They had come to church for the last month. We got them all to church and they were all in the room with the baptismal font and so we started asking them if they wanted to get baptised and the mom started to tell us that she still wasnt ready and that she wanted her sons to get baptised first and then her another time. We kept trying to encourage her to take the step of faith and show God her committment to him by being baptised but she just kept telling us that she wasnt ready. So she wanted one of her sons to get baptised right there so we had to call President to see if that was okay and he told us that it was better to wait and do it when the mom and the other son is ready. It was really disappointing because they were so close to doing it. We had to respect her decision and her agency. We felt that we had done our part and that the Lord was going to do his and help them to take that step but it wasnt his will. President told us to be patient, and if we are patient we will see miracles. 

I have learned that on my mission. I have learned that patience and faith help us see miracles from the Lord. There is no reason to dwell on the things from the past and be sad about them. I dont need to beat myself over what happened. I just need to keep the faith and be patient. Its really hard to be patient but it works. Sometimes we just need to trust in the Lord a little bit more and wait for Him. 

That is my week for you guys! I am doing good. I feel good. I am a little sick right now. I thing I ate something that didnt sit well in my stomach but that is normal haha. 

I feel like I am definitely in the rythmn of the mission now. 

Hope you guys have a great week! Thank you everyone for sending me emails! 

Love you all! 

Aysabe

Elder Sherle