Numero 78 ~ a big scare this week

Hey fam! This week definitely had its ups and downs.
> I had a big scare this week. We went to visit a less active and when we got there we got inside and started talking to her. She had her granddaughter of about 2 months with her that was really sick and she was by herself. The baby was crying but her throat was really swollen so she wasnt making any sounds. So we gave it a blessing and she calmed down for a second, then the grandma started to give it water and the baby started to choke on the water. At that moment the baby stopped breathing and closed her eyes. She sat there for about 5 seconds and the grandma began to panic. The baby wasnt responding and had stopped breathing. I looked at my comp and he froze and all I remember from the first aid classes it to hit the baby in the back. So i told her to smack the baby in the back but it wasnt working. So i went up to her and smacked the baby 3 times in the back pretty hard and then she responded and started breathing again. Once that happened we called an ambulance and sent her to the hospital. It was so scary. I thought i watched a little baby die at that moment. The good thing is that she is good now. The mom came back from El Salvador and is now there taking care of her. Scary stuff.
> On Friday we had a multi zone with President Collado and Hermana Collado. It was a sweet multi zone. Like I have said before, i always love learning new things from them. They are really motivational to work hard and you can see such a great faith that they have. As we leave those meeting we always feel so motivated and renovated to work hard and work inteligently to see the miracles that we hope for in our areas. It was cool. They focused a lot on the work with the members and the most important focused of the mission to have success. In the meeting president called me and 2 other out of the crowd and called us "old missionaries". I honestly thought that moment would ever happen. I dont feel old yet. I still got a lot of time haha but I guess im not a newbie anymore.
> We were going to have a baptism this Saturday. We had everything ready but he didnt do it because he was pretty sick. He told us that when he feels better he would tell us when we could put the new day to do it. He has the desire to do it which is a good sign he just got really sick. We are going to visit him today to see if he is feeling better.
> We are working hard and trying to find the rythmn here. We havent had the results that we want but we are going to be patient and keep the faith to be able to get better and see the fruits of our work!
> I love you all have a great week!
> Elder Sherle

Numero 77 ~ Meeting in Managua

Hey fam! This week was a super busy and a bunch of stuff happened. 

On tuesday we had a meeting with the stake president and all the bishops and the missonaries of our stake. The stake president talked about missionary work and how we are not doing the work the way the lord wants us. He talked about how the members are working hard and the missionaries too but we are not working together. We put some plans to be able to work together as missionaries and members. That is something that we need to work on in our area. I am really not used to having strong members in my area and am not accostomed to working with them so much but we have some good ideas to work with them. 

On Wednesday I had a leadership meeting in Managua. I got to see all my friends. It was so awesome!! It was so long since I had seen them. Elder Ward, Elder Lainez, Elder Maughan, all of them. It was cool. The meeting was so cool! I love being around Pres Collado because he just teaches you so many things. I love learning new things and finding new scriptures. We got to see the 4 year mission plan. There are some big things that are going to happen here in the next few years. I am already so excited to be able to come back in some years and see how strong the church will be here. Sister Collado talked to us about how we are the ones that are building the seeds and that we are a huge part of this work. We will be able to see the fruits of our labors not only now but when we come back too. 

Thursday we did special changes with the other zone here in Chinandega. All the leadership positions changed and I was a zl for a day haha. Its way easier being a zl than a dl because i didnt have to do any numbers in the night. I stayed in my area and worked with Elder Nelson from my mtc group. We put in some work and found some cool people. It was a good day to see him and be able to work with him. The last time we had worked together was in Ocotal. He told me about how all of the people are over there in Ocotal. 

Friday was like the first day I had with my comp in the area. We had saturday together too. We are working hard and trying our best to find success. We might be baptizing this week. His name is Jorge. He is a older man and has been going to church and everything so we will see if he is willing to do it this week. 

I love you all and hope you are all doing good! Shout out to Nate for his birthday! Love ya boi! Oh and Happy Valentines day to you all! I got to spend it with my companion hahahahah

Elder Sherle

John sent some photos from Puerto this week~

Numero 76 ~ Chinandega back with Elder Rowe

Hey fam. These last week have been a little crazy. A lot of adjusting to the new area and everything. I am still kind of sad that i am not in puerto anymore. I miss my converts and miss the people and culture and especially the food there. 

Chinandega. Chinandega is the hottest place in Nicaragua. It is frying over here. There is a ton of dust too. It feels like a desert over here. My area is cool though. My house is alright. Its big its just really dusty, really really dusty. I dont really like everything looking all dirty all the time. Over here its a lot more developed than Puerto. There is a mall in downtown and movie theater and all that stuff. The people here speak good spanish good here, i miss speaking miskito. 

I am in a ward. My first ward of my mission. A different family gives us lunch and dinner every day. Its sweet. Feels like the states. The members are really strong too. There are members here with  more time than me in the church. We are talking like 25 years. The attendance is about the same though. About 100 people went to church this week. The only thing was we didnt have to do anything. We literally showed up to church with our investigadors and thats all we had to worry about. We had a ward counsil and from what I saw if we left from our area the ward would still move on without us because they are really well organized. We even have a ward mission leader that leaves with us and knows all of our investigadors. 

On monday, the area was pretty dead. There werent much investigadors and no one with a date. We put in some work this week and now we have 13 investigadors and 7 of them are on a date. We hope to keep having a lot of success this week. 

As a district leader I have to do numbers from the district every night. Its not too bad it just takes extra time in the night. I also run the district meeting every tuesday. I did a baptismal interview for the elders in my district this week too. Its cool. I like it. 

My comps name is Elder Paz. He is a convert. Him and his sister are converts his parents arent. He was baptized a little under 3 years and has a year in the mission. He is a cool dude. I am learning a lot from him from his conversion story and he can really connect to the people on taking the step of baptism because he was baptized not to long ago. 

Today for people I played basketball for the first time in forever!!! I played with Elder Rowe just like old times. It felt so good to have the ball in my hand and be able to shoot on a real hoop. I hope to be playing as much as I can now. The ward has a league too and some tall guys so I might jump in with them one of these nights to get up and down a little bit! 

Thats what I got for you guys this week. Oh i almost forgot haha last week I hit my 18th month mark! less than 6 months and I will be home! Time is flying. 

I love you all! have a great week!

Elder Sherle

Numero 75 ~ transfers ~ Chinandega

hey i literally just got to my area. its called chinandega on the west coast. it has been a really long day. a flight at 7 and a ton of errands managua and a two hour bus ride to here. i am really sad to have left puerto. that place has a really special place in my heart.

i am a district leader now and my comps name is Elder Paz, he is from guatemala.

i dont have time to write today because i got here too late and we need to work. 

i love you guys. i am all good. i will give more updates next week!

Elder Sherle