Numero 83 ~ a little crazy and full of miracles

Hey fam! This week was a little crazy and full of miracles. 

This week we did a really cool activity with the ward. We watched meet the mormons and promised a bag of popcorn to every member who brought an investigador. It went well for us. We found some new people to work with for the activity and everyone loved the video. It was really stressful getting it all together for some problems we were having but at the end everything went good. 

We were working with 3 people to get baptized this week. At the end of it all, only 1 got baptized. Her name is Cicilia. She is about 72 years old. She is really cool. We had a great baptismal service for her! A ton of members showed up and supported her! 

This week there was a ward trip to Tegocigalpa in Honduras to the temple in our ward. 2 couples went and got sealed this week which was really cool to see. We got to see them right when they got home. You could definitely see the light they had with them. They were all so happy. The temple is really a beautiful thing. Its so cool to see the members show their faith and travel all that way to be able to participate in the temple. 

Right before the baptism on Saturday I got a call saying that I had changes. I just moved to the other ward right across the street so it wasnt too bad. I am with Elder Esquivel now. He is from El Salvador. He is a cool dude. Elder Paz left the area too and he went to another zone of the mission. Also, they put sister missionaries in my old area so i am going to be helping them out so they know where the members live and everything. 

I feel like this will be my last area in my mission. I have 3 changes left and that is pretty normal for a missionary to be in an area. I am excited to be here. The ward is called Agateyte. There are also sister missionaries here too. The area is big and really dusty. We are going to work really hard and throw some fire. 

I am pumped for general conference this week! i hope everyone goes!

Love you all!

Elder Sherle

Numero 82 ~ Chinandega Semana Santa

Hey fam! Its been a good one down here in Nicaragua. 

We had another baptism this week. His name is Jonathan. It was a cool baptism. He even went to church in a white shirt and tie to get confirmed. He is a cool dude. 

We had 6 investigadors in church this week too which was really good. For this week we have 3 possibilities. All 3 of them went to church this week. We were really happy to see them come to church again. We thought only one was going to come because we hadnt seen the other two the whole week but they all showed up. 

This week we did divisions with the zls. When we do divisions with the zls both of us have to go to their area so we both left for a full day this week. It was good though. I love working with missionaries that arent my companion because you can always learn something new working with other missionaries. I worked with a guy named Elder Knight. He is from Virginia and he came with me. The thing is we have never been in the same zone until now so it was cool to work together. We had a good time and we worked hard. 

On Friday, President came to Chinandega and we did a practice with him in the morning. He taught us some good stuff about teaching and how we can make our teaching better and to be able to see more investigadores in the church. One thing I liked that he told us is that we need to really focus on the needs of our investigadors and focus on the specific promises that the lord has made so that the investigadors feel the need to act and keep the commandments. Its really true because no one really does anything without a motive to get something out of it. We come on the mission because of the promises that the profets have made us and its the same with investigadors. They can come to know of the promises of the Lord. 

We are working hard here. This week is what is called "Semana Santa" or Holy Week. Its a really crazy week in central america. A lot of people go to the beach and go on vacation. They do some big activites and celebrate everyday this week. And its known as one of the hottest weeks of the year so we will see how that goes haha

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Sherle

Numero 81 ~ Left with a smile on my face

Hey fam! Well this week went by super fast! We were really busy this week. 

Here is a little update on the things down here. 

First off, it is getting soooo hot down here. The sun feels like it is right on your face. It is the hotter season in Nicaragua right now. I am drinking a lot of gatorade to stay hydrated and all that stuff. I constantly have to be wiping my face because of the sweat it is so hot haha. 

This week we had to do a ton of stuff for the district. A lot of the elders and sisters in my district needed things from me this week like interviews and getting to know investigadors and blessings and all that stuff so we lost a lot of time in the area this week which i do not like. But it does feel good helping other missionaries in my district. We hope to have a little more time in the area this week. 

On Friday we had a baptism. Her name is Alison. She was a reference from the young women and she is really cool. Her baptismal service was awesome because a ton of people went and it was well prepared. That is the best part about being in a ward. We had one of her best friends baptize her. It was his first baptism ever and he did really well. 

This week we have two people that can be baptized this week. One is a little more positive than the other but i have the faith that they will both do it. They both went to church this week and seem excited for their baptism. We are going to go with the members this week to get them all ready for that step. As well as the baptismal side of things, we have been finding some cool families that we are now teaching. I have found that just talking with everyone in everything we do really helps to find. If we keep our mouths shut the people will never have the opportunity to share their opinion or to show that they want to learn more. 

One cool thing that happened is we went to a less active house and we were sharing a scripture with the mom. There were other members there and it was really spiritual. We asked her to do the prayer and we all nealed down in a circle and she offered the prayer. I could feel the spirit really strong in that prayer and as she was praying she started to cry and really opened her heart up to the lord. It was a cool little experience to me because I know that the Lord touched her heart in that prayer and helped her feel his love. I left with a smile on my face because I know that she had received and answer from the lord. The spirit is very powerful and can really change lives. 

Hm --- rockin' those red shoes with the red tie! :) 

Well, thats about it for this week. I love you all. I hope you are all doing good. I miss you guys! Be good and be safe! Until next week!

Elder Sherle

Numero 80 ~ Putting patience into practice

Hey fam!

It was a good week this week for us! Well, I am not a teenager anymore. So sad. I dont know how i am liking the feeling of being 20. I feel old haha. I feel like I have to be a responsable adult now.....weird. I got a lot of calls from a bunch of missionaries telling me happy birthday which was cool and an Elder in my zone invited me to lunch today so it was pretty good. I cant really do much but for what i can do i enjoyed it haha. Also, I hit 19 months in my mission. I got about 5 months left in this thing. I am going to make the most out of these 5 months that I still got. 

We did really good this week. We found some really cool new people. We got our progressing investigadors up and got up the people that are on a baptismal date. We are really satisfied because a family that we found went to church this week. The cool thing to was it was a conference so the whole stake went. It was a good conference and they seemed to have enjoyed it a lot. We are excitedt to be able to go and teach them again. 

There were some changes in the zone last night. One elder went home and another got transferred out. So I will be getting a new elder in my district this week which will be cool. 

We had a couple really weird days this week though. A lot of rejections this week. I remember in the beginning of my mission when someone would reject me i would get mad and frustrated and now I kind of laugh and smile about it. I realize that I have developed a lot of patience here in my mission. Something that I didnt have before my mission. My comp made a comment to me that I am a very patient person. I have learned that the patience is something that one can develop through practice. If we put patience into practice we will be able to not let the little things affect us in our lives and we will be able to stay focused on our goals and be happy about doing it. Patience is a very important trait of Christ. 

Well thats what I got for you guys! I love you all so much! Thank you all for your birthday wishes! 

Elder Sherle

Numero 79 ~ Working hard and sweating like crazy

Hey fammmbam.

This week was better than last week. We found a lot of cool people and we put some new baptismal dates and all that good stuff. I had to do divisions with the zls and also with some elders from my district. I felt like my comp and I werent in the area together very long but we did good. We finally had some success with investigadors in the church, we had 5. Also, we have 5 people on baptismal date. We hope that this month of march will be a good month for us. 

I am pretty used to chinandega now. I feel like i am now getting the rythmn of working with the members and finding new people to teach. Little by little we are getting better and better which is the most important thing. 

Jorge didnt get baptized this week. Come to find out he has a couple doubts still that we need to explain to him. He finally was direct with us and told us what he was thinking so this week we are going to try to help him resolve his doubts. 

Honestly this week was a pretty normal week. There wasnt anything crazy that happened. Everything was pretty normal but we did good. I am happy for the work we are doing in the area now. The one thing we need to get better is the attendance. Our ward starts at 8 so we need to help some people get everyone up early so they get to church on time.

I am good. Everything is good. I am working hard and sweating like crazy with this heat. Sorry my letter is short this week, maybe i will have more to say next week!

love you all!

Elder Sherle