June 6, 2016 to June 12, 2016

Monday, June 6, 2016

Mondays are light days. We have our office staff meeting with the President, Assistants, Sister Leaders and office staff. Then the assistants and Sister leaders are usually in the office for most of the day working with the President. There are so many people in the office that it is hard to get much done.

We got to Skype with Roxanne and Grandpa this evening. Steve, Becky and their families visited Grandpa, who is at Roxanne’s this afternoon. We tried to Skype then, but the connection was bad. We always get an uplift visiting with family.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Today we had the opportunity to spend a good part of the day with a special sister missionary who had to return home for medical reasons. She had wonderful faith and worked hard to come on a mission and worked hard while she was here. She loved her mission and did not want to go home, but needed to in order to get well.  She shared with us the miracle that had happened the night before.  She and her companion had been working with a family and preparing them for baptism.  It is hard to bring a whole family into the church at once, but they were a golden family who were planning to be baptized in a week – a father, a mother, and three beautiful daughters. The miracle that happened is that the family was baptized last night so that this wonderful sister could be there for the baptism.  She was so happy to be able to see this wonderful family enter the waters of baptism.  Elder Bell and I took her to lunch and then we went to Hembas and had fun shopping for souvenirs for her family.  We then took her to dinner and then to the Sister Leaders house where she is staying tonight.  She will fly home early tomorrow and will begin healing.  Our prayers are with her. Our Heavenly Father loves each of us so much and so personally.  He knows what we need.  We love Him.  

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The President was having exit interviews today. When that happens we have a lot of missionaries there, mostly talking and playing around. We can’t get anything done, so we ran a few errands and worked from home. It was pretty quiet.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

We woke up to a call from a scared Sister missionary who got stung by a scorpion. Fortunately, scorpion bites are not deadly, but they are painful. Then we got a call from another missionary whose companion is being treated for parasites, and guess what, he has them too. I guess eating the same foods and drinking the same water does have its consequences.

Sister Bell had a tutoring session with her MTC tutor today. They were happy to be working together again. We spent the rest of the day doing some Spanish and working on housing issues. Not a very exciting day.

We did get word that Somoto, one of the groups that we have been working with has been approved to become a branch. They will do that on Sunday. Two out of the three groups that we are working with have become branches. The missionaries are really excited. They have been working hard for this. We have been just a very small part of helping them be prepared.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Another uneventful day in the office dealing with medical issues, Spanish lessons and housing updates…

We have invited the Lee’s over for dinner and a movie. I am on the front porch typing and enjoying the breeze and cool weather. It actually was hotter in Ogden yesterday evening than here in Managua. It was 79 in Managua and 88 in Ogden at about 6pm. I think we are beginning to get used to the climate as we are not as hot as we were when we first got here.

Saturday, June 11 , 2016

There was another earthquake yesterday up north and measured 6.5.  We did not feel it, although I thought I felt the office building shake and Scott thought it was just a big truck going by. 

Today is P-day which stands for preparation day, but in our case, play day.  We started out the day or should I say very early morning at 2:00 am with a sister missionary calling with a fever of 104.2 and wanted to know what to do.  She didn’t have any other symptoms, so I had her take Tylenol and do cold compresses to the back of her neck.  By 7:00 her fever was down to 100.9, so she was feeling better.  An Elder called late last night with a dog bite, so we didn’t get much sleep. 

The Lees picked us up at 8:30 am and we were off to the zoo.  Managua has a really great zoo.  It is not huge, but the flowers and plants are very junglish and the animals are well cared for.  A couple of children who seemed to be on their own joined us as we walked around the zoo.  The little boy started picking us flowers and before we knew it, Sister Lee and I both had a hibiscus tucked behind our ears.

We practiced our Spanish and they were delighted to help us.  I had studied a lesson on animals yesterday in duolinguo, so I knew may of the animal’s Spanish names.  We had a fun day.  It would be a great place to take visitors. 

We were going to visit the volcano, but instead we went to Masaya to an artisan and craft mall similar to Hemba’s in Managua (we did drive by the volcano Masaya going and coming and could see the vapor cloud coming out of the volcano).  The quality of their goods is better than Hemba’s and we bought a painting for the bedroom.  It is really fun and Scott hung it above our bed, so we have completed our decorating purchases.

We ended up at a crater lake called Laguna de Apoyo.  We found a wonderful lakeside restaurant with seating almost on the lake shore. It was quiet and peaceful. The food was good and not very expensive.

It began to rain so we moved the table back, under the thatched roof and kept eating. It was a very relaxing day…. Until we got home and the phone calls from sick missionaries began to come in.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Today was a missionary day…. We started at 6am this morning driving to the Ciudad Dario to give piano lessons to Sister Bells students. We didn’t get started at 8am like planned because we had to wait for keys to the building. So we were a little late getting started. But the girls are progressing. Sister Bell has assigned them to each play a simple hymn, which they have been practicing as prelude music for next week’s Sacrament Meeting.

We then left for La Trinidad, arriving there about 9:30am. La Trinidad was made a branch last week. We were very excited to attend Sacrament Meeting under the direction of a Branch Presidency. We meet Elder Worden and Elder Majia on the street and took them around to a few investigators homes to invite to church. We then went over to the home of a new convert. Only the wife was home, the husband was running errands. We had a short lesson on the Holy Ghost and a prayer in their humble home (this is the home with the pet monkey we visited a few weeks ago).

We then went over to Presidente Cruz’s home (he is the new branch president). Hermano Penera, the 1^st counselor came over and we had a little training session, with Elder Worden, Elder Majia and Sister Bell. We reviewed handbook 2, identifying the chapters that would be most helpful at this time. Then we spent most of the time reviewing the Guidebook for the small units. We discussed administration, ministration, strengthening members, and principles of leadership. We used the example of the Savior teaching Peter when Peter tried to walk on the water. We felt the spirit very strongly and developed a great love for each other.

While the Elders went to their Sunday lunch appointment, Sister Bell and I found a secluded place on a back country road and had our picnic lunch. The area was full of black butterflies with yellow spots. 

We think the national bird is the buzzard. There are hundreds of buzzards all across the country. Everywhere we look there seems to be large flocks of them. The tree in the picture is full of buzzards. 

We then attended church. There were not as many people at church today as there was a few weeks ago, but we enjoyed it very much. Brother Penera conducted (for the first time). They had two young single adult women talked about prayer, then Elder Worden and Elder Schoenfeld talked about Tithing and Fasting. We thoroughly enjoyed being there and the members seemed to enjoy seeing us again. The little children especially like Sister Bell as she has candy in her purse.

The church in La Trinidad

We thoroughly enjoy Sundays because we are out with the people. Ministering is always more rewarding than administrating. We got back home about 5:30pm.