Monday, May 29 to Sunday, June 4, 2017

Monday, May 29, 2017

We took two sisters to lunch at Rosti Pollo. They were at the hospital for an appointment and needed a ride to the bus stop. They were out of money so we picked them up, feed them, gave them money for bus and taxi and dropped them off at the bus stop.

We got home and the President called. He said that two Elders were at the dentist’s office and needed a ride to the Elders House. They apparently were out of money as well. I picked them up, bought them hamburgers at Burger King and dropped them off at the Assistants house, where they were going to spend the night before catching an early morning bus to their area. The heavy traffic made the trip long, but we got there and at least I got home without incident.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 – Happy Anniversary and Nicaraguan Mother’s Day

I cooked Michelle’s favorite breakfast – Blueberry Pancakes.

We had the new missionary training this morning. This is for the missionaries that have come within the last 12 weeks. There are 11 of them, so with their companions, there was 22 (actually only 20 came because one companionship had a baptism scheduled and the President told them so stay for the baptism). Sister Bell taught the principles of a balanced diet.

We hosted the Senior Missionary dinner tonight. I cooked quiche, a spinach and mushroom and an onion and cheese. Both turned out well, which was a blessing because I have never cooked a quiche before. We also had watermelon, ham, juice and cheesecake. Sister Bell lead a discussion about mothers so we all told stories about our mothers.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Today was an errand day. Sister Bell got her hair cut today. While she was doing that, I got gas in the car and picked up two frigs at the Sisters house in Villa Flor that needed repairing. We also bought chargers for the DVD players (the chargers are always getting broken or lost), changed a dentist appointment for a missionary and paid our rent for another month. We spent the afternoon at home, working and resting.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Sister Bell talked to Hermana Jackson, the mental health specialist for Central America today. Sister Jackson has been a marvelous help with the missionaries that are having emotional or mental problems in the mission. We found out that Sister Jackson and her husband were in Nicaragua. Her husband is over audits throughout Central America and is here to train auditors. We invited them to dinner and took them to Asado al Patio. We ate a gator, which was yummy as usual. We enjoyed meeting and visiting with them.

Friday, June 2. 2017

The Jacksons invited us to go on a tour of Granada. Since we didn’t have anything pressing and we hadn’t taken a P-Day this week, so we got permission from President Poncio and went. They had booked a tour through Vive Tours. Eyner Reyes was our driver. It cost us $90 each for a full day tour. We went to the Mayasa Volcano, the Mayasa Market, a tour of Granada and a boat ride through the islands in Lake Nicaragua. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and found the Jacksons to be delightful companions. Here are some of the things we saw and did.

This was at the Masaya Volcano Visitors Center. We were only able to see a small amount of hot lava in the crater. It was not as visible as it has been in previous visits.

These were taken at the Masaya Market. I bought a shirt there.

We stopped briefly at the Catalina viewpoint, looking over the Laguna de Apoyo. We will be there in a week with Kim, Paul and their families.

We took a boat ride through the Islands outside of Granada on Lake Nicaragua.

There were some beautiful houses on the islands. There are over 370 islands, mostly very small.

This is Monkey Island. There are three monkeys on the island. There used to be five, but two died.

There were some pretty flowers that we found along our boat ride. Sister Bell used her hat to show them off.

We went up into the bell tower of an old Cathedral in Granada, which was built in the late 1700s. We got a beautiful view of the city, from all sides.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

It felt great to go north and teach again. We taught President Alaniz the last temple prep class with his wife listening in. It was a sweet lesson. We love them a lot and we feel their love for us. We then went to the church and had another leader preparation class. We taught about principles of leadership (lesson 3 in Book 2). The missionaries, President Alaniz, Cristian Alaniz and Hermana Celia were in attendance. We had a wonderful discussion, using the Savior as an example to illustrate principles of leadership. We went to dinner at Rosti Pollo in Esteli and arrived at the Koellikers house about 8:30, just as they were getting home.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Today was fast Sunday and we spent it in Condega with Elders Howland and Perez. We got there early enough that we took them around to invite people to come to Church. We were especially glad to see Hermana Nubia, Virginia’s daughter. She has been sick for several months. Today she was out of bed and working around the house. She was very glad to see us and we were very glad to see her. We invited her to come next week (she said she couldn’t come this week) when Paul and his family will at Church in Condega. The group meets in the home of Freddy and Virginia. 

There were several investigators at the meeting. We held Sacrament Meeting, Gospel Doctrine and RS/Priesthood, all within a 2-hour block. Noe Ramirez ordained his son, Christopher, a deacon today. He gave him a nice blessing.

We headed for Managua, getting home about 4PM. When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by a rainbow.