Monday, July 3 to Sunday, July 9, 2017

Monday, July 3, 2017

We spent a good part of the day moving beds. We needed to pick up a bed and bedframe for Bello Horizante from the sister leaders house and then delivered it. We went back to the sister leaders house and picked up two more mattresses for Rene Polanco to replace mattresses infested with bedbugs. The missionaries cleaned, treated their apartment with Permethrin, had their clothes washed and replaced the mattresses. We had to time all these trips to when the missionaries were in their apartments, not an easy task.

We made a quick trip to the office so Sister Bell could say good-bye to Sister Gonzalez. She is going home tomorrow. We wish her well. We took her and Sister Galbraith back to their house so they didn’t have to go out in the rain to find a taxi or take a bus.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

We welcomed 7 new sister missionaries to the mission; 2 from the US, 2 from Honduras, 1 from Guatemala, 1 from Salvador and 1 from Panama. We had our training at the Mission Home. It was lovely. We met on the patio. It was very pleasant and with only 7 missionaries, we could train them very easily. Sister Poncio fed us a wonderful lunch before we went to the office to introduce them to their trainers. It is always fun to get new missionaries.

Several of the trainers have trained before; H. Rodriquez 4 times, H. Barrios 3 times, H. Baptista 3 times and Sister Staker has been a trainer several times. This is Sister Hernandez' first time being a trainer. She will be wonderful.

We went out to dinner with the Lees and Helbergs. Sister Helberg is from Salvador and loved pupusas. She found a good pupusa restaurant close to our houses so we met there for dinner. We were a little skeptical because the last pupusas we ate were not very good. But these were good. We eat a few tacos too. Afterwards we went over to the Helbergs, played a few games, talked and drank malts.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Today was leadership council. The zone leaders and sister leaders are invited. We went alittle early to the office so we could visit and coordinate a few things with the zone leaders. We are excited about a few of the new leaders such as Elder Alofipo, and Elder Hamson. These are good missionaries that we have worked closely with in the past. They will make wonderful zone leaders. We were going to leave after we had a chance to visit with the leaders, but felt impressed to stay. We were glad we did because some of the Latinas who are going home tomorrow came in to take their English exam. We got to say good-bye to Elder Gonzalez, Hermanas Zamora, Cruz, Caispal and Martinez. All of them have had to overcome obstacles in their mission and have all done so admirably. These are wonderful young people who we love dearly. We will miss them.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

We slept in until 6am this morning. We were going to stay close to home, working from home, but that didn’t happen. I first got a haircut and then we went to Villa Flor. Sister Bell bought donuts, which we took with us. Missionaries love donuts. We needed to deliver some medicine to a missionary and then take Hermana Barrios and Flores back to their apartment to replace a fan. We then went to the hospital to help a missionary. We got her medicine and took them home. I think our service lightened their burdens some, especially since we brought food, took them shopping and gave them rides.  

Friday, July 7, 2017

First we went to the distribution center and then delivered mirrors to La Catorce and Las Americas. The Elders from Las Americas were at a zone meeting so we bought donuts and went to the Church. They are always excited to see us when we show up with donuts. We stopped by the office to pick up some materials for tomorrow and went home. I sent out our weekly newsletter and tried to find frig parts on line (I was unsuccessful). Sister Bell had several missionary calls through-out the day. We seem to be in cold and zika season along with the usual stomach problems.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Today the Esteli District held a miniSOY (strength of youth). We stopped by to drop off some SOY bags. We estimated that there were about 100 youth. They were all outside playing games when we arrived. We saw youth from Somoto (11), Pueblo Nuevo (1-nonmember), Condega (1) and Trinidad (2). We also saw the youth leaders from Somoto and Pueblo Nuevo there. We were excited to see them, but they were also excited to see us.

We met Elders Gharring and Garcia in Somoto. 

We visited Hermana Ziadas family and gave clothes to them. We got the clothes from the sister missionaries who went home this week. They are modest, which is what the sisters in our little groups and branches need. They were very appreciative of the clothes. 

We then visited an investigator family. We showed them a video about the importance of the family and then gave them a copy of the family proclamation.

We visited another member family and then went by Hermana Celias home. We almost attended a baptism at the Church, but by the time the Elders and the sister got there, we needed to leave.

We taught another teacher improvement class in Pueblo Nuevo. Everyone was there except for Madeline who had gone to SOY and hadn’t returned yet. After our lesson (the importance to love those we teach), we got the clothes out and they had a chance to go through it. We in the United States wouldn’t think of wearing used clothes, but these humble people have no problems with used clothes. They were excited to get new things and we are excited that they have modest clothes.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

We left Koellikers about 7:30am. We drove to Somoto where we picked up President Alaniz. We briefly passed by the Church to pick up some materials and drove to Pueblo Nuevo. He had interviews to extend calls to Holario (Priesthood Teacher), Aries (Primary Teacher) and Maybelline (YW Teacher). They were sustained in Sacrament Meeting and then set apart after the meetings. We only had Sacrament Meeting and SS/Primary because we started late and everyone is used to leaving at noon. So our meetings were 1 hr and 45 minutes. We will talk with them next week about meeting longer.

It is fun to see our little group grow. President Alaniz loves his little flock and feels very strongly about doing the Lords work. After the meeting, we found out that one of our recent converts had been physically threatened last night by her husband. We stopped at her house on our way out of town to give her comfort and support. I did not follow the conversation very well, in fact I thought originally that she had tried to commit suicide, then I thought her husband tried to commit suicide. It wasn’t until we were visiting with her that I understood enough to know that her husband tried to hurt her. I don’t know if I will ever understand everything that is said. President Alaniz counseled with her and gave her wonderful advice. 

Sister Bell and I mostly listened, but did give alittle counsel.

We had dinner at the Koellikers house on our way back to Managua. We don’t usually stop but we had to stop to trade vehicles. They were celebrating Elder Hughes birthday. It was nice to have a wonderful Sunday dinner and not just peanut butter sandwiches.

We drove the mission truck home. The Koellikers will use our Rav4. We will get a new truck tomorrow and the Office Elders will use the mission truck. The Koellikers old Rav 4 will be sold.