Member Missionaries

This is when we got to use the Senoritas kitchen that we live with and make pancakes! 
Yeah first American food in a long time! 

This is me making a Nackatamale. They are not my favorite, but I always rave about how delicious it is. They are like tamales but only the maize. Also they are HUGE. There is usually a little piece of meat in the middle but it is so sketch so I NEVER eat it. I found out they put a little bit of rice and salsa in it but I have never tasted that haha. Just mush! 

Hello Everyone,

I just had a chance to read your email!  Haha it made me smile to read that Branson and his friends are going to have a "tailgate" party everyday for school lunch. Sounds about right for him. I hope the boys really enjoy their time in High School. It goes by SO FAST! I had so many good times in high school. I hope the make the most of EVERY opportunity.  I have been FLOODED with Emails for my Birthday. So to EVERYONE that sent me letters of emails THANK YOU! They made my day. I feel very lucky to know you all. Thanks for all the love and encouragement!

So like I said last week we had a wedding and baptism Monday night. Marvali and Mario looked so beautiful in white. While sitting there during their wedding and especially their baptisms I just kept thinking, "Is this real? Do I really get to be a part of this incredible moment in their lives? I must be the luckiest girl. I really feel so blessed to have the chance to see these miracles every week. I am so happy for them. They now have the opportunity to grow as a family in the Gospel. I think you already know this but they are the parents of Heydaling. They have 2 other young kids as well- Isaias and Kenya. It is amazing that they have now taken the first step to being an eternal family. Marvali and Mario as well as Heydaling and Rafeal promised to invite me to their Temple Sealing. I hope I can return to see that! After the baptism Heydaling came up to me and just said "Thank you. Thank you so much for teaching my family the truth and helping us get to know Christ." Ah she is so special I am telling you. I wish you guys could meet her. She always wants to go on splits with us and help in anyway possible. I will be so sad to say goodbye to her.

So Saturday was Isaias Baptism. He is 13 years old so next Sunday he is going to receive the Priesthood. Seriously seeing the change that the Gospel has made in this family is just beyond Amazing. I am so lucky that is all I can really say. He is such a sweet kid. The Young Men have welcomed him with open arms and he now has 6 new GREAT friends. I can’t wait to watch him pass the sacrament and grow in the church. He told us he wants to serve a mission when he is older. How cool is that! The baptism was great. One of the Young men - Edwardo, the Son of Francisco, baptized him. This Rama(ward) is AWESOME!

This week we have spent a lot of time finding new families to teach. Right now we are teaching 5 families. One of them is a reference from Yamilet - Yamili and Yudamis mom. This family is really incredible. They are very interested and want to learn more. I am excited to keep working with them. We are still working with Edwin as well. He wants to learn more, go to church and be baptized SO BAD, BUT his wife is really standing in the way. She is evangelical and does NOT want him to be baptized. She was baptized in our church 4 years ago but something happened and now she LOVES to talk to us and BIBLE BASH. I just hate it. I hope we can find a way to reach him and help him gain a testimony of the church. We also found this AMAZING family this week. Bydon and Fransis. They are a young family with 2 kids. They have just gone through a lot of difficulties and are so prepared to hear the Gospel. They are seriously a GOLDEN family. They keep all their commitments and remember EVERY THING we teach them. It is a miracle. We have recent converts of 7 months that still don’t know who Joseph Smith is, but this family does. They pray together, read the Book of Mormon and committed to come to church. SADLY, something happened we aren’t quite sure what but they didn’t make it to church. We went by their house three times before church but they just weren’t there and their phone was off. We are going to go by their house again tomorrow and see what happened.

So this SUNDAY was NUTS! The ZL told us that Presidente was going to be coming to our meetings! We were seriously nut cases. The Mission president is over all Branches and Districts as well as the missionaries here. So he checks in every once and awhile and helps out. Well Sunday came and went without a sign of the President. However, one of his counselors did show up because they were changing out everyone in the Branch Presidency.  The president of the Branch, who I ABSOLUTELY LOVE was replaced as well as all the counselors.  He honestly worked harder for this branch than I thought was possible. He gave his all for the members. Well we have a new Branch president and I like him a lot.  

Transfers are the 4th of September, but rumor is we aren’t going to have change meetings anymore. Just who ever have changes will go to Managua and then head out to their new areas. How sad! I want to see everyone!! And eat at McDonalds...haha. We are having a lot more MultiZone meetings though. This Thursday we have one with a General Authority. I have to perform a special musical number there.   I seriously doubt I will have changes though. There are ppl here that have been in this area for 8 months and I am sure they will leave before me. There are lots of changes in the mission right now though so who knows for sure. It also depends on how many new missionaries we get. President did tell us though that he is going to be putting SISTERS in areas that previously have only been for Elders. It is CRAZY!!! I really hope I don’t go to any of those areas. The Elders have told me PLENTY of horror stories. I know the President wouldn’t do anything dangerous but nonetheless I don’t want to go. You have to go back to your house at 6pm and I heard the water is literally GREEN!

Oh I also wanted to tell you about an experience I had while working with MEMBERS this week. We had a lesson planned with our new family Bydon and Fransis for Thursday night. Right before the lesson we had a quick lesson with a recent convert. They live close to Bydon so we asked them to accompany us to the lesson and they agreed! Anyways.... we got to their house and had a beautiful lesson. Seriously the Spirit was so apparent. Bydon and Fransis are new to the area and they were so grateful to have some new friends that are a young family as well and experiencing similar things. Well during the lesson the member family, Linder and Licet, bore testimony of how the Gospel changed their lives. WOW! That changed everything. It is one thing to hear this message from a couple of single girls but to hear how the true Gospel has changed ppl´s lives in your same situation is something completely different. Afterwards we invited them to be baptized and they accepted! I know it is because of the power and testimony of those members.

I want to testify that this is the work of all the members! Not just us missionaries. The members make all the difference and this work will spread faster with YOUR help than through any other means. I want to encourage EVERYONE to not be shy about sharing the Gospel- giving the missionaries a reference, inviting a non-member family to the house for a lesson or just being a friend to someone that doesn’t have this truth yet.  One person will make a difference, however, we can make more of a difference TOGETHER! Imagine if all of us as members invite one person to church! What a miracle that would be. Let's help our brothers and sisters discover the truth and take the first steps towards their salvation. Let's help them find peace, hope and happiness in this life. We are so lucky to have this knowledge it is our DUTY to share it!

Okay I have to go now! I love you with my EVERYTHING!!!

Loves,
Savannah

Knee Deep

This is Hermana Justavino after she fell knee deep into the mud! heheh

Okay so this week has been... interesting. Honestly the week has FLOWN by but I feel like not much has happened. That is until YESTERDAY. So we had placed a baptismal date (and wedding date) with Marvali and Mario for this coming Saturday at the start of this week. We planned on finishing up the lessons with them during the week and preparing them for baptism. WELL, the men here that are members have the opportunity to go to Guatemala for 2 months to study, work and get certificates so they can get better jobs here. They leave this WEDNESDAY! Well Mario decided he wanted to go so they told the President of the Rama the situation and he gave them the permission to be baptized and married TODAY! What the!? So we have been scrambling all day to get ready. I am so happy for them and I know they can be LEADERS in this church if they stay faithful to the principles of the Gospel. We had a beautiful experience with Marvali yesterday. She shared her testimony with us and broke down into tears. The spirit was so sweet in that moment. Their son has been attending church with them as well and he wants to be baptized. We are going to continue to teach him a little more and baptize him this Saturday. 

Well as I said before the members here have the opportunity to go to Guatemala for 2 months starting this week. It is such an incredible opportunity for them and can really change their lives. I am so glad they have this chance, HOWEVER, it is going to KILL the attendance at church. Almost ALL of our Priesthood is leaving for Guatemala. It will be interesting to see what we will do and how we are going to work with this situation. 

We are seeing all sorts of miracles here. I think I told you about Edwin last week and the Baptismal date Hermana Tzraza and I placed with him for this Sunday. Well, we weren’t able to baptize him this Saturday BUT he did come to church this week! It was a miracle to have him there. I KNOW he felt the spirit and he knows this church is true. We just need to continue working with him and I am confident he will be baptized! This Sunday we also had a few recent converts come to church with us that haven’t showed up for A LONG time! It was so good to have them all there. 

This week we had a conference with President. HE IS AWESOME! Honestly every meeting with him just confirms to me why I am here at this time. This mission needs missionaries that want to keep the rules, work efficiently and effectively, and follow the guidance of Preach My Gospel and WORK! The mission is changing DRASTICALLY right now and I know I am here because the Lord wants the mission to go in a direction I am familiar with. Anyways the meeting was awesome and we learned a lot of new useful things about how the mission is going to function from now on. It is 100% focused on the principles in Preach My gospel, The White Handbook and The Book of Mormon. The APs and secretaries were there which meant we got all our letters. WOW!!!!! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SENT LETTERS!!! I am so spoiled!!! I know most of them are for my Birthday so I am waiting to open any that look like potential Birthday letters haha. Seriously, thank you to everyone! All the missionaries were coming up to me asking for their mail because they thought I had all the mail for the WHOLE mission! Everyone kept saying WHAT THE I haven’t got that many letters in ALL MY MISSION put together. SO THANK YOU!!! I am so blessed to know so many incredible ppl! 

Okay so I just wanted to share two funny experiences from this week. 

Number 1.

So Thursday night after a LONG hard day I decided to take a cold shower. After surviving about 3 minutes of that I came out to find a small baby turtle out front of our room. I told my companion to come look at the turtle I had found. She took one look and started SCREAMING. I panicked and started screaming too. She ran into our room, got a huge can and SMASHED IT! I was so confused until she told me it was in fact not a baby turtle but a GIANT COCKROACH!!! EWWW! I was running around making gagging sounds for a solid 3 minutes afterwards. Haha

Number 2

Every Wednesday night we have an activity called the Noche de Hermanamiento. It is just a small class we have every week with a little refreshment at the end. Everyone is invited. It has been awesome to see the activity GROW! President (of the Branch) told me the first week they had the activity 5 ppl showed up, his family. This week we had 50 ppl there. It was incredible. Anyways we were running late to the activity this week because we had to go pick up some less active and remind a couple families. Well after having NO success getting anyone to come with us we RAN to the activity. We took a route we normal don’t take and ran into a little problem. They had moved all the earth from the middle of the path to the sides creating walls on either side of us. We assumed the earth that was in the middle was solid and fine to walk through. Well Hermana Justavino took one step and SUNK knee deep into MUD! Hahahah I was dying laughing. She had to wade her way back to the side to get out. I was stuck on a little piece of solid land and had no idea what to do. Finally one of the guys that saw Hermana Justavino fall (everyone was laughing so hard that witnessed it.... thanks for the heads up haha) gave me a hand and helped me to dry land. Man it was so hilarious!

EVERY ONE and their dog knows it is my birthday the 30th and are planning parties Hehe. They play tons of pranks on the birthday person here. So I am sure the ZONE is going to EGG me. Our lunch cita already has a piñata. And our old lunch cita, Noehelia has been planning a chanchada, prank, for weeks now. I am terrified. Just thought I would let you know I will be taken care of that day. 

Tells the boys good luck with school I love them and miss them so much!!! Also tell them we played fugitive today as a zone in the streets of Nicaragua. It was awesome! Also I may have scared the life out of a tiny old lady when I saw the elders (the police in the game) running after me. I turned around screaming bloody murder ready to run away when I smashed straight into a tiny Nica lady. Haha not my shinning moment. Needless to say they caught me. Haha tell the boys they will understand. 

To all the sweet ppl that wrote me letters THANK YOU! I can’t wait to read them in a week. I love all you sweet ppl in my life so much! Thank you for your support, love and encouragement! 

I love you so much,

Savannah

PS It has been bloody HOTT!!!! I don’t know how I am going to survive this for the next 15 months. I am getting color that is for sure. My hair is red, my eyes are green and I have freckles for days!

Shaking Hands With a Monkey!

This is from today at the Park of Monkeys. This is me freaking out while trying to shake the monkeys hand. All the Elders thought is was HILARIOUS! I was definitely squealing.

When I actually got the courage to hold his hand. 

The monkeys trying to take off Elder Copes clothes haha so hilarious!

Some of the Elders and Hermanas in our Zone at the Park of Monkeys today. 

This is the life size First Vision we made for the activity.

How are you doing this week? I miss you guys!  Guess what I got sunburned for the first time today! It has been so HOT this week! This week we have had little to no rain. Which has sucked because it has been so bloody HOT!  Here in Matagalpa it is super humid and while climbing mountains it is hard to not be constantly sweating! After today though I am terrified of going to any other area that is hotter because it has been miserable. It did just start raining though and this is the rainiest season of the year so I am sure things will cool down soon...I hope.

Okay so I want to tell you a little bit about this week.  So this Tuesday our WHOLE ZONE had changes with each other. We got the call Tuesday morning that we needed to be at the Church in one hour for Changes and Hermana Justavino would be the one going to a new area. I WAS TERRRIFIED! Since I was staying in our area I had to be Senior comp with whomever I had changes with. WHAT THE!? I don’t know Spanish; I can't direct the lessons or find investigators on my own! I seriously didn’t know what to do with myself. So we got to the church and I found out my comp was going to be HERMANA Txraza! (She is from Guatemala and has 5 months in the mission!) She is super sweet but super quiet at the same time. With these changes we were also given a set a goals that we were supposed to try and accomplish. The changes consisted of two days and two nights. I have never been so nervous in all my life. Our first day, Tuesday, was just crazy. We had a ton of goals we needed to accomplish and not much time. I stepped into the shoes of Senior companion and we WORKED! Seriously I have never worked so hard in all my life. I started EVERY lesson. I guided us through the area. I found the new investigators. And started all the contacts. It was just insane. I could feel the Lord sustaining me like I have never felt before. I had know idea I knew that much Spanish. I know it wasn’t perfect but the ppl understood me and responded to my questions. I had full on conversations with ppl and taught complete lessons. I was guided by the spirit to know what to teach and what scriptures I needed to share. I have never felt the spirit like that in all my life. I know the Lord was carrying me through those two days. They absolutely FLEW BY! And I learned so much about my abilities. I really had to learn HOW TO BE A MISSIONARY. It was really incredible. I wouldn’t trade those two days for ANYTHING. Hermana Txraza and I had some unforgettable experiences. Those two nights we had together in the house we had time to reflect on the events for the past two days and share our testimonies with one another. It was seriously such a blessing and a confirmation to me that I can do this and that the Lord really does sustain his missionaries.

So my favorite experience from those two days was with one of our Investigators Edwin. His wife was baptized but has since joined the Evangelical church and is dead set on staying in that church. We tried teaching them last month but really could not make any progress with him while she was present during the lesson. This week we found him by himself in the house and took advantage of the opportunity to teach him. I started the lesson that day about Baptism. We talked about covenants, repentance and the opportunity we have to be clean through Christ. The Spirit during that lesson was undeniable. He was very attentive and also bore testimony that he knows Christ is his Savior. He experienced his desire to follow Christ and receive his salvation. At the conclusion of the lesson we invited him to be baptized and.... He ACCEPTED! Ahh I thought I was going to stand up and scream right then and there. Afterwards Hermana Txraza and I did just that!! It was a beautiful experience that I will NEVER forget. We are going to continue to work with him and prepare him for his baptism.

So this week was the HUGE activity we have been planning as a Zone for the District of Matagalpa. We just have enough members here to make Branches and a District. The activity consisted of Classes about Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, a question and answer session and the video of the Restoration. The purpose of the activity was to help strength the testimonies of the members, less active and recent converts. The church is very NEW here. Most members don’t have more than 2 years in the church and most of them really don’t know the basics of our church. We really wanted to help answer questions and help build the testimonies of the members so they would have a desire to come to church and to share their testimony. We were shooting for about 400 ppl there and WE MADE IT! It was a really beautiful activity and EVERYBODY loved it! The members couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful it was. I hope this excitement will stay with the members and we will be able to get the numbers up for church attendance. Our rama/branch did awesome with the number of people at the activity we had about 80 ppl attend. Members, less actives, recent converts and investigators!

The last little exciting thing that happened this week was with the parents of Heydaling. She really has been so excited about becoming a member of the church and wants to share her knowledge with everyone! We started teaching her parents and younger brother who is 11. They ALWAYS come to all the activities and church. They love everything BUT don’t really want to get married. And there lies our problem. Well we were talking to the Husband yesterday alone when he told us that they are actually already married. He tricked her in to getting married one day by telling her she was signing some different legal document and she has no idea they are married. What the??? We don’t know if we believe him and told him we need to see the paper for proof. The problem is if he tells her it could potentially tear their family apart. We really don’t know what to do with this situation. We are going to see if the papers are legit and then talk with the Zone leaders for help. They did tell us last night though that ALL 3 of them want to be baptized!!! How incredible! If we can sort through this situation they will be baptized soon. We are seeing miracles here I tell you!

Also I think I told you we changed our lunch cita. It is awesome! It is with Hna. Berna and she is the sweetest ever! She also washes our clothes now!  Our clothes smell like flowers, are ironed and folded now. It is a dream! Also I found Maxi Pali, a branch of Walmart! I felt at home and the meat was kept somewhat COLD! It was a miracle. I think we are going to start shopping there. Also one of the new girls told me that they just switched houses and they have HOT WATER!!! I think Hermana Justavino and I are going to look for a new house now. The only reason we don’t want to leave is because we like the Lady we live with. Sometimes she makes us food and it Is DELICIOUS! But the hot water out weights that in my eyes haha. Also the fact that the ppl that live above us BLARE mexi rap every morning, the Lady we live with has a nasty dog that poops every where and we have tons of bugs makes me okay with leaving. I think I probably have at least one more change here and so does Hna. Justavino so we are going to start searching. This president doesn’t like to have a lot of changes. There are ppl here that have been in this same area for 7 months. It is fine with me though because we have the BEST BRANCH EVER! And the BEST MEMBERS ever as well. Also I am not ready for any hotter weather. YIKES!

I love you so very much!  I think about you all every day! I know I always say it but it is true! I keep you in my prayers and can't wait to see you all again!! I love you all so very much and miss you! Let my friends, family and STUDENTS know I love them as well and am so grateful for all the letters and emails. They give my courage to face the hard days! Thank you for your examples!!

Love,

Hermana Kendall

It's Chilly Here Right Now. What?!?

This is a picture of my old district. We were named the Avengers of Justice. Because we were given names from either The Justice league or The Avengers. I was Black Widow. We all got T-shirts and we look awesome. Haha!
This is in the smoothie shop we met in before transfers.

Enjoying ice cream with the Elders on P-day.

Having some mango sauce at Hector's house. It is like apple sauce.

Hello!

I'm doing pretty good. I am so full haha. That has been the theme of our week. We changed Lunch citas this week because we were paying A LOT of money for our other cita and she wasn’t giving us very much food. We were sad to change because she is really sweet but we honestly needed more food. Well ask and ye shall receive. We are now eating in a member’s home -Hermana Verna. She is honestly probably one of the sweetest ppl on this planet. I think she is going to end up being my mom for the mission. She was baptized 5 years ago and her whole family has now been baptized as well. Her brother is even serving a mission right now. She is married with 4 kids and they have been sealed in the temple. They are a SPECIAL family. Anyways she feeds us SO MUCH! I don’t know how I fit it all in my belly but I do. She makes us rice with warm milk, cinnamon and sugar like you used to make for us. It always makes me so happy and reminds me of the family. Right now it is really pretty chilly in Matagalpa. We always have to wear a jacket and it rains EVERYDAY so the warm rice is a nice little treat.

This week has actually been really hard for my comp and me. We just have been struggling to find ppl to teach and then struggling to feel the Spirit really strongly when we teach them. It has been frustrating for us both. We had a good talk yesterday and have come up with a plan for the up coming week. I had gotten to the point where I kind of shut down and she could tell because I wasn’t really talking very much. Yesterday she said, "Hermana are you okay? Because you are a real chatter box and this week you have been pretty quite." After that we just talked and we both felt a lot better. It is so much better to just express my frustrations instead of keeping them bottled up. I have really learned to cherish my prayers. The sacred time that I have to talk with My Heavenly Father every day is really precious to me. I like to go outside and pray out loud in the morning. It is the only prayer I offer in English during the day and I feel like my Father can understand me and respond. I feel like I can pour out my feelings and he understands exactly what I am going through. I love that time! But I know it is important to talk with my companion too about the same things. About my stresses and frustrations because she can help. Often I just think she has NO IDEA how this feels because she speaks the language. She has no idea how alone and hard it can be. BUT that is the point, she my not know exactly how I feel but God has put her in my life at this point because I can learn something from her and she can help me. SHE DOES KNOW THE LANGUAGE! And she is willing to help me.

Oh and as for my sleep.... UGH nothing! Seriously I cannot sleep. I wake up every morning at about 4 and my mind is just full of SPANISH. It is so frustrating. I try not to think about it and calm my mind down but the Spanish is even taking over my DREAMS. Maybe that is a good thing I don’t know. I just hope I can get some sleep at some point.

Okay in response to your guys emails this week.... Sounds like a fun week! And I can’t believe school is starting so soon. Summer flew by this year didn’t it? It sounds like the Highland Fling was fun. Misti wrote me this week too saying that she saw you and loved talking to you. I get new ppl every week writing me and saying sweet things. And it is so sweet of ppl to be telling you they pray for me as well. Please tell them THANK YOU so much for their prayers, support and love. It really means the WORLD to me. Also that is awesome that you guys were able to spend a little bit of time with Travis´s family. Sounds like fun! Oh as for my soccer skills...still pretty horrible. It probably has to do with the fact that I refuse to play haha. My comp and I usually just go into the chapel and practice piano. She wants to learn how to play better and I have to practice for Sacrament meeting so it works out pretty good.  ALSO I can’t WAIT to see the new video in the TEMPLE! I miss going to the Temple sooooo much! Seriously I am so anxious to go again. Also tell Branson buen hecho with the new camera dolly and I hope he is getting excited for SENIOR YEAR! What the? AND GRANT!!! CONGRATS on making the GOLF TEAM! I had no doubts! Good luck this year! Oh and we have a dvd player here so if you guys ever send a little video I can watch it!

So this week I GOT MY LETTERS!!! AHHHH! Seriously best day EVERY. I think my comp was a little worried about me by the way I TORE through the letters like a ravaging (is that a word? haha) creature, poured over EVERY WORD, cried, laughed and then read them again. I got the ENSIGN! YES!! Thank you so much! I love reading it! And thank you for the Plans of Salvation kits. They are PREFECT!  The package with the Ensign was stamped June 19th. YES it arrived June 19th. 9 days after you sent it I think. Ugh I wish it could have just been sent to our house. Oh well I eventually got it. ALSO to EVERYONE that sent me letters THANK YOU!! I can’t say thank you enough times. It felt like Christmas! I am so lucky to know so many amazing ppl. LAUREN you ROCK! Okay enough said. I will try to write you all back with in the next couple weeks. Thank you!!

Okay so Tuesday we had a meeting with President in Managua. We woke up at 3 AM and had to be at the bus stop at 4:30 am to make it to Managua. We didn’t know where the Bus Stop was so SWEET HECTOR woke up early and walked us to the bus stop at 4 in the morning. Seriously what a great guy! We just love him. The meeting was for all the Trainers and Newbies. I got to see Hermana TEICHERT! YAY I always love seeing her. It was also fun to chat with all the other new girls as well. I was also pleasantly surprised that for the most part I understood the whole meeting without a translator and I could communicate with a lot of the Latinas. They all were so sweet saying how great my Spanish was. EVERYONE says that though and I have feeling they say it to everyone.... Oh well I will take the compliment. THANK YOU! The meeting was really great. It made me so excited to get to WORK! President is seriously AWESOME! He is changing so many things for the mission. His focus is Preach my Gospel, the Missionary Manual and the Book of Mormon. Everything a mission should be focused on. He is ALL about the Rules. I LOVE that. I also feel like he is really going to take care of us. He wants the missionaries to be safe and healthy. I feel like he is going to be really involved in the work with us. He already is giving us more money to buy food and changing some of rules the old president had put in place to help us be healthier. He is receiving a lot of amazing revelation for this mission right now. I just love that he wants to use all the resources the Church HAS for us missionaries. We received the Training manual that we are supposed to be following. Sadly I am starting my 12-week training 7 weeks late but at least I have the book now and it is AWESOME! I am learning so much from it. The meeting was a real success.

This week was a big week for us. Rafael and Heydaling were married FRIDAY! Yay they looked just stunning. They were both Glowing! Right after the wedding Heydaling was baptized. Ahh she is going to be so solid in the church. I am telling you this girl was PREPARED! She loves everything about the church and is so excited to finally be a member. After her baptism I asked her how she felt and she said, "Hermana, I just feel clean. I feel like everything bad has left and I can start a new life. I feel the presence of my Lord and Savior." The girl is 17 years old! She is such an amazing example to me. And now we are teaching her Parents. I don’t know if they are going to accept the Gospel right now. They are a little tough. We are going to continue to work with them and if nothing else, prepare them for missionaries in the future.

Saturday we had another baptism - YAMAILI! Yes she was finally baptized and now their family is complete. Oh I will NEVER forget their family. They are so so special. I have no doubt they are going to stay strong in the church all their lives. They have some of the most beautiful, caring and sweet spirits... ALL OF THEM - the Grandma, their AMAZING MOM (who I think I told you we reactivated last month and now she is the 2 counselor in the RS) Yudeimi (who wants to serve a mission and loves going to lessons with us) Yamaili and their cute little sister atsidis who ADORES US.  She runs up to us everyday, gives us giant hugs and doesn’t let go. You guys will have to come back with me one day so you can all meet them.

It has been a great week in ways of baptisms for us! Yesterday I was asking my comp stuff about the numbers and how all of that works. And how our numbers compare to other missionaries. Because I know in way of baptisms we are doing pretty good. The old goal was for every companionship to baptism 1 family each change. Now it is 2 families and President wants us to be baptizing other ppl as well. He said we should baptize EVERY week. Well as far as baptisms we are doing pretty good but our families numbers aren't good.  We are working so HARD, keeping all the rules and Heavenly Father will bless us for that. We were the only ppl in our entire district that baptized last change.  We had a goal of baptizing 15 families as a zone and we only hit 8.  5 families were from one companionship of Hermanas! It was a new record. They both left the mission for homes that change-great way to end a mission. Anyway our goal this change is 24 families! The record is 18 I think. We have decided to EXERCISE faith. We all have faith in our individual companionship goals and from that we have come up with this goal. We are going to work with FIRE! Our zone is going to lead the mission after this change! We have the faith to do it and God will help us.

I have been studying the attributes of Christ from PMG Ch. 6 especially Faith and Hope.  I know as we strive to develop the attributes of Christ we will feel the Spirit more abundantly in our lives. I love learning more about my Savior. He is the perfect example and he lived a perfect life. I want to represent him the very BEST I can. I wear a badge every day carrying his name. I never want to be caught acting in a way that would embarrass him. We are literally the hands of Christ here in Nicaragua at this time. I want to do this work just how he would. I know he died for us and lives again. It is through his atoning sacrifice and infinite grace we can live as a family FOREVER! For that I am eternally indebted to him. It is pretty amazing I have this short time to serve him in this capacity. I can NEVER repay him but I am happy I get to share his message and help others feel the hope his Gospel brings to our lives! We are so blessed. That I KNOW!

I have to go now! I love you so much!!! I miss you all!!!

Love,

Savannah