Sushi for Thanksgiving!

This is from the Hermanas only meeting last week! 

With Hermana Chinchilla! She left this change! So sad because she was such and INCREDIBLE missionary. 

I have tons of pics from this meeting! Girls go a little crazy with the camera! 

Justavino and Corzantes! LOVE THESE GIRLS! P.S. Justavino got sent to PUERTO this week! PUERTO! How crazy. It used to only have Elders there because it is super dangerous and nuts. It is like extreme camping everyone says. There have been hermanas there for 3 changes now. The same time I opened Tipitapa. She will be great there and she is learning a new language there! She will only be teaching in Mesquito! 

Miller and I when we got stuck in a rain storm. LOVE MY COMP!! 

Our Thanksgiving dinner, SUSHI!! The perks of living in Managua. There is only one sushi place here and it is actually good! We even had it delivered to our house. We ate WAY TOO MUCH! But hey isn't that what Thanksgiving is about? It was super expensive but worth it! 

Eating my Thanksgiving dinner. I look a little crazy from a long day of work!

This week has been very interesting. Changes were this week and so the whole mission has been a little crazy.  I of course got here a week early so it was a little calmer for me but still a lot going on in the mission. We got a new DL and tons of new elders. We were the only Hermanas in the Zone, but they just put more in this change so it will be fun to get to know them. Our zone is SO FUN! I love everyone here.

Okay so I didn’t really get to tell you about our area last week. It is so interesting working in MANAGUA! We have to get EVERYWHERE by bus or taxi. Everyone here actually has a decent house and usually a car. Our house on the other hand is... horrible haha. We are definitely sporting the bucket shower and the bucket toilet. We NEVER have water so we are always stalking up and we most surely have mice friends living with us... NO! We have a nightly freak out session whenever one comes running out from under the door!

Our lunch and laundry cita is AWESOME! This lady is the cutest & sweetest person in the entire world. She takes such good care of us. She makes fruits and veggies EVERY DAY! She doesn’t even make us eat rice. I love her so much and her family. I wish you could meet her I know you would love her with all your heart too.

We have been working with two young adults.  They are both reading the Book of Mormon and have gone to church enough times to be baptized, they are just a little nervous to take the plunge and get baptized. It is so hard teaching ppl who know it is true but are just nervous to take this step.  Right now we are just trying to build their faith in Christ and hopefully they will be baptized this WEEKEND! They really are incredible and I love them so much. I can’t wait to see them feel at peace with this decision and watch Christ continue to change their lives.

We have also been working with one of the cutest young families of all time.  They are just two young adults, so in love with the sweetest little baby boy. They have such strong desires to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. They accepted every part of our message so easily. They have been reading the Book of Mormon and know it is true. There is always the sweetest most incredible spirit in their house. We never want to leave because it just feels so good there. They have been preparing to be baptized and were supposed to be baptized and married this Saturday. Well Friday rolled around and they both had their interviews. During the interviews it came up that he is only 20 and therefore needs the signature of his mom or dad to get married. Well...that is a HUGE PROBLEM. His dad doesn’t believe he is old enough to take this step in his life. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! They can’t get baptized if they aren’t married. Well, we literally talked to EVERY lawyer in town trying to find a loop hole. We also had lessons with his mom and dad trying to convince them to allow their son to get married but they would not BUDGE!!! Long story short they weren’t able to get baptized because we couldn’t get them married. It was the saddest thing every. It broke my heart to see two ppl, a FAMILY that are prepared and anxious to follow Christ have to postpone that moment. Saturday night we were pretty devastated just because we really have no idea what more we can do to help them. We are going to continue to look for solutions though because we KNOW Christ and God want them to be baptized so we WILL find the loop hole and they will enter into the waters of baptism VERY SOON!

So this week we also started our responsibilities as Sister Training Leaders. We are over the Hermanas here in Managua and in Esteli. Esteli is 3 hours away from here by bus and we have to go EVERY week to do divisions! It is going to be really difficult to do so many divisions so far away but I know it is also going to be a great experience for us both to learn and grow. Basically, as Sister Training Leaders we do divisions and meetings with them to teach them how to work more effectively and also to motivate them. This week we did our first changes in Esteli. Miller stayed here in our area with one sister and I went to Esteli. First off, the buses that go there are LEGIT because the ride is so long.  The seats recline, there is sweet music (I heard a new Beyoncé song hehehe), there are bathrooms and treats. It was pretty fun. Anyways, I got to Eateli and it was FREEZING! Seriously it was so cold there I was dying all night long. It was so awesome to work there though. It is GORGEOUS! Tons of trees and mountains. It reminded me of Matagalpa a little bit. It is a really rich area of Nicaragua as well. It was kind of fun to see the rich ppl houses here.
I was there with Hermana Corzantes, she is one of the trainers right now. She has been a little discouraged because they haven’t put very many fechas lately and they have been having a hard time finding new ppl to teach. Well, we worked like LOCAS I tell ya. We found so many new ppl and put 4 fechas. It was la LEY! I loved working with her and I learned so much from the experience. I feel like maybe I was given this calling just so I CAN LEARN. We both ended the day feeling so motivated and ready to face the work once again. I think I am going to love working with all these girls and getting to know them better. I can’t wait to learn a little from each Hermana and implement it in to my own work!

Today we went shopping at the GROCERY STORE here and I have never been so excited to grocery shop in all my LIFE. It was like WALMART!!! I was dying they actually had real FOOD! I was so excited. They also had body wash and soap. I was seriously dying the whole time! I even found caramel kisses!!! THEY WERE SO EXPENSIVE but I had to buy them. I know that is a HORRIBLE use of money, but I just had to do it. They also had GRANOLA BARS and salsa. I haven’t seen real food in so long. It was AWESOME!

Okay I have to go now. MAN the time goes by way too fast!!! I love you with all my heart!  I will talk to you next week!

With all my love,
Savannah