August 24, 2015

August 24, 2014 (He left his camera cable home...no pictures :-( 

Dear Mom and Dad!

You guys had a very busy week! crazy! Sorry about the van troubles and the loss for the Laubs, but pinochle, camping, and ribs sound AWESOME! 

Well this was a pretty boring week, but I'm still happy and working hard! Sorry the camera cable in the house! Muchas fotos en la siguente semana! 

So like I said last week we were going to baptize, however we were trying to move his baptism date up, and some investigators are okay with that, however Humberto is what Nicas call "Fresco" haha which means he is very calmed down so he does not like moving things very fast or changing plans at the last minute haha he is kind of frustrating sometimes hahaha :) But he is pretty solid to get baptized this coming Saturday! :) 

Elder Merrill went to Rivas this past weekend to solidify possibilities that were down there. So I stayed alone in the area with Elder Lopez! We have been working in this new part of our area that we had not worked and we have had lots of success! We brought 6 new investigators from there on Sunday, and ended up bringing 12 in total! 12 is the minimum we have to bring every single week! So we know we can work harder and be more obedient!

Speaking of Coke... Just some fun thoughts I had this week hahaha :) A bottle of water here costs 16 cords, or about 50 cents haha :) however a glass bottle of coke costs 9 cords, or about 30 cents :) a liter of gas costs 30 cords, and a liter of cokes costs 18 cords :) a liter of water costs 35 cords. Water more expensive than gas, and Coke is the cheapest of all! :) #ThirdWorldProbs

Basically what I am trying to get at is that we drink probably too much coke haha :) I went a whole two weeks without it one time, then I ran out of my money for the 14 days haha :) Oh well, Ill get back into the $1 Powerades from McDonalds when I get back, or just being able to drink water! :) 

Anyway Sorry for the short uneventful letter, but next week it should be a great letter! This Saturday we have a HUGE meeting with the two missions here in Nicaragua and the meeting is being presided by ELDER RUSSEL M. NELSON!!! #SitUpFront #ModernDayPeter

I love you! Thanks for the Pizza recipe, and for getting that contact Solution! #Stuggggllliiingg :)

Love you!

Elder Naisbitt

August 17, 2015

August 17, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad!! :) 

How are you guys doing?? :) Sounds like a week full of soccer! That is awesome the experiments Ash made and that Laubs killed it in Soccer! :) Nice! Sorry for the loss of pride mom, but I'm glad you are safe! :)

So this week was INSANE! I cannot even explain how crazy this week was!! So right now the zone is doing super super good! We have 22 baptisms as a zone for the month, which is the highest the zone has ever baptized in the history of Jinotepe!! We are super pumped at the success that The Lord has given us here!! We are shooting for 40 baptisms as a zone this month, which 18 baptisms above the record!!!!!! WOO HHOO! :) Elder Merrill and I were talking last night that the reasons we love our mission, (The best mission in the entire world), So much is because all we do is think about Baptizing! We go to sleep and stress and dream about baptizing, we wake up a think about baptizing, we work all day long praying and thinking about baptizing! :) As Missionaries we have one purpose, which is to baptize and retain! Everything we do is pointed to those two points! When President asks why we are here, the answer is in a loud voice, "Baptize and Retain!!!!" The ward is supposed to fortify, the ward is supposed to serve, but we are here for two reasons, baptizing and retaining those baptisms! I love my mission, I realized that this past week, and It has brought me so much more happiness! :) sometimes I'm sure you have wondered why I do not take more pictures of other things or of us during the day, but its because I really do not have anything to take pictures of, besides baptisms haha, That is all we do, and that is all we are supposed to do, baptize and retain!

In short words, I'm pumped! :) 

Elder Merrill and I since Wednesday have been going around visiting people that are preparing for baptism in the coming two weeks! I went with Elder Gomez to Rivas and was there from Thursday till Saturday, Elder Merrill and Elder Lopez  stayed up in our District to visit possibilities! Last week was one of the hardest working weeks of my mission! I got back just in for our baptism we had!

Rivas

We baptized Juan last week:)  He is so great! :) I feel like he was so prepared to hear the restoration that baptism was just the only option he could take! :) Super awesome! In the pictures he is the fat guy, in Nicaragua, if some one is fat, they say they are "beautiful" :) Awesome right??

This week we will be baptizing a guy named Humberto! I'm sure you guys remember him from past letters. About a month ago we dropped him because he was not progressing, and he was wanting to get farther away from God. So we let him go, and about two weeks ago, Elder Rodriguez (my last son) went and passed by his house, and he was completely different! he told Rodriguez that ever since we stopped visiting him everything in his life had gone wrong, and that all of his bad habits of smoking and drinking had ruined his life. He committed to stop smoking and drinking, and from that day till now he has been clean! :) If He gets baptized, I will know and feel like my mission was a success! I love that guy! :) All of his family are members, and are very supportive of his baptism! He is 25!

On Sunday we brought 12 investigators to church, and got Juan confirmed! The Lord really blessed us for the lack of time we had in the area! 

Today was the most memorable P-Day of my life mostly because we cleaned the House, then got a phone call from Sister Russell and she  told us that we needed to go and look for a new apartment for a companionship of Sisters in a city called El Rosario, which is part of our district. We spent from 10:30am till 4:30pm looking for a house. #NoRestForTheWeary! We found an apartment, but we are waiting to hear if it got approved.

Now here I am, writing to you about my adventures in the Chapel! Overall, It was one of the greatest weeks of my mission! :) 

Love you guys!

Thanks for all of your prayers! :)

Elder Naisbitt

August 11, 2015

August 10, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad!

That is awesome that Elder Merrill's mom wrote you guys! hahaha! Well I'm sure you guys are dying to know if i had changes right.... :) Well....................... I did....................Not have changes! 

I am going to complete 6 months walking the sammmmeee street hahaha :) I put a picture of the area on Dropbox! Elder Merrill and I have one more change together! hahaha this will be the my longest companion in my mission! Crazy! But he is the greatest! We work super hard together and get a lot done! We have a new edition to the companionship though... :) Elder Gomez! Elder Rodriguez had changes, and we received Elder Gomez! He has 9 months in the mission and is a pretty awesome kid! he is my comp! Elder Lopez is still with Elder Merrill! Elder Gomez is from Guatemala! 

Well anyway we have been super busy these past few days! Ill see if I can remember everything that happened!

Tuesday: We received the changes around 1:30pm, then we went out and worked! We got the bus ordered and then started the very long night...! Elder Rodriguez packed until 1:00 am, 

Wednesday: Elder Merrill and I slept for about an hour before we had to get up again and go and pick up all of the missionaries from Rivas and from Nandaime, then to Managua! We left Jinotepe around 3:00 am to start the pick up! We got to the change meeting, picked up the new zone and made the same trip, just backwards to drop everyone off! Long day!

Thursday: We worked like normal, and started again to work in Dolores, because our little area has not been producing, so we have changed areas again. We are going to baptize a super cool guy this Saturday named Juan! He is 20, and has a ton of friends in church, and loves it! He is kind of nervous about baptism, but we are going to go and encourage him super hard this week and build him up so that on Saturday he is ready! :)

Friday: We had District meeting, and I taught (We are ZLs and DLs because there is no DL up here, just down in rivas) about how as missionaries we need to do a better job at verifying! A lot of times we make commitments, and the people accept the invitation, and say they will complete, however when it comes time to complete, the investigators dont a lot of times because as missionaries we are not verifying and reminding! PMG says we need to pass by everyday to help the investigators remember who they need to put first in their lives! So that is what I shared, and committed the missionaries to do that! We will be verifying on the progress! :) After District meeting I went to go and work with this super awesome RM to go and visit Juan! While we are were walking, the RM told me a very cool way to study the scriptures! What he did on his mission was study from 3 Nephi 28 to the book of Ether. But he read every single foot-note, and wrote down the references that applied to one of the five lessons we teach! Super awesome! In like 2 days my knowledge has grown a whole lot! I will keep this up and hopefully I can get some sweet new scriptures cause I'm so bored of using the same ones! :)

Saturday: We worked again, and committed everyone we are teaching to come to church! Kind of a normal day! Night time came around and after planning we ordered pizza from our favorite pizza shop here in Jinotepe! Nummmmm Elder Merrill does not like extra stuff on his pizzas, so we just get cheese, which is super good! 

Sunday: We left early to attend a baptism of the Sisters here in Jinotepe. Super cool kid! We then went out and looked for our investigators! we ended up bringing 11 to church! Much better than prior weeks! :) With hard work comes great results! 2 cor 9:6! 

Today: We deep cleaned the house because interviews with President are coming up! Sister Russell always comes around to check how clean the apartments are! If they are up to standard, then we get one of Sister Russells home-made Brownies YUMMMMMM :) so we worked super hard to get the house clean! It is amazing how much stronger you can feel the spirit in a clean house than in a dirty disordered house or apartment! :) 

Well those are my adventures for the week! :) 

Anna just sent a picture of one of your peach raspberry pies.....#Day Ruined AWWWWWWWWW i miss those pies.... :)

I'm doing great! 

Thanks for all of your prayers and strength through these hard times! :)

Elder Naisbitt

August 4, 2015

August 4, 2015  - (an email from Sis. Merrill, Garrett's companion - they are both Zone leaders)

Hi Julie!

My name is Jenny Merrill, my son is Elder Merrill.  My cute mom recently found your blog.  Our boys are zone leaders together and my son loves your son!  I can't remember if he wrote it or mentioned it when we spoke on Mother's day but he said, "We will for sure be friends after the mission!".  Thanks for sharing your blog and for having a wonderful son!

Jenny Merrill

Here is Sam's blog if you are interested

Elder Merrill's LDS Mission

				Elder Merrill's LDS Mission First off, I want to apologize for not saying anything last week. We really were so busy, but this time all is good to write about everything that happened last ...
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August 3, 2015

August 3, 2015 

August 3, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad! 

well you both wrote super awesome letters! I was cracking up about Ashes experiment and his "crack pipes" HAHA Mucho LOL here in the Cyber! :) Thanks for the advice Dad! That is something I definitely need to get better at! If I could just look at the small good things that happen everyday, I think a lot would change here in this area! I will pray so that the Lord can bless me with those kind of eyes. Thanks! I love you guys! 

Well here we are, another week bites the dust! This week went incredibly fast, and I hope I can remember everything that happened! :)

On Tuesday last week we had leadership council, like always at the end of every month. Its a time of humility and taking the responsibility for the things that happened in your zone. Our zone did not do as good as it should have (hence the blue ties) haha Usually we try and wear red ties because its a power color, and it looks good with the suits, but we did not do as good as we should have. We explained it all and promised a high, but reasonable goal for the month of August! We got back late that night from Managua, so we went and worked for an hour, and went home, took numbers and crashed.

Wednesday was a good day, we went out and worked, trying to find as many new investigators as we could, but we did not find any that day. That night, Elder Merrill opened up the bible randomly and said, This is what God is telling us right now, and he opened up the book of Haggai verse 9, which said,  "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little;

HAHA we were laughing so hard! That is the story of this area, but we know that the Lord expects us to keep working hard, even in the tough times!  So that was Wednesday!

On Thursday, we planned to the zone meeting we would have the next day, We had realized a few challenges that the zone had, especially with the problem that, The missionaries are serving the Lord, but as D&C 4:2 says, we need to serve God with all our heart might mind and strength, but the missionaries had been working with just their strength. and might. their bodies were working as hard as they could in the work, but their minds and hearts were in other things. 

On Friday we had the Zone meeting. We planned the meeting to include the video of Elder Holland's talk, "Do you love me?" (Thanks Dad). We hope we can see a change in the way we as missionaries work, and just like I have said since the beginning, don't let yourself pass through the mission, but let the mission pass through you! We made some cards that will help us remember the that, "The worth of souls are great in the sight of the Lord" D&C 18:10. After that, I had to go to Rivas to help pump up some people for their baptism the next day, and then a Sister got sick and had appendicitis, so The district Leader and I were running around till about 10:00 getting her to a clinic. The Assistants showed up around 11:00 to take her to Managua. Crazy! Late night again! She is doing better now!

On Saturday I came back from Rivas, worked the area, and got people committed to church! We have very little investigators, so we are trying to protect them and teach them well so that they don't fall either. 

On Sunday we ended up bringing this really cool family to complete (Dad is member, wife and kids not) to church! They are awesome! The wife is a little on the not interested side, but that should change through the course of the teaching! We brought 12 investigators to church, all thanks to God. I do not know how we receive so many blessings! Sometimes i feel like King Benjamin, in Chapter 2: 22-24! We are so in debt to God! My favorite hymn here on the mission has become, "I stand all amazed" Its amazing! We worked the area, and found a cool family, and two young boys that are interested in the church and what we teach! THAT!

Today we cleaned the house, got something to eat, and now we are here!

This week are changes, and I think I will have them...:,( I am going to miss Jinotepe if I do have changes! The people here are the greatest! 

Ill let you know next week what is going to happen!

I love you guys! Thanks for all your support and love!

Elder Naisbitt