September 28, 2015

September 28, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad!

Thanks for the awesome update! Utes won 62-20???? I had to read that paragraph twice to make sure that I read that right!! Wow! That is awesome! Hopefully they keep the good attitude and everything goes well for them this year! I want to see a good bowl game when I get home! ;) But really! :) I loved seeing Baylee and Trevor! That's so great! Like mom said, we have seen so many miracles happen for them, and it makes me so happy that the Lord is always working, and preparing his children to receive the restored gospel! Laubs Pics were good too! She looks so old now! almost 18.... Wow! crazy!

So I have to write super fast because I do not have a lot of time, but I will do an abbreviated email, but it should still kick butt  like normal! ;) Joking! 

So we have been working super hard in the area trying to get more investigators progressing for the month of October! We have been using the members a lot more to find new investigators, which has been awesome! We have this awesome new convert named Luisa, and she is basically a sister missionary hahaha, she is always wanting to work with us, and does a lot of contacting on her own, so when we pass by her house she has like 5 people that she has talked to that are ready to talk with missionaries! the members here in Managua are awesome! 

We had a super awesome miracle happen this week with an eternal investigator (Someone who has listened to the missionaries for a long time, but wont commit to baptism) decide she was ready to get baptized on the 10th  of October! AWESOME! her kids are all members, and most of her family, but since I have come, we have been working super hard with her to commit to live the law of chastity and get married, but she prayed about it, and felt that it was better to get separated until her husband was ready to get married. She accepted the invitation to get baptized yesterday night! we are super happy for her! Her name is Mira! :)

On Saturday we had 3 baptisms! A lady named Mariela and her daughter Michelle, and another girl named Jennifer! The three are super awesome! Especially Mariela and Michelle! Mariela was an investigator of Gold! She is one of my favorite converts! She is super smart, and loves church! 

On Saturday was one of our Recent Converts birthday, named Francis! Her family invited us to come and celebrate her birthday! The entire family are all converts, so it was a good night after the baptisms! 

Sunday we brought 10 investigators to church, and then started working again! Its all the same routine in the mission! Work all week long for Sunday! Sunday is the day that you can tell if you did your job and worked hard or not. We need to work harder and keep finding new investigators so we always have people teaching!

And that is the week! I attached a copy of my "trunky papers" to the email. that is all the information of my return. The only part I'm sure you guys want to see is the return date. Its on the second page highlighted in yellow. I will be home the 10th of December. In a few days you should be getting a copy of my flight itinerary in your emails! Hopefully!

Love you guys! Tell everyone tonight I said hi, and I love them!

Elder Naisbitt

(Return  information in Spanish) -- December 10th

.. 

Elder Naisbitt

Para asegurar sus papeles de salida, favor de llenar los datos a continuación correctamente. Si algo ha cambiado y no está seguro(a) del dato nuevo, pregunte a su familia por correo esta semana para que le responda el lunes próximo. Mande el papel a la oficina lo más pronto posible para que no hayan atrasos en su viaje y relevo de la misión.  Gracias.        

Nombre Completo….…………..............     Garrett Louis Naisbitt                                                                                                        .

Ciudad……………………………………West Jordan                                                                                                          .

Estado……………………………………       Utah                                                                                                    .

Dirección…………………………..........          5027 West Woodacre Road                                                                                                  .

                                                                                                                                                                              .

Código Postal (Solo Norteamericanos)….                                                                                                           .

Nombre de Padre………………………..        Travis Naisbitt                                                                                                    .

Número Telefónico………………………       801-209-2854                                                                                                   .

Correo Electrónico……………………….         travis@nwlarchitects.org                                                                                                   .

Nombre de Madre………………...…….          Julie Naisbitt                                                                                                   .

Número Telefónico………………………        801-558-7561 OR 801-280-1971                                                                                                  .

Correo Electrónico……………………….          Julie.naisbitt@gmail.com                                                                                                 .

Sus padre viven (escoja uno)………..Juntos o Separados (esta información es para saber si debemos mandar una sola carta a los padres o dos cartas diferentes)

Aeropuerto al que regresará (el más cercano a su casa)       SLC                                                                               .

Nombre del Barrio………………………       5^th ward                                                                                                     .

Obispo…………………………………..          Bishop   Hepworth                                                                                                 .

Nombre de la Estaca……………………             West Jordan Park Stake                                                                                                    .

Presidente de Estaca……………………  Pres. Rowland                                                                                                           .

Una nota sobre sus maletas:

Para norteamericanos: Se le permiten llevar 2 maletas de 50 libras cada uno. También puede llevar una bolsa de mano y un objeto personal.

Para latinos: Se le permiten llevar 2 maletas de 35 libras cada una. También puede llevar una bolsa de mano y un objeto personal.

Sobrepeso es muy costoso y es un gasto que usted mismo pagará, así que tenga cuidado del sobrepeso.

Su fecha de retorno es: jueves 10 de Diciembre de 2015

*Por favor informe a sus padres la fecha de su retorno a su hogar. Itinerario de vuelo se enviara 30 días antes de su retorno.

Instrucciones para viajar con los padres atrás.

Misioneros que quieren viajar con sus padres de vuelta a su hogar

Los misioneros deben viajar directamente a su casa después de su misión. Cualquier otro viaje es permitido solo cuando el misionero es acompañado por uno o ambos padres o guardianes. La Iglesia desalienta que los padres recojan a su misionero. Sin embargo, si ellos solicitan este privilegio, los padres deben saber lo siguiente:

·         Sus planes deben ser establecidos basándose en la fecha de relevo establecida por el presidente de misión.

·         No deben solicitar un cambio en la fecha de relevo para acomodarla con otros planes de viaje ó compromisos.

·         Deben informar al presidente de misión y a la Oficina de Viajes de la Iglesia con un mínimo de tres meses de anticipación informando que quieren viajar con el misionero.

·         Se espera que ellos hagan sus propios arreglos, incluyendo el viaje, estadía y comida.

·         El Presidente de misión no debe hospedar padres en la casa de la misión o hacer ningún otro tipo de arreglos para ellos.

Los misioneros que regresan deben entender que no deben imponer sobre miembros, misioneros u otras misiones a medida que viajen.

Los padres que deseen viajar con su misionero de ahora en adelante deben organizar los vuelos para sí mismos y su misionero. La iglesia no coordinará más viajes con padres. La Oficina de Viajes de la Iglesia  mandará un cheque de reembolso en el monto que la Iglesia hubiera gastado en el vuelo para el misionero, el reembolso se mandará un mes antes de su fecha de relevo. Todavía se requiere que los padres contacten a la Oficina de Viajes de la Iglesia para hacerles saber que van a ir por su misionero. Esto es para que no ellos no compren vuelos y que se pueda citar el monto de reembolso (Manual del Presidente de Misión, p.67).

Missionaries traveling with parents

Missionaries should travel directly home from their missions. Any other travel is permitted only when the missionary is accompanied by at least one of his or her parents or guardians. The Church discourages parents from picking up their missionary. However, if they do request this privilege, parents must understand this:

·         Their plans must be based on the release date established by the mission president.

·         They should not request a change in the release date to accommodate other travel plans or commitments.

·         They should inform the mission president and the Church Travel Office at least three months in advance if they plan to travel with their missionary.

·         Parents are expected to make their own arrangements, including travel, lodging, and meals.

·         The mission president is not expected to host parents in the mission home or make any other arrangements for them.

Returning missionaries must understand that they are not to impose on members, missionaries, or other missions as they travel and that they are to dress and conduct themselves as missionaries.

Parents who wish to pick up their missionary should arrange flights for themselves and their missionary. The Church will no longer coordinate return travel with parents. Church Travel will send a reimbursement check in the amount the Church would have spent on the ticket to the family one month before the release date. Parents will still be required to contact Church Travel to let them know they will pick up their missionary. This is so we do not purchase flights and 

September 21, 2015

September 21, 2015 - (no pictures, forgot his camera cord)

Dear Mom and Dad!

Saw the pics, the house looks awesome! The stupid van tire is still behind the garbage cans!! haha the small things never change do they... :) sounds like you guys had a busy week with soccer and with work! Hopefully everything is going great! :)

Sorry again for the money, I explained that in a letter. 

Well I'm sure you're wondering if I had changes....YES!!! :) haha I'm now back in Managua, in a neighborhood called "Altagracia" High grace haha and El Recreo. I'm still zone leader, but I'm now over the Universitaria Zone! :) This is the zone with the office, so its been nice to see the secretaries again, and say "Hi" to them! :) My ZL Comp is named, Elder Vega. He, actually, goes home with me in December, so I'm sure he will have changes in October, and Ill get a new comp in the October change. I will "Die" here in Altagracia, so that's been a weird thought thinking that this is my last area.... But its sweet being back in Managua! I'm in a much safer area than before, so don't worry because I know it was hard for you last year with all the robbing haha, but our area is safer, and its not scary, so don't worry! :) Our zone is 24 missionaries, and 11 areas.

Right now i am finishing up the training of a new Elder, named Elder Guzman. He is from Honduras, and is super fun to work with! We have been getting a lot done in the area the past few days! This past weekend we had Stake Conference, and we were blessed to bring 13 people to church! We had a lot of help from a Recent convert named Luisa! She brought 8 of our investigators to church with her, which was awesome! :) The members here in Altagracia are great! they are Much better than the poor little Las Villas members. Elder Merrill is still there, and has a new companion, Elder Copeland! He was our district leader down in Rivas! We three became like best best friends in Jinotepe. We always called ourselves the Three Musketeers haha. I miss those guys a lot!

This week end we should be baptizing around 4 people in our area!!!! AT LAST! Baptisms..... it feels so good! Our district leader did all the interviews last night, so we are just locking them down, and are in pump up mode! :) October we are hoping to get a lot of baptisms as well! I'm dying, baptizing! that was my prayer to the Lord, and he answered me! :)

Sorry no photos this week, I left my darn camera in the house. next week there should be a lot of pictures of people in white, I mean that's the hope right??

Well that's what has been going on, there should be a lot more to write next week with all these baptisms we are going to have!! :)

I love you guys! You're the greatest! Sorry for using my card. I think I'm just going to put it away in my bags because here in Managua, there is nothing to use it on. We have McDonalds in our area, but we only go on Mondays!

I love you!

Elder Naisbitt

September 13, 2015

September 13, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad! 

I have not received the package yet, we have not gone to Managua, but I'm sure I will get it on Wednesday when we are there for changes. I need changes! I just want ties for my birthday, I love whatever kind of tie, especially the striped-paisley ties! They are sweet! :) But that's it! Go Utes! That's awesome! we heard about the game from a super rich member in our area! hahaha Elder Merrill loves USU so it was a fun night! But we both HATE BYU so we get along great! :) 61 YW??????????? That has got to be the biggest group in the church! Wow!! Those are the actives right, or is that the entire group? The pics of you guys at the party were great! 

Well this week went by super super fast! We found this super cool family that seemed so positive this week, and then they did not go to church! They figured going to the market was more important on Sunday.....That is the story of this place! (Nicaragua as whole!) They love the market more than anything else in the entire world! Does not matter what you tell them about the blessings they could receive by going to church rather than the market, they still go! But the saddest part is that to your face they completely commit to go to church and not to the market! and Nicas are so convincing! We had this guy two weeks ago, that was getting ready for what looked like the church, and we came to take him there, and he tells us when we show up, " Don't worry about me, I'm going to show up! I don't know why you guys worry so much about me, I'm going to go! When I say yes, i mean it! I will not break my word!" Do you think he showed up? seems like a pretty solid YES right? He did not show! LIAR! As of 3 months ago we were teaching this guy that even committed to go to church on the "Blood of Jesus Christ"! There is no way someone would not break that promise right? He did.... NICAS! haha I love them so much, they are just always lying about EVERYTHING! 

Any way sorry about the rant, but this week was good, we ended up with 9 investigators in church. 3 of them very important investigators that could get baptized this month! We will so how fast they start progressing! we have to teach them a lot to get them down, but, just like the Nicas say, If God wants it, we will get them baptized! 

Ill write you next week from my new area! Sorry for the short letter, we have had really boring weeks haha. 

I love you guys!

Elder Naisbitt

September 7, 2015

September 7, 2015

Mom and Dad!

Hey Mom and Dad! :) Utah!!!!!!!!!!! I love the Utes! I cant wait to go to games again! St. George for Christmas sounds like the greatest thing EVER!!!!!!!! #Pumped I cant believe that Baylee is getting married....Crazy! I'm proud of her! Awesome! Well I loved hearing about the Utah game! Go Utes!

Well sorry for the shortness of the letter.... Nothing really happened this past week! 

On Tuesday we went and just worked! We found some cool people that said they would go to church. 

On Wednesday it rained cats and dogs, and we got soaked, and then we prepared for interviews with President that would be the next day!

On Thursday we had interviews all day, and we were in the church and in the car with Sister Russell and one of the assistants checking the apartments from 8:00am till 8:00pm! my interview was great, I was able to express the things I wanted to change, and President helped me do that! I needed help forming better questions, so we worked out some ways to do that! 

Friday was the bad day haha, hence the Subject of the email. So we got out to work after we taught district meeting, and Elder Merrill and Elder Lopez went and worked with some sisters that are struggling, so I stayed in the area and worked, but it just got worse through the day. We had some good investigators just decide to turn their backs on us, and not want anything. That day we lost 15 investigators. That has been like the 5th time that has happened to me in this area. 

So on Saturday to help us bring some people to church because we had like 3 people that stayed with us through the epidemic, we went out with the determination to find new investigators, so we set a high goal to contact 100 people. We just kept the attitude high, and talked with everyone. We ended up contacting 107 people! We looked pretty good going into Sunday.

Sunday comes around, and not a single person we had contacted the day before went to church. We ended up bringing  9 people to church from the help of God. But they were just nonmembers passing through the ward and were just visiting family members. Darn. So this week we are going out firing, contacting using the restoration! Hopefully that helps us find a few more positive people that are willing to listen to the Gospel! 

Changes are coming up in the other week, so we will see what happens in 10 days....I'm hoping for changes, but we will see what the Lord wants.

I love you guys! Thanks for the prayers and all of your support!

Elder Naisbitt

August 31, 2015

August 31, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad!

well this week was super crazy! That's all I can say! Sounds like your week was good! I hope the laubs is feeling good and that her arm gets feeling better! 

Like I said this week was super nuts! there was so much that happened! Wow! 

Ok well first off I will say that I have never been so tired and stressed and hungry in the entire world! Elder Merrill and I figured out those are the basic feelings of a hard working servant of the Lord hahaha.  At all times we feel those three feelings haha. We are stressed because of the lack of sleep, and because of constant hunger haha. We are tired for the lack of food, and stress. We always are hungry because we are so dang tired and so dang stressed! hahaha its a vicious cycle!!!! :) With that is always mixed in Joy! obviously!

So last Monday we went to visit a family that is less active up in the top of our area, they are super super rich!! We had never visited there, so as we walked in we sat down on really nice couches, and as we sat down, the Dad went up the stairs, and as he went up the stair I noticed something I had not seen in over 20 months.....CARPET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we had to take pictures! :D  Pics are on drop box!

We ended up getting a call on Monday night from one of the assistants and they told us on Tuesday we had mission leadership council the next day, so on Tuesday we basically did that, and that night we ordered pizza and celebrated the good month we had so far, ill tell you how the zone finished in the month of August at the end of the letter!

I was not sure if you had seen my new scriptures covers since I had them made, but they are super sweet!

On Wednesday we went and worked in our area for the first time in a few days, and found a few cool people! Elder Merrill and I went down to Rivas that night to do some baptism interviews for the upcoming Saturday, and we came back Thursday Morning and got to work!

On Thursday we spent most of the day getting ready for the upcoming zone meeting that happened on Friday. That was super time consuming, but worth it. Elder Lopez and Gomez worked in the area, and kept everything moving! 

So Friday we spent all morning planning out our zone around the idea that Missionaries are like sharks. Sharks are super interesting because if you put a baby great white shark in a small fish tank, supposedly the shark will not out-grow the fish tank and never gets to its full length which is over 15ft long. Missionaries are like that, we seem to for some reason  we put limits to ourselves and never grow to our potential. The missionaries loved it, and then we showed the video of Elder Uctdorf's talk about the guy on the cruise ship that did not take advantage of everything that was available to him! It was good! Friday night we slept like 1 hour because we were preparing the famous "Pick-Up" to take all of the missionaries to Managua for the meeting with President Nelson.

We left our house around 3:00am! I tried taking a picture of my watch, but that did not work! Sorry, but we got to Managua around 6:30. We were so tired....Still am haha. So we took some pictures of the trip. 

The meeting was awesome! I felt the spirit so strong confirm to me again that we are in the truth, and that we were listening to a true prophet of God! It was awesome! President Nelson talked about the importance of studying and knowing the doctrine in our hearts! He gave us a few new tips on how to study and what to study! It was awesome! I cant really describe it, but it was awesome! :) 

We left Managua and made the same dumb trip back to Jinotepe. We made it back home around 5:30pm dead as rocks, but we could not rest because of what we were about to do as a zone!!! At the beginning of the month of August we put a Goal of baptizing 30 people, which is something that the zone never in the history of Nicaragua has ever completed! So we had 22 baptisms coming into the last week, and we had exactly 8 possibilities. We were so stressed all week to get those 8 people in the water because it was our goal! We prayed hard, and worked even harder to get this Goal! But you want to know what happened....? :) WE BAPTIZED 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know how we did, but the Lord is amazing! We are so thankful to Him and all He did to help us reach that goal!

Now here we are, on Monday! This morning in the middle of cleaning the house, the government showed up and told us they were fumigating, so they came and fumigated our house! There is a few pictures and a video of that! :) 

Love you guys! Thanks so much for the contact solution! If I run out of those two bottles ill just buy more! Thanks for everything you guys do for me! 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! YOU GUYS ARE THE GREATEST PARENTS EVER!

Have a great week!

Elder Naisbitt