June 16, 2014 - Week 25

June 16, 2014 - Week 25 - no photos this week

Hey Mom and Dad!

First off, Happy Fathers day! I love you Dad! You have given me such a positive influence in my life and such an amazing example to model my life after! Thank you for everything! If I have become a better person, it's because I have an amazing Father like you! If I could be half of the man you are, I would feel like i had succeeded in life! you're truly amazing Dad! Thank you so much!

Speaking of FIFA!! GOALLLLLLLL Thats all we hear when we are walking in the streets! Seriously! Its pretty crazy! Dad has the description really well, that everyone just stops working and watches the games. We have heard alot of the games! We have to teach, so we sit down in houses and teach, but we are listening to the games too! haha. There is no way to watch it hahaha. Hope USA Wins against Ghana! And Germany destroyed Portugal! Argentina is doing really well, and so is Italy! I was really hoping Uruguay would win their game, but they lost to CostaRica! CostaRica is huge here because one of the players for their country is from Nicaragua, so there are a ton of people pulling for Costa

Rica this year! but I have decided that I will be buying tickets to the next FIFA in Russia ;) hahahaha It's just too fun! :)  Yeah I will look for stuff for Lauren and Ash. What are their teams?? IDK what they want or if they just want a general Shirt\Jersey.

Well this week was pretty crazy, Elder Sanchez had Changes, so he is gone, and was moved to A city called Jinotepe (heenotepe) and is District Leader there! Pretty Crazy! We were pretty upset that we only had one change together! But that is the hard part, usually the companions that are your favorites,  usually are only together for one change! BOO! But my new companion is Elder Mazariegos. He's from Guatemala, he is 20, almost 21. He is a convert of basically 2 and a half years. So he has had more time in the mission as a member, than out of the mission hahaha its pretty amazing!

We are working really well together and we get along really well, so that is a blessing! I'm really Grateful that I have had great companions for the past 6 months!  Only  10 days till I have been out 6 months!!!! LOCO!!!!! :) hahahahaha.  I'm loving it and the time only seems to be going my faster! I don't like it hahahaha!

We put a baptismal date with this family yesterday. This family has like 20 people living in this house! Its pretty crazy! We only got 7 to listen and to accept the Date! So hopefully everything will go really well with them. :) Baptisms are coming along, we should be baptizing on the 28th for sure, but none this week

Any-who. I'm doing really well! I love you guys and I miss you! I am always praying for the family, and for Mom's Health! Please keep me updated! :) I love you!!! :)

Les Amo!

Elder Naisbitt

Week 24 - June 9, 2014

Week 24 - June 9, 2014

Mom and Dad!

Sounds like you guys had pretty crazy week! That is awesome that Lauren is being looked at by a few colleges.  Hopefully, when she is a senior, she will be looked at a lot more! :) I hope all of your scans go well, and you are doing great! I am always praying for you and your health, mom!

Another Week is gone! How crazy! I feel like they are just flying by! I am an Official NICA (Pronounced Neeca)!!!!!!! :) I received my ID Card today and am official for two years! :) Woo Hoo!! :)

We will not know changes until tomorrow, and idk. But i'm am sure I will not have changes, but our District had "Apostasy Changes" on Friday, which is where everyone puts what they think will happen during changes :) haha I am supposed to stay and Sanchez is supposed to swoop up to a District Leader, and they say I will train a new Bee, but who knows hahaha :) I'll write you next week about that! :)

Yes, We Baptized this week! We baptized a guy named Francisco! But before that we Married them! It was a ton of fun!  They are really happy! :) We have an appointment to visit them tonight and teach them the Proclamation of the Family and then give them a Book of Mormon reading chart! :) We are super happy for them!

Before wedding and baptism

Francisco and his fiance' just about to be married

family photo after wedding

After wedding. Francisco getting ready for baptism

We also bought an Iguana! that is what some of the pictures are! :)

It was super tasty! I loved it! It is like Chicken! :) Hopefully you guys like the pictures! :) 

I love you guys so much!

Purchased Iguana...tastes like chicken

Sick, getting the guts and skin off

Hope everything is going well! Give my love to Lauren and Ash! I just got Grandmas Package! I should get yours this week! But we will see! Did ash get his letter?? I got his this week too! :)

I love you so much!

Elder Naisbitt

PS Here are two awesome Mormon Messages on Bullying (1) and the other is a cool video called We can find Happiness! (2) Hope you like them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYVvE4tr2BI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epNjOrfmdlA

June 2, 2014 - Week 23

June 2, 2014 - Week 23

Hola Mom and Dad!!

"locked up by our RC, who protects our streets"

You guys had a pretty crazy week! You are Workiiiiinnnnnnggggg soooooooooooo Hard Aunt Julie!!! :) Sorry I cant send the voice, you'll have to imagine that :) hahahaha What a busy week! I love you guys! Storm Mountain photos looked awesome....food sounded better.... hahaha actually we eat pretty well here, we are just missing about half of the food pyramid hahaha :) We never drink milk, so calcium is down the drain! And Fruits.we get a few...Yeah.... haha And I don't know if people here believe in vegetables... Like we eat a ton of plantains, but i'm pretty sure that's fruit, and it should count for more of a grain because its like pure starch ..... :) That and this food we eat a lot called Yucca, which is like a 10 potatoes put into one, but keeping it the same sized of one potato hahah. It's so hard to eat because its so thick.... haha but rice and beans, we have plenty of! No need to worry about the grains, and that little bit of protein :) hahahahaha Its pretty awesome :) But I loved the photos of Storm Mountain! I will never take the mountains for granted ever ever ever again. Im glad you guys had a great time! And the pictures from mountain veiw GC Looked awesome! I miss the mountains haha :) "I Like the Mountains" (Lauren and Ash will Get that ) :) But thank you for the pictures!!! I love seeing you guys! And Elphy  and El Señor Cato! :) Haha  I Miss them too!

Okay, well this week was pretty uneventful! We were supposed to baptize one of our investigators this week, but he had his interview and failed that like a boss haha. He had a few problems that we need to help him through before he can be baptized! So we moved his goal to the 14th of June.  We think he will do, but he has a follow up interview this Wednesday with the district leader,  and if he is progressing and trying to repent, then we have the green light to baptize him in the following Saturday, so we are working really hard to help him through this process! :)

Hop-Scotch the Universal sidewalk/driveway game

Our days are pretty long and tired. By Sunday night, I literally do not have any energy and all of my body hurts and is super tired. I am super grateful for P-days. They are a really great day to recuperate, make plans for the following week, buy more rice and beans to cook, and write you guys :) Then 6 pm roles around and i'ts work time again :) But we are doing good here! We contact usually from 10:30 to 12 noon, so we don't have to worry about doing it through out the day. The Streets are usually dead, so we contact a ton of houses haha. Contacting is great, but it is just the same thing over and over. So we try to keep it fun by saying different things each time to get people interested, because the Jehovah Witnesses proselyte as well down here.  We have to stand out and say stuff that will spark their interest. Its fun :) 

Elder getting directions from kids

taking an opportunity to teach the kids a few thing too!

We have been teaching between 8-10 lessons everyday, usually with new people, but its pretty crazy! :) 

Ill keep you guys updated on our progress in the coming weeks with this guy! We should be marrying and baptizing a family this week, so look forward to photos!!! :)

P-Day in Port Salvador with the Zone.  Looked great, smelled horrible

I love you guys!!!

I pray for you everyday! :)

Elder Naisbitt

Week 22 - May 26, 2014

RAIN

May 26, 2014 - Week 22 

Mom and Dad!

No we didn't have anything planned for the week, but we have our zone activity next week but I have no idea what we are going to be doing haha :) Everything here in the Ward, is basically the same. The ward is doing visiting teaching, it's just such a small effort, that nothing really gets done. But we are trying our hardest!

Golf. I miss those days haha :) Hope you're having fun! Jake Finally emailed me! Putz ;) haha jk, yeah, that's what he said! Mexico! He will do great! Hes not leaving till September though hahah  chupa su vida haha. I dont know why its so late. it's also weird they aren't sending him to Mexico for the MTC idk hahaha :)

This weeks letter should be titled "RAIN"

It finally started "winter" which here in Nicaragua translates to being 110 degrees all day everyday. It just rains everyday haha. The First day of rain was on Tuesday! I could not believe how much it rained. Seriously. Luckily I packed my dry sack, so I was able to put all of my scriptures and photos in that haha :) My "gringo Càmara" is water proof so no need to worry about that hahaha :) But I took a few pictures of that first day we couldn't make it to shelter and we had to get to one of our appointments, so we had to walk.  The streets here, when it rains for more than an hour, turn into rivers, because,  Miraflores is next to a mountain hill, so all of the water runs down from there and hits Miraflores hahaha. The video I have is that first day just trying to walk as fast as we could to the cita hahaha :) But other than that day we have been lucky and been in appointments during the rain :) It's so crazy when we have a thunderstorm on top of the rain. All Of the houses here have tin roofs, so its incredibly loud to begin with, but then throw lightning and thunder on top of it, is crazy hahaha :) We are right next to the smaller of the two lakes in Nicaragua, so the lightning is always hitting the water haha its pretty amazing here.

On top of all of that we baptized this week! We baptized a 15 year old boy Named Joseph, who is super awesome! He has such a strong testimony, and basically got mad at his mom for not letting him get baptized. I guess she felt like he was to young, and didn't know the doctrine, but he just went off on her and was like, Mom I know this is true. I am going to be baptized because God has told me this what I need to do. It was really cool!:)  Joseph is our first here in MiraFlores! We should be baptizing another guy next week, named Donald! :) Ill tell you about that next week! I love you guys!
 Hey, I am missing all of these photos of my family! I loved when you guys would send them! Surprisingly i haven't been that trunkey since I talked with you guys! It was a really nice reguvinator! I love you all!

Love Elder Naisbitt :)

Week 21 - May 19, 2014

Week 21 - May 19, 2014

Hey Mom!

What a crazy week you had! That's funny you cut/shaved  Torino too! Yeah I want to see pictures! :) Dad said he would put them up next week, so I will wait till then! :) That's great you got to have Korver for a few days, I miss my Korver! I can't wait to see him again! How did your tests go?? I will write Mathias when I know his email.  If you could ask him, and put in next weeks email, that would be awesome! thanks for Praying for us! :)

This week had its ups and downs for sure!

Basically the only good thing is that we brought 4 families, 4 priesthood holders, and 10 people in total to church!! :) It was really awesome, and the AP's sent us a text saying congratulations :) It was really awesome! So now we have 10 people progressing, and we should be baptizing this week and the following week! :) We are pretty Stoked! :)

Okay, for the hard part. So firstly, all we did this week was teach and contact. But the sucky part was that we could not find a positive Investigator all week, and that sucked, but tambien, we have been really focused on teaching less actives, and reactivating them. And its nice here because usually the in-actives will just start going to church if you ask them. But we have less than 15% of the ward active right now, so we have a ton of less actives to visit. The sad part is that when we would visit them, they usually would say, I have been a member for more than 30 years and was active for a time, and then inactive for the rest of the time. In the past 20 years of living here, No one has visited me once from the ward. Bishop, Counselors, Members, Teachers, No one. It was pretty discouraging. We have been working recently on a recent convert, who has problems drinking, but when we were visiting him on Wednesday he was super drunk, and we were talking with him, and he just starts bawling, and saying that in the past year no one has come to his house to help him, or just to ask him how he was doing. He was like, I just need a friend. That was pretty hard to watch, and to hear. The Ward isn't doing Their Visiting Teaching or Home Teaching. So we have coloration with the bishop this week, and we are gonna machete hard. Clearly the ward isn't doing their duties, and the only reason this ward is getting better is because we are dragging it by its feet. It's like trying to start an old car. But hopefully we can get this car running before we have changes. Anyway, I'm doing good, just missing the church I know back home.

I love you Mom! Thanks for sending those pants, I really Appreciate it! :) Praying for you always!

Elder Naisbitt

Hey Dad!

Where he studies in the house.

shower/ commode

Mom has the full update of the week, but I just wanted to tell you how grateful for you I am! Thanks for Everything! This week was pretty hard, And I'm so grateful for home teaching and Visiting teaching and how great they strengthen the ward. I am really missing the church back home. It's the Same teachings, but it is so different here, it seems like a completely different church with the same teachings. I'm so grateful for the church we have. We have found a mountain of people that are less active, and all say the same thing. "I have lived here for 20 years and no one from the ward has ever visited me" "I just am looking for a friend in the church, I know it is true, I just feel like an outcast there." etc...  I know its pretty dramatic, but the people down here are really driven by there feelings. The fact is that people don't do Visiting or Home Teaching, which has been hard to accept and we are hoping to help with that process.

Picture Explanation

"washing machine" ha ha!

Okay so the first few pictures are of the house, we have the shower and the clothes washer haha! We wash our own clothes which is well awful, but what can I do haha!

The Ones in The church are of a Family activity we had, and a University came and did Cultural dances. the Last video is of Micheal Jackson hahaha!

I hope mom Gets a kick out of that hahaha :)

And the last few are of me in front of a.. thing of a famous Nicaraguan Colonel of the Army or Something like that, But its down here in Managua! :)

Garrett in front of a famous Nicaraguan Colonel.

I love you Dad! :)

Elder Naisbitt

Week 20 - May 11, 2014

Week 20 - May 11, 2014

We were blessed to talk to Garrett on Mother's Day.  He answered all of our questions and sent some pictures to show us the countryside where he lives and some of the food (icky) he has eaten.

Fish head soup!

Garrett told his companion about French Toast & made it one p-day

Dad!

I feel like we just talked like yesterday or something... :) hahaha I'm really happy that I got to talk to you guys and see your faces!! I feel like it has been so long! I'm happy you guys are doing really awesome! I'm happy you had a great birthday and are doing great! Happy birthday old man! :)

So, well I guess I can just update you on what we have done today hahah we had bean soup today! It was actually pretty good, but it is basically beans mashed up and then add water and onions and peppers hahaha it is pretty third world country hahaha :) But yeah we just have been washing our clothes, cleaning the house, buying stuff for the house, and yeah here we are :) it has been a good p-day! :)

Ruth Chris Steakhouse! I'm jealous. I don't think steak exists down here haha just pulled beef haha :)

Have an awesome week dad! :) Love ya! :)

Elder Naisbitt

Garrett in Miraflores Managua

Miraflores

Hey Mom!

Yes, yesterday was super awesome!!!!!! I was so happy to have talked and seen you guys!! Everyone looks so happy and is doing really really great! :) I'm super happy! :) Happy mothers day too! I was soo happy to share that with you! I'm happy RFTC went really well! I cant wait until I can wear that down here! Thank you for the vitamins and the pants! They will be super great :) Malnutrition ..... its fun, not :) Well I really don't have much to talk about but well here we go!

Well... Our investigators are doing really well! Everyone is progressing really well, but the how we judge their conversion is, if they go to church! Its super frustrating when they choose not to go, because its like all of our work we did the last week went down the drain, and we have to machete them for not going. But usually they will go the next week after we machete them because we have become pretty good at just making them feel  realllllllyyyy bad haha :)

We should have a baptism in the next week on the 24th for a kid named Josef! He is super pilas and is really into the gospel and has a ton of friends in the church! We are working really hard for him, so hopefully everything works out! :)

Bueno, Next week will be a better letter, I'll have more to talk about hahaha :)

My new comp. Elder Sanchez from Guatemala 

I love you Mom! :) Thanks for all that you do for me!

Love

Elder Naisbitt!

May 5, 2014 - Week 19

Week 19 - May 5, 2014

Dear Mom and Dad,

I will be on this Sunday! Dad sent me his info for Skype so it should be great! :) I'm so excited to be able to talk to you guys!!! I cant believe its may already! I am so so so so so happy Baylee got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been talking with her for the past month about her baptism and just sharing my testimony with her! It has been awesome! :) I am happy you got my package! :) Hopefully everybody liked their gifts! :) I have been praying for all of your tests to go well Mom! :) Dad be safe in Argentina! Hope everything is going well on the temple and progress is being made! :) 

Oo I got your package too!!!!! thank you so much!!! And Ash's letter! so cute! I miss him a ton... I love you and am so grateful for you! the candy is awesome and the ties are super awesome! I love you mom and I cant wait to see you!!!!! :) 

Look -I like selfies!

Okay so here is the information you asked me about! ha ha :) I had changes! Surprise! I'm am in the area, MiraFlores, which is in Managua! It is really awesome! Our area is actually pretty wealthy, not Masaya,  wealthy, but it is pretty well set. :) My comps name is Elder Sanchez! He has 15 months in the mission, and has served in 2 other areas! He's from Guatemala :)  He and I  get along really well, and we are working like horses hahaha :) 

Miraflores - New Casa

Okay but there is a twist with our area, we have had to reopen Miraflores. There were two sister missionaries here, but they weren't getting anything done, so President closed the for a time, and now we are reopening it. It is really really really hard. We literally have nothing to start off of. All we do all day is contact casas, and look through our area book for people the sisters taught in the past....which wasn't much. We started off this past Wednesday with 0 people with fecha and finished yesterday with 12 people with a Baptism date for first of June! It's so hard. Then on top of that, our ward is well.... its alright haha. We have a SIMI (total ward members baptized) of 360ish, but they have only been having 48 people in church every week. The 48 people are very fiel to the church, and have really strong testimonies, but we have over three hundred inactive members..... it's really bad. These first four days have been awesome, just super super super hard. Our companionship goal is to have a church attendance of 100 in the next 6 months. Our first week here we raised the attendance from 48 to 60, so that was good! :) Its just really hard. But me and my comp are doing awesome and getting along well! 

maybe outside Elder's room/apt.?

Ill talk to you on Sunday!!!!!!! :) 

Love Elder Naisbitt

ps..Okay so we have permission on Saturday to email at 10 in the morning or 9 in the morning for you, so please have your phone on and nearby so we can chat for the 10 minutes about this whole thing. Okay? I will only be on for 10 minutes so it just be ready for my email. I have to get off the computer, so I will talk to you on Saturday at 10 (9 for you) on the dot :) I love you Dad!  Be safe in Cordoba! :) I love you! :)

Elder Naisbitt