February 2, 2015

February 2, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad,

I love you guys a lot! Sorry it has been a really crazy two weeks! and even then I have one more crazy week ahead of us! Elder Dunkan (area Pres) is doing a mission tour on Wednesday through Friday!! It is going to be so crazy!

We just had a mom call into the mission office crying asking about her son, and we were listening about what was happening and I guess she did not receive a weekly letter and her son was kind of sick, so he only mentioned in a quick email that he was in Managua going to the doctors. So she freaked out and called the office crying thinking that something was really wrong with her son. We figured it out, but then I felt bad because I have not written in a few weeks and I know that I am sure you guys get kind of the same way! I'm sorry that I am so busy! I hope you liked the crazy photos of us with the pigs!!!! How gross right????? In each pig head, there was little holes in the ears that you have to put your thumbs through to pick up the head!!! IT was SUPER gross :) So then we would hold it in front of our heads, and the back side was even worse! Oooo mom would have gagged and thrown up EVERYWHERE! It was a great experience though! :) I also hoped you got a laugh at the crazy sun burnt photo haha President had invited us to play Tennis with him, which was really really fun! But us three gringos got TORCHED haha :) It was so much fun though, I'm all good now though! :) I'm so glad that we baptized Katy and Yahoska! they are so great! It was a great week! We found two really great families yesterday, that will accepted a baptism date for the 7 of March! They are super awesome and willing to listen to the gospel! WOOO HOOOOO :) I love you guys so much! Please do not worry about me too much! I'm doing great I have been super blessed with health and energy! I'm just so happy to be here in Nicaragua! I can not believe that it has been 13 months now! I miss you but I love you more! Have a great night and a week!

Elder Naisbitt

January 21, 2115

January 21, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well it sounds like you guys had a BLAST this week! LOTS OF FUNSEEKERS :) I can not believe that Lauren's team did not win! but like dad said, at least they did not lose! I loved the photos haha the water tornado was super cool! Bah rich people! ;) J/K that looked like a wicked rock that hit your windshield, hopefully you can get reimbursed from the car insurance! Lots of fun though!

SO like I said last week, we are preparing these three kids for baptisms. Katy was supposed to get baptized last week but we explained that because her sister did not go to church two weeks ago, she has to wait until this weekend to get baptized. So Katy decided to wait with her sister! They have had their interviews and are ready to enter into the water. They will be baptized on Friday because on Saturday they have a Young Women's activity and they want to go to that :) its going to super sweet! Katy loves the church and everything about it as well as her sister! We kind of hit a wall with Nixon though. His mom got upset that we were trying to baptize him, and so we sat down and kind of Macheted her haha. She felt bad and said that she would pray with Nixon to see if this Saturday is the day he should get baptized. 

We found this new investigator named Jorge, and he is SUPER awesome! He loved the church this past weekend and is stoked to go this coming week! I still have not visited him because the night that Elder Hayes and Mataalii went to visit him, I was on divisions with Missionaries in my district, making them feel super good because they brought 11 investigators to church!! But what was just as cool was that we also brought 11 people to church! It was super awesome! Sacrament meeting was packed with a huge attendance of 181 people! I know for back home that is smaller than normal, but for our little ward here in San Judas that usually has 140, was HUGE! But it was kind of a disaster after that though because they did the Area Plan for 2015, which first was 2 hours long, and second, they just sat and talked about baptisms for the dead.... Lot of confused investigators after that. But we fixed everything haha.

Well President has put the goal of 2000 baptisms this year!!! If we baptize 167 people every month we will meet this goal! But because this goal comes from the Lord, so we know we can hit that goal for 2015!! If we complete it, we will go down to San Juan del Sur, which is the nicest beach here in Nicaragua! When we come back here as a family, we will have to go! It's super pretty, from what I have heard. The only sad thing is that, I go home December 10, so that means I will work really hard to hit the goal, but never reap the temporal blessings!!! Spiritual blessings I will be loaded with!!! haha. But as a companionship we are doing really well! We work with members almost all of the nights so that we can do divisions and get double the work done. 

Well that is my week! I hope you guys have a great week!!

I love you a lot

Elder Naisbitt

January 14, 2015

JANUARY 14, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad!

What great news that you were able to meet with the doctors and see that the transfer will not be too bad! That makes me happy! I really hope that all of this stuff with the new drug works out so you can keep fighting the cancer with all of the strength that God has given you! I love you Mom so much! 

Well the past two weeks have been mixed together with a lot of different things it sounds like! Lauren running from all different places getting to work and going to soccer! I would be so tired! I'm glad ash is still loving basketball! I got his letter yesterday! I have the greatest little brother and Sister! Tell ash that I will be working on a return letter and that should come sometime in the future :) 

So these past two weeks have been super duper crazy! We had some radical changes here in the office! First off there is a new elder here in the office, named Elder Mataalii (from LA, but family from Samoa). He will be my replacement here in the office, so this is officially my last change here in the office.... :,,,,,,,( How sad! I have come to love this so much and be under so much stress, that its hard to imagine not having it. but I'm super pumped to be going back into the field as a full time missionary and not have to deal with all of this stuff haha. Anyway, Elder Mataalii is super great and will do a great job at being the general secretary. So right now Elder Mataalii and Elder Hayes are in a trio, which is fun, it is just hard to teach because its really awkward to pass the time, but we are getting used to everything! This change is going to be really awesome! One because of our companionship, two because something else really huge happened! President changed us out of Hialeah and Memorial Sandino, to an area next door called San Judas!! This is the greatest area I have ever been in! We will be baptizing 4 this month, and we already have one completed! There was a kid in the ward who was baptized, but could not get confirmed, so we confirmed him a member of the church last week! Super awesome! We have a possibility for this week named Katy, and she is super solid and is pretty excited for her baptism, and we have her sister the following week named Yahoska, as well as another kid named Nixon! Nixon was a huge miracle that we were able to get his parents permission! We went last week and talked with his mom about baptism and about how he was preparing to make this covenant with God, but the mom was not happy about it, and would not give the permission. So we left trying to figure out what we should do, so we came back a two days later to try again, but the mom was not there, just the Dad. The Dad however was super open to us and our purpose as missionaries, and that if Nixon wants to get baptized he can do it, we just cant force it on him, so we agreed to that, and he signed the permission!!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO! 

Caty and her pet Pig

This area is so much more blessed than the last one, as well as the fact we are able to go into all of the area and not have to worry about getting robbed and beaten!   I'm pretty happy right now! Well except for what we have to do tonight... 

There is a missionary heading home for reasons which are private, but he his taking a bus back to El Salvador (Area Pres. Order) so we have to get him to the bus terminal at 4:00am, and he does not get in from Bluefields until 1:00am, so we will not be sleeping tonight because we have to weigh bags, and what not. Then we are sending his companion back to Bluefields at 5:00am on a flight from the airport. His companion is Elder Roney, I don't know if you remember him but he was in my MTC group, so we will be up all night driving around....lots of fun. we are also preparing ourselves for the 4-6 of February because that is when Elder Duncan (area President) is coming for a mission tour. So that is what is coming on the horizon for us here in the office! Lots of crazy stuff! 

Just to let you know, I'm still district leader, nothing has changed about that, just the area and the missionaries in my district. 

I love you guys so much! Thank you for all that you do for me! I love you a lot!

Elder Naisbitt

New Compl that will replace Garrett in the office in February
Elder Mataalii & Garrett

Caty's pet pig

January 1, 2015

January 1, 2015 Garrett didn't write the week of Christmas, but we had an awesome phone call/Skype.  

Dear Mom and Dad!

It was so great to be able to talk with you last week! It was super great to see the family and to actually hear your voices! I miss that A LOT! But it sounds like you guys are loving the Christmas gifts! The ping pong table is pretty awesome! I am sure everyone is loving it! Naisbitt house is the party house again! :) That is too bad to hear that Ash was sick, that's awful! Hopefully he is feeling better today! :) I hope you guys had a great New Years Eve and are having a great New Years Day! I hope everyone has made high goals that will make 2015 the greatest year! :) 

Well not much has happened since I called! I threw some photos on Drop box of the Multi-zones and the fun we had! There is a sweet photo with Elder Hayes and I with Boas and Sweet hats! :) It was super fun, even though we could not participate very much, everyone else had a BLAST!! Thank you so much for the really sweet letter Dad and Mom that you wrote! I have it kept nice and safe in my luggage so it does not get destroyed! I loved how you wrote it dad, I knew I had changed, but its hard to see the change from a personal view. Thank you so much! I hope you guys received your Christmas package! The mission this year baptized the most it ever has in the whole time of it being a mission! We baptized this year 1724 people! More than 500 people than last year! I'm super pumped to see what President makes the goal for the next year! I bet it will be in the 2000's! THIS IS THE LORDS WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow I get super emotional when I share my testimony because I now know with all my heart that this is the Lords work! and I know that we are called of God by his living prophet Thomas Monson! This is the true church of God! Joseph Smith was called of God to restore the God's church again upon the face of the planet. I know that He does all of this so that we are happy and have the life eternal. I have been studying lately in the end of 2nd Nephi after the Isaiah chapters. This scripture, I love and explains what I was saying about how and why God loves the world so much. 2nd Nephi 26:23-24 

  

23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

I love this scripture a lot because really God wants all of us to partake of his love and his light that is given from Christ! i know that this is the true church of God and that all of these things in the church are true and if anyone will experiment on the words of Moroni, which are read, meditate, and pray to see if the Book of Mormon is true and if the Church is true, they will receive a testimony from the holy Ghost that these things are true! I love The Lord!

Well the only cool thing that happened yesterday was the New Year celebrations! The Nicaraguans every year make these little dolls called the old man, which signifies the old year, and all of the old habits, and so they get a bunch of old clothes and stuff the clothes with a bunch of fireworks and firecrackers, and at midnight they light the doll on fire and it basically blows up haha :) it is super awesome! I put a few photos of one of these dude they had hanging from a telephone wire, and how he looks :) the tie on the front is a strip of firecrackers, and they wrote on it 2014. It was super creative! :) Anyway so we got back to the house around 10pm from a members house, and by the time we were all ready to for bed it was like 1130, and that was when we the noise began! It was so crazy! it sounded like we were in a warzone! there was just a continuous sound of explosions and bombs! wow it was amazing! It would be super awesome to have the chance to come back here this time of year with you guys! :) so by the time the fireworks ended, it was like1 am, and that was about when we finally fell asleep! crazy night!

Well that is about our week! next week is change week, so I probably wont be writing for two weeks, but if I get a few minutes i will shoot you an email to let you im doing great!

Hey this can be outside of the letter, but i have ordered two books from Amazon, two missionary reference scripture guides to come to the house! Hopefully they get there soon! When they do, could you just toss them in a package down to me? That would be super duper awesome! You guys are the greatest! And if when you are sending that package, could you throw in some candy, like DOTS and Oreos :) Elder Benson just received a package with these two monster huge boxes on Dots and now I'm craving some :) that would be the greatest of the greatest! I love you so very very very much!!! :) 

Elder Naisbitt

December 17, 2014

December 17, 2014

Mi Querida Familia! :) 

I love the pictures of Ash playing Basketball!! That is super awesome! I hope he goes somewhere with that! If it means I have to practice with him during the nights, I will do it!!! :) That is super awesome! At two (one for you guys) will be great! :) Elder Hayes and I were talking about how this Christmas will be, and what we will be doing. The 25th we will be working like normal, and on the  24th and 26th we will be doing the multizones haha, which means no work haha But I think this will be one of the most memorable Christmases that I will ever have. The first away from family, and we will be outside knocking on doors and teaching people about the birth of Christ. I'm pretty pumped to see what it will be like :) But I know I will remember this Christmas forever. Because if everything works out like it should, I will be home on the 10th of December the next year, so this is one of the only Christmases that I will have away from home. 

That is super awful that that friend of Lauren's killed himself.... When we lose hope in Christ, is when we give ourselves to the other side. There is no grey in the life, we are on the team of Christ or we are on the team of the enemy of all righteousness. Many Nicaraguans, and much of the world thinks we can just sit on the fence, and be fine. I love the Scripture in the old testament in Joshua 24:15, 

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 

And the other Scripture, Mathew 6:24

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

We have to decide today whom we will serve and be faithful to that decision. 

Anyway, missionary rant of the week complete. I'm glad you guys had a great week though! sounds like you guys got a lot done, and that Christmas seems to moving forward at full speed! :) I'm super pumped about being able to talk with you guys! I'm stoked! haha :) If You can invite Jessica, that would be great!

Well our possibility got moved back to this week because he was not ready, and still was having problems getting baptized because he did not want to get baptized out of hypocrisy. He did not understand the concept of one true church in all of the world, so we re taught the Restoration and he understood it this time, and was willing to progress for this Saturday. So this Saturday for sure we will be baptizing :) Alison has disappeared again. I think Elder Hayes and I are going to drop her and put her in the old Investigators part of our Area Book because she really has been more of a pain than a pleasure to teach. We will see if we can find her this week, and if not we will  not be going back. Kind of sad, but that is the truth of the missionary work here in Nicaragua haha. 

We have this really cool guy name Mario who is super stoked to get baptized in January, the only problem is, is that he is going on a vacation outside of our area for a month, and will not be back till the 15th of January. So we put his baptism date for the 24th, and we are going to give him the Book of Mormon tonight in English (he speaks a lot of English) and in Spanish so he can grow his testimony in that while he is going on his trip. 

We have some other investigators kids that are progressing for the 3rd of January, and will get baptized! The only problem is getting the moms signature. That is such a huge problem here in Nicaragua!!!! The parents never want their kids to be baptized! It is a pain, but the mom here is pretty calm, so we should be fine on that! :) 

anyway that is about all that is going on here right now! We are prepping big time for these multi-zones, which has sucked a lot of time and energy! But those will be coming up really fast, and will be an absolute blast! :)

I love you guys a lot! :) I hope you guys have a great week and I cant wait to talk to you next Thursday!!!! :) 

Love you a ton!

Elder Naisbitt

12-9-2014

December 9, 2014

Mi Querida Familia! 

Como Estan?? :) Hopefully great! Thank you so much for the addresses mom! I will be working on those as soon as I am done writing you guys! So just so you know I will be planning on calling on Christmas day! and whatever time is best for you guys! afternoon of morning or whenever! :) The church has changed the time for calls now though, its 45 minutes, so just to let you know now! :) I'm super pumped to see you guys! I just keep thinking about how awesome mothers day was and that was like 7 months ago! haha crazy right!? :) Anyway, just let me know on the time of day! :) Anyway, yes mom I love your calendar! The scriptures you used are super awesome! You and Dad are so great! :) I will never take you guys for granted ever again! :) I have received my Christmas package! It is just chilling next to my study table :) Sounds like you guys had an awesome week! I loved the photos of Lauen, especially the one of her and Uncle Fester! HAHAHAHA I about died laughing hahaha :) Nice work on that dad! The Pictures of the Temple in Cordoba are looking great! Seriously! super pretty! Lots of Fun San Diego too! 

Well this week we could not get Alison baptized! she literally disappeared on us! We tried looking for her every night, but she just never was home! Kind of Disappointing, but we are going to have to start over and figure out what scared her and what she did not like! The mission is all about patience and diligence.... However we are preparing our possibility this weekend who is named Yarlin! he is cool, just a little timid and does not have a strong testimony yet, but we are really pushing in these last days to read the BOM and keep on praying to the max!! 

I have learned a lot about self mastery this week and about how to get over the natural man and live as God wants me to live. it has been a really hard week because I am pulling myself out of old habits and focusing myself in obedience to the commandments. However i have seen miracles in my life as God has blessed us with new investigators as well as a closer relationship with Him. 

Just some fun stories that happened this week too :) there was a group of 28 members coming in from Bluefields, to Managua, and were going to stay in one of the chapels here in Managua, and because President Russell is basically the stake president for the District of Bluefields, we were in charge of getting 28 mattresses to this chapel :) and we only did it in 2 trips, with one truck.... :) There are some pretty blurry, but good photos of the Hilux with 11  and then 17 mattresses :) it was pretty sweet! The other photos are of one morning we were shinning our shoes and saw that the shoe polish bottle said it was flammable, so you know that we had to light that on fire :) and the last pictures are of a recent converts little baby puppies! they had just been born that afternoon, and were so cute haha :) anyway, our convert just handed us two little ones and so we took some photos of them :) 

Office work is tiring right now. We are preparing for the Christmas Mulit-zone meetings. Basically that whole meeting is all day and is run on our backs haha. It is pretty crazy! and then a week after those are done on the 24th and the 26th of December, we have on the 8th of January, change meeting again! AHHHH so much stuff to get done!!! But we are going little by little! Eating the horse bite by bite! :) 

Anyway, kind of a slow week here, but hopefully next week is a lot better and more happens :) 

I love you guys a ton!

Elder Naisbitt

December 3, 2014

December 3, 2014

Mom and Dad!

Wow it feels like forever since I have emailed you guys! It has been pretty crazy here in the office with changes, and President is preparing to start the Interviews for the Semester, so that is a lot of planning for us and getting all of the missionaries on the right time schedule! As well President has been loading my plate up with work and stuff to do, so it has been super super super busy! Elder Hayes and I are still companions, and for how long I don't know! President told me yesterday that I will probably be here in the office until at least February..... GYARRRRR hahaha. I am kind of sick of the stress. But we are going little by little :)

Your guys week sounded super crazy!! But San Diego sounds super awesome! Buca de Pepo, sounds like a great Thanksgiving dinner though! We had two dinners, one at Presidents, and the other in an American member's house named the Rasmussens!!! The husband works at the US embassy, and they are members! So we ate REALLY good! The turkey was way great! I had not had that great of food in a year! Seriously! But we ate too much at President's, so we got to the Rassmusens, and we were all too the point of throwing up because we were so full! ugh! :) But it was soooooo delicious! The Rasmussen's sent us home with food, so we are still snacking on it occasionally :) She made homemade rolls, which were almost as good as moms! Nothing can beat Mom's homemade rolls! I would like those one of the first night I am back! :) Sounds like Dad is on his last trips to Argentina, which is super crazy! When is the finish date!? Hopefully pretty soon! That would be really cool if we went there when I got back! 

Well, This past two weeks have been good in the field, we are just struggling to find people to teach right now! because this area is so dangerous, we have locked ourselves only in part of our area, which has really cut down the area in which we can contact. so its been a bit of a trial looking and looking. We did find a cool guy yesterday that kind of contacted us and wanted us to visit him, so we will be heading up that way tomorrow night to see how positive he is. We should have a baptism this Saturday of a girl we have been teaching for a few weeks, named Alison. She is a daughter of a recent converts, and loves the church, just never has time on Sunday to visit because she is always working and going to the university. But she is on Christmas break right now, so we took advantage and have been teaching her! She is super awesome and loves to learn! I just hope that she can keep going to church after school starts again! Her mom and dad are was cool though! Her dad is the Ward Mission leader, and loves the mission work!

 Then in the following week we should have another baptism of a Kid Named Yarlin (Jarline)! He is was prepared by the Lord to receive the Gospel! We found him because he is the boyfriend of a recent converts sister! But he is 17 years old and has received an answer from God that our church is true, and Joseph Smith was a prophet! That is about it for the month of December, and we have a few new possibilities for January! If they progress, I will tell you about them in the coming week! 

I have received a few packages, and I love the Calendar! Mom that is the Coolest thing you could ever give me! Seriously! Sister Russell saw it and was like, I love your mom, and then cried because it was so awesome! Thank you for all of the time you put into that! Really mom, your the greatest! Thank you so much! I will keep the other package closed until Christmas! I have received a package from Grandma and from Jessica! You guys are the best! :) The gift I had gotten for you guys with your scriptures got put on hold, because the guy made them wrong, so I have to go back and see if he can fix them. If they are late, I'm sorry!!! But I have some cool souvenirs I will pack up in a box and send out! But the guy will fix them it is just a question of $$$ Now :) 

Love you guys a ton!

Elder Naisbitt