Caridad

Hey Everyone. Last Week was changes which meant the week was mostly a blur, with tons of running around and very little sleep. After 6 weeks as financial secretary I cam into these transfers much more prepared and things went really smoothly which was way nice. Also I now know the route to the airport well enough to do it with my eyes closed, which is a skill that comes in handy after two or three mornings of getting up at 3:30! The worst part of changes week is not actually the early mornings, but rather the fact that we have barely any time to work in our area. The week went really well though overall and we are really excited for this new group of missionaries because the seemed like a group full of future leaders. 

This week has been great up to this point. We have been able to get out of the office early almost everyday and have seen many of the blessings that come from diligent missionary work! Including several new awesome families. One of the highlights for me this week was getting our house all organized and cleaning out the old stuff that we no longer had use of and taking it all to a poor neighborhood in our area and giving it all away. It is way nice to have all that stuff out of the house, but it was even nicer to see all that stuff in the hands of people who really needed it. We just parked the giant truck and had a member spread the word and in a matter of minutes the truck was emptied. It always feels good to give away and see brighten someone elses life. It is often so easy to take for granted what we have and the ability we have to improve the lives of others. Now of course that was a good reminder of how we have something else to share that doesn't just provide happiness in the moment, but can really help people have a happiness that stays with them. The Gospel really is the gift that can do the most for people in their lives if they chose to accept it.  

Alright that's all for this week. Take care.

Elder Hamson

Life in the office

I can't believe it's already P-day again! The weeks feel incredibly short in the office. Probably because we don't have enough time to do any of the things that we have to get done. And things are actually about to get more busy because this transfer is already running to an end which means we have to get everything ready for the 24 new missionaries and the 16 missionaries that are leaving. Also there is an Finance audit coming up so I have to make sure everything is ready, which is going to be a lot of work because I inherited quite a few problems.

Monday I remember basically nothing.

Tuesday was Leadership council which is always fun because I get to see my Panamanian brothers Elder Castro and Elder Diaz who are both ZLs now. Unfortunately for me the day was rather complicated because Ramirez had to stay in the meeting running the power points, while I had to go pay for and bring the lunch that Hermana Poncio had planned, from a place I had never been to. Addresses don't exist here, so I was just told what the house looks like and the general area where it was and then it was up to me and Fernandes to go explore Managua. It actually didn't end up being to hard to find it though and I did get to know pretty well the layout of that part of Managua. Tuesday night I went out to work with Ramirez and Fernandez in trio which went pretty well. We have an investigator right now named Eric who came out of nowhere and is incredible. He is a friend of Alenka who was baptized last week, and before her baptism she started to invite him to church and since then he has come to every activity and church meeting that we have invited him to without fail. He is an inspiration in the way that he completely changed his life around. He has been a well known bolo for many years and has stolen to support his drinking habits and been in and out of Jail, but we got to know him through Alenka and he immediately took to the church and the teachings and from one day to the next completely stopped drinking and has shown up to every church activity that we have had and yesterday he got baptized! But I'll get to that later.

Wednesday I had to go to church HQ in Nicaragua with Neilson to talk to the Financial adviser about the upcoming audit, which basically left me with a lot more homework, but also was really good, because now I have a much better idea of what the procedures are and what I can and cannot do in my position. Wednesday night I worked with Ramirez because we've started rotating companions every week between the five of us that are in the office. We've hit kind of a rough patch in the area because a bunch of the investigators we have found are not progressing, so right now we only have a handful of investigators that are really positive. So in the night we basically just did a fair amount of contacting with not too much success.

Thursday we had a bunch of errands to take care of all morning in the office, but nothing very exciting. In the evening we had our ward Noche de hermanamientos which went really well and afterward we had a last lesson with Eric and then the Zls came over for his interview. Then we had a little bit of time in the night to work, but we were feeling pretty down with our contacting luck and had been rejected most of the day, or people weren't home, so the last 30 min we decided to apply a piece of advice that president had shared with us, where instead of doing a normal contact just go up to a house and ask them if they'd mind if we said a quick prayer with their family kneeling down together and then just leave without any questions asked. We tried it with the next family that we saw sitting outside on their porch. When we approached them they were pretty quick to tell us that they are catholic and we already well set with their religion. We told them we just would like to pray with them, so they let us in and we had a kneeling prayer with the whole family. Then as we were leaving one of them said "solo tengo una duda" "de que consiste su religion", which we happily answered and from there they asked five or so more questions and we ended up teaching a full lesson and giving a book of Mormon to one of them who was particularly curious about what the book talked about and she agreed to read it and pray about it. It was pretty cool to see how instead of trying to gain their confidence with our words we just had a short prayer with them and let the spirit do the work.

Friday we had Erics Baptism. It has been way cool to see how happy he is about this change he has had in his life and how happy his family is as well that he has turned his life around.

Until Next time,

Elder Hamson

Pictured below: Erics baptism (hermano Chepito baptized him). A picture from Hermana Poncios surprise birthday visit last week, (I'm taking the picture). Some typical food at a members house (a mountain of rice and a little bit of meat). Monday nights in the office. 34 fans packed into thhe truck. The truck is already top heavy as it is, plus the delivery guys didn't do a very good job strapping it all on, so I drove very slowly.

Managua and the mission office

August 27, 2016

These last couple weeks have been pretty good. Last week we didn't have any meeting because President was in Guatemala, so we had a bunch more time to work in out area. It's kinda crazy not really having a set companion, because the APs frequently go on divisions with missionaries that are struggling, which means I frequently end up working with members, which is cool because there are some really awesome members, but it's not the nearly the same as working with another missionary. Lately I've been working almost half the days of the week with a member. It'll only be crazy like this for this change though because we have an extra Elder in our foursome, leaving us with an odd number of 5. Since we are essentially one big companionship, we decided to split the area en three parts to be able to get all of the visits we need to get done in the short time we have in the area to work. That way we have three companionships with one of us working with a member.

Monday was a good, but busy day. We have a meeting with president all morning and then I have to take advantage of one of the few days he is in the office and get all the checks signed and plan for the weeks worth of meeting and travels. Also Mondays I do all my errands like going to the bank or whatever other random thing comes up, for example this Monday I had to go to the hospital to pay for a missionaries appendicitis surgery. Monday nights are always long because we are stuck in the office til 8:30, but fortunately Elder Ramirez's mom sent some bread and amazing hot chocolate with Hermana Poncio after there trip to Guatemala. Hot chocolate is normally a no go in Nicaragua, but after being in freezing air-conditioning all day it was quite nice. Oh yeah and this Monday we had an exciting experience in the gas station with some fool lighting his motorcycle on fire and then was very angry with the gas station workers for coating his bike in fire extinguisher powder. Managua always keeps you on your toes and also your windshields sparkling clean because everytime you stop at a stoplight someone will run up and try to wash your windshields. The best part is watching taxi drivers get all mad when the little kids climb on the hood to be able to reach the windshield lol.

Tuesday I had to go to the reunión de nuevos to make sure everything went smoothly with the breakfast and lunch, plus give a finance presentation. There are a ton of new missionaries in the mission right now, so there were 82 missionaries in total in the meeting (new missionaries and their trainers). One of the nice things about going to meetings is getting to see all my past comps and friends from my old areas.

Wednesday we had our multizone meeting most of the day which was nice to have some time just to relax and listen and take notes.

Thursday we had Alenkas baptism which went really well. We met her through a reference from one of our most pilas members, Hermana Cándida, who also always made sure that she came to church. Those two things I have learned make it so much easier for investigators to progress. A member reference that attends church is almost always a golden investigator. She is super pilas and will make a great member, she even brought a non member friend to her baptism, who also ended up joining us in the evening for our noche de hermanamientos, which was super cool because we just watched Meet the Mormons which is good fun and like 5 investigators showed up and enjoyed the movie.

Friday I finally had some decent time to work in the area and in that time Neilson and I had a super positive afternoon and one of our awesome investigators decided she felt ready to accept a baptismal date and we meet a super positive family. This family we had passed by earlier in the week and felt that we should contact them, but had to get home since it was already 9, but when we finally got around to contacting them yesterday they were super positive. Then last night one of our recent converts invited us over for nacatamales which was fantastic.

This week flew by, but I am so grateful it's pday and I can rest, because I'm pretty exaughsted. We started the day today by making a surprise visit to the mission home to wish Hermana Poncio Happy Birthday. We all pitched in to buy cake and the Sister training leaders bought roses. It was a nice way to start the day. Everything is going great here, wish you all the best at home, and I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Hamson

Here are a few pictures - The first is with President Poncio and the Records Secretary, Elder Ramirez, who are both from Guatemala and both chaparros. The other two pics are with the two APs, Elder Neilson, who is from Utah and was Financial Secretary before me and Elder Gonzales, who is from Honduras.  

Managua and the mission office

August 27, 2016

These last couple weeks have been pretty good. Last week we didn't have any meeting because President was in Guatemala, so we had a bunch more time to work in out area. It's kinda crazy not really having a set companion, because the APs frequently go on divisions with missionaries that are struggling, which means I frequently end up working with members, which is cool because there are some really awesome members, but it's not the nearly the same as working with another missionary. Lately I've been working almost half the days of the week with a member. It'll only be crazy like this for this change though because we have an extra Elder in our foursome, leaving us with an odd number of 5. Since we are essentially one big companionship, we decided to split the area en three parts to be able to get all of the visits we need to get done in the short time we have in the area to work. That way we have three companionships with one of us working with a member.

Monday was a good, but busy day. We have a meeting with president all morning and then I have to take advantage of one of the few days he is in the office and get all the checks signed and plan for the weeks worth of meeting and travels. Also Mondays I do all my errands like going to the bank or whatever other random thing comes up, for example this Monday I had to go to the hospital to pay for a missionaries appendicitis surgery. Monday nights are always long because we are stuck in the office til 8:30, but fortunately Elder Ramirez's mom sent some bread and amazing hot chocolate with Hermana Poncio after there trip to Guatemala. Hot chocolate is normally a no go in Nicaragua, but after being in freezing air-conditioning all day it was quite nice. Oh yeah and this Monday we had an exciting experience in the gas station with some fool lighting his motorcycle on fire and then was very angry with the gas station workers for coating his bike in fire extinguisher powder. Managua always keeps you on your toes and also your windshields sparkling clean because everytime you stop at a stoplight someone will run up and try to wash your windshields. The best part is watching taxi drivers get all mad when the little kids climb on the hood to be able to reach the windshield lol.

Tuesday I had to go to the reunión de nuevos to make sure everything went smoothly with the breakfast and lunch, plus give a finance presentation. There are a ton of new missionaries in the mission right now, so there were 82 missionaries in total in the meeting (new missionaries and their trainers). One of the nice things about going to meetings is getting to see all my past comps and friends from my old areas.

Wednesday we had our multizone meeting most of the day which was nice to have some time just to relax and listen and take notes.

Thursday we had Alenkas baptism which went really well. We met her through a reference from one of our most pilas members, Hermana Cándida, who also always made sure that she came to church. Those two things I have learned make it so much easier for investigators to progress. A member reference that attends church is almost always a golden investigator. She is super pilas and will make a great member, she even brought a non member friend to her baptism, who also ended up joining us in the evening for our noche de hermanamientos, which was super cool because we just watched Meet the Mormons which is good fun and like 5 investigators showed up and enjoyed the movie.

Friday I finally had some decent time to work in the area and in that time Neilson and I had a super positive afternoon and one of our awesome investigators decided she felt ready to accept a baptismal date and we meet a super positive family. This family we had passed by earlier in the week and felt that we should contact them, but had to get home since it was already 9, but when we finally got around to contacting them yesterday they were super positive. Then last night one of our recent converts invited us over for nacatamales which was fantastic.

This week flew by, but I am so grateful it's pday and I can rest, because I'm pretty exaughsted. We started the day today by making a surprise visit to the mission home to wish Hermana Poncio Happy Birthday. We all pitched in to buy cake and the Sister training leaders bought roses. It was a nice way to start the day. Everything is going great here, wish you all the best at home, and I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Hamson

Here are a few pictures - The first is with President Poncio and the Records Secretary, Elder Ramirez, who are both from Guatemala and both chaparros. The other two pics are with the two APs, Elder Neilson, who is from Utah and was Financial Secretary before me and Elder Gonzales, who is from Honduras.  

Cambios

August 6, 2016

This last week brought some pretty big changes because I got assigned to be the financial secretary of the mission! I'm pretty stoked about my new position, but during transfers the schedule is absolutely insane. I had to come to Managua a day earlier, so I could get here in time to help with all the craziness. 

Sunday nights we get all of the zone statistics and organize them all, which means being in the office until almost midnight. 

Monday we spent basically getting me set up in the office and running errands for president to make sure everything went smoothly in his day with the missionaries who have completed their two years. Monday night we had to go to the airport to wait for all missionaries flying in from Provo which was a pretty big group of 21. Their flight was late and since we all went out to eat with president it ended up being another night going to bed after midnight. It was pretty cool though to get to see and talk with all the brand new missionaries. 

Tuesday morning we had to be at the airport at 4am to make sure all the north american missionaries got there passports and got through immigration ok. Lot´s of really good missionaries completed there missions this change and it was said to see them go and also it was super trunky realizing that one day that day would come for me as well. Then the new missionaries from the Guatemala MTC came in at 8am. Then we had a meeting all day with the missionaries that would be training and the new missionaries had their interviews. Then we had to go to the office to take care of a few things before going out to proselyte in our area from about 6:30 - 9:30. Then Wednesday morning we had to be at the airport at 4am again this time to give the Latino missionaries their passports and help them all get through immigration. Then there was another all day meeting for all the ZLs, but I basically was running in circles between the office and making sure the breakfast and lunch orders for the meeting were paid and arrived on tim. This day I received about a hundred calls from new missionaries who didn't know there pin numbers and from the countless people who left their areas without paying the rent. Then at around 6:30 we were able to leave again and work in the area. 

Thursday I don't really remember. I think just a bunch of work in the office and a few more hours of work in the area. 

Friday we had a meeting for all of the new leaders, which I actually needed to be there in attendance the whole time, because the financial secretary is also a district leader for the records secretary, sister training leaders and the APs. After the meeting we had a solid five hours to work in the area, so I went on divisions with our ward mission leader to get to know all of the ward leaders and the recent converts. 

Today is P-day and we've basically just been using the day to rest from transfers week. 

Despite all the craziness I really do enjoy working in the office. It's nice to be in air conditioning during the hottest part of the day, I enjoy the challenge of managing the finances of the mission, we get to work with president and his wife, and I still will have a solid 5-6 hours on a normal day to do missionary work with some really good missionaries. There is a good chance I´ll be here for a while, so from here on out my p-days are Saturdays.  

Wish you all the best.

Elder Hamson

Here are some pictures I took on my last few days in Chinandega. Despite being in the area for only a short time, it was still sad to leave the area.