Never a normal week

Last week and the start of this week consisted of lots of time in the office, which isn't much fun. Last week Elder Galo had his first big deadline as Records Secretary and was stressing to get everything done and calling missionaries to send records so Tuesday and Wednesday we were in the office almost all day. I spent a good portion of the time helping him and let me just say I don't think I have shared enough about Nice addresses. Addresses in the states are so boring. Two of my favorite addresses that showed up on baptism records were, "de la palmita 35 varras al sur, Tipitapa, Managua" (from the little palm tree 35 rods to the south) and the other "detrás del muro de los mormones, Puerto Cabezas" (behind the wall of the Mormons). Hahaha good stuff.  Quick Nica vocab lesson: "Varras" are frequently used in directions and it took me a while to catch on, but essentially one block equals 100 varras, so saying something like 35 varras tells you, that you need to go roughly one third of the block. Anyways continuing with my week.. Thursday I had to do all my errands since Elder Galo had been busy the first part of the week. So we spent most of the day driving around to the bank, sinsa, disnorte-dissur, etc. Then Friday it was looking like we were going to get some solid time in the area, but things ended up coming up and we didn't get to the area till late. And then Saturday was pday, which was also extremely busy because a pipe broke under the concrete of our side porch, so I had to call the owner to get permission to have someone come cut the concrete to fix the pipe. So that whole fiasco took most of the morning. Then we had a few hours of solid pday time which we used to play soccer, eat, and write, but then our writing time got interrupted because we had to go to the hospital to pay a bill so they would let a missionary leave and from there we just ran to price smart to buy some food and that was our pday.

This week was supposed to be the Audit, so all day Monday and Tuesday I was in the office with Elder Neilson going though all the documentation we have archived and resolving all the other little things, but then Wednesday afternoon we got a call saying they were going to have to postpone the audit... That was good and bad news really. Bad because we spent a bunch of time preparing and good because it meant we no longer had to be in the office and could go work in our area. The only problem was when we got to the area we had zero things planned because we had planned to be in the office all day, so it was kinda a lot of visiting people who weren't home or just passing by to set up an appointment for a different day.

Thursday however we were able to plan and we had a great day in the area that started with the baptismal interview for Johnny who is super awesome and was a member reference. Members have such an incredible ability to find the people that are most prepared. All of the baptism we have had in my time in Managua except one have been member references.  Generally I think members are constantly consciously or subconsciously preparing all people in their circles, whether it's through little conversations or just through an example, so all it takes is a receptive heart and open mind really and boom you instantly have a perfect investigator. It seems like just yesterday that I was invited by Hermano Ramos to come over after work to meet Johnny and in the last month Johnny has progressed extremely quickly and has been going to church faithfully and his Baptism will be today in the afternoon! Also thursday afternoon we were able to meet up with David Perez who we have been struggling to run into. He was the last person I contacted with Elder Ramirez and after our first visit he went to church and then got a job that has him working almost 24/7, so when we have come by he has either not been there or its late like 8:30 and he's just getting back from work all tired because he's like 63 and his days of manual labor should be behind him. Anyways he had gotten home early, so we were able to talk to him and he let us in for a short visit. He wasn't sure if he is going to be able to make it to church this week because his granddaughter is turning one and the whole family is going to celebrate all day. He was sure to invite us to the party Sunday afternoon though to come eat with them. He is just the nicest guy. I always really enjoy our lessons with him because he is so excited to learn and he just gets it. I like his wife too because she just has an endless list of brewing questions for us that come to her mind at random points during the lesson and she doesn't hesitate to ask them in the same moment they occur to her. We were talking about keeping the sabbath day holy with them and out of nowhere she asks us if we smoke or drink. We said no of course and gave her the short reason why and then this evangelical lady that was listening in adds that we don't drink coffee either, in an attempt to make us look weird. The lesson was actually great until she showed up. The last time we had a good lesson with David and his family she showed up as well. She is like a fellowshiper or missionary of sorts for the neighborhood evangelical church and I think God doesn't want us to leave the family alone with her haha because both times she's come there we've been almost leaving, but each time a sudden torrential downpour of rain kept us stuck inside the house. She is always kinda looking to compete with us, so this time after we decided we would wait out the rain she casually explained to the family that we believe that jesus was a prophet. We just kinda shrugged and said well a prophet is someone who talks to God and then teaches the people Gods will, so then yeah Jesus was definitely a prophet, but seeing as he was the savior of the world and the son of God he was also much more than just a prophet. So from that she then said oh yeah that's another thing you guys believe that prophets have seen God, but that's not true because no one can see God. Elder Galo shared a scripture in Matthew that says that the clean of heart will see God, but that then sparked an argument about whether that was talking about after death or in dreams etc and I just said nothing because she was just trying to pick a fight, so then after going back and forth with my comp, she asked me why I was speechless and I said I just didn't want to argue with her, to which she got all defensive saying that's absolutely right, arguing is of the devil. I've kinda learned that when people start getting argumentative or heated it's generally best just to say nothing and wait. I then asked if I could share a scripture if she wasn't going to argue. So I just went to exodus 33:11 which is extremely clear and straight forward. Most importantly that was enough for the doubt to be resolved for David and his wife, and even though the evangelical lady didn't give up her position the discussion basically died down and David offered us a soda and a donut, which we gratefully accepted and by then the rain had slowed down enough, so we took off to get to our next appointment. Even though the rain had slowed down a bunch, the streets were rivers and after looking for a good place to cross we ended up giving in and getting wet up to the mid shins to cross the street, which is always good fun. Overall the lesson ended well and I think everyone was able to feel the spirit despite the spirit of contention that wanted to make a presence. The spirit of contention and the spirit of God can't be present at the same time! A lesson I learned from a different family in the same week who told us since we had started visiting them she and her husband hadn't argued at all which she drew the conclusion must have something to do with the messages because normally they argue all the time! 

The big disappointment of this week was that Julieta was stuck in Masaya all week. We were hoping to get her interview done on Tuesday because she is completely ready for her baptism. When we called her Monday night though she was in the hospital because her daughter got sick, so she wasn't gonna be able to leave Masaya until her daughter got better, but then whatever virus her daughter had passed to her granddaughter and then towards the end of the week she got it, so she ended up being stuck there all week long, so we'll have to move her baptism to next week.

Today we had pday with president and we all went to chocoyero which is a wild life reserve here in Managua and consisted of a short hike to a waterfall and back. It was a pretty nice jungle hike and we took a bunch of fotos together. Then we went to laguna de apoyo for lunch which is a giant lagoon that is in the crater of an ancient volcano and is a really beautiful spot. We grabbed lunch at one of the many restaurants there overlooking the lagoon. It was a great Pday, but took most of the day and we have Johnny´s baptism tonight, so we're in a bit of a rush! 

Until next week,

Elder Hamson. 

Photos: The street we had to cross after leaving Davids house. My family in the mish (My dad Elder Castro in the middle and my only brother Elder Vaides). Some of the sites on our hike.