This is a week late because I didn't have a normal pday last week. It was really a wonderful thanks giving week though. A super busy week, but at the same time things were really relaxed and I was left with lots of things to be thankful for:
1. On last Sunday we talked with Romulo about moving his baptism because we were going to be occupied all of thursday and he said he would like to have it on Tuesday! So we rushed to get everything ready, which was actually a little crazy because there was some problem and all missionary phones stopped working on tuesday, so we could no longer communicate with members to help us get things set up nor with the Zls to show up and take care of his interview. Since we didn't have anybody to help us we had to go first to the chapel to start filling up the font, then we had to go make sure Romulo was in his house and was ready for his interview, so we quickly walked to Romulo's while the font was filling up and waited for the Zls to show up, hoping they would get there soon so we could do divisions and run back to turn the font off. Luckily they showed up on time and we were able to get everything ready for the baptism. The baptism went really well and Romulo was so happy to be able to be cleaned from his past mistakes and follow Jesus. One funny thing that happened was when we were changing into our baptismal clothes he pulls out an armed concealed pistol, from who knows where and sets it on the sink. He must have seen the look on my face, because then he said "nadie entra aquí verdad?" and I was like umm this is a bathroom.. People come in here all the time. So he just wrapped it up in his clothes and trusted that it would be safe since we were in a church. All in all though it was a great baptismal service and it'll be awesome to have his family as an addition to the ward.
2. Erick! I don't know if you all remember Erick, so I'll provide a quick refresher. Erick is someone we met in my first few weeks here in Managua. He had lived a rough life full of drugs and alcohol and wanted so badly to leave it all behind. He amazed us at how he faithfully showed up to every activity and meeting and completed with every assignment we left him. He was what we call in Nicaragua a "super pilas investigador" he was baptized and because of general conference and other complications he was confirmed on the same day. Shortly there after satan attacked and he fell back into the horrible trap that is alcoholism. Literally he went weeks at a time without ever being sober. It was the saddest thing to pass by everyday and to have his little sister tell us he was still drunk and out on the corner with the other bolos. His poor mom suffers too, because she has already lost one son to alcohol poisoning and has basically accepted that the same will likely happen with Erick. Now to the good news! One day we were passing by to visit a recent convert and he was drunk in the street. I didn't see him, but all of a sudden I heard "el ruso!", (when he's drunk he thinks I'm russian), so we said hi, but didn't expect to talk too him long because he was plastered drunk, but he completely opened up to us like alcohol often helps do and he poured out all of the guilt and regrets he has and how he needs help because he can't live like this. It was really sad, but there is really not a whole lot we can do for him when he's that far gone, so we just prayed with him and told him to go home and sober up so we could talk to him the next day. When we came back the following day he was home and mostly sober, but extremely sick from alcohol poisoning. We prayed with him again and continued coming back the next few days as he slowly came back to his self. And for the first time in like two months we got to see the real erick again. He is an incredible person when he is sober. We started teaching him again and giving him assignments to read and it was so incredibly good to see him at church on Sunday and also at Romulo's baptism on thursday. I am determined to work with him and do anything we can to keep him from falling again, because he really needs the help. It just sucks because with our limited schedule its impossible to visit him every day.
3. Juan Jose was also baptized last week. Which was super awesome, but also a very long process because of his physical condition. To baptize him we both had to carry him down into the font and I held him up while my companion did the ordinance and then we both submerged and brought him up. It was a really unique baptism and awesome to see how happy was afterward and to have his wife and son there supporting him. He even said that now that he is baptized he feels at peace to leave his suffering earthly body. We'll have to see what God has in store for him. Now it will be a matter of getting the ward involved with helping him get to and from church.
4. The Poncios! The Poncios invited us over for a thanksgiving dinner at their house. It was way nice to have a big plate of turkey, mashed potatos, stuffing, bread, and gravy, and then finish it of with pie. We really are so spoiled to be close to President and his family. They are such an awesome family and it really is a pleasure to work with them in the mission. They will continue to do great things for Nicaragua through their mission service.
5. Health. I am really grateful for my good health and it really is something that we sometimes take for granted. There are so many people here that we meet that have all kinds of health problems and life really becomes a lot tougher when health issues come into the equation. Even our bishop who tore something in his knee, probably acl, but doesnt have the money to pay for the sugery so he just limps the 8 or so blocks to church every Sunday plus during the week whenever he is needed. I don't think I've mentioned it before, but let it just be said that Obispo Madrigal is awesome. But anyways i'm just way grateful that I can enjoy things like the fútbol we got to play on thursday with some inactive youth and their friends. I've regained a lot more appreciation for soccer on the mish. Such a fun sport. I don't really have the foot control that all latinos are born with, but im getting better and I destroy at corner kicks because all they have to do is kick it up into the middle and i'm the only one that can get up high enough to header it in.
There are really a lot of things im thankful for, but I don't have time to get into all it. Things are great here though. This week was insanely busy trying to get everything ready for next week which is going to be an insanely crazy week because it is transfers AND Elder Ochoa is coming and leading two multizone conferences, and then leaders council. Its gonna be a crazy week and every one in the office is pretty stressed except Elder Gonzalez because he's finishing his mission in 4 days! All of December is gonna be nuts though. Because after this week we have a few more meetings and then a ton of prep for the mission christmas activity, then the next week is the activity and christmas weekend, then the last week of december, President Poncio, hermana Poncio, Elder Neilson and I will be driving out to Puerto Cabezas for a christmas activity for the poor Isolated Puerto missionaries, which will take up three whole days because it means a 12 or more hour trek across the country through uncharted territory. Should be an adventure. On top of all that president needed us to go help out an area in Managua that has been suffering, so Elder Galo and I will be opening area. I'm not really sure how much we'll be able to do with our limited time, but president asked us to go work with the bishop to bring the area back to life so ni modo, we'll have to figured out a way to do it. Even though I'll still be living in my same house and it really isn't much of a change, it still sucks leaving all of the recent converts, members, investigators, and just all the awesome people we've met in the Maximo. I may just use my Pday time to visit them.. I'm excited to start work in the new area though because its a huge area and has a ton of potential, plus the bishop is way excited to work with us. The area is called Ciudad Jardin and it includes a portion of lake Managua and the mercado el Oriental, which is the biggest mercado of all Central America. Should be pretty fun. Other news with transfers is that Elder Diaz, from my Somoto days, will be the new AP, which is crazy because he is still young in the mission, but he has been doing extremely well as a ZL, so president has decided to bring him to the office to replace Gonzalez. As a refresher, for like two weeks of my first transfer I was in trio with Diaz and castro and then when Elder Galo came, it was me and Elder Galo, and Elder Diaz and Elder Mendez. Elder Galo and I have been back together for two changes now and with Diaz coming to the office, we are only missing Mendez to make the Somoto reunion complete!
Anyways thats all for now because I've gotta run. Love you all and hope you all had a good thanksgiving. Until next week!
Elder Hamson
1. On last Sunday we talked with Romulo about moving his baptism because we were going to be occupied all of thursday and he said he would like to have it on Tuesday! So we rushed to get everything ready, which was actually a little crazy because there was some problem and all missionary phones stopped working on tuesday, so we could no longer communicate with members to help us get things set up nor with the Zls to show up and take care of his interview. Since we didn't have anybody to help us we had to go first to the chapel to start filling up the font, then we had to go make sure Romulo was in his house and was ready for his interview, so we quickly walked to Romulo's while the font was filling up and waited for the Zls to show up, hoping they would get there soon so we could do divisions and run back to turn the font off. Luckily they showed up on time and we were able to get everything ready for the baptism. The baptism went really well and Romulo was so happy to be able to be cleaned from his past mistakes and follow Jesus. One funny thing that happened was when we were changing into our baptismal clothes he pulls out an armed concealed pistol, from who knows where and sets it on the sink. He must have seen the look on my face, because then he said "nadie entra aquí verdad?" and I was like umm this is a bathroom.. People come in here all the time. So he just wrapped it up in his clothes and trusted that it would be safe since we were in a church. All in all though it was a great baptismal service and it'll be awesome to have his family as an addition to the ward.
2. Erick! I don't know if you all remember Erick, so I'll provide a quick refresher. Erick is someone we met in my first few weeks here in Managua. He had lived a rough life full of drugs and alcohol and wanted so badly to leave it all behind. He amazed us at how he faithfully showed up to every activity and meeting and completed with every assignment we left him. He was what we call in Nicaragua a "super pilas investigador" he was baptized and because of general conference and other complications he was confirmed on the same day. Shortly there after satan attacked and he fell back into the horrible trap that is alcoholism. Literally he went weeks at a time without ever being sober. It was the saddest thing to pass by everyday and to have his little sister tell us he was still drunk and out on the corner with the other bolos. His poor mom suffers too, because she has already lost one son to alcohol poisoning and has basically accepted that the same will likely happen with Erick. Now to the good news! One day we were passing by to visit a recent convert and he was drunk in the street. I didn't see him, but all of a sudden I heard "el ruso!", (when he's drunk he thinks I'm russian), so we said hi, but didn't expect to talk too him long because he was plastered drunk, but he completely opened up to us like alcohol often helps do and he poured out all of the guilt and regrets he has and how he needs help because he can't live like this. It was really sad, but there is really not a whole lot we can do for him when he's that far gone, so we just prayed with him and told him to go home and sober up so we could talk to him the next day. When we came back the following day he was home and mostly sober, but extremely sick from alcohol poisoning. We prayed with him again and continued coming back the next few days as he slowly came back to his self. And for the first time in like two months we got to see the real erick again. He is an incredible person when he is sober. We started teaching him again and giving him assignments to read and it was so incredibly good to see him at church on Sunday and also at Romulo's baptism on thursday. I am determined to work with him and do anything we can to keep him from falling again, because he really needs the help. It just sucks because with our limited schedule its impossible to visit him every day.
3. Juan Jose was also baptized last week. Which was super awesome, but also a very long process because of his physical condition. To baptize him we both had to carry him down into the font and I held him up while my companion did the ordinance and then we both submerged and brought him up. It was a really unique baptism and awesome to see how happy was afterward and to have his wife and son there supporting him. He even said that now that he is baptized he feels at peace to leave his suffering earthly body. We'll have to see what God has in store for him. Now it will be a matter of getting the ward involved with helping him get to and from church.
4. The Poncios! The Poncios invited us over for a thanksgiving dinner at their house. It was way nice to have a big plate of turkey, mashed potatos, stuffing, bread, and gravy, and then finish it of with pie. We really are so spoiled to be close to President and his family. They are such an awesome family and it really is a pleasure to work with them in the mission. They will continue to do great things for Nicaragua through their mission service.
5. Health. I am really grateful for my good health and it really is something that we sometimes take for granted. There are so many people here that we meet that have all kinds of health problems and life really becomes a lot tougher when health issues come into the equation. Even our bishop who tore something in his knee, probably acl, but doesnt have the money to pay for the sugery so he just limps the 8 or so blocks to church every Sunday plus during the week whenever he is needed. I don't think I've mentioned it before, but let it just be said that Obispo Madrigal is awesome. But anyways i'm just way grateful that I can enjoy things like the fútbol we got to play on thursday with some inactive youth and their friends. I've regained a lot more appreciation for soccer on the mish. Such a fun sport. I don't really have the foot control that all latinos are born with, but im getting better and I destroy at corner kicks because all they have to do is kick it up into the middle and i'm the only one that can get up high enough to header it in.
There are really a lot of things im thankful for, but I don't have time to get into all it. Things are great here though. This week was insanely busy trying to get everything ready for next week which is going to be an insanely crazy week because it is transfers AND Elder Ochoa is coming and leading two multizone conferences, and then leaders council. Its gonna be a crazy week and every one in the office is pretty stressed except Elder Gonzalez because he's finishing his mission in 4 days! All of December is gonna be nuts though. Because after this week we have a few more meetings and then a ton of prep for the mission christmas activity, then the next week is the activity and christmas weekend, then the last week of december, President Poncio, hermana Poncio, Elder Neilson and I will be driving out to Puerto Cabezas for a christmas activity for the poor Isolated Puerto missionaries, which will take up three whole days because it means a 12 or more hour trek across the country through uncharted territory. Should be an adventure. On top of all that president needed us to go help out an area in Managua that has been suffering, so Elder Galo and I will be opening area. I'm not really sure how much we'll be able to do with our limited time, but president asked us to go work with the bishop to bring the area back to life so ni modo, we'll have to figured out a way to do it. Even though I'll still be living in my same house and it really isn't much of a change, it still sucks leaving all of the recent converts, members, investigators, and just all the awesome people we've met in the Maximo. I may just use my Pday time to visit them.. I'm excited to start work in the new area though because its a huge area and has a ton of potential, plus the bishop is way excited to work with us. The area is called Ciudad Jardin and it includes a portion of lake Managua and the mercado el Oriental, which is the biggest mercado of all Central America. Should be pretty fun. Other news with transfers is that Elder Diaz, from my Somoto days, will be the new AP, which is crazy because he is still young in the mission, but he has been doing extremely well as a ZL, so president has decided to bring him to the office to replace Gonzalez. As a refresher, for like two weeks of my first transfer I was in trio with Diaz and castro and then when Elder Galo came, it was me and Elder Galo, and Elder Diaz and Elder Mendez. Elder Galo and I have been back together for two changes now and with Diaz coming to the office, we are only missing Mendez to make the Somoto reunion complete!
Anyways thats all for now because I've gotta run. Love you all and hope you all had a good thanksgiving. Until next week!
Elder Hamson
Here are some photos!
Bautismo de Juan José
