Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Finishing Strong!

Happy Halloween everyone!  I spent my halloween going to managua for our monthly leaders meeting woohoo. It was a good meeting though so I'm not to put out.  We did carve a watermelon with the zone though on the 30th because they don't have pumkins here haha. Sounds like everyone had a bunch of fun celebrating back home though. Here people have heard of halloween but not many people really understand the concept. I think it would be an excelent holiday to introduce here because their equivalent of halloween is La Gritería where everyone goes door to door singing to peoples Mary statues and collecting treats... every year members of the church, especially ones with kids ask us if they are "allowed to go". We might just have to mention to the stake president to start up trunk or treating as a stake activity to satisfies the kids needs for candy. Problem is the lack of trunks.... it may have to be modified a little haha. Apart from Halloween the other problem with the holiday season here is that thanksgiving doesn't exist so there is nothing keeping people from getting all decked out for christmas already. I do love christmas, but it is more special when it is the focus of just one month i think. 

Things have been really great here these last few weeks and this past weekend was the end of another transfer! Unbelievable how quickly they fly by! I was surprised by the new assignment i got this transfer because it is not very common, although not unheard of. President asked me to train a brand new missionary while remaining zone leader here in Chinandega. So I am now separated from the other zone leader who is with a different companion. We still live in the same house so it shouldn't be too difficult to still coordinate all of the zone plans and activities together, but it will certainly mean a lot more work! Looks like president wants me to finish strong, with my hands full of responsibilities. Should be a good opportunity though especially since I'll be jumping right back into school when i get back and should be able to keep up the busy schedule. My hijo (new Comp) is named Elder Mendoza and he is from Guatemala, same as my last comp. Should be a fun last two months. We visited Raúl yesterday after coming back from managua and had an awesome lesson about the role of the holy ghost and he shared with us a recent experience he had where he felt god was guiding him. Raúl could be an awesome missionary! He is looking to be all set for his baptism this Saturday

In other news I got to try Mondogo for the first time which is a really common soup here made of cow stomach. I hadn't tried it before because it sounds disgusting, but i figured I may as well try it and pluss the Mejia family was offering and i trust them to cook things well and idk, not buy the cow stomach from the street market for example. It wasn't terrible all things considered, but i don't have any plans to eat it ever again. The Flavor isn't great and the chunks of cow stomach are texture wise just a little too much. Oh well it's still always interesting to try new things. Alright that sabout all i have for now. I hope everything is good back home! Talk to you all soon! 

Love Elder HAmson

Photos: 1. Watermelon Jock o Lantern. 2. Jorfran (Raúl's little brother) with his kill for the day: 5 doves  and a garrobo. All kids here have little slingshots and go out hunting for birds and lizards. 
3. Sopa de Mondongo 4. My new comp!










Mission tour and beach time!

Hey everyone, things have been great recently in chinandega and time is just soaring by! I was very happy to get some beach time recently because we did a zone service project in Corinto following some winter storms that washed away a bunch of houses including some member houses. The mayors office gave them a new spot to build, BEACH FRONT PROPERTY, so we showed up in the morning to help them build their new house. It's funny because beach front property is not very valuable at all here because it is the most likely to wash away, but if they were in california they would be sitting on a goldmine! Anyways that was good fun. Cutting the weeds with machetes, Setting the treetrunk polls and making fences out of giant sacks. We didn't get all the way finished but they were very thankfull for the help and it was nice to help out. It also didn't hurt that we were at the beach. Then the bishop in Corinto said he was going to invite us all to ceviche the next pday, so we came back on monday with the whole zone and played some volleyball in the morning and them ate some fresh ceviche. I love the beach! 

another fun thing this last week was on sunday hermano Alfredo had a nice surprise for us and prepared us fried garrobo for lunch! Garrobos are these big iguanas that are all over the place here. I was stoked because i hadn't gotten the opportunity to try garrobo yet in my time here. It was pretty good. Basically just a darker, tougher chicken, although the tale is kinda like a fish texture. Fotos attatched below. 

This week we also spent two full days in managua because Elder Cordon came to our mision and we had a general meeting with him on thursday and then a leaders meeting on friday. He is a pretty interesting guy and I really enjoyed listening to his teachings. He talked alot about how to establish the church. The church is established through stong and sealed families. He invited us to focus our work in helping families be strengthened and helping them go to the temple. He also talked alittle about companionship issues in the questions and answers part and taught that being right or knowing the truth doesn't matter, but rather how you use that truth. Because there are lots of things that may be true, but we can choose whether we will use the truth in a way that builds others up rather than tearing them down. He used the example of "you are a sinner" and "you are a child of God" as examples of two truths, one of which elevates the other degrades. THis teaching really can be applied to many things because any truth is power and how we use that power is what is really important because power can be used to degrade and oppress, or it can be used to up lift and build up. Another thing he taught in relation to the way we should teach is that people aren't always in a good position to be taught. In order to teach it is often necessary to lift the person up to a teachable position with love and then teach. This can be seen in numerous examples of the way that the savior taught because he often had to correct or admonish, but he always lifted the person up to a position where they could receive the teaching without resent. A finally subject eh touched on that i would like to mention is lying. He talked about how easy it is for us to lie and asked teh question if we could go a whole year without lying..or a month? or a week? or even one day? We often don't releaze or don't give importance to all the little lies we tell, but he taught the importance of being honest in all things and building our character by eliminating all lies. All in all it was an excelent conference and on top of the teachings I also got to work one afternoon in Waspan with the secretaries which was coolm because I got to go visit some of the families i taught. 

To finish the week we had two baptisms in the ward and two families completed. We baptized Hermano Carlos and Elder Martinez and E Russell baptized Dionisio. Carlos is so happy to be making changes in his life and finding a new light and motivation to organize his life and do what is right.

Things really are great here in chinandega. I hope everything is well back home. I wish you all the best and am excited to see everyone in roughly ten weeks!

Love Elder Hamson

Photos: 1. Beach House! 2. Garrobo 3. Beach Selfie with part of the zone










Transfers



It's transfer day again and there were almost no changes in the zone except I received my new companion Elder Estrada, from Guatemala. President must be happy with how things are going here in the zone because literally everyone else stayed the same. I'm stoked about that because we have a really good rhythm in the zone right now and after finishing a excellent month of September we should be able to see even more miracles rolling into this month of October, especially since the month is starting off with general conference which is always an awesome opportunity for learning and spiritual growth of investigators, recent converts, ward leaders and missionaries! My new companion has the same amount of time in the mission as Elder Packard so he's coming with some experience, but i'm still much more of a veteran in comparison. He will likely be my last comp because i only have about two transfers left. He seems like a cool guy, so i'm sure we will get along great and should have an awesome change or two ahead of us in the area chinanfire (chinandega).

As far as other recent updates go... things have been very rainy here which is normal for this time of year yet somehow people seem unable to function when it is raining. Saturday for example it rained super hard all night long and all morning which left the great majority of people unable to leave there houses and go to church. There were probably less than half the number of people that normally show up and at least half of the people that did show up showed up nice and late.  The thing is it normally rains in the afternoon so I guess people weren't ready for the morning storm. We seem to be the only people willing to get wet. In my opinion the rain is great because it usually means the temperature cools down. Another part of this season it appears is playing "Trompo". Everywhere we go all of the kids are outside in the street playing trompo. Trompos are little wooden or plastic tops that are wound up with a small rope and released at impressive spead and then can be pisked up and keep spinning in your hand or a series of other tricks. Definitely not as easy as the little kids make it look. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of it. It is funny though because it appears to be part of everyones childhood because even the old people still have the touch. Like one night we were at Hermano Alfredos house and i took out a trompo to practice with one of his grandsons and he asked me if he could see it and without even getting up from his chair he sent it flying and scooped it right up and then passed it back to me still spinning in his palm.. even a fancy old man like alfredo still has some street kid in him haha. Another fun cultural adventure this week was when we were visiting Alejandro and Alexandra out on their farm and they introduced us to some classics of la vida campesina and gave us some steaming hot sweet tamales made with fresh corn from their farm. super tasty. Then they offered us some homemade Chicha de Coyol. Chicha typically reffers to a fermented drink, but they assured us it was very new and therefore wasn't alcoholic at all, we trusted them because they are strong members of the church, but it did seemed to have a pretty strong flavor to it.. We politely denied a second glass haha. 

As far as people we have been teaching we have been visiting a ton of couples lately and it has been cool to help them see the blessings the gospel provides for families and help many of them put their lives a little more in order. Karla and Chilo for example had been separated for a long time, but not to long ago got back together and have realized that for their sack and their kids sack it was definitely time to get things in order and get married. They have completely embraced the message of the restored gospel and we are helping them plan their wedding and baptism for the start of october. Speaking of people who have completely embraced the restored gospel. Vilma, who was recently baptized has been helping us teach her boyfriend Carlos who seemed kind of cold at first, but now is progressing incredibly quickly and now has two sundays in a row being in church and learning a ton in all the classes. He is also preparing for baptism in October and hopefully they can get married soonish as well to continue helping them progress. We have also met a number of couples that live close to Hermano Silvio with guys that are feeling ready to leave their bad habits behind to better provide for their families. They all went to the ward priesthood activity we recently had and loved it, but it is still a matter of helping them find time on Sundays to get to church. There really are a lot of people out there that really want to make changes in their lives, just most people don't have much of an idea how to go about it. The good news is regardless of the things people want to change, the message of the restored gospel always seems to be the perfect solution. I invite all of you to go into conference with that same attitude, and look for the way to change the things that needed to be changed. 

Ok that's all I've got for now. Have a good week.

Love Elder Hamson

Fotos
1. Karla's Son with all of the trompos he has one. This guy is like the neighborhood champ. 
2. Fresh Tamales
4. Elder Packards going away party and Hermano Alfredos birthday










Ending August Update

Sorry I haven't been able to get an update out recently, but no worries things are going great and always staying interesting here in chinandega. We have been kept on our toes by some crazy lightning storms, ash clouds, and a super contagious conjunctivitis, but the work goes on and our zone is as animated as ever! 

The volcano activity was like three weeks back now so I'll touch on that first. Right next to chinandega is the tallest volcano in nicaragua (I think) called San Cristobal which we have being trying to plan a day to climb as a zone. Well the volcano decided to wake up a little, but didn't do much more than puff out a ton of ash that slowly rained down for about a day. Noone seemed to concerned, so we decided not to let it bother us either and went out to work like normal, but with bandanas to keep out the ash. It turned all the scenery a dull gray color, but other than that we had a great day of visits and came back to the house filthy. turns out ash and sweat aren't the best combo. As far as more news concerning mother nature, now that we are fully into winter we have had some gnarly winter storms. Heavy rain i'm used to by now but I have never seen such violent lightning and thunder storms in my life. I'm almost positive the steeple of the chapel got struck at least once during a stake priesthood meeting last week and later in the week i'm pretty sure vilma and Antonio's house got struck while we were finishing up a powerful lesson and cut the power. In fact in both cases there was a pretty powerful lesson being shared so maybe power just attracts more power haha. For the last bit of nature nuws there has been a eye infection thing that has been spreading like a wildfire through all nicaragua. It is basically just pinkeye, but lots of people don't really know how to treat it and just start touching their eyes alot it can get pretty bad. It's been about two weeks now and has passed to every single person we have been visiting, but somehow we have managed to steer clear. The main problem it has caused is people not wanting to go to church with swollen red eyes. Most people have dubbed the sickness "la Llorona". Ok that's is for nature news... moving on to other updates. 

We have been kept busy as ever with meetings, divisions, and endless references from some really cool members. The Baquedano family for example is still pumping out new references and are always willing to go visit with us and help take people to church. Silvio Baquedano is probably one of my favorite people here in chinandega. The guy is such a typical Nicaraguense and is just such an all around great guy. Like any good Nicaraguense he loves eating, especially gallo pinto, and is lazy as ever, but has the best heart and a powerful desire to follow christ. ONe opf the biggest reasons he has been such a big help in mission work is because te gospel completely change him and all of his friends and family have noted the difference. He fulfils the commandments in Matt 5 to "let your light so shine" and in Timothy 4 to be an "ejemplo de los creyentes". Something that many members struggle to fulfill.  Divisions have been pretty fun because I have lot's of my friends in the zone now and I was even able to work with my brazilian son again which was fun to see how quickly he has learned and talk about people in Matagalpa. 

We also had a multizone meeting like a week back wich was good as always and what really stood out to me was a video of a training session for mission presidents. They talked alot about how to read the scriptures and how we can find so many hidden jems and new understanding even reading scriptures we know by memory in the right way. The emphasized the importance of going slowly and analyzing word choices and definitions to better understand the true meaning of the scripture. Also when sharing the scripture with others the importance of helping them connect the scripture and context to their own lives. It wasn't anything crazy, but it was a good reminder to really go slow and analyze things rather than just skimming and expecting something to jump out at us. We put it into practice in a lot of the lessons we taught in the week and saw excellent results just reading a few simple verses in the book of mormon or bible with investigators. 

Just to wrap this up with some more recent stuff... Last Saturday we helped some members make soup in the morning as part of a fundraiser for a ward temple trip this month. Nica soups are generally a less than enjoyable experience, mainly because of the oppressive heat, but making it was definitely an effective way sweat out of every pore and cry due to the smoke from the wood fire. We made sopa de pollo con albondiga. It came out pretty good despite the fact that it seemed that there method of cooking was pretty halfhazard and basically just through an a little of everything. below i attatched a foto of the soup when it was just starting. Also on saturday was the baptism of Brenda who is from Mocoron and even though here whole family has been progressing and going to church, she is the only one that has been able to recieve a firm answer to her prayers, so she made the decision and almost here whole family was able to come and support here on the day of here baptism. (pictures Below). They are an awesome family and they have not ceased to invite anyone and everyone close by their house to listen to our message. the will be a key family in the growth of the church in mocoron. To finish of the week we had fast sunday which gave us an opportunity to do a fast with Vilma and Antonio who are both preparing for baptism next week and are progressing really well, but just need a little help getting over some addictions. It was a really special fast sunday and I really do feel that they will both be ready for their baptisms next week. 

Alright that's about all I have time to share for now. Things are great. I cannot believe we are already into september! Now it is really time to buckle down and make the most of my last few months! Thanks for all your emails and prayers. I hope all is well back home. 

Love Seth

Fotos... 1Soup. 2snake on the rat trap. 3Brenda baptism










Things starting up wonderfully in August

It has been a real busy first two weeks of august, but things have really been going so well. This past saturday we had an activity called a "Tarde Blanca" with the zone, where we have all the baptisms in the zone in the same place. We worked with the stake president to have it at a beach in Corinto. The baptismal service was at the Church in Corinto which is right on the beach and then the baptisms were performed in the ocean in front. Despite some setbacks due to lack of church leadership support in Corinto (Missionaries in Nicaragua are used to doing all the work themselves anyways), everything worked out just fine in the in and it was an incredible experience to see all those people take that first step in the gospel at one of my favorite places on earth (The Beach). I will send pictures below. 

Things here in our area in generally have also been really good. We find so many people everyday without even trying! They seriously find us. We have been working occasionally in a community called mocoron that is like 20min from the church and we are literally getting more references there from the few members than we have close to enough time to actually visit! The bishop and our ward mission leader are also really excited about the progress we have been seeing in this community and they went with us to have a small family nigh type activity and it was likie a little flashback to my days in Somoto! It has been way cool to have those little community activities and having so much support from the Ward. we are teaching a family of 6 there in Mocoron and they are seriously one of the most incredible families I have worked with. They just want everyone to hear the messages we share with them and everytime we show up they invite different neighbors and cousins to come over and listen to us. It makes things so easy and is inspiring to see people that are so humble and so open to listen, learn, and share. 

Another Family that has been awesome is Familia Baquedano. They are so incredible. They were baptized like two months ago and they both dedicate a ton of time to their callings and are constantly inviting their neighbors and family members to listen to us. They have no fear or shame to share what they know and everyone recognizes the huge changes they have made in their lives. They recently introduced us to another family who they invited over to a family night and this family looks to be extremely prepared to hear the gospel. They came to church for the first time this week and are so happy to be hearing our message. Also We baptized one of Silvio Baquedano's Nephews, Freddy, in the Tarde Blanca last week and he will probably be on a mision in a years time. 

I could go off on the great difference it makes when members work in la obra misional, but there is just no time. Hopefully those short example are sufficient. As far as other news. A new change just started and I am staying with the smae comp, but there were abunch of changes in the zone. 

Thanks for all your emails, and sorry for lack of updates and details, but I'll be able to share a bunch more with time once i'm back. Hope all is well back home and god bless you all. 

Love Elder Hamson

Fotos 1y2: tarde blanca. foto 3 spaghetti with part of Familia Baquedano (we helped make it)