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
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