el 28 de Diciembre

hello family!

this past week was a blast. we did have to sacrifice a pday to go 

to managua for the mission´s christmas party, but it was worth it. 

it was almost like an oprah winfrey type setting with our christmas 

presents, but now we have peanut butter and jelly, a microwave, a cool 

little thing for our desks, a bicolor marking pencil and so much more! 

best part was that we got to spend a couple of hours in pday clothes, 

and three other sister decided to bring their A game. we kind of bashed 

a little on an elder that goes to byu, but we had fun. plus, for christmas 

eve we pierced sister naumu´s ears at a member´s house so that was super 

fun. don´t worry, all was clean and sanitary!

my favorite part leading up to christmas weekend was the anxiety of 

christmas. the people here are super christian, so there was just christmas 

everywhere. they made a huge deal out of putting baby jesus in the manger 

in the nativity in the park and everything. the energy was super awesome.

a favorite person... hermana naumu. i don´t know what i would have done 

with a latin companion for christmas. it was just so much easier to handle. 

we made christmas pancakes and hot chocolate, we talked in English to our 

families. and it was just great. couldn´t have asked for a better companion 

for the christmas season.

a favorite scripture: doctrine and convenants 6: 14-15

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for 
thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou
 hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst 
not have come to the place where thou art at this time. Behold, thou knowest 
that thou hast inquired of meand I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee
 these things that thou mayest know that thou hast been enlightened by the 
Spirit of truth;

blessed art thou for what thou hast done. 

a most tender mercy. hermana mariela came and showed us around el naranjo, 

a tiny little deserted area while sick. a couple of weeks ago she had an accident 

with some hot water that left some pretty deep burns, but she sacrificed to come 

walking with us into the intermost parts of our area. bless her!

a great success... i didn´t cry while talking with my family. love you!

weekly goals. i have a goal not to say everything that comes into my head. i have 

gotten myself into some awkward positions, so i have made the resolution to try 

not to just speak, but to think first.

i love you guys so much. thank you for all of your support and for all those that 

will be present at the wedding tomorrow, tell my sister i love her.

hermana graves

Christmas Day

Today we got to skype with our missionary! She sounds like a native
with her accent. It took some doing to get together online. The power
went off at the house she was at to skype. Then her companion went
first. We finally got connected and had Grandma and Grandpa Bingham
skyping in too from Texas.  We were at Aunt Teniel's house for Christmas
and the kids thought it was great to see Janelle on the TV.

It was good to see her and hear her voice!
Best Christmas present EVER!!

el 21 de Diciembre

this week. was great. just almost picture perfect.

a favorite person this week... keiling. she is a sister in the ward 

who is the same age as i am and she´s a great reality check sometimes. 

i know that i am not the perfect teacher, and she´s helping me realize that 

i can do this and that i can survive these next ten days. being away from 

rachel is kind of hard, and seeing all the bridals just make it all really, really

 real. i love my family, but yikes! reality check for me... and keiling has 

been great. 

favorite scripture... please read 1 nephi 15:24-25. the word of god is your 

salvation. end of sentence.

the training is going great! we found a very large beetle this friday and he 

decided to die in our front lawn shortly after taking this picture. funny thing 

is we found another one not very far away who was dead also. i don´t know 

what kind of beetle he was, but he was a big one. hermana naumu had her first 

nacatamale, in true christmas spirit.

i got into the christmas spirit, and put this over tomorrow´s plans, because 

of the christmas devotional type thing we are going to have tomorrow. here, 

meeting in managua = all day thing = no work for sister naumu and sister graves.

a biggest challenge, getting to guiquiliapa, a little town in our area. it´s got a 

couple of less actives, and like any good missionary does, you try and active as 

many members as possible and baptize the nine+ year old kids. got to 

love re-activation! 

i love you guys all and i especially love this time of season. make sure to send 

me lots of pictures for christmas, and i am still missing lots of family pictures... 

love you all..

hermama graves

el 14 de Diciembre

ya´ll ready for this. the lord and president trusted me with a......

GREENGA. repeat, my new companion speaks ENGLISH. what is this!?

please welcome hermana naumu to the mission nicaragua managua 

south. and welcome to the celestial kingdom where everybody leaves this 

area well fed and well rounded.

hermana naumu is extremely quiet and half hawaiian. the people here always 

do a double take seeing to greengas, but it´s something they are going to have 

to get used to! the next three months el rosario is our kingdom.

so a favorite person, aside from my new companion... hermana powell. we have 

trained together twice now and this will be her last daughter. she´s from perry, utah 

(shout out to steph and ben) and she´s the cutest. we decided that we could be 

friends and took pictures... now to just figure out how i am going to entertain 

myself during the long training meetings we have in store...

a favorite scripture: 1 thessalonians 5:2-3

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief 

in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction 

cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

let us all be prepared for the coming of the lord. because we all know he is coming. 

stay alert my friends

a tender mercy. hermano pedro. he´s a recent convert who is no longer a recent 

convert, but who like any good nica, likes to buy us coke. on sister rodriguez´s 

last day in el rosario, i bought a round of cokes for everyone in her honor. there 

was only enough coke for the two of them, so i bought a pepsi and we started 

making jokes. two nicas and a greenga. two shorties and a tallie. two cokes and a 

pepsi. it was great... 

​

a challenge... figuring out how to teach spanish to someone who doesn´t know 

how to speak spanish, being someone who doesn´t speak spanish. your head 

hurt yet? yeah, so does mine. my mouth hurt from speaking so much english. yeah, 

that´s a new phrase for me.... so we have some companionship goals to go back 

to learning five words each day. five words that we are going to use throughout 

the day, and learning the way to apply them correctly in our vocab. these couple 

of changes will be a growing experience for me. 

i love you all and can´t wait to hear about all the christmas plans you have! 

extended family and friends. please remember i want pictures to print here in 

nicaragua of all of you! instagram pics are accepted :)

hermana graves

el 07 de Diciembre

the biggest challenge, continues to be the itching. but thanks to some 

doctor´s loving guidance, i know that i have some mosquito bites infected 

from itching and letting them stay opened. i have now repented, and am 

on a new medicine cycle for the itching, with diligent applicance of bug spray!

some goals... get used to a new house! we changed houses from a little 

room, to a cute little house with hot running water and everything. 

welcome to el rosario´s cutest little house ever. and it´s all ours for only a 

hundred a month. love it!

a scripture for you from the old testament. to go with the church´s campaign 

for christmas, a savior is born, from isaiah 9:6
::For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall 

be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 

The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.::

please go to christmas.mormon.org and share the two videos with your friends. 

the animation personally is better than the video, but they both have a powerful 

message for us this time of the year.

favorite people: the cute javiera and mariela. they are soo great to help us with 

divisions, and help us get the work done here in el rosario. especially at seven am 

on sunday mornings to bring investigators to church. such dolls!

a tender mercy... the elders who helped us move houses all without using a truck 

up until the very end. they moved almost all the heavy/hard stuff by themselves 

and gladly accepted a glass of coca cola and some cookies as recompense.

i love this time of year. make sure that you give lots of hugs to your family, because 

there will never be a christmas quite like this. i love you!

hermana graves

el 30 de Noviembre

let´s be a little real, these past five weeks have flown by. 

this could possibly be my last week with sister rodriguez. 

aaah! so much to do, in so little time!

my companion and i are butting heads a little, but i have 

figured out that it´s something that you do with all of 

your companions. it´s not something that is preferable, 

but it´s something that happens so that you get along

 better. the more you talk through it, and the more that 

you listen and apply your own words, the better received 

your advice will be heard.

the greatest challenge this week... getting one of our 

investigators to believe/understand that the word of 

wisdom is not a play thing, it´s not something that we can 

live when we want to, and that alcohol really is not 

¨cleansing for your stomach¨ like we want it to be. sorry!

a tender mercy. we were able to work with our leaders 

this week,and one of our visits was with a family. harold, 

soliet, vanessa, and camilo with their little sister cristal 

make me feel like i am on the other side of a missionary 

visit with my family. absolutely positively, almost 100% 

like home. best part, they came to church! all five! 

what a blessing!!!

favorite person right now, hermana mariela. she is a return 

missionary who helps us always with divisions and it´s so 

nice to have some member support who actually knows 

the lessons... i love working with the relief society sisters, 

but it just isn´t the same some times...

a favorite scripture: john 21:15-17

So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, 

son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto

 him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto 

him, Feed my lambs.

He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, 

lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest 

that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 

thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third 

time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest 

all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him,

 Feed my sheep.

the lord so simply calls us all to feed the lambs and the sheep. 

something that includes loving and caring for the investigators, 

new converts, active members and less active members of the 

church. there was a talk given in conference that talked about 

what we can do to help the less actives become active again, 

and it was just so powerful. we all can be an uplifting hand for 

those that hang down.

goals... write in my journal each night. got out of the habit again... 

think about the savior when i want to think of home.

i love you all, more than words.

hermana graves

ps. yes that is a coke bottle. coke has become my friend because 

here, water just isn´t a great option sometimes. plus, pizza goes 

better with coke.

el 23 de Noviembre

let´s just be real for a second. saturday i completed a year since i got 
my mission call. this time last year, i was telling the whole wide world 
that i was going to nicaragua for eighteen months. and here we are, 
almost eleven full months later. i have almost been away from home 
for a year... yikes people.

i am doing great! the medicine that the doctor helped a lot, and then 

i got permission to buy a cream especially meant to treat sarna, and 

that has done miracles to clear it all up. i continue to take benadryl to 

stay on top of the itching, but i am no longer calling attention to myself 

with all the itching. our ward mission leader noticed and gave me an 

antibacterial liquid that is supposed to help with the itching as well, 

sweet man. the parasite is something that i got from the mattress in 

granada, but the mission yes, had a doctor actually look at it in person

 because the first round of medicine didn´t do anything to calm the itching. 

the rash, with all the symptons that i had, were enough evidence to know

 that i had the parasite. with the conditions that are granada, it wasn´t 

overly surprising really.

the greatest success this week, would have to include the fact that we 

completed with all the normas. thanks to some great return missionaries, 

and willing sisters, we were able to do quick spurts of divisions with the 

members to cover more ground in less time. can i please ask all those that 

can, to please do divisions or visits with the missionaries like once a week. 

having that kind of support from the ward makes such a great difference in 

all aspects of the work.

a tender mercy... we were able to teach harold and his children about prayer, 

and it just went swimmingly. harold showed up to church four sundays ago, 

looking for a church where his kids could have a realtionship with their savior, 

and where they would have the opportunity to interact with clean kids... 

something every father wants, right? well, we have been focusing on only 

teaching this family with members because it just makes such a different in 

everything. we taught them about the power of prayer, and it was great to 

see the power of the spirit that was there to help us.

a favorite scripture: philippians 4:8

::Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 

whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 

lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there 

be any praise, think on these things.::

just remember that when we think after these things, we will be able to know 

our savior better. because these are his attributes.

::

a favorite person.. let´s go with the ward mission leader. his name is ricardo, and 

he is pretty much an optime of every missionary´s dream. he goes out looking 

for references for us, and when we were wating on thursday to have our weekly 

coorelation meeting, he was contacting the people that were passing by, helping 

us work as well as giving us a larger teaching pool. what an example... he reminds 

me a lot of grandpa bingham in his ability to talk about random church history 

and deep doctrinal topics, and the ability to capture you in a conversation for an 

hour.... amazing really. i attached a picture of the great man deep in thought. (yes,

 those would be his g´s hanging out... good ol´ nica for ya)

goals this week... be a better example for my companion. something that i have 

learned on my mission is that so much of your desire to do something has to do 

with what you see around you. if your companion doesn´t go to bed on time, it´s 

harder to do it. if your companion doesn´t do exercises, it´s almost impossible to 

have the will to do it. but when you do it, they will too. 

some challenges... getting through all the normas. but like i said early, thanks to 

some great ward members, we were able to complete! also, getting our investigators 

to church, but that is something that shows through because of our lack of work 

before sunday afternoon.

we celebrated hermana quezada´s birthday with cake! delicious, whipped 

creamed iced birthday cake... yummmmmmm

i love you guys so much, and make sure to remember about the christmas wish 

i have for you!

hermana graves

el 16 de Noviembre

things here in el rosario are hitting the polar ends. 

during the afternoon the sun is stronger than ever, 

because we are starting into the summer months. but, 

november and december are cooler during the evenings, 

so it's kind of bipolar. at night, it's so cool that i'm using 

my comforter to sleep! we are relatively close to the cost, yes. 

about a two hour drive to the coast. if the raineys and the 

moris were in costa rica, they were very close to where i am. 

costa rica is a place where the nicas go to find work for a 

couple of months, and then come back to support their

 families. whatever they can do to find money to put food 

on the table.

a favorite scripture from this week... the joseph smith 

translation of luke 12:57

::For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much 

be required; and to whom the Lord has committed much, 

of him will men ask the more.::

the lord know us, and has required much of those he has

chosen. the world will try and ask the more, but know that 

he has asked the most. 

mosiah 2:22

::all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments;

 and he has promised you that if ye would keep his 

commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never 

doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do 

keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.::

a favorite person.. can it be a thing? his name is aslan... 

he's a husky and the biggest playful thing ever! he and his 

companion, bella, are the two dogs of our lunch appointment, 

and it's funny. you would think that he would be the one to 

bark and bite, but it's actually bella, a cute little pitbull that you 

have to be careful around. crazy story, she is really brava, or 

aggressive. if you enter the gate, and she doesn't know you, 

she will bite. the owners say she's mormon, because whatever 

missionary that passes through the gate, she's the cutest little 

puppy ever. but if you don't have a plaque, or are a strange dog, 

she will attack. guaranteed. crazy right? power of the plaque.

a great challenge this week: completing with the normas. monday

 wasn't a great day for us, because it's p-day. there isn't a full day 

of work to do. tuesday we worked with the lovely sister hancock, 

our hermana training leader, and so there was a little bit of time 

sacrifice there. wednesday we had our planning meeting because

 thursday we had interviews with president and we passed all 

afternoon in jinotepe, waiting our turn. friday we spent all day in 

managua for my doctor's appointment, where i got diagnosed 

with escabiosis, or a skin parasite, that i most likely picked up in 

granada. this little bugger is because i have been itching myself

 for the last month, and thanks to some modern medicine,

 everything is on the way to healing. saturday and sunday it was a

 mad dash to complete with numbers, and thanks to some return

 missionaries in the ward, we were able to least get closer to 

completing. 

some goals this week: know the area, go beyond the normas, 

and work with our investigators to teach more families. it will 

be an adventure!

most tender mercy: we were in a lesson with a less active, and 

she had been without water for four days. we started with a 

prayer, and hermana rodriguez said the prayer. she asked for 

water, and then we just continued to read in the book of

 mormon with the less active. not a moment after gabriela 

said the closing prayer, the hose started to spurt water. 

the power of prayer my friends.

i love you all, and thank you so much for your letters!

have a great week!

hermana graves

el 9 de Noviembre

this week i can write you a letter, because i have a basis of questions again. 

this week i did survive. it's so amazing here. the climate is fresh, and although 

the sun is still piercing, it's accompanied by a nice wind, so it's not too bad. 

my new companion is from honduras, so there's another country to add to 

the companion map! we have found quite a few new investigators in the 

same general area of el rosario, but i would like to go adventuring into the 

other suburbs of el rosario to meet and activate converts, less actives and

 find new investigators that way. we'll see how it goes. 

my favorite person this week is hermanita rubi. she is the sister of a less 

active we baptized this weekend and she's the cutest. her mom is super 

supportive and she's kind of the next heart to change, and just, aahh! i 

love this ward! everyone is just so ready to come and help us do anything. 

thursday we did divisions twice, one time with about twenty minutes of 

notice! #inlovewithelrosario

a favorite scripture is a little bit harder to put my finger on. lets go with 

one in doctrine and covenants 33:8-12

::Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even 

as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness. Yea, 

open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves 

upon your backs, for lo, I am with you. Yea, open your mouths and they 

shall be filled, saying: Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, 

and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; Yea, 

repent and be baptized, every one of you, for a remission of your sins; 

yea, be baptized even by water,and then cometh the baptism of fire and 

of the Holy Ghost. Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel;

 and remember that they shall have faith in me or they can in nowise be 

saved::

powerful right?

our biggest challenge this weekend was getting and placing fechas. for 

some reason the time just got away from us, and before we knew it, it 

was eight oclock and we were short two fechas and a couple of lessons... 

something a little bit difficult to recuperate. 

a tender mercy... divisions with members. and returned sister missionaries. 

it's so nice to be in a ward where there are four return sister missionaries. 

they are still red hot with the desire to go out and preach the gospel, so 

there are so willing to drop everything on a dime and help. they under-

stand the lessons and know how to be pushy and how to be nice. 

sooo great.....

some goals for this week... make it through the quincena with only 60 

cords. that's right. we get money on saturday and i only have 60 cords 

left. here we go penny pinching! this is what college taught me!

a picture of 

hermana hawkins 

and hermana quezada, 

the other two sisters

 in our district. we had 

lunch today so of course 

we took some crazy 

pictures. ;)

i love you all

hermana graves

OH! The picture of the old lady... This is Hermana Maria Antonia, 
the first member of the church here in El Rosario. She's 92 years 
old, and still going strong. So for all of you with a bad day, think 
of Dueña Antonia.

el 31 de Agosto

this week was one for miracles. we had the opportunity to hear the words of the president of the quorum of twelve apostles, president russell m. nelson, and i had the chance to be the first missionary of nearly four hundred to shake his hand. it makes it worth the three thirty alarm...

my companion is my vivi! something that i will explain another day... she is learning the lessons and we are working on english. she loves to sing, so we pick a hymn out of the english hymnal and sing every morning. it makes it a lot of fun to learn english! 

the biggest success... making to through a nineteen hour day with only about an hour's worth of a nap. see miracle that happened above with president nelson...

greatest challenge continues to find people to teach. if you are the praying type, this would be something to help us with. pray that we find new investigators. please!

my favorite person, president nelson. hearing him for the second time as a missionary really strengthens your testimony and rereading my notes helps me focus on what i need to change and better as a missionary.

i love the prison master's conversion. read acts 16:25-33. look how quickly he accepted the gospel and how completely as well... less than 12 hours!

fun adventures... it's always an adventure to go and visit an older couple we are teaching. there is a short cut, through a finca, or like a swamp, that cuts the travel from about twenty minutes to five. when time is as precious as cold water in a nicaraguan heat, we try and use this passage way when it's dry. long story short, hermana liberato almost fell to her death climbing down one part. great laughs with my vivi.

i have been in this area now for ten weeks, two and a half months. it's possible that i will be here another ten weeks. it's not exactly set in stone. 

i love you all! have a great week.

love from nicaragua!

hermana graves

my vivi decided to straighten her hair for president nelson's visit so she looked a little crazy before hand!