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!

el 28 de Septiembre

this week was a little bit of a rollercoaster. everything was going good, planning to have a meeting in managua on thursday and gearing up for a busy saturday. we ended up coming back to managua thursday with a friend, who only charged us twenty cords for a fifty cord ride. (this is why you make friends with the taxi drivers and the bus callers, people)

a major success is that we made it through a week of torrential downpours at night. one night we got stuck in an investigator's house, and it totally ruined all hopes of contacting and being able to talk with people. the roofs here are made of great, big huge sheets of lamina (or tin) and when it rains, it rains so there is no hope of being heard.

a tender mercy of the week... two days from today we get money, and like any starving college student, and any smart person would do, we were looking for ways to count pennies. saturday we had to make two trips to the stake center, and thanks to a member's grandma and some handy-dandy service, we got a free ride three blocks short of the chapel. better than the forty cords we would have spent!

some goals for this week: find a family to teach! we have the great opportunity to bring people to the general conference sessions and i can't wait to see what great things will happen. with the death of elder scott, we will be sustaining three new apostles and i want to be present when they are called to sit on the stand. that means four investigators in each session saturday, and four more sunday afternoon to make twelve. lots of prayers would be appreciated.

favorite person, see beforementioned bus caller.

a favorite scripture: "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain." first corinthians 9:24 

we all will run in the race of life, but only the chosen will gain the prize of eternal life. but we don't know the names of those winners are. we as missionaries have to run, contact, find, teach, baptize those who are the runners in the race with us, with the hope that we all we cross the finish line together.

i love you all.

hermana graves

a day we un-intentionally coordinated