Mission Blog |
A dangerously acute account of 18 months in Nicaraguan Territory.
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From the Carpenters So this past week was a multi-zone conference with the President of the Area, Kevin R. Duncan. It was so wonderful listening to the Spirit while he spoke, but we’ll talk about that more later. Because we had this multi-zone and then the mission council the next day, about 8 of us Hermanas spent the night in Managua with the Hermano AP’s. What I’m really trying to say is that we ate Pizza Hut for the second time in forever! It was so delicious! I never thought that I would miss such a simple thing as bread with tomato sauce and cheese. But oh how glorious was the flavor of this much missed food. More than just eat with the other Hermana’s, we also had the opportunity to work with them in their area and participate in the ward activity, a movie night, watching “The Testaments”. I sat down and began to mingle with the members. By and by, a less-active member about 25 years old sat down and began to tell me that it was his first time in the chapel in about three years, that his life had problems, that he had no friends, etc. When I finally noticed his less than subtle flirting attempts, I decided to pull the “I don’t-speak-very-much-Spanish” card. When he told me that he works in a call center and speaks English, well, that card wouldn’t work. I was searching for another escape when he scooted his chair a little closer and asked, “Betty, (that’s what everyone calls me), what kind of music do you like? “A little bit of everything” I replied. He responded “My favorite artists are the Carpenters. Are you familiar with their music? There is a song they sing that says, “Why do stars fall down from the sky every time you walk by? Just like me they long to be close to you! It’s really pretty. Hey, if you want you can come over sometime and we can listen together.” At this point, I’m running a blank as to how to get out of this situation and my fellow missionaries are laughing their heads off at this serenading member. Fortunately, one of them called me over and I was able to dismiss myself from the situation. *Note to all single ladies looking for love- Nicaragua is not the place to find your true love, but there are many able and willing men who will flirt with you whether you like it or not. But really, this less-active’s song made me think about who do I really want to be close to. Listening to Elder Duncan and studying the Atonement with him, made me want to be even closer to my Savior Jesus Christ. I have a debt that I cannot pay, but He can. President Uchtdorf put it best: “Even if we were to serve God with our whole souls, it is not enough, for we would still be unprofitable servants. We cannot earn our way into heaven, the demands of justice stand as a barrier, which we are powerless to overcome on our own. But all is not lost.” We can turn to Christ who will help us out of this hopeless pit. Do we turn to Him? Do we love Him? Do we rely on His grace? Do we really serve Him? Are we disciples of Jesus Christ? I hope we all take the time to study, understand, and feel the love of the Atonement. --Hermana Beatty * Me and my Nica friends...I'm the white one! ha ha
* a typical Nica breakfast: BEANS! with a little cream, eggs, tortilla and sausage.
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(From Dora the Explorer) “Come on Vamanos! Everybody Let’s Go!” “Come on, let’s get to it! I know that we can do it!” Sorry for the Dora the Explorer shout out, it’s just that my companion and I have been singing that song all week because we’re teaching a family with three angelic little girls and they look just like mini- Doras. We are actually so excited for them because they have come to baptisms and church and really want to get baptized! But, we’re still working with the lawyers on the divorce (insert forehead slap here). Just please pray for Pablo, Jassely, Jire, Nelly, and Hillary; that they can overcome this obstacle and become an eternal family pretty soon! My companion and I were going a little crazy this week with the heat, so we decided to join part of the ward cultural show. We just about died of laughter as we sang a duet, a missionary saying goodbye to his girlfriend. She just couldn’t take it seriously, seeing me in a tie and listening to my natural- bass voice (thanks dad, for that one). I think the ward just laughed because it was funny to see a North American white girl do weird things. Now that’s a ward culture night. The video of this drama will be in theatres December 23, 2015, tickets available online at naomibeatty.weebly.com, with a cost of a visit to the Beatty home. As a tidbit of Nicaraguan culture, we listened to a very beautiful frog chorus as we walked home by the river last night. It wasn’t really croaks, but more of honks. I told my companion that they would make some really cool electronic music. Now that’s as natural electronic as you get. I am convinced it would be a big seller. “Natural noises of Nicaragua”, with some laser beams on the cover or something so they know that it sounds like a star wars battle! Just another brilliant idea of Hermana Beatty. We had the greatest privilege ever to help Pablito be baptized this weekend. It was so beautiful and so simple, just like Pablito. What I love about preparing people to make covenants with the Lord is that you really do see the changes they make just to show the Lord that they want to be better and want to repent. Repentance is not easy. It never was and never will be. I love this quote by Ralph Pariette: “Strength and struggle go together. The supreme reward of struggle is strength. Life is a battle and the greatest joy is to overcome. The pursuit of easy things makes men weak, do not equip yourselves with superior power and hope to escape the responsibility and work. It cannot be done. It is following the lines of least resistance that makes rivers and men crooked.” So, brothers and sisters, shall we look for hard things to do, and thus overcome? Let’s! {Cue Dora the explorer song once again} --Hermana Beatty * I didn't even have to run a marathon to get this shirt!
* Just another day with dirty feet! What a gorgeous day it is here in Chichigalpa! Well, maybe it’s just because today is shining bright with radiant possibilities. First off, let me announce to the world that my sister Tia will soon be a mother to a beautiful girl. When I talked to them this past week, I was supposed to tell them in some creative way, but I couldn’t find a pink shirt or tie. So, I resulted to a crazy kid yelling “it’s a girl!” with his cool Nicaraguan accent. I asked the Stake President’s son, Kevin, to do it. I told him, “Just yell, “it’s a girl” then freak out. Got it?” When he came over to do his performance He said (In Spanish) “Ay, Hermana, there are so many white people I can’t even see myself” I laughed and then told him to say it. He did it quite dramatically and everyone freaked for a few seconds. When calmness had settled my beautiful sister asked, “Wait, he said it’s a girl, right?” Happy Mother’s Day to all! We also had a miraculous Sunday meeting, with some beautiful messages, but even more wonderful experiences. Pablito, our investigator who will be baptized this coming Saturday, was coming to church with us last night. While we waited for him to get ready, we started talking to his neighbors who told us that the night before, one of his ex’s had come looking for him. She was drunk and looking for money and other things that Pablito had to offer her. The neighbors told us that he got on his bike and drove away, shouting, “No!” I don’t do those things anymore! I’m going to be baptized!” Miracle: This occurred less than four hours after we had taught him the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. Lesson: The gospel really does change people, especially when they understand it with their heart. We’re still preparing for the coming of the Area President. Which involves a lot of choir organizing, clothes shopping, and skirt ironing, three things that I feel are rather rare here in the Nicaragua Managua North Mission. But I know that it is part of preparing yourself to receive revelation. Something that our Mission President has taught us is that we are always raised a level when we go to church, firesides, devotional, general conference, etc. What depends on us, however, is to what level we are raised. If we come with a 2, we’ll leave with a 3. But if we come with an 8, we leave with a 9. It all depends on us. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we prepared ourselves so well to partake of the sacrament, that we would be “filled” (3 Nephi 18;3-7) up to a 10, readying ourselves for the opportunities to come in the following week and having the spirit to always be with us? How beautiful it is to see that the Lord has so many blessings in store for us, following our own faith and obedience. --Hermana Beatty Divisions...with Hermanas from El Salvador (can I get a papusa?)
I tried the Frescos one more time....a definite success! My lovely Salvadorian companion We got to "hang out" with Naomi for a little while to celebrate Mother's Day. It was great to have her siblings who are far away join in too! We were snapping pictures, chatting in the chat box and chatting live too, listening to Naomi talk in Spanish to the people in the room with her, and best of all..... Naomi finally told us what she has known for nearly 6 weeks.... what is the sex of the baby that Tia (her sister) will be having in about 7 weeks!!!! We were all so excited to hear, especially Tia! It was great having the gang together again!
by Dori from "Finding Nemo" Well, the ridiculous weeks of scorching sun have ended and we’ve entered into a down pouring of rain. It hit on Friday. When it first started off as a mist, everyone went outside to feel and enjoy but as it began to downpour, hasty retreats were made. I was on divisions with Hna. Walker and seeing that our best retreat were some trees, we quickly took shelter (not that it did anything to keep us dry). When it started to let up, we kept going. As we came to the first paved street, we beheld a grand river. It would’ve been cool had we separated it, as Moses did with the Red Sea, and crossed on dry ground, but we found that to be very unlikely. We had three other options: 1- wait it out (that would mean an hour or so), 2- find some empty bottles or some turtles and rope them together using the hair from our backs to make a raft (name that movie), or we could just wade the river. We opted for the third one and began to wade across water mixed with various substances. (I really don’t want to think what else was in there). We were about halfway across when Hna. Walker yelped and slipped. “There she goes!” I thought. “A gringa carried away by the currents of Nicaragua”. I caught up to her real quick and helped her up. We laughed and then kept going. And the missionary Handbook says we shouldn’t participate in water sports….oops! We also had an amazing lesson with a young couple named Paul and Beatrice. We were teaching them about the Plan of Salvation and Paul said, “Wait, Wait, wait, wait. I’m really confused. If God knew that we weren’t all going to make it back to live with Him, why did He send us here?” Think about that for a second. What would you have told Paul? It was interesting how we all reacted, the ex-missionary pulled out a scripture explaining that this is the plan that was from the beginning. My companion started talking about the war in Heaven, and I just kind of sat there for a second. I really wanted to answer his question, so I began looking in my own testimony. In my mind…. First, I went to the office of “Plan of Salvation”, opened file box “Why’s”, found the folder “We were all with God…will we all be with him again?” I opened my imaginary folder…and found it empty. Well, What now? CUE SPIRIT…”Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore, if you have faith, ye hope for things…” So there was an answer! I jumped in..”Paul, I don’t really know the answer to your question, but I do know that God loves us and that His ways are higher than our ways. I know that we will be happy if we keep the commandments.” It wasn’t a direct scriptural answer, but it made me realize that everything we do, we do because we believe we will be happier in the end. Who really knows the answer to Paul’s question, (if you have some insights, please email me!) but until I find it, I’ll just keep exercising my faith until I know! --Hermana Beatty PS Happy Mother’s Day to all the women in the world! You’ve influenced my life for the better! Keep raising stripling warriors for the Lord and you’ll keep seeing daily miracles! A deliciously large watermelon and my lovely companion! Playing soccer on p-day at the church!
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November 2015
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