Mission Blog |
A dangerously acute account of 18 months in Nicaraguan Territory.
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(clap along if you feel like a room without a roof!) You know, sometimes birthdays are crazy. Sometimes they are happy, and sometimes they are both crazy and happy. J
This past week was SO fun! It all started off by going to the lovely land of Corinto. I don’t know if my mom sent the pictures out, but there really isn’t much more to add to them. Just so you know, if I was a salesman, it would be quite easy to sale a piece of land there. It amazed me to just be there for two hours. The zone was there, but literally no one else. Just me and the sand and the breeze and the sound of waves….(sigh) paradise. The rest of the week was really fun too. We had interviews with President Collado in two zones, so that meant two days of not doing normal missionary work. But I learned a lot and came out super excited. My companion and I just started tearing up Chichigalpa. I really have no idea what happened to us, but we both just changed super fast. I think it’s probably what President taught us about not wasting out time as servants of the Lord. So we changed our tactic. We started contacting like this: “Hello, I’m Hermana Beatty, this is my companion Hermana Aplicano and we’re missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we are inviting everyone to receive a remission of their sins through baptism by someone who has the authority of God. We’re preparing baptismal services this 7th of march. Will you prepare to be baptized on this date?”…First off, let’s clarify that this would sound absolutely absurd if this happened anywhere else (cough, the state, cough) and secondly the miracle is that people actually accept it. “Sure, what do we have to do to be baptized?” Now if that isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is. More than anything, It helps us find the people who are ready and makes us feel like we’re becoming brave missionaries, like Paul, Peter, Ammon and Alma. It’s an empowering experience. Feel free to try it sometime, but I would suggest that you practice a time or two, it’s a little hard to get out the first few times. J In one of our lessons, we brought along a cute little man named Julio, the President of the Elders Quorum. He just gets so excited about the priesthood and the Temples that he forgets that there is an order in teaching. There we were, calmly teaching, when he burst in, “Yeah, the faith we have is what saves us, but it’s more important that we obey. We need to obey the commandments, like the commandment of baptism when are you getting baptized? Have they invited you to be baptized? Did you invite him to be baptized? I don’t think I’ve seen you in the church, but so you know, there is where we take the sacrament every Sunday to renew our covenants, and covenants are important. That’s what we do in the temple and after you’re baptized, you wait a year and then you go to the temple. And at the temple…” …..it’s quite fun to see him get all worked up, he talks really quiet and really fast. And the best part is that we try to jump in at every end of the sentence, but he just keeps going. Ok, Hermano Julio! You go Hermano! Three shouts for adorable old men with tender testimonies. This past Saturday was a special one. Not only was it the last working day for Hermana Galeano and the first cumplemes for Herman Blanco but it was also my twentieth birthday. (Yeah, I know, I’m old. The stake President and his wife kindly prepared a delicious dinner for the three of us, and then the meal quickly turned inot a joke-fest. We laughed a good, long while and then called it a night. But later, I was thinking: What have I learned in twenty years of laughter/tear-filled life” That’s when the scriptures came: “Oh my son, I would that ye should learn wisdom in thy youth, Yeah, learn in they youth to keep the commandments of God.” And if you do that, you will be able to write as Nephi did…. “And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of HAPPINESS” --Hermana Beatty
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November 2015
CategoriesAuthorhola! I'm Naomi and I love reading, my amazing family, and the color green. |