Semana Santa

Before I start, just know that everything is okay here in Nicaragua. I was sad, I didn't even feel the earthquakes. But places like Managua had much more damage, we are lucky to be so far away!! There were a lot of people scared, though. Things have calmed down. 

This week we were able to have both of our baptisms that we had planned!! A miracle happened so that Betsabeth could baptize (and I mean everything happened, her mom at the end was saying no). But in the end everything worked out. And it really was a beautiful service. Ervin was super nervous, was afraid he would drown :) But we could tell he really felt good afterwards. They were both very excited to take this step. Especially since Betsabeth has waited about a year to do it!! It was a fun day!!! And everyone was happy. 

One thing I have noticed throughout my mission is that the Lord answers my prayers and speaks to me during District Meeting. There will be something that I am struggling with, a question I have, and that is just the topic of that weeks meeting. This week I was a little shocked. It was about companionships, and the importance of doing an inventory. I really just sat there for a minute or two, shocked at how directly I had needed that. We then took some time to have an inventory and really talk to our companions. It was the first time we really sat down and talked about how we feel about our unity and companionship. It really helped because we were able to figure things out and put some goals. Things are always hard, but better when we understand each other better. 

This week I have been reading in Alma with all the wars between the Lamanites and Nephites. It is interesting how they write so much about obedience. The nephites are obedient, so they win and have God's protection, the Lamanties are only fighting to gain power and they lose. The Lord promises to always help us when we are doing what he asks of us. It won't be easy, it will require sacrifices, but the blessings are so worth it!!! We must keep working and doing what he asks no matter what. He knows so much better. I also like a quote from Pte. Uchtdorf : We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today, God sees us in terms of forever. I love it!! 

I love you all very much!!! I am so excited to know that there is another Hna Morey out there!! I know she will be great!!! Keep up the great work!!! I love hearing about your adventures!!!! Have a great Easter, we here will be celebrating all week with Semana Santa (wish us luck contacting :) Love you!! And remember that Jesus lives!! 

P.s. I just finished reading Jesus the Christ. What an incredible book about Christ's life!!! 

Love, Your Hermanita Morey!! 

"The Hermana Morey sang as she contacted and contacted and contacted...."

First of all, Conference. Did anybody else just love it? I sure did!!! I was bummed when they said they would not announce any temples until next year, but what can you do when the Lord commands something? We all want a temple here badly!! Maybe next year!! We were able to have investigators in all sessions. That was good!! So we could watch it all. I especailly felt the spirit and felt answers to my prayers sunday morning. I LOVED the talk by Pte. Uchtdorf and by Elder Bednar. I love how they can talk to millions of people, but how the spirit touches our hearts and makes a certain message special for us. I noticed how a lot of the talks were based on the principles of the gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, confermation, enduring to the end). A lot about how to walk through our trials with patience and hope. Andabout the life of Chrits and how he is our perfect example. Love conference, love our leaders. It was weird to see a few familiar faces in the choir saturday afternoon. 

I had really hoped that our family that we are teaching would come to church this weekend because I knew they would feel good and like it and receive answers. But they did not. Every session we called them and they promised they would come to the next. Hate that. Hopefully we will be able to get them excited again. If not, we will keep searching for new people!!!!! 

This week has been pretty normal, nothing too exciting. The mission here is progressing as we learn to give better commitments and to really help people understand the importance of the Gospel. I feel like I have progressed a lot and changed for the better. Of course there are a lot of things I can change and be better. But it is good to know that I have changed during my time here!! 

Wish us luck this week as we work on finding new people!!! The song The Hermana Morey sang as she contacted, and contacted, and contacted, and contacted. And walked and walked and walked. They both aply very well :) But I have faith the baptisms will go well and that we will find new people!!! 

One more thing. Mom: who will be your favorite Hermana Morey? Pretty sure that I will be!!! Can't believe Clair leaves!! What will everyone do without your jokes?! You will have to write us all. 

Know that I love you all, and I love this work. I know the Lord never leaves us to suffer alone. I know that we will all be families forever!!! I know that the Church is true and that we can find so much peace and joy and happiness by doing what the Lord asks us to do and by patiently enduring. 

Have a great week!!!! Tell me EVERYTHING!!!! I love you!!! 

Love, Chelita (white girl) a.k.a Hermana Morey 

Swedish Fish

To start things off!! Thank you so much for the Birthday package!! Finally got it!!! Loved the letters. I shared the swedish fish with the elders and the nortes all about died of happiness at seeing them again, and the Latinos were a little confused as to why it was so popular. But they were really good!! And the skirts are very pretty!

Is anybody else excited for Conference this weekend?!?! I sure am. I love the prophet and apostles and cannot wait for what the Lord has to say to us. I know we will all receive answers and revelation if we pay attention. I like to write down a few questions I have or things I need help with, and usually all three are answered. The Lord really loves us to give us this opportunity. And we are all praying for a temple here in Nicaragua!! How great would that be?! Incredible

This week went by VERY quickly. I don't know if it is just me, or if life is just passing by super rapidamente!!!!! But we had an excelent week. Even though Betzabeth ended up not getting batpized. We passed by on Friday to do the interview and the mom was not on the same page, wasn't in Juigalpa and wasn't going to come home in time and the dad didn't invte his famiy (they are ALL members and want to come. Who wouldn't?) So for General conference it got postponed for the 12 of April. Let us all hope ti goes well!! My companion was pretty sad, but I feel like this way it will be better, and she will ahve a better experience. And what does the date matter if she eventually does take the step? Pray that she does get baptized the 12th please!!!

We have been teaching a family that is really golden. The man wo said he would never change his religion he believes so strongly in the virgin? He and his mom (who couldn't walk well) and his girlfriend came to church. We had such an incredibly spiritual experience with them on Saturday with the mom asking how she can know which church is true. She wants to know so badly. The Elders came to give her a blessing and all she could do was cry and cry because she knows she will be able to walk again. And the husband came to the baptims and said that he think they will put the goal for baptism (which we still ahve not been able to put) much sooner. They were wantign 4 months but feel like they are getting answers. We are nervous to put a date because they don't want the pressure, but they need a goal. We are praying hard to know what to do. They also told us he as to get divorced (if we do that quickly it costs $3,000 cordobas) and they have to get married ($300) and they have NO money. There is a lot to do to help them, but they are really receiving blessings and answers and doing what we invite them to. We hope and pray everything goes well with them. If I don't see them get baptized, I know they will take the step. Hope that makes sense!!!

On Friday we had zone conference. The Elders had us go out and practice putting fechas or dates in contacts. In 5 minutes. They would like us to practice doing that. They really want to help us have the faith to baptize. But I must say I don't like it too much. I feel like I am attacking the people and putting a date just for the sake of it. I think they need to feel something before accepting a date. But we will try it and see how it goes!!!!

Everything is going well here. We are happy and working hard!! I always try to be happy while working no matter whether it is hot, or raining, or we are tired. I hope you all have great experiences in conference!!! I love you all fiercely. Hope the letter wasn't too jumbled as I tried to rapidly put a week of craziness in an email.

I know the Lord loves each and every one of us. he wants to help us in our struggles and help us be better. Just remember that we always can. And we are working and preparing to become Gods one day!!!

Have WONDERFUL weeks. Know I love yoiu all very very much.

Go do some good!!

Hna. Morey

Ups, Downs, and Mediums

Hello!!!! I hope you are doing well whether you are in the U.S. or other parts of the world :) Know that I love you no matter where you are! 

This week was a little crazy. With ups and downs and mediums. So transfers or changes were this week. My district leader told me to keep my suitcases where they were :) So that means I will complete about 8 months here in lovely Juigalpa. But that is okay. Hermana Anderson did leave :( I am pretty sad about that. Who knows, maybe we will be together in the next 6 months. You never know!! 

So just to tell you something about the food that I ALWAYS mean to tell you but I always forget. You know oatmeal? Yeah, we don't eat it, we drink it:) If you want to try it just get a bunch with sugar and milk or water and mix it together. A nice refreshing drink :) jajaja I don't mind it too much. And there is a fruit that I LOVE right now - jacote (something like that) it is green and acidy. I will send you a picture. 

I had to give a talk yesterday in church. I feel like talks are something I will never be good at. Not that I get nevous....just always forget what I want to say. But I talked about the BOM which is my favorite topic ever. If only everyone would read it!!!! 

I think one of the things that is always very sad for me is when we contact someone and we feel they are chosen, they are prepared. We teach them, they tell us they love it, to come back. We come back, and they hide from us. I leave asking my companion : Why do they tell us to come back, that they love us, if they have no intention of receiving us again?  I just have to hope that we planted a seed and that some future date they will be willing to make the changes necessary. It is just hard to get our hopes up and then have them fall and we have to keep looking for the ones ready to make the changes right now. It is hard to find the animo after that, but we always do. What else can we do but keep going? It is one thing that I feel I have never lost in the mission, the hope that people will change, and will do what they commit to do. I always keep hoping. Don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing :) I will keep believing it is good

We have a family that we are teaching who won't except a baptismal date, and didn't come to church yesterday because there was no water (one of the hazards of Nicaragua). But I feel like they are prepared. He told us he would NEVER change his religion. But he came to church the week of stake conference and LOVED it. They are reading the BOM and loving it, and praying. They have doubts and fears, but I feel like if they keep going like this and show the Lord they are willing to work for their answer, they will do what the Lord asks of them. We are super excited for them and we have really high hopes and faith. 

This week we will be having a baptism!! It is quite a miracle. There has been a lot of pressure to baptize and the Elders kept asking me if we were going to baptize this month...we are in last place in the competition in the mission. I felt bad telling them no, but what can we do? But here is what happened: Her name is Betzabeth. She is 12. Her mom is a member but is living with the dad of Betzabeth (they have about 17 years together). They can't get married because she has to get divorced and they need money for that, and she can't find her husband (hate it when that happens). When I came here my companion had about 7 months of trying to work with them. Jose the dad said that he wanted Betzabeth to get baptized with him. Period. But these past few weeks we decided to pass by and see what he said, let him know that she was missing out on a lot of blessings. He said he would let her, but he wanted to well prepared. We said we could do that. Then I this week we passed by and jokingly told him that next saturday we would prepare a baptism and he said ye. We passed bySaturday to see if he was joking or saying the truth, and he said he would let her get baptized. She was nervous, but feels better now that we told her we will prepare her well. Can't quite believe it.

But we have some other really good investigators. We are working hard and trying to be better everyday. We keep contacting and teaching and teaching and contacting :) A lot. This week we plan on contacting the goal of 140 people. So we gotta go do that!!!! We have a lot of disappointments and lots of good times, but we keep going strong!!!! 

I hope you know how much I love you all and especially how much I love the Gospel!!!! I love the church and the promise that we can be families forever and that we know and share the incomprehensible amount of love our Heavenly Father has for us. Can't believe Clair leaves in 15 days!! Wow!!!! Keep working hard!! Go do some good this week :) Know you are always in my prayers!!! 

Love, Your Nica Sista!! Hermanita Morey

One Year Older

This week was a good week!! It went by really fast. Can't believe that I am writing again.

I will start with my birthday because I know that that is what you want to hear about :) I was super surprised. I thought it would be a day like the rest and I was preprared for that. But in the morning Hna. Anderson called me saying her comipanion was really sick if we could bring a thermometer and a few other things for her. I believed her. So we got ready and went over. As we walked in the whole district was there and scared me (I will send the picture, it was good). I thought I was going to be blasted with a bunch of eggs in that moment. But they asked me how crazy I was, they couldn't do it at that moment. But they had a piñata waiting. They tied a bandana around my head and spun me around. Then they hit me with 7 eggs. That was fun. Then we ate some cake and had a water fight. A really good birthday!! some members made me dinner and we had shakes at night as a district. 

This week we taught a lot of lessons and ran around. I always get nervous when the Hermanas lideres come to have divisions with us, but it went well. We have more people progressing. One man who said he would never stop believing in the Virgin Maria said he had a really good experience at church (but then he asked us for money....so I am hoping he still had a good experience). One man who we passed by this week with the Elderes and he asked why if in the Bible it tells us the woman can't wear makeup and jewerlry we do it in our church.....oops. And another young man. We are always dropping people that we had such high hopes for. I don't think I will ever lose the hope that people will come to church and choose to make the changes necessary....but oh well. 

I learned a very important lesson this week, though. We passed by a family that we had contacted and after having a lot of training these past few weeks about putting baptismal dates I tried to stick one. And boy did I do it at the wrong moment and the lesson turned from good to bad. Learning that not always is it the right moment. I cannot be putting dates just to put a date. What is the point if we do it without the spirit. Then we passed by a family for the third visit determined to put a date but he then asked about how we feel about the saints and saying he could never stop believing in them. Wrong moment to try to put one. And practicing in Distring Meeting I learned that the spirit has to be there. We cannot just be so focused on puting the date that we don't worry about their doubts their situation. We have to do it with love. Always listening to them. Or the whole point of it is selfish and just to put another number down at the end of the day. So,,,I keep learning!!! yay!!! I was humbled this week!!!! 

I think that is all!!! Thank you all for your love and support!!! I pray for you daily!!! I hope you are all happy and loving life :) 

Love, Your Hermanita Morey who can now drink, but won't :)

Feeling Good

It has been a VERY good week. The ZL are have a plan that every Tuesday we have divisions because we work harder when we are on divisions and then we start the week off well and are more likely to complete are goals. And it was true!! We contacted more than I have ever contacted in my mission (125 people) and had a lot of success. We are finding some chosen people, and putting baptism dates like crazy. Working very hard. There are ALWAYS ways in that we can be more obedient, work more eficiently, work harder. I don't know if any missionary feels like they have done enough. I get nervous when I think that I almost only have 6 months left. And try to put all my heart into the work so that I don't go home thinking I could have done more. 

Another thing that happened was that yesterday we had 8 people in church!!! 8!! Ususally we have 3 or 4. But we had double!!! A recent convert brought 2 people, and many more. And the church attendance was about 90. I think they overexagerate the attendance, but hey! So we are improving here. It is crazy the difference between the church here and in the states. The development. It throws some people off to see that here there are a lot of things different than in Guatemala where the church is more developed, but I think it is one of the great opportunities that I have to serve here and see the church grow. It is frustrating at times, but we are getting there!! We will see a temple here soon  :) 

We had an INCREDIBLE day on Wednesday. Taught some good lessons and it was one of those moments when I feel completely full of joy in the work. It is hard to feel that sometimes and easy to wonder what in the heck I am doing here. But that day I could feel the joy. Feel that I was doing what the Lord asks of me, full of love for the people. So full of energy I wanted to keep going all night. Wanted to share with everyone we came across. A great moment!!! 

I was thinking the other night about all the people I have come to love here in the mission, here in nicaragua. There are missionaries I have gotten to know, members we work with, people we teach taht I love so much. I wonder sometimes if I knew them before this life and if after we will share all the good experiences we had in this short time I spend here. I just hope that they can feel the love of the Lord and and grateness of  His Gospel through me. I hope that I do everything the Lord requires of me and that I don't go home wishing I did more. It is going by fast!!! 

I hope you are all reading your scriptures!! I love all the scriptures that talk about the Atonement and what the Lord has done for us. One thing I have learned through reading Jesus The Christ is that he did it completely volntarily. There was nothing forced on him. And that he is happy to know that what he did helps us come back the Heavenly Father. I love it!! 

I hope you know how much I love you!!! Thanks for all your love and letters and emails!!! I will let you know if I get eggs thrown at me Saturday (it is what they do here for birthdays :)  Have a GREAT week!!!! Go do some good!!! 

Love, Hermana Morey! 

Becoming a Nica

A few Questions for you all before we start this week's email session:

 1. How many nicas or missionaries can you fit in a taxi? 

        a. 9

   2. How many Nicas can you fit on a motorcycle?

        a. 5 or 6. Depends on how many little kids there are :) 

Boy I sure love nicaragua. Pretty sure I am Nica by now:) So how has everyone's week been?! Everyone happy and doing well? Is it still cold in Utah? Or getting warmer. I still can't believe It is March. This is going by way too fast. I almost have a change with my companion.....wow.

But this week has been really good!! On Wednesday we got a call from one of the APs saying that he wanted to work with us in the afternoon. My heart dropped a bit and I was pretty nervous. But it ended up going very well. I was able to learn a lot from him. Then we got a text saying that we were going to have a training session with President and the APs the following day. SUPER nerve racking. But that also went well. President is REALLY focusing on training the missionaries to be more direct, more persistent, more selfless. So  we learn how to do it and practice. I find it extremely hard to be direct with love and also remember to really be excited for them when they follow through with their commitments. I eather am direct and mean, or too nice. We will work on finding the balance!! Because it really doesn't work if we lose the love. But I think the real point of it is show them the importance of the message that we are sharing with them. Like Elder Holland says in PMG we need to show the investigators we are really sad when they don't read the BOM or complete their other commitments. They are good things to learn. how to be better missionaries and work more effectively.

This week we have been able have some really good lessons and find some really good people!! We have been working very hard this week and the Lord has blessed us. we were able to put a few baptismal dates in the new way that President taught us (give them the option of 2 dates and they choose). And Saturday night we were about to climb the biggest hill in our area (really, its a killer). And my companion made a comment about how we were doing REALLY badly in the amount of contacts that we had. And out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman sitting in her little yard with her baby and made my way to contact her. And let me tell you, there are moments when you contact people and you know you were supposed to at that moment because that person is ready, and you are really glad you followed the spirit. That was one of those moments. She told us of course we could come back, and that she was so grateful we stopped by to give her a pamphlet....wow. That NEVER happens.I know it will go well with her!!

Then the second realy cool thing was Sunday. We were able to bring 4 people to church on our own. The fourth person was a miracle in and of its own. Then a member in the other branch brought two friends with her who live in our area. One of the best feelings of the mission. And they are super prepared, very ready. So the Lord showed me that there are miracles, that he has seen the work that we are doing here. He has not forgotten us here in Juigalpa!!!!

We are seeing our branch really progress here. The first counselor we got is INCREDIBLE. There are still a lot of little quirks and things that we are missingand need to improve on, but he is determined, and we are determined. He really wants to step up the responsibility of the members. He is great!!!  It is good to see the progression here as people try hard to work together to help the Lord's kingdom progress!!

That is all for today!! I hope you are all doing well. Thank you for all your love and prayers!!They really do help. Have a wonderful week!!!! And pray for you Hermanita who is getting chubbier by the week and dying in the heat :) Nah, just kidding.

Stay Strong!!! 

Love, Hermanita Morey!