The Birthday Party

All is well here in Nicaragua!! It is crazy to think that it was only last year that Dason and I did the all-night promotion for Travis wearing ghillie suits, it feels forever ago and yet not so long ago. The days go by so fast here, well except from 12 to 3.  During that time I think I want to go home and die because it is so hot. I can’t think straight and I have a headache.  But come 4, when the sun starts to go down, I can think again.  It is still hot but I just don’t have a sun on the back of my neck! 

All is going well, but we do have changes on Wednesday, so we will see how that goes! I could go somewhere else! I don’t know! There is a chance that they would both leave and I would have to teach the area to my new companion, which would be extremely hard! You never know, but we find out about changes tomorrow night!  It is also possible, I could go somewhere that I cannot write for a while; so I am not dead if you don’t hear from me next week!! 

Also, something kind of scary is Elder Asencio has started to have chest pains. Not pains like breathing, just pains like where his heart is!!!! I was like, we need to tell somebody. He doesn't want to tell anybody encase it is nothing. What is his deal? So, in an email today, I told President. 

One last strange thing; Elder Hartley is having bloody runs and joint pains which is a sign of a strange virus  called chikungunya, which would be extremely bad if he has that! It comes from mosquito bites so that is good, haha, there are only like a million mosquitoes,but I think I will survive!!

Now for the story of the week; we were invited to eat dinner with some of the members, which was exciting because it doesn't happen much.   I guess we were pretty excited!  So when we arrive there, there were 8 teen-aged girls there and they were all dancing with each other with romantic music on; it was super weird! We were invited in and we sit down. We find out the one girl who lives there is having her birthday! She really wanted us to be there, except we didn't know we were having a party. It was super weird, but they stop dancing and bring out a table for four people: me, my two companions, and the birthday girl! Everybody just sat there and watched us eat, while there was some romantic Spanish music on. So that was strange.  As we are eating, she says, “What do you think about my friends..............?” So I turn to Elder Hartley and say in English, “uhh, we got to get the freak out of here!!” So we say, “They look young!” Hahaha, anyway we finish eating and then she brings out cake! It was the best cake I have ever had, because I haven’t tasted anything that good in 12 weeks!!  Here is the worst part of the story! I received your package at a meeting we were at right before we went to the cita for dinner! Elder Hartley got one too.  So we had to go to the birthday party with our big boxes, so guess what she thought... that they were for her! As we were getting ready to leave, the mom said, “do you want to see her open the boxes?” I felt so bad saying no it is mine, but we did and we left!  You guessed it; they were not at church on Sunday!! I am staying strong and I put the package in my suit case so I will not open it until Christmas.

 Something awesome, my suit case is growing a ton of mold; so that is great! Also, I had to throw away the blue Easter tie because it had mold on it from a rain storm that was super bad. I laid it out to dry, but it didn’t dry quickly enough, I guess!!

Okay I want to mention about the help members are in missionary work. They are always good to have with you in lessons. For example, we are teaching a girl named Reyna and she is super positive about the Church! She was progressing, just slowly.  Then we found a member that was one of her friends and is ward missionary in the Sisters’ ward! So we invited her to a couple of our lessons and Reyna progressed super-fast!! We are baptizing her this Saturday. Reyna and her friend went to Jeno Tepee (he-no  tep-ee) and are teaching some of her family that lives there!! How sweet is that?!?!

Another example of the help members give us is on Sundays.  We currently have 22 investigators who swear on all things that are holy they would come to church on Sunday. Every Sunday, we go on splits with three priesthood brethren of the Branch to “collect” our investigators for church. This last week, we weren't able to go with any of them! So my two companions and I rushed around before church, but we were only able to get to the houses of about 16 of them to remind them. Then only had two actually came to church!! So members are very useful in the mission, when you get their help!!

Love

Elder Bronson

Two more baptisms to complete a forever family

Elders Hartley, Bronson, and Asencio 

My District

My District, the Gatos, during Zone games, which we dominated

The things you eat in Nicaragua

Well this week was kind of crappy, haha.  It was a good week until Friday night.  We received a call informing us that we can’t teach Renaldo and Ingrid anymore since they are out of our area now. Their baptism was the next day, along with their wedding. We were told we couldn’t go to the wedding that we paid for, but we could go to the baptism because we had one more person getting baptized. Elder Hartley was so mad like me, but he has been teaching that family for almost 8 weeks.  He was way sad! Saturday was supposed to be such good day; Elder Asencio hit the 18 month mark on Saturday.  I finished my lesson plans in PMG (I had to do a two page lesson plan every morning on each point of chapter three in PMG).  We finished reading the white bible in Spanish.  I had one month in my area. We were going to have five baptisms and one wedding with lots of cake. We had a lot to celebrate for after the baptisms were had plans to go out to eat because we needed to celebrate.  Instead of having five baptisms, we had 0 because the other girl fell and we couldn’t baptize her, which made us late to the baptism too.  Luckily, we were still able to see the family but it kind of sucked.... we were dripping wet because it had started to rain super hard right as we started the 15 minute walk to the church. Also, one last thing that sucked on Saturday is we finished studying early because we had to go meet the Hermanas to give them the paperwork for the four baptisms that they were taking over and of course they were a half an hour late.  The Hermanas are late for everything. Since Elder Asencio is the district leader, we do a lot of interviews and when we go with the Hermanas they walk so slow to the houses. It takes them 45 min to get to the church. After that we went to get our money from the mission because we get some every 1st and 15th and there was a huge line at the ATM for some reason. We waited in line for almost an hour to have my card not work for some reason, so I took it out on my own card and I just get paid back from the mission, but that really sucked. So as you can see, it was kind of a tough week, but then something cool happened.  I received a letter that was signed by everybody in the ward and that made my day a lot better! Also, I brought out all my letters that Mom, Dad, Bishop, Brother Standley, and Brother Marlowe wrote me when I left and you all said something about how a mission will be hard and doors will close but others will open. I read those this morning and it was crazy because all five of you said almost word for word the same thing. It was a boost and it made me happy. I have a renewed attitude!

Something awesome that happened last night was we taught a member because we that do every Sunday night at 8 and I could understand everything! I talked a lot more and my Spanish was super good! I was really happy and the member complimented me that it was good! Also, we got a container with three little slices of cake from Renaldo, Ingrid and family and they said how much missed us. It was super awesome! That is my week pretty much!!

I have been eating a lot of duck and strange parts of chicken, which are mostly bones with very little meat. Well yesterday we all got strange pieces. Elder Asencio got the knee cap, Elder Hartley got a bone with no meat on it, and mine was just a circle of meat but it didn’t have a single bone in it.  I have no idea what part of the chicken I was eating. All my investigators ask what I want to study after my mission and when I say cooking they want to teach me how to make different dishes.  So I have learned how to make guyo pinto which is rice, beans and fry plantains and how to make this strange beef patty thingy. It tastes good, but I don’t like what we do to prepare it.

Love you!

Elder Bronson

The Wedding Planner

Sounds like things are crazy back home!! I am sorry. My week was pretty good.   I honestly can’t remember most of it because it went so fast!  I feel like I just wrote yesterday and I don’t have much to say! But I love you guys and grandpa! I hope he can start to feel better!

I have one story this week about how hard Satan works to stop the work of the lord. We found this awesome family of four! They love church and have no problems with anything.  We were planning on baptizing them in three weeks because they have to attend church three times before they can be baptized.  So they go week one, love it. Go week two, love it!  They get super sick week three and don’t come except one of their 13 year old boys, who comes to both sessions at 9 and at 2.  He loves church so much!  We were pretty pumped and decided we would baptize him last Saturday!  He goes to his interview Friday night and as he is being interviewed he says he drank coffee like 4 days ago!!!! WHAT ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!  This was the first time he has ever tried coffee and he felt really bad, so we didn’t have a baptism and it was super sad.  Then on Saturday, we go to visit the family and they are getting kicked out of there house...... what..... ya getting kicked out of their house!  They are moving to live with the wife’s mom in a different area.  We were so sad that we will not be able to teach them.  They are still in the branch area, so they will still be going to the same church house.  We go to church on Sunday and guess who is there, the whole family except the dad..... whyyyyyyyyy?!?!  So we call the zone leaders and get permission to go talk to him.  We took a taxi to their new house and talk to him.  He is still super sick but wants to be baptized!   With our help, he comes to church for like the last half so we can baptize the family. yay! We are so happy for them!!   Last night was the only night they could have their interview. During their interview it comes out that they aren’t married!  So this morning we have been running around to all these different places in our area preparing for a wedding this Saturday, 2 hours before their baptism!  How awesome is that?! There is so much legal stuff you have to do to get married that I can see why they haven’t gotten married yet!! haha  I think if everything stays on track, we should baptize them and another girl on Saturday.  That means our district of 4 companionships will have 10 baptisms on Saturday and next week if all goes well, we should have  somewhere between 18-21 baptisms! It is so exciting to see how well the work is going now!!

(I asked Jordan some specific questions about the missionary work in his area and here are his answers:)

1. Our relationship with the members that are active is super strong. Every Sunday 3 out of the 10 priesthood holders will come on splits with us. This allows us to invite all of our converts, investigators and minus (I think he means less) actives to church!  On Sundays, the primary president will feed us dinner and Elder Hartley and I will give her an English lesson. She loves it!! So the members really like us!

2. There are two branches in our area: an Estacion Branch and a Pacason Branch, ours is the Estacion Branch. We meet at two in the tarde and Pacason meets at nine, but church is church. So, you really just get investigators to go when they can go, but we always try to get people to go at two.  Yesterday, we had 152 people at church, which is the most ever at the branch.  If we can keep it up, we will get a chapel and maybe become a ward!!

3. We do have a church house, but it is about the size of half of our gym at home. It is really just a place that has a room and a podium. It isn’t much and it is too small for the amount of people we have been bringing to church.  Also, in Sunday School yesterday we had about 22 people attending and 14 of them were our investigators or converts.  Yesterday was a good day!

$. Right now we have 22 investigators, more or less.  Hopefully, if all goes well, 10 will be baptized this month.  So far this month, we have only had Wilmer’s baptism but we are working hard to meet our goal!

6. There is a mission rule that I keep forgetting to tell you.  I will only perform an actual baptism once. President Russel believes that if an investigator is baptized by a member of the local branch/ward  they will stay in the church longer then if it is done by a missionary.

One good thing, I don’t feel like a tourist anymore!

 Love you guys!!!!

Elder Bronson

Counting his colorful money

Studying on P-Day

Another Baptism!

Well another week has gone by and I am still alive so that is a plus!! I am a little sad that I didn't get to see everyone’s costumes for Halloween, but at least you sent me pics!!!

I had my first baptism of somebody I had asked to be baptized. His name is Willmer and he used to be a gangster, so he had a couple problems before we talked with him. But after we talked with him, he mellowed out and stopped everything completely. He really likes me and always touches me, which like you know I love!! haha He is a pretty cool guy!  Also, he is like a whole head taller than me! In the picture he was slouching and I had my big shoes on!! He always wants to go on visits with us and he will put on his white shirt, that is to small, and walk around with us.  It is really funny! I am having a lot more fun now that I am out of the MTC and is my companions are great, I really like them a lot!

Now to answer your questions:

1. We pay a lady 750 cords (@$28) to feed us every day at 12 and do our laundry. We give her our laundry on Thursdays and get it back on Tuesdays, so I have been wearing a lot of dirty clothes!! Also I am really glad that my shoes have a two year warranty; we will be taking advantage of that because they are getting hammered!! We don’t have anything to cook with, but we do have a mini fridge. I buy 3 litters of sunny D for 35 cords (which is my breakfast) every Monday, so that is what I use the fridge for and some other little foods! Mostly I just eat at noon. I don’t have hunger during the day for the most part and the people we share our house with own a pulperia, so we buy a piece of bread or two before we go to bed. Then we wake up and do it all again! Funny story; I didn't eat any of my oatmeal packages or instant mashed potatoes during the MTC, but now I have eaten 7 oatmeal packages and 1 mashed potato.  The potatoes aren't very good with luke warm water. The spuds don’t become potatoes without a microwave!  I might just buy one in my next area because it is only about $15 dollars to buy one.

2. There are dogs everywhere. We carry a Book of Mormon everywhere we go so people know that we are LDS and also if we need to hit a dog with it! It isn't too bad, usually there are enough rocks around that you can hit the dog before he gets too close and he will run away!

MOM!!!!!!!! You didn't like my stories????? Why not? I am glad you liked them Dad!

Sundays are no fun.  I feel bad saying that, but they are so hard. Instead of our normal day, we work from 8am-9pm running around town trying to get people to church and it is tough! We go on splits with members every Sunday morning because there is church at 9am and at 2pm, so the 6 of us split in to 3 companionships.  We probably will talk to 24 to 30 people and commit them to come to church and then only 6 will show up. It is so frustrating that they will just lie and avoid us. If you don’t want to listen just tell us, because it is no fun to walk to your house when we have to scale a mountain, beat a dog,  get yelled at by drunks, and then have you not even come to church!!

I have decided how I can describe the area! To compare the size to Idaho Falls, it would be 49th street to Lincoln road. Our house would be where Ammon Elementary is and the church would be by Country Corner. It is probably over a mile away and all our investigators would be living in a neighborhood by the golf course! I will have huge legs by the time I get home!!!

I love you guys hope you have a great week! I hope i answered all of your questions!

Love

Elder Bronson

I thought of one more story.  We fasted Saturday from lunch to Sunday lunch, which wasn't that bad because we do that a lot, but the no water part is hard.  See, I thought that I was getting used to the weather because I had stopped sweating. The truth was that I was super dehydrated. When I broke my fast, I drank three of my one litter bottles of water, two cups of juice we get for lunch, and two cups of water during lunch; all within 30 min. Then I just started dripping sweat!! haha so that probably isn't good, but whatever, I am still alive!

Our Casa.  You are seeing just about all of it.

The Beach

Elder Olsen and I meeting our Trainers

Outside our Casa

The companionship.  

One weird looking bug

Enjoying P-day at the Beach

First Baptism and Crazy Stories

This week has been so much better and I had my first baptism on Saturday. Our investigator progressed a lot faster than we thought she would and so we baptized her! It was a super awesome experience. Also my Spanish is coming along really well.  The hardest thing is understanding the people because they mumble and don’t use some words like de, la, el, ellos, and ellas.  I have to pay super close attention!  We went on splits the other day, so it was just me and Elder Asencio and we contacted 47 people from Noon to 4 and we got two families that are pretty interested, so that is super awesome!  The goal of every week is to find a new family. I am getting pretty good at teaching the first lesson now.
I am still getting used to the food here; it doesn't do good things to my digestive system.  But today we went to like 4 star restaurant and we got a hamburger for 180 corbs and it was the best day ever!  It tasted so good!
One thing that is important for you to know, the Mission President’s wife says it takes about 5 to 6 weeks for a package!
Now for some Crazy Mission stories:
1. Getting sorta robbed. The other day we were walking down the street and we were going to our house because it was almost nine o clock.  This guy comes up and puts his arm around me and pulled me away from my companions. He asked if I was a missionary and if I was from America.  I said yes, so then he made the universal rich symbol and said give me your money. I said you want a Book of Mormon and tried to hand it to him.  He didn’t take it and said no I want money! So in broken English I said los siento no comprendo and then said it is almost my bed time I have to go.  My companions and I ran home before his friends came! hahhaha
2. After your first 6 weeks on a mission you go and have a meeting with the Mission President.  You talk about life and goals I guess and because I am in a threesome the other Greenie had to go with my trainer to his meeting, which meant I needed to go on splits. So I go on splits with a member. I was dropped off at his house which has missionaries living behind him in another apartment. While I was waiting for the member to get ready in the missionary apartment, I started reading in Alma 13. The member says I need to go to the house for a minute, stay here.  He walks out the door and I hear screaming and cussing in English and Spanish. This member is being viciously attacked by a dog.  Blood is everywhere. I started outside to go kick the dog, but he said to stay inside. So some guy comes along just then and chops the dogs head off.  The member says I needed to stay here while he goes to the hospital. He pad locks the door shut and leaves at about 8:30 am.  So I chill in the house by myself, which is super wrong.  Noon comes around, when my companions are supposed to be back, and they aren’t.  3:00 rolls around and they are still gone.  At this point, I think that guy bled out in the hospital, my companions got in a car wreck and died, and I going to starve to death in this padlocked apartment. So around 5:00, I finish the book of Alma and am just chilling when the missionaries who own the house show up.  They tell me my companions are at the hospital because one of them has an eye infection and can’t see, so he needed to go to the hospital! So I worked with the other missionaries that day and at 9 o’clock we called my companions and they weren't home yet, so I had my first sleep over of my mission.  It sucked cause the next day, I had to put my dirty clothes back on!
3. So we are talking to this lady on the street and this dog is chilling in the middle of the road! Just laying down, doing nothing. All of the sudden, a stupid motorcycle comes flying down the road and hits the dog.  He almost wrecks but drives away.  The dog starts barking, running in circles and then runs into a wall.  I think dies or at least stops moving! Haha crazy!
4. There are a lot of homosexuals here! At about 8 o’clock every night, they get together and put on gold skin tight dresses with masks. They get some drums and become a gay marching band.  When they see missionaries they grind upon us and yell café! It’s weird and I hate it.  Everyone here yells “café” at us, which means coffee because we believe in the word of wisdom! Crazy people!
5. There was an earthquake last week (my 2nd day here) and it was a fricken 7.1 or something. It shook the whole house.  I was staying with like 22 missionaries at the time, in this huge house with a garden in the middle, and we had to run out in fear that the house was going to fall down!!
6. Sunday I gave my first blessing in Spanish.  That was scary but the spirit was so strong!!
7. The other day this guy came up to me and said you talk English to me. He talked to me in broken English/Spanish for awhile.   I told him that I had to leave but I invited him to church.  He took my hand and kissed it, What the heck!?!?!
8. The cops here don’t do anything, but I like them because they all drive Volkswagen buses, which is super cool.  Every time I see one, I think, “that used to be me”!!!!!!!!!
Those are the stories for this week; I will have more next week!!
Love Elder Bronson
Pictures next week, I promise!!

More Pictures from the CCM

More Mexico City

District pic with Hermano Sanchez (funniest teacher ever!)

District pic with Hermano Villalobos and Hermana Velasquez,
our two main teachers that taught us every day.

All sporting our new haircuts for Nicaragua

Elder Wolf,
teaching us how to tie cool knots on the day before he left the CCM.

Our district likes volleyball so much that we made up this game called "Memorization Volleyball."
Every time we hit the paper ball, we have to say the First Vision or a baptismal invitation or
something in Spanish. It's sooo awesome. We play it for our last half hour of language study most nights
and it works great for memorizing!

A group pic with Hermano Perez. He got home 3 months ago from his
mission to Panama City.

First Week in Granada

Well it has been a crazy last couple of days and I don´t know how I feel about it. So Tuesday, we went on splits with the Managua missionaries, which was fun.  We would hop on a bus and preach to the whole bus, then hand out pamphlets. It isn't a very effective way of contacting, but it works I guess. We were paired up with the Managua Elders.  The companion I had was like the coolest guy in the world.  He is fluent in Spanish and English; just an all-around awesome guy. So after a long and hot day, we go back to the house we were staying in and it has a garden in the middle of it!!  We staying with the AP’s and they said enjoy it while it lasts, this is the nicest place you will stay in your whole mission. I laughed because the place was a junkyard.

Anyway, the next day they wake us up at 5:15 AM because that is what they do to missionaries on their first real day I guess. We get all ready by six and sit around for an hour before we can go to the change meeting where we meet our companions.  Well, remember that super cool guy that was fluent in two languages, he is now Elder Hoffman’s companion, lucky guy.  So the president is reading off names and where people are going. Some of the missionaries told me the best area is Bluefields and the worst is Granada.  We get down to the last three Elders; me and Elder Ruiz and a new Latino Elder.  The only areas left are Granada and Bluefields; two Blue and one Granada.  Guess where I go!  Granada isn't as bad as the Elder’s made it out to be, it’s super pretty here. I am actually in a threesome Jorge (my Latino trainer whose first name I did not know until you told me) and a Norte Elder from Nampa, Idaho, that was fluent in Spanish before he came. He has only been here 6 weeks, but the other two are really good friends and I am just kind of there because I don’t speak Spanish very well, but it is fine. You live and you learn.

Here’s a funny story for you. We are walking to church yesterday and this guy comes up to me and starts talking to me.  He says, “ I know English” and “what’s up homie”. I was like wow you are awesome! So my companion comes up and is like hey we have to get to church, so we invite this guy to church and  he says he will be there. Then we shake his hand good bye. He shakes the other American’s hand and then he shakes mine and kisses it! I was like what the heck just happened!

Living conditions are kind of whack.  The three of us live in a room made for a very very small man! It is the smallest house I have ever been in.  It is okay I guess because it doesn't leak rain like a lot of the houses do!

My first meal here in Granada was a bowl of boiling hot soup and it was like 100 degrees outside!  Also, we only eat lunch here. We don’t eat anything in the mornings or in the night. I think I am going to be very skinny when I get back! 

So I was feeling down on Thursday because I thought I knew Spanish better than I do. But then we went and contacted this one girl in the morning and I asked her to be baptized and she said yes!  Then later that night, I did it again with this super cool guy. it was in broken Spanish but I got the point across and he said yes, so that was good! 

I love you guys and I have been reading the letters you wrote me and the notes you put in that notebook like every day. It has been getting a little easier but it is still hard, but I can do this

Okay thanks for everything.  I will write more next week because I have like less than a minute to write I think before my computer will shut off.  Also, pictures next week.  This computer doesn’t have a USB port.

I love you, see you in a while.

Elder Bronson