Monday, November 19, 2012

Lovin' the Pics!!

This is a truck with super big speakers in it.  

These drive around all day blasting announcements or songs.

These are some of the kids in the ward.





The family that we baptized. They are getting married before we baptism them.




Eating wedding cake at our apartment. 


Found it!!!!! Hotel California!! I probably won't check in though....


Week of Baptisms!!!!


OK!!! So the pictures are of the family that we baptized this past weekend. Their names are Al and Is. Their little girls name is H. This first pic is of them getting married before the baptism. The second is right before the baptism. And the third is when we ate their wedding cake at our house after the baptism.

Oh man! This week went by way fast! And it even came with some success!! All week, we have been teaching 3 familias about the Gospel. Fam1 is Al and Is. Fam2 is El and S. And Fam3 is M and Bay and their daughter MJ. We baptized Fam1 on Saturday and it was awesome!!! Elder St and S baptized them and Elder M and I confirmed them yesterday during Sacrament. They have been taking the lessons for 4 weeks and are such a good family!!! Al received the Lesser Priesthood yesterday and will be able to receive the Higher Priesthood this coming Sunday because it is Stake Conference. Everything is happening so fast with this family and they are loving every minute of it!! Fam2 is SSOOOO close to baptism but they are having little relationship problems. We have talked with them A LOT about marriage and togetherness and how it can be eternal and everything!!! It seems to be helping a little bit but it’s a slow process. El comes to church every Sunday and loves the classes and the things he learns but S is going to college and comes about every other Sunday. They love each other and love the Gospel and I’m sure that they will be married and baptized before I leave the area of Chinandega. Fam3 is super cool and love hearing the word of God when we teach them lessons. All 3 of them love the idea of baptism and are excited to learn more and more about the Gospel. But whenever we visit, M is cooking, MJ is at school or doing homework, and Bay is at work or busy doing chores around the house. So it’s a little hard to teach them all together. We are able to teach them separately and it works but it would be a TON better if we were able to teach them as a family. We are working super hard to get them baptized and I have faith that it will happen in the near future!!!

Wes, Keeping working hard and being good!! But make sure part of your focus is on the things that we need to be doing in this life; like reading the scriptures daily by yourself, having personal prayer every morning and night, and going to church every Sunday!! and all the other little things too! Don’t give up and stay strong! Love you Wes!!!

Tige, I’m SUPER jealous that you get to go to Ephraim with the family and have Thanksgiving! Here in Nicaragua, no one knows what Thanksgiving is and if they do, they don’t celebrate it. So I’m going to miss the taste of nice cooked turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy!!! You better enjoy it for me!! Also, I’ve already sent pictures of the buses here, but we ride on them a lot!! They are the most popular way to travel here! I love you and miss you!

Russ, that’s so cool that your part of the greater responsibility in the church now! Make you sure fulfill your calling and so above and beyond what you are asked to do! Keeping working hard and studying the scriptures. I know it’s hard to do but it can be done when you ask for the help of the Lord. Don’t forget to pray before and after reading because when you do, you are able to receive guidance on where to read and be able to understand it a lot better too! Keep it up! I love you Russ!!

Mom, I’m glad that you were able to understand the will of God and that he has his Hand in all things in this life. It’s kind of hard to comprehend that but He knows everything and is able to do ALL things in this life if He wants it to happen. And I’ve been writing in my journal about every other day OR whenever something awesome happens in the mission. I am having a ton of fun here and I love the people!! Even the drunk ones, which there are a lot of.... But that doesn’t stop me from loving them because they can still change and come unto God!!

 Les amo!!

Elder Daugherty

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

PICS

My work space

Riding a kiddie ride at a shopping mall.

A monument near our area.

Una Semana en Nicaragua


¡¡Hola Mi Familia!!

This week went by pretty fast. We worked a lot in different areas this week and it worked out pretty well. We had about 5 or 6 baptisms in our zone on Saturday and Sunday. It was really cool to see the faces of those who were baptized, receive the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It seemed that right as the person said to Receive The Holy Ghost, they had a rush of emotion and happiness come over them. Sometimes I think that we forget how important the Holy Ghost really is. I mean, think about it. When Lehi and his family were traveling across the sea, the Lord gave them the Liahona to help guide them. But this guidance device only worked when they were righteous and doing the work of the Lord. The compass would point in what direction to go and words of guidance would appear on the side. But when Lehi and his family weren’t following the commandments or fighting amongst themselves, the compass didn’t work and words did not appear. It would cease to guide them in the way the Lord wanted them to go. Now, we were given the Gift of the Holy Ghost after we were baptized. Realize the word GIFT!! It was given to us to help guide us in this life. But this gift will only help us if we are righteous and doing the work of the Lord. The Holy Ghost will help us to recognize good from bad, and will sometimes put words of guidance into our minds. But when we aren’t following the commandments or fighting among ourselves, the Holy Ghost will not help us. The Holy Ghost is like a very submissive friend. If you want his help, you have to ask for it and be worthy enough to receive his help. But when you don’t want his help, He will sit back and let you do what you want. If we push away the guidance of this very special Gift, we will not be able to receive the guidance that we need.

Ok, now about my week. We contacted a lot of people, walked a lot, and taught some lessons. Nothing too extra ordinary but all of it in the service of our Lord. We had 2 nights of Noche De Hogar (Family Home Evening) with 2 of our progressing familias. Both of the lessons were on the importance of marriage and how husband and wife need to work together to become closer to God. Both of these familias are not married but have been living together for a while. So in order for these 2 familias to be able to be baptized, they need to be married. The whole act of getting married civilly is super important because it eliminates the abominable sin of fornication. And once they are baptized, they are able to become clean of their past fornications before they were married civilly. We are trying so hard to get these two familias to make the choice to get married so we can move on and prepare them for baptism soon. I think everything is going along pretty smoothly and things will all work out. Well that’s kind of about it! I hope you like the pictures each week! I had a video but the file size is too big for me to send.... Sad but its ok.

I love all of you and can’t wait to hear from you!
¡Les Amo!

Elder Daugherty

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Week 2 in Nicaragua pictures

A guitar shop in our area.



A volcano that is pretty close to our area.



Me on a bus. :)

The bus yard.

Week 2 in Nicaragua


Oh man! I don’t even know where to start! Well Happy Birthday Dad!!! Getting older! Don’t let the kids drive you too crazy! I don’t wanna see too much grey hair when I get back. That goes for you too Mom! Thanks for all the pictures, it makes me kinda miss home but I really think it helps me keep working hard and focusing on the work of the Lord. This past week went by pretty fast so there isn't much to talk about. So my companion, Elder M, who is really companions with Elder S, is a Zone Leader along with Elder S. Which means that their work that they do in the mission is help all the other districts and make sure they are working hard, have a certain amount of familias progressing, and making sure everything is working out smooth and nice. Well that’s really good and bad at the same time. Since they are Zone Leaders, they are often off in other areas of our Zone, helping the other missionaries. And since Elder St and I are their companions as well, we have to go with them. This is good because it is giving me experience I probably wouldn't get this early in the mission but its kinda bad because we are hardly even in our own area working on getting familias progressing toward baptism. So it’s really hard to have a good attitude about the work sometimes, because whenever we get back to our own area to work, all we do is contact people and make appointments. We hardly teach any lessons. However, my Spanish has really excelled and I am able to understand about 80% of the time now. Out of all the languages to learn, I’m glad I’m able to learn Spanish. It’s a lot easier than it looks and I think Spanish has a lot more meaning to it than we think. Take reading the scriptures for example, if you take an English verse, and compare it to the Spanish verse, most likely, the Spanish verse with be worded differently and have a lot more meaning to it than the English one would. I wish I had an example to give you but I don’t have my scriptures right now, and if I did, I sure wouldn't have English ones with me!!

I figure I might as well tell you a little about the people of Chinandega. There are tons of people here of all ages. A lot of them are Catholic, Evangelical, or Jehovah Witnesses. But about 10% of the people don’t have a religion at all. When we contact people and ask them if they have heard of the Church of Jesus Christ, most of them haven’t, until you say the word Mormons. But that’s about all they know. Everyone I have met believes in God and Jesus Christ but that’s about it. The Law of Chastity is probably the most broken law here. Teenagers starting at about age 12 will have already broken the law of chastity. If we see a couple walking down the street, no matter the age, 97% of the time, they have fornicated. It’s really sad because when we talk to people, we usually ask them if they are married. About 20% are married, but the rest are just TOGETHER. We met a couple a few days ago who are both about 80 yrs. old. They aren't civilly married and have been TOGETHER for about 60 some odd years. No one gets married civilly unless they can afford to buy the marriage papers. A lot of young women down here have little kids when they are about 15 or 16. And usually the father doesn't stick around to help. This is about the most common thing we deal with but the people are really receptive to the gospel too. We can talk to just about anyone and they will be super friendly and loving back to us. The people are so loving here that it’s really easy for us to just walk up to someone and ask them to get baptized or go to church and usually they will accept, unlike the people in America, where you have to gain their trust before asking questions like that. Everyone is super friendly but it’s funny because everyone has huge locks and bars over everything they own. And don’t worry, I haven’t been robbed or anything and I don’t plan on it either. One of the first few days here in Nicaragua, all of the elders were asking the older Elders if they had been robbed. A lot of them hadn't but had had stuff stolen from them. One Elder, by the name of Elder Ricks, who is home now, told me ''That as long as you are obedient, NO ONE will touch you''. And he was probably the best missionary out at the time. All the other missionaries freak out over little things like that, but I just remember those words and the words of my setting apart blessing and my patriarchal blessing. So don’t worry about me, I’m giving all I can to being obedient and serving the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.

¡¡¡Les Amo Mi Familia y Amigos!!!

Elder Daugherty