May 27, 2013

UuuuHhhhh.. well lets start by thanking everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday, I really loved getting the emails!!! A family of recent converts in my area threw a little party for me. My comp and I bought a cake (photos next week) and took it to their house. When we got their, they had balloons and a piñata hung up all ready for me. We sat around for a bit, talked, ate some awesome food and cake, and broke the piñata. I got 3 gifts from those that came to visit. I got 2 pairs of socks from a family that we are teaching. She must have known I was looking for a couple new pairs. I got a bar of purple Romantic soap from a recent convert and a thing a cologne from the family that hosted the little party. They must think I need to smell better or something... who knows. I had an awesome birthday around some pretty amazing people. I'm really glad for this area of Tipitapa and for the awesome people that are here. We have helped so many people here get to know the gospel of Jesus Christ and become closer to Him through His Atonement. Alot of members here still don't have a really big knowledge of the gospel or of some of the complex doctrine (well neither do I) but they stay strong on the small basic truths that they know they can rely on to help them strengthen their testimony. This is what really matters. That we can rely on the Lord to help us through the storm of life. Helaman 5:12 states ''And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.'' This is exactly what we need to do.  We need to build that strong foundation in the Lord so that when there are problems, trials, tragedies, etc in our lives, we have the power and the strength to hang on with the help of the Lord. And another verse which I really like is shortly after this one. In Helaman 5:14, it says ''And they did remember his words; and therefore they went forth, keeping the commandments of God, to teach the word of God among all the people of Nephi, beginning at the city Bountiful;'' After the sons of Helaman heard the words that he spoke to them about needing to have a strong foundation, they left, being obedient, and taught the people of Nephi. Are we doing that? Are we sharing the knowledge that is keeping us held down in the storm with those that dont have a strong enough anchor to hold on? What can we do to help others strengthen their hold on the Lord? How do we do it? The real question is, Why arent we doing it? All of Chapter 5 of Helaman talks about the miracles and hardships that happened to Nephi and Lehi. It talks about the faith they had to stand up for what they knew what right and put thrit trust in the Lord that everything would be alright. I pray that we can all do that in our own lives. You dont have to be on a mission like me to preach the gospel. This church is a Missionary church. We want everyone to come unto Crist so why not invite people to do so? I love the Lord with all my heart and I know that He lives. This is the true church restored on the earth today through His prophet Joseph Smith and that we have the authority of God to act in the name of the Lord. I know these things are true and strive to share them with others daily!!

“For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord. Every previous gospel dispensation has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not. . . . God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly.. . . Make no mistake about it—you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is of us. Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been as well organized. . . Each day we personally make many decisions that show where our support will go. The final outcome is certain—the forces of righteousness will finally win. What remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future, will stand in this fight—and how tall we will stand. Will we be true to our last-days, foreordained mission?”
---Ezra Taft Benson

¡¡¡Les Amo Mucho!!!

Elder Daugherty

BIRTHDAY PICTURES!!!

My companion and I bought a birthday cake and took it to the house of some new converts that threw me a birthday party.

When we got to their house they had balloons and a pinata for the party.

A tie I borrowed from another missionary. It is super cool!!

This is the man that was able to baptize his kids.

We baptized the girl with a blue shirt and the girl with a white shirt.

May 20, 2013 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITCH!!!!

Hey!! How has everyone been?! So this week was crazy!! Last weekend we baptized a family of 2 people. And this weekend we baptized 4 people. These 4 people were to complete some families that we had baptized a few weeks ago. 2 of them were the kids of a super awesome family!! And what made it even better is that the Father was able to baptized his kids!! The 2 others were the daughters of another family that was baptized a week before I can to the area. My comp baptized them and they were super excited to do it! Its so awesome being able to complete families in the church. I was talking to the husband that baptized his kids and he was super happy that with the power of God that he has, the Priesthood, he was able to worthily baptized his kids and to make it that his whole family is together in the church, in religion, that they don't have any different in between them that will pull them apart. That now, they can share the love of Christ in their home everyday and be able to become closer not only as a family but as an eternal family!! His kids are really shy and he was worried that they wouldnt be able to gain the confidence to be baptized by the missionaries but when he found out that he was able to do it, to got on it really fast. He sat his family down and talked them about the importance of the family in the church and how they could become a family strong and faithful in the church if his kids would join them in the covenants and promises that they made during baptism. The lesson was really spiritual and his kids accepted to be baptized. We just had to organize it and he did the rest. It is amazing to see how powerefull the message of the Family is to the people that are willing to accept the word of the Lord. Many people are hard hearted here with their different religions that make up lies and rumors about the other religions around them. This causes the people to close their hearts and not want to hear what the Lord has prepared for them. I am so happy that as a missionary, I have the power through the Holy Ghost to touch the hearts of the people that have them so closed and shut up to the truth. The Lord prepares many people in our path each and every day. All we need to do is pay attention to the Spirit and talk to everyone we can about the message and the testimony that we have of the true restored Gospel on the world today. I will be spending the rest of this day, my Birthday, around the people I love here in Nicaragua! I actually went to a Fritanga this morning to help them make food. A fritanga is a place, kinda like a resturant that sells food off a grill with rice and beans and such. We went there in the morning and helped them prepare the food for the day and ate some pretty good food. I love NIcaragua and I know that this is the place that the Lord has called me to serve for these 2 years!!

“We cannot foresee what the Lord has in mind for us. Our only course of action is to be prepared and worthy for whatever he requires. We must govern our actions every day with our future in mind.”
--Elder Russell M. Nelson

¡¡¡Les Amo MUCHO!!!

ELDER DAUGHERTY

Some new shoes I got for super cheap.

My agenda. It has a picture of the process of missionary work and the growth of a seed.

A family that we baptized last week. 

May 13, 2013

Here is a article on LDS.org on Mother's Day that was posted last year.

Those living in the United States celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, 13 May. For most families, it will be a day filled with pampering their beloved mother. Children will treat Mom to breakfast in bed and shower her with homemade gifts, and Dad will fire up the grill for a Mother’s Day feast. It’s the type of celebration that takes place all over the world at different times of the year, with perhaps slight variations on affectionate traditions.

Recognizing mothers for all they do has origins dating back thousands of years, but the modern-day holiday got its beginnings in the early 20th-century United States. Mother’s Day is credited to Anna Jarvis, who desired to memorialize her own mother and in the process successfully lobbied for a national holiday. Jarvis insisted on making the apostrophe in “Mother’s Day” a singular possessive to indicate a personal recognition rather than a plural possessive that honors mothers as an entire group.

Perhaps the woman who best exemplifies motherhood is Mary, the earthly mother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Mary was chosen by God the Father above all others to bear and raise the Christ child. How pure and faithful she must have been for our Father in Heaven to entrust her with His Only Begotten Son and Savior of the World.

Along with her husband, Joseph, Mary provided a loving and caring home for her young son as He matured and prepared for a purpose no other being could accomplish — Atone for all mankind.

One of the most touching gestures and a telling insight into how the Savior cherished His mother is found in the New Testament. After bearing the burden of each of our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane and as He hung on the cross suffering and bleeding, He made sure that His mother was cared for before He “gave up the ghost.”

“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:26-27).


I hope all of you Mothers had a great day and that your families made it even batter for you!! Love all of you!
Love you Mom!!

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/released-mothers-day-bible-video-depicts-mary-mother-jesus

Elder Daugherty

My new companion in Tipitapa. 

A bottle of Mariguanol. It's a creme for burns and to help heal wounds.

My friend O. in Villa Venezuela. 

May 6, 2013

Well a lot of new things happened this change!!! First off, I got changed to a new area!!  I am now in Tipitapa, Tipitapa!!! And I have a new companion too. Elder B from Guatemala. He has 4 months in the mission and is kind of new to the way the mission works and will be needing a bit of help getting out of some bad habits he has created so far in the mission. I will be working with him a lot this change to better his teaching skills and his working habits. I am very excited to be here and very excited to start working with the people here. It is really hard to start off in a new area because I don't know the area and get lost really easily and I don't know anyone, especially the recent converts and where they all live. I'm working on it though! Working hard and all to better my memory of where people live and how to get to their houses, where the best food place is, where the cheapest food place is, where the best computer lab is, etc. This new area of Tipitapa was recently made into a new zone so there is a lot of work here to do. We have about 200 members in our Branch and about all of them go each Sunday. We have about 37 Recent Converts that all go to church except a few of them. The area is really big and its really hard to have visits on one side and be on the other side and have to run over there. So I really working hard to fix my area and to fix my comp.

“Most of you are mothers, and very many of you are grandmothers and even great-grandmothers. You have walked the sometimes painful, sometimes joyous path of parenthood. You have walked hand in hand with God in the great process of bringing children into the world that they might experience this estate along the road of immortality and eternal life. It has not been easy rearing a family. Most of you have had to sacrifice and skimp and labor night and day. As I think of you and your circumstances, I think of the words of Anne Campbell, who wrote as she looked upon her children:

You are the trip I did not take;
You are the pearls I cannot buy;
You are my blue Italian lake;
You are my piece of foreign sky.
(“To My Child,” quoted in Charles L. Wallis, ed., The Treasure Chest [1965], 54)

You [mothers] are the real builders of the nation wherever you live, for you have created homes of strength and peace and security. These become the very sinew of any nation.” Gordon B. Hinckley

¡¡¡Les Amo Mucho!!!

Elder Daugherty