My companion and I in our soccer jerseys. Real Madrid and Barcelona, 2 rival teams.

A little reminder of home that I bought the other day.

Dr Porter and his wife. I helped them in the oral surgery room.

A charity group that is helping future missionaries from Nicaragua get dental work done. I went to help translate for all the gringos that couldn't speak Spanish.

A kid that accidentally swallowed his tooth when they were taking it out. 

An activity we did with Pres Collado and all those that were training.

My new companion, Elder Q.

November 18, 2013

Alright everyone!!! Im writing super late due to the fact that I had to go to the office of the mission today... on my P-Day... well the reason I had to go is because I am getting another new comp. He is a missionary, not a mini, and I still dont kow who it is. G came with me to the office and he has already left to home so he can be with his family before he leaves to his mission in January.

Well this week, was super crazy... With G, we worked super hard and found a couple families that we started to teach and they were super positive. One family we found, was a reference from another missionary that is in my old area in Villa Venezuela. We went to this family and taught them and in the first lesson, we put a baptismal date with them. They were super excited and super positive. They said they were going to go to church with us this week. So yesterday, we passed by their house in the morning and they werent there... Their mom said that they had already left, dresssed and ready to go to the church. Well I called them to ask them where they were and the wife told me that her husband had a change of mind and now he is against the church and he visiting it and getting baptised. So she told us that we shouldnt pass by anymore and that when she gets things figured out that shw would come looking for us... It was really sad to see that family that we had taught many times, that we love and want to progress in the gospel... So that part of the week kind of sucked...

In other news, we had a meeting with the District Pres of Tipitapa to talk about the work of the members and the mission work in Tipitapa. We were there talking about the missionary work and we had the impression to ask the District Pres for a blessing. Like Ammon in the BoM, he blessed each of his brotheres before they went out on thier seperate ways to teach the gospel. So we asked him to bless each of us to help the missionary work go forward and become better in Tipitapa. It was a blessing that was well needed and I think that each one of us now have more of a desire to get out there and work even harder.

So they just informed me that my new comp is Elder P. Ive known him for a bit and he is pretty cool. But the Lord has left me rest for a bit with these mini misionaries and now he is putting me with another companion that will be a help to me and that I can be a help to him. No way to grow if we arent tested in this life. :)

So today, I went to the office in the morning, on the way there, the bus we were in broke down, so we had to take a taxi to the office. We get there and my comp heads out to his home. Hna Collado, the wife of Pres Collado, was decorating the office for Christmas so I helped her for about 3 hours doing that. She ordered BurgerKing for lunch and after I went with her and Elder M to the hospital because Hna Collado thought that Elder M was sick. funny story there. After we were in the hospital for 2 hours, we went to pick up the kids of Pres and Hna Collado from school and now we are back in the office. I met my new comp and we should be headed out soon to Tipitapa. Super Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong day and I am super tired now...

“Do not allow yourselves to be made to feel inadequate or frustrated because you cannot do everything others seem to be accomplishing. Only you and your Father in Heaven know your needs, strengths, and desires. Around this knowledge your personal course must be charted and your chioces made.”
― Marvin. J. Ashton

¡¡¡Les Amo MUCHISIMO!!!

Elder Daugherty

We celebrated Halloween a little late.

A monkey that someone had outside their movie shop.

A creep spider thing we found in our house.

The river that connects to Lake Managua and the bridge that crosses it. It is called El Puente del Diablo, the bridge of the Devil.

I made chop sui with my companion for dinner.

November 11, 2013

Well this week went by fast, as usual. This week many things were able to happen. We are going to be moving out of our house and moving into a new one that we found that other week. It seems like by the time i get back home, I'll have moved just about as many times as I did before I left on the mish. Good thing I got some good practice before the mish so it wouldn't be so hard to move on the mish. Thanks Dad ;) Love you!!

Well this week, we didn't really do that much other than walk all around Tipitapa, talk to alot of people, teach alot of people, etc. One day, we showed up to visit Elker and Marisela, and they weren't talking to each other. I was super sad to see that after they had overcome their poor money situation, their sicknesses, that now they couldn't handle alittle family problem. So i went outside to talk to Marisela, she didn't want to come inside. We talked for a bit about what was going on and talked about the things that the Lord has helped them get through. She was able to understand that if she trusted God in his commandments and did what she needed to do, that things would be alright, she just didn't want to live with the problems and wanted to give up right away. I then talked to Elker and he seemed about the same way except that he wanted to help his wife as much as he could but she wasn't letting him. I talked to him about the blessings that they have received and how they would be able to get help from God if they trusted in him. The next day, Elder Estes called me and told me that he saw them walking together and that they were holding hands. I talked to them on Saturday and everything is better now, its not the same but when we change, things are never the same.

We also taught Orlando and Anna this week. We taught them about Baptism and the power of God or the Priesthood. We taught them that even though they had been baptized in other churches that it wasn't valid before the eyes of God unless it was done through this priesthood. Orlando looked at me and said that even if he got baptized 1,000 times, it wouldn't count unless by this priesthood, and I testified to him that he was exactly right. We then both invited them to be baptised and they both agreed. It was alittle sad though because this week, they went to the Catholic church instead of going with us. They have prayed and asked God if the things we are teaching them are true and they have gotten their answer. They both have told me that they know these things are true. But it seems that they are afraid to leave from family traditions... that's something alot harder to teach than baptism. Telling someone to uproot themselves from something that they are used to is really hard but through the faith in God, it is possible and we can receive more blessings than we can imagine. But the hard part is taking the first step into the darkness, testing that faith that we have. That is what this family needs.

Things are going swellingly here in the work of the Lord!!! Just like the US, everyone here celebrate Christmas way before the month of December. Ive seem so many Christmas trees in my area in the past 3 days. Makes me think of home, I havent yet heard the Christmas music but I wouldnt doubt that its being played too :) But dont forget, Thanksgiving comes before Christmas, make sure to celebrate that first ;) Love you guys!!

''There are times when the only way to get from A to C is by way of B. Having grown up in Southern Utah and enjoying all the wonders and beauties of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, I wanted to introduce my son to that, and I wanted to show him places that I had seen and enjoyed when I was his age, so his mother packed a little lunch for us and we took his grandfather's pickup truck and headed South onto what we call the Old Arizona Strip. Noting that the Sun was going down we decided we better get back. But we came back to a particular fork in the road, really the only one, that at that point was absolutely unrecognizable. I asked my son to pray about which road to take, and he felt strongly that we should go to the right, and I did as well, and we went to the right and it was a dead end. We went four or five or six hundred yards and it was an absolute dead-end, clearly the wrong road. We turned around, came back out, took the other road and clearly the road to the left was the correct road. Somewhere along the way Matt said, "Dad, why did we feel, after praying about it, that the right road was the proper one to take, the correct one to take, and it wasn't?" And I said, "I think that the Lord, His wish for us there, and his answer to our prayer was to get us on the right road as quickly as possible with some reassurance, with some understanding, that we were on the right road and we didn't have to worry about it, and in this case, the easiest way to do that was to let us go 400 yards or 500 yards on the wrong road, and very quickly know, without a doubt, that it was the wrong road, and therefore with equal certainty with equal conviction that the other one was the right road." I have absolute certain knowledge, perfect knowledge, that God loves us. He is good, He is our Father, and He expects us to pray, and trust, and be believing, and not give up, and not panic, and not retreat, and not jump ship, when something doesn't seem to be going just right. We stay in, we keep working, we keep believing, keep trusting, following that same path and we will live to fall in His arms and feel His embrace and hear Him say, "I told you that it'd be okay, I told you it would be all right."

--Elder Holland

¡¡¡Les Amo MUCHO!!!

Elder Daugherty

November 4, 2013

Well another week has past here in Tipitapa. I was thinking about how long I might be in Tipitapa since i already have 6 months here. Since I have a mini missionary, I think that they will leave me here another change, which is another 6 weeks. So i think that I will pass Christmas here and the New Year. I should be heading out of Tipitapa in the first week of January. And then only God knows where I will be going next!! I could go anywhere... Chinandega Oeste, Leon, Puerto, Bello Horizante, or Esteli... So I guess we will see.

This week we have been running around and doing tons of crazy stuff that keeps us super busy. I don't know if I every told you guys but I got assigned as DL for the areas of Tipitapa. That means that I am in charge of watching over a couple areas and making sure that they are working and doing the things that they need to do. I am here to help them in any way that I can. Also, I get to do the interviews for the people that are going to be baptised. Kinda like the bishop does to make sure you are worthy to be baptised or go to the temple, I get to do that whenever there is anyone ready to be baptised. It gives me alot more stress than I would like but it keeps me aware of what is going on in the areas, here in Tipitapa.

Experience of the Week:

Remember Elker? Well this Sunday, he recieved the Priesthood!!! He was so excited and so happy that he will be able to bless his family with this prividge to be worthy to hold the priesthood. Even though this family is super poor, they are the humblest people I know. Every week I see them go and fill out a tithing slip to pay on what they have earned for the week and then give even more on the first Sunday of the month for Fast Offerings.

We are working super hard to be able to have success and be able to see the hand of the Lord working in our area and in our own lives. Sorry this weeks letter is pretty short!!

We cannot afford young men who lack self-discipline and live only to be entertained. We cannot afford young adult men who are going nowhere in life, who are not serious about forming families and making a real contribution in this world. We cannot afford husbands and fathers who fail to provide spiritual leadership in the home. We cannot afford to have those who exercise the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God, waste their strength in pornography or spend their lives in cyberspace. Brethren, we have work to do.

~ D. Todd Christofferson

¡¡¡¡Les Amo Mucho!!!

Elder Daugherty