My First Baptisms

This week was pretty incredible and it went by crazy fast. Wednesday we had a conference with all of the mission in Masaya where we ate, did talent shows, listened to President Monestel and his wife speak to us, and then broke up into smaller groups where we went from station to station learning about different things. What stood out to me the most was what we learned about family history work. According to President Monestel, when Elder Russell M. Nelson visited Nicaragua in January he told the members that they were lacking in two main areas as a country in order to receive a temple. The first being baptisms; the country of Nicaragua needs more active, faithful members. The second being family history work. He counseled the members that they should all learn to do family history work and that us as missionaries should help the members to learn. I had never really thought a whole lot about family history work but the importance of it really stood out to me. If there aren´t any names prepared to do temple work then there´s really no use for a temple!

Saturday was absolutely crazy hectic but it ended up working out just fine. After working with Jericho this week he passed his interview and was ready to be baptized! Me and him have become pretty good friends. He likes to teach me new spanish words and laugh when I can´t say them exactly right! He told me I look like I´m 25 but I think that´s just because I´m taller than most of the people here. I told him that I have a little brother named Marshall who is a year younger than him that I baptized and his eyes got all big! I told him I would show him the picture of me at Marshall´s baptism so if you could send that through email that would be great!

We went to the houses of Jose and Josel twice this week and they weren´t there either time. There house is about a 15 minute walk into the mountains and it is pretty dangerous area with a lot of gangs. We were frustrated because we couldn´t find them either time we went and neither of them or their families have phones. We are going to go visit them again this week and hopefully we´ll be able to find them!

The sisters who work on the other half of the city had a couple that they had been working with who wanted to get baptized but they weren´t married. So after a few weeks of working with them the couple finally decided that they wanted to get married. So the plan was to have the marriage the hour before the baptism, and immediately after have the combined baptism with all 3 people.

Saturday morning my comp. and I, and the Sisters went to the church house in the morning to fill the baptismal font with water, and there just happened to not be any water! There were two water spouts that were working on the church grounds so we went all around the neighborhood looking for hoses to use to fill up the font. We finally found two hoses and began filling the font up and then we realized, oh no, there´s not a drain plug. Unfortunately no stores here sell the plug, so we stuffed a few plastic bags down the drain and the font slowly began to fill up. After about a half hour we had a few inches of water in the font but then the water stopped, AGAIN! At this point in time we called the District Leader in San Marcos which is about 10 minutes from La Concha. They were having a baptism later that afternoon and told us that we could join their baptismal service if we wanted. So we finally found somewhere where we could do the baptism but now we needed transportation for all the people who were planning to attend. We didn´t have enough money for a bus so we called an absolutely awesome recent convert in the ward named Miguel Moraga. He told us that he could bring his pickup truck and fit about 10 people in the back. We also called another member in the ward who said that he could bring his pickup as well. Finally our baptism was looking like it was going to happen after all! All this time the sisters were preparing the relief society room for a wedding and we were all worn out.

Elder Real and I went to the bishop´s office to get baptismal clothes for Jericho. We soon found out however that there weren´t pants and a shirt his size. (Here they use white pants and a white shirt for the baptisms rather than a jumpsuit.) So we took a pair of pants that were a mens small, and with the help of the sisters, sewed them to fit an 11 year old...miracle I tell you. We called a lady in the ward who had a son about Jericho´s age and she agreed to bring us a shirt for him. By this time we had about an hour until the wedding was about to take place.

After the wedding only Miguel showed up with his pickup, so we literally fit 24 people in the back of a little pickup truck about the size of my old Ford Ranger! In the U.S. this would have been highly illegal. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it but I couldn´t move enough to reach my camera in my pocket!

The baptisms went great, I was lucky enough to be able to baptize my man Jericho, and the newlywed couple as well! I felt extremely blessed and lucky because I know how much their baptisms will bless their lives. As we all know, there are two parts to a proper baptism. The next day all 3 were confirmed members of the church and received the Holy Ghost. I couldn´t have been more happy after seeing these 3 people be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! I feel so blessed to even be a part of it!

To answer some more questions:We make our own breakfast every morning (usually bread and water and sometimes an orange or banana). We have a lunch appointment every day at a little restaurant here in town. We pay the owner every 15 days and they just feed us every day. Every night for dinner we go to the house of a member of the ward named Jakeline who returned from her mission in Panama about 2 years ago. We also pay her every 15 days and she cooks all of our dinners. The food is pretty much the same every day: rice, pinto beans, fried sliced bananas, and a small piece of hamburger or chicken. After about a week and a half I had a couple days where my body just rejected the food! My stomach like refused to take any more. But after a couple days of forcing myself to eat it I went back to normal. I am now used to the food and don´t mind it at all! I have only found two things that I don´t like: their cheese, which is really bitter and dry, and a weird drink that they always give to us called avena which is literally powdered milk in water with oatmeal. Other than that I do just fine:)

This week we all are going to the stake center in Jinotepe to watch the conference sessions in a church building! I´m not exactly sure how it is going to work but i´m excited to listen to my first general conference in spanish!

I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ! Every time we teach a lesson I can feel the spirit bearing witness to me again that it is true. This past week we found 3 new families that we are excited to start working with and help them to learn more about the true gospel of Jesus Christ!

I thank you for your prayers and support! Love, Elder Parrish