Your average, ordinary, everyday Nicaraguan bug!
P-day already? Crazy!
Hope everyone had a great week! This week was a pretty good week and we saw a lot of improvement among our investigators. We were really worried about Dennis and Nineth because they were extremely stubborn, and didn´t want to make the changes that they knew they needed to make. This week we focused on them and they are both to the point now where they know that what we are teaching is correct, but they have been struggling to get answers to their prayers. I shared a scriptures in Galatians 5:22 about the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, etc. I asked them if during our lessons they had felt any of these feelings and they said yes, that they feel these feelings every time we come over. I then explained to them that those feelings that they have felt are coming from the Holy Ghost, and that it is the Holy Ghost testifying to them that the things we are teaching them is true. Nineth gave the closing prayer and it was POWERFUL. She was nearly crying and she was saying, "Just tell me Lord! Just tell me if this is right! Just tell me!" We are going to visit them tomorrow and I´m really excited to see how they are doing.
Last night we visited two families (Vicente & Kenia, Edwin & Yara) that we hadn´t been able to find in weeks but they both happened to be there in their houses! Both of the families told us that they had been reading the Book of Mormon in their spare time, and liked what they had they been reading. WHOO! We invited both families to pray about what they had been reading to know for sure if the Book of Mormon is true. Both of them were extremely positive and we feel like they are going to start progressing again. Saturday night we had a ward activity that went really well. We told the members that the only way they could get into the activity was if they brought a non member friend or less active 
member. To start the activity we had a big bonfire where a few families in the ward shared their testimonies and some youth in the ward did a cultural dance. However, my camera ran out of batteries so I missed getting pictures of the dance. :( Elder Real and I ran back to the house which isn´t far from the church to get more batteries. After the bonfire we played
member. To start the activity we had a big bonfire where a few families in the ward shared their testimonies and some youth in the ward did a cultural dance. However, my camera ran out of batteries so I missed getting pictures of the dance. :( Elder Real and I ran back to the house which isn´t far from the church to get more batteries. After the bonfire we playedgames and then had refreshments. The activity went WAY better than we had expected, and in total we received 18 new references of people to teach! (8 on our side of La Concha, 10 on the sister´s side)
Yesterday we had an extremely interesting sacrament meeting! The bishop´s wife got up to give a talk. She held up a picture of a $100 bill (which has the face of Benjamin Franklin) in a book that she had been reading. In this book she learned about the story of Benjamin Franklin. Her whole talk, which was about 15 minutes long, she told us the life story of Benjamin Franklin. She told us that his story is extremely inspiring because he came from a poor background and accomplished great things. She then sharedher testimony and challenged the ward to be more self-sufficient like Benjamin Franklin and that he is a great example for us to follow as members of the church. I´m a terrible person and I need to repent because I was laughing in my head like the whole time...I had such a hard time trying not to laugh! I have never heard someone give a talk about Benjamin Franklin and then bear testimony of him as a great example for us to follow! Anyways, don´t worry, I´m going to repent :) haha. I just wanted to share that story!
To answer a couple questions..I am pretty much used to the food now. The last time I checked I have lost a total of 13 pounds!! That sounds really bad, but you have to take into account that in the MTC I gained about 7 pounds, because we had a buffet every meal and then sat in a classroom all day. So basically the weight I´ve lost is the fat I gained in the MTC (haha). All the missionaries say that the first couple months everyone loses weight because of the sun and walking around all day, every day, but that after a few months I´ll be back to my normal body weight. Our meals right now are really small portions, but that´s just because this is a poorer town. In bigger towns the missionaries usually gain weight.
To get around town we just walk pretty much all day, every day! There are little moto-taxis here that are always driving people around. They are little 3 wheeled cars that hold about 4.5 people! I sometimes have trouble fitting in them. I I need to take a picture of it to send. We sometimes take a ride in a moto taxi if we are in a hurry, but usually we just walk. To get to other towns we take vans. There are big 15 to 18 person vans that drive back and forth between towns taking whatever people need a ride and they are really cheap.
Love you all! Elder Parrish
