Buenas!
I know everyone has a ton of questions so I'll try and answer them!
Ward: The ward here is pretty incredible. There are around 100 members I think but the problem is that there are a lot of innactive members. The ward really relies on the strength of the leaders within the ward. I am amazed at the love and desire to share the gospel these church members have. Every day we have leaders come out with us and help us in our teaching appointments. The ones who come help us the most are the ward mission leader, Elvis, the second counselor in the bishopric, Dago, the second couselor in the relief society, Idalia, and a recently returned missionary, Jakeline. I am coming to the realization of just how important every single member is within a ward. Having warm, loving ward members keeps struggling members active and gives investigators a desire to attend church.
Avg. life for a Nicaraguan: I asked my companion and he said that the average person here in La Concha makes about 50 Cordobas a day for a full day of work. (23 Cords=1 dollar) And a really good wage is about 300 Cordobas a day which is around $12 I think. The majority of the people live in small houses and have almost nothing but there are a few people with money that have nice clothes and cars. As missionaries we have more money than the majority of the people here which is really sad.
Right now the work is going really well for Elder Real and I. We have 7 people with baptismal dates. We have 3 baptisms scheduled for this upcoming saturday. I am a little nervous about two of them (Jose y Josel, both are about 15 years old and are best friends) because they didn't make it to church this past Sunday and we haven't seen them for over a week. However, I'm pretty confident about our other baptism for this upcoming saturday with a 11 year old boy named Jericho. His mom is a recent convert and her story is amazing. She was the definition of a party girl. She drank, had problems with the law of chastity, had four kids out of wedlock and had problems with just about everything you can think of. But the missionaries who taught her helped her a lot and she did a complete 180. She's is one of the strongest members and is really focused on being a good 
example to her 4 young kids (Jericho is the oldest.) We've been working really hard with other investigators and also with recent converts. So many people here have strong desires to follow the gospel of Christ but as soon as they are baptized it's hard for them to stay active because money doesn't come easy here. A lot of them have to work on Sundays and are so busy all the time! I can't even tell you how many lessons we've taught about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Another problem we sometimes face is that a lot of people here can't read or due to their poor reading skills they don't want to. It's been difficult to keep people consistently reading the Book of Mormon, and seeing as how it's the keystone of our religion and is evidence of the truthfulness of our church, I'd say it's pretty important!!
The language is slowly coming along. I'm still having trouble understanding but I have improved a lot in just a week. I've really been trying to talk to the members a lot to practice, which has helped also. I just barely had a conversation with a guy on the computer next to me which was pretty cool. (On Pdays we come to a public computer lab). He, like everyone else, was curious as to why my skin is white and what I'm doing here in Nicaragua!
Every week after church we have a leadership training meeting with all the leaders in the ward. The four missionaries in the ward (Me, Elder Real, Hermana Rivera, y Hermana Anderson) all had to give a little lesson. I was assigned to talk about La amistad (Friendship) and of the importance of supporting and loving new members and investigators. They already do a great job so I'm not sure if I helped a whole lot, but it was good spanish practice!
Well I've got to go! Love you all!
I know everyone has a ton of questions so I'll try and answer them!
Ward: The ward here is pretty incredible. There are around 100 members I think but the problem is that there are a lot of innactive members. The ward really relies on the strength of the leaders within the ward. I am amazed at the love and desire to share the gospel these church members have. Every day we have leaders come out with us and help us in our teaching appointments. The ones who come help us the most are the ward mission leader, Elvis, the second counselor in the bishopric, Dago, the second couselor in the relief society, Idalia, and a recently returned missionary, Jakeline. I am coming to the realization of just how important every single member is within a ward. Having warm, loving ward members keeps struggling members active and gives investigators a desire to attend church.
Avg. life for a Nicaraguan: I asked my companion and he said that the average person here in La Concha makes about 50 Cordobas a day for a full day of work. (23 Cords=1 dollar) And a really good wage is about 300 Cordobas a day which is around $12 I think. The majority of the people live in small houses and have almost nothing but there are a few people with money that have nice clothes and cars. As missionaries we have more money than the majority of the people here which is really sad.
Right now the work is going really well for Elder Real and I. We have 7 people with baptismal dates. We have 3 baptisms scheduled for this upcoming saturday. I am a little nervous about two of them (Jose y Josel, both are about 15 years old and are best friends) because they didn't make it to church this past Sunday and we haven't seen them for over a week. However, I'm pretty confident about our other baptism for this upcoming saturday with a 11 year old boy named Jericho. His mom is a recent convert and her story is amazing. She was the definition of a party girl. She drank, had problems with the law of chastity, had four kids out of wedlock and had problems with just about everything you can think of. But the missionaries who taught her helped her a lot and she did a complete 180. She's is one of the strongest members and is really focused on being a good 
example to her 4 young kids (Jericho is the oldest.) We've been working really hard with other investigators and also with recent converts. So many people here have strong desires to follow the gospel of Christ but as soon as they are baptized it's hard for them to stay active because money doesn't come easy here. A lot of them have to work on Sundays and are so busy all the time! I can't even tell you how many lessons we've taught about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Another problem we sometimes face is that a lot of people here can't read or due to their poor reading skills they don't want to. It's been difficult to keep people consistently reading the Book of Mormon, and seeing as how it's the keystone of our religion and is evidence of the truthfulness of our church, I'd say it's pretty important!!
The language is slowly coming along. I'm still having trouble understanding but I have improved a lot in just a week. I've really been trying to talk to the members a lot to practice, which has helped also. I just barely had a conversation with a guy on the computer next to me which was pretty cool. (On Pdays we come to a public computer lab). He, like everyone else, was curious as to why my skin is white and what I'm doing here in Nicaragua!
Every week after church we have a leadership training meeting with all the leaders in the ward. The four missionaries in the ward (Me, Elder Real, Hermana Rivera, y Hermana Anderson) all had to give a little lesson. I was assigned to talk about La amistad (Friendship) and of the importance of supporting and loving new members and investigators. They already do a great job so I'm not sure if I helped a whole lot, but it was good spanish practice!Well I've got to go! Love you all!
