This week we have just been working with investigators trying to help them progress. We found a new family who Elder Real and I have a really good feeling about! Their names are Dennis and Nineth, and their two children Justo, and Katelin. Katelin is about 12 and Justo just barely turned 8. We taught them about the restoration of the Church through Joseph Smith, with the same fundamentals that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth: a living prophet (Amos 3:7), 12 apostles with power and authority (Luke 9:1-2), the prophet and apostles receive revelation to guide us, and the scriptures (Bible and Book of Mormon). We also taught them about the Book of Mormon and they were extremely receptive. Nineth teared up when we bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and told her that the copy of the Book of Mormon was theirs to keep! WHOOO! A couple days later we taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and they had a little difficulty. The struggle with them has been the thought of baptism. They were all baptized a couple years ago as a family in another church wherein the preacher dipped his finger in "Holy water" and drew a cross on each of their foreheads. After teaching them about baptism that Jesus Christ established: baptism by IMMERSION for the remission of sins (Matt. 3:13-17), a baptism being done by someone who has been called of God (Hebrews 5:4), baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Matt. 28: 19-20), and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands (Acts 8:15,17), they understood. But they didn´t like the idea of being baptized again. (All of these points of proper baptism are also found in the Book of Mormon.) We asked them to pray about it and they said they would. We then asked if they would be baptized when they received their answer that it was true, and they said they would be baptized if they received an answer.
Well, we went back on Saturday and they still weren"t sure if they had received an answer but they were going to keep praying. Elder Real felt impressed to talk with them about the priesthood that we hold in the church, and the things that the priesthood allows us to do. She was intrigued when we taught a little bit about healing of the sick and afflicted. She told us that she has a bad sickness that has been causing her body a lot of pain. Here they call the sickness "aire" meaning air...I´m not sure if this sickness exists in the U.S. or not. If it does then I have no idea what it is called. She asked us if we could give her a blessing right now, because she had faith that we could heal her. Of course we jumped out of our seats at this point and were giddy with excitement! We could tell how strong her faith was. We got the whole family settled down and began the blessing. As we did so, I had the chills the whole time. I could feel the Spirit in the room not only touching me but also everyone else. As we closed the blessing, everyone in the room was dead silent. No one said a word! We stepped back and asked Nineth how she felt. She was starting to cry and she said that she felt really good. Elder Real and I then both shared our testimonies about the power of the priesthood, restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, and that this is the only church on the earth to hold this power. I know everyone in that room felt the Spirit. We have been hoping and praying that the experience would be a witness to them of the power of the priesthood that we hold and the need for the proper priesthood authority in baptism. We are going to their house tonight to have family home evening! I´ll keep you updated.
We found José Otoniel finally. He came to conference on Sunday morning with his older brother and they both really enjoyed conference. José now has 3 times that he has attended church and has received all of the lessons! We are going to visit him Tuesday with the District Leader (Elder Combe) so that he can interview him. He is scheduled to be baptized this Saturday. We are now praying for him and also his older brother because he seemed to enjoy church as well!
Conference was great! I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I was able to watch all of Saturday´s sessions, including the priesthood session, in English with the other U.S. elders in the zone. Sunday morning we watched the morning session in Spanish but the Sunday afternoon we were able to watch in English.
I loved all of conference, but there were a few talks that really stood out to me. Saturday morning, I thought the talk by Donald L. Hallstrom was really interesting. He talked about how there is a difference between the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ and the CHURCH of Jesus Christ. He said that the foundation and core of our testimony should be in the gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end), and that the main purpose of the Church is to help us live the gospel of Jesus Christ-the things of eternity. I always love Elder Holland. In the priesthood session I loved Elder Bednar´s talk. He said that it is not enough to receive the priesthood and wait until someone prods us to act. It isn´t only disobeying the commandments that makes us unworthy to exercise our priesthood. He said that in order to become unworthy of the priesthood, one needs only to do nothing. Not fulfilling your priesthood duties also makes you unworthy to exercise the priesthood. Elder Anderson´s talk was also very powerful. He taught that the only question that really matters is, "what thinks Christ of me?"
I really enjoyed this conference because it was focused on the importance of family. I feel very blessed to have grown up in such a great family, especially now that I see the decay of families here in Nicaragua. Elder M. Russel Ballard said something along the lines of, "Do people have stronger families because they are blessed and prosperous? Or are families blessed and prosperous because of the love and strength within families? It is the latter. I have seen the need for strength and love within families even more here in 
Nicaragua. The family that is ordained of God, with both a mother and father who are married, is rare here in Nicaragua. It is when there is love and strength within families that a family can receive the most blessings. I also loved that almost all of the talks were extremely straight forward and powerful. I feel the spirit more strongly that way.
Nicaragua. The family that is ordained of God, with both a mother and father who are married, is rare here in Nicaragua. It is when there is love and strength within families that a family can receive the most blessings. I also loved that almost all of the talks were extremely straight forward and powerful. I feel the spirit more strongly that way. Hope all is well! Love you all!
Elder Parrish
