This week Elder Franco and I had our first baptism together! We baptized a 60 year old man named Julio.  Elder Franco and Elder Fleming were already teaching him when I got to the area a week and a half ago, so we basically just had to finish teaching him the missionary lessons to prepare him for baptism. Elder Franco says that he's always been really positive and there were never really any struggles. The only thing that was a little difficult was teaching him! He works as a security guard at some rich gringo's house right next to the church. So we always had to find time to teach him there. He lives in our area, but it's way far away from the church, so we always taught him where he worked when he wasn't busy. Julio is a stud! He lives alone in a little neighborhood that's about 10 minutes outside Granada. He has friends that are members of the Church, so hopefully they will keep visiting him and helping him stay active in the Church.

When I got to the area, Elder Franco and Elder Fleming had just baptized almost all of their investigators, so Elder Franco and I are pretty much starting from scratch! We have contacted a lot of new families this week and are starting to teach a lot of new people. I've never been someone who enjoys talking to absolute strangers, I normally prefer just keeping to myself, but the Lord has blessed me with the courage and desire to talk to EVERYONE! If I ever let a family pass by me in the road without contacting them, I get a guilty feeling because who knows if that was the family that the Lord had prepared for us to teach! Part of missionary work is just leaving your fear behind you and talking with everyone. It's incredible the way the Lord helps strengthen me each and every day. I love 2 Nephi 2:6-8 in the Book of Mormon. I feel like the Lord has blessed me with a stronger desire to "make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth"!

 Just to explain a little more about my companion. He is from Argentina and lives in the providence of Córdoba. All the members of his family are members of the Church. He has an older brother that already served his mission in Argentina, and has two younger brothers that will soon be leaving on their missions. He's been in the mission 10 months and is a stud! He is really hard working and we get along really well.

 

The last time I was in Granada, my area was called La Estación, and we lived really close to Lake Nicaragua, but now I am on the other end of Granada and we live close to the cemetary. Elder Chappell (my MTC companion) is also in our zone. He is the district leader in a little town called Diriomo right outside Granada. It's about 15 minutes away by bus. Today, our zone went to a place called Hot Dog Connection, where they sell all sorts of different hot dogs, to eat lunch. Tomorrow, all the zone leaders in the mission have a meeting with President and the assistants in Managua, which should be fun. It's been kind of crazy being a zone leader up until now. We are always running all over Granada doing baptismal interviews and taking materials that the missionaries need to their areas. Not to mention taking numbers from the missionaries every night. Luckily almost all the missionaries in the zone are really hard-working, and I don't think we'll have any serious problems. This past weekend, the zone baptized 2 families (a husband and wife) 3 priesthood aged men, and 8 people in total. This is an awesome zone. I'm really excited for these next few months!
Love, Elder Parrish


 

Zone Granada!