7th month mark

appy Birthday to Dave this Saturday as well!!!! 

On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 4:46 PM, Breann Willardson <breann.willardson@myldsmail.net> wrote:

FIRST AND FORMOST HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DARLING SISTER KRISTY!!!! I know Mom and Dad are probably spoiling you but eat some cake for me!! Woah how did that happen, I swear it was last week that I was writing you all and telling you that I was hitting my 6 month mark... Time really is flying isn't it. This week has been a really good one. I thought I would tell you some interesting things that the Nicaraguans do because I feel like I have never really told you what it is like to live as a Nicaraguan... Haha. Well to begin there is no hot water, ever. So what we do when we wake up is run around for a little while to try to heat ourselves up and then we go shower. Because otherwise you just sit there and freeze haha. But I actually have gotten used to it and I now enjoy them. It helps wake me up haha. Also something that I think is really funny... there are a lot of dirt roads here and for some reason that I have still yet to understand everyday people are outside with their hoses spraying water on the dirt road... It is something interesting to see. I think they are trying to grow something haha just kidding I think that it is so there isn't so much dirt in the air but it isnt really effective because it dries in about 5.2 seconds. :) There is so much fruit here, we eat some kind of fruit at every meal and sometimes when we are walking to appointments we will stop and pick fruit. Mangos, Tamarindas, Mandarinas, Oranges, and there are a lot of watermelons (yes I know they don't come from a tree) Coconuts, basically whatever you could think of. And I absolutely love it. I know without doubt that I am in the place that is perfect for me haha. Not only for the fruit but for the people too. Nagarote has something super special about it all of the people want to talk to you. To see where you are from and what you are doing here. I honestly hope that I am here for another transfer... That would mean that I will have 8 months here but I don't even care because I just love it so much. I am considering living here after the mission. Seriously though... hahaha. The other day we were walking along the road and we weren't paying much attention but out of the bushes came a big old snake. Obviously it scared us so we screamed and this man jumped out of the bushes with a machete and chopped the head off of the snake. HAHAHAHAHAHA my companion and I just stood there with our mouths open and didn't know what to do. Then the man just walked away all calm as if nothing had ever happened. It was one of the funniest memories that I have of the mission. Holy Moses.. Anyway I didnt really want to do a week sum up this week so I am just going to hit the highlights of the week. This week I did divisiones with the other TL and I brought her to my area. It was nice to have her here but at the same time it didn't feel like anything different. Normally the divisiones are a little stressful but this time we just worked like normal haha. We have been focusing a lot in the less actives this week because there are a whole bunch of less actives here so this week our focus had a little more to do with the less actives and we found that there are a lot of families where one of the spouses is a member and the other is not a member. (That was a hard sentance for me to write and I still don't think it is correct. Stinkin English is hard..) Anyway so now we have 4 families to complete that we are working with. We also have been working with our converts and getting them excited in missionary work. Everytime we go to visit them we ask for a reference and if they give us one I give them the candy mom sent me in my package haha. They all love American Candy. (Don't worry mom I am eating it too :)) This week we recieved a lot of references from our converts and it makes it exciting for them because then they come with us to teach and listening to one of my converts bear testimony is one of the best parts of the mission. I seriously almost cry everytime. It makes me feel good as a missionary. I love missionary work, have I told you that lately? I really do love it, and all the stress that comes with it!!! I also love training, I have learned so much in the time I have had as a trainer. I love my daughter so so so much, I know she will be one of my lifelong friends. I have had my testimony grow this week that The Lord knows exactly what it is we need and we need to learn to be humble and trust that He really does know what is best. This week we had the goal to have 2 families in the church so Sunday morning we left early to go pick up the families that told us they were going to come with us. Something went wrong with every single one of them except one family that came with us. I was feeling pretty down because we had fasted and prayed really hard to have 2 families in church. So as we were singing the song for the sacrament I said a prayer and said that I was really grateful for the one family that we had and that I knew that it isn't my will but His that matters. When I opened my eyes a family walked in that I hadn't ever seen before. Turns out this family is looking for a church to attend and they live in our area!!! I am here to testify that the Lord hears and answers prayers. But almost never it is in the way we are expecting. hahaha I am so grateful to be able to be seeing these miracles. As you know we are working hard in the branch to try to help it become a ward here pretty soon. This week we hit an attendance of 85, that is the highest it has been in the passed 7 years. I don't know what I did right to be part of these miracles but I don't ever want to leave Nagarote. This week we also had the baptism of the grandson of our converts Edda and Juan. It was so cute to see the pure joy he had. I know that the kingdom of God belongs to the children. 

Anyway family I hope you are all doing well where ever it is that you may be. Know that I still think of you and still love you all!!! Have a fantastic week!

Hermana Nicaragua

The start of another transfer

Holy Moses....... I really don't know where the time goes... can you believe that another transfer has just come and gone? I feel like it was just a week ago that I was writing you all and telling you that I was going to be training. Seriously I don't know what happened there.... I am having a mini mid mission crisis right now hahahha. Just kidding.

Well this week again was pretty normal... Well for the most part anyway I mean we still are talking about crazy ol me here in crazy Nicaragua. :)

Tuesday we had a zone activity that I helped plan where everyone in the zone was going to switch companions for 24 hours. We put goals for every new companionship and those that completed their goals got a little surprise (I will explain more of the surprise here a little later) anyway so then we all went out and it was actually really good for the zone. Almost everyone completed their goals and it helped out a bunch of areas. I was with Hermana Gonzales and she is new just like my daughter. And for some silly reason the Zone Leaders gave us the highest goals... So we worked really hard and got to complete all of them. I think that is one of the things that I am learning most from the mission. The importance of having goals. You just always feel so good when you complete them :) man I am so weird now.... hahahha

Anyway Wendesday I came back to our area and we worked like normal, the only bad thing about divisiones is that they make me pretty tired so it is hard to come back to my area and work hard like normal. But I am slowly learning to adapt to it. I feel pretty tired the good majority of the time haha but I love it because when I come home I want to do nothing more than sleep so that we can start the next day and work again! :)

Thursday we had a trainers meeting in Chinandega and I was about 7 blocks away from my converts and it was really really hard for me to not just go running to their houses. I did however see some of the members from my old area and it was crazy how happy I was to see them I have grown to love the people here in Nicaragua so much! But anyway we were there with President Collado and I always learn so much when we have meetings with him. Anyway then he told us that we were going to go work in Chinandega and I was really excited because I thought maybe I would have a chance to go back to my old area but they sent me to Chichigalpa. So we worked there and then at 8:30 we had to be back at the chapel, then we got in a little microbus and they sent us back to Nagarote... I would have just slept but the problem was that I had to go to the bathroom really bad.... and we didnt get home until 12:00!!! That is the latest I have stayed awake in the passed 6 and a half months. I was so tired hahaha.

Friday we went to go teach our families that were supposed to get baptized this weekend. The problem is that they feel like they need to know everything perfectly before they do it. Which yes I do understand but it is a little frustrating. So needless to say we didn't have the baptisms we were hoping for this week. But here we are still just working along.

On Saturday we were cleaning the church... well cleaning Nicaraguan style... hahaha it was likea car wash.. but for the church. Haha we hosed everything down and then scrubbed it all with brooms hahaha as we were jamming out to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a Jehovas Witness came to try to have a Bible bash with us. It was us four missionaries and the Branch President... HAhaha I was just thinking in my mind... what are you doing here? Do you know who we are? So with much respect we kindly told him that we didn't want anything to do with him and he left after telling us that the Holy Ghost doesn't exist. Hahaha.

So to finish my story from Tuesday, the surprise was that those who completed their goals got to throw tomatoes at their favorite leader.... so today we went to Leon... and people threw tomatoes at me hahaha. I got tomato every where!!!!! It was really really gross haha I wish I had picutres but I accidentally left my camera in Chichigalpa... oops haha. Anyway I hope you all know that even though I like to mess around and joke still I really am learning so much here in the mission. I am so grateful for the trust that my Heavenly Father has placed in me to teach the people of Nicaragua and I know I will be forever grateful for these days. :)

I love you all so much!!!

Love your Favorite Nicaraguan,
Hermana Willie

Pics

Hernaldo’s Baptism

Beach Day!  Bre and H. Alan

A selfy

Great day at the beach

Breann at the Beach

Breann and H. Alan

Hermana Behan and Bre

Guess

Breann’s favorite old people

H. Behan and Breann

Pretty Bre

Love this

Omar and Carol and family

Where Breann feels at home! The Velasquis Family

Another Week in Nicaragua Feb 10th

Another Week in Nicaragua

Man oh man I liked putting that title for the email. I am loving life here in Nicaragua as usual :) the sun is getting hotter and I am sweating more but I love it more and more and more every single day. This week went by really fast and I am not even sure where to begin or what day happened what... Or if my English is going to be good or bad today... SO I am just going to start writing and we will see what happens. Hahaha

Tuesday I had my monthly meeting with all the leaders of the mission. I got to see my friend from Puerto Cabezas and we stayed up pretty late sharing stories because Puerto is so awesome and I want to go really bad. I really enjoy the meetings with the Leaders because they are always super spiritual.. They also asked me to do a random musical number... hahah one of the things you learn on the mission is to just say yes to what the APs and President ask you to do. So that was exciting! After the meeting with the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders (thats me) we had a meeting with just the TLs so that we could talk more about our responsibilites. I always feel a little stressed after these meetings because I just want to give the best I can but it is a bit exhausting. Anyway I am still feeling good and just giving it all I can. Anyway I am going to explain about the people we are teaching right now.. well the ones that are most positive anyway. 

Jose Larios: (he is the old guy in the picture) He is an old guy that we found one day that told us that about 3 years ago he was at the point of baptism but the day of his baptism he left running because he is scared of water ha ha. So we started to teach him to see if maybe now he is a little more prepared and he should be getting baptized on Saturday. Every time we go there we sit us down and he says "teach me something new today!" So we teach him something new :) 

Osmar and Carol they are a really great family that I really love. Carol is a little bit hard because she grew up in a different church and all of her life has been there. So her heart is a little hard but she has been listening to us and came to church and really liked it. Her husband Osmar has such a desire to learn everything so we always have really great lessons. I know they will be baptized we are just waiting for Carol to soften her heart a little bit.

Carlos is a man of about 27 years he lives here but all of his family is from US so he likes to speak English with me but I have found it almost impossible for me to teach lessons in English so I don't. Hahaha really it is funny to see me teach in English because it just doesn't work.

Ernesto and Vicenta are another family that really love learning. They have recieved all the lessons and our hope is that they will be baptized this weekend. 

Hernaldo...... He is our little miracle man... in December he came to church all by himself and told us that he wants to learn more. The problem was that he was in Managua for the whole week working and we could never teach him. So we were not sure what to do. Well last Sunday he told us that this week he wouldn't be working so we went and taught him everyday this week and on Sunday morning he was baptized :) I know that he is really going to help out this branch and I am excited to see his progress! 

We went with the family Velasquis again this week and I really love being with them I really feel like I am back home with all my family when we visit them because they have a lot of people in their family that remind me of our family. I will ask my companion to send me the pictures we took with them. Don't worry she said yes :) 

Today we went to the beach and it was so awesome.... although you better believe it was very hard for me to not go swimming.... VERY DIFFICULT!!!!!!!!! But it was a good time :) I am feeling a little sunburned if you can believe it. We took a little 15 minute nap under a shack made from palm trees and it was another one of those... "Man Nicaragua is definitely the mission for me" kind of moments :)

Anyway I hope you all have a great week and I will write again next Monday!!! I LOVE YOU HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

Alyssa you aren't allowed to kiss anyone this Valentines day... sorry.

Love Hermana Willardson! 

Pics!

Breann at her 6 month mark

She is loving the parrots

Making waffles missionary style

She is not a fan of the bus but Loves this companion Sis Alan

Cleaning the baptismal font

She wants to bring this dog home….NO!

2-3-1014

Hey there Familia!!!!!!

Man oh man what the heck it is February. I don't know if I spelled that right but hopefully. Last week Mom told me that my English is horrible...... sorry I will work on that... in a year haha. Right now my primary language is Spanish and it is to the point where it is easier for me to speak spanish than it is english. First things first, Dad I hope you had a fantastic birthday!!! In memory of you I definitely drank an Ice cold Coca Cola. And spoke some spanish. Hahaha. 

Tuesday we had a good normal day of work (FINALLY) haha I feel like every week there is something that takes us out of our area so that we cant work and I hate it. But we went and visited and taught all of our investigators. We have 2 families that we are really focusing on right now and finally this weekend we are praying to see the baptism of Osmar and Carol PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM!!!!! Baptisms take a lot of faith on the part of the missionaries too.... I feel my faith build everyday... I think faith is kind of like magic. It is an awesome thing. Hahahhahahahhaha oh man... 

Wednesday I did divisions with Hermana Behan she is from Illinois and she is SO AWESOME!!!!! She has one transfer less than I do and we get along really well. Hahahaha funny story we were teaching one of her investigators and he was telling us a story about how his daughter got hit by a car out on the freeway and he watched it happen (ok that part isnt funny) and Hermana Behan didn't understand what he was saying so in the middle of his story she said "that is so good hermano!!" HAHAHAHAHA I looked at her with my eyes wide open and in shock and she looked at me very confused. Later she told me that she thought he was talking about something completely different. Haha that is why I love working with people that don't know spanish very well... I know I definitely said some funny things when I was just starting out too. But that made me laugh for pretty much the whole day. 

Thursday I came back to Nagarote and worked with my companion for about 2 hours and then we did more divisiones. HERMANA CRUZ RETURNED TO NAGAROTE!!!!!! It was really fun to work with her again. We went and looked for some references that we had received and this is always pretty funny because the directions here are crazy... this is the direction we were looking for... From the school in Por Venir three streets below one street to the west and half a block below. That one is actually pretty easy... but anyway normally what we do is we just ask people if they know the people we are looking for. SO we were out asking people for Edeth and Julio and we asked this lady if she knew them and her eyes got all wide and she stood up and ran in her house... so we were like... ummmm ok??? Then when she came back she had a machete..... so we were a little frightened... she asked us what we wanted and before I knew it my mouth was spitting out words and I said "Hermana we are here to help people repent and be baptized so that all of their sins can be erased" (In spanish of course) and hermana cruz just sat there looking at me.. Well I don't know if what I said offended her or just hit her right in the hard but she threw down the machete and ran back inside.... she didn't come back so we decided to just go because I was a little frightened. Hahahaha.... oh Nicaragua.... That night we had a Noche de Hermanamiento and Cruz got to see all of our converts and the members. It made me realize how much I love this branch... I know I am going to be so INCREDIBLY sad to leave it... if I could finish my mission here I really wouldn't mind. 

Friday and Saturday were pretty much the same so I am going to combine them... mostly just because I don't remember which day was which... so we have this really big family of Less actives there are about 20 members just in this one family and this week I was thinking about going to visit them... somethings happened in the branch and it left the father of this family really angry. When I was with Hermana Cruz we went to go visit them but the father was never there. So we went to go see if we could find him. I was honestly a little scared because I didn't know what I would say if we found the dad... So when we got there they all told us that the mom and dad were sitting outside. In the moment that they told me the dad was there I got really scared because I didn't know what I would say. But then I remembered the Lords promise to me, that He would fill my mouth with what I need to say when I need to say it. As we started talking I could feel that the words I was saying were not my own. Spanish flowed easily and I was saying things I had never said before. It was incredible to see how the Spirit can soften the hardest of hearts. We left the appointment feeling good. He told us that on Sunday he was going to go to church again. 

Sunday morning we called Leonardo Velasques (the dad) and asked him if he was still planning on coming. He told us that not only him and his wife but all of the family was going to go.... In that moment I could not help but to cry.... I have seen miracles in the mission... more than I can write but this is one of my favorites. To see how the right words can change peoples lives is unreal. I can't express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be used as an instrument here in Nicaragua. The attendance of the branch on Sunday was the highest I have ever seen it. Along with this family of Less actives we also had 11 investigators there with us. All of our work is finally showing. I was feeling stressed this week because we are working really hard but the thing about the mission is that sometimes the results take a little while to show. But I am so so happy :) Anyway funny story to wrap things up. We were walking to one of our investigators house last night and there was this drunk man in the street and he started talking to us and inviting us to go teach him... I felt a strong impression to leave so as we started walking away he grabbed me and gave me a big old drunk hug.... I was in shock as you can imagine so I just stood there in terror my companion grabbed my arm and yanked me free and we ran away really fast... Most. Awkward. Moment. Of. My. Mission. But like normal I just laughed about it and moved on haha. 

Anyway I hope you all know I love and miss you!!! 

Until Next week

Hermana Willardson