EMAIL... Week 20

Hola All!
Interesting week! Saturday's FHE with Marvin's extended family was awesome! It was actually held next door to his mother's home in the front room, which is her neighbor's hair salon. That was the only place close, large enough to hold all 22 of us. His mother, Sofia, is the matriarch and she had everything well planned and ready to go. After a hymn and prayer, she was starting her message on service, and Lee interrupted her...discúlpame, por favor, and asked that everyone be introduced. Her 3 sons were there with parts of their families, a nephew, 2 friends and her neighbor, and of course the elders. It really warmed the room as funny comments were made and she had the opportunity to present people who mean so much to her. She had a short message on service and then asked for comments. We were able to contribute and testify of the blessings of serving and being served, and many others added. She had her grandson bear his testimony, and then we closed with another hymn and prayer. She had pinolio (hot chocolate with roasted corn zest) and it was the best we've had yet, and we brought chocolate chip cookies. After that we played a game from The Dominican Republic called "Bartolo", which we'll teach you when we get home as it was a blast. Great spirit the whole evening and we think she wants us to meet with them every month for FHE. We were assigned the lesson for next month. It was great to see Marvin at church the next day, not knowing that we would be there. We went to the Rosario Branch last Sunday because Lee had baptized a man into their branch that morning, the baptism was late (surprise, surprise), so we missed our meeting.
The Hermanas in Estelí Central had black mold all over their house...walls, ceilings, clothes, bedding, etc., which the Sister AP's (leaders) noticed when they worked with them the week before. Last Saturday we did 8 loads of their wash, while they cloroxed everything else at their home that they could to get rid of the mold. We went over last Saturday morning to get them and their wash, and I went in and was blown away! The stench was horrific! I don't know how they didn't recognize that there was a serious problem just from the smell, let alone the black all over the house. Apparently the owner just painted over it and the heavy rains and moisture the last couple of months made the paint fall off to expose it.The mission president's wife told them to get out of the house and find another place. One of the Hermanas has been suffering with horrible rash all over her body, that we are sure is a reaction to the mold.  We had one of the mission couples staying at our home last Friday and Saturday, so we took our single mattresses to the home of the other set of Hermanas for Saturday night, then brought them back for them to sleep here Sunday and Monday nights. We got them moved into a new apartment Tuesday, so all is well for them. Wednesday and Thursday night we had one of the Sister AP's stay with us, as she comes with the Mission President for interviews, along with his wife and the Elder AP's. We had them over for dinner Thursday night. Tonight, the Bells (she is the mission nurse and he works with some of the remote branches and groups) will stay with us. They come up almost every weekend. Our home has been dubbed, "Koelliker BB & D"...Bed, Breakfast and Dinner. So we were full every night last week except for Tuesday. Great reminder that opportunities to serve come in many varieties and at many different times. Rarely is it convenient and sometimes not in ways that we enjoy, but service is service. We are striving to serve and love however, whenever, and wherever we can, as we have been so blessed by the love and service from so many others! Especially those who are reading this! Thank you for your service to us and for your examples of kind and meaningful service to others!
Great experience for each of us in our interviews with our Mission President. He truly loves and cares about his missionaries! He is a humble, yet powerful man of God! He spoke to me exclusively in Spanish, and I only asked him to clarify once. I don't understand every word, but I usually can get the idea if they speak slowly and cleanly, which he did. It was fun to get to know him and his wife, and the AP's at dinner here that night. They are fun, amazing people, who love the Lord and are giving their all to help others have the spiritual blessings we enjoy. That's Nicaragua for this week.
We love you!
Elder and Hermana Koelliker