EMAIL... Week 28

Hola All!
Another crazy week in Nicaragua! Maybe it's just us! Last Sunday the 8 of us missionaries serving in Estelí met with the District President and discussed how to increase the baptism and retention success rate in the District. Two helps that we identified and discussed at length were regular Branch Councils and having Branch Mission leaders and Mission Plans. Sound familiar? We talked about President Hinckley's directions for what new converts and less active members need...friends, to be nourished by the word of God, and a calling or responsibility. Lee testified that the Mission Leader is one of the most important and necessary positions in the Ward or branch. We told him that the Branch leaders and other members need to be involved with teaching, friendshipping, and helping the new members and less actives serve, as discussed and prayed about in Branch Council. Our Zone Leaders were asked to come to his next meeting with the Branch Presidents to train them on these two needs. We take these things for granted because they are in place and functioning well, but the Church is not very established here yet, and most don't have the vision. Poco a poco.  

Monday we drove around trying to find a clinic for two of the Hermanas here. They had tests run, and got some answers to their struggles. I'm sure their parents were relieved to find out the results the next day. Most of Central America had no power starting at about 9 AM here. There was a problem with a major substation in Guatemala...and we had the trickle down effect, which here also means the water shuts off. We are blessed to have a water tank in a tower on our back patio, so we were able to just flip that switch and have water. Others are not so blessed. They usually switch our water off 2 evenings/nights a week. We got our power and regular water back at 7:30 PM. It was interesting that the major stores, clinics, and gas stations had power throughout the day...they must have generators. Also, Guatemala had power after about a an half hour. Nicaragua is low on the pecking order. They just deal with it. We had a candlelight dinner of sandwiches, chips, veggies, fruit, and the ice cream that was melting. It was fun!

We were teaching a lesson Tuesday night and got a call that we needed to be in Managua the next day at 7:30 AM to get our cédulas, which are our visas. We got up at 4 to get there at 7:30, waited an hour for the others to get there, and then went in, and finally finished a little before 2. Their immigration department reminded us of the DMV, except there weren't numbers, just lines. The Church has people who work on this constantly and they had been taking our passports there every month to clear us for the next month. The machine was broken and they sent all the other 30 plus missionaries back to work, including the mission president from the South Mission and his young family. Our mission president, his wife, and son stayed with us and our immigration workers, and we finally got taken care of. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with our mission president and his wife, just the 4 of us. He is learning English, and she...not so much, but they speak slower and we communicated pretty well. We're good for a year now, which should be enough to finish our mission. Our mission processed 89 missionaries this past week getting their cédulas. Most had been here longer than we have by months. We think because the election is over and things have been evaluated, the government finally decided to let us all stay. Tender mercies!

Wonderful Multi-Zone Conference on Friday. We love hearing from our mission president and his wife. They are both in their 40's and very dynamic! They don't candy coat things, which is especially helpful for young adults. We were also blessed to hear from our District President. He told us in our meeting with him last Sunday, that he wanted to talk to all the missionaries. He talked about how his aunt had saved him from drowning when he was a young boy, and that missionaries had saved him spiritually from a worldly life when he was 26. He was called to be District President after being a member of the Church for only 3-4 years. His wife is a returned missionary and served in El Salvador. She is amazing herself! They were married in the temple and have 2 active young boys. He pled with us missionaries to love HIS people, to teach them, and to help them have the blessings that we enjoy. Awesome! We had 3 of the Hermanas from Matagalpa spend the night with us last night, as the buses had stopped going there by the time their interviews were done. We do love having the missionaries in our home. They are so fun and such a blessing to be around. We love learning about them and their "stories". Grateful for microwaves and quick meal ideas, as it was very last minute.

The Church is true! It is such a great blessing in our lives. It is truly a wonderful opportunity for us to be able to serve the people here with the other missionaries and our mission president and his wife! We love to serve, especially when we realize that we are actually serving our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ! We have been so blessed throughout our lives, this is just a drop in the bucket compared to what we owe Them.

We love and miss you all, and so appreciate all you do for us!
Love,
Elder and Hermana Koelliker