Elder Merrill's LDS Mission: President Nelson and Pancakes!

Best part about last week??? The fact that it is over.... Hahahaha. I have decided that being a leader in this mission means one thing... you are always tired, stressed and hungry. You can't have one without the other. Last week was especially bad.. and yet it turned out to be one of the best weeks of my entire mission and life. And here is why...

a lil tired...

I saw and touched CARPET! The only place that I have seen carpet is in President Russell's office once, but I have never seen it in a Nica's home! But I'll get to that... so on Tuesday we had Leadership Council! It was my fourth one being companions with Elder Naisibitt! And definitely the best, because the Zone is doing so well! We each give a Presentation about the Zone, President and Sister Russell talk, we eat good food, then the APs give a lesson and we practice a lil. Another good thing is that the majority of the Zone Leaders are real good friends of mine, and we all came in my Transfer or the one after mine, with the exception of a few. So it is a lot of fun! The APs taught about the importance of preparation. Which we all know is extremely important. That has always been something important in my life, even if I haven't done a very good job of it. One of my favorite scriptures has been and continues to be D&C 38:30, which talks about the importance of preparation. Dad, Molli and I have a good lil connection with that :) so after Consejo we went to visit a less active and saw the carpet... when Elder Naisbitt saw it, he pointed it out and I was completely shocked. I could not believe it. The carpet was super bad, but naturally we had to take a picture of it :)

Nicaraguan Carpet!

Wednesday, went back down to Rivas to work and do a couple baptism interviews. All I can say about Rivas is that it is so hot. And it kills me every time.

Thursday we went around animating baptism possibilities, trying to get the record (more on that in a minute), and planning for Zone Meeting!

Friday we had Zone Meeting! And it was super awesome! So in July, we had a really bad month, and in August, a really good one! So, our focus was on moving forward without conforming and realizing our own potential as missionaries! Did you know that if we put a baby Great White Shark in a 5 foot tank, it will only grow to be that long? But if we toss it in the ocean, well we all know how that turns out. So we should always see our potential, and what we can become through our hard work and faith. And if we think we have reached our potential, we are completely wrong! And we talked a little about the meeting that we were going to have on Saturday with... President Nelson.

So, Saturday. Two of the most important things of my entire life. First off, the meeting with President Nelson. Second off, we had 8 possibilities for baptism planned for that day! Like I had said, the Zone Jinotepe has never had more than 23 baptisms. We went into last week with 22. Our goal was to get 30, and we had the chance. But with the travel and all that to Managua for the meeting, it was gonna be tough. So we were super stressed. But always faithful hahaha. The Conference with President Nelson! Elder Naisbitt and I once again had to do... el recorrido... o sea, the pickup. We woke up at 2am, basically not sleeping, so go pick up all our missionaries from the Zone and head up to Managua! We got there at about 7:30, and waited til like 9 for President Nelson. In attendance were, President and Sister Nelson, the Mission President from the North mission and the whole North Mission, Elder Alonso from the Area Presidency, and Elder Maravilla, a 70 who is Nica! I would have never thought that was possible hahaha. It was cool with all of them there... but it was so unbelievable seeing President Nelson. As we all stood up when he walked in, the Spirit was so strong. He walks and looks like he is about 65! Then we got to all shake his hand. When I did it, he said "nice to see you Elder Merrill", like we had already known each other. And I swear he didn't even look at my badge. It was such a testimony to me that God really knows each and every one of us, and that he loves us. President Nelson is the sweetest guy in the entire world. He spoke English which was awesome. The song we sang as a choir was awesome. There are way too many things that he talked about, but the Apostolic Blessing that he gave us was awesome. "Learn the Doctrine, Apply it in your Life, and then Teach it with Joy."

2 a.m.

Long day...

Best day!!!

But wait! We still had to get 8 people baptized! We took everybody home, and got back to Jinotepe at about 5ish. Luckily, and with a couple miracles.. all 8 of them got baptized :) HOWEVER... there is something that really is a bummer in this Church... and it's that convert baptisms get confirmed the next day. And here in Nicaragua... that means that you never know what could happen. Hahahah and with about 10 minutes left in their Sacrament Meeting, the 8th one got confirmed :) 30! Elder Naisbitt and I were in a room, and when we heard the news, we fell on the floor in relief and excitement. I think I was more relieved in this moment then when we won State in basketball.. and for those of you that remember that... that was pretty crazy. So we did it! The Zone hit the goal of 30 baptisms! The Zone made history, and did something that it had never done! We did it :)