Monday, March 28, 2016

6 months, 2 daughters, 1 area

Well...everyone hold on to their seats because changes happened yesterday..and Hermana Willy has 6 more weeks in Ocotal! :) WOOHOO!

We had a baptism on Saturday (the son of a member) and we are just about to wrap it up (we were at the river) and our TL calls me and goes, ¨Hermana Willy and Hermana Marquez..I just need to tell you that you guys are both training this change.´ WHAT?! Tomorrow I will be picking up my hija in Managua! :) I hit 6 months in the mission on Wednesday! 6 months in the mission, two daughters, and one area here in my little Ocotal. I will be returning to the other side of Ocotal with my daughter :) Opening an area will be quite the adventure but I am so excited! I know the Lord will help us a lot!

This week we had the Meeting for the Women (sorry i cant remember what it is called in English) and so we watched in on our little computer in the church. We had about 15 women and it was so beautiful! Bexua (our investigator) came and loved it. She is so great! I am so excited for General Conference. It will be weird to watch it in Spanish but I will love it nonetheless :)

Funny story...so last night we are sitting outside the house of two members, Iveth and Bielka. We finished the closing prayer and two geckos fell on me shoulder! I screamed like a little girl and Beilka (14 years old) screamed right with me. I felt like I was the lady in Parent Trap when the gecko is on her water bottle. haha.

Crazy story..Yesterday I was sitting in sacrament meeting and we are about to sing the intermediate hymn when one of my Zls, Elder Cedeno, comes up to me and goes, do you want to talk? (in spanish of course) So..after the intermediate hymn I gave a talk. With about 30 seconds notice. That was a first :) haha Good thing I had a story up my sleeve to share about the Atonement so it wasn’t too horrible. Or at least I dont think it was..

Inspiring story..on Saturday before the baptism we were all ready to go and the family was piling in the truck when I had a moment where I had to decided if I would be obedient. There is a rule that we cant ride in the back of trucks (which makes sense) and so I hesitated. One of my ZLs, Elder Hirshi, knew this was rule too and lucky we both wanted to be obedient. We knew it would be a hassle because we had to walk about 20 minutes to a river where we would have the baptism, but we talked to the mom of the family and she walked the whole way with us and our companions so that we could be obedient. Right after that I got the news from President that I would be training and he asked me if I am perfectly obedient. It felt so good to be honest and say yes! :)

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week and watch Conference in english for me! hehe. Wish me luck with my hija tomorrow! and also, I know that our Savior Lives. And because He lives, We all can live again too. How beautiful is that?

-- 

Hermana Willes


Baptism of the son of Hermana Fatima and Hermano Fransisco! His name is Stylon and his baptism was the same day of his eight birthday. He was so excited! The river was so beautiful!



Hermana Fatima...
the hermann that walked with us so that we could be obedient!


My favorite drink in the whole world..one of these bags costs like 5 cents here and i drink at least 5 every day. It is the best. you just rip the edge open with your teeth and drink..love it! its called yupi!



Watching the Women's Conference


Monday, March 21, 2016

Another Beautiful Week in Ocotal!

Beautiful Family and Friends!

Another beautiful week here in Ocotal has gone by! SO CRAZY. This week I did divisions TWICE and I learned so much. I love how the Lord works differently through each missionary. Hermana Melendrez (Guatemala) and Hermana Gabriel (Guatemala) are both incredible missionaries. Hermana Gabriel dies in this change (She finishes her mission) and she is my TL. It was so fun to talk and work with her. She only has one more week as a missionary..crazy snakes!

Yesterday was a crazy Sunday! We are working with an Hermana named Bexua. One night we went to a less active member’s house and she was there and told us she would love to come to church. But, we weren’t able to pass by for her last week and remind her so she didn’t go! Luckily, my comp still had faith though and we visited her this week and committed her to come to church. Well, yesterday morning we were doing divisions to try and bring more people but one of the hermanas we were going to do divisions with slept in..oops. So we were scrambling trying to figure everything out and didn’t have time to pass by for Bexua until 15 minutes before church started! (Hermana Willy was really stressed) And when I passed by for at her house her daughter told me she had already left. Naturally, I thought this was a lie. (Repent Hermana Willy) but if you knew the Nicas..no one wants to tell you no so they just lie. haha. BUT I ran to the church and she was waiting outside!! She told me, I was in my house and thought the hermanas haven’t passed but I told them I would go so I need to go. That is gold as a missionary! I was SO happy.

Also yesterday a WHITE MAN came to church. haha. with an ipad. I was like WOWWW and actually got a little overwhelmed. I love my simple life here in Ocotal. He is here with a group of university students for an engineering project and he treated us to dinner last night. It was really weird sitting and eating dinner. But He was really nice! I love members of the church.

WELL this Monday we have changes. I might be leaving my dear old Ocotal. Whatever happens, I know that the Lord has a plan for me, and He knows best. I also know that serving a mission was hands down THE best decision I ever made. No doubt about it. I LOVE the gospel and I want to share it for the rest of my life. I am so excited for the General Womens meeting on Saturday. We are going to try and watch it..haha pray for us! :) 

I hope everyone has a great week!

-- 

Hermana Willes


Dinner with "the white man" and the university students

Monday, March 14, 2016

I Love Ocotal!

Wow another week has flown by... I was talking to another sister on Thursday because we had to go to Managua for a meeting and she was like "wow you have almost 6 months?" and i was like....we aren’t gonna talk about that. Its going too fast! But I’m so happy because I’m in my little town of Ocotal. The taxi drivers will now yell my name out the window when they see me.. "adios hermany willy!" haha i love it so much. 

So Thursday we had to go to Managua for a meeting and at one point we were doing practices and PRESIDENT COLLADO WATCHED MINE. I have never been so nervous in my whole life..haha I saw him come up out of the corner of my eye and I thought "oh no oh no PANIC!" but I kept going and did the best I could. Afterwards he was like, "Excelente Hermana Willes!" I think he was just being nice though.. :)

Things are doing great here in Ocotal. The work is hard but I love it so much. Semana Santa is coming up (hottest week of the year) so the people all get a little grumpy around 1 in the afternoon when its the hottest. Its so cute.

We made a dish from El Salvador as a district today so that is what the first picture is of..the elder holding the camera is Elder Hirschi and small world he lives about 15 minutes from my house in Draper :) The rest of the district is a little farther..haha all latinos!

I hope everyone is doing GREAT! Love you all!

-- 

Hermana Willes


Making the dish from El Salvador with my zone



 The older lady in in the picture is named Ramona. She walks about 15 to 20 minutes every week to go to church. She is AMAZING. Straight pass to the celestial kingdom. One Sunday i asked her how she feels when she comes to church and she just goes, "ALEGRE!" :) I think she is like 80 years old..haha. She will be best friends with Grandma Bingham in the afterlife.:)


Me. making a papas!


A PS.—I said to Sarah “the latinas are so little.” (she is often a whole head taller than they are)  Her response: "oh mom i am a giant..they are so tiny here! I feel so tall!”

Monday, March 7, 2016

Conference in Estelli

Woohoo! Today we went to Managua and I am officially here in Nicaragua legally! :) its about time right...haha.

This week we had the baptism of a man named Santos! We met him in a contact and he is like another grandpa. For some reason i like working with men that age? probably because the are easy to talk to. They remind me of Boppy :) Poor Santos was a little sick the day of his baptism but he still did it! He is awesome.

And YAY this week we had an area conference on Sunday in Esteli. It was a broadcast for all of Central America. My wonderful members here in Ocotal got to travel to the church building! Everyone LOVED seeing a sign that actually had the name of the church. It was so cute :) They loved it.

Because we had to go to Managua today we did divisions in Esteli yesterday. I worked with my TL Hermana Gabriel (she goes home in 3 weeks!!) and something funny happened. Something crazy always happens when we have divisions. So we are teaching one of her investigators and he is standing in the doorway and behind him we see this woman. When we ask who she is he just like shrugs it off and we are like ok? but keep teaching. We start teaching and he comes to look at the folleto, takes one step forward, and this girls just bolts out of the house. She saw her chance and took it! She starts running so fast and looks back with this huge smile on her face. Gabriel and I are like what? And then the investigator just takes off right behind her..so they are just booking it down the street and we are like what just happened...we are standing outside this house and we cant really leave because we cant leave houses solo here in nicaragua. that is a no no. but its ok because he comes back like five minutes later and it turns out that the girl had stolen his phone out of his house! haha. he went off and told us that he is nice to everyone and that that is what he gets for trusting the people. haha it was super funny. :)

ANYWAYS I love the mission! Hope you all have a great week!

--

Hermana Willes




Santo's Baptism

Conference in Estelli

I love my companion!


Ran into elders from my MTC
district at the government building

At the conference with Karina







Tuesday, March 1, 2016

All I Do Every Day is Talk About the Gospel. LOVE IT.

Well this week was kind of CRAZY! I got to work with my old comp on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday my companion, Hermana Marquez, got back from Managua and we got news from President that we would be in a trio! Super crazy!

On Thursday morning we had a baptism! Yay! Her name is Marianna. She is the sister of a recent convert here in Ocotal and she was so excited to be baptized. We did it in the morning and she was all ready to go when we picked her up! 

After the baptism we got so more news..my dear Wally bear had to leave Ocotal! We spent most of the day taking her to our recent convert’s homes so she could say goodbye. Hard stuff. It was hard to say goobye to my best friend but I know that we will be friends for the eternities!

Things have been a little crazy here in Ocotal but I am LOVING being a missionary. Today technically I hit 5 months being a missionary! It has flown by and Ive decided I’m going to stop counting because when I hit 6 months I have less than a year left...I love testifying of Christ every day. I was thinking last night and I thought..all I do every day is talk about the gospel. LOVE IT. Even though these past couple weeks have been crazy, I love this country that has stolen my heart. I love Ocotal and my sweet companion! 

Hope you all have a great week!

-- 

Hermana Willy




Mariana's (in white) baptism

Saying Goodbye with Hermana Wcalborn to Melvin
Melvin has the priesthood now and is passing the
sacrament every week. He has even baptized two people.
Woohoo! Go Melvin!

Hard saying goodbye to my Wally.
(Sarah's half smile/half cry face :)