Hermana Aubrey Frank / Nicaragua Managua South Mission

It's probably been the craziest week of my life! Almost all the missionaries from the Nicaragua Managua South mission have been evacuated and reassigned.  We got a call from our zone leader during our companionship study and we were told we had 30 min to pack everything and be ready to be picked up and driven to a hotel about an hour away.  We spent three nights at the hotel while we waited to see if we could leave the country.  We had sacrament meeting in the hotel last Sunday. After the Santa cena we had a testimony meeting.  We held the meeting right next to the hotel pool where people were swimming but it was surprisingly very spiritual. Imagine 100 missionaries singing Nearer my God to Thee with so much power and conviction leaving the tourists and hotel staff speechless. It was pretty cool.  We didn't do much the other days but we ate really really good food. President Brown read off our new areas that we would be serving in and announced which missiona...

Dear Parents, Later this morning, the Church will release the following statement regarding developments in Nicaragua that are affecting the number of missionaries that will serve in that country: Due to growing political instability in Nicaragua, the Church is in the process of transferring 169 missionaries out of that country. This includes 37 missionaries from the Nicaragua Managua North Mission, all of whom were nearing the end of their service and will return home. In the Nicaragua Managua South Mission, 20 missionaries will return home while 112 missionaries will be temporarily reassigned to other missions in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. All 158 missionaries remaining in Nicaragua are being moved to areas that are safe. The Church will continue to closely monitor conditions and developments in Nicaragua. We pray for the people there as they navigate this difficult time in their country. Your son or daughter is one of those who will be transfer...

Okay okay no time this week as usually but here's a couple things for ya.  we had a killer hermanamiento (ward activity) on Thursday.  The people here LOVE to play games. we had relays, a huge bonfire (I'm not really sure why because it was already so hot), and lots of dancing.  and of course food!  We had fiesta rice which is basically just rice with just about anything you want to throw in, including hotdogs, pork, corn and really anything you happen to have in the kitchen. everyone makes this for big events.  The member who made it for the activity brought it in a HUGE bucket. there should be a picture below and it was seriously full to the top. It's literally the size of the stove its sitting on. On Saturday we had a baptism for our investigator Marvin and we're starting to teach his mom the gospel as well.  The first rain hit during the baptism and the lights went out in the middle of it! I was excited to finally get some rain but let me tell ya its ...

Hola amigos!! this week has been so dang good!  Multi Zone was amazing and so so spiritual. Somehow I understood every word that was spoken and that was for sure a miracle and blessing because I really needed to hear the uplifting words of our mission president, his wife, and the other missionaries.  We traveled about 2 hours so we had to leave our house at 6 am and the church they held the meeting in was the nicest building Ive seen here in Nicaragua. On Friday my companion and I helped one the memebers, Hermano Seysa with his work.  He and his family make shoes everday to earn a living. It was so fun to be able to serve him and leaarn something new! It's hard to get jobs in Nicaragua so many people come up with their own ways to make money, often selling food in the streets and just about every other house on the street is a pulperia (store) everyone sells what the can make or really anything.  Anyone that has a freezer, freezes blocks of ice in bags and con...

Hola amigos!!!   It feels like just yesterday was P-day! the time is flying its insane. Tomorrow is my first multi zone meeting and I think it'll be in Masaya which isn't too far from us!  For any missionary struggling to learn a new language here's an embarrassing moment for ya: I was teaching the plan of salvation and I said something like "we came to earth to obtain a body of flesh and bone" except that i said "cuerpo de carne y HUEVOS" ahhhh not eggs! huesos! my companion was laughing and I didn't even know I had said anything wrong! also part 2:  on Saturday my companion and I committed someone to be baptized on April 17, which was almost 2 weeks ago. and they accepted.... when you're in the mission field the time is so weird! but no worries we cleared that up! On Sunday one of the members wanted to know why I was still so white but I'm trying to figure that out myself. and people often wonder if I'm old enough to be a mi...

Alright it has been an extremely uneventful week.  We have been inside for FOUR DAYS.   I'm not entirely sure whats going on and most of you probably know more than I do but the President of Nicaragua raised taxes on social security I believe and people started protesting and burning buildings.  The government is justifying bombing the protestors and its just been super bad. We could hear all the explosions at night but in Granada it was not as bad, it was much worse in Managua.  We finally got to go back to work yesterday and then we were sent back to our houses at 6.  So really we've just been studying ALOT.  One of our investigators Joel has come a long way since he started taking lessons from the missionaries.  He had an alcohol addiction but was able to commit to the word of wisdom, he had a baptism date for last Friday and  hadn't had alcohol for 2 weeks we were so excited for him and he was so excited to be baptized.  The day befo...

Hey guys I'm alive but I have no time today!! So like I said before the people here are amazing I love them.  We have 2 more baptisms this week, one for Jerry and one Joel.  Jerry is 11 and we are so excited for him! he has a huge family so we are trying to teach them all! His grandparents are already members and they give us mangoes, watermelon and soda seriously every time we visit.  I love visiting them because they have so many kids and they live out on a little farm where they grow bananas and mangoes. Did I mention its hot here? my elastics are melting into my hair and the bottoms of my shoes are melting as well haha also I'm addicted to coke and i am super tired of the mountains of rice we eat every dayyyyy.  I still don't speak Spanish and i don't think i know how to speak English either but you know thats okay because I have faith in the Lords timing! patience is key!  okay gotta go! I will try to write more next week!

We were so excited to get a Facebook message from a member with some photos of Aubrey!  She said that Aubrey was doing well.

HOLY MOLY THIS PLACE IS INSANE.  I don't have much time to email today but here's a little something for ya: Okay first of all we have about 10 rats that we're living with and honestly I wouldn't mind too much if they didn't eat my food and poop in my suitcases and one of them legit stole my ctr ring so  that is super duper awesome! They like to run on our tin/metal roof and we usually hear their little patter of feet when we're in the middle of a prayer.  So yeah you could say I made some friends!   My companion and I are addicted to frescas which are just these fruit drinks that you drink out of a bag. People sell them on everywhere, so basically it's like having a swig on every corner. (i feel so bad for those of you that don't know what swig is).  also they only cost about 15 cordobas which is literally 50 cents.  You know its hot here when you are very seriously considering "accidentally"falling into the baptismal font. We had a bap...