Hermana Aubrey Frank / Nicaragua Managua South Mission

I hit my 5 month mark!!!!! Missionaries always say that the time flies & I used to think they were crazy! but now I'm saying it! Because it's true!  The mission came out with a new expectation for each missionary and companionship called OYM 10/20. It stands for open your mouth, and each companionship needs to speak to 20 new people everyday. Some days have been easier than others but as we have committed to do this we have seen so many miracles and doors being opened to us.  We got transfer calls! My sweet trainer is leaving to Palmdale and I will miss her so much! My new companion is Hermana Ruelas from the San Fernando mission. Both Santa Clarita and Valencia from that mission were added to ours so we got a whole bunch of new missionaries. There's going to be a lot of changes this transfer! Our ward/district had 4 companionships including two trios but now there'll just be 2 and hna ruelas & I will cover all of wasco!  Our investigator Anthony is in Te...

Okay it's been a couple weeks! We've been super busy! I will soon hit 5 months, so that's crazy! We went to the LA temple and we stayed at the STLs apartment in Bakersfield the night before to be able to ride up with them. So so grateful for the opportunity to visit the temple. 4 months without a visit to the temple had felt like an eternity! I couldn't help but think of the wonderful people of Nicaragua who will soon be blessed to have a temple. We are so blessed to live so close to temples & have the opportunity to visit the house of the Lord.  All the missionaries and several members went to help a less active member move from one house to another that was just a couple streets over. When we arrived ready to load the Uhaul we quickly realized that almost nothing was packed into boxes yet. This particular member had quite the collection of.. well just about everything. In the backyard there was a big old shed. She told us (specifically the sisters) that she hadn...

¡Feliz dia de padres! to everyone and especially my dad! Im wishing they'd let us call home fathers day too pero no podemos.  Other than that Sunday was good! I was excited that the sacrament meeting was in Spanish but slightly disappointed when some of the English members complained about having to wear headphones (when the Hispanics are wearing headphones almost every week).  We had dinner with our investigator, Emelia, that we just met on Friday.  She has a long history with missionaries and the church and she is a little crazy but she loves us and when she met us she immediately invited us over for dinner.  She actually happens to be from Nicaragua, which was really cool because I could understand her Spanish better than others here in Wasco.  I was so happy to be eating Nica food once again.  She already invited us over again for breakfast this week and we're looking forward to that.  We're hoping to be able to share something a little m...

Another awesome week in Cali and things just keep getting better.  My training has been on "pause" since we left Nicaragua but now that we're having transfers here tomorrow ill be able to finish my last six weeks of training with Hermana Ruiz! So now I have two mommas!! Hermana Melendez (my other comp) is going home to Texas and I am so so sad because I'm going to miss her so much!  Two of our investigators Jenny and Anthony came to church this Sunday and loved it! Jenny is so so smart& spiritual and basically takes over gospel doctrine class at church.  She missed her last baptism date but we're hoping to set a new one soon!  Anthony is 15 and he is the best!! He is progressing but very slowly, he reads prays and comes to church but has a little trouble understanding everything. He's bisexual but has committed to keep the law of chastity, which has been hard for him but a huge step forward. Our investigator Roxanne is pregnant and wants to raise her ba...

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 ...