Week 58: Happy Fathers Day

Well Same Ole Same Ole!!!

Happy Fathers Day!!

President came and we had a multi zone with him it was really good, we talked about activated members baptising and taking care of the people we baptised learned alot it was good stuff.

Ran out of time this week so there isnt much but im doing well it gets really hot then rains really hard haha bipolar

Love y'all 

Elder Thackeray

Week 57: The Shark

Its a hot bugger haha!! Shout out to olee troy boy getting graduated la ley!!!!!!!

Good Ol' Shark Dinner

Pretty decent week this week, We just doing alot of finding, we have two jovenes that are really fun to teach 17 and 15 year old  cherritum y chesmur they live next to are president and always go to noche de hermanimiento and church and we were supposed to baptise them but we are having trouble getting permiso from there mom to batpise them but we still going good. An apostle came to our mission but because we in puerto we didnt get to see him because usually they satilite it in but it didnt work so that was a bummer.

I ate shark at our lunch cita it was pretty good its kinda like crab but ia lttle saltier also add fish its good though haha.

How is the weather? The weather here its pretty hot but some times its super hot then rains then hot agian haha 

Me and Hodges on divisions

Tell us more about your new area? Hmm well same deal as in the ward i guess we are working hard to try and get alot more people to church and activated and strengthening it but we are doing good its really alot richer paved roads

Are the people poorer same or better off? alot better off my last area was the poorest part of the zone haha. supposedly  theres alot of drug dealers and stuff supposedly in this area which is why the houses are mas fachento  but ive never seen any real drug problems

Playing cards waiting for broadcast to work

What do people do for a living? a bunch of things here its usually they work in the mar like fisherman stuff is the job of most people

Is it more city like? yes def there alot more little tiendas and such payed ish roads so its alot different for suire haha

Hope yall had a great week love yall

Elder Thackeray

Planning Session 

Fishing Boats 

Week 56: The Rat Battle

Drinking some Coco water.

Hola 

Well last night was quite the doosey let me tell ya!  So i woke up to something running across my legs and it turns oput its a big ole fat ratttt. soo that was a nice wake up call when aa hear a scratching at the windom by my vbed and its the rat again so  grab my shoe and start hitting it but its not doing anything after about a minute i realized he was on the other side of the window so i waiting and went on the hunt almost got him twice i hit him but not hard enough broke a windom panel in the process quite the adventure at 430 in the morning and a great way to start a p day haha. my comp woke up a copuple times and just kinda half eye looked at me then fell back asleep like three times haha.

Another week in paradise other than that the beach is in my area now so its nice to see that from time to time haha. just the same old geting to know the area still was different than the last for sure haha. Some of our most pos inv is a family elix and his wife they have a strong desire to get married and baptised so we are working hard with them. to get them prepared

We are going to listen to an apostle this week we dont get to see him cause we in puierto so he gonna satilite him it still cool.

This fast sunday was a good one we saw many blessings and found a lotss of new people to teach as a result fasting is one of the things ive learned to really love here on the mission. When the members give there testimony its not just like a quick thing not many pass but the ones who do like to give it like a talk for a good 15 minutes haha give or take.

Anyways thats all for this week Love yall

Elder Thackeray

Week 55: Welcome to Loma Verde

View from Church Building 

Well my new area is loma verde also know as green hill haha. My new companion is elder menezes(da Costa) he is from brazil. Cool guy we have a good time joking around good thing about being in the zone puerto still is that we know everybody and you know what there like which makes it nice. 

The new area is alot different. it is a much more richer part of puerto, my last area was just all mud, no paved roads, 8 by 8 houses up wood up on stilts, this mnew area is all croncrete houses(that means u rich here) paved roads way different haha.

Alot more people speak spánish than miskitu here so its different to. alot more memebers give us food here and my stomach cant reall take it haha not used to being fed some much.

Not quite your 8 foot ceilings. 

A missionary just got home from his misssion in guatemala and is really helping us alot weve been teaching his home trying to help him get her baptsied, hes still really animated and is helping us find new people and bring them to church hes awesome.

My new house is alot smaller but alot more secure so i dont think ill get robbed again haha for the time being haha

In church i gave a talk about elder uchtdorfs the just will live by faith i think translated from spaniush so idk if its right but it was good. everyone still calls me taquerito and when the president said i was gonna talk he called me that and everyone got a good life haha.

Turtle, Rice, Noodles, Yuca, and Potatoes 

Anyways hope everyopne is doing well love yall

Elder Thackeray

Shaking the mango tree

Week 54: The Robbery

Me and Elder Basset in our nice Ponchos.

This week our house got broken into and robbed...we came home a little late after the radio and we saw they had broken into our house and like ripped part of the roof off to get in, they stole my flashlight }, my memory card, my new knife, my root beer, my usc pens, all of our food, my electric shaver, my bathrobe,and speaker and they tried to steal my bathrobe but they left it outside the house. So that was too bad.

Raining extremely hard all of this week.  Almost flooding in some spots I've been in rubber boots all week not the most comfortable thing we were walking thru this field and my foot sunk down all the way and filled my boot full of water. Needless to say I was not very happy about that, but such is life.

Me overlooking our area 

After 7 months i'm changing areas. My new area is Loma Verde and Elder Da Costa es mi new comp. He is from Brazil. I'm still in Puerto just in another area.

President Poncio came with a member of the 70, Elder Lopez, he was a funny guy. They talked a lot about families and marriages. It was good! I think the members here really benefited from their talks.

Hope Troys doing well crazy accident, but  it could of been worse.  Tell him i'm praying for him.

Hope all is well love you guys adios

Elder Thackeray

Me and Hermana Blanca (the miskitu teacher)

Me with the family that washes our clothes and makes us lunch.

Me, Taulapapa and Samol.

Week 51, 52, & 53 :Year mark and Mothers Day!

Cruzin' around town!

Selfie!

Rockin' the fedora at Dos Pintos

Burning suit at year mark!

Week 50: No Water!

Baptism of Lisadah

Well this week has been a decently good week, minus the fact that our pump broke in our house.  The guy who owns the house came by to pix it but he didn't have the right parts so we were without water this week.  We were a able to draw water up manually from the well with a bucket. So nothing but Ol' West baths for us this week.  

Had an awesome experience this week. We have really been working hard to find big families to teach and we were walking to a lesson which we were already late for, and we passed a house that we always do but i had the impression we should contact them and we did and we found a awesome family of 4 and put baptismal dates with all of them!! Awesome when the spirit guides us to awesome people.

Me teaching at the  church.

Wednesday was our Miskito class. I am learning a lot. The teacher is great!  She has started to translate all of the lessons so that we can teach the people better.

On Thursday we all went to the church and did a service project and got the church all cleaned up and looking nice.  It was a good time!

Friday President came and did a multi zone with us as well as just a zone meeting because we are the only zone out here. It was a good meeting! We learned about how we really need to do everything we can to bring the restored gospel to everyone first out of love for the lord and then for love for the investigators.

Anyway hope you guys gave a good week

Love y'all

Elder Thackeray

Week 49: The Porch Incident

Me when I fell through the porch.

Naksa!

Well I fell through a porch! We were teaching Hermana Juney and we were sitting on the porch and she had clothes out drying and it started raining so i jumped up to go help her take them down but forgot she told us we can't walk on that side of the porch because it's really unstable, so I fell right through but caught myself with my hands no injury.

Well this week was a little lack luster. We got sick Monday night and it just kinda stayed with us for the whole week. Hermana Juney is doing well we just have to get her to move out of her boyfriends house or marry him so we can baptize her. Also, another lady named Lisarah we are going to baptize but we teach her in MISKITO so we teach really simply using parables and examples a lot but shes doing really well also

My new twist on the missionary outfit!

On the mission I really feel like I've gained a lot of empathy of what the bishops feel like and the other leaders too when the members don't go to church but in these areas I've been in there is not a lot of leadership in our last area the missionaries were the bishop and in my area now our president is having some problems and is almost never there so again its basically the missionary's doing it all so i really have learned the importance of church mostly is the chance to participate in the sacrament and renew their covenants which is why its so important to go. Our assistance in church is slowly going up little by little on Easter we had 70 which is the most we have had in a long time. its good to see them going to church.

One great thing ive noticed here on the mission is that everyday you are doing one of two things either building on a testimony you have of something or you are gaining a new testimony of something. really awesome if you think about that.

On Monday we made a slippin slide it was a good time

Anyways hope all is going well there.

Love yall

Elder Thackeray

Some Miskito phrases I am practicing.

Slippin-n-Slide P-Day

Comin' in Hot!

Week 48:HAPPY SEMANA SANTA TO ALL!!!

Well the bad news is the Easter Bunny didn't make it down to Nicaragua, haha, but it was a great Easter none the less. Good Friday is a huge deal down here! They celebrate it as a national holiday. Almost every store was closed so we couldn't really get anything to eat that day.

I spent the week reading a lot in Mateo (Matthew), Mark, Lucas, and John, about the Saviors life on earth and about his sacrifice for us. I kept thinking how fortunate we are that we had someone selfless enough to give his lives so that we could live. It wasn't necessarily something he wanted to do he asked his father 3 times to pass the bitter cup, but he was willing to do his fathers will and not his own. I am the priesthood teacher for our branch and we had a great lesson on the savior this Sunday. Mainly we focused on how we can show our gratitude to the savior in different ways for his sacrifice. We should always give thanks in our prayers for this atonement, but also we should use the power of the atonement through repentance. We all have sins, be it big or small, but we have the necessity to repent, and when we repent of our sins we are showing our gratefulness for the gift that was given to us from our father in heaven.

I don't give a very detailed reports on our teaching people mainly because I don't want to sound arrogant because the Lord gives us all these people to teach. So, it's because of him...not me or my companion that we teach so many people everyday that its hard to give an account of all of them, but ill try and give better updates starting with Hermana Juney.  She is super positive and is going to get baptized at the end of the month every lesson we teach she is so attentive asking questions responding to ours and shes golden. We taught the law of Chasity and she's like... if my boyfriend isn't gonna follow this I am going to leave him and find someone who will.

So. we always talk on the radio Wednesday nights and as we came back (I was as on divisions with Elder Samol) and we are walking up the road and I see this guy leaning on a light post . I was joking and said, "Samol.. ready to depend ourselves from this guy?" But, when we got there... he cut us off with his big ole machete! So I said,  "Man he's gonna steal my camera!"  and Elder Samol just said, "Buenas Noches."  And the guy got mad and said, "Oh  is that how is... is it a good night?" Then he kind of came into the light and I recognized him and I said, "Oh Hermano when am I going to see you at church?" Because he is an inactive member and he said, " Uhh, I just been having some problems."So he follows us and we get to our house and he said, "Hey so what do I have to do to go on a mission ?"  We said, "Well uhh stop robbing people." HAHA No we just said, "Talk to the leaders." HAHA It's funny that he went from robbing us to wanting to go on a mission, but none the less I am grateful the lord protected us. I forgot my camera so I don't think there will be any pics this week.

Week 46: General Conference!!!

Hola! General Conference was awesome!  We watched it in our Zone Leaders area and went door knocking in between sessions.  I felt that they talked about families a lot! While watching I felt so grateful for the wonderful family that I have, that they are great examples and raised me to be the man I am today. Another cool thing, I've learned that sometimes we receive inspiration on something we need to do that may not necessarily be spoken in the talk. 

The weirdest thing about General Conference was watching TV.  To go from watching no TV, to watching 6 hours in a day! It was a little weird to say the least.

Here are some quotes I liked from conference...

Its far better to follow the Creator than the crowd.

Don't fear, just live right.

Jesus Christ is perfectly positioned to lift us and give us strength we only have to ask.

The past is to be learned from, not lived in, faith is always pointing toward the future.

The Holy Spirit helps guide us by seeing the things we cannot.

We may need to let go of the world, to hang onto heaven.

God is determined to make us more than we thought we could be.

I liked when they talked about the young man who came to the Savior and asked what we had to do to receive salvation. ( Mark 10:17–30)

First, he said follow the commandments but then he said sell all your things and follow me and the man couldn't do it. As I was pondering this story,  I realized that to be better disciples of Christ, we all have something that we have to give up. Maybe we don't have to sell all we have but we all have something in our lives we could give up to become better disciples of Christ.  

Funny experience:

During conference, I was sitting in the front row and this 2 year old kid runs up and stands next to the wall. Then his 4 year old brother walks up next to him then takes 10 steps back and just chucks his toy car as hard as he could at his brother. It was more shocking then funny, but it made me chuckle.  

On Monday, we had our Zone Olympics for P-Day. One game you had to run 3 circles around a bottle of soda then drink as much as you can; but once you take your mouth off the bottle you have to run back and someone else goes. I went 4th and drank almost the whole bottle for the win.  Afterward, I was literally throwing up for the next 40 minutes, but we still got the win. We also had a big water balloon fight it was a good time.

• Do you still have the same companion? Yes but we have changes this week so maybe not well see.

• Is the weather hot? Yeah, I mean I feel acclimated to it, but basically you just sweat the whole time...even in the shower. ha ha.

I love you guys have a great week!!!

Elder Thackeray

Week 45: Same ole' Same ole' here in Nicaragua!!!

Me and My Birthday Package

My Sweet New Shoes!

Hola! President flew out for a zone conference and they showed us a video by Jeffery R Holland called the Atonement of a Missionary. It talks about why missionary work isn't easier, why the only risk in the work isn't getting pneumonia from being in the baptism font all day and night. MISSIONARY WORK ISN'T EASY BECAUSE SALVATION IS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE!!!! I really liked that because sometimes it's not all easy and we wonder why its not easier. Jesus asked if there was another way but there wasn't. He didn't do his will he did our Heavenly Fathers will. In that talk, it talks about that when we pass through the hard times are rejected, spit upon, cast out,all of these things... we are standing shoulder to shoulder with the greatest missionary that ever lived, Jesus Christ.  It makes me feel grateful because my mission is no where as hard as his, not even close. I get to leave after two years, but he had to die for our sins. His mission was the hardest ever and he was a perfect missionary. It always helps me when I feel like I'm going through hard times. I think of him and his sacrifice and I stop thinking it's hard, because in reality, it's not and that just helps me work that much harder.. Afterward, we had interviews and those went well. He also is doing some rearranging in the branch presidency cause we are having some problems with that, so that's good..

We had a good "following the spirit moment" again on Saturday. We were walking to an appointment and we passed one of our old investigators houses. I said, "Maybe, we should go by and visit him." But, my companion said, "Uuhhh I.D.K., because he's like super crazy and always has the wildest of questions." So, we were thinking probably not. But,  then I just felt we should really go, so we went. When we get there his sister was there. We only talked to her one time before, and she didn't say much. But, when we got there this time and she said to us, "Finally, you guys came!  We have been waiting for you to pass bye!!!!"  Lesson, always follow the spirit.

Anyway,  pretty good week!!! I always love hearing from you guys!!!! 

Thanks for the birthday package!!!!  My knife that dad lost so long ago is reborn haha!!!

Love yall

Elder Thackeray

Week 44: 10 months on the mission.

10 months in the mission. Time is really flying I tell you.

Had an awesome birthday present!! My convert from my other area, Condega, got the Melchizedek Priesthood on Sunday.  I was so happy for him, he is gonna to be a great leader in that little group. They are so close to becoming a branch. I am really excited for them.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes I appreciate them!!!!

Things are going really good here. We are just trucking along here. The same... this letter gonna be kinda week because I don't have much time. 

Just know, I love you all and thanks for all your support!!!

Elder Thackeray

Week 43: Four baptisms

Baptism of Hermano Samuel's family.

We were really blessed with a lot of miracles this week and 4 baptisms of awesome people and thus the miracles have not ceased!!!!!

Funny Story of the Week: Two other elders had to come pick something up from our house but they didn't know where we live, so we just gave them the address over the phone.  We forgot that the house right next to us has the same address as our house. So, we see them walk into our neighbors gate, and before we can get over to tell them we live they walk up our neighbors steps open the door and walk right in like they own the place.  Needless to say, they were a bit embarrassed

Dos Pintos after a district meeting. 

Cool Experience of the Week: Usually we go to lunch at 12:00 p.m., but I felt we should go early, so we went to lunch at 1100 p.m.. On the way back from lunch, we ran into Hermano Samuel.  Hermano Samuel is the only member in his family.  We taught his family for awhile, but they weren't really interested so we stopped teaching them.  When we ran into him we talked for awhile and then he told us that he felt that we needed to go share a spiritual thought with his family.  So we went and shared a spiritual thought with his family and the spirit was super strong.  Long story short at the end of the lesson, they said they were ready to be baptized.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!

On Saturday, we had the baptisms of Ritle and Aldo! The way we found them was a little different, to say the least.  The story we heard is that their mom decided to become a witch, so they came and lived with some of their family members, Los Supers. Once they came to live with them, they started coming to church and we started teaching them.  They love going to church and are super excited about becoming members.  They are great kids.

Baptism of Ritle and Aldo.

Another Funny Story: We were talking with Aldo and Ritle the night before their Baptism and Hermano Super was with us. We were teaching them a little more and Hermano Super said, "the Lord will bless you a lot.   For instance, with a wife when you get older, but just make sure you find one with a good heart even if shes ugly."  Then he said, "my wife, she's super ugly, right elders? But shes got a good heart and that's why I love her." It was probably inappropriate and we were trying so hard not to laugh, but it was super funny. The Latino's are super savage, they just say what's on their mind and it doesn't matter how rude. HAHA

Another good week in the books, hope all is well Love yall

Elder Thackeray

The local sandlot game. 

Week 42: 4th transfer in Puerto

Fish Venders in Puerto

Puerto is cool! This is my 4th change here. Most missionaries are usually here anywhere from 6 to 9 months so who knows how much longer i'll be here.

Something Funny:  The electricity went out so I had to go pull up water out of our well using a bucket.  I took my flashlight out there but when I was bringing up the water my flashlight fell and went down the well. It made this bubbling song noise as it sank and the light just slowly faded out till it hit the bottom.  It felt like I was in a cartoon.  It made me laugh really hard, I don't know why. However, now I don't have a flashlight.

Airplane view of my area.

Something Spiritual: We had a family home evening with a family who had been really struggling these past couple months. It started with their house getting robbed; then they lost there jobs; but they always kept going to church. I shared D&C 98:1-3, one of my favorite scriptures. 

D & C 1-3 1 Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks; 2 Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted. 3 Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.

It says that we should give thanks in everything and at the end of things, that our afflictions will work together for our good. I also shared some of Joseph B. Wirthlin's talk "Come What May and Love It."  (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/come-what-may-and-love-it?lang=eng)   

It was super awesome and the Spirit was super strong. The next day, we got a call from them saying they had found work and would be able to pay for the things they needed so it was a pretty cool experience.  

Something Cool: We had to go to the church for a meeting and sometimes its hard to find a taxi in our area, so we waited forever and finally one came.  Before you get in a taxi here, you always ask how much because if you don't once they drop you off they will jack up the price and say some crazy amount. So, when we asked he said just get in we will get you there, which sounded a little fishy to us but we had to get to the meeting, so we just got in the taxi.  He ended up speaking English so we chatted with him as we drove.  When we got to our meeting and we tried to pay him he said, "Men of God ride free in this taxi"  so that was pretty cool. 

Anyways hope everyone has a good week! 

Elder Thackeray

Week 41: Transfers!

Wade with Chewie the pet monkey. 

Transfers came and went, nothing changed, I have the same companion in the same area.

This week went pretty good. we are finding a lot of cool people who are super positive, which is always nice.

Funny story of the week; We were in church in the priesthood class and this guy just walks in and is like, "Hey can I get a Book of Mormon?"  Then he stayed and was singing the hymns. Like really loud. I was busting up laughing. Then we gave him a Gordon B. Hinckley book so he could participate. Half-way through he just gets up with a hymnbook and Teachings of the President and leaves. No one knew what to do, so we just sat for a little but I was busting up laughing. I don't know why it was so funny, it just was, probably had to be there.

Livin' that good turtle life. 

Well. I don't have much this week but I'll leave y'all with a scripture in Alma 36:3:

Alma 36:3 And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.

Keep it real everyone. Love y'all

Elder Thackeray

P-Day Shenanigans.

Week 40: Well, well, well!

Hermana Shakira's Baptism 

Hows everyone doing?

We had another good week. We had the baptism of Hermana Shakira. She is super awesome. From the time we started teaching her she always read the Book of Mormon,, or folletos (pamphlets), or whatever else we would leave for her to read. She had talked to missionaries before but something always would come up and she couldn't get baptized until we met with her and taught her. That's one thing I have definitely learned on the mission. Sometimes you plant the seeds and sometimes you harvest the seeds.

Anyway, good week, but just the normal stuff. On P-day, we took a trip to the beach and took some pictures and threw the football around a little bit.

Beach P-Day

They just finished building a new church closer to our area which is nice it has been a little crazy and disorganized this week figuring out all of the schedule and such, but it's nice having a church building a lot closer.

Changes are coming this week so well see if anything changes or if it will stay the same.

Hope everyone has a great week!! praying for yall!!!

Elder Thackeray

From Elder to Beach Bumb

Beach P-Day Prep