Do you Believe in Miracles?

Hey Family!

Haha! I’m still dying of laughter from that story, Dad. [Story is printed below.] I can totally just picture all of that unwinding...Ava still seems to make the family laugh. That´s hilarious. Also, that´s crazy that Spencer got kicked out of the match, and a little bit ridiculous. Man, everyone is getting married too! Tell Taylor and Lauren that I said congrats when you get a chance. By the way, who is Taylor marrying? Is it anyone that I know?

Do you guys believe in miracles? I do. Mom, like you said, being a missionary is so amazing because you get to see how Christ continues to do miracles in the lives of the people. First miracle...Magali, this super awesome lady that we have been teaching, and the sister of the family that is getting baptized today, was planning on getting baptized and married. She brought us some bad news on Saturday night. She said that her husband (who we are not teaching YET because he is a little more hard-hearted) came home drunk, they fought, and he packed all of his things and left. In tears she explained that she would never forgive him for what he did, that he had done the unthinkable: the wedding dress was bought, the invitations handed out, the date set, and he just left. Elder Santana and I didn’t really know what to say at first, but somehow the words came out. We talked about forgiveness and the importance of keeping the commandments even if there are trials. Well, halfway through the week, he came back and long story short, they got married last night along with Carlos and Delvia and the three will be baptized today. I love this family SO much and it’s so amazing to see how the Lord changes families.

Carlos, Delvia, and Magali's Baptism

Miracle #2. We had been looking for another solid family to teach and had been praying hard that the Lord would help us find one with the limited time that we have. 7:30pm, Saturday night, all of our appointments had fell, and we didn’t have a family to bring to church. We remembered that we had contacted a 19-year-old girl that was living with a member and her telling us that her family wanted us to visit them. We found their house and the wife came out and quickly let us in. The husband, Henry, greeted us with a huge smile and said, "We´ve been waiting for you guys." That’s when their 8 kids (who are all at least 8 yrs old) started coming out, along with a friend that lives there with them. Henry explained that he had a friend from a past job that was a missionary and had explained a lot about the church to him. He explained that he loves our church, that they´ve never liked any of the other churches. He said, "We are SO glad that you´ve come, we never thought that we´d have the chance to talk to two missionaries from your church, but God has finally sent you here." Elder Santana and I are still blown away. They went to church on Sunday, and when we invited them to be baptized this week they said, "Well, we need a little more time." (like everyone says). He said that he wanted to go to church like two more times before they got baptized. I´ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, there are people that are waiting for the truth and happiness that the gospel brings.

I love being a missionary. I love these people. I love the Savior. And to be honest, it hurts to realize that I’m coming up on the home stretch. I will just continue to serve with all I´ve got for these last months. I love you guys so much and that’s nuts that we´ll talk soon! I forgot about that!

Love,

Elder Ward

(Here is the story that Mike told Trevor about Ava) So, at Chik Fil-A last night, we arrived and told Mom our orders and then Ava and I went outside and sat at a table. (We wanted to enjoy the nice weather before it gets too scorching hot.) There was another family at a nearby table doing the same thing. They had a couple of boys probably a little older than Ava but they seemed kind of quiet and shy. Anyway, we sat down and someone had left behind a couple of Chik Fil-A ketchup packets. These are not the usual, tiny little packets. They’re big packets for dipping.

So, we sit down and I start playing with the ketchup packets. I turn one and aim it at Ava and then pretend like I’m going to smash it with my fist. She giggles, and, of course, I don’t really smash it. Then, I stack both of them on top of each other and pretend to do it again. Ava then reaches out, aims them toward me, and WHAM! She smashes them with her fist before I can react. Instantaneously, one of the little boys at the next table jerks backward and then goes down as if he’d been shot reaching for his face. NO!!! No no! Oh man! Totally nailed him! From eight feet away! He had been watching us for the 30 seconds since we had sat down. I don’t even know what happened exactly but no ketchup shot at me—only right at him. I immediately apologized and asked Ava to apologize. She was too mortified to speak or move. The boy’s mom wiped him off and he clung near her throughout the rest of the meal.

Ahhhh!

The Wedding

Carlos and Delvia's Wedding

Magili's Wedding

The Field is White....

I Love Nicaragua

¿Como están? Yo estoy barbaro. This week I learned that if you’ve got pink eye, or anything wrong with your eyes for that case, that there are lots of interesting remedies. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you about the great remedies of Nicaragua, but they’re nuts. Elder Santana has something wrong with his eye so it gets all swollen and pink and everyone has been giving him remedies: 1. Catch a cat and rub its tail in your eyes (this seemed to be the universal solution). 2. (Sorry if this offends someone) Have breast milk sprayed in your eye. 3. Stop looking at dogs pooping because that’s how eye problems are caused. Not even kidding. I love Nicaragua.

Now that I got that out of the way...Collin, nice work in V ball dude! I wish I could be there to see your skills. Next year I’ll be at the tournament :) Also, that’s super surprising and super awesome that Carley Wells got her mission call. By the way, there aren’t really any restrictions on writing to girls that live outside of the mission boundaries so I’m good. And with the chickens...save ‘em until they git bigger and we can have a real nice dinner when I get home.

President and Hermana Monestel had a capacitation this week in Guatemala. It was funny because Hermana Monestel called me and asked who my dad was. I was like...why does she want to know that? She then explained that she had told President and Sister Ward (Mission president in Panama) that they had a relative in the mission. From what I hear, they’re doing really well and they’re "very happy people.” To answer your question, I didn’t have changes this week. I’m still here goin’ strong as the financier and I have a feeling that I’ll be here for one change more and then I’ll train a new financier for about 3 weeks. Dad, I REALLY want to train a greenie but we’ll see what happens because usually the financier leaves in the middle of the change because he has to train a new financier.

This week was awesome. Changes went smooth just because I’ve got everything down now. Remember that family I told you about? Well, they’re getting married and baptized this upcoming Saturday! We’re super stoked for them and love them a ton. Norma and Ruth’s baptism was awesome as well. We had quite a few members show up and Hermana Norma gave a powerful testimony at the end. She said that she KNEW that the church was true and went on to bear testimony of the Plan of Salvation, which means a lot because her son just passed away. She said that her dream is that all of her remaining 11 kids get baptized and I knew that will come true. At least three of them will be baptized this week along with one of her grandkids. That’s why being a missionary is awesome.

I got my "Trunky Paper" this week that talks about my departure. I can’t believe how fast the mission goes by. Love you guys a whole bunch and keep being happy.

Love,

Elder Ward

The Gospel Truly Blesses Families

Hey Wardies,

How’s it goin guys?? Duuuude, Collin, or should I say Scotty Pipps...man, talk about a blast from the past….volleyball tournaments, playing libero, prom dates, etc. Just so you know Collin, the mission tops all of that. It sounds like you guys are excited about the new chickens you got too! We’ve got pet iguanas and mosquitoes in our house. Let me know how everything goes with the v-ball tournament.

Well, this week has been awesome. Mom, you’re right that kids can teach a lot to their parents. We’re teaching a family that has 5 kids below the age of 8, and let me tell you that it is really a challenge to teach them sometimes. There was one day where we showed up to the house and before even getting to the big tin gate we could hear the screaming and crying coming from the parents and the little kids. By the way, two of them are Neftali and Natalie (the ones I mentioned last week). Anyways, the parents were hitting their kids and all 5 of them were crying at the same time. (By the way it’s very common that parents hit their kids here.) I thought, how in the world are we going to feel the Spirit in this lesson? We sat down, sang "I am a Child of God", and started the lesson. We started talking about the plan of salvation with little success and soon the lesson turned in to talking about how little kids are children of God, responsibilities as a parent, and how we should become like them. It was almost miraculous how the children stopped crying one by one, went and sat on the laps of their parents, and started listening to the lesson. For the rest of the lesson nobody hit anyone, nobody cried, and we could see what we were teaching being put into action in that very moment. To end, Natalie (8), begged us to say the closing prayer. She gave one of the best prayers I’ve heard in my life and the 4 other kids even joined her by repeating what she said. At the end of the prayer the two moms that were there were in tears. The gospel truly does bless families.

Anyways, that same family said this week in a later visit, "don’t worry about us, we’re completely committed and ready to getting married and baptized the 28th of this month." Today we’re baptizing their mom and one of their sisters (Norma and Ruth, the family I’ve been talking about lately). That means that I’ve got my "Baptism Tie" on. :) Thanks Ava! Unfortunately, Tonio drank this last week. This time I saw that he had the bottle in his pocket so I grabbed it, turned around, and chucked it as far as I could. That felt pretty good. We were bummed, but at the same time we have hope that he will completely repent and be forgiven.

Our house has had some major problems with termites, water getting in, and an unresponsive owner, so for the first time in my life, I went to go look at houses. Super weird! I’m growing up way to fast. At the same time, I’m glad that I’m learning lots of good things for after the mission. Not to mention picking up President’s kids from school and listening to them argue about whether they were going to eat Subway or Pizza Hut haha. Got changes comin up this week. It’s super crazy that I’ve already been in the office for 4 1/2 months. In the morning we went to a beach sort of close by to play football and hang out. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

Love you guys so much and be good this week!

Love,

Elder Ward

Always Remember Him

Dearest Family,

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about our Savior, Jesus Christ. I think that it’s really easy for us missionaries to forget who we are representatives of. This week is known as "La Semana Santa" here in Nicaragua and other countries in Central America. Everyone gets work off since Wednesday (even the banks and govt.) and either go to the beach and get totally wasted, and if they don’t do that, they go and buy one of those plastic pools with the cool designs on the side and cram the whole family in them because it’s scorching hot outside. I was witnessing all of this one day and I thought...do they really know what this week is all about?

It dawned on me the that very, very few of them really do...and that’s when my job as a missionary seemed so much more important. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Christ. Mom, I read something this week that can be compared to the story that you shared with me. Joseph and Mary had left the Passover feast and had traveled about 3 days towards their home in Nazareth when they realized that Jesus was not in their company. They returned back to the city where they found him in the temple, teaching the Pharisees and scribes, who were asking him questions and marveling at his knowledge. In modern language they said something like, "What in the world are you doing here, you scared me and your father half to death?!" And that’s when Jesus replies, "Widst ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?" I know that I am doing the work of my Heavenly Father, and like you said, I know that I am never alone.

This week was awesome. We brought a super awesome family to conference on Sunday. They brought 5 little kids walking with us that I love to death. Two of the girls, Neftali (6) and Natalie (8), wanted to hold my hands the whole way to the church and back. They taught me all the songs they learned from school and I taught them some words in English. It must be awesome to have little kids of your own...anyways, it made me miss my brothers and sisters for a little while. Their parents, Carlos and Delvia, are excited to get married and baptized on the 21st. Also, Norma, Tonio, and Ruth are SO AWESOME!!! Everyone in the whole neighborhood is talking about how it’s a miracle that Toñio stopped drinking and is going to be baptized because he’s telling the world about it.

Anyways, want to have time to write a few more letters, but I just want to tell you guys that I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Redeemer. He continues to perform miracles in the lives of those who come unto Him. Through His grace, we can become His disciples and if we take advantage of that atoning sacrifice we can have eternal life. Always remember Him, and remember the best gift that we can give Him is living as He did. Happy Easter and I love you guys a bunch!

Love,

Elder Ward