Almost Christmas - December 5, 2016

Hola todos!

Wow, this week flew by. Time doesn’t make sense to me anymore, everything is just crazy, but it is a good crazy! 

This week we did lots of finding and found new investigators! Things are picking up here, and I hope that we will get the fire going in my area. So, it pretty much is Christmas here. Which in Nicaragua means fireworks, more fireworks and the same three Christmas songs playing everywhere. I am telling you all, any excuse they have they use fireworks from the three-year-old to the guy who is 83 and can’t see. If I didn’t know that they were lighting fireworks I would think I am in a war zone. But after all things said I do love it. Even the three Christmas songs they play, one is the Feliz Navidad we listen to in los estados. It is just happy here! 

In the midst of all the craziness, the hard times, and the heat, life is good. We continue to contact, find, teach and retain converts and menos activos. I think I am going to be bored out of my mind when I get back, we are just going and going here. Food is still weird, but things are good. Spanish is coming along. I rarely speak English now, and when I do it is weird. English is weird. 

Things are going well here. All is well. I will try to get some more details out next week! Just when life gets hard learn from it and keep going! Rely on the Savior and He will take you all the way!  Remember why we celebrate Christmas! Serve someone this week! I love you all! Thanks for everything! Have a good week and go buy some fireworks!

Elder Erickson

Lake Nicaragua

Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Mosquitos and Other Things to be Grateful For - November 26, 2016

Hola todos, 

Well this week was an adventure. This Thanksgiving week was definitely one to remember. We will start off with the hurricane. Hurricane Otto was pretty much a few drops of rain. But this is how it started, we heard about the hurricane coming, and were told by our leaders to buy food for 48 hours and get water ready. My food storage consists of Oreos, Ramen, bread, chips cheese and ham. We filled every container in the house with water, and then waited and . . .  nothing happened. Literally. We were watching the radar and it was right on top of us and it wasn’t even raining. Go figure. But now I have lots of cookies and garbage cans full of water. And that was a cool miracle that we were all okay here in Granada. Other places got hit hard but we are all good here. And then the day of the hurricane there was an earthquake in the north mission, my companion said he felt it but I didn’t. So overall it was an eventful day. 

Then the next day I decided that the weather radar had mistaken the hurricane for a massive cloud of mosquitos, because all day we were walking through clouds of mosquitos. It was crazy, I have never seen that many bugs even. It was like a plague from the bible. We clapped our hands and killed like 10 every time. Another miracle is that I didn’t even get bit! 

This week I also realized that I have been eating cow liver for a while. They give it to us for lunch a lot. I always thought it was steak. wow, how I have changed. I like cow liver. what a life! Oh, and all the water here is unsafe so to purify it we put bleach in it. So, my water tastes like bleach. And the best part is, among all this weirdness, and wild living, I love it! I love it here! I love this country! I am so happy to be here and to be serving the Lord and the people here! 

We have got some investigators and we are finding new ones too! The work is hard, but it pays off way more than I give. I see miracles every day, learn more about the gospel every day, and learn to love the Savior more every day. This really is His work and His Gospel. I know with all my heart that it is true! I know that He lives! Remember this month His birth, and why He came into the world. Don’t give up! He is there! Thank you all for everything! Have a good week!

Elder Erickson 

Iguanas, Lakes Y Puda Vida - November 21, 2016

Hola Todos!

Wow, first transfer.  I am now in Granada, area La Estacion 2! It is south of Masaya right next to the giant lake with sharks in it. 

A few words about Granada: I love it here! The members in the branch are my heroes and I really do just love this new area. However, it is hot. like way hot. And I thought Masaya was hot. Mostly it is a lot more humidity; but it is great! My area is a lot bigger than my old area, so that is nice too. 

My new companion is Elder Arevalo, he is from El Salvador, and he has 23 months in the mission. He is a really great guy and missionary and I already like him a lot. There are a lot of cool old churches here in Granada, so more pictures to come. 

My area has a nice touristy and rich part in it as well as some of the biggest poverty I have seen here. Overall I am really excited to work here, and already this area is super great. 

Fun experience for the week. I have eaten iguana. It really does taste like chicken. It doesn’t feel like chicken though. We were at the house we eat at for lunch and dinner (I get dinner now! I am grateful for dinner!) and they showed us like 4 giant iguanas in a bucket, and I was like cool pets, and they were like no, this is lunch tomorrow. It was actually pretty good. Let us just say that it looked like an iguana when I ate it. From what I have heard, my food experiences are going to get a lot more exciting. 

Overall I am glad to be here serving the Lord! I love this work! I am so happy to be here! Thank you all for everything! Hasta lunes! oh, and have a good thanksgiving!

Elder Erickson

A few more pics:

Sharing the gospel with his monkey friend. 

A good shoe shine can really make a difference.