#nicaraguaorbust

March 17, 2014

Nicaragua. Was. AWESOME. Yeah of course I’m on a mission. But God sent me a mini vacation. (Haaha Oh Daddy!!!! I LOVE YOU!) I went cuz I was in Costa Rica super illegal, now I’m not super illegal. Its like you can have 30 days without having to get a visa and I’ve been living here for the past 17 months on an expired visa. Now it´s renewed and good until I hit the states. The mission Pres has a secretary in charge of immigration. Way back in December 2012 I entered this country. They gave me clearance for 90 days. That means I can go 90 days free. But I either need to expand my visa or get a residence (like ID that says I´m Tico for religious reasons.) You need to understand that when I got here the secretaries were SUPER LAZY and awful. So 90 days went by. Then new secretaries came in and left..came and left until we´re 17 months in and finally they do something about it. I wasn´t deported. If I was deported, they´d send me home without a trace. We went and snuck under the radar. We stayed in the providence of Rivas in a beach town called San Juan del Sur. We could not proselyte there. It was weird. I wanted to though. Those people need it! They told us we couldn´t wear skirts, dress shirt or our missionary tags. They took us in cars! REAL cars with LEG ROOM AND AC!!! Miracle! 8 of us went. We were all illegal and serving in Costa Rica and we spoke Spanish the whole way. (not too hard to do y’all.)  

One other gringo, 6 Latinos and I was the only sister until we picked up the other Hermana about 45 min away from Nicaragua. I stayed with her in the hotel. Her and I were together only for like...5 hours total. Did I feel weird? Yes. Will coming home be rough? Yes. Guys have cooties still right? Anyways we got there about....9 hours later and saw a ton of volcanoes, lakes, and my favorite: THE BEACH. (Heavenly chorus from above!) They took us out to eat for every meal. We ate so much. And we stayed in a 5 star restaurant RIGHT ON THE BEACH. Then they gave us a whole day and 200 bucks to do whateva. We had to give back what we didn´t use. Have you ever read that scripture that was like: “will a man rob God?” So, yeah, I didn´t want to go down for that... We went to the beach and chilled. Then we ate at a fancy fish restaurant on the beach. Surprise surprise! I ordered the steak instead of the giant a lobster. Yuck! haha. Then we headed back safe and sound. Everyone loves the gringos here. I will say this. Do NOT drink the water, or you will get sick and have diarrhea and maybe be the only girl in the car for 9 hours....Do NOT drink it! haha I did miss my good ol safe Costa Rica. 

Another blessing from it that was cool was I got to drive through all my old areas. It was like an end of mission tour. This trip was definitely a gift from my Heavenly Father. He loves me. He always takes care of us in His own unique way. Mom, it´s like you always told me-to love each of your kids the same, you have to treat them differently. I think I´m understanding that more. Sometimes all we see are the blessings others have. We usually don´t see the sufferings of others. And that in itself makes it way too easy and tempting to focus all on ourselves. We may even ask, ¨Why me? Why now? Why this?¨  What I learned from this trip is that God is a merciful God. He´ll compensate for the crap because HE LOVES US!  Love this talk on trials: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/07/this-is-a-test-it-is-only-a-test?lang=eng  **Photos: I was fake sleeping.. haha. That couch be comfy tho!!! The “I’m good” t-shirt guy is an elder serving in CR from Argentina. He´s awesome. We thought it was funny too, hence the photo. (She wore her t-shirt from the Broadway musical “Wicked”.)

Hey guess what! Yesterday 2 of my friends got baptized!

Victor, M´s 16 year old son and her 11 year old grandson, M. YAY! Victor. He´s had a problem with marijuana, smoking, and drinking. But has wanted to change and be better. Be a better son and have a better future. So he´s quit! M has always listened to the lessons when we were teaching his grandma, M and it was always kind of hard to get his mom on board, but miracles exist! He kept telling him mom how much he wanted to be Mormon and be baptized. He said that when he took the sacrament for the first time that he felt something different. At first I was nervous. But the next thing he said was: Like happy in my stomach or something. He´s so cool mom!! He´s such a good kid! yeah! M´s mom and stepdad were all at church yesterday!!!!!! At church we had 7 NM and like....4LA or as we call them in CostaRica ville: MARCS. Menos activos y recién conversos. 

DUDE! My baby bro is driving! NO WAY! HE LOOKS soooooooooooo much bigger than I remember! He seems so much more grown up! Hashtag......I thought it was something that was going to die. Honestly I´m not too sure what it is, but it seems dumb. That and CandyKrush.....idk. Weird how I´m missing a lot of little things like that. Alien, table of one? Haha  maybe you could change it to Megan #hashtag Workman. Seems legit. 

My Mission; As for the doctrines, it´s not like I came here and gained a new testimony of a lot of principles like the Godhead, the First Vision, the Book of Mormon, etc. But what I´ve noticed is that my testimony has expanded and become strengthened. Usually always through trials I was able to gain more understanding and then the blessing after each trial was a stronger testimony and reliance on the Lord. I think the best thing I´ve been learning is from Chapter 6 of PMG. Christ like attributes. Christ in general. I´ve really come to know Him a lot better. For that I will always be grateful. My mission has allowed me to think about, talk about, and feel about the Atonement in a way I never understood before. My relationships with others will forever be changed. The whole human condition thing. My mission has been the best thing for me. It´s helped me accept the will of God more and be more patient during our little afflictions. 

I don’t feel like writing much cuz I’m going to see you soon… I’ll just tell ya! Come to the homecoming yo! (April 27 @1 – Riverton church… same as the one she left from )

Alrighty then. I’m off and out to good places. Shoes, feet, brains, head. LOVE YOU SO MUCH! BYE BYE

 

And I love you!

Love,

Meg