Week 94

Hey Mom!!!

I want you to know I’m all right!!! I don’t have any time to write this week due to a lot of up coming events. I LOVE YOU!!!

ELDER HIRONAKA

Week 93

Hey fam bam! As always it’s your friendly neighborhood Elder, Elder Hironaka!!

I would like to start out by writing to express my love and gratitude to family and friends who have wrote me during this great journey. I have rather enjoyed receiving emails and being able to hear the great things that are happening to each and everyone of you. 

The past week was a good week, not anything super big or special but was nice and a bit more relaxed. This week we had one multi- zone. When I was a Zone leader I had to teach 4, 45min classes. Now as an assistant I really just have to supervise and make sure everything is going smooth. I'm also in charge of the game we play at the very end. For this multi-zone we made a fun Family Feud game.  The zones loved it and it was a success.

We were given the opportunity to work a little more in our area this past week. We are teaching a man that is super funny named Burto. Burto was a big time boxer in his day for Nicaragua. Now at the age of 87 he is still is always jumping around wanting to fight, haha. He is planning to be baptized this next week!!!! Also, did you guys know that Nicaragua has like a world champion boxer right now?!

This week started Semana Santa!!! In Nicaragua, it is a week off from everything; I mean no school, no work, and nothing is open at all. Even the police have the week off. So, you can just think how many bad things can happen during this time. I remember last year I was in Las Palmas and no one wanted to talk to us... Also it is super super hot here during this week as well. I mean it's like AZ heat, crazy right?

Well, I love you family a lot and hope all is well. Be safe and finish up school strong!!!! Love you!!!

Love you 

Elder Hironaka

Side note from Mom: “Semana Santa”, is a traditional Holy Week celebration. It has been around for more than 470 years. The week commemorates Jesus Christ's death resurrection.

Week 92

Hey fam!!!!!  Well let me tell ya, I haven’t slept less in my life than this week!  Everyday this week we had something going on in the morning.  And not like at 8 in the morning like 4 in the morning!! It is getting easier not sleeping however. This week was the week of changes.

So, first off, I didn't have changes!!!  This change there wasn't a ton of changes in the mission. We did receive a lot more sisters to the mission. We received 8 this last change and all were from the states. It's fun to see how American Elders and Sisters act right when they get here. Almost all of them say, " Wow, I thought it was going to be a lot worse here." I remember when I came and I thought I was going to be sleeping on the ground, cooking on a fire everyday, and have to boil my water. I feel like this 3rd world county is a little bit better than what people think. Anyway, it was fun receiving new missionaries. They all are going to do great!

Something fun my companion and I do when new missionaries arrive, is to train them how to contact and how to make baptism dates. It's funny to hear what they say when they listen to our “normal” for the day and that we make baptism dates during every first lesson.

This week we have also been preparing for the multi zone that is coming up this next week. Holy cow, there is a lot of planning when it comes to the multi-zone. We have to plan everything. It's crazy. 

This week we were also blessed to have another baptism! His name is Cesar and he has a strong testimony of the church. Our goal for this month is to have 7 baptisms, so we are working hard to help our investigators. I can't wait to see the blessings of these next couple of weeks. 

Week 91

Hey everyone! It's your friendly neighborhood Elder, Elder Hironaka. I have been excited to write this week. This week has been full of blessings and happiness. The weeks are just flying by now:( 

For starters this week we had a conference in all of Central America. When we have a conference it means unfortunately we can't baptize. For that reason my companion and I worked a ton in are personal area to prepare for the end of this month to baptize a lot. I love working in my area it's the best. When we work, we work with another companionship. The other companionship we work with is Elder Barrios and Elder Penalba. Cool story: Elder Penalba’s family is from here. When his father was 19 he moved to the USA and met his wife and married here and had 2 sons in America. Elder Penalba never visited Nicaragua, so when he was called here he was very excited. His family that lives here are not members. We went and found his family and have made a baptism date with them and they have attended church. It is my hope that Elder Penalba will one day get to baptize them. Wouldn't that be a cool blessing?

Big news!  My comp. passed his drivers test! Yeah, so now that he passed I kind of have to keep teaching him, haha. Yes, it’s funny and is way different teaching someone how to drive in a 3rd world country! Don’t worry; he is good, so, I won’t be getting into any crashes anytime soon;)

Week 90 Elder Ochoa

Hey everyone!! Once again it's your friendly neighborhood Elder. Elder Hironaka. This week was a great great week!! Elder Ochoa of the 70 this last week visited the mission. It was a 3-day visit and I was very honored to be able to work closely with a strong spiritual leader.  This week was full of preparing for his visit, reunions, and baptisms.

We have been preparing for his visit for a week. Day by day we organized who is going to speak, and what zones were be attending what day. It was a long process. When a general authority comes for anything the church prepares everything and sets up the church nicely and has all the audio and visuals set up. Well unfortunately there was a miscommunication and unfortunately they didn't prepare anything for his visit. Which meant Plan B; plan B is when we have to do everything, which includes, setting up the computers, microphones and projectors.

So, I was in charge coordinating that. I learned a lot and quite frankly enjoyed the crazy rush of getting everything ready. The secretaries are really a good bunch of Elders.  They did an awesome job helping me set up everything for the conference with Elder Ochoa. 

We had two days of instruction from Elder Ochoa. The first day was 5 zones and it went well except that the power went out and we lost the AC, which was terrible. I realize I have been in a 3rd world country now for to long, and I’m wondering if there is and I phone watch type of thing in America right now? The reason why I bring it up is Elder Ochoa had something like that and it was awesome. He plugged his phone into the computer and from his watch started a presentation. It was sick. Anyway, the 3 days of instruction was not super planned out. He really didn't tell us to prepare anything so we had no idea what to expect. I ended up having to practice how to teach someone to repent. It was fun and went well. However if you were to ask me to do that a month ago I could not do it. I think from the experience of being an assistant I have learned to be confident in speaking in front of a big group of people. In the meetings we talked about the sacrifice of our loving brother Jesus Christ and how his death made it possible for us to repent when we commit errors. I really enjoyed the conferences and it was an honor to meet Elder Ochoa and Sister Ochoa.

Another big part of this week was baptisms!!!! We ended the month really strong in my area. And it was a great day for us as a companionship. I'm sorry the photos are really really bad. (No photos were sent)

I'm starting to get a little sad though. Everyone when they talk to me is like, “when are you going home.” Or they say, “Elder Hironaka, how do feel to be going home.” Or “Elder Hironaka, the day is coming soon.” I never talk about how much time I have left, but it's a little sad for me that they know it's coming.

Week 89

Well like always it's your friendly neighborhood Elder, Elder Hironaka. This week was a long week but I really enjoyed it and loved it!!!

Monday: Today day for Granada!!! The Granada zone had a good last month and won the BBQ. Yes, I believe my buddy Elder Elison has rather enjoyed him self-going to the last 4 BBQ. Most Elders and Sisters will only go to one, but if they are lucky maybe two times in their mission. So anyway, it was fun talking to other missionaries and to see how much success they are having and how well they are doing. At the BBQ we played some games like Ping pong and table soccer. I personally like table soccer, I'm not to hot at Ping-Pong. 

Tuesday: It was a longish day as well because we had to go out to a zone called Jinotepe. Jinotepe is the biggest Zone in the mission right now. A part of their zone is an hour away in a different city named Rives. It was fun doing house checks and seeing the living conditions of the missionaries. Our mission is really blessed to have great houses that we can live in and feel the spirit.

Wednesday: So we were back with the Granada Zone for their interviews. I have talked about Granada a little bit before and that it is based off of Spain.  I really like visiting it and wish I'd had the chance to have served there. There the members are really great like all of Nicaragua. There I had the chance to speak with the district President and his story about how he became a member is out standing.

Thursday: Thursday was the last day we had interviews. This is Elder Kliener's Zone. It was awesome seeing him again and being able to see how he is doing. He looks great and he is working hard. His zone is the most spread out zone in the mission. His zone includes Bluefields. He has not gone there yet but his companion Elder Merrill has and loved it. Elder Merrill is a cool guy who is going to play basketball for Utah State. He came into the mission 6'4 and is still growing. All I want is 2in!!! But it's what the Lord wants. Right?

Friday: So we have another 70 coming to the mission this next week so like always we are on like clean and make everything perfect mode here. We spent the majority of the day planning for his visit that will take place next week. We have been super blessed to have been visited by so many great men who have been called of God. Friday we also went and helped out a family who doesn't want to be baptized. They are great people but have been putting off marriage for a long time. We discussed the blessings their family will receive through this big step, being married.  They have a 7 month little girl who has a heart problem. This little girl is the reason her parents are going to be married and baptized.

Saturday: so yesterday was a day of baptisms. We had a lot of baptisms as a zone this last week. In my area baptized a woman named Joconda got baptized. We are still looking to baptize 8 more people, but we need to do a lot of work this next week to help make this happen. 

All in all it has been a fun week!!! I love you all. Please be safe in everything you do. I love you!!

Elder Hironaka