Week 95

Well family!!!!!!! Is your friendly Neighborhood Elder Hironaka. I’m excited to have the chance to write my wonderful family. I would like to say I'm very very sorry for not being able to write this last week. I have been very busy as of lately and the load isn't getting any smaller, which means really I'm just much happier and grateful for the opportunity to be here in the mission. 

This last week was a great week because we were able to have a baptism. It was with an old time boxer named José, or whom the neighbors call Gato. Yes, he goes by "Cat" in Spanish. He is a cool guy and at the age of 87 I still think he could beat me up.

Last week was mainly filled with multi-zone meetings. I rather enjoyed watching the missionaries practice and better their teaching. I was also pleased to see that the the way we teach has gotten so much better  since I first entered the mission. In the multi-zone the APs don't really have a practice or a training we need to give, that part is done by the ZLs. We however have the fun part of the day by leading the zones in a game. This time I made a cool family feud game that was based around the church! It was pretty fun and I think the Elders and Sisters really enjoyed it.

This week was pretty cool as well as last week. It was the ZL council. I have been to many ZL councils as a ZL but as an AP only 4 times. In this meeting we talk how we can help the mission more. I like the meeting because the spirit works through us in a different way. The ideas that come to us in that council are, as I believe directly from God so that we can better our selves and the mission.  

This week as well me and my other companion who I work with had a good spiritual moment. We were contacting in a little more dangerous part of our area when we passed by a house. Elder Penalba looked at me and said can we please go back and talk to her. I thought it was a little strange at first because usually older women don't seem to like to listen to us and usually tell us that they are Catholic or that they are too sick to listen. As we first introduced our selves as missionaries we found out that her name was Katherine. Inspired I told Katherine we were there because we felt to come and knock on her door and that, “we know Our Father In Heaven loves you and that many special blessings are prepared for you. Katherine if you were able to receive any special blessing from him, what would you desire to receive?” As I asked the question she replied, “I want my two little children.”  We later found out that her two little children are not with her and that she has been living with the empty felling for a long time. We taught that Our Father In Heaven has given his Son and that through that sacrifice we can be together forever as a family. We promised her if she followed the path of our loving brother Jesus Christ she would be reunited with her children.  Today she was able to come to church with us and is progressing to be baptized. 

I know and bear testimony that the plan of our loving Father In Heaven and Jesus Christ is that we can be together forever. We will be given obstacles, challenges, and at times hardships.  We need to remember that like the scriptures teach us any obstacle that is given to us is for us to show our faith, and that in the last day we will be honored for our faith. (1 Peter 1:5-7)  As I have been given the great opportunity to represent the Son of our loving Father In Heaven and my family here in Nicaragua, I have come to learn that the scripture in 1 Corinthians 10:13 is true. Every problem or every hard thing we pass in this life can be overcome. Our Father In Heaven loves us and doesn't give us challenges that we can’t over come. He'll help us and will provide the way for us to be on His path.  In this life we at times forget the importance of struggling.  When our loving brother Jesus Christ was sent here He was an example in everything. He was perfect and He himself had obstacles, challenges, and had to feel the worst any of us could ever feel. I know if it was hard for Jesus Christ and I believe that life will be hard for us too. I testify that what President Uchtdorf said today is true. Like a beautiful building was constructed over the span of 20 years that has fallen in the matters of hours and then later was put back together we too can rise again and that we can and will conquer obstacles. I know these things are true in the name of Jesus Christ.

I love you all please. I pray for you each day.

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.