The Work and the Glory

Date: July 12, 2010
Area: Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
Companion: Elder Velásquez

July 12, 2010

So, this week has been great! I am still struggling with learning Misquito, but I have the help of my Father in Heaven so I know that I will be able to learn rather quickly. The information that you sent me is very interesting, especially because I didn't know that the languages were so similar (Sumo, Misquito, etc.). The Sumo people don't really live near us, and their race is interesting: most have clear eyes, or blonde hair and more features similar to Asian cultures. The Misquito people are very dark and characteristically Caribbean.

So I would also like to bug y'all about getting me a new, cheap watch as someone stole mine. The old house I lived in was in a very dangerous part of the city, and someone broke in and stole my watch and clothes from some of the other missionaries. So if y'all could help me out a little I would be very happy. I'm sorry I keep asking for so many things, but I can't go out and buy and some of the things out here. And when you do send boxes, put Bible references like crazy and photos of Christ all over it too.

In your next email could you send me some family photos? I regret not printing out photos before I left, but as long as they are on the internet I can always access them and nothing can happen to them! ;)

So my baptisms have been fantastic. I've baptized three people: two have been amazing and one has been, well nothing special. The two women I have baptized have been amazing, super ready for the gospel in their lives. Whereas the man I baptized I think only got baptized because he thought I was cool. He lives in Honduras for part of the year and the rest here in Puerto, but he never knows when he's going to come back.

Some of the amazing baptismal experiences that I've had have been at the baptisms of other missionaries. We now have 12 missionaries in Puerto! I go to some of the baptisms, and when I do I generally talk about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. I also get to bear my testimony a lot. Apparently the people love it when I preach out here, so they ask me to talk because they can tell that I love what I'm teaching and know that I believe what I'm teaching as well.

The people I teach are generally amazing. Some of them are so ready for the gospel it amazes me. For example, Saturday night we went to go visit one of our investigators, and we walked in and she said, "So can I get baptized tomorrow instead of next week? Is that okay? I just really feel like I need to take this step." And yesterday we went to go visit a family of like 4 that I had contacted into the other day when I was doing changes, and when we got to the house there were 14 people (9 possible baptisms) and they were basically asking how they could become members of the church because they've heard a little bit about us, want to visit and possibly join the church. I love these experiences, I am only wary of what might become of the people. We try to help them get testimonies of the things we teach and have real experiences with the Holy Ghost. That is where we need to be creative.

I had a revelation the other day on how to get more investigators for our zone too! I'm going to teach English at the chapel once a week, with gospel-themed messages (the lessons) and members are invited, but they need to bring a non-member (or a family). People are stoked because English lessons here are super expensive and many cannot afford to pay for them. This can also help us to bring in SO many new investigators.

I am so excited about all the work out here, sure it's hard, but I know that my Heavenly Father has been preparing me a very long time for service like this, and I know that it will benefit my life and the life of my family now and my family to come so much.

Out here, the main thing we teach is the Restoration. The people here all "believe" in the bible, so we have to lay the Book of Mormon down hard on them. We also have to explain to them what prophets are and how we can pray and receive revelation. They don't always get it, so we have to be very exact and concise in how we explain it. Also, the people here are poorly educated, that is, the older people are poorly educated so we have to teach as if they were primary-aged children. It helps me a lot because it helps me keep everything simple and pure, and I love that. Right now I just have to memorize the scripture references. A lot of the elders here mark their scriptures as if they were some kind of weapon...and I don't really like that, I like to keep mine simple and clean not cluttered with post-its and such. So it's going to take me a little while longer to memorize some of the key references, but oh well, the Lord will bless me with the mental capacity to that which I desire.

Prayer is amazing and I am so happy that you are working on communicating with our Heavenly Father, now we all just have to remember to read our scriptures, as He communicates with us a LOT by means of the scriptures.

Thanks for the scriptures and for the Hymns, they will help me so much to remember you in little ways that doesn't distract me from the work.

I love you all so much, and thank y'all for all the prayers that you have offered in my behalf.

Kliwol Prawbia (Hasta Ver) 'Till We Meet Again

Found luggage

Date: July 05, 2010
Area: Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
Companion: Elder Velásquez

So another missionary had all of my stuff. They found my suitcase in their house when they were moving stuff around. It had my boots, ties, every single letter/envelope I got while in the MTC...my extra diaries, etc. SOOOOO much stuff and I had been praying for a while that I could get it soon, but I know that God was teaching me patience. As you all know, patience is one of my weak spots, so this has been a good experience for me: I had to learn that sometimes I cannot do anything besides pray, have faith and hope that all will turn out well. And that's exactly what I did, I prayed that I could learn the lessons that I needed to learn and that I could just turn my life over into His hands.

I wrote up a list of things that I wanted to tell you, so brace for impact (and I'll get to your new questions soon). HERE WE GO!

Okay, the way people pray out here is so interesting. I'm one of the only people that cross my arms and bow my head, etc. The people here pray with their hands in their pockets, hands over their faces, hands on their head and so on. Oh, and there's an elder in the zone who puts his hand over his food (they hover over his food) when people pray to bless the food. Very interesting. However, I love what they say when they pray: they are very sincere, open and honest. I almost cried when we were visiting a youth the other night. We had gone to visit him to ask him why he hadn't been at church for a little, and he talked to us for a little. Then my companion and I spoke to him about how he can change and I bore my testimony about changing lives, about becoming who we need to be and leaving our past behind us. At the end of the meeting, he prayed that he could change and make take the steps necessary to change. It was beautiful, and very powerful.

They say it's Winter here. Weird! It's like a constant 90ºF and at night it gets to be about 80º. Ugh. Sometimes I just want to die because I sweat so much! But I keep working, thinking about all the weight I'm losing. And, we don't do daylight savings, so I'm on Mountain Standard Time right now.

Okay, I live near an area called Las Colinas (behind a school called Marvin Mitchel). It's a dangerous area, but we're being protected. I will take lots of photos, and when I can, as I am in a technologically retarded area, I will send some to you. I'm sorry, but there's not a lot that I can do in that regard. You might even have to wait a couple months...unfortunately. (I forgot my camera cord at home...and for that reason I might have trouble uploading them and might just have to send the card via mail).

The Culture Shock. Yes, I did have a bit of culture shock at the beginning. People throw trash on the streets, they spit EVERYWHERE and they whistle to get your attention. To me, all of those things are gross or rude, but I'm learning to ignore them and just stay in my own little bubble still. And, I almost forgot, they don't flush toilet paper, they throw it in a trash can next to the toilet. WIERD! And they love fat people. A lot of the people here are overweight, so being chunky is kind of accepted. Nice.

I love the food. Then again, I've always loved rice, and I've learned to love beans over the years. They have a plant called yucca that's like a potato, but it has no natural flavor. Completely bland. The water is nasty. I'm allergic to it because of all the parasites. I've gotten sick a couple of times because of the food, but for some reason the water doesn't affect me as much as the food. Mom, we have someone who cooks for us. She cooks shrimp and seafood all the time and I love it! We also have someone to do our laundry for us, it's rather lovely.

Being sick here, in general, is awful. However, the drugs here are so cheap. You can buy amoxicillin, 6 days worth, for $1.10. Cheap. But the colds here are awful. The diarrhea is mean, and relentless. TMI, but at the same time you wanted to know. ;)

Another interesting thing that I've noticed is that the Lat-Ams don't waste money, they're very frugal and smart with they're money, whereas the Americans in my zone practically throw their money away. I'm being very careful with the money I get; however, I have been using money from my account because the APs didn't make me a credit card so I've had to wait to get money from my comp's card...I still have quite a bit left in my account, I'm just letting y'all know that I've been using my money.

Regarding how we're working: Mom, I think that your friend was right because my companion doesn't realize that he just misses the appointments, he just plans and then we go and do other things. We still teach a lot, but we do miss other opportunities, it's like picking between good and good, how do you choose between two equally good opportunities? He means well, and he is a hard worker, it's just different for me, as I've been raised to make plans and then follow through with them all, not just change them as the day goes along. We've actually offended some people out here because we haven't been in certain places at certain times.

Thanks for the quotes that you sent me. I love them! And that stuff about the Holy Ghost is so true! Some of the most important things that I have learned have come to me while I've been traveling around my area contemplating things. I've come to learn some truly amazing things, and I will share some with you at another time, for I don't have much time left to write to you.

I really think that you would love to visit here. It is hot, but not as hot as it is during the summer here. Maybe you could come and pick me up, we could just stay in one of the hotels with air conditioning!

I forgot to tell you that I had my first baptism yesterday! It was amazing and I was able to confer the Holy Ghost on her too! All in Spanish!

We have like 8 baptisms set us for this week and hopefully 10 for the week after.

--
Love,
Elder Bolton

Update...Puerto Cabezas

Date: June 28, 2010
Area: Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
Companion: Elder Velásquez

28 June 2010

Okay, I am doing SO much better than I was last week. I talked to a few of the missionaries that I'm serving with for advice, and thanks to them I have been doing so much better out here.

Puerto is totally different from all of the other Zones in my mission. For one, everyone speaks Miskito! It's crazy. I am learning little by little, and this week I'm going to acquire a Bible in Miskito and a dictionary. The people here have noticed that I love learning the language and I have had a few people ask me to study well so that I can translate the Book of Mormon into Miskito. The people here can speak Spanish, but that's about it. They can speak it and nothing more; it's very hard for them to understand scriptures and deep conversations. I have been praying that the language will come quickly, as I really do not know how long I will be here.

We get out new president in 2 days! Ah!!! Crazy! I love our current/soon-to-be-gone president. He has seriously helped me so much in like 2 weeks. A couple things that he has told me that have really struck me as important in this life are:

1. The Scriptures. We need to read the scriptures as families, then as couples/spouses, then individually.

2. Trials. We all go through trials, but we have all been given people to help us: companions. We need to go through a weekly "companionship inventory" with our families and our spouses. We need help fixing our problems, and who better to help us than those whom we love?

Okay, full story. After transfers I went out to get my bags and one was gone! So as of right now I have like 4 short-sleeved shirts, three pairs of pants, 3 pairs of socks and a number of garments (almost all have been purchased by the mission for me). Someone took my bag on accident, and they have it in their house. This doesn't happen a lot, but it's awful when it does because one is left without clothes for 6-18 weeks! Then, when I got to Puerto I found out that the Branch I'm serving in is solely a Miskito-speaking branch. Wierd. Then, when we were heading back to Managua, I found out that we were going to fit 13 people in one Toyota truck. We were all crammed in there for soooooo long. I lasted 13 hours in the bed of the truck, then spent 2 hours inside. My back was completely bruised and I couldn't sleep well for almost 5 days. Painful, but soooooo much fun. The Hunger Strike that we encountered was totally savage: everyone there had weapons and machetes and were not very kind. But we got through. It was a miracle. Many people here in Puerto have been telling me that they fear the war is starting again. Sure, there's always the fear that the war will commence again, but the people here feel as if it is imminent. This saddens me, for I just want to help the people here and how can I do that if I'm in some other country?

We got back to Puerto Friday afternoon (after being in Managua for 4 1/2 days!) and went back to work. I've been working so hard so that every night when I pray and report back to my Heavenly Father I can tell Him that I worked my hardest. I have been trying so hard to be a great missionary, but to be honest it's hard to be fantastic when you have others holding you back. I mean, we plan and plan and plan but then we end up not doing what we planned at all and sometimes it feels like we're wasting time. I'm sure things will get better over time.

Letter--I will only get dearelders when I go back to Managua or when someone from Managua comes to visit our zone, so if you all want to keep writing, go ahead, they'll sit there in the office for a little bit longer, but I can enjoy them later.

New address:

Oficina Discover
Oficina 2D
Apartado Postal 3600
Managua, Nicaragua

Okay everyone, time is up for me. I love all of you so much and cannot explain to you the love that I can feel from you. It is amazing how much help I have received from your prayers, the scriptures, my prayers and my Patriarchal Blessing. Remember to read your scriptures and pray like I said, family, couple and individually as well as read your patriarchal blessing. I shall await more emails!

-- Love,Elder Bolton

Letters from Puerto Cabezas

Date: June 22, 2010
Area: Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
Companion: Elder Velásquez

There is so much to tell you and I seem to be so limited in
words at this point, but I will try and explain to you how my first week as
been as well as I can.

So on the plane ride I spoke to a woman and bore my testimony about eternal
families, as her father had died that morning so she was flying from Miami to Managua
to cremate him and scatter his ashes. Weird, but it was a great experience.

I got into the airport and had to go through customs then have my bag hand
checked by the Nicaraguan government and then I could go out and meet my
Mission President and his wife. It is hot in Managua. Dad, maybe it's a good
thing that you guys aren't coming out here, you would die. It gets to be like
95 by like noon or 2 o'clock and only cools down when it rains (basically). So
we got picked up at the airport and then went to McDonalds to get dinner. After
that we went to one of the 2 mission homes, the South Home, and got ready for
bed. It took me forever to fall asleep; I mean it was 85 degrees after all.

Tuesday we had some training and some orientation stuff to do, I had a 5 second
interview with my mission president (and I mean literally 5 seconds). Then we
went out tracting with one of the Managua Zones--there are 4 Zones in Managua.
After that we went back to the mission home and ate dinner and slept.

Wednesday was transfers. I am in the Nicaragua Managua North Mission! My
trainer is Elder Velásquez, from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. I'm serving in the
highest baptizing area in the church right now, it’s called Puerto Cabezas.
Last month they baptized over 100 people and like 12 families! Crazy! It's a
lot colder than Managua, by like 5 degrees and it rains a lot more. Oh, and
it's a 24-hour bus ride from Managua to Puerto, that was tough. The people here
are fantastic. Such hard workers, they make me feel like I was such a lazy
member before the mission. They go out every Sunday and make sure that the
recent converts are all coming to church and that a lot of the less active
families are coming.

I love my mission president. He is so frank and blunt and says everything as it
is. It's fantastic.

Um, so lots of random things have happened to me, but I don't want you to every
worry about how I am doing. No matter what trials we have in this life we can
overcome them with our faith and determination. My APs have told me that I
might quite possibly have had the most difficult first week of any missionary
they have ever met, but I know without a doubt that I am being blessed with
trials; they strengthen me, humble me and draw me closer to the Savior.

One of the coolest things that has happened to me happened just last night. We
were driving back to Managua (seriously a 16 hour journey by car) so that we
can see the president and say goodbye to him at his departure devotional and
there was a strike going on. A hunger strike against the government. They were
turning ambulances away! But we got through. We prayed together, we sang hymns
in Spanish together and some people went out and talked to the people while
others guarded the truck, for in Nicaragua you always need to watch your stuff,
everywhere you go whatever you're doing. But I was praying fervently with
Heavenly Father when I remembered a line from my Patriarchal Blessing that
states basically any righteous desire of your heart shall be granted, so long
as it is needful (paraphrase). So I basically said to my Father in Heaven,
"I really want to go to Managua and need to see the President one more
time. This is not just something I want, but my whole Zone hasn't been to Managua
and won't be able to see those in the South Mission if they don't see them now.
Please help us to get across." And eventually, after a while the people
softened and let us pass, but I was praying and I did not doubt in the power
the Lord has given us as missionaries.

Remember this lesson, prayer is the only way we can be close to our Father in
Heaven. It is the only way we can keep our relationship strong with him.

Family, I love you so much and I miss you terribly. If you can all pray not
just as a family, but personally as well that I might be buoyed up during these
trying 2 years I will be eternally grateful.

Mom, I will try and get more info to you guys about how to get letters to me
and stuff. I just need the new address. So if you could like send a little
Facebook note to Heather Thomas and ask her to tell other not to send stuff to
the old address and tell them that they can still send stuff through pouch to
the NORTH mission, that'd be great, that'd be fantastic, just let them know that they need to send mail via pouch to my new mission.

I love you all so much, and I think about you all the time. It brings me such
great happiness to know that we are such a beautiful family. Please, do not
worry about me, pray for me and the people of Nicaragua.

--

Love,

Elder Bolton

P/S

Really, do not worry about me, simply pray that I can be
effective and not get too homesick

Also, they have officially extended my mission 3 weeks, so technically I get to
serve out my whole mission in Nicaragua.

--

Love,

Elder Bolton

Letters from the MTC

Date: June 08, 2010
Area: MTC

Life is great here in the MTC. I have had some amazing experiences the past week that I want to recap really quickly for you (having only 30 minutes to write really makes me nervous...).

1. Teaching. I love teaching. My companion and I have become rather good at teaching with each other and teaching with the spirit. Our teacher told us that we still have some things to working on, but that if we work hard the rest of the district will follow us (apparently we're like the leaders at teaching, pretty cool).

2. THE SPIRIT. I have had such a spiritual week. I've had a lot of interesting experiences in my life that have led me to need to rely on the spirit to live, and for that I am so grateful. I have been able to use that to my advantage to help teach and to have scriptures come to my mind or have simple phrases of power be at the ready when I need to help an "investigator" learn something, or know that I have a testimony of it. I have also been able to receive so much personal revelation about my life.

3. Music. So, it's kind of sad that we are not allowed to listen to our own music here at the good old MTC, but it has helped me to rely on singing hymns and the music of the heart. We also had some of the old Church Hymnal Committee members come and talk to us about singing and brining our lives in line with Christ's (the speakers included the people who wrote the music for Press Forward Saints, Our Savior’s Love and Thy Holy Word). AMAZING. I shook all of their hands and thanked them for the work that they had done for the church and then thanked them, being the music enthusiast that I am, for having brought that music into my life. I told one of them that I had been in choir since I was 9 and he said it was a shame that the MTC Choir isn't running right now. So true.

4. Classes. The cool thing about being in the advanced class is that I have the opportunity to simply be taught in Spanish, rather than having to learn Spanish half the time and learn how to teach the other half. Yesterday we had a substitute teacher, as one of teachers was taking his LSAT (yikes!). He was amazing and really helped me feel comfortable. He asked us if we felt like we had received too much information yet. I said "Um. YES! I feel like I'm being inundated." (Forgive the rough English, I’m trying to remember what we were saying and then trying to translate everything into English...) He then told us that the MTC is like a fire hydrant, the hose carries the information to us, and then we have the hose put in our mouths...and VOILA! Our heads are getting blasted with information that we don't know how to use yet. But then he testified that when we get into the field so much of it will make sense, obviously not all at once, for that is too easy; however, over time we will remember what we have learned here and it will help us out.

My district is fantastic. After a few weird incidents--an Elder joining us for his last week being here after being here for 14 weeks, and one of our Sisters going home--I have realized that my life is now truly in the Lord's hands and that I need to get used to having my life just tossed about like a ship on the seas.

Mom, the Doctrine and Covenants are amazing! They give us so much guidance for these times, as well as give us hope for the life to come. I love that quote that you sent me from President Hinckley, it was exactly what I needed to hear about the doctrine contained in that precious book. And THANK YOU for using Preach My Gospel. In reality the whole ward should use it, but they don't understand that it's not solely for the missionaries or missionary work. Everything in there is amazing and can help us so much in our everyday lives: whether it is studying, teaching with the spirit, or even listening and teaching skills, every chapter in that book is meant for the betterment of our lives.

I see Ellis, Elder Hunsaker, daily. He's in my ZONE! I was so excited. It was such a wonderful tender mercy.

I have gotten all of your letters and I'm so excited that you have all gotten mine! I will write a few more before I leave on MONDAY! WOHOOO! Okay, itinerary, because I know I need to send it: I leave SLC at 6 in the morning on Monday June 14th. I arrive at Dallas at 9:35 and then have a 3 hour lay-over. Then I head to Miami and land at 4:35 and then stay there for my 2 hour layover. Anyway I leave Miami at 6:50 and arrive at Managua at 7:30. Flight #'s: American Airlines 1868, 795, 986.

I buzzed my hair, 1/2" all around. Weird. The girl cutting my hair asked me how long it had been since I had it that length, I told her I was 10 or 11 the last time it was that short.

Well, my time is almost up. I love you all! Keep studying your scriptures and praying for me!
--
Love,
Elder Bolton

Letters from the MTC

Date: June 01, 2010
Area: MTC

Okay, brace for impact! I'm going to unload everything you want to know in the 17 mins I have left thanks to the BYU/MTC IT department. (They were very rude today...silly people).

I am in a district with 4 other Elders and 3 Sisters (Hermanas). We're the only district in the Zone with Hermanas right now, but we get two whole districts of them this Wednesday. I live with one other Elder, my companion Elder Flores from California. We have an entire room to ourselves, so I get to have two pillows all to myself.

Schedule (the basic low-down):

6:30-Get Up and prepare for the day.

7:00-Be to class for personal study

7:30-Breakfast

8:15ish-Class or Gym Time (gym is about an hour)

12:30-Lunch

1:15-Class (or Study Time)

5:30-Dinner

6:15 Class (or Study Time)

9:00 Plan

9:30 Bedroom

10:15 Quiet Time

10:30 in BED

We have devotionals and firesides and stuff intermittently spread all over our very chaotic schedule. But the worst of it is over! I have now been here for almost a week exactly and I am supposed to leave the 16th of June! Side note: I had to go give some blood today because Nicaragua requires a blood check to see iv we have HIV or AIDS. The nurse said that they were just doing it as a precautionary measure, as they had already told Nicaragua that I was clean and they had checked my blood. ;)

Mom, that experience that you had at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple reminds me of my life at BYU. Every day I would walk out of my building when I was heading out to class or work I would see the temple as I was leaving my building. It is so amazing how many blessings we can experience for literally (or figuratively) facing our "tents" to the temple. And that temple is absolutely gorgeous! All I remember is seeing the chandelier when we were at the dedication last august (which feels like yesterday, by the way). And you have the worst luck when you travel. After reading your letter I feel the need to emphasize that life is interesting when you travel...

Your letters and thoughts/prayers help me out so much here; I can definitely feel your influence in my life as you are all trying to help me.

I love you all so much and cannot wait to send you letters and photos (as I really do not have much time to email every day).

Look up D&C 49 (about the Second Coming) and when you read verse 24 think of me!

keep praying for me! Love,
Elder Bolton

(The rest of this is from a brief one page letter we received from him in the mail, the same day as his email.)

Dear Familia,

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing well! Today was chaotic and so busy.

I love you all so very much! Everything here is what I expected and more!

My companion is very kind and very patient with me. There are all native Latinos in my class and the Spanish that they speak is VERY different from the Spanish that I speak. I love them all so much and I love my Branch President and teachers so much.

Love you lots. Stay strong.

Stories:
1. I saw who my companion was, and I knew him! I met him randomly at school and we connected real well. At first I was nervous because I didn't know him extremely well, but I love him. He is a fantastic Elder and now, District Leader (even though I am Senior Companion).

2. I got into class on Wednesday and was super nervous. Dad, I was not ready for the advanced program then, but I am now. I think in Spanish and I practice it all the time. I get to have fun with it a lot because I with all natives!

3. I told my Branch President that I felt inadequate in that classroom, but he told me that he knew that I was fulfilling prophecy. Check out D&C 49:24 for more information!

Languages

I LOVE this website. I just found it, and despite the fact that i will only be able to go on it for like the next few days...you can bet your life that I will be on it. all. the. time.

http://www.transparent.com/wotd/