8/30/10 - Letter to the World

Elder Denton with some turtles just before they were prepared for somebodies dinner!

I´m back!

Last week I was having some technical difficulties and only ended up with enough time to write my family. Today I got a letter informing me that you guys don´t even know who my new companion is! Geez are you behind!!! My new companion is Elder Amaya. He´s from El Salvador and I think he´s 22, his birthday was yesterday. He´s very animated and outgoing when it comes to teaching the gospel, which is great. He has a ton to teach me and I´m more than willing to learn!

I feel like I´m getting a lot more comfortable teaching the Gospel to people. In my first change I just taught right out of Preach My Gospel. This change, I want to change it up a bit. My goal is to FIRST find the needs of the people, and SECOND teach from Preach My Gospel according to the needs of the people. That´s something that Elder Burrows was teaching me when he left and I´m finally starting to see the real importance of it. The Gospel that we teach is such a miracle because it helps EVERYBODY - our job is to find out what the people need, and show them how applying the teachings of Christ will benefit them.

Tonight is Family Home Evening! Don´t forget it! Mondays is one of my favorite days here in the mission field because we get to do FHE with the investigators/recent converts. It´s fun to see them study up on a topic and then teach it to their family, it lets them know that they can learn about the Scriptures even when the missionaries aren´t at their house.

Random: Today my Mom told me that survivor was going to be in Nicaragua this year and it kind of made me feel like Tarzan...but just for a minute...then I remembered that this last week I learned how to open a coconut with my mouth...and I felt like Tarzan for another minute. It´s kind of crazy here - if you see something on a tree that looks good, you can just pull it off and eat it...unless someone owns the tree...if someone owns the tree they get mad.

Well, I think that´s about all I have to tell you for this week. It´s almost time to head back to Lamlaya and ¨poner las pilas¨ so we can get people ready to be baptized on Saturday.

OH! One more thing I remembered. Last week I gave my first lesson in ¡English! to a lady that only speaks English and Miskitu. It was pretty amazing (if I do say so myself), but it´s a bit embarassing when you start to forget your own language. When you´re teaching about the structure of the church, there are certain words you don´t want to forget (ex. preisthood, scriptures, etc.)....my bad.

ALSO!!! Yesterday I said my first prayer in Miskitu! I hardly know any Miskitu, so it was really short and simple, but I did it!

Well, That´s my news! I hope that you are all having as much fun as I am!

Love you all,
Elder C. Denton

8/23/10 - NO Letter to the World

We were in contact with Elder Denton II briefly yesterday around 5pm. He mentioned that the Zone Leaders were doing something with machetes which made for a late start to their P-day, and on top of that he managed to get a very slow computer. He got off a short message that he was glad his mom was done with chemo and asked if his ex-companion, Elder Burrows (from Sandy) stopped by the house yet. (He hasn't). That was about it other than a quick text to Connie saying the other elders were ready to go. Until next week....

8/16/10 - Letter to the World

The beachside missionary house Elder Denton, Ramon, Feliz, Elder Burrows, Derkin, Rogelio

Elder Burrows, Margini, Justin, Elder Denton

WORLD! Good Afternoon!

I´m glad to have the opportunity to write a few things until my comp tells me that my times up. I´ll start with Baptisms!

Araseli and Maima are two sisters that were baptized on Saturday. They´re both very humble and enjoy going to church every week. I think they´ve been going ever since we got here! Their parents aren´t quite as interested, but we´re working with them. They [work?] every day until late, so it´s hard to find time to teach them and they haven´t gone to church at all...I´ll keep working on ´em!

Felix was baptized on Sunday. He was kind of a surprise for me. I hadn´t ever even realized that he had been going to church, but apparently he had! He told us that he wanted to get baptized and we weren´t going to stop him! It´s incredible how the spirit can touch people so strongly in such a short time! That´s one of the most incredible things that I´ve learned here on my mission.

I think I´ve already mentioned Ramon. He´s as pilas as Felipe! He loves reading the Book of Mormon and is sitting there reading just about every time we go to visit him. He wanted to know EVERYTHING before he was baptized, which is good, but it gives Satan a lot of time to work! Our district leader came to talk to him and helped him realize that if we have even just a simple testimony of Joseph Smith we already know enough to be sure that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. He was baptized on Sunday with his son, Derkin. Derkin´s friend, Rogelio, was also baptized. Since it´s such a small community, everybody knows each other. It´s really interesting to see how diferent people react when they find out that someone got baptized.

Alina was the last one! She´s another relative of Felipe! Their whole family is pilas! Every single one of them! Alina told us up front that she wasn´t going to get baptized, but we knew that she had a testimony of the church...a strong one! We kept talking to her of the importance of following the example of Christ and of following the commandments. Yesterday at church Elder Burrows talked to her for a few minutes and she decided that it would be the right choice to make! I was thrilled we I got the thumbs up! She was baptized yesterday and her family was really excited to hear about it!

Well, I gotta attach some pics and head out. Thanks for the support, love, and prayers. I love and appreciate you all!

THANKS

Elder Denton II

8/9/10 - Letter to the World

Good Afternoon!!!

How are you all doing? (I´m asking everyone...not only the 7-8 people that have been writing me) I hope that you are all having a good summer! It´s coming to a close quickly!

Today I was reading through some letters and it struck me how fast time is moving while I´m here focussing on my little Lamlaya! It´s awesome to hear all of the different things that are happening!!! My Mom finishing chemo!! My sister going on a mission!! My Dad´s ´hijos preferidos´ have started laying eggs!! And chaz...chaz got a ticket (¿bad news is better than no news?)

The people here are great and we are hoping to have a lot of baptisms this week, but I need to talk about the last people we baptized so I don´t get too far behind! Orby, Merlin, and Alexander were all baptized 2 Saturdays ago. They are a humble family and really receptive to the message of the Gospel. Merlin is the only one that speaks Spanish well, but when we go with a translator, we can tell that they understand. We set up a wedding for Merlin and Alexander and they were married a day before their baptism. Here we don´t have to ´sacar fechas´ like they do in Kyle´s area. We just call up the lawyer and tell him to come over for a wedding. Merlin is gonna have her first baby soon so I´m glad that they were able to hear the Gospel early so they can start building their family on good principles.

MARJINI GOT BAPTIZED!!! Marjini is Felipe´s daughter! She´s awesome! She hears a lot of rumors about our church in the community, but she always sets people straight when she hears them! I had the opportunity to baptize her on Thursday and she was confirmed on Sunday by Elder Burrows!

I really have seen so many blessing here in Lamlaya and althought there are a lot of things trying to slow us down, we´re not going to let it disanimate us. I know we´re on the Lord´s side and he will take care of us. Being away from my family and looking back, it´s so easy to see how this Gospel has blessed my family. There are so many blessings that I had that I didn´t think twice about. I love teaching families here because I can picture how they´re going to change and how they can be such firm members in the Church. When I tell them about the blessings that I had in my family and about the blessing that they will see in theirs if they follow Christ I feel the Spirit so strongly! Families really are ordained by God and are such a blessing in our lives...I wish I would´ve realized that earlier.

Well, It´s time for me to take off. I have other people to talk about, but mejor next week!

I love you all and I appreciate all of your support and love.

Until next weekElder Denton II

OH!...this week I learned that I spent the first 2 weeks washing myself with laundry soap. Elder Burrows asked me to get the laundry soap and I had no idea what he was talking about and he said ¨that pink bar of soap in the bathroom¨. I felt retarded, but that´s how we learn, I guess! I´ve now returned to my regular soap usage!

8/2/10 - Letter to the World

Dear World!

This is the last time that I´m going to say that I am short on time. From here on out it is your responsibility to know that I don´t have a lot of time to write.

This last week has gone pretty well, although we are having some trouble animating the people, we are still getting them out to church, which is a really big help. The church here is really nice and yesterday it was nice to hear such strong, yet simple testimonies. Nearly all of the people are recent converts, so they all just talk about Joseph Smith, but the people here learn so quickly and are so receptive to this gospel that soon they´ll have a testimony of all the other points and principles as well.

FELIPE GOT BAPTIZED!!! He was really getting down on himself last week, but he made some good life changing choices and now he´s a confirmed member of the Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Dias. I´m so exited about that!

Just recently we also had to let one of our investigators go. I didn´t think that it was going to be as hard as it was. She has a testimony of everything we taught her, but here in Nicaragua there is a church that is more of a tradition than anything. Almost everyone goes there starting when they´re really young. The people that go to this church really believe the things that we teach, but the cultural tie to their church makes it hard for them to come to our church and get baptized.

A 2 quick Nicaraguan facts, a short story, and I´m off:

Wabul is an amazing drink here! It tastes like liquid banana bread. They serve it hot.

When the people don´t understand a question, they twich their nose and upper lip to let you know..The other missionaries want to go out to lunch. No time for a short story.

Love you all!!! Elder Denton

NOTE: He came back to the internet cafe a little later and wrote this to me just before he had to go again: SHOOT! I had other baptisms...Orby, Mairin and Alexander...I´ll try to remember to write about them next week