Surviving the Acome Rivers!

Hey there family!

I hope you are all doing well! Another week has gone by and I can hardly believe that soon I will be entering my last 6 weeks of the mission. Before we know it, we will all be back together talking about all of these great adventures!

This week was kind of just a normal one. There wasn’t anything too exciting that happened. The week started out with interviews with President Poncio. Those went really well! President asked me to remind him how much time I had left on the mission and when I told him I only have two months left he freaked lol. He couldn’t believe how quickly I am going to be leaving! We had a really good chat about the success that I have been able to have throughout the mission and he asked me how I felt about what I have done. He told me how proud of me he is and how he has been able to enjoy watching me change and grow throughout the mission. He expressed his love and trust towards me which meant a lot. He has been there for me through a lot of things and I feel so blessed that the Poncios have been my Mission Presidents.

For the last two weeks I have been battling a nasty cold and for a week I took cold medicine that did nothing for me. I figured things would just get better but they didn’t. After being in air conditioning all day at interviews, I left there in rough shape. I got hit with the body aches and a really bad fever. Hermana Galbraith came to stay the night with us because she would be going with President to the interviews in another zone here in Chinandega. It was such a blessing because I got permission to stay in the house for the last hour of the night with the member that we live with and Hermana Ward and Hermana Galbraith went and got the antibiotic that the nurse prescribed me. I hadn’t been that sick in a very long time. It was a tender mercy to have Galbraith there with us because she was able to help Ward while I puked my guts out and layed helpless on my bed lol. I am doing a ton better now and I am back on my feet. The elders came that night and gave me a priesthood blessing. I was blessed to be back on my feet working the next day and that’s exactly what happened!

This week we had a lot of success re-activating some members. We have been visiting them and teaching them and doing all that we can to get them excited to go to church again. With one of the families, we simply have developed a really good relationship with them. One day they wanted us to try this really nasty food and drink that they have here and so we decided to make a little deal. We would eat it if they would go to church on Sunday. We were supposed to do our end of the deal first but it didn’t end up working out because they weren’t able to get the nasty food. My comp and I said it’s because God wanted them to do their end of the deal first lol! There was another family that we have been visiting and they simply haven’t wanted to come to church out of laziness. So we went and did an activity with their boys one day and we made them do puchups for how many days they hadn’t gone to church. The boy collapsed and couldn’t finish his pushups because they were too many. We reinforced the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy because it is our day of rest. If we go to church every sunday, we won’t ever spiritually collapse. So come Sunday we were greeting people at the door and BOTH of the families walked in!! I can’t even explain how happy I felt seeing them walk through those doors! I can’t even imagine how happy God felt!

I testify that this Gospel is the only way to true happiness in this life. I also testify that I know it’s not always easy. But the blessings that we recieve far outweigh any of the heartaches that we will go through. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I am eternally grateful for His Atonement that takes away the sting of all trials and gives me hope to move forward.

I love you all and I hope you have an incredible week!

Love, Shay
Hermana Staker
Misión Nicaragua Managua Norte
Febrero 2016- Agosto 2017