Soon!

Courtney is getting VERY close to the end of her mission. She was transferred at the last changes too, so no more rats or giant lizard things! She says, "The house here is really clean and nice. No animals! It's great. And there is room to study and everything! I am definitely not missing Godzilla. He can stay in that other house where he belongs!" We're very excited to have her home and to hear all of her stories in person.

February 5, 2013

Here's Courtney's latest update:

"Rats and other animal friends: We got home last Monday night and the first thing that I saw was a huge tail coming out of a metal tube type of thing in the ceiling. So I thought that a rat had eaten the poison and gotten up there and died! So then we were distraught because it was up there really high and we didn't know how to get it down. We went in a little closer and realized that there was also a hand hanging out of the side of it...a human looking hand. We then realized that it was in fact a giant iguana lizard type thing. Yea. Then we were even more concerned because we realized that we have even more animals than we thought and because we knew that if it was up there dead then the rats would come eat it. The next day we talked to our landlord and he told us not to worry about because they live in there but they don't do anything."

Yay! She also says that they have been finding dead rats around the house, which is disgusting, but means that the fumigation process is working! Hopefully they'll get that all taken care of in time for her to come home, which is in about six weeks! She and her companion are still working really hard to get anyone to come out to church in their current area. She says it's hard work! But she's good at it. 

January 28, 2013

Hanging out with coconut trees!

More rats! "Rats rats and more rats. We have to sleep with the lights on because that keeps them from coming into our room as much and one night the power went out in the middle of the night and my comp woke up because it got really hot without the fans on in the room. She then woke me up screaming, "RAT RAT RAT!!!!!!" So I go shooting out of my bed because there were rats there by the bottom of it. We scared them off but they just kept coming in because there was no light and no moving air. So we didn't sleep at all because we could hear them and knew that they kept entering the room haha.
So with that being said, it has been a hard week because of the transition into this area and this zone but it all ended well. I absolutely LOVE our bishop and his wife. They have us over for dinner every Wednesday night and when we were there we were telling his wife all about our rat experiences. She was very disturbed so when the Bishop got home she was like, "HONEY!! There are rats in the hermanas house! We have to do something!!!" So the very next day the bishop showed up at our house and had payed a friend of another bishop to come fumigate our house for us. (They take really good care of us! His wife found us a food appointment too because the top ramen and eggs just aren't cutting it haha) We knew that it would take a while to start working because obviously the rats have to come in and eat the poison and all that first but we were pretty excited!"

So that's good news! She and her companion are still working really hard to get people out to church. They're doing lots of hard work!

January 21, 2013

Courtney is doing really well! She's starting to get worried about coming 

home to the cold. She says, "It is extremely hot here. I might die. If it is still snowing when I get back I will just walk right off of that plane and freeze to death." She does really love the heat, so if she's calling it hot there, it must be really hot!

Courtney was just transferred to Chinandega and is training the new mission nurse because she will soon be coming home! She's had some great stories since being transferred to this new area, so here's one:

"The house is filthy. It kind of made me laugh because the night that we got to the house I was thinking of the night that I got to my house in Corinto and what a culture shock it was and how I thought that I would die if I touched anything and all that. It made me laugh haha. We got to the house here at about 7pm and when we walked in everything was dark because only one of the back lights work. We had to slam the door hard so that all of the rats would scatter. Then we made our way back to the back and got some lights on. Everything was covered in about a half inch of dust and dirt (that is typical of Chinandega) and there were dirty dishes everywhere. The bathroom was completely black with I don't even know what. But it works! There is only water at night but you can flush the toilet all day! You have to take the top off of the back and put your hand in to do it but it works. Then I went out back and there was a MASSIVE pile of garbage out there. We have to burn the garbage here. America can do all they want to protect the ozone layer but Nicaragua already burnt right through their end. Anyways, I put the sheets on my bed and everything and then we left to go eat dinner with the bishop. (The first time in my mission that I have been invited to eat by the bishop!) When we got back I took a shower, got ready for bed, and went to pull my sheets back and what did I find? An empty bag of chips with little rat eaten holes and pieces of it spread all over my bed...in between the two sheets. How the little guy got in there I have no idea. NO IDEA. Needless to say I did not sleep well that night. The next day we went out and worked like normal and when we got back at night there was a huge half eaten bug on top of the bed. The next night their were no remnants of the snack but it left some poop. WHY DO THESE THINGS HAPPEN TO ME?!?! So today we spent all day cleaning and looking for rat poison, traps, etc. It's war. And I will win."

Gross! Besides the rats, she's dealing with getting things rolling in her new area since her first Sunday no one was at church! She's staying positive though and says she really likes the town. She wants to work hard until the very end of her mission, so I'm sure they'll have people coming in no time.

Here's Courtney using the gloves Mom sent her to clean their very dirty bathroom!

January 14, 2013

Courtney talks about a phrase they use in her mission-"blue vase." They had a scavenger hunt this week, and that's what she had to find! So here she is with her blue vase.

January 7, 2013

Courtney had a great week! She helped baptize another family!

She says, "Happy New Year!!!I It is weird to think that I passed the entire year of 2012 in Nicaragua. I can check that off of my random things that I want to do list." She's getting so close to coming home, but she says that sometimes she doesn't want to! At least not yet. Which is good because she has about three months left! She's loving the work and is gaining such a strong testimony.  

December 31, 2012

  

It was so fun to see Courtney (via Skype) on Christmas Eve! She had lots of great stories to tell and the news that she might be coming home a couple of weeks earlier than originally planned because of all the new missionaries that are expected! In her last email, she said, "It is crazy, the change when I go home there are only three of us but we will be receiving like 50 or 60 or something like that. It is unreal! So there are changes on February 27 and it looks like I will be giving my final testimony and everything in that conference and then I will go back to my area and work for three weeks and then just leave in the middle of a change. We will see! That would mean that it would March 21. I only have 11 weeks left...how did that happen? "


We've been having a ton of snow recently, and when she got pictures of that, she said, "...I just started laughing because I cannot even IMAGINE snow right now! The internet place where I am at wasn't using their air conditioning and I was literally dripping sweat when those pics came up haha. Snow, what is that?!"




She has been helping a family get ready for baptism (I told you, she loves families being baptized) and says, "...in this time of waiting I have learned SO MUCH about the Atonement. It is so complete and perfect and flawless and more than we can understand. I love it! We had interviews with the President on Wednesday and I talked to him about the Atonement and he asked me if I have ever thought about where I was when Christ performed the Atonement. Interesting question. We were thinking that all of the spirits in heaven were very aware of what was going on as all of our salvation depended on it."


It's amazing to hear how much her testimony is growing and how much she is learning!

Christmas Message

My dearest family and friends:)

Just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from here in Nicaragua. It has been a very special Christmas for me on the mission. I have learned so much! Yesterday we baptized a family. What a great gift to Christ, working in the Lord´s work to bring His children back to Him. This month started out rough but these last few weeks we have been able to see the Lord's hand in everything that we have done. Our God is a God of miracles. Every baptism is a miracle. My two favorite things about the mission are: 1) the first time the investigators pray out loud, and 2) the look on their faces when they are in the water. I love watching the Atonement change people's lives as it has changed mine.

I love the Christmas hymn, "Come All Ye Faithful" To me it just seems like such a powerful message of hope and happiness, that Jesus Christ was born! And that He lived and died for us! And it brings such a wonderful invitation, "Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!!" I hope you have all been able to feel the Spirit of Christmas this year and that you can keep that Spirit in your hearts all year.

Thank you all for your love and support these past 15 months (I 

can´t believe it has gone by so fast!) I appreciate you all and all of your support and prayers! May the Spirit of Christ be with you all year long! And come let us adore Him! I love you all and have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Courtney

December 17, 2012

Courtney is doing wonderfully! She's getting excited for Christmas and skyping...with us! She recently planned a ward missionary event where she and the other missionaries invited members and their friends to come watch The Testaments. They made popcorn and handed out free Books of Mormon. Even though there weren't as many people at the event as she would have liked, they had 94 people at church the next Sunday! Including a FAMILY. She really likes it when families come to church.



Hermana Gowans' Nicaraguan attempt at Christmas decorations. Made from paper.

In the spirit of Christmas, she and some other missionaries went Christmas caroling. Her knowledge of English is dwindling. She says, "...after church we went caroling with about 10 of the elders to investigators and recent converts in our area. I love Christmas caroling. The last house was a recent convert that grew up in the states and he doesn't like it when we teach in spanish or anything so he wanted us to sing a Christmas song in english. Fail. I couldn't remember the words hahah and neither could any of the other ones. We tried Silent Night and struggled through the first verse and then all of the Latinos came in strong with us on the second verse because when we sang for the mission's party we sang the second verse in english haha."