My Christmas Letter

Happy New Year familia y amigos!!! Ah family!! It was so great to see and talk to you on Christmas!! Some, more time than others. (*Hunter!* *cough* *cough*). I'll admit a got pretty trunky afterwards, but I'm choosing to look forward! To Mother's Day, that is. Haha. Last week, we had the wedding of Cruz and Merling and Cruz's baptism!! In summation, there were a lot of complications leading up to the wedding and it almost didn't happen, but God provided a way! It was our Christmas miracle. They're super cute together and seemed really happy. This Sunday we had another baptism of a lady named Candida. Apparently, she just had some sort of emergency last Sunday and that's why she couldn't come to church, but she was already to be baptized this week! She has a ton of faith and her strong desire to follow God is obvious. When she came up out of the water, Hna. Salinas and I ran around to the door of the font so we could see her face when she walked up the steps, but right when we got there, we heard sounds of exasperated breathing. At first, it just sounded like she was crying and then it sounded like she was having trouble breathing and maybe even convulsing. Hna. Salinas and I exchanged looks of panic and almost ran into the font to help her but the Bishop's wife went to her aid. We found out later that she hadn't been having trouble breathing; she was just overcome by the spirit and could feel the presence of the Lord really strong. Phew! Gave us quite a scare. I've never heard anyone cry like that before. Anyway, it was super special to see her get baptized because I was the one who suggested we first contact her. For Christmas, we had a reunion with the whole mission at the Hilton Hotel in Managua and it was super nice. We got to watch Despicable Me 2 in Spanish and present zone cheers and zone talents and had a delicious lunch (best food I've had yet here in Nicaragua). They had some mini competitions. Hna. Salinas and I participated in the beat-boxing/rap competitions (I beat boxed and she rapped) and we won against two pairs of elders because we got the loudest cheer! Sweet! Hunter would be proud. Haha just kidding. He would laugh because it was pathetic compared to what he can do. Ha ha. But hey! They liked it! President and Hermana Collado also gave each companionship a fruit basket and two pillows with custom pillowcases that say our mission theme "Somos las manos de Cristo" We are the hand of Christ. On Christmas Eve, we had an activity with out zone and ate a ton of pizza. They also watched "Monsters Inc University" in Spanish, but my comp and I missed most of it cuz we were picking up the pizza. We participated in two gift exchanges and I got some perfume, fruit by the foot and stickers. I save my package from the Andersen's until Christmas so I'd have something to open and loved what was inside- two new shirts and candy! On Christmas Eve, Hna. Salinas and I lit sparklers and took some cool pictures waving them around. Christmas Day we ate dinner at Burger King. Haha lame, huh? But here, it's like luxury food. More expensive than the Burger King's in the U.S. though. That night, we watched "Errand of Angels" in our casa on the little dvd player we have. It was a good Christmas. Nothing compared to the amazing ones at home with the family, but good. Next Monday are transfers and we are positive Hna. Salinas will be getting transferred. She's been in Leon for about 8 months now. Also, we just realized that our recent convert, Walter is pretty much in love with her. It wasn't that way at first, but it is now. Two people have told us that and we've begun to notice it too. He would call night after night at 10:30pm sometimes up to seven times! But we wouldn't answer. Ugh, quite a problem. What's more, he told us he doesn't want to come to church anymore and thinks everything was a lie. What the heck! We witnessed his conversion! I don't know what happened. We're avoiding him until transfers because we don't want to cause more problems, but after transfers I'll keep working with him and try to get him to understand the importance of the covenant he made with God. Sorry to end this letter on a sad note, but it's the last things that came to my mind. We're pushing on in faith and trying to stay positive! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! Les quiero!!!! Hermana Hawkins