Hola familia y amigos!
Transfers were today. I'm staying, thank goodness, but Hna. Howell and her comp are moving to Managua. :( It's so sad! We started an English class this week and were gonna teach together,but now it will just be me! I hope she likes it in Managua and has a really good zone. At least Hna. Behan is still here with me.
We dropped Santos and Francisca.We visited them this week and Francisca was not happy we came. She said she doesn't like our religion and they both said they're not ready to change. So sad! BUT! We found a super awesome lady named Gloria this week! She and her family are Catholic, and when we first met her I was afraid it would go nowhere because most of the Catholics here are so stubborn about their faith, but she said she likes learning about other religions and wants to hear more of the word of God. We had another lesson with her this week and she said she had read the Restoration pamphlet that we gave her. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and explained what it is and she seemed super curious! She looked at every page in the front of the book and she said she felt good when we were telling her about it. We explained that that was the influence of the Holy Ghost. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and we left her with a specific chapter to read. She said she's been having some problems with with her husband because he drinks and that she's been hoping someone would come to help her. Now here's the really cool part: She told us that she had had two dreams in which she saw the image that's on the front of the Restoration pamphlet and had tried asking people what it meant but no one knew. She had forgotten about it, but when we gave her the pamphlet she remembered the dreams. Ah, she is chosen by God! I know she's prepared to hear our message! Her soul is hungering for the truth and we have the privelage of showing her where to find a spiritual feast. I'm so excited to see how our next lesson with her goes. I'm really starting to see the difference between a person who is ready to hear the gospel and a person who is not ready at this point in time.
We finally met Esperanza's husband Francisco and he is great! He wants to know what his purpose is. They both have questions of the soul that we're excited to answer in our next lesson with them when we teach the Plan of Salvation. Our first lesson with them as a family went really well. Esperanza is golden. We started telling her husband about the Book of Mormon and she jumped in and started explaining it to him. She's been reading it and we invited him to read it too. We invited Francisco to saying the closing prayer. He hesitated and then his 9 year old son said he wanted to say it. We were thrilled! He gave a tender prayer to protect his family and that he wanted to go to church this Sunday and to allow them to be able to. It was great. I'm amazed at how spiritually in-tune children often are. They were gonna come to church this Sunay, but they're son kept them up all night and they hardly got any sleep, so they slept in. But they promised to come next week. I have a lot of hope for these two families.
We dropped Santos and Francisca.We visited them this week and Francisca was not happy we came. She said she doesn't like our religion and they both said they're not ready to change. So sad! BUT! We found a super awesome lady named Gloria this week! She and her family are Catholic, and when we first met her I was afraid it would go nowhere because most of the Catholics here are so stubborn about their faith, but she said she likes learning about other religions and wants to hear more of the word of God. We had another lesson with her this week and she said she had read the Restoration pamphlet that we gave her. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and explained what it is and she seemed super curious! She looked at every page in the front of the book and she said she felt good when we were telling her about it. We explained that that was the influence of the Holy Ghost. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and we left her with a specific chapter to read. She said she's been having some problems with with her husband because he drinks and that she's been hoping someone would come to help her. Now here's the really cool part: She told us that she had had two dreams in which she saw the image that's on the front of the Restoration pamphlet and had tried asking people what it meant but no one knew. She had forgotten about it, but when we gave her the pamphlet she remembered the dreams. Ah, she is chosen by God! I know she's prepared to hear our message! Her soul is hungering for the truth and we have the privelage of showing her where to find a spiritual feast. I'm so excited to see how our next lesson with her goes. I'm really starting to see the difference between a person who is ready to hear the gospel and a person who is not ready at this point in time.
We finally met Esperanza's husband Francisco and he is great! He wants to know what his purpose is. They both have questions of the soul that we're excited to answer in our next lesson with them when we teach the Plan of Salvation. Our first lesson with them as a family went really well. Esperanza is golden. We started telling her husband about the Book of Mormon and she jumped in and started explaining it to him. She's been reading it and we invited him to read it too. We invited Francisco to saying the closing prayer. He hesitated and then his 9 year old son said he wanted to say it. We were thrilled! He gave a tender prayer to protect his family and that he wanted to go to church this Sunday and to allow them to be able to. It was great. I'm amazed at how spiritually in-tune children often are. They were gonna come to church this Sunay, but they're son kept them up all night and they hardly got any sleep, so they slept in. But they promised to come next week. I have a lot of hope for these two families.
Funny story about our first lesson with Gloria's family. We were tellingthem where we from and where we lived here in Leon and Gloria asked if we were married. We said no, but that we would get married after the mission. Then she asked me if I'd like to date her 20-year-old son. He was standing there in the doorway listening to the conversation this time and he didn't even mind that his mom asked that; he just smiled! I was totally taken by surprise and didn't know what to say. Hna. Salinas was laughing. I tried to explain that during our mission our only focus is the missionary work and Hna. Salinas explained that we can't date on the mission. But then she asked me if I'd like to date he son after the mission!! I'm sure my face was probably bright red by now. Way to put me on the spot! What was I supposed to say to that? I just said,"I want to return to Nicaragua after the missionand show it to my family." Then the husband asked if I liked Nicaragua and luckily, the conversation started to take a different direction. Hahaha oh boy! Super awkward. Hna. Salinas had an even more uncomfortable experienec this week. We were contacting these middle-aged men and they asked if we were married and we said no, but then one of them said to Hna. Salinas "But I'm in love with you!" He said it a few times. Hna. Salinas tried to explain and we quickly ended the conversation and left.
It's really frustrating how little advanced notice we get for things here. This morning, just as we were starting our P-day we found out we HAD to go to Managua this morning so Hna. Salinas could get her visa because if we waited until another day, there was a $30 fee.I don't know WHY they couldn't let us know earlier. It really put a damper on my mood. We had to take a 2 hour bus ride to Managua and a 2 hour bus ride back. So I had to give up 4 hours of my P-day. It was super frustrating, but I understand that we have to make sacrifices sometimes and I'm willing to do so. Hopefully nothing unexpectedly comes up next P-day. Last P-day we took a ruta which is a SUPER crowded bus and it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. They literally cram as many people as possible onto it. I standing up holding onto a bar and was pressing up against people's bodies. The drivers stop really quickly and take sharp turns so you I had to hold on to the bar really tightly to avoid falling onto the people around me. My arms were killing me by the end of the ride. Not fun. Not fun at all. My arms were super sore the next day.
There was a bat flying around in our casa yesterday! Ah, I HATE bats!! They're worse than rats because they can fly! It finally flew out, but I was scared to sleep that night because Hna. Salinas said they bite and that she met someone here in Nicaragua who had a big bat bite on their head. Eeeeek!! We also found a cockroach in our casa and I killed it with a plastic waterbottle.
That's all for this week! Thank you for your love and prayers! Lots of love, Hermana Hawkins
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