6 Months!!!

Hola familia y amigos,
Today marks 6 months in the missiont! I can't believe I've been here for half a year! I'm a third of the way through! The time is going faster little by little.
Today we ate lunch at a French Bakery and I tried goat cheese! It's really good! This week, we visited Cruz and Merling and Merling shared her testimony with us. Did I tell you she's pregnant? I'm so exited for them! Cruz is gonna be a dad! It's so great that the child will be born in the covenant. So anyway, Merling was really upset in church last Sunday because she couldn't feel her baby, which usually means your baby is dead so she thought she lost it, but she ask the bishop for a blessing and the next day when she went to the doctors, all was well with her baby. She told us she made a covenant with God that she would bear her testimony in church this Sunday (even though it makes her super nervous) if he would protect her baby. She started crying and it made me cry. She bore her testimony about the power of the priesthood and and about prayer and also about tithing. She said that they always pay their tithing and that they're building a house and had to take out a loan and didn't know it they'd be able to pay for it, but they've always had enough and she knows that is a blessing of paying tithing. She also said that since they've been married and are keeping the Law of Chastity, they don't fight. That's so awesome! It was really special for me to hear all that and to see her bear her testimony in church yesterday. When we contacted Merling she hadn't been going to church for a while and I never knew she had such a strong testimony. She also always says "Mi Cristo" instead of just "Cristo". I love that about her. I can tell she really has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
This week we had a meeting with Pres. in Managua because our Zone isn't having much success so he challenged us to start waking up at 5:30am and leaving the house an hour early to have more proselyting time. So that's what we're doing, and boy, am I tired. But I know it will be worth it. I've covenanted with God that I'm going to accept that challenge and work even harder in these coming weeks. My comp and I planned for and extra hour and a half yesterday so that we could come up with a great plan for this week. We're determined to baptize a family this month.
I have really grown to love reading the scriptures. I could sit and study them all day long. Same with Spanish. I love how simple the Spanish language is. In English, there are so many extra words and phrases that mean the same thing. I'm start to pick up on more and more new phrases in Spanish.
This week this was an earthquake at 3am. I woke up to the floor and bed and well, the whole house shaking and it freaked me out. But I realized right away what it was and waited for it to pass. It only lasted about a minute. I was worried that it would start shaking hard and things would start falling from the walls, but nothing did. First earthquake I've ever experienced. They say they're quite common here because of the volcanoes.
I added a few more pics to dropbox. The first picture is me and Hermana Cruz (my "grandma" in the mission- the trainer of my trainer). The other is of my comp, and Hna. Comb (another North American- Hna. Tarax was her trainer).
Well, that's all for this week. I love you all and hope you are praying for missionary opportunities!!
Con amor, Hermana Hawkins