And The Work Continues

Hola familia y amigos!!
I wish I could say we had more success this week, but we really didn't. We had lessons with 9 new families, most of which seemed positive, but not a single one came to church. I think that's our biggest challenge- getting people to come to church. We did have one investigator at church on Sunday. Her name is Carolina. She had promised us she would come, but we wanted to pass by her house before church to make sure, and just as we'd thought, she wasn't really going to come. She made the excuse that she had to wash her laundry to we told her we'd help and then she could get ready for church. She agreed and we hand washed her laundry in the outdoor washbin while she showered and got ready. If we had trusted her word and hadn't passed by and insisted, she wouldn't have come. I've been telling myself this week: I trust God. But less and less do I trust the people. It's hard when you've been deceived so many times. I know that people will continue to let us down, but that doesn't diminish my faith in God. I know he has a perfect plan. I'm not sure how to distinguish between the people who really mean what they say and those who don't. I guess it's a learning process.
I received the Christmas package from the ward this week!! Thank you all so much!! (It arrived in Managua on December 31st, but they didn't pass out the mail until now... I have no idea why they wait so long.) I loved reading each one of the ornaments! You all are the best! I will save it and hang it up this Christmas since I'll still be here in the mission.
There's a lady in the ward here who sells these delicious Savadorean things called papusas. The only way I can think of to describe it is that it's sort of like a cheesy pancake. Super delicious. I also learned this week that here in Nicaragua, you have to specially order your pizza "without ketchup" haha. My comp bought a slice of pizza and they brought her a slice covered in ketchup. Nicans LOVE ketchup.
We visited this less active member who is recovering from a foot infection. He started telling us about what happened to his foot. He got a terrible infection that caused him to lose all his toes except his big toe. He had his son bring out his Ipad and shoes us all these nasty pictures of his foot infection. It shoed how his toes had been removed and the infection was all different colors and what's worse, the son kept zooming in on the pictures to show us the details!!!! IT WAS DISGUSTING! Nastiest pictures I think I've ever seen! The less active guy said, "Isn't it beautiful?" We were both thinking, "No! It's disgusting!". He then went on for 45 minutes to tell us the story of how the infection began and how one night he saw a light apear in his room and the next day his foot was sewn up and healing and he realized than an angel had come in the night and tended his wound and that when he visited the doctor's they didn't understand what had happened. Cool story (definitely a miracle) but also extremely graphic. We thought we were gonna puke. I kept watching my comp's disturbed face and it was so hard to keep from laughing. Let's just say we walked away from the lesson gagging. So there's the horror story for the week. I hope you aren't all throwing up now.
We're still pushing along and hoping to start seeing success. Transfers were today and thankfully, we're both staying here. We're determined to make this transfer better. The goal is to baptize a family and we're gonna do everything we can to reach that goal. I know that if we continue to put our faith in God and give it our all, we will see miracles. Luke 1:37.
Con mucho amor, Hermana Hawkins