Better Week

Hola familia y amigos!
Only in Nicaragua do they use a drunk guy sprwaled out on the sidewalk as a point of reference... someone in the street was asking for directions and the other person replied something like, "It's three house above the drunk guy on the sidewalk." Hahaha. It makes me laugh. There really are a ton of drunks here. We've had some pretty uncomfortable encounters with a few. Oftentimes they'll walk up to us and ask for a pamphlet so we give them the pamphlet of the Word of Wisdom. I wonder if any of them actually read it and started to put it in practice.
Some random interesting things: I tried beet juice lemonade this week... Yuck. It was pretty much lemonade with an aftertaste of beets. Some guessed my age this week and said... wait for it.... 35. Seriously????? Sad day. Haha, make up really does make a difference. But sometimes I don't even both because it just melts right off.
We're coming up on the hottest month here in Nicaragua and I feel like I'm walking through fire. I often make references to the Wizard of Oz and say, "I'm melting! I'm melllllting!" Sometimes people guess where I'm from and generally they guess the U.S. because I'm so incredibly white, but a couple people have guessed Spain and Chile. Maybe I'm finally starting to get tan after all!
This week we met with Engel and he pulled out some papers he printed off the internet that have a bunch of anti-Mormon stuff. Ughhh.... we should have known that would be a very likely possibility because he owns an internet cafe. We tried to explain and answer his questions, but he kept jumping to different subjects and ranting about the stuff in the papers, most of which was false or scriptures taken out of context. It was so frustrating. We tried to visit them every day this week, but they were never available and they didn't come to church again, for like the 5th week. They are really trying my patience, but I'm gonna fight for them because I know how much this gospel will bless their life. Judi says she reading and praying and that she has some questions for us. I hope those questions stem from pure curiosity and not from the internet junk Engel is feeding her.
This weekend we had stake conference and got to see a broadcast and hear talks from 2 apostles. We were eating lunch at a member's house after the conference on Sunday and this old guy, Francisco kept saying how much he loved the talks. He had a huge toothy grin on his face and said, "How crazy! So beautiful the message by Richard G. Scott. I cried. How crazy! I'm happy. I'm SUPER happy." Haha it made me smile and laugh.
This week we started teaching the grandparents of some members and we set a baptismal date in the first lesson! The situation is funny. The husband is Catholic and the wife used to be Catholic but later left the church and joined another Christian church. She kept saying things she didn't like about the Catholic church and it made us wonder how the husband is so firm in the religion. But the husband went to the conference and loved it and said he wants to learn more. We extended the baptismal invitation and the husband, Manuel, was hesitant while the wife was eager to accept. He said, "YOU get baptized then!" and the wife, Ana Maria, said, "No, we're a couple! We have to do it together!" She's funny. She LOVES to talk. But she is so smart! She already accepted that her baptism in the Christian church isn't valid because it wasn't done with the proper authority from God. I'm excited to see where things go with them.
We also found a family to complete this week (the wife is a less active and the husband isn't a member). He accompanied us to the conference on Sunday and had lots of questions. We're hoping to set a baptismal date with him this week.
Things are picking up. I hope we can keep working hard and see more success. Hope you all have a wonderful week and are sharing your testimonies with all your friends! Much love, Hermana Hawkins