Hola familia y amigos!!
First off, I LOVED
seeing you all and talking to you on google hangout last Monday!!! Sorry for
crying like a little baby. It was a combination of getting teary-eyed in the spiritual
training meeting, stress about training, worry that I wouldn't be able to call
you guys, disappointment that my adorable nieces and nephew would already be
asleep, exhaustion (seeing as I only got two hours of sleep the night before
because we had transfers and I was cleaning and organizing the house and we had
to get up super early), and an overwhelming love for all of you!! Gosh, I miss
you guys so much. I'm so grateful I got the chance to call you, even if it was
later than planned.
So Tuesday I met my
greenie! Hermana Garcia is a 19 year-old. short, pretty quiet girl from Guatemala . Her
whole family are active members of the church. Her parents joined the church when
she was like 6 years old. She's easy to get along with and is ready to work.
She does really well contacting and bearing her testimony and quickly overcame
her fear of extending the baptismal invitation in the first lesson. She
extended it 4 times this week and sadly all of them said no. BUT! The silver
lining is that we put a baptismal date with a family to complete! We'll have to
practice the lessons a lot so she can memorize the important points and feel
comfortable to speak more, but she's doing well. I just have to glance at her
and smile to indicate that she needs to start talking in a contact or a lesson.
The mission has a
goal to baptism a 4 people and of that four, one family, in this month of May.
Right now we have 1 individual baptized (Beatriz was confirmed in sacrament
meeting yesterday), but we don't have a single progressing family and we just
lost our other hope for an invidual baptism this month because a teenager named
Osman who had a baptismal date for yesterday is traveling to the U.S. and will
probably be there for 6 months!! Noooooo! He was so awesome too. The first
lesson with him, he was so eager to learn and accepted a baptismal date with
ease and commited to God in the closing prayer to read the Book of Mormon. The
second lesson he had read like 10 pages (which is a ton for people here in Nicaragua cuz
many people can't read very well)! Ah, I'm so sad that we won't be able to see
him get baptized. But he said he'll take his Book of Mormon with him and read
it. Also, he's going with his cousin and his girlfriend who's a member so we
encouraged him to go to church with them there.
It's so funny, people
here always call out things to the white sisters when they're walking in the
streets, like "Hola, bien bonita esa chela" (Hello, really beautiful
that white girl) or "Hola amor, què lindo sus ojos" (Hello love, how
beautiful your eyes) or even phrases in English like "I love you
forever". I've decided that after my mission if I'm crushing on someone
who doesn't feel the same, I'll just say, "Fine. Whatever. There are
plenty of Nicaraguan men who will call me beautiful and love me forever."
Hahahaha. It's a nice confidence boost walking through the streets here. I just
have to be careful to stay away fromt the creepy drunk guys haha.
Well, I'm
completely out of time. I'll send some pics and videos next week. Love you all!
Have a great week and go find someone to serve!
Love, Hermana Hawkins
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