This Week

Hola familia y amigos!  

   Wow, I have so much to write and so little time, so I will probably have to continue this letter next week. My second week here we had the ward talent show. My comp and I and the two other sister missionaries in our ward prepared a number. We stood with our back's turned to the audience and shook our fingers in the air, as upbeat music played, to make it seem like we were gonna dance. And then when the music drop, we jumped around and held out papers that said "Las misioneras no bailan" or, "The missionaries don't dance". We got a lot of laughs. Everyone thought we were gonna dance. I think it gave the stake president a good surprise hahaha. Then we called out "But we sing!" and proceeded to do a Spanish rendition of "The Cup Song". I changed the lyrics to a missionary theme. Here are the lyrics:

Hemos tocado muchas puertas hoy

(We've knocked a lot of doors today)

Y nadie quiere escuchar,

 (And no one wants to listen)

Pero no nos vamos a desanimar,

(But we're not gonna get discouraged),

Porque estamos aquì para predicar.

(Because we're here to preach)

CHORUS:

Y enseñar, y bautizar, vamos a ir y invitar

(And teach, and baptize, we're gonna go and invite)

En las montañas, en los valles, y tal vez hasta la playas, o,

(In the mountains, in the valleys, and maybe even to the beaches, oh)

Vamos a ir y predicar.

(We're gonna go and preach)

VERSE 2:

En Nicaragua hace mucho calor,

(In Nicaragua, it's very hot)

y los siervos del Señor,

(And the servants of the Lord)

Caminan sudando, pero gozando

(walk, sweating, but taking joy)

Porque saben que van a rescatar,

(Because they know they're gonna rescue)

CHORUS again.

The other three missionaries did the rhythm with the cups and I sang and then at the end, they joined in singing too. Juancito, our lunch lady's son, wanted to participate so he called out "Uno, dos, tres!" to start off the song and we gave him a cup to play with so he felt like he was part of the group. We had a great turnout for the talent show. The ward goal was 150 and we had almost 200 attend! It was great! The show was straight-up awesome. I tried sending some videos of some of the acts, but I think they're too dark too see. It was a really fun night. I love the people here. They are so happy and free-spirited.

   Yesterday we had three baptism! Two young men (Mauricio- age 17, and Victor- age 14) and one young woman (Elizabeth- age 17). Mauricio and Elizabeth are dance students of Kevin and Judith and Victor is an investigator that Hna. Cruz and her comp found before I came here. It was such a special day and I am so happy to have had the chance to help bring them into Christ's fold. They are the future generation of the Church. Crazy to think that in just 4 weeks here, I saw as many baptisms as in my entire 6 months in Leon. I'm already seeing miracle here and know that God has many more in store! I'll write more next week! Love you all! Have a great week and pray for missionary experiences!!

Love, Hermana Hawkins

P.s. Juancito prounounces my name "Hermana 'Awkeen'" haha.

P.p.s. Kevin and Judith's dog's name is spelled "Puppy", which is funny first of all because it's a cat named puppy and second of all because in Spanish it's pronounced "poopi" hahahahaha. I couldn't help but laugh when I heard that one.