Not Much To Tell

Hola familia y amigos!

    Well, it looks like I may have been wrong about transfers. One of the sister training leaders told my comp that she´s getting transferred to another area and that I´m training again, which means one of two things: I´m staying to train here and my comp will be transferred and they will take out the two other sisters here to put in elders, or they´ll take out both my comp and I to put elders and I will be training and white-washing. I get the feeling that I´m staying here to train and the other sisters will be transferred, but who knows. All I gotta say, is that ya never really can be sure about transfers. I was positive my comp was gonna train, but I doubt they´ll have her train AND white-wash fresh out of her training. Guess we´ll just see what happens this Sunday. 

    This week, President gave us the goal to contact 10 familias each day. We were in Managua for a training meeting all day Tuesday so we didn´t contact any familias, but Wednesday we contacted 12, Thursday 12, Friday 11, and Saturday 15. We´re working hard on finding new families to teach in these next two weeks to prepare us for the Miracle of August (which is that the whole mission baptized more than 100 families in the month of August). I am determined to contribute a family this time! By Saturday night, we had 26 people and 7 families commited to coming to church the next day. Sunday morning we did divisiones with two sisters in the ward so we would be able to pass by for everyone to bring them to church. One by one, each promise fell through. Some people weren´t home. Others had to work. Others had some other excuse. And we ended up having zero investigators at church yesterday. Zero! And 26 had said they would come! Ugh, I just wish people would be honest. Man, it was disappointing. We felt like we had worked so hard contacting families and commiting people to coming to church this week and we had the goal of bringing 3 families to church. But alas, God gave us a trial of faith. I´m trying to stay positive. I know that trials are just signs that a blessing is around the corner so I have the firm hope that we will bring families to church this Sunday and we´ll make this last week the best one in the whole transfer! We´re going to recommit all the families who said they would come yesterday and we´re gonna commit more! From all the contacting we did, we have a lot of possibilities for new families, so I hope we can really increase our teaching pool. 

  My comp and I have been working on trying to shorten our lessons. Presidente wants us to only spend 30 minutes in any house. It´s harder than it sounds. Especially when the investigators have lots of questions and you just want to sit any answer them all, but our sister training leaders say that sometimes it´s better to leave someone with a question brewing and tell them you´ll answer it the next day when you come back. I´m trying to put that in practice and simplify my teaching. 

  Well, sorry this letter is pretty boring. We´re found some seemingly positive new investigators, but we haven´t taught them much so I´ll wait to tell you more about them when we see if they´re sincerely positive. I´m pretty antsy to find out what happens with transfers. I´ll let you know this Monday! 

   My love for the scriptures continues to grow. Hope you all are treasuring them and reading every day! Lots of love, Hermana Hawkins

More Pictures

a dead baby mouse we found in our room.... EW!!! (this picture doesn't really show the size very well, but it was puny. still, it was so hard for me to get up the guts to get rid of it), cool rubber shoes I bought to use in the rain, day at the beach in Corinto, eating lunch with the sister of the zone

3 generation pic (my trainer and my "daughter" in the mission), me with all four of my comps so far

Reyna's baptism, a cool braid thing another sister did on my hair, a chicken on a clothesline, my district from this last transfer

My Letter Titles Are Always Lame - Sorry

Hola familia y amigos,

   Yesterday we had an an awesome first lesson with a couple named Veronica and Donald who are super prepared to hear the gospel. We received a referral from other missionaries and went to contact it. We found the house, but they weren´t home. So we continued to check back various times, but they were never home. One Sunday before church, we finally found them in their house and set an appointment to return. But when we arrived for the appointment, they weren´t home. So we went back another day to check and they still weren´t home. And finally, yesterday evening we found them at home! They were just about to leave, but we told them "Just 15 minutes! It will be worth your time!" So they stayed and we were able to teach them the Restoration. They commited to coming to church and to reading the Book of Mormon and praying and they accepted a baptismal date! The lesson was definitely not 15 minutes long. Even though we were trying to be concious of time, it was like 45 minutes, but I didn´t even care cuz it was just such an awesome lesson! My comp told me after that she felt the spirit the strongest in that lesson of all the lessons of her mission so far. We set an appointment to go back this Wednesday and Veronica said she wants the whole family together when we teach them because she wants them all to be saved. Heck yes! She also said something she liked about the church is our devotion to searching for the lost sheep and said that other people wouldn´t have given up after a couple times not finding them in the house, but that we kept coming. It showed me how important persistence can be in missionary work. II´m grateful God trusted us enough to place them in our path and hope I can keep working hard and exercising my faith to find more prepared families like them. So that was exciting. But sadly, I´m pretty sure I won´t be here for their baptism. We had interviews with presidente this week and he pretty much told me comp we won´t be together for another transfer and he alluded that she will be training! So I´m pretty positive I´m gonna have transfers in two weeks. I wish I could be there for Veronica and Donald´s baptism, but hopefully I can´t at least hear about it and see pictures. But I will miss this area and the members here. 

   We´re teaching another lady named Reyna who is a single mom and has a 9 year old daughter. She has come to church twice and seems to be progressing well. We´re hoping she will get baptized with her daughter this Sunday. We´re also teaching Reyna´s mom and step dad. 

   We´re facing some challenges with Leonardo. His neighbors are recent converts and apparently he´s being saying stuff to them that he never says to us in the lessons. The last time we went with him he said he believed the Book of Mormon was true and that the church was restored though the prophet Joseph Smith, but his neighbor told us yesterday that throughout the week Leonardo has been going over to talk to them and says that they´re crazy and that the church teaches false doctrine. What? I think it´s his wife that is causing him to doubt. She is very closed off when we try to teach and said that she´s already congregated in a church even though she doesn´t even go anymore. Also, he´s one of those people who believes that before, we were under the law of most but now we´re under His grace and that certains laws don´t exist anymore because Christ did away with the law of Moses. That means he doesn´t believe in tithing. We tried to help him understand that the laws of God are eternal and that Christ only removed the legal consequences of the Law of Moses, but that doesn´t mean he removed the commandments. It´s still wrong to kill and to rob and titihing still exists. We´re going to study a lot for Leonardo and see how we can help him overcome his doubts. Please pray for him.  

  This week I tried green mangos with salt and lime juice and this chile powder called tajín. I actually really liked it. It has an interesting zesty flavor. I´ve decided that when I get back I´m going to make it for the family, as well as papusas and fried plantains, and maybe a few other things I´ve tried here. 

   Welp, I´m happy to be a missionary and am learning so much every day. I hope all of you develop a love for the scriptures. There is so much we can learn from them. And when we apply them to our own lives and to the lives of others, our studies are so much more edifying. Hope everyone has a wonderful week! Con mucho amor, Hermana Hawkins

The Effects of the Sickness

hahahahahaha... just kidding, it´s just a cool effect on another missionarie´s camera. How ugly... hahaha

When I am Weak, Then Am I Strong

Hola familia y amigos!

   I´m pretty much all better. My body is still trying to figure out how to digest food right and I´m still taking some anitbiotics, but now I´m off the pain medication and am feeling great! Ah, there´s nothing like being really sick to make you super grateful to be healthy. I hope this feeling of gratitude will carry me to work even harder in my area. No Mom, it wasn´t a parasite. It was an infection in my intestines. I don´t know what type of infection, but the nurse said it was probably caused by something I ate. We´re assuming it was some food from a fritanga (street vendor) that I had last week. Needless to say, I won´t be eating from fritangas anymore. I don´t think it´s anything permanent. I already gained back my appetite and am eating normally again. But goodbye tan. Hello pale. Haha I need to get some sun again to get my tan back.

   We were able to go back out and work in our area on Thursday night. So we only had two full days of teaching/tracting this week (Friday and Saturday). I was pretty stressed for all the time we had lost while I was sick and for not having visited our investigators all week. I worried that our numbers would be horrible this week and that we wouldn´t be able to bring anyone to church on Sunday. But God blessed us with another little miracle. Friday, we did divisions with two member so that we could split up and double the number of lessons. That helped. It was pretty exhausting jumping back into the missionary schedule of walking all day after 4 days in bed, but I did it. And the next day was easier. Also, my comp did awesome without me. I need to give her more chances to take the reigns. Then, Sunday in the morning, we did divisions with members again so that we would have time to pass by for all of our investigators and bring them to church. We ended up bringing 5 people to church and the church attendance was up by 33 people! I was so happy and relieved. I hope things continue to go well in our area and we can keep strengthening our ward. 

   I think God wanted to teach me a little something about faith. When things are beyond our control and there´s nothing more we can do, that´s when God steps in and manifests his power. 2 Corinthians 2: 9-10 "And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me... for when I am weak, then am I strong." I was really weak at the beginning of this week. And a little weak in faith towards the end of the week, worry that we wouldn´t have success on Sunday, but God´s power is made perfect in weakness and he showed me that even when the odds are completely against us, God can do miracle. Anything is possible with God. We just need to have the faith look past the seemingly poor probabilities. 

   We´re teaching this awesome guy named Leonardo who is reading the Book of Mormon and praying and went to church on Sunday. He was baptized in a church called the Church of Christ and when we invited him to be baptized he said he couldn´t be baptized again because he was already baptized. Never heard that one before... not. Haha. But anyway, we explained the priesthood authority and he still didn´t seem to understand so we brought the district leader and then on Sunday, we brought the Elder´s Quorum president and he explained things really well and Leonardo accepted a baptismal date for August! It was awesome. He even said that maybe God will want him to get baptized earlier! He said, "When I get my answer, I get baptized that same day." Ah, I´m praying to much that he will be able to recognize his answer when he gets it! He was in a war earlier in life and God saved his life like two times. I know God preserved him for a purpose. He had to learn about the restored gospel! 

  I forgot to mention last week that the mission accomplished the goal of baptizing 102 families in the month of June. I wish I could say we contributed a family to that number, but we did not. We just contributed a lot of prayers for the whole mission. And we are working hard to try to baptize a family soon. I have yet to baptize an entire family in my mission. I hope I can do it before I get transferred from this area.

   My recent convert Elizabeth went to the temple in Honduras to do baptisms for the dead a couple weeks ago with the stake! How awesome is that? It brought me joy to hear that. Also, yesterday, we got to church late after leaving to fetch an investigator and missed the sacrament. I felt so incomplete and didn´t want to miss taking the sacrament even once on my mission because it has become something so much more sacred for me in the mission, so I asked the Bishop if we could still take it and he arranged for the sacrament to be blessed in the secretaries office and given to us. And guess who blessed it? Mauricio! It was so special to have one of my converts bless that sacrament especially for me and my companion. It´s like a circle. Hermana Cruz and I helped him receive the gospel and now he was helping my companion and I receive a sacred ordinance on the Sabbath. 

  I´m ready to hit the ground running this week and see some more miracles. Hope you all have a fantastic week and stay healthy! Until next week, Hermana Hawkins

Happy Late 4th of July!

Hola todos!

   Sorry for not writing on Monday. I was sick and couldn´t go to the cyber. It´s been kind of a rollercoaster of a week. On Tuesday I started feeling nauseous and later I got the chills and a fever and we had to enter the house an hour early that night. The next day I didn´t have a fever anymore, but I had really bad stomach pains. I tolerated it for most of the day, bu around 7:30pm it was so bad I could hardly walk and had to keep taking breaks to sit down and wait for the pain to ease. I decided to ask the Bishop for a blessing so we walked to his house. When I was about to ask for the blessing I start crying thinking about all the times my Dad gave me Father´s blessings when I was sick and wishing he was there to give me one then. The bishop gave me a blessing and we went back to the house. The next day I woke up feeling better and all Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I was totally fine. Saturday we had the baptism of Roxana and were able to see a miracle. We found Roxana had been crying in the bathroom right before the service began and realized she was having doubts. We tried to help, but she only wanted to talk to her Mom. That worried me because her Mom was the one who had said she would only give Roxana permission to get baptized if she demonstrated that she was really commited to this religion and was really sure about her decision to get baptized. Now that Roxana was having doubts, I was worried her mom would convince her to cancel the baptism. But she didn´t! When Roxana came out of the bathroom, we took pictures, and then proceeded with the baptism. Wow. Roxana´s mom is the LAST person I thought would be encouraging her to move forward with her baptism. That was really cool. It was a great service. So everything went well witht that. Sunday morning in sacrament meeting I started getting chills, but thought it was just from stress, hoping that our investigator had a good first experience at church, but by Relief Society I was visibly shaking from cold. I took some ibuprofen and hoped it would kick in soon. After church, at 1pm, wad the baptism of Janina and that 1 hour between church and the baptism felt like one of the longest hours of my life. By that time I new I had a raging fever. My skin felt like a thousand degrees. But I had to stay for the baptism. As the service started, I was sweating and my face was bright red. I was breathing deeply and was miserable. After tolerated the fever until Janina went under the water and then couldn´t stand it anymore. I went and laid down on a bench in the hallway. The members start noticing I was sick and that made me cry. One member brought me a wet rag to put on my forhead. We decided to leave right then and took a taxi back to the house so I wouldn´t have to walk in the scorching heat. When we got back to the house, I took me temperate and had a fever of 103 degrees! Up until this point I hadn´t called the mission nurse. My comp and the other two missionaries in our ward kept telling me too, but I refused because I hadn´t once had to call the mission nurse in my whole time here and even before when I got sick at the start of my mission I was able to take some medicine that I brought from the states and was able to get better.  I knew the nurse received lots of calls from whiny missionaries with trivial conditions so I didn´t want to add to her stress, but my fever was so high that I gave in and told my comp to call the nurse.  I took some tylenol, started drinking lots of cold water and kept a wet rag on my head. Then I took a cold shower and my fever started to go down. But then came the awful stomach pains and  the diarreah. (Yep, it´s part of life when you´re serving in Centro America). I think I went to the bathroom like 12 times. I stayed in bed all day. My comp and the other two sister missionaries took care of my all afternoon and into the night. Some elders even came to give me a blessing of health. That night, I didn´t sleep well at all and had to get up several times to use the bathroom. The next day  (Monday) I wasn´t any better. I still had wrenching stomach pains and diarreah.I also threw up twice and had a headache when I sat up or started walking. I had absolutely no appetite and it seemed like everything just went right threw me. I stayed in bed all day again and the mission nurse finally arrived around 6pm to give me some medication. The members kept asking how I was doing and some of them made us food and brought it too us. The next day, I felt a bit better, but the stomach pains continued, a little less strongly. I threw up a couple more times as well. The mission nurse called and said I should go to a clinic to have some tests taken. So my comp and Hermana Juanita hauled me to a clinic. We took a bathroom sample and when I got there, they took a blood sample. It scared me to receive medical care in a third world country, but I felt so sick that I knew it was necessary. Anyway, it turns out from the results of the tests they took that I have an intestinal infection and dehydration. I´m taking medication and have been staying in the house and resting and it´s helping me. So don´t worry, I´m on the mends! Today I felt a hundred times better than yesterday and I think tomorrow I might be able to go back out and work. It´s been a tough week, physically, but I know God has been strengthening me and my comp has been a lifesaver. She made me food and brought it to my bed and just took care of me when I was suffering in my bed. I´m so grateful for her. All I know is I will be sooooo happy to be healthy once I get over this sickness completely and I will be ready to dive into the work and give it my all. And what a miracle that during all of this, we saw two baptisms!  I´m happy God has a perfect plan. Philippians 4:13

Happy late 4th of July! I´m so grateful to have been born in a free country where we enjoy so much liberty and peace.  I love you all!

Hermana Hawkins 

Pictures of Baptisms!