Spiritual Spanish Soap Opera (say that ten times fast)

Hola familia y amigos,

    Well, I'm super ticked because I'm pretty sure this cyber just gave my camera card a virus and deleted like half the photos from my entire mission. Luckily I had most of them saved on a USB, but I lost all the photos I took in the last several weeks including the monkey park photos and all of Freydel's baptism pics. I want to punch someone in the face. Grrrr. Maybe they're somehow just hidden and I'll be able to still locate them. I hope so.      

  I went to look for tights today because my legs have been cold in the rainy, windy weather and the first place I asked said, "For dogs?" and I said, "No, for people..." and she said they didn't have any so I went to look somewhere else and when I asked, "Do you sell tights?", they said the same thing! "Just for dogs". What!? Who in the heck puts tights on their dog?? Hahaha. It was pretty funny. Guess my legs will continue to freeze and get attacked by bugs. 

    Anyway, we had a great first week of transfers. I'm having a blast with Hna. Ewing. She is hilarious and we've gotten into some pretty great laughing fits. I decorated her a trunky agenda because she's finishing her mission this change and it's a tradition to make a super trunky last agenda with pictures of weddings and temples and stuff haha. She put her agenda face down on the table in a lesson without thinking and then I looked at her as if to say, ´Don't let them see that!´ and we both tried so hard to keep from laughing as she quickly swiped the agenda off the table and hid it in her bag. She TOTALLY reminds me of Crystal Nilsen and that just makes me love her even more. 

    Also, we were replacing a light switch in our house and our land lord was standing in the door watching and we were telling her how expensive the lightbulb was (cuz she made us replace it and told us it would be cheaper than it was) and just in that moment, as I was pulling it out of the package, it flew out of my hands and hit the floor and shattered. We just bust out laughing. The funniest part was that when we looked up, our land lord was gone. Hahaha. She didn't even laugh or say anything! She just walked away! She was probably thinking something like, "These crazy white girls." 

   We were so happy and suprised when two suuuper less active families that we had been visiting finally came to church! And they came on their own! We didn't even pass by for them! Better yet, we were able to bring an awesome family of investigators. We had a really amazing, sacred experience with them this weekend and I don't really want to go into a lot of detail, but it was basically like living a real-life Spanish soap opera haha. Anyway, to kind of give you an idea of the miracle that we witnessed, I wrote a poem.

Two days past, God blessed me to behold

An incredible miracle and joy unforetold

Wounds healed. Compassion shown.

Hearts softened. Love grown. 

The writings of Matthew held power and remedy

 And kept from falling apart, a beautiful family.

 Angry words he would later regret

Converted to love and a will to forget

The mistake of one still burdened with grief.

The grace of the Savior helped her find relief.

Two troubled missionaries knew not what to do,

And struggled to share a scripture or two.

Tears shed. Prayers said. A new faith spurred. 

Hope was found in a wise man´s words. 

In the cold morning mist, they found him again. 

With a countenance changed and a desire to mend

A bond almost broken and I’ll tell you more,

That bond became stronger than before.

From one day to the next, it was like black and white, 

The difference in atmosphere, like dark to light.

They were left in awe, smiling ear-to-ear,

And a wedding and baptism are now drawing near. 

One miraculous God, two thankful hearts,

And countless blessings from the moment a mission starts. 

I know that Jesus Christ can heal and change hearts. I like the scripture 2 Nephi 25:13 "Behold, they wil crucify him, and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings, and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day and my heart doth magnify his holy name." He has healing in his wings and the power to save us even though we are ever unprofitable servants. I delight in sharing this message and seeing the miraculous effects it can have on people´s lives. 

   Sorry I couldn't send pictures as I promised. I´ll just send one from my comp´s camera. Love you all and hope you always appreciate the blessings the gospel brings to families. 

Hermana Hawkins

Baptism Picture

These are 4 people I taught in my last area who got baptized the week after I left! :) Left to right: Hna. Colado, Juan, Fernanda, Indyra, Nazareth, Hna. Castillo

Pictures!

Pics of my zone in Chinandega, and Gabriela's baptism.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/m16nny82ph5ofmg/AABobRIV47SyTdQWKOR-vbTma?n=224963820#/

Surprise Baptism and Transfers!

Helllooooo everyone!

     My comp had transfers! I was so shocked! I thought we would for sure be together for two changes, especially because she was only in her last area one transfer too. And now she's gonna be in a trio in Managua with the sister asistants to president! Crazy! I'm staying in Jinotega and my new comp is Hermana Ewing. She's a cute blond from California. This is her last transfer so I´ll be "killing her". I'm excited to be with her because she was already in Jinotega before in her mission so we´ll be able to go visit all her old investigators and give em another short to see if they´re ready for baptism now. Hermana Ewing taught Alex and Catalina who went to church to Sundays ago so they´ll be excited to see her. We´ve been on buses all day and I´m so worn out. I will sleep real good tonight. 

   This Saturday we were able to baptize a little girl named Freydel who´s 9 years old. It was probably the most spur-of-the-moment baptism I have ever had haha. Our possibilities for this month had fallen through and we were pretty sure we weren´t gonna have a baptism this transfer, but then on Wednesday we visited Freydel´s family and thought, "We could totally baptize her this Saturday!" Cuz she had been to church a bunch of times before with her mom. Her mom has been less active, but she was down for it, so we decided to plan it. We thought it would be a great way to get her mom excited to go back to church too. So we had her baptism Saturday and she was confirmed Sunday. Freydel´s pretty popular and was super excited to invite all her friends to her baptism and as a result, a bunch of her friends want to get baptized now and one of them went to church with her on Sunday! We met the girl´s family and taught her Dad and sisters and put a baptismal date with them for next month! It was pretty exciting. I don't have my camera with me today so I´ll have to send pictures next week. I´m glad Hermana Gubler and I could at least have one transfer together. 

   We had 4 investigators in church on Sunday. One of them was Indira and another was Luis (they both went to see the baptism last week). We were so happy to walk in and see them already seated and ready for church. But sadly, they didn´t stay after sacrament meeting so that made us worried that they didn´t get the best first impression of the church. Probably cause sacrament meeting started 20 minutes late again. Our branch needs some help. It mostly consists of relief society sisters and kids. We don´t even have a ward mission leader or an elder´s quorom president. But this week we have district conference so hopefully the leadres will have some ideas for how to help the branch. 

 Welp, that's all for this week. Until next week! Con amor, Hermna Hawkins

A Family at Church!

Hola familia y amigos!

   This week we were finally able to bring a family to church! There names are Alex and Catalina and they were former investigators that we picked up. 

  Unfortunately, Abelino still hasn't come to church and looks like he doesn't have a true desire to get baptized, so we're dropping him. Guess it was too good to be true.

   This Sunday we'll find out about transfers. I can't believe another transfer is already over! I only have three left! That's crazy!

  Our branch is really suffering with church attendance when it comes to priesthood holders. Sacrament meeting didn't start until 9:20 yesterday because  we were waiting for another priesthood holder to show up so there´d be someone to pass the sacrament. We only had the elders to bless it and one other guy, but he wasn´t in a white shirt and tie.

   Saturday night the elders had a baptism and we were able to have two investigators there! It was supposed to start at 6:20 and we were still passing by for investigators at that time and I decided to pass by for one more investigator and risk being late. So we went by the house of a family named Maura and Luis and Luis was there, shirtless, sitting in his chair relaxed watching TV and when I invited him to the baptism he said, "When?" And I said, "Right now... like in 15 minutes" and he paused, and then said, "yeah, I'm gonna go. Is it alright if I come at 7pm" and I said yes. But he just said it so easily that I felt like maybe he was lying and wasn't gonna show up, but a minute before the baptism started he walked in with his daughter! And another awesome investigator named Indira came with her adorable little 2-year-old daughter Camila as well! It was a great service and even better because while the guy who was baptized was changing out of his wet clothes, they pretty much had a testimony meeting and almost all the members in attendance shared their conversion stories! The spirit was really strong! And Luis told us the next day that he liked it and wants to go to church with his wife! He couldn't go yesterday, but we're gonna commit him for this week! :9

  Last Monday we got to go the monkey park which costs only about a quarter to get in and you can feed the monkeys!! I have them a banana and a juice box and some cookies haha. The monkeys have creepy long arms and reach out and grab things. One even grabbed my comps hair! Haha!

  Sooo sorry I don't have time to respond to anyone's individual email, but as I always do, I'll print them off and read them and respond next week! Love you all! 

Hermana Hawkins

More Investigators

Hola familia y amigos,

  This week we hardly had any time in our area because Tuesday we had a training meeting in Managua and Wednesday we had division with the sister training leader and Thursday we were Matagalpa all day an interview activity with President Collado. That was a hard day. Part of the activity was certifying a lesson so that they could see if we had learned the new form of teaching they introduced to us a few weeks ago that includes a focus on blessings and more inspired questions. I thought I was already using the new form of teaching, but it turns out, not so much. In the activity, we had to teach an investigator who was played by one of the sister training leaders and the other one rated us. We started out really well and then somewhere in the middle we tried to cover too much lesson material instead of really focusing on her needs and I could just see our leaders´ expressions change from impressed and excited to disappointed. It was really disheartening. Afterwards, they explained to us what we did wrong and my self esteem took a dive as a realized I have been doing a lot of things wrong in my mode of teaching for the entire mission and that I had forgotten a lot of the simple things they taught us in the CCM. It was a great learning experience and helped me to know what I need to work on, but it was also really overwhelming knowing I had a lot of changes to make and wondering why I hadn't figured this out before. How much wasted time could I have avoided? How many more investigators would have progressed instead of being dropped? How many more baptisms would I have seen? How hard will it be to master this new teaching techniquew? It was a lot to take on at once. But the next day, as I started to put some of the things I learned in practice, I started to feel more hopeful and it seems like we're already seeing results. I wish I had understood earlier in my mission what exactly it means to teach people and not lessons, but I'm grateful that I'm starting to understand it now.

   We found some pretty promising investigators this week. One of them is a couple named Pedro and Idañia who were former investigators and accepted a baptismal date for this Sunday. But they didn't come to church this Sunday as they promised so we'll see. Please pray for them so that they can move forward with their decision to be baptized.

  Sadly, we still haven't been able to bring investigators to church here, but we have some good plans for this weekend so I'm feeling hopeful about General Conference. I am soooo excited for conference!! I'm already prepared with some good questions of the soul. 

   I'm having a lot of fun with my comp. Hna. Gubler is super smart and ambitious. She's really funny too. Dad, I got a joke for you (courtesy of my comp): What happens when a cow jumps over a fence? Udder destruction!! Hahaha, that's punny, eh? I laughed. 

  Yesterday, my comp and I each had to give a 12 minute talk in sacrament meeting. I've never had to give a talk that long. Even my farewell talk was only about 10 minutes. And here's the worst part: the theme was... the millenium. What? Of all the themes they could have chosen, they picked the millenium? They could have at least picked something that was more related to missionary work so I could use the things I'm already studying in personal study for my investigators. I hardly knew anything about the millenium! But I learned a lot in the process, so it was a good experience. And I was able to tie it into missionary work, temples, and General Conference so it turned out pretty well. 

   Hna. Castillo told me that Gabriella is going out with the missionary almost every day and sharing her testimony. Aw, so awesome! That made me really happy to hear. 

   Well, I'm super sorry, but I'm completely out of time and won't be able to respond to any of your personal emails, but I will try to plan better next week so I can respond to everyone. Love you all! Enjoy General Conference!!

Hermana Hawkins

Cold!

Hola familia y amigos!

   This week has been nice and COLD! It has rained every day and even rained for three days straight at the beginning of this week! I actually have to wear a coat!  The mosquitos or other sorts of bugs have been pretty fierce here and are attacking our legs and feet and making us suuuuper itchy! I think I'm gonna buy myself some long socks to keep warma and protect me legs!

 Last Monday evening we got to do a cool bonfire activity with the zone and roast marshamllows. 

  We got a happy surprise this week when we were having a lesson with a less active and her non-member uncle named Abelino. The less active said, "He has all the missionary lessons." And he said, "Yeah, the missionaries were visiting me before, but I just didn't feel prompted to get baptized. And now I do." SAY WHAT? My face lit up! It's like someone just handed us a baptism! Obviously we can`t take credit for it, because we didn´t teach him a thing, but at least I feel like we´re doing what we´re supposed to if God led us to him. I worry that it´s a little too good to be true, but we talked directly with him to make sure he understands what a big commitment this is and that he needs to go to church every Sunday after his baptism and he seems to understand so he'll probably be getting baptized next week if all goes well. 

   We couldn't bring any investigators to church yesterday, but we had some success with less actives and recent converts. Jamilet didn't make it to church yesterday, but that night we visited her and she accepted a baptismal date for this month. 

  Pedro and Idania weren´t serious about wanting to get baptised and wouldn´t keep commitments so we dropped them. 

  I made mac n´cheese in a frying pan this week. Not that easy. Not that easy. (Name that movie! McKenna?) 

    We found a bunch of new investigators this week and some of them seem to have  lot of potential. I'm loving it here in Jinotega. Hope you all have a great week. Love you, Hermana Hawkins