November 15, 2010

¡Buenas!

Hey! So it has started to snow a little bit? That’s good because at night it is a little more fresco (cold) here and when we talk to people, they say they are cold. I tell them it is perfect (actually a little hot still) and where I come from it is snowing! So I’m glad I haven’t been lying.

We are teaching several families. But it has been a pretty tough week to be honest.  None of our investigators came to Church. Unfortunately, Fatima and her family fell through for being baptized. So we need to help her with her dudas (doubts).

We are still teaching Yamileth and Roberto. They still haven’t decided to get married but she has really opened up to us and we have built a lot of trust, so hopefully we can help now.

Hermano Salvador didn’t come to church with his family which killed me (We had a really spiritual lesson with him and he realized and told us he needed to come to church more than play baseball). We went to his house before church to go with him but he had already left to play baseball.

We are teaching the Lopez family, Edwardo y (and) Brumilda and we have contacted a few new families but they have really long names and I can’t remember them right now, sorry.

A great experience I had was during fast Sunday (last week). I was only going to go up and bear (try) my testimony if there was a pause or time at the end because people were trying to go and I think it is more important that the members bear (strengthen) their testimonies.

At the end, Beto and my companion went up together and took up the last five minutes. But when my compa came back, I asked him if they would be mad if I went up and gave my testimony and made the meeting go over. He was like, no, no it’s fine, go.

(First of all, Nicaraguans aren´t really big on being punctual. One time we waited for a half an hour after the time we set up for a member to meet up with us to teach and when she came she didn’t think it was a big deal. Second, I’m sure he knew it would be short...)

So I went up and I told a joke about sharing a little of my testimony because I speak really slow and they would all be asleep but I’m not sure if they got it. I gave my testimony about prayer and I think everything I said actually made sense and they understood it. My voice was a little shaky but I didn’t cry or anything. They all seemed to be paying attention and listening too.

(Sacrament meetings can be a little irreverent, lots of kids and the door and windows are open to the street.)

So it was either reverent because they felt the spirit too or because the Chele finally got up and they were all waiting to watch me. So I really liked that.

The meeting house is in a home. Well, it is connected to a home but it is actually pretty good size, it has two floors and is on the corner of a street. Ha ha the directions we tell people are Del Resturante Triky 1/2 al oeste.

I don’t know why people would know where the restaurant is but not the meeting house. We baptize people in the baptismal font in the church or in a river of their choosing. But I haven’t baptized anyone yet.

Church is normal church. Yesterday we had a primary program and it was really cute. Exactly the same as they are in Utah.

We taught a lesson yesterday. But that was because it was a little irregular, the District President came and had a meeting with all the leaders so we taught some recent converts. I haven’t given a talk yet. I probably only will if someone falls through.

Hey this week we had one of the AP´s come and work with us for a day. Hopefully it isn’t because everyone heard that the Chele in Boaco couldn’t speak Spanish and help his compa teach.

He told me that there is a package sitting in the office for me. I don’t know how long it’s been sitting there but it is probably with my letters too. So things get here. But they are going to send it to Boaco and usually I would have to wait till changes (every month and a half) to get it.

But a companionship in our District is traveling to Managua and back today and we have District meeting tomorrow so we called them and told them to bring it. So if everything works out I will cheat the system and get your package tomorrow! Ha ha in the next email I would like to hear what you put in it too.

Elder Coj is great. He was born in the church and has a really big family (11 people including his parents). He has been out for 11 months now. I love him and everyone else does too. He gains the confidence of our investigators really fast which is great. He is a good trainer and hasn’t killed me yet. Although he has tried to wrestle me a couple times ha ha.

Hannah: I am sorry to report that I have not seen a monkey yet. Lots of dogs on the streets, little periquitos (parakeets), a couple parrots, spiders and this HUGE black nightmare bicho (bug) that buzzed by me. No monkeys. Not yet. When I see one I will take a picture just for you.

Thanks for the updates everyone. It is great to hear how things are going. Congrats on the stuff. I don’t have time to write about them.

Love,

Elder Hardy