Hey Family!!!
Did you miss me?
I think last week might have been the only week in the whole
mission that I wasn’t able to write you guys, right? Man, there went my record.
I’m sorry, but it was because we did an activity as a Zone last Monday.
In the District of Diriamba, in part of their area, there is
a beach called La Boquita (the little mouth). Don’t worry, we got permission
first. And we went to go take photos and play football on the beach and chiliar
un buen rato (to chill & have a good time). I got pretty burnt!
The thing is, as we were leaving the Boquita, about fifteen
minutes in the micro bus, Elder Pinto said: "Oh no! Olvidé mi
cámara!" (I forgot my camera!) So we had them pull over and let Elder Pinto
and me out to go back and look for it.
If you all understand, a camera sitting on a bench outside
of a snack stand in Nicaragua for fifteen minutes usually gets bored and walks
away.
But, I thought it would be a great opportunity as well to
teach about the principle of prayer and faith and spend some personal time with
one of the newer missionaries in my Zone. So we each said a prayer as we stood
by the side of the road for about a half an hour trying to get a ride from
passing cars. But nobody wanted to take us.
Finally, the bus came and we got on. When we got to the soda
stand where he had left it, the store was already closed. And there was no camera
bag or person in site. So we decided to use our missionary skill and started
contacting the houses nearby presenting ourselves asking who they were and
asking if they knew the owner of the store.
Well, we finally found where the owner lived and we talked
to her and asked her a few questions to see if she knew anything about the camera.
She said she had never seen it. But we convinced her to come and open up the
store to see if she had accidently put it in there when she closed up. Nothing.
The owner was trying to think of all the people that passed
by after us that could have taken it. Then a friend of her came over and we
started talking to her. She said she had seen the camera, and maybe some people
that might have taken it.
In the end, we gave them our number and invited them to
church and asked them if they ever find the camera to let us know. I left
disappointed, and to be honest, a little suspicious of them as well. Elder
Pinto seemed fine.
We got back to Diriamba where everyone else was finishing
writing to their families and Elder Leiva and I went to buy a camera and go
back to San Marcos so I could write there. (I’ll tell you about the camera
later).
But as we headed towards the bus stop, I saw a lady that
looked familiar... I stopped and realized it was the Lady from the Soda
Stand!!! I ran over to her and asked her how she was and what she was doing
here. She reached into her bag, and pulled out the Camera!!! I was so amazed.
She said she started doing some detective work in her
neighborhood until she found one of the little boys behind his house playing
with a camera. Ha ha, she scolded him a little bit and scared him telling him
she was going to call the police and then gave him 5 bucks for the camera and
told him not to tell his parents (she didn’t want to have problems with her neighbors).
She tried to call the number but she must have written it down
wrong because nobody answered and so she decided to go all the way to Diriamba
to go to the directions of the church to see if she could find us.
I was so impressed with her integrity and efforts to help! I
know she will be blessed, and I loved the look on Elder Pinto´s face when I
handed him the camera! Another impossible prayer answered.
Ok, I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-S1. Its 12 Mega pixels.
It was actually the cheapest one at the store because I got it on sale.
The Area Seventy President we met with was Elder Martino,
(he is councilor right now but will be president this year). It was awesome. He
talked to the whole mission and to just the Zone Leaders. It was neat. As Zone Leaders,
we got to eat dinner with him and he was pretty cool.
My comp gave the spiritual thought in English in the meeting
and did it really well. Elder Martino was pretty impressed and asked who his
comp was. He thanked me for helping and told me I have to talk in English to
him each day for 1 hour.
Then Sister Monestel interrupted him and told him that I was
one of the Gringos that helped the most to his companions to learn English. (Last
month in changes, she called me up in front of everybody and gave me a certificate
for helping my comps the most out of the entire mission. She reviews the English
books of the Latinos and apparently my name is in more books for giving them
the exams at the end of the chapters than any other).
So Elder Martino was impressed and said that I have to speak
2 hours in English everyday with my comp. ha ha. They shouldn’t have said
anything because Elder Leiva already speaks pretty good English and I don’t
know if any of my other comps really think I have helped them out that much in
English. But Elder Martino learned my name and at dinner he talked to me a lot.
It was pretty cool.
The presentation I was talking about was from Elder Leiva
and I to the Stake President, Bishops and Branch Presidents from our Jinotepe Stake.
It was good to help them get excited about the mission work and about the new
plans we have made as a mission with the help of Elder Martino.
My goals for this last area? Well, I have a couple goals.
Goals for bettering my Christ-like attributes, goals for being a Successful Missionary
and goals for baptizing families.
My goal for baptizing is to be able to
baptize 2 families every month before leaving. (And we should have completed it
this Saturday) But unfortunately, the family has had some problems and we are
going to have to give them some more time. But I have faith that if we do everything
we can, the Lord will guide us to the families that are waiting to hear the
Gospel and come unto Christ.
If you guys read in Preach My Gospel in the first chapter,
you will find towards the end a section called "How to be a Successful Missionary".
For each one of these points I have a rating system from 1-5 (never to always)
and I would like to be able to get much higher in each section.
Towards the end of the mission, sometimes us missionaries
run out of steam, but the point is if we rely on the Grace of God through the
power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, when we have given all the strength we
have to give, He will give us the strength we didn’t have and we will be able
to do what we need to do.
So it’s pretty much like the Energizer Bunny...
Sounds like everything is going good.
I was so grateful to be able to hear from you all!
Congratulations on all your achievements!
I love you so much,
Elder Hardy
ps I love you.
