Phew, what a week! I´ve been kind of sick, but I´m basically over it now. Luckily not my stomach... just everything that comes after that. Nothing a little (or a lot) of Pepto Bismol can´t fix. And Heavenly Father blessed me to have enough energy and little enough pain to work and feel the joy of being a missionary!
I mostly want to tell you stories from this week and the weeks prior that I´ve missed. I apologize if I´ve already told one of them, I can´t remember.
Story 1: The soccer field
Hermana Aquian and I were working in kilometro 16. We hiked up this dirt path to meet with Jerson, a menos activo about age 15. We get up to the top of the hill to find about ten boys ages 9-17 using machetes to clear the weeds in order to make a soccer field. Many were shoeless, some were shirtless. All are members, less actives, recent converts, current or former investigators. We gather them all under the trees for a few minutes to share a scripture and pray together. Ah, it was like the epitome of being on a mission in Nicaragua! Loved it.
Story 2: The garden of Eden
Hermano Roberto and his wife Carla, the ward mission leader, accompanied us to the house of a recent convert who hasn´t been attending church. His name is Jose Navas, and he´s around 50 years old. He let us in to his huge, nice house, which is surrounded by tons of different kinds of trees. He was so happy to see us; he has had a terrible bone infection in his leg and nearly died alone in his house. He gave us all kinds of delicious fresh fruit, and we shared a message with him and listened to his story. Also... he speaks English!! He learned it living in Florida, so he has a heavy Southern accent, which is funny, but he´s super fluent. We spoke Spanish the whole time anyway, but it was still cool. And wonderful to eat fruit again after all the rice, beans, chicken, and root vegetables we eat at meals. Sadly, we went to visit Jose again yesterday, and the doctors have given him three months to live. Also, he has a huge testimony of God but basically zero testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We did what we could to bring the Spirit and help him feel some comfort, then we left.
Story 3: The cutest family ever
We brought Meilin and her little son Marcos to the home of the Roa family for a family home evening. Both parents of this family are returned missionaries, and the husband used to be the bishop. They have two young and very intelligent daughters, Nati and Ruby. The Spirit is strong in their home. They made us baleadas, since Wendy, the wife, served in Honduras. Super delicious. I was just amazed to see how willing they were to open their home and share whatever they have. They have a super beat up car, and you could tell Darwin was exhausted, but he still drove Meilin home. Ah, I love the members here! They live their covenants!
Okay, time is up!
Quickly, I want to bear my testimony about prayer. The first week or so of my mission, I would get a little bugged if we only had time to say a prayer with an investigator... like it didn´t really help them at all and we were just trying to meet the numbers as far as lessons and such. But I´ve realized how much power prayer can have. I´ve seen people´s countenances and attitudes change as they pray with us. I´ve felt personally so much closer to God when I sincerely pray to Him. So I invite you all to pray! Pray as a family. Pray individually, and really talk to Heavenly Father. I promise He´s there, and He´s listening.
I love you all! Keep doing good things!
-Hermana Hansen
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