Monday, August 25, 2014

Week 12: Bautismos!

Dear family and friends,

Thanks a bunch for your emails this week!  I am profoundly blessed to have so much support and love from home.

Highlight of this week: baptisms!  Rodrigo and Elmer both made their first covenants with the Lord on Saturday.  Cute Rodrigo has been asking us for weeks when his baptism was.  And Elmer... ah, so ready!  He´s read basically all of the Gospel Principles manual and hasn´t missed a week of church since the first time we met him.  Sadly, Jazmine isn´t quite ready to accept the gospel message, but we´re not giving up on her.  I want them to be an eternal family, and I know that Heavenly Father does, too!

Low moment of the week: I was sick from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon.  My belly was super swollen and tight during the baptism and afterward.  During the night, I made many trips to the bathroom to be sick "por arriba y por abajo" to put it lightly.  I was feeling decent on Sunday morning, just tired and weak.  I was going to be brave and go pick up investigators for an hour and a half as is the Sunday norm, but the Mama Bear in Hermana Aquian came out and she forbade me from going anywhere but to church.  We hastily made arrangements for divisions, and I learned how great our youth and young adults were as they answered the call to serve at 7:00 AM.  I was able to go to church, but came home afterward and spent a few hours sweating to death on my bed and trying not to move because my gut ached so bad.  Okay, I´m done being dramatic now. :)  But really, there were lots of tender mercies, mostly through wonderful and loving members of this ward!  And luckily, the illness was short-lived and I´m feeling 100% better today.

Miracle of the week:  On Friday night, it was 8:30 and we were out of plans for the day.  We were in an awkward spot of our area, and it would have taken our final half hour of work to get to anywhere we could have a lesson or even really to contact.  But we wanted to be obedient and not go home early, so we decided to stick around by the corner to see if we could catch Erick as he walked his dogs.  We waited for 20 minutes on a basically deserted street corner, and all of a sudden this motorcycle pulls up and stops in front of us.  Through the helmet, I see that it´s Manuel, one of our investigators from my first weeks here who was super positive and went to church with us, then disappeared to Managua without warning.  He says, "Hey, I just moved back, and I have Sunday free, so I´m going to church!"  Hermana Aquian put a new baptismal date with him as quick as can be (he had one before he moved).  Wow, talk about exact obedience bringing miracles!

Funny moment (from last week):  We were waiting outside of Elmer´s house and we look across the "street" (dirt hiking path is more appropriate) to see a rather large and hairy man sitting in his front yard with his shirt off.  His daughter was standing behind him smearing shaving cream on his back and holding a razor.  Oh my, the look on Hermana Aquian´s face... hahahahaha, I still laugh when I think about it!  Rebekah, remember this inside joke? "I´m a new man!" Ah, just another day in Nicaragua... shaving your back hair in your front yard.  Normal.

Okay, time´s up.  I promise to share more spiritual stuff next week... that´s one thing I feel like my emails are always lacking.  That´s not to say my testimony is not growing as I assist in this great work!  I know that Heavenly Father is directing His work.  I see evidence of it every day!

Love you tons!  Live your testimonies!

Love,

Hermana Ali Hansen




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