Birthday and Stake Conference

Happy Birthday Elder Hanson

Familia y amigos,

Que honda??  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.  Not really that much happened here this week, it started out all right, and ended not the hottest but everything is going good!

On Monday and Tuesday things were pretty normal.  We were just trying to find some new positive people to teach.  We have a couple right now, but our big problem has just been getting people to go to church.  It is sad that we have to be passing by for people 3 or 4 times in the morning on Sundays, and then waiting for them to go.  We are working hard, but that has been our main roadblock here.

On Wednesday I did divisions with an area here in my district. Things went well with them, we found a couple people but they didn’t end up going to church so that stunk.  They have been baptizing up a storm, so they are just trying to find new people to teach.  Something funny we have been doing here, that gives us a little laugh, is that everyone likes to yell stuff at us in English.  So my companion always says, "he doesn’t speak English, he’s not from the US!" Haha it is funny to see the people’s faces because they always get a little discouraged.

On Thursday was my Birthday, so that was cool.  There is a tradition here in Nicaragua that they throw eggs on you on your birthday, so when I came back from divisions in the morning, the other elders in my district were waiting in my house and I got 10 eggs to the head.  Later in the day, some converts threw flour in my hair, and a member gave us some dinner at night.  Overall it was a good day!

Getting egged for my birthday!

On Friday we had zone meeting, I had to give a class because one of the Zone leaders had a bacterial infection in his intestines so he was in the hospital.  It went well, was laid back and we are looking really good for this next month here.  Every Month with 5 Saturdays and Sundays President Russell does a BBQ for the zone that has the best ratio of baptisms/missionary.  Chances are that I am staying here this change so we are going to be working hard this change to win the BBQ!  In the night we had cake and a pizza from this place called Price Mart, which is the exact same as Costco so that was good.

The Zone, to my left and right are the other 2 DLs, and to their left and right are the ZLs. 

Pizza and cake from Price Mart.

Saturday we had Stake Conference, we had to go to the Priesthood session.  The general authority, Elder Valladares gave a really good message.  He talked about the church's plan of autosuficiencia (self-reilance), and how it really is about progression.  In order to get to the celestial kingdom, we should be trying to progress daily, and always try to be progressing.  I really liked that because it applies to missionary work, and everyone in life.  Are we progressing spiritually and temporally?

Sunday was the main session, that went all right, but then other than that we just got back to work, trying to find new people to teach. Changes are this week, and I think I will probably be staying!  I hope you all have a great week, love you!

Elder Hanson