Cambios

This week was full of changes and ended with the biggest change of all, transfers! The week started with E. Castro having to go to Managua for the 3rd week in a row, so I went to work in Ocotal from Monday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon. Working in Ocotal didn't go so well in terms of missionary work because my companion, Elder Choque, had only been in the area for a few days, and hardly new where anyone lived. It was a fun day though and it was nice to work with a missionary who speaks english (for the first time). In Ocotal they actual have members who aren't recent converts, so it was cool to visit with some members who have been in the church for a few years and have been to the temple and are enthusiastic about getting the missionaries something to eat! Castro returned on Wednesday and we worked a half day together in Somoto. Thursday Castro had to go do interviews in Pueblo Nuevo (a small city in our district), so I worked with Elder Lainez. Friday, E. Castro had to do interviews for Diaz, so I worked with Elder Meza. Saturday Castro and Meza had to got to Esteli with a few of our male members for preisthood session of stake conference, so I worked with E. Diaz, and Sunday we all went to Esteli. So yeah it was a crazy week, but my whole first transfers has kinda been similar in that I have had only a few days a week working with my trainer Elder Castro, and we are rarely able to use our study time, because the mornings are always used traveling, preparing for baptisms, etc. I'm bummed because I was hoping for a more normal 6 weeks with Castro to finish my training, but Castro got transfered to be a ZL in Matagalpa. I will meet my new companion, Elder Galo, tomorrow night. So far I know that he is from Honduras and only has been in the mission for two transfers. 

The two big positives I got out of this week are Hna. Saida and Stake conference attendance. Saida is the mom of a super awesome recent convert, Uziel, who I hae already mentioned. She is the head of a pretty large family, the majority of whom consistently have been attending church, but all have them except Uziel have declined the invitation to be baptized a number of times due to various reasons. However, in the short time that I have been here I have seen her change and recently she has expressed that she feels completely at peace with the decision to be baptized and has noticed a new happiness in her life coinciding with her learning about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really awesome for me to see her change and I really realized that with all the baptisms we have had of youth ages 9 to 13, that they really do open the door for the rest of their family to begin attending church with their kid and beginning to listen to the message. 

The trip to Esteli I saw two examples of this as well, because Jaudin's family, and Darwin and Lenin's family, who hadn't once attended church, both attended Stake conference in Esteli. In my area we were able to bring 36 people to Stake conference, with a record breaking 25 investigators at church! In total from somoto we had 60 people in attendance which is pretty incredible because these people sacrificed 8 hours of their day to make the 2 and a half hour bus ride to the chapel in Esteli. The Only downside of the trip was that the people in charge of planning Stake conference didn't count very well, because when we arrived the Chapel was completely full along with two extra rooms with TVs. We ended up having to set up chairs in the hallway along with a TV, because the church didn't have any other big rooms. I was quite irritated with President because the people of Somoto traveled 2.5 hours each way and deserved a well planned meeting in which they could enjoy the comfort of a chapel. President however, was ecstatic that Somoto had such a strong attendance and insisted on taking a photo with everyone from Somoto after the meeting, which photo I have attached below. 

That's all for this week!

Elder Hamson