THE BEACH

Today we went to the beach.Today was the last Pday of one of our ZLs and two other Elders in the Zone so we got to go to the beach. After more than 5 months of not seeing the beach it was extremely nice to go, even if it was only to play some soccer on the sand and put my feet in the water. Definitely the highlight of the week.

The rest of the week went fairly well though, I went on divisions with Elder Carico, who is the companion of our DL, Elder Rowe (who is 6'6 and the second tallest missionary in the mission (I'm the third)). Elder Carico only has five weeks in the mission and doesn't speak any spanish, which meant I did 100% of the talking in all the lessons and visits. It was fun to hang out with someone from the US and chat in English though. It was my third time in the mission so far working with someone who can speak English. There are actually lots of gringo's in the zone though, so everytime we have a meeting or activity with the zone there is a lot of English spoken. 

On Saturday there was a stake youth conference and as a part of the conference the youth went out in groups to contact people and get references for the missionaries. We had to help with the activity, which meant leaving the house at 6:30am, but the activity was super awesome because we got a ton of references. Now the challenge is to go find them all! 

Elder Hamson

Here are a few pics from the beach. 

A Week of Learning

Overall this week was decent, but the best part was all the learning we did this week. Our stake president showed up to our district meeting on tuesday and scolded us for the first part because this zone hasn't been very succesful in the last few months, which I was a little annoyed by because it wasn't my fault because I just got here. Afterwards he gave us lots of good council on how we should work with the ward leaders, especially the bishop. I really got a lot out of his council because coming from Somoto I have zero experience working with ward leaders. 

On wednesday we had our first Multizone meeting with the new president which went really well and the new president seems like he will be really awesome. He introduced a few new things that we will put into practice, like introducing our recent converts to family history stuff. Another thing that was pretty cool is one of the APs came to work with us after the meeting so we were in trio most of the afternoon, but it was cool to work with someone who has a ton of experience and we were a little humbled to see the difference in where he was at versus where we are at. He just had a way of conversing with everyone and quickly gaining peoples confidence, that I certainly have not mastered yet. He motivated us to improve, and also mentioned to us that he could sees me being a good DL and my companion as a trainer, so whether that is forshadowing of this next change we'll see, but it is likely that the APs wil play a big role in deciding the changes, because the new president doesn't know the missionaries too well. I am quite surprised though at how competent president is from day one and something I have seen throughout my mission was reaffirmed, that the Lord qualifies those that he calls.

Another thing that's been fun is one of the recent converts we have here is really interested in learning, so it is always fun to have lessons with him and his family becausse we end up learning a ton as well as we discuss his questions and look for answers together. I was quite surprised by the scriptures we have been able to find in the bible to answer his questions. Two of my favorites from this week are James 5:14 (blessings for the sick with consecrated oil) and 1 peter 3:18-21 (temple work).

 Ok that's all for this week, hope you all are doing well. 

Elder Hamson

Reviving the area

Not much extraordinary happened this week, but we are starting to see the fruits of our labors here. We've been doing a lot of visiting inactive members with the elders quorum because we didn't really have any investigators when I arrived and the Elders quorom didn't have any sort of home teaching plan or other plans to visit members. It turns out it was a combined lack of work on the members part as well as the missionaries that was the cause of the ward being in a big hole when I arrived. This sunday however we saw huge improvements because many of the inactives we had been visiting arrived at church and even bore testimonies of how the visits helped them come back. The attendance is rising steadily and the members have started to spark up and set up home teaching and visiting teaching assignments. We are also working on a plan to have noche de hermanamientos in the houses of members by sector throughout the week to invite members, less actives and investigators for a short lesson and an activity. Elder Cordova and I have been working well together and we are stoked to be seeing results. 

As far as other news goes it has rained almost everyday, but the rain here has been rather strange because it only lasts for about 30min but it is a torrential downpour that turns the roads into rivers in a matter of minutes. I haven't had my camera with me during the week, but i'll be sure to send a picture at some point. In some places they are quite deep and we have to go way around until we can find dry land to cross.

Elder Hamson

Only one picture this week that a member took with their phone: me with their pet toucan.