All Dressed in White

Pair of an Elder's shoes left in the apartment

Hola Familia!! Como esta? So it is freezing in Utah right now and I am dying of heat here in Nica. HA HA. I can't say that I am jealous that you all are cold because I hate being cold but then again it doesn't feel like Christmas is coming here at all. Plus, my comp and I can't find Christmas decorations anywhere so our room doesn't feel like Christmas at all. Speaking of Christmas, I found out today I can Skype you guys on the 24th or 25th! AHHH. Except Presidente is only letting us Skype for 30 or 40 minutes...cupa. OH well at least I get to see your faces for that little amount of time! And on the 23rd the whole mission gets to go to the Hotel Hilton and have a party! So excited! 

So luckily everything went well with moving houses this past week. The elders in my zone and district, who are awesome, helped move all of our stuff. Our new room is a million times better than our old house. So the house we live in is kinda like the house we stayed at in France in a way. A woman and her daughter lives there and other families board there as well. There is a member family living there, us, and then the woman and her daughter. The house is pretty nice and all of the people are so friendly! Since where our house is located is little relatively safer, we go running sometimes in the morning which is so awesome!! Hermana Ligia cooks our food and does our laundry still. Literally she is an angel! I love her to death! 

Hermana Ligia, my comp and I

One thing that I love about serving a mission in a different country is learning about a new culture. The culture here is definitely different than America. The ways, ideas and lifestyles are completely opposite of how things back at home. All of the women here think bows are like the prettiest things ever. Like the bows babies wear. I have received sooo many bows as gifts but I have never worn a bow in my life. So I don't know what to do with all the bows I get. Another cultural fact is the people here live off of rice and soda. I probably am fed a small pot of rice a day and two gallons of soda a day as well. Oh man it is killing me.  Yesterday I had fried pig skin with yuca. Let's just say it is not my favorite. 

This week we had an interview with Presidente Collado in front of like a panel of other missionaries which included zone leaders, district leaders, and sister training leaders. The interview went so well! Presidente was really happy with our numbers and especially the miracle we had with Marcos and Marivelle last week. I am glad that we are having some success here in La Primavera and I know that the Lord is helping us so much!

Carmen dressed in white.

So this week was my FIRST BAPTISM!!!!!! Ah it was such an amazing but crazy experience! Our investigator Carmen was baptized. My comp and I arrived at the church earlier and filled the baptismal font and set up chairs. While we were waiting for everyone to come, I was playing the piano in the chapel. We saw Presidente Frech, our presidente de la Rama, arrive so we went to go back to the room with the baptismal font. Well to our surprise there are two dirty boys bathing/swimming in the font in their underwear!!! Are you kidding me?! Presidente Frech came and ordered them out and they left. So we had to clean the baptismal font again. After waiting for Carmen and members to come for an hour, I started to freak out thinking that Carmen was not going to show up. My district leaders went to her house and luckily she was there so they brought her to the church. Only three people from the Rama showed up which was disappointing but at least someone came. The baptismal program was very beautiful and the spirit was strong. My comp and I sang "Press Forward Saints" which went well. It was such an amazing experience to see Carmen enter the baptismal waters and get baptized. I felt the spirit so strongly and just wanted to cry of happiness! It is so true that bringing others to Christ brings so much joy. Knowing that I was the hands of the Lord in helping bring someone into this church and attain eternal life is priceless. Every struggle I have means nothing compared to the moment of seeing someone begin on the strait and narrow path to our Father in Heaven. I am so grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to be a part of this experience! 

Marcos and Marivelle are continuing to progress! They are seriously the most wonderful people ever. One day they called, telling us to come to their house, that they had a surprise for us. We arrived and they had made us lunch! Marcos said "we don't have very much but what we have we want to give to you both." Awww, seriously the sweetest people ever! They attended church yesterday so we are planning on them being baptized this Sunday! AHH I am so excited! I know that God has prepared them and we were guided to find them.

Saturday in Nicaragua was a huge holiday called La Policima. It is kinda like Halloween where families go house to getting candy. However, when they go to the houses they worship the Virgin Mary and sing and chant things to Mary. On this holiday people do fireworks all day and night and blast music. So we received literally zero sleep which killed us the next day. All night the house next to us was blasting Spanish rap and Enimem so I was trying to hum some hymns. However it is hard to stay in tune with the spirit when "apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur" is being played…can't remember the name to the song but hearing it I just wanted to dance! Overall, not one of my favorite nights in Nica! 

Well, I hope you all are doing wonderful and have a great week! Keep up the hard work in school, work, and whatever else you guys do. I cant believe Christmas is just two weeks away! I can't wait to hear all of your beautiful voices!! Have a spectacular week and keep pressing forward! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Howell