Time is not my friend out here. To say the least. Haha well this week was fun but flew by. How fast time goes here... It´s absolutely insane. We did a lot but there isn´t too much I can remember so I´ll share the important points. :)
Last P-day we tried to go to these Ferries here. They had a bunch of little ferry rides, and hot dog stands, and what you´d imagine a small town ferry to be like, but it opens at 7 o´clock. Right when P-day ends... Oh well. So we just did normal stuff and had a decent P-day. We went and taught Dimas. He´s from Honduras and made us boliadas. There a typical Hondorainian food, tortilla, refried beans, eggs, avacado, and some really good sharp cheese. I´ll make some when I get home.
Tuesday we contacted quite a bit, taught a few lessons and had Ward Counsel. Which basically consists of which Hymns we´re going to sing on Sunday. It´s pretty cute to see all of these old Spanish men looking very intently for the "right" hymn. After that we went and taught Roger about tithing and fasting. He understood everything and said that once he starts making money he´ll happily pay. That was awesome because we were worried that tithing would be difficult in his situation but he completely accepted it and wants to pay it. Little daily miracles are the things that change your mission.
Wednesday we had District Meeting, which took up pretty much the whole morning just traveling, then we taught a few lessons, and talked to Soledad. She is awesome. We told her our concerns for the branch. That all of the people who could help are too old, don´t have any money or are leaving at the end of this year. So we planned to meet with her Sunday to discuss a strategy to really get the branch going.
Thursday. Planning and then we had a lesson with Seish. He really wants to know why we are so "convinced" of the Book of Mormon and he wants to know our passion. He´s actually starting to progress. We started from ground zero and taught him about God and the need for Jesus Christ. The need for a redeemer. He understood and said he´d read. Then after that we had a pretty awesome Noche de Hogar (family home evening) as a ward. Since the 4th is Independence Day we shared a story about Captain Moroni and the Standard of Liberty, and we acted it out. Guess who was Moroni? Yes, yours truly... ;) Haha no but it turned out super well and one of the Hermanas here made peach pie so we were all super happy and felt quite American.
Friday morning us and the Hermanas met in the church. We just sat down, threw everything we had on the table and looked at how we could help this branch with what we had. That took most of the morning and we set up a battle plan to start really helping the branch. Then we went to President Galera´s house for lunch. He and his wife, Hermana Loli, are starting to really see the effects of old age. We need to find someone ready to take his place because he won´t be able to run the branch effectively by the end of this year. Roger´s great but he won´t be a leader unless he can find work and really give as much attention possible to helping. However with time or circumstance no one really knows. Fourth of July was any other day out here. Nobody recognized it, nobody brought it up to us and we almost forgot about it. However I did hit my 10 month mark and that felt weird. Time...
Saturday we organized a little bit of soccer and played with some members and investigators. That turned out well. After that we ate with Raul (theHermana´s recent convert) which was nice. Then we had a pretty long day out in the streets looking and making calls, looking for the Lord´s anointed.
Sunday was interesting. EFY for Spain this year in in Segovia. So for church we went to this nice hotel here and had sacrament meeting in the ballroom, with about 50 counselors and the 18 of us from the little branch here. I saw Hermano Santana there (my MTC teacher) and some missionaries from Spain who had just finished their missions. After that we had a regular Sunday. We met with Soledad to discuss ways that we could do the work better and have more success and what more we could be doing. She gave us super good advice and I´m excited to put it into practice. Then we met with Seish again and yet another good lesson. He was really concerned that Nephi had to kill Laban. So we explained that to him and helped answer some of his doubts. However he´s reading in Japanese and is understanding all of the Book of Mormon and wants to keep reading. So good progress.
Today was a fun day. There´s a really cool palace close to here called La Granja. It has fountains, gardens and basically every other cool thing an Art History/Greek Mythology nerd, like I, would like. We spent a long time there and then did the normal things like grocery shopping and writing the family! Funny thing is that once you start buying your own food and making it, you start to pay attention to all of the little things. Let´s just say I´ve never eaten healthier or little food in my life, but I´m happy and I have my chocolate milk. So don´t worry I´m doing fine.
Feelings time. I´m happy that I get a long with my companion, he kind of stinks (that Spanish deodorant does NOT work), is very plain with investigators and loves deep doctrine. However he´s a really good guy and I´m learning to be more loving, and he´s teaching me to want to learn the little details about the gospel and apply them. So I´m at a point of learning and enduring and I love every second of it.
Thanks for everything. I hope this email´s detailed enough for you Mama and I´m grateful for what you do for me!
-Elder Hawks
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