HAPPY 13 MONTHS on the mission!

So, 13 months today.  Can you believe it?  In four short weeks I will hear your lovely voices again and then four and a half months to go.  The time will go by super fast.  For p-day we played volleyball with the zone and then ate at a place called El Eskimo. It was quite nice. (Eskimo is a dairy brand here). Good times!  Anyway, that is cool about Scott Allen’s mission call.  Well, we didn’t have our baptism this week.  The hermano is having a hard time getting married, but maybe in the future.  We almost had another baptism but that should happen this week which will be good to start off with my newbie comp. There is a girl, well she is around 20, who has been coming to church for several months but is afraid of her parents since they are super evangelical.  She doesn’t need their permission but anyway, in our weekly planning on Thursday my companion said, “Do you want to be bold?  Let’s call her and put a baptismal date for this week.” The girl said she had been thinking about it before we called and was going to start praying and fasting. We were pushing for the 14th but whatever. She got interviewed on Friday and on Saturday we saw her and asked what she was going to do. It didn’t end up happening. I am excited that we should have it this week with my new companion. Anyway, miracles do happen!  Yesterday at church we had a ton of people there. The 80 year old we are teaching was all ready to go at 9:15 when we went by his house. That was a nice sight to see him waiting for us and then a family came too that we had never met before. He is a grandson of a member and we went and taught them last night and they seem cool.  It was good yesterday.  Our cook came too, with her member son. Anyway, I also asked this newly returned missionary at church who his mission president was. He served in Peru and the Trujillo mission sort of rang a bell. So I asked him and his president was President Turk. Small world! This missionary came home early from some health reasons but anyway, small world. The sister in the stake who was serving in Arizona, that I apparently met in the MTC, came home too this week for health reasons. Anyway, I keep realizing how blessed I am every day I am here. Thank you for being parents who don’t fight. I don’t understand people very well who get all upset and fight and are angry with their spouses. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I am so grateful for a roof over my head and my needs and more met. This week we were looking for a house and we went up to a gate where there were some little boys playing.  There were 5 or 6 of them.  The grandma came out and talked to us.  The boys are the sons of a couple of her sons who are single parents.  They are between 10 and 13 and as I saw them I thought of 5 or 6 future missionaries, but they are some of the poorest people I have met here.  My companion asked if they go to school but they don’t because they can’t afford shoes. It was one of the times I have really felt sad about the poverty here. Really there is quite a range of economic levels here and the majority of the area is quite nice but there is another part that is super poor.  Later I thought about Sis. Beck talking about turning rags into riches.  The gospel would change these people’s rags into riches.  President said something about that in our training meeting, that the gospel will bring Nicaragua out of poverty. Anyway, I am happy here and the people are super great and generous even with the little they have. The gospel is true and I want to help more families here find it. I love you sooooooooooo much and am happy being part of our forever family.  We are doing good. I can’t wait for my mail to come, but it should be here on Wednesday. I think the Valentines thing that came super late was actually lost in a pile of mail in the office or something because all of the mail I got with it was from February too.  I have gotten DearElders and letters that you sent after that. So don’t worry. Normally things are pretty fast.  Can you believe I will be 23 soon?  I feel old with some of the elders since they graduated in ‘11 and I graduated in ’07, but there are several sisters who are 25 and one who will turn 30 soon. The training meeting was good. I had to talk for like five minutes about how training has helped me be a better missionary. I don’t know anything about who I will be training. There are three hermanas coming, not just one. We should meet them tomorrow since they will come work with us for a couple hours. As for changes I am assuming I will be staying here. I don’t know for sure until tomorrow but it is a pretty safe bet.  I love you tons. Love, alc