Nicholas Turns 20!

I had a great birthday.  A family in the ward ,my companion and the other missionaries all threw a traditional Latin surprise party, (which consists of egg shells full of flour and confetti, smashing my face in a cake, and lots of balloons and pictures).  I really did not see it coming at all.

The work here is really good, my favorite thing I learned this week was in Alma 47, the story about Amalikiah and Lehonti, and how Amalikiah convinces him to come down the mountain.  My companion and I made a lesson plan out of the story and went to go teach a less active family (La Familia Lopez).  The Spirit was definitely present and the Lord helped Brother Lopez overcome his doubts and stay on the mountain. 

It's lame that I'm not going to be able to come home in time for the Temple dedication, but I'm really exited to help you out with all the Temple work, in the mission we can only go 2 times a year, so I get really temple baggy. 

 

Everything in Río Zarco is Good

Everything in Río Zarco is good, Natali got baptized yesterday and it was an amazing baptism service, she had been wanting to get baptized for a long time but never could, so her son got baptized without her (the one in the shirt and tie, he's 10 years old) and when his Mom finally got baptized 5 months later he stood up in front of a room full of people and gave a talk about baptism. PILAS!!!!  It really was incredible and we could feel the Spirit so strongly, he's going to be a great missionary. 

So right now were working a lot with a man named Ernesto, we found him my first week in the area and he's come to church the last two weeks, the date we put for him (to be baptized) is the 28th so keep him in your prayers that he can be ready!

This week we also had an incredible experience with an investigador named Christian, he's a baker (that's a very common profession here) and bakers ALWAYS sell bread Sunday. Sunday is the BEST day to sell bread, and everyone knows it.  Well, we got Christian to start coming to church but he always came after selling bread. We'd taught him about the Sabbath day but he didn't have enough faith to put it into practice.  Anyway, Saturday when we went to talk to him he told us (to our great shock and wonder) that the last three Sundays he hadn't gone to sell because he wanted to test what we had taught him. He told us that he has never sold more bread. That his business is taking off, he's going to hire two more workers to sell and start renovating his house to work more efficiently. But apart from that, he said the greatest blessing he's received is this sense of "change" he said he feels a change in himself, that he feels good, and that he doesn't want it to go away. So he read in Alma 32 about the seed of Faith that grows after experimenting with the Word of God. We invited him to baptism and he said Yes! There is just some paper work to take care of, but we hope that in March he'll be able to.

 

The sinks that the missionaries use to wash
their clothes is very low to the ground -
something that fit's the locals just fine.  For
Nicholas it's much easier just to kneel.

 

This Week Has Been Full of Miracles

This week was full of miracles! Things here are going super good, I love my area (Rio Zarco!!) and my companion (Elder Reyes). The coolest miracle we saw this week was with an investiador named Ricardo, we went to the house of a recent convert whose daughter were teaching, and it turned out she wasnt there (which was super chafa (something of very low quality) because she lives SO far away). BUT! Turned out her friend Ricardo was there, so we started to talk to him, got to know him a little bit, taught about how the Spirit works and then invited him to baptism. He said YES!! Whoo! So we'll see how he progresses.

It's interesting to see how the Spirit can work so strongly with some people, and with others it doesn't even seem to register to them. I think it all has to do with your preparedness to receive spiritual guidance.  If you're not ready or simply unwilling to listen then you won't even realize that it's there. God is always pendiente. He knows where all his children are and knows when they'll be ready to recieve the message. I know that God loves and watches over his Children. 

 

Finally, pictures!

Nicholas' letters have been very short and pictures far between.  We've just now started to get pictures.   Know that he has loved his mission.  He loves El Salvador and will be sad to come home.  Here's a few pictures we received recently.