Father's Day, A Baptism, and the Return of Elder Castro.

Hey, Dad! I hope you had a fantastic Father's Day back home!!! Here in Nicaragua, they don't celebrate Father's Day until tomorrow (Tuesday). I don't know why it is different here. They don't even really do anything special -- it's going to be just a normal day here in Nicaragua.

This past week was a great week. We had a baptism on Saturday, found a TON of new investigators, and brought a ton of new people to church. Next week is cambios, and I kind of hope I don't leave the area now because of how many new, positive investigators we found. You never know with cambios who will be having changes, but I still get the feeling like I'll be staying here in Sandino. Elder Hinojosa has already started packing and he feels like for sure he will be leaving -- we both came to Sandino at the same time. We will find out Tuesday.

So this past Saturday, we baptized the aunt of the little girl who was baptized the end of last month. We took this picture with her and her boyfriend, who needs just a little more time but still plans to follow in her footsteps next month. This young lady is super cool and loves the church and how much it has changed her life. She said she wanted to get baptized for years, but none of the churches seemed right. Even when we first started teaching her, she was reluctant to come to church for the first time, but when she did, it was incredible and a lot of the members have supported her. It was great to see her get baptized.

Elder Roundy, Elder Salmeron, me, and Elder Hinojosa

My trainer, Elder Castro, finished his mission a few months ago
but returned this weekend to pay us a visit.

Once again our district has a lot of baptisms scheduled this next week, so I am going to be super busy conducting baptismal interviews tonight and tomorrow. If I do end up getting transferred, then tomorrow will be SUPER busy trying to go visit everyone because they all invite us over for gallo pinto. After that, I would have to pack everything at the end of the day on Tuesday. Honestly, I think I would be just as happy to stay here as I would be to transfer. Either way, this area in the Barrio Trinidad is going to be golden for the next missionary who comes here. It is kind of nice to be able to spend your birthday in an area that you have been in for at least a little while --then a lot of the people in the area know you better and they love to celebrate your birthday with you. But that would still be a couple of months away, ha ha!

This is our chapel and we set up these chairs
 each week for Sacrament Meeting.

My trainer, Elder Castro, finished his mission and returned home to El Salvador a few months ago, but this past Sunday, he returned to visit us. He also came with us today on P-Day for our zone activity, and he brought a few of his handmade scripture covers for us to purchase. It was pretty cool to see him again, and he told me he was super proud of me for the missionary that I have become. He said that I am the best 'best son' that he had in the mission, but I am pretty sure he is just feeling bad and repenting for all the hard times he gave me during my training, ha ha.

Here I am calling the people unto repentance!!! LOL.

Anyways, other than cambios, nothing else super crazy should happen this week. Either I will be gone, or I will be getting a new companion here. I took a dive this week into Principios del Evangelio, along with some scripture references, for a little in depth personal study. I still plan to buckle down hard with the Book of Mormon and start using it more in my lessons, especially with the new converts and reading stories with them out of the B of M.

I couldn't keep a straight face. I was trying to re-create the classic picture
that my Uncle Jared took on his mission in Mexico (below).

This was my Uncle Jared in Mexico on
his mission.

Thanks again to everyone for the updates and pictures. I'm still waiting for the second package from my folks that has the other shoe in it, but probably for sure on Wednesday at cambios. Nice pics of my dad and brother golfing -- I can't wait to go golfing when I get back. Take care everyone and have a great week!

Our last district meeting before cambios next week. One of our Zone Leaders, Elder Kleiner, was on splits and attended.