Rough Week in Rivas

A cool mural on the side of a building here.

So because of our Mission Activity this Wednesday, we didn't get to have P-Day today like we normally do. We spent most of the day contacting people without a lot of success. Yesterday we didn't have any investigators make it to church... nobody kept their commitments. Even J. didn't make it. He was supposed to attend today so that he could be baptized this coming Saturday, but he got called into work 2 hours before church.

This is in the middle of a big round-about on the main
highway that goes through Rivas.

So it has been a pretty rough week, but we have been able to find a few new people each day. This area is pretty tough, but Elder Smith and I were able to give out 8 Book of Mormons, so we did find a few interested people. It just seems a lot of them don't have the faith or understanding of the importance of going to church yet, so it can be a struggle.  I'm trying my hardest, but it just seems a lot of the people don't follow through very often. Such is being a missionary, I suppose. Like Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "Salvation isn't a cheap experience... it wasn't easy for Him (the Savior), so why should it be easy for you?" So we are working hard to take more investigators to church. At least the hermanas all have some baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, so I was busy all day yesterday doing interviews, and then we will be helping with the baptismal service next week.

Another cool mural of the beach that is here on the side
of a building that we walk past every day.

I also wore out another pair of shoes (one of the ones I just bought in Masaya). They were starting to hurt my feet because the sole on the bottom was breaking down from walking on all the rocky paths and the heat. So another pair of shoes down. I will have to see if I can find another pair of shoes here to last the rest of the mission.

For our Mission Activity this Wednesday, all of the missionaries here in the Rivas Zone get to go to the beach early to help the Mission Office Elders set everything up, and then we get to stay after the activity to help take stuff down. Elder Jensen and I had to charter some buses to take us down early and then back late.  I will hopefully also get the rest of my Christmas packages. It should be a lot of fun, but our Mission President warned us that "where the water begins, your mission ends" (that is exactly what he said). So I won't be touching the Pacific Ocean, but at least I will get to see it!