Filling a Room with the Savior, Divisions, and Stake Conference

So this week was rather different. We spent two whole days this week doing splits with the AP's and then the Zone Leaders who wanted to come down to meet all the investigators in our districts here in Rivas, and that included all the Hermanas and their areas and investigators as well. As a result, we weren't really able to do much work in our own area for those two days, so it had a bit of an impact on the number of investigators we were able to commit to come to Stake Conference yesterday. Really, the big problem is that a lot of them weren't fully committed to begin with, and then we couldn't visit with them to teach them during the week, so a lot of them kind of flaked on us yesterday.

Stake Conference was interesting and it was more like a normal Sunday for a change. We ended up with only 3 investigators in attendance. Plus, our mission president, President Russell, attends all the Stake Conferences, and he said that this was his last Stake Conference as the mission president here in Nicaragua because he will be getting released the end of June.

We are still hoping for one baptism of our own this week for M, who was scheduled to be baptized last month before he slipped up with the Word of Wisdom a couple of days before his baptism. He was actually a pretty heavy drinker before and he is struggling to quit. However, he is super converted and attends church every week. I gave him a white shirt and tie to wear, and he loves for us to visit him, but he says he falls easily into temptation. So far, so good the last couple of weeks and if he can make it to Saturday without a drink of alcohol, then he will be baptized. My companion and I have been stopping by his house two times per day to help strengthen his will to not drink, and to honestly help him feel better about his life. He lives all by himself in a room that is situated next door to his sister who has a family. We also got about 20 pictures of the Savior and hung them all around his room, and then we wrote April 16th in big letters on the pictures to help him stay committed and focussed. We're trying our hardest to help him, but the devil is chancho, so I am sure we will be battling all week to help M.

The Hermanas in my district have about 6 or 7 investigators scheduled for baptism this next week, and we already have 2 days of divisions planned with the hermanas this week to help them prepare their investigators, so it should be pretty busy.

Sorry that I didn't have much time to write this week. I had a lot of emails to respond to (which I appreciate!!) and I had to report to President Russell about how the hermanas are doing and all their scheduled baptisms. Luckily my eye infection is all clear up now. I also suspect that I will be getting transferred from Rivas at the next cambios on April 20th, so I am just doing my best to enjoy my awesome companion and work hard to see these baptisms through this week. Happy birthday again to my "little" brother last week and my "little" sister next week!

We didn't really take any pics this week because we were so busy, so we just snapped
a couple this morning on our way to the cyber cafe.