Hello everyone and Happy Easter! Attached are a few pictures of the pday from last week that I forgot to send! Last Monday the 
whole mission planned on going to a volcano in Masaya, but unfortunately it was closed for some reason. So instead we all went to a tourist spot with a big overlook of a lake 
in Masaya. After that we drove up into the mountains in vans to an old prison. I'm not exactly sure why...I think it was just because the plan to go to the volcano didn't work out so they had to think of something else 
for us to do. We walked around the huge prison which was partly underground, it was pretty awesome! I only got a few pictures though, because my camera 
batteries died. I was bummed out because there was a an old jail cell that everyone walked in and the whole ceiling was covered in bats! It was nuts. They were flying all around us. 
whole mission planned on going to a volcano in Masaya, but unfortunately it was closed for some reason. So instead we all went to a tourist spot with a big overlook of a lake 
in Masaya. After that we drove up into the mountains in vans to an old prison. I'm not exactly sure why...I think it was just because the plan to go to the volcano didn't work out so they had to think of something else 
for us to do. We walked around the huge prison which was partly underground, it was pretty awesome! I only got a few pictures though, because my camera 
batteries died. I was bummed out because there was a an old jail cell that everyone walked in and the whole ceiling was covered in bats! It was nuts. They were flying all around us. 
I also attached a photo of the baptism of José, whoo! Also in the photo is his brother Estiven, who is about 19 and has a baptismal date for the 21st.
This week was pretty long for Elder Real and I! This whole past week was a holiday for pretty much all of Central America. They call it "Holy week." It originally started to celebrate Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, but now it's basically turned into a week of vacations for everyone here! They don't really celebrate Easter here, they just celebrate the whole week long. We walked around pretty all day every day this past week just contacting, because almost no one was in their houses!
However, this week turned out being great, because we had the baptism of José on Saturday! When we went to go fill up the baptismal font there, of course, wasn't water, again. So all 15 of us who were at the baptismal service got in the back of a member's pick up truck and drove to the church house in San Marcos about 10 minutes away. The baptismal service went great! Elder Real and I sung a special musical number, Mas cerca Dios de Ti (Nearer my God to Thee) and it was stellar, definitely Tabernacle Choir material.
Sunday we about had a heart attack because church starts at 9, and Jose didn't show up to the church until about 9:15! Luckily he made it though, and was confirmed a member of the Church and received the Holy Ghost. We are both really excited for Jose, because the ward needs more youth members! Right now there are about 4 teenagers in the ward and that's about it. Jose seems excited about his decision.
Yesterday didn't really feel like the Easter I'm used to! There was no painting Easter eggs or doing an Easter egg hunt, but Sacrament Meeting was all about Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us. I can't express to you how grateful I am for my Savior! We will always be indebted to him for what he has done for us.Things went downhill fast with the family of Dennis and Nineth that I told you about last week. We worked really hard with them this week but as of right now things are a little rocky. We had a family home evening with them on Monday which went really good. Then on Wednesday we went back to their house and taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, repentance, baptism, and enduring to the end.) The lesson went really good but they aren't keeping their commitments and are still are having a hard time accepting that they need to be baptized. It's extremely frustrating, to be honest, because they KNOW that what we are teaching is true! They know the proper form of baptism, the way that Jesus Christ was baptized: by immersion, by someone who holds the proper priesthood authority, in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, and later, receiving the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. The problem is that they seem to think they are an exception. At the end of the lesson we both shared our testimonies and expressed our love for them. It's really sad because sometimes there are families that are incredible families, but if they aren't ever going to progress then we can't continue to spend a ton of time working with them! We are going to visit them once more this week and see how they are feeling about everything. We're praying for them!
This week we found a few new investigators that we are going to start working with and we are excited! The sad part is that changes are a week from Wednesday. Elder Real has been here in La Concha for about 6 months so we are both thinking that he is going to get transfered and that I will finish my training here with another trainer. However, neither of us will know until next Tuesday probably! This week I had my first encounter with a huge spider and it was absolutely terrifying! Ha ha. We came back from working on Tuesday (I think it was), and there was a spider on the wall in our room about the size of my hand...I ran out of the room like a little girl while Elder Real just laughed at me. According to Elder Real, the spider is only a "little" spider and I'm going to see much bigger spiders in my two years here. I wouldn't have been that afraid but he said that the spider is pretty dangerous. Elder Real refused to kill it because he said that I needed to do it in order to get over my fear of spiders...So I grabbed his flip flop and after about 30 seconds of trying to build up courage I finally did it and it's guts splattered all over the wall. His plan didn't work, I'm still terrified of spiders.
Well that about wraps up the adventures of the past week! I hope everyone had a great Easter and were able to ponder a little bit about our Savior and His sacrifice for us!
Love and miss you all!
Elder Parrish
