I hope all is going well. It sounds like the temple is pretty incredible there in Brigham City! I can´t wait until I can go there when I get back. Having a temple in Brigham City is going to bless the town so much.
This week was a pretty good week. We put a new baptismal date with Pedro and Virginia, seeing as how they still haven´t been able to come to church. They told us this week that they feel bad for not having been able to come to church yet. Virginia (who has never visited the church before) told us that a couple days ago she had a dream that she and her husband went to church. She said she felt a really good feeling inside her and felt like she was where she needed to be. She also said that she felt comfortable and like she was at home while she was sitting there! She is now even more excited to come to church and feels the desire to be baptized. We are really excited for this family! They are incredible. They just need to overcome the difficulty of getting to church on Sundays.
Last Sunday it rained like CRAZY. At about 1:20 we were in the middle of passing by the houses of our investigators to invite them to church when it just started dumping rain. We immediately felt a little discouraged because when it rains here in Nicaragua, almost NO ONE is willing to leave there house to go to church! We pretty much expected nobody to come with us to church. Then, we showed up to a new investigator family´s house. Their names are Jaime and Ana. Jaime has an alcohol and cigarette addiction and has had a pretty rough life, it seems. They live in a little tiny house and have almost nothing. But we started teaching them last week and they both are really positive and want to change their lives. When we showed up to their house Jaime came out and immediately said, "Well, lets go!! I´ve been waiting for you guys. It´s raining like crazy, but I already promised to you guys and the Lord that I was going to go to church today, so let´s go!" Unfortunately his wife Ana was sick...and due to the rain she wasn´t able to come with us. But Jaime just put on the best shirt he had and we started the 20 minute walk in the pouring rain to church! I am still amazed by the faith that he has! He knows that the Lord can help him change. I´m not going to lie, the rain was miserable. But I can´t explain how great of a feeling it is to help people take small steps closer to Christ. Jaime has a long way to go. But I know that the gospel has the power to change people...and Jaime isn´t an exception! After church we were talking to Jaime outside of the chapel and we put a baptismal date with him for the 13th of October. He is really excited to bring his wife Ana to church tomorrow too! We are praying that they will both be able to come with us tomorrow to church and that Jaime will be able to stop smoking and drinking.
We have been finding lots of new investigators lately. It´s been hard to find time to consistently stop by all of their houses, though, due to the office work Elder Rivera and I have to do. This next Wednesday are transfers...which means we have a ton of stuff to get ready! This transfer, 22 missionaries are leaving and 26 new missionaries are coming. The mission is basically starting from scratch. After this group of missionaries leave there will only be about 10 of the 160 missionaries that have over a year in the mission! It´s crazy, really. Almost the whole mission is new missionaries. But I think President Monestel is excited to start from the ground up and establish a great mission full of leaders.
Today for P-day, 4 of the missionaries from the office went to TGI Fridays. I didn´t even know TGI Fridays existed in Nicaragua until recently. It is Elder Escobar´s birthday this week so we decided to go celebrate a little bit!
I miss all of you and hope all is well. I know that there is nothing more important that I could be doing than what I am doing right now. This work is the work of the Lord!
Until next week-
Love,
Elder Parrish
