Week 13

This week has been super fast and slow and great and weird. I guess this is the life of a missionary! All the emotions in one that all equals out to pure happiness!

Its raining good and hard here right now, and it is literally raining mangos. Gerardo and Nikol, the brother and sister weve been working with forever, have a giant mango tree in their backyard with the best mangos Ive ever had! Theyre so amazing, soft mangos, not hard. You can poke a whole in the skin and drink the fruit. But as we teach lessons there we have to dodge mangos as they fall from the sky. Its fun and a little frightening when they make no noise through the tree but come down and smack the arm of your chair haha 

So life is pretty great here. We got weights in our apartment finally! NO MORE PUSH UPS!!! haha Im pumped! Working out in the morning is actually fun because I get sweaty so my ice cold shower doesnt feel so terrible. Ive forgotten what warm water feels like. Thats gonna be a weird change when I come home! haha But thats a long ways away, and its coming scarily fast. 

So E.Perdomo and I had the chance to be in the primary play program this week! It was quite fun. We were guards to the pharoah, who is one of our investigators. The boy who played moses is our other investigator. Theyre cousins and are both 11. Them and their family are progressing so fast! Their mom/aunt just wants a good church for her family to grow up in, and they love attending church! Its awesome! I have no doubts that theyll be baptized soon. 

So my testimony has grown tremendously on how the gospel really brings peace to the lives of people who have experienced trauma. An investigator named margot, lost her grandchild. Another investigator named maria, her husband was robbed. Both of them said the same thing. That as they read the Book of Mormon and listen to our message, its as if their problems never happened in the first place, and for that moment they feel real peace. I know that only the Gospel can bring real peace in this terrible world we live in. I love being able to see the peace in people eyes. It was incredible when the gospel changed my life, and now I have a chance to change the lives of others. Its as if I get the chance to feel the way I felt over and over. I love it. Im so grateful for my past trials and that Im here now. Im grateful that I was already converted to the gospel before my mission because it is helping me so much here. Im not wasting any of the Lords time. 

Lifes good here. I love you all. Share the gospel! 

Elder Riley Hodson