Week 37

SUCCESS IN SAN JUAN

Dearest Family and Friends,

How is everyone? I hope alls well in the states. and Im jealous that everyone will be eating thanksgiving while Im stuck here eating balleadas. Im so burnt from eating the same food day after day. I miss cafe rio and capriottis! haha 

Well. Im on cloud 9 today! This week has been incredible! And it ended awesome with an awesome pday with president Klein today! We played kickball, frisbee golf, and ultimate frisbee! FINALLY the only sports Im good at!!! I had a blast playing frisbee. And my mission president is awesome at frisbee as well! Hes like a little kid. Him and I were competing the whole time playing frisbee golf. Every time wed finish he would make up an excuse as to why we had to play another round!!! it was hilarious. Im thinking Ill be having many more pdays with him in the future! And he was on my team in ultimate frisbee so of course we destroyed the other team 7 to 1!!!! haha for someone is his 60´s, hes a beast! Then we went and ate pizza. I was able to show my friends how good I am at eating hot wings hahaha 

So this week was incredible. To start off, we worked our butts off with members this week and we ended up teaching 46 lessons by the end of the week! We wanna hit 50! I know its not about numbers but it feels great to work hard and visit all that we can! 

And all that hard work paid off on saturday! Elkin got baptized! Everything went perfectly smooth. It was actually quite interesting how smooth everything went. All of my other baptisms, something has gone wrong and we have had to run around like chickens without heads trying to fix it! But no, this baptism went perfect! Elkin was so happy after wards. He was on cloud nine! I had the chance to baptise him, and that was very special. After the baptism, his neighbors were making fun of him for the choice he made. As he told us this story he said to us that the opinions of other people make no difference to him! The words came out of his mouth "I would die for this church" How incredible is that?! This kid blows my mind. He has overcome EVERY challenge that has been put in front of him with little or no help from us! He even fought with Jehovahs witnesses for his beliefs! He progressed to baptism by himself! I will always be blown away by him. I gave him my golden virtue tie that Dad had made for the ward. Its in a better home now! 

As I sit here and think, I am blown away by these last 8 months in the mission. Elkin is my 7th baptism, so its not like Im baptizing a bus load of people here every weekend like in other south american missions, but in reality, I wouldnt have it any other way! EVERYONE of my converts is firm and active in the church. Milagros has now helped her mom be baptized, and has missed 2 sundays in 6 months. Nicolle, despite having anti mormon parents, is set on her goal of being sealed to her family. Now, her aunt has been baptized and her sister will be baptized this next week. Hector Davila is the first counselour in the Y.M. and Reina is The first counselor in the primary, both active in the church, and Luis passes the sacrament every sunday. Lina is the first counselor in the Y.W. and is more active and works harder than 90% of the ward in La Ceiba. And now, to add Elkin! Hes going to be an incredible and firm member forever. Because hes already self sufficient! Im not worried about how many baptisms I have at the end of my mission, I just want 100% retention. 

Well. Thats all for this week. I love you all!

Always,
Elder Hodson