6 February 2012
Dani: I liked hearing about how Adam walks on his hands and feet.  I can open attachments.  That is a really good drawing for someone his age.  I also really enjoyed your mission plan.  I am a huge fan of the name David.  For a girl Alice...Elizabeth.  Or another three syllable name.   
Doug: Do you want some work experience in Nicaragua? There is a Health Center in every town and everything is completely free.  It´s like magic!  and Socialism, too! Favorite line from Doug: we´re going to have another kid in the next 17 days. 
Kevin and Cheryl and Tanner:  Um... I remembered all of your birthdays but I forgot to write anything about them.  Happy birthday to all!  Kevin, are you still going to Germany.
Kyle!:  Nice to hear from you.  Are you hoping to go to BYU or are you going to decide if you really want it or not after you hear back?  I´m pretty sure you´ll get it. 
Mom!  I loved the drudge report you sent. Whoa! Sorry I forgot to respond to your question about politics down here.  Pres. Ortega won the election even though it was against the law for him to run again.  All the light posts are painted red and black for the FSLN party.  People talk about politics a little but hardly at all.  I play the piano every week in Sacrament meeting now because Elder Woodruff got transferred.  Just me!  I did get the extra memory card.  Thank you!  The zone hasn´t received the pouch for a while, so I haven´t gotten your letters yet, but thanks for writing them!
Dad!  Tell the missionaries and the whole stake hi!  I´m glad to hear that missionary work is going well and that your email audience is increasing.  Thanks for your sense of humor.  It´s fun to read your letters. I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the world.  If there is a natural disaster anywhere besides Nicaragua, let me know.  The closest I get to hearing about American politics is when I see someone walking around with a hat that says Obama on it.  

I´m feeling more and more like a real missionary.  We work a lot harder than I`ve ever worked before.  We have a goal to contact 50 families every week, be teaching 15 families, and have 7 progressing.  You can read a little bit about that in the letter to President Monestel.  It´s starting to get going a little more.  There are always people ready to hear the gospel, we just have to find them.   Real missionaries have to work, have to have faith, and have to repent.  
I love Hna Zapeta.  We both have a desire to be better than we are.  We´ve been practicing English a little and that has been fun.  She knows a lot and she´s learned here on her mission.  My Spanish is getting a lot better too.  I am trying to have more confidence.  Hna Zapeta told me that when people don´t understand me it´s because I don´t speak loud enough.  
We´re focusing more on the Spirit.  We`re asking more inspired questions.  
    Last week we put a baptismal date with Ivania!  So that´s a family with a fecha. Yay!  We still have a long way to go with them, but they can get baptized. :)  
   We´re teaching a family right now that hasn´t been keeping their commitments.  theey are Manuel and Ena.  But their daughter, Rosmary read from the BoM.  She told us that she read and we asked her what she learned.  She summed up the whole introduction.  She was clear the the BoM was written by various prophets her in the Americas.  I was so impressed.d  Lots of people lie to us and they think it´s better to be nice than truthful. She hadn´t prayed about it, and we explained why it was important to pray. We have an appt for this Wed, and I think it will be really special.  Rosmary ssaid the closing prayer and it was beautiful, really sincere.  We wrote how to pray in the back of the BoM and she looked at it before praying.  Awesome!  We´re hoping that her example will help her parents complete their commitments.  
   Saturday we ate two lunches to avoid offending the mom of a recent convert.  She served us chicharron which is fried pig skin.   It´s in the states too, but the stuff she gave us had black hairs all over it from the pig.  It´s actually a mission rule that we can´t eat pig because it´s so nasty here.  One of the little girls there turns 8 this week and doesn´t want to be baptized.  so, we asked if she knew what baptism was.  Nope.  So we explained it with pictures from the Gospel Art kit (Hna DeHoyos left me hers)  After we went to visit Ivania and we read the Bom with her.  We talked about baptism and asked her if she had any questions.  Si. Solo... What is baptism?   Good question.... so we did the same thing.  It was cool that we had the opportunity to practice.  There are miracles everyday if we just look for them and are willing to recognize the Lord´s hand and help in All things.
   Sunday and Saturday we had 10 or more citas with families.  We found 2 new families Saturday.  We taught Gloria and Wilfredo.  they are a young couple and they received everything p`retty well. We taught the 1st principle and Dia de Reposso.  It was cool.   Yesterday we had 8 citas fall through and when the last when fell through we decided to contact the next door neighbor.  She has a baptismal date now...
We had a super awesome lesson with a new investigator last night.  He´s super cool and he understood everything.  he gave examples and he was really open.  He told us, I´m a little worried about my family.  I really want to have peace in my family.  We taught him and we´re going to go with his wife and him later this week.  It was a good lesson because we had questions to help him think, understand, and apply what we were teaching.  The spirit really helped him, and he was wanting to learn.  How cool!  His name is Lenin.  
   I´m telling you all the good things that have happened, but there are others things that aren´t so positive.  I still need a lot of help and  a lot more faith.  But... We can have success if we work hard, use preach my gospel, and have faith. 
 Love to all!  
I miss you but I`m not trunky!   Love, Hna. Mb
    
Mk can you forward this to Regan?
Last week we contacted one person in English.  The missionaries before had met with him and kind of just chatted. I said, if we ever come visit you, it will be because we are going to teach you and baptize you.  haha.  That was fun to say in English.  Hna Zapeta understood everything but she decided to talk in Spanish to him.  

Presidente Monestel,
    Wow.  Muchas muchas cosas han pasado esta semana.  Contactamos un monton.  Hemos tenido algunas nuevas familias, pero vamos a tener mas.  Tuvimos la meta de contactar 50 familias y contactamos 47.  Estamos enseñando algunas pero todavia ninguna esta progresando.  La familia mas positiva es Ivania y Dimos.  El es miembro.  Llegamos a su casa para ir a la iglesia, llamamos, y todavia no sabemos que pasó, pero no llegaron a la iglesia.  Sábado y Domingo planeamos citas cada media hora para tener mas nuevas. Ayer 8 citas cayeron.  Pero despues encontramos una esposa y la enseñamos y pusimos una fecha.  Despues contactamos una familia positiva, y enseñamos un esposo.  No son familias nuevas, pero van a ser familias nuevas. 
     Necesitamos llevar nuestros investigadores a la iglesia y utilizar los miembros mas para ayudarnos.  Hna. Zapeta trabaja duro y enseña muy bien.  Yo siento como una misionera real.  Estamos tratando de enfocarnos mas en el espíritu y preguntas inspiradas.  Realmente, no enseño muy bien, pero he mejorado mucho ésta semana con prácticas y oraciones y ayuda de Hna. Zapeta.  Me encanta Masatepe todavía.  Estoy agradecida por las oraciones y el amor de usted y su familia. 
Hna Tew