No kindness no matter how small is ever wasted

Today I was sitting in a chair at an investigator`s house and I was thinking  I think this is heaven.  I think heaven is like Masatepe.

October 31, 2011

Dear Dad,
   Thanks for your email.  I actually was thinking about your talk on kindness that you gave.  I was praying and I prayed to remember that no kindness no matter how small is ever wasted.  I tried to implement that this past week and our companionship is much much much much better.  I actually felt like we were friends.  It`s a big change.  Thanks for your prayers and advice and I they have helped me.   I am sad that Elder Roller left you!  He`s great. :)  But I hope you are having fun with the new Spanish Missionaries.   Tell Grandma and Grandpa Tew I say hi.  I hope they are doing okay.  I hope Grandma feels better soon and neither is too lonely. 

Dear Mom,
      I ate a vegetable I think it was some kind of Squash and the name begins with a P.  It reminded me of Gillette and the garden and zucchini.  And I could taste the vitamins.  Ohhhhh.... vitamins.... how I have missed you!    Today I was sitting in a chair at an investigator`s house and I was thinking  I think this is heaven.  I think heaven is like Masatepe.

No effort is wasted.

I have been in Nicaragua 6 weeks today.

October 31, 2011
Dear Family,
    I have a lot to write.  I think... We had a good week.  Hna Castro and I are getting along A LOT better. 
   We received a reference a while ago for Marina Cortez and then we lost the address.  I was riding in a moto with Hna Dolores a member of the ward and I asked the nonmember driver for a reference.  He gave me his mom`s address.  His Mom is Marina Cortez.  Hna. Castro and I decided we should probably go find her.  haha  If two people give the same reference in a matter of days.  We tried to find her one day but something else happened so we looked for her last Jueves and asked an investigator who lives in her neighborhood where she lives.  She turned out to be the daughter of this investigator and actually showed up while we were chatting with the dad who is super cool.  We visited Marina and she told us about her family and how she feels really sad because her kids don`t visit her.  She loves to have kids at her house but the grandkids never come or at least not very much or often enough.  Her 16 year old son lives with his Grandma.  She really opened up her heart to us.  Hna Castro said we`re going to sing a hymn Families can be together forever.  She really liked it.  We have visited more.  We`re hoping we can teach her husband too.  He is really nice.  He`s a taxi driver. 
    Rafael was baptized this Saturday.  I have pictures and I`m going to send my memory card home whenever I get my new card.  I didn`t send a letter last week either.  We just didn`t have time.  But I`m going to send my two week old letter this week for sure!   Sorry.....
Rafael is the son of two members.  He`s twenty and he stopped smoking with some previous missionaries.  He has received many many missionaries and he finally got baptized.  This gives me hope because we talk with a lot of people who don`t get baptized, but we are preparing them for future missionaries.  No effort is wasted.  We contacted a family and they talked about the missionaries that had met with them twelve years ago.  But they still remembered some of what they were taught. cool.
    Gallo Pinto is the national dish.  It`s delicious.  Especially with queso and crema. queso frito is even better.  I love the food here.  There is also this fresco that they make with oatmeal.  Its super rico. 
    We taught a family called Areas and we really hope good things happen with them.  We contacted them with the BOM!!!  Pres. Monestel told us at the Multi zone that he would like to see every missionary walking with a copy of the BOM in his hand.  There is an emphasis on families and sacerdocios because we want to have a temple in Nicaragua.  The family is awesome. They are grandparents.  They and their grandson who is basically like their son,  he calls them mom and dad have a baptismal date for the end of this month.  Hopefully they`ll come to church...next sunday are elecciones. 
    A pet parrot climbed up the front of my skirt and halfway up my blouse last Saturday.  It`s beak was disturbingly close to my chin. 
    I met someone who served with Kyle.  Her last name is something like Guiterrez...  Anyway, someone in my rama knows you, Kyle!  Kyle are you still in DC?  Doug said they were thinking about going to DC for Christmas so I figure that`s where you are right now.
     Paul  I wrote you a letter today but I`m not sure I have the right address.  I may not send your letter until next week.  I hope you are enjoying life and that your intestines can be whole, healed, and happy.  :)  haha
    Doug I like to hear a little about your classes.  Tell me more!  Thanks for your email. 
    Dani  THANK YOU for your emails.  They really meant a lot to me. Ocassionally I feel like we are the same person.  I`m awaiting a picture of Adam in his turtle costume so I can see if he really was cuter than Scotty.  I am excited to see Little Critter.  I did see the whatever that thing is called that`s a picture of the baby that you attached. 
    Mom and Dad thanks for you emails always and your letters.  I didn`t get letters last week because a bag didn`t come to Masatepe from the office.  Hopefully I will get some this wednesday because Wednesday there are TRANSFERS!!! AAAHHHGG  I have been in Nicaragua 6 weeks today.  And I`m about to finish my first transfer.  I wrote this in my letter, but tell the Gardners that "Families Can be Together Forever" is touching lives in Nicaragua.  It was Griselda`s favorite song. 
    Kevin  thanks for the pictures!!!!!!!!!!  I`m printing them off with my emails too.
    Paul again: The day of Marybeth`s mission is the day in which you should write her.  I hope you`re feeling better! 
Look up Masatepe if you can.  It`s a cool city with lots of Artisan stuff.  Is that the right word?  They make chairs and baskets here.  The temperature is lovely. 

Things I want for Christmas  Tom`s deoderant  apricot,  I`ve heard good things about the salts if you think that would come over better. peanut brittle, a tape and tape player that doesn`t need headphones in order to hear, or my mp3 player and cord with music.  I have one of the plugs that connects an outlet to a USB cord, so I would just need the cord that goes from my mp3 player to a USB reciever. 
 I had a list and I forgot it at my house but I want a happy surprise and letters and notes and a tape from home.   I need peds!!!!  the little tan socks that you wear with dress shoes.  Like ten pairs.  I want a little hymnbook in English. Maybe a children`s hymnbook in English, but probably not.  How to teach piano in Spanish because I`m going to do that this Friday.  AAAHHH Also if there are Spanish scripture covers I would like that. 

I LOVE YOU
Love, Mb

Can you forward this  little message below to Hna Sobeyda?  you can say hi to her too in the email if you want.  She and her mom cooked for us in Nagarote and we lived right next to her house  the same yard but a separate house. 
Hna Sobeyda!  Gracias por su email!  Masatepe es super tuanis.  Me encanta la rama pero extraño la rama y Hna Carmen y usted y Axelito y Abel.  Estoy feliz y Hna. Castro esta feliz tambièn!  Saludes a todos en su casa! 
rojasbetancurt@hotmail.com

There is no where else I would rather be.

  I have reminders from Heavenly

 Father everyday that he loves me... 

There really are miracles that come 

from contacting.

October 24, 2011
Dear family,
    It`s been a fun week.  There have been many ups and downs.  We had a baptism on Saturday.  Manuel and Yolanda were married and baptized.  There were a ton of members there!  and non members.  We did lots of divisions this past week and I went out with Hna. Rapalo and Hna Campos and a Hna. from the branch. 
     I have reminders from Heavenly Father everyday that he loves me.  Yesterday we sang Tengo gozo during sacrament meeting!  In the primary class, Cielo chose me to say the prayer and told me to say it in English.  It was so awesome to pray in English.  Today I was thinking about how I like to imagine myself running up a mountain.  I`ve always liked that image since my freshman year of college and we walked to the Provo temple and saw angel Moroni pointed towards the mountains.  Like, life is hard and it`s a journey and there is a destination and it takes effort.  But this morning I realized that I can`t actually run up a mountain.  I can walk up a mountain if I have someone there to help me.  And I think it`s probably better to do it that way.    I am amazed at how many promptings I receive to read something or do something and it always makes me feel happier.  I love to get your emails.  Your notes and letters are really really really special to me. 
     This Saturday was awesome.  We had a baptism of a family!  We report our numbers as families, sacerdocios, and then a total.  They want to have a temple here.  I contacted four people during service.  I am starting to enjoy contacting.  That night we contacted a family in a house, something I had never initiated before.  But I did it!  and it was fun!  It`s fun to see the miracles that come from contacting.  We contacted Manuela and her 7 kids last week.  We've been visiting her and hopefully her heart will soften up so she will come to church.  She is shy and then she opens up and talks about how much God has blessed her and her family and she cries a little!   She makes chips and sells them. 
   Tonight we have a baptismal interview with Rafael.  He hasn´t smoked or drank for four weeks or four months I`m not sure which.  haha oh the joys of misunderstandings.  It can be funny.
    Today we went to the beach.  It was lovely.  I looked for shells and thought about Cheryl! 
    A few interesting things about Nicaragua:
    When people are referring to other people, they pucker up their lips and direct them to that person.  So, when deciding who will pray, they just pucker up and point with the lips.  When I do it people think it`s funny.  I think it`s funny too. 
     Nicañol dictates that no hay que pronounce the S.  I contacted someone with two kids, one has die anos and the other tre. 
     chocho means dangit!
     dele pues means alrighty then.  Sort of like, okay go ahead.  or lets get going with the siguiente. 
     I love to get your letters.  Everyone is jealous of how many letters I receive.  It was that way in the MTC too! 
     I have lots of ups and downs.  I still get homesick.  In the mornings I almost always feel sad until after lunch when we start working.  Then I feel better.  There is a quote in PMG about that in the section on Diligence in Christlike attributes.  I was rereading a letter from you, mom, this morning and you said you decided to memorize Nefi 3:7   I am memorizing it too.  Mom you can learn Spanish!   I pray every day that you can learn Spanish because I know you really want to and I want you to understand Spanish when you come to pick me up if you don`t get called on a mission before then.
    Well, I`m getting lots of practice of listening and speaking Spanish.  But I still don`t talk very much.  I`m getting lots of practice of trying to be happy even when I don`t feel happy.  I`m also practicing being more patient.  I`ve been remembering that nothing lasts forever.  The good and the bad are both going to end so I should enjoy the good, bad, ugly, and mediocre.  Everyone I talk to tells me that the mission passes really really fast and then it`s like a dream. 
  There are moments when I feel perfectly happy to be in Nicaragua and I have no desire to be in Wyoming. There is no where else I would rather be.  I`m going to start exercising in the mornings.  That will help me feel better. There really are miracles that come from contacting.  We find less actives and part member families and people who have heard about the church and want to come.  Saturday night we found a girl who lives with a neighbor.  Her mom lives with someone else and her Dad, who she doesn't know lives in the US.  She talked about how she feels sad that she doesn't have a father, and that she`s heard really great things about the church.  The great thing is that with contacting, you just have to ask questions, listen to the answers, and give the doctrine they need.  If it`s a good contact, the investigator basically tells you, give me the principle God is our loving heavenly father. But the Spirit is behind it all.  I have a long ways to go up the mountain.  But the view will be great.  Forgive the cheesiness, Pablito.  I love you all.  I really do pray for all of you everyday by name.   Mom, Dad, Kevin,Cheryl, Tanner, Nani, Kyle, Doug, Dani, Scotty, Adam, Baby, and Paul...except sometimes I say the munchkins instead of tanner, nani, scoty and adam.

It`s kind of ridiculous how good Heavenly Father is. How many chances he gives us and how much he wants us to be good and succeed.

We're in Masatepe... I'm cold!!!!

We live in a house that has hot water!!!!

 
Dear family, I have almost no time.  sorry!  I have a short letter that I`m going to mail at some point, but not much.  We`re in Masatepe and it`s still raining...  Vivimos en una casa that has hot water!!!!  wow!  It`s a nice house, big.  We eat with the president and his wife.  There is a chapel here too and the members supposedly are super excited about it and are inviting people to see the new church.  The members here help out a lot, I`ve heard.  The daughter of the presidente del Rama is going to work with us.  My Spanish is getting better.  Today I talked lot with Elder Ochs and Elder Woodruff in English.  It was fun.  It`s also fun to talk to the Latinos in English.  Some of them speak really well.
But we haven't actually done anything here yet.  Hna. Castro and I had a good week.  Felix and Suje came to church!!!  Only for an hour but they came!!!  It`s kind of amazing how many miracles there are everyday.  Like, this really is God`s work.  I haven`t read your letters yet Mom and Dad.  I read your`s Cheryl and it was beautiful I`m going to print it off with mom and dad`s.  Kevin, thanks for your dear elder.  Mk thanks for the email and your pictures!!!  Thanks Sara for the email and Rebecca too!  Thanks Grandma for the letters.  I LOVE THEM!!   Thanks for the letters mom!  thanks thanks thanks.  I love you all and I am grateful for your prayers.  This week was a lot better mostly because Oh something cool that happened on Tuesday.  We were in a lesson with Maura and I was bearing my testimony and then I said we`re going to end with a prayer and we`re going to kneel if that`s okay, I looked at Hna. Castro and she just nodded with this weird look.  The Lord then blessed us with a reference from Maura and we went to Josefa, I wrote a little about her in my letter.  We were looking for a hymn to start off with to sing and I found one and knew we should sing it.  But Hna Castro was picking and she picked the one I had.  She was like, you have it already?  After that lesson, which was sweet because she gave a really sincere prayer, Hna, Castro said: Today estuvo super tuanis [cool] because when you said let`s kneel and pray, that`s exactly what I was thinking.  And when the hymn thing happened that made it more cool.   It`s kind of ridiculous how good Heavenly Father is.  How many chances he gives us and how much he wants us to be good and succeed.  I have to go.  It`s late in the day.  P'day should be over but we had a long field trip and didn`t get back until late.  Well... bye!  Please pray for me!  I pray for you.  Look up the weather for Masatepe.  It`s ridiculous.  I`m COLD!!!!  It`s awesome.  Everyone says this area is awesome.  There are two hermanas aqui and two elders too.  We eat with them, so that`s awesome.  Okay Bye  write me!

...this is the Lord's work and all I really have to do is trust in Him.

Dear Family,  I am in a bus right now.  It's P-day and we just went to a nature preserve or something like that.  It was really beautiful.  I'm in Masatepe and I've heard really really awesome things about the area.  It's ridiculously beautiful.  This past week, and these past weks I've learned a lot about trusting in God, just doing things, being positive.  Pretty much every aspect of my life is a choice.  I can choose to love people, I can choose to change.  I can choose to talk.
    We visited a lot of recent converts on Saturday .  One was Hna. Magdali.  She has a problem with the Word of Wisdom.  She showed us a mostly empty bottle of some alcoholic beverage.  We took it and we were talking in the street.  It was dark and raining.  A  lot of lights had gone out.  I realized I still had the bottle in my hand and I told Hna Castro, laughing, "I feel like I probably shouldn't be walking with this."  Ha ha.  That made us laugh:)   I dumped it out and threw away the bottle.
     I'm not sure I'll have time to write much today.  For emailing.  We found a few new investigators this week --Carmen Moria y her family and Josefita.  Carmen is a teacher.  She's met with the missionaries before and even went to church.  She's very honest and open. She asks lots of awesome questions.  Her family is awesome and they all seem really intelligent.  We contacted her one night when it was raining.  I found a scripture in the OT that says something like when the sower sows, he doesn't know which plants will give fruits.  Asi es with contacting.
     Our other investigator nueve is Josefita.  We visited an investigator of the Elders (who left Nagarote) and asked for references.  She said, My next door neighbor wants to go to your church.  Turns out, we had contacted Josefa before and she had told us she wanted to go to church someday.  I was just like...whatever...but we visited her and her 2 grandsons and she prayed!  Wow!  It was really sweet.  She was all ready to go to church this Sunday (we passed by her house) but she got a call and had to go do something after we passed by the first time.  She's sincere.
    Griselda, our investigator who came to General Conference wasn't baptized this Saturday because she's still living with her "husband."  There are a lot of problems.  She has many troubles.  She loves the hymns Love at Home and Families can be Together Forever  (this song has touched another investigadore in Masatepe, too.  Maybe you can tell the Gardners..tell them I say hi, too!).  I really hope she can have an eternal family someday. 

October 24, 2011
The branch here is fantastic.  There is a beautiful chapel with a nice piano and two keyboards.  There were a ton of people at the baptism/wedding yesterday.
    I've been thinkg a lot lately about what it's like to be a missionary and how much we have to rely on the Lord.  When I think about everything I have to do I feel stressed and overwhelmed, but once in a while I think, well this is the Lord's work and all I really have to do is trust in Him.  Then everything will be alright.  Everyday I'm reminded that the Lord loves me and He knows how to help me.  If I go to him for help, I can help the people I teach and talk to.
    Saturday it rained really hard for awhile and the street was like a river.  Hna Castro and I walked from the President's house to our house and it was ridiculous.  I used Hna Castro's umbrella.  I was dressed in missionary clothes and she was walking with a buchet over her head.--in her street clothes from service.  As we were walking back I said that I really wanted my camera to take a picture.  So I ran ahead and grabbed by camera and her's and took a picture.  Right now I'm at...the Beach! My whole zone is here.  It's beautiful!  It took a long time to get here, but it's awesome to watch the waves and walk barefoot in the sand. There are rocks of lava and palm trees.  I'm homesick for Hawaii and Kevin and Cheryl and Samoa and Mom and Dad.  ha ha
    Today while we were waiting for a bus a man was asking us for money and we were at the market with music playing and he started dancing for us.  It was pretty funny.  He just kept on dancing and dancing.  Saturday we were giving service with the rama, clearing off a sidewalk which was buried under 1-2 feet of dirt.  We took a break and drank pop and ate white flour, chocolate and high-fructose corn syrup cookies.  They bought three 3-liter bottles of pop.  When there wasn't much coke left in the bottle, President Mercado cut off the top of the bottle with a machete.  He picked up a huge piece of ice that almost didn't fit in the bottle and started drinking from it.  Everyone was laughing and I just felt like I was at home.  I could see myself in Gillette at fishing lake or something and I imagined Dad doing something ridiculous and making us all laugh.  It was a joke that required no understanding of Spanish.  I'm still struggling with Hna Castro...but not much.  It's been good to be with other missionaries. I really like Hna Rapalo. 
    I love you all and I pray for you every day.  I hope all is well.
Love, Hna Tew
**Rafael said he would be baptized this Saturday!  I only met him last night--Hna Castro visited him during splits.  We're going to his house every day this week.  No cafe!  [coffee]  We have to talk a little more about our prophet today...Thomas S. Monson.  It's a 45 minute walk to his house :)  And it's BEAUTIFUL.  Hopefully he';ll get baptized the 29th! 
Love to all,  Marybeth

...when I don´t follow the Spirit, I feel like crap.

 Service is awesome.

Dear Family,
 I love you all!  I´m so grateful for your love and support.  I know you are praying for me all the time.  In Provo at the MTC, one of the devotional speakers told us that the mission is really for ourselves.  He told us to let the Lord mold us on our missions.   I need lots of molding.
   I felt a lot of failure this week.  I think a lot of it stemmed from my relationship with my companion.  I feel a lot of intimidation.  So, when I have an idea of what we should do, I don´t act on it or tell her because I´m kind of afraid of her.  This just leads to more problems though because that means I´m not following the spirit,  And when I don´t follow the Spirit, I feel like crap. 
    I have tried to talk more this week. But I feel like I´m failing at that too.  I know Satan uses discouragement against us, and I´m feeling it.  But yesterday we fasted to have a better companionship, and there is a difference. We fasted to have baptisms this month and to find the people that God has prepared for us.  I know this week is going to be better.  This morning we were with the Elders and I felt like I should contact the security guard at the Bank, so I did.  Even though it was Pday and Hna. Castro was there and the Elders too.  I felt so great afterward.  
   I know I should contact a lot more.  Contact everyone!!  Dad I liked what you said about having a quality contact rather than overcoming bashfulness.  It´s hard for me because everyone tells me that I have to talk more and my district leader asked me if I had many friends before my mission.  I was like, yes I had friends.  Not a lot...not a few...  I guess I feel judged a lot.  Oh well. I´m tall, white, and I don´t talk very much.  People are going to judge me.  I am trying to think less about myself and more about my investigators.  I need to think about Jesus more too.  I just feel really imperfect. I guess I should get used to the feeling and just rely on the Lord a lot more.   Here are some cool things that have happened.  
We had a multi-zone conference last week in San Dino.  It was great!  There were some really awesome workshops and talks.  Each of the three zones put on a theatrical work.  Ours was good!  I said 5 words haha. My lines were really funny and everyone laughed at them.  The people in our zone are good actors and they made it a lot a lot a lot of fun.  I was a grandma.  It was about the 2000 stripling warriors. 
Sorry If I sound super depressed in my emails.  I think I do.  I just have my up moments and down moments.  But this past week was kind of rough. 
I got about 14 or 15 letters last week!  Everyone is always amazed at how much mail I receive.  I got some letters that arrived at the CCM.  I got the Dear Elder from Sara Bingham (thanks! it was great to hear from you!)  Anyone can email me btw.  I just can´t email them.  I got pictures from Kevin and Cheryl´s visit in Wyoming.  I got a letter and pict. from Mary Katherine and a letter from Rebecca.
     This week two of our investigators came to church.
Our area is becoming part of the North mission.  this means that we are getting transferred to Masatepe (yo creo no estoy segura como se escribe)  I am sad to leave our Investigators and recent conversos.
    Yesterday we had divisiones and the District Leaders interviewed one of our investigators, Griselda, for baptism.  It took two hours.  She has many many many many problems.  But she passed the interview.  Last Monday, we went over to her house with Francis, who is 15 years old and knows how to cut hair.  Francis cut Griselda´s hair.  Her hair had a HUGE mat or something like that.  We cut the matted hair into like 4 parts, used conditioner and combed like crazy.  It took about 2 hours to comb all her hair.  We talked to her a little about how to take care of her hair.  I think Griselda feels a lot of love from us, and I know she loves Francis too.  Service is awesome. 
      A miracle:  We were talking in our district meeting about one of our investigators Felix who knows everything about the gospel and has refused a baptismal date at least twice.  He knows JS was a prophet.  We had a practice.  Hna Monestel was my comp. and we taught Elder Bailey and Hna Castro pretending to be Felix and his wife, Suje. The practice went okay and there were some really great suggestions.  One of them was to focus more on Suje.  Suje is almost never present she´s behind curtains in bed. She´s pregnant and kind of cranky sometimes. That day, later, I suggested that we stop by Felix´s to see if he prayed about baptism.  We stopped by....a little boy a sobrino or primo or something said that only he and Suje were there.  Hna. Castro just looked at me like Yeah, go.  So we came in and Hna Castro asked about what she was doing.  Suje said she was working on her English homework and she was having trouble.  Well, why don´t you let my comp help you!?  Sweet!  So, I helped Suje with her homework and talked to her about learning Spanish and how English doesn´t make any sense.  It was fun.  Later, Flor and Narciso, Suje´s mom and dad who live there too and we just baptized last month, came and then Felix.  We shared a scripture about family prayer from 3 Nephi, committed them to have family prayer and had a prayer with all of them. I'm grateful our DL Elder Carcamo had us practice and that he was thinking about our investigator and how he could help us.  I´m sure that district meeting and practice were inspired.
Okay, I´m feeling a little better now.  I really liked the conference talk about looking up and the other about looking back at how far you´ve come.  One of my entries in my miracle book was that I contacted people in the streets in Spanish without the help of a companion all by myself.  And really that is a miracle. Even though it happens every time we have divisions, it´s a miracle EVERY time. Thanks, Heavenly Father! 

We invited people tons of people to General conference this Sunday

Hello Family,
I have been in Nicaragua for a while now! 
Dad I forgot to read your talk last week.  I read it today and it is beautiful.  I took notes.  I need to open my mouth and talk!!!  And it will be easy!!!  I liked what you wrote:  that God lives and he loves us and that he helps us to learn that we transform ourselves as we try to bring others home with us.  That transformation is what ultimately takes us home too.  awesome.
Thanks for correcting my letter to the president.  The word tuanis is Nicaraguan for cool!  
Mom I need a memory card called Memory stick produo.
It looks like you all are having fun.  The time with Kevin and Cheryl sounded really fun!  I´m glad the garden, the Big Horns, and the munchkins are all doing well.
Dani thanks for the note.  I have been feeling homesick for English!  and for friends!  I miss you all, but mostly I´m homesick for something familiar!  The first week I was really homesick for my CCM district.  Everytime I thought of himno 88  Oh hermanos adios pues adios my heart broke.  It was kind of ridiculous, but I really miss them.  I´m glad to hear that your homesickness went away. 
When Elder Carl B. Cook (1st quorum of seventy) spoke about the end of his first week of being a general authority I just smiled.  I loved what he said about looking up.  It is better to look up!  I also loved the talk about repentance  Sat. morning and the talk by the counselor in the Sunday School presidency about teaching by the spirit.  I like the idea of looking down at how far we´ve come and then going forward, following someone else´s footsteps.
Cool stories:  We invited people tons of people to General conference this Sunday.  We invited people again Sat night and then  early Sunday morning.  Flor and Narciso, recent converts gave excuse after excuse about why they couldn´t come.  But Hna. Castro asked them to come and they said they would.  Hna. Belkin, another recent convert said that she didn´t want to.  The water wasn´t working and she hadn´t taken a bath.  Hna. Castro read her the riot act and told her she was losing blessings.  And then Hna. Castro left the house.  I gave Belkin a hug and a kiss  which is how you greet and say goodbye to people and said adios.  We walked away. About two minutes later, Gleisy, Belkin´s daughter came running after us and asked when the meeting was.  I just looked at Hna. Castro and smiled.  There wasn´t much time left, but they came!!!!!! and so did Flor and Narciso!!!! I was so happy when I saw them on the bus at the church I just wanted to cry!!! 
We stopped by Griselda´s last as we were inviting poeple to church.  She is an investigator and this was her first time at church.  She had just given her baby a bath, so we dressed him while she took a shower.  She sent her 2 year old son to the store to get a diaper for the baby.  Everyone got ready, her husband got back in time so she could give him the keys to the house, and a mototito dropped off someone right as we wanted to leave so we rode over to the church!  Mototitos are like motorcycles with benches, and they´re covered.  It´s like a car and a motorcycle.  There was a room of Gringos, so I got to watch conference in English, except for the first session when the TV wasn´t working.  I am soooo excited that there is going to be another temple in Provo!!!!!!! and one in Wyoming.  BTW, If it´s Mary Teichert, then yes I know her.  She´s from Colesville, WY and she´s going to Italy on her mission, I think.  Mom, I got the Dear Elders from you about conference with Elder Nelson.  It sounded awesome.  I wish I could have been there!  I haven´t taken any pictures here in Nicaragua, but I´ll take some this week and send them to you. 
Our zone practiced a skit today that we´re going to perform at the mulit zone conference this Friday.  I have two lines.  :) I´m a grandma.  We go to Sandino for Conference and for most of our zone meetings.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there.  The bus rides are fun.  We couldn´t shut the door a few times because there were so many people in the bus. 
There are election signs all over the place here. 
This morning, the elders who attend our branch too found out that they are getting transferred to another area.  So, our area just doubled.  We now have 43 recent converts that we are supposed to be visiting.  The elders leave tomorrow. 
We are praying to have a baptism in October.  We´re working with Griselda, Kenia and Brenda, Jose, Chico or Francisco.  Plus, I guess the investigators the elders have.  This past week I asked Jose to be baptized and he said yes!  That was exciting.  But really, the hard part is getting people to go to church and pray, and know.  Griselda has been to church twice, but none of our other investigators with fechas have been.  Griselda isn´t married, and she said that her husband was married before and never got divorced. Divorces are complicated and expensive, so we´re hoping that he didn´t actually get married the first time...
Fun things: I´ve killed two cockroaches, we haven´t had tp for about a week, so, basically, I only use our bathroom once a day right before I shower.  Don´t worry, we´re going to the store today. haha Good thing we´ve been at the church so much lately.  hahaha I love the people we´re working with!  It´s good.   I love you all.  Thanks for emailing me your advice Kevin, Kyle, Mom and Mom :)  You are all right. I love you!  I don´t think I can write you a letter today.  other than this email.  Have fun with Carrie!  Hi Carrie!  Have fun in Maine!  Thanks for the letters Doug and Dani, I look forward to READING THEM!!  okay bye! Marybeth