March 25 - Are you feeling hot? I sure am!

Hey my most beautiful family of gringos,

Well, my whole mission, everyone has been talking about how hot "semana santa" (easter week) is. I thought it was an exaggeration. It wasnt. I have never sweat so much in my life. I wont be sending many pictures from this change....

This week has been jam packed of lots of fun, lots of changes, and lots of spiritual experiences, and little sleep. To start out, between all of the companionships in the Esteli zone, we baptized 8 families this month- the most that has ever been baptized in the zone. We were all really happy and to celebrate, we designed a tshirt and had a SUPER pday with the whole zone in Esteli where we played a lot of fun games, taught the latins ultimate frisbee, played soccer, and ate fried chicken at the classy "Tip Top" chicken. It was really fun because I really love our zone.

On Wednesday we had changes. About half the missionaries in the zone had changes which was really strange for me because all of my northamerican elders got changed out. My new companion is Hermana Morales fresh from the CCM in Guatemala. She is 20 years old and from Zone 18 in Guatemala City. All of her family are members. She is a saint----super humble, ready to learn, full of faith, optimistic, fun, obedient and really happy-definitely an answer to my prayers.

So after having a lot of success in an area in our lives, Satan has a way of putting worry in our minds (or at least in mine). This Monday I was thinking, man I really want to help Ocotal grow more, but how are we going to do it? I started reflecting on how we found Claudia and Javier, Cesar and Yelba, and Camilo and Marixta and what we said when we taught them. I realized that every situation was different in finding each family, and every teaching situation was different as well. With us missionaries, such imperfect teachers, I was thinking about the miracle of all of them getting baptized. Then I thought about how the Lord uses us as missionaries as instruments to help people come unto Christ. We dont have to worry about what we do or say, if were obedient and doing the best we can, if they are ready they will come unto Christ and we dont have to worry. Remember that the Lord will work miracles in our lives if we do what is right and follow the Spirit.

This past Monday, I received a little tender mercy from my past comp. Hermana Ascencio. As you know, it was a hard companionship for me and I felt like she hated being my comp. about 3/4 of the time. She sent me a note that said "to the best comp. in the world" and expressed her love for me and thanking me for being so patient with her because she said she knows she has a difficult personality. I dont say this to brag just to express how even when its hard, we should always choose patience and charity because even though we might never get thanked, were always going to make a difference.

When Hermana Morales and I arrived to Ocotal we werent having any success entering in any houses to teach. I really wanted her to have some great experiences right off the bat so we kept working hard.On Friday we were walking and a really happy woman greeted us as we were passing by. I dont know why but I felt we should contact her so we went back and met her. Her husband was inside the house and we asked if we could come back and visit and left a gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and committed them to read it. It was just like any normal contact. We went back to their house on Saturday (their names are Aquileo and Eneyda) and started the lesson and found out they go to an evangelical church. He started asking a lot of questions about baptism and we taught the first vision. They were really interested in the message. I taught about the apostasy and turned to my companion who was going to talk about the first vision. When she testified about Joseph Smith the spirit was so strong and she started crying. It was an incredible lesson. Afterwards she told me that she knows why she is on a mission now and realizes that there really are chosen ones ready to hear the restored gospel. Im so grateful to be her companion. We will keep you updated on their progress.

Well I love you all and hope youre all moving forward in life with FAITH!!!

Hermana Anne Pearson