Flying to Fesitrahn

Hola familia! I´m now in Fesitrahn, which is close to San Pedro. I´m serving in a ward instead of a branch. There´s a piano! I´ll be playing for the church meetings. My companion is Hermana Salazar from El Salvador. Wow, can she Salsa! She is teaching me how for our exercise time in the mornings.

Fesitrahn is big and rich and quite different from the more-puebloish towns that I´ve been serving in. There are still dogs in the streets, but they are big and very well bred dogs. The houses are quite large and some families have 3 cars, where in Riolindo it was much less common to own a car. The people are colder and busier and everything is faster. It´s funny to see the difference in the missionaries as well... all chubbier.... for the first time in a long time I´m eating at Wendy´s and Pizza Hut. You may say this is a cushier area as well... we used to go out and bring in the purified water with a wheelbarrow in RioLindo, and here a purified water truck with a little purified water jingle drives past. It makes us laugh.

We do most of our work in Vera Cruz which is more of a pueblo, and the people are more receptive. The Montejo family (converts of Hermana Alvarez who was with me in the CCM in Guatemala) help a lot with the work there. Lenin is very bright... he´s 17 and has a huge testimony. I know he´ll be a great missionary someday.

My very first day as a missionary, all the new missionaries contacted a park here in San Pedro. Hermana Salazar was my companion for that day. It was major dejavu to walk past the same park with her today. She and I and one other Elder are the only ones in the mission who started off in Copan. It has been fun to reminice and talk about the people we know and love there. She also served some time in the mission office, so she has the answers to everything I want to know about the mission. It´s quite nice. :)

Also this week we had a multizone meeting and I listened to Hermana Rosales, Hermana Figueroa and Hermana Gutierrez share their testimonies as they go home in just a few weeks. It was a sad day... I´m really going to miss seeing them. But it was great to reflect and think of all the experiences I´ve had with each of them. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to serve and teach and sweat and pray and laugh and learn with my sisters from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

I´ve been reading about Abinadi lately in el Libro de Mormon and thinking about power and authority that the Lord gives His servants as we preach repentance and help people change. What incredible examples we have from the book of mormon of men (and women... Abish! :) )who were not afraid to stand for the truth and do as the Lord directed them.

I love this gospel and I know it is true. I know that the Lord answers our prayers and always protects us from harm. I´m trying to develop more faith to find the chosen. I know they´re out there!

I love you all! XOXOXOXOX Hermana Francis