Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:10 AM

Hey there everybody there at home. It sounds like you are all having a very good time and enjoying yourselves. I really liked that video mainly to see everybody and to hear there voices. It is crazy how much everyone is changing. It looks like black and white is the new fad now too. I am sorry about not sending home any cool stuff like those nick nacks and drinks. I should start doing that so you can see a little bit of Nicaragua culture and foods. There are a lot of crazy stuff here to try out. I will commit myself to start doing that. I need to be better at writing letters too. That will be another commitment. That was awesome to hear what Elder Hancock had to say about missionary work. That is so cool to think that all of the people that I grew up with are all now on missions at the same time. I am really excited to hear their stories and adventures. I am also working on being more obedient here on the mission. There is definitely a difference in the work when we put all of our heart, might , mind, and strength into it. I have seen so many blessings in my life and the work through it.

Mom and Dad I liked what they had to say about the temples. I had been thinking about those lately and how you don´t even need to have a testimony to know that this church is true. That may have sounded weird but it is true. You just have to look at the Church from another point of view. What other church is growing and expanding as fast as we are, building huge temples every year in every part of the world, missionaries dedicating two years of their lives without pay, a happiness and security that no one can understand, and so many other things. Sometimes when I am teaching people and they just aren´t getting the lessons, I just have to explain it logically and it only makes sense that this is the Church of Jesus Christ here on earth. It is kind of hard to explain what I am trying to say but that is more or less what I have been thinking. Yesterday we were teaching our investigator Karen you we have been teaching for about a month now and she didn´t seem to be going anywhere, till she came to church and had a really good experience. Afterwards we went to her house to talk to her and we suggested a baptism date. At first she was telling us she had already been baptized in the Catholic church and the Bible says you can only be baptized once. So I explained to her that it was talking about being only baptized once in the Church of Jesus Christ. So I just asked her if she thought that the Catholic Church was the Church of Jesus Christ that he formed in the olden days. She thought about and said no. So I told her she hadn´t actually been baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ yet and she realized that she needs to be baptized and that it will be on February 12. It is stuff so simple like that they only need to think about. But ya so that is the kind of stuff that happens here.

The Cruz Family was completed this Saturday and it was really awesome. Albalina, the mom, tried to give me a hug but I had to quickly dodge. Instead I gave her a awesome handshake and a pat on the shoulder. Juana, the daughter, was really happy too. Afterwards we had cake and soda. They are a really cool family.

We also had another cool experience with the husband of Rosa Gema. He had been coming to church a lot and so we went to his house to talk to him about baptism. This guy hardly ever talks to us which is why we never got around to teaching him. He would kind of ignore us when we came and when we would greet him he just said hi back and would just keep watching tv. We thought he wanted nothing to do with us till we actually asked him to turn off the tv and talk with us. We talked a little bit with him and then asked him what he thought about being baptized. He tells us his religious history and then in the end said he would get baptized the very next day if we wanted to. So we agreed and this Saturday we will be completing the family. Afterwards we felt foolish waiting so long and it taught me a lesson to not be afraid to just talk to any person about baptism because everyone here is looking for it.

Quick note, because I have taken a lot of time writing, is that I got emergency changes last night and I am only switching areas with another missionary in the same zone. I will give you guys more info next week.

Love you lots and Big Hearts.

Elder Ochs