enjoying Cojute

Hola, buenos días, dear family and friends,

First of all, error correction: Cojutepeque is actually in the departamento called Cuscatlan. (Any of you who tried finding it on a map perhaps already figured that out. haha) It´s Ilobasco, from where I wrote last week, that is in Las Cabañas. Fun fact: our mission zone also includes areas from the departamento Sensuntepeque. Which means our two zone leaders get to travel up to two hours every time they have an intercambio with the elders.

Hna A and I had another great week here in Cojute. We worked really extra hard yesterday to get Teodoro (remember I told you about him?) to church. And he came! He came, and he enjoyed it a lot. He´s committed to attending the district conference this coming weekend as well. (which, other fun fact, will be held in the departamento of San Vicente. I feel like I´m getting to know a lot more of El Salvador. haha) If he keeps this up, he will be super prepared for his baptism this month!

Also, we saw a miracle yesterday! There is an investigador named Gilberto Jr. that is the older brother of our branch mission leader. Hna Abadillo has been visiting him and teaching him for quite some time now, and he´s made progress in steps and bounds; going to church, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying. The challenge has been that he lives at military school during the week and is only home on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. He doesn´t have much free time at school which is why his progression has been one step here, a huge bound there. (¿Me entiende?) About the same time I arrived in Cojute, he started to be more constant. We invited him to baptism on two separate occasions but both times he said no, saying he wasn´t sure yet if it was what God wanted him to do. We turned our focus to recognizing answers to prayers. And yesterday, after two weeks of focusing on this, and having him be more constant in reading and praying, he told us: ´I know this is true.´ And he accepted a date for baptism, in August.

Just one last note:

President Vasquez had a meeting with all the leaders of the mission this past week. (It includes assistants to the presidents, zone leaders, district leaders, and hermanas líderes) Then we had a zone conference in Ilobasco on Friday where the zone leaders reported to us about their meeting. He is changing the vision of our mission from each mission companionship having at least one baptism a month (Pdte Glazier´s vision) to each mission companionship having at least one baptism every WEEK. As our mission president, he has authority to speak for the Lord, so really this vision isn´t his at all, but the Lord´s. And as the prophet Nephi says, when the Lord commands something, He always provides the way for us to accomplish it. (1 Nephi 3:7, Book of Mormon)

The Lord is hastening His work here! I feel incredibly blessed not just to be a full time missionary, but to be on the mission during this exciting time. This work is bigger than me. It´s bigger than all of us!

I love you! Hope you all have a great week!

Hna Henrie

Me by a fountain in Ilobasco 

(if you zoom in you should be able to see a plaque in the background that says ´Ilobasco´)

Countryside in Ilobasco. 

(The peaked mountain you see in the background is actually the volcano of San Vicente. Cool, right?)