Serving the Lord in Managua Nicaragua South: Mexican Independence Day and Real Fireworks

Just hanging out in the cafeteria with my district

Watching the fireworks from the casa roof

Everything has been going great here!!! My district has really been settling in now and starting to get the hang of things. We're no longer the first-weekers: we know all the stuff to do and aren't lost anymore -- LOL. We have so much stuff to do all the time thought! Being the District Leader has been a little tough at times -- I have to be the ¨mean¨guy sometimes and make sure they aren't talking all the time when we are supposed to be studying, and I attend more meetings than everyone else. It's a lot more responsibility than I was expecting going straight into the MTC, but I really enjoy it. Mostly because I have such an awesome district!!!

Waiting in line with my district for
the Mexican Independence Day Program

So yesterday and today was Mexico's Independence Day. We had a program last night where some performers came and showed us some traditional dances. Plus, they gave us Costco muffins with our dinner!!! That's right -- they have a Costco here in Mexico City! Every Tuesday, we get served pizzas from Costco, which is almost as good as back home. The pizza is a little different than back home, but it's still definitely the best meal of the week. So anyway, with Independence Day, people were going NUTS outside the CCM walls. It was so hard to sleep last night!!! This time they were lighting off actual fireworks (mostly), but they don't have cool fireworks here -- they are mostly just really loud fireworks and not very big or colorful, so it wasn't as cool as I hoped it would be. We even went up on the roof of our casa to watch the fireworks and celebration. I tried to take pictures, but the flash on my camera drowned everything out. Everyone at the CCM was wearing red, green, or white ties or skirts to celebrate. Pretty fun!!

One of the traditional Mexican dances

I was sorry to hear about Mia Poulsen's car accident last week. My thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family. She used to live in the lower part of our neighborhood, and I went on a school dance once in the same group of friends with her. That's super scary and I hope she gets better soon.

Such awesome Zone Leaders!
Elder Dahl (on the right) is hilarious!
AND he's going to BYU after his mission too!

My spanish is doing so much better!!!! If i get in the zone I can really speak well and remember the words. My poor companion, though, he is struggling to get the hang of it. For example, yesterday we taught a new investigator for the first time and I've been trying to get Elder Ruiz to "take the lead" but he just can't. I literally talked in Spanish for about 25 minutes of the 30-minute-lesson. It's a little frustrating for him. Our review on the lesson was that I teach too much of the lesson, but it's partly because he forgets where he wrote down the Spanish (he hasn't quite learned it yet), or her forgets the words and sits there quietly. Otherwise we have been getting great reviews so that makes me feel better.

Me and Elder Paulino before he shipped out.
He is from the Dominican Republic, and no lie, he has been
the funniest Elder here -- he no hablas mucho Ingles though....

All the Elders in our casa before the Latino Elders left.

I've been playing so much volleyball!!!!!! Our district ALWAYS plays volleyball for gym every day, I am the guy everyone puts on the front row because my nickname is ¨spike city¨-- LOL. One day last week, it was raining soooo bad that the sand volleyball pit (which is where we always play) was like a little lake filled with water halfway up our calves. We played volleyball anyways!!! SOAKING wet, but soooo much fun! I also kick butt at ping pong here, too. Last night after the festival, our favorite district in our Zone who we usually played volleyball with, District 5D, all left the CCM and headed out for the mission field. Most of them are going to the United States, and almost all of them are going to BYU Provo after their missions! Also, all of the native (Spanish-speaking) missionaries in our casa left this week. They only stay for two weeks. They LOVED talking to us, se we all became very close.

The lunch today actually wasn't too bad
compared to normal -- enchiladas and rice.

One last pic with District 5D (selfie style)

This is the pub behind our casa that has loud parties EVERY night!

I guess you could say I'm really liking it here. It's 100x better than I thought it was gonna be. I haven't really been homesick, but I miss home a lot. Except for maybe the food.... which I believe is getting worse. At times, I feel like I'm getting used to it, but then other times the food is......ew, so I just make myself some Nutella sandwiches instead. I can't wait for Nicaragua! Tell everyone at home 'hello,' but don't worry about ole Alex -- I'm doing great here at the old CCM!