Hombres Guapos and Learning Miskito

Elder Passey, M., and me before the baptismal service.

First off, this past week I had my first baptism here in Bluefields, Nicaragua!!! M. got baptized (he is the one who cooked us the lobster), and I think he has been the most excited for his baptism of all my investigators who I have baptized so far on my mission. Yesterday, a bunch of members lent him shoes and ties and a shirt, so when he came to church for his confirmation, he looked super spiffy. I was privileged to help with his confirmation.

Mmmmmm, yummy!
I am becoming quite the creative cook out here, ha ha.
At times I feel like Masterchef: Nicaragua!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a family of five that consists of two aunts and their children living together. Well, we had to drop them last week after I had talked about them because there was a problem and they said they didn't want us to come by their house any more and stuff like that. Well, a couple of days ago, we passed them on the street and they asked why we didn't come by their house any more... like what? So we told them we stopped because they had told us to stop. Apparently, they had a change of heart and they changed their minds, and they asked us to start teaching them again. Yesterday, they ALL went to church with us, and after we visited with them, they decided that they wanted to keep their original baptismal date, which is this Saturday... so we have 5 more baptisms scheduled next week. So that was a cool highlight of my week!

We found a little friend.

I have been feeling pretty good health-wise, but my companion, Elder Passey, got sick last P-Day -- he had some weird bug. So we lost half a day of work on Tuesday and we had to take it slow on Wednesday, but he's feeling better now.

We also just barely found out from our Mission President's email that we will be having another multi-mission conference (probably just our mission and the Nicaragua North mission) on August 29th, and this time one of the apostles is coming. So now, rumors have once again started up that it will be a mission split to create a new mission (it does seem a little more legit with an apostle coming though). Also, this next week we have cambios, so we will be heading to Managua. It is very likely that none of my district here in Bluefields will be changed, but if someone does get transferred, it will probably be Elder Passey because he has the most time in this area of any of us, which is about 4 and a half months or so. I really hope that I don't go now because I really like Bluefields and we have a ton of super positive people for August that I want to see get baptized.

I am also learning a third language here in Bluefields -- I'm learning Miskito, the native language of several of the little communities out here. I have learned some of the basic terms, ha ha. In fact, a lot of people here speak a combination of Spanish and Miskito, and then there are others who speak a combination of Miskito and English-Creole. So I want to be trilingual, ha ha, but Miskito is super weird and I can't understand a single lick of it yet. Here are a few phrases, though:

To say "my name is Elder Olsen," you would say, "Yang nini ba Elder Olsen."
To say "I speak Miskito," you say, "Yang miskito aysisna."

Another pic of M. and me just before church yesterday.
A couple of hombres guapos!

And to say something like, "que le vaya bien" (I don't know what the phrase would be in English, but in Spanish it is kind of like saying goodbye), in Miskito you would say, "Paingwama." Ha ha -- super cool!

Well, I am glad my family had a fun time in Yellowstone last week without me! Loved all the pictures and looks like they had a lot of fun, again without me. I have never been to Idaho or Yellowstone, ha ha, but the thing I can't believe is how tall my little brother looks! Well, that is about it for this week. I'm all good and healthy, skinny, and working hard here in Bluefields!