Falling Lights, Halloween, and a Baptism

Hermana Paula's baptism, with
her daughter, Maria, who was baptized the week before.

HEY everyone!!! OK, so this week, actually went by fast...and I have some really good news! YES -- We had a BAPTISM!!!! The church leaders would rather have ward members perform the baptisms so the link with the ward is stronger, but it doesn't always work out with the members, so the missionaries almost always end up doing them. This week, we actually got 6 investigators to come to Sacrament Meeting, and we did 2 more confirmations again during the meeting. As far as church services, we are lucky to have 45 to 50 members come to Sacrament Meeting each week LOL, kind of different from home.

I had to take a picture of Paula's humble home that she shares with her
daughter, Maria, son-in-law, Jose, and her grandson, Diego.

So funny story, during the middle of Sacrament Meeting, one of the light covers, just like the ones we have in the gyms of our churches back home, fell out and landed on someone! She was alright, but it shattered after it hit her head and landed on the floor.....the church is kind of run down here LOL, but again she was alright, just really weird.

Another view inside their home, which is typical of most homes
here in Nicaragua. A lot different from West Jordan for sure.
You can see their TV in the corner, wooden plank door,
and the fridge there doesn't work.

So it turns out that our apartment is pretty great compared to others. It is the biggest apartment in this zone, so it will actually be really sad when I have a smaller, dinkier "house." Sometimes we will wake up, and we won't have running water, like this morning! When that happens, we have to go into our water storage in these sketchy water sink things as our backup water, and take showers with a bowl and a bucket of water...I've had to take 3 of those already....and we can only hope that the water turns back on by the time we return to the apartment later that night! Only once we had to go all day and night without water.

This is the street Hermana Paula and Hermana Maria live on.
Seems like a lot of the roads are covered in litter and smell
questionable. A good example of what I walk on all day every day!

My parents asked about what we do for meals and where we eat. Well, they dont have any fast food here in Masaya. There are some McDonalds and one KFC and a few Papa Johns but only up in Managua. However, they have little local restaurants and this BOMB bakery really close to us that we've eaten at a few times. I am ALWAYS hungry...and sometimes my companions don't go eat dinner -- in fact most nights we don't stop for dinner -- so I have to eat "dinner" when we return to the apartment at the end of the day (about 9:30 PM or so) and seems like I'm the only one starving. I actually think I am gaining a little weight since I left on the mission, but we don't have scales to weigh ourselves, so who knows for sure. Everyday for lunch, we go to a member's house, Hermana Martha. She makes us lunch and also does our laundry every week. BUT the problem is that when she does our laundry....let's just say she has to do it the old-fashioned way, and last time I got my clothes back smelling worse than right after I had used them.....I'm gonna have to adjust to that, kinda gross, especially with how I soak everything in sweat because of how dang hot it is all the time. 

Some random people roaming the streets on Halloween here in Nicaragua.
This lady was actually a lot closer to me than I wanted her to be.

This kid is a member, like 15-years-old, and
he goes on splits with the missionaries every other week!

Selfie with Elder Castro on Halloween.

As far as the Spanish goes, I'm having a really hard time with understanding people....I can speak a LOT of Spanish, and the people here can understand me really well, but I'm having the hardest time understanding them and even my companions. It's really frustrating. 

We've been working really hard this week. I think I'm adjusting more to getting to bed around 10:30 or 11:00 and I literally fall asleep in minutes because I'm so exhausted. On the other hand, the waking up is also getting easier. The problem is we don't get breakfast unless we buy it on P-day for the week...which I neeeed food all the time. This work makes me so exhausted and siempre hungry. I guess that's the missionary life.

This past week in Nicaragua, they celebrated Halloween last Thursday! I dont know why they celebrate it earlier, but its really weird here. people just march around in the streets, no trick or treating, just walk around in costumes and people will sit outside and watch. I got some pics though, one with a member and then with some random people in the street that went all out with their costumes.

Other than that, nothing super crazy happened this week. Seems like every day I'm seeing something weird and new, but nothing to write about. Oh, one more story: OK...So Elder Meme. and Elder Castro had to go to Managua for a Zone Leader meeting last Tuesday, so me and Elder Sanchez, both being here for only a little over a week, had to do a full day of work by ourselves, relying just on each other. We got lost trying to find EVERY appointment...BUT we met our daily goals AND! the best part.....we got a baptimal date! Our companions were so surprised when they returned, and we were rewarded with Oreos LOL. That was probably my favroite day this week. In the next few weeks, we will be having a lot of baptisms, and all of the upcoming ones I had a part in teaching and two I even said the invitation! Fun times. Anyways, I'm out of time. I'm already feeling better about all of this, but it's still going by pretty slow and it's gonna be a looong time, but I'm enjoying myself a little bit more right now. My parents were telling me how my uncles all said the same things when they left the MTC on their missions, just like I did last week. Well, that's the same thing a lot of the missionaries here are telling me, that your traning is usually very difficult and the hardest part of your mission to get through. I have had some really hard days, but I'm adjusting. I am still missing home like crazy, but im actually feeling better about this right now than I was a week ago. 

Lots of horses here -- cheaper transportation I guess.
We haven't taken a horse taxi yet, but they have a lot of those, too.
Seems like a lot of the pets here are abused and/or underfed,
so the pobre ceballos are always depressed looking....

A cool store we pass every day. I took this on our way
to the internet cafe today.

Hanging out after Sacrament Meeting -- Elder Sanchez, Elder Mehmatof, and me (Elder Castro is taking the picture).