Finally Back in Masaya This Week

Some of the missionaries in our zone.

First off, I just wanted to say that I am glad my sister, Erin, made it home OK from her mission in Peru. I'm not gonna lie -- I wish I could have been there. I sure miss her like crazy! But heck, I almost already have 3 months under my own missionary belt, so I'm glad I left as early as I did.

We helped with a baptismal service at the church.

Last Monday, after P-Day, we went to a Noche de Hogar (Family Home
Evening), and the family served us this soup. I don't know the
name of it, but the soup was the best I have had here so far.
I just had to watch out for the chicken bones in it -- ha ha.

So for this past week, to start off, on Tuesday we had a Zone Division, and I was assigned to work with a missionary named Elder Velasquez up in his area of San Miguel. He is sooooo cool and such a chill Elder. He actually started off his mission serving in El Salvador for the first 6 months, but then he had to come to Nicaragua because of problems with his visa, and now he has been a missionary for about 15 months. It was a really fun day, and Elder Velasquez walks incredibly fast!!! Like, I was dead-tired by the end of the day just because of how fast he walks when he works.

Just in case there is a volcanic eruption,
they have these signs all over Masaya pointing you where to go,
and I decided to get a pic with one!

Then, finally on Wednesday, I was able to work in my own area in Masaya again. It sucks sometimes how we have to visit all the other areas in our zone instead of getting to work in our own area with our own investigators. Sometimes it is a little hard for Elder Sanchez and me because of the zone leader responsibilities of our companions takes so much time, so for instance, we spend more time in the apartment some days because the Zone Leaders have to collect numbers, or we have to go to other areas for days at a time, which is fun at first, but becomes a little boring after the third or fourth time. So I was glad to finally get a few days in my own area this past week.

This next week we have cambios (transfers) and I am 99% sure I will have a new companion. Not sure how it will turn out yet, but I will have officially completed 2 cambios and only have 15 more to go!

This next week we will also get to celebrate Thanksgiving. Of course, Thanksgiving is not a national holiday here in Nicaragua, but a lot of the people know what it is surprisingly (La Dia de Accion de Gracias). Only the gringo missionaries celebrate it, but the latino missionaries of course join us for the food LOL. So we all get a little extra money this week to pitch in for a special dinner on Thanksgiving, and our zone asked a family to help make us a traditional turkey dinner, and then we will eat it together at the church.

Overall, I feel like I'm doing really good. I'm not as tired during the day, and I am trying to drink lots of water (forcing myself to drink a ton because I can tell I need a lot) because, of course, it is still incredibly hot. I think my body is adjusting to not sweat as much, I think, but it is still so hot -- and the other missionaries tell me that Masaya isn't even as hot as other parts of our mission, like Granada or Managua. I am actually jealous of the pictures of the snow back home right now, although I would probably eat my words after only a day or two, ha ha. As for the scorpions, well, the house we are living in is located in the more urban part of Masaya, so we're mostly alright. But it might be more of a problem if I move into other zones that are more rural, or more ghetto houses than the one I am in right now. Really, I am having a few adventures and working hard every day, and as long as I don't start thinking about my time, then it's not so bad. I'm making a lot of friends in the mission, and although my comp, Elder Castro, and I don't always see eye to eye, Elder Sanchez and Elder Mehmetoff help out quite a bit.

Rear view of our sweet new Zona Masaya jerseys.

Unfortunately, we don't have any baptisms scheduled for a few weeks. We had been working with this couple in our area that were planning to get baptized last Saturday, but in the end, they decided they didn't want to get married any more, so they split up and don't want to get baptized either. Kind of depressing end to that story. Anyways, I'm doing great. Spanish is excellent!! Today, we even had a zone activity with all the missionaries in our zone except for two of the Elders. We played a ton of soccer on the outdoor church court. We got some zone jerseys and it was suuuuper fun, really hot and sweaty for everyone, though, ha ha.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our zone had a blast playing soccer for P-Day today in our new zone jerseys.