Nicaraguan New Year's Eve and Laguna de Apoyo

For New Year's Eve, they have these dummies all over
Monimbo that are filled with a load of firecrackers
and fireworks inside. At midnight, everyone blows them up!!

So, not much exciting happened for New Year's Eve. We were sent to help work in Monimbo for the day. Monimbo is the area right next to ours and every day we eat lunch there. Our pensionista lives there, so it is literally a five-minute walk to get there, but we were assigned to work there for the day and then we stayed the night in the apartment there with Elders Carter and Anderson. Nothing really super happened that night for New Year's Eve -- we were just chilling with the Monimbo District, ha ha. We didn't really eat a dinner that night, just snacks from a pulperia. It was a lot of fun, except when we tried to sleep that night ... impossible! For New Year's Eve in Nicaragua there were probably billions of firecrackers, all super loud, and uncolorful fireworks going non-stop until about 5:00 in the morning on New Year's Day. So that night, no one slept well ... super annoying!

Que guapos, eh? Fue Elder Sanchez's final intrevista, y yo fui con el!
(A couple of handsome dudes on their way to Managua for
Elder Sanchez's final interview)

This week in our own area, well, we were only able to work here in Masaya for two days. So, we worked in Monimbo on Wednesday. On Thursday, I had to go with Zone Leader Sanchez to San Carlos, a different district in our zone. On Friday, I went with Elder Sanchez to Managua because he had his final interview with the Mission President (he goes home this week on Wednesday). While we were in Managua, we went to McDonalds for lunch. It was my first time inside and it looks just like a McDonalds from the states, but the menu was a little bit different. Then, on Saturday, Elder Sanchez (not the zone leader, but my brother) and I had to go back up to Diriomo, and we even had to stay until Sunday and attend Sacrament Meeting with the missionaries there. So this week, our last week in this area (probably) was sad in the sense that I didn't get to talk to many people, but hey, we still got tonight and tomorrow to visit people!!

Inside the Managua McDonald's.

We didn't have any baptisms this week, but there should be some next week. The big thing this next week is cambios. Tomorrow, about 2:00, we will find out who will be changing areas, and then the actual cambios are on Wednesday morning in Managua. So by next week, I most likely won't be in this same apartment or area. They say there are always some crazy things that happen with cambios, but it is very unlikely that I'll stay here again with the Zone Leaders, because as of today, I am officially finished with my training!

This is the Mombacho Volcano where we were planning to go for our
Zone activity today until we found out how expensive it was to
enter the park (US $20 per person!!!).

Last, we were going to go for a Zone activity today for P-Day to visit the Mombacho Volcano, but then we found out that it cost $20 (US dollars) per person to get into the park!! (That is more Cordobas than we receive in our quincena!!) So, we went to a cool laguna (Laguna de Apoyo) instead and we took lots of pictures.  It is really close to Diriomo, but it was SUPER windy with insanely strong winds! Such a cool little tourist spot and it was a fun time!!

Well, that's about it for this week. I'm healthy and everything, doing great, feeling good, and super happy I am out of training now! Lots of stuff happening this next week, so I should have a lot more stuff to write next P-Day.

Elder Sanchez (my brother), me, and Elder Sanchez (my trainer) standing
on a bench with the Laguna de Apoyo behind us.

The Laguna de Apoyo -- a really fun, pretty cool place to visit.