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. 

Diriomo Critters, A Little Miracle, and Suits

This tree is just on the side of the small dirt road to Diriomo, and it is soooo cool!
The tree is hollow all the way up inside, and when we first crawled in,
all of these bats flew out of the tree cave -- scared the crap out of me!

First off, I would like to give a shout out to my sister, Erin, to say Happy Birthday today! And to my parents happy anniversary!

A pic of the small dirt road through the jungle on our way to Diriomo.

OK for my week.... I wasn't even in my area for more than half of it!!! On Tuesday, for Zone Leader business with my companion, we went to Las Flores, BUT then on Wednesday through Friday, we went to Diriomo again (about 14 km south of Masaya), and this time we stayed a couple of nights with the Elders there, so I was actually in Diriomo for 3 days and 2 nights. It was really fun, though and I got to work with a few different Elders there. However, the house that we stayed in is really infested with spiders and scorpions, so it was a little scary. They have these big tarantulas and the Elders there showed me pictures of the HUGE scorpions that have been in their house! And right after we were all talking about this, we pulled out the mattress-things to sleep on (not comfortable at all, by the way...) and there was a HUGE spider on it and a bunch of eggs. We squished the spider and the eggs, but then a bunch of baby spiders spewed out of them allllll over the mattress. Needless to say, Elder Castro slept on somthing else that night LOL.

These little guys are everywhere here in Nicaragua, and this is just
a baby one. The locals say that they are not deadly, but they will
make you sick for days if you get stung by their tail.

All in all, working in Diriomo was super fun and it's a looot cooler there temperature-wise. The cooler temperatures felt super good at night and in the mornings. When we returned to our area, it was weird not having seen our investigators for so many days. Elders Mehmetoff and Sanchez had stayed back in our area  to keep things going, but they only could do half the work we all normally do. So, in the end, only about 2ish days in our own area this week!!!

Sunset through the jungle in Diriomo -- Paradise!

Alright, now for some of the interesting stuff. So we found out that one of our investigators, well, .... I guess he actually puts little children on the black market! Our Bishop had to tell us when we had this guy's name on our investigator list, which is too bad because the guy was actually progressing with the lessons. Apparently he has worked with the missionaries here before, and he was progressing at that time also, but he deals children around the world. Scary, and sad...so that was rather unusual this week. 

Kind of strange, but just about every other day, there is some sort
of parade in the middle of the street here in Masaya, with a band that
follows and plays really loud music, and the people will just get up
and start walking in it, and this one even had a little float with a
bunch of guys carrying it. I don't know why they do it, but
it's kinda cool!

On Sunday, we had a cool little miracle!! SO we do our ¨mission train¨ every Sunday, where we go through our area and pick up people to come with us on our way to church, and it is usually VERY UNsuccesful. As usual, our investigators mysteriously weren't home or couldn't go, but in our last stop at an investigator's house, we walked past a guy sitting in a lawn chair on the side of the road with his little daughter in his lap. As we passed by, he actually shouted something at me along the lines of ¨Hey, how's the view up there, chellie?¨ So by now I am pretty used to stupid stuff like that, and brushed it off. We then went to the investigator's house, and of course, they weren't home, and we almost had to go to church bringing NO one with us (which is really bad)! BUT, I felt a prompting to ask that guy in the lawn chair to come with us...even though he called me out...so as we walked back past him again, and without even telling Elder Castro to stop, I just started talking to him....AND HE SAID YES!!! He went with us, and brought his daughter. It was his first time in the church ever, but he was very comfortable because HE HAS FRIENDS in our branch! He didn't even have to sit with us because he sat by a really good friend of his, and he even had all these people come up and say 'hello' to him and his daughter, and it was a suuuper cool experience! He went to our Sunday School class that the missionaries teach and he took a ¨Gospel Principles¨manual to read, and we will be visiting him twice this week....incredible!! So that was my cool story this week -- a small little prompting and now we have a very encouraging investigator!!!!

ALSO Id like to give a report on my Spanish...nobody believes I'm in training! My Spanish has been improving sooo much! I can understand almost everything now and I can talk to everyone!! I'm so happy!! Not very much frustration anymore in that. Now, I still have a lot to learn about being a missionary, but I feel soooo good about my Spanish! All the people that I talk to always ask me about my height, where I'm from, and what not, and as I am talking to them, they don't believe that I have been here in Nicaragua for barely only one month!! I'm really starting to enjoy the work more as I'm starting to know everyone better and making friends and knowing my area. It took some getting used to, but I did it!!

Last, even though it is so incredibly hot here, we wore our suits yesterday to church just to switch it up.  During our train misional, as we walked around our area picking up people to go to church, we got some very interesting looks and everyone was staring at us because no one has a suit here!!! And because it was so hot, it was kind of fun for our investigators, and the members were so impressed with us. Sure got everyone's attention!

Me and Elder Sanchez in our suits for the train misional.

Another Baptism, Shoe Repair, Comprensión, and Nutella

Pobre ceballos! I feel bad for the horses here, but here is a little farm of them, with some cool scenery
we passed while visiting with Elder Castro in Las Flores. I think its cool!

My folks said tomorrow is Veteran's Day at home, which of course, they don't celebrate here in Nicaragua. However, a ton of people already have little Christmas trees up and strings of lights on their shacks, so I'm guessing Christmas is a much bigger deal!

A little glimpse inside the huge marketplace where they fixed my shoes.

I feel like I've been on a roller coaster this past week out here... some days are much better than others. First off, my rash is finally gone! It lasted until about Wednesday and now I am 100% better. Overall, I would have to say this week was better -- I feel better about everything for the most part. I just need some more time under my belt. BUT, I have some very good news: I can understand the Spanish!!!! This week, I finally have been able to have casual conversations with the people. I am not even sure which day it kinda clicked, but it clicked alright! I am not fluent, but I am sooo happy because my Spanish has improved a ton and I can finally understand what the people are saying!!

These are the guys who fixed my shoes...sketchy, with old school
machines LOL, but it only took 30 minutes and only cost 30 Cordobas!

Also this past week, I went and got my shoes fixed for only 30 Cordobas (less than $1 US), which is a good amount of money here. So now that those are repaired, I hope I won't have to buy more shoes while I'm here, but we'll see. I took some pics from the cool huge marketplace where we got them fixed. The market is huge, and it had lots of hallways that are tiny and crowded. In fact, they have SO MUCH STUFF that I was basically walking on my knees and constantly crouching down to walk underneath all the merchandise they have hanging up. It was my first time in there, and they had a ton of stuff, including some mini electric fans, which I might have to go back and get one. We only have 2 fans in the house we live in now, so we have to take turns. I reeeaally want one to help me sleep, so maybe with my Christmas money from home....

So here is a cool thing about my companion, Elder Castro: he is an artisan! He can do anything and everything to do with leather. So we all really want some Forros (scripture covers) and he had made some earlier in his mission for his own scriptures that look so cool. So we bought all the stuff and he uses the tools from one of the members here, and that's what we have been doing most of the day today for P-Day. In fact, he's still working on them right now, but we went on splits so I didn't have to sit and just watch him make them all day. It is a really long process, with lots of details, but it will be so cool when he is finished.

So this guy was walking his pig, and I had to get a picture of it!
Not many people have pigs here, so its rather unusual.

Also this week, I was able to visit a lot of different areas again with Elder Castro fulfilling some of his Zone Leader duties. I basically got to tag along, but I did have to pay some for the transportation. However, I got to go to Nindiri for the first time, and San Miguel, both really cool little cities close to Masaya. I like doing that, but I know once I am no longer with Zone Leaders, all of that visiting stuff will stop and I'll only be in my area... but it's OK for now -- ha ha.

The biggest news this past week is we had another baptism (actually two)! We baptized the little girl and her grandma that I told you about in last week's blog and sent pictures of their humble home. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera to the church, so hopefully I can get a copy of some of the pics from the Bishop. I'll forward them next week if I can.

I appreciate some of the sports updates from everyone at home, especially the basketball stuff, porque me extraño baloncesto.... However, everyone here LOVES the NFL so they know quite a bit about football games back home. It is funny, though, because the people love to ask me what my favorite team is, it I personally know any of their favorite players, how many games I have attended, etc., and I don't even really like the NFL that much LOL.

Read it and weep -- 185.00 Cordobas for a little jar of Nutella! Dang!

Today for our P-Day, we went shopping in a little nicer grocery store, and they had Nutella and peanut butter! I had to take a picture! BUT, look at the price.... yeah, that's a dream for me to buy one. The 185 Cordobas equals about $4 US, but here that many Cordobas is ridiculous. The little jar of peanut butter is like 100 Cordobas, and it is tiny, not even worth it. The bread we buy to spread it on ins only about 1 cord -- seriously! That's like 3 pennies back home! Pulperias have these rolls we buy that are only 1 Cord each. I really miss chocolate. I also miss making nachos with my brother -- they don't have cheddar cheese here, only this gross kind of cheese that doesn't have to be refrigerated, but they don't have microwaves either. I can't really tell if I have gained any weight. I do know that I am ALWAYS hungry, not that I wasn't always hungry at home either, but I think I am still about the same weight as when I left.

So, there are lots of adventures here in Nicaragua. It's really hard, but it's totally worth it, and I know how much it means to the Lord that I am here. I just love the scenery here. It is similar to when we went to Hawaii, just 10x hotter 24/7, and a looot greener, and the palm trees here are sooo cool and tropical and grow weird fruit/coconut things -- ha ha. Nicaragua is kind of the coolest!

Anyways, that is about all for this week. The baptism last Saturday was really good, but we don't have another scheduled for about 2 more weeks or so. We've been struggling to find investigators who keep their commitments and progress... but we're working on it!!

Chellie, Olsen Cement, and $6 Hamburguesas

Elder Meme, Elder Castro, Elder Sanchez, and Me. Took 5 tries to get this pic.

First off this week, my parents asked me to compare some of my experiences here in Nicaragua with my sister Erin, who is currently serving in the Lima Peru West Mission. So Hermana Haws, who was in my district with me in the CCM and is now serving here in Granada had wrote about some of these things in her letter last week, and my parents asked me about them.

Bugs: I haven't had a lot of problems with bugs other than this nasty hybrid scorpion-spider that we killed in our apartment this week.

Caught me! So our pensionista fixes all of our lunches for us, and
they have these super comfy rocking chairs. Elder Sanchez is just to my
left and he fell asleep too. We almost always fall asleep while we're waiting
for lunch. This little kid is Marcello -- his grandma is our pensionista. Well,
he is hilarious, and he is super short even though he is like 11-years-old.
I love this family -- just super great people!!

Nicaraguan Spanish: Yes! The Spanish here is SO lazy! Its soooo hard to understand when the people talk because they don't say their 's's or 'g's. So for instance, when you walk down the street, people don't say "Hola" to each other, they say "Adio," and the Adio thing is legit, they drop all of their S's when its on the end of a word. 

Cat Calls on the Street: Just about every day, I get yelled at when we walk down the streets because I'm a 'gringo.' They sometimes shout mean things in English (for the first time last week, somene was shouting the 'F-word' at me :( that hadn't happened before.) And the children learn a little English in school, so they love to say 'Hello' and 'Goodbye' in English to me, but it sounds more like 'Goidbyeee' and 'Hallo' -- LOL. But yes, I get called out at a few times every day, no problem though. The members here call all of the Gringo missionaries "Chellie," which is another word for gringo, so that's also something maybe unique to Nicaragua.

A small river in front of our house. Not as deep as my first week here.

This is a cool piece of art by our house. At least I think it looks kind of cool.

Walking: That's all we do pretty much all day, every day, but I haven't been bothered too badly by it. However, I forgot to tell you that during my first week here in Masaya, I had two different times where we had to walk in a river...well, the road had turned into a river! It was literally up to the middle of my calf, well above my ankle, and even the streets in front of our house! When it rains here, it RAINS! and it literally comes out of nowhere...sooo fast! Sometimes, when it rains, when it's not hard, it's suuuper cool! It is literally misting from the sky! It looks like a reaaally light snow, but it's just suuuper tiny drops of water, and it feels amazing, and you dont really get wet. Any ways, I sent a couple of pics in the rain this week when it was just a couple of normal rain days, a little river, but it was not as bad as the other two days my first week. If it happens again, I will make sure to get a picture, mid-calf I tell you!! the whole street and sidewalk just flooded!

We had to stop at this touristy kind of store today in Managua
for Elder Meme and Elder Castro to withdraw some
money from their bank, and there were these
cool hammocks here. Got to get one before I come home!

Here in Masaya, they already had Halloween a few days ago like I told you last week, BUT some of the Nicaraguans still do stuff on Halloween night. Well, only the drunks and gangs. All of the members warn us to be careful, because some people will throw glass bottles filled with their pee at houses and people on the street, that's a Halloween thing here...so all we did on Halloween night was stay in our apartment and enjoy the decorations my parents sent me, and we ate our own candy-- LOL. I did miss home a little bit as I started thinking about all the Haunted Houses me and my friend Micheal did over the years. In the end, no bottles of pee shattered on our house.

SO me and Elder Sanchez were just talking one day, and we did the math on all of our cambios (transfers) for the next 2 years (cambios are every 6 weeks). In 2016, there's a cambio on August 16th, and the next cambio is not until Sept. 27th. From what I have been told, most missionaries go home on the cambio just before their 2 years are completed, and only on rare occasions do they stay for the transfer after their 2-year mark. SO that means there's a good chance that I'LL COULD BE COMING HOME on August 17th or so!!!!!! SO that's really exciting for me because I could be home for my birthday on the 21st of August!!! Which means I'll still only be 19-years-old when I get home, too, which is just crazy to think about. Yeah, OK, enough talking about going home LOL.

The store also had these cool, authentic masks that
are hand carved (everything from wood here
is hand carved!)

So the kids here all know my name, Olsen....that is because there is a huge cement company that dominates in Nicaragua called "Olsen Cement," so people recognize my name because there are cement bags everywhere with my name on it. So I'm actually famous to all the little kids and they always shout out "OLSEN!" Elder Castro always laughs at that ha ha. Speaking of Elder Castro, because of how the cambios work here, we all know he will be leaving in 2 weeks at the next cambios, only 6 weeks into my training...so I will be recieving my new father here soon. Elder Sanchez will obviously be staying here in Masaya to train, and Elder Mehmetof is here until he finished his mission in January. I don't know if I told you already, but Elder Castro is actually 24-years-old! He was converted to the church when he was 19-years-old, and then he left on his mission when he was 23. There is another Elder in our zone who is 27-years-old! It's funny because they both look (and act) like they are only 19 or 20-years-old.

Hermana Vallecillo, Me, and Elder Castro. Hermana V is from Tipitapa
in the north part of Nicaragua. She is really cool and knows a TON of
English because she lived in the States for a year when she was 7-years-old.
Her comp is taking the picture. They spent the day with us in Managua.

Here's some not as exciting news....so about 3 days ago, that rash that I had in the CCM returned. It's not as bad as when I was in the CCM. It is mostly on my stomach and a little on my chest. I still have some of that medicine they gave me at the CMM along with some Benadryl, but it's torture during the day when I sweat and it's incredibly itchy all day long. I've already used like 3 tubes of Hydrocortizone cream and I need to buy more for it...I don't know what's up with that.

My Spanish this week doesn't really seem to be improving. I dont know why....I can't understand anything they say to me! I am still adjusting I guess.....

This past week, we've been working hard, but we dont have any more baptisms lined up until next Saturday. The people here have a hard time when it comes to going to church and fulfilling commmitments. It was Fast Sunday yesterday and we did have 4 investigators come with us to church, but they don't seem too positive. At least the lights didn't fall on anyone this week.

Here it is -- the McDonald's in Managua. We didn't have time to
stop and eat there this time, but hopefully someday.

For P-day today, we had to go to Managua with our companions for some Zone Leader stuff with out trainers, so we took about an hour-long bus ride to get there, and on the way to the Mission Office in Managua, we saw the McDonalds! Hopefully one day we'll get to eat there, but my companions said it is suuper expensive. The prices are basically the same as in America, so it's like 200 Cordovas for a Big Mac (about $6 US)! They don't have a "Dollar Menu", but if they did, it would be like a "33 Cordova Menu," which is still a LOT of money to pay for food here. BUT, I want to try it one day....

Hermana Glorinda's humble abode.

I also had to send you a pic of the home that Hermana Glorinda and her granddaughter, Rafeala, live in. They basically have this little spot of ground, and only the back of the lot has a tin roof to cover their beds and their TV. There is also another family of 5 that shares the little piece of the shack to the right of the picture. Just so incredible how little these people live on, and how much they make do with so little.

Waiting for lunch. I love these rocking chairs.

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).

Bienvenido a Masaya, Nicaragua!

Our bus ride from the CCM to the Mexico City Airport, 2:30 AM.

Hola from Nicaragua!!

Entonces, I still have a few stories about leaving the CCM. So a week ago Saturday, I thought I was feeling better from my cold/virus, but then later that night, I noticed my arm was COVERED in hives. I had been feeling incredibly itchy all day and didn't know why. Well, about 8:00 that evening, I realized I had hives covering nearly my entire body. I went over to the Infirmary and the doctor told me it was because of the virus I still had and the hives were the result of my body fighting the virus and my itching all day made it one-hundred times worse. So he gave me some Benadryl and this other stuff that was super sketchy, but since that night, the hives and virus haven't come back, so hopefully it is all gone now.

Van ride from the Managua Airport to the Mission Home.
This is one of the Assistants to the President who picked us up.

Then, a week ago Sunday, our last night in the CCM, we didn't go to sleep. We were all busy packing, and since our whole casa was leaving at 2:30 AM, it was also one last party. The flight from Mexico to San Salvador to Nicaragua was all right. I did try to call my parents, but the phone said the call wouldn't go through (my dad later told me that I still got charged a whopping $49! What a rip off!). Nothing too eventful otherwise.

First day in Managua, Nicaragua.

Nicaragua-- Can I just say it is so incredibly hot here!!! The second we walked out of the airport doors, I have never been so hot in my life! We arrived at the Mission Home, met President Russell and his wife. Kind of funny, but the Managua South Mission Home is right next door to the Managua North Mission Home. We had Papa Johns pizza the first night in Nicaragua, and it is not the same as the pizza back home at all! The first night, we stayed in a HUGE, but really old house with the office Elders. One of them, Elder Nesbit, he went to Copper Hills High School! We recognized each other right away. He's pretty cool and he got here in January. Later that first night, we stayed in the house with the office Elders, and holy cow, we all felt a big earthquake! I was on the top of a bunk bed, and it started shaking like crazy. At first, I thought it was Elder Bradbeer in the bunk below me playing a joke or something, but obviously it wasn't LOL. All the office Elders came rushing out of their rooms into the central family room where all the bunk beds were set up for the newbies, and we all just kind of freaked out for a minute or so. It was crazy! First night here!

Me and my new companion, Elder Castro. He is from El Salvador.

Our new apartment in Masaya, Nicaragua.

The next day we had training and interviews with the President and APs. Then on Wednesday, it was cambios and exchanges. A bunch of the Elders were about to become Trainers, and ALL areas got new Zone Leaders and District Leaders. So I found out the first area I was assigned to is: MASAYA!! So far, it's a pretty awesome city about 45 minutes south of Managua. AND get this -- I have three companions! That's right. So, Elder Sanchez is another newbie missionary, but for some reason, he was the only one of us who went to the Provo MTC -- we aren't sure why, but he arrived in Nicaragua on Thursday, the day after cambios, and he joined us in Masaya. Elder Sanchez is from California and even though one of his parents is from Mexico, he didn't speak Spanish before his mission. The other two companions are the Zone Leaders for our zone, Elder Castro and Elder Mehmatof. Elder Castro is my main companion, and when we go on splits and stuff, I always go with him. Elder Castro has been on his mission for 18 months and he is from El Salvador. He comes from a pretty humble life just like the people here in Nicaragua. Elder Mehmatof is from Brazil, but his grandpa emigrated there from Turkey, so he is Arabian. Elder Mehmatof has been on his mission for 21 months, and neither he nor Elder Castro speak any English. Now don't get me wrong, having Elder Castro and Elder Mehmatof REALLY helped my with the SPanish, but it was kind of nice when Elder Sanchez arrived from the Provo MTC because I could still speak a little English.

Our entire zone minus 4 hermanas. We all went to the
Masaya Volcano National Park for our P-Day today.

So apparently, our house in Masaya is supposedly the nicest one in the mission next to the office Elders' house. I sure hope that is not true, because it is really dark and danky. It does have an upstairs where we sleep. As for Masaya, I have never seen anything like this. I need to take some pictures of these houses we contact for next week. About 80% of the houses are tin roof garbage bag homes. You can tell how much money a family has by whether they have a tile floor or just dirt, but every single casa, guaranteed 100%, has a TV. Funny, but most of the homes only have one lightbulb and they cook over a fire every night, but they all have a television. TV is LIFE here for the Nicaraguans, and they always have them turned on with the audio blasted loud -- rather funny. Some of them can't buy enough food, but they have their TV! The slums here are literally slums! I can't believe the living conditions of the people here and I can see how this is one of the poorest places on Earth.

I was really frustrated with the Spanish at first, but already I feel like it has improved a ton! The first couple of days I couldn't understand ANYTHING, but I was actually able to say a lot. But if someone said something to me, even my native companions, I couldn't understand! I was constantly praying for help... CONSTANTLY, and guess what? By like Friday, I was already improving like CRAZY and I am actually, already, not even a week in Nicaragua for that, and I can understand most things now, and I can speak quite a bit. My companion told me that he has trained 4 different greenies (new missionaries) and apparently my Spanish has been the best of any of them.

Standing in front of the Masaya Volcano.

Believe it or not, I actually really like the food here. All of it, even the sketchy cow intestine soup. I haven't got sick yet. However, I did eat all my candy from the CCM already. I also already took a shower with a bucket of cold water and a bowl -- not fun! For P-Day today, we visits the Masaya Volcano National Park (see the pics). I also get a lot of drunk guys shouting at me because I am a gringo, and also it's HILARIOUS when we give lessons and all the children stare at me because I am so tall. I tower over everyone here! All the members and investigators' first question is they ask me how I am so tall.

The work here is great, very tiring, and the thing about Nicaragua is that they don't know much about the outside world. Even some members of the church don't even know about temples, so we have to give members lessons about the church, too. Also, I found out our mission has the most baptisms of any mission in the world, but the problem here is getting people to come to church before and after their baptism. Every single contact says they will go to church. We contact them on Friday and make sure they're still good to go on Saturday, but then Sunday morning when we show up, surprisingly they aren't home, or they went into Managua that day or something comes up, so we don't take many people to church with us. I do already have a baptism scheduled for next Saturday, and yesterday I was able to stand in the confirmation circle for 2 AWESOME now-members (they have been my favorite to teach).

I'll be honest, though, I'm still struggling some times. It's just really tiring... one day my body is super ready to go and I get up right on time at 6:30 AM, and then other days I get up and feel like death because I'm so tired... so much to do. I miss home like crazy, and time seems to be going SUPER slow right now. I can't wait until I have a few months under my belt so I can be one of the cool missionaries that have all the experience, Spanish, and go home soon. Two years sure seems like a really long time, really hard for me to imagine how long this is really going to be. I'm trying to fight through it, but that's kind of hard right now. This might be a loooong 2 years for me, BUT I almost have 2 months under my belt now -- ha ha -- that is a little better than thinking I have only been out in the field for 7 days. Well, thanks for all the emails and letters from everyone (my cousin Ally sent me a letter already even).

Close up pic of me in front of the Masaya Volcano.