Puerto Madness

     Puerto was super crazy this week! First off, we will start with the most! On Friday, we got a call from some hermanas that work near our area, and they told us that their investigators were possessed by demons. So we went to their house, and the investigators were inside, sitting down, and covered with some green type of goo over their body.  One was unconscious, and the other was fine. Evidently before we got there they had some kind of freak out, like a seizure or something.  We gave them a blessing and left them there. Hope something changes with them. 
      This week we had a lot of people in church which was so great! Hopefully we will see some baptisms in the near future. 
      Today we went to the beach to play soccer. We got there and were looking for the other companionships, when the pathway just ended, nine feet above the ground and into a river. We decided to jump over the river, which hurt like a dang when I hit the ground and slammed my tailbone into the sand. Don’t worry I am fine and have no injuries from it. Later we looked around for some sea shells and what not.

      I took a ton of photos this week! Unfortunately, the usb port is broken, so i will try to send them using my companions’ camera using wifi.
      Thanks for all you guys do for me, hope that you have a great week and Father’s Day!  Love you guys!

Loma Verde

       

     Well, it was a very good week here in Puerto again. The rainy season has set forth in, so it is raining about every day. Mud is everywhere!  I did not take hardly any photos this week, I am really sorry,  if I can, I will try to attach some older ones. 

       The power has been going out very regularly, so we have had a little trouble finding computers today, but luckily the church has a few we can use.

       Some things that I love about Puerto is that everyone loves to go to church. Our biggest competition is the Moravian church that migrated from Germany to this area, and everyone is a member there.  This week we have found a lot of people who belong to this church, but came this week to ours to see how it is. We visit church two times here every week. One at 9 o’clock for the Spanish ward, which has about

  65 people for assistance, and the Mesquito ward that usually has around 120 assistance at 4 o’clock.

       I feel like I am starting all over again, because I can’t understand anything they say, just like when I started in Tipitapa with Spanish. 

         I love all the missionaries in our zone, everyone is so fun to be around, and my comp is so awesome! If you had any questions about his name, Elder Monson is not related to the prophet as far as he knows.    The president of the branch and his wife are the greatest!  They feed and do the laundry of eight missionaries every day, while doing their callings in the church.

       Something that I have really come to appreciate in the church is the power and faith of all the sisters in the ward.  In our assistance of 80 in the Spanish ward this Sunday, we had about 9 brothers come to church (four of them were missionaries) and about 40 sisters and the rest children!  The culture here is so sad; a lot of the men work at sea for a week or two, and then come back and drink all of the time!  it is so sad.

        I promise I will take lots of cool pictures this week, possibly on the beach if possible, but here are a few, from this week.  Love you all so much, and hope that you all have a great week. Thanks for all you do.

Nahksa Pamaliki

This week has been awesome here in Puerto! Lots of cool things have happened, and my companion, Elder Monson, from East Salt Lake, is throwing fire! 

First off, our well out front where we get water has been a little low, due to the pesky neighbors getting in and taking a ton each morning.  Luckily, we bought a lock and latch today, so that will not be a problem anymore.

This week, a man came into our house and offered to sell us some spandex underwear. My comp told him that he only wears briefs, but said we would ask the other missionaries if they would like some as well, they unsurprisingly said no as well.   This morning, he came again! This time he brought
some boxer briefs to sell as well.  My comp couldn’t say no this time, so he bought a pair. 

This week it dumped a ton! Part of our area was flooded on Sunday, so not many people went to church. Only 46 people this week, The fumigators passed by this week. Our house was contained a toxic cloud that killed anything left inside. That was really good, because there are a few more mosquitos here than in Puerto.

The people speak Mesquito, a language from the Caribbean, so my companion and I are trying to learn it each day.  Nothing else out of the ordinary. The Atlantic ocean is really cool, to see right outside from  our house, and there are all types of animals everywhere, like cows, pigs, cats, horses, and tons of dogs all wondering around town. Puerto is so cool! 
Hope all is great back home. Love you all so much!

Hola Familia de el otro lado de cielo

Thanks for all your emails this week, it is great to hear that you are all doing very well. I am sad to hear that Chris is not doing so well at home. Tell the Evans that i love and miss them so much and hope that she gets better.

Sounds like the weather down there is really rainey! That must be really great!

Hey family! How did you know i would have changes this week? Well, it was my turn to leave this time and i took off this morning and am currently in Puerto Cabezas! I always wanted to come here since i began my mission! It is really jungly here, and lots of cool things to see. I stayed at the house of the other missionaries last night, and took a flight to Puerto this morning in a prop plane. It was sure weird to be back in the plane, but super cool. I will probably be stationed here for about a year. Puerto is so cool! There are all types of people, and everyone is so friendly. My new house is huge! We have everything, kitchen, bedroom, and a living space! The only  drawback is that it does not have running water. But nothing can be perfect all the time!

Thanks for sending me a gift! Mom and Dad! I am really ashamed to ask for this but it is an emergency! In puerto, things do not come until about 12 to 18 weeks after things are sent. My contact solution stash is running low. I dont believe Nicaragua has ever or will ever use contact
lenses, so the solution is impossible to find. If you could send some, I would be immensely grateful. Thank you for everything! Ike, Davis, Mom and Dad, I love you all so much and miss you all a ton. I want to thank you for all the support you have given me and your letters. I know it takes quite a bit of time to write letters that long, but i appreciate it so much!   Love you all, have a great week! 

I will try to take a bunch of photos next p day! My house is right next to the beach, so i will have some really good photos of that! Someday you guys will have to come here is possible, Puerto is something else, most of the houses are on stilts, really jungly, and a lot of people to find to help be baptized!

Last week for this change!

     Well, this is the last week of this 6 week change. I think I might be moving this change, but won’t know for a week. 
      Today the fumigators passed by our house. They are these guys that walk around with a gas mask, and a leaf blower thing that blows out white fumes that kill all insect inhabitants in the surrounding area. Needless to say we abandoned the house for a few hours after. Every so often they come around to do this. But this actually was a great blessing, because we have had a few unwelcomed guests living in our house, and i would always wake up with bug bites.

     Not much different this week. A nice rainstorm came through the other day, but luckily we were in a casa of our friend Jorge. His rain gutter INSIDE his house was bad, yes inside (his house is about 2 inches
away from the next one, so due to the closeness of the other roof, he has to have one inside his house) water was coming in all over.  We hurried and helped him patch up all that we could to help, and luckily nothing got to wet. 

     The weather here has been a lot cooler! I am so happy! Everyone here says that April and March are always the worst or the warm before the stormy season.

     On Wednesday we had a new persons meeting, which was pretty fun, I got to see all of my old friends.  This Saturday we have a conference with one of the seventy named elder Duncan, should be fun!
 
     Mom and Dad, I seriously don’t have anything else to say, just that I love you guys so much. Thanks for all you do! Love you! Don’t worry, I am doing fine!

Dia De Madre

Hola Familia! Espero que ustedes están muy Bien! (translation: I hope you are doing good)

Mother’s day was really great, for the missionaries that is, because for some reason only Nicaragua celebrates it on May 30 unlike all the others that do it on the tenth of May. This week we had a small party for my birthday at the house of some recent converts called “The Family Rodriguez”, it was really fun.   This family is very poor, like most people in Nicaragua.  They cooked us dinner and then they brought out a cake for my birthday.  People here don’t have ovens, so this cake was bought from the store.  It had to cost at least $15.00, which is like 3-4 hours of work here.  

Last night, the Elders Quorum President invited us over to dinner.  There he gave me a present which was cologne or perfume.  This costs like $20.00 at the store.  The people here are so giving.  They have nothing but will do anything for you.  I always feel like I should be giving more, but I don’t know what more I can do.

I have heard the weather there has been really rainy right now. Here it is still sunny, but we have had a few hard rain showers that lasted about 30 minutes.  All else is good here in Nicaragua, Love you all!