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!

Lagoon Tiscapa

This week was really cool. We went to a lagoon to pick up trash with the national guard or something from nicaragua, and a bunch of other single adult mormons. We were called manos mormones que ayudan, or mormon helping hands!. We even made the news! The lagoon of tiscapa is very beautiful, but like almost all bodies of water in Nicaragua,it is highly poluted with trash everywhere. Nicaragua dosnt really have laws about trash or anything, so trash is evrywhere, really sad. The lagoon is being cleaned every few months, but there is just so much trash it is overwhelming.

We had a fast this week, which was really hard. My companion and i were so dehydrated that when we finished the fast we each drank so much cakow we were sick! Cackow is a drink a little like chocolate milk, but is a little diferent but super good! Fasting is so hard here, but it was well worth it, our number one  investigator came to church so that was good.

 The evans family, Lego land looks awesome! I hope that you all had a good time there. Almost summer vacation up there, i am so jelous! Here they have vacations from november until january, so the nicas are not quite as lucky as you guys are this time of year.

Thats all from nicaragua, each week goes by faster and faster! Love you all so much have a good week!

Cambios en Ciudad Jardin

Hey family, thanks for the emails! Reading them is the best part of my week! I miss you all so much. Davis, you look good with braces. I know they hurt at first, but after a short time they will get better. Ike, drive safely in the new car of yours, I hope you will enjoy it a lot.

 I recieved a new companion this week named Elder Paz, I am really sad to leave elder Estrada, but it is good to have a change, but also really stressful. I am still going to be here in Ciudad Jardin. We had a baptism this week which was really cool,and then after had a little dinner. The picture included is that dinner. 

It is still really hot here in Nicaragua! I am sweating extra more than usual. The sun is so hot, i cant wait for the rainy season to start so we can have a break for this heat! I am also so excited for mothers day to skype you all. Only one more month until that.

Thats all new here in Ciudad Jardin. Hope you all have a great week and be happy!

Semana Santa

Well, Santa was actually this week, but most of the people had vacations for two weeks. There was a ton of little swimming pools everywhere, lots of bolos(Drunk people) in the streets, and no one in the streets in the morning. What a great week. Today I even got to meet the tallest lady in Nicaragua! Just about one hour ago my comp took this photo with me beside her! Nothing else to tell, just living it big here in Nicaragua! Thanks for all you guys do for me! Love you all!

A Hot Semana Santa

Hola Familia, this is the week that the people have been talking about for a long time. The Holy Week! They celebrate the whole week and not just one day like us, how cool! But the reason they have been talking about it a lot is because this is supposed to be the hottest week of the year, and man are we feeling it. It is always hot, but lately it is especially warmer than usual. Just have to wait two more months though for the rain to come. We had an activity today, which was really fun. We played some crazy games with our zone, hermanas vs elderes! It was really fun to do something different for a change.
Well, nothing else is changing so I guess this is my email for the week. Thanks for all your support, and love you all so much!

Reunion North and South

     This week was really cool. On Tuesday we had a meeting as a whole country. All the missionaries from north and south congregated in Waspan! (Sad for us only 20 minutes away), but was really cool anyway. The second councilor of the Presiding Bishopric, President Davy, talked to us. His talk was really simple, but very nice. He talked about finding answers to all of life’s questions by reading the scriptures. 

     Not much new this week, but here is a really cool experience. We have an investigator named Moisés Jesus.  He is 19 years old and is so cool. We contacted him a month ago in the street, and found out that he lives in the south mission about an hour away, but he has come to our church in Ciudad Jarding three times in the past four weeks! What a baller!  Just from a contact!  I want to baptise him, but he has had no lessons and the bishop says that he needs to be baptised in his own ward where he lives. Well, we will see where this goes. We don’t have many other investigators progressing super fast, but all is good.

Viejita bautisma

Well, I learned a very important lesson this week in missionary work and in life.  Always fill the baptism font as full as possible. Since the other elders left the area, they left an investigator who we have been
teaching for a while. This lady is named Maria and is 83 years old, but she wanted to be baptised! I was a little scared that her baptism would be problematic due to age, and it turned out to be a super comical seen.

First off, the baptismal font was not completely full, but almost full. The priest from the ward tried to baptise her, but she was scared to fall backward into the water. So then we brought a chair for her to sit
in to tip the chair backwards to baptise her, but her feet rose up and we could not do it. So then we brought a smaller chair (like from the primary) and we could still not do it. Luckily my district leader told
me to always bring spare white pants to the baptisms in case of something like this. So I had to go in and help the priest baptise the old lady.

We ended up having her float on her back, and then we both submerged her! It was definitely comical, but she was baptised! Then luckily she went the next day for her confirmation. I will attach a photo of her and the priest that baptised her. 
 That’s my story for the week, always fill the pool to the max, because it is deceiving to tell how deep it is otherwise! No other funny stories this week. This P day was really relaxed, just shopping for food and
got haircuts. 
Thanks for all the support you give me. Love you all so much, and have a great week!