I Made It To Nicaragua

Okay first things first. NICARAGUA IS INSANE!!! (PS I was super sad I couldn´t call you guys) Anyways, we left Guatemala CCM at 3 am so that everyone flying could make their flights. By some crazy lucky coincidence I got a first class seat. SWEET! We arrived in Nicaragua and I thought I had flown to a different planet. There were literally people in wagons being pulled by horses. There were also TONS of motorcycles and cars. The streets are just jam packed! It is insane. We had a meeting with the President then went on splits with the missionaries. MANAGUA is SOOO HOTTT and HUMID. I was literally drinking the air. Anyways we walked to our first appt. where we taught.....something. I have no idea what was being said. The streets are dirt and the houses are made of tin walls. We went into their "house" and started teaching. Here I was in my first lesson and I couldn’t understand one thing. There was some type of exotic bird (very popular pet here) nibbling at my head, flies all over me and a chicken kept walking in between my legs. I couldn’t believe what was happening. We did a lot more that day but I don’t have much time to explain it all. Let’s just say it was definitely one of the longest days of my life!

Okay so the next day we had changes. Everyone was gawking over me because I am nineteen. They kept saying AHH YOU ARE A LEGEND. So after meetings and talks we found out who our companions were. They did this big presentation on the projector with pictures and the whole shabam. EVERYONE was going CRAZY! Screaming, jumping up and down it was like the NFL draft or something. My trainer is Hermana Justavino. She is SOO sweet. She has 5 months in the mission, is from Panama and I am her first "kid". She is still figuring things out right now too so that kind of makes this hard. But she is patient with me and kind. My area is MATAGALPA. It is in the MOUNTAINS. Okay when I say the mountains I mean the whole area is seriously the hardest HIKE of all my life. It is crazy! Upside is the weather is a little cooler. It RAINS every day. Our "home" is a room. We have a bunk bed and desk. And YES there are lots of crazy bugs. My favorite! I had my first bucket shower and quickly decided I wasn’t going to make much of an effort to look top notch here. You can’t flush toilet paper here so we have a little bucket (gross) but most places there is just a pile of toilet paper next to the toilet. It seriously is GORGEOUS here though!!! I can’t even explain to you have beautiful it is. Trees EVERYWHERE. So green. My Zone is pretty cool too. However......the all like soccer. CRAP. Every morning we have a soccer game. No me gusta. Sometimes we go but sometimes we just bail. My comp said that pdays (today) we play from 8 in the morning until 1. Oh and it is true. They made me play goalie. Well that was something. I played for about an hour then said if I go make pancakes for everyone can I get out of playing. They said yes! So that’s what I did.

Okay food. So the Branch presidents family makes us lunch every day. It is always really good. Other meals we just fend for ourselves. They have little stores on every corner we buy stuff at. We only get 150 dollars a month though and that is not much so we have to be careful. It is 25 cortabas to 1 American dollar. We give 1600 every month for our cita, 100 for bus rides to the mission and the rest is for us. There are some members that feed us a lot though so that is awesome! I am not too worried about it. Lots of rice and beans already! I like it though.

So the people here....AMAZING. They are so sweet, humble, loving and all the other good things I could say. Good news is we won’t get any doors slammed in our faces because there ARE NO DOORS! These ppl have NOTHING. Their houses consist of tin walls, dirt floors, a bed and a blanket for a ceiling. I really can’t believe it. Everyone tells me this is a wealthy part of Nicaragua but I really don’t know how it could get any more poor. Seriously! All the women kiss each other on the cheek and hug. It is so sweet. The Branch here has the kindest people. I love them all!! I can’t understand any of them but I can feel their sweet spirit and love. We visit a lot of less actives and recent converts. My favorite recent converts are Hector and Rena. They are an older couple and SO SWEET! Hector reminds me of papa so much. They always feed us and Hector is always running around looking for more sweets to give us haha. I also love Yamil! He was baptized 8 months ago and is a little less active. He is 11 years old and is amazing. He reads the Book of Mormon EVERYDAY and always has great questions for us. He will be an awesome Priesthood holder. Right now we are teaching a family of 5. Jorge and Irma are the parents. Ahhhh they are so Golden!!! They come to Church, read, pray and know everything is true! They are just nervous to be baptized. It makes me so sad because they are so close. They were at church Sunday though so that was great!!

The Language SUCKS!!! Seriously, I feel like I have no personality and am so alone because I can’t even talk to or understand my comp. She is really different than me. She is great though! I am grateful for her patience and love. I just hate sitting around and not saying anything. I want to visit with the people, understand and get to know them but as of now... I can’t. I just hope it gets better. I have to remind myself this is the Lords time and the Lords work. I need his help. SO MUCH!!! I just hope I can get through this hard part, regain my personality and do some good. Satan is real. He is working hard on me. I know the Lord will help me I just need to exercise patience right now.

We have a goal of 1 FAMILY baptism a month and 5 progressing families always. It is the highest baptizing mission in the WORLD though. So I guess they are doing something right. There were 101 families baptized last month and like 230 ppl or something like that. Crazy right. If you don’t have an investigating family at sacrament meeting you have to leave and go tract for a family. Who knows how things will change with the new pres though. I love our president right now, and his family. They took us to lunch the first day and were so sweet. Anyways it is hard because here they just baptize ppl so FAST and then they just stop coming to church. I don’t want to baptize just to baptize. I want to have people really become converted to the Gospel. That is my goal at least.

Also I only get mail at changes so you just send everything to the mission home. And I did get your letter with all the Quotes thank you so much! Also we go back to Managua Wednesday for the Presidents going away party and to welcome the new president. Also they said mails takes about 3 weeks, packages 3 months. I really don’t think you need to send any packages though. I have so much stuff as it is haha I can’t send pics today but I will next week. Oh PS the meat here is SO SKETCH!! In the Grocery store it is always super warm by all the meat. Gross!!!! Oh well I probs won’t die haha. Oh man I miss you guys! I just wish I could speak English on the mission! I could have my confidence and personality back. It would be so much easier for me!

Okay I have to go now. I love you guys though!!! I think about you all the time and miss you so much!!! Thank you for your love and help!! I will write you probably around this time again next Monday!!!  LOVES!!!   One day closer!
Ps. to all my friend, family and students..... I LOVE YOU!!!!! Thank you for being examples in my life. I am so BLESSED!