Dear family!!
Sounds like things are pretty good over there. Todays letter might be short cause i dont have to much time on the computer today. are you ready for this? I have emgergency changes again! Last night at dinner we got a call from zone leaders that they are closing my area! Both me and my companion had to pack to leave our house this morning at 3 for manangua. We didnt say goodbye to anyone, except tell the family we live with that we were leaving in the morning and as far as we know, there are no missionaries coming back! I think they are moving a bunch of people around today, because there are a lot of people finishing up their mission but not a lot are coming in the conference in two weeks, so they are setting things right now to prepare for changes. So we will see what happens. We dont really know what is happening, but like always, there are a lot of rumors swarming around. Iv had a lot of people coming up to tell me im gonna fly out to puerto cabezas... we will see!
So things are crazy right now, but this last week has been pretty awesome. I have really enjoyed the time i have had with my companion. This past week, we had probably the most dramatic baptism that i have had yet. We had a family preparing to be baptized (the family of Isias, if you remember that story from last week). We were kinda racing against time. We had to get a copy of the birth certificate for the wife, so they could get married. So on monday, we traveled to a nearby city to go to the building to do so. But when we got there, the lady turned us away... She said that we could not do it because we were not nicaragua citizens. The next day we went again, but this time with an elder that was from nicaragua (The wife and her husband both work and were not able to do it themselves). But this time, she turned us away because he was not over 21! As we were walking away frustrated for the second time, the other elder said he had an idea and ran over to the taxi. Elder Burgener and I were confused as we watched him talk to the taxi driver and give him money. The taxi driver turned off the car and walked into the building. He then came out and with a receipt. We found out that Elder Brenes had paid the taxi driver to run in and sign the document for us! This ended up being a blessing, because if we had waited another day, we would not have received the birth certificate in time.
Then on the saturday of the baptism and wedding, we were sitting in on a baptism for another companionship when we see Isias walking outside. We ran and talked to him. He told us that problems had come up and he would not be able to make it to the baptism tonight... His mother said she would not sign the document so that he could get married (in nicaragua you need to have the permission of your parents to be married if you are under 21). Isias was in tears. We tried to comfort him and then went back to the house to talk with his mother. The mother was quite furious(she did not want anything to do with the mormon church), but after talking to her for a while she agreed, but she had to go out of town that night. So we had to run all the way down to the lawyers house in a neighboring city to bring the document back for her to sign it. We then had only a few hours for the baptism and wedding. so we hurried and prepared the font, bought cake and soda, and did other things to prepare. Finally everything was ready, right on time too! Except a few minutes after six, the layer called and said he was stuck in another city and will be 2 hours late! So for two hours we had no clue what to do. We ended up getting keys to the secretaries office, and we all crammed in the room and watched mormon messages on the computer.. Finally we had the wedding and baptism that night. It was such a good experience. I got to do the ordinance as well. It was one of the most stressful weddings for us, but definitely one of the most happiest at the end. It was cool to see Isias, his wife, and his two kids walk away from the church clean and ready to start their road to the temple. I am going to miss them and all of our recent converts in Chinandega.
But i am definitely excited for the adventures ahead of me!
I love you all. and I hope everything is going well over there. Keep up the good work! your always in my thoughts and prayers
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May 30, 2011
Hey family!
How are things going over there? sounds like school is ending.. i cant believe i have been here for a whole year of school. I guess that means i have been out here for a while. Enjoy your last days of school and the start of summer!
Things are pretty crazy over here... so i ended up getting changed to puerto cabezas. Which is on the whole other side of nicaragua! It really cool though. I had to unpack all my stuff, and then organize it. I could only take 30 pounds to nicaragua.. which i have learned is pretty much nothing. We then hoped on a small plane that took us to puerto cabezas airport... which is pretty much just a big field haha. The flight was about an hour long. It is pretty crazy to think how far away we are... other then the few people in our zone, there are not missionaries for many many miles. I feel pretty lucky though, most missionaries dont get the opportunity to come here.
I decided that its kinda like a whole different mission here. It is not really anything like Managua or Chinandega. The people here are a lot different too. The majority of people here are from a native race called miskitu. Which means spanish is not even the first language here. Everyone speaks a language called miskitu. its sounds really weird and actually kinda goofy. In the pics i sent, i included a photo of a sign in the language. So anyways, its kinda like my first couple weeks all over again! There are a lot of people that we will go up and contact and they will reply to me in miskitu. With that in mind, the mission president is actually having missionaries that are assigned to learn miskitu, so that we can communicate with the people here better. They actually told me i could expect to be here for a while. and i should start studying the language too. I havnt really started much, since it has just been my first week. But i think i will see if i can get a book and everything these next couple weeks.
The area here is a lot different too. It is not very modern.. a lot of dirt roads and there are no big stores or bus routes like in the other areas i have been. The power here is not very reliable and goes out almost every other day. To me, it is a mix of africa and jamaica. Its pretty much as hot as Chinandega, but there are hardly any trees here, so it seems a whole lot hotter. My area specifically is mostly made up of a miskitu colony... kinda like an indian reservation. The people in this area are super poor, and i have noticed a huge drop in hygene. They are super receptive to the gospel though! All the houses are pretty much made out of wood... and they are elevated up kinda like they are on stilts.. i took a lot of pictures of what the houses look like. Also, inside the house, there is absolutley nothing! They are sleeping on the floor and spend most of the day outside of the house.
My comp is Elder Silva. He is from costa rica and is pretty cool. WE get along really well. He got here to nicaragua the same exact day as me.. i just never knew him cause he has been in puerto cabezas the whole time! I hope that we can still be comps when changes come in a week.
The crazy story for the week was i got to baptize on sunday... but as i was getting into the font i noticed a tarantula hanging out on the wall! Only me and the two witnesses saw it cause of the weird angle, but they told me to hurry and just do it the ordinance before anyone noticed! I figured the giant spider wouldnt be able to do anything in the water. I hurried and baptized the brother, and we jumped out of the font before anyone else noticed. I definitely did not expect to baptize with a tarantula on my mission!
Anyways.. all is well here. I am loving it here in puerto cabezas. The other missionaries here are awesome and its cool to be a part of the work in a new area. The only problem i have right now is that when i had the emergency changes.. i did not get a chance to receive the package you had sent me... and i probably wont get it since we are so far away unless someone brings it to me or i need to go to managua... but dont worry, i think it will be fine. There are two other elders in puerto cabezas that use contacts too. You guys are always in my prayers.. i love you tons!
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