November 1, 2010

¡Buenas!

¡Thank you for the updates, it is great to hear from the family! It is kind of interesting to write emails here because Spanish keyboards are different. ¡¿Who knew?! Ha ha ok not that different but some of the keys are changed around and they have an ñ key and stuff. And this: ç. But I don´t even know what that is. I think I am using the accent mark as my ´ too but oh well.

So here in Boaco, I think they celebrated Halloween on Saturday. But it isn´t the same. They just have fiestas. I think some people think it is evil too. One lady asked us if we believe in Halloween and I was like, "Why?"

I will try to upload more photos but it is slow on these computers. My compa says the US internet is up here (motioning with his hand), Guatemala internet is a little lower, and Nicaragua internet is like on the ground (with his hand). I thought it would be a good idea to zip the file of photos and attach it but it exceeds the MB limit. Is there a better way to upload it? (to the blog for example.) I say this because... I am not sure if I am going to get any packages. Hopefully letters, but even still I think it is going to take a long time.

The first days I asked the AP´s about this and they pretty much said it takes almost a month if I get it at all. But we will see. Who knows, they might have some right now. But I don´t know when they give it to me. I think I have to wait till we meet again at a comp change meeting or something. But I looked at the blog (really fast) and it is awesome. You are very talented Madre. Thank you so much.

 

So, who am I teaching? Well first, the first day el Presidente gave us a little portfolio about the mission. "Nicaragua Managua Sur Mision, El Mejor Mision en el Mundo." (Nicaragua Managua South Mission, Best Mission in the World) Ha ha and I think it is true already. The baptism rate here is incredibly high and because of that the expectations are very high as well. The problem is we are having problems with retention and priesthood holders. We have a really strong focus now on retention. But even more is baptizing families, especially the fathers. We have set a mission wide goal to baptize at least one family every month.

Right now one of the families we are teaching is the Salvador family (Dad, Mom and two girls, 9 and 6). They are super nice and accepting. It was so awesome. We taught the dad and asked him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. When we came back, he had read all the beginning stuff and on one of the pictures he saw the reference to 3 Nephi 11 and started reading it! That is like one of the best chapters to have investigators read.

They are so ready for the Gospel. We are hopefully baptizing one of their little girls (9 years old) on Saturday because she has been coming to church. It will be my first Baptism!!! The father loves learning about the gospel. He says he wants to be baptized but wants to learn more first. He also plays in a baseball league here (Baseball is pretty big here) on Sundays! Ah so we need to work on that. Another Family is Gamileta (I don’t know how to spell it).

That is the hardest thing here: Peoples names. I will never be able to remember them. I think that is one of the reasons why we invented the idea of calling everyone Hermano/a. Because the early leaders of the church couldn´t remember everyone´s ding dang names.) They are awesome too. Two of their daughters have been baptized but the father and mother are not married. I think that is a big problem here. I think they are afraid of some sort of responsibility if they get married so they just don’t.

There is only one Rama (Branch) in Boaco. Named the Rama de Boaco. And only two missionaries (Me and Elder Coj). This Sunday we had 46 people in attendance. Only one of our investigators (The Dad, Gamileta and his little daughter) showed up. Which is great that he came. I was sad but I don´t know what to expect here. Elder Coj was really disappointed too, so I guess that means Church wasn´t very impressive this Sunday. Next Sunday will be better.

Here is a picture of my Branch President!

We did some service on Saturday and he helped. We cut down stuff with machetes! Awesome.

All the missionaries get a mission debit card. We go to the banco and withdraw cash from the ATM though. They give us a certain amount at the beginning of the month and the middle of the month. Total personal money is something like 800 cordobas a month ($36 USD). Which isn´t very much. Even here. So far I have mostly just spent money on transport. In buses and taxis. But we usually walk everywhere in Boaco.

I have not received any mail. I am sorry. I hope that I do. I don’t know how well sending stuff from here is either. That is why I was hoping for a good way to send pictures over the internet.

So, I am in Boaco. I haven´t the foggiest idea where it is. All I know is that it takes about 2 hours or more to get anywhere else. And it is all mountainy. I think it is really pretty. But the people don´t seem to really think so. Plus there is a lot of garbage on the streets and stuff. They just throw everything on the ground. Shame. The only problem I have with things here is the subidas (hills). It is mountainy right, so all day it is up and down the really steep streets. I have been exercising but I don´t think I need to, it is an all day work out.

The members we live with are really cool. They feed us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The usual meal is pupusas. (A tortilla with cheese and maybe meat in the middle.) They aren´t too bad. The family is actually from El Salvador. We usually have beans or rice and beans as well. Plus we get plantains or plantain chips sometimes. Our usual drink is Cacao. It is like milk, cinnamon and chocolate. It is pretty good. They were trying to convince me that it has coffee in it. I don´t think it does.

(Sue: Cacao is their chocolate milk drink made from chocolate, cinnamon, red maize and sweet pepper seeds, cooked, stirred into milk, sweetened with sugar and served cold).

They like to joke about me a lot I think. For a while I only knew when they said Chele. But I can pretty much understand everything everyone says now. (I just can´t speak). But I don´t think my compa realizes how much I can understand when they talk. It is funny, one time they were talking about my snoring. But I love my companion. He is great and is really patient with me. He pretty much does all the talking which I think he gets frustrated with. But I am learning.

The Mission is going Great! I love it and can´t wait till I can actually speak Spanish. Hope everything is great at home.

Love,

Elder Hardy Ç

P.S. Have to go soon but yeah I looked at the blog, it is great. Ha ha it is funny but it says you sent this 2 days ago.