February 21, 2011

Buenas!

Guess what, things are about to change up a little bit... I have CHANGES!!! I am actually pretty disappointed to leave Boaco. I wish I could have finished things up here, the Branch has the potential and I think we are almost over the hill.

I also wanted to be able to see the familia of Teresa and Jorge be baptized and confirmed before I left. But Elder Leiva will have to continue helping them out now. I think he will probably train a new gringo too. But I am also quite excited to go to a new area and have new opportunities a encontrar, ensenar, bautizar y retener Familias!!! (to find, teach, baptize and retain families!!!) I can't wait.

Ha ha that’s great it snowed. Yeah, we are in summer here. But today in Boaco it has been overcast, even a little rain drizzled when we found out I had changes.

I am sorry to hear about Alex's Grandpa. That is too bad. Salud (Send well wishes to) his family and if they can, ask them to send a message from me to Alex que le amo y le extraño. (I love him and miss him). I will be praying for him and his family.

I can't wait for Wednesday to pick up the package!!! I'm not sure what the secret spy hidden device with rewind button in the Pringles could be... BUT, Now I know that I got Pringles! Ha ha.

I will ask the office Elders on Wednesday if there is anything they can do about my hostage package.

Restaurants in Boaco: One time I ate at this pizza restaurant for Thanksgiving with Elder Coj. But the restaurant’s pizza was the standard pizza. That’s about it besides the street vendor food. Which is always really good when you buy the right stuff but it usually leaves your stomach that night ha ha.

A tradition I started for the District of Boaco is every time we go to Juigalpa on the trip back at the Parada de Buses (Bus Stop) we all buy Quesillo. Haha it is their cheese, wrapped in a tortilla, covered with this cabbage carrot mix thingy and this really good pica sauce and dipped in the Quesilllo creme. Then she sticks it in a bag, you tie it up and bite one of the corners and eat it out of the bag. It’s sooo good and I always go to the same lady because she makes it better than everyone else and gives us a little extra creme because now the missionaries always come to her.

Oh and I have another great food story to tell. Ha ha that actually happened earlier today. So last week, Elder Bailey, Beto and I went out to visit for Mormon Battalion. As we were talking to a part member family somehow the topic of Pupusas came up (we were with a Salvadoran) and Beto said something about food competitions eating pupusas and how they would eat more than 20 pupusas in an hour. And I was like, "Yeah I can eat 20 pupusas in an hour."

Ha ha needless to say, the topic never rested until a little after 3:30 pm today. Ha ha so Elder Bailey told me that night if I could eat 20 Pupusas in less than an hour he would pay for it. ($10 American, C$200 in total). So I took him on today. The only rules were, 20 pupusas, an hour or less, if I vomit it’s over.

What was better is that the whole Zone came to Boaco today for PDay. Ha ha the first ten minutes were great. I downed 6 pupusas. Beto says he is done after 5. The first 6 were carne pupusas, then the Doña brought out the frijole (beans) pupusas and I was starting to slow down. I finished my tenth casi (almost) exactly at the half way mark. And boy, the next 4 were super tuff, harder than Thanksgiving, or even harder than the One Pound Challenge.

I almost lost my pupusas several times, it was too hard to chew and swallow normal so I decided to switch to the pill popper technique were I would stick a piece in my mouth, sip a bit of water and just swallow it. But I had already lost a lot of time. I started my 15th with about 15 minutes to go. But there has never been a harder pupusa to eat.

Everyone was all cheering and everything. It was great (Even Elder Bailey wanted to see me hold it all in). So he took the plastic bag out of my hands and said I can’t puke, right as I stuck the last piece of the 15th pupusa in my mouth. Ha ha as I swallowed, I went from 15 pupusas... to 0. Ha ha ha.

I’ll save the details from the email, but needless to say, I lost. But it was fun, and now we are going to start the 20 Pupusas in an Hour Competition at Beto’s restaurant. We are going to put my picture up and everything as the current record holder at 15 pupusas in 58 minutes. Beto says for the reward of anyone that can beat it, he will give them a pupusa. Hahaha.

We went to the cool water fall with the whole Zone today. That was fun, but we couldn’t find the howler monkeys. I must have scared them away with my howling.

This Sunday, we had District Conference. Our bus from Boaco was packed and the Family of Teresa and Jorge came.

Hannah, I will take pictures of Nicaraguan money and send them to you next time.

Thanks for the updates. I will talk to you all next week in my New Area. I don’t have any more time left.

Love

Elder Hardy