Week 15: Nansita

Hola!

First, Dad if you are ever angry at your horse and think he is acting stupid remember Numbers 22: 27-34. Also, if you guys ever want to know what it's like eating food in Nicaragua sometimes, look up Jeremiah 4:19-21.

Well the power here some days really sucks. Last time when I was sending my email the power went out again right after I sent it. We haven't really had power like four days this week so that kinda sucks cause we come back to the house, it's late, we are tired, and we have to plan still but the powers out so that always puts a damper on the day. We worked hard this week like every week.

On Wednesday, we brought one of our recent converts with us to a leccion with one of our investagadores. We were going good on leccion 1 talking about when Christ established his church on the earth then our guy started talking and said Jesus healed somebody by taking dirt spitting in it and then put it on the guys eyes to heal them so I think we should all carry around a bag of dirt so we will always be ready to heal people. There's a lot of crazy beliefs people have down here. Like if you eat soup you can't have a drink too. Let me tell you, I hate soup and it still pains me to eat it every time a member gives it to me. Also it's hot as crap. Who eats soup at this temperature? They also think that you can't take a shower at night because your feet will fall asleep-- just weird stuff like that.

On Thursday we had a mission blitz whichever zone got the most fechas and invites won a dinner with prez well my companion and I went to work: 53 invites and 5 fechas; but the rest of our zone kinda sucks they are all dead 4 die this change I think so needless to say we didn't win. That sucked, I was looking forward to a good meal but nope ain't gonna happen.

Friday we passed by another recent convert named Rosa. She's real chill. One of the most faithful members. She always tries to give us this fruit juice called Nansita. It's disgusting, tastes like rotten fruit. I told her finally I couldn't drink it because it was so gross. She said fine, then gave the bag to my companion. They drink like soda juice and stuff out of like a plastic sandwich bag kinda funny. So he had to drink two bags and it's so gross so now every time we pass by, I ask if she has some Nansita juice for my companion because he loves it so much. He won't tell her he doesn't like it. He hates me more and more everytime I do that. Rosa is like the gossip Queen of Condega. She like tells us all the stuff we need to know. The missionaries before wasted a lot of time at members houses just chilling and we don't do that like we go by at least three times a week and they still are like sad cause we don't go by them enough. Hopefully they will soon realize we cant spend  all day with them every day. It's just different than the States. It's like the missionaries are like their only friends so some days that gets kinda annoying.

On Saturday we had our noche de hermanimiento we were just waiting for everyone to show up we played Red Rover Red Rover with all the little kids, it was a good time.

Sunday a lot of people were sick in valle de Jesus and it rained and Nicas don't do anyhing in the rain, so that made for a whopping 12 people in church. We had seven investigators so that was good. Then we had to take the chairs back in the rain-- that was fun. Then we went and visited the familia Ramirez. Things were going good then their kid Grillo came running in screaming slamming the door shut. Then we heard all this yelling and screaming outside. I guess these bolos (drunks) stole some stuff from these guys so the guys stole it back and ran off and hid in the house next to the Ramirez family, so the bolos were yelling and screaming and chucking rocks at the house. After about ten minutes they got bored and left. Also the dad of the Ramirez family put on a USC sweatshirt that he had so that was cool. I was like, "Hey! That's my team!"

Anyways hope all is going well back in the states. Love y'all mucho.

Love,
Elder Thackeray 

Week 14: And the Rain Came Tumbling Down

Buenas!  

Total tuanis aqui en Nicaragua. 

Happy late birthday to Dad! Hope everything is going good back in the states. Just know that I hate you all for being able to go to the cabin and swim. Every time we have a baptism in the river, I just want to jump in and and take a nice little swim. 

I had a weird dream that all of my friends got called to serve in the Nicargua Managua Norte mission and I was confused as to why they were all there. They explained that they were missionaries now. Super weird. 

It's been pretty much a torrential downpour here all week so that sucks. I hit three months in the mission, still a ways to go, just depending which way you look. If you look back time is flying by, if you look forward I still have forever; but everything is going good. Our investigators and miembros say my Spanish is getting better every day which is good because I would hope it's not getting worse. 

Tuesday: We had our district meeting our new zone leader brought fake mustaches and we all wore them. We didn't really get much done because we were laughing so hard the whole time. It was a super frito meeting. At the end we played a game called signs one of y'all probably played it. There's one person in the middle and everyone else is kinda in a circle. Everyone has a sign and you pass it around and the person has to try and find the person who had the sign. We had a good time then at night when we were going back home he found this bunny by our house so we tried to catch it to have as a pet but he ran through our gate. Then this guy came and said he lost his bunny so we had a wild rabbit chase for about 30 minutes. We finally caught him. 

Wednesday: We had changes. Elder Rowe came to Condega. He is freaking tall. I don't know how he makes it in this country. He's 6'6". Elder Spence and Spencer were together and everyone thinks they are brothers and have the same name. We were walking down the street and this dog was sleeping with his tongue out. I don't know why we thought it was so funny but we laughed forever. When we came back it turned out that the dog was just dead which made us laugh even harder. Rowe is chill. He was my MTC companion's dad. Anybody over six foot is just too big for this country. 

Thursday-Saturday: It literally just rained all day for the past three days. It's pretty miserable. The only good thing is that it was not as hot on Saturday. We didn't have our noche de hermanimiento (an activity we have with members and investigators) because it was raining so hard and if its raining Nicas don't do anything. They stay inside the whole time. 

Sunday: The Bell's came down to help us with our group because it's just starting. We had 30 people and 7 investigators, not terrible for Condega. 

Monday: I'll mark this up to the worst P-day of my mission, so far. First off, we didn't have any money so we were just hanging around Condega all day and then decided to go get some breakfast. Went out the door, shut it ,realized we forgot the keys. There's two locks on our property-- one for our door, one for the gate going out. So we were trapped outside our house but couldn't get out of our property. So we had to ninja kick the door down so we could get the keys, then had to get stuff to replace the lock. We had to have the lady who is a member come and clean our clothes and she brought her kids and they were super annoying and messing with all our crap. Then it started raining hard and they  couldn't leave because Nicas don't do anything in the rain. Also, all of our clothes stink because they got rained on. Then when we were writing the power went out. So that's why I didn't write. Worst P-day ever, mark it down. We just got power in Condega again on Tuesday.

But anyways hope all is well on the home front without me there to hold it down. 

Espero que ustedes tengan un buena semana.

Love, 
Elder Thackeray

Week 13: Introducing Elder Spence

Well not much went this week. My new companion is Elder Spence. We get along. We worked super hard this week and have a lot of possibilities for baptisms, 16! We just need quite a few to keep married. We have the opportunity to get the record of thirteen. Nothing to exciting to tell you guys. Not really anything extremely funny either. It'll be kind of a lame letter. 

One funny thing that happened today was we were playing soccer and someone kicked the ball. It hit someone's knee, went over the fence, and we watched it slowly roll out in the highway and get hit by a truck. It popped just like that P-day was over. It was just like the Sandlot. 

Also, you guys can complain all you want about the internet there but you don't know slow internet until you use a computer in a Nica cyber. 

I wish  I had more to tell you guys just a boring hard working week. Be grateful for what you have and remember that all things that happen to you will work together for your good in the end (D&C 98: 1-3). 

Love, 
Elder Thackeray

Week 12: One Transfer Down

Buenas!

I didn't get a chance to write yesterday because we had changes basically almost every companionship in the mission had a change, crazy! That's what happens with a new president. My companion is off to be a zone leader in Chinnedega. I'm going to miss him. He's a good missionary, probably gonna be an AP soon. I wish he could finish my training but oh well. My step-dad is Elder Spence. He seems pretty chill. 

Monday: On the way home from Esteli on the bus this guy started talking to me. He had studied six years at college in Wisconsin. So we were talking and he says, "I used to go to church but once I stopped giving them money they stopped praying for my family that ain't Christian man." He was awesome came to church and was like I'm going here from now on!

Tuesday: We had a reunion de nuevos in Managua. We had to get up at 3 am to make it there for the meeting. It was good, I got to see Carico and Spears. They are in the same zone in Chinnedga. It was a good meeting. On the way back our seats were broken, only held up by a string so that sucked. Worst three hours of my life. Carico's companion is our new zone leader. He's super tall, like 6'6". 

Wednesday: We had intercambios. I went with Spencer. We were going to Condega. I fell asleep and he bumped me on the arm. Usually when Scaggs did that it meant we had arrived. So I jump up, grab my stuff and have to have them stop the bus because it was still going. I get off, come to my senses, realize we are in San Pedro, a little community like five miles from Condega so we have to walk two miles to the next bus stop. It sucked, but we finally got back to Condega. 

Thursday: We have a t25 video so we do that in the morning and its freaking killer, so freaking sore, its ridiculous. We did the lower body workout and we could barely walk for like 3 days. It gets you going.

Friday: nothing really happened we had an early cita which never happen. After that we went to Pali and I got some fruit loops and milk. The milk says its 73 percent leche. It tastes like crap, the worst. 

Saturday: We were just waiting for the call to see if Scaggs got transferred. He didn't get anything. Finally after lunch we found out he was going and like most of our zone too. 

Sunday: We had a baptism with Crystobal. He was awesome and has been since the first time we taught him. He just moved here with his mom and his girlfriend and his girlfriend flagged us down and talked to us and introduced him. Ever since the problem was like they lived in the same house and in the same room like they said nothing was going on. It was gonna be hard because all her family is in Costa Rica like where was she gonna go but he couldn't get baptized if she lived there, but her mom got sick and needed help so she went back to Costa Rica. Kind of a blessing in disguise. A couple weeks ago we were talking about our missions and he's like once i get baptized and turn 18, I wanna go on a mission too. He is freaking awesome. Had his baptism at 10, went to church, then we went around to all the people Scaggs wanted to say goodbye to. Everyone was sad to see him go

Monday: We were in Esteli all day sending people off to changes. P-days suck if you or your companion get changed. 

My new companion is Elder Spence. We are still in Condega. 

Our church building is someone's work: Lopez Sports. They let us use it on Sunday's. I wish we had somebody who knew how to sing the songs correctly. It's pretty funny. There's some ahead, some behind, everybody is off key. 

Love, 
Elder Thackeray