Week 36: HOLA

Me and Elder Basset at our first zone meeting together. 

HOLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

My new companion arrived on Tuesday.  His name is Elder Basset.  He is from Texas. I think we are going to get along really well!

I don't have much time so this letter is going to be really short. One of our potential investigators left this week.  I guess he is going to work as a fisherman or something like that.  We were disappointed, but that's life in the mission. His family said he would be back at the end of this month so hopefully we can catch up with him then.  

Anyway that's all I have time for, hope all is going well, talk to you next week.

Elder Thackeray

Me with the zone flag.

The new Puerto Zona. 

Ice Cream break!

Week 35: 18 Hour Bus Ride, McDonald's, Cedula, and Changes.

18 HOURS!

Quite the eventful week I would say. On Wednesday, I got a call that on Thursday morning I needed to go to Managua because I needed to get my "cedula" (basically like a Visa/ID so I could stay in the country).  Also, they said that there was no room on the plane heading to Managua so I would have to ride a bus. 

So, on Thursday morning myself, Elder Carico (MTC companion), Hermana Albrith, and Hermana Alfaro got on a bus and headed for Managua.  The bus was basically a really crappy, old school bus with even less leg room and people standing in the middle aisle.  We left at 10am on Thursday and got to Managua at 4am on Friday morning. LONGEST BUS RIDE OF MY LIFE!!! The potholes in the road were so big that everyone in the bus would catch air when the bus would hit them!  

One of the "roads" the bus tried to take.

Some Mickey D's at the Officia de Imigracion!

When we finally got to Managua, we called the Mission Home to have someone come pick us up but there was no answer.  We finally were able to reach some sisters in the area who gave us directions to the A.P.'s house.  When we got to the A.P.'s house, we rang the doorbell for 30 minutes before someone answered and let us in the house. We slept for a couple hours and at 7am we went to the Officia de Imigracion. After spending 6 hours there, we all had our "cedula's" and we headed back to the mission home.  Thankfully they let us sleep for the rest of the day and we didn't have to work the rest of the day.  We thought we were going to head home on Saturday but there turned out not to be a plane back to Puerto until Monday so we worked in Managua on Saturday and Sunday.  It was weird being in church with nothing to do. It was an established ward so there was way more people there then there typically has been at either of my area's.  

On Sunday night we got the call for exchanges.  My comp is going to my first area in Condega and I am staying in Puerto.  My new companion is a gringo, Elder Basset.  While I was at the mission home for those two days, all the people who were going home arrived at the mission home.  I was able to see Elder Skaggs, my trainer, again.  We had a good time reminiscing about the good ol' days together. I'm gonna miss him.  We got back to Puerto this afternoon.  All the new guys are coming in tomorrow so I will meet my new comp then.      

Love yall have a good week.

Elder Thackeray

Our last Zone P-day before exchanges 

The after math of the egging and flouring!

Being egged and floured!
 A mission birthday tradition!

Last District Meeting before Exchanges.

Sporting my new Christmas socks. 

Me with an iguana.  I don't think the kid in back was
pleased at my iguana handling skills 

Walking the Iguana!

Fueling up before the Zone Olympics!
We brought home the Gold!

There were some pretty parts to the 18 hour trip.

The bus on the ferry crossing the river.

Chilling with Skaggs before he headed home.

Back to Puerto!

PUERTO!

Week 34: The Chosen One

Roly getting baptized

Ol' Otis better watch before he gets himself kilt haha. (Otis the dog decided he wanted to follow us to church and had a little accident on the road, he's fine though)

Everything is going good here. 

We married a family (Helped them through the process) and baptized the dad, the mom was already a member. They have a little toddler. The first time we met them, the man said, "I want you to marry us and baptize me." He was truly a chosen person of God ready to receive the gospel. That's one of the awesome things about missionary work is finding the chosen people that God puts in your path.  It's awesome to see them change their lives!  Truly a blessing!

Hope you all have a great week.
Elder Thackeray

Me and Elder Taulapapa at a baptism

Some good ol' Nica food. 

Roly and Jennifer getting married.

                                                                                           

Week 33: Merry Christmas ya filthy animals and a happy New Year.

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals and a Happy New Year.

Zone Christmas Party 

Tuesday we had our Christmas party with Pres. It was a good time we watched the new Ice Age and Finding Dory, then we had a talent show type thing.  I danced to a song. I got 2 packages, one from Mitch (It was the earlier package we sent to see how long it would take the Christmas Package to get there...Whoops.) and the other from the Young Women. Also, a card from Melanie Franklin and her husband... be sure to tell them. I think I'll get the other packages (His actual Christmas Packages) when the Zone Leaders go to Managua this week. So, we'll see what happens. On Thursday, we decided to venture out to find some new people to teach. When walked a good 3 or 4 miles to a little town and found a family who is super cool and positive. We were walking in this field and saw a house so we headed towards it. However, these two dogs were barking their heads off and were running full speed at us so we were like crap! But when they got to us they were real friendly. We found another guy in the area, who, when we were talking to him and we asked if he wanted to get baptized he said, "yes, I have been wanting to change my life around and I feel that this is how I can do it."  So the good news is that we have 2 new investigators.  The bad news is we have to walk 4 miles to see them.  

News Year was a normal day. During the night, I was asleep but was woken up by the sounds of thousands of fire works going off.  It lasted from 12 until like 1:30!  It was kind of annoying because their fireworks were just noise makers.  No pretty lights like ours. 

Answers to Questions 

Spiritual experiences for the week? 

When we talked to the guy who wanted to change his life. Also, another guy we talked to after we invited him to church was like me and my family was looking for a place to go to church and then you guys showed up.

What store do you miss the most? 

Hmm, IDK probably any store in America haha. Walmart maybe cause it has most everything and the stores here don't really have anything. HAHA

Do you have a comfortable bed?

No, i wish I was sleeping on my memory foam at home haha. It's basically like sleeping at the cabin but they are old spring mattresses.

Hope all is well. I feel so bad about Uncle Don. I'm praying for you guys and hope you all have a good week.

Elder Thackeray

Christmas Picture with Mission President

Walking around Puerto!

Found some PINE TREES!!! Reminded me of home!

Cakes that the Nica's make. 

How they cook the cakes.

The never ending roads

Week 32: Christmas

(No letter this week from Elder Thackeray.  We were supposed to talk to him on Christmas Eve, but after a brief hiccup we were able to talk to him on Christmas Day.  We had a great talk with him.  He likes his new area but misses Condega.  Here are a few photo's he sent from this week.)