Week 18: Two Baptisms and a Marriage

Well, hit four months on Sunday so that's cool. We had changes today but staying with Elder Spence another change. It sucks having changes and someone leaves because it just screws up your P-day. So it's nice when it just stays the same. 

Well I'm gonna start with the story of Darwin and Mogoli. We have been teaching them for a little while but they needed to get married. So everyday we would go by and see if they would go take out their papers for marriage. Every day they said they would and then they would just give us a crappy excuse. This happened for like a week. Finally we sat them down and were like, Listen! What's up?" Finally they told us they just didn't have money for it. We were like why didn't you just tell us that in the beginning haha. So we got them the money they took out the papers. But Darwin had problem getting one because he needed two cedulas (passport mas o menos) to get it out. So we get them go back and the lady is in Managua so we can't get it out. So we are like nooo. Next day on changes with Elder Worden we went with him and finally got the paper out, but he said the lawyer we were gonna use left to Managua to; but he said he would figure it out, but we figured nothing would happen mainly because Nicas don't do nothing unless you do it with them. We had to go change back our companions. When we get back to Condega we get a call from Darwin and he said he got the lawyer, the testigos, all the stuff he needed. We were gonna have the marriage at 5. If he didn't take it upon himself we wouldn't have been able to have a marriage. He came in clutch. The marriage was on Friday and we were going to have the bautismales on Saturday so we were going good. Early Saturday morning we get a call from Mogloi saying she doesn't feel ready and needs more time. So we are like noo, well at least we still have Darwin. A few hours later we get a call from Darwin saying he doesn't want to be baptized either because the river is running to high. So we lost both of our possibilities withing a matter of hours super chupaso.

The senior couple, the Bell's stopped by to drop off a package for Spence, so they took us to go to their house but they weren't there so they told us an experience about how prayer softened hearts. So we had a prayer that their hearts would be softened and they would want to be baptized, so they dropped us off and we just waited at the house for them. Finally they showed up and we were throwing the casaca hard at them but they kept beating around the bush. Finally we got out of them they just didn't want to be baptized in the river, they wanted to be baptized in Esteli. So we are like okay lets go, so we packed up and left. The problem was that the last bus leaves Condega at 5:00 and it was 5:30. So we prayed there would be a bus to take us and just as we got there a bus came by because they were running the torch across Nicaragua, so the bus was late, so we had a ride to Esteli!!! We got the baptisms done but didn't have a way to get home because all the buses were done so we prayed again that we could find a way home. Right after another senior couple called us and asked if we needed any help because they heard about the baptism. So they were able to drive us and our investigators back to Condega. #prayerswork Every prayer we had that day was answered and we were able to baptize them. 

Things are going well down here Independence Day for Nicaragua is the 14th and 15th so there should be a big party for that mostly. It's in Managua because there's free buses to there. 

The other day we get stopped by this one guy when we were going home and he's like I have this stuff for you guys its real good. We figured when he was getting it that it was probably drugs but when he ripped open the bag it was just a bunch of weeds he picked from a field haha! He was like I'll give it to you for only 20 cords. We gave him a pamphlet and left. 

Elder Spence is from Utah, He played soccer at Riverton. I forgot to tell you guys last week during sacrament we started after we sung, Spence started giving his testimony and I was like shh hey shush stop. He was all mad like whattt?! He had started giving his testimony before we had the sacrament haha. He was pretty red and everyone had a good laugh about that haha.

We go to church in someone building where they work as like a tailor basically, every Sunday after we pass by all of our people we have to take 30 chairs there, clean out the place, and set everything up.

Jobs are but not limited to: branch president, home teacher, Sunday school teacher, priesthood teacher, relief society president, nursery leader etc... haha It's just starting up so we do absolutely everything. If the missionaries weren't here nothing would be done so sometimes it sucks just because like the members rely on us to do everything and don't wanna help us like give prayers talks stuff like that. Some days they get real annoying because everyone gets butt hurt if we don't pass by them everyday because that's what the missionaries before did. Also people here love to talk gossip about other people so we've been trying to deal with all that casaca. Sometimes its chupa trying to do all that because like we need to find and baptize people but then also take care of all the ward and stuff like that. 

Members basically give us the same thing. There's two kinds of food here: rice and beans or gallo pinto. They are the same thing just gallo pinto is basically just rice and beans mixed together instead of separate haha. 

Lessons learned so far:

• Well I'd say the biggest one is never trust a fart haha. 
• Someone's always got to be awake on the bus so you don't miss your stop. 
• Always invite people to be baptised the first contact. 
• Don't carry your cards with you in case you get robbed. 
• Don't waste time teaching people who don't want anything because there is millions of people prepared by the Lord every day so we as missionaries cant waist time teaching people who aren't prepared we gotta go find the people who are.

Anyways! Hope Y'all Have a good week!

Les Amo,

Elder Thackeray

Week 17: Pizza Hut???

Bueans! 

Well 17 weeks in and they havent sent me home yet so I would have to say things are going pretty good so far haha. Hope everything is going good at home. 

Scripture of the week- 3 Nephi 12:14-16 let your lights shine, share the gospel with someone this week!!!

Well I don't have much time to write. We spent most of the time in Esteli with some of the people in our zone, 3 people are dying. Zona Este Li donde los missioneros vienen a morir. We went and ate at Pizza Hut so that was good haha. When we were coming out of the house (we live on kinda a hill) and when my companion was walking he fell and slid and rolled down the hill. Oh man it was so funny! I couldn't control myself. He was pissed and didn't appreciate my laughing because he fell into some mud but I couldn't control myself. I was dying laughing haha.

More crazy Nica beliefs- Can't go outside after you iron because you will get sick. If you drink a cold drink and eat soup you will crack your teeth haha. I swear these people are crazy. My zone makes fun of the way I talk in English they say i have an accent, but such is life I suppose. It continues to rain super hard here. Always makes things suck to be all wet and when it rains nobody comes to church so that's a big bummer but it happens. 

It's been a while since we baptized, which is a bummer, but this week we should have anywhere from 2-5 baptisms, so looking forward to that! It's been like 4 weeks so that'll be nice if we can finally get some people in.

Hope everyone has a good week. Love to hear from ya!

Love,
Elder Thackeray

Week 16: Buenas Buenas son de pollo bien callientitos

Buenas Buenas son de pollo bien callientitos.

There's this guy on a bike that drives around Condega selling tamales and he has a voice recording that says this over and over pretty much all the members in Valle de Jesus have it memorized. But the tamales are really good and only 10 cords. You can't beat that. Sometimes I'll buy like 10 cause I don't wanna lose money on the deal. (Mitch) haha

This week went alright not great nothing terrible.

One of the guys in my zone is a real good running back from Hawaii he was going to play for BYU but Bronco left so now he's gonna play for Virginia pretty neat. Wayne Tuliapapa

I found this quote in the Ensign: "The doors of history turns on small hinges, so do peoples lives, the decisions we make determine our destiny."

Also 2 Nephi 26:33: God wants all to partake of his goodness if we don't open our mouth and talk about the gospel when we get the chance it could cost someone eternal happiness. Don't be afraid to open your mouth.

Tuesday: We had to go to another news meeting so we got to get up at 3 in the morning to catch a bus when we got on we were literally so close up against the people on the bus we should probably go talk to our mission president, haha. But seriously, like in the States there's a lot of order, it doesn't get to squished, you can't really have that many people in the aisles cause I think it's against the law. But that doesn't apply here in Nicaragua. They pack as many people as possible into a bus so they can maximize their profits so I barely am even on the bus literally standing on the steps getting into the bus squished in by about 100 people standing in the aisles and doorways. I had to ride that way to Esteli which is about an hour away. Once we got to Esteli a bunch of people got off so I had some breathing room then about 20 minutes left of the 3 hour bus ride we finally got to sit down in a seat so that was good. Anyway we get to the capilla still have a little bit so we just talked with people I went and talked to Carico and Spears. I feel bad for them they are having a difficult time picking up Spanish and Carico has a Latino companion that doesn't speak English which will be good for him. Spears hasn't baptised yet and that sucks really bad too because when you;re baptizing things just go easier-- your companion sucks less, the food's better, members are more fun and helpful, the bolos (drunks) in the street don't annoy you as much. But the meeting went fine. President had to send his first people home so he was not in a good mood. They macheted us about obedience the whole meeting. We wanted to take a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings after the meeting (in Managua they have some restaurants like that to my suprise), but we didn't have enough time. We went to the bus stop, got tickets, got a hotdog (that was a mistake). I'm not a big hot dog fan in the States and a Nica hot dog is.even worse. But after the long drive we finally made it home.

Wednesday: We had a district meeting. They kinda suck because like everyone in our zone and district are dead. 3 people go home this change, 2 the next, they are just kinda fried, which sucks. Hopefully this change we get some people with some ganas.

Friday: We had changes today elder Spencer came down to Condega. We had a good day. One of our investigators named Chito is gonna get baptized on the 10th. He has been an alcoholic his whole life but he's stopping which is awesome but it's making him really sick because he's not drinking. 

Elder Spencer gave me a tie I said I wanted when I first met him. It's a pretty sweet looking tie. Also when Scaggs left he gave me his Marilyn Monroe tie. It's pretty much pointless and there really is never a good time to wear it, but it's cool to have. Everyone we passed by today, investigators and members, all gave us stuff to eat by the end of the day we just had to take the stuff home with us because we were so full. Also it rained hard and my clothes were still drying so they're gonna stink now.

Saturday we went to Esteli to pick up Spence. We got there, get him, and we headed to the bus stop. We decided to take a bus to Yali which is a community past Condega because those buses are always less cramped. So we get on going good and all of a sudden we wake up and we are driving down a dirt road somewhere. We had gotten on the wrong bus. So they kicked us off and we just had to start walking and find a highway or something. We see a sign that says 15 km to Esteli, so we are like crap! We walk for about, oh I don't know maybe half way there, and this nice car (a Land Rover in Nicaragua?) gives us a ride back to the bus stop. That bus was just as crowded as the bus we took to Managua except it wasn't as nice and I was on the first step getting into the bus holding on to the bars on the outside all the way to Condega. Pretty sketch. But we made it back finally.

Sunday we had a conference in Esteli so we took everyone there in a bus; we had more people than I expected (about our average 26- 8 investigators). So we got to Esteli and pretty much doubled the people in church. It was weird seeing people in shirts and ties like usually it's just the missionaries and a couple other people. It was weird having church in an actual capilla because we just have it in a house. It was weird not having to do the sacrament, direct the meeting, or teach the classes, because that's what we usually do. It was just relaxing, just laid back and chilled. The senior couple there made us all sack lunches to take home so that was nice of them. Once we got home it just started pouring super hard again but the power didn't go out this time so that was good.

Anyways that's pretty much my week in a nutshell hope everyone is doing well. Have a good week! Love y'all!

Love, 
Elder Thackeray

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