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.) 

Week 31: 7 months!!!

Last Zone Meeting before transfers.

7 months!!! Crazy how fast time is flying by! This week went pretty well. On Tuesday my companion had to get an ingrown toenail removed.  He thought they were just going to take off the ingrown part, but they took the whole toenail off!!! It was looking pretty nasty! He can't really walk but he's a hard worker so we still went out and worked.  He just kinda scooted along and had to wear sandals.  It worked out for most of the week but on Sunday it was pouring down rain so his feet got soaked! 

I spoke at church on Sunday.  I spoke about how as members of the church we have a special light and we need to let our light shine and not hide it under a bushel.  Basically, 3 Nephi 12:14-16.

Ice Cream at Dos Pinos after radio session.

Our two baptisms fell through this week.  The first one fell through because our investigator went off to do an errand and just never came back.  Hopefully, he's OK we haven't heard from him since.  The other one was a lady that ended up having her baby this week.  We thought it was best not to bring the baby out in the wind and rain just to be baptized.

Anyway, everything is going well here, hope everyone is doing well back home.

Con Amor,

Elder Thackeray

Sand Flies! Natures super bug!

Week 30: No Power, No Water, and an Altercation

Already December! Where does the time go? Really crazy fast. 

Well, things are going well here but we have been without power and water since Friday so that's been fun haha. It's starting to get really hot here. I am exhausted after we played soccer in the heat. I'm dying haha. I'm gonna be looking black when I come back haha.

We went to visit a couple of our investigators but when we got there this drunk guy came out (our investigators' stepdad) and starts yelling, telling us to never come back to his house or he was going to meet us with a machete or his pistol. Then pulled his shirt up and he had like a little iron rod like he was getting ready to fight. Drunk people haha! He just kept yelling. I turned around and my companion was already gone half way down the road cause he was scared. But the guy followed me for a little bit and kept yelling and made a big scene in front of everyone so we couldn't do anything cool.

Answers: Spiritual experience this week was... hmm... hard to say this week was a tough grinding week. A lot of hard hearts, not a lot of people wanted to listen, but.our prayers were answered in that no one robbed our house because if you leave your house without turning the light on someone almost always robs it and for four days nobody robbed us.

I love how humble the people are here and how they live and are happy with almost nothing. It's quite impressive.

The food I miss from my last area is GALLO PINTO(Beans and Rice), I really miss a member who made the best gallo pinto../ it was the best.

Hope you guys have a good week.
Love,

Elder Thackeray

Week 29: Hurricane

We got a call on Tuesday that we had to go and buy food for a week and water for a month because we got news from the Area Seventy that a hurricane was coming and we needed to be prepared. We got our house prepped.We had all of the goods that we needed. Andddddddddddd it never came... it didn't even rain. We are having the best weather I have since I been here. haha.

Well, hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving. We went out as a zone and ate at a restaurant, definitely wasn't home but it was better than the regular beans and rice we have haha.

When I was on changes with Elder Samol, we had a noche de hermanamiento, we played baseball. It was a good time, I threw the ball and it accidentally hit a little kid in the head. I felt bad but he was fine.

It rained real hard on Friday, we thought the hurricane was coming, but again it never did.

Anyways, pretty normal week hope all is well.

Con amor,

Elder Thackeray