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

Week 28: Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving week!!!!

We are going to celebrateThanksgiving by eating beans and rice, like always! Yeah, no such thing as that in Nicaragua! Man, I'd love some apple pie right now ha ha. Could you send that in a package? So far so good, starting to eat more now which is good. I was afraid that I had worms or something or malaria. One of our members got that and he's been throwing up for like three days.

Been a good week. My companion cracks me up sometimes. His laugh kills me... it's like an 80-year-old grandpa laugh haha, also he's like a little feminine when he walks he can't get his shoes dirty so sometimes he goes really slow because he has to take the perfect spot through the mud field. Even when he had rubber boots on sometimes he walks the same way. I'm like there's a reason you have rubber boots on... its so you can go through the mud without worrying about anything. If someone invites us to come to their church he gets really mad But I don't know why he gets mad because we invite everyone to our church they are just doing the same thing haha.

We're sending off for our turtle shell plaques today. Also, I got a ring Thackeray style it's got the brand on it and everything it looks pretty cool.

We basically didn't work in our area until Friday this week because of meetings and we had to do interviews and had baptisms and such. But on Friday we had a really good day... the Lord blessed us with a bunch of escogidos in our area so we were able to put 11 fechas for baptism. We were worried because we didn't really have any solid people for December but we found a bunch of families and such which was cool and a blessing.

Answers:

As for service we are performing,  I heard in April we are going to get to help dig wells for people's water.

The rules for the ocean: we can't go as a group like zone or district just individually but that's boring and I'm a ways away from the ocean in my area.

Things I like about my new companion. My new companion is super patient with people. I like his 80-year-old grandpa laugh and we have some cool deep conversations about the more in depth doctrine of the church, a lot from the teaching of Joseph Smith.

Favorite activity here is... well basically we just play soccer cause there isn't much else to do; haha.

Miskito is good I suppose. I'm trying to find an English to Miskito book because I guess it's easier for the gringos to learn it. Nakisma is how are you doing? Pine is good. Jisis crist is Jesus Christ. Tenk u is thank you there's a lot of words that are the same in English and Miskito just are spelled differently.

Hope all is going well.

Con Amor,

Elder Thackeray

Week 27: Six Months

No where in Puerto had internet yesterday in the afternoon so we had to write Tuesday again.

Well I've hit six months in the mission this past Friday. Things are going well here. People aren't as receptive in this area because there is literally a church on every corner. But it's a good time out here in Puerto.

There is a guy who makes stuff out of turtle shell like: rings, earrings, sunglasses. It's pretty cool, let me know if anyone wants something. I'll send some pics of one i got.

My belt no longer works. It's too big so hopefully there's a belt in the package hah? It takes about a month for packages to get here so everything for Christmas should be sent around this week or next. It's literally been pouring all week we've been in rubber boots the whole week. I feel like I'm back on the farm irrigating. I'll send a pic of one of the lakes we had to cross ha ha. It's pretty funny.

President came on Friday. We had a multi- zone meeting again. Well it was just a zone meeting with our zone in Puerto, it was good. It's always the best when we have those because we always eat something really good. I only ate half of my stuff because I haven't been real hungry this past  week. Also Hermana Poncillo came and checked our house, we passed with flying colors our house was dang near perfect!

On Sunday, it was pouring rain and we had to bring investigators to church but we were already late and the one we wanted to bring lived way the heck out there but we walked through the mud and rain and got here and got her to church. We had a feeling of the spirit strong after church so we asked our investigator who we had been teaching for a while and asked if she would like to be baptized right now and she said she would. So we were able to have a baptism on Sunday, truly a miracle of God. We had worked and worked all week and had really found no one positive but God blessed us with a little blessing to keep hope alive. It was quite amazing.

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Con Amor,

Elder Thackeray

Week 26: Papusas

Well, the elections were here in Nicaragua so we were at the church making papusas and watching Charly for P-day but when the results of the election came out there were a bunch of crazy riots and stuff going on so we just had to go to our house. Also the main cyber was done so we finished writing today. Lots of chances to see miracles here. The people's hearts are harder in my new area than my last one because a lot of the people we have contacted and talked to aren't positive, which is way different than my last area. It's also a lot hotter and the power goes out every day, but I'm loving it here nonetheless. It is like our own mission everyone in the zone is pretty close which is cool. Trying to get the pic thing figured out. My camera isn't charging so until I figure that out we won't have any pictures. We went and visited this member who has a pet monkey named Chewy, that I guess a missionary bought and left it at their house when he left. 

Hope everything is going well there!

Con Amor,

Elder Thackeray

Week 25: No Letter

NO LETTER