Email & Pictures from Nicaragua

It was so exciting to hear from Alexis today! She is just starting her second week in Nicaragua and with a little extra email time was able to tell us lots.

So I am here in Nicaragua. We left the CCM on Monday at about 1 and had a 5 o’clock flight to El Salvador and then Nicaragua. Most of the missionaries leaving the CCM went to El Salvador and then on to Honduras. It was super cool because me and the 3 sisters going to Nicaragua got to be in first class both flights, so that was sweet. President Monestel and the a.p.s picked us up and took us to McDonalds which was super sweet too. President Monestel also gave us each a yellow rose when we got there which was nice and reminded me of mom. We stayed the night at a hotel and then had training the next day. That afternoon we went out with the other sisters and I stayed the night in Nagarote with Sister Hernandez. Nagarote is supposed to be the cleanest city in Nicaragua. It was still dusty, but there was not a lot of trash. Then the next morning we came back to Managua which was like an hour on a bus for the transfer meeting with all the missionaries being transferred. The new ones and the ones leaving bore their testimonies. Also, one of the other trainers, Sister Dopp, remembered me and Elena from BYU Hawaii. She worked at the Seasider with her sister and remembered that we came often for ice cream. Small world. Anyways, I am here in Masatepe. It is about an hour out of the city and is really great. It is not so hot here. And it is the rainy season, but it only really rained yesterday. My companion is Sister Rapalo from Honduras. She has 9 months in the mission. I will be here with her for at least 2 transfers and then who knows where. There are also 4 other elders in Masatepe. There is a bank and a Pali which is the Walmart owned store here, but no fast food places or anything like that. It is great though. The people are nice and the members are helpful. My companion is new here so we have been trying to meet the members and investigators since we got here. We got here at the perfect time since there is a new chapel here that was dedicated yesterday. It is beautiful.  We eat at the branch president’s house for lunch and dinner every day and they do our laundry too. The branch here is quite big. They have around 150 attending. We were supposed to have some baptisms this Saturday, but they did not come to church so hopefully next week. There were like 20 investigators at church, 5 of which were ours so hopefully we will make some progress with them this week and have some baptisms in June. The ward mission leader is very helpful and has gone out with us every day almost, for several hours. That is really helpful since addresses here are like 150 yards north of such and such and 1 km east. Crazy! We visited a lady yesterday that has a daughter on a mission where my companion is from but she is not a member. We had a member with us too that has a daughter serving too. Hearing from them made me realize that this is just as hard for the people we leave behind as it is for us. Maybe not physically, but in other ways. I love you all so much, but I am settling in here and adjusting. I hope I get to be in Masatepe for a long time because the food is good and the people are great. We eat a lot of beans and rice and carbs, but it is good and I enjoy it. We eat with the elders here too, 3 of which are from the states, so I have some people I can speak in english to.  So today we have until 6 to do p-day stuff. We are going to get some stuff to clean with, buy some food for breakfast, clean the apartment, write some letters and go to the post office. I will just send it regular mail, so I heard it can take 2 or 3 weeks or more. Thanks for the pics. I got to show the Steimles the Green’s picture which was nice. Oh, the mission has a blog now too. It is something like mision-nicaragua-managua-sur.blogspot.com. It is like 15 cordobas for the internet for the hour and 15 minutes which is like 50 cents. We get an hour for writing our family and 15 minutes for the president. Stuff is super cheap here for the most part. There are some little 3 wheeled taxi scooter things that we have ridden out to the far part of our area and it was like a dollar each way for 4 people. Anyways, the best way to describe it here is like living in the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. Our house it not like that but for some people it is. Most have running water sometime during the day and electricity, but there are some that don’t. We have running water and electricity. We also have a tank of water in the back so when there isn’t water coming at certain times of the day we still have water.  We have a little fridge and a sink for the kitchen. We don’t need anything else since we eat out for lunch and dinner. Anyway, I’m doing great here. Oh and wish me luck on my first Nicaraguan hair cut today. I will let you know how that goes next week. I love hearing from you and was excited to email today. Thanks for being the coolest people on planet earth. I love you all and am happy here especially when I am working.

LOVE YOU TONS, Alexis