Nicaragua - Week 7 ...Hola from Masatepe!

Here's a large portion of what Alexis emailed us today!  It was so fun to email back and forth a little with questions and comments.

Greetings Earthlings -  Hope you had a good birthday Dad.  It is weird thinking it is the 4th of July. The elders called this morning and wanted to do a barbeque, and went to look for a grill. They sort of found one, but it was getting late and we ended up just going to eat at this El Salvadorian restaurant for lunch and had pupusas.  We have had them before - sort of a stuffed tortilla. They are good and I had an orange Fanta. I mailed some letters today and I am glad to hear you got the package.   Life is going good here.  There were changes last week, but only one elder in the district changed.  The new one is from California, but his parents are Latinos so he already spoke Spanish.   He has the same amount of time in the mission as his companion - they will both hit a year this week - but he has been in Nicaragua for one more change since he only had 3 weeks in the MTC.   So that is exciting that Elena will get to the DR this week... crazy how time flies.   Next week I will have 4 months and Elena will have 1 month!  Yeah, it seems like a long time since I have been home, but you just get in the groove here and this routine is just how life is here.  I am enjoying Nicaragua!   So yesterday we had some cool things happen. Well first, we were getting people to church and this lady and her 2 daughters came.  We need to go visit the lady again.  I know the gospel will help her with the challenges she has in life. Then we went to visit someone but he wasn´t home and there was an older man there visiting. We ended up talking to him. He had been taught by the missionaries before with his daughter.   Anyway, he told us he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that he wants to memorize it.  He said he would come to church with us next week.  My companion told him to pray to know which church to go to, but he said that he already knew the answer and that ours is the true church. We were like ´´SWEET´´ - this guy is golden.  Anyway, we have another appointment with him this week.  He said that it was God who had him come to visit this house he was at and that we showed up - I know that wasn´t coincidence.   Anyway, hopefully I will have some good news to tell you about next week.  So, we did some service this week helping a member.  We ended up doing some hand washing of clothes.  I only washed like two things and ended up just keeping the water full for my companion.   I was fine with that because hand washing is a tough job.   I will be grateful if that is a skill I never have to master.   I think the lady that washes our clothes has a washing machine.  They aren´t quite the same as the ones in the states and I think you still have to do quite a bit of work even with the machine.   Thanks for all the mail.  You guys are so good!   Love you all tons and have good trip Elena!   Happy 4th of July!   Love, Alexis