Elena said...
It´s been a good week here, we haven´t had as much success as we would like, but that doesn´t get me down. We had a conference this week with a couple of zones with Elder Cornish and the mission president and his wife. We had pizza too. The leaders in the mission and the trainers had a meeting on Thursday, so I went with my old comp and her comp from Paraguay in their area for part of the day. It was really great talking to my old companion. It is really weird how you get used to being with someone (even someone you don´t know). We ate empanadas and ice cream. It was a good day. It was funny this week, I went up to someone to invite them to church and the guy was like, you don´t have to speak in Spanish, so I invited him to church in English but it was really weird trying to translate everything I usually say back to English. My old comp and I taught the other hermana the plan of salvation first in English and then in Spanish as part of our comp study on Thursday. It wasn´t as easy as I thought it would be to teach in English. I am still trying to learn how to teach and figure out how to say what I want in Spanish but I know it will come with time. We have a great investigator that we hope will continue to progress and hopefully we´ll find some new people too. Sometimes I still get a little freaked out when my comp looks at me during or at the beginning of the lesson and expects me to say something intelligent, but I know I am improving...just slowly. Anyways, things are good here. I will hit 3 months this week and 4 weeks here this week. Craziness! I can´t believe Lexxy has 6 months this week. Everyone says that it goes by fast. It still seems like a long time, but the time does go by fast. I am doing well here and love all of the fabulous mail from my favorite peeps. You are the bestest! Today we went to a park with all of the missionaries that are in the city. (Carl’ & Wendy's son is not in the city so I didn´t see him). After we went to the park, we went to the Chinatown area. We had a sandwich and smoothie for lunch which was good. Then we went shopping at the grocery store. Today at the park the other hermanas were saying that the new president is going to send the sisters home when they have 18 months no matter if it is during a transfer, so that would mean I would come home Dec. 15, which would be good. I´ll keep you posted on what I find out and when it gets closer :) Hopefully I´ll be home for Christmas. Whenever it is will be fantabulous since it will be the most glorious reunion ever. I always get so excited to hear from all of you. Mondays are the bestest. It is really a great boost to hear from all of you. I hope gramps is doing better. This lady that we´ve been visiting, who I have a hard time understanding, told us that is was raining in New York and that we could take a bus to New York. I told my comp that I have a friend in New York that we could go visit. :) We have a little Dominican washer that everyone has here that spins your clothes around for 15 minutes and then you put it in a different compartment in the same machine that spins out the water. We have to rinse by hand before you put it in the dryer thing and then we hang the clothes up in our extra bedroom to dry or out on the little balcony thing. We sometimes do it on Mondays but I didn´t get mine done because the power was out, so I´ll do it another morning this week. I´ll send a picture some time of the washer. I am becoming a professional at washing my clothes this way. It´s not a big deal, but I am looking forward to a regular washer and dryer back home. I still can´t believe sometimes that I am actually here wearing the name tag and all. It is going to be an awesome experience to look back on for the rest of my life. I can´t wait to share all of our stories. Well, I probably should go. Love you all tons and tons. Until next week. You peeps are the bestest. Love, ejc
Alexis said...
So I am on the computer now. Good to get your emails. I don`t know how long you have been on Lenny, but it is good to hear from you and by the way the companion staring at you waiting for you to speak still happens to me. But whatever. That’s the kind of washers they have here. Well not everyone has one, but I know what you are talking about. So on the 10th I hit one month here in Rivas and Friday is my big 6 month mark (CRAZY!) and Thursday is 3 for Lenny. So I think I will celebrate with an ice cream or something. Anyway, I can`t believe it has been 6 months and that I am actually here. I was thinking about when I left and sometimes I am surprised that I actually sent in my papers to come here, but it was a great decision and I am sure glad I did. The gospel is true. I am happy to have such great peeps supporting me at home and in the DR. So it was weird thinking about 9-11 yesterday. I did have some patriotic music going in my head as we walked around getting people for church, except it is kind of hard to remember words in the English songs and hymns. But I can`t believe it has been 10 years. I was just 12 when that happened. Well, anyway, I am glad to hear gramps is doing alright. SO yesterday, the girl where we eat dinner at (we changed to a different members house for dinner, but still eat lunch at the same house) had her calc homework out. That was weird to see all the symbols I recognized with the Spanish in the problems. Just a random fact - you can buy toasted bread in the grocery store. People don´t have toasters here, so you can buy packaged toasted bread. Well, life is good here. There is just one week left in this change. Don`t know if we will stay or what will happen, but it’s all good. We have had some issues with pastors of our investigators visiting them and inviting them back to their old church, but we will keep working. I imagine it is quite difficult to give up a church with people you know, even if you have a testimony. Change is not easy. But we are working and we had a good ward council yesterday. It makes it so much easier to work together with the members. We all have the same goals of retaining and reactivating these folks so if we work together we can do it. The hard part is that most of the presidencies - branch, RS, elders quorum, YW, YW - aren`t complete so it is difficult for just the president to do all the visits. But hopefully they can fill them up so the work will be easier. We had some people we are working with come to church this week. I am doing well. So, I will see about getting my shoes resoled today after I am done here. We shall see. I enjoyed all the emailing back and forth. I am guessing next week, we will have an activity since it is the last p-day of the change. At first I liked just having my p-days to myself, but I like seeing all the other missionaries and having fun like last week. I am so happy having you guys supporting me. I am so grateful that I have the best family on planet earth. I am so grateful knowing we can be together forever. And that day will be awesome next year when we are all together again whenever it is. We can have lots of late nights telling real good and crazy stories we just can`t explain on email. Those will definitely be some great times. But yes, sometimes it is a little unreal that I am actually here in Nicaragua speaking Spanish being a missionary. Sometimes I still think and feel that I am new, but I realize I am not. I love you so much. Well, got to go, I hope you have a fantastic week. I love this hour of email time and was glad to be on with Elena too. Have a good week Lenny. Love you tons. And until next week - Love, Alexis
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