Hola Peeps...more from the DR & Greetings Peeps...from Rivas!

Elena emailed first and about halfway through her email time Alexis joined in...

So we had a good week. My companion was getting all ready to go. We visited a bunch of the people she wanted to visit yesterday and she got her hair and nails done this morning before she left for the office. Actually I didn't even say goodbye to her because I was with Chessy's friend and Hermana Mcentire at the church playing games with the zone and my new comp was getting her stuff settled with my old comp in the house until her ride came. My old comp said that we would see each other at the church but she didn’t come in. Oh well. She was good and I am excited for the change and a new start. My new comp’s name is Hermana Vera. She has just about the same amount of time Lexxy has in the mission. She also has a sister serving a mission in Uruguay who has been out a year. She is nice and this is her second area. I am looking forward to getting to know her better. (I am in a district of only four too.) She was in the same zone this last transfer as me so I have seen her regularly. She was in a trio with Chessy's friend and my old comp from the CCM. We are hoping to have some baptisms this month and are going to work hard. (Thank goodness that this email automatically saves your email in drafts every few minutes because the power just went out, but they got the generator going, so I can still write.) We ran out of water in our tank this week, so we didn't have running water for a day or so. Luckily it rained quite a bit, so we collected rain water to flush the toilet with until the tank filled up the next day. I decided that I would rather have water than power. My comp said that this was the first time in the house that she had been there when there was problems with the water. So I was glad to hear that. I just finished my email to the president. I have been enjoying avocados this week as well as bananas and a mango too. That stuff is good here. I have been enjoying my food from the package. I am going to look next time I am at the store to see if they have anything like the things you sent and how much they cost. We had Fast Sunday yesterday. (The power went out again, so we have relocated. I am not sure how much time we still have but it is fun to be on at the same time.) I am doing real good. I was able to print your emails this morning before we went to the activity as well as Lexxy’s from last week. I hope Grandpa gets over his infection soon. I also tried arroz con leche this week that Lexxy mentioned. Funny how things are the same. I have tried lemoncillas which sounds like what Lexxy is describing. They were good. I also like chinola juice. All the sisters got the RS book in English and the Spanish ones are coming. I love the song, Hark All Ye Nations. I think I might get to watch General Conference in English with the other missionaries but we will have to work it out since my comp will likely want to watch in Spanish. She is learning English, so we can help each other. I will let you know how it all works out, but I will definitely be thinking of you all watching the same thing. If you could send Elder Uchtdorf’s talk, that would be great. We only saw about 5 or 10 minutes of the broadcast as we were heading home. I am looking forward to reading all of the talks too when we get the Ensigns. I love you peeps so much. -ejc

So, I am still here in Rivas with my same comp which is just fine. It will be interesting to see what happens this next change. She only has one more after this and I don`t think she will change to a new area for her last six weeks, but who knows. So I would guess that either we will be together for 3 changes which isn`t unheard of or I will get changed but whatever. But, they did pull a set of elders out of Rivas so now we are just a district of 4. All four of the elders had been living in the same house so they have to move now to somewhere cheaper. The lady who cooks our dinner and cooked the dinner for the elders who left had a little party for the one since his birthday was Saturday and he was bummed because no one would do anything for it in his new area. So we had a little going away birthday fest and at the little party the zone leaders called to say the other elder was getting transferred too. That doesn`t happen often but sometimes people don`t find out about changes until the night before if they are still figuring a few things out. So, that elder didn’t really get to say goodbye to anyone. But the party was fun. They had a piñata and good food. Enchiladas here are this fried sort of taco deal with rice and meat inside. It was tasty and there was a version of chips and salsa which was good. And arroz con leche. So that was the deal with changes. As for mail, I still haven`t gotten any. We got new zone leaders who are good, but the old ones didn`t tell them there was mail to bring to our meetings on Friday. I should get some hopefully today since one of the zone leaders was here on exchanges and hopefully when they switched back they gave the mail to the district leader, but if not it will be there on Friday. Anyway, I am glad we don`t have too many issues with power and water. In Masatepe we only had water from 5am til noon but it was fine and you just filled up a couple of bottles to have to flush the toilet or wash my legs off at night. Here we have water and power practically all the time. Rivas is the city of mangoes but I haven`t had one here. I ate them in Masatepe though...real tasty! Also have you tried mammones? They are this little grape type deal with a semi hard skin that just breaks when you bite it and then you eat the inside. It has a large seed. It is good, but it stains clothes even though it is fairly colorless. We have good fruit drinks too. I don`t know if I have tried chinola. Oranges are popular right now. But here they are green on the outside and lighter in the inside. As for news here, there are elections in November so that is sort of interesting, but I don`t know anything about the people, but on Saturday there was a big festivity deal with Daniel Ortega in Granada. Just a couple of random questions - was there a recent tsunami in Japan and is there something falling from space in the USA? (A lady mentioned this.) Oh, and how are my D-backs doing? I saw them last night playing the Giants at a guy’s house who is from the DR. Fun Fact... Everyone here practically has two last names. The first is the one they go by and their dad’s name and the second is the last name of their mom. Names don`t change when you get married. So, surprise yesterday... the mission president and family showed up to our branch. The branch president had called in the morning to see if we could give talks about missionary work. Anyway, I was happy to see the mission president and his wife. I really like her. So the first speaker spoke and then I spoke my quickie talk about missionary work and home and visiting teaching and then the lady got up to do the intermediate hymn. Then Hna. Monestel spoke. And that was the meeting. I was slightly confused and not sure what happened about the talks and my comp. The man that announced the program said the hermanas misioneras and was looking at me when he announced the speakers and I figured he said that because he can`t say my name. Anyway, the talk was fine and hopefully my Spanish was alright since the president was there listening. One girl that came on a mini mission for one change, my first change, said my Spanish had improved. So, that was the excitement yesterday. I wasn`t sure if I was even supposed to speak. I am still not sure, but whatever. First talk in Spanish down. You can hear me in 1 year from now when I get home right before Conference! So, cool story of the week... We went contacting and talked to this lady and she had us sit down. She started telling us all her problems and we taught her a little. She asked us as we talked, if the Lord had sent us to her. That was cool. She didn`t come to church yesterday, but hopefully in the future. Anyway, it was good. Random thing... this lady we have visited brought out her atlas of Nicaragua and the world. It was good to see where these cities are and become a little more familiar with where I am and have been. Well, good week. SO, I am glad the D-backs are doing well. A world series would be cool for the 10th anniversary of the other. I can’t believe it is almost Octubre. I am happy and healthy. Hope all goes well with grandpa this week. The gospel is true. Love, Alexis