Jump Rope and Spider Hunting

The reason that I titled this email that name, Is because that is what we did for pday today.(Pics to come)

This week we had a lot of meetings. On Tuesday we took an hour and a half bus ride to Villa Flor. It was for all of the new missionaries that came in this transfer and the last transfer. I was good to see Elder Perry again. I haven't seen him since the first day. Apparently, he got a worm in his belly and got really sick last week. But seems to be doing all right now. 

On Wednesday, we had a multi-zone conference an hour away in (can't remember). But that was good. On both days they fed us lunch which was really really good. Pizza Hut, and a really good Mexican restaurant.

On Wednesday we had district meeting. It was just the usual one that we have every week. But later that day, we went to the lady that cleans our clothes house and witnessed the killing of their choncho (pig) (the same pig that I sent a pic home before) I watched them shave it with machetes and boiling water. Then they gutted it and we ate it the next day when the member's niece came home. Definitely the craziest thing so far on the mission,

A couple side notes

1. I finally had my first slice of tomato on Thursday. They don't use them very much here

2. There is this dog that follows us around everywhere named Mufasa. He is really crazy. He goes to church about every week. (More than some of the members...)

On Saturday we went to the Baptism of Blanca. She was super pilas (excited) to be baptized, even though the picture doesn't show that. We had 5 baptisms all at the same time. There was this one 9 year old kid who is as tall as my hip! But it was cool. We don't have a baptism this week. But we hope to soon. We are just waiting on birth certificates for marriage. Our other investigators are falling through.

Last thing, here I am a giant. There has only been one native taller than me that I've seen in Nicaragua. Its pretty cool!

Stay in school, 

-Elder Taylor

Blanca's Baptism

MTC Companionship Reunion - Elders Perry, Walker & Taylor

WARNING THESE PICTURES ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT IN HEART

We poured water down its hole/nest to bring it to the top, and then knocked it out with a stick. It was pretty big. Nothing like we have in Utah

The Pig

2 Down 22 to Go!

I have been a missionary for 2 months now exactly. And 3 weeks in Nicaragua. And im halfway through my first transfer!

Here in Nicaragua, the sun rises at about 5 o'clock every morning. And that wakes the dogs and the roosters up. So every morning around 5 I wake up for a moment to barking and roosters. The good thing is that I can fall right back asleep. But roosters really do wake you up. Not just on farms!

On Wednesday I went on spits with an Elder Estrada to Tipitapa. They live in a small apartment that is a fourth of the size of my house. But Tipitapa has cement streets.So it is a lot cleaner to walk around in. While on splits we went to this family's house and we committed their son to baptism.

Speaking of baptisms. Geovany was baptized on Saturday. And I got to do the ordinance. I messed up his name the first time. (Names are long here.) And I had a hard time getting the hands right. But we got it done! And he was confirmed yesterday in Sacrament Meeting.

I tried another new fruit this week. It looks like an apple from the outside, but inside is really sour seeds that look like boogers. They are tasty though. 

Other than that not much happened here. We are still trying to get more people to teach. We only have 1 baptism this week instead of 3. Roberto and Luis need to attend church 1 more time to be baptized. But Blanca is still on track!

Peace out, talk to you next week

 

-Elder Taylor

Geovany's Baptism

A cockroach that we threw into a spider web

The sour fruit that looks like boogers

A field that is in the outlandish part of our area

When it Rains, it Pours

That is all too true here in Nicaragua. When the rain starts, it starts hard. It is weird, because the houses and churches have tin roofs. So when the rain is falling you can't hear anything. And since most of the streets are dirt, when it rains, the streets turn to mud. And it rained 4 days this week!

Yesterday for church I went on splits with Elder Martinez to a nearby city called Cristo Rey. The ward building is just a house made up of 2 bedrooms with the wall broken down between them. There was only 1 light and 1 fan in the very hot building. And they used the 25 chairs there so we stood in the back for sacrament meeting. But the good thing is that I saw one of our investigators there. During the 3rd hour, the rain was so hard that we just stopped church and went home because we couldn't hear.

On Saturday, we went to a baptism that the other elders had. And on the way back we were squished onto a bus with about 70 people. We were all so crowded!

I also tried 2 new fruits on Saturday. One is a red fruit that you break open and eat the white insides and the other is this purple plant that tasted like lemonade.

Speaking of fruit. We have a mango tree above our house. And every once in a while, the mangoes will fall on our metal roof and make a HUGE BANG!!! It is really startling sometimes. And the other day, we went to lady that makes us lunch everyday. She put out this cheese that is really nasty. It was in the shape of bread, so I took a huge bit and almost lost my lunch that I had just eaten!

There is this one guy that really likes North Americans. (White People) He came up to me and just gave me a really long and awkward hug. But hey, its better than those people who like to yell Gringo at me all the time!

This Saturday is the baptism of Geovany. And I might get to baptize him! Ill let you know. With 3 more next week.

That's all folks,

Stay in school!

-Elder Taylor

Me chillin' in a hammock in our house

Riding to an appointment in a bike car

How we drink Coke here in Nicaragua

Today at a water balloon fight for P-day

Piñata from today as well

We are not in Kansas Anymore!

This was one crazy week! On last Monday morning we left to the the airport at 3:30 am. I saw the fam at the airport and then headed off. We got to Georgia about 12:30pm. And had a 6 hour layover. We finally left and got to Nicaragua about 9:30pm. We saw President Poncio waiting for us when we finally got through customs.

We were waiting to get on a mission bus and while doing so, there was this little dude going around giving out these weird things of string. It was really weird.

The first thing that we did was go to Pizza Hut. We ate dinner there at 11:45 pm. And then we went to our house for the night (Pictures included). All the houses here are really hot. And they don't have air conditioning. So we use fans. They help a lot. 

The next day we went to the church. We had an introduction to the mission type thing and then we met our companions. As I said before my companion is Elder Sanchez from El Salvador. It is hard sometimes to communicate, but we get by.

We took a super crowded bus to our area Ciudadela. It is a small little town that is very poor. But not so poor that they don't have televisions and cell phones. Most of the houses are shacks with dirt floors. But everyone is really nice and are happy for what they have. Our house has tile floors. I have pics on either this email or another with pics. We take bucket showers. That is pretty weird. But I'm getting used to it.

All the streets are dirt. They all have tons of water and garbage in them. It doesn't smell that bad all the time though. It is always hot. I drink probably a gallon a day of water, or we go to the store/house near us and buy a coke. The other day there was this really dirty hobo walking through the town. We saw him everywhere. I just thought that was a thing to share.

Yesterday at church there were about 20-30 people. That was good. There was a dog that came to church as well. We have 4 investigators with baptism dates. Geovani, Jessica, Roberto, and Guadelupe. We got 3 of them this week. Well, that is all I have for this week!

Stay duanes(cool)

--

-Elder Taylor​

I forgot to write about how there are dogs, chickens, and cats running everywhere in the streets. Lots of people have pigs too! 

Sister Poncia, me, Elder Sanchez and President Poncia

I Made It

Hey, just writing home to say that I made it to Nicaragua. I am safe and sound. I am in an area called Cuidadlo. If you want to see where that is look up Tipitapa. It is a near by city. My companion is Elder Sanchez. He is from El Salvador. I'll write more Monday! 


Stay frosty

- 

-Elder Taylor