Nicaragua

Well, not too much happened this past week. We only went to Ocotal 1 time and it was for the weekly District meeting.

I heard that the United States Soccer team beat Honduras 6-0! Which is funny because, I'm from the US and Elder Alvarez, my companion, is from Honduras. so it was a good win for more than 1 reason!

At church we had 25 people. And a lot of recent converts as well. It' good that our converts are all going to church! It makes life a little better sometimes.(not that it is bad)

Today for p-day we started by helping a family of investigators dig a 6 ft hole for an outhouse that they are going to use. (It needs to be 12 ft) But it was fun to do. Just one of the things that I will probably never do in The US. 

Sorry for the short letter and no pics. Next week I will get some good stuff to send out. :)

-Elder Taylor

I Forgot a Good Story

I was walking to church yesterday with some recent converts and suddenly 2 angry dudes start swearing at each other. And I'm not really sure why they were angry, but they were. And then they started chucking rocks at each other in the middle of the street. Then after a few missed throws, one pulls out a 7 inch knife and tells the other guy to run or he will make him run. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

Just wanted to share that with the home crowd.

Little Boy Blue

This week was a good one. We started out with not too many people to teach. So the work was a little slow. But we were still making progress with some of our investigators.

Elder Aybar

On Thursday I made the 3 hour bus ride to Ocotal to go on divisions with elder Aybar, from the Dominican republic. We worked hard and got a lot done that day. On Friday I came back to Jalapa at 6am.

On Sunday, there was Stake Conference in Esteli, but because we are so far away, we didn't go. So the members of Jalapa met at the usual place. Which turned out to be really good! We had 37 people at church. Another new record for Jalapa! (Just 31 people more than we had on Christmas) We used all of the chairs and all of the space in the small room that we meet in! Even 2 missionaries were standing! It was pretty awesome to see all of the recent converts there and a lot of investigators! We will have to start looking for a new place to meet soon. There are worse problems to have!

Talk to you next week!

-Elder Taylor

Me at the cyber cafe where we email every week.

A Lot of Traveling

As the title says, this week we traveled a whole lot!!

Monday we went to Managua like I said last week. That was just the beginning of the buses!

Tuesday we went to Ocotal for district meeting. Later that day, we were visiting Sonia, one of our recent converts. She is really awesome! And after we went to see Noami, a convert of Elder Torres. She got back from Managua this week, and something has obviously changed with her. Because when we went to just say hi, she opened the door and when she saw that it was us, she gave that door a good SLAM!!! It is a metal door and it rang for a good 10 seconds. Hopefully she will change for the better later on.

Wednesday, we didn't have to go anywhere, so that was good. We just worked hard that day.

Thursday, we worked till 2pm and then got ready to leave for Ocotal at 4. We left at 4 and got there around 7pm. Because the next day we had to leave for Esteli.

Friday we got on the 6am bus for Esteli, to go to the multi-zone meeting. We got there at 9am. The zones of Ocotal, Matagalpa and Esteli were all there. It was a good day, and the chapel there has air conditioning! So that is a bonus.

When we got back to Ocotal at 7pm, we got on a bus to Jalapa. But it was an express bus, so it only took an hour and a half to get there.

When we got to Japala, Elder Alvarez and I were really hungry, so we went to a fritanga. (Cheap Nicaraguan food place) And when we got there, a friend from the city who isn't a member, bought our food for us! That was pretty awesome!

On Sunday, we had 21 people at the church. That is a bit low after having 29 or more for 5 weeks in a row. But there is always next week.

Today we went to Ocotal at 6am to Play soccer on a turf field with the zone. I got a bit sunburned (See pics) but it was really fun

Hasta la proxima semana!

(Until next week!)

-Elder Taylor

A Squirttle key chain I bought

My sunburned face today after playing soccer

One of my new ties that I am sporting today

A Quick Letter

Yesterday we went to Managua, so that is why I'm writing today.

No baptisms this week, so we will work hard to get one these coming weeks.

Talk to you next week!

Elder Taylor

25 pounds of Ties!!