Getting Hotter and Conference

This week was pretty good. We have a few people that are progressing towards baptism.

It's getting hotter every day here. It's about 90° today. And it's a little humid as well. I remember when Jalapa had the high of 80°. That was good times.

On Saturday and Sunday we had General conference. We dont have a church here, and the place that we meet is a business so, we had to rent out a cybercafe to watch it with the members and investigators. We got like 50 people there over the 2 days! That was really awesome. And the talks were really good as well.

Hopefully we can have a baptism before the end of this week, cuz tranfers are next week. So, I might be writing from another city. (A lot of people think I am going to a place called Somoto) (look it up) But I will let you know!

Peace out,

Elder Taylor

To start out Saturday morning conference

To finish Saturday morning conference

Enjoying pizza after the Priesthood session!

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!!

Una semana de Milagros (A Week of Miracles)

This week was a really good week! 

First off, I will be staying in Jalapa with Elder Alvarez for another 6 weeks! So that is good.

On Tuesday we went to Ocotal to have interviews with President Poncio. That was a good day.I got to see the whole zone that day. And once again on Wednesday we went to Ocotal to have zone meeting. So that made it 2 days in a row going to Ocotal.

And won't you know it, We went to Ocotal again on Thursday. This time with an investigator. She got married on Saturday and needed her birth certificate. So we went with her and her 2 kids to get that.

After 18 hours of buses in 3 days, we finally stayed in Jalapa on Friday through today!

On Friday we had 2 baptisms! We were teaching 2 investigators for a about 2 months and they finally got baptized. And it helps that they are friends. When we got back from the baptisms we had pig foot soup!

On Saturday we had the wedding for a family that got baptized on Sunday.

Sunday, we had church. We had a record number of people there of 32! That is really good for Jalapa! And then after church we all went to the River to baptize. (RIO LINDO [Beautiful River]) We baptized 3 people and the other missionaries here baptized 2 as well. With 1 from the ward! It was a really good day. 

This transfer we had 10 baptisms! That is the new record for the zone here. 

And finally today, when I went to get my hair cut. The guy cutting my hair also cut my ear! He just asked me if I felt it. And I said yes and then he had to stop the bleeding before he could continue. It was kind of funny .

- Elder Taylor

Us (with Elders Carlisle and Vaidez) celebrating baptisms Friday night eating pizza at the best pizza place in Jalapa - Pizza Giormar - 24 pieces of pizza,bread sticks and a 3 liter of Pepsi for 570 cordobas or 20 dollars

Elder Alvarez and me

A crazy niño

Jalapa FUEGO!!!!

This week was a pretty good one. 

On Tuesday we went to Managua to hear Elder Rasband of the 12 Apostles speak to us. We had him and 3 other members of the 70 that preside over Central America there. It was pretty cool. He was there to talk to the president of Nicaragua. Elder Rasband doesn't speak Spanish so he had translators to help him. It was cool to understand both languages.

Then on Saturday we had a baptism for a sister Named Sonia. She was really excited to finally get to be baptized. She wanted a lot of people there, so we did what we could and got a lot of people to watch the baptism and support her. It was a good day.

This week we could have as many as 7 baptisms. But we will try hard to get them.

-Elder Taylor

"Goats in Nicaragua"

Sonia's Baptism

Making pupusas (A traditional dish from El Salvador)

Crown Burger Hat!