#11 Chinandega

Hey family,

Thanks again for the letter this week. This week we are in a ghetto computer cafe thing, because the member in charge of the computers at the church won’t let us use them. We went to Chichigalpa today and played baseball with the zone. It was pretty cool. 

We are back in Chinandega now writing emails and waiting for our laundry. It has been 2 weeks without laundry, and the lady picked them up on Saturday and said today, but still no clothes. So we’ll see, probably tomorrow we'll get the clothes. Some lady does our laundry, and I don’t really know a lot about it. She charges 300 Cordobas for the month, which is quite a bit. They do all of it by hand though, so I guess it’s a good deal. We just give her the bag of dirty clothes, and today or tomorrow we should receive the clothes cleaned. We get like $90 US each month for food, and I think like $30 for personal money. It’s weird cause things are either super, super dirt cheap, or in the wanna-be American parts with American food and nice stuff, they are pretty spendy. I can get food though in the street for like 50 cents US money.

 

Anyway, all is going well with me this week. It sounds like it is going pretty well for you all too. So this week, we have been working with our investigators, contacting, traveling the zone, and stuff like that. Because my comp is the ZL, we get to travel a lot. So I spend a lot of time in buses, or hitchhiking, or walking. Its pretty exhausting, and I think that I am the most tired that I have ever been in my whole life. It is really fun and rewarding though. I have traveled to a lot of the towns outside of Chinandega, and have worked in almost every area of our zone. I go on splits with the other elders about once or twice a day, because my comp is always conducting baptismal interviews and stuff like that. So yeah, I am doing really well here, and I get to work a lot with the other elders in our zone.

 

We have contacted a lot this week, like last week. Contacting or tracting is the way we get any of our investigators in the mission. The members never really give us referrals, so tracting is the primary way to get new families. I have gotten a lot better at the street contacting this week, and its pretty cool talking to the people. 

My shower

I have become convinced that every old Latino is crazy. Especially the men, all of the old grandpa Latinos are super crazy, and talk about the weirdest things. We were teaching this old crazy dude named Pedro, and we didn’t talk that much, because he just kept rambling on about his heart and his feelings. It’s pretty interesting talking to all of these different people, but it’s really fun. The people don’t have doorbells, they mostly just have a door or gate, so the way we knock doors is actually just yelling into the house, “Buenas!” Its pretty cool, and sometimes we have to yell for a while before someone comes. It’s weird here too, because the sun rises at 5:30, and sets at 5:30. But we still contact until 9 or 9:30. During the night is when most people are in the streets, because they get home from work, and they are relaxing when it cools down a little. It’s pretty cool walking around the streets, and it’s really different, but I’m getting used to it.

Volcano

So a funny story. Last night we were sitting in a member’s house waiting to get fed. I was just sitting there in a chair, and felt something on my arm. It was a little black pellet. I looked up, and on the ceiling was a lizard, and it was pooping on me. Pretty funny. 

Ceiling in my apartment

The bugs here really aren’t that bad; mostly just cockroaches, ants, and lizards in our house. I find a ton of lizards in our house each day, and sometimes I find ants in my bed. It isn’t really that bad though. I have eaten a bunch of cow tongue, but it’s not really that weird, its mostly just chewy.

 

Anyways, I’m glad that you’re all doing well, and I hope that you will have fun next week.

Love you,

Elder Stark