#14 Chinandega

Familia!

Well another week here in Nicaragua has gone by. We have spent the week working with our investigators, and trying to find new investigators. It’s really hot down here, and I wonder what it would feel like to be in Meridian. Probably super cold and freezing. Sometimes, when we need money, we go to the gas station and use the ATM. The gas station is one of the few buildings in the town that has air conditioning, and it feels so good. It’s actually pretty chilly (75 degrees). Anyways, I’m getting pretty used to the heat, and it’s not too bad. But we are always really sticky because were so sweaty. Well, that’s what its been like here in Chinandega. They say that right now is the ¨cool season¨. I was talking to one of our investigators yesterday, and she said that in January and February, its super hot here. So we’ll see. Anyways, this week has gone by really quick. It’s crazy that it’s Monday again, but I guess that’s good. Time flies when you’re having fun, and were working hard and having fun.

So this week, we found another spider in our house. I think that we found it on Tuesday or Wednesday. When I say spider, I’m talking about big spiders, because there are a bunch of little spiders. Anyways we found a big huge tarantula again in the corner of our kitchen. It was pretty nasty, and this one was hairy. The one last week was just a huge spider with big legs, but this one this week was hairy. I don’t know which one I like better, but I know for sure that I don’t like either. The hairy one was pretty nasty and freaky. Elder D. smacked it 3 times with a big 3 liter bottle of Fresca, but it still got up and ran away. They’re pretty tough to kill. So finally, we killed it, and then shoved it in the Fresca bottle. I’m not really sure why Elder D. shoved it in the bottle, but whatever. So anyways, in our house we just have an empty bottle of Fresca with a big dead hairy tarantula in it. Funny stuff. Surprisingly I can actually sleep each night, but that’s probably just because were so tired.

On Tuesday, we had a zone conference. This zone conference, we had a surprise visit from the mission president. It’s always cool to hear from the mission president, and he came and talked to us about the missionary work. We had the zone conference with the president, and then about 2 hours later, we had a joint zone conference with another zone. The president told us some interesting news. He said that the changes here (or cambios as they’re called in Spanish) are now going to be 9 weeks rather than 6. This is a pretty interesting change, and it means that we will have an extra 3 weeks in each change. So after this change, I won’t have another change until March or something like that. Cool stuff. Hopefully I get a cool comp for this next change. My comp leaves for Costa Rica on Monday. He is pretty excited, and is trunky, as the missionaries would say. But that’s to be expected.

Also this week, we had our stake conference. It was cool, and the mission president spoke in it too. The stake conference was in two parts, and the first part on Saturday, we got an old guy to come. The word in Spanish for old guy is fijito. So he came, and for about an hour before, we taught him the restoration. The lesson and stake conference went well too. The next day, Sunday, we had the second part of the stake conference. In this, we worked pretty hard to get some investigators to church. The rule in the mission is that we can’t go to church if we don’t have investigators. So anyways, I was just out in the streets contacting and working hard to get some people to church. Eventually, we got some 14-year-old boy selling tortillas from his bicycle. He was working though, so we only got about 10 minutes of church with him. We went back into the streets, and dragged in some guy with one eye, and a dog. I’m pretty sure the guy was a little drunk, because he smelled like alcohol. But anyways, it was cool, and I got to hear a little of the stake conference. So that’s how my Saturday and Sunday went.

Today was P day, and we just spent the day relaxing. We didn’t really do anything too big. In the morning, we went to the downtown part of Chinandega, and one of the ZL´s got his haircut. He didn’t want to pay for a cheap haircut, so we walked forever and finally found a barbershop. The downtown part of Chinandega is cool, and there are a bunch of shops and stuff. You can get a lot of really cool stuff, for really cheap. I was looking in a little shoe store, and you can get a pair of new Nikes here for about 40 bucks US, when in the US the same pair of shoes would probably be $110. Everything is really cheap here, and its pretty sweet. It’s funny, because literally everyone here is wearing Hollister shirts or Abercrombie or Aeropostal. I think that the companies send down the shirts that didn’t sell in the US, and the people here get them for really cheap. Anyways, it’s just funny because I see all of these shirts everywhere. Oh I forgot to say this, but this week, I got my haircut too. I went to some little barbershop that an old guy had set up. I didn’t really know how to say what I wanted in Spanish, so I just told him that I wanted it shorter. I got a pretty good haircut for 30 cordobas, like $1.20. It was really cool. The cooler part is that after the haircut the guy put some shaving cream on my sideburns and neck and shaved me with a straight blade razor. I was a little freaked out, but luckily the guy didn’t cut me. It was pretty fancy.

Ok, so another interesting story this week. I spent one day working in the other city in our zone named Chichigalpa. Elder S. and I went there, and when I got there, I went on splits with another American named Elder B. So we worked for a while, taught a bunch of lessons, and contacted a little. During one lesson, the people gave us each a bottle of Fanta and some Tortas (cake like bread that’s really good). So it all went well. When I was headed back to Chinandega with Elder S., we hitchhiked a ride, but only got to La Linea. We stood there for a while waiting for another ride, and while we were waiting, a dog got nailed by a semi passing by. So this was the second time I’ve seen a dog get hit. The first time was a puppy a few weeks ago, and now this one. It was about 15 yards away from us. This dog was pretty messed up, and it was pretty nasty. It died after about 30 seconds. Well, that’s about all of the story. There are millions of dogs here in the streets, and they just live off of garbage and stuff. Sometimes we see cats, but its mostly just dogs.

This week too, the guy that we baptized last week received the Priesthood. I thought that it was pretty quick to be making the guy an Elder, but it happened anyways. The guy, Alvaro, is really cool, and he studies the gospel all of the time. Oh also this week, yesterday, Elder D. had to eat some Mondongo. Mondongo is the nasty nasty nasty food that I think I mentioned a few weeks ago. Even the people here in Nicaragua think that it’s nasty. It’s basically like a soup with cow intestines. The people who made it (a family we were teaching) tried to feed me some, but I told them that I was sick. I was actually telling the truth, because the day before I had a fever and a cold. So, luckily I was able to talk my way out of it. I’m just glad that I didn’t have to eat it, because it looked nasty.

Ok, you´ll have to tell me more about this, because I have no idea what people are talking about. The people down here are really concerned about some “microchip” that gets put into our bodies. They all say that Obama is trying to put some chip in our bodies. People ask me about it all of the time, and I have no idea what they’re talking about. Is this real? Or is this just some rumor going around? It’s pretty funny how worried they are about this “chip”.

Well, probably the only other thing that happened this week for me was we did service for an investigator. He is an auto repair guy, and we worked with him on some of his cars. I gained a lot of respect for the people who don’t have power tools. We worked pretty hard, cutting metal with hacksaws or giant tin snips, and sanding cars with just the sandpaper in your hand. It was really tough, and it was hot. The family fed us afterwards, and it was some type of soup with what I’m pretty sure was cow liver. The food here is really different, but I’m actually getting used to it, and it's pretty good.

Well, that’s how my week has gone. During thanksgiving, I was thinking about what you all were doing. I was doing my personal study, and I was like “I bet my family is going through the temple right now”. Or I was thinking “I bet they’re eating a bunch of turkey right now”. Anyways, I’m glad to hear that you’re thanksgiving was good. They don’t celebrate thanksgiving down here, so we didn’t do anything. Just worked hard.

I love you all and miss you.

Elder Stark

[3 Videos of Chinandega from a tricycle taxi]

[Photos]

These are some pictures of a little town outside of Corinto. This is a little bit more rural, and it looks a little different than Chinandega. Anyways, this is pretty normal.  This is what I look at every day.

I took a picture of some political ad in Corinto for the President of Nicaragua. The people down here for the most part love the President right now, and there is political stuff every where, on every street corner.

 The milk comes in these bags, and it’s super processed so that you can have it without refrigeration. Most people here just drink it at room temperature. It tastes different too. At first, I didn’t like it, but now its not too bad. I actually kind of like it now.

A picture of the service that we did a few days ago. This is of us cutting thick metal with tin snips. They were really rusty, and it was hard to cut, so we used 2 people, and it still was hard. The service was pretty fun though, and it was fun to do something different.

This is the kitchen where our mama cooks us food. I have eaten countless meals here at that counter.

A parrot some people had.