Anyways here goes nothing. After writing all of you fine people last Monday...well we hung with Pidul, and then got dinner. So yeah not much. Hasta Mannana!
Tuesday!
Okay so we started this day off like any other Tuesday, with another
reunion in Villa Flor. So our zone meeting went fine as usual, though it
seemed pretty slow. Wow it feels like a long time since it happened,
but then again I know it was only today. Chupa. Today we had more
lessons like usual, so it seemed like any other day. We would have
gotten more work done but a few things popped up. For example we made
the long walk to Villa Cuba and immediately once getting there we got a
call, so we had to leave and pick up various papers. Lucky for us, Pidul
and his family passed us by in a Taxi with a member driver, so we got in
and did it that way but it still took up a lot of time. And then later
in the night while doing a lesson with some new investigators (the father
of one - he was an older gentleman, probably in his 60s) came out and had
like a bible bashing thing with Elder Lopez for like an hour. So not
very good. I understood lots of it, but I was missing enough that it
didn't sound as weird to me as what he was actually saying, so later I
asked Elder Lopez what the guy was saying, and he was saying stuff like
he believes that after Christ died, him and god are no more, and it´s
only the spirit of god, and that it lives in him because his body is a
temple of god, but the spirit of god only dwells in his body and nowhere
else. So yeah. Anyways I´m tired so no more for today.
Wednesday!
Money Money Money Money!!! So more or less we get paid every 15th and
30th of each month, so that was today! So we went to the store with
Pidul to withdraw our money, and then we went and bought some nice food
for lunch. Yum! One cool thing though is at
lunch Pidul (our Lunch guy) said that with my new companion, I will only
have to pay 400 cordobas every 15 days instead of the usual 800, that
my companiono will have to pay. So tender mercies, I´m really grateful.
Tomorrow we have interviews with the Mission president, so we are
getting montons de cosas listo para lo.
Thursday!
Woah it´s already December! Muy Loco. So today we started off the day
with interviews with the Mission president. We went to the Stake center
and did that, and some training exercises, and they went over our
agendas, and through our phones, and wanted pictures of our apartments,
to show their cleanliness levels. I´ll go ever each thing. So the
exercises were okay, just teaching different aspects of the gospel. As
for the agenda I was missing a couple of things, so I felt a bit nervous
during that, also because I draw in it and write notes throughout the
day, so there are some weird phrases in it like Screw your chicken
strips (for my brother) and various doodles. During the going through
the phone I was okay, but also kind of nervous too. I don´t use the
phone really, but I know that the other missionaries will text and use
lots of swear words in English. So I was hoping we didn´t have any of
that. Though the phones are pretty old, and they don´t check everything.
Lastly the Pictures of our house...So we forgot to take them... So
elder Lopez told me to use the pictures that I took on my first day
here. It´s an okay plan, except my closet is empty in the pictures, oh
and the top bunk, (mine) doesn´t have any bedding. So while the
presiden´t wife was looking at those, she went back 1 picture too far
and saw the pictures that we took with her and her husband on the first
day. So yeah... Anywhooo.
The
interview went good, just how are things going, share a scripture, and
stuff like that, what I need to improve (sending numbers in)
Later
after Lunch for like the next 4 hours we helped Pidul put in cement in
his kitchen area. So that was a lot of work, we had a giant pile of
earth, some gravel, and some cement, and water. So we were stirring it
on the ground in his front area, then bringing it by the bucketfulls
through his...uh living room or something like that, to the back area (AkA the kitchen). So a whole lot of work, but it wasn´t too bad, and hey
now we get to eat over cement instead of dirt every day. After that we
went on exchanges again. I went with Elder Menezes like usual. He feels
almost like a second companion to me with how much I go out with him. We
had dinner with one of the members in his area, Melvin. We had spagetti
and Elder Menezes almost freaked out because he loves spagetti and
hasn´t had it for 4 months. We stayed and talked for like 1.5 hours.
He´s pretty chill I like him. But I love their dog Sassy. (I've visited
there before with Elder Menezes so I am familiar with this marvelous
mutt)
After
we finished the exchanges Elder Lopez and I went to our diner
appointment. I didn´t eat, but Elder Lopez did. I just feel sorry for
Elder Najera who didn´t get a dinner, while I got 2. He has stores
though. So it´s whatever.
Friday!
Okay so we started out the day bright and early by going shopping once
again. Since Elder Lopez is leaving we went to some of the places here that
are similar to a mall in the States, and one other which is a
giant building with a maze of shops, and stalls, and random stuff.
Anyways One day I want to buy a machete here. Cause 1 cool souvenir,
and 2 these machetes are way more sturdy and durable than the ones in
the states. Like a story I heard from another Chele I don´t remember
who, though I think it was elder Hodges, he said that one of their
investigators, or members. One time in the past when he was drunk, got
into a fight with someone, went into his house grabbed his machete and... well in the words of Brother Clark "Loppin off noggins". (August my
brother is right. He had a way with words) Anyways, after we got back
and had lunch, we went with a member, Bismar (Aka What´s up baby!) to our
lessons. Then later for mutual they play football here most of the
times, so Elder Lopez and Elder Najera did that with the young men,
while Elder Menezes and I sat on the railing of the outside stairs,
watching them and talking. That took about an hour, then after that we
went to the Family of Luis, (the 4 of us) and we visited with them for a
while. During that I was chatting with Elder Najera for a lot of it. I
like now how I am able to have conversations with people. I can mainly
do it if it´s just one on one, when it is a group talking I don´t talk
all too much, unless it´s at lunch (which is just Elder Lopez, the Family Reyes,
and I). But yeah So I was talking with Elder Najera for like 45 minutes
during that. And now it´s late and I am tired, so that´s all for today.
Saturday!
2nd to last day with Elder Lopez, I found out who my new companion will
be, and it´s another native. But that´s cool, I don´t mind, it´ll help with my Spanish more. Anyways for today, we helped build a gate thing for
Pidul - mainly so the drunk would stop walking through his house to get to his
bed. Yeah don´t worry, it sounds weird to me too while typing it. Then
we went to one of the houses of one of our Recent Converts, and he was
hungover. So let´s just say that when sitting in your sink, and dumping
water on yourself, sitting in 2 large water buckets (Like 50 gallon
ones, and hey I need to try that one day during my bucket showers) Soda,
and an hour don´t help, you need sleep and no more beer. But hey at
least he told me never to drink, because it´s bad. Later we went around
to various people´s houses to take pictures, because like I said, Elder
Lopez is leaving soon. It was one members 15th birthday party today,
and if you don´t know the 15th parties for the girls are a big deal in
these Latino cultures. I guess it´s similar to a sweet 16 or a
bahmitzva, or one of those eat the heart of your enemy kind of things.
Anyways we stayed for a little bit, and it was fun. Then later in the
night we hung with the other Elders at the house of Luis, and also that
family fed us breakfast today, it was sweeet.
Sunday!
Okay so today was the last day with Elder Lopez, so more or less after
church we had lots of pictures, and visited a lot of families. Also we
helped more with Cementing the house of Pidul. And we also had the
Church's Christmas devotional today. So that was pretty cool, we had that at the
chapel and it was nice and cool. Mmmm I like it when it´s nice and
cool. Anyways now we are just helping pack Eldere Lopez, but I´m tired,
and it´s past my bed time... Anyways Until Later.
Random
Things with Seth...er Elder Vogt. So I figured out last week that this
machine, even though it is laid out like an English keyboard, since the
computers I upload it to are Spanish, some of the formatting is
different. For example The question mark is where the underscore is, and
shift 8 is the opening bracket and shift 9 is the closing instead of 9
and 0 like in English. So I need to get used to typing like it´s in Spanish. So sorry if some of the things look a bit weird. Like I know
there were Ñ after the weekdays last week, but that´s because it´s a Ñ
instead of a colon. So yeah we´ll see how this works out.
Like
I´ve said before, the natives like swearing a lot in English. Even many
of the native Spanish speaking elders. So I came home on Thursday after
the exchanges to find some writing on my white board underneath a picture I doodled. Though don´t worry, even though I can´t write what is
said here, it´s not like he doesn´t like me - It´s just their way of
joking around. Though amidst the English phrases there is one Spanish
one, but I won´t repeat for all your ears to hear
So
on Friday, at the House of Luis he brought some chairs outside, so I was
pulling one aside for me and as I was about to sit down I look down and
see something on my tie. Lo and Behold There is a scorpion chest level
on my tie, and as I look down it starts climbing up. I´m thinking "Holy
Crap what do I do?!" So it gets up near my tie knot and I can´t see it
anymore, so I am getting the attention of elder Lopez, but he doesn´t
know what I´m trying to say or whatever. I´m saying "Scropion!" and
holding my tie, but he doesn´t see anything, until I move my hand near
my neck and he sees it, so he gets ready and smacks it hard, sending it
flying, to which Elder Najera proceeds to stomp on it. But yeah the Scorpion was at the top of my collar, right at neck line, and I´m so
glad I didn´t get stung. But I guess that´s Nicaragua for you all. I've
seen a good amount of scorpions, but that is by far the worst experience
with one so far.
So I
think I know why all the people here talk so loud and shout so much. I
think it might have to do with the fact that they´re all part deaf
because of all the extremely loud music at many events, and fireworks
going off everyday nice and loud, and the loud shrill whistling. So I
guess what I´m saying is they´re loud because they´re deaf, because
they´re loud.
So
on Sunday was the Christmas devotional, and so we all sat in it doing
that for about an hour and a half. Though during like the last 20
minutes the family we were sitting with and the other missionaries were
all getting snacks and messing around. So the snacks are all like in
chip bags, so it was really loud, but we kept getting more and more. And
man did it taste good. Though some food did go flying in the chapel.
So
that´s about it for this week. My new Companion is Elder Alfaro from El
Salvador, and he´s pretty alright from what I know so far.
Elder Vogt
ps: I got Elder Alfaro and myself lost trying to get to the Cyber Cafe today
