Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Baptisms and a Wedding

So I got something that I will start using to help with my weekly emails. I guess I should explain exactly what that is. I guess I´ll start with a little story. So it all happened this Tuesday. It was going on like any other Tuesday, We were putting up our numbers and the names and dates and stuff of that sort, when all of the sudden I hear in a German sounding Spanish, "Feliz Navidad" and packages appeared. I guess it´s one of the blessings of being in Managua, the fact that I can get packages a lot faster than those people in other cities. So I got this small yellow package, and it was a tie, but Elder Lee (one of the senior missionaries) said that they have another package for me. So I got that and inside was this thing that I can write every day on and upload it to the computer on P'day. So I guess these emails will be a bit longer. Anyways that´s how this story went. As for the rest of Tuesday, we got back to Reparto Schick and after a long lunch break we went to work. What was really cool is today we found 9 new investigators. Which is a whole lot more than our usual 0-2 investigators every day, so I really enjoyed that. When we got back to our apartment tonight, Elder Lopez was looking through some of his stuff in a suitcase he left open on the ground, and found a litter of baby rats! Not a very friendly surprise and I´m so glad it didn't happen to me!

Wednesday: Today we had Divisiones (or exchanges for you cheles). Or when I have a different companion for the day for those who don´t know. We did that so the District Leader could do interviews for baptism, for I and A (two investigators who will be baptized by the time you all read this). I had a good time with Elder Menezes in his area, and had really good chimichangas. Though they called them tacos. I held a pigeon and worked hard. I learned from Elder Menezes that he walks a lot faster with me than with Elder Najera, so I realized that I didn´t have to be walking so fast, and just because he´s skinny doesn´t mean he like running everywhere. Also we found out that there will be a Hurricane on Friday, so I hope that I am able to write to you all Monday after it happens, and hope it doesn´t interfere with our baptisms. Our Mission President sent out a message for all of the missionaries that we need to purchase a week supply of food on Friday, so yeah. I hope it doesn´t feel too bad.

Thursday: Today was my one month anniversary in Nicaragua! So that´s really cool. We finished up the exchanges, and I had a good time with Elder Menezes. I got cake today. I don´t know why they had it, but it said in Spanish Congratulations, and then a word that if they are serious on what it means...I don´t want to write it here. Children might read it. We had a small earthquake around lunch time, so while sitting down I felt the earth move, it wasn´t bad, and didn´t phase me but all the natives asked about it and how scared I was. 


Friday: So this morning we went shopping for our week´s supply of food, because of the Hurricane. So my week´s supply consists of a large bag of cereal, 3 milk baggies (milk comes in bags here) and 3 litres of Juice. So I´m prepared. If worse comes to worse I have Elder Lopez and he has plenty of meat on his bones.  Anyways so today was cool because we got 3 people on date for baptism, so I believe that puts our total up to around 11, but I want to get that number up to at least 15 before Elder Lopez leaves. We did more preparation for the baptisms, and the wedding tomorrow, and to my great astonishment, I ate more beans and rice today.

Saturday - Wedding Day! Okay so this morning bright and early we went to the church to pick up pants big enough for Jimy el Guardo. Like honestly that´s what he is called, he even calls himself that over the phone. I kinda like it. It´s like saying Fat Mike or Robert the Fatty. Anyways after that and giving the pants to him, we went back to the church and helped set up more to finalize the decorations. I actually liked how it turned out. Elder Lopez and I chilled a lot there. Then after that we had our normal lunch, then the Church again. Spent some time with the Bishop (Obispo for all of you Spanish speakers). Then went to get all of our people and bring stuff to the boda. After yet even more preparation and waiting (I don´t mind waiting, I really enjoy time to my thoughts, or just relaxing and not having anything to do. I know some people it drives them crazy, but I enjoy it). Then the wedding started, they got married, then right afterward we had the baptisms. Okay so Jimmy got married to his Wife, and then Baptized his wife and their son. Then we had the baptism for our Investigator A also. After that was like a 2.5 hour party and celebration for the wedding, and then after most everyone left another hour of cleaning up. It was all good and I had fun. I showed the natives the Vogt "go to" dance move AKA The White Man´s Overbite. All in all I really enjoyed today, it was both really packed, but also laid back. I guess not laid back, but just different, a change of pace, so I enjoyed it. On a side note....Elder Lopez´s and my backpacks are locked in the bishop´s office. We left them in there while getting people and doing everything, and the bishop left without us getting them out...so there is always tomorrow. Oh and Elder Lopez is kinda salty right now. More or less for this wedding we helped them out financially. We each gave them around 2000 cordobas, or in dollars, around 75 dollars each. )We only get 2800 every 15 days, and that´s for everything, but the rent. Food, anything we might need, paying for our laundry, everything. So we each gave like 12 days of our entire living expenses= Together we paid for over half of the wedding, I´m not complaining here, it´s just what happened. Though I kinda wish I could have given a little less...Since I can buy a nice tablet here for like 1800 cordobas at their version of Walmart. So if I save here and there. Poof, After Mission regalo. But anyways back on track, elder Lopez is salty. He is salty because Jimmy had 6 3 liter bottles of Coke left, and Lopez wanted one. He doesn´t have one right now. So he used some choice words when talking about it to me in our casa.

Sunday: It is Sunday today. So in other words another pretty lazy day with elder Lopez. I like but don´t like days like this at the same time. But most of the day was with Pidul (our lunch guy) and then a bit at the church again later. There are certain things from today that I wrote in my journal, but it can wait for 2 years to be known. Anyways just chilling with Elder Lopez right now before bed.   

Now it´s time for random things. Since most of the natives have a hard time with the V sound in Vogt, I get called a lot of different things. Mostly Bo,But I get some different ones, like Bosh, or Bogt, sometimes Vogt, but I think my favorite one sounds pretty similar to Bones. The guys who says this also knows my other names, so he calls me Seth Bones. Kinda weird, but It´s easier to tell he´s talking to me than Bo. 

I am finally able to feel cold!!!!! After one month is what I have come to know as ¨Normal Temperature¨ (I got a picture of snow at our house from my Parents...so yeah...normal) I can finally feel cold. So every night I sleep with a fan on me, and the past 2 nights I´ve felt like actually cold while I sleep, even with the thin sheet that covers me. It is one of the best feelings out there. I love it so much. But then again it sucks. Because in the Morning with our bucket showers, the water always feels too cold! So some days I´m all like "I wish I could skip this today, I don´t want to be startled awake by the cold" or "Maybe if I do a little at a time it won´t be so bad"....Others I´m all for it. I just pour it on. This reminds me, while on Divisiones the apartment of elder Menezes and Najera the times they have running water are the times we are awake in their apartment whereas here (in my regular apartment) it´s always an hour before we get up, and an hour before we return to our casa. So with them I was able to take an actual shower. It felt so good. Man I miss running water!
                  
I usually don´t have breakfast here, just because I don´t feel hungry, so we´ll see if this changes anything. On the bright side, If we are able to have other meals with members still, I have like a month´s supply of cereal at the rate I´d eat it! It can last me to Christmas, I could be eating cereal while skyping my family on Christmas, What could go wrong?

So on Saturday with the wedding, we didn´t have a key to the baptismal font, but there is a glass divider in another room with space at the top, so we were standing on chairs trying to unlock the door with mops (the handle part) by turning the little nub that unlocks it. So we tried for like 15 minutes and couldn´t so we pushed a stack of 5 chairs to the glass and jumped in. It´s a good 10 feet from the top of the glass divider to the bottom of the font. But let´s just say, no one died, so it all worked out in the end. 
So one thing I was thinking before coming on my Mission was "I hope I don´t have too many companions who are slobs" but after being here for a month it´s strange how much different things are just culturally, like here you just throw trash on the ground. Back in the states if someone gave me something with a wrapper I wouldn´t dream of just throwing the wrapper on the ground right in front of their face, but here it´s totally cool, and your trash can go pretty much wherever. Like in our appartment we have a corner just full of trash that we need to sweep out of here. So talking with other missionaries who are about to go home, they´ve all said it´s a habit they´re gonna have to break and get used to using trash cans again. (don´t worry we have a trash can, our pile is more of like bottles and chip bags). And everything is so dirty here in the sense that there is dirt everywhere, like I don´t know how it gets where it does, we have to wipe down the church pews every week wiping just dirt off of them, and the church is a closed building. So cleanliness is a whole different thing here.  
- Elder Vogt

   

No comments:

Post a Comment