Monday, February 27th - Monday, March 6th

Yeah so it's time to write about this week. 

So starting off on Monday, we went to my area (it's like an hour trip from the stake center to our area if we are lucky, but closer to 2 hours for us on some days.) But we got there and I unpacked and we went out and talked to some people. 

 

So my area is Poneloya in the zone Leon. And so we live on the beach pretty much (the ocean is like a 15 second walk from our door!) and it's a great area, but not the best for missionaries. Since it's a difficult area and lots of things people could do to get in trouble. 

So we work a lot here, but because people live far, we also walk a whole lot. Like with some people in my other area it was "hey, we have all our appointments like within 10 minutes of our place." But here at times it's we teach a lesson, walk 20 minutes, and teach again them walk again. So it's good here, but also hard.

So what we did this week, well it felt that this week was really long, but short at the same time. That's kind of how my other change seemed. It felt that way with Elder Lemus, we had a ton of time together that first week, but the other weeks just flew by. It seems a bit slower for me since I'm learning the area, but it is all good.

We are working on the people here, and we have a high goal for baptisms this month as a zone. (pretty much the same game plan as my other zone last month..... oh boy) But hey it's going good.

The people here are nice, but we have a ton of drunks, and tourists. So it's kind of weird. Just walking down the street and there will be a group of people speaking Finnish or something. Or sometimes others who are like. Hey I talked with the Mormons back home in Scotland. Just people from all over.

Anyways I can't really think of anything else to right. So love ya peeps. until next week!

- Elder Vogt

 

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Q&A with family

1. 1. Does your new place have running water!? Or are you still blessed with cold bucket showers!? We have one of the nicer missionary houses in the mission. We've got running water.  It's warmish but actually I kinda grew to liking the cold. You feel more refreshed afterwards.
2. After the first week... how was working with your new companion?  It's nice working with him. He likes to work. He has 6 weeks less in Nicaragua than I do. So we are kinda learning and working together.

3. What do you feel the best about doing/accomplishing this past week? Just getting to know my new area. We had fast Sunday and that was super tough because I was very thirsty the whole time. But hey, I made it.

 

4. So it is not a humid there as you're used to? More dry? Yeah as for the humidity it's really dry here. Like I feel super dry and that I need more water. I remember my first days in Managua that I felt I was always breathing in from one of the water vapor things that some people use when sick, but no. I got used to it, so I don't know if this area is super dry, or if it's normal and I'm just not used to normal. I wonder how it will be when I get back to the states. 

5. So tell me about church yesterday! was it really only like 10 people? did you have any assignments to fulfill? So for the church, basically we do everything. So we teach, do the sacrament, and yeah. Though it's only 2 hours a week here. We do the Principles of the Gospel class, and sacrament meeting and that's all. And yes, we only had like 10 people attend.

 

6. I know your Mission has been hard and challenging but hopefully you are finding joy in your journey! I'm having joy but it's also really hard at the same time. But if you think about it. You get to go around just talking to people for 2 years, and they love you for it. It's weird. And it's also weird how much work it feels like. 

7. Do you have lunch and dinner people like you did in Managua or is it different there? Yeah we do, but it's weird here. Like they pretty much live with us, like the landlords and all that stuff, so we just eat in our house, though they make it for us.

 

8. Your landlords live with you? Is it like a duplex? or just one big house and you each just have your own bedrooms/areas? well it's kinda like a house where the garage is detached. We just have a detached house that is pretty much touching the back of their house. And many of the areas in this country have like 2 or 3 houses all sharing the same area, so it is 2 different families (all living on the same plot). One family feeds us for lunch and the other one for Dinner. The landlord is from the states as well. He is a member too, though less active.

 

9. Does Sanchez speak any English? How the communication between you two? Nah he doesn't speak English but my Spanish is good enough by now to just have anyone here as a companion. 

10. How is Leon? Do you like it there? Yeah I like it here, the weather reminds me of Boise in the summer, but it's nice. I'm just not used to the heat.