12 Apr 10 email

Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 5:02 PM

Hey there, it is me again. So this last week was also very good. I forgot my journal so I may not have as much stuff to write about. But I´ll answer questions. First of all I do have a Avocado tree right next to my house. (Elder Ochs really learned to love Avocados, especially Guacamole, a few months before his mission. He was told that they eat a lot of Avocados in Nicaragua so we use to joke that he hoped he would have an Avocado tree next to each place he lived in while on his mission.) It is right there but about 6 feet out of reach through this cage that is over our backporch, the one I hooked up the hammock to. I look at it everyday. The Avocados are at least three times the size our normal ones. So ya I can´t even reach them. I am hoping one will fall and roll off our roof our something.

We have this bucket also for showering like Rachel, but I just take a shower at night when it is our turn for the water. It rotates throughout the different cities and we get it at night. Ya it is almost impossible not to drink the not so clean water here. All of the members when they give you drinks put ice in it and offer you water too. It is hard to turn down drinks here haha. But the food is going pretty good here. we have beans and rice every meal with some other kind of foods. They also love to smother stuff with mayonnaise. yech yech. I had a hot dog the other day with onions, tomatoes, weird squishy stuff, and and a bunch of mayonnaise all over. the bun was absorbing a lot of it. I had to keep telling myself in my head that it was only special hotdog sauce. Oh and we also had this drink that remind me of home. Do you remember Mom when we would go to that arts and crafts material store? It had a bunch of fake flowers and materials for clothes. Well that weird scent in the air from all of the stuff in the store was the taste off the drink haha.

Oh Dad that picture that you sent is South of where I live. That picture is closer to the city of Chinandega. There is that baseball stadium and stuff. We were actually walking all around there today looking for an internet place. All of the electricity went out in our cities so we went over there to look for one. We hitch hiked both ways. Here, all you have to do is put out your thumb and you get in the back of a truck with other people and go as far as you want in the back. The people are pretty nice like that. So if you have a truck down here, you have to continually maintain a speed or someone is going to jump in the back haha.

I also got my haircut here today Dad. I went to Barberia José. You have to keep your head down though while in there because he has a lot of advertisements. This was another perfect timing moment. I got in the chair, told how short I wanted it and everything. He gets a good chunk of hair out of the side of my head and that blackout of electricity happened that I told you about earlier. So I was sitting there with that black cover barbers put on you in the heat, my head down, with a chunk of hair missing for about 20 minutes till he got the backup generator working. This whole time a missionary I was on splits with was laughing at me haha.

We baptized 3 more people this last weekend. Ezlaras, Diana, and Flabio. We have a goal of twenty people this month. I have more pictures and stuff but I can´t send them because this computer doesn´t have a SD slot. Maybe next week.

I have Rachel's email address now and she sent me an email already too. I got your letter mom, thank you lots. This last Fast Sunday was pretty rough. We walked around a bunch in the sun without water. At the end of the day we had to wander houses of members seeing if they could fed us because our food cita is in the hospital because her mom is about to die. She is also our laundry lady too so hopefully we figure something out. We ended up getting two dinners that night haha.

Oh have have to tell you about this one kid here. He is not over two years old and he has this bowl cut haircut. Every time I see him at church, on the street, or when we our visiting his house, he stops with wide eyes, puts his hands out to his sides, starts making some little noise, and slowly backs up without taking his eyes off me. He doesn´t stop walking backwards until he is up against something haha. For some reason he is like the only kid here that is terrified of me. Every time I see him though I saw hi. Hopefully he overcomes his fears soon haha. But I am loving it here in Nicaragua and I love you all very much. I´ll talk to you next week.

Adio.

Elder Ochs