26 Apr 10 email

26 Apr 10 10:45AM

Hello it is Elder Ochs in Tezoatega, Chinandega. Thanks for your letters Rachel, Brennan, Mom and Dad. Thanks Eric a lot for your letter in the mail. I really appreciate your uplifting support. It was really cool this week here in Nicaragua. Lots of experiences, stories, baptisms.

Viejo is the area right next to us and it is where we go for the internet and stuff. The old lady is one more house up. I haven´t seen here up there lately so I still don´t have avocados.

So the first crazy thing that happened this week was when I had returned from sending my last email. When we got back we found a new visitor waiting in our house. We had a bat up in the corner of our room just hanging out waiting to suck our blood. It was a little guy but he was there. I got my camera and Elder Pérez got a stick. He then wanted to trade because he said he was too short, but he was scared. He told me to knock it down so I did. It started scurrying all over the place like a rat and then it took flight. It was going crazy and flying just above our heads. It was pretty scary. At one point it was coming at my face but I ducked. I saw his pearly whites and red gums but he missed. I could have hit it when it was going over me but I didn´t want it to fall on me and start biting me and get rabies. He then flew to our back porch and dropped. That is when we finally got a picture before it started scurrying again and we lost him in this little storage area we have. Elder Pérez says that is the 7th one they have had. So that is the crazy story for the week.

I finally got the little boy to shake my hand. At church he had to sit by us the whole sacrament and he was staring at me for quit some time. He tried to climb over the pews but his mom kept pulling him back haha. So we have a handshake but I think that is the limit right now.

So here in Nicaragua it isn´t strange for someone to be covered in sweat and dirty, but the funny thing is that the first place a Nicaraguaian sweats is just above the upper lip. So when you see people walking around, men, women,and children, they have these sweat-staches. I don´t know why but it is. I thought that was pretty funny.

Remember how I told you that they throw water all around their houses, I think it is to make the dirt hard like a floor. Lately we have been walking up to people as they are throwing the water around and ask them if they are watering their garden as a joke. Well no one has gardens just a bunch of dirt and maybe some strange plants. So they just stare at us, it is so funny and then we start talking to them.

The people here also keep giving us mangos. We have so many bags of mangos in our house. We can´t keep up with the rate that they are giving them to us. Speaking of mangos Dad. They made a mission video for here in Nicaragua called Animo Mango. You should see if it is on Youtube. You probably won´t understand it but it is funny.

We had our interviews with Presidente Fraatz this past week and I passed. He macheted us about repentance. Then bought us TipTop which is a poplar chicken restaurant/fast food here in Nicaragua. Afterward we took one of those bike taxis where the guy sits in the back and pedals while we sit up front in the chair. It was a pretty bumpy ride. The taxis here are crazy. The other day our Taxi guy almost pushed this motorcyclist off a bridge.

Elder Pérez reminds me a lot of Kyle (A best friend of Elder Ochs who is currently serving a mission in Missouri). He makes the same kind of noises and just acts a lot like him.

Baptisms this week were crazy. We were only expecting 3 this week but we ended up with six. First we had a reference for this one teenager. We talked to him and he had had the lessons and attended church before so we challenged him to get baptized the next day and he accepted. I thought that was pretty impressive, a 5 minute baptism, till we were walking back from lunch when a member brought up his friend and said he wanted to be baptized. He had already been talking to the missionaries, so we challenged him and he accepted. Then at Mutual the same member brought another friend and the same story. I thought that was pretty cool until the morning of the baptisms the same member came to our house with another friend and the story repeats again. They all passed the interviews with the District leader also. I don´t know what we were doing right but we were definitely blessed. And were are hoping that the member has some more friends haha. One of them we still need to teach before being baptized this next Saturday. We have a goal of 20 baptisms this change so we need 6 more this week. So the missionary work is coming along great here in Tezoatega, Chinandega Oeste. Thanks again for your support for me out here and I love you a bunches.

Elder Ochs