Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:30 AM

Hey there, how is it going there? I´m doing fine here in Ciudad Sandino.

Hey Rachel, I forgot to tell you HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! last week because I forgot you don´t get my letter till the week after it is sent. So Happy Birthday and I would like to send you something but our budget is tight here, haha.

So that is really awesome that the next Survivor show will be here in Nicaragua. There aren´t any missionaries down in San Juan right now but who knows, they are opening up new areas every change so there is a possibility that I could be sent there. So the episodes are starting right now or is it the next one coming up?

The storms haven´t been that crazy here this past week but it still rains every day. It is a little windy today but not bad either.

So you said you wanted to know more about Elder Garcia. Well he is from El Salvador, his Dad is a Bishop, he has two little brothers. He was baptized when he was 10 years old. He has the exact same time in the mission as me. He reminds me a lot of Braydon. He is good at talking with people and has a lot of friends here in Sandino. We get along really well. I got him hooked on Big Lemón soda. He doesn´t like ketchup on his rice. So ya, he is pretty “chill” is best way to describe him.

I got a notice that you guys sent off a package in my email and a Halloween package sounds really awesome. I can´t wait.

Dad, I didn´t pick anything up at the market last week because they were closing their shops when we got there and we didn´t have very much time to look. We were just trying to get out of there in time because they were locking up the entire place with gates. I won´t be able to go today either because we are going hiking up in some mountains that supposedly has a pretty cool view. I will take pictures. I haven´t seen the video of Mark yet because the computer wasn´t able to download it but I will try again this week. Also the sound has been really low so I can´t really hear much. I don´t know if it was the computer or the video. That skit you did Dad sounds like it was pretty funny. Who were the lions? Poor deacons they were probably a little sore the next few days. That is really awesome about Brennan, tell " Nice interception". Maybe April has a video of it because she usually records them.

So yes here in South Nicaragua Mission we are totally focused on only teaching families right now. All of our investigators are families. Presidente Monestel told us that he doesn´t want us working with just kids, teens, single Moms or Dads, but families. He said he doesn´t care if the number of baptisms fall a little but as long as we are baptizing families. So now when we are in the streets that is all we look for. Ladies holding babies, guys sitting next to ladies, anything that points to families. The funny thing is that we are having more problems teaching the wives. The husbands are the more receptive ones, which is usually the other way around. So we have a goal of baptizing 5 families this month of October and I plan to complete it. I am really looking forward to the General Conference coming up and getting our investigators there to listen to the prophet.

Well Big Hearts and a good helping of Love on the side.

Elder Ochs