Monday, November 29, 2010

Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 12:21 PM

Hola familia y amigos. So I really liked your last letter and the stories in there. That Sardines game sounded pretty intense also. That would have been fun to play Justin because he is really fast. Dad, where did you scoop that mud to put on your face? Hopefully away from the horse pins. Dad your Thanksgiving video didn`t go through but the pictures were pretty funny. That is awesome that Sean got his call over to Chicago, Illinois. Tell him I said to have fun and enjoy every minute of it.

So we had our own little Thanksgiving meal here in Nicaragua too. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, bread, vegetables, and Jello. It was pretty good. We did it as a Zone. We all paid this member to cook a big meal for all of us. It only cost $5 dollars each so it was fine.

I also got a pretty cool deal on hammocks this week from this guy walking around with a bunch of hammocks on his back. The first one I bought he wanted 350 cords but I got him down to 250. He walked with us to the house so that I could pay him. I only had a $10 and $5 bills which added up to 220 cords so I lacked about 30 and I only had a 50 cord bill in my wallet. So he just took it and I was bummed out because he got the better deal. He then wanted me to buy a second one for $10 but I told him I only have a $5 dollar bill left in my wallet. He lowered the price to $8 then $7 but I was telling him I only have a$5. So he offered me it for $5 but I also have to give him my backpack or a pair of my pants. I told him he was crazy because I only have one backpack and the pants cost me $30 dollars, so no. I then told him I will buy it for $5 dollars alone because he already stole 20 cords from me for the other hammock. He thought about it and finally gave it to me. So in the end I have 3 hammocks, one being from last week, that costed in total $25 dollars Which was the amount Grandma and Grandpa Ochs sent me for my Birthday. Thanks a bunch :).

So we just found out changes right now and I am staying here in Ciudad Sandino, Woo Hoo! Elder Feliciano is staying here another change with me too. I will complete 6 months here by the end and hit my year mark here. Elder Montierth is staying here another change too so that will be 7 1/2 months in the same district. Also we will have a house full of only greengos again for another change. Hopefully it doesn´t affect my Spanish too much. The best part is spending Christmas and New Years with the members here.

So we are still echando fuego here with Elder Feliciano. We got a bunch of people that we are teaching and getting ready for baptism. I am loving it here and can´t wait to get some more work down here. Thanks for all your lovings and I love you too.

Adios

Elder Ochs

Monday, November 22, 2010

Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 1:08 PM

Hey there everybody. It sounds like there is a lot going on back at home. That is a very sad story about Ryan (not able to see the new Harry Potter movie). If he would like, the movie has already come out here and I can send it. They actually are like original copies of the movie with the menus and everything. Someone explained it to me how they get it here and how they rob the truck and stuff haha.

Well what we are planning to do here in Nicaragua for Christmas is maybe have a special meal and enjoy the night with members. We will probably have a ward activity and possibly something as a mission. It sounds like we are on the same lessons as you guys in Gospel Principals. We also taught about the gifts of the Holy Ghost too. I liked it a lot. That us awesome to hear about how Isreal is doing and his papers are ready. Have you heard yet about Sean and Chad´s papers yet?

Well this week was pretty fun here in Ciudad Sandino again. Elder Feliciano is still making us all laugh with his acts and jokes. He is a real fun missionary and comp to have. We are really good friends. Today we all bought slingshots down at the market and we plan to have fun with those out in the streets and on Pdays. They were less than 1dollar each. I also bought a cool hammock from a vendor walking in the street. It is one of those sitting ones and I got it for 10 dollars. I plan on just sending it home some how because it will be a pain to carry around with me everywhere. I would take a picture of it but my camera is already plugged in. I will get one next week. I plan on getting a full size one also.

I have a few more pictures to share with you: This is Oscar my recent convert in a festive mood. They are starting to do decorations around here now. This is a pretty cool sunset shot down the road where we eat. This is us with Kelvin, one of the kids at our dinner cita. These other ones are of the Volcan Momotombo and the Mountains of Leon are taken from a part of our area up on a hill  Picture 1  Picture 2. These are more shots from different parts of our area.  Picture 1  Picture 2  We got a lot of hills and stuff. The graffiti one is on a wall over by the plaza.

So the other day when Elder Feliciano and I where exploring an area of ours we have never been to before, we found a really cool place. It was a rooster fighting ring out in the middle of a little village like place. We talked to a guy that works there and he told us all about it and what not. He even let us hold his best fight´n rooster. Elder Montierth thought he would take a shot at him. We saw them training them and it was crazy. The best part is that the guy is a new investigator of ours now haha.

Then the other day we were walking along and I saw a little lump of black fur on the sidewalk. I went over and saw that it was a kitten that reminded me of Milo so I had no choice but take him. I convinced my comp to put him in his backpack so we could carry him back to the house. He was scared it was going to go to the bathroom in his backpack because he had a bad experience before with another animal in his old backpack. I got a picture with him and his head poking out. I named him Pèpe because it is a popular song here similar to Amilli which I named Milo after. We bought a bag of milk for him and set it out for him to drink. We had to leave him though and I haven´t seen him since.

We have been finding a whole lot of new people to teach lately. They just kind of fall into our laps. For example, we have been teaching a kid that has a lot of problems. Well one day we go to see how he is doing and his mom was there. She told us she wants us to help her son change and that she will be coming to church with him next Sunday. She also planned our first visit with her to teach, not at her house, but at her sisters and the family so we can teach all of her relatives at one time. She also gave us the directions of her daughters house in Linda Vista Managua, my old area so the missionaries over there can go teach her too. She is a really nice lady and hopefully we can bring all of them unto Christ. We have other stories similar unto that too that happen everyday. It is really amazing and I am making sure to say thanks every night. I am loving it out here and hopefully everything is well at home too. Thanks for all of your love and support for me and adios.

Elder Ochs

Monday, November 15, 2010

Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 10:32 AM

Hola Familia. I really enjoy receiving your letters and your support for me. I haven´t yet received my package from Grandma and Grandpa but 40 days is a really long time. I will see how long I can hold out once I get it. So I will be waiting patiently for that. Eric I really enjoyed the video you made. I could understand you perfectly fine and you are right about it taking a while to understand their humor. They have really weird jokes and sayings mostly having to do with animals for some reason. But it is still coming along fine. Mom that big ol´pot of stew stuff isn´t really that great, at least here it isn´t. You can´t really eat the meat because it is mostly fat and bones but the soup itself is alright if you have limes. Dad I am going to send that picture off again of me thinking. It may have not downloaded completely before I had sent it off. Mom my skin is fine already and I will be more careful in the future.

Our baptism for the Family Garcia went great. I was worrying about a few things before but everything turned out fine. The one major thing I was worrying about was if we had white clothes big enough to fit Oscar, the husband. He is a pretty big guy. So we were running all over, calling missionaries from different zones trying to find some. Usually Nicas aren´t that big so we don´t have those big sizes. We eventually found a really stretchy jumpsuit. I gave it to him just before the baptism just praying he could get into it. When I went to go check on him he had it on and everything but it was very form fitting. I was laughing so hard. I couldn´t help it. He was fine with it, he was even joking around in it too. We had the bishop do the baptism because they were good friends and he was pretty strong. We had also married them before so we bought them a cake and they brought Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is the drink that all Nicas just love here. They have a really cute baby too. That all turned out great in the end and they are definitely going to make it to the temple in a year.

So here in Nicaragua it is going good for us missionaries. Elder Feliciano is a very funny guy and he always has me laughing. I guess this morning he had a crazy exercise coming back to our area. Last night we went on divisions with the Zone Leaders because they had to do interviews for other missionaries in an area far from here and Elder Young was sick so I stayed in Sandino while Elder Montierth and Elder Feliciano left for Mateare. They couldn´t find a bus at that time of night to come back so they just stayed at the other missionaries house. The next morning they got a bus to come back on the freeway. Well when they were about 2 or 3 miles from our bus stop in Cuidad Sandino I guess my companion thought it was that one and got off the bus. The bus was really packed as always so he didn´t hear the missionaries yelling that it wasn´t the correct stop. So the next thing they see while the bus is already moving is Elder Feliciano hopping off the back. They look through the back window and he is just standing there all by himself and confused with the bus already getting up to speed. The missionaries were just shocked and tried telling the passengers to stop the bus but they said they couldn´t. They look back again and they saw Elder Feliciano in full sprint chasing after the bus. I guess he ran for about a mile before they could get off. It took me a while typing this story because it was making me laugh so hard. The good thing is that he knew where he was because we had explored out to there a few times when tracting, he just didn´t realize how far he was from the actual city. So it is a bunch a stuff like this that he does all day that keeps me laughing.

I am really having a great time here on my mission here in Nicaragua. The time is going to fast though. Kyle is coming home in December right? Make sure to tell Elder Hiatt thanks for helping me realize that you can still have fun on your mission and that he really helped me prepare for one. Thanks for your love and help that you guys give me and Love you Lots.

Elder Ochs

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 1:37 PM

Hey so it has been another really fun week here in Ciudad Sandino. Elder Feliciano and I are getting along really great and we are teaching a bunch. Elder Feliciano actually was sick for a few days this week but his time was due. It happens to all of the new greengos here in Nicaragua. He only had it for two days though and then he he got better. Elder Montierth, who lives at the same place with us had Dengue Fever the week before so that stunk. Now everyone is fine and working again.

So I am writing today on Tuesday because we did´t get home till pretty late for our Pday in SAN JUAN DEL SUR!!! This month our zone baptized the most families in the mission and the reward was that we could choose any place here in Nicaragua to go visit for a Super Pday. We actually tied with another zone but we had less missionaries in ours so they gave it to us. No we didn´t get to see any of the Survivor crew or competitors but we could see Costa Rica. It was really awesome there and the water was so tempting but we didn´t get in. Some of the elders bought fake Oaklies (Sunglasses) from these vendors on the beach and they also had some bracelet stuff. My comps Oaklies broke in half in about 5 minutes. We then went and took pictures next to this miniature of the Golden Gate Bridge that they built on the beach. I am not sure why they did but it was pretty cool. We then hiked up this really steep hill to take took pictures next to this huge statue of Jesus and a really cool view, Picture 1  Picture 2. The one leaning back in the middle of the street was fun. I will probably send more pictures later. I didn´t put any sunscreen on so I got pretty burnt too. It took us forever to travel there and we still had to head back so we didn´t spend a whole bunch of time there. It was still a lot of fun. The bus rides were pretty crazy too. They pack wayyyyy too many people on those buses. If you weren´t standing the entire time for 3 hours smashed, you were sitting with Nica bellies on your shoulder or head. I am not sure which one was worse.

This letter was pretty short because I was looking through all of my pictures and stuff but I will talk about more stuff next week.

The winter time here actually does get a little bit cooler. We don´t have to use our fans anymore at night and the mornings are a little chilly. I won´t be needing anything though thank you. That is so awesome that Chad and Sean are getting ready to go on missions. Let me know as soon as possible about their calls. How is Isreal doing with his papers? Any thing about Kacey? Also that silver penny from 1973 so I don´t think it is original. Those stories about Grandpa and Russel were pretty funny to hear. I just got a letter form Russel this last Saturday.

So I am having a great time here and I am loving every minute here. Don´t worry though because I am coming back Mom. We have the Family Garcia this weekend for baptism and I am really looking forward to it.

Love you lots and Adios.

Elder Ochs

Monday, November 1, 2010

Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 1:38 PM

Man it sounds like you guys are having a pretty crazy fun time there. Halloween looked really fun. Ryan´s costume was pretty funny looking with his really skinny beard. I knew he was going to get into Harry Potter again. Dad I didn´t expect your outfit to turn out as funny as it was. I am sure it got pretty hot under that beard though. I liked how you showed the soft side of Krok with Kaaat. It made me laugh so hard here in the cyber.

I can´t wait to get that Christmas package, it sounds really nice. Mom sorry I forgot to wish you Happy Birthday and that I couldn´t send you anything. We don´t really get very much money here.

That is crazy how Elder Hiatt is heading home now. His invitation is pretty funny and yes there was very many crazy memories with him too. That address you have is the same address still for our mission. And yes I did see the video of Ashley and Brooklyn which was really cool. For some reason though it is really hard to hear what they are saying. The dry season has hit now so we won´t be seeing any rain for about 6 months. It is going to be getting pretty hot.

So this last here in Ciudad Sandino with Elder Feliciano was really cool. Denis finally got Baptized!!! We had been working with him for 5 months but it was totally worth it. I got to baptize him myself too. I did it on the first try and everything. We had them married too but that was before the baptism of course. We bought a cake for them too. It was so great. He has totally changed from the first time that we met him. So cool. We are going to be baptizing another family on the 13th of November and that is going to be really awesome also. We have a lot of new people we are teaching now so I think we are going to have a successful month in November, but we will see.

Today we were looking at a stand of Nica toys and I took a picture of a toy car that made Elder Montierth and me laugh. If you can read whats on the side, that is the funny part. "Here comes the Meat Wagon, wee woo wee woo." It is from a movie. I also found a silver penny the other day. Of all places I found it here in Nicaragua. I was wondering if it was actually worth anything? For Halloween we didn´t do anything really that special. We just had a normal day, but this Tuesday is The Day of the Dead? I think a bunch of people just go to the graveyard and cry, that is what I heard. Doesn´t sound that fun of a holiday.

Presidente Falabela just came here also this last week and taught a lot of great stuff on how to baptize more people. We sat in there forever but it was worth it. Also our Zone Leaders had a meeting with him this last Friday and he saw that our zone had the best numbers out of all the mission and they asked them what they were doing to accomplish that. One of them is this goal we have to find 2 new families every night before dinner. He said he really liked the idea and that he is going to use the idea for the other missions here in Central America. So Rachel you could be hearing about this maybe. It was pretty cool.

So ya it is a blast serving here in Ciudad Sandino and I am hoping I have at least another change here. Thanks very much for all of the love and support y adios.

Elder Ochs