Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 10:40 AM

Hey everyone from home. It sounds like you guys had another fun week. I have to apologize though because I still havent sent a bunch of pictures. I have been waiting for something special to come. I guess I might as well tell you what I got with that $120 dollars. I wanted to send a picture but I wont be getting it until later today. So I have a friend that knows a friend of his who has connections here in Nicaragua. I wont get into all of the details but pretty much it is legal. I was offered the newest 64G iTouch with the camera and everything which usually cost about $400 dollars each for $30 dollars each so I bought two of them and also the newest Nikon touch screen camera with interchangeable lenses that also costs between $500-$400 dollars for $60 dollars. In the end getting a discount of $1380 taken off, haha. So that is where my $120 dollars went. I guess me and those ipods just have a bond because they always seem to fall into my hands, haha. I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't real but it is. Dad on a side note there are Apple laptops for $150 each, haha. I was waiting to tell you until I had the photos so you would believe me but you will just have to wait till next week to see. Dont worry though I am not going to just carry them around with me. I am going to have a well entrusted friend hold them till the end of the mission. Now I bring my Fujifilm camera around with me where ever I go.

That is crazy to hear about Aaron Ewert and that he is now getting married. That is really cool. Make sure to bring the camera Mom so that you can send home some cool pictures. And also of the road trip with Grandma and all of the pretty rocks you collect. How is Nathan doing out on the mission? I haven't heard anything about him.

We are now extra careful before leaving the house to make sure we have the keys and everything because we dont want that to happen again. I am just glad we didn't have to brake down anything to get in and have to pay for a bunch of stuff. Also we went and visited the sailor guy again and we talked some more about his travels. He may have lied about being to every country in the world but he still has cool stories. He told us about this time when they were lost out at sea for 10 days and what they had to do to find there way back. He is a pretty cool guy but smokes a lot. He is trying to stop and we are going to help him out. Their place is pretty cool because there is a wall around the whole place and there are a bunch of trees with parrots, chickens, and dogs. He just hangs out in a hammock all day listening to the radio.

I am really wanting to send Israel a letter because those are always cooler than emails and especially coming from a foreign country with cool stamps and stuff.

So this week, the lady that usually cooks us dinner decided to start up her own little restaurant thing. They built this stone food place on the side of the main road where they sell enchiladas, fried chicken, chicken asado, carne asada, nica tamales, gallo pinto, guajada (fried platano), and other stuff. They gave us the option to still eat at their house eating boiled chicken and bread or at the restaurant. Guess what we chose. The restaurant. Now we eat like kings, haha. They just ask us what we want and we eat it. Even better, they make Cacao drinks, which is actual coco beans crushed and put in milk. Sooo good. So I am really happy about that. I will take a picture of that also.

So this Sunday, like always, the people we went to pick up for church didn't come but the ones we weren't expecting came. I am thinking about not even getting up early on Sundays to go pick up people for church because it seems to have better results. I am just kidding but it has been like that the whole time I have been here. I am not complaining though because it is the people we were hoping to come that come. We had two families, three priesthood aged young men, and a girl come. One of the families was one that is really strong evangelical and just argue with us when we try to teach and don't even look at the Book of Mormon. The last class in Priesthood the dad sat next to me and the teacher taught a really good lesson about the Melchizedek priesthood. Louis, the dad, at first said he couldn't read because he didn't have his glasses but that was a lie because he was following every scripture we read in Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon. He didn't say a word the whole lesson and in the end his face was like ¨Oh man I have been in the wrong church the whole time and I didn't have a clue how important Priesthood power and authority is.¨ That is what I read from his face. Needless to say that they didn't go to the other church that was later on in the day. Pray that we can get them baptized. So miracles happen everyday.

I would like to write more but I have ran out of time, so I just want to say love you guys a ton and Really Big Hearts to all.

Elder Ochs