Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 4:31 PM

So we went and visited the Grandma of a really really big family of members that pretty much make up the the most part of the ward, the Family Calero. Their house is at the very end of a long windy jungle trail and when you get there it is really cool.

In their backyard they just have hills and valleys with really big trees.

So of course we had to check it out.

There is a pretty cool view of Mombacho Volcaneo too.

These trees are the best climbing trees ever.

It is just like those Tarzan trees with the branches all over and the are really strong and it remind me of the jungle Book because Mogli lived in the trees and you could lay down in a bed of branches. It is a Guayaba Tree.

I made it to the very tippy top.

I got some pretty cool pictures up there.

I even had I bird flying by at head level. The tree was on the side of a hill so ya. It was a lot of fun and no one got hurt.

Ah man I forgot that it was Braydons birthday. I will get him something from here. That sounds like the volleyball was fun. I am not surprised that Braydon and Brennan went out there to smooth it out and everything. They are hard workers when they get there minds set on something. I am guessing that they never brought the greased pig, haha.

Our Cita is good food wise. We found out that she has a few supplies from the states like Spaghetti sauce, Ranch dressing, and some canned fruit so she has been putting some of that stuff with our food now. I like eating the rice with Ranch dressing. The Hermana that washes our clothes has a washer machine so she gets it done really fast without tearing them up on rocks but with the rain it takes a while to dry out.

Missionary work wise we didn´t baptize all of this last change which is bad. This month of July though we have a few people and families lined up. This Sunday 2 Fathers came to church, one completing a family, and also a little girl that is going to be baptized this Saturday. I guess she just turned 9 and she was never baptized so now we get to do it. So that is cool. Her name is Blanca and she is very sweet. Ivanio is also getting ready for this Saturday but he just has to stop drinking his half of a cup of coffee in the mornings. We also have Orlando Navara getting ready for this 23 of July. The first week we taught him he came to church all by himself and left his member wife at the house because she wasn´t ready, haha. He is really cool.

So we made another discovery here in Hyrule (La Conception). Elder Sosa has been playing the Ocarina a lot in the mornings and he has been calling Epona.

Next thing we know we find him.

He had been tied up up in the hills hidden. So we took a picture and we had to leave him at Lon Lon Ranch.

It was really cold one morning here and it got to the point that I had to put on a jacket.
I never thought that was possible here.

This is a picture of Elder Taylor trying to convince me to hang off the balcony by my legs. My back was hurting and I remembered a chair thing that flips you upside down to stretch out your back in Big 5. It didn´t take too much thinking to know that hanging off the balcony upside down wasn´t a good idea, haha.

I am going to be here another change more and I heard from a little blue bird that I am going to be a District Leader again! I am pretty excited about that. I am having a lot of fun here and this area is great. I love you guys lots and lots.

Eternal Hearts,

Elder Ochs

Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 3:41 PM

So I have a few pictures to send home.

One is of a miniature pineapple,

A cool looking rose,

That same fruit that Rachel had,

This is a flower that grows on a tree in this park close to my house,

and bean soup that is actually really good tasting.

So this is a Cacao pod.

This is the actual bean where chocolate comes from. We have recent converts that have like three trees of these. It is really cool. You can smell it and everything. It comes in that case like thing

and inside

it is covered in that goopy stuff that you eat off.

When you get the goopy stuff off then they look like this.

Then you let them dry out.

and then cook it. When that is done you take off the cover and the coco is inside which you crush and put in a drink to make cacao. I am still not sure how to make the actual chocolate but I want to learn. Then I can be Willy Wonka!

So wow it was a fun week there from what I hear. Man I am really excited for that new Zelda game. I dont know though if I should buy that new system though. It is really tempting but I will think about that later, haha. They are just always coming out with new stuff so it is hard to keep up with it all. And it is a very expensive hobby. That stinks to hear that those seeds I sent aren´t growing. They were pretty dried out when I got them so maybe they were fried. I am thinking of sending home one of those coco beans home though so we can have chocolate in the house. I heard that they do grow in the states but they die in the snow. But it doesn´t snow in Oakdale, haha. What do you say Mom? Man Dad I miss those campouts. That is pretty funny the prank you guys did on the kids, haha. Were those cliffs bigger than the ones down by the river? I am sure the water was pretty chilly too.

This week there wasn´t that much that happened except me working on those coco beans and what not. We haven´t had any cool Pdays yet either so I don´t have too much to write about. I am sure that next week I will have better things to write about. I will be waiting patiently for my package also.

And Dad, HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!! I will look for something to send that is pretty cool alright.

Well I love you guys tons and tons and I will talk to you next week. Adios

Blown Up Hearts,

Elder Ochs

Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 2:45 PM

Hey my family and everyone, it is good to hear from you all. Congratulations in finishing the fence project. It does look really nice and sturdy. That is really really awesome about Sheryl. I am hoping that the rest of the family sees her being the example and that they can follow. Wow that is so great and it makes me so happy to hear that. Let us know how she is doing with her progress.

Dad you got it right on the spot. That is my pad. It is a pretty cool house. Like I said, we live on the top floor with other missionaries so it is a little cramped but cool. The picture was the balcony where we study every morning. We are going to come back and visit all of my areas so you will see for yourselves sometime in the future. So ya about the 18 people that came to church. It turns out that the area we were working in wasn´t actually our area so we had to turn all of them over to the missionaries that that area pertains to. What a nice gift for the other missionaries, haha. It is alright though because we already found other families we are preparing and we challenged them with baptismal dates too. One of the families came this Sunday and the others will come next week. Please pray that this all works out well.

So some of the songs were actually catchy, you think. Which ones? Did the others out at the ranch hear them too? haha. Ya they pack so many songs into those MP3s it is crazy, haha. All of that cost me less than $7 too, haha.

Ya that drink is a little strange. I want to send you guys something called Pinolillo. It is only made hear in Nicaragua. It is Crushed corn with crushed coco beans and some other stuff. It is pretty good.

Concerning your question of what I would like you to send me for my Birthday: If you can and if it isn´t too heavy, it would be cool to have some peanut butter. Other than that just good stuff none of the bad stuff.

So in the pictures I sent this week are some more cool flowers that are in front of my house. They just hang from this tree and and look really pretty. I don´t know how but two flowers grow from the same tree or something. There are some more I will send next week. Most of them you can only plant taking a branch or getting the seeds at the right time before they shoot them out. Another picture is of Elder Sosa and me on the watertower in our backyard. I like to climb it every once in a while to have fun, but not when it is windy. Also sometimes I feel like I am in Hyrule (from the Legend of Zelda Video games). I found three of the temples. I found the Fire Temple in the volcano in the distance, I am walking in the Forest Temple all of the time, and then we found the entrance to the Shadow Temple with the Bango Bango guy, the temple I was most scared of. This entrance had a direct drop off in to some abyss that I looked down just like in the game. Only to certify it is the Shadow Temple, we cross through a graveyard to get to this entrance and also a little village like Koroki Village, Ooooo. How cool is that. I am guessing that the Water Temple is in Lake Managua or Lake Nicaragua. But ya, it is pretty awesome. Elder Sosa is a Zelda fanatic also. I will keep a look out for the other Temples.

We had a Multi Zone Conference this last Tuesday and I got to see a lot of missionaries from my time in Ciudad Sandino, including my own son Elder Feliciano. I also saw Elder Montierth, Elder Young, Elder Garcia, and a lot of others. It was a lot of fun and it was probably the best one I have had here in the mission. Elder Montierth made a really cool video for his zone that you can see on the mission blog. It is Zone Granada.

Well I love you all lots and lots and lots, and I send home all my lovings.

Dinosaur Hearts,

Elder Ochs

Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 4:49 PM

Hey my family and everyone. I guess I will start out answering questions. The name of the beach that we went to last week was called La Boquita. My normal shoes have worn in the back but it is fine because I have started using my boots for the first time in the mission. They work really well for the muddy area tha I am now in. My boots will definitely last until the end so that isn´t a problem. Norman is doing fine. Elder Azucena put the banana in his ear. Ya, I don´t really have much time to write here. I feel really bad not writing letters to people.

I have a few pictures to share with you all this week. The next seven pictures are of a few cool flowers I found here. Ya they are some that I found in someones garden. I have been asking how to plant them and what kind of environment they need to grow. I want to send some home. This is a picture of Volcan Masaya in the backyard of my area, a view from our back porch and a misty road in my area with Elder Sosa walking.

Today we had another Super P-day where we went and visited an old abandoned jail/castle. It was pretty creepy and they had a lot of crazy stories about it and the history. There were also a lot of bats all over and we had fun trying to get pictures. I took a lot of pictures but I don´t have time to download all of them. Then we went to the market that has a lot of arts and crafts. We only had an hour there and it was too much cool stuff for me to decide on at one time so I couldn't pick anything. All I bought was a knife, haha. I plan on going back again so don´t worry. It is in this place called Masaya.

This is a picture of my comp with a pretty cool parrot. Here is a picture of me with the parrot. This parrot was very polite offering his hand to shake but when you tried to shake it he would bite you. I couldn´t get him off my knee for 20 minutes.

I found a cool Scout symbol with Nicaragua in it up by the jail. I had to do the scout sign.

This Sunday we had a lot of success bringing investigators to church. 18 people, 3 families and 4 priesthood aged young men. That's not counting the kids below the age of 8, haha. These people are all from the same family and live in a section of land together. We get them to follow the leader and a lot come. They have already gotten there baptism dates too. The picture doesn´t have everyone in it because they were all running around. These are the ones you could pray for, also the Family Ramos and Marta Delgado. We are really excited for them.

Elder Sosa and I are working really well together and we are having a lot of fun here.

Well, I love you guys lots and lots.

Overgrown Hearts,

Elder Ochs