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
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
19 Apr 10 email
Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:21 PM
Hola este es Elder Ochs otra vez. This week in Nicaragua was really nice. This upcoming Saturday we should have 4 more baptisms.
This last Sunday we had the Area President of Central America come and talk to us. He talked about many good things that I bet helped out the people here in Nicaragua. Also our Mission President and his wife were there also.
This last Wednesday we made the 3 hour trip to Managua for a conference. We got up at 3 o'clock in the morning to get there on time. It was pretty fun and I got to speak in English to other missionaries. It lasted till 5 o'clock in the afternoon and then we made the 3 hour trip back.
So ya there are a lot of street vendors here in Nicaragua and there are a lot of them that sell movies. Well this last Pday we checked them out and they have like up to 6 movies on one disc for less than a $1. And they weren´t just weird Spanish ones but new releases. Movies that haven´t even come out in the USA yet. I didn´t know if you wanted me to keep an eye out for a certain one. They had that one Peter Jackson movie about the kid with a sword, Mom.
Our dinner cita / laundry lady is back now and we have food again plus non stinky clothes. And we had another critter in our room last night. Actually it has been in there for a few days running circuits around our room at night. It was only a mouse but it kept flashing across the room while we were studying. So we waited till it went through some plastic bags in the corner of our room and used our trusty mop and worthy broom to get him. He almost got away but we had opened the door and flung him outside. In the end, our trusty mop had taken damage and is now retired.
This last Saturday, I think, we had to walk 3 miles out to this members house because Elder Pérez didn´t have enough money for the bus and the trucks were going to fast to jump in. So after we were done with the visit I did not want to walk all the way back. So we walked a little ways and found a very rare thing here in Nicaragua. A speed bump. We stood next to it and within a few minutes we got a ride. I actually was even able to get a biker to stop and he was going to give me and Elder Pérez a ride but Elder Pérez said we couldn´t, but I think he was scared haha.
It is funny though, like Rachel was saying, that everyone is mesmerized by blue eyes. When you walk up to them that is the first thing they look at.
My diet here now includes these CanCan cookies. They are sponsored by Spongebob and have stickers inside, which is part of the reason why I buy them. But there aren´t stickers in all of them, only select packages. But they don't call him Spongebob they call him Bob Esponja. It is pretty funny.
I haven´t made any progress with the bowl haircut kid yet. I saw him at the Conference but he hid.
No none of the avocados have fallen to my side but there was an old lady up there on the roof the other day getting some. I was going to ask her for some but I was scared because it didn´t look like she was wearing any clothes haha. I may use the worthy broom and try to get some to fall. They look more like miniature pineapples, they are huge.
Love,
Elder Ochs
Hola este es Elder Ochs otra vez. This week in Nicaragua was really nice. This upcoming Saturday we should have 4 more baptisms.
This last Sunday we had the Area President of Central America come and talk to us. He talked about many good things that I bet helped out the people here in Nicaragua. Also our Mission President and his wife were there also.
This last Wednesday we made the 3 hour trip to Managua for a conference. We got up at 3 o'clock in the morning to get there on time. It was pretty fun and I got to speak in English to other missionaries. It lasted till 5 o'clock in the afternoon and then we made the 3 hour trip back.
So ya there are a lot of street vendors here in Nicaragua and there are a lot of them that sell movies. Well this last Pday we checked them out and they have like up to 6 movies on one disc for less than a $1. And they weren´t just weird Spanish ones but new releases. Movies that haven´t even come out in the USA yet. I didn´t know if you wanted me to keep an eye out for a certain one. They had that one Peter Jackson movie about the kid with a sword, Mom.
Our dinner cita / laundry lady is back now and we have food again plus non stinky clothes. And we had another critter in our room last night. Actually it has been in there for a few days running circuits around our room at night. It was only a mouse but it kept flashing across the room while we were studying. So we waited till it went through some plastic bags in the corner of our room and used our trusty mop and worthy broom to get him. He almost got away but we had opened the door and flung him outside. In the end, our trusty mop had taken damage and is now retired.
This last Saturday, I think, we had to walk 3 miles out to this members house because Elder Pérez didn´t have enough money for the bus and the trucks were going to fast to jump in. So after we were done with the visit I did not want to walk all the way back. So we walked a little ways and found a very rare thing here in Nicaragua. A speed bump. We stood next to it and within a few minutes we got a ride. I actually was even able to get a biker to stop and he was going to give me and Elder Pérez a ride but Elder Pérez said we couldn´t, but I think he was scared haha.
It is funny though, like Rachel was saying, that everyone is mesmerized by blue eyes. When you walk up to them that is the first thing they look at.
My diet here now includes these CanCan cookies. They are sponsored by Spongebob and have stickers inside, which is part of the reason why I buy them. But there aren´t stickers in all of them, only select packages. But they don't call him Spongebob they call him Bob Esponja. It is pretty funny.
I haven´t made any progress with the bowl haircut kid yet. I saw him at the Conference but he hid.
No none of the avocados have fallen to my side but there was an old lady up there on the roof the other day getting some. I was going to ask her for some but I was scared because it didn´t look like she was wearing any clothes haha. I may use the worthy broom and try to get some to fall. They look more like miniature pineapples, they are huge.
Love,
Elder Ochs
Monday, April 12, 2010
12 Apr 10 email
Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 5:02 PM
Hey there, it is me again. So this last week was also very good. I forgot my journal so I may not have as much stuff to write about. But I´ll answer questions. First of all I do have a Avocado tree right next to my house. (Elder Ochs really learned to love Avocados, especially Guacamole, a few months before his mission. He was told that they eat a lot of Avocados in Nicaragua so we use to joke that he hoped he would have an Avocado tree next to each place he lived in while on his mission.) It is right there but about 6 feet out of reach through this cage that is over our backporch, the one I hooked up the hammock to. I look at it everyday. The Avocados are at least three times the size our normal ones. So ya I can´t even reach them. I am hoping one will fall and roll off our roof our something.
We have this bucket also for showering like Rachel, but I just take a shower at night when it is our turn for the water. It rotates throughout the different cities and we get it at night. Ya it is almost impossible not to drink the not so clean water here. All of the members when they give you drinks put ice in it and offer you water too. It is hard to turn down drinks here haha. But the food is going pretty good here. we have beans and rice every meal with some other kind of foods. They also love to smother stuff with mayonnaise. yech yech. I had a hot dog the other day with onions, tomatoes, weird squishy stuff, and and a bunch of mayonnaise all over. the bun was absorbing a lot of it. I had to keep telling myself in my head that it was only special hotdog sauce. Oh and we also had this drink that remind me of home. Do you remember Mom when we would go to that arts and crafts material store? It had a bunch of fake flowers and materials for clothes. Well that weird scent in the air from all of the stuff in the store was the taste off the drink haha.
Oh Dad that picture that you sent is South of where I live. That picture is closer to the city of Chinandega. There is that baseball stadium and stuff. We were actually walking all around there today looking for an internet place. All of the electricity went out in our cities so we went over there to look for one. We hitch hiked both ways. Here, all you have to do is put out your thumb and you get in the back of a truck with other people and go as far as you want in the back. The people are pretty nice like that. So if you have a truck down here, you have to continually maintain a speed or someone is going to jump in the back haha.
I also got my haircut here today Dad. I went to Barberia José. You have to keep your head down though while in there because he has a lot of advertisements. This was another perfect timing moment. I got in the chair, told how short I wanted it and everything. He gets a good chunk of hair out of the side of my head and that blackout of electricity happened that I told you about earlier. So I was sitting there with that black cover barbers put on you in the heat, my head down, with a chunk of hair missing for about 20 minutes till he got the backup generator working. This whole time a missionary I was on splits with was laughing at me haha.
We baptized 3 more people this last weekend. Ezlaras, Diana, and Flabio. We have a goal of twenty people this month. I have more pictures and stuff but I can´t send them because this computer doesn´t have a SD slot. Maybe next week.
I have Rachel's email address now and she sent me an email already too. I got your letter mom, thank you lots. This last Fast Sunday was pretty rough. We walked around a bunch in the sun without water. At the end of the day we had to wander houses of members seeing if they could fed us because our food cita is in the hospital because her mom is about to die. She is also our laundry lady too so hopefully we figure something out. We ended up getting two dinners that night haha.
Oh have have to tell you about this one kid here. He is not over two years old and he has this bowl cut haircut. Every time I see him at church, on the street, or when we our visiting his house, he stops with wide eyes, puts his hands out to his sides, starts making some little noise, and slowly backs up without taking his eyes off me. He doesn´t stop walking backwards until he is up against something haha. For some reason he is like the only kid here that is terrified of me. Every time I see him though I saw hi. Hopefully he overcomes his fears soon haha. But I am loving it here in Nicaragua and I love you all very much. I´ll talk to you next week.
Adio.
Elder Ochs
Hey there, it is me again. So this last week was also very good. I forgot my journal so I may not have as much stuff to write about. But I´ll answer questions. First of all I do have a Avocado tree right next to my house. (Elder Ochs really learned to love Avocados, especially Guacamole, a few months before his mission. He was told that they eat a lot of Avocados in Nicaragua so we use to joke that he hoped he would have an Avocado tree next to each place he lived in while on his mission.) It is right there but about 6 feet out of reach through this cage that is over our backporch, the one I hooked up the hammock to. I look at it everyday. The Avocados are at least three times the size our normal ones. So ya I can´t even reach them. I am hoping one will fall and roll off our roof our something.
We have this bucket also for showering like Rachel, but I just take a shower at night when it is our turn for the water. It rotates throughout the different cities and we get it at night. Ya it is almost impossible not to drink the not so clean water here. All of the members when they give you drinks put ice in it and offer you water too. It is hard to turn down drinks here haha. But the food is going pretty good here. we have beans and rice every meal with some other kind of foods. They also love to smother stuff with mayonnaise. yech yech. I had a hot dog the other day with onions, tomatoes, weird squishy stuff, and and a bunch of mayonnaise all over. the bun was absorbing a lot of it. I had to keep telling myself in my head that it was only special hotdog sauce. Oh and we also had this drink that remind me of home. Do you remember Mom when we would go to that arts and crafts material store? It had a bunch of fake flowers and materials for clothes. Well that weird scent in the air from all of the stuff in the store was the taste off the drink haha.
Oh Dad that picture that you sent is South of where I live. That picture is closer to the city of Chinandega. There is that baseball stadium and stuff. We were actually walking all around there today looking for an internet place. All of the electricity went out in our cities so we went over there to look for one. We hitch hiked both ways. Here, all you have to do is put out your thumb and you get in the back of a truck with other people and go as far as you want in the back. The people are pretty nice like that. So if you have a truck down here, you have to continually maintain a speed or someone is going to jump in the back haha.
I also got my haircut here today Dad. I went to Barberia José. You have to keep your head down though while in there because he has a lot of advertisements. This was another perfect timing moment. I got in the chair, told how short I wanted it and everything. He gets a good chunk of hair out of the side of my head and that blackout of electricity happened that I told you about earlier. So I was sitting there with that black cover barbers put on you in the heat, my head down, with a chunk of hair missing for about 20 minutes till he got the backup generator working. This whole time a missionary I was on splits with was laughing at me haha.
We baptized 3 more people this last weekend. Ezlaras, Diana, and Flabio. We have a goal of twenty people this month. I have more pictures and stuff but I can´t send them because this computer doesn´t have a SD slot. Maybe next week.
I have Rachel's email address now and she sent me an email already too. I got your letter mom, thank you lots. This last Fast Sunday was pretty rough. We walked around a bunch in the sun without water. At the end of the day we had to wander houses of members seeing if they could fed us because our food cita is in the hospital because her mom is about to die. She is also our laundry lady too so hopefully we figure something out. We ended up getting two dinners that night haha.
Oh have have to tell you about this one kid here. He is not over two years old and he has this bowl cut haircut. Every time I see him at church, on the street, or when we our visiting his house, he stops with wide eyes, puts his hands out to his sides, starts making some little noise, and slowly backs up without taking his eyes off me. He doesn´t stop walking backwards until he is up against something haha. For some reason he is like the only kid here that is terrified of me. Every time I see him though I saw hi. Hopefully he overcomes his fears soon haha. But I am loving it here in Nicaragua and I love you all very much. I´ll talk to you next week.
Adio.
Elder Ochs
Monday, April 5, 2010
5 Apr 10 email
Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Hey there, it is me again. I made it through the hottest week of the year supposedly. One of the nice things about it being so hot and humid here is the effect it has on your clothes. No matter how wrinkly your shirt is, you walk around outside for a few minutes and it is practically steam pressed nice and straight haha. It is really awesome here. I am loving my bed more and more every night now. I have already eaten some interesting food here. The other day we had soup over at a members house and it was very interesting. I think they boiled bamboo or something and put it into water with crawdads. They only way I was able to get through it was because I had a lime to suck on after every bite haha. I have also had cow stomach, some crazy juices, and fresh coconuts too. I actually opened up the coconut, drank the milk stuff inside, and then ate the white stuff too on the inside.
The other day was our service day so we went to this place way out down the freeway. It was in the back of this long dirt road too. They had a huge pasture with trees all around and they had us walk around with machetes to chop up dry wood. There was about six of us chopping up stuff. Then afterwards the kids were climbing these trees to get those coconuts down like I was talking about. There are a bunch of mango trees everywhere here, so what you do is use a unripe mango that is close to the ground and you throw it at the good ones up top. It is pretty fun. Afterwards they fed us beans, rice, and fried chicken which is pretty popular. There were six dogs and two ducks waiting by me for food haha.
I borrowed a hammock from one of the members here. He had a few so he lent me one to try out and see if I liked it. Well we have this back porch thing with a cage over the top of it to keep out animals and people I guess. I hooked up the hammock to the cage thing but the only problem was that it was like 5 feet in the air. I got in it anyways and attempted to stay the night in it. Well I woke up a half an hour later and I had bug bites on my legs and arms, so that didn´t last very long.
One of the funny things about our ward here is that no one knows how to sing. At church everyone is all over the place. Luckily our church is like the only church in the this area that has an electric piano. It can play any song perfectly by just pushing one key the entire time haha. It helps a little bit. We play soccer down in the gym and outside at the church on pdays. We can take the locals pretty well. They don´t stand a chance in basketball though haha.
We had a scorpion in our house for a few days because Elder Pérez wouldn´t let me take care of it. Finally we took care of it with marbles, lemons, and a mop. I will see if I can send a picture of it.
Some weird things they do here in Nicaragua is: one they drop their trash everywhere all over the streets. There aren´t any trash cans here. They just drop their trash in piles and someone comes by and burns it. Second is that everyday, I don´t know how many times a day, they throw water all around their house. They cover every square inch of dirt around there house. Old ladies and guys just fill up buckets and throw the water around haha.
General Conference was really great this last weekend. We got a room for all of us greengos with a TV to watch the conference in English. I really liked the talk by Elder Uchtdorf about patience with trying to learn the language and everything. The talk about diligence was also great. It was really awesome how much they talked about the family and how to take care of them. I didn´t catch all of the new temples though. I also heard that there was an earthquake in California on Sunday. Where was it at and how strong was it?
I did get that attachment about the camera. Thanks. I think I figured it out. How did the pictures look?
I don´t really know what my address is though because like you said it it is like saying two blocks west from the graveyard on the right, which is our address, roughly. There are a few little stores around us too. The front of the house is red and flat. To send letters I think it is just sent to my mission in general and then it is distributed by the leaders within a few weeks. Sending emails are a lot faster but I appreciate letters also.
Brennen, that is awesome that your baseball season is going good and you have caught bunches of coons. Keep up the good work in school too Nenee. Your Freshman year is almost already up, crazy. What have you made in woodshop so far? Happy Late Birthday Ryan. I will bring back stuff for you guys when I get back. They have some pretty cool stuff here for really cheap. The nice hammocks are like $5 dollars and some other pretty cool stuff. I don´t know if I could get everything to fit though. If you could Dad maybe also is send me the birthdays of people if you have time.
I Love You All.
Elder Ochs
Hey there, it is me again. I made it through the hottest week of the year supposedly. One of the nice things about it being so hot and humid here is the effect it has on your clothes. No matter how wrinkly your shirt is, you walk around outside for a few minutes and it is practically steam pressed nice and straight haha. It is really awesome here. I am loving my bed more and more every night now. I have already eaten some interesting food here. The other day we had soup over at a members house and it was very interesting. I think they boiled bamboo or something and put it into water with crawdads. They only way I was able to get through it was because I had a lime to suck on after every bite haha. I have also had cow stomach, some crazy juices, and fresh coconuts too. I actually opened up the coconut, drank the milk stuff inside, and then ate the white stuff too on the inside.
The other day was our service day so we went to this place way out down the freeway. It was in the back of this long dirt road too. They had a huge pasture with trees all around and they had us walk around with machetes to chop up dry wood. There was about six of us chopping up stuff. Then afterwards the kids were climbing these trees to get those coconuts down like I was talking about. There are a bunch of mango trees everywhere here, so what you do is use a unripe mango that is close to the ground and you throw it at the good ones up top. It is pretty fun. Afterwards they fed us beans, rice, and fried chicken which is pretty popular. There were six dogs and two ducks waiting by me for food haha.
I borrowed a hammock from one of the members here. He had a few so he lent me one to try out and see if I liked it. Well we have this back porch thing with a cage over the top of it to keep out animals and people I guess. I hooked up the hammock to the cage thing but the only problem was that it was like 5 feet in the air. I got in it anyways and attempted to stay the night in it. Well I woke up a half an hour later and I had bug bites on my legs and arms, so that didn´t last very long.
One of the funny things about our ward here is that no one knows how to sing. At church everyone is all over the place. Luckily our church is like the only church in the this area that has an electric piano. It can play any song perfectly by just pushing one key the entire time haha. It helps a little bit. We play soccer down in the gym and outside at the church on pdays. We can take the locals pretty well. They don´t stand a chance in basketball though haha.
We had a scorpion in our house for a few days because Elder Pérez wouldn´t let me take care of it. Finally we took care of it with marbles, lemons, and a mop. I will see if I can send a picture of it.
Some weird things they do here in Nicaragua is: one they drop their trash everywhere all over the streets. There aren´t any trash cans here. They just drop their trash in piles and someone comes by and burns it. Second is that everyday, I don´t know how many times a day, they throw water all around their house. They cover every square inch of dirt around there house. Old ladies and guys just fill up buckets and throw the water around haha.
General Conference was really great this last weekend. We got a room for all of us greengos with a TV to watch the conference in English. I really liked the talk by Elder Uchtdorf about patience with trying to learn the language and everything. The talk about diligence was also great. It was really awesome how much they talked about the family and how to take care of them. I didn´t catch all of the new temples though. I also heard that there was an earthquake in California on Sunday. Where was it at and how strong was it?
I did get that attachment about the camera. Thanks. I think I figured it out. How did the pictures look?
I don´t really know what my address is though because like you said it it is like saying two blocks west from the graveyard on the right, which is our address, roughly. There are a few little stores around us too. The front of the house is red and flat. To send letters I think it is just sent to my mission in general and then it is distributed by the leaders within a few weeks. Sending emails are a lot faster but I appreciate letters also.
Brennen, that is awesome that your baseball season is going good and you have caught bunches of coons. Keep up the good work in school too Nenee. Your Freshman year is almost already up, crazy. What have you made in woodshop so far? Happy Late Birthday Ryan. I will bring back stuff for you guys when I get back. They have some pretty cool stuff here for really cheap. The nice hammocks are like $5 dollars and some other pretty cool stuff. I don´t know if I could get everything to fit though. If you could Dad maybe also is send me the birthdays of people if you have time.
I Love You All.
Elder Ochs
Monday, March 29, 2010
29 Mar 2010 email
Hey I am finally here in Nicaragua. This is my second attempt to send this email because the first time when I was about half way through the power went out in the building haha. It happens a lot.
Well the last flight over here was rough on my stomach but I was able to teach the first lesson to this girl next to me. I also gave her a pass along card for a Book of Mormon because we only had Spanish ones. When we got off the plane it was 9 am and very hot and humid. There were a bunch of people waiting to get through regulations. When we finally got through there, outside the gate was even more people trying to help people with their luggage so that they could get some money. We found the mission president and his wife and headed off outside. We met the APs and we were packed into a truck. There are not really any speed limits here, hardly any stop signs, and no one has licenses. They just drive around like crazy so we had to also. People and dogs were everywhere in the streets. We stayed at the AP's house for the first two nights. I have a picture of that. The first day we had meetings and then afterward we did splits with some of the missionaries. We were again packed into taxis and taken around the crazy streets. We walked around and contacted people in the streets in Spanish, or at least tried haha. Elder Neal almost fell down an open pothole that we couldn´t see the bottom of haha. Luckily I got his attention just before he stepped down it haha. The first few days were pretty great until we finally got assigned our areas on Wednesday. We all gathered in the church and they displayed on the wall who was going where.
My companion is Elder Pérez. He is also sending you an email. He has only been here 3 months and he is my trainer. He is a really great missionary. He makes me talk during the lessons too. He is from Guatemala and knows a little bit of English. When he sends you his email it is going to be in Spanish so you will need to enter the text in to BabelFish probably.
We were assigned to Chinandega Oeste, Tezoatega. It is the most Northwest mission. It is also the hottest area in Central America and some people say in the world. And this week is the hottest week all year long. Perfect timing. It is like we are walking around with blankets wrapped around us haha. One good thing about the heat being 24/7 is that the mosquitos can´t stand it so that isn´t much of a problem.
The church is about a mile away from us. We walk everwhere we go. People here live in houses from cement blocks to cardboard and plastic wrapped around sticks. Some how though almost everyone has enduros and motor cycles.
There are so many kids running and playing around here haha. They are pretty funny kids. Most of them don´t go to school so they just run around all day. Even though, they are all happy.
Oh also another thing is they all have hammocks in there houses. It is a must have furniture here. I want to get one this Thursday.
But yes the people here are probably the nicest I have met. I can´t tell the difference between the members and any other random person. Maybe except a few drunks, smokers, and one cross dresser haha. Everyone just sits out front of there houses and we say hi to everyone pretty much. The other day we were just walking by a house, we yelled adio and they replied back, invited us over, gave us there chairs and we talked to them about the church. The whole time I thought they were members. It turns out they weren´t and now they are our new investigators, about 5 of them. People here are pretty receptive.
This last Saturday we baptized 5 people and I did one of them myself in Spanish. My first one on the mission!
I had an interview with President Fraatz before coming out here. He wants me to read the Book of Mormon, create lesson plans for all 42 principles, and have perfect Nica(ragua) Spanish in 3 months. It is pretty crazy but I know I can do it because "the Lord does not give commandments unto the children of men lest he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the things which he has commanded them" (I'm pretty sure that is how it goes). I have been getting up an hour earlier to have more practice.
Our apartment here is a big change from what were staying in before. I took a few photos and I ran outside and got some quick ones around down some streets.
Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3
Your not supposed to really have your cameras out because even though these people are nice they will also nicely steal from you too.
Well I love you all very much and I have more to tell you next week. Oh and mail doesn´t get here for 3 weeks. The pic with flowers is the AP house the others are in my area and house.
Love,
Elder Ochs
Well the last flight over here was rough on my stomach but I was able to teach the first lesson to this girl next to me. I also gave her a pass along card for a Book of Mormon because we only had Spanish ones. When we got off the plane it was 9 am and very hot and humid. There were a bunch of people waiting to get through regulations. When we finally got through there, outside the gate was even more people trying to help people with their luggage so that they could get some money. We found the mission president and his wife and headed off outside. We met the APs and we were packed into a truck. There are not really any speed limits here, hardly any stop signs, and no one has licenses. They just drive around like crazy so we had to also. People and dogs were everywhere in the streets. We stayed at the AP's house for the first two nights. I have a picture of that. The first day we had meetings and then afterward we did splits with some of the missionaries. We were again packed into taxis and taken around the crazy streets. We walked around and contacted people in the streets in Spanish, or at least tried haha. Elder Neal almost fell down an open pothole that we couldn´t see the bottom of haha. Luckily I got his attention just before he stepped down it haha. The first few days were pretty great until we finally got assigned our areas on Wednesday. We all gathered in the church and they displayed on the wall who was going where.
My companion is Elder Pérez. He is also sending you an email. He has only been here 3 months and he is my trainer. He is a really great missionary. He makes me talk during the lessons too. He is from Guatemala and knows a little bit of English. When he sends you his email it is going to be in Spanish so you will need to enter the text in to BabelFish probably.
We were assigned to Chinandega Oeste, Tezoatega. It is the most Northwest mission. It is also the hottest area in Central America and some people say in the world. And this week is the hottest week all year long. Perfect timing. It is like we are walking around with blankets wrapped around us haha. One good thing about the heat being 24/7 is that the mosquitos can´t stand it so that isn´t much of a problem.
The church is about a mile away from us. We walk everwhere we go. People here live in houses from cement blocks to cardboard and plastic wrapped around sticks. Some how though almost everyone has enduros and motor cycles.
There are so many kids running and playing around here haha. They are pretty funny kids. Most of them don´t go to school so they just run around all day. Even though, they are all happy.
Oh also another thing is they all have hammocks in there houses. It is a must have furniture here. I want to get one this Thursday.
But yes the people here are probably the nicest I have met. I can´t tell the difference between the members and any other random person. Maybe except a few drunks, smokers, and one cross dresser haha. Everyone just sits out front of there houses and we say hi to everyone pretty much. The other day we were just walking by a house, we yelled adio and they replied back, invited us over, gave us there chairs and we talked to them about the church. The whole time I thought they were members. It turns out they weren´t and now they are our new investigators, about 5 of them. People here are pretty receptive.
This last Saturday we baptized 5 people and I did one of them myself in Spanish. My first one on the mission!
I had an interview with President Fraatz before coming out here. He wants me to read the Book of Mormon, create lesson plans for all 42 principles, and have perfect Nica(ragua) Spanish in 3 months. It is pretty crazy but I know I can do it because "the Lord does not give commandments unto the children of men lest he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the things which he has commanded them" (I'm pretty sure that is how it goes). I have been getting up an hour earlier to have more practice.
Our apartment here is a big change from what were staying in before. I took a few photos and I ran outside and got some quick ones around down some streets.
Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3
Your not supposed to really have your cameras out because even though these people are nice they will also nicely steal from you too.
Well I love you all very much and I have more to tell you next week. Oh and mail doesn´t get here for 3 weeks. The pic with flowers is the AP house the others are in my area and house.
Love,
Elder Ochs
email from Elder Perez
Hello! How are you? I hope that you are well. I am Elder Perez, Elder Ochs companion. I am from Guatemala. I am very pleased to train your son in the Nicaragua North Mission.
Your son is very intelligent and his Spanish is very good and getting better every day. Three days ago he invited someone to set a baptismal date, they accepted the date and were baptized last Saturday. I will send you pictures so that you can see how your son is doing in the mission.
Don't worry about anything he is very good in the mission and I am helping him with anything he may need.
It is a joy to meet you. I hope that we can keep in touch. I love you guys.
I know that Jesus Christ lives and he communicates with President Thomas S. Monson. I know of truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of the restoration of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
May you enjoy and learn a lot during this week of General Conference...
With Love
Sincerely,
Elder Perez
Your son is very intelligent and his Spanish is very good and getting better every day. Three days ago he invited someone to set a baptismal date, they accepted the date and were baptized last Saturday. I will send you pictures so that you can see how your son is doing in the mission.
Don't worry about anything he is very good in the mission and I am helping him with anything he may need.
It is a joy to meet you. I hope that we can keep in touch. I love you guys.
I know that Jesus Christ lives and he communicates with President Thomas S. Monson. I know of truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of the restoration of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
May you enjoy and learn a lot during this week of General Conference...
With Love
Sincerely,
Elder Perez
Friday, March 19, 2010
19 Mar 10 email
Hey there, I am leaving this Monday at 8:00 in the morning. The time here went by really fast and now it is already time to get out into the field. I am pretty excited about it but not everyone in the district. Some are nervous about it and Elder Neal is going crazy about bugs in Nicaragua. I don't know if he just found out that there are a lot of bugs there or what but now he keeps talking about it haha.
This morning was the last time we will be going to the temple so it was cool just enjoying it. Afterwards we finished up a 4 hour explanation of the entire Book of Mormon which was really cool and cleared up a lot of stuff. She put everything together and in order and gave us all these timelines. Before we even went to the temple this morning we had a mattress exchange for our whole floor and the one below us. It was pretty fun riding the mattresses down the stairs haha. When we got back they replaced all of the mattresses with new ones which were pretty nice. Too bad we only get to use them for 3 nights. I still have my 4 inch foam pad so it doesn't make much of a difference I guess haha.
I also got my pants finally fixed by a sweet old lady in the tailorshop for free. Actually not completely free because she made me sing "Popcorn Popping on an Apricot Tree" haha. I needed some help from Elder Kunz though because I couldn't remember all of the words. I guess I should have sang more in Primary.
Did you get my pictures? I don't know why the pictures are so bad though. Everyone elses was fine. I guess my camera isn't too great or I don't know how do use it. I also got my haircut this week before heading out into the field. It looks pretty good I guess.
We have learned all of the congugations for Spanish and now we have to just practice the grammar and learn more words. This last week has just been reviewing things that we need to go over.
I ate a couple of meals with Rachel and her companions this week. She is doing good too. Oh and finally we got a apostle for our Tuesday Night Devotional. It was Quentin L. Cook and he talked about a lot of things. He changed his talk on the way to the MTC so it didn't necesarily have a overall message. It was really cool. Elder Brown and I got really good seats too. We were four rows back from the very front. We slide in there really fast when they finally opened it. The funny thing is that last week this one kid that has been here for like 10 weeks was arguing with Elder Brown about how an apostle never comes except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. He also talked with one of the apostles for 10 minutes! haha.
Thank you for the package of Saint Patricks Day goods. I really liked the leprechaun facial outfit and beef jerky. Thank You grandma for that big box of Jelly Bellies. I have really been enjoying it a lot. I have almost finished the box! I love you all and thanks for all of the letters and support. Talk to you later from Nicaragua!
Love,
Elder Ochs
This morning was the last time we will be going to the temple so it was cool just enjoying it. Afterwards we finished up a 4 hour explanation of the entire Book of Mormon which was really cool and cleared up a lot of stuff. She put everything together and in order and gave us all these timelines. Before we even went to the temple this morning we had a mattress exchange for our whole floor and the one below us. It was pretty fun riding the mattresses down the stairs haha. When we got back they replaced all of the mattresses with new ones which were pretty nice. Too bad we only get to use them for 3 nights. I still have my 4 inch foam pad so it doesn't make much of a difference I guess haha.
I also got my pants finally fixed by a sweet old lady in the tailorshop for free. Actually not completely free because she made me sing "Popcorn Popping on an Apricot Tree" haha. I needed some help from Elder Kunz though because I couldn't remember all of the words. I guess I should have sang more in Primary.
Did you get my pictures? I don't know why the pictures are so bad though. Everyone elses was fine. I guess my camera isn't too great or I don't know how do use it. I also got my haircut this week before heading out into the field. It looks pretty good I guess.
We have learned all of the congugations for Spanish and now we have to just practice the grammar and learn more words. This last week has just been reviewing things that we need to go over.
I ate a couple of meals with Rachel and her companions this week. She is doing good too. Oh and finally we got a apostle for our Tuesday Night Devotional. It was Quentin L. Cook and he talked about a lot of things. He changed his talk on the way to the MTC so it didn't necesarily have a overall message. It was really cool. Elder Brown and I got really good seats too. We were four rows back from the very front. We slide in there really fast when they finally opened it. The funny thing is that last week this one kid that has been here for like 10 weeks was arguing with Elder Brown about how an apostle never comes except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. He also talked with one of the apostles for 10 minutes! haha.
Thank you for the package of Saint Patricks Day goods. I really liked the leprechaun facial outfit and beef jerky. Thank You grandma for that big box of Jelly Bellies. I have really been enjoying it a lot. I have almost finished the box! I love you all and thanks for all of the letters and support. Talk to you later from Nicaragua!
Love,
Elder Ochs
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