Week 11 - Cuidad Sandino

 The entrance of our house 

Our kitchen (that sink doesn't actually work....)

I really am sorry that my emails have been... less than spectaclar. But I promise that I will try to do better. I will ask that everyone realizes, though, that I am in fact sitting in a very, very hot room paying to use a computer with a keyboard that has keys that doesn't work, in the middle of the slums of a third world country. That doesn't give me an excuse, but still. I feel like I deserve a little slack :)

As for me, there were two interesting things that I can remember this week. First of all, I got my first baptism! His name is Freddy, and he's this older man who lives right next to an Evangelical church (of course, so do most of us, but that's beside the point), and I actually got to be the one who baptized him. It was amazing. Then the other one, which is slightly more humorous, is one of our contacts was kind of crazy. First, she asked me if I ainted (dyed) my hair. When I said I didn't she said she wanted to marry me. When I said no, she asked if I was afraid of her/Nicaraguans. When I said no, she asked me to marry her again. It was fun. We left her with a amhlet about the law of chastity. Super fun. And our investigators right now are awesome. We have about 8 baptisms lined up for this Saturday. One of them, Mauricio, we're actually getting him married to his wife tomorrow. His family is amazing. He has three kids, Brittney, Kenneht (not a spelling error), and Jazeth. They all love the gospel, and honestly, the only reason we're not batizing the wife is because she's never home to teach. But they're always asking for more scriptures to read, more things to learn. Like I said, great family. 

As for one of the "extras," I'll try to cover one of those a week. The woman that fixes our meals is named Virginia (or mamá, as she likes to tell people). She has a fairly large family, whose names I'm still learning. We haven't seen her in a while though, because her daughter just had a baby, who is having health problems. 

Anyways, I'm out of time, but I hope that letter was a bit better. I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from everyone again next week!

Con amor, 

Cooper

week 10 - Cuidad Sandino

Baptism of the little girl in the middle, Francis

I honestly don't even care that nothing much happened this week, I'm just glad that I'm getting to hear from you each week. Plus, it's very true that exciting is not always a good thing. But I'm glad everyone survived the week! As for me, things are actually going pretty well. We had two baptisms this week! They were both Elder Hironaka and Seneca's investigators, but because Zone leader companionships work a little bit differently, they were technically all of ours. And Elder Elison and I are feeling a lot better at this point, so we're back out working. As for other stuff that happened this week.... Not much really did, to be honest. The week is kind of blending all together. Time works weird on a mission. It seems like hardly any time has passed since last P-day, but at the same time, it feels like I've been on a  mission for my entire life. It's strange. But one very good thing that happened this week is that the mission office found my English Quad! I never told you all this, but I had left my scriptures on the airplane on the way here. As soon as I realized they were gone, I thought they were a lost cause. But I mentioned it to Hermana Russell, she said she'd call the airport to look for them, and the next day we got a call saying that they had been found. It really is a small and tender mercy. I'll have my scriptures back within the week! 

Rambutan

And about those pictures, I'll do my best! As always, I can feel everyone's love here in Nicaragua, and it's amazing. Thank you all for the emails!

Love

Cooper

Week 9 - Cuidad Sandino

Mateare

I am more jealous of Winter than you can even imagine. It's very hot here. I may just lay down in the snow when I get home, I don't even care how cold I'll be. But anyways, The week went pretty well here in Sandino. Well, Except for the lasat couple of days. But I'll go over that in a second. Nicaragua is a really nteresting place. There are stray dogs everwhere, and the traffic is a weird mix of cars, mopeds, motos (moped taxis) and horse drawn carriages. Yeah. I really do think I'm starting to get used to the heat and the language, but it's going to be a process. And it's kind of cool, being a Zone Leader's companion (did I mention that in my last email?), because every once in a while I'll get to go to other districts while Elder Elison does interviews. I went to a place called Mateare the other day, which was beautiful. It was poorer than Sandino, but cleaner, somehow. But then, towards the end of the week, both E. Elison and I got sick. For me, it was just just a stomach bug, but he had Chickengunya. But hey, we got 16 people to church, so that worked out! and we have 5 baptisms planned for this week, and so hopefully that works out as well. But yeah! That was my week. 

Semi-ariel view of Sandino

Housekeeping: Our kitchen is a little dismal. Just a hotplate with two mini fridges. But as far as the package goes, I would love some rootbeer extract, beef jerkey, and any little Christmas comfort foods that you think will keep. But as far as other stuff goes, I would love a letter from anyone who feels like writing one, and something small to remind me of Provo. Also, Pte Russell is a lot less strict with music than we thought he would be. So with the music sd card, you could incluse some good Disney music, and possibly a movie soundtrack or two (specifically, a Lord of the rings/Hobbit soundtrack would be awesome), that would be great. Anything else you decide to include would be awesome.

One last thing. Presidente Russell told me to ask you that if he called you and asked you to full out brag to him about me, what would you say? This will only go to me, but he told me to ask. 

But yeah, that's basically it! Again, like I said, I have very little time. But I love reading all of your emails! Thank you all so much. I love you all.

Love,

Cooper

Week 8 -- Cuidad Sandino

Bedroom

Our street that we live on (del Gallo mas gallo una cuadra alago)

 Wow. First time writing from Nicaragua. I don't even know what to say. This week feels like it's lasted forever. It's as if I've been here my entire life. But honestly, I don't say that as a bad thing. I love Nicaragua. It's hot, It's humid, but the people are amazing. As you already know, my trainer's name is Elder Elison. My first area is Sandino, basically the ghettos of Managua. It's super poor, and fairly run down, but the people are humble, and willing to hear our message and follow Christ. We brought 15 people to church yesterday, and we have about 15 baptisms planned for this month. It's crazy how quickly the work is progressing here.

As for me, my flight went pretty well. I sat next to other missionaries for my flights, which was fun. Getting into the country wasn´t tough at all, and my first day of training went well, without too many surprises. Then, the next day, we were assigned companionships, and started working the streets. I´m sorry, I haven´t taken a lot of pictures. If you look like a tourist, you're a lot more likely to get robbed. I also found out that President Russell doesn't allow us to use Dropbox. Which was disappointing, but oh well. I do have a few pictures that I´ll be sending though. 

Bathroom -- the shower is a pipe sticking out of the wall

As far as my Spanish goes, I understand very little, but it's getting better. and life here in Sandino, in general, is going great! And for food, Rice and beans, with the occassional plaintain! It´s great! I have even less time than before to use the computer, so I´ll basically just be sending this big email now, and that's more or less it. I still really appreciate the emails I get though! And if anyone asks me a direct question in an email, I'll try to answer it. But for the most part, it'll just be this.

Well, I love you all, and I really can feel the love all the way over here in Nicaragua! 

Love, Cooper