Week 15 -- Cuidad Sandino

Christmas tree

 I got the package and opened it! Thank you so much. I'll be honest, I nearly cried when I saw the bag of caramel corn from Disneyland, and the tin of smoked oysters. And whether or not I was supposed to, I opened the cards as well, and I really loved them. I got the music as well (Woohoo! Disney!), and a lot of it is Christmas themed, so I don't feel so guilty about opening them. But seriously, thank you all so much. I can't tell you how much it means to me that, at least on some level, I can have a white Christmas. And it means even more to know that the white Christmas was given to me by my family and friends. It really made me feel loved, and that's more than I could have hoped for with a "normal" Christmas present. Thank you all so much.

For me, not a whole ton has really happened this week. We did have this thing called a verification meeting, for all of the missionaries that came in at the same time as me, where they basically checked to see how everyone was progressing with their training. It was fun, getting to see most of the people from my old District. It's also kind of weird to think that I'm already more than half way through my training. After that, I'll be a normal missionary.

A message to friends and family: (translation) Merry Christmas
you filthy animals! (Home Alone 2)

     And as for people we're teaching right now, we're still teaching almost all new people. But there is one guy that we contacted named Freddy. It was just a quick contact towards the end of the day, but before we could even say anything about church, he said something along the lines of, "Do you boys have a church?" Obviously, we quickly responded yes, and then he said, "Where is it, and when does it start?" We told him, and he just said, "Okay, I'll be there." It really shocked us, because that kind of just doesn't happen in Nicaragua. We came back a few days later, placed a Libro de Mormón, and that Sunday, he was completely ready when we passed by, and was totally willing to come with us to church, which also never happens. So now we're teaching him, and his niece, her husband, and their son all say they're going to come next Sunday. All in all, it was a really cool, and rather strange, experience. Awesome, but strange. 

     And as for something we're struggling with right now, that would actually be a different family. Their names are Ruth and Brittney. Ruth is Brittney's mom, and we've been teaching them for about six weeks now. They're set to be baptized this weekend, but one thing is kind of holding them back. They're both great investigators. They like the Church, they like going to church, they like what we teach, and they both have testimonies of the Gospel. The only problem being that Ruth was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. Which, in Nicaragua at least, means that her entire family is Jehovah's witness as well. She doesn't so much not want to be baptized, as much as she's just afraid that if she does, her family will reject her. Which, again, in Nicaragua, is very possible. So here's what I want you all to pray for, if you wouldn't mind. Two things: first of all, that Ruth and Brittney's hearts will be softened, and that they will feel comforted that this is the right choice for them, but also that her family's hearts will be softened as well. That just because she is choosing to be different from them, it doesn't mean that she deserves to be shunned. 

And finally, house keeping: Skyping will very likely happen between 2 and 4 o'clock my time, so 1 and 3 o'clock your time. Thank you so much for sending all of that so me, I really appreciate it, and make sure you give Linus a hug for me. And right now, I don't have any Christmas photos of me, but I have photos of me, and Christmas photos. So that might work? Anyways, I love you all, as always, and I am so excited to see you all on Friday!

Love,

Cooper

Week 14 -- Cuidad Sandino

In front of Lake Managua

Elder Elison didn't end up getting changed this week, to everybody's surprise. The other zone leader, Elder Hironaka, ended up getting bumped up to Assistant to the President. So fortunately, I get to go through training with just a single trainer, which is nice. Unfortunately, Elder Elison has now been in this area for six months, and is starting to go a little stir crazy. He'll be fine though. We started tracting in an area that hasn't been touched in a few years by missionaries, so it's at least of a little bit of a change for him. And time-wise, things get a little weird on the mission. The weeks generally fly by, but the months are dragging a bit. It's crazy to think that I've already gone through three months of my mission, but at the same time, it's crazy that it's only been three months. And add the fact that it's Chrismas next week, and it's even weirder. We did buy a Christmas tree today, though, so that was fun. And wow, had I forgotten how small my room is back home. I hope Isaac is going to be willing to give it up in about two years ;)

Cooper and his trainer, Elder Elison

I'd have to say that the most memorable thing about this week was the opportunity to be in a choir. Thursday night, we get a call from the APs saying that Elder Elison and I are going to be in a small Chrismas Choir whith three other Elders and four sisters. We had a practice on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, then sang that Saturday night for all of the stake presidents, district presidents, President Russel, Elder Maravilla (one of the area 70s for Central America) and their wives. We sang Silent night, where during the first verse, the choir hummed and I read the Nativity story, and a medly of four hymns whose names I can't quite remember at the moment. It was a lot of fun. And as for people we're teaching, we don't really have any that I haven't written about yet. But we'll probably have more next week, and I'll write about them then.

Volcano Momotombo

As for where I shop, what I eat, etc, I shop at a place called Maxi Palí, which is basically like a really small Walmart. Breakfast and Dinner we usually prepare for ourselves (we don't really do planned dinner appts., but sometimes members/investigators will feed you). And then Lunch, we have Hermana Virginia, who I wrote about earlier. The Most common thing we eat here is rice, generally in the form of gallo pinto, which is basically rice and red beans, fried in a little bit of oil. And to drink, it's almost always Coke, some form of fruit drink, which they call refresco, or Pino lillo, which is a drink made out of corn that is good, but extremely difficult to describe. 

But anyways, that's been my week! I love you all!

Love,

Cooper

Week 13 -- Cuidad Sandio

I know for a fact that that was an awesome Gospel Doctrine lesson. At the very least, better than our Gospel Principles teacher trying to explain the concept of exaltation to a group of investigators who have only had the Restoration lesson. But honestly, I know that you were great :) 

So, for my week! It's been a little interesting. We've basically baptized all of our investigators who can be baptized at this point, so we've done a lot of knocking doors. We've found a lot of interesting people this week, but we'll see how many of them want us to keep coming back. And there's been a few interesting things happening this week. First of all, today is Purisima.

Poisonous Caterpillar 

It's a catholic holiday, also called Day of the Mother, where all of the Catholics get together and, well, worship the virgin Mary. It's..... Interesting. But it makes it a little bit harder to work the week before because Sandino is a little bit more dangerous during holidays. But yeah. Dad can peg on a little bit at the end, if he wants, because from what I hear it's even bigger in Spain than it is here. Also, changes are this week. Unfortunately, Elder Elison is probably leaving, because he has about 6 months in Zona Sandino right now. So I'm going to have a "step-dad", someone who finishes out the last six weeks of my training. It'll be interesting. But yeah. Today has actually been a pretty fun P-day! We went out to Bello Amanacer, one of the districts in our zone, an some zone business.

Star fruit from the tree in a mew member's yard

But while we were there, we actually visited one of Elder Hironaka's converts, who has a bunch of fruit trees in his yard. So I got a bunch of pictures of those, which I will send after I'm done writing this letter. But yeah! Then we went to the Mercado, which is basically just a big outdoor market. I didn't actually get any pictures there, for fear of getting robbed, but if you look at pictures from the markets in Israel, you'll get a pretty good idea.

Well, that's about all for this week! I love you all!

Love, Cooper

Week 12 -- Cuidad Sandino

Mauricio's family

Wow. Your week has been a lot more interesting than mine, I'll say that much. Except for the fact that I'm in Nicaragua. Where it is still very much not cold. And yes, of course I want a picture of the Christmas tree. I may not be there to decorate it, but I do want to at least be able to see it. And think about it: after this Christmas tree, there's only one more that I won't be able to decorate. So it's almost exciting, I suppose? I'd also love to get a picture of Isaac's (my) room, once he's done with it. But yeah. I miss the snow, but I'm out doing the Lord's work, so I think it's a pretty fair trade-off. 

As for my week, we technichally didn't get a lot of work done, as far as the numbers say. But trust me when I say that we had a really, really busy week. First of all, we got 6 baptisms this week! Mauricio and his three kids (Brittany, Kenneth, and Jhazell), and Heyssell were Elder Elison's and mine investigators (and I got to baptize all of them!), and Elder HIronaka and Elder Seneca baptized Steve. And because E. Hironaka and Elison are Zone Leaders, all four of us spent a lot of time outside of our area, doing interviews, getting people excited for baptism, getting permission to baptize minors, and stuff along those lines. There were actually several times that I had to work with a member because E Elison was out doing zone business, and we needed someone working in our area. That was stressful for a few reasons (don't speak the language well, member doesn't speak English, I barely know the area, etc.), but those days actually ended up going pretty well. And as far as Thanksgiving goes, we didn't do much, but the mission gave each missionary 100 cordobas, so we got the zone together for some pizza in the chapel's cultural hall. It wasn't exactly as good as your cooking, but it made due. But yeah. That was my week. 

View from President Russell's house

A family we're teaching right now is Sylvia (Heyssell is actually her sister), Alejandro, and their three kids. They're awesome investigators, go to church every week, want to get baptized, but for them, we're waiting for a divorce with Alejandro's ex-wife. Like in the states, divorces take a LOT longer than marriages. But hopefully it'll go through in the next couple of weeks, so we can baptize them, and they can start planning for the temple, which is also something they want to do. All in all, they're a great family who can't wait to become members of the church. 

As for how the language is coming right now, I'm definitely still not fluent. A ton better than my first day, but I still have a long way to go. Basically, what's still really kicking my trash is the conversational Spanish. I can understand around 75% of the lessons, but when people just start talking to me, I get lost really easily. It can get kind of frustrating at times, but I can definitely say that I've seen the Lord's hand in my life, as far as Spanish goes. The gift of tounges is a very, very real thing, and I'm very, very grateful for it. 

Anyways, that's pretty much it for this week. Tomorrow December starts! I know that it'll be a good month. I love you all, and I'm always so glad when I get your letters each week! Thanks for all of your support!

Love,

Cooper