Mon, November 22, 2010 6:27:07 PM
Note: Somehow something happened to Courtney's email and as of right now I can't find the pics that accompanied this blog--they went on holiday or something! If I can retrieve them, I'll add them in....
Today when we went to Viejo Leon which is Old Leon - the capital was built and everything but it was destroyed and now it is here where I am, so we went to the ruins basically. Thing is the only thing they could do to preserve the ruins I guess was pour concrete all over the top and so it didnt look very ruins-ish but hey it was cool and we got to take pictures with volcano Momotombo! The pics I took kind of give you a feel of just how green and beautiful it is here in Nicaragua. I am going to miss it as well as how beautiful the sky is. The other pic is me in the school uniforms they have here hahah except with my own shirt cuz the girl we lived with that graduated did something with her shirt so yea idk but its more or less what they wear. Everywhere you go you see students in these. School finished more or less for everyone last week. They do not go back to school till like February I believe
This week we worked our butts off - just always going going going and we would barely have any time at night to write in our journals before collapsing cuz of how tired we got but yea. Started off the week going to a part of my area I have never been to, called Los Leches. Unsure where it gets its name but its basically a looooong road with a few houses along the stretch of it. We were walking out there a total probably of about 6 hours and we met some really cool people so we will see where it goes with them. We head out there again tomorrow but I want to make more time out of it so we are leaving earlier. But it was really beautiful.. we will probably bring Hna Ávilas camera tomorrow with us to take pictures. It is just so green and the weather is nicer over there too cuz it is more elevated. But at one point when we were coming back all of the sudden a stampede of cows and horses came barreling at us because they were being driven uproad and we were like AHHH RUN! hahahahah it was funny though.
Also we decided to start up a new thing with service projects, passing by and offering service to anyone that needed it. This one lady took us into her house to show us that she had nothing that we could do but it turns out they had tons of work to be done in their backyard so we cleaned it for like 2 hours and it was cool. They do not seem to be interested at all in the church or anything but it still felt good to help others out. We have a few more set projects and days of service coming up too. They are killer for exhaustion but so worth it I feel like. I like León more and more every day. I really like the feeling of knowing where I am too.. I can pretty much get us wherever we need to go now. Sometimes I feel like Im just walking down the streets somewhere in the states or something (no particular place) but then I realize I am in Nicaragua. It is weird. Every now and them I think to myself.. woah.. NICARAGUA. Thats where I am. What?!
Random things that happened this week - I saw a bike with a baby doll´s head on it for decoration, a guy driving a wagon with a horse meowed at us as he passed by, kids playing jacks (I didnt know they even still made jacks! I dont know how to play it and apparently it is popular here!), I got my first impulse to get out my phone and call mom (not for anything crazy just to call her and ask a quick question), people have begun to think I am from a different part of Central America instead of always U.S. and the final random thing is christmas trees made out of bottles and glass and trash and stuff from the street. I guess it was a recycling campaign about how clean León was or something.
Also we other soaking downpours 2 days last week... on one day we heard it coming and we started running and it chased us. We fumbled with the keys and our hearts were pounding but we got into the church just as it hit us and we were saved that day. The other day we were not so fortunate... But one thing I love is at night when its not raining but its still thundering and lighting oh wow it is so beautiful to watch it storm away! It lightnings which silhouettes the clouds and what more is it is a beautiful shade of purple and wow. I mean I saw things like this on tv on like the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet or something but I never really thought of it as really being that way so it always takes me by surprise to see something so breathtaking and realize it is real.
Hna Ávila and I are really loving this change, even though it is difficult. In terms of companionship it is great - she is very very similar to me which I find weird. I will say something and she will be like.. EXACTLY! And it always takes me aback because my other comps were not quite as similar. But I love it. We laugh a lot. Sometimes all you can do in a situation is laugh haha. Work is going slow as far as the obra misional. I think we may have 2 baptisms this week, but they are for kids. All of our investigators are either uninterested, the kind that need tons of time to figure it out, or they cant be in their homes at certain times so we have to pass by till we find them. We have had to drop a family and another couple of investigators this week. Also we have had a lot of difficulty with recent converts, even though we have put a lot of focus into them these last 2 weeks to be able to smooth the transition of Hna Platero leaving and helping them with their personal issues. Even when the spirit is strong and they express a lot of gratitude for encouraging them and helping them, sometimes they still choose to head a different direction.
It is hard seeing converts fall and not being able to help them because they have their agency. My life feels a lot like Tetris right now hahah there is just so much to do and we cannot do it all ourselves. Things are getting to a slow point right now - we work hard but dont see many results. Each Saturday that passes feels that much more tense. Many times at the end of the day the greatest satisfaction is knowing we did what we could and the rest is in the hands of the Lord. You cannot beat yourself up for every unsuccess because if you do that the enemy is gonna get power real quick. Endure it and get over it. Because you can do that!
This week we worked our butts off - just always going going going and we would barely have any time at night to write in our journals before collapsing cuz of how tired we got but yea. Started off the week going to a part of my area I have never been to, called Los Leches. Unsure where it gets its name but its basically a looooong road with a few houses along the stretch of it. We were walking out there a total probably of about 6 hours and we met some really cool people so we will see where it goes with them. We head out there again tomorrow but I want to make more time out of it so we are leaving earlier. But it was really beautiful.. we will probably bring Hna Ávilas camera tomorrow with us to take pictures. It is just so green and the weather is nicer over there too cuz it is more elevated. But at one point when we were coming back all of the sudden a stampede of cows and horses came barreling at us because they were being driven uproad and we were like AHHH RUN! hahahahah it was funny though.
Also we decided to start up a new thing with service projects, passing by and offering service to anyone that needed it. This one lady took us into her house to show us that she had nothing that we could do but it turns out they had tons of work to be done in their backyard so we cleaned it for like 2 hours and it was cool. They do not seem to be interested at all in the church or anything but it still felt good to help others out. We have a few more set projects and days of service coming up too. They are killer for exhaustion but so worth it I feel like. I like León more and more every day. I really like the feeling of knowing where I am too.. I can pretty much get us wherever we need to go now. Sometimes I feel like Im just walking down the streets somewhere in the states or something (no particular place) but then I realize I am in Nicaragua. It is weird. Every now and them I think to myself.. woah.. NICARAGUA. Thats where I am. What?!
Random things that happened this week - I saw a bike with a baby doll´s head on it for decoration, a guy driving a wagon with a horse meowed at us as he passed by, kids playing jacks (I didnt know they even still made jacks! I dont know how to play it and apparently it is popular here!), I got my first impulse to get out my phone and call mom (not for anything crazy just to call her and ask a quick question), people have begun to think I am from a different part of Central America instead of always U.S. and the final random thing is christmas trees made out of bottles and glass and trash and stuff from the street. I guess it was a recycling campaign about how clean León was or something.
Also we other soaking downpours 2 days last week... on one day we heard it coming and we started running and it chased us. We fumbled with the keys and our hearts were pounding but we got into the church just as it hit us and we were saved that day. The other day we were not so fortunate... But one thing I love is at night when its not raining but its still thundering and lighting oh wow it is so beautiful to watch it storm away! It lightnings which silhouettes the clouds and what more is it is a beautiful shade of purple and wow. I mean I saw things like this on tv on like the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet or something but I never really thought of it as really being that way so it always takes me by surprise to see something so breathtaking and realize it is real.
Hna Ávila and I are really loving this change, even though it is difficult. In terms of companionship it is great - she is very very similar to me which I find weird. I will say something and she will be like.. EXACTLY! And it always takes me aback because my other comps were not quite as similar. But I love it. We laugh a lot. Sometimes all you can do in a situation is laugh haha. Work is going slow as far as the obra misional. I think we may have 2 baptisms this week, but they are for kids. All of our investigators are either uninterested, the kind that need tons of time to figure it out, or they cant be in their homes at certain times so we have to pass by till we find them. We have had to drop a family and another couple of investigators this week. Also we have had a lot of difficulty with recent converts, even though we have put a lot of focus into them these last 2 weeks to be able to smooth the transition of Hna Platero leaving and helping them with their personal issues. Even when the spirit is strong and they express a lot of gratitude for encouraging them and helping them, sometimes they still choose to head a different direction.
It is hard seeing converts fall and not being able to help them because they have their agency. My life feels a lot like Tetris right now hahah there is just so much to do and we cannot do it all ourselves. Things are getting to a slow point right now - we work hard but dont see many results. Each Saturday that passes feels that much more tense. Many times at the end of the day the greatest satisfaction is knowing we did what we could and the rest is in the hands of the Lord. You cannot beat yourself up for every unsuccess because if you do that the enemy is gonna get power real quick. Endure it and get over it. Because you can do that!
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