October 25, 2010

Hola loved ones,

So I forgot to tell you last week I taught the lesson in church. It was kinda hard cause my companion didn't tell me til the morning that I had to teach it. So I didn't have much time to prepare but I did the best I could. They told me I did a good job and that they could understand everything I was saying. That was awesome.

Starting tomorrow we are having a class to learn ingles. And I am the awesome teacher that is teaching it. We have invited a lot and a lot said they wanted to come cause everyone here wants to learn ingles. Being semi bi lingual is awesome. I can't wait till I am completely bi lingual.



So this week I finally got your dear elders from july. I dont know why they took so long ha ha and I also got a dear elder from Lisa. I don´t know when she sent it but I would like to have her email address if you could send that to me that would be awesome. I would like to write her and her family.

Entonces yo tengo una pregunta para Brandon. what templo are you gettin married or want to ha ha cause I have a gift I want to send you.

The boxes actually don't take that long to get where I am at. I dont think maybe 2 weeks so aint nothing. I might get the package way before. Cause an hermana in nuestro distrito her mom sent a box and it got here quite fast so I might get it way before Christmas.

So I have come to find out old people smell the same everywhere ha ha just throwin that in ther

So my companion is kinda lazy just throwin that out there. So one day I decided to plan our day. I was prompted to go this far end of our area called San Dino so we went there and ended up finding 3 families. We had a member from each family come to church this past week. We found them on Friday and brought them Sunday. We had 8 investigadores at church this past week it was freakin awesome. Also when we were leaving San Dino. I heard someone saying elder elder so I turned around and ended up talkin to him. He was a member but hadn't been to church for a long time. He was baptized in 2007 and he was 22. We ended up talkin to him brought him to church as well and Sunday he told me and my companion he wants to serve a mission. So he talked to the president about serving a mission so that was awesome. We are going to help him with some service on Wednesday so we can find out how that all goes.



San Dino is up in the mountains entonces there is a lot of big ole spiders or turantulas or something. I saw a whole bunch. I will send more pictures today.

Otro Last Monday me and my companion were walking to drop our ropas off at Hermana Melbas casa she cleans our clothes and I hear a man say "How´s it going?" and my companion tells me to contact him and so I did. He was a white man from Baltimore that doesn't know a lick of spanish and to be honest I have know idea why he is here. But he is crazy and my companion doesn't want to teach cause he is an alcoholic and doesn't speak spanish. But now he knows how I feel ha ha. But we talk about a lot of things and I shared my testimony with him and he told me that believe it or not I have learned something from you and I would like to learn more about your church. You seem really open minded and I like you so we should talk again. He said he has been convinced of things he thought in no way was possible and he likes that cause it expands his knowledge. But he also told me that the LDS church plays hard ball and by that he said if you don't become a member they will kill you literally. He has a lot of facts in his head that he thinks are true. We have been back to teach him once but it is hard cause my companion doesn't want to go back. He only wants to do what he wants to do and I kinda have to fight him on things.



So I have taught the people here phrases that make sense in ingles but not so much in spanish but it will shortly like - peace out ha ha paz fuera or money in the bank dinero en el banco or off the hizzy apagador la capbeza. or tengo su espalda I have your back ha ha. It's quite awesome but the best is paz fuera. Everyone is starting to say it when we leave now.

On a little sadder note. Other day I was eating pizza and a homeless child no more than 7 started pulling on my shirt asking for my pizza so I ended up giving it to her but it was sad.

So San Dino is freakin RICO. We are going to return and teach more up there. I don´t know why we didnt go there before but it is also dangerous at night so we have to go during the day. I don't want to jinx it but the investigadores loved the the meetings at church. They were there for all 3 hours and said the building is beautiful so I am feeling confident. They are all awesome too. Well that is all I have or is it? ha ha ha

Happy Birthday Bro! Freakin 21! That is legit u can hit up the clubs and the discos now ha ha pretty much do what ever you want. Love you man and I wrote you a song:
"This is your birthday song, it isn´t very long." That's all. Enjoy it man. Love you to the max.



Love you all to the max.
Love, Elder Moore

October 18, 2010

What up family,

That is good to hear that Brandon got home safely. Sorry the writing doesn't really have punctuation or other stuff to make it correct. It is only because the keyboards here are different and I dont know how to work them properly so ya ha ha but as long as it is readable that is good.

So Brandon is home. That is awesome and he is enjoying it that is good. I was worried he was gonna struggle a little at the beggining with being sent home but it is good to hear all is well. And good to hear all is well with Amber. They better get married ha ha. I like Amber and Brandon is freakin awesome and deserves someone as tuonis as her.
so I dunno what it is I write. I am fine from the food and my stomach gets destroyed. So we are good here. My stomach has become iron. Like that rest of my body ha ha.

Anyways I need a couple things. It would be awesome if you could send some more church pants like 32 or 33. I absolutely can not fit in the 30s that we bought for some reason. There is no way possible I can get in them. because I am a big boy now. And also if you could send some of the acne detox as well. That is all I need and whatever you decide to send is going to be bomb ha ha.

So I get my confidence boosted a lot here. The girls love white skinned blue eyed studs like my self ha ha. I get whistled at all the time. Which just makes me laugh and become a little happy. And my companion is always sayin freakin musas,..... musa in translated to flirt. ha ha I hear it all the time my companion knows like 4 words in english: freak and you have hungry. ha ha it's funny. So I love being tall ha ha. Ya I am tall here as you can see in the pictures I will be sending if I can figure out how. I feel like I am 6 foot tall around all the people. I love it.



My first baptism ended up not being in the river. Something went down and we had to cancel it but we still had our baptism. I had my first baptism in the field it was awesome. It was a 60 year old man name Jose Marcelino Rodriguez Florez. It went really well and it was so awesome. I will send pics of that.



So yesterday we were leaving our house it was in the afternoon around 3 and we walk out and there was a huge parade fiesta outside and we literally couldn't go anywhere. It was Jinotegas 119th birthday. So there was parties everywhere. I want you to imagine Draper Days times it by 10 make them all Nicaraguincies and to top it off make them all drunk. Ya it was pretty crazy and insane. So many broken glass bottles and drunk people everwhere for the whole night. We had to go back to our apartment for a little til it cleared up and then went out but there was tons of people out in the street for the whole night.

Last night it started to rain pretty good and the power went out during dinner so that was awesome eating dinner in the complete darkness. My shower is like cold hose water and I take it at 630 in the morning when it is like 60 degrees. We no longer have a cardboard window so it's just a a gap and the wind blows in its freezing. I am in the coldest place in Nicaragua but it is perfect weather everyday I love it. It will be like 75 degrees and people will be like it's freezing they think it is cold like up to 85 degrees ha ha. They are all up in their sweatshirts and I think it feels perfect. The price of gas here is 20 cordobas and that is less than a dollar in american money. 21.75 cords equal 1 dollar.

We saw a ghost yesterday. That was neat Me and my companion both saw it. I asked him if he saw and he said yes. So it wasn't only my eyes ha ha.

Sometimes I will ask my self "Why am I here?" This is kinda hard. I can't have a normal conversation with anyone, but at the end of the day I always answer my question and there is always something throughout the day that makes it 100 percent worth it. Today I was really loving it and I knew why I was here. It took a while to really become accustomed and want to be here and I love it and am enjoying it even though I can't have a normal conversation ha ha but I am trying and doing my best.

I can pretty much understand all spanish when I am reading but it is completely different when listening to someone speak it. So I know it will come in time and I am just waiting and putting in a lot of work studying cause I want to know this language. Ha ha I am sick of being patient but it aint nuttin I can't handle.



Well I am going to try and send the pictures now ha ha. Wish me luck. Love you tons.

Love,
Elder Moore

October 11, 2010

Hey there,

So a lot of stuff is going down. Well that is no good for Brandon having to come home early. If he is fine about it then I guess that is ok. I hope he recovers and gets back to good health. That is so crazy that he might be coming home this week.

For me well I think I jynxed my self last week. Cause my stomach is well destroyed to be honest. The food got worse. I love the food from our cook but like three times this week we ate somewhere else at different members' houses and it was sick nasty. I wanted to throw up, but I didn´t and I ate it all. I also had the great oppurtunity to eat lung. I thought it was some sort of meat. So I took some and ate it and it was not good to the taste what so ever. but I downed it.

Yes sending letters and boxes to the mission home is the best way and I will just get them at changes. So ya just post my email on the facebook if you know it cause I don't unfortunately. Plus i dont have an address. My address is something like this: in front of the catholic church half north 1c west. I can't understand how the address stuff works here. There are no street names.

We have 3 baptisms set up for this Saturday. Our zone is doing a big baptism in Matagalpa in the River there. So that should be exciting and freakin awesome. We have 9baptisms lined up for this month altogether so far. Actually 10 cause we commited someone yesterday as well. So it is pretty awesome.

I am in Managua right now because my companion has the same problem as Dawson and needs to get some sort of surgery for his ear - just a little procedure and his hearing aid battery. It is so hot here and humid. Jinotega is the perfect temperature. Now that I am down here I am dying and just drenched with wetness. We got here at 9 in the morning and they didn´t have room for him until 430. Ha ha which kinda blows so we have been chilling with another zone. We went to Mcdonalds and got some real food ha ha.

So yesterday we visited the far end of out city. It is a lot bigger than I thought. We had to take a bus there. We visited with some less active and contacted. It was so beautiful over there like legit jungle. I saw some pigs as well. It was really amazing over there.

We contacted a lady and and ended of teaching her a lesson and set up a return appointment. Where we were at did not have running water. So there were tons of people surrounding a pump and pumping water into their 5 gallon buckets.It was only the women there. No men. Anyways they would carry these heavy 5 gallon buckets up a huge rocky hill. So we decided to do service and help them out. Ha ha it was tiring. 5 gallon buckets get heavy. It was literally like hiking up a mountain with 40lbs. But it was good to help.

All the kids like to look at me the gringo and call me chelle. I dunno how to spell it just say it ha ha which is the color of my skin. But I am loving it and enjoying it. But I have frustrating times because I can understand for the most part what is going on, but I can´t say how I feel about it and I can't have a normal conversation with people and it gets really frustrating.

Know I love you and miss you. I can't send pictures this week because I am in Managua away from my things but I promise to send them sometime ha ha.

O one last thing, it was my first week at church and it was so different. People just get up do their own thing walk around and talk ha ha but it was good just different.

Love you,
Elder Moore

October 5, 2010

So where do I even start? Because I don't know. This is going to be long cause there is so so so much to tell you. The plane to Miami was huge. It had 3 then 6 then 3 for the rows. First I will start off with the question everyone was asking themself when we got off the plane "Where are we mother?" ha ha "Where am I?"

When I first left the airport on a bus I just saw a bunch of crazy busses. People just bareley hanging on the outside of the bus. I saw a lot of homeless children which was sad as well. I have never seen so many homeless children just chillin in the street. Kids were throwing stuff at our bus. So ya the first place we stayed at I slept on a little matress on the floor and had the oppurtunity to shower with a cup and a big bucket. The next day we had training and went contacting. It was awesome but so different. The contacting went well. We found a family of 5 with 2 sacerdocios and another man that was really interested and both wanted a return. But the first house we went to could have fit in our shed. Mud for floors, a piece of wood with a blanket over it for the bed. Every house is either made out of tin or pieces of wood. For door locks a lot of people just use rebar through their door and into a piece of wood. I have seen so many houses that could fit in our old shed. But what I love about it is people don't care. They are 100 percent fine with it and happy. In the states people complain about being poor. Well they have no idea. No one can say they are poor until they experience the living here.



So the police carry ak 47s. I have seen quite a bit of those and the ambulances look like 1980 landcruisers or minivans. I have been approached by a drunk ladron. My companion just had to pull me away and we just kept walking. Every day we cross a bridge where a girl was recently murdered and there are some way sketchy places I have been. Like no one has been to the ghetto till they have been here. But not once have I felt scared.



My companion is Elder Menterossa and he is from El Salvador and doesn't speak a lick of english. As well as the rest of the people where I am. I am the only white person and the only person who speaks english ha ha. I am in a city called Jinotega. Which is a city up in the mountains from Matagalpa. Like 4 times a week I have to take a bus down to Matagalpa which is like a 1 and half hour bus ride. Psh it's good cause I can sleep and study and stuff. But I have to go down to Matagalpa cause that is where our zone is. There is only 4 missionaries in my city - 2 hermanas and 2 elders. This is the coldest place in all of Nicaragua. ha ha And it is perfect weather to me. It is so awesome to hyperventilate every morning with a freezing shower in the coldest place in Nicaragua. The mornings are kinda chilly not bad at all tho. But if I was in the hot part of Nicaragua like I was in Managua for my first 2 days I would love the cold shower refreshing instead of pneaumoning. My shower looks like the hose connection outside of our house with a pipe connected to it where the water runs out and it is freezing. We also have a huge bucket in our shower for when the water doesn't work. Cause water is so sketchy here, half the time it will work half the time it won't. This experience is R rated but I need to share my second day in Jinotega. I got up and needed to go to the bathroom number 2 so I went in and well went. And come to find out the water wasn't workin. So it was just chillin in there the whole day. My toilet seat consisted of 5 pieces, it was like a puzzle building it. But now we just don't have one. It sucks but psh whatever.



Something I have seen that I didn't even know still existed is a main way of transportation is donkeys and carts. I was like what they still do that? And yes a lot of people have donkeys that pull them on a cart. There are just like wild random horses in the street and chickens as well. And 100s of wild dogs. You want a dog they have any dog any size any color any style here. I probably see 100 plus stray dogs each day. I also see dead dogs layin in the road.

We do have someone who cooks and cleans for us.

I see 5 year old kids beggin for money on the bus everytime we ride. There is so much new stuff I have experienced. A thing that kills me though is when I see kids who are no older then 10 years old smoking. So stupid, but there are things that go on here that are normal.

I watched conference in english. I only got to watch one session on Saturday tho cause of where we live and the bus ride.

My first day here our church got robbed and tvs and dvds and a whole lot was stolen. Doors were broken. I dunno how they got in. All the churches are surrounded with huge fences with barb wire and locked and all the windows and doors have bars on them.

The other day and a little pulperia there was a rat trying to get in the food and the lady caught it and gave it to us and we took it out side and smashed its head in. ha ha awesome huh.

So yesterday for p day we needed some food. We were at a investigadors house and so we got 2 chickes tied them up and then I chopped their head off with a machette it was awesome blood went everywhere. I will make sure to send you pictures. But ya we just cooked up the chicken and ate it. I chopped the head with a machette and my companion hung his from like a branch and just held the head down and started cuttin it. It started freakin out and blood went everywhere. I got my chopping on video and took plenty of pictures. Killing the chicken, plucking and eating it was probably the best experience I have had so far.



One of the members here have a squirrel for a pet. I held a squirrel for the first time in my life ha ha it was awesome. It was crazy holding and playing with a squirrel on a leash. I have also seen alot of geckos.



In my bed each night I get the opportunity to share it with random bugs that like to bite me and so I wake up with a bunch of bug bites. But the best is when you are sleeping but wake up and feel something crawling on you and you see that it is some strange looking bug you have never seen before. There are no scorpions here and no they didn't give me a net. I don't think it would help to be honest. I aint worried. What is a couple of bed bugs that bite? It's all good.



So it rains pretty good here and all the streets in my town are rocky and just dirt except for some where there are some stores then it is brick. But the roads turn to rivers when it rains. Like you think I am kidding. I aint. They literally turn to rivers and you have to change your route cause you can't cross.

Every driver thinks they are the driver on Grand Theft Auto. Just freakin crazy. They speed swerve and honk. I have never heard so much honking in my life. They will honk and if you don't move they won't stop. But they are also kinda good drivers cause they will miss you by an inch. But literally every one thinks they are the driver in Grand Theft Auto or like fast in furious.

The people here are way awesome and nice. 2 little girls in our ward already wrote me love notes ha ha with a heart and mine and their names in it ha ha it was funny. Jaxarelia is a 10 who crushes on me ha ha but she helps me a ton with spanish. She is like the best teacher. And her sister who is 11 Juranela.

Yesterday for p day we hiked to the Cross. There is a big cross up the mountain in Jinotega and we hiked to it. It was so awesome. I will send you pictures next week. I forgot my cord and didn't want to go get it.

Everywhere I go I feel like I am hiking well because it is hiking with how the roads are. And every house only has 1 light bulb in it no more than that. And I keep typing in spanish on accident and have to erase it and write it in english. I want to be fluent. I want to talk to the people fluently like I do in english.

The food here is so good. Especially the juice. Juice in the states are horrible compared to this. All natural and 100 percent better. I have had the best juice ever here. I have also had the best bread ever here. It is called Pico and it is only 1 cord here. Things are so cheap. For breakfast I bought a bottle of fruit punch squiz a bag of jalapeno chips and 4 Picos for only 13 cords and 20 cords equal a dollar. Things are cheap and it's awesome. I can get my shoes shined on the street for only 5 cords.

I didn't write yesterday cause the internet was not working. This place is sketchy so ya. Not everything works properly. The internet is in a little cyber place and I pay for an hour.

Every house here has a metal tin roof and when it rains it pounds and it is loud. The rain here is so much different then when it rained in Utah. Utah rain is like sprinkling. Que mas uh on our way to Jinotego which is like 5 hours from Managua I saw a flooded town. A town floooded from the hurricane and the whole place was like 5 feet deep.

Awkward experience yesterday. Yesterday after FHE my companion and I left and were walking really fast. I didn't know where we were going but we were going there fast. Once we got to this house there was a lot of people there and I didn't know why. Then I walked in the door and there was a coffin just chillin there with a body in it. And I immediately was like whop and turned around and walked out. A member in our ward died yesterday and they do the funerals the same day. Anyways it gets awkwarder. I was just sitting on a chair outside the house and the daughter of the man who died she is probably 29 to 34 was walking out and right as she walked out the door where I was sitting people approached her and I was like in the middle of their circle and they were all crying and I was just sitting there. I didn't know what to do. So awkard? I think yes.

Know I love you and miss you and all is amazing and good. Enjoy this letter. I know it is long but I experienced a lot.

One more thing on the news. All tv things look like they are filmed with cameras from their house. Anyways on the news some guy got hit by a car and the news people just go up and start interviewing him like "How do you feel right now?" Just it is ridiculous. The guy is in pain and they just talk to him like it aint nothing. He just got hit by a car and he is rolling in pain.

Elder Webster is still in my zone so I see and talk to him a lot. He is awesome.

Anyways I think I need to end this. I love you and miss you and will see you again in a short 21 fast sundays or 21 months. That aint nothing. All is great for me and I hope it is the same for you.

Love, Elder Moore