Nicaragua - Week 2

¡¡Buenas!!

All right, well where do I begin? Well, things are doing great. Still hot as always. I´m pretty sure it is always somewhere between 95 and 105 with humidity like none other. But it just makes you forever grateful for the invention of a fan. Speaking of hot, something i noticed about the people here is that there is always hot soup on hot days for lunch and dinner. Honestly I don´t get it. The food is always hot either way but soup is the worst. Don´t get me wrong, its delicious but when sweat is dripping off you and literally making a puddle under your chair, there´s a problem. I probably sweat the most when I´m eating.

Anyways, that out of the way. Nicaragua has been great. The people here are the craziest, humblest, proudest, weirdest mix in the world. I honestly don´t know what to think of it all. But at the same time, I love it. We´ve been teaching a family lately who probably take the cake but they´re probably my favorite. The dad is this little Nica who is pretty much always drunk. His wife is sick of him and so is his family but he loves them a ton. We´ve been working a lot with him to kick is drinking habit. It´s crazy how many people here are constantly drunk or stoned and usually before nine in the morning. Anyways, I´ve become his best friend whenever we stop by. We have this secret hand shake and everything and he calls me Harry cuz the Nica´s don´t say the s´s at the end of their words. His wife is always giving us homemade tortillas too which is awesome. But anyways, we´ve been working really hard with the entire family. It´ll be a long journey and with a miracle, the dad´ll figure it out. I´ve got high hopes and lots of prayers.

What other crazy stories do I have. First, when the local church pastor drops by one of your investigators house and wants to chat, politefully decline. They don´t want to chat. They just want to tell how unbelievably wrong you are and won´t listen for three seconds to you.

What else? Oh! So we´re walking down the street in the middle of Sabana Grande and to my great surprise, 20 gringos are in the middle of the street dancing and singing to all the chabalos or kids. Apparently they were from Florida and out here for a week. Anyways, they sang and danced for two hours and then left. I didn´t get to talk to any of them really, but if you here about 20 Floridans who got robbed in Nicaragua let me know. Every single one of them had their cameras dangling for the whole world to see and here that is a big big no no. Also, two of them were in clown suits- full out clown suits- in a 100 degree weather mind you. I didn´t really get it at all. Anyways, let me know if something happens. I still don´t know what to think about it.

Well, I´m just going to finish with this. There are about 10 churchs in Sabana Grande each one of them screaming from the top of their lungs about how everyother one is wrong. There is one that the Pastor screams and reminds me of the devil. Quite literally. And then there is the little Los Laureles nucleo (not even big enough to be a branch) where our 7 members (we actually had 18 show up yesterday. Sweet!!!) meet quietly and invite others to know for themselves whether the message is true or not. Listen, I´m not here to trash on other churches but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has something all others don´t. I´ve prayed to know it´s true. I got an anwer. And now I´m here and my testimony is reaffirmed everyday. I know the Book of Mormon is true. Many people say it´s crazy but none of them has read it. So how can they know? I´ve read. I´ve prayed about it and I know it´s true. There was an apostasy. The church of Jesus Christ was lost. It was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. And how do I know? I prayed and I received an answer. And I cannot deny it. This is our message. We don´t yell or force. We just invite other to do the exact same thing I´ve done. Search, pray, and act on the answer.Anyways, I love you all. I´m out of time but I´m sending pictures next week.

Ciao!Elder Travis Harris