Dear familia,
Hola! How is everything at home? Weird to think that
everyone's back at college now. I left when summer started. Now it's over. Time
flies! I'm now a 3 yr old! Progress!
Well, when I was thinking about what happened this week,
only one thing came to my mind, and it wasn't particularly spiritual. Here it
is...
I ate COW TONGUE yesterday. As in...tongue...from a cow.
Yup. On Saturday night, Hna J called me over to see what she was making for
Sunday...there was a full-fledged cow tongue boiling in a pot. And I ate part
of it the next day. It actually wasn't that bad. The only gross part was the
texture. I kept thinking about our Virginia cows and what they did with their
tongues. But hey, it probably won't be my last cow tongue in the next 15
months. I'm becoming more and more Nica every day. Eating meat off the bone, or
with my hands.... I realized that gallo pinto in fact is not overrated. It's so
good! Especially with tajadas (deep fried plaintain chips). Gotta love Nica
food.
In other news...the work is progressing as always! Lots of
sharing the Restored Gospel in all its truthfullness and glory. We've been
teaching a lot of lessons, but the results haven't been particularly
encouraging. But we always have hope that something will change and the people
will be ready to receive our message! We have a handful of people that we're
helping progress to baptism, but so far, they need a little more help. But the
best news of the week... A. is going to be baptized this week! Assuming all
goes well and he keeps his compromisos. But he is so ready! Yesterday, I was thinking
about the fast and testimony meeting from the month before, when A. showed up drunk. Yesterday, he was attentive and had his scriptures with him. He has come
a long way. He has a really strong testimony and understands the gospel more
than a lot of the members in our ward. I'm so excited for him to progress and
make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father.
This week, we were really popular. We went to 3 different
birthday parties! Latino birthdays are about the same...cake, piñatas, the
works. Haha. It was awesome, though we were obligated to buy gifts for the 2
kids whose birthday parties we went to...that was difficult. For the little
girl, we bought a bouncy ball with Sleeping Beauty on it...in honor of Karen.
haha. We had plans to go to the parties and contact the people who weren't
members, but it didn't work out very well. But this week, we're going to have a
ton of Family Home Evenings with members and are inviting them to invite
nonmember friends, so hopefully something will work out there. FHEs are really
fun with the members. We've made a lot of good friendships with members that
way.
Honestly, not much happened this week. The only other
exciting thing that happened was that our district is making a video for a
multizone conference tomorrow. It's to the song of You Raise Me Up, but we're
all doing crazy or at least funny things. We had Zone Conference on Friday,
which was really fun. We have a new ZL who is very animated. Oh! I went to the
distribution center today and ran into Hna Merrill, who is from Alpine! Though
I never met her...I know that a few people have told me to look out for her. I
also met an Elder whose mom I met in the Provo temple last semester. That was
pretty random. Haha
to answer some questions...
The Spanish is coming along really well. I study almost
completely in Spanish and consult my English scriptures when I don't understand
a verse. I love personal study. I wish it were more than an hour. There's so
much to learn! I also need to learn to play hymns better, because it's still a
little clumsy. Sometimes, when the bishop chooses songs that are too difficult,
I just lead the music a cappella...haha. Hermana R and I are buddies now
that we can communicate. We're always joking around. Someone called us cafe con
leche because I'm white and she's latina...so that's a nice little joke now.
She only has 2 months left! So crazy!
Oh! And I found a map of my area and have some more
info...it's a little rough though. I'm near Iglesia Señor Lezcano, a little
west of it. But that's the closest landmark. Calle 4 de Noviembre goes through
my area (the western part). Acuahaulinca is NW, as well as the US embassy. And
I'm NE from Laguna de Asososca. It's like Where's Waldo!
But that's about it for now! I'm doing really well here in
Managua and can't believe it's already been 3 months since I left home! The
gospel is so true and I love sharing it! Prayer is real. Heavenly Father hears
each and every prayer and will give us the knowledge we need if we ask for it!
I hope all is well with you all! I expect engagement
pics pronto! I hope Karen is enjoying school...at least tolerating it. Thanks
for the update! I love hearing about everyone, even if I don't have time to
respond to it!
Love,
Hermana MacKay
(Posted by her Mom)
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