I'm Finally in Nicaragua

Elder Buck and Elder Garcia (from Panama)

Our humble one room place.

Sleeping outside at the zone leaders house.

Hello Familia!!

I am in Nicaragua and don´t even know where to start! Okay, so the flight to Nicaragua was super long but glad I’m hear now so that’s good! Well when we arrived at the airport we didn´t know what to do haha. I was so confused and when I stepped off the plane it was like 8:00 pm and the first thing I noticed was the humidity! It is super humid here (the airport had no AC). I came at the best time when its most humid and hot. We were at the airport for like an hour wandering around trying to figure out what the heck to do because our mission president was suppose to meet us there. My MTC companion is just freaking out about Nicaragua and we were only in the airport! Well anyway, I went to go use the public phone at the airport but it wasn´t working. So this gave me time to practice some Spanish so I went around asking people if they had a cell phone I can use and I found a man and I called the mission home and talked to my president and he said that he has some missionaries coming to pick us up. We met up with the other Elder’s their names were Elder Mower and Leon one was from Idaho the other Guatemala. Okay as far as Nicaragua its not really like you would expect, when we walked out of the airport and to the car some little kid starts helping us with our bags and then after was like saying "you have tip". I didn´t but the other Elder did so he gave him a tip. Now were driving out and the first thing I notice is there are no traffic laws. The Elder driving had to of broken at least fifty United States traffic laws. haha. Everything here is really poor, it’s real sad, and people are just everywhere in the streets, just walking with cars flying by at 65 mph on a 25 mph road. It is so crazy. When we stopped one time, a little kid came up and started washing our car windows and was obviously expecting a tip but the missionary didn´t give him one so he just drove away and then we stopped again 100 feet away and he chased us down and started hitting the car. That’s when my MTC companion started freaking out. haha.

We finally get to the mission presidents house, his house is huge, nice and he lives next to Miss Nicaragua. We ate there with a companionship that was going home and they were having a little farewell party so we had cake and ice cream. Then my MTC companion and I stayed in a hotel for the first night, which was really nice. The next day my companion and I went to the mission office for some orientation and when were got there, there was nothing but new native missionaries and Hermana Lee from our district at the MTC. I got to know the natives, they are all really cool, then that night we went to the mission zone leaders house to sleep and there was 12 of us so we slept outside on mattresses. haha The next day we had our changes and my new companion is Elder Garcia, he is from Panama, and looks like Barak O’Bama. He´s really cool, he doesn´t speak English so it’s kind of hard to communicate with him.

I am now serving in Managua City, in a place called Universidade, it’s really poor here and I know this because of the house we live in now. It’s a one bedroom one bathroom place and the water will randomly shut off for an hour or two and it’s really dirty. Haha I am sending some some pictures of it.
The work here is awesome, everyone is Catolica (Catholic). When we do tracking my companion does most of the talking because I can´t understand a thing anyone says here?! They mumble, talk super fast, and cut off the end of the words. As far as the MTC teaching me Spanish I didn´t learn much haha! There are real dangerous areas, some places we are not even allowed to go into. I already got robbed, but didn´t have anything on me. Yeah, don´t worry about me getting robbed cuz were not even suppose to carry money.

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention was my second day here when we were on our way to orientation their was a lady nursing her child right in the middle of the road. Women nursing in public is real common here. My companion and I were teaching the Vega family and all of a sudden, Momma Vega just whips it out and I’m just like !? What the fetch?! It totally takes away the spirit but I just don´t look. Other then that everything is awesome I’m slowly relearning Spanish or at least how they talk here, I’m sweating like mad and already have had a stomach bug but other then that everything is good. I haven’t gotten the package you sent yet so I don’t know if I ever will. I am doing the best I can and being totally obedient. I hope I got everything written that I need to say. I have some pictures also I will send in another email I love you all.

Love,

Elder Buck