Hola familia y amigos!
I'm still trying to get used to the price system here. Ice cream bars are less expensive than America- about 50 cents, but candy is more. A chocolate bar is $1.50 or more and gum is about $2. It stinks because I love candy. I think the fruit is also more expensive. It's like $2 for one apple. But a lot of the services I think are cheaper- like the buses.
The kids here are really cute. I've been giving them pins that say "Soy amada" and stickers.
We wash our own garments, but take our clothes to a ward member to have them washed and pay her for it. This week I got my clothes back from her first time washing them and was horrified at what I found. My clothes had a funky smell about them, many of my shirts were all stretched out especially around the necklines, and there weren't nearly as soft as before- they felt starchy One of my shirts had been scrubbed so hard that in one spot is was practically transparent and will surely have a hole in it in no time. Also, I found a huge blue stain on my pajama pants. I was so frustrated. The first time she washes my clothes and they're already damaged! Why on earth did she need to scrub them that hard. There weren't any stains on them. Last time I have her wash my clothes. I'll let her wash my bed sheets, but from now on, I`m washing all my own clothes.
Here are some funny stories of mixing up words in Spanish. On the plane to Nicaragua, Hna. Behan asked for "Juicio de Naranjas" instead of "Jugo de Naranjas". So she said "justice of oranges" instead of "orange juice" haha. The other night, I was on exchanges and we were teaching a lesson to a bunch of primary-aged kids and one of them asked Hna. Howell who Satan's mom is, so she tried to explain that we're all brothers and sisters and Heavenly Father has a wife, but she's very sacred. But instead of saying "sagrada" which means sacred, she said "sangrada" which means 'bloody'. Hahahaha that child is probably so confused. I was talking to Hna. Howell in English the other day and actually said "wisdomable" instead of "wise". Ahhh, I'm forgetting English! I felt so dumb haha.
We've been teaching an investigator named Walter and he is stellar! His baptism was set for last Sunday, but we had to postpone it because he had some problems with the word of wisdom and living with his girlfriend. We visited him again this week and he is totally ready for baptism! He hasn't smoked or drank coffee for a week and he broke up with his girlfriend because she was a bad influence and didn't want anything to do with the church. He's been reading his scriptures and the pamphlets we gave him every night. Also, we have this thing called Hermanamiento where a bunch of people in the ward get together and have a short lesson and then play a game and non-members can come too- I think it might be called Ward Fellowship in the U.S.- anyway, Walter has been coming and asked we don't have more lessons/messages and said he wished that we could teach for like 3 hours. So cool! We set his baptism for this Saturday.
We went to Managua this week for a meeting with Prez. Collado and all the trainers and new missionaries. I like his teaching style. He uses a lot of cool videos and analogies to demonstrate ideas. We got to have Subway for lunch one day and pizza and cake the next! I was so happy! On the way back to Leon, 6 of us hermanas crammed into one taxi- I don't know why we didn't just take 2 separate ones- and then the taxi ran out of gas and died on the road. Then the taxi driver got out of the car, climbed into another taxi and drove away. He just left us there in the taxi! We were so stunned haha. We took some fun pictures and about 25 minutes later, the guy came back with more gas, but it was funny.
Something I forgot to mention last time: girls here marry at about age 16 and the husband is sometimes 20 years older! Strange. Also, I tried flower juice the other day. It was gross. I pretty much never wear makeup except for a little bit on Sunday and P-days because it's so hot here it usually melts off. Cars honk at you so much here! Even if you're not hailing a taxi they'll slow down and honk at you to try to get you to take it. Also, people are constantly in your face trying to sell you things on the street and they repeat the food name over and over in a voice that sounds like a siren wailing. It gets pretty annoying.
On the plus side, there are a lot of nice people here. We've had people offer us free triciclo rides and one of the Elders in our district paid for us to go out to dinner for Hna. Mendes' (Hna. Howell's comp) birthday.
That's all for this week. I love you all!
Count your blessings,
Hermana Hawkins
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