September 22, 2014

Dear family and friends,

Wow I don’t know where to start. This week has been a lot better than the last few weeks. I am beginning to adjust to the life and everything else.

Everyone has said that they want to hear more about Granada and my area. Well Granada is an old city with a lot of tourist attractions. The main street is full of venders, shops and everything you could think of buying. Everyone sells soda, bread, and fruit. There are a lot of restaurants and hotels as well. Granada sits on the lake. My area is outside towards the volcano about 2 or 3 miles. It is more on the agricultural side. I see cows, goats and pigs every day. Dogs are everywhere. My area is very humble.  People don’t have very much. They don’t have running water but have electricity. Everyone has a TV. I love my area though. I love the people they are incredible. Everyone is very polite and kind and will always stop and talk to us.

My house is outside my area about a mile and a half which means more walking. We walk everywhere. I walk a lot some days I bet I walk over 10 miles. My shoes are holding up way good. I have only used my boots once when it was pouring rain. The pulperia we live behind is owned by the members. They are so cool. They all try to speak English when we go into buy stuff. My house has running water and everything it’s just that the shower is not connected to the water line. So we just fill up the bucket in the faucet and use a bowl to shower. I’m starting to get used to it. Cold showers here are amazing. It has been super hot this past week. 

I have begun to teach more lessons and speak more Spanish this past week. My trainer is letting me teach more which is hard but I like it. It makes me a better Spanish speaker. 

I had my first baptism this week! It was a young woman that we have been teaching for a while. We have 5 more this week hopefully. I loved the feeling on Saturday during the baptism. I remembered when I was baptized. Wow that’s over 10 years ago.....I remembered how I felt, peace, and happiness. I saw the light from the people’s eyes as they were baptized. I know they felt the spirit. I was one of the witnesses and I definitely gained a stronger testimony of baptism. 

We work really hard every day. We teach a lot. We also teach some of the less actives and recent converts. We teach a lot about enduring to the end. I never understood how important it is to continue living the gospel. The gospel is so important and it doesn’t stop after baptism and the temple. We need to continue to live the gospel to reach our ultimate goal of living in the Celestial Kingdom.

I love getting your letters. They make me so happy. It’s my favorite time of the week.   I love you all.  Talk to you next week.

Elder Anderson

I only received 2 letters while in the CCM. The other will probably come when the other group comes into Nicaragua. Letters arrive here fast. It only takes about a week or two.