Sick or not, I'm gonna work

Yeah I got everything in the package, no worries there. Thank you again. =)
Tylan wrote me to tell me what happened. He´s walking a thin line right now, in and out of sickness like that. I can only pray he´ll come out on top through it all. I hate to hear my brother has had to endure so much in these few months, but I know he´s being watched over. As long as he keeps listening to the Spirit, all is well in Zion. =)
Nathan getting engaged, that makes 10 people I know now married or engaged since I´ve been in the mission! I´ve only been gone for 8 months! That´s just insane.

Whew, well it´s been a long week. For starters I got sick Tuesday, not sure with what, but it stayed with me till about Thursday afternoon. Sick to my stomach, migraines, body aches, throwing up, etc. etc. It wasn´t fun. I made the effort to try and work though. I made myself a promise I was going to work every day, rain or shine, sick or no, because that´s what I´m here to do and dang it, I´m gonna do it! For those 3 days we ended up leaving at about 4 or 5 p.m. to work, when it was cooler outside. I´m feeling better now but my stomach is still bother me sometimes. I haven´t eaten much, in fact Tuesday through Thursday I didn´t eat anything at all. The very thought of food makes me nauseated. =(
On the bright side I lost 5 pounds! I´m right back to where I was when I graduated now, a nice 130 lbs. That makes me happy. =P

But even with my being sick Elder Maradiaga and I made some huge improvements in the area this week. We brought 2 investigators to church, found a lot of new people to teach, and we´ve got 3 baptisms in planning. One, a 13 year-old kid named Carlos Andres. He´s reading, he has the desire to be baptized, we just need to get him to come to church consistently. We brought him with us Sunday and he enjoyed it. We´re going to try and put another fecha with him this week. Wish us luck!
Another hopeful is Nixon, but the man needs to get married before we can make the challenge for baptism. He´s willing, but wedding bells are what are keeping him from the gold right now.
Last but certainly not least is Michaela. She´s a foreign exchange student from Australia who´s living with one of our less active families. We had a family home evening with them Saturday night and I ended up teaching her the first lesson and parts of the Plan of Salvation.
First off, teaching in english is really, REALLY weird. Talking in english is weird enough after 2 months of straight spanish with my companions, but teaching after 6 months of spanish was just weird. I had to try and remember words in english and, well, it was pretty funny. But she was really receptive and Elder Litchfield and I are going to teach her again next Saturday after our English classes. It´ll be interesting how things play out there.

Bytheway, those pasta sides you sent in the package were a great idea. Muy rico. =D Elder Litchfield and I realized sending missionaries a package isn´t the easiest thing because only we know what we need and what we have access to hear, so we put together this little list of possibilities. =)

1) Fotos. I especially need a family foto still that I can carry around with me.
2) Music. Litchfield is a little better off than I am in this department since he has an Ipod, but I can only listen to the same 4 CDs before my comp wants to kill me. =P
3) Any easy to send candy is a treat. Starburst jellybeans, twizzlers, Reese´s Pieces, anything like that is great. Because as I said on the phone, sweetness doesn´t exist here. =P
4) Any off the wall things we might mention. Like right now I´m hurting for shoe laces. The laces on my Doc shoes are about ready to snap, so I need to tough, black laces to replace them with. Unfortunately you can´t just buy shoe laces in this country. I´m also in need of a vial for oil, since my last one got jacked while I was in the León XIII and I won´t be going to the temple any time soon (like until December).

Well...I can´t think of anything else for the week. =P The work continues, the rain falls harder and more often now. I´m going to pull some money out of the account today to buy an umbrella finally. We have our last interviews with Presidente Arbizú tomorrow and then Zone Conference Wednesday, all in San Ramon. I´m hoping I can find a good umbrella while we´re there. =)

I love you all and I hope this finds you well and happy. Take care and I´ll follow up with the "To Be Continued..." next week! ¡Les amo!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

Reboot in Canas

Well it´s the start of something new. Changes was awesome, nothing different happened, it was the same as always, but that just means it´s a blast and a real ánimo booster. =) I have video to send you of changes meeting too.

Well my new companion is actually one of the first missionaries I met when I got into Zona Toyopan back in November. Elder Maradiaga from Honduras. Litchfield and I pretty much did a switch with companion status. My old comp had 3 months left and Elder Valerio from Chile was about to complete a year. Now, Litchfield´s companion dies in 3 months and my companion completes a year this week. =P Elder Maradiaga is awesome though, I was so happy to get him as a comp. It feels SOOOO good to get back to work again. Those last few days with Pliego were horrible. I couldn´t get him to leave the house until like 3 p.m. and then we just visited member families and didn´t teach anyone. That´s a sign that a man needs to go home. It affects me mainly because I don´t want to be labeled a lazy elder because my comp was. This week our numbers need to be INCREDIBLE. I don´t want to be a pain for the ZL´s or for President.

The first thing I did with my new comp was take him to meet our branch president. I never knew where the man even lived until last Monday when I forced Pliego to take me there. Our branch president didn´t like Elder Pliego at all, so Elder Maradiaga and I need to redeem missionaries in his eyes and get the ball rolling. We´re baptizing and nothing´s going to stop us!

Today was probably the best p-day I´ve had. We went out to Tilaran, hiked up some hills and then climbed up this big cross. It was a lot of fun, just a chill, relaxed p-day. Which is what I needed because this week we are going to about kill ourselves in the work. "The calm before the storm..." in other words. =P

I did get one of the packages at changes, along with a letter from cousin Mandy and Audre! I ALSO GOT MY FORROS POR FIN!!!!! About time, I´d been waiting for those scripture covers since January. =P All in all changes meeting felt like Christmas. That´s a nice feeling. =D

Also I didn´t realize I had such an audience in the whole blog thing. I feel kinda special. =P

Alright well I better let you guys go. Take care of yourselves and know that I´m doing well, trying to work hard, and loving life. Hopefully next week I´ll have some more exciting news for you guys. =)
Love you!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

I HAVE FOOD!!!

Tell Dad thanks for the fotos! Holy wow, I´m not going to recognize a thing when I get home am I? I barely recognized the backyard! The front porch looks great, and I can´t even begin to describe the change of to the house across the street. They´ve definately pulled a 180 on that thing.
Sounds like everyone´s going to be busy this upcoming summer. A list of everything you want to do from May 1st to Sep 1st? Mom, you´re crazy. I can´t even imagine how long that list is, but I´m willing to bet I could use it has a blanket. =P

Wow, it´s May. Time has flown, it´s weird to think about. This week hasn´t been anything exceptional, still working on helping my companion WANT to work. I have a feeling he´s been slowly getting lazy for a few months now, about the time he left the office (about October of last year). Trunkiness has definately hit the man, and the members can see it as well.
I´m somewhat at a loss as to what I can do, since I´m just junior comp and Elder Pliego reminds me of that often. He calls the shots, I just follow. That´s how he likes things to work. Not exactly the most efficient use of the word "team" but I´m dealing.

Last week on Thursday we had to travel, yet again, to a conference. I´ve never had to travel so much before, it´s been a change for me. We went to a town called Puntarenas on the coast (I actually got to see the beach for once!). Elder Quentin L. Cook was visiting the MTC in Guatemala and invited all the Central American missionaries to watch via satellite. It was a great conference, Elder Cook really struck home some keys points of Preach My Gospel that we need to focus on. My companion just shrugged it off and didn´t take it very seriously, I´m guessing because he´s about to leave for his last area and then he goes home. I guess he figures it doesn´t apply to him because he´s been out for a while.

I made a game plan on things I´m going to change once Elder Pliego leaves. There have been no baptisms in this area for the last year, but I´m going to change that. We had 2 baptismal dates but Elder Pliego keeps delaying the baptisms because he feels they´re not ready. Kind of a headache, since they are far more prepared for baptism than my last 2 have been, but my comp feels otherwise. We´ll just have to see, but I´m afraid the more we postpone the more we risk them changing their minds.

WE FINALLY HAVE MONEY FOR FOOD!!!! I spent almost $40 on food, which is looking like it´ll last me well into the next month. Fine by me, less money I need to spend for next month. Elder Pliego kind of thought it was weird I was actually buying food other than eggs and bread, which is all he bought for himself. But I had enough of eggs last month. The only reason I bought eggs this time round is to make french toast (something Elder DePriest taught me). I don´t know what Elder Pliego has done in his 21 months here, but I´m gonna learn how to cook and not scrape by starving myself every month. I have 17 months to do it, plenty of time. =D

Alright well that´s all I have for the week. I hope everything back home is well and fine. Take care and know that I love you! ¡Ciao!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- The fotos are from the trip to Puntarenas. We had an hour to burn, so we took some fotos on the beach. =D