e-mail July 26, 2010

Dear all,

Well, it was a good week. It started off being their day of revolution on Monday. We cam into town in a taxi, but when we went to go back to San Ramon, all the busses where at a bbig rally in Managua for the Sandinista rally. So, there were no buses and only one taxi working. There were about 30 people waiting for the one taxi. anyway, we ended up having to sleep at the house of some other missionaries. Then, president Arredondo came on tuesday. His nephew was actually my tutor in the MTC. Small world. I really like him. I don´t lke macheting people. I think people react better to leading by exmple and love rather than by scorn and machete. I think he is the same way. We had interviews and that was really cool. It was the first time I´ve actualy been able to have an interview. That was the biggest thing that happened. Nothing really happened this week. I´ve been sick a lot this week again. I did have a request to tell about some of our members. We have about 10 active members. There is Fatima and her two daughters who i told about in my Q and A. There is Guiermina and her sister Patricia. They are both about 50. Almost all their family are members. They are the only active ondes. Patricia is a nurse here, not that that means much. I was sick one day and so they went out and got me some alcaselser stuff and two lemons. they told me the name of some pastillas, pills ot go buy and take, but I never did., Their cure for everything is an injection and lemon juice. So I was sick from wednesday till about yesterday. I had a little "accident" yesterday again. I was praying in the morning and what I thought was going to be air wasn´t. Now, stop laughting. You think it shouldn´t be that hard to know the difference and now have to change your pants. It is just different here. You never have to worry about it in the states. You bowels just work differently here. We did start this cool thing where we are trying to read the whole book of Mosiah with the members in a month. We are reading one chapter with them in the church each night and then they have to read one chapter by themselves in their house. We thought this would be a good idea to do to help them form the habbit of reading the scriptures every day and to help them form a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is going really well. They are actually enjoying it and we are way ahead of schedule. Well, that´s about it for this week . Things are going well. O, the big news is, though, is that they are really thinking about closing down our branch. There has been some rumors flying around and the office called us for some numbers and how much we pay for rent and things like that. So we will see what happens. Keeps sending letters! At least when the mail does finally come, I can have some letters. Thank you for your emails. It was great to see everyone´s pictures form the week. Emily, your kids are so cute and it looks like you guys had fun. What does everyone else think about my mother´s hair?? Does it make her look more like a grandma or less?? I think that´s it. I love you all. The work is true and we are working hard. I´m trying to keep my comp going. He only has 3 weeks left. We will see if we get any baptisms before that. the chrurch is true.

With love,
Elder Ashby

Q & A July 26, 2010

1. When does the rainy season end? Does it seem like its been raining forever?

One, not soon enough. This week has been better. It didn´t rain near as much this past week. Before, it seemed like I was always wet.

2. Have you received any dearelders recently? What about your package? You probably get tired of me asking!

I have not recieved anything for this whole change-6 weeks. the first two, nothing came. The last three weeks, the mail bag hasn´t come. The package still hasn´t come.

3. Someone who saw the video of the spider asked if you killed it in the end? Something was mentioned about a girlie scream??? and Emily was very impressed.

lol yes, I have the picture of it finally dead. I finally got it after a few swings of the plunger. The girly scream was a mix of me and mostly my compañion.

4. Have you met the new mission pres yet? Did you or are you going to have a mission wide event to meet him?

Yes, we met pres. His first week, he came and we had a little conference where he taught us. Then last tuesday, he came thought, and we had interviews. It was my first interview with a mission president longer than 1 minute. We haven´t had any missionwide actvities yet, though.


5. If so, what is he like? Has he made any changes yet? Not companionships necessarily, but rules or anything.

He is really, not relaxed but dinfferent. Our last pres was really hard and liked to tell people to just be better. He liked to machete. This pres is kind of a feel good pres. He wants you to be good and work hard through love. He hasn´t changed anything. He is jsut getting used to things and trying to keep numbers from plummetting.

6. Where is the girl in your branch going on her mission? I can't remember if you already told us or not.

She is going to Lima Peru este, east

7. Tell us something about one of the members of the branch, if you have time.

We only have a few active members. One lady is really funny. She has two daughts, one that is really anoing and one that is really smart. She always is trying to remind us of things to do. She always tells us of crazy dreams that she has had. That´s about it.

Video of Scott catching a spider--or not?

pics from San Ramon July 19, 2010

Lunch and dinner for Scott and his comp on Sunday. What a hearty meal!

The usual position of Scott and Elder Ensign as they wait for a ride.

e-mail July 19, 2010

Dear all,

Well, it was another week in San Ramon! Things are going good. We still haven´t seen that much success, but we are working hard. This area has really been a learning area for me. I am really learning about working hard, even when things are hard or unsuccessfull. I have learned a lot of about missionary work and how it relates to real life. My comp has been struggling a little big. He has been branch president for 5 months and it is hard. It´s rough when we have to work on missionary work and keeping the branch running. There has been some talk about even shutting down the branch, but that´s just rumor.

Things have been gonig well. Nother big happened this week. We almost ate lengua (tongue) the other day at the restaurant, but my comp didn't feel like eating it. I´m sure one day i will get it. So the pictures that are a attached are as follows: 1. The first is the usual position of my comp and I waiting for a ride. 2. The other is of our lunch and dinner for Sunday. What a hearty meal.

The only thing that really happened this week was yesterday, we walked 30 minutes to one of our communities to visit some of our members that haven´t come in a few weeks. The one good member we have up there has gone through the temple. We went in and her son was drinking coffee. She said that she doesn´t drink it, just her son. She said that he is really young, 5, and doesn´t know that it´s bad. She said she will take it away in like a year. So we just went into her with a machete. We talked to her about teaching by example and from a young age. we spent about an hour there talking about living the gosple. That is the big struggle that we have right now. We can´t take investigators to church if there are no members in the church.

Anyway, a lot of missionaries are losing animo this long change. We are having some problems between the gringos and the Latinos. I think there might be some changes this week. I might get changed at the end of this change no matter what. I thought I might be staying, but then the ZL said that he thinks I´ll probably get changed. We will see what happens.

That´s about all. My spanish is getting pretty good. I am feeling good about what we are doing and i am learning a lot about myself and the gosple right now. Thank you for all of your encouragment. I am still looking for good ideas of things to do on p-days. Dale pues

Elder Ashby

I can also recieve pictures. I want to see some people´s pictures like yours from your trip and I love getting the blogs as emails becasue the have pictures.

Q & A e-mail July 19, 2010

1. Tell us a little about your money. How many cords can you get with a dollar? How many cords do you get per month?

I think it is up to 22 cords per dollar right now. We get 920 cords for personal needs like shampoo, soap, extra food, and transportation. We get 1500 cords at the beginning of the month for food and then we get 1100 cords in the middle of the month for food again. Usually, people have to pay 1000 cords for their lunch and dinner appointments and that is most of their money, but we don´t have a cita. we just eat day to day at restaurants.

2. We have some questions about your pictures. What were you burning? Why were you burning it in your apt?

lol yeah, umm, so my comp likes fire first of all. Second, he had a leather bag that he wanted to make it look more manly. So he lit a paper on fire and put in on his bag.

3. How did you kill the spider?

I finally got it after a few swings of the plunger. I have other videos, but I don´t know how to get videos to you.

4. What were the bites in the picture? Mosquito or bed bugs?

They are a mixture of both. It is hard to keep track of which are which.

5. How did you cook the brownies? I didn't think you had cooking facilities in your apt.

We don´t, but we go to Matagalpa for p-day every week and there is an electic stove in the big church here.

6. Do you sleep on the floor? Is your mattress on the floor?

No, we have beds. They were bunk beds, but one of the previous companionships took them down. So they are off the floor.

7. How are the bills paid for your branch? Do you and your comp as the branch presidency pay them or does someone from the mission pay they?

No, we pay all the bills. This nexts months water bill that´s going be be 1500 cords, we have to pay that. We have a budget just like ever other ward and we have to get checks signed so that we can get money for things and activities.

8. You've mentioned not having water because the water bill was not paid. Are you and your comp responsible for your apt rent or any of the utility bills? It seems like Zack said they had to pay for something that past missionaries hadn't paid.

Yeah, the dweña, or umm landlord? i think is supposed to pay for water at most houses, but for some reason at our house, we have to pay the waterbill and there is a leak in the pipes and they won´t fix it. So the bill has been really high. Plus the town shuts off the water like twice a week. We often don't have water at night or first thing in the morning.

pictures from San Ramon July 12, 2010

My first baptism

e-mail July 12, 2010

Dear All,

Well, it was quite the week. We had a lot of things happen. I will try and share as much as I can and as much as I remember. So, first off, if you thought the spider from last week was big, you got another thing comming. I have attached a short video. It is short but funny, atleast for me. I killed this one too. We think it was the daddy and we killed the mommy last week. Anyway, We did get a baptism this week. Her name was Sorayda. We have been teaching her for the past 7 weeks. She is awesome and humble. We wsa really stubborn about being baptized. She had her interview a week ago and we had to work hard to get her conviced. She gave up coffee about 3 weeks ago and has been ready. She doesn´t have a job and has been really worried about that. She finally told us she wanted to get baptizewd last saturday. We set the date and kept going back and reminding her. Anyway, so the day came and of course, it was raining. It is always raining when we try to baptizse. The people are really afraid of the rain here. They won´t go anywhere. They think that if they go out in the rain, they will get sick. That´s because there are more mosquitoes when it rains and the mosquitoes can carry a disease called Dengai or something like that. Anyway, We took our unbrellas and when with the one strong member we have (by the way, she got and opened her mission call this week. She is going to Lima peru este) so we took her and animated her and told her we were going. She kind of joked that she didn´t want to go. It was raining and she wasn´t ready. She knew that she had to do it though.We told her to go get ready. We convinced one of her daughters to go with her. She said that she didn´t want ot get baptized, but we were pretty sure we could change her mind when she saw her mom gettting baptized. Anyway, so in the POURING rain, we went to catch a bus. My comp stood in the pouring rain waiting to wave down a bus while we waited under a building. He got drenched and finally got got a bus. We all got in. Of course we paid for everyone to go. So we went and got there and had her baptism. Lorna, the member, got them all dressed and the little girl too. We thought she was going to do it, but then she said that she wasn´t going to get baptized. Anyway, so i baptized her and all was well. We finally got home and we were tired and wet, like usual. It rains every day and we have started carrying our umbrellas more because we got sick of being wet. So yesterday. We had to confirm her. We went ot her house at 745 and she said that she was sick and that she was going ot go to the medical center. We said and talked to her about how important it was to recieve the Holy Ghost too. We told her we were going to do it in her house if she wasn´t going ot come to church. She realized that it was a sacred thing and said we should to it in the church. We were just really scared that she wasn´t going to come. She said she was going to come. So we left and started church. About half way through we came in. We confirmed her. After sacrament, she said she had her tithing. I helped her and she paid. That was awesome for me. But let me tell you what she paid on becasue like i said, she doesn´t have a job. We have been thinging what we can do to help her out. We decided that we could afford to take her some clothes and pay her 60 cords for a bag of laundry to wash. But we pay this other lady 500 cords plus however much she has to plancha, iron. We have to pay that no matter what. But we decided it would be a small sacrifice just to take her socks and sheets and towls. We need out pants and shirts planchaed. So we took her a bag to wash and 60 cords and she paid her tithing on that. But at least she paid. She could be a really good convert!!!.
Lets see. Also the church flooded. We have a baptismal font in our little chaple, but it has holes and it doesn´t drain. But one day last week, we didn´t have water in the church.. someone turned on the font and the sink and didn´t realize they were still on because there was no water. So we ewent back the next day and the font was overflowing, there was water ALL over the floor. I started bailing the font with a broken bucket. It was slow going. An hour later, i had done half of it. I had to go teach the english class and Elder Ensign and Lorna finished bailing and mopping. We got it done, but imagine if that thing pumps out 3 liters a minute and it ran for 24 hours, our bill is going to be huge.
Does anyone have any good ideas for p-days? Remember that I´m in a third world country and we are poor. I need fun, cheap ideas. My comp and I got those instant betty crocker brownnies and made those today. They were very good. We usually eat a few little things of chanchada, not good stuff for breakfast. We either eat lunch or dinner. We often eat lunch and then eat chanchada for dinner. It isn´t very healthy , but it´s what we have.
I spoke in church yesterday, and afterwards, the sisters in the ward complimented me on how good my spanish was. I have gotten quite a big better. I still can´t speak very welll, but I can usually understand people when the speak. Paso a paso.
Thanks everyone. I havn´t gotten mail for 2 weeks now, but we will see if anything comes this week for me. I will let you konw if any dear elders come, but i haven´t been seing any. They might have stopped those. People might actually have to take some time and HANDWRITE a letter ;) anyway, thank you to everyone for your prayers and love. I can recieve pictures on my email, so some people could send me pictures other than Sarah ;) I do love your pictures every month or so. The church is true, just pray and find out. I love the fact that everything in live is just a decision. Obedience is a simple decision between whether you are going to do something or not. We can choose to be righteous or not. It is simple. The church is true.

With love,
Elder Ashby

Hand written letter June 13 and June 21

June 13, 2010

Dear Mon and Dad:

Well, things are going well. I’m not sure how much I actually have to write you because I can’t tell you a lot of the stuff that goes down. We’re not supposed to tell you stuff that will make you worried. Well, Thursday last week, we had interviews with Pres. They were 30 second interviews. I’m not really going to know the guy. It will be interesting to see if my comp or I get changed this week. We have been working a lot with the members to try and get our attendance up. They are really trying to push to get this to be a stake, but they need more people attending sacrament meeting and more Priesthood. We have 2 investigators right now. I’m not really sure any of them are progressing. I was born in a really hard area. We could have success, but my comp is starting to waste a lot of time and he says that he’s talked to everyone. We just haven’t seen much success.

I had to eat hard-boiled egg the other day and it took everything I had to get it down. My black shoes that were already worn are doing quite well. They are very comfortable. I might get 6 months out of them. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to find contact solution and if I eventually do, it is going to be really expensive.

Here is a sample of our meals. For breakfast, I usually get something from the “bakery” like a cinnamon roll, sweet bread, or pico, a sweet bread. Some times we have to get cookies and chips for breakfast. Lunch usually consists of rice and beans and some type of meat and lettuce. The lettuce is sometimes bad because it just sits in water all day. They eat a lot of Gallo Pinto. It is just a black bean and rice dish. Their cheese is really salty. It is crumbly and very different.

I haven’t been getting bed bug bites any more, just mosquito bites.

It will definitely be different when I go to a new area that actually has members and the missionaries don’t have to run everything in the branch. It is hard because we just spend so much time with members, trying to strengthen them that we just don’t get much done. It will definitely be easier when I get transferred.

I got your e-mail today. It was actually really helpful Mom. You are right. I need to forget about myself and just focus on the investigators and members. We don’t have very many investigators and I often have a hard time knowing what the members need, but that’s what I need to do. I need to stop worrying about myself and worry about others. Dave also gave me some good advice. He said a lot of people told him not to waste a single second. He said he hated that. He liked more the saying, “enjoy every second.” That’s not to say don’t work hard, but if you are enjoying your time, you will work hard. I can’t believe by the time you get this, I will have been on my mission for 4 months.

I guess I’ll just tell you what happened a couple of nights ago. You said don’t worry about telling you things, that you won’t worry, so here goes. A couple nights ago, a guy got killed in front of our house. We were sitting there eating after we finished planning and we heard some commotion outside. We looked out the window and my comp saw a guy fall. He just thought it was some kid that pushed over a drunk. He didn’t think anything of it, so we went back to eating. Then, he looked out the window and he said that the guy was bleeding. He ran and moved the table, “our security system”, and unlocked the door. He told me to grab a towel. My comp ran out and got there first. I ran up and his eyes were already glazed over. He had lost so much blood. The road was covered with blood. I ran up and tried to see where he was bleeding from. My comp said, “No you don’t want to see that.” I didn’t know what he was talking about. There were some other guys with some first-aid supplies. There was nothing we could do, so we went back to our house. We asked some of the people in front of our house what happened. She said a car had come by and some guys had a machete and cut the guy in the neck. I’m guessing my comp saw his neck where he had been cut. When we got in the house, he was pretty shaken up. For the whole night and next day he was shaken up. Cops didn’t come for like 25 minutes and the ambulance didn’t come for another 10 minutes. The cops didn’t cover him for like an hour and at 11:00, when we finally went to bed, his body was still there. My comp is still really shaken up. He doesn’t like being out in the dark past 8:00 now.

June 21, 2010

My comp’s been better this week. He has been able to walk around without being so jumpy. We still haven’t had very much luck, although we did get one of our investigators to church yesterday. She is trying to give up coffee. We have bought her Arvena, this oatmeal drink, tang. She has been working for 2 weeks to give it up. On Sunday she was at 3 days without coffee.

Missionary work is so different than I thought it would be. It is especially different in San Ramon when we have to spend half our time with members to strengthen them. I will probably be one more change. My comp will go home in 8 weeks and then I will spend 1 more change there, probably, to show my new comp, the new branch pres around. We will see. I’m really excited for the new president to come and meet him. It will definitely be different when I finally go to a different area.

Now I’ll tell you a little about our branch work. About half our time is spent visiting members. We have to get to know them, strengthen them, and gain their trust. We are home teachers, visiting teachers, and branch presidency—oh and missionaries! On Monday nights, we try and go to as many Noche de hogar (night of home) or FHE as we can. Tuesday night, we have to go to Seminary. Seminary here is for all the members and nonmembers. We have a girl, our most strong member, Lorna, that teaches. We have to go to support her, in case she doesn’t show and in case there are investigators. Wednesday night, I teach an English class in the church. We’ve been getting like 10 non-members to that, but none that are really interested in being baptized. Plus, it is a good way for me to learn Spanish. Thursday night, we have Noche de hermanamiento (night of fellowship) or like mutual for everybody where we have a spiriatual message and then we play a game. We had about 40 people in the church for that this last week. Friday night we have seminary again. Saturday there is nothing. Sunday, we wake up at 6:00, get ready, and leave by 7:00. This last Sunday, I went with one 16 year old. He is only half active, and my comp went with his brother. We took a bus up to the little town above us and we stopped by some houses and brought our investigator back for church at 9:15. My comp went around a tried to animate some of our investigators in town to come to church and then he had to be there 30 minutes early to open the church. My Spanish is getting better. I do alright. Most of the time, it just isn’t important to me if I’m completely right. I am starting to understand more.

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m working hard. I loved your advice to just forget myself and just care about the people. It’s hard because my comp is really trunky and ready to go home. He just talks about things from home all the time. I love you and hope this letter was a little bit better. Tell Dad I expect him to write at least a little piece in your next one!! J

With Love,

Elder Bryant Scott Ashby

PS

About packages, I still haven’t gotten your package, but I came up with some things I might like in the next one in 2 or 3 or 4 months. Mike and Ikes! Journals here aren’t very high quality. I have the one I use now, plus another one in my suitcase, so when I run out, I will let you know. For the most part, I don’t think too much gets taken. Elder Ensign’s parents sent him a CD player in one of his packages. More than anything, money would be a great Christmas or Birthday present. I can buy most stuff here for cheaper. I’m just too cheap to enjoy myself. That extract to make root beer would be cool. Also, Mike and Ikes, gummy bears, mostly any American candy full of sugar. If there’s anything I actually need, I will let you know.

You would be surprised at the things I eat here. The other day, a member made me this like potato soup with rice and pieces of boiled egg. That was rough. I love platenos(David sp?). Our restaurant usually had beats in the salad and cucumbers. I eat those and they even gave us beet juice with our meal and it was actually pretty good. I had my first mango like 4 weeks ago and I love those. I love the banana they have here too. I eat everything I’m given except some of the salad. Sometimes it’s slimy and I know it will make me sick. For some reason I just want to constantly eat on my mission. That’s where I go broke, by buying little snacks all the time. All the little pulparias (I don’t think I spelled this correctly David), all over make it so easy to buy a snack whenever I want!!!

I don’t know if it would have it, but go to San Ramon, then see if it has a little place called La Gorita before you get to Sana Ramon about 4 KM and La Reina about 4 km past San Famon. Directions here are funny. There are no house numbers or street names. They use monuments, government buildings or district buildings as reference points. Like Par la casa fachenta y cuadra a sur---by the rich house and on block south. WE often have to contact 4 or 5 different houses before we find the person we are looking for.

Pics from San Ramon 7-5-10

e-mail July 5, 2010

Dear all,

Well, it has been another good week. We are working hard and I´m not sure how much I have to say in this letter. Well, to start off, it has rained every day. We are usually soaked to the bone everyday. We are working hard with our members right now. We can´t take members to church unless we have members there. We are trying to strengthen them and get the branch running correctly. By the way, this letter might be kind of random because I didn´t have anything in mind to write. Our really good member in the branch, she got her mission call yesterday and we are going to open it up on thrusday. We are working hard and teaching all we can. We have a couple of young men who like going to church and come to church more often than some of our members. We are working with them to try to feel the need to know if there is more truth. We had one lady last week that should have gotten baptized. She had her intreview and everything, but she just wouldn´t get baptized. We don´t know what we are going to do for her. She knows everything twice over. But we shall see if we can help her feel the need to be baptized. She just needs to pray to know if it is true. If someone wants to know if this is the one true chruch, all they have to do is pray. The problem with that is they have to actually do it. We can teach and teach, but unless they will do their part and read and pray, they will never know for sure and feel a need to change. But we are working hard. Things are going well. This is the long change. It is for another 6 weeks. It is 9 weeks long. No, I havn´t met my new mission pres yet. Supposedly we are going to meet him next week or something. So this week, I´ve had some really good scripture study time and time to learn about myself. I got to study the parts in the book of mormon and the part of Nefi and the bow and the part about the building of the boat. There is so much we can learn about the spirit and how God talks to us just from those short stories. I am learning so much about obedience, change, and how to live the Gosple more.
I cut my hair again today. It looks alright. We have a bat living in our apartment and it is pooping all over the floor. There are a few pictures on this email. I will upload the rest to Walmart.com. I think that´s about all. Thanks for all the emails and letters from everyone. I love you all. Keep working hard and doing missionary work!!! Help the missionaries.

With Love,
Elder Ashby

Q & A e=mail July 5, 2010

1. What was your best moment this week?

Well, so I went a little longer than most without setting a fecha, a baptismal date. This last week, we found a family menos a father. so it was a mom and her 4 kids. I set a fecha with all 5 of them and we will see if they progress.

2. I think I asked you this before, but how are you boots holding up during the rainy season? How about your umbrella? There are a bunch of new missionaries going to the MTC soon and the mothers are wondering about the supplies. (Someone said their umbrella was too small and had holes in it. Everyone is buying expensive boots. One mother though 12 ties was too many. One mother sent a rain poncho instead of an umbrella.)

Rain poncho, a good idea. No one uses unbrellas. The Nicas do, but it is a hasel to carry around and you don´t want to look too fachenta, rich. My boots are good, but they are starting to tear where they connect. I don´t really use them. I´m trying to save them. But boots are good if you get some good ones. Ties, whatever. I have bought 2 ties here for $2.50. they are cheap. Just make sure the ties won´t mess up in the rain!

3. Did you have anything strange happen to you this week?

Umm, I don´t think so. Well, not strange for Nicaragua. On the busses, they pack you in. They fit as many as they can squeeze.

4. What was the funniest thing that happened this week?

Today, My comp went to go jump onto this flat bed semi that we where hitchhiking on and he ran and went to go jump, but slipped and pretty much close-lined himself. It was quite funny.

5. Did you by chance get my package yet?

No