NIca continued...

ok. so its not that exciting of a reveal for the cliff hanger. the horse-drawn buggy: preety much saw everyday in the streets of the dirty Nica. it never got old, nor failed to surprise us that they rolled that way. the flaming car: well, that was kinda crazy. we were following the local missionaries (thats where the Guatemalans, Costa Riqueño and gringos come in) to dinner. we were following the assistants and all of the sudden we came across a flaming Jeep in the middle of the road. no ambulance, no one trying to do anything accept by-standers jumping around the car dancing. i saw one kid pushing around a flaming tire, like it was no big deal. maybe it was some kinda protest or manifestation for Ortega and the FSLN party. who knows really, and it probably was an old tune for Nicas. Unfortunately we didn't get a pic of the disaster, but like the car itself, that image is burnt in our minds forever.

our dinner with the missionaries and mission presidente Fraatz was pretty sweet. It was cool to jive with young elders again, and share my wisdom and their excitement for the work. One elder was from Murrieta and when he found out that i was from the ENC he nearly foamed at the mouth. "i love Swami's" he kept saying to me. we talked about encinitas surf spots for a bit, but i tried to divert the trunkiness and lead the chat toward the mission. i ended up moseying down to hang out with the "nativos," the elders from south america. we bonded over mission stories and futbol over a nice meal. the elders were shy and timid at first, but opened up once they knew that they could get whatever hey wanted thanks to daddy-warbucks Randall. it was pretty sweet, and i know that those kids had something to write home about- as if baptizing the country wasn't enough. the Managua Nicaragua mission is the highest baptizing mission in the church. preach on brethren!