Do they celebrate Halloween in Nicaragua? Yes, they do!!

Who would have thought that they would celebrate Halloween in Nicaragua?  Well, they go all out in San Juan del Sur.  They dress up and have parades and parties and haunted houses, pinatas, etc.

Here's Carter getting ready.  Elder Mendez and Elder Bringhurst had come to San Juan to teach some investigators and were on hand to help with getting ready for the trick or treating adventure.

Carter looked pretty cool as he got the finishing touches added to his ninja costume.

 Logan was dressed up as a skeleton man.  He wasn't happy about sitting and waiting or about me taking a picture of him.

 As we waited in the park for it to be time to start the trick or treating route, Logan and the missionaries had fun swinging!!

Here's one of the parades; there were several parades going on.  These people like to party!!

                                  Cute, little Nicaraguan ninos!!

            And, here's a pretty cool American Ninja!!

This is Julie McBroom and little Delilah

Jordi, Bella and Andy (notice Andy has her arm in a cast.  She had a very traumatic experience with Nicaraguan health care over the weekend).

How often do you see a clown driving a cart with a live monkey on Halloween night??

 Or a horse drawn cart right in the middle of the Halloween festivities?

The kids got to go trick-or-treating around to area businesses and as usual; Camryn spent the time taking care of the little ones!!

Even this dog was dressed up.  He was just hanging out in this restaurant.

                 There was a beautiful sunset at the beach!!

Are these the cutest pirates ever?  This is Delilah, (she's from the USA), and Stephanie, (she's from Nicaragua).

Logan found this little boy that he knew from the school he has been attending. They were excited that they were dressed like each other.

The evening was finished off with the kids going through a haunted house and then as we walked back to the pizza place and to catch a taxi we saw the monkey again!!!

We all agreed that Nicaragua is a fun place to be on Halloween!!!

With the full time missionaries!!

On Wednesday we were planning on going to Rivas for a activity that the full time missionaries had invited us to.  Of course we had to stop for ice cream first.  

When we got to the church house in Rivas we found the missionaries (both companionships that work in Rivas) and quite a few other people gathering there.  The missionaries gave a spiritual message about the Atonement.  And then they taught everyone a new game.  It was a lot of fun.

This is Elder Bringhurst with a couple (Katie and Scottie) who we had invited and brought with us from San Juan del Sur.

On Thursday Elder Bringhurst and Elder Mendez came to San Juan del Sur and visited with 2 families that Kristi has made friends with.  The first stop was at Irlanda's family's houses.  The missionaries sat with this awesome family for a full hour and taught them the gospel.  It was a very special experience.  I understood little that was said, because it was all in Spanish, but the spirit was strong.  The family seemed to be receptive and an appointment was made for the following Wednesday for the missionaries  to return and teach the family again.

Next, Kristi took the missionaries to Mora's house.  Kristi had given Mora a Book of Mormon with her testimony in it a few days earlier.

This also turned out to be an awesome experience as the missionaries shared their testimonies and their message of the gospel with Mora and her family.  They made an appointment to meet with them again next Wednesday.

Making bread at Esteban's bakery!!

We had a fun experience.  We went to Esteban's bakery to learn how to make bread. ( Esteban is Julie's cuidador.  He comes to their villa in the evenings and stays on their patio to make sure they are safe overnight.  A lot of the people who live here in San Juan del Sur,  in private homes, have cuidadors as guards.  Palermo has a guard station at the entrance and so normally people here do not have personal cuidadors, but Julie has Esteban as a cuidador just to give him the job and help he and his family out with a little extra $.  He sells bread during the day to help provide for his family.)

Anyway, we were able to go to Esteban's bakery and see how they make bread.  It was very interesting!

We had to go down a lot of steps to get to the shop.

Everything was very primitive in the bakery.
This is the oven that they bake the bread in.  It is a big cavern back in this rock wall.  They burn wood to heat it.

This is one of the workers at the bakery.

This is Esteban's wife.  She prepares the dough and bakes the bread.

Everyone jumped right in to help and to learn.

There was this interesting machine that the dough was run through multiple times.  (Maybe it was kneading the dough??)

It was time to mix up another batch and Carter and Logan were into it, literally up to their elbows!!

Esteban's wife decided they needed all the baker's gear, hats and all!!  Aren't they cute??

The pans held a lot of loaves of bread.  They also made rolls and breadsticks.  We have eaten some of the rolls and breadsticks.  They are delicious!!!

Everyone had a lot of fun at the bakery.  The boys had bread dough all over them and had to scrub up back at the villa!!