One Nine

Tuesday marks six months of Nicky being on a mission. I can’t believe we’re already this far into it. His mission is a quarter complete. My friend Christie (whose son recently returned home from his mission) always said it was going by so fast, and I didn’t believe her. Yet, here I am - time’s flying. 

Today is Nicky’s nineteenth birthday. Since his birthday and his six month mark are so close together, it’s the perfect time to do a little mission update. Here are some little tidbits from the mission:

Nicky has been serving in the same area for four transfers (his whole mission). 

He has calluses and blisters from swinging a machete. He said, “You wouldn’t believe how much we swing machetes here!” He said people ride around on scooters with machetes and little abuelitas walk their dogs and carry machetes (I have the feeling he will want a machete when he comes home).

He has acclimated to the Puerto Rican climate. Right now the highs are 95 and lows are 75-80. He now considers 70 degrees “chilly.” 

He is 13” taller than his current companion.

He carries a hacky sack with him everywhere he goes (he got in trouble for playing hacky sack at the MTC).

He eats lots and lots of rice and beans. He’s being a good sport about it, but I think he’s actually sick of them. 

On Christmas Day he sneakily listened to secular Christmas music. 

He is allowed to watch The Chosen on p-days.

So far all of his companions have been zone leaders, so he has had some perks from that such as having a car and getting to travel outside of his area.

He has a goal to not buy any soap on his mission. I sent him soap for Christmas, and I don’t think he was happy about it because I messed up his goal. I think he wanted to figure out a creative way to not buy soap (such as digging his companion’s shampoo bottles out of the garbage can, filling them with water, and using the suds to wash himself).

He has already worn out a pair of shoes (replacements were sent by Grandma for Christmas).

He has a washer but no dryer, so they have a room in their apartment where then hang dry all of their clothes.

Since he arrived on Puerto Rican soil, he has wanted to catch an iguana. He finally caught his first one on Christmas Day. 

He has also caught lizards, frogs, and a big creepy crab (with the assistance of a local child who whacked it with his shoe all nonchalant like he does it everyday). 

It’s been a really cool experience to have a child serve a mission. Likewise, it’s been a really cool experience to raise him these last 19 years. Now we are transitioning to parenting an adult, and that’s a whole new adventure. I hope we do okay at it. Eek!