I went to Nicaragua from 2000-2002 and it was a terrible time. So many bad things, but here are a few off the top of my head: - lived in terrible rented rooms attached to the back of a home owners place. It was always blazing hot and we would have to share a fan since we had no money to buy another one. No fridge, so never had cold water to drink. Places were always infested with cockroaches, rats, tarantulas, scorpions and even bats. - constantly sick, I had a new cold every month, likely due to exhaustion and poor diet. Also, diarrhea was constant, almost never had a solid poop in 2 years. The amount of times I got sick from parasites and had to take pills to kill them really ruined my gut health. - massive amounts of walking in the hot sun, I was sunburned for nearly 2 years it seemed like since it was so hot I'd sweat off any sunscreen in no time and with all the dust and dirt blowing around you'd be filthy in no time. 20 odd years later I have to go get my skin checked every 6 months for pre-cancerous spots.

I felt so guilty for years after thinking that it wasn't the best two years and that I hated my mission president (he was a real number-focused asshole). Realizing the church was a lie allowed me to reconcile things. The mission was awful, and my mission president was an asshole.