Elder Jake Stark's Mission: #17 Chinandega

December 17, 2012

OK familia,

Well here I am again, another week has passed, and all is well as usual. I was really glad to get your email. It’s really fun to read, and Elder T (the new missionary), and we both agreed that sending emails home and reading emails was easily the best part of each week. So yeah, I’m always really grateful that you guys send me emails each week. This week was a pretty long email, so thanks, I really enjoyed it. Anyways, from the email, it sounds like you are all doing really well. It sounds like every thing is pretty normal, and that you’re all just getting ready for the Christmas season. I really love the Christmas season, and the build up for Christmas day is really fun. Good stuff.

I was glad to hear that Owen has been working hard on the wrestling. It sounds like he is turning out to be working really hard, and is having fun. How much is he weighing these days? Probably a lot, what a giant! And Bailey? How has he been doing this week? I bet that he is probably doing well. Anyways, I was really glad for you email. It also sounds like Mom is super busy. Well Mom, I’m glad that the primary stuff is all going well. It sounds like you're working really hard, and that the primary is a success. It also sounds like the farewell of Sam went well. It sounds like jokes were made, and that he is pretty ready. I am really excited to hear how Sam likes El Salvador, and how he likes the CCM's in Guatemala and Provo. Good for him. He will really, really like it here in Central America. Also, in the email, you all said that you're going to California. I forgot to mention this earlier, but during the cambios, I got a letter from Grandma Anne. Today during P-day I wrote a letter back to her, and mailed it. Hopefully it gets there in a week or two.

Ok I’ll just talk about what has been going on this week. We have pretty much just been working, but mostly in other areas of the zone. It was pretty fun, but it’s sometimes a pain, cleaning up the mess of the other missionaries. Because I’m with the ZLs we have to deal with the poopy missionaries who aren’t working hard, and we have to work in their areas a lot. It’s all right though, because I get to know all of the areas of the zone, and I get to work with a lot of different people. On one of the days of the week (Thursday) I was in Chichigalpa, and I ate another empanada (yeah, I made the same mistake a few weeks ago), and the next morning I was barfing and had bad diarrhea. You would think that I would have learned my lesson 3 weeks ago, but no. It’s just that the empanada looked so good. Well, that’s what I get for following my eyes. On Thursday too, we had one of the AP's come and visit our zone. During the night, he stayed in our house, and it was fun having another missionary to make more jokes with.

Well, Dad was asking for just normal day-to-day stuff. Generally each day, we study the Book of Mormon and eat and stuff. Then we leave the house at like 11, and work for a little while, and then go to lunch at 12:30. The food here has been the same. It’s always some white rice, maybe a little chicken, some leaves of lettuce with cucumber and tomato, and some fruit juice of something. I have gotten pretty used to the food, but I sometimes miss American food. But a couple days ago, the Hermana who makes us food made some lasagna. It wasn’t the same, and I think she used catsup (they REALLY love that stuff here) instead of tomato sauce. Anyway it was different, but it was good at the same time.

So yeah, this week I have been spending a lot of time with the new elder. It’s pretty cool and he is fun. His Spanish isn’t fantastic, but who cares, its pretty funny. He talks really loud, and acts a lot like Sam S. Funny stuff. During contacts, he will say in a really loud voice with a gringo accent "usted es el hombre" or "somos sus amigos". Usted es el hombre translates to "you are the man", but it isn’t a phrase in Spanish. So people always look at us funny. It’s pretty funny though. I’m surprised at how much better my Spanish has gotten in just 2 months. I can generally understand people, and it’s not too bad. Well, the missionary work has been going pretty well here. We haven’t been having as much baptisms as we normally would, because we have been working in the zone. Either way, it's cool. Hopefully this week, we will have a family baptized. It’s a guy who we contacted, who his job is to stand outside of the bookstore and guard it with a shotgun. We just casually contacted him a few weeks ago, and he said that he might go to church. The cool thing is that he actually went to church, and he also took his wife. We were really surprised, because it is a pretty big sacrifice for him, because he lives really far away, and the bus is expensive for people out that far. He is really cool, and I actually just talked to him today. So yeah, were hoping that his wife and he will be baptized. Cool stuff. It's fun visiting them, because it’s really far away in the farming parts, and the people there are a little different.

We were going out there, and there was a high school graduation in the tiny high school out there. The people were all dressed up, and I think that there were like 20 people graduating. Education is a big deal here, and people really try hard to get a good education. It’s tough when we contact people who can’t read (pretty often), and we can’t really teach them the Book of Mormon or have them read the scriptures.

Well, like I was saying, the investigator thing is going pretty well. We have a couple families who we are hoping to baptize sometime this month or the next. Literally, the toughest part is getting people to the church. Placing baptism dates is easy, but getting people to act and go to church is really, really tough. Contacting here is pretty much all we do, we contact, teach, and baptize. So during the day, I am doing one of those 3 things, but chances are, I’m contacting. We were trying to get people to go to church yesterday, and we were visiting a family I had contacted. They weren’t there, but the grandpa was. He was super anti Mormon, and was saying that we worship Jose Smith, and we have a book of "men", and all kinds of things. It was pretty crazy, but during the contact I was just kind of laughing. The guy was so, so anti, and it was kind of funny to hear all of the accusations he was making. The Elder I was with after said "vamos a testificar contra el durante el juicio final". The anti guy was just some crazy dude. Generally people are pretty chill and will let us in their houses and teach a little. I can’t imagine what Denmark was like, getting a lot of rejection and stuff. I’m glad that I’m here.

Oh this P-day I was with Elder T. The ZL's went to Managua for a conference of leaders, and we were together for the P-day. Pretty fun. The zone went to Corinto to the beach, but we just stayed back in Chichigalpa and had fun here. We spent the day walking around the markets, and buying cool stuff. There is a lot of coot stuff to be bought, and it was fun looking around. The markets here are a lot like the markets in Belize/Mexico, but a lot more dirty and crowded and crazy. Sometimes it’s fun being white, and other times it’s annoying. People are always yelling at us, and saying "chele, venga a mi tienda". White man, come to my shop. It’s especially funny when they say "chelito" or "little white man" which is actually a lie, because the Latinos are way smaller than us. So yeah, we just walked around the shops, and I bought a little bracelet for Owen for the gift exchange. I had the guy engrave "Owen" on one side, and "Nicaragua" on the other. Pretty cool. About a dollar (25 cordobas). I also bought a little coin pouch that’s leather and is pretty cool, and a bag. I really wanted a cool bag, because my back always gets really sweaty from my backpack. So yeah, I got my man bag. It’s pretty manly, and I call it my Man-Bag. I paid 190 cordobas, when the guy originally wanted like 230. Bargaining is the best. Yeah so for our P-day we just walked around, and I showed him all of the markets and stuff. Cool stuff. The markets here look like a movie or maybe call of duty. They are pretty crazy, and they are really different from anything American. I really like it, and it feels pretty fun. I really want to come back here after I finish the mission, and I’m planning on doing it. Nicaragua is pretty safe, and I think that Dad would really enjoy it. I don’t know about Mom though, because I think that she would get a pretty big culture shock. She was culture shocked just being in Mexico/Belize, and here is way more extreme.

Oh funny story: During contacts, people always ask where were from. Generally I’ll say the US, but if I’m feeling goofy, I’ll say "Beleces" which means "Belize". I can generally get people to believe me if I can say it with a straight face. Or sometimes when people ask if I’m from the US, I will say no. They are generally pretty confused, and say something else like Mexico or España. Sometimes when people ask where I’m from, and I ask where they think, they say España. That makes me feel pretty good that I can sometimes fake my accent and make people believe that I’m a native speaker. That’s only happened like 5 times though, and generally they can tell that I’m American.

Gracias por todos,

Elder Stark

[VIDEO] Talking in front of the other missionaries