Elder Jake Stark's Mission: #18 Chinandega

Ok familia,

Well another week has passed here. In many ways, the week went by really quick, but in other ways it was really slow. It’s kind of hard to describe, but anyways, all is well here. I really enjoyed Skyping you all on Tuesday, and it was really like the ultimate Christmas gift for me to see the family. Good times. After doing the Skype, I was talking to Elder T, and we both agreed that during that time that it felt like we were in our house. It was such a weird feeling when the Skype ended, and I just stared at the computer for a little. Then I looked around, and kind of remembered that I was in Nicaragua. It’s really hard to describe how it felt, but I think Dad probably know after he hung up the phone on his Christmas in Denmark. Interesting experience. For the next day, I was kind of out of it a little, but right now I have kind of forgotten about it, and we have all just gotten back to work. The Christmas decorations and everything are coming down here, and people are getting back to the normal life.

Well, this week is the New Years day week, and I was glad to hear that Dad is still in party mode. I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to him. That’s awesome that it’s his birthday, and he is soon going to be 43. Super old and whatnot. That’s also good that he is calling all of the shots. Of course everything is the decision of Dad, and that’s funny that he is calling all of the shots like the years past. I don’t really know what to expect here for this New Years Eve, but I have heard that it’s pretty crazy here in Nicaragua. We will see though. It’s nice that you all got a new mattress. The mattresses we use are actually not that bad here. I can only imagine what the car looked like with a giant mattress on top.

Oh so you all got snow on the day after Christmas. That is good. It snowed here too, but not really. The volcano outside of town erupted (San Cristobal) and it spewed a buttload of volcanic ash everywhere. It’s pretty crazy, and it snowed volcanic ash. It’s everywhere, and the whole town is really messy and dusty. I have no idea how to describe what it’s like when the dust started falling, but the people here were going crazy and it’s nutty. That night, we called the Pres. and asked him what to do, because we couldn’t really breathe without breathing in the dust (super fine and bad for you). He said that if we have an umbrella, we could still work. So I had an umbrella, which I gave to my comp. I put on my hat, and we put handkerchiefs over our mouths, and went to work. It was pretty crazy and extreme. But I took some pictures which I’ll send home. Good times. It’s all over our house, and the dust is really bad. I don’t know what it was like when the Mount St. Helens erupted, but I would imagine that it was what it’s like right now. Maybe you can look online and find some news reports or pictures or something. I was out working 2 days ago, and a microburst of wind hit the town, and blew all of the dust everywhere from off the roofs of the houses. It is impossible to explain what it was like, but the closest thing I can think of is in Mission Impossible when the dust storm in Saudi hits. It was pretty crazy, and for like 3 minutes, I literally could not see anything. I just put the handkerchief over my face, and stood there on the side of the road. Craziness.

Oh and thanks too for praying for investigators in the church. I’m pretty sure that it was answered, because we had 7 investigators in all, and a bunch of little kids. 11 people in all. I sat next to 2 boys who were 7 and 5. I totally felt like I was at home, because the kids were being super rowdy and loud, and the mom was super embarrassed and kept telling them to shut up. Funny stuff. During the sacrament meeting, 2 white guys walked in. It was really awesome, because it had been a while since I had seen white people, and I talked to them for a little. It was pretty cool. Oh another story from church, I was sitting in the second hour with our recent convert. There was another recent convert next to me, with his kid. We were just sitting there, and the kid kind of laid on me, and started convulsing. It was pretty freaky, and this kid just had a seizure in the middle of this class of family history. The dad, who was sitting next to me, just picked him up, and started rubbing his belly for some reason. Anyways, freaky stuff. I was just sitting there saying to myself, this is really weird. Only in Nicaragua.

So I was thinking that it’s funny that Dad does the same thing that I do. During the week, I always think of things to write home about. So I just write them in the planner that we use, and on Monday I have a whole list of things to write home about. Here are some other things that I have thought up from this week.

This week, we did service for one of our investigators. We helped him dig his well deeper. The more poor people in the rural parts use these wells, and they pull water out with a bucket. So yeah, it’s pretty primitive, but it was cool. The well was like 30 feet deep, and we just helped the guy dig it deeper. I have a lot of pictures I’ll send home.

Other things from the week, we found this fruit stand that sells these really good bananas. I think I ate like 3 or 4 of them today, and the other day I ate like 7. They are really good and are called rosa banana or something like that. Super delicious and cheap.

We had a baptism on Saturday, and Elder T did it. It was a little girl, and he baptized her 4 times before he did it right. The girl kept sticking her feet out of the water. Later that day, we did a baptism for the Hermana missionaries. There was a little girl, and she thought the baptism thing was more of a swimming pool. So she got into the font, and swam around for a little, and then got baptized. We were just standing there like, what’s going on?

Well, all here is really going well. We are having fun, and we have some baptisms lined up for the next couple weeks. I’m pretty excited to see what this new year will bring. This 2013 is going to be my mission year, and I bet it will be a super good one. I’m really glad to hear that you are all doing well, and that everything is super good and fun at home. Thanks for everything, and I really love you all.

Elder Stark