Hey family,
Well once again it was great to hear how
its going at home. I have been working pretty hard with Elder B, and we have
been doing a lot of contacting, and trying to build our families teaching. Its
been pretty tiring, and this P day felt really good to relax for a while, and
take it easy. Its pretty fun being with another American, and we make lots of
jokes that would be difficult to do in spanish. I feel bad sometimes that we
talk a lot of english in the streets, but at least we get along well. We’ve
made some funny jokes though. A couple days ago, we were talking about the
manholes in the middle of the street. They are always filled with garbaje,
because thats where some people throw their garbaje. But when they get clogged,
the water cant flow. So the nica solution is just to light the manhole on fire
to burn out all of the garbaje. Its pretty funny, because we will be walking,
and there are always manholes on fire. Im not really sure why its funny, but
its just funny to see a manhole on fire.
Well, it sounds like not much has
changed since last week. Thats pretty crazy that its so cold there in Idaho. I
hope you are all having a good time, and taking it easy without the school.
Hopefully henry gets better from his flu. Here in Nicaragua, they call the
flu/cold the "gripe". Its super common, and there are always people
sick. To solve the flu, there is a stuff in the farmacias called Viro-Grip. Its
like this tang powder that you take, and it magically makes the flu go away. Its
pretty intense. I dont think they sell it though in the US, because its pretty
hardcore.
Im really jealous that its so cold there
in Boise. Here in Managua, it’s a lot more "fresco" and it actually
feels good in the night time. I dont know what the temperatura is, but its like
probably 75 or 80 degrees. It is a lot nicer here in terms of weather than
Chinandega.
Its awesome doing the missionary work. I
dont know why, but we have had a pretty good week, and im seriously having a
good time here in the mission. Its really tough, but its also really fun. Ok so
get this, we got contacted by a latino guy who was practically american. He was
raised his whole life there in the US. So we were talking english, and he was
asking all kinds of questions about how we are different from the testigos de
jehova. I was trying to explain the resturacion in english, but it was
seriously hard. Its really hard to look a latino guy in the face, and try to
talk english. Like, i was trying to explain the resturacion, but i couldnt do
it. It was just weird using words in english like "atonement" or
"joseph smith" or "the church of jesus christ of latter day
saints". It was pretty tough, but it was funny after.
So this week in the church, we worked
hard and got a family to go to the church. We are in Barrio Bello Horizonte.
The family was a family who we contacted the other sunday. They were kind of
positive when we contacted them, and we went and visited them later. We visited
them with the bishop, and taught a really good lesson to the wife. Then like
the next day we taught them together. The coolest part is that they had
actually read the panflets, and had legitimate questions. We hand out tons of
panflets each day, and most of them just end up on peoples bookshelfs and never
get read. But we were really happy, and we are working hard to help the family
get baptized. In the first lesson, we taught the wife about baptism, and put a
baptism date with her. The guy still doesnt have a date, but we will put one
with him tomorrow. So yeah, this week was good, because this family is really
postive, and they went to church. The only problem is that the wife needs a
divorce from a previous relationship, and then we will need to marry them. So
we will see what happens. I really hope they get baptised, because they are
"pilas" or "awesome" as you would say in english.
We also had some old guy in the church
named Vernable. He is super super old, and cant walk. So we payed a lot of
money, and got a taxi for him. He took like 5 minutes to walk from the gate of
the church to the sacrament salon. And he wouldnt let us help him either. But
it was cool, because the whole time he was saying "im going to
church" and like "god give me strength, so that i can go to church".
I thought he might die just from the walk to the sacrament salon, but he made
it. Then, the bishop got up after the sacrament, and macheted all of the
members for not paying their tithing. I was sitting next to Vernable, and he
asked me how much tithing he would have to pay on 1000 cords. I told him 100,
and he promised that next sunday he will pay 100 cords. I was like "no no
no, its just for members, after your baptism you can pay..." but he
wouldnt listen. He is getting baptised in one or two weeks, and he is
super super excited. So yeah, we feel really good about him. We just contacted
him like 4 days ago. Good stuff. It just goes to show that there are always
people who have been prepared for us, who we can teach.
Oh sadly that one guy and his wife didnt
go to church this sunday. They were sleeping or something. We went and taught him
on saturday, and he bought us a really fancy dinner too. He took us up to the
3rd floor on his house, to his secret prayer room. We taught him there, and he
said like a 20 minute prayer. He promised to pray and fast about getting
baptised. The guy is awesome, but he is a little hard to teach, because he
doesnt understand why he needs to be baptised again. Well, thats about all for
our good investigators.
Well, I was talking last night for a
long time to Elder Rasband (he graduated from mtn. view which is pretty funny),
and we were talking about how awesome the scripture study is each morning. Like
its really addicting, and i wish that i could just read the scriptures all day,
every day. Im in 3rd nefi right now, and its the best. I really really have
grown to love the scriptures, and i hope that as a family, you are all doing
the scripture reading each night. Seriously, i learn a ton each time i read,
and its really fun. Keep reading, and i promise that you'll all learn a lot.
I have gained all of my weight back here
in Managua. I hope its not too bad, but ive withdrawn like 20 bucks or
something from my personal card. Because we have like mcdonalds, we have gotten
into the habit of once or twice each week, getting a mcflurry. Hersheys Cookies
and Cream McFlurrys are the best. I could eat those all day. Im glad that i am
back to normal weight, so people will stop calling me skinny. The gallo
Pinto is fantastic here, and i could eat it all day. In fact, i pretty much do
get it all of the time. Thats like all the nicas eat. Its really good. I dont
know why your gallo pinto didnt turn out good.
Ok to answer the questions
-druggies. Yes there are alot of
druggies, but theyre too poor for marijuana. So they just buy shoe glue and sniff
it. Its pretty bad, and we see them all of the time. For whatever reason, the
people who are high or drunk are always attracted to us like a magnet.
- There are alot of homeless people, but
not a ton. Most people have houses.
- The elders next door are awesome, and
we hang out with them a lot in the night.
- There are like 8 americans in our
zone. We dont really see the APs a lot, because they are always in the office.
And we dont really see pres a lot either.
- There is a senior companionship here
in Nicaragua, but i have only seen them during the changes. I dont know where
they are.
Well thats about all thats gone one this
week. There is a lot more little things that have probably happend, but i cant
remember. I really love my time here. The city of Managua is really dirty, and
i dont really love the city a ton, but the people are great. We are just
teaching and putting baptism dates. I have spent like a lot of money on sunday
helping getting people to church, so thats why ive used my personal card a
little. But i figure that spending like 10 bucks for taxis was worth it. Oh and
for P day, we went to the black market, and i bought another bag for 200 cords
(like 8 bucks), because my other one ripped a little, and this one is bigger. I
didnt have much pictures this week, because we cant carry our cameras around.
If we had our cameras, we would get robbed. I took a little video tour of our
apartment complex too. Well, all is well. I miss you and i love you. But it
doesnt feel like im too far from home, because the other day, i saw a lady with
a tee shirt that said "idaho sporting goods".
Audios, and i love you all,
Elder Stark
[Video of entry to apartment]
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| Picture taken while emailing |
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| Street view of Apartment |
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| New Man Bag |
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