Elder Jake Stark's Mission: #23 Managua (Bello Horizonte)

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Hey familia.

Well, it sounds like another good week has gone by. I liked hearing about your stories from the week. It sounds to me like all is going well, and that its pretty much the same old stuff going on there.

Well, this p day we went to pizza hut, and they had the Super Bowl on again on replay. I saw a glimpse of the highlights, and saw little of the stadium with the lights out. Thats pretty crazy stuff. So thats too bad that mary is sick, but hopefully she will get better soon. I really hope that she is doing well in school and is lauging alot and making jokes. I really miss you all, but it is really fun here too. We just have fun, make jokes, and do the missionary work. My comp really loves community, and so does one of our ZLs. So we are constantly quoting the show, and makeing jokes from it. Yesterday we had a big conversation about the debate for the presidnte of greendale. We were talking about the magnitude, and the lenard, and all the people from the show. Its pretty fun being with another american who understands these types of jokes.

On feb 1, we got more money, so we went to the bank and withdrew it. I withdrew a hundred bucks in US dollars, and thats what we use to pay the rent. I really like the begining of each month, because the mission gives us 2500 pesos (the nicas dont even call their money cordobas, they just call it pesos for whatever silly reason). So yeah, we got all of that, and we felt super fachento, so we took pictures of our money. Elder R walked into our room, and just laughed at us. We were using like 20 dollar bills as our fan, and messing around. Then later, we payed for the food, and the rent, and we were left with just a little money for the week.

So its pretty cool living here in Managua. We live in the only area, of the only zone, of the whole mission, with a mcdonalds, and also a pizza hut. Its sweet. We went to pizza hut and so did like half the zone. Plus on wedsnesday, we go with the hermana missionaries who we share the area with, and get mcflurries. I feel like i spend a lot, so im going to try and do less. Oh and speaking of that, Elder B and i are cutting out soda from our diet. The nicas drink soda with every meal, and its super unhealthy. So we are trying to drink less.

So here is another story from the week. We were contacting in the night, and we saw this guy and his wife and their little girl. So we contacted them, and were talking. The guy actually spoke english, and we talked to him a little. He was from an area in the south mission called Blue Field. Everyone there is black, and they all speak english creole. So we asked the guy to teach us some english creole. Its super weird, and i walked away learning 2 new words. 1: watchnam. It means "whats your name". 2. Gimiwata "give me water". ITs such a weird language. I can understand words here and there, but unless they talk really slow, i cant under stand them. It was the first time i had ever heard that language. I guess they only speak it on the east coast of nicaragua. Its pretty crazy over there on the east coast.

Other story. We were in a lesson teaching. I was actualy on divisions with the DL. We went and visited the old guy who went to church with us last week. He is like 70 something, and cant walk. But he is super excited about being baptised. So i was with him with the DL on tuesday or something. We were teaching and said something about Mormons. He asked us "what are mormons?". So apparently, the guy (at this point, he had already visited the church and commited to baptism) didnt know that we were mormons. He thought we were Jehovas wittnesses. But we explainted that we wernt JW's, and that we were mormons. So he just said "ok, ill still get baptised". Funny stuff.

So basically Elder B and I are just working and trying to get more families teaching/progressing. We have one family who is super cool. They went to church yesterday with us, and are super cool. The problem is that the woman needs a divorce from a previous relationship. So we are working on getting her divorced, so that she can get married, and they can be baptised. When we visited them last week, and she told us that the night we contacted them, they had been sitting there talking and worrying, because he didnt have a job. They were pretty woried, because he didnt have food, and they have 3 kids, one of which is a newborn baby. So then we contacted them, and they reluctantly set an appointement for us to visit them again. So she told us that somehow, the next day, her husband got 2 jobs, and that they are really happy and doing much better. I dont know if us contacting them had any effect on the jobs which he recieved, but either way it was a really cool story of the Lord’s hand in their lives.

Well, thats about all of the stories that happened today. Just some last little stories, then ill answer the questions you asked. We were contacting, and we got the impression to contact a solo guy sitting outside his fence. So we contacted him, (by the way, we were in a poor part of managua, at the border of Lake Managua, the most nasty lake in the world). So we contacted him, and shared a little message with him. He told us that behind the wall, lived 80 people. They are all part of a giant family: cousins, uncles, grandparents, aunts, parents, everything. We promised to visit again and teach them some more. The guy let us in, and there was like a giant warehouse divided into little areas with these big hanging rugs. Apparently there are tons of people of this family who live there. So the guy showed us around, gave us each an orange, and we left. We walked away having dreams of taking all 80 people to church with us one day and baptising them all. That would be crazy if we baptised them all. It would probably make it into a general conference talk or something. Just saying.

Well, ill answer your questions now.

Do you even have a dresser, or are you using your suitcases? Just suitcases. By the way, i found a cockroach in my suitcase, but i got it out and learned to zip up the suitcases when im not using them.

By the way, did you ever get the other packages? Negative, just the one with the pb m and m’s. I dont know when ill get them, but maybe during changes.

About how much of your time is spent teaching vs. contacting? Its probably like 75% contacting, 25% teaching

Do the members give you any referrals? Nope. Pretty much never. We just contact all of our investigators. But every once in a while, we will get a referral.

When are changes next? The begining of March i think, or maybe the end of february. I cant remember.

Well family, i hope this answers all of the questions. I was really glad for the email this week, and i hope that you are all doing well. I love you all and miss you. Have fun, and ill write more next week.

Elder Stark.