Monday, March 4, 2013

#25 Managua (Bello Horizonte)


FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Hey family,

Well it sounds like youve all had a pretty exciting week this week. I thought that it was pretty interisting the story about Heritage, but thats good that everything worked out. Its good that the police there work hard. We sometimes make jokes about how the police dont really do anything here. Like for example, me and my comp crossed the street the other day, jay walking. Basically there are no cross walks or anything, but yeah, we just crossed right infront of some cops. In the states, you would probably get a ticket for jay walking or something, but the cops here are super chill. Oh it sounds like owens wrestling is working out pretty well.

So in June, pres arredondo is leaving, and a new pres should be coming in. There are a ton of rumors in the mission, and ive heard a bunch. I heard once that they might split the north mission when the new pres comes. We will see though. Missionaries are all full of rumors and gossip, so i bet this rumor is fake. But it would be cool if the opened up a new mission here. All of the zones are on the west coast and managua, except for one zone on the east coast named puerto cabezas. So there is like a huge area of unopened territory in centeral nicaragua. Its super uncivilized there in the centeral part, and its pretty much just jungle with little civilizations here and there. I hope that some day they open up centeral nicaragua for the missionary work. That would be sweet. If they were to split the mission, they would split the north mission. Here in the north mission, we have a lot more baptisms then the south mission. Its probably because here its a lot poorer than in the south.

So on wednesday, there should be some 18 year old americans in our mission. There are already 18 year olds in our zone, but all are latinos. One of our zls has 18 years. But in the near future, there should be 18 year old americans here. Oh so maybe there was a misunderstanding or something last week. The changes are in 2 days: wednesday. So as of right now, im still with Elder B, and we will take the new missionaries out tomorrow for the afternoon. 

Well, i was glad that all is well. I dont really have any super awesome stories this week, but there are always new things happening. Like this week i finally got my foros (covers) for my scriptures. They are super sweet, and they are all engraved and everything. Its pretty cool, because the are these sweet leather covers, and then a guy takes a hot-pen, and burns the picture into the leather. The covers were 500 pesos, and the pictures were another 600. So all in all, it was like $40, but they are super super awesome. That was my christmas present to myself.  SUPER COOL. They are actually a little too cool. I was teaching a lesson like 2 days ago, and i let the investigator read a verse from my scriptures. Then he noticed the foros, and was super distracted for the next couple minutes looking at the pictures. I evetually had to take away the scriptures from him, because he couldnt focus. He just kept asking questions about the scripture covers. 

Well, life for me is pretty normal. I really like it here, and i am really enjoying my time here in Managua. Its a big city, but we try to contact and work in the parts that are more pobre and more tranquilo. The work is going well, and we just contact a lot, and then visit the contacts later in the week. Most of the time, we try to get 2 new families each day. A new families means that it was a contact, and that there is another apointment, and the family was positive. I do a lot of contacting each day, so its pretty normal.

Ok so here is a story. They sister missionaries had a baptism this week. They were baptising some old lady, and they were having a priest in the ward do it. So we had a quick message, and the old lady got into the water with the priest. The priest said the prayer, and then went to baptise the lady. But then the lady had some panick attack, and wouldnt go under. She had some nevous problem, and couldnt have her head go under the water. So it was no bueno. The bishop was there, and talked to her for a while, and got the lady to try again. This process repeated about 5 times, and the lady just refused to go under the water. Personally, i dont think that the lady had ever been underneath water in her whole life. She just freaked out, and wouldnt get baptised. The priest doing the ordanance was kind of confused, and it was just a bad experience. Eventuly, the bishop just said "ok thats enough, we'll try next week", and they gave up. Everyone was a little mad at the bishop, especially the sister missionaries, because they wanted to just stay there all day until the ordanance took place. But either way, it was no bueno. I’ve attended a ton of baptisms, and for some reason, sometimes the people getting baptised just freak out. 

So not too much else has happened. I was on a bus on thursday and i was getting off the bus. Side note: the buses here are nuts. So i was getting off the bus, and the bus started to take off. So i had to jump off, and almost fell when i got off because it was pretty crazy jumping off of a moving bus. But it was cool. The buses are a little interisting, and we joke around that the law of chastity goes out the window when you're on the bus. I dont really know how to describe it, but its like youre packed in so tightly, and you cant turn around, or move, or do anything. For the people with "personal bubble", the nicaragüense bus would not be the best place to be.

So like i wrote earlier, this week was pretty chill. We just worked and did the same old stuff. We got a new family teaching. They are cool, and are pretty much ready to get into the baptismal font and get baptised. So thats the goal for the next few weeks. I think that my comp Elder B is going to leave, and ill probably get a new comp on wednesday. The sister missionareis keep telling me that im going to train. I dont know what to think. Im not quite sure i want to train this early in the mission, but we'll see what happens. Who knows, maybe ill get changed? But i doubt it.

Well, im glad to hear that all is well, and that you're all having fun up there in Idaho. Have fun, and enjoy the week.

Gracias por todo,

Elder Stark










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