Hey familia,
Yeah, thanks again for your email. I was
wondering what was going on this week back at home for Easter. Here it’s pretty
Catholic, so it’s all about the Semana Santa. Easter is kind of non-existent,
and it’s more of a week of parties. There weren’t many people in the streets,
and it seemed like everyone went to the beaches. So yeah, it was different in
terms of the missionary work, but it was all good. That’s great that your
Easter at home was good. So you had cinnamon rolls? That sounds really
delicious, I wish they sold them here. The closest thing is the cini sticks
from Pizza Hut with the frosting. Its super good, and sometimes I reward myself
with that. That’s great that there was a party at the house of grandma and
grandpa. Good stuff. I really liked the pictures of the tractors. I didn’t know
that there was a new tractor. Hopefully they also got a new flatbed trailer. I
seem to remember that there was only one trailer. But yeah, cool. It’s always
fun seeing the new stuff. This morning we went to a place called "La
Curcao" which is pretty much the exact same as RC Willey's. It was really
cool, and was a store that felt like it shouldn’t exist in Nicaragua. We are
dying of heat here. But winter starts up here in a month or so. The past few months
of summer have been brutal. Yeah if you didn’t already know, the seasons are
different here than in the US.
So anyway, I just wanted to give
congratulations to Owen for the driver’s license, and Bailey for being a champ
and dealing with his dry sockets. Maybe they'll put the herbal medicine stuff
in his mouth. That was horrible, but it helped.
Well this week we have been really
tired. We've been working super hard to get a family to church, and yeah pretty
much every day was like running a marathon. I’m pretty sure that we would walk
like 10+ miles each day, and I’m pretty worn out and so is my comp. My comp
already knows a ton about the mission, but if there is anything that I’ve
taught him, it’s probably just how to work hard. So yeah, I’m pretty tired but
I feel good. For church on Sunday, we wake up at 5:30 and leave the house super
early to visit everyone a couple times before church. We had 4 investigators in
church, which includes 1 family and a couple guys. It was good, and I feel
happy. Speaking of which, how are the missionaries in the US? I never remember
them having investigators in the church, or maybe I just wasn’t looking. The
mission here is super strict about having a family in church, and if we don’t
have a family in church, we have to leave after the sacrament and contact until
we have a family that will come. Such is the life here in Nica-landia.
So yesterday in the night I was trying
to think about stuff to write home, and I’ve got some fairly good material I
hope. Ok, so here is a story about a drunk that we have for this week. We woke
up early one morning and went contacting in the area of "la Rotonda"
which is the area of the elders who live with us. They are struggling in their
area, so we decided to help them. We were walking down the street looking for
people/families to contact. All of the sudden my comp says "mire este bolo
crapeando en la calle!" So I looked a little down the road, and sure
enough, there was a drunk, naked guy squatting on the side of the street. It
was pretty funny, and we walked by as he was wiping with his hand. That was
something that I haven’t seen so far, but now I can mark it off the list. Now
I’m going to make extra sure that I don’t shake hands with a drunken guy.
Well anyways. I was looking back on the
list I have of recent converts in the last year. This month we have been
throwing fire. Generally in the area it averages 2 people baptized every other
month. But this month in March, we baptized 5 people. So yeah, it’s nice to
help out the ward and get some new members here. The family of W and C is super
positive. They go to church every Sunday. I went and bought a tie and a white
shirt for W so he looks really nice. They are a super solid family in the ward.
The girl I baptized named A is literally the exact same as Olivia Rodgers, and
it’s almost a little freaky how similar they are. Except that A is Latina. But
anyways, this Sunday we gave the priesthood to W. It's great to see him as a
good family man with the priesthood. Were hoping to get him the Melchizedek
priesthood soon. Also this week we finally got the card for my companion. So
it’s nice that we can each pay for our own food. It was spendy paying for 2 people
for a week or two.
So all is going well here. I hope that
at home you are all happy and that everything is running smoothly. I really
love my time here, and its fun that I get the chance to train a new missionary.
We get along well, and I wonder how long I’ll be with him. I fell like I’m
probably getting due for another change soon. I have like 3+ months here in
Bello Horizonte. Who knows? Today I took my companion to a place that sells
pupusas, because he is from El Salvador. We got some, and the guy selling the
pupusas was a Nicaraguan guy who lived in the US for like 33 years or something.
He spoke perfect English and it was fun to talk to him It’s just so cool hearing
people speak fluent English. The guy was a truck driver in the US and he loved
it there. He was talking to me about Idaho when he would drive through with his
semi truck and it would be windy and he would drive alongside the road on the
highway with the mountains on the sides. Funny stuff. Then the guy asked us,
"How much do you guys get paid to be here". I mentioned that we
actually pay for our time here and the guy was literally dumbstruck. He was
like, "I don’t even have words to describe that". He couldn’t believe
that we would leave the US and come here on our own money. He then started
asking about the church, and I explained that a prophet sent us here and all of
that stuff. The guy was really, really blown away that there is a prophet and
all of that.
Well family I love you all and I miss
you. I really like it here though. My Spanish is good. Of course it could be
better, but I learn more every day because my comp is a native speaker. There
are a ton of words from El Salvador that they only use there, so I get to
explain to my comp when he says a word that they don’t use here. For example in
El Salvador they say "chivo" rather than "tuanis" But
anyways, my Spanish is getting a lot better.
Well mom, happy birthday. I was thinking
about you on your birthday and how you are doing.
Cuídense,
Elder Stark
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