April 29, 2013
Familia,
Hey, well it’s Monday again. Crazy how
the time flies. We have just been working as normal, and it’s been pretty cool.
Nothing very new to report to you all this week. Just work, work, work. We have
a super cool family that we've been teaching named M and M (and their 4 crazy
kids). It’s awesome, and we have visited them EVERY night of the week at 8pm.
They are super positive, and we always have a good time. When we show up, we
end up spending like 30 minutes of "chill time" and then like 30
minutes of "teach time". More than anything, they are people that
just need to have some friends in the church, and we've gained their confidence
by becoming their friends. It’s awesome to have legitimate friends here. They
are reading the Book of Mormon, always have honest questions, and have gone to
church several times. After church, Hermana M told me that they want to get
baptized on Saturday. It was so awesome, and I really, really hope that I don’t
get changed so I can see them baptized. Every night they end up sending one of
their kids out the back door with some money, to buy us some soda or food. They
try to feed us every night (which is a huge sign of respect here). They are so
very kind. So yeah, hopefully we can get them baptized, and I’m just praying
that I don’t get changed.
Speaking of baptisms, we didn’t get a
change to baptize the brother of the lady who cooks for us. We showed up on
Friday, and the guy isn’t ready. But we will keep visiting him and help him to
become ready.
So here is a funny story. On Tuesday,
there was the "consejo de lideres" which means (council for leaders).
So all of the ZLs were here in Managua, and they did something different. After
the Consejo, they send all of the ZLs with the zones in Managua. So on Tuesday,
I went on splits with the ZL of Matagalpa, and my comp, Elder P went with the
ZL from Puerto Cabezas (Elder M whom I was with in Chinandega). So when Elder M
and Elder P were together, M said to P "I’m junior comp, and only have 5
months in the mission.” Complete lie, but for whatever reason, Elder P actually
believed him. So during the day, when Elders M and P were together, Elder M
would walk around contacting just men or just women. Apparently my comp, Elder
P went and macheted Elder M for not contacting families. So for the whole
night, my comp was scolding Elder M for not doing things 100% perfect (and for
the whole night, P thought that M was just some young junior comp who didn’t
know anything). Then around 9pm when we were all together, I told Elder P that the
Elder M is a ZL. It was hilarious because my comp Elder P had been reprimanding
Elder M (who is a very good missionary and leader) all day for not doing things
100% perfect. Very funny. It looks like Elder P is a pretty good missionary.
Later in the night, we were all hanging out with the ZLs in the mission. All of
the ZLs were super impressed with Elder P and I heard a ton of times
"you're comp is nuts. He is TOO good".
Basically all of the ZLs were very
impressed with my comp. My comp is a super good missionary, and is going to the
next AP.
So on Friday, our food appointment gave
us "chichi de vaca" or "cow nipple" again.... It wasn’t
great, but whatever. Then when we went to M and M's house later in the night,
they gave us more "chichi de vaca". So I ate a lot of cow nipple on
that day, but whatever. I took a picture of it and sent it home. Tell me what
you think. When we were at our food appointment, we were making tons of jokes
when we were eating it like "I can already taste the milk" and stuff
like that. Good times.
On the hot plate that I bought, we have
been making pancakes a ton. They are cheap, and are amazing. For $1 I can buy a
box of instant pancake mix. Also in the supermarket they sell chocolate
pancakes, vanilla pancakes, and a lot of other flavors. They are super good. We
make some chocolate pancakes and they were almost the same as brownies. We had an empty can, and we cracked some eggs
into the can, and made scrambled eggs in a tin can. Pretty sketchy, but they
were good.
So not much is going on. We are just
preparing for changes. I really don’t want to leave, because my comp is awesome
and we are planning on baptizing this family soon. Yeah... Oh and they say that
there are only going to be 8 sister missionaries and 2 elders coming this
change. Not a ton, so I doubt that I’ll train again this time.
It sounds like all is going pretty well
at home. Sometimes when I think about it, I’m still super amazed that Dad is
the bishop. Its pretty crazy, but it is awesome too. I bet that he'll do a
great job. I also bet that it will get easier each week. Once you get the
routine down, it becomes something normal. I remember that when I came here to
Nicaragua, it was super crazy and I didn’t really know what was going on. But
now that I have some time here and I know what’s going on, it’s easier and the
time flies. Can you believe that I’m already 1/3 of the way done? But yeah, it
seems to be getting easier now that I’m in the groove of things. It sounds like
this week was pretty productive for you all at home. I was super stoked to hear
about the Henry’s pinewood derby car. That’s really awesome to mount it with
speakers. Style points are the best. Hopefully you all took some video. I would
love to see his car someday. I mentioned to some of the missionaries here the
idea of his car, and they all agreed that it was an awesome idea. Also that’s
nice that Mary got a new bed. Is it still a trundle bed?
So I really miss you all, but it’s all
going well here. Its super awesome, and I like my area and everything. We went
to the market today to get my comp a watch, and I had him take some sweet video
of us walking through the market (probably not the best idea, but we were
really close to the end of the market, and I didn’t think there would be any
problems with robbers). So yeah, now you have a little taste of what
the Nicaragüense market is like. There are super crowded stalls, and
people are always harassing me because I’m white. The cool part is that they
don’t expect me to speak Spanish, so when I open my mouth they're always super
surprised. Fun stuff. There are a TON of souvenirs and cool stuff. We spent a
little bit of time looking at the switch-blades and stuff like that. Bailey and
Owen would love the market.
PS: Dad you seriously need to come down
here to pick me up. There are a TON of super cool things to do, and sometimes
when I’m walking down the street, I brainstorm about things to do when you get
here. Going to the market is on the list. It is pretty sketchy place, but would
be a good representation of Nicaragua. The name of the market is Huembus if you
want to look is up.
Well, that’s about all for the week.
Love you all and I miss you. I wonder where I'll be next Monday. Hopefully I’ll
still be in Bello Horizonte, but we'll see. I would love to go to Puerto
Cabezas where my comp from the MTC is. Sometimes we call each other and
exchange stories. Good times.
Peace out family,
Elder Stark
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