Hey family,
Well it’s all going really well here.
The big news is that during the changes meeting, I DIDN’T get changed. During
the meeting, in front of all of the missionaries, President Arredondo said,
"Can Elder Stark and Elder P please stand up?" So we stood up, and
President Arredondo said in front of the whole mission "Elders, your
bishop has requested that I don’t change you". OBISPO!!!! So I'm still here in Bello
Horizonte for my 4th change. It’s pretty crazy that by the time I leave this
area, I'll have been here for about 6 months. That’s like 25% of my mission in
the same area. But yeah, it’s all going very, very well. My comp and I get
along well, and we work super hard. The family that we have right now (M and M)
is the best, and they are getting baptized this Saturday. It is amazing! Last
night, my comp was already asleep and I was sitting in my bed (I sleep on the
top bunk) writing in my journal, and I was thinking about how awesome it is to
have another family baptized. Like truthfully, this family is super awesome,
and they will defiantly be future leaders in the church here in Nicaragua. I
was thinking about how baptizing this family will be a big impact in their
posterity. Just like Dad was saying about the missionary who baptized him, and
how later he served a mission, had a temple marriage, and so on... This baptism
is going to leave an impact on the future of this family forever. Also, not
only are we going to baptize the parents, but we are baptizing 3 of their kids.
So this week, we've been pretty happy.
We teach this family every night at 7 or
8pm. For the longest while, the husband was the holdout. He kept saying that
"I want to get baptized, but I just want to be 100% sure that its the
right thing". Basically the only thing that he was lacking was the answer
to his prayers. So we explained that what he needed to do was pray with real
intent, with faith in Christ, and with a heart sincere. After teaching him
this, he was all like "ahhh.... I understand now. I’ve been lacking in
some of those areas.” So we kept teaching the family each night. Then a couple
days after teaching the husband about the prayer, we noticed that one day he
just kind of changed (Saturday). While we were teaching the family, M just kept
saying things about how Joseph Smith was a prophet, and about how the church
was restored. It was super cool, because he wasn’t just reiterating the things
that we had taught him, but he was actually saying these things like he knew
them to be true. Also, while we were talking, he would say things like "So
what time is this baptism service on Saturday" or "what kind of
clothes do we need to bring?". As a missionary, when your investigators
start to ask questions like that... Well it’s just awesome! Although M never
said anything about receiving an answer, we could tell that he had prayed and
received an answer. So yeah, Saturday is going to be like Christmas for me.
Last night we went and taught M and M again. We watched the 1 hour version of
the Joseph Smith movie, and it was awesome. After the movie, the family was
saying things like "that dude was a stud.”
So the missionary work is going well
here. In church, we had M and M and their family in the church with us, and we
also had another family investigating in the church. So we're hoping to get
another family lined up for the baptism later in the month. Basically, it’s all
going pretty well. I’m pretty stoked to Skype you all next week. I’m pretty
excited to see the family, but more than anything, I just want to see Rusty...
(Just kidding, I’m really excited to see you all!!). Also, what did you think
of the package that I sent home? Did you ever open it? If so, what do you think
about the Daniel Ortega communist shirt? Pretty awesome right? Who's been
wearing it?
So I hope that all is going well at
home. I imagine that Dad stays pretty busy with all of his stuff going on. I
was sitting in church yesterday, and it was awesome. We were sitting with 2
families who are investigators. I got up and bore my testimony and while I was
talking, I was wondering what it will be like when I finally come home and give
the homecoming talk from the Edinburgh ward pulpit. That will be crazy! But
yeah anyways, it’s too early to start thinking about that. I was comparing the
Edinburgh ward and the Barrio Bello Horizonte. In our ward here in Nicaragua,
there is usually an attendance of like 90 - 100 members, but there are like 400
inactive members. So the Obispo spends all of his time (literally ALL of his
free time) visiting the less actives. He doesn’t really hang around church for
super long on Sunday, but rather, he spends his time in the streets looking for
the less actives. It’s a different world down here, really.
Its super hot here, and summer is coming
to an end. Winter is about to start here. The people say that in this month,
the rain should begin. I have been here for 6 1/2 months, and I’ve seen rain
maybe 3 times. But the people say that it rains really hard here. They say that
the storm drains don’t really do anything, and that you pretty much just walk
around all wet all the time in the flooded out streets. We'll see....
Well, I love you all. I hope that all
goes well this week. Stay safe, and I will see you all next week.
Elder Stark
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