May 20, 2013
Hey family,
It was great to get the email again. I
don’t know why, but I was totally looking forward to reading the email this
week. But anyway, it sounds like it’s all going well, and that this week has
passed by pretty quickly. I really liked the photo of the seminary graduation.
It sounds like Bailey is a stud and has been having a good time his senior
year. I wish I had paid more attention in Seminary in high school. I think that
I just kind of goofed around the whole time and didn’t really pay too much
attention. But yeah, it’s cool that Bailey will be graduating soon.
So it feels like the time goes by pretty
quickly. I had been telling people that I have 8 months in the mission, but
after reading your letter, I realized it has been "9 MONTHS!" So yeah,
basically we just do the same stuff every day, but we get to talk to a ton of
people each day so it’s pretty fun.
We were walking by some guy one day, and
he said something in some choppy English, which is pretty normal. I said
something back to him, and we started a conversation. The guy was an Indian
dude from here in Nicaragua (a true native), and he was walking around the
streets screaming "yo afilo cuchillas!!!!!!" He had his grinding
wheel slung over his shoulder, and had a couple machetes on his hips. Pretty
awesome. But he knew a lot about the American Indians in the US, and I told him
that I live in Idaho. The first thing he said was, "Ah.... the Nez Perce.
They ride the Appaloosa.” I was thinking... how many Nicaraguans know who the
Nez Perce really are...? But yeah, it was pretty funny. As we were walking
away, my comp asked me if there really were Indians where I live. I said yes,
and he asked me "do they even hunt white people......” I thought that was
pretty funny, and then I explained that the Indians are just normal people. He
had the idea in his head that there were still savage Indians in the US.
So I think that I already told you all
about the dog that attacked me and ripped off my sleeve. I was in Cuidad Jardin
(literally, Garden City) and I was just walking by a fence, and a huge dog
jumped through the slats of the fence and tried to bite me. Luckily he just
ripped off my shirt sleeve. It was pretty scary at first, but afterwards I just
started laughing because it was so ridiculous. After, I walked over and quickly
stuck my camera through the slats of the fence and took a picture of the man-eating
dog. It was awesome. I was with Elder F, and he happened to have a needle, so I
ripped a thread off of the shredded shirt and sewed it up. Then I just worked
the rest of the day with my sleeve all messed up. Pretty awesome story.
Oh and last Saturday, we baptized M and
M and their daughters, N and J. So we went to their house, and then walked with
them to the church. We had already filled up the baptismal font, and everything
was already set up. It was awesome, and there were a TON of people at the
baptism because a priesthood meeting had just ended. So we drew names, and
I ended up baptizing M and M, and my companion baptized N and J. It was super
cool, and they are some of the best converts I've had here. After the
baptism, Manuel said, "I plan on staying in this church for the rest of my
life". This family is awesome. They read their scriptures, pray each
night, and go to church.
Oh and last P day, we went to the
National Palace which is the Nicaraguan equivalent of the White House. It was
cool, and there was some huge ancient cathedral and some nice statues, and a
giant flag. We took about a million pictures, and right after that, we jumped
onto the bus and went and Skyped the family. That’s about all that happened
last P day. Oh and we had a FHE with M and M.
So right now we are just preparing
another family to get baptized. Their names are J and O. They are older people,
and O cant walk so J just pushes her around in her wheelchair. They work in the
cemetery as gardeners, and in the mornings we usually try to go and help them.
They are preparing for baptism, and we have had some good lessons with them. On
Sunday they said that they would go to church, but we stopped by the cemetery,
and it was going to be impossible. So we were like... dang it! J was waiting to
get water from the tiny hose sticking out of the ground, and he was waiting in
line with all of the other gardeners. There was no way that he would be able to
finish his work in the cemetery and still get to church. So my companion and I
were thinking, and we had an idea. Our food appointment lives about 2 blocks
from the cemetery, so we ran over to her house and got a few old 5 gallon paint
buckets. We filled them up with water, and carried them to the cemetery to fill
up J’s big 55 gallon drum. My arms were pretty much dead for the rest of the
day because it was hard work, but we finally finished everything, and got them
to church!!!!! Awesome!! We arrived just as sacrament was ending, and my companion
and I were soaking wet and all muddy, but it was awesome. J and O stayed until
the end of church, and then we got them a taxi and sent them home. The hard
work was worth it.
So yeah, those are just some of the
things that have happened this week. I am having a good time, and it’s all
going well. Today my companion and I got permission to go to the south mission
to the distribution center and we got my comp some things. Then we went and
made some pancakes, and now I’m here. I am 99% sure that I'll get changed this
transfer because I have been in Bello Horizonte almost 6 months. But we'll
see... Anyways, I love you all, and I hope that your week was good. Let me know
what’s new!!!!!
Lots of love,
Elder Stark
P.S. The rainy season still hasn’t
started. Who knows when it will actually begin? People are pretty confused that
it still hasn’t rained. Also, it sounds like Dad is starting to get the groove
of things with the Bishop calling. I’m glad that it’s super rewarding, and I
bet it’s fun at times. I love my job, and I think that at times, its pretty
similar to what Dad does. Good times.
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