May 27, 2013
Hey my dear Hawaiian Familia,
So you're all living it up on Oahu now??
That’s pretty sweet. My old comp had lived in Hawaii for the past year while he
went to BYU-H, and he told me all about it 24/7. So I feel like I have a pretty
good idea of what its like there. I’m pretty jealous, but yeah, I’ve got pretty
much the same climate that you all have right now. They only difference is that
I’m sweating it out 24/7 in my white shirt and tie (not in my short-shorts...)
But yeah, I bet when you've been in Idaho for such a long time, the tropical
climate feels good. Here I just feel normal. I am sweating all of the time, but
you reach a point where you just get used to it. Oh, and to answer the
questions about the rain here. The rainy season is just starting to pick up.
Don’t believe anything that Google says, because there is only a little rain so
far. But on Tuesday it rained for the first time in like 7 months. It was
awesome, and I felt like it was just dumping buckets from heaven, but the people
assured me that it was just "sprinkling". It was awesome though for
me, because I was soaking wet, and my shirt magically turned from white to
brown. Also, it was about the first time in many months that I had actually
felt a tiny bit chilly. It’s super cool. There are always these huge black
clouds on the skyline, but the rain never seems to arrive. I’m just hoping that
the rainy season will really start to kick in, but who knows. I imagine that in
the next few weeks though, it will start to get really wet.
So to me, its pretty funny to think that
you're all getting super excited about the tropical fruits and whatnot. Like
pineapple and all that stuff is super normal here. I’m a pretty big fan of
buying pineapples and just chowing down on them for lunch. Also, mangos here
are really common, and you can find them in just about any tree. People will
literally come out of their houses, and just give us a huge handful of mangos.
We chow down on fruit 24/7.
So it sounds like you're all having a
sweet vacation, swimming and cruising around in a car, and sleeping in a condo.
It totally sounds like you're having some very touristy like experiences. I was
smiling when I read the letter, because it just sounds super touristy (you
know, taking tours and whatnot). IF you ever want the REAL experience, just
come down here. Like, the idea of a sea turtle on the beach swarmed by iphones.
Funny stuff. I have seen pictures of missionaries from Puerto Cabezas, and when
the big sea turtles land on the beach, the indigenous people just go out with a
machete and start chopping the turtles to pieces. It’s a different experience
her, but it’s great. I really hope that I get transferred to Puerto this
change. I’m about 100% sure that I'll get changed. We'll see.
So it sounds like you're all having some
sweet experiences. I really liked the story about the church and the cool
talks, and the people passing the sacrament in the flip-flops. Sounds very
cool. Super spiritual and all that stuff. I imagine that this vacation is the
best!! I remember when we went to Belize, and how good it felt to just walk
around in the warm climate, and to see different things, and to just relax. I
really love those kinds of trips. I hope
that Bailey is having a good time, and it loving every minute of it. I'd love
to go there some day.
So this week has been pretty normal for
me. Just filled with hard work, contacting, teaching, and trying to help our
converts/investigators. We have been focusing a lot on the older people J and
O. I've already told you about them, but we try to wake up early in the morning
and give service to them in the cemetery. The water situation is lousy in the
cemetery. There are a ton of gardeners, and they all have these pioneer style
handcarts that they use to haul around 55 gallon drums. There is only a little
water, and the water pressure is really horrible. So there is just a big line,
and not a lot of water pressure. And it takes a long time to fill these big
drums. So J and O: they're pretty cool, but they're super old. I put a baptism
date with them for the 8th of June, so I hope that they can get baptized then.
Good stuff. They're super old and poor, and earn about $3-4 each day, so a lot
of times they don’t have food. We try to buy them a loaf of bread each time we
visit them. So now we don’t have any more mission money and I've had to tap
into my bank account and withdraw a little to buy some food for Elder P and
myself (sorry!!!). So right now we are just focusing on J and O. Even though we
are contacting a ton, it feels like it’s been hard to find new families to
teach. So we're just focusing on the people that we have right now.
This Sunday, J and O couldn't go to
church. They had a lot of work to do in the cemetery, and just couldn’t go. So
we didn’t have any investigators in church this Sunday. Also, none of the
Recent Converts could go, so it was a little tough. We have 19 recent converts,
and not a single one of them could go. It was a little frustrating, but I
learned that as much as I want people to keep the commandments and go to
church, I can’t make the decisions for them. It’s rough as a missionary when
your converts can’t go to church, but they need to learn to make their own
decisions. But my converts M and M are still super cool. The M’s mom died this
week, so that was rough, and she just wanted some time to stay at home. And M
was working.... But anyways, we are working on bettering the retention here in
Bello Horizonte. Sometimes I just wish that it could be the same here as it is
in Idaho. A 20% retention of the members is pretty bad... So I want to try and
fix that. We'll see what happens.
So I hope that all is well in Hawaii,
and also in Idaho. I’m glad that you're all happy, and I'm doing pretty well
here too. My comp and I made some good jokes this week, and we were trying to
film a video. I sent a lot of pictures home, and some of our footage. So you
can watch that. Funny stuff. I get along well with my comp, and we've had
several months together, so it’s all going well. I sure hope that my next comp is
cool too. The zone is not doing too hot with the families baptized, but we are
off the hook, because we're one of the few areas that has baptized. So I’m glad
that there isn’t some leader breathing down my back. And we've got the old
couple ready for baptism in June. So I’m pretty happy. I’m pretty excited too
to see how the new mission president is. Changes are 2 weeks from Wednesday.
Fun stuff.
So all is well here, and we are pretty
much just doing the same work, day in and day out. Today I had a scary dream
that I got changed to the Boise Idaho mission, and was serving super close to
home. It freaked me out, and I woke up freaked out, but it was awesome to look
around my room and see that I was still in Managua, Nicaragua. Very
relieving.
So I am having a great time, and I hope
that you are too. Be sure to take a bunch of pictures and videos on your
vacations, so that you have something to remember. I have a package with some
stuff that I want to send home. I don’t know when I will have a chance to send
it, but its loaded with a sweet manbag that I bought a couple months ago (the
only problem is that it ripped, but I did some sweet repairs, and sewed it
back), and a hammock (we were there for like 5 minutes arguing with the sales
man. It started out at 250 cordobas, but we FINALLY haggled it down to 100
cordobas), and all of my Spanish books from the MTC which I never use.
I love you all, and hope that you're
having the time of your lives. Take it easy and be safe.
ELDER STARK
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