June 10, 2013
Hello family,
Well this week has gone pretty well. We
have just been doing the same ol' stuff, and nothing much has changed. We found
a new computer lab that’s super awesome. It doesn’t have A/C, so I’m sweating
like a pig, but the computers are brand new and they're very fast, which is
worth it. Good stuff. Right now I have a ton of pictures uploading to Dropbox,
so you should have some good material. I'm pretty sure that it’s my last p-day
here in Bello Horizonte, and I’m going to copy all of the pictures from my
comp's camera, so I’ll try to upload those too.
It sounds like the week has been pretty
normal and mellow there at home. All kinds of day camps and young men’s
activities then? Sounds fun. Sometimes it blows my mind to think that right now
you are all on summer vacation, and that you're having a ton of crazy
activities in the hot weather. Here is about the exact same 24/7, and
supposedly we're in winter right now, but it just feels the same. Hot, hot,
hot. But yeah, I’m glad that all is well. I’m doing very well here too, and its
all-pretty normal.
So not too much has changed here like I
said. We have been contacting a ton, and working very very hard. I really don’t
want to leave my area here with crappy families, so I’ve been trying to work
extra hard to leave Elder P with some good families. Our hard work paid off,
and we had a family in church this Sunday. Their names are E and J, and they
super cool. They are a very young couple, and have been together for about 6
months, and I’m pretty sure (judging by how old they appear) that is 21, and
that she is 18. They are really cool, and are super humble. They are living in
a very humble house, and are very poor, but are also very humble, and accept
everything that we say. I am very sure that they will be the next family
baptized here in Bello Horizonte. The funny thing is that I have walked by
their house about a million times, and I had contacted them a couple months
ago, but they weren't very positive. But this week, we contacted them again,
and they were way positive. It’s just funny to see that some random house that
I have passed by tons of times has the next family that will be baptized. But
yeah, so far we have taught them only lesson 1, and it was pretty cool. Their
house is really small, and is about the size of my bedroom in Idaho. And in
that house lives 9 people. So there wasn’t room to teach them in the house, so
we taught them outside. We all just sat down on the ground or on the wall of a
canal, which passes by the house, and just taught them there. It was a very
cool and very spiritual lesson. I love the people here, because it’s pretty
often (after teaching the restoration) that the people will say "I already
believe that that's true, because it sounds very logical". I love the people
for that reason; they are really simple. If something sounds reasonable, they
will believe it. And I think... for that reason... its a lot easier to baptize
here than in other countries.
We found another family that we've been
teaching a little. The funny thing here is that ALL... literally ALL of the men
served in the war here in the 80's. So for like 30 minutes, we just sat there
and listened to this grizzly old guy tell some crazy war stories. It’s pretty
awesome, and also very entertaining. The Nicas have the stuff, because they can
tell a good story that will leave you laughing, and with your jaw open. So I
have heard just about every type of war story. This guy was talking about how
like 30 years ago here, there were gorillas and all kinds of monkeys and stuff,
and how while he was in the army a gorilla tried to attack someone, and someone
shot the gorilla but the bullet just bounced off the gorillas head... yeah...
stories like that. Every man here has some type of crazy story like that. M (our
convert) said that while he was in the army, he talked about how they would
march for days and days without food, and then one time they arrived in a
valley with a bunch of cocco, but after eating everyone had some crazy vomiting
and stuff like that.
Oh speaking of vomiting, for the first
time in several months I was sick again (for like 18 hours). I woke up on
Saturday and went to the bathroom and barfed for a while. It was horrible, and
trust me, I’m not sick very often here. I’ve gotten pretty used to the food,
and I don’t know why I got the 12-hour stomach flu, but sometimes those things
happen. But I’m doing great, so don’t worry about me. I think that maybe its
because we ate a ton of popcorn the night before. The night before we had ¨cine
Mormon" which translates to "Mormon movie theater". As an
activity to help the ward attendance, we, as the missionaries of the ward, did
this movie night. All day, my comp and I and the sister missionaries were in
the church kitchen making popcorn and it was pretty fun. We do contacting all
day, every day, and it was fun to do something different. So we made a ton of
popcorn, and there were around 60 people there, including a lot of my converts
and investigators. Also, E and J (the new family) arrived on their own, which
was just awesome. So yeah, Saturday was pretty fun because we did something
different, and because the activity was a success. But I blame all of the
popcorn, because I barfed the next day. Funny stuff...
But anyways, life is going well here.
I’m having a good time, and I am pretty excited for changes. I feel bittersweet
about leaving my area here because I have dedicated 5 months of my life here,
walking down the streets, and teaching everyone. But I know that I will have
the chance to go to some other area, and to have more success in another part
of Nicaragua. I’m hoping that I’ll leave Managua and go to "el campo"
which means "the field" aka, pobre land. I really want to go to the
mountains or something like that, but we'll see. Whatever happens, happens. So
yeah, I want you to know that I’m working hard, and that all is well here. I
really am beginning to feel like this place is my home, because it all just
feels so normal. My comp and I, instead of playing "slug bug", we
play "naked baby". Every time we see a naked baby, the first person
to notice it gets to hit the other person super hard in the arm. Naked baby = 1
hit. Naked man = 2 hits. Naked woman = 3 hits. As you can see, the most common
would be naked baby. But 2 days ago, I saw a naked woman (which is rare) and I
slugged my comp 3 times in the arm. A couple days before, my comp spotted some
naked dude walking down the street, and he got 2 good punches into my arm. As
you can see, it’s a different world down here. But, to me it just feels normal.
Well family, I love you and hope that
all is well. Have a good week, and let me know what’s going on.
Lots of love,
Elder Stark
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