Thursday, August 29, 2013

#51 Managua (Villa Venezuela)

August 26, 2013


Hey family,

Well this week has been pretty good. I'm glad to hear about the fun week that you're all having. Actually it sounds pretty boring, except for the cool picture of dad with the news cameras. That was pretty cool.

So here's what’s going on here. On Saturday, we had a cool baptism. I baptized Hermana B. So that was cool. There is also a really cool story behind the baptism. So for the past week, this family had been in "la Costa" which means "the Atlantic side of the country.” They have a farm there, and were doing some work on their farm for the past week. But on Tuesday, they arrived here in Managua to their house, and we got a chance to teach them. So while we were teaching them, Hermana B told us a cool story that happened while they were at their farm. She said that while they were there, they stopped by her mom’s house. B’s mom is the local Evangelical pastor in the town. So B stopped by her mother's house to talk about being baptized in the Mormon Church. So while she was talking to her mom, and explaining the situation about how she wants to get baptized in the Mormon Church, she was basically asking for her mother’s permission/approval. Surprisingly, B’s mother said "well... it appears to me that these young men are teaching you very good things that will help you through the rest of your life. They are also going to help you get married. So I suggest that you follow their council, and get baptized in this church.” 

WOW.... So yeah, basically B’s mom who is an evangelical pastor just gave permission to her daughter to be baptized in the Mormon Church. I wasn't expecting that, and neither was B. But on Tuesday, we put a baptism date/marriage date with the family for this Saturday.  We had to get them ready, so I traveled around all of Managua with Elder Ch getting all of their papers ready for the marriage. So yeah, on Saturday, we married them, and baptized B. J (the husband) was also going to get baptized, but he got cold feet, and we are going to baptize him in a couple weeks. I did the baptism for B, and I was actually pretty worried. She had just had brain surgery like 3 months before, and I was worried about the baptism affecting her. So I just prayed all day, and when we got into the water, I baptized her really gently and it worked out. Good stuff. Yesterday we confirmed her in church. Also, just about all of their family came to the baptism, and afterwards they were all really interested in the church. So on Sunday, we had a ton of investigators and families that came.

So other than that, we have just been working and looking for new people to teach. Not much too eventful has happened other than that. Oh, but H and K have told us, "We think that the Mormon Church is the correct church to join.” So, we haven’t yet put an exact baptism date with them, but they should be getting baptized very soon. So yeah,  patience is starting to pay off. Hopefully we should start to see some success in the next coming weeks.

Well I’m glad that all is going well at home. That’s pretty exciting about school starting up. Good stuff. Well, I love you all, and hope that this week is good for you all. Enjoy,

Elder Stark

PS. I didn’t get a chance to burn a pair of pants when I completed a year, but maybe someday I will do that.







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