#98 El Naranjo

Hey familia,

Well, it seems like this might be one of the last times that I write an email to you. Next week I will probably get on the computer and write a little email, but basically this is the last time. It will be really weird seeing you guys in person. Whenever I get an email from you guys, as I read it, I imagine your voices as if you were reading the letter. It’s been a long time, and sometimes it seems like you guys are really far away, but sometimes it seems like you're pretty close too. It’s kind of hard to explain. I'm really excited to see you all, but at the same time I'm kind of terrified. It really weird. It’s just going to be so dang weird to actually see you guys and being able to talk to you. I'm just sitting here at the monitor, wiping all of the sweat off of my face and trying to think of how to put this concept into words. 

I feel really happy to be going home. Today I woke up and decided to pack my luggage. But I then realized that I had a ton of dirty clothes that I hadn’t washed yet. I just rolled up my sleeves (so to speak) and bent over my washboard and washed my clothes for a couple hours. It was pretty exhausting, but I think that I got almost all of my clothes washed. After that I busted open my suitcases and dusted them off pretty well. Luckily there were no dead mice like last time. But anyways I packed most of my stuff. I feel like I'm probably like 70% packed up. As I was going through all of my crud (well... I guess you could say "recuerdos" in Spanish) I found that I had saved a bunch of letters that you guys had written me last year for my birthday. I found a bunch of letters from you guys, and a noisemaker thing wrapped in tissue paper that Henry sent. Also I found a monkey birthday card from you all. It was pretty funny reading all of that stuff. It was weird packing my bags. I remember at the end of my first change watching Elder S pack his bags, and then later watching Elder R pack his bags. I'm not terribly sad or teary eyed or anything like that. It just still doesn’t seem real. That’s basically the only way to say it.

But I have some really good news for you guys. I think that you're really going to like it, and that it will make your trip down here even more exciting. Remember that family that I baptized in Nagarote? You know, the family that’s super awesome and their names are J and Y? Haha I'm just messing around. But anyway, they have one son named J A. He is 21, and is best friends with Y C (the elder’s quorum president of Nagarote). Anyway, yesterday I was talking to Y C and he said that finally J A has decided to be baptized. He has been waiting for months and months, even though his dad is the branch president. I had almost baptized him, but for some reason he had cold feet and didn’t want to do it. Anyway, now he has finally made the decision to be baptized. So as I was talking to Y C I was super excited. I was thinking that he'd want his dad to baptize him, but no. So I imagined that he'd want Y C to baptize him, but no. He wants me to baptize him. Isn’t that totally CRAZY??? So on the 10th, when we go to church in Nagarote, you guys will be able to see my last baptism. I'm super, super excited, and it’s an awesome way to end the mission. Isn't that totally awesome? It will be very special. After Y C told me that, I was so stoked and excited. Very cool.

We're just working like normal. Basically just a lot of contacting to fill up the tank for the next elder that comes in and takes my spot. It’s all right, and I don’t think that I’m being lazy or anything. I still feel like I’m working and doing a good job, and like I said, it still doesn’t feel real that I’m going home. It still seems so weird. 

So today for my birthday we didn’t do much. Like I said, I just washed my clothes and packed my bags. Truthfully it just feels like any other p-day. We jumped into a taxi and went to Burger King and I got a milkshake and then we got some pupusas. After that I wanted to go to Monserath and visit the first family that I baptized named A and I. It was all deja vu walking around my old area. We went to the house, and only A was there, but when he walked out of his house and saw me, he just shouted "STARK!!!" and ran and gave me a big hug. It was fun talking to him, and he is doing great. He's the 1st counselor in the YMs presidency, and is doing great in the church. That’s basically all we did today. Now I'm here in the cyber right now writing to you guys.

So another cool thing that happened this week was that I went and did divisions with Tonola. I went and interviewed a family that was going to be baptized. When I sat down and started talking to the wife, she said that she didn’t want to get baptized yet because she didn’t feel ready, and thought that it was too soon. I just said OK, and did the interview and told her that I thought she was ready. She said that she needed an answer, so I simply said, "OK, lets ask God what he thinks". So she said a little simple prayer asking if she should be baptized, and then sat there quietly for a couple minutes with her eyes closed. Then she opened her eyes, and with tears in them said that she had received an answer from God. It was a pretty powerful spiritual experience. I'm jealous of Dad because he gets to interview people all the time and have these kinds of spiritual experiences 24/7. In my district I went and interviewed two other families and it went well. If my count is right, I’ve done 58 baptismal interviews so far. It’s pretty cool being here and being able to work so closely with all of these people who are making their first covenants. I love it here!

Well, it will be great to see you guys. I am so glad that I have a great family, with a great mom and dad. There are lots of families that have tons of problems here, and it has made me realize the great blessings that the Lord has given us. I'm really happy that our family has the promise to live together forever, and I really love you all. It will be great seeing you. As I was reading in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 5:7-9 I found something that I liked a lot:

 7 And when we had returned to the tent of my father, behold their joy was full, and my mother was comforted.

 8 And she spake, saying: Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness; yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, and delivered them out of the hands of Laban, and given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them. And after this manner of language did she speak.

 9 And it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly, and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord; and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel.

Anyways, life is good, and I'm happy. I love you all, and I'll see you soon. 

Con amor,

Elder Stark

______

Now it is raining super hard. :)

And yes, I will write next week. I will be in the airport when you get here (I’ll talk more to president in my last interview on Sunday), and next week I’ll get a phone to talk to you guys. 

#97 El Naranjo

Hey family,

I just got your email, and it sounds like you're all doing pretty well. That’s awesome that you guys were able to go all over central Idaho and now that you're in Lake Tahoe. Cool stuff

Well, it’s all going pretty well here. Sometimes I swear that the time speeds up, and sometimes I think that it slows down. It’s really weird. But I can’t believe that in like two weeks I’ll see you guys. That’s a crazy thought for me.

Well this week passed by really quickly. I had a leader’s training in Leon on Wednesday. It was cool to hear from the President, and there were a ton of new missionaries that I didn’t really know. Everyone seems so young in the mission. Our mission did really well last month in June, and we baptized 102 families (we broke the record), but now in July everyone has their tanks empty and there aren’t a ton of baptisms. The mission has the goal to baptized 100+ families again in August, so we're all preparing for that. 

On Thursday we had interviews with President Collado. It was cool, and my district was from 10am-noon, but they didn’t start until around noon, so we had a lot of time to sit around and hang out. While we were waiting for the interviews, as a district we read the whole mission handbook. I've got a pretty big district of 9 missionaries, so it was fun just to hang around. We read the entire mission handbook, and there were like 10 pages left of "priesthood ordinances." But anyway, we read all of that too. It was funny. When I had my interview with the President, I basically just renewed my temple recommend and that took up most of the time. Did you know that only the mission president needs to sign a recommend for a missionary? Pretty cool. Now I have one in Spanish. Right when I entered the room, the first thing that President asked me was, "How is Brother Rawlings?" Funny stuff. I also asked him about the switch-off, like dad was saying. President Collado just looked at his iPhone and said that he had some meeting with the stake presidents in the morning. He said that I could probably just go with him, and that he'd drop me off at the airport at like 1pm. He didn’t really seem too worried about the switch-off. So yeah, all is good. 

It’s fun working here in the area. It’s really weird now though, because basically all of the people that I’m finding now, won't be baptized until after I leave. Right now I'm basically just getting the area set up for after I leave.

I feel pretty good, and I’m excited to see you guys. It'll be really fun walking around the markets and stuff and buying cool trinkets. Life is great, and its fun to be here. Well, I guess that I’ll see you guys soon! Have a great week on vacation! 

Elder Stark

#96 El Naranjo

July 14, 2014

Hey family,

Can you believe that it’s almost coming to an end? I can't... It will be really weird not reading the weekly letters from you guys and it will be weird to see you guys in person and talk to you face to face. It really weirds me out. I also think that it will be really weird not chilling with people in Spanish. Today my comp and I went and did the grocery shopping, ate some pizza, and my comp went to some guy in the market to get his watch fixed. While the guy was fixing it we had a pleasant conversation about Nicaraguan watches and the immigration problems/racism in the United States. I really enjoy just hanging out with the Nicaraguans and talking with them. The people here are so laid back and they are always down to chat it up. That’s something that I’ll miss. Also, while my comp was getting his watch fixed, I just sat down in front of someone’s store and the guy came out and was asking about the US. The people here are always really interested in the US. There aren’t really many white people here, and whenever the people see white people they get interested and always want to chat it up. The Nicas really get excited when they figure out that I can speak Spanish, and they just want to talk.

So today was pretty laid back. We were doing some grocery shopping, and we each bought a giant 4-pound bag of cereal and lots of milk. Also, there was a giant 10-pound bag of pancake mix, so we bought that too. It’s not any pancake mix either, its American. I think that it’s the Krusteez brand or something like that. I can predict that we'll be eating lots of pancakes and cereal. I'm pretty excited. When I first began the mission we didn’t get very much money, and we would only eat cereal on special occasions. But now I have a 4-pound bag to finish it off. I'm pretty stoked!

So not much has been going on this week. We've been working pretty hard and contacting a lot and teaching a lot. I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job, and I enjoy preaching the gospel. It’s really fun to be honest. I can’t really think of any crazy stories that happened this week, but it all went pretty good. We had ward council on Wednesday and one of the sister missionaries was looking at the pictures on my camera. When the council began, she turned it off and put it in her lap and forgot about it. But when it was the Hermana’s turn to speak, she stood up and the camera fell and smacked the floor pretty hard. It broke. Haha! I just shrugged and didn’t really care. It's not really a big deal. I was surprised that the camera made it this far, and its funny that it died when I had 23 months. Anyways sorry, I now don’t have any pictures to send home. But yeah, all is well. We're working and doing our best. 

I've now read the book of Mormon like 7 times in my mission, and I want to finish it again before I go home. But one of the main messages that I’ve seen in the book is to not be prideful. I feel like humility is the opposite of pride. In DyC38:39 its says something like "beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old". Something like that... Also in Moroni 8:27 it says that the pride is what made the Nephites fall. Basically there are a lot of people that become stuck up on silly little things and it gets to them. They can’t comprehend that maybe they are wrong, and they can’t see it from any other perspective. I see that a lot as a missionary of Jesus Christ. It’s a really interesting thing, and I try to be humble and teach the people the truth. I recently was listening to the talk by president Benson about beware of pride. It’s a really great talk, and I really recommend it. 

But life is good here. I love the people and I really love this work. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. As I look back on these two years, I am really grateful for having chosen to come on a mission. I now don’t really think of it as having been a sacrifice, but rather as a privilege. I've learned numberless things here, and it's impossible to describe how these two years have changed my life. If I hadn’t gone on a mission, sure I might be farther in school, but I would have forfeited so many blessings. So yeah, life is good. Real good. 

Thanks for all your help, and I’m really excited to see you guys. Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Stark

#95 El Naranjo

July 7, 2014

Hey family,

Well it’s crazy to be writing you guys. I've been writing you guys for two years now, and it blows my mind that soon I’ll be able to see you and hear your voices and that it will be real and not through a computer screen. It’s pretty crazy to me. I can’t believe that it’s only like one month now (actually, its less than a month). But anyways, I don’t know what its like at home, but here on my end I think that it’s pretty crazy.

So I liked reading your letter. It seems funny that it was the 4th of July. I actually almost forgot until around 5pm a missionary sent me a text saying happy 4th of July, or something like that. Funny stuff. I can still remember last 4th. I was in Managua in Villa Flor and it had rained the whole day/night and we were trying to get a family baptized, but it turned into a flop and we were all pretty bummed in the nighttime. It’s funny thinking back on that. But for my 4th of July, we just knocked a lot of doors and worked a lot. I felt pretty happy though because we found a new family to teach and they seem somewhat positive. 

So let me tell you about my week. On Tuesday I woke up early and washed some clothes, studied, and we went to work. I think that we found a new investigator to teach on this day. I think that his name was E, and he reminded me of the druggy off of the Simpsons. He just talked with a deep voice and talked like a gangster. Kind of an interesting guy. We taught him, but then figured out that he lives in another area and so we just passed on the reference, but the Hermanas couldn’t find him. Later in the evening, a guy in our ward invited us to eat dinner, and they had some good gallo pinto.

On Wednesday, I did a district meeting and it was cool. I think that I’ll only have one more district meeting to conduct. And later, we just worked a ton. The next day I was on divisions in Tonola, helping out the elders there. I took some cool photos there. I don’t know why, but every time I go there to do divisions it always rains a ton. Tonola doesn’t really have any paved roads, so it turns into a swamp with lots of mosquitos and humidity. It was crazy. I took some pictures when we got there, and it was about to rain and there was a ton of dust in the sky. It was kind really weird. But anyways the divisions went well. I also did a couple of baptism interviews while I was there, and they baptized a couple people the next day. 

And on Friday and Saturday I feel like we just worked a lot. Sorry, I know that this is kind of a lame explanation for what we did, but to be honest, the days just seem to blend into each other and it’s hard to remember details. Plus, everything that would probably be weird for you guys, seems pretty normal for me. So yeah... sorry. But on Saturday we found three new families to teach of investigators. The last family that we taught was a family of 5, and it was cool to have them all quietly huddled around us and listening to our message. We asked them to turn off the TV, and when they turned it off their living room just got quiet and really reverent. It was a sweet lesson. 

So it’s all going pretty well. We got skunked on Sunday and all of our investigators bailed out and couldn’t go to church. That was kind of sucky. But all in all I feel like we're working pretty hard and hopefully we'll be able to get some people baptized. I'm really enjoying these last few weeks, and when I'm in the street testifying about the restoration, it seems hard to think about home. The only time I really get trunky is in the evening and on P-day. But all is well, and I’m working hard and trying to do my best.

Oh, so here is an interesting story. Last night I got done reporting all of the numbers and I was just laying in bed thinking about the day. I think that it was about 11pm. But then I got a phone call from the Zone Leaders and they were asking if my comp and I could go buy some medicine for one of the sister missionaries in the other district. I said yes, and woke up my comp and we put on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt and went looking for a pharmacy. We just went to the stoplight and waited around for a while, but it was so dead. There was nobody in the streets and not a single car. Finally after like 10 minutes a taxi passed by, so I flagged it down and asked him to take us to a pharmacy that would be open. He said yes, but charged us a ton of money. I didn’t really care, so whatever. But we jumped in and went to the pharmacy. It was so surreal because the whole city was just dead, and the streets were all dark and there was nobody around. But we got to the pharmacy and I bought the medicine and we went and found the sister's house and gave them the medicine/a blessing to the sister. It was interesting seeing the whole city so dark and empty. But anyways, we went back home and I finally got back to bed. I think that I only got like 4 hours of sleep because we woke up early and went to the beach with some other elders. It was fun and I knew my way around. I showed them the deserted house and we played some soccer. Plus I found an American football in our house so I brought it and we threw it around. As we were leaving the place (its called Jiquilillo) the bus half broke down and I think that the muffler fell off. Nica buses... While we were there we made sure to buy lots of coke in glass bottles and to buy some fish. It was a pretty cool p day and I like hanging around with the other elders a ton. Did you know that in our zone, the sister missionaries outnumber us elders? There are 7 companionships of sisters, and only 5 of elders. 

But all in all, today was a good day. I’m getting super excited to see you all, and it’s going to be a blast. Hopefully you guys will like this place as much as I do. As we were returning to Chinandega from Jiquilillo I was just looking out the window thinking about these two years. It almost just seems like a dream that's passed by. But anyways, I love you all and I hope that you are well. Have a great week, and let me know if you have any questions.

Love,

Elder Stark