#73 Nagarote

Hey family,

Thanks a ton for your email. It sounds like all is going well, and it seems really funny to me that mom is working. When was the last time that you worked? Like 20 years ago right??? Funny stuff. Also it sounds like Henry had a really fun birthday. I was busting up seeing the photo of his friends worshiping him. Classic.  On his birthday, the 24th, I was in Managua in a gira misional. Elder Soares who is one of the Presidents of the 70’s came and talked to us. It was pretty cool, and both the North and South missions were together. It was the first time in my mission that I had been in a conference like that. Cool stuff. Also Elder Ochoa who is the 2nd counselor in the Central American Presidency was there, and of course, the presidents of the North and South mission. Cool stuff. 

So I’m doing really well here in Nagarote. The big news is that this week, J and Y were baptized. I’m really happy for them, and I know that they'll be great converts and members, and that they'll help out this branch a lot. They are really rich by Nicaraguan standards, and are very well known in the community. So the story of their baptism was crazy. We had been visiting them all week, every night. They were progressing a lot, and Tuesday night, J told me that he was seriously considering being baptized. Y, on the other hand, really wanted to be baptized, and was just waiting on her husband. So I was really stoked for them. The really cool thing is that in our branch, a returned missionary named Y C just got back from his mission in Guatemala, and he is best friends with the son of J and Y. So in almost every lesson, he has been with us, and it has been a huge help. I am really grateful for the chance to be able to teach them, and be a part in their lives. From what Y C was telling me, he said that in November, they were thinking about getting divorced and splitting up. But now I can really see how the gospel has changed their lives. They commute 2 hours each day to work in Managua, and they say that before, they wouldn’t talk to each other for the whole two hours. But now, they talk to each other, and almost exclusively about the gospel/church. Y has said many times that every time that J comes by her work to pick her up, that he is always so giddy to talk about the church and the stuff that he's learned on the computer about the church. So the gospel really saved their relationship. So anyways, we had been working really hard with them to get them baptized. After J told me on Tuesday night that he was thinking about being baptized, we started to talk to them about getting baptized on this Saturday. They were really skeptical and didn’t think that it was the right thing to do. But the problem is that on Feb 1st, Y is going on a month-long vacation to the US. So they had to be baptized this week. So my comp and I and Y, had been praying/fasting a lot for this family, so that they could be baptized on Saturday. On Tuesday night, we went there, and J said that he is for sure going to be baptized, but after Y gets back from the states. So we were happy, but at the same time totally bummed out, because we were going to have to wait a month. Anyway, 9:30pm came around, and we had to leave. So we left, and Y C stayed with them talking for a while longer. So anyways, at like 10:30pm I got a call from Y C and he told me that the family changed their mind. That they were going to get baptized on Saturday!!!! I couldn’t believe it, and was so so happy. So anyway, we just started working and got the baptism all ready. They say that the reason that they changed their mind is because they feel like I will have transfers while Y is on vacation, so they wanted to get baptized before she left. Anyway, they really like me a lot, and they wanted me to do the baptism. (Which by the way, I had mixed feelings, because I really, really wanted to let my new companion Elder V do the baptism, but whatever). So on Saturday I baptized the family, and it was awesome. It all went really well, and on Sunday they were confirmed. How awesome is that?

Anyways, all this week has been focused around J and Y. So aside from that, we didn’t really get too much done this week. I have been on the road the whole week, seriously. On Tuesday we went to Managua for training for the new missionaries and their trainers. Wednesday: Interviews with President Collado in Leon until 5pm. Thursday: I had to go to Managua to the police station renew my Nica ID (that was a crazy experience). Friday: Managua again for the gira misional. Saturday: To Leon to drop off the ZL who came to do the baptism interview. And on Sunday, we had to go to Leon again for training from the Area Presidency. And today we went to Leon for p day. So yeah, every day this last week I have been in the buses for a minimum of 3 hours.... Pretty lousy, but whatever. 

Oh when I was in the interviews with President Collado, he told me that mom had sent him an email, so I helped him translate it into Spanish, and I helped him to write the response back in English. So yeah. I was in the interview for like 30 minutes helping Pres. Collado out with that, and the rest of the zone was outside waiting to be interviewed. After when we got back to Nagarote, my comp was like "dude... what were you talking to him about for so long??? What were you confessing?” Funny stuff. My comp was all worried. Anyways, so yeah that was cool. 

Well, I hope that all goes well. I love you all, and hope that this week is a great week. Let me know what’s up!

Elder Stark 

#72 Nagarote

Hey family,

It’s great to hear from you guys today. Even though I still have a lot of time in the mission, and I have somewhat forgotten about home, I still love hearing from you guys each week. It sounds like Idaho is a lot different from here in Nicaragua. Here, summer is firing up, and it’s really hot. This morning, my comp and I woke up and I had the idea that we could go to the beach. I had never been to the beach here in Nagarote, but some members told us that we could get to the beach. So we took a bus for 45 minutes to the west and jumped off at a point called Izapa, and then waited on the side of the road for another bus, which never came. So while we were waiting, some guy with an illegal taxi offered to take us for 100 Cordobas. So we jumped in and he took us the next 30 kilometers or so to the beach. It was really cool and we hung around there for a while. There were all kinds of rock and stuff, and it totally made me think of the Oregon coast. It was really fun, and I’m all sun burned now. But yeah there was pretty much nobody on the beach. We went to a little pueblo called Mira Mar, and it was pretty far away from everything. It is a poor little pueblo with a beautiful beach. So that was fun. I really enjoy "exploring". So even though I had never been to this area, part of the adventure was arriving there. So that was fun. I think that you're kind of the same way dad, right? You like to explore right?

So yeah, that was fun. This week we've just been working diligently with our investigators. We had a family come to church: J and Y and J Jr. So that was awesome. They are probably one of the most positive families that I’ve ever had in my mission. There are right up there with H and K. So yeah, it has been awesome teaching them. I don’t have any doubt that they'll get baptized, so now it’s just a matter of time. We had been visiting them on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we didn’t go back until Saturday. We got there Saturday at like 7pm and didn’t leave until 9:30pm. Seriously in these couple days that we hadn’t visited, their "thirst for knowledge of the gospel" was crazy. They looked up everything about the church on the computer, and probably know more that I know. So we just show up on Saturday night, and the husband, J was so giddy and excited to share all that he had learned. He was talking about the pioneers, the death of Joseph Smith and Hyrum, Brigham Young, and the settlement of Utah, literally everything... It totally blew my mind. I was just so surprised. And while they were looking up all of this stuff on the Internet, they found a bunch of negative stuff about the church. But they are really intelligent people, and looked up the church’s response. Like for example, he learned about plural marriage, but then he downloaded the triple combination on his computer and read the Official Declaration 1. Seriously, I’ve never had investigators so pilas (literally that means batteries, but it’s used here to explain someone who is outgoing). So yeah, they love the gospel and love everything. I am really really really happy for them. The other family that we're teaching is P and B. They went to church last week, and have a baptism date for the 25th of this month, but we're going to have to push the date back, because they've only been to church once.

So nothing too crazy happened this week. But one night we got home, said the prayer, and I started taking all of the numbers of the areas in the district. My comp comes out of the bathroom freaking out, and told me to come. So I went into the bathroom, and there was a giant scorpion about the size of my hand. Those things are pretty dangerous. It was on the wall right above the toilet. So I grabbed the broom and beat the snot out of the thing. It was crazy. The other cool story is that there is a return missionary in our branch who got back like 7 months ago from his mission in the Guatemala North. It turns out that he trained one of the missionaries who was in my MTC district who went to Guatemala. It was really funny. So last night we were with him, and he called up Elder S on his cell phone, and I talked to him for like 3 minutes. Funny stuff. It’s a small world.

Well, that’s about all that’s happened. Training is going well, and my comp is awesome. It’s fun training, and to think that Bailey is being trained at the same time. I hope that he's doing well. I saw some pictures that he uploaded to dropbox. Is his dad in the mission a chele? Oh, and it sounds like all is going well at home, and with the bishop visits. I don’t really remember many of those families that you mentioned... I think that my brain has forgotten a lot of Idaho. 

So yeah, I hope that all goes well this week. Let me know how you're all doing. And I sent like a million photos home, so enjoy!!

Con amor,

Elder Stark

#71 Nagarote

Hey family,

Well, I can’t believe that it's p-day again. The time just seems to keep flying by faster and faster. Life is good, and I try to enjoy every minute. We've been having some good success here in Nagarote. It’s always fun training new missionaries because they always have a lot of courage when they first come to the field. So we've been putting dates with everyone and we've been having a lot of success with that. My companion thinks that it's awesome to invite people to be baptized, so I’m totally on board with that. Cool stuff. Right now we have 5 investigators with baptism dates, and we were able to bring two families to the church. So yeah, we're both really happy.

My companion is cool. He is from San Miguel, El Salvador that according to Elder Schriever is near the Honduras border. I don’t really know much about that city, but everyone is saying that there is a big volcano that is going to erupt over there. Oh, and when I was at the training meeting I met a missionary who says that he knows Elder Schriever really well. His name is Elder S and says that he was in Elder Schriever’s district for a couple months while he was serving a mini-mission in El Salvador. So that was funny. It’s a small world. Oh yeah, but Elder V is a cool guy. He is only 18, and comes from a family who are members of the church. I think that he is the oldest and only has a sister. I’m pretty stoked to be training again. There aren’t many elders that have the opportunity to train here, because there are always so many sister missionaries coming to this mission. So I feel really blessed to have the privilege to train a new missionary again. Fun stuff. 

So that’s too bad that Elder Y left your area. He seemed pretty cool, and I wish that I would have talked to him for a little bit longer when I skyped. I bet the mission is pretty hard back in Idaho, and that it’s quite a bit different from Peru. So who is the new elder in the area? I really like hearing about the missionary work back in the ward, and I want to know what it’s like.

The harmonica is still fun, and I’ve figured out how to play quite a few hymns and other songs. The song that I like to play is "blowing in the wind" by Bob Dylan. 

So some of the fun things that happened this week was that we went with our branch president to do some service. He has a couple jobs. So we went with him to a little farm that he runs as a side job. He has a little plot of corn, and we helped him harvest the corn. Basically we just put on a long sleeve shirt and some pants and a hat, and went to the farm at 6am. It’s about a kilometer to the south of Nagarote. The sister missionaries went ahead in a horse carriage, and we walked there with the branch president. So we got there, and each chose a row of corn, tied a sack around our waists, and started to harvest the corn by hand. We were there for about 4 hours, and got quite a bit of corn harvested. It was pretty cool, and was fun to do some work. It made me trunky for working with Uncle Mark and Bricon. I miss working with my hands. 

The other cool thing that happened was then when we arrived at our food appointment, we saw a kid (he was probably 14) in the house with a giant garobo (iguana). He had found it in the mountains and was trying to sell it. So I couldn’t help it, and I asked him how much he was selling it for. He responded "cincuenta pesos,” which is 50 Cordobas. That comes out to be two dollars. So I couldn’t help it, and I bought his iguana. The kid offered to kill it and skin it, so I said sure. So he cut its throat and skinned it, and the next day on Sunday, we had a garobo soup. It was great!!!!! For just two bucks, we got a pretty good deal. My comp was telling me that in El Salvador they put you in jail for 5 years for selling garobo because they are going extinct in El Salvador. So yeah.... cool stuff.  I took some pictures, so enjoy!

Well, that’s about all that’s going on. I love you all, and hope that you're always doing well. I’m also really excited to hear how Bailey is doing when he gets into the field. 

Lots of love,

Elder Stark

#70 Nagarote

Hey family,

Well, as you probably know, I didn’t write yesterday. Sorry about that. We were really busy, and I was on buses and in meetings all day. We went to Leon early Monday morning to hang out with the zone for a little and we went to Burger King. I got a milkshake, but it was more like a stomach bomb and left me a little sick. But that’s alright.

So the coolest thing by far this week was that on Sunday night I got a call from the AP’s and they told me that I was going to be training again. So I was pretty excited about that. My companion also got a phone call saying that he was going to go to Puerto Cabezas. So he was really excited too. Anyway, on Monday we ate breakfast with the zone, then we hurried back to Nagarote in an express bus. We got to Nagarote and got dressed. Then my companion packed, and we ran to the side of the highway and jumped on another bus that was going to Managua. So Monday afternoon at 4pm I had a training meeting for the new trainers. It kind of stunk that my P-day was taken away, but whatever. So I went to this meeting, and then I went to the secretary’s house and slept the night there. They have a hot water heater, and it was the first time in my mission that I got to take a hot shower. Cool stuff. But yeah, today I had to get onto another bus and go to the mission president's' house and there I got my new companion. He is Elder V, from El Salvador. So yeah that is really cool. Now I have 3 kids in the mission. My companion is only 18, so he is the youngest comp I’ve ever had. We were with the president in his house for a while, and then we got my comp’s bags ready and we jumped on a bus and got back here to Nagarote like 30 minutes ago. It was crazy. The cool thing is that I’m not training alone. Hermana W (the other Hermana who is here in Nagarote) is also training. Her comp is Hermana A from Costa Rica. So yeah, Nagarote is now the home of two brand new missionaries!!!!

But yeah, I’m excited for this change. It’s going to be fun being with a new missionary. He seems a little nervous, but that is normal. I feel really comfortable training again, and I’m happy. 

So not too much happened this week. It was New Year’, and we got some food from some members, which was nice. On the 1st, nobody was outside. I think that they were all hung over. Literally the streets were dead, and filled with empty beer bottles and garbage everywhere, and burned-up fireworks. So Elder T and I decided to go to a place called Las Parcelas, which is also sometimes know as Silvio Mayorga. We went there, and it was like 45 minutes on bicycles, which we borrowed from some members. I’m really out of shape, and the bike that I was on didn’t have any gears or brakes.... Pretty sketchy. But anyways, the coolest part is that we found a giant snake in the trail. It was really fat and nasty. I sent some pictures home.

Oh, and I found another Idaho license plate. I was thoroughly trunkified after. 

Well, that’s about all that happened. I love you all, and hope that this week is awesome for you guys! Have fun, and I love you all,

Elder Stark