#77 Nagarote

Hey family,

Well this week has been a really, really good week for me. It sounds like you guys are just taking it easy and having fun at school and all that stuff. This week my convert Y (the wife of J) got back from the US. She flew to Miami to visit some family, and then took a 30-hour greyhound bus to Texas to visit more family. She was telling me about how in the morning in Texas, the ground had this layer of white stuff that was like ice, (she was explaining frost) and how when she would talk, there would be smoke that would come out (seeing your breath). It was pretty funny, because she had never really felt cold like that in her life. She said that she didn’t like it at all.

Anyway, so this week was awesome. We were able to put a lot of baptism dates with our investigators, and we have 4 people to baptize on Friday. The coolest thing is that during the week, we were able to put a baptism date with our awesome family named P and B. They are really, really awesome, and we've been trying to hurry, because B is 8 months pregnant, and she wants to be baptized before she gives birth. So this week we went to their house and retaught the restoration to them. It was awesome, and was a very spiritual lesson. We were able to explain really clearly the apostasy and the need for a restoration, including the priesthood and the Book of Mormon. It was very cool. P and B were totally mesmorised with the lesson. They were super focused and it was awesome. Also, on Saturday we should baptize A, the rich lawyer. I always knew that he was rich, but during a meeting with the C family where we talk about missionary work, they asked us where he lives. We told them and they were like, "ohhh.... he is the guy that lives in la esquina de nueva york". And in that moment I realized that A is like the richest guy in the whole city. He had told us that he prefers that we teach him in the chapel rather than in his house, and so for that reason we had never gone to his house. But yeah, the guy is the richest guy in the whole city. His house is used as a landmark, because it’s so huge. So people will give directions like for example "from the huge house on new york corner, 1 block to the south, etc..." Yeah, we're gonna baptize this guy! Fun stuff! The other person that we're going to baptize this Saturday is JA who is the son of J and Y, and I’ll bet that he'll be a future missionary.

But yeah, life is going really well. Today I had to go to Migration in Managua. So we woke up at 5:30am and took a bus to get to Managua. I'd been to migration a million times so I know how to get there really easily. But yeah, I got my new identification. Also, they fined me, because I had been in Nicaragua illegally for over a month... haha, funny stuff. I took a picture of my fine. I had to pay like 75 Cordobas, and I thought that it was pretty funny. On the paper it says, "for being illegally in the country something like that".

So dad had to speak on the fly? That’s pretty cool. This week I didn’t speak in church, but the last two weeks I’ve spoken. It’s really common that I speak in church, and I've done it about 5 times here in Nagarote. I'm surprised though, because I don’t really get nervous anymore. I remember that when I was like 12, mom would prepare my sacrament meeting talks like two weeks in advance, and I would read just the paper and wouldn’t even look up. But yeah, I was surprised last week to see that I could just give a 15 minute talk on the fly without any preparation, and that I didn’t feel nervous either. Fun stuff. I actually really enjoy speaking in sacrament meeting, and I think that it’s really fun.

But yeah, that’s about all that happened this week. I'm doing really well, and I am really happy to be here. Also, this week, I completed 18 months in the mission. Wow... I’m almost done. I feel really weird about that. Ok, well I hope that all goes well this next week.

I love you all,

Elder Stark