April 28, 2014
Hey family,
Well hey; this has been a good week here in
Chinandega. We've been working pretty hard, and we've got some cool families
that we're teaching. Its fun to be here, and I enjoy the work. I'm always
amazed at how fast the time is flying by, and we're really having a great time.
My comp and I get along really well, and he reminds me of a Latino version of Jake
Rodgers. It’s pretty funny.
So as far as the missionary work goes, we're doing
pretty well. We brought a family to church, and that was cool. Hopefully the
guy will get baptized soon. The dealio is that we're just working with his wife
(who is a very less active member) to try to convince her to get married.
Sometimes missionary work is kind of fun that way, because we're totally repairing
relationships and convincing people to get married. I’m glad that our family doesn’t
have any marriage problems or stuff like that. It’s just a big pain in the
rear. But yeah, we also have a cool family that we're teaching named A and E.
They didn’t come to church this week because their little girl got sick, but
they should be good to come this next Sunday. A works in the tiny local
Chinandega airport. He is a mechanic and works on the crop dusting planes. It’s
pretty cool, but he works a lot, which stinks. One of these days I’m going to
ask him if he can take us to the airport and show us around. That'd be cool.
There's a big banana plantation in our area, and the little airplanes are
always spraying chemicals on the bananas. But anyways, we visited this family
with the bishop and 2nd counselor and it went really well. It’s fun to do
visits with the members (especially the bishop) and it helps a ton. But yeah, that’s
the scoop with the work here in our area.
So the funny thing that happened this week was that we
went and donated blood. On Friday I went and did divisions in one of the areas
in my district in El Viejo. Anyways, on Saturday morning we went to the stake
center to get some pamphlets and stuff like that, and the stake president found
us and convinced me to donate blood. The stake had an activity going on, and
the Red Cross was in the stake center with their donation station set up. I had
never done it before, but just said yeah, and it was pretty cool. While I was
there, Elder T and his comp showed up and we convinced them to donate too.
Funny stuff. Then we called Elder B and my comp (they were together in my
area), and they came and donated too. The stake president was really happy.
After, they gave us some juices and cookies and stuff like that. It was kind of
a funny experience.
Oh, so I don’t know if I’ve told you yet, but this
area that I’m in right now is like the most ghetto area of my mission. It’s
pretty crazy. We only have water from 6am until around 10am, and the power goes
out quite frequently. Oh, and I wash my own clothes in a bucket/washboard. I've
already done this a ton in my mission, so it’s no big deal. But yeah today I
woke up and washed all of my white shirts, and my pants. Mom would be proud of
me! Seriously, washing clothes in the washing machine doesn't count. When you
guys come here I’m going to make you try to wash your clothes bent over a washboard.
It’s a pretty good workout too! I took some pictures to show you guys how it
is.
So today for p-day we went and spent a lot of money.
We got permission and went to the other Chinandega zone and ate some good food
in some nice restaurants, and got some really good tacos in a place called Tacontento.
They were the best. This was the second time that I’d been there in my mission.
The other time was my first day, when President Arredondo brought us there. But
yeah, my comp and I ended up spending like 200 Cordoba, which is a lot here.
But it was fun. So yeah.
I’m really happy here in my mission. In my patriarchal
blessing it says something like "you'll have a lot of joy in the success
that you'll have in your mission.” And it’s true. I'm especially happy for the
family in Nagarote of J and Y. They email me a giant email each week, and it’s
awesome. In the email from them this week they were talking about how J is much
more busy with his calling, and how it consumes a lot of their time. They
emailed me about how they go out and visit the less actives, and how they've
began to hold FHE's in their house. Y said that she is now the YW's teacher and
talks about how she is studying the gospel manuals all the time, and how fun it
is to teach the class. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s super
awesome to see the change/conversion of this family. In their emails they
always talk about how much Heavenly Father has blessed them, and how their
family is more peaceful and blessed. It’s really cool. Nagarote has been having
a lot of success too, and yesterday they confirmed 4 more converts into the
branch. I'm really happy and I think that this is the kind of happiness that
the patriarchal blessing was promising.
But anyway, life is good. I hope that you are all well
at home, and that you're always making correct decisions. I love it here; I’m
having a blast. Let me know what’s up, and I love you all.
Elder Stark
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