#24 Managua (Bello Horizonte)

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

Hey familia,

Well i was glad to get your letter again. Thats too bad about mary and henry being sick. Hopefully, they will get better soon. Barfing is no fun. I have only barfed twice since coming here, but both times, it was horrible. Luckily, i havent been sick in a while. Ive just been drinking the Managua Water. It seems pretty safe, and all of the Nicas promise me that its safe. I dont really know whether to take their word for it, or no. But either way, its all good. Im healthy and getting fatter. We have McDonalds and Pizza Hut. About every third night or so, we go and get McFlurries. They are really good. The culture of "fast food" is a pretty funny one here. Like to be a Nicaragüense who goes and eats fast food is a sophisticated thing. They will dress up in buttondown shirts, and nice pants, and take their wife to pizza hut or mcdonalds. Its considered a "rich person" thing to eat at the american fast food places. In my mind, its just like another fast food resturant, but here its a big deal.

Well thats cool that you got to go to the temple. I would love to go there, but sadly there isnt one here in Nicaragua. I guess (this is just hear-say by the way), apparently when Elder Nelson the apostle visited here last year, he visited with Daniel Ortega about building a temple. I dont really know the facts, but it would be sweet if someday there were a temple here. Its a pretty big sacrifice for some of the members to travel to Guatamala to use the temple. But its definatly worth it. They actually just dedicated a temple in Honduras thats a little closer, so hopefully the members can go there. 

So i liked the story about Rusty and the squirell insident. Hopefully he had some fun. I really miss rusty. The food cita that we use is some Recent Converts. They are pretty awesome, and they have a huge pitbull. Its fun visiting there, because at the houses of the members, we can relax a little, and act a little more normal. Most of the time in the streets, we have to act appropriate, but in the members house, we can relax a little more. So they have this huge dog, and i wrestle with it sometimes. I can get it pretty wriled up, like i can do with rusty. Then the dog tries to jump on me, and its huge. Usually it will almost knock me over. Either way, its a pretty fun dog. Its name is clay. So we have been thinking that our food cita has been progresivly getting worse. Like we eat a lot of white rice, and avena. Avena means oatmeal. They will fill up a glass of water, and put like a 1/4 cup of oatmeal in it. Then you mix it up and drink it. I litterally drink avena like every day.

Not much else has happened that was exciting. We were going to go on splits with the ZL to visit one of our families who we are teaching. So he called me on my cell (ive got my own cell phone here. Pretty cool huh?) and said to meet us at the Rotonda Bello Horizonte. So we were walking there, and we found them sitting at the bus stop. There also happened to be a fight going on infront of us, and a guy was trying to beat his wife. So Elder V went and broke them up. Sadly, there had been a news camera watching the fight, and after Elder V broke it up, the camera went and was trying to interview him. The news reporters are really agresive here, and they pretty much cornered him in a corner, and make him talk with a camera pointed in his face. They were asking him questions like "do you think its bad to hit women...". Really stupid questions. So he was like "no no no, vamos a salir y trabajar. No puedo hablar". But they forced like a 30 second interview out of him. It was pretty funny after, but during the interview he was like covering his plaque, and was chosing his words carefully. But it was funny, and for like the next 20 minutes, thats all we talked about. Funny stuff.

So thats about all of the funny things that happened this week. Oh this week we went to an icecream parlor. I hadnt had really good icecream in a long long time, because the Eskimo icecream here isnt super good. But we went there, and i got a milkshake. IT was super spendy, but it was good. Brownie Dinamita. I think thats the first real milkshake ive had in like over 5 months. I really enjoyed it, and maybe ill get another someday. I think the place was called POPs.

So today, right before i wrote this, we went to the center of distribution. We had to get some special permission, because its actually in the office of the south mission. But we got permission, and for a little bit, we were in the south mission. The south mission is super fachento (rich), and there are like holaday inns, and a hilton in, and office building. Its pretty nice, and its a lot nicer than the Norte Mission. But it was cool. I got a bunch of new clothing for super cheap. You can get a pair for like 11 cordobas (or like 45 cents US). I also got some books, and some videos for super cheap. When we were there, we saw Hermana Arredondo in the office of the south mission talking to the pres there. So we talked to here for a little, and came back. 

Well, in terms of the missionary work, its going well. We are always out and working hard. Litterally, at any given moment, im out in the streets contacting or teaching. Sadly we didnt have a family in the church this week because they all fell at the last minute. But we had an old lady that we contacted the other day. So it was alright. Im really having a fun time being here. Its tough work, but the time is starting to fly. Before i know it, i find my self laying in bed again, looking at the ceiling and saying to myself "wow, that was a fast day". Im feeling pretty good about my spanish, and i can teach and contact and work well. All is going good.

Oh the changes here are a week from wednesday. Im pretty excited, and changes are really fun. Well, thats about all that is going on. One day, we were striking out in the contacts, so we decided to visit the MA's (menos activos). We taught one woman who hadnt been to church in several years, and she promised to go this week. She had problems with drinking, so we promied her that she could stop, and we prayed. After the prayer she was crying and everyting. Pretty spiritual. Oh and then like 20 minutes later we had a guy crying infront of us too. He was MA, but he was also super opposed to the church. We told him that we wanted to teach him, and he began to storm out of the house saying things about how he doesnt want anyting to do with the church. But we asked to just teach him for like 5 minutes, and he rather angerly said OK. So we taught him, and he was super mad at us. But then we got him calmed down, and talked very carefully to him. We bore some testimony and it was really cool. The spirit was super strong and the guy started crying. So in like 15 mintues, we witnessed this really tough guy who was angry and didnt want anything transform into a good guy who was feeling the spirit. Cool stuff.

Well, thats about all. Audios,

Elder Stark

[Movie of getting a drink on P-day]

Jake with Danish name tag

House Dog "Bengie"

Getting at drink on P day 

#23 Managua (Bello Horizonte)

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Hey familia.

Well, it sounds like another good week has gone by. I liked hearing about your stories from the week. It sounds to me like all is going well, and that its pretty much the same old stuff going on there.

Well, this p day we went to pizza hut, and they had the Super Bowl on again on replay. I saw a glimpse of the highlights, and saw little of the stadium with the lights out. Thats pretty crazy stuff. So thats too bad that mary is sick, but hopefully she will get better soon. I really hope that she is doing well in school and is lauging alot and making jokes. I really miss you all, but it is really fun here too. We just have fun, make jokes, and do the missionary work. My comp really loves community, and so does one of our ZLs. So we are constantly quoting the show, and makeing jokes from it. Yesterday we had a big conversation about the debate for the presidnte of greendale. We were talking about the magnitude, and the lenard, and all the people from the show. Its pretty fun being with another american who understands these types of jokes. 

On feb 1, we got more money, so we went to the bank and withdrew it. I withdrew a hundred bucks in US dollars, and thats what we use to pay the rent. I really like the begining of each month, because the mission gives us 2500 pesos (the nicas dont even call their money cordobas, they just call it pesos for whatever silly reason). So yeah, we got all of that, and we felt super fachento, so we took pictures of our money. Elder R walked into our room, and just laughed at us. We were using like 20 dollar bills as our fan, and messing around. Then later, we payed for the food, and the rent, and we were left with just a little money for the week. 

So its pretty cool living here in Managua. We live in the only area, of the only zone, of the whole mission, with a mcdonalds, and also a pizza hut. Its sweet. We went to pizza hut and so did like half the zone. Plus on wedsnesday, we go with the hermana missionaries who we share the area with, and get mcflurries. I feel like i spend a lot, so im going to try and do less. Oh and speaking of that, Elder B and i are cutting out soda from our diet. The nicas drink soda with every meal, and its super unhealthy. So we are trying to drink less. 

So here is another story from the week. We were contacting in the night, and we saw this guy and his wife and their little girl. So we contacted them, and were talking. The guy actually spoke english, and we talked to him a little. He was from an area in the south mission called Blue Field. Everyone there is black, and they all speak english creole. So we asked the guy to teach us some english creole. Its super weird, and i walked away learning 2 new words. 1: watchnam. It means "whats your name". 2. Gimiwata "give me water". ITs such a weird language. I can understand words here and there, but unless they talk really slow, i cant under stand them. It was the first time i had ever heard that language. I guess they only speak it on the east coast of nicaragua. Its pretty crazy over there on the east coast. 

Other story. We were in a lesson teaching. I was actualy on divisions with the DL. We went and visited the old guy who went to church with us last week. He is like 70 something, and cant walk. But he is super excited about being baptised. So i was with him with the DL on tuesday or something. We were teaching and said something about Mormons. He asked us "what are mormons?". So apparently, the guy (at this point, he had already visited the church and commited to baptism) didnt know that we were mormons. He thought we were Jehovas wittnesses. But we explainted that we wernt JW's, and that we were mormons. So he just said "ok, ill still get baptised". Funny stuff.

So basically Elder B and I are just working and trying to get more families teaching/progressing. We have one family who is super cool. They went to church yesterday with us, and are super cool. The problem is that the woman needs a divorce from a previous relationship. So we are working on getting her divorced, so that she can get married, and they can be baptised. When we visited them last week, and she told us that the night we contacted them, they had been sitting there talking and worrying, because he didnt have a job. They were pretty woried, because he didnt have food, and they have 3 kids, one of which is a newborn baby. So then we contacted them, and they reluctantly set an appointement for us to visit them again. So she told us that somehow, the next day, her husband got 2 jobs, and that they are really happy and doing much better. I dont know if us contacting them had any effect on the jobs which he recieved, but either way it was a really cool story of the Lord’s hand in their lives. 

Well, thats about all of the stories that happened today. Just some last little stories, then ill answer the questions you asked. We were contacting, and we got the impression to contact a solo guy sitting outside his fence. So we contacted him, (by the way, we were in a poor part of managua, at the border of Lake Managua, the most nasty lake in the world). So we contacted him, and shared a little message with him. He told us that behind the wall, lived 80 people. They are all part of a giant family: cousins, uncles, grandparents, aunts, parents, everything. We promised to visit again and teach them some more. The guy let us in, and there was like a giant warehouse divided into little areas with these big hanging rugs. Apparently there are tons of people of this family who live there. So the guy showed us around, gave us each an orange, and we left. We walked away having dreams of taking all 80 people to church with us one day and baptising them all. That would be crazy if we baptised them all. It would probably make it into a general conference talk or something. Just saying.  

Well, ill answer your questions now. 

Do you even have a dresser, or are you using your suitcases? Just suitcases. By the way, i found a cockroach in my suitcase, but i got it out and learned to zip up the suitcases when im not using them.

By the way, did you ever get the other packages? Negative, just the one with the pb m and m’s. I dont know when ill get them, but maybe during changes. 

About how much of your time is spent teaching vs. contacting? Its probably like 75% contacting, 25% teaching

Do the members give you any referrals? Nope. Pretty much never. We just contact all of our investigators. But every once in a while, we will get a referral.

When are changes next? The begining of March i think, or maybe the end of february. I cant remember. 

Well family, i hope this answers all of the questions. I was really glad for the email this week, and i hope that you are all doing well. I love you all and miss you. Have fun, and ill write more next week. 

Elder Stark.

Jake and Elder B in Pizza Hut

Getting Cheesy with money

Kicking back in the hammock

#22 Managua (Bello Horizonte)

Hey family,

Well once again it was great to hear how its going at home. I have been working pretty hard with Elder B, and we have been doing a lot of contacting, and trying to build our families teaching. Its been pretty tiring, and this P day felt really good to relax for a while, and take it easy. Its pretty fun being with another American, and we make lots of jokes that would be difficult to do in spanish. I feel bad sometimes that we talk a lot of english in the streets, but at least we get along well. We’ve made some funny jokes though. A couple days ago, we were talking about the manholes in the middle of the street. They are always filled with garbaje, because thats where some people throw their garbaje. But when they get clogged, the water cant flow. So the nica solution is just to light the manhole on fire to burn out all of the garbaje. Its pretty funny, because we will be walking, and there are always manholes on fire. Im not really sure why its funny, but its just funny to see a manhole on fire. 

Well, it sounds like not much has changed since last week. Thats pretty crazy that its so cold there in Idaho. I hope you are all having a good time, and taking it easy without the school. Hopefully henry gets better from his flu. Here in Nicaragua, they call the flu/cold the "gripe". Its super common, and there are always people sick. To solve the flu, there is a stuff in the farmacias called Viro-Grip. Its like this tang powder that you take, and it magically makes the flu go away. Its pretty intense. I dont think they sell it though in the US, because its pretty hardcore. 

Im really jealous that its so cold there in Boise. Here in Managua, it’s a lot more "fresco" and it actually feels good in the night time. I dont know what the temperatura is, but its like probably 75 or 80 degrees. It is a lot nicer here in terms of weather than Chinandega.

Its awesome doing the missionary work. I dont know why, but we have had a pretty good week, and im seriously having a good time here in the mission. Its really tough, but its also really fun. Ok so get this, we got contacted by a latino guy who was practically american. He was raised his whole life there in the US. So we were talking english, and he was asking all kinds of questions about how we are different from the testigos de jehova. I was trying to explain the resturacion in english, but it was seriously hard. Its really hard to look a latino guy in the face, and try to talk english. Like, i was trying to explain the resturacion, but i couldnt do it. It was just weird using words in english like "atonement" or "joseph smith" or "the church of jesus christ of latter day saints". It was pretty tough, but it was funny after. 

So this week in the church, we worked hard and got a family to go to the church. We are in Barrio Bello Horizonte. The family was a family who we contacted the other sunday. They were kind of positive when we contacted them, and we went and visited them later. We visited them with the bishop, and taught a really good lesson to the wife. Then like the next day we taught them together. The coolest part is that they had actually read the panflets, and had legitimate questions. We hand out tons of panflets each day, and most of them just end up on peoples bookshelfs and never get read. But we were really happy, and we are working hard to help the family get baptized. In the first lesson, we taught the wife about baptism, and put a baptism date with her. The guy still doesnt have a date, but we will put one with him tomorrow. So yeah, this week was good, because this family is really postive, and they went to church. The only problem is that the wife needs a divorce from a previous relationship, and then we will need to marry them. So we will see what happens. I really hope they get baptised, because they are "pilas" or "awesome" as you would say in english.

We also had some old guy in the church named Vernable. He is super super old, and cant walk. So we payed a lot of money, and got a taxi for him. He took like 5 minutes to walk from the gate of the church to the sacrament salon. And he wouldnt let us help him either. But it was cool, because the whole time he was saying "im going to church" and like "god give me strength, so that i can go to church". I thought he might die just from the walk to the sacrament salon, but he made it. Then, the bishop got up after the sacrament, and macheted all of the members for not paying their tithing. I was sitting next to Vernable, and he asked me how much tithing he would have to pay on 1000 cords. I told him 100, and he promised that next sunday he will pay 100 cords. I was like "no no no, its just for members, after your baptism you can pay..." but he wouldnt listen. He is getting baptised in one or two weeks, and he is super super excited. So yeah, we feel really good about him. We just contacted him like 4 days ago. Good stuff. It just goes to show that there are always people who have been prepared for us, who we can teach. 

Oh sadly that one guy and his wife didnt go to church this sunday. They were sleeping or something. We went and taught him on saturday, and he bought us a really fancy dinner too. He took us up to the 3rd floor on his house, to his secret prayer room. We taught him there, and he said like a 20 minute prayer. He promised to pray and fast about getting baptised. The guy is awesome, but he is a little hard to teach, because he doesnt understand why he needs to be baptised again. Well, thats about all for our good investigators.

Well, I was talking last night for a long time to Elder Rasband (he graduated from mtn. view which is pretty funny), and we were talking about how awesome the scripture study is each morning. Like its really addicting, and i wish that i could just read the scriptures all day, every day. Im in 3rd nefi right now, and its the best. I really really have grown to love the scriptures, and i hope that as a family, you are all doing the scripture reading each night. Seriously, i learn a ton each time i read, and its really fun. Keep reading, and i promise that you'll all learn a lot.

I have gained all of my weight back here in Managua. I hope its not too bad, but ive withdrawn like 20 bucks or something from my personal card. Because we have like mcdonalds, we have gotten into the habit of once or twice each week, getting a mcflurry. Hersheys Cookies and Cream McFlurrys are the best. I could eat those all day. Im glad that i am back to normal weight, so people will stop calling me skinny. The gallo Pinto is fantastic here, and i could eat it all day. In fact, i pretty much do get it all of the time. Thats like all the nicas eat. Its really good. I dont know why your gallo pinto didnt turn out good. 

Ok to answer the questions

-druggies. Yes there are alot of druggies, but theyre too poor for marijuana. So they just buy shoe glue and sniff it. Its pretty bad, and we see them all of the time. For whatever reason, the people who are high or drunk are always attracted to us like a magnet.

- There are alot of homeless people, but not a ton. Most people have houses.

- The elders next door are awesome, and we hang out with them a lot in the night.

- There are like 8 americans in our zone. We dont really see the APs a lot, because they are always in the office. And we dont really see pres a lot either.

- There is a senior companionship here in Nicaragua, but i have only seen them during the changes. I dont know where they are.

Well thats about all thats gone one this week. There is a lot more little things that have probably happend, but i cant remember. I really love my time here. The city of Managua is really dirty, and i dont really love the city a ton, but the people are great. We are just teaching and putting baptism dates. I have spent like a lot of money on sunday helping getting people to church, so thats why ive used my personal card a little. But i figure that spending like 10 bucks for taxis was worth it. Oh and for P day, we went to the black market, and i bought another bag for 200 cords (like 8 bucks), because my other one ripped a little, and this one is bigger. I didnt have much pictures this week, because we cant carry our cameras around. If we had our cameras, we would get robbed. I took a little video tour of our apartment complex too. Well, all is well. I miss you and i love you. But it doesnt feel like im too far from home, because the other day, i saw a lady with a tee shirt that said "idaho sporting goods".

Audios, and i love you all,

Elder Stark

[Video of entry to apartment]

Picture taken while emailing

Street view of Apartment

New Man Bag