#42 Managua (Bello Horizonte)

June 24, 2013 

Hey family,

Thanks for the email. One of the best parts of the week is getting to the computer lab, and seeing that I have a big email from you all. It’s always fun to hear what’s going on at home, even if sometimes what you're writing sounds boring to you.

So this past week has been very busy. The reason the President left me here in this area was to keep the bishop happy, and to do this big activity, which happened on Friday. So yeah, all week from Monday until Friday, I was in overdrive mode, and we were working like animals. It was brutal, and we would spend days and days inviting everyone to this activity. So yeah, that’s where most of my time went this week. You wouldn't believe how busy our schedules are sometimes as missionaries, and yeah, sometimes it’s really hard to find time to do all of the things. Contacting, teaching, visiting less active members, visiting the converts, going to zone meetings, going to bishop meetings. It’s no wonder that the days go by so quickly. President Arredondo would tell us that we should work so hard so that by night we would be ready to die, and that we would get resurrected the next day. It’s a true principal, and that’s how I’ve felt this week. I know that this is one of the highest baptizing missions in the world, but I literally think that this is the hardest mission in the world. 

But anyway, each Tuesday we have a bishop meeting, between just us missionaries, the bishop, and mission leader for the ward. We plan out the baptisms each Saturday of converts. Also we explain to the bishop who our families are that we're teaching, and he'll usually visit them during the week (This is really good advice dad. If you can visit the investigators of the missionaries, it’s good for the investigators to get to know the church leaders, and to see that we're not some cult or something. Also you can make some new friends, and make a good first impression.)  In the bishop meeting, we will discuss the people with problems, and how we can help them. So yeah, Dad, if you want to start to do some kind of meeting like this with the missionaries, that would probably help you get control of the missionary work in the Edinburgh ward. On Wednesday or something, I was reading in the Ensign that mom sent me. I was studying a talk by Elder Anderson, and it says, "We also pray for our own opportunities to share the gospel". I was thinking about the members in our coul-de-sac, and how many of them are members. I don’t know if it was inspiration or anything, but I can’t remember us ever inviting the non-members in our coul-de-sac to church. Maybe you can give them all an invitation to church, or maybe you can visit them with the sister missionaries. Just some thoughts. I would bet anything that the non-members in our street have noticed that like 50% of the houses on the street are members, and I would bet that they have some questions. Just a thought. Also, I can’t remember ever having a convert baptism in the Edinburgh ward, so maybe you can make a challenge to the members that during the month; every member could have an "FHE" (aka, lesson) with the missionaries, and with their neighbors. LESSONS + MEMBERS = BAPTISMS. Always. Just from what I saw in the broadcast yesterday, it seemed like the First Presidency wants to put more of the work on the shoulders of the members. Good stuff. I wish it were like that here.

So life is going well here. These past 2 weeks, I have seen President Arredondo more times than I have in my whole mission. Its crazy!!! On Wednesday, we had the official farewell of President Arredondo. The entire mission was there, and it was super special. It was cool, and everyone was crying and everything. There were also a TON of return missionaries from all over the world, who had served here with President Arredondo. It was extra cool, because when the meeting began, Sister Arredondo said "Can Elder Stark please translate for this family from the US?” So yeah, all of the return missionaries were on the stand with President, and the family of one of the missionaries was at the meeting too. They didn’t speak a bit of Spanish, and they were pretty lost. So for 3 hours, I was sitting with this family translating everything for them. It was totally crazy, and was actually pretty hard. Like once you get pretty good at a language, you can just think in that language. But to try to listen in Spanish, think in Spanish & English, and talk English. It’s actually pretty tricky, but it was really fun. After the meeting, I sat there for like 30 minutes and talked to the dad of this return missionary. He was totally talking about everything, and what it was like visiting this country. They had rented a car, and were driving around the whole country. I learned some cool tips that he said, which you could use when you come here.

So here is where I’ll get more spiritual and whatnot. We had the ward activity, which we had planned, and it was about the life of Joseph Smith. And also President Arredondo was going to be there, so we were on high alert. That’s why we were working so hard this week like I said before. So on Friday, we had several families of investigators that said that they would come to the activity, but they all fell through. It was horrible. And plus, at 6pm, when the thing was supposed to start, there were only 15 people there. Now imagine how I felt. Pres. left me here, just for this activity, and when he shows up, there is like 15 people there, when there are like 600 people in the ward membership. It was brutal. But the members were gradually starting to arrive. So Elder P and Elder T left, and I went with the ward mission leader, who is an 18-year-old kid. We all just left the meeting, and began to contact every person that passed by on the street corner by the church. Everyone rejected us, and I was kind of sad. But I was just praying that we could have at least one family of investigators at the meeting. So as we entered the church again, we saw that a lot of members had arrived. There were about 70 there, which is REALLY, REALLY good for here in Nicaragua. But still no family of investigators. So I just sat down with some less actives, and then I saw in the doorway, one of our families that we had been teaching. The day before, the family had told us "we don’t want to receive you any more, because we don’t like your church. So you don’t need to bother visiting us any more". But somehow, Heavenly Father heard our prayers, and put the spiritual impressions in the mind of this family (who the day before had completely dropped us), and the family arrived at the activity. This is REALLY REALLY amazing, because this never happens. Families don’t just show up to church. To get a family to the church, we usually have to sit outside their house for hours, until they finally give in, and come. So to see that this family had arrived on their own was completely amazing. It was literally like a complete miracle. So, when we ended the activity, we had 80 people there, and of those people, 8 of them were my investigators. It was really nice, and was successful. 

So here is the other miracle that happened this week. On Sunday, it was another brutal day, and we didn’t have any family investigators in the church. We had 2 or 3 investigators, but no family. But after the sacrament meeting, someone introduced me to a native Miskito guy. The guy said, "My name is M, and I’m from Puerto Cabezas. I want to be a Christian, and I want to be baptized". So we called the missionaries de la costa, and they said that this guy was legit. So then we talked to the bishop, got him interviewed, and then went and right after the 3rd hour ended, we filled up the font and baptized him. So within 2 hours of meeting this guy, he was in the water being baptized. It was way cool, and then after the baptism, he bore his testimony and it was really powerful. The guy spoke all right Spanish, because his first language is Miskito, the indigenous language here. I would have never known that yesterday we were going to baptize...

Oh and after the baptism at 2:45, we ran and got our suit coats, and went to Wespan to the church there for the meeting. The broadcast was at 4, but President Arredondo held a mini mission conference with the Managua zones there before the broadcast. It was cool, and we got to the church at 2:45, but the church was locked. And it was raining. Then on the other side of the street we saw the president in his car, and he was like "come on over!!!” So we all jumped into his car, and it is super nice. It’s just a Honda minivan, but it was the first time in my mission that I’ve been in a car with leather seats and A/C. It was super cool, and I took a funny video for evidence that we had been in the car of President Arredondo. 

But yeah, the broadcast was awesome, and they said some cool new stuff. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to use a computer like they explained in the broadcast. Nobody here has computers, and only the teenagers have Facebook. So I doubt that I’ll ever use that in my mission. The phone system here is "pay as you go", and most people have phones. So maybe they'll give us text messaging. We don’t have texting here. I doubt that many of the things that they announced in the conference will apply here. So we'll just see...

Well, that’s about all that’s happened this week. I have changes on the 27th, so we'll see where I go. If I get a chance to use a computer during the week, I’ll send you a quick email telling you where I’m going. But that’s about all. I love you all, and hope that all is well.

Love,

Elder Stark

#41 Managua (Bello Horizonte)

June 17, 2013

Hey family,

So what’s been going on this week? It sounds like you all had a sweet fathers day, and that the fishing was good. That’s always great to hear. I really loved the pictures, and it looks like it was a total blast. I remember for my first p-day here in Nicaragua, we went to the beach and went fishing off of the rocks in a port named Corinto. It was awesome, but all we had was a reel and hooks, nothing else. Obviously we didn’t catch anything, but it was fun. I’m glad that it was a success. Also it sounds like you have a sweet new grill. That’s good, because we used the other grill a ton. Is this new one like a big stainless steel one? Either way, cool stuff.

So I guess the big news that you're all wondering is what was up with the changes. Here is the story: So on Tuesday night we went out contacting with the new missionaries. I was with a Latino missionary and we contacted some families. I showed him around and showed him how to contact. He was pretty surprised at some of my techniques. It was awesome. Like sometimes, I'll ask people for help with the addresses, or sometimes I'll ask how to get to the supermarket, stuff like that. He was like "whoa elder, that’s awesome." Ok, well yeah, I’m already getting off topic. So we contacted, and went to a meeting with the bishop that we have every Tuesday at 5:30pm. While I was there, I got a phone call from my DL. Obviously it was about the changes. So I put my cell phone on speaker phone, and we all sat there, and the DL said that I had changes. So I was like "Ok, that’s expected. I’ve been here a long time, and I’m pretty ready to leave". But anyways, the bishop was all put out, and kind of sad. I think that he really likes me. So he pulled out his phone and started texting a bunch, and then called someone and left the room. But anyways, after all of that, we had our meeting, and it went well. While I was still in the church, I went to get a drink of water, and I got a phone call from my ZL and he said something like "Elder Stark, President Arredondo just called me, and he reversed the changes, so you will be staying in Bello for another change". I was super shocked, and I am 99% sure that the bishop had left the room and had called President Arredondo. But yeah, I just kind of rolled with it, and it was cool. It was also nice not having to pack, because my suitcases weigh a ton. 

So we got to the changes meeting and a little ways into the meeting President Arredondo made me stand up again in front of the mission and said something like "Elder Stark, your bishop has again requested that I don’t change you. But I know that you have a lot of time in your area, so I will leave you there until the 27th of June, and then I will take you out of your area on Emergency Changes." Crazy stuff. So yeah, it looks like I have 10 more days here in Bello Horizonte, and then I'll be leaving. Even more funny, is that right now we are in a trio. President Arredondo assigned another missionary, and right now we are 3. His name is Elder T from Alaska. So yeah, it’s pretty crazy right now, but I'm still happy to be here.

Oh, and this change is the last change of our mission president, so it was interesting. He is leaving the 28th of June, and the new President (Pres. Collado) will take over on that date. I think that we are going to have another big mission conference in a week where the official change will take place.

So the missionary work here continues to go along as normal. We don’t have a ton of families teaching, so we have been contacting nonstop for several days now. Its tough, and whenever we are contacting, there is always a psychological border you have to overcome. Like to contact someone who is sitting down relaxing is easy, and to talk to them is easy too. But it’s sometimes a little freaky when someone is walking in the street, and you have to stop them in their tracks, and then they are always a little ticked off. But such is the life. Sometimes we will contact 10+ families in a day, and we won’t find any new person. It’s pretty tough, but yeah, you can know that we are working hard. 

So here is a pretty cool story. On Saturday we were in the supermarket doing some shopping. We also found the other Elders from Ducuali there, and we chatted it up with them for a while. So we were there, and I decided that I wanted to buy a little bag of skittles. There is pretty much any type of American food that you can buy here, but it’s sometimes a little spendy. So I was looking at the prices of the skittles (19 córdobas by the way), and while I was looking at the prices, the building started to shake pretty bad, and everyone started screaming and panicking. Everyone just mobbed their way to the doors, and there were alarms going off and stuff. I remember that there were all kinds of groceries falling off the shelves and it seemed like something from a movie. I think that some of the ceiling panels fell from the roof too. But yeah, obviously it was an earthquake, and it was pretty crazy. I think that it is the first time that I've ever felt an earthquake, and it seemed like something from a movie. Everything was normal, and all of the sudden in a matter of seconds, everything just snapped and it got crazy. The funnier thing is that all of us Elders just kind of stood there together with dumb looks on our faces and waited it out while everyone else was panicking/crying/rushing out of the building. Fun stuff. And a couple times throughout the day there were aftershocks, and the ground would shake some more. I think there were 3 earthquakes in all that day. Our Elders Quorum president told us that the quake happened in the Pacific Ocean and it was a 6.3 (not that I really know what that means). But yeah, it was a cool experience. Most of the people here are still really scared of earthquakes, because of the huge quake that happened here in '73 that destroyed all of Managua and killed thousands. Whenever you talk to old people here, they will always say stuff like "I remember how Managua was, before the earthquake".

We didn’t have any families in church. It was brutal. We went on divisions, and left Elder T in the church with a member, while Elder P and I went out looking for the families. We have a super cool family with a baptism date for the 22nd, but in order to be baptized on this date, they had to go to church today. We found them in their house, and they REALLY didn’t want to go. They were just giving all of these excuses, and it was really sad. We waited there for 2 hours in the sun, and it was tough. I was really sad, and so was my comp. It’s tough to do a bunch of work, and sacrifice everything, and then just see it go down the drain. But at least I know that I'm working super hard, and that I'm doing my part. It’s kind of like what Dad has said before about agency. Obviously I can’t make the decisions for the other people. But yeah... anyways. I spent 6 hours in the sun on Sunday morning, and it was tough, but that’s just how it is. After church, I stood up in the ward council meeting and said to the members (we were planning an activity next week where the mission president is going to come and talk to our ward), "You all need to bring your friends, neighbors, family, and everyone who isn’t a member. We are working our tails off, and we were in the sun for 6 hours, and still didn’t get a single family in the church. So if you can please bring some of your friends, that would be a HUGE help to us as the missionaries.” The ward pretty much doesn’t help us at all, and after I said that and sat down, everyone was just kind of silent for a while. I really hope too that we can get a little more help from our ward. 

So I am doing well here. It’s tough a lot of times, but we are always making jokes and laughing which helps a lot. I hope that you are always doing well at home. I’m always praying for you all, and that all goes well. Yeah it’s pretty crazy that I’m coming up on 1 year here. Oh, and to answer the question of dad, there are not any Americans here or Euros. There might be in the south in the touristy areas, but here, NO. Days and weeks will pass by without seeing a white person. But the people here tell me that in places down south like Granada or Masaya or San Juan del Sur that there are tons of cheles there. But yeah, if you come here, I can show you the REAL Nicaragua. (or whatever you want)

Well, it’s good that there are tons of missionaries from Edinburgh Ward going out. That’s cool too that Jake S came home. It seems like he just left. Also it’s crazy to me that Elder Rodgers just has a little while longer. The time seems to go by really quick sometimes. Hopefully you can send out tons of missionaries from our ward. Oh and I got that package that you sent me Mom. It was the best!! I've totally been chowing down on the Cliffbars, and they are really good. I also loved the Edinburgh Ward program. I think I was pretty trunky after reading it. It was very cool. You've got to be grateful that we live in a place where the church is so developed.  But more than anything, I think the thing that I loved the most in the package was the General Conference Ensign in English. It’s super, super awesome, and right after opening the package, I just sat down and read/highlighted/studied like 4 talks. It’s the best. I didn’t get the chance to see hardly any of the conference, and it is so, so, so, so awesome. I hope that you are studying it too and getting the same enjoyment as I'm getting. Good stuff.

Well family, I love you all, and I’m always really glad to get your emails each week. I hope that Father’s Day was good, and that you're all happy. I’m working hard, and having a good time. So yeah, thanks for the email, and I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Stark

#40 Managua (Bello Horizonte)

June 10, 2013

Hello family,

Well this week has gone pretty well. We have just been doing the same ol' stuff, and nothing much has changed. We found a new computer lab that’s super awesome. It doesn’t have A/C, so I’m sweating like a pig, but the computers are brand new and they're very fast, which is worth it. Good stuff. Right now I have a ton of pictures uploading to Dropbox, so you should have some good material. I'm pretty sure that it’s my last p-day here in Bello Horizonte, and I’m going to copy all of the pictures from my comp's camera, so I’ll try to upload those too.

It sounds like the week has been pretty normal and mellow there at home. All kinds of day camps and young men’s activities then? Sounds fun. Sometimes it blows my mind to think that right now you are all on summer vacation, and that you're having a ton of crazy activities in the hot weather. Here is about the exact same 24/7, and supposedly we're in winter right now, but it just feels the same. Hot, hot, hot. But yeah, I’m glad that all is well. I’m doing very well here too, and its all-pretty normal. 

So not too much has changed here like I said. We have been contacting a ton, and working very very hard. I really don’t want to leave my area here with crappy families, so I’ve been trying to work extra hard to leave Elder P with some good families. Our hard work paid off, and we had a family in church this Sunday. Their names are E and J, and they super cool. They are a very young couple, and have been together for about 6 months, and I’m pretty sure (judging by how old they appear) that is 21, and that she is 18. They are really cool, and are super humble. They are living in a very humble house, and are very poor, but are also very humble, and accept everything that we say. I am very sure that they will be the next family baptized here in Bello Horizonte. The funny thing is that I have walked by their house about a million times, and I had contacted them a couple months ago, but they weren't very positive. But this week, we contacted them again, and they were way positive. It’s just funny to see that some random house that I have passed by tons of times has the next family that will be baptized. But yeah, so far we have taught them only lesson 1, and it was pretty cool. Their house is really small, and is about the size of my bedroom in Idaho. And in that house lives 9 people. So there wasn’t room to teach them in the house, so we taught them outside. We all just sat down on the ground or on the wall of a canal, which passes by the house, and just taught them there. It was a very cool and very spiritual lesson. I love the people here, because it’s pretty often (after teaching the restoration) that the people will say "I already believe that that's true, because it sounds very logical". I love the people for that reason; they are really simple. If something sounds reasonable, they will believe it. And I think... for that reason... its a lot easier to baptize here than in other countries.

We found another family that we've been teaching a little. The funny thing here is that ALL... literally ALL of the men served in the war here in the 80's. So for like 30 minutes, we just sat there and listened to this grizzly old guy tell some crazy war stories. It’s pretty awesome, and also very entertaining. The Nicas have the stuff, because they can tell a good story that will leave you laughing, and with your jaw open. So I have heard just about every type of war story. This guy was talking about how like 30 years ago here, there were gorillas and all kinds of monkeys and stuff, and how while he was in the army a gorilla tried to attack someone, and someone shot the gorilla but the bullet just bounced off the gorillas head... yeah... stories like that. Every man here has some type of crazy story like that. M (our convert) said that while he was in the army, he talked about how they would march for days and days without food, and then one time they arrived in a valley with a bunch of cocco, but after eating everyone had some crazy vomiting and stuff like that.

Oh speaking of vomiting, for the first time in several months I was sick again (for like 18 hours). I woke up on Saturday and went to the bathroom and barfed for a while. It was horrible, and trust me, I’m not sick very often here. I’ve gotten pretty used to the food, and I don’t know why I got the 12-hour stomach flu, but sometimes those things happen. But I’m doing great, so don’t worry about me. I think that maybe its because we ate a ton of popcorn the night before. The night before we had ¨cine Mormon" which translates to "Mormon movie theater". As an activity to help the ward attendance, we, as the missionaries of the ward, did this movie night. All day, my comp and I and the sister missionaries were in the church kitchen making popcorn and it was pretty fun. We do contacting all day, every day, and it was fun to do something different. So we made a ton of popcorn, and there were around 60 people there, including a lot of my converts and investigators. Also, E and J (the new family) arrived on their own, which was just awesome. So yeah, Saturday was pretty fun because we did something different, and because the activity was a success. But I blame all of the popcorn, because I barfed the next day. Funny stuff...

But anyways, life is going well here. I’m having a good time, and I am pretty excited for changes. I feel bittersweet about leaving my area here because I have dedicated 5 months of my life here, walking down the streets, and teaching everyone. But I know that I will have the chance to go to some other area, and to have more success in another part of Nicaragua. I’m hoping that I’ll leave Managua and go to "el campo" which means "the field" aka, pobre land. I really want to go to the mountains or something like that, but we'll see. Whatever happens, happens. So yeah, I want you to know that I’m working hard, and that all is well here. I really am beginning to feel like this place is my home, because it all just feels so normal. My comp and I, instead of playing "slug bug", we play "naked baby". Every time we see a naked baby, the first person to notice it gets to hit the other person super hard in the arm. Naked baby = 1 hit. Naked man = 2 hits. Naked woman = 3 hits. As you can see, the most common would be naked baby. But 2 days ago, I saw a naked woman (which is rare) and I slugged my comp 3 times in the arm. A couple days before, my comp spotted some naked dude walking down the street, and he got 2 good punches into my arm. As you can see, it’s a different world down here. But, to me it just feels normal.

Well family, I love you and hope that all is well. Have a good week, and let me know what’s going on. 

Lots of love,

Elder Stark