#45 Managua (Villa Venezuela)

July 15, 2013

Hey family,

Right now I’m actually in Bello Horizonte again. We and the ZLs, and some other companionships got permission to come here to eat at McDonalds, and while we were here, I was all like ¨hey, there is a sweet computer lab here in Bello with AC and todo. We should go there.” So we all came here to enjoy the AC and take it easy. The computers here are a lot nicer, and it’s pretty awesome.

So all is going pretty well. Not too much has happened, and to tell you the truth, I never got any phone call about the rabies stuff. I think that maybe the mission nurse forgot, or who knows. Maybe you can call the SLC doctor again and have him remind the mission nurse. Who knows... But yeah, I never got a single phone call about that. I am still feeling perfect, but it’s better safe than sorry. Yeah, weird right?

So I’m glad that you got to go to the temple so many times. I would love to go, but yeah sadly there isn’t one here in this country. The problem is that there are very few who have been to the temple. In this country, if you´ve gone to the temple, that means that you´re the bishop. The people just don’t understand that it is VERY important to go the temple. But anyways, maybe some day there will be a temple here. That’s the dream of all of the missionaries.

So all is going really well, and the new president is getting things in order. We all had interviews with him on Tuesday, and it was awesome. He is a really nice guy, and is just cool to be around. I sent him the email address of Brother R today. Every week we have to send him emails. The cool thing is that President Collado responds to the emails each week, so that’s really good. 

We had the baptism on Saturday of a guy named H, and it was fun. My first day here was the first time that we had ever taught him, and in the same day we put the baptism date with him. He is just a single guy that got separated from his wife a couple years ago. We had a quick little baptism service, and I put on my pants and then we got into the water. Good stuff. I really enjoy being in this mission. Sometimes I think about how some missionaries can pass their whole mission without baptizing, and we have baptisms very often. It’s just cool. At the baptism service of H, a family that we will baptize on the 20th came. Their names are H and K. They´re a cool couple that has been to church 3 weeks, and I feel like they´ll definitely get baptized on the 20th. H works for BIC (you know... The pen company), and he has a car, which is really rare. So it’s cool, and they can come to church very easily.

So this Sunday we had a lot of success in church, but it was a lot different than what I was thinking. We had like 6 families that committed to go to church. So on Sunday we did divisions with the members, but all of the families fell. We arrived at church, and we only had like 3 investigators with us... Pretty lousy. But during the 2nd hour, during gospel principals, all of the sudden a family arrived that we had taught once. It was really cool, especially that they arrived on their own. Then like 5 minutes later, one of the APs of the mission (the attend the 10:00 ward) came into our class and was like ¨Stark, come with me.” He said that there was a massive family in the church, and that they were asking for the missionaries of Villa Venezuela. To my surprise, we had another family in the 10:00 ward. There were 6 people in the family. It was awesome, and the APs were all like ¨dang... these missionaries in Villa Venezuela are throwing fire.” So yeah, on Sunday we had 10 investigators in church, and 2 families. It was really successful. 

So I’m getting super excited to see where Bailey goes on his mission. That is really really awesome that his papers will be going in soon, and hopefully he can enter the MTC without having to wait for too long. I really have no predictions yet on where he´ll go. But what is the general consensus? Foreign or stateside? Anyways, I’m excited to hear what goes on. Maybe he´ll come to Nicaragua south mission. 

So it sounds like all is going really well. I don’t really have any good stories this week. Each day it will rain super hard for about 45 minutes, and then it will clear up and be normal. The rain just beats on the tin roofs, and it’s pretty impossible to hear anything when it’s raining like that You need to be there to really see what its like. Usually we´ll just hang out in someone’s house until it dies down. But yeah, it’s crazy. Oh here is a funny story. So yesterday we went to eat dinner at our bishop’s house, because they feed us on Sunday night. Elder E pays them to wash his clothes, so every day he is bringing them more clothes. So anyways, we sat down, and began chowing down on the hotdogs that they gave us. Then, I looked up, and hanging from the ceiling was a ton of underwear. I tapped Elder E on the shoulder and was like ¨Dude, look up. Are those your underwear????? ¨  Anyway, it was just so, so, so, so hilarious to be eating dinner in the dining room of the bishop, and to all of the sudden look up and find the underwear of Elder E hanging from the ceiling. We all just began laughing so much, because it was so funny. Good times.

So I looked on LDS.org, but I couldn’t find anything about the grooming changes. Anyways, I would love to wear khakis, but who knows. It’s cool though that we can now drink Coke. Elder Schriever also told me that they could drink the coke in their mission now. Everything just seems to be getting better. And my comp and I are getting along pretty well.

So life is normal here. Sometimes I think about the stuff that we could do when you come down here and visit. But that still feels like it’s a long time always. Anyways, take it easy. This week, I’ll arrive at 11 months in the mission. Its crazy that 50% has already passed by. Well. Yeah. Have a good week.

Elder Stark

#44 Managua (Villa Venezuela)

Hey family,

Well, thanks for freaking me out about rabies. But don’t worry, I’m doing perfectly fine, and my leg has completely healed. Now I just have a cool scar. Like really, I haven’t had a single symptom or anything, so yeah, it’s all good. Plus the dog that got me was barking its head off and was all defensive that we were near its property. So it gave me plenty warning, but I wasn’t thinking and I just walked a little too close. And the dog wasn’t sick or anything. So yeah... no worries. 

So this week has been pretty normal for me. We have been working and doing the same ol' stuff. On Tuesday, we were going to have a zone meeting, but we got a surprise visit from the new mission president, President Collado. We had to be in the chapel at 6:30 in the morning, so yeah. Not a lot of sleep that night. But it was awesome to finally meet him as our mission president, and to see how he is. He is super young, and so is his wife. They said that while they were in Provo for their training a couple weeks ago, the average age for the newly called mission presidents is like 60, and they are still in their late 30s. It’s also cool, because they have some young kids. But, we finally met them and they seem really nice. They're both clearly a little nervous, but that’s totally expectable. So Wednesday and Thursday, we spent the day running around, and trying to get this woman written into the system. We worked with a bunch of lawyers, and it was going to be a very complex process, that was going to take a couple months, and was going to cost a lot, and would require a court case. So yeah, that kind of sucks. I think that we will just keep trying to get the family active again in the church, and maybe some day they will be able to get married. But I feel like it’s probably out of our control as missionaries to go to court and get this woman written into the system. So the baptism will be postponed and that kind of sucked.

But anyways, this week I was praying that specifically we could find the people who could be baptized this change (aka, within 2 weeks). That same night, we went to a family that had come to the church last week, and we asked them if they would like to be baptized on the 20th. So it’s really nice to see that prayers get answered, and to see that we have possibilities to baptize. Good stuff. Their names are H and K, and they seem really interested and I feel like they'll actually get baptized. 

So we've been working in Milagro de Dios, which is the poor area. A couple days, I’ve sneaked my camera with me there, and when people weren’t around, I’ve snapped a couple pictures to show you what it’s like. It’s pretty poor, and everyone lives in the little tin metal houses with a tin roof. You know that you're in a poor area, when the power lines are really just large branches with a fork on the end. But anyways, all in all, it’s a really successful area, and we are finding plenty of new families to teach. 

I was thinking about the cover on the restoration pamphlet, and it has a cool picture of Christ with a lamb, and the very first thing that we teach when we teach lesson 1 is that God is our loving father. This week we found a less active member who hadn’t been to church in maybe 20 years. He was baptized when he was 8 before the war, and when the war broke out he fell away. But yeah, we finally found this guy, and he explained that for the past several years, whenever he would see the elders, he would say to himself "I hope they contact me...” but for years they had just walked right on by. But finally we contacted him, and it was fun to talk to him and teach him. There aren’t many members that are still around, that were members before the war in the 80s. But this guy explained that during the war, the armies took over the churches and used them as shelters/bunkers. He said that the church in Bello Horizonte got taken over and they used the baptismal font as a swimming pool, and that there were women and drugs and all kinds of evil things in the church. Basically, the churches were all run down with graffiti and everything. So he said that during the war, the members that were still around would just meet in someone’s house and have mini sacrament meetings. It sounds like Nicaragua was a pretty sketchy place for the members during the war in the 80’s. That was when this guy fell away from the church. But yeah, now we're teaching him, and trying to baptize his wife. It’s cool stuff.

We had a lot of success at church again, and we had like 6 people and 2 families there. It was great, and H and K went again. They loved it again, and were totally participating in the classes. In fact, during priesthood, the guy teaching the lesson asked H, "How can we use the priesthood to bless our homes". I was sitting there thinking like "dude... this guy is still an investigator. Leave him alone!" But I was surprised when H gave a very good answer about how we need to be pure to exercise the priesthood. It was awesome. Also in church was a Mexican investigator who was just visiting. He was a total punk, and tried to rob me several times in church.... No bueno. The other cool thing about church was that President Collado made a surprise visit to our church building. It was sweet when he looked into the "Gospel Principles" class and saw that the room was totally packed. He seemed very happy with our work, and the bishop talked us up a lot, saying things about how last Sunday we brought 8 families and stuff. Pretty funny. The new mission president is awesome, and he seems like a guy that could totally be your friend. Plus, we learned something way cool. The bishop made some funny comment to the mission president about drinking Coca-Cola (which has been prohibited for many years here for the missionaries). Pres. Collado responded with an answer like "what’s the big deal? The missionaries can drink coke". That was like gold to our ears, and all of the Latino missionaries were very happy. So that night at the food cita we partied it up with a 2-liter of coke. Good stuff!!!

So yeah, that’s about all that’s going on. Life is good. Oh, and I withdrew some money and bought a fan. It’s super powerful, and we used our haggling skills in the market to get it for a good price. 

Well family, love you all, and I hope that you have a good week. Peace out,

Elder Stark

#43 Managua (Villa Venezuela)

Hey family,

Well, I bet the big news you're all wondering is where I am, right? So I had the changes on Thursday, went to the office of the mission, and the APs just told me that I was going to be going to Villa Venezuela in the Zone Villa Flor, which is part of Managua. So yeah, it looks like I still have several more months of the Managua experience. It’s pretty crazy being here, and it is A LOT different than Bello Horizonte. Here it’s poor... and the computer I’m on sucks. But I’ll explain more about the new area later on in the email.

So my last couple days in Bello, I was just completely working with the members. The ward in Bello isn’t very united, and the attendance in the ward is very low. So we just spent days visiting all of the members, and trying to get them excited about missionary work. So we'll see what happens in that ward. The 2 missionaries that I left in Bello are awesome, and they'll work hard and get the wheels rolling. I'm really sad to have left that ward. I wish that I could have just stayed there for a couple more months. By the time I left, I knew almost everyone, and I had a ton of friends. It was pretty sad. As missionaries, we planned a sweet ward activity on Tuesday that was more or less a farewell for me and another sister who also had changes. Almost all of the ward, and a bunch of investigators were there, and we had "cine Mormon" again. So we all watched "The Other Side of Heaven" and it was super successful. After the movie, everyone was all crying and it was awesome. I got hugs from like a million people and everyone was saying things like "we’re so going to miss you" or "you're the best". Good stuff. I have a ton of pictures with almost everyone in the ward, but the computer won’t let me send pictures home. But yeah, it was sad to leave the ward. All of my converts were especially sad, and they have been so nice to us. M even gave me another Daniel Ortega shirt, which is awesome.

So yeah, I somehow got everything to fit into my suitcases, and we paid the 1st counselor to drive us to the mission office in his pickup. It’s a little pickup smaller than the Schriever's, and we elders rode in the back. It was awesome. We drove for like 30 minutes, and I have a ton of video and pictures of the trip. Super fun. So we got to the office, and everyone else just left. I was in the office with the other people who had changes, and the APs. It was fun just to hang around for a couple hours, and there wasn’t much to do. The APs found a bag of popcorn, and we microwaved it up, and that was my breakfast. But anyway, finally they did the changes, and I am now with an elder named Elder C. He is from Guatemala and has like 15 months in the mission. And our area is Villa Venezuela. It’s really weird finally going to a new area, and not knowing anyone, and being completely lost all of the time. The area is just a huge maze of little rusty tin roof houses and dirt roads. It doesn’t really make much sense, but I’m gradually learning the area. We live in a pretty ghetto house, and it’s super hot. But all in all, its pretty cool, and we live with 2 other elders in the house. The zone is completely Latino, except for like 3 Americans. And one of the elders that we live with is an American, so it’s fun to chat it up in English. 

Anyways, I’m glad that you are all always praying for me each night, because this area is one of the most dangerous areas in the mission. It’s pretty sketchy (for lack of a better word), and it is super super poor. But aside from the area being dangerous, it’s actually a very good area. Because it’s so poor, I can already tell that we are going to have a lot of success. I don’t know why, but the poorer areas have more success. A part of our area to the south is named Milagro de Dios, and this is like the most dangerous place in the world. But it’s awesome, because they are so poor, and there are millions of families there. So I’ve armed myself with just a paperback Book of Mormon, paperback Bible, pamphlets, and my man-bag. I pretty much don’t carry any money or anything. So this way, if I get robbed, I wont lose anything. But pretty much everyone has respect for the missionaries, so there isn’t too much danger. Just to give you an example of how awesome Milagro de Dios is, I’ll share a sweet little story.

On my very first day, my comp and I went to this area. Its super far away, and it doesn’t even feel like Managua. It’s all spread out, and we walk on these little dirt trails that run between these little tin/plastic houses. There aren’t any cars honking, or motorcycles flying down the road, or aggressive buses pushing you off the road. Its just super quiet, and there aren’t too many people. So the first contact that we did, we found a fairly negative family. But there was some guy walking behind us, and he was the son of the woman we were talking with. He was like "Hey, I got baptized in your church like 20 years ago". Obviously he was completely inactive, but he said that his wife wasn’t a member. So we followed him a ways until we got to his house. We finally got there, and I think that he lived in the poorest house I’ve ever seen. It’s even worse than "la linea" in Chinandega. It's a little sheet metal house about the size of mom and dad’s closet. It has a roof made out of black plastic (that look like plastic lawn bags), and it looks like it could topple over any minute. The house doesn’t have running water or electricity, and it’s a really poor place. I don’t think that I’ll ever take a picture of the house, because my camera is probably worth more than their house, and I would never want to offend them. But anyway we arrived at the house, and found his wife. After a minute of talking with them, we just all sat on the ground, and had a lesson. Within a couple minutes, we had placed a baptism date with the woman, and it was awesome. She had been to church once before, and liked it a lot. So in 6 days, on Saturday, we are going to baptize this woman, and complete the family. The guy used to be a completely faithful member, and was about to serve a mission. He had been called to panama. But for whatever reason, he never went, and instead he just hooked up with this woman, and dropped off the map. The awesome thing is that Heavenly Father never forgets about his children, and even though someone can go through 20-something years of inactivity without once seeing missionaries, He always sends a way to rescue His children. So we are working to get this guy active again, and to get him back to church. On Sunday, we brought the family to church, and they loved it. It was awesome to see that the husband who hadn’t been to church in years, still remembered the song "Ye Elders of Israel" and to see him get emotional again about going to church. Awesome.

So this place "Milagro de Dios" is pretty dangerous, but I know that there are families that are just waiting to receive the gospel there. It’s totally worth the risk, going there, because there are all kinds of people to help. But yeah, the area is pretty sketchy. I was contacting a house, and as I was walking away, a crazy dog came out and bit my leg. I was pretty mad, and my leg started bleeding and everything, but I just said a prayer like "please... don’t give me rabies". So we just kept working, and eventually the pain went away, and it just scabbed over. The next day, I called the mission nurse, and explained everything, and we're just going to keep watching the leg to make sure it doesn’t get worse. But I’ve been using the antibiotic stuff you sent me with, and my leg seems to be doing just fine, and its healing great. So yeah. Good stuff. Now I’ve finally got some war wounds from Nicaragua. Love it.

So, as with every baptism, there is always a challenge. The family that we brought to church with the baptism date is totally prepared, but there is one problem. The woman doesn’t have any papers to get married. In fact, in terms of legality, she doesn’t even exist. Many of the people that live in poverty just give birth to their niños in their houses, and their children don’t ever get written into the system. So we are looking for a lawyer to give us some help getting her written into the system. It’s basically just a big pain in the butt, but it can be done. I know missionaries that have had to do this before, so it’s totally possible.

We have also put more baptism dates with other people. We found a guy, taught him lesson 1, and put a baptism date with him for the 13th. He also went to church on Sunday, so we have a ton of possibilities for baptism in the next weeks. Sunday here was awesome. We had 5 investigators, which were made up of 2 families, and 3 potential Melchizedek priesthood holders. It has been a long time since I’ve had 2 families in church, so I am really happy. I can tell that we're going to have a lot of success here in Villa Venezuela. So I’m pretty happy that I’ve become friends with my comp, and that we are both working hard, and that there aren’t any problems. Everyone is really happy with us. 

Well, life is good here. I’m gradually learning the area, and I’m working hard here. This area is just a pure gold mine, and it’s awesome. Also it’s awesome to live with other missionaries who are cool. The other elders in my house are Elder E and Elder Ca. They are both way cool, and E is the gringo one. He's also my DL. But anyway, we get to chat it up all night long which is fun. We live super close to a huge black market named "IVAN" and its really cool. I went there today and bought a new wristband for my watch, because the leather one I had fell apart recently.

Well family, I hope that all is well at home. I am glad to hear that the Edinburgh Ward is pumped to go and do some missionary work. Maybe you can try and contact some of the people on our street. I don’t know. Missionary work is so different here. Nicaragua its so religious, and nobody had fear of talking/arguing with their neighbors about how their Evangelical church is better than their neighbor's Catholic church. And as missionaries from the LDS church here, we can teach almost anyone, and most people are really cool.

Well, I love you all. Have a nice week.

Love,

Elder Stark