#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

#76 Nagarote

Hey family,

Well, it’s been great to hear from you. That’s pretty awesome about Owen’s wrestling stuff. It sounds like he must be a pretty good wrestler. I can’t believe that he has a black eye, stuff sewn to his ear, and cat scratches. That’s really crazy. I really want to see some video of him. The next time that he's wrestling, you need to take some video and upload it to drop box so I can see. 

So this week has been pretty low key here in Nagarote. It was the week before changes, and we were just working and doing the same old stuff. We've put baptism dates with almost all of our investigators. We have P with a date for the 22nd. P Sr. with a date for the 1st of March. We have JA (the son of J and Y who is 21, and I really think that he'll be a future missionary) for the 1st of March, and a rich lawyer named A with a date for the 1st of March. They are all pretty cool. P and his wife B don’t want to get married though, so that could be a challenge. The problem is that B got married once when she was 16 and it turned out bad, so she divorced her first husband. And now she thinks that marriages don’t work out... yeah more marriage problems. So we'll see how we get that figured out. I put the date with A yesterday. After the 2nd hour of church, I went with him to the baptismal font where we baptize, and just told him that he could be baptized on the 1st of March and he accepted. Cool stuff.

At one point this week, we went to visit P and B and there was a weird insect thing on their house. It was disguised as a stick. I took some pictures of it. I was on divisions with a Latino named Elder R, and he told me that it might be dangerous/venomous. So we just took some pictures and walked away. 

So the cool thing is that we had training for the new missionaries and their trainers on Thursday. Normally we go to Managua to do that, but this time we went to Chinandega. We had to wake up super early to get there. It was the first time in over a year that I had been to Chinandega, and it felt so weird. I still remember the city perfectly, and how to get around. And it was super weird going back to my old area and visiting the chapel and all of that. I took some pictures of the font where I did my first baptism, and some pictures of the chapel. Really weird. Anyways, the meeting ended at noon, and all of the new missionaries and the trainers went on divisions with the elders in Chinandega. I worked in an area called La Florida, and it was super weird because I had worked in that same area over a year ago with Elder S helping out the elders back then. I still remembered how to get around, and I still remember a ton. It really surprised me that I could remember everything so perfectly. I was working with a missionary named Elder V and I took him to the investigators that the missionaries were teaching over a year ago. Kind of fun stuff. Anyway, while we were working, I helped them find a new family, we taught them, and I put a baptism date with the family. So hopefully now the elders can have some success. Anyway, we ended the day at 9pm, and then had to get back to Nagarote. We finally got into the microbus at 10pm and got back to Nagarote at like midnight. We were pretty tired the next day.

So the district is doing pretty well. In La Pas Centro they baptized a family on Saturday. It was pretty cool, and I had taught the family a ton of times. They are very cool converts. The Hermana’s also had a baptism for last week, but I did the interview for the guy and felt like he wasn’t ready, so they're going to teach him some more. Speaking of which, that same guy just found us here in the cyber just now, and gave me and my comp each a tie... kind of random...but very generous.

Well, that’s about all that’s going on. I took a little video of the street while I was sitting in the food cita. Nagarote is such a small, tranquil city, and its super calm and nothing crazy really happens. It would be a sweet place to retire. The branch here is doing well, and its fun being here. I took a little picture of the elder quorum class that you can see. It’s really chill.

Well, that’s about all that happened. Love you all,

Elder Stark

#75 Nagarote

Hey familia,

It was awesome to get your email. Wow, it sounds like it must be pretty freezing cold back at home. That’s crazy. Here it’s just the same as normal. Its pretty hot, but yeah whatever. I really liked the luge that was built in the driveway, and the snow chair/snowman thing. Hopefully nobody hits it with their car. But yeah, wow. It must be pretty fun to just hand around at home and play in the snow. So I remember looking at my watch and seeing the date and thinking that I only have 6 months left here in this country. That’s a really crazy thing to me, and it’s freaking me out. I can't believe how fast the time passes by. I only have 4 changes left in the mission, wow. 

So as far as my p-day went, it was pretty good. Last night at 6pm the zone leaders called and wanted to do a meeting with the leaders here in Leon, so we went there and had a meeting. From 2 until 4pm, the stake presidency came and did a joint training here in Nagarote with the branches of Nagarote and La Paz Centro. It was pretty cool just to be there and help out with the training of the leaders in the branch. When I first came to the branch, all we had was the Branch President and his first counselor, and the relief society. Now, we have established an elders quorum We now have an Elder’s Quorum President, we have a 2nd counselor to the Branch President, and yesterday they just called the Young Men's together. And the coolest part??? J (the guy that we just baptized 3 weeks ago), he's going to be the young men’s president. I was with him in the leadership training, and we taught him about the deacons, teachers, and priests (diáconos, maestros, y presbíteros), and how to run the show. So yeah, I’m super excited for him. Oh, and yesterday we gave the Aaronic priesthood to J, and his son (who isn’t baptized yet) came to church, and gave the closing prayer in the Elder’s quorum class. We're going to ordain like 8 men to the Melchezidek priesthood next month in the stake conference. I really feel like we have a fair chance in making Nagarote a ward rather than a branch! I can’t believe that we have made so much progress. Fun stuff!! The branch is progressing a ton. When I came, we would run the show. We would teach the 2nd hour, and we would also teach the 3rd hour. But yeah, now there are teachers for the classes, and as missionaries, we are taking a step back and letting the members run the show. It’s awesome. Plus the attendance is now 79. That’s like a 40% increase. So yeah, we're all happy. The work is progressing very very well. Sunday morning, we baptized a convert of the sister missionaries. It was cool, and my comp was super excited to be able to do the ordinance. So yeah. That guy is also going to be called to the young men’s presidency.  

Transfers are next Tuesday, but I don’t think that I’ll get changed. The trainers are usually glued to their kids for the whole 12 weeks. But yeah, we'll see what happens. I'd really like to visit the Atlantic coast, or in the jungle up north in Matagalpa, but who knows. Wherever they send me, I’ll be happy. I really like Nagarote a lot. Its definitely one of my favorite areas. 

So during the week, we've just been working a lot with our investigators. We've got a family that we're teaching named P and B and they're pretty cool. They want to be baptized, but we've just got to convince B to get married to P. P came to church yesterday and loved it. They've already been before, and yeah, I feel like they'll get baptized soon. Once, while we were teaching them, the parents of P came to the house, and we taught them. So on Sunday P Sr. also came to church. Plus we brought a rich lawyer who seems really interested in the church. His name is A. Anyways, we're doing pretty well here. 

So on Sunday after the leadership training meeting, I asked the guy from the stake presidency if he could take us to Leon. They had rented a microbus (in other words, a 15 passenger van), and they said sure. So we all packed into this tiny van. I think that there were over 20 people in that thing, and we got to Leon. I was in a meeting forever with the other leaders in the mission, and then we went and slept in the ZLs house and played lots of UNO. It was fun to hang out with other missionaries. One of the other DLs in the zone is from Firth, Idaho and it was cool to be with someone from Idaho. Anyways, sorry that I didn’t take a ton of pictures this week. I keep forgetting to take pictures. It all seems really normal to me, and I don’t see the purpose in taking pictures of everything. But yeah, I had to take a giant box of pamphlets and Books of Mormon back to Nagarote, so I today I walked all over Leon with a huge box that was really heavy. There are so many weird Europeans in Leon. I don’t know why, but they are so weird. They dress weird and look like they haven't showered in a month. The white people that are tourists in Leon give a bad reputation for us normal white people. But yeah, we finally got back to Nagarote, and cleaned the house, ate some tacos mexicanos, and now we're in the cyber. So that’s about what happened this week. Thanks for the email you sent me, it sounds like you're all doing great! Have a great week!

Elder Stark

#74 Nagarote

Hey family,

Well this week has been pretty good. It actually passed by really really quickly. I am surprised that it’s Monday again. Looking back on the week, I can’t really remember anything that’s happened. On Tuesday, we had a zone meeting in Leon. That went well. Then we worked in my area. On Thursday I went on divisions in Mateare with an elder named Elder B. It went pretty well, and we found some new people to teach. We walked along the beach of Lake Managua, and it was pretty gross. It smells really bad by the lake. Then on Saturday and Sunday I was in my area working like normal. On Sunday we had 4 investigators at church, and I feel pretty happy about that. The coolest part was that the church attendance was the highest that I’ve ever seen. We had 76 people who attended church. How awesome is that?

So on Saturday, Y went to the United States to visit her family and go on vacation. (That family is super rich... do you know how many Nicaraguans have American visas? Very few). So we went and said goodbye to her. They seem to be doing really well, and I feel really happy for them. We visited them twice this week, and went once with the C family. So it was pretty cool.

It sounds pretty cool that dad has a Harry Potter scar now. Good stuff. How did she hit you in the forehead? I don’t understand how that could have happened. But yeah, I wish that I could have gone skiing. It’s really hot and dusty here. 

Today for p-day we went to Managua. I got permission to go to Metrocentro, which is the biggest mall in Nicaragua. It’s in the south mission, and we got permission to go, and it was really cool. I bought 4 cheeseburgers from McDonalds and an almond snickers McFlurry. Good stuff. It’s pretty fun going to Managua. I enjoy haggling with the taxi drivers and walking around/getting lost and finding my way around. While I was in Metrocentro, I felt like I was in the US. It’s really clean and everything.

Anyways, that’s about all that happened this week. In like 6 months, I’ll be going home. That is scary. Anyway, love ya all, and have a great week.

 Elder Stark