#81 Nagarote

Hey family,

Well.... I’m pretty darn trunky now..... I really wasn't expecting that when I opened my email. I just opened my email and the first thing I see is "TRUNKY PAPERS". The hilarious thing is that just like 2 hours ago I was in Leon eating lunch with Elder G (he is going home in 8 days) and we were both totally getting trunky and talking about our trunky papers. I had commented to him saying something like "hey ya know, I think I’ll be getting my trunky papers soon.” Deja vu. Anyways, I still have 4 more months to party it up here in Nicaragua. I'm doing really well, and I love life.

Anyways, we had some success with our investigators, but not as much as the week before. The week before we had 9 investigators in church and 2 families in church. This week we didn’t have any families, but we did have two investigators. We'll probably have a couple baptisms this week. Anyway, I really love it here though with my converts, especially J and Y. I seriously can’t believe how awesome they are. They are the best. We've been visiting them about 3 times a week, and it’s awesome. They really love us a ton. Also, they have decided to start feeding the 4 of us missionaries here each Friday. It was awesome. On Friday they totally went the extra mile and came home from work early, bought super nice food, and made a really nice dinner. It was the best. 

So this week passed by really quickly. We had a meeting for trainers and new missionaries in Managua on Tuesday, so all of Tuesday I wasn’t working in my area. I was just sitting in a meeting and listening. I think that this has been like my 10th meeting for trainers, and I feel like it's kind of the same old spiel every time. Anyway, I imagine that this was the last meeting for trainers that I’ll have in my mission. With only 3 changes left, I don’t think that I’ll train again.  The meeting ended super late, and we had to get back to Nagarote. (I was the only person in a big group of 9 missionaries that had a Managua bus card), So I went and put a giant recharge on my bus card, and we all jumped on a Managua bus trying to get back to the Mercado Israel. It was like 6:30pm and the 114 bus was really, really packed. Plus, I had a couple packages for people in my district, so yeah, it was an adventure. After a long bus ride being pressed up with about a million people, we finally got to the Mercado Israel. It’s surprising to me, cause I know Managua better than almost any other missionary, so I was kind of like the designated "tour guide.” Anyway, we all finally got to the microbuses and jumped on one, and waited for like an hour longer, and then it left. We were going to jump off in Nagarote, but it was super late, so we just decided to go all the way until we got to Leon and then we slept with the ZL’s. In the morning there was a zone meeting, and it was cool. A Samoan missionary did the Hakka, and yeah... that was about it. 

Today for P-day we went to Managua to get my comp’s cedula (ID). Then we jumped on a bus and went to Leon and got some pizza, then came back. Today I’ve been in the buses about 6 hours, its pretty exhausting. But yeah, life is really good. While we were eating pizza, between the 4 of us, we ordered two pizzas. Then after eating about 1 and a half pizza, we got super full. So we ask for the ticket, and then we started pulling the cash out of our pockets. It turns out that we didn’t even have close to enough money to pay for the two giant pizzas that we had ordered. So I used my debit card to pay for the amount lacking. I think that it was like $10. But anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for always keeping a little money on my card. We all had an "oh crap" moment when we realized that we didn’t have enough money, so that kind of saved us. Thanks :).

But yeah, thanks for your email. I hope that you are all well, and that life is good at home. I sent some pictures home. I hope that you like them. Lots of love,

Elder Stark

#80 Nagarote

March 17, 2014

Hey family,

Thanks for your email this week. The time is flying by here, and I only have like 20 more p-days to read your emails. Crazy stuff. But yeah anyway, life is good here. Soon I should be getting my "trunky papers" as they're called here. Basically it’s when you go to the cyber to check your emails, and there is an email waiting for you in your inbox with return flight information. The trunky papers are super famous in the mission, and it’s a big deal when a missionary gets his trunky papers. There was an elder with a change more than me, and he got his trunky papers two weeks ago. So yeah, soon I should be getting my trunky papers, and that will be crazy. 

Today was a pretty mellow p-day. We woke up, went and got some quesillos, and I had to report all of the weekly numbers to the ZL’s. After that, we went back to the house and changed our clothes and went to Leon to get some good food. The plan was to get some pizza, but the place was closed until noon, so we got some milkshakes from Burger King and walked around Leon for a while. It was super hot, and I was making fun of all of the gringos walking around. They are just so weird and look out of place. It makes me laugh when they try to communicate with the people by talking English... not possible. But yeah, I bought a new pen, and we just kind of bummed around. The 2nd counselor from the stake presidency in Leon found us and he bought us some sweet frescos de cacao. They were the best. But yeah, that’s about all that happened. Then we went into La Union and I found a can of Dr. Pepper, which was great. I told my comp to buy a can of root beer (that stuff doesn’t exist here, just imported), and he loved it. And then we went and got some pizza. We got the biggest pizza that there was, and it was giant. I think that we ate a little more than half and then we were stuffed. So yeah, that’s what happened today. Now I’m here in the cyber, and I’m printing off some pictures. 

Anyways, this week was pretty busy. We worked our tails off, because there was a special "multi stake conference" for all of Central America. Basically, Salt Lake did a special stake conference for everyone. It was a transmission, and was pretty cool. Elder Scott spoke (in Spanish) and Elder Oaks spoke too. It was actually really good, and it was awesome hearing from the apostles. I just realized that this was my last stake conference in Nicaragua. But anyways, we had spent the whole week preparing for the conference. We went on divisions with members for the whole week inviting all of the less actives and investigators. It was fun hanging around with the members. We went a lot with the elder’s quorum president who is Y C. It was fun hanging around with him, and speaking English with him. While we were working, we found a more jungly part of our area, and we were trying to get some coconuts down from a big tree. We couldn’t do it, but yeah, it was fun. I think that I filmed the attempt. And while we were in the jungly part, we found some jocotes (those are fruits that only exist here) and I ate a ton of them. Pretty awesome. But yeah, we taught a ton of lessons with members this week, and it was great. I was really happy, because we were able to take two families of investigators to the conference. It was awesome, and the branch rented some ghetto bus to take us there. There were holes in the floorboards and I could see the highway just by looking at my feet. Pretty Nica. 

Anyway, at stake conference we conferred the Melchizedek priesthood to 4 new men in our branch. That is really really amazing, because in my last stake conference in Villa Flor, I think that only like 2 men received the priesthood in the whole stake. So yeah, 4 people for just a tiny branch is amazing!!!!! Among the people that got the priesthood were 3 recent converts, including the Hermano J who we baptized. It was really awesome! That guy is going to be a great leader! Last night, we went and visited him and taught him how to give blessings. Then we helped him to give a blessing to his wife. It was really spiritual and special. It’s awesome to baptize, but its even better to see your converts progress in the church. I was really happy. 

So yeah, St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t exist here. I didn’t even know that it was today until I looked at my emails. But anyways.

Last night I got a phone call saying that there were emergency changes, and that President Collado had shut down one of the areas in my district. He just took both of the elders out. So now in the branch of Mateare, there aren’t any elders there. The elders that were there had been pretty lazy and didn’t really work at all. They had kind of killed the branch. The church attendance had dropped a ton, and it wasn’t working out. So now my district only has 6 missionaries instead of 8. It’s really weird, and now for the meantime, I'm responsible for Mateare. So now I have two branches that I need to cover, and I'll be traveling a lot between the two cities. We'll see how that works out. The changes are in two weeks, so I don’t know what President will do. Maybe he will re-open Mateare with new missionaries, or maybe he'll close down the whole branch. Who knows? It's really weird.

Well family, thanks for your email. I’m glad to hear that all is well, and I am glad that you are having a great week. Let me know what is new! I love you all a ton. 

Con amor,

Elder Stark

#79 Nagarote

March 10, 2014

Hey familita!!!!!!

Now that I have been in the mission a long time, I don’t really ever get trunky at all when I read your letters, but for some reason today I feel a little trunkified reading the weekly letter that you sent me. It's weird. Today for p-day I took one of the areas of my district (La Paz Centro) to Miramar to the ocean. It was awesome, and I just spent the day hanging around with Elder G, who is from Idaho. Maybe that’s why I feel trunky. He is going home in 3 weeks, and just talks about getting back to Idaho. Crazy stuff. It blows my mind to think that in less that 5 months I’ll be ending my mission too. Really crazy. I can’t believe that the time flies by so quick. Also it blew my mind that Eli is going to get married. It seems like just yesterday that we were all driving around the box van working that summer. I haven't ever even met his special lady friend. Is she cool? I don’t even know what she looks like. Really, this is crazy stuff for me. 

Oh yeah so p-day was really fun today. We woke up pretty early, and I called the elders in La Paz Centro. My comp and I took a moto-taxi to Pali and then jumped on a bus, and got off in a place called Izapa. Then we bummed around there for a long time, because the bus that goes to Miramar only passes by once every two hours. So I just laid down at the bus stop for a while, and finally the Paz Centro showed up. So we just hung around outside a little market. We were literally just on the side of the highway doing nothing in the Nicaraguan heat, and it was brutal. I imagine that its really hard for you all to understand what it’s like here, but basically it’s just really, really hot. But if you can find some shade, it’s pretty nice because there is always a little breeze, which feels nice. So we were just waiting around in the shade and we saw a gringo with a surfboard and we started to make jokes about him and started talking in an Australian accent. There was a Nica guy waiting at the bus stop, and he just started busting up. He thought that we were hilarious. Funny stuff. So finally the bus came, and we jumped on and we were on the bus for a good 40 minutes or so, and we missed the city where we had to get off. So yeah, finally after waiting for a long time the bus stopped. The driver got out and smoked a couple cigarettes, then jumped back in, turned the bus around, and we got to Miramar. We just bummed around the beach and took some pictures and got our feet wet in the ocean. I think that I’m all sun burnt again. But yeah, it was fun. Then we just found a little store and sat down for a while and drank some cokes while we waited for the bus to come back. So yeah, that’s what I did today for p-day. And NO, I don’t wash my own clothes. I pay some lady to wash them for me. It’s a lot easier that way.

In La Paz Centro, they baptized five people on Saturday, so I spent most of Friday morning running around in Momotombo (that’s the little pueblo at the base of the volcano) doing interviews for these people. Cool stuff. We were waiting for a moto taxi to come back to La Paz Centro, but the moto drivers were telling us that there were some cops who were stopping all of the traffic on the road to Momotombo and were haggling money from everyone passing by. So the moto driver was like, "I’ll take you, but I need to take the back route". We just said yes and jumped in, but the back route was crazy. It was in the middle of nowhere and was a 45-minute ride in this Moto taxi. We even got stuck behind a giant herd of oxen, and that delayed our journey. But finally we got back. That was kind of interesting.

So anyway, life has been good. We taught like 30 lessons this week, and have had our plates full with stuff to do. Plus, we've been getting up at 5:30am and I’ve been getting to sleep at like 11 each night because I need to report a ton of numbers each day. So yeah, I’m a little sleepy but it’s not too bad. All in all, it’s going pretty well. This coming week is stake conference and we have 5 people in our branch to ordain to the Melchizedek priesthood, including some of my converts. It’s awesome, and I know that they'll be good leaders! So yeah, I’m happy here. The church attendance was good this week (68 people).  

So yeah, I imagine that it’s pretty nice back in Idaho. It’s really hot here. The sand on the beach was so hot that it started to burn our feet. It was crazy. But yeah, I am glad to hear from all of you guys, and I’m glad to know that you're all doing well. Hopefully mom can get better soon. Its no fun being sick. I woke up on Saturday and felt pretty sick, but after I started working for a few hours it kind of went away. So anyways, I love you all. Let me know what’s up!

Elder Stark

#78 Nagarote

Hey family, 

So yeah, it looks like I only have 5 months left. It feels like just yesterday that I was saying that I only had 6 months left. Man, the time really flies by. I can’t believe it. I remember that when I began my mission, I would hear all the older missionaries talk about how the 24 months flies by, and I didn’t really believe them. But now that I’m where I am, I can see that it’s true. The time really flies.

So this week has been pretty cool. We have been working a lot, and I’ve been going on divisions and all that fun stuff. On Tuesday I went on divisions with Elder G who is from Malad. Man he really got me trunky. The guy is dying (in other words, he is ending his mission) in 4 weeks, and all he talks about are guns and getting back to Idaho. It’s really tough to not get trunky around him. But yeah, on Tuesday I was with him, and it was pretty cool. Its fun being around gringos. And on Thursday I was on divisions with one of the ZLs named Elder H who is from Las Vegas. I was able to have some good gringo parties this week. We had 4 baptisms planned out for last week, but only one guy was able to get baptized. The guy who got baptized was A, the super rich lawyer. He is a pretty awesome guy. I bet that he'll be a future leader in the church.

On Friday we had a multi-zone conference with Villa Flor. I got to go back to Managua and see my old chapel where I was for 6 months. It was kind of cool. I also got to see a bunch of elders that I knew, and that was great. We were with President Collado all day, and it was fun to hear from him and take notes and learn by the Spirit. He committed us to start waking up at 5:30am, and leaving the house one hour earlier than we normally would. So that's what we've been doing, and it’s pretty cool. It makes me kind of tired, but it’s a good way to start the day. So we're working a lot harder and we should have a lot more success.

Ok, so here's a cool story. Sunday at about 3 AM there was an earthquake. I woke up, and my comp was freaking out in his bed. The whole house began shaking quite a bit, and while I was lying in bed, it was like someone had grabbed my bed and started shaking it as hard as they could. It was really crazy. The power instantly went out, and it shook pretty well for about 30 seconds. Then it calmed down, and there were just some after-shocks that shook a little. A couple seconds after the earthquake I got like 4 text messages from a bunch of missionaries and even from our investigators (the family that didn’t get baptized). So yeah, that was kind of cool. After the quake, the power was out for like 45 minutes and we were just lying in our beds roasting. It was really hot and humid, and without the fans, it becomes miserable. 

And on Sunday, it was pretty good. All of our investigators bailed on us, so we didn’t have any investigators in church, but we did confirm A a member. I taught elder’s quorum, and it turned out really good. In the afternoon at like 4PM the zl’s called me and wanted to do a meeting with the leaders in the zone, so we went to the highway and were able to flag down an espresso bus (the normal buses end early on Sunday), and we went to Leon and I was in a meeting with the other leaders for the rest of the day. Then, I slept in the zl’s house, and we all fell asleep at like 12 because we had to do the telephone report in all of our districts, and that took a lot of time. Then at 5 in the morning we had a conference call with President Collado. So today I’ve had like 5 hours of sleep. I’m a little tired, but yeah, it’s all-good. We ate at Burger King while we were in Leon, and then came back to Nagarote, cleaned the house, and now I’m here in the cyber. I had wanted to go to the ocean today, but there wasn’t time, so maybe that'll be next week. Oh and when we came back from Leon, my comp and I paid an extra 30 Cordoba (that’s like an extra dollar) and went in a microbus. Those are the 18 passenger vans, and the thing had AC!!! It was awesome, and we were able to relax a little. You should see how the nicas drive. Freeways don’t exist here, all there are the two lane highways, and they drive like maniacs. They will pass other cars and semis, and you will be pooping your pants with fear, because they do it with just inches of space. Fun stuff. But yeah. 

Anyways, life is good. We're working hard, and now were just trying to find some new people to teach. I imagine that I’ll probably have changes this next change, but who knows. So yeah, that’s all for this week. Thanks for your letter, and I am glad to hear that all is well. Have a great week!

Elder Stark

Pictures:5998,5997,5988, 5987