#93 El Naranjo

June 23, 2014

Hey family,

Sorry I don’t have a lot of time to write today, so this letter will be short, but I’ll see if tomorrow I can get on the computer and write some more. I just had a couple minutes to read through your guys' emails and see what’s up. I’m here in Managua picking up my new comp. I think that I’m going to be training again, so yeah, crazy stuff. I can’t believe that I am being given the chance to train again. 4 times is a lot for an elder. I got to the meeting today in Managua, and I don’t recognize a single person. It’s really weird because the mission is just full of newbies. But yeah, I feel pretty cool. So I didn’t have changes, and I’m still in El Naranjo. It’s fun, and I’m still a DL. My district got rearranged which is kind of cool, and now I have an area that is super far away called Tonola. There have been a bunch of changes this week, and its really crazy. I really am in the dark, and I don’t even know what my comp's name is. I think that I need to stay the night here in Managua, and that tomorrow I’ll get my comp. Fun stuff! :P

So it sounds like you guys are all doing great. I am doing fantastic. It was really weird to "kill" my comp Elder R. It was actually pretty sad, because we were good friends. But anyway, it was totally like dejá vu because in 6 weeks I’ll be dying, as they say here. Elder T is still in my zone, and it’s awesome because we are officially "dying buddies". We were talking on the phone today for like 30 minutes and I think that we're both pretty trunky. We were joking about how we're the "kings of the zone" because we're the oldest missionaries in the zone. I really hope that they assign us to be travel comps so that we can go visit some of our recent converts. But yeah, I’m pretty stoked. The other cool thing is that Hermana A is coming to El Naranjo 1, (the other area), so it will be fun to be in a district with people that I know well. 

So the great news is that on Saturday Elder R and I baptized a family. It’s the family of J and J. It was AWESOME!!!! Their divorce came through after almost a year, and they decided to get baptized that same weekend. The bishop did the baptism, and the ward was super, super happy. They got married too! I have a ton of pictures, but like I said, I don’t have time to upload them. Maybe tomorrow, if I get the chance. I was really, really, happy about their decision to be baptized.

Well, I love you all a ton, and I hope that all is well. I'll write you guys later. Gotta go!

Love, 

Elder Stark

Part 2 

June 24, 2014

Hey family,

I just came to the cyber to let my comp write his family, and let them know that he's here. My comp is Elder C and he's from Belize. Isn’t that totally crazy??? I have never heard of a missionary from Belize. But yeah, he was serving in the Honduras Tegucigalpa mission but they changed his mission to Nicaragua because Honduras is pretty dangerous. But it’s awesome having him here. I don’t know if I’m actually training him or not, because he already has like 7 months in the mission. The mission has me labeled as a trainer, but I don’t really know if it’s true or not. But anyway, I had to go to Managua yesterday to bring him to the mission. 

So I was chatting with him on the bus, and he's a really cool guy. He speaks English as his first language, because everyone in Belize speaks English, but his Spanish is really good as well. I can’t remember which ciudad he's from, but he was saying that he knows Caye Caulker really well. I thought that was hilarious. And then I said something about the water taxis (the boats that go from island to island) and he was totally familiar with all that stuff. Pretty cool. I've never met someone from Belize in my time here in Nicaragua, and nobody believes him when he says that he's from there.

Well, I love you all and I’m stoked to be here. I can’t believe that I only have like 5 more p-days. Now I can count down with the fingers on one hand. Craziness!

Love,

Elder Stark

#92 El Naranjo

June 16, 2014

Hey family,

Well it’s been another week. I know that it’s physically impossible, but I’m convinced that the time has been going by quicker and quicker. It amazes me that another week has passed, and it makes me feel so weird. My comp is ending his mission in one week, and it’s like a preview of my next change. It’s really weird.

Well, its been going pretty well. Right now the world cup (mundial?) is on and everyone here in Central America totally loves it. Something about the culture here, but everyone loves soccer here. I enjoy playing soccer, but the Latinos love it. Kind of funny. As I’m writing this, the US is playing against Ghana I think, and everyone is totally enchanted by it. I can just hear the TV in the background and its funny to hear the commentary.

So it’s pretty cool this week. We've been working hard and trying to baptize a family before the change ends. I'm really hoping that we'll be able to get a family in before my comp leaves. It would be awesome to have a baptism. We'll see. We have found a couple new families this week, but they'll be ready for baptism in like 3 weeks. The area presidency changed the rule, and now the investigators have to go to church 3 times before they can be baptized. Its kind of tricky, but we're working with it.

So it seems like this week we've been seeing President Collado a ton. He's been going around the whole mission and doing a ton of meetings and stuff like that. On Friday we had another multi-zone meeting with him, and then on Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference and he was there too. In these next two changes, over 35% of the missionaries are ending their missions. All of the experienced missionaries are leaving. So basically the mission president is going around and training everyone and preparing the mission for that. Kind of cool. On Saturday we had meetings from 3pm until 8pm, which included a workshop for ward councils and an adult session of the stake conference. We brought a few investigators to the adult’s session, which was cool. And President Collado was there for all of the meetings. On Sunday, we had the stake conference. It turned out pretty good, and it was fun to hear from the leaders. I think that the stake is doing pretty well, and I enjoy being in the meetings and learning from these inspired people. 

So in stake conference, our convert J was sustained to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. He wasn’t able to receive the priesthood on Sunday, but I think that this next Sunday he'll get it. Pretty cool stuff. Hopefully he and his family can progress and stay active in the church.

Today for p-day we went back to Potosi and hung around. We ate at a cool restaurant and the guy gave us some coconuts again. He had a giant bird too and said that it was over 40 years old. I was talking to it a little too. Here in Nicaragua, you can buy the birds that talk, and tons of people have them. They're fun to mess around with. They're called Loras, but the kind of bird that we saw today in Potosi was a different kind. I have no idea what type it was. As we were coming back from Potosi, it started to rain a ton and it was pretty cool. The weather cooled down a little, and it was really relaxing. I think that for the first time in a long time that I wasn't sweating a ton, and the smell of the rain was awesome. The bus ride was pretty long, and it was awesome to just kick back and look out the window and see the world here. It’s completely different here, and it’s really interesting that millions of people live in these tiny communities and many of them don’t know what the rest of the world is like. Pretty cool. It has been raining a lot in these past few days, and sometimes in the nighttime I’ll just lay in bed and listen to the sound of the rain on the tin roof and it makes me feel really glad to be here. It’s awesome being a missionary!

We'll I’m glad to write you all again, and it’s fun to hear that all is well. I'm super excited to see you all, but I'm going to be really sad to leave this world here behind. I think that it will be pretty hard to readjust to the life back at home. It’s really weird, and I don’t think that there is really any way to describe it. But I'm enjoying my time here a ton, and its going well. Thanks for everything, and I hope that all is well.

Elder Stark

#91 El Naranjo

June 9, 2014

Hey family!!

Well its great to hear from you all again. It’s always fun to read the letters that you guys write me, and I really am excited to be able to see you all in like 8 weeks. That’s crazy!

So I hope you're all doing well, and that life is good. I imagine that it’s all pretty chill back at home now that school is out. Is Owen going to start working? 

Well this week has been pretty good. The only stinky thing that happened was that we were going to baptize a family, but they bailed out. They were going to get married and baptized yesterday, but the guy didn’t want to. It’s kind of stinky when people use their agency like that. But hey, I can’t take away their agency. Either way, I feel like we did our part pretty well. We visited them every day for the past few weeks, and on Saturday night we were with the bishop in their house trying to teach them the importance of getting married and baptized, but the guy just didn’t want to. I feel bad for the wife, because she's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying that her husband will change. It’s all agency. 

The good news is that we have some other cool investigators that are progressing. The family of J and J came to church again yesterday. I’m super excited for them, and they should be getting baptized very soon. Very cool. They are people that are really converted and have repented and I admire them for that. Most people flake away from the church when they have challenges, but this family has been going to church pretty constantly for like 9 months while they've been waiting for her divorce to come through. So hopefully they'll get married and baptized soon!

During the week, we had a big multi-zone conference in Leon with zones from Chinandega, Chinandega West, and Leon. It was fun to see a bunch of the other missionaries from Leon, and everyone seems to be doing well. I was talking to the missionaries in Nagarote about how the branch was doing. Everyone is really impressed with the B family (now President B), and apparently the branch is progressing a TON! Speaking of the B family, they just called me just now as I was writing this. J was saying that the branch has progressed a lot, and that he's reorganized the branch presidency and has been directing the branch well. He told me that the attendance yesterday was around 85 and said in his words, "The seeds that you planted are starting to give fruit.” Seriously, I love that place. When I got there, there was an attendance of like 45 people, and now it’s almost double! I was really, really happy for that phone call I just got. J was saying that yesterday he had training with President Collado, and that he learned a lot. The missionaries serving in Nagarote are super happy that he is the branch president, and say that they put in a ton of effort to help the branch out. Every week they email me, and send me a ton of pictures.  I was telling him that when he goes to the temple with his wife, that I want to find a way to get down to Honduras and see the sealing of his family. That would be really cool. 

Well, all seems to be going well here. I can’t believe that these two years are starting to come to an end. My comp ends his mission in 2 weeks, and we always stay up late talking about all of our adventures. It’s been really cool. Both of us witnessed the mission before with President Arredondo, and now we've seen the changes that have come around with President Collado. It’s really cool. But yeah, only like 8 weeks left. I can’t believe that. I’m super stoked to see you guys. I am excited for you to be able to meet some of these people that I love, and that you guys can see this world down here. I was telling J and Y that we'll go to church in Nagarote on Sunday the 10^th, and they are super excited. 

Well, for p day today we went to the beach. This time we went to a place called Jiquilillo, which is about an hour and a half away. It’s pretty far, but it was cool to get off the beaten trail and explore. I love doing that. We wandered around on the beach for a while, and then found a house that has been destroyed by the tide. Then we bushwhacked and found ourselves in someone’s back yard. So we walked around a while and found a guy who was 78. He let us cut down coconuts from his palm trees and then loaned us his machete to chop them open. So we drank a ton of coco water, and it was great. Then the old grandpa showed us to the "best fish in town" and we all bought fish. It was awesome. Then we just played soccer on the beach for a long time, and now I’m all burnt. It was a fun p-day.

Well, I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Stark

#90 El Naranjo

June 2, 2014

Hey family,

So how's it all going? It sounded like this week was a pretty cool week for you guys. That’s really cool that Dad got to go to the east coast and party it up. Is it totally different on the east coast? Here in Central America, every country is completely distinct and different. Like the Nicas are way different from the Hondurans. I can’t really remember what its like back at home? Are the people from the other parts of the country way different, and do they talk differently? Kind of a funny thought. But anyways, here this week it was pretty good. We've been working pretty hard as normal and we've found some cool people to teach. The really cool part is that a family that’s been waiting on a divorce should be able to get baptized soon. I'm really stoked. So yeah, needless to say we've been running up and down and right and left trying to find new people to teach and trying to get some people that are positive to go to church. 

So here are some cool stories that happened this week:

On Monday last week a missionary was set apart from our ward and left for his mission in Guatemala Quetzaltenango. We went to his setting apart and were talking to the stake president for a little. All of the sudden he was like "hey elders, can we go on divisions on Thursday to visit the seminary students". Of course we said yeah, and it was all good. The stake president is in charge of seminary for Chinandega or something like that. But anyways we shows up to the church and went into the bishop’s office and there was the stake president and another guy who I recognized, but couldn’t remember who he was. Anyways, I went with the stake president, and my comp went with the other guy. As we were walking out the door, someone said the other guy’s name. His last name is "Amonestel". In that moment I remembered who that guy was. He was the ex mission president of the South mission here in Nicaragua. I had met him once before. But yeah, he had driven up here from Costa Rica and is in charge of the seminary and institute for all of Central America. But yeah, it was fun to be with the big wigs and do some visits. I took the stake president all over my area, and I think that I wore him out a little because he was super tired. Funny stuff, but we were making jokes and it was good. I had never gone and worked with a stake president before like that.

The other funny thing was that on Saturday we were waiting on the side of the highway for a taxi to take us to the church for a baptism. There weren’t any taxis, but all of the sudden a sweet SUV stopped and told us to get in. It was Elder Maravilla (the 70 that is in charge of all of Nicaragua). He took us to the church, and it was crazy to have a 70 just give us a ride. 

So the coolest thing that happened this week was that today we went to a volcano named Cosigüina. It is super far away, and is right on the Honduras/El Salvador border. I was on divisions with Elder Taylor on Friday and we made planes to climb it. So we woke up super early today at 5 and jumped on a bus and went to Potosi, and then found a Nicaraguan that would be willing to take us up to the volcano. Truthfully we had no idea what we were doing, but we're all kind of adventurous so we just went to Potosi and found a random Nicaraguan that offered to take us up for 16 dollars. It was awesome, and was a total crazy hike. We're all in pretty good shape so we basically just ran up the mountain. It was 7 kilometers each way. We got up in a little less than 2 hours, and got down in about 1.5 hours. The tour guide was totally blown away. When we asked him how we were doing for time, he said "I’ve never seen people that hike so fast....". I think that we wore him out too. But the coolest part about the volcano is that there is a giant lake in the crater. The view was totally amazing. I sent home about a million pictures, but it was totally awesome. I'm glad that we got the tour guide cause there were snakes and all kinds of animals on the trail. The guy would go in front with his machete and chop away all of the vines and growth in the trail. It was totally like a rainforest kind of experience, and the canopy kept us cool. It was really cool and was probably one of my favorite p days here. But from the top of the volcano, I could see El Salvador, and Honduras. Maybe you can look up the volcano on the Internet. Let me know what you think.

But yeah, it’s all good here. To answer your questions: When you come, just bring shorts and a pair of jeans. And basically you can wear whatever you want for a shirt. It could be a tee shirt or a button down shirt, or if you want you don’t even need a shirt. You don’t need ANYTHING long sleeve, because it’s just too hot. And don’t worry about rain gear. Maybe just a small umbrella.

For cash, you can bring dollars here if you want. It’s probably more secure to bring cash, because it would be suckazoid if the ATM didn’t take your card. I bet that it will, but you can bring dollars here and change the money in almost any place you go. You could probably bring a couple hundred in cash. What I do after going to the ATM is I leave most of the money in the house, and I only carry around like 500 cords at the most. I've never been robbed or anything, but I’m always still a little cautious. Nicas love dollars, and they're super easy to change to Cordoba’s. And yeah, you'll probably want to change most of the money to Cordoba’s. But definitely bring one or two cards just as backup. You can carry around the money in your wallet in your front pocket. 

I'm pretty sure that I’ll be able to meet you at the airport. I haven’t talked to anyone, but yeah, I bet that I’ll be there waiting for you guys. 

For medicine, just take some anti diarrhea pills and maybe some anti nausea. You can buy basically any pills you need here in the pharmacies in the streets (remember Mexico?), and it’s easy to find drugs. Pepto is also pretty easy to find down here, so don’t worry about taking that with you. 

With your phone, don’t worry too much. About 50% of Nicas have big smartphones with android, and it shouldn’t be a problem. Obviously you will only use the phone in secure places, like the mall, member’s homes, and in the car, and stuff like that. I'll be with you guys, so don’t worry too much. I don’t know how much Verizon charges for phone calls made from outside of the US, so maybe you'll just want to ditch the phones in the hotel room and buy a cheap Nica phone and use the local companies here. Its all pay as you go, so its super easy. 

And yeah, sorry for writing shorter letters. Sometimes I just sit in front of the computer and I don’t know what to write. It all just seems really normal to me, and I forget that for you guys, Nicaragua is totally crazy and different. But yeah, I’ll try to do better at including more details and stuff like that. And no, I’m never ticked off with you guys. I still love going to the cyber like I did when I began the mission, and it’s awesome to read your email. But sometimes I just don’t have a lot of time write giant emails and chat, so that’s why. Sorry, and I’ll do better. :)

But yeah, I love you guys, and I really liked your emails. I think that it’s hilarious that the guy in charge of bike safety hit Isaac. What a funny thing. But anyways, thanks for everything. I’m super stoked to see you guys!

Elder Stark