#13 Chinandega

November 19, 2012

Hey familia,

Well, another great week has passed by for me. It has been a really long week, and I’m pretty worn out. The days here go by super, super slow, and were all zombie walking by the end of the day. But the weeks go by really fast here. Anyways, it’s all just perspective. When you're happy, it goes by quick. When you're mad and frustrated, it goes by really slow. So yeah, I had a really good week this week. We worked hard, and I got to enjoy my first baptism here. It was really cool, and yeah, we've just been working our tails off.

We're all about the jokes here, and we find every opportunity to make jokes. So this week, Dad has been in the Capital. That’s pretty cool, and its cool to hear about all of the history. I really, really enjoy history, and its fun to learn about. It would be fun sometime to go to Washington DC and see all of these things. But seriously, for the same price for a plane ticket to DC, you can probably fly to Managua. So yeah, easy choice there. Nicaragua es la ley. That’s a weird phrase they say here, but "la ley" means "the Law". It's one way how the say something is cool. Kind of interesting. So yeah, things here are the Law. I have been thinking about Christmas here too. It will definitely be really weird. Its strange, because I am already seeing a bunch of Christmas trees in peoples houses, and in the big supermarket they have some Christmas stuff. I can’t believe that they still celebrate Christmas here with it being this hot. Funny stuff. One morning, around 6 am, a truck came by our house blasting Christmas music. It was pretty cool to hear some "sleigh bells ringing".

Ok, to answer what you all said individually: Ok about the chocolate. Yeah we can buy some Hershey Bars here in the gas station. They’re super expensive though, about $1 US. Well, maybe I’ll buy one to celebrate for Christmas or something. About the marriage: We split the wedding and the cake 4 ways between us 4 missionaries. I ended up paying about $8 US. A little spendy, but it was worth it. I have realized how easy it is to spend dollars in the US. But here, we have to be careful with our money. A dollar goes a long way here if you use it right, and I’m being pretty careful with my money. I don’t really want to dig into my own personal debit card much, so yeah, I’m just taking it easy money-wise. More questions about activity rate: We spend a lot of time working to find new investigators, and working with the Recent Converts. Most of our time is spent trying to baptize new people, but sometimes we visit less actives. It’s tough here, because most people don’t pay tithing. They literally cannon pay their tithing, because they live off of the bare minimum, and the people don’t want to take any risks. So it’s hard, because not many people have testimonies of tithing.

I am far from fluent but I’m learning every day, It is totally awesome working hard and teaching and I’m super tired each day, the food and wildlife is pretty interesting. Ok more about the wildlife. There are a lot of people, with out cars or bikes, who use horses. They have horses with these little metal carts that the horses pull. It’s the poor man's pickup truck. We see them a lot, and they just come running up and down the streets. You need to make sure that the horses don’t hit you, because that would hurt pretty bad. More about the wildlife: Spiders. Ok, this week I saw the biggest Tarantula of my life, in our house. We came back to the house for a drink, and we saw this huge spider in our kitchen. It was about the size of my hand. It was pretty huge, and it was fast. So, we sat in the house crying like babies for a while (just kidding). No, we actually just smashed the crap out of it. It took a while, but it is dead. I was super scared for the next couple days, and I would check every corner of our house before doing something. But I’m better now. It was just a big spider. I took a picture of it while it was still alive. You're all lucky that you don’t have tarantulas in your house.

Right now I’m sitting in a computer lab, sweating a lot. We searched about 5 different computer labs for computers, and finally we found one I’ll give you a little rundown of the exciting things that happened this week. I've been writing them in my daily planner all week, so I wouldn’t forget.

#1: The big Tarantula in our house. I’m just glad it wasn’t hairy.

#2 Hitch-hiking. It’s the poorman's way to get around here. We do it a lot, and the people here in Nicaragua are super cool and chill. This week, we got 2 rides in Semi-trucks with some really nice guys. The semi trucks were really bumpy, but they were cool, and we got to contact the guy driving. The missionary work happens always. Another hitchhiking story: we were hitchhiking a ride back from Corinto (the coastal town). We got a ride in a nice SUV, and I was talking to the guy. He had lived in the US for 4 years, in Little Rock, Arkansas. So anyways, it was just a funny coincidence. It’s really fun to talk to people about the States. People here love the US generally, and it’s pretty cool.

#3 Preaching. We had a FHE (or noche de hogar en espanol) in La Gracsa/La Linea. We made invites, and had a bunch of people there. There were about thirty people there, and my trainer made me get up and teach the restoration. It was pretty cool, and we were going all preacher mode on the people. After, we watched the Restoration, but we didn’t have the remote, so it was in English. We were joking about how the people received the Gift of Tongues in that minute. It had Spanish subtitles, but nobody could read. So yeah, cool experience.

#4 I made the mistake of eating an Empanada from the street. It made me pretty sick, and I was in the bathroom having the worst diarrhea of my life. It sucked, but I learned my lesson, and within a few days, I was better.

#5 I had my first baptism this week. We baptized a family. They are a young couple.  They had been separated for 8 months due to marriage problems. But anyways, we worked our tails off, and got them back together, and got them to like each other again. We got them married (super awesome), and then baptized them. It was cool, and I got to perform the ordinance the first time. So yeah, it’s good to see our hard work pay off. At the baptism, we got one of our investigators to come. He really enjoyed it, and after said that he wanted to be baptized. So we are going to get him and his wife baptized and married this week hopefully! Somebody stole my white baptismal tie, but whatever. I can still baptize without the tie.

#6 This week in church, we had the primary program. It was interesting, and I was thinking about the primary program in the home ward. They were probably super different, but it was cool. In the church during the sacrament meeting, we confirmed the couple too. We gave the priesthood to the husband too. Cool.

#7 This week, around 4am, the power went out. It was out for a really long time, almost all of the day. Also the water was out. Sometimes, just randomly, they’ll turn off our water for the day.

Ok, so that is about the week in a nutshell. The rest of the week, I spent working in other areas of our zone. It was pretty cool, and it was a really rewarding week.

More cool news:

For Christmas, I can use Skype. I would like to use Skype, because it is free, and I can actually see you all.  I’m pretty excited to be able to see you all, and it will be fun. I got news from a guy in the office, and he said that I have a package waiting, with some letters. I’m pretty excited for those too. ROCK ON!

Well, that is my week. I hope that your week was also good. This next week, we will probably be working all throughout the zone, and trying to help families. I hope that when I send my email for next week, we'll have more baptisms.

Love you,

Elder Stark

Breakfast: Fanta in a bag and bread

Taking the weights back form the other Elders 

Family Home Evening in La Linea

Family Home Evening in La Linea

Family Home Evening in La Linea 

Watching the video in English

Massive Spider (size of my hand)

Inside cover of "Missionary Pal" passed down to me

Wedding Cake

Wedding party

1st Baptism

#12 Chinandega

November 12, 2012

Hey familia,

I just got done reading you're letter. Its always super, super fun to get to do the email part on P-Day. I really enjoy hearing from you, and getting a little news from the outside American world. It’s really weird being here, but like I’ve said before, I’m adjusting.

So yeah, this week I heard about the election. We were in a members house eating our lunch (Always rice, always rice. I said that twice, because it is literally always rice), and I heard about the election on the TV. I didn’t understand much cause it was in Spanish, but I just saw a glimpse on the TV of the post-election celebration thing. It’s pretty lousy, and all of the missionaries were ticked off. Especially my companion, and he is not even from the States. Anyways, yeah, whatever. It’s funny being in houses with the TV. I never watch it, because were not supposed to, but I sometimes get a glimpse. So far I have seen on the TV, Jason Bourne, Lord of the Rings, 50 First Dates, and a bunch of others like Toy Story. Literally every family here has a TV. They could be dirt poor (literally), and starving, but it is almost guaranteed that they'll have a TV and some loud nice speakers.

So I’ll give you a rundown of what I have been doing this week. This week has been really hot. Chinandega is one of the hottest zones in Nicaragua, so yeah, we sweat it out always. It kind of blows, and I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever be dry? Who knows? The handkerchiefs are a must have for being here. So this week we have been working with our investigators, and getting them ready for baptism. We have one family that is almost guaranteed to be baptized this Saturday, and another that we are somewhat skeptical about. Anyways, we will see what happens. I really like the missionary work here, and it’s really fun working and talking with people. Or in other words, it’s pretty cool just to walk around and talk to people. We have been doing a lot of walking like always, so if you ever wonder what I’m doing at any given time, I’m probably walking, or sitting teaching, or sitting in a bus. My trainer is really cool, and I get a lot of opportunities to teach, contact, and work. He leaves in 3 weeks to go home, so he is always talking about what he will do. It’s pretty interesting because I’m just starting. Anyways, yeah I get to hear a lot about how he will be long boarding, or playing guitar in Costa Rica. He is going to come visit Nicaragua with his family in January, so hopefully I will be able to still be in Chinandega, and get to ride his long board. Anyways, it’s pretty cool having a comp that likes to work hard and who is cool. I hear a lot of stories about comps who are lousy, curse, and don’t want to work. I’m just glad that I have a good comp right now. It’s pretty sweet.

So this week we worked in La Linea/La Graca a lot. I decided to take some pictures, so you can get a taste of what it looks like. It’s super poor, but Elder Silva and I refer to it as "la minea de oro" or the gold mine. It’s cool, cause in almost every contact, you can place a baptismal date, and they'll say yes. But in reality, they usually are lying. So it goes either way, sometimes they honestly want to be baptized, and sometimes they're just feeling good in the moment. We'll see though. I have been in La Linea a lot this week, and it’s fun to work with the really poor people. They are some of the most humble people in the world, and you can get along with anyone there. It’s not like the US where people don’t like to talk, in Nicaragua, almost every person will stop what they’re doing, pull up a chair, and have a nice long conversation about the Gospel. Anyways, different culture, cool stuff.

So this P-Day, we went to Burger King (they actually have on here in Chinandega), and I got some cini-minis and an ice cream cone. It was super expensive thought, like 60 cordobas. I felt bad spending that much, but I just decided in the moment that I needed some cini-minis. Good decision. After this, we went and played soccer in the court across the church. It was fun, and the Latinos are pretty good, but I scored 3 times, and I did all right. The Latinos here always refer to us white people as cheles. It’s like another word for gringo. I literally here that 100 times each day. I don’t really care though, its just cool to be here. So after soccer, we went to the parque and bought some food. I got a jumbo hotdog (super jumbo) and a huge glass of orange juice. Its really good, and you can get some pretty good food for cheap. I think all in all today, I’ve spent about 5 bucks American, which is a lot down here. It was a fun P-Day thought.

Ok, so this week, during some free time, I’ve been thinking about all of the stuff that I’ve learned being in the field and the MTC, so I wanted to pass this info down to Sam Schriever (Elder Schriever) and Elder (Bailey) Stark. This is probably most applicable to Sam, because he is coming down here to Central America. You can also post this stuff on you Missionary Mom thing. Here is what I’ve come up with.

#1 In the MTC, buy scripture covers for your Spanish scriptures. They are like 15 bucks, and they are a must have. Most people’s scriptures get pretty thrashed when they don’t have scripture covers.

#2 You don’t need to take your nice English scriptures down here, because they will pretty much never get used. I would follow the example of some other gringos, and send the nice English scriptures home at the end of the MTC time, and buy some cheap paperback English scriptures to take down here.

#3 Buy a watch that is waterproof. A watch is something that I use all day, and it’s important to have a good one, but not a really fancy looking one. Mine is waterproof to 100m, and this works great.

#4 Get a backpack that is super waterproof. Mine stuff got pretty messed up the first day, because I didn’t have it in a plastic bag. It’s good to have stuff that is really water-resistant, because you don’t want to have your stuff messed up. I saw an Elder with a thing called a dry bag - and it’s like a bag that you put your stuff in. Pretty cool idea.

#5 Get good shoes. The hushpuppies (husssshhh) are working really great, and so are the Eccos.

#6 When you buy the stuff from Petersons, make sure that the belt fits through the belt loops on the pants. The belt loops on mine are super tight, and its a little annoying. Also, reinforce the hemming on the bottom of the pants, because the hemming they did was a little weak.

#7 Buy and bring handkerchiefs, because I use them all the time, and they work great.

#8 Get a good waterproof camera. I have the Fuji Film XP50, which works really great. I have also seen a waterproof one by Olympus. Buy this, because you need a rugged, waterproof camera.

#9 Make sure that all of the clothes have the labels, because the lady brings our clothes, and they're always mixed up. The labels work great. Also, buy mesh G's. That is a must.

#10 Get good ties that you like. I got like 2 that I don’t like as much, and I never use them.

#11 Don’t worry too much about getting an umbrella. I have never seen a missionary use an umbrella, and you'll get wet no matter what.

Ok, there are the things that I’ve been thinking up all week. Oh, I forgot to tell this earlier, but tell Katie congrats on NY. That’s really cool, and I know she'll work hard. Its super hard being out here. I’m so exhausted every night, but it’s really worth it. So yeah, tell Katie congrats, and to work hard. That’s really cool that she gets to work in English, because it’s really hard learning a new language.

Well, I love you all, and I hope that you're all doing well.

Elder Stark

Next Door Neighbors in Chinandega

Cathedral in Chinandega

IGUANA

House in La Linea

#11 Chinandega

Hey family,

Thanks again for the letter this week. This week we are in a ghetto computer cafe thing, because the member in charge of the computers at the church won’t let us use them. We went to Chichigalpa today and played baseball with the zone. It was pretty cool. 

We are back in Chinandega now writing emails and waiting for our laundry. It has been 2 weeks without laundry, and the lady picked them up on Saturday and said today, but still no clothes. So we’ll see, probably tomorrow we'll get the clothes. Some lady does our laundry, and I don’t really know a lot about it. She charges 300 Cordobas for the month, which is quite a bit. They do all of it by hand though, so I guess it’s a good deal. We just give her the bag of dirty clothes, and today or tomorrow we should receive the clothes cleaned. We get like $90 US each month for food, and I think like $30 for personal money. It’s weird cause things are either super, super dirt cheap, or in the wanna-be American parts with American food and nice stuff, they are pretty spendy. I can get food though in the street for like 50 cents US money.

 

Anyway, all is going well with me this week. It sounds like it is going pretty well for you all too. So this week, we have been working with our investigators, contacting, traveling the zone, and stuff like that. Because my comp is the ZL, we get to travel a lot. So I spend a lot of time in buses, or hitchhiking, or walking. Its pretty exhausting, and I think that I am the most tired that I have ever been in my whole life. It is really fun and rewarding though. I have traveled to a lot of the towns outside of Chinandega, and have worked in almost every area of our zone. I go on splits with the other elders about once or twice a day, because my comp is always conducting baptismal interviews and stuff like that. So yeah, I am doing really well here, and I get to work a lot with the other elders in our zone.

 

We have contacted a lot this week, like last week. Contacting or tracting is the way we get any of our investigators in the mission. The members never really give us referrals, so tracting is the primary way to get new families. I have gotten a lot better at the street contacting this week, and its pretty cool talking to the people. 

My shower

I have become convinced that every old Latino is crazy. Especially the men, all of the old grandpa Latinos are super crazy, and talk about the weirdest things. We were teaching this old crazy dude named Pedro, and we didn’t talk that much, because he just kept rambling on about his heart and his feelings. It’s pretty interesting talking to all of these different people, but it’s really fun. The people don’t have doorbells, they mostly just have a door or gate, so the way we knock doors is actually just yelling into the house, “Buenas!” Its pretty cool, and sometimes we have to yell for a while before someone comes. It’s weird here too, because the sun rises at 5:30, and sets at 5:30. But we still contact until 9 or 9:30. During the night is when most people are in the streets, because they get home from work, and they are relaxing when it cools down a little. It’s pretty cool walking around the streets, and it’s really different, but I’m getting used to it.

Volcano

So a funny story. Last night we were sitting in a member’s house waiting to get fed. I was just sitting there in a chair, and felt something on my arm. It was a little black pellet. I looked up, and on the ceiling was a lizard, and it was pooping on me. Pretty funny. 

Ceiling in my apartment

The bugs here really aren’t that bad; mostly just cockroaches, ants, and lizards in our house. I find a ton of lizards in our house each day, and sometimes I find ants in my bed. It isn’t really that bad though. I have eaten a bunch of cow tongue, but it’s not really that weird, its mostly just chewy.

 

Anyways, I’m glad that you’re all doing well, and I hope that you will have fun next week.

Love you,

Elder Stark