#47 Managua (Villa Venezuela)

29 July 2013

Hey family,

Well yeah, now I’m not a teenager anymore, so it looks like you'll all have to respect me now and let me sit at the adult table, and do all things adult. Just kidding, but it’s funny to think that I'll no longer be a teenager.

So yesterday was my birthday. We didn’t do anything special and it just felt like a normal day, but that was all right with me. I was hoping that I'd have a good birthday though, and I did. We brought 2 families of investigators to church, and that made me very happy. Also, during the changes meeting, I got the package from the family, as well as the package from Aunt Laura. It was awesome, and I really liked all of the stuff I got. The brownies that you sent got a little squished, and one of them exploded. But all in all, it was awesome. I read the letter from Henry saying something like, "The stuff in the tissue is to annoy your comp.” So I found this tissue paper thing, and as while I was examining it, I was thinking, "What could this possibly be?" But yeah, it turns out that it was some noisemaker. Typical Henry. But tell him thanks. The Latino missionaries were all confused, and were like, "What is the purpose of this?" Good stuff. So now I’m LOADED with candy and snacks and M&Ms and all of that good stuff. Be sure also to tell Aunt Laura thanks for all of the stuff. It was awesome, and I especially like the tie.

Oh, so I should probably explain the changes. We had the transfers and nothing got changed. The only person that left our house was Elder E, and he got moved to be a zone leader in Tipitapa. So I’m still with my companion, Elder C. But we're doing well. We have a new missionary in the house named Elder F. He is from Utah, and I knew him from Bello Horizonte. He's pretty cool, and everything is normal in the house. So yeah, that’s about all that happened with the change meeting this month. But during the change meeting, the President said that he has heard from some of the Stake Presidents that the missionaries don’t have enough money for food. So he said that he is going to start giving all of us 300 Cordobas more every 15 days. That is awesome, and will really help us out.

So on Thursday, we had a sweet day as the missionary work goes. We just kind of followed the spirit, and went and visited the families we are teaching. In every one of the appointments, we put a baptism date with the family. So now we have 4 families with baptism dates for the next couple weeks. And we have brought many of the families to church already. It’s totally awesome, and we are, as we would say in the mission, "throwing fire". Everyone is really amazed, and we are doing great. So yeah, needless to say, I’m super excited.

I’m really excited though about Bailey’s mission papers (soon to be Elder Stark). I have a feeling that he will go

1. Stateside: East coast. Maybe Pennsylvania.

2. Foreign: South America. Chile or something like that.

2. Exotic: Nicaragua Managua South mission .... Seriously, if he came here, I would literally poop my pants.

But yeah, that’s awesome that he'll be joining the ranks of the missionaries. Think about this. Next Christmas, we may need to do a giant group Skype so that we can all talk. How awesome would that be????? But I really hope that he learns Spanish. For me, the first 6 months in the mission field were really frustrating because I didn’t know very well what was going on, but once you get the language down, it’s awesome. Right now I’m loving Spanish.

So I’ll tell you all a funny story. While we were teaching one of our families, we were explaining tithing, and during the lesson, a crazy drunk dude came wandering into the living room. He was nuts. He was asking for food, and was super stubborn. So finally, some of the guys we were teaching picked him up and put him outside on the curb. He was saying, "Give me some fooooooood.... I haven't eaten in 44 days!!!" We were all kind of busting up laughing, and the family we were teaching said, "JUST COME BACK IN AN HOUR!!!"  And the guy responded in his slurred Spanish "I'll be dead in an hour. Give me food now!" But yeah, it was super random, and was very funny. Crazy drunk guy. There seems to be a large number of drunk men that just wander the streets here in my area. They are called "bagos". And we get harassed a lot by the bagos.

But yeah, as you can see, all is going pretty well here. The missionary work is awesome, and we should be baptizing soon. We work a lot with our ward mission leader, and he will spend the whole day in the streets with us. Pretty cool guy. And most of the people that we teach are people that we have found on our own efforts. No references here. And we just teach the people in their own homes. There aren’t a lot of members that help us, but that’s just how it is in this area. 

Anyway, life is good and I’m having fun.  For P-day today, we played some volleyball and soccer, and that was cool. I got some cool soccer shoes that I bought from Elder E because he didn’t have room in his suitcases.

I hope that you are all doing well at home. Think about it, you'll never have to send me a birthday package again, because my next birthday, I’ll pretty much be going home. Time flies, and I’m just trying to enjoy every minute, because I feel like this next year is just going to go really fast.

Audios,

Elder Stark

#46 Managua (Villa Venezuela)

July 22, 2013

Why hello family!

Thanks for the huge email this week. It sounds like you all had a pretty good time this weekend, and that the drive was pretty long. But that’s awesome. I didn’t know that you were all going to go camping. That’s pretty awesome though. I can just imagine Henry trying to shoot some chipmunks with his new slingshot. Good stuff. Remember when we tried to hike in and deliver the Ho-Hos? And then Bailey-pants got off of the mountain, and didn’t even recognize the car of ours parked right next to their car. Crazy stuff... But that’s good that the hiking was good.

So life has been pretty normal for us. Normally, during the week, I write down the stuff that I want to tell you in my agenda, but this week I forgot my agenda in the house. So yeah... sorry if the letter this week is kind of jumbled.

Basically, not too much has changed. We have just been working like normal, and we had a ton of investigators in the church again. That included 2 families. Pretty awesome stuff. The families were 1. H. and K. and 2. L. and D. They all loved the church, but I don’t know if L. and D. learned much, because they have a little one year old girl that is very very fussy... The baby was crying the whole time, and it was no bueno. But anyways, the families are super cool, and I feel like H. and K. are going to get baptized really, really soon. They’re just a little hesitant, but soon we'll do the baptism interview and get them in the water. It’s awesome here. We had one lesson in particular that was totally rocked it with H. and K. It was me, one of our ZLs, and our ward mission leader. Anyways, we had a sweet lesson, and sung some hymns, and it was really really awesome. I was thinking about the promise in D&C 84:85 about  "Ni os preocupéis tampoco de antemano por lo que habéis de decir; mas atesorad constantemente en vuestras mentes las palabras de vida, y os será dado en la hora precisa la porción que le será medida a cada hombre. ". (YEAH, SORRY THAT CAME UP IN SPANISH, BUT THAT’S WHAT LDS.ORG IS LIKE HERE. Maybe you can get the gift of tongues and try to see what it says :). Or you can just look it up) 

But truthfully, like I was saying, whenever we enter into a lesson, we never really prepare much. We just trust that the Spirit will guide the lesson, and that we'll say the right things. And it is totally true. Especially in the lesson we had with H. and K. It just seemed like it was a really good lesson, and that the Spirit was especially strong. Everything was clear, and they seemed really cool and happy. Good stuff. It was one of the best lessons on my mission, and we were all very happy after. H. and K. have said that they're totally down to get baptized, but they just want the answer from God. Obviously, they've gotten the answer before, because they said that right before we met them they had been praying that they could find the correct church. Also they say that since they've gone to the church, their lives have been more peaceful, and that everything has improved. It’s obvious that they've received the answer, but they just haven’t recognized it... But yeah... Were stoked.

So that’s about the coolest thing that’s been happening this week. We have the changes this week on Wednesday, and I am 99.9% sure that my comp is leaving. So that is kind of cool. Changes are always fun, and I bet that I’ll get those packages finally. Very fun. Other than that though, life is normal, and we're just working hard. 

So yeah, now that we can drink Coke, the members have been going loco. We have been receiving Coke from the members wherever we go... and its starting to become too much. One day for lunch, we got a 2-liter of Coke just for 2 people.... me and elder E. For whatever reason... we drank all of it... and after we felt very sick. While we were drinking it, we were totally making some good jokes and taking some funny pictures. In one of the pictures, all you need to do is look at our faces, and that should give a clear indicator of how we were feeling... Funny stuff. We both went out and even bought our "envase retornable" (returnable bottle) of Coke, so yeah, we're all partying it up 24/7 with the Coca-Cola.

Oh, here is something cool that I just remembered. The 19th of July here is the day of the Revolution, and it’s a HUGE deal here. That also happens to be Owen’s birthday... But anyways, everyone from everywhere comes to Managua, and goes to the central plaza named Malecon (I went there once for a p-day in Bello. It’s the Whitehouse of Nicaragua). But anyways, there is a huge party, and Mr. Ortega comes out of hiding and gives a little message. But the city has been plastered with propaganda for the past month or so, and everyone has been in full party mode. I now have got 3 Daniel Ortega shirts, but I’ve decided not to wear them anymore. I'll just wear them when I get home. People just harass us too much as gringos when we wear the shirts. But yeah, it was crazy, and on the 19th we didn’t really get anything accomplished, because everyone was out partying. Maybe you can look it up on the internet, because I bet there is a bunch of stuff about it. 

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for you all this week. I'm sure that there is a bunch more that happened, but my mind is kind of blank right now. Peace out, and if you have any questions, shoot me an email.

Audios.

Elder Stark

(Today, I have 11 months in the mission.... ALMOST 1/2 BABY!!!!!!!))))

#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