Week 7 Santo Domingo: Great Week!

Dear Family,

Okay so first off big shout-out to Henry for being 11 years old!!! This week has been good. We’ve had lots of work this week.  

So on Tuesday, we had a pretty normal day. But we ended the day with a noche de hogar, which is a family home evening. We played Uno which was a lot of fun, but we went over on time and had to sprint a quarter mile back to our house to make it back on time! It was nuts. Running down the streets in the dark is kind of scary because you have to dodge a bunch of stuff as you run past.

The next day, we had a slow morning because my comp had the gripe, which is essentially a cold. So we got ready and went to district meeting. Then we went on intercambios, which was a little tough because it was all Spanish all day!!! But it went well, lots of walking! Oh, also during lunch, I had an epic battle with the neighbor’s 3-year-old kid with bowling pins. It was super funny because he kept trash talking in Spanish about how he was going to win and kill me. Super funny!

Then, Thursday was a normal day again. We are teaching a guy named J and we were able to set a fecha (date) for baptism for him, which was awesome. I’m super pumped for that. Then we had an activity at the house of a lady we are baptizing this Saturday and that was super fun. It rained a ton that day and there wasn’t any power, but we still had a good time!

Okay, so Friday was a lot of fun! We fried empanada dough into funny shapes at a member’s house. I sent some pictures of that. It was awesome. Then we ended the day with a lesson with two investigators, L and H are super great people. My companion and I probably taught the best restoration lesson ever! It was amazing. We had great flow, and we even had a member present who said all the right stuff and it was great!

So Saturday we started out the day by taking a taxi to the stake center to fill up the baptism font. Then I taught a lesson about forgiving others to a menos activo (less active) lady who wouldn’t go to church because another member had offended her. But the lesson went really well, and led into a super spiritual conversation and she now wants to go to church more and reactivate herself. So that was great. And then we had E’s baptism, which was awesome! We had a bunch of people there and it just went really well!

Sunday, we were walking to church and we saw this kid walk out holding a live chicken upside down. He took it over to a garbage pile and grabbed a stick and killed the chicken by hitting it like a baseball! Turns out it was a fighting chicken and the chicken lost the cock fight. Funny stuff! Then we had church and the temple president was there. He remembered me and said that my Spanish is really good! Then something really funny happened. We had an activity night at our neighbor’s house and so we brought over hymn books and Uno cards and our mini DVD player. We watched a video about families and played Uno. Well, our neighbor has 2 kids; a 3 year old and a 2-month-old baby. So the 3 year old was playing with the books and somehow put a guide for lactating mothers booklet in our hymn books... We accidentally took it home and then we were trying to figure out how to return it. So my companion distracted her while I put the booklet through the window! It was super, super funny!

Love you all,

Elder Stark

Week 6 Santo Domingo: I asked my shoes to be baptized!

Dear family, 

Hope you guys are all doing good back in the states! I´m excited to hear about Henry’s birthday. So this week has been absolutely nuts!!! On Tuesday we all had to wake up at 5 in the morning and take all our stuff downstairs to wait for the guagua, which is a bus that they shove as many people into as possible. This one was nice though. Then we all hopped in and headed to the chapel to find out who our trainer would be. I got an elder named Elder M, who is awesome!!! He’s from Utah, super tall and really nice. We have a lot in common with books and TV shows. Then we went back to our house, which is in Santo Domingo and prepped for the day. We went out teaching and I felt like I was able to contribute some, which was good. I also live with 2 Latinos who act like 7-year olds, so we call them the munchkins!

On Wednesday we started out the day with a marriage, which was awesome! Now this lady, E, can get baptized.  After that we had lunch, and headed out to go teach. We taught a lady named M, who is super awesome and super prepared. She is a good friend with the primary president in our ward because they both have kids with special needs. Anyway, I´m not sure what I said during that lesson but the primary president started crying because The Spirit was so strong. It was super awesome and we were able to set a baptismal date with M that lesson. Next, we taught a part-member family who are great. They are really nice and one of their daughters has two thumbs on one hand, which I thought was interesting. Then we went to the chapel to have a meeting with the ward mission leader. After the meeting, the bishop gave me a blessing, which was super awesome!! I also tried this drink that’s made out of beans and it was super yummy! Not much happened on Thursday, just a couple of lessons.

Friday was tough for me, but very successful! We went out with a kid who is about to leave for his mission in Mexico. So the whole day it was all Spanish, and I got a headache from trying to understand. But in the morning we had a zone meeting, which was cool because I got to meet everybody in the zone and they are all super cool. But anyway, we were teaching a lady about baptism, and right as I was about to ask her to be baptized, she starts breastfeeding! So I asked my shoes if they would like to be baptized!!! Super funny!

Saturday we did a zone service project painting a building. So naturally, I’m carrying a big bucket of paint and I sprained my ankle and spilled paint everywhere in the parking lot... it was embarrassing! But on the bright side, I taught a good lesson on faith later that day! On Sunday, we had church, which was awesome. I love my ward! We had like 6 people there who we teaching. It was insane!! Then later, we had a meeting with all the ZL’s, DL’s and bishoprics and stake presidencies in Santo Domingo. I was able to go because my comp is the district leader. I didn’t get much out of it because it was in Spanish, but I got to see Elder C from the CCM, which was cool. After that, we only had time for one lesson with a new investigator, but she was super open to the gospel, and we were able so set a baptism date with her. Then right after we set the date, her daughter shows up and she was a fresca (pronounced freca-it’s a word for a girl who flirts with the missionaries) and she kept telling me that I have beautiful eyes.  Right before I was about to say the closing prayer, she asked me if I was looking for a girlfriend. So I said a super fast prayer and we got out of there!!! Scary! 

Today we cleaned the house, went to the store, and then went to the ward mission leader’s house for a super yummy lunch. It was saucy rice with chicken in it, but it was really good! And yeah, that was my week. I hope everything is good at home.

Love,

Elder Stark

Week 5 MTC: Crazy Adventures!

Dear Family,

So this week was interesting. I had good days and bad days. On Friday we got to go on splits with the other missionaries in the West Mission, which was awesome.  I got to see a bit of Santo Domingo. It’s very crazy here. There is trash everywhere and no traffic laws are ever followed!!! We went to a stake center in the mission and then were assigned someone to go with. I was assigned a guy from Rupert, Idaho! We started walking and it was great. As we were walking, I saw a bunch of army guys on mopeds riding through the street with M16 looking guns in their hands. It was nuts!  We went to one lady’s house and taught a lesson. She didn’t seem too happy with it, but after that we went contacting. We had two really good contacts that day. One was a woman that we were able to share a message with on her porch. She was holding her baby that looked like it was only a couple weeks old. But that was a good contact. I was able to bear my testimony to her and it was super cool! The other good contact was another lady who said she teaches at the university.  Before we met her, my “companion” was buzzing all the houses in this apartment building trying to get someone to let us in. When I realized the door was unlocked, we just went in.  Apparently, sometimes it’s hard to get into places like this. My comp was sneaking past all the windows so I asked him why, and he said, “I don’t was the guard to see us.” So I asked him which one was the guard.  He said that it was the guy outside with the AK47, and I got a little scared. But my comp assured me that he would only ask us to leave if he saw us. So that was an awesome adventure!!!!

On Sunday this week I burned my hand helping make pizza for all the districts.  The pizza was really good, so I didn’t mind! And yeah, that was pretty much my week :) super fun! That’s awesome about Henry turning 11 pretty soon. Crazy stuff! I bet Owen is doing great in wrestling, which is awesome!

Love you guys,

Elder Stark part 2

Week 4 MTC: Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Dear family,

So this week was a normal week. Our district got to go contacting at the university, but I wasn't able to go because of my companion’s injured knee. It was a little bit of a bummer, but hey, that’s life. We have started playing a game with the Uno cards that you sent me with. We sit in a circle and we draw cards and do as many pushups as are on the card. It sounds silly, but it’s a lot of fun! We play that most nights with usually five guys.

We had to say goodbye to the elders and sisters headed to

Jamaica. They were super cool so it was sad to see them go. Also we had

a great devotional by Elder Holland that was broadcasted from Provo. Super cool! The MTC devotionals are fantastic. I think you should look into them Dad! The next day, after the Jamaicans left, we had the older North

Americans and Latinos leave so it was just our district here for New Year’s Eve and New Years. By the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!

On New Year’s Eve, got this one elder rolling on the floor because he was laughing so hard. I don’t even remember the joke but it was funny to see someone laughing that hard!! On New Year’s Day the MTC president and his counselors took us to an American fast food chain restaurant. That was awesome! It felt just like a retro burger joint. It was fantastic! We also had a new group of Latino elders show up and we got pizza for dinner so it was a great day.

I’ve got one teacher here at the MTC who is amazing. His name is

Hermano N. and he is super funny. He always quotes movies and makes

Jokes, but at the same time is a super caring guy. My Spanish is coming along. I go on splits tomorrow, so I hope it’s good enough. Anyway, that was my week. Let me know what you did for dad’s birthday, and what you guys have been up to.

Love,

Elder Stark