Week 11 Santo Domingo: P.S. I love it here!

Dear Family,

So this week not much happened. We lost our cleaning competition with the sisters in our zone :( They got a 98% and we got a 96%, so that kind of sucked. But we made the zone some really great sugar cookies. That was part of the competition; the losers had to make cookies for the entire zone. 

This week I had my first intercambios (exchanges) with the zone leaders. I was with an elder from Colombia. He is like a big Latino teddy bear and it was a lot of fun. I even had a hamburger for dinner that night!!!! I also ate some interesting Dominican steak this week. Interestingly, the thing I hate most are avocados. I really like the sausage though.

Being here is very good for me. I am learning a lot of good lessons. We teach about 30 lessons a week, and are doing a lot of work with people who are less active. It’s pretty great. Our recent convert, M, has given us three really great prospective referrals. I’m excited about that!

My companion and I get along like peanut butter and jelly! We have a ton of the same interests and we are getting to be really good friends!

I miss you all tons!!! Also send lots of pictures, I love them!!!! I would send pictures, but they say that this computer has a virus on it, so I’m going to wait till next week.

Love,

Elder Stark

P.S. I love it here!!

Week 10 Santo Domingo: Who would have thought that I'd have to handle a problem like this...

Dear Family,

So this week was rather boring, but there’s a bit of info you might like to hear. It turns out our investigator/recent convert M is pregnant. She slept with a guy right before we taught her about chastity. Kind of an interesting twist. I also had my first interview with the Mission President, which was good. He is a really great guy!

But the real story for this week happened last Monday after I emailed home. We went to an appointment with a lady, and right in the middle of the lesson my comp got a call. He looked at me and said we needed to go. So we said a prayer and left. The call came from the Young Women’s president who said she had Y and her sister at her house and she didn’t know what to do.  We started running to Hermana Santa’s house (the Young Women’s president). On the way, my comp filled me in. The two girls’ dad is a pretty abusive man and tonight was a bad night. The girls were late to school and chose to skip instead of go in late, because they already had to many tardies. Anyway, we were running to Santa’s house, which is clear on the other side of our area. Walking there would take us probably 25 minutes, so we decided to take a shortcut through a river. We were running and we got to the river and it was dry... absolutely no water! My comp says he’s been here for 4 months and has never seen it dry. It was a miracle from God. So we crossed the river on dry ground and ran up to the Santa’s house. The first counselor in the bishopric was already there. We sat down and started talking to Y, the 17 year old girl, and she told us what happened. While she spoke, I have never felt such charity before. It was very powerful. She told us what had happened, and we offered her and her sister (the one that got hurt) a blessing. Her sister asked me to give her the blessing and I could feel the gift of tongues as I spoke. Brother F, the first counselor in the bishopric, gave Y a blessing of comfort. We shook hands with the girls and Y kept saying, ”Gracias, Elder Stark. Gracias.” I really wish I could of done more.

We then left with the counselor to go talk to the dad. Brother F did all the talking, but Elder M and I were there for moral, physical, and priesthood support. Brother F spoke very calmly and openly and handled everything super well. He is a really level-headed guy. It was getting late, and we were going to have to leave Brother F there by himself, when the Elder’s Quorum President and his cousin showed up. We were able to leave with just enough time to run home and get there on time. Another miracle! It was a huge testimony builder and one of the most spiritual moments of my life!  Super crazy experience. 

Who would think that I’d be here, handling problems like this. It’s mind blowing to think about.

Love,

Elder Stark

Week 9 Santo Domingo: Just plain bat poop crazy!

Dear Family,

This week has been nuts, but also super awesome! Some really cool stuff has been happening in our area. Also, I have eaten so much spaghetti here, it’s unreal!!! So. Much. Spaghetti. It’s very different though. They throw everything in. The best spaghetti I’ve had yet had corn, pork chops and cheese in it. But it’s either spaghetti or rice for food. Usually I have pasta or ramen for dinner if we don’t get fed somewhere else. Also my new favorite food is a banana smoothie. It has bananas, sugar, milk, oatmeal and ice. It’s super healthy and yummy.

So last Monday we went into the main city area of Santo Domingo to buy fabric because my companion is getting a suit made for him. Then we had a family night for M, our recent convert, which was super good. And guess what we had for dinner. Spaghetti.

Tuesday we had a good time. We all got together for a practice lesson on the plan of salvation. Elder A and I were the investigators and Elder M and M were the missionaries. We had some good jokes during that, which was fun, but I also learned a lot. Then later that day we had a appointment with a super flirty less active girl which was kind of annoying because she just wanted to flirt. But the big news of the day concerned our two investigators. They were golden. Their names are P and Y. Anyway, we kept trying to call them all last week because they were ready for baptism; all they needed was to get married. But we found out that they broke up so we were kind of shocked. We tracked down P and asked him if he was still on board for baptism, and he said he was. We will have to wait and see on Y, but I think she still wants to be baptized too.

Wednesday, I went with Elder A to his area on intercambios, which was a good time. One time during the day I knocked on a door and said, “It’s the missionaries”, and I heard somebody yell a super vulgar word out at me. Then a little kid in diapers walked out!!!! So I got called probably one of the nastiest words in the Spanish language by a baby! Elder A and I cracked up! We taught a few more lessons and at the end of the day I high-fived Elder M because neither one of us killed our respective munchkin during intercambios!

Thursday was pretty fun. We did service in the morning for a lady named F, and right when we started walking home the rain came. It rains really hard here at least 3 times a week. Anyway, we got soaked! We came home, changed, and were about to cook lunch (spaghetti) when our gas ran out. So we sent our tank off to be refilled, and our neighbor cooked the spaghetti for us at her house, which was really nice.  While it was cooking, we just hung out at her house and I talked about music with some of the people there. One girl who was there downloaded a whole bunch of the songs that I named right there! She illegally downloaded them too. (Dominicans don’t pay for anything if they don’t have to). Then we taught some good lessons. I taught one to a less active lady we are working with named A, and I was able to speak really good Spanish! (I think it was because we started a fast after lunch, and one of the things I was fasting for was my Spanish). Then during planning, Elder M said I was the best trainee he could have asked for which meant a lot!

The next day we had a zone meeting, which was cool. I got a letter from my old primary class, which was awesome! (PS I love letters) Then, as a zone, we went to Picapollo, which is a fried chicken restaurant. Super good! After that, we had a lesson with a reference that our recent convert gave us named A. It went well. Then we taught a few other investigators, including P.

Saturday we had an English class in the morning, which was all right, but then I made lunch and made some super yummy homemade mac and cheese and fried chicken! Then we taught one of our leading investigators named J. We also talked with the mother of our neighbor who is a super nice lady. Her son is prepping for his mission to Mexico, so she loves the missionaries (her son sometimes goes out with us). Then we taught a good Restoration lesson to G (another investigator) over dinner, which was the best spaghetti I’ve had all week! It had ham and cheese and corn in it. And then she brought out chocolate chip cookies for dessert!!! My comp said those are the first chocolate chip cookies he’s had his whole mission! 

Then Sunday we had church, which was lots of fun! Later, we found a less active guy who was crazy... just plain bat poop crazy. He swears that Jesus appeared to him in his room and showed him visions of the future, which confused him because in the vision he saw 4 children, but he only knows of 3 kids that he has. So he kept talking about how he thinks he impregnated an American girl, and he says that he knows how to trick Satan into giving him what he wants. Sometimes he goes to the bar and orders rum, but says that God makes it into water, so it’s not bad. And that he has seen the world in spirit form! Just plain crazy, I’m not sure if we will be able to help him... We also taught Y, who is on board for baptism as well. So all in all, a super interesting day!

Today for p-day we played a game with the zone called betia, which is street baseball played with a broomstick and a water jug cap. It is super fun! I got pretty good at it. I love my zone! It’s just too much fun!

Love,

Elder Stark

Doing service.

Our washing machine

The pouring rain

Week 8 Santo Domingo

Hi family,

Tuesday we spent a few hours trying to find an address, but people in the DR give really bad directions and there are zero street signs. So it took us a while but we finally found the house. The guy wasn’t there, so we decided to go to the supermarket and buy a cake for Elder A. He is a Guatemalan elder that we live with and was his birthday. Then we got back to the house and decorated his room and put the cake out. It was pretty fun. We had streamers everywhere and stuff.

This Wednesday was pretty good, but it had an unexpected twist that night. We were teaching our top investigator, who was going to be baptized this Saturday, about the Ten Commandments. So I was talking about “thou shalt not kill” and she started talking really fast and all I could understand was that she took some pills. My comp looked at me with an “oh no! look” on his face and then he asked her a bunch of questions. He explained to me that about a year ago she thought that she was pregnant, though she wasn’t sure. But she took some pills and everything went back to normal. So she wasn’t sure if she had killed a baby. We decided to call President Rodriguez and let her talk to him. Then she handed the phone back to my comp and the president told us that she wanted to talk to him in person. So he said he would come to our area tomorrow. We kind of freaked out because we hadn’t heard of that happening before.

So Thursday came and we were taking out the trash for our neighbor. We accidently spilt her trash all over the sidewalk and the trash was mostly dirty diapers. Super fun cleaning that up. But she never found out, so that’s good!  Then we had M’s interview with the President. We were waiting at the chapel with M until the president showed up. They spoke while my companion and I talked about the different merits of superheroes. Then president and M came walking out and he told us to call him at 1:00 tomorrow for his answer on whether she could be baptized or not.  He needed time to think and to pray about it.

Friday, we called the president at 1:00. No answer. 2:00, no answer. 3:00 we got the president’s wife who explained that he was driving and would call us when he’s done. He finally calls us back at 8:00 and apologizes that it took so long, but said, “I wanted to be the one to tell you guys that I prayed about it and M can be baptized tomorrow!!” We went nuts we were so happy :)

So the next day was M’s baptism. I went with Elder M to the Stake Center to fill up the font and had to wade through it because it hadn’t been fully drained. And someone had thrown a bunch of paper in it. So I had to clean it and also pull a big centipede out of it, then fill it again. Then my comp and I went to the supermarket for lunch because it was a special occasion. We finished the day with the baptism!!! Super awesome!!!!

Sunday was wet. It rained a lot and I got soaked, but that’s okay. We went to teach one of our investigators whose neighbors are evangelical. The neighbor saw that she was talking to us and told her a bunch of junk about our church and stuff. Also we think that they have been stealing the pamphlets that we left for her. Super annoying but whatever. Then we had a family home evening at a girl’s house who I thought was 14. It turns out she is 24!!! But she’s like 4 foot 6 so it was an easy underestimate. My comp and I taught a good lesson after the food and it was a really good day!

And that was my week. Sorry I don't have pictures. My SD card has a virus, but I am going to get it fixed.

Love,

Elder Stark