Dear Family,
Well, May has
flown by! I cannot believe it’s almost June. On the fourth of June, I will hit
my 6-month mark; it’s insane!!! Time here in the DR is flying! Anyway, here’s
my week:
Tuesday was
Mary's 14th birthday. So from here in the DR, happy, happy, happy birthday,
Mary!!!! I hope you had a fantastic day! That day we went and visited H and C,
they are a less active couple who got baptized 12 years ago and haven’t be to
church since then. They are kind of a mystery to me because I don’t know what
to do with them. Usually with less active members I try to remind them of their
duty to go to church, and help them make steps to get back. But with H and C,
they don’t know of their duty to go to church and don’t even remember who
Joseph Smith is.... It’s kind of a problem. Anyway, we took a member of the
bishopric over there and I think we are going to reteach all of the lessons
with them. I was actually thinking about dropping them because I didn’t see
much hope with them, but I was reading in Jesus
the Christ, (Kyle, Brian, I recommend you both read this book on your
mission) and it was talking about the analogy of the lost sheep and the parable
of the prodigal son. I was pondering
over that because for some reason it hit me pretty hard. As missionaries, it hurts pretty hard when
our investigators don’t progress, or don’t understand, or aren't coming back.
But to God, these are His children and He loves them even more! Anyway, it hit
me and I learned the lesson in D&C 18:10-16 over again!
Now for a bit
of a funny story! Elder B and I were playing dominoes at a member’s house. For
those of you who don’t know, Dominican dominoes are a very competitive game!!!
Elder B and me and a member kid named G, were playing and it was super fun; we
were having a great time. Then.... this super sassy, rude, neighbor girl asked
to play with us. Dun. dun. dun. We said “yes”
of course, and started playing teams. I was on her team, and Elder B and G were
on the other team. This sassy, Dominican chick kept winning and being super
rude, in your face about it to Elder B and G. So I whisper out of the corner of
my mouth to Elder B and say, "Bro, this chick is rude", and he says,
"Yeah, she’s a brat”. I said, ''here, I’ll tell you my tiles so that you
win" and because no one understood English, I would whisper my tiles to
him during the whole game so he would win!!!! It was super fun because the girl
kept getting really pissed off! Elder B were trying unsuccessfully not to
laugh, and then there was G, just chilling having a good time!!!!
Also this week
we had a lesson with M. M is an investigator who is married to a less active
named N. They are super cool and really funny! M always volunteers his wife for
the prayers, and they are just a cute couple. They have one daughter who is 3.
M was investigating the church, but found a bunch of lies on the Internet
about Mormons, so we have to address those and figure it out with him. Right now
we are working on the restoration and answering all of his questions as he has
them. It’s pretty fun and he’s one of those investigators that you really have
to study for, which I like. He is a fantastic guy and is just really nice,
honest and curious. He said last time that he really likes us because we are
teaching him to understand.
Another funny
thing. There’s these stairs that are in our area that we use a lot. They are
huge, long and basically have been constructed in a way that would make Uncle Mark
tear up! Half the steps you can barely get the tips of your toes on, and others
are like 4 feet long and slanted so you almost slip. Anyway, there was one day
where we went to go teach an investigator named Andre who lives at the end of
the stairs. We hiked all the way to his house, down the stairs and found him in
his house, only for him to tell us that he is Catholic and doesn’t want to talk
to us anymore... So we hiked all the way back home, up the terrible stairs and
to our next lesson. We named the stairs, “the stairs of Andre!” And now every time
we walk up them, we yell, “Augh, Andre!”
Saturday we
had a ward activity to try to spark interest in the ward for missionary work. Each
of us had a part for the activity. Elder B shared a talk called “Hastening the
Lord’s game plan.” I highly, suggest that you all read it, especially Kyle and Brian!
Then Elder M showed how members can use Preach
My Gospel. Elder E shared how members have a duty to share the gospel, and
I did a practice where everyone was in a group and they had to invite a friend
to church. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully in these coming months we can get
more help from the ward.
That was my
week! I love you all so much! I love all of your letters. Thank you and have a
good week.
Your servant,
Elder Stark
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| Frying Platanos |
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| They becomes Tostones |
My Typical Day:
6:00- Wake
up.
6:30- Roll
out of bed. Take a freezing cold shower and get dressed.
7:00- Start
making breakfast. What I’ve been doing lately for breakfast is a fried egg
sandwich. I fry the egg and sprinkle all-purpose seasoning on it and put it on
a slice of bread.
8:00- Start
personal study. I should work out, but I don’t have motivation that early in
the morning. For personal study right now I’m reading Jesus The Christ for 30 minutes and reading the scriptures for 30
minutes. I try to read a chapter of the Old Testament, a chapter of the New Testament,
Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
9:30- We do
comp study, which right now we are slowly making our way through Preach My Gospel, going in depth with
all of it!
10:00- I do
about a half an hour of language study. Usually I just use a book they gave us
in the MTC.
10:30 -12:00-
We leave and usually contact or visit less active members.
12:00-2:00-
Lunch, which we cook for ourselves. I cook every other day, and we always cook
Dominican food.
2:00-9:00-
The Lord’s time! We try to get about 7 lessons every day- 2 less active
lessons, 2 member present lessons, and three others.
8:45- We head
back to the house, plan for the next day and cook dinner.
10:30- Get to
bed
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