Week 33 Santo Domingo: Happy Birthday Jake!

Dear Family,

Wow, so this week has absolutely flown by! I’m more or less healed of the chikungunya, but for some reason this virus leaves you with bad joint pain afterwards. So I’ve got a bit of joint pain.  Mostly it’s in the morning, but by the time we finish studying, I’m ready to go. So this week we have been working a lot with a kind name J. He is 19 and is a super relaxed, fun guy. He was investigating the church before, but got scared when the baptism date came. About 3 weeks ago he showed up at church and said, “Hey! I’m ready to start taking the lessons again and get ready for baptism.”  We were like, okay! We can help you with that!!!! He’s really great and understands everything right as we teach it, which, you know is pretty nice. We teach him about 3 times a week and he is progressing quickly! Last week he asked us, “So when are you going to put a baptism date with me?” So of course we responded, “well right now!” He will probably get baptized the 26th of August.

I have been studying that book you guys sent me, Articles of Faith. It is one of my favorite books and I am devouring it. I love it! Who would of that that I’d be here freaking out over a gospel doctrine book?  I guess crazy stuff happens in the mission! Personal study is one of my favorite hours of the day here. I love learning more, and having my understanding increase. We were also able to contact the B family again. They were off the radar for a bit and weren’t answering their phone. So we decided to use some ingenuity. The 1st counselor of the bishopric has an iPhone so we used an app called “whatsup” and sent a message with our fotos and re-established communication. Haha, technology rocks!!!! I actually read a talk about how technology is here to help establish the kingdom of God and it’s very true. We are also making great progress with J M. He told us again that he will soon be an active member of the church. He is a great investigator! Another awesome thing that happened this week is yesterday we had a lesson with P and Y with the mission president present. We set it all up and the president came. We also had the bishop and his wife there! It was a lesson about eternal marriage. And so we, the missionaries, didn’t do anything more then introduce the subject. Then the President and P and the bishop and his wife talked and taught the whole thing! It was a super spiritual moment for P and Y. They are trying to get to the point of celestial marriage, and to have the president his wife, and the bishop and his wife, testify of the power of a temple marriage was fantastic! I loved it and am very grateful that I have this blessing in my home!

And yeah that’s my week. Happy birthday, Jake! I love you bro! Stay strong these last 10 days! Love you all.

Stay strong and I'll see you soon.

Elder Bailey Stark

Week 32 Santo Domingo: Happy Birthday Owen!

Hey family,

Wow! What a week. This week is one of those where the days dragged on forever, but the whole week flew by. So, the beginning of this week, I had the dreaded Chikungunya Virus. But yeah, I healed! I still have a bit of joint pain, but that’s all right. Also happy birthday Owen!!!!!! The big 17.

I’m doing super good, and will give a bit of a play by play of my week:

Sunday I was sick in the house. But you guys know me; I couldn’t just lay in bed. So I did a super deep scripture study on the commandments, and how to better explain them to my investigators. So yeah fun stuff.  But that day we had a super important lesson at 8:00 with P and Y. This lesson was vital for them and if we didn’t teach it that day, they wouldn’t make their baptism date on August 2. So I got ready and we left at 7:15 to start walking. Normally it takes us about 10 minutes to get to their house, but because I was walking so slow, it took us 45. But we had a very super special lesson and P shared his testimony about the commandments and how he overcame drinking. It was a really special moment. We were late walking back to the house, (Woops!) but it was worth it for that sweet spiritual moment!

This week I’ve been making some visual aids for some investigators. Do you remember E, my first baptism? Well, we started working with her three kids so that they can get baptized. They are great kids, but they don’t know how to read and teaching is pretty slow. Then Wednesday, we had exchanges with ward members so that we could do all the work that we had planned out. It would have been really great, but everyone that we planned to visit weren’t home. It stunk, but that happens. 

Friday, we had a pretty good day. It was interesting because our entire zone went to one ward and we divided up with Priesthood leaders to look for the less active of the ward. So this Friday we did that in Villa Aura and it was pretty fun. We found quite a few people and I felt like it was a success. 

Sunday, we were waiting for P and Y to show up, but they never did. We called them and they said that something had happened. So when we went over there that night, we were pretty nervous. They were supposed to get married today, but Y got in a huge fight with her mom about it. Y’s mom thinks she’s making the wrong decision marrying P. So P and Y decided to postpone the wedding until after they get things resolved with her mom. Which means that I will probably get transferred before the get married and baptized. I’m pretty sad about it, but who knows, they could get it worked out before I leave. That night I spent a good 35 minutes on my knees praying for them, but my faith is being tested a little bit with this one.

Anyway, those were the highlights of my week. I hope you all have a good week, and just so you know, I love you and am praying for you. 

Elder Bailey Stark

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Week 31 Santo Domingo: Chikungunya!!

Dear Family,

Well, this week has been one of the crappier weeks of my mission. I got what they call the Chikungunya.  Good luck pronouncing that one. So, I’ll start out with what we did before Chikungunya struck.

The big success that we are having this week is in JM. He is practically made of gold! This man is so prepared for the gospel. Since we invited him to church, he has come every time, and after the third lesson, he said that very soon we will see him as an active member of the church! He is 36 years old and a pretty big guy. He has 4 kids, and they are all girls. Poor guy! Haha! Anyway, he is a super good guy. All he needs to do is get married to his girlfriend. After that, he can get baptized! He will be a great member of the church. 

Also, side note, this week I finished reading the book, The Great Apostasy and I really loved it! I learned a lot from it.

We also had the opportunity to watch The Restoration movie with the B family last week. That was a super great lesson! They loved the video and had some really great questions about temples. We paused the movie so that we could talk about what happens in temples a bit, and had a really sweet moment about how family can be together forever. I think that they will get baptized this transfer. We just have to talk to H about coffee and pornography and then they can get baptized. They are already married which is a huge blessing!

Thursday the Chickungunya struck! I woke up with pain in my ankle, and by the time we left I had pain in my knee. After the first lesson it was in my hip and wrist, and in the second lesson I saw the hives on my arm. We kept going until it started hurting to walk, and then we went home. I woke up the next day feeling stiff, but not too bad. So I cleaned the house a bit and when I got done I laid down on the bed and couldn’t move because it hurt so much. My joints really started hurting, but I finally got the strength to take a shower. When I got my shirt off, I realized that the rash had spread all over my chest and shoulders and back.  It looks like chicken pox, but doesn’t itch like that. That day we didn’t leave at all, and I couldn’t eat. All I did is drink lots of water and juice. The next day I woke and had pain, not just in my joints, but also in my whole body. Fun stuff right :) So that day I didn’t really do much- just studied and slept. But that night we had an activity at the church where we invited all the investigators to the chapel in order to teach The Restoration in one night. We each took turns teaching a part. Then we watched the Joseph Smith video. It was a good activity, but as a district, we only had 10 investigators there. It was a good first attempt though. When I got home from the activity, I looked in the mirror and saw that the hives had spread to my face, and my palms, and the soles of my feet. So yeah! Sunday, I hobbled to church where everybody pointed out that I have Chikungunya. Then we went to lunch at a member’s house. By that time, I was so drained that we just went home until it was time for our appointment with P and Y. I really wanted to keep this appointment, so we walked super slowly to their house. They are close to baptism and they need all the lessons before they can. So we taught them all of the commandments in one lesson. I was so tired at the end of the lesson. And, yeah, that was my week.

Love,

Elder Stark

Week 30 Santo Domingo: I love this place

Dear family,

Wow, so this week... parts flew by and other parts dragged on. But hey, that’s life right? I just want all of you to know that I love this place. It is so awesome, even if it feels like I’m getting cooked when I wake up. Hahaha. But one plus is, from what I’ve heard, this summer has been pretty dry, which means it’s hotter, but we don’t have to walk in the rain.  There’s no way to win!  But anyway, we had tons of success this week. 

So we started out the week with a crazy packed day on Tuesday. We were able to have members in all of our lessons that day. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow we got members in every lesson!  We also got 3 references from the 3 kids of my first baptism. We also had a lesson with JM. He’s kind of a new investigator, but is super great. He really loves our church and wants to join. The only problem is his girlfriend goes to the Catholic Church and wants him to get married with her in the Catholic Church. We will continue to work with him. Anyway, we had a really good lesson with him and a member of the bishopric. It was just a super great lesson with a really strong spirit. We also had another super great lesson that day. It was with the C family. They are a really great family. It is E and A, and it’s super cool because A has a brother who is a bishop in the stake. We are working with them to get them to church.

On Wednesday we had interviews with President Nuckols, which was super cool because it was the first time. So we showed up and waited for our turn. While my companion was being interviewed, I talked with the mission president’s wife, which was fun because she doesn’t know any Spanish. I kind of feel bad for her, but that’s where we all start.

This week we also had a lesson with E and H. Wow, these guys are made of gold! They are getting baptized this transfer for sure. They need to attend church two times and then they are good to go! I love them and they are so funny. They have a 2-month-old baby and they are so paranoid of mosquitos. Anyway, we showed up at their house and H opened the door wearing his wife’s headband, holding a tennis racket electric bug zapper thing.  It was just super funny! So they are our second family that is ready for baptism. The first is P and Y! We had another lesson with them Sunday and they are super ready for baptism. They have a date for August 9th and will make it! 

Well, I love you all. Stay strong and I’ll see you next week! 

Elder Bailey Stark