Week 37 San Juan de Maguana: Angry Italians!

Dear Family,

We had a very good week. Monday we had a “Noche de Hogar”, or family home evening, at a member’s house and because my companion is Mexican, they made enchiladas that were really good. Super cheesy and full of chicken; it was super yummy and made me happy. Anyway, we had a really good message about how even though the world changes, our standards shouldn’t. It was a great message, especially because they have an 18-year-old niece living there who is a bit of a tiger (tiger meaning a rebel). She is also menos activa. But anyway, the message must have gotten through because she came to church.

Then the next day we walked all the way out to Jenova, which is about an hour and a half away, so that kind of stunk, but it was was a good time to talk. So we got to Jenova (after an hour and a half of walking), and the lady who we had a cita (appointment) with wasn’t there... so it was an hour plus hike back. The last bit of the hike our feet were hurting so bad we decided just to hitch hike... que vergüenza... but yeah, it was a fun day. Elder J and I got to talk quite a bit!

Wednesday we met a really cool girl named C. She was very interested in our message and so we shared a lesson with her. I got a very cool impression from the lesson. So the next day, we went and met up with this really cool joven (kid) named E, who we had found a week earlier. He is the sobrino (nephew) of a recent convert and he seems really interested. As we were talking with him, his younger brother started trying to argue with us about prophets. It was really annoying, but eventually E told his brother to shut up, which was really funny and awesome!

Thursday was another great day with one of our progressing investigators, M. She’s 23 and is engaged to an inactive returned missionary, who is living in a different country, and they have a kid together. So we were talking to her about the law of chastity, because she is preparing for baptism and her boyfriend is coming in about 2 weeks. As we were talking to her and saying that she needs to talk with her boyfriend… guess who calls? The boyfriend. And M tells him that she is with the missionaries and then asks him if he knows what the law of chastity is! It was one of the most awkward moments of my life sitting there, because we weren’t expecting her to talk to her boyfriend right then and there! Then this Sunday C came to church, so I was super happy about that. Also, the same day we were contacting houses, and we contacted this Italian guy who was shouting and telling us that we need to look for work and stop begging for money! Super rude, but it was a funny experience. Anyway, I ran out of time, but next week I’ll write more.

I love you all and take care,

Elder Stark 

Week 36 San Juan de la Maguana: My house has a hot water heater!

Hey everybody,

So this is week one in the campo of San Juan de la Maguana, and I have thus far lived! I’m just kidding. This area is super cool and I have lots to tell about it.

So my new area is in the city of San Juan de la Maguana. The main city is pretty rich. This is where our house is and where we do most of our work. Our area is huge, absolutely massive! There are tons of people here in the city, but they aren’t very receptive to the gospel. In our area we also have some pueblitos, which are very cool. There’s one that we went to, called Jenova that takes almost an hour to walk to. There are a bunch of goats and pigs in the streets over there. It’s pretty awesome.

The neighborhood that we live in is super nice. Our house is just around the corner from the church, and my zone leader told me that this house is the nicest house in the mission. It’s huge and super nice! And the best part is that it has a hot water heater!!! I was so happy when I heard that. My new comp is Elder J. He’s from Canada, but his parents are Mexican, so he knows perfect Spanish. He’s 25 years old and has 10 months in the mission. Right now there are actually 8 elders living in the house because there is another district in the zone looking for a house. But here in the house is our district Elder M, Elder R, my comp and I. We live with the zone leader, which I think is pretty cool. Also in the mornings, if we wake up at 6:00 instead of 6:30, there is a tennis coach that shows up to teach people at the tennis courts near our house. He has been teaching the missionaries for free. So we do that a lot and it’s a ton of fun. If I stay here for 6 months I’ll probably get pretty good at tennis!

Right now we have 2 progressing investigators, which is a bit tough because in Manoguyabo I had 14 investigators that had a baptismal date, and almost all of them were progressing very well. Here there isn’t much success. Not many people really want to hear us. But that’s all right. We will work super hard until this area booms! 

I love you all and hope everything is going well. Take care and I’ll be home before you know it!

Elder Bailey Stark

Week 35 Santo Domingo: I'm being transfered!

Dear Family,

Wow, so I never thought this day would come, but I’m being transferred. Manoguyabo feels like my home. I actually don’t want to leave this place. I have made so many friends here and have gotten so close to these people. I never thought it would be possible to find this sort of home away from home, but in complete honesty, Manoguyabo feels like home. Elder B, Elder M, and Elder E are my brothers, and this ward feels just like my home ward. But I’m off to start from scratch and meet new people. I found out my new area: I’m going to a little town called San Juan in the 1st branch. It’s close to the border of Haiti and yeah, I’m feeling a bit nervous. My new comp will be Elder J. I think he is from Canada but is Mexican. It should be good! I’m going deep in the jungle and so to get there I’ll have to be at the transfer chapel at 6 in the morning to get on the bus to go to the south transfer chapel. Let me explain a bit, there are 2 parts of this mission: the capital and the south. The south is the part of the country where there is all of the 3rd world stuff. The capital has supermarkets and stuff like that, but in the south, no. So I am here in the capital and we have our own transfer chapel and I have to take a bus to the south transfer chapel and from there to my new area. It will be like a 12-hour trip, but I’m excited. I went to the supermarket here today for the last time and bought myself snacks for the ride! :) Anyway I’m going to a super cool area I think. I’ll be in the same house as the zone leaders!

But the big news this week is that P and Y got married and baptized!!!!!! I can’t tell you guys how long I have been waiting for that day! On Friday they got married, and Elder B and I got to be the witnesses to the marriage! It was super cool! They were so happy and Y was looking very beautiful. The whole thing went very well. There was a weird mix up where they weren’t sure if they would accept our passport copies so we had to call the president’s assistants and they came to be the witnesses. In the end we had the assistants there, and the zone leaders, and the other companionship here in Manoguayabo. So for this wedding we had P and Y with 8 elders! I’m fairly sure everybody thought we were nuts. A little later, Y told me that she got kicked out of her mom’s house because she told her mom that she was going to marry P and her mom didn’t want her to do that. I felt very bad, but Y told us that she is happy with her decision.

Saturday I packed during my spare time, and we had to go to the stake center to fill up the baptismal font. While it was filling up, Elder B and I had a very good conversation about our three transfers together. It was a good talk. Then we went out to work for a bit, but couldn’t focus much because we were so excited for the baptism. We ended up showing up to the baptism more than an hour and a half early! We had to refill the font because it drained a bit after we had filled it up the first time. We just hung around till people showed up and then we got changed into our baptism clothes and got everything ready. Wow! Almost the whole ward showed up to support P and Y! It was a very awesome day! We didn’t have enough chairs for all the people. I got to baptize Y! I really felt my purpose as a missionary as I did the ordinance. I had to redo the baptism because I forgot to say “amen” the first time.

Then the rest of this week I’ve just been packing and saying good-bye to people. One funny story is that there is this return missionary in my ward who is married and we are good friends. He came up to us and said, “Hey since you are leaving, you need to come over to my house and eat lunch”. So we said yeah of course. Anyway his wife made spaghetti. It was the coolest lunch appointment ever! And yeah, I have plans to say good-bye to more people tonight and next week I’ll be in San Juan! I love you all, and stay strong. A big shout out to the ex-Elder Jake Stark! I love you bro.

Love,

Elder Bailey Stark

Week 34 Santo Domingo: Happy Birthday Bailey!

Dear Family,

Well this weekly letter might be a little short because I’ve been responding to all the birthday letters. Thank you all for those; it really means a lot to me. So this birthday was both super awesome and super relaxed. All I really wanted to do on my birthday was work, and we actually had a pretty good day. My companion told everybody that we visited that it was my birthday. It was really nice of him, but you know me, I don’t much like the attention. Anyway, we visited a bunch of people. There was an investigator who made me a super cool flan. By the way, flan is one of the best things ever!

We also got a new investigator named C. He showed up at church last week and he told us, “Hi, I want to be baptized. Please pass by my house.” It was like, “What the freak! Where did you come from?” So we set a baptism date with him this week, and he should be getting baptized the end of this month! We have 14 investigators with a baptism date, which is pretty incredible! I really love the missionary work!

Friday, I went to the supermarket here. It’s kind of like Wal-Mart, but named Calle la Sirena, or in English, Mermaid Street. I bought myself a super cool Gillette razor. It feels super good on my face. It has this cool buzzer thing on it. Anyway, I have plans after the mission for some beard designs that I want to shave on my face. Then Saturday I got the package.  Thank you very much, I really loved it, I was going to make the blue cake, but our gas ran out, so I will do it this next week for sure. The Nerf guns are super awesome! We have had an almost non- stop Nerf war since I got them. And we have only had 6 injuries!  Haha, just kidding. But those guns are super awesome. It’s weird to think that I’m nineteen and still freaking out of a plastic dart gun, but I guess some things will never change!   Anyway, I love you all and hope you all have a great week. Next Monday will be my last one in this area!

Les quiero mucho

Elder Bailey Stark 

Cake #1

Cake #2

Cake #3

Cake #4