Week 68: Herrera: Happy Birthday mom

Happy Birthday mom! For your birthday I have a bunch of pictures for you.

Week 67: Herrera: I love the temple!

Dear Family,

Okay so my P-day is Friday this week. The special occasion is that we went to the temple today. I’m super happy that you guys had a good spring break and that you had a great time in California. I hope you will enjoy the carpet when you get home. I’m excited to hear about it this next Monday.

I always love the temple. But this was a very special experience. It was the new video and I learned a lot of new things, but what made it a super amazing experience is that I really paid attention the feelings I had and really I just felt a lot closer to God. It was just a very special moment where I was able to sit and pray and feel the spirit in a very profound way. I love the temple. We went to the temple with another zone and so I was able to go there with a bunch of old friends. Afterwards they let us eat in the temple and it was cool because I didn’t know the temple had a basement, but after lunch we took the elevator up and it was my comp and I and 2 other missionaries. One of them accidently pressed the third floor and we ended up in the attic of the temple and one of the missionaries freaked out.

          Then as for my area... well, Herrera is smack dab in the middle of the capital. It’s kind of like a concrete jungle, just houses on top of houses and lots of hills. Hardly any green. I’m starting to get a map of the area in my head, but it’s a very, very cool area. The people seem pretty nice, but there are a lot of tigres here and lots of drunk people and prostitutes and stuff like that. But the good thing is that there aren’t very many crazy churches in this area. That makes the work a lot easier. The ward here is really strong. Lots of members and lots of people that actually do their calling. It’s a big change going from a small branch to a big strong ward. In San Juan the missionaries basically had to run the church and do everybody’s callings for them. Here we just do our job! 

As for the investigators, this area is really big and it used to have 4 elders, but now it’s just us, so we have a lot of investigators that the other elders were teaching. There are investigators are all over the place, high and low. They live everywhere. But there are some really good ones. For example, we have this one investigator named M who is an Adventist, but has a lot of faith and we gave her a Book of Mormon and this lady is almost done with 1 Nephi so she’s reading a lot and dropping coffee, but she just needs to come to church. There’s also this guy named C who we contacted.  We started teaching him and he speaks English, so half the lesson is in English and the other half is in Spanish. It’s kind of cool. But he has been reading a ton as well and he loves it. It makes sense to him. We gave him a Book of Mormon and I asked him, “C what are you going to do with that book?” And he said that he was going to read it and the next time we passed by he told us that what I said his him really hard and he read it up to chapter 3. He said that he loves it and that the things in the Book of Mormon are the problems that he faces and lives everyday!  This guy is definitely getting baptized. He just needs to go to church because right now he has a class on Sundays, but when he finishes it he’s promised to go. This week he also accepted a baptismal date! There are a bunch of Haitians here in Herrera so we have a couple Haitian investigators. They are hard to teach, but they are very humble people. People here hate Haitians and there is a big discrimination problem, but luckily we have a couple Haitian members who sometimes help us in the lessons. 

Anyway, I really like it here. Hopefully I'll stay here for a while, but we will see. Let me know if you guys have any questions for me. Also I love you all. Have a great week. And a huge shout out to Anna for joining the Spanish club!

Love,

Elder Stark

ya somos los mejores aun si Anna va a hablar muy rara después de su misión con su acento fino. después que todos regresen de sus misiones vamos a formar un combinación secreto y nadie va a entender nos muhahah

Week 66: Herrera: New area and Elder Holland!

Dear Family,

Wow, well there is a ton to write. So I got transferred to the center of the capital to an area called Herrera. It’s a super cool area. It’s the third oldest ward in the country and it has a huge chapel!!! Well, maybe not that big compared to our chapel back home, but huge compared to the other chapels I’ve had in the mission. Herrera is a really interesting place. It’s full of people and there are tons of hide a homes. There are just houses on top of houses. It’s very different from San Juan, but I really like it. There are lots of hills and stairs, but it’s a very cool area. It was an area of 4 missionaries but now it’s just my comp and I.

My new companion is Elder L from southern Utah near lake Powel. He is a super cool guy. He has been out 20 months. We get along super well. I was kind of worried going into a two-man house, but we have fun. I really like the way Elder L teaches. He was also the elder that trained Elder T so we have some mutual friends.

The house here in Herrera is decent, it’s definitely not like the one in San Juan, but its really cool there’s an extra bedroom and we have access to the roof. The showers aren’t as cold as I thought they would be, but its definitely not hot water.

There are some really good investigators here in Herrera. There are several that will get baptized really soon so I’m pretty excited for that. It’s cool to come into a prepared area! 

So the big, big, big news of the week is that last Thursday we had a devotional that was with Jeffrey R Holland!!! It was super, super amazing for two reasons. One was because it was the whole mission so I got to see all the friends that I’ve made in the mission, and second because it’s Elder Jeffrey R Holland!!!

So firstly it was super awesome to see everybody from the whole mission. I got to see all my friends that I have missed during my time in San Juan. I think that best was to see Elder J, my ex companion. He and I got to be really good friends and we hadn’t seen each other in like 6 months, but we email each other every once in a while and also talk on the phone. I sat next to him during the conference and it was super fun making jokes and talking about old times. He is kind of an older guy, but even though he is 7 years older then I, we are still best friends.

Then Elder Holland wow..... So we were all seated there and he came in and wow, there was such a spirit just as he walked in. He told President Nuckles that he wanted to shake everybody’s hand, so we got up line-by-line and we all got the chance to shake his hand! Super cool. He looked straight into my soul I’m pretty sure. Anyway, he didn’t send me home, so I must have made the cut :)  But Elder Holland started talking and at one point he had to step out to “call in to the quorum” and he made a really funny joke. He said that he was just going to step out and that when he came back he would tell us if we needed to run to Jackson county or not!  Super funny, but he gave a very spiritual talk and he was walking up and down the aisles as he talked and it was super cool. I’ll write you guys a little bit more of what he talked about, but we are running out of time.

Well everybody, I love you all. Hope you all had a great week and take care.

Con cariño,

Elder Stark

Week 65: San Jaun de Maguana: Transfers!

Mom and Dad,

Thank you so much for the email. I do have a lot of stuff to do, but you will be proud of me because I was a good servant and I am almost packed and I have all my clothes nicely washed and everything. The only thing is that I have a lot of shoes. I have bought 2 pairs of shoes during my time here in San Juan. I have some super cool ones that are wine colored wing tips that are my favorite because they are super old school. I have a cool hipster missionary look going on. Everything being within mission standards. I also had some new temple pants made because mine don’t fit me anymore. Those are super cool as well.

So this week was pretty crazy. I’m glad you guys all had a great week and sorry that mom and Mary are sick. Dad have you given them a blessing? The priesthood is super powerful. A couple weeks ago the other elders in my district had an investigator who couldn’t go to church because she had a foot infection and couldn’t walk. So the gave her a blessing on Saturday and she was able to walk to the bus stop the next day and came to church! So yeah blessings!!!! 

I really miss The Village. That’s cool that you got some cheap Gap stuff. Here in the market I buy ties for a quarter each. I also can get a pair of pants made for me for 10 dollars. And that’s a fitted pair of pants where they take your measurements and everything and you can get them with cool stuff on the insides and cool pockets. This week I had some pure white pants for the temple and baptisms made because mine are now way to big.

Also dad, I’m not sure if my great grandpa looks like me, but I think I’m going to make a sweet genealogy agenda with that picture! Is there any chance that you could get a picture of you at that age as a missionary in black in white?

I’m not going to lie, I’m very jealous about your vacation to California that will be super cool. You and the Schriever’s will have a great time. And Eli will be a dad soon with his new baby girl. That will be super cool! I think it would be super cool to go to Alcatraz. That will be a wild adventure.

Also, as you know transfers are this week and I am going back to the capital to an area called Herrera. It’s smack dead in the middle of the capital. Sort of like and urban jungle. Its a two man area and my new comp will be Elder L. I’m not going to be the district leader and there aren’t any sisters in my district either so lots less stress.

This week we had a great week in the district meeting. I put the goal as a district to talk to 1000 new people this week and we were able to get it! It was super cool and a very good lesson because I hate contacting, but I put the goal so I thought to myself if I wasn’t willing to put in my part to hit the goal then how could I ask others to do the same. A very cool moment and we hit the goal with 1047 contacts during the week as a district! And my companionship had 251, so almost exactly a fourth of the goal!! It was a great moment!!!

That’s about it for this week. I’ll give you guys the update next week. See you all soon. Lots of love and prayers, but just so you know I love you lots!

Elder Bailey Stark