Dear Family,
Wow, so what a week! I’m very sorry about my lack of a
real letter last week, but I will explain. Last week, at around ten in the
morning, we met up at the church with the sister missionaries in our district. Then, a ward member picked us up and took us to go on a hike to go see some
waterfalls. So all of the sisters were in the truck, and Elder J, Elder M, and I
were in the bed of the truck, taking pictures the whole time. We drove on the
freeway until we got to the turn off. We
were driving on this crazy, dirt trail that was nuts. We went through a couple
small towns and had to stop and wait for a herd of goats and stuff like that. It
was pretty interesting, but my butt was getting numb from all the bouncing. The
guy who drove us also brought lunch. So in the bed of the truck, there was a
big pot, filled with boiled, green bananas. With all the bouncing going on, the
boiling water kept spilling out of the pot. Yeah, all part of the adventure!
Then we started going up these huge hills and I thought
we were going to die, but it was all fine. At one point, we got off the road
and hopped over a fence and were wandering around in this pasture with cows. Until
our guide realized it was the wrong spot! There was this cow in the pasture
that tried to lick my face, so that was funny! Anyway, we got back in and
headed even further up the road. We got off and walked through another pasture
filled with cow pies till we got to this cool dried-up riverbed. All of the
rocks in this riverbed were a cool, white color, and along the edges were these
huge trees. So we kept hiking until we got to the river. It wasn’t too big,
more of a cool mountain stream. I was hiking in my crocs with long socks. After
a while, I just took off my socks and went all crocs. Now I was able to walk in
the river. Wow, the scenery was absolutely incredible! Then we got to this cool canyon where we were
at the bottom. There was a place where everybody writes his or her name on the
wall with charcoal, so we did that. Then we made the food. Pork chops and bread
with Kraft singles. Lunch of champions!
Then we went to see the waterfalls and I took a bunch
of pictures. It was super cool and I wanted to go swimming so badly! Anyway,
while we were eating lunch, the elders in the Mesopotamia district showed up
and we were freaking out because these were two totally differently planned p-day
activities! It was pretty funny. Then the guide told us that there were some
caves further on, so we decided to go. But to get any further, you had climb up
the side of the waterfall! Everybody did it, sisters included. I even did it in
my crocs. We were hiking and we had to get pretty wet. At one point we had to
go through a pond and the water was up to our bellies! Thank goodness I have a
waterproof camera! We finally got to these caves and, wow, they were worth the
effort. They were bright blue and super cool, like a mix between vines and
caves. It was super awesome!
Then we hiked back and drove home soaking wet. Probably
the most fun p-day activity I have ever had, but that is also why I didn’t have
time to email much last week!
Tuesday, all of
the elders in the zone of San Juan came to our house because on Wednesday we
went to the temple. So Tuesday, looking for a bit of space while a bunch of the
elders went to the super market, I went on the top of our roof and sat there.
Elder J came up and while we were talking, there was a huge lightning storm off
in the distance. We sat there watching and it was amazing! This week we have
had tons of storms here. Like every other day it’s raining super hard. Then I
stayed up for a bit talking to elder T (from New Zealand) and so I went to bed
just long enough to take a small nap. We woke up at 1:30 to get showered and
ready so that we could leave San Juan at 4:00 to get to Santo Domingo by 8:00.
It was a long drive and I kept falling asleep, but we finally got to the temple.
WOW! I forgot how much I love the temple! It is just so amazing; I love every
bit about that place! It was so peaceful and spiritual. I did a special fast to
prepare for it and I feel like I learned a lot. After the temple came something
almost as good. We went to Wendy’s!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, it has been nearly 6
months since I had fast food. It was so amazing. I got 2 Frosties and some cool
bacon fries and chicken nuggets. I was feeling very happy after all that food.
Then we walked back to the temple, got on our bus, and drove for another 4
hours to get home around 7:30. On the bus ride I had a good, funny talk with
Hermana B (she is in my district and is about to go home) and Hermana F (also
in my district). We were laughing and joking the whole way home. After the long
bus ride home, we all got ice cream and the Hermanas went to their house and
the elders went to our house.
The next day all the elders left, and it was back down
to the normal 8 of us that live together. Thursday night we had a lesson with
our investigator M and her boyfriend, who is a less-active member from Mexico.
He is just visiting, but we had a cool lesson with him and he brought my comp a
bunch of Mexican candies. I tried a couple of them and they were really good, but
kind of spicy also. He gave Elder J this super good hot sauce that I tried and
it is really tasty. The only problem is this investigator is kind of racist
against me. She was calls me gringo and make rude comments about how I’m
American. But whatever, it’s kind of funny. Elder J and I always joke about it afterwards.
Then Saturday it rained super hard. I was completely
wet from head to toe! The streets were all flooded and I loved every minute of
it. We went to a baptism of the sisters in our district, and that was cool. We
were the witnesses of the baptism and that was fun. So yeah, those are the
highlights of the week. I hope you all had a good week and I’ll see you guys
soon.
Elder Bailey Stark
