Week 29 Santo Domingo: Snapping Turtles

Dear Family,

Wow, so this week has flown by. We had some really cool things happen this week and it has just been great! We found some new investigators and had some funny stories.

The biggest success that we had this week is P and Y are getting married! Marriage is very hard here in the DR to start out with, but P and Y had the added problem that on their son’s birth certificate, they spelled Y’s name wrong. This caused a problem when they tried declaring their son, F, but they just had an appointment at the hospital and got that all figured out. So now, today in fact, they are getting him declared, and then they can get married and baptized! 

Then we have JM. We are super pumped about J. He we a reference from an Hermana named A, who was recently reactivated, and, wow, after our first lesson with him he came to church! That’s very rare. Then he told us that since he started going to our church, and taking the lessons, his whole life has changed! He said that not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about the lessons or church. It’s incredible! He also told us that very soon we would see him an active member of the church. The only problem he has is that he and his girlfriend aren’t married, but he has plans to marry her! She also is catholic like Thomas S. Monson is Mormon... so she will be a bit tough, but we will work with her :)

I also went on an exchange with Elder M. He is a super great elder from Peru. Peruvians sometimes have a reputation in the mission for being rebels, but this elder is super awesome and a really good missionary. We have a good time with him. Anyway, I went on an exchange with him and we had a really fun time. He is a very good guy, and teaches with a lot of respect. (He was using the usted form with eleven year olds) Anyway, we taught some fun lessons and had some fun times. One of their investigators had a snapping turtle that I took pictures with. I’ve also started studying Spanish with Elder M. We take turns reading out of the book of Mormon in English and Spanish. He is learning English and my Spanish is getting better.

Anyway, I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week! Also, big shout out to Brian for leaving for the MTC this week. I know he will be a fantastic missionary!

Love you, 

Elder Bailey Stark 

Week 28 Santo Domingo: Centipedes and Waffle Cones

Family,

Wow, so here I am again. These weeks just fly by. One more week and we will be in July; it’s incredible! I love every minute that I am here. Here in Manoguyabo, things are really picking up, but I’ll explain more of that in the letter. I wanted to say thank you all for the support, especially my parents. You guys are the best! Elder B and I are working harder and harder each day.

So this week was fairly normal, but with a few funny stories. First off though, I want to talk about some of the new investigators that we are teaching:

F is a super awesome guy. He is 40 and owns a company where he makes waffle cones by the hundreds. It’s super awesome because sometimes he gives us free cones and I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so many waffle cones in my life.  We are too poor to buy ice cream for them, so we just eat them plain. I love this guy! He is a super good investigator and really wants to learn. His mind was blown this last lesson when we talked to him about the great apostasy.

M. We were considering dropping her, but then she talked with her less active friend this last week and they both came to church!!! It was the friend’s first time at church in over 6 months and M’s first time too. She has a super hyper and guapa daughter. (guapa means angry or short tempered here)

J M: this guy is kind of tigre, or street like, but he’s a super mellow guy. It seems like nothing fazes this guy. We had our first lesson with him and then all of the sudden The Spirit was there and he asked about church and when it started and stuff.  Anyway, this Sunday we walk up the hill to the church and he’s outside waiting for us and says completely monotone, “Hey, you guys are late.” We were ten minutes early! Hahaha, I love this guy.

P should hopefully be getting married to his wife this week. I’m super excited because if we can get them baptized this transfer, I will be able to go to the temple with them and see them sealed!

Oh, so a really funny thing happened when we were at F’s house. He was making cones and we were just talking, when Elder B saw a centipede on the wall. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but the centipede was literally longer than my shoe. And they are poisonous! So I jumped up and ran to get my camera and got a nice snapshot of it right before A, F’s sister, grabbed a pot full of waffle cone batter and hit the centipede with it. I was in the splash zone and got hit with the batter. The problem was that I thought it was centipede guts that I was covered with. I was super grossed out for a second! Unfortunately, it didn’t kill the centipede, so we spent the next hour looking for it with machetes in hand, but we couldn’t find it.

There is more I could write, but I’m almost out of time I. love you all and hope you guys are doing great. I’m praying for you all the time! 

Elder Stark

Week 27 Santo Domingo: I'm staying another transfer

Dear Family,

Wow, so work here in Manoguyabo has exploded! Like, holy crap! We are swamped. Sunday was the call for transfers and guess what, I’m still here in my home of Manoguyabo. This will be my fifth transfer here. That means I’ll be here when I hit 8 months in the mission. It’s pretty crazy and I truly feel like this place is my home. Before the transfer call, I told a few members and investigators that I might go, and several of them prayed and P even fasted that I would stay. So hey, our prayers were answered. I get to stay home for another 2 months.

I bought monopoly last Monday, but I went all out and got one with an electronic bank. Anyway, we have been having a really great time with that.  We also had a super funny lesson where we were trying to get a less active girl named A to church. She’s 19 and the sassiest girl ever. We have a fun time messing with her. Last week she said she didn’t want to go to church because she might get hungry. So I told her I would bring her cookies if she came. Anyway, she didn’t show up to church, so during our lesson with her, we pulled out the cookies and started eating them in front of her! She was freaking out saying, “Ustedes son malos” (You are so bad) It was super funny and her mom was even joining in on it. 

There is the Chikunguya virus going around. Santo Domingo has been slammed. It’s a virus that has hit here pretty hard and a lot of missionaries have it. The Dominican elder in our house had it and hasn’t been able to work for several days. He was sleeping 15 a day. It seems pretty bad and I get the bad feeling that either Elder B or I will get it soon. It starts out with joint pain and a high fever. Then as you are healing, you get a bad rash.  Normally, it only lasts a week though. It comes from some word meaning bent out of shape because apparently, you are contorted in pain. They say most everyone will probably get it.

We also had a fun little service project picking cherries at an investigator’s house. So there was a cherry tree with two well-dressed Americans in it for a while this past week, but it was a lot of fun. I got super dirty though, and my investigator made me put on a white lab coat so that she could wash my shirt.

So for some reason the work here has exploded and we have over 30 investigators 20 less active members we are working with. There are seven families, two of which should be getting baptized this transfer! 

That was my week. Hope you guys enjoy.

I love you all, 

Elder Stark

Week 26 Santo Domingo: 6 month mark

Hi Family,

Well, wow! My week has flown by. I can’t believe that I’m sitting here to email again. It feels as though I was just here. I also just hit 6 months in the mission. It’s strange that this part of my life is already 25% gone... 

This Tuesday was a really fun day. We had exchanges and I was in Elder E’s area. It was a lot of fun because their area is super poor and most of time you’re hiking through jungle. It’s pretty crazy! I took some pictures that I’ll upload next week, because I left my camera at home today. They have some pretty cool parts of their area, but they have to walk a ton. Their area is super far away. That day we had lunch at Hermana S’s house. She is a cool lady that lives in my area. She has super funny, twin daughters. One of them has 2 thumbs on the same hand and they are a blast. Anyway, lunch that day was great. Rice, beans and chicken.

I hit 6 months in the mission this week. So to celebrate, I grabbed a crappy tie, bought some sort of dangerous chemical that smelled super strong from a sketchy street store, and went to a member’s house and soaked my tie and burned it ;) Classic missionary party! It was pretty freaking fun! 

Then Thursday we had a freaking, great day. We visited the B family that we had contacted. They are a young couple and they just had their first kid, A. They are very nice people and super funny. Our lessons with them are always a party. We had a really great lesson where we talked about the pre-earth life, and E just kept asking the best questions. Anyway, it led into a really good discussion about our life on earth and we popped the baptism question. He and his wife accepted baptism! So all they need to do is go to church 4 times, and we will be having a baptism. It was a great lesson and we walked out just super pumped!

The next day was another great day. We had a first lesson with a mother and daughter. Elder B and I were just teaching in sync and we talked to them about following the example of Jesus. They were like, “How can we follow him?”  We talked about baptism and set a date with both of them. It was great! Hopefully they will progress. On the way to our next lesson, I was walking next to a person’s house and yeah, they had a dog and, well, it wasn’t very happy. So yeah... it bit my hand. Hahaha. Luckily it wasn’t bad at all. It barely even broke the skin and healed in two days. So lucky for me, it wasn’t bad. We talked to the owner and stuff and found out that it doesn’t have rabies. It was a fun experience.

Saturday we had another lesson with the B family. We had asked a guy in the ward to come with us. He was phenomenal in the lesson. He really understood his role in the lesson, and shared his conversion story with them. At one point, he said, “I plead with you to do what these two elders say. I promise you that your new family will be blessed in the best way possible.” Wow, it was really powerful and they couldn’t deny it. E said that there is no way the Book of Mormon isn’t true. 

Anyway, that was my week here in the DR. Thanks for all the emails and support. I love you all!

Elder Bailey Stark