¡Buenas Tardes!

First off, I would like to mention, I CANT BELIEVE JACOB IS COMING HOME TODAY!!!!!!!!! HOO RAY!!!!!!!! I am completely stoked. You have to help him back into the real world. I mean he was in Washington so its not ALL the different but yes he will need help haha. Mother, the only other thing I would like in my box as of right now is cards with my name and address and email on them to give out to the peeps. I dont really have time to travel so you probably wont get a lot more locations haha.

Ok So new comp! He is a greenie from Antigua, Guatamala. He is 21. He comes up to my shoulder. But he is REALLY excited to be here in Mexico/the mission. He is still learning, but he is a hard worker and an awesome fella. We arehaving lots of success together and de hecho we will be having 2 baptisms this sat. They are named Christian and Rosario. They have a lot of time being taught by the missionaries but they werent married. Now thay are married and we got then excited again and now thay will be baptised. ALSO a blessing is that on Friday, I will be FINALLY going to the Monterrey, Mexico Temple!!!!!!! IM STOKED!!!! I have been 14.5 months without the temple.... Im DYING! But it should be fun. We will be going with less actives and investigators. I do not know why they arent sending Americans anymore. But its all good.

We are working hard and bringing souls and less actives to christ like crazy! The Lord is really blessing me right now. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts and everything that you guys do for me and all the other missonaries throughout the world. I love you all so very much!

Tell all the members in the DANA WARD that they are very missed and loved.

I must go now but thanks for everything and I hope everyone enjoys their week! I will talk to you all next week!!

Love

Elder Stark

As Joseph's sister and the official Elder Stark blog creator I have to apologize to all of you for my horrible lack of blogging over the last 3 months. I do have an excuse though. At the end of February I found out that I was pregnant (Elder Uncle Josephs 6th niece or nephew). I was really yucky sick and every week got a little more behind. I apologize for the delay. I am feeling much better now. Trying to post every email would take forever (literally) but to make it up to you I am posting all the pictures he has sent since February. I hope you enjoy!

 The Branch's Valentine Party. Elder Stark says this is pretty much everyone that goes to church.

 6 toed dog. Gross.

 Elder Stark and Elder Santiago goofing off.

 A pet owl.

 Joe cigarette's.

 The church building.

 I cannot believe his legs can touch the ground. He's so freakishly tall.

 Learning to press taco's at the roadside taco stand they frequent.

 Bioparque, a safari tour and dino land.

 Created a can telephone as a birthday gift for his companion.

 This picture shows part of the area the elders work. Pretending like their lost.

 Happy Birthday Elder Antonio!

 Macrobrigada or Mormon Helping Hand. The volunteers head down to the Ranches and cut hair, clean, and provide some medical assistance. Elder Stark was asked to assist in taking peoples blood pressure, temperature, pulse, respiration's, and blood testing for diabetes

 The team Elder Stark was over.

 Their whole Branch.

 So this week has been pretty good. One of our really awesome investigators, Leticia, can’t get baptized because she is living with someone without being married. But she is still progressing really well. We got another date with Isidro. He is now drinking a different kind of coffee (one that Mormons can drink) so he is slowing down his coffee intake and his date is on the 22 of February. We also have another investigator named Maria Guadalupe who is pretty great. She also has a date for the 22 of February. She lost a child about a year ago and we taught her about where her child is and how she can see him again and she accepted everything pretty well. We are hoping everything continues to do well. Other than them we are basically contacting lots of people. Everyone else isn’t really progressing and I’m still trying to learn names and people and the area so you’ll have to wait to hear more about them. Yesterday I gave my second blessing of salud y consuelo. It’s still pretty weird giving blessings, but I think I’m getting better at it ha ha. Yesterday, I also found out that my comp played professional soccer for Peru. He played right under the actual Peru Soccer Team. He hurt his knee so he was down a bit and then found the church and now is on a mission. Pretty crazy. He’s famous. He’s my comp. So I guess that makes me famous as well! It’s freezing here. It just rained and I am freezing. Yesterday we ate out on a ranch that was approximately a 35 minute drive away. We went to this really pretty river and skipped rocks a little bit. Then we took a tour of their ranch. Of course there were goats and of course I spoke to them. I have a video and pictures but I can’t send them... I am thinking of getting a memory stick and sending that to you guys. Other than that not much is happening. Just working hard and trying my best to be what the Lord needs! Brother-in-Laws if you have any suggestions on how to be an awesome missionary, how to be a good leader, or any kind of missionary advise I’m all ears or eyes since I can’t hear. Well I hope all is well wherever you guys are. You’re always in my prayers and I wish the best for you all! Remember to do what you can’t to be the best you can be! Read Hebrews 11:40 then D and C 128:15. Then after that GO TO THE TEMPLE! Especially you Rents. And Becca as well. You need to learn. Ha ha. I love you all. God Bless and Happy Painting - Bob Ross

Love

Elder Stark

Montemorelos

1) The famous mountain in Monterrey

2) The Family Rodriguez Sanchez (the mom has a baptism date on the first of February)

3) One of our investigators named Isidro (he had a date this wed but he is still drinking coffee. We painted his door and put up new screen.

4) This is half the people in our branch. The older guy next to me on the right is the Second counselor to President Walker.

5) This is me washing clothes. That’s how we do it here in Mexico

6) Again with the clothes.

HELLO FAMILY!!!

So my new area is in a place called Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon. My new comp is named Elder Santiago from Lima, Peru. He is 22, about 5'4'' and is a convert of about 3 years I believe. He is almost done with him mission as well. He lacks about 7 months I believe. SO this area is sweet. It’s really spacious. There is a lot of open area. We have to take a greyhound bus to our meetings every Monday. The next area is an hour away. That's how huge this place is. We have a lot of Ranches and mountains. It’s crazy how similar it is to northern AZ. Some parts of the area I feel like I’m in a different country. In one part I feel I’m in Italy. There are Cobble stone roads, little stores on the side of the road, TONS of back little alleyways, huge Old buildings, huge Beautiful Catholic churches. Then another part of my area is mountains where people live on the side. It looks and feels like Brazil. There is even a huge statue on the top of a man like the Jesus statue in Brazil. It’s way awesome! I love it. The branch is tiny! Our building is tiny as well. I gave a talk in church yesterday. I gave it on "La Familia: Una Proclamacion para el Mundo". It went pretty well. My Spanish has gone way up as well since being with a native. He said his first day my Spanish was a little on the crap side. But now he says it’s pretty good so I’m pretty stoked about that. I still have like zero confidence in myself but it’s ok. I’ll learn some day. The members here are awesome. One of the members has a daughter that lives in Queen Creek, AZ. She met her husband in Sierra Vista and now they live in Queen Creek. She goes to visit every 6 months. She knows the area by the Temple pretty well. She has lots of pictures around that area so it makes me a little sad but then I get over it ha ha. We have 2 great investigators. One is named Isidro. He is an 80 year old man. He had a baptism date for this Wednesday but it fell through because he is still a coffee drinker. He needs to be 1 week sober for us to baptize him. Our other investigator is named Leticia. She is in her late 30s and is awesome. She drank coffee but after teaching Word of Wisdom she doesn’t want to drink it. She has a baptism date the first of February. It’s pretty awesome. We have other investigators as well but they aren’t really progressing like these two. Last night we met a family of ten who all want to be taught the Word of God. That’s basically my news for this week. I’m excited to work here and get everything going. I am always grateful to get your letters and all. Good luck with the business! Happy Anniversary! 30 years of pure love and adventure! Keep it going strong! I’m sorry to hear about Sis Dastrupt. If you see her tell her I said "What’s cookin' good lookin'!"  I miss you all and love you so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love

Elder Stark

Transfered

HEY!!!!

OK so big news! I am being transferred. I will now be in the area of Montemorelos in Nuevo León. I will have a companion named Elder Santiago from Perú. He was in this area before me and Elder Campos so everyone here has talked great things about him. I hope they are true! Elder Hatch said that my area is in the middle of nowhere. I will be 45 minutes from the closest missionaries. It’s a little pueblo that is a branch. I am pretty stoked. Today we cleaned the house and I started packing, but I need to wash clothes and that's where all the packing is so I have to wait till tonight. Too bad I don't have T to pack it all for me again... I'm flying solo tonight but it’s all good. I just hope I don't leave anything behind. Well I feel kinda bad because all my letters kinda suck and usually everyone talks about their area and the people they are teaching and I have not really. I’ll try to get better at that. Well as of right now we have 1 baptism dates in this area. We had 6 but 2 don't want to get married yet, 1 lives in the Texas for most of the week, 1 we haven't been able to find all week, and another has been crazy busy with work. But were hoping to find them and put more dates. The one is a little girl named Cielo (Heaven). She is 10 years old. Her mom and 2 brothers are less-actives because they had to start caring for their grandpa who is living with them then they kinda forgot. The mom has cancer and is going to get it removed at the end of this month. I gave my first blessing to her of health and consuelo. It’s pretty interesting doing blessings. Especially in a language you are just learning to speak. But it went well. I saw a guy the other day with a Mesquite High School Wildcats Senor T-shirt (the school where Jordan Brown attended). Also, I saw a guy wearing a D-Backs Hat. I talked to him and he said they were his favorite team. I started telling people I am from Arizona again and everyone goes, "OH! TUCSON!?" It’s funny how everyone knows Tucson or Yuma. I find it interesting how I keep seeing shirts and hats and all this stuff from random places like AZ or Breckenridge. Well, all is well here. I am healthy, semi-wealthy, and partially wise. I hope all continues to go well for all of you! If you write me an e-mail, I will e-mail you back so don't be afraid to give me a HEY! Every so often (Ross Family, Amanda, Frost Family, Madsen Family) I’ll call you out on it. Ha ha. You to Braden. Someone get that Jordan Brown kid to write me back to. I wrote him a couple of times but he has never written back... But I did get the package! I loved it, especially the football father and everything the Frost Family gave me. The last Monday we played football. It was hilarious. The Mexicans didn't know how to play. They would throw the ball forward to people, kick it, pick it up and run, you name it. It was very enjoyable. Thank you so much for it! I love you all and miss you terribly! Stay strong! CTR! Choose the Right. Be AT the party, don't BE the party!

Love

Elder Stark

Thanksgiving comes and goes

) Reynosa at night

2) Middle class road (typical road)

3) Check out this leaf! Its huge!

4) Finished cake!

5) Me, Elder Fernandez, Elder Vance

6) Elder Hatch, " "

7) " "

8) " " holding Elder Capali (Zone Leader)

Oh family,

How do I ever so love your letters. First off, I thought about the Turkey Bowl all week... I'm glad to finally hear about it. I am mad that I missed it though.... Thanksgiving was alright. They don't celebrate it here but because Hno. Echeverria loves us and goes to the USA often he got a turkey and we ate turkey with them. It was pretty awesome. Holidays don't even feel like holidays. We worked like always. And at night with the turkey it was just a nice dinner. But it was definitely better than just eating bread with a slice of ham on in ha ha.

 

Elder Stark