"Who doesn't like Mac and Cheese? Ticos."

Monday, October 6, 2014

Hahaha! I love your emails and the little details! They make me smile like you wouldn’t believe! I’m really glad you had a great conference weekend. It was amazing! I had the opportunity to watch half of it in English, and half in Spanish. I actually understood most of the Spanish which was so cool! I really liked how some of the speakers could speak in their own language! 

My favorite talk was one from the seventy I believe.  I don’t remember his name. It had the 8 steps for living a better, happier life. Remember that one? He spoke really fast, but every word he said was powerful! I have a bunch of notes and they are all in spanglish. :) I of course loved President Monson’s talk about the Savior and walking the steps he did by emulating his attributes. I thought it was interesting the theme of prophets and their importance. I also loved the talk about Joseph Smith and that we should all strengthen our testimony and be firm in the testimony that he was a prophet. Super powerful. Their words brought me so much peace. When you hear it, its just TRUE. It went by too fast! Oh and Elder Eyring’s talk when he talked about how when he came home late, his mom heard him and asked him to come in. That talk reminded me so much of you, Mom! I cried when I heard it. I thank Heavenly Father every night for the family that I have. I remember all the times I sat on your bed and told you stories about what happened. :)

How am I feeling? Well, its hard to explain, but sometimes I feel stressed about teaching, learning the language, and my biggest problem I have felt while being here is feeling down on myself. There is an idea in my mind of who I want to be, and I am just not there yet. I am still new and have much to learn. But little by little everything will be okay. I am happy to be here, and I am really growing a lot because a mission is not easy. One thing that Hermana Bram has taught me is to enjoy the journey. Sometimes its easy to let worry and stress take over instead of just laughing and doing what you can. And I realized that we really just need to have faith in the Savior, be the best we can, and enjoy and relax a little. And in my mind, instead of doubting myself, I started repeating positive affirmations and it works!  I really love her. She has taught me to have fun on the mission. We have had such good times together. This morning we did interpretive dancing to efy songs, we have good times with our investigators, and mess around with eachother. 

I love my new ward! It’s kind of weird because we were in such a small ward before and now its actually normal sized! The people are so nice!  Our neighbors are the ward mission leader and his wife and little baby daughter. They are the coolest people ever. 

Last night I cooked mac and cheese for them and they didn’t like it!! They were teasing me so much about it that I need to learn how to cook. It was soooo funny! My goal is to learn how to cook some good Tican food because it seriously is the best.

 Last night I played songs on the uke for them and they loved it! They also asked if I would dance for them so I did a little ballet and contemporary combo. It was so good to dance again! We laughed and laughed. It was such a fun night. I love the people here!!

 Also soon I am going to be teaching an English class. That was a surprise to me! We had just met a family and asked them if they wanted to learn English. Then without talking to me first Hna Bram said “MY companion is teaching a class and you’re invited!” And I just smiled and said yeah! So we will see what happens. HAHA!

On a sports note, soccer is huge here!! There are two super amazing teams here that are rivals- Saprisista y Ligista. I am for Saprisista. My companion is Tica and that is her team. She has taught me well.

PocoCi is the best. I love it already. Its so much different than Florencia, and a little more dangerous, but dont worry, we are safe. This zone is one of the best in the mission. I can really feel a feeling of unity and obedience and it feels good. Our zone leaders are the best. We are doing a 40 day fast as a zone for our investigators and our goals. One companionship fasts at a time until 40 days. Also, every morning at 7 am every missionary in the zone says a prayer of faith for every investigator by name. I feel like this is the place we need to be right now.

Okay....miracle time. We are both brand new to the area and still are gathering people to teach, so one night we didn’t have anyone to teach and we didn’t have the opportunity to study in the morning because of a meeting, so we went home a little early to study. Randomly, we got a call from a 17 year old girl who had a little paper of the phone numbers of the missionaries and wanted us to visit her. Hermana Bram starting to say that we could visit her tomorrow, but then we had a strong feeling to visit her that night. So we went to go find her. She lives close to the church, and when we were walking, she was already outside waiting for us. The moment I saw her, I felt the Spirit. She is the sweetest girl. She said that she has always been interested in the church, but her family is Catholic and its tradition, however, she isn’t Catholic. We gave her a little summary of what we believe, and then went to the chapel to talk for a bit. She has had a lonely life because she was always home alone while growing up. Her family situation is very complicated and sad. We were able to share with her about the Savior and that we are never alone, and the truth of the gospel. When we talked, her eyes got really big and she was listening. I had chills the entire time. Hermana Bram and I both had the feeling like we knew her before. She is so receptive and sweet. At the end, we prayed with her on our knees and it was so special. She told us, “thank you for coming to visit me tonight instead of tomorrow.”  It was a miracle. She also went to two sessions of conference! And we are visiting her again tonight. So I will keep you updated. 

Overall, this church is true. This is where we have the fullness of truth and safety and peace in the world. I love you. :))))))))))))))))))))))