Tica in Costa Rica: "New item on the menu: COW STOMACH."

HEY Y'ALL!!

Hello. :)))))))))))))))))

I love reading your emails and guess what? Yesterday I went to the mission office and I recieved your christmas card! It was so sweet. Thank you so much. :) Thank you for not forgetting about me around there. Heh heh. I could never forget about my family and friends at home. :)

This week was another amazing week! I feel so happy and I feel so, so grateful that Heavenly Father is blessing us to find people who really are ready. He is also helping us become missionaries that we need to be. There are some highlights of the week that I want to share.

We met and are teaching a complete family! A dad, and mom, and their two children who are adorable. And they are married. :) This is really incredible news because many people in costa rica live together but aren't married. We were able to have a really nice lesson with the whole family and we taught about how families can be together forever and what we need to do to receive this blessing. The mom is really fun and outgoing and talks a lot, and her husband is the quietest, shyest little man. But they were really receptive and at the end of the lesson we said a kneeling prayer together and the spirit was really strong. The miracle is that on Sunday they came to church! The husband didn't come but we are continuing to work with him. He is really shy, but after we were teaching he started reading The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and kept reading it. I know the gospel truly blesses families because we can be sealed together forever in temples. We are going to continue to work with them. :)

We had an awesome service opportunity this week! One night we were walking in the street and we saw two older women painting their house. We started to walk past and then something just told me to stop. So I said, "Are you painting your house? It's so pretty!" and then they both gave me a really weird look and I got a little nervous thinking they thought I was weird. But then we asked if we could help them, and they looked at us for a second and said, "YEST! You can come tomorrow!" So we were like....yesssssssss! And then the older lady was like, come on in and Ill show you my house! So we went inside and met all of her family, and they were so nice to us! The gave us crackers and tuna and juice and we talked for a while, and then they asked me if we wanted to try mundungo....(I dont know if thats how you spell it but its COW STOMACH) and I said bring it on. So we ate it. It doesnt taste bad, but its reaaaaaaaaaaaalllly chewy. anyway, the next day we came and were able to paint 3 rooms and it felt good to be able to help them. :) I learned an important lesson that you never know what could happen just by offering help or talking to someone.

There are some of the coolest people in the world here. We are teaching a grandma, her daughter, and her granddaughter. 3 generations. They are the sweetest, most hilarious people. I love them. They belong to a different religion and they are really strong in their religion. But we still talk and share and its really sweet. But we were able to have the coolest experience because we shared with them the Book of Mormon, that it is teachings of the prophets in America, and it doesn't take away from the bible, but that the Bible and Book of Mormon really support each other. They were shocked and so excited! They kept saying, that just makes so much sense. And we shared with them that Jesus Christ came to the Americas. And they were like "are you serious?!" and we were like yes! Do you want to read the part where Jesus came to the americas? and they said yes yes! They were so excited. And we read 3 nephi 11 and we felt the spirit so strong testifying that this really did happen. And when it talks about baptism, we invited them to pray to be baptized with this specific order and authority. And they accpeted to pray to know if they should be baptized. But after they told us, "I just feel so good. I feel so much peace. Why can't we have more meetings to talk about this?" And we said you can!! So we have a family night this wednesday. :) But this was a miracle.

Sorry this email is soooooo long. But there are a few of the highlights this week. Yesterday we had breakfast at President Wilkinsons house with our zone and another zone, and it was the best. :())) We played the most intense game of Spoons I have ever played in my life!!! That was crazy. I almost won 3 times but lost 3 times. :( There was diving, yellling, and tears involved. :) Missionaries are like babies sometimes. Myself included. Haha.

I love you and thank you for your endless love and support! Talk to you soon! :))))