Week Four! Yeah! I Love My Mission!

Dear Fam,

Well these last couple weeks have been pretty great, the language is still hard, but I'm starting to love it here.

Last P-day we went to a waterfall!  It was pretty big and gorgeous.  We even crossed it and it was about mid calf or a little higher...I don't know if that is allowed or not,  I'm going to have to ask the zone leaders or mission president, but my district leader and the other missionaries were doing it so I assumed so. 

This week I've had a lot of great experiences and little miracles.  I hope I remember them all because I didn't bring my journal today!

Alright to start off on Wednesday we were going to go teach a fairly new family of investigators but one of our appointments fell through and we didn't want to go an hour early because the husband of Idalia, our investigator, didn't come home from work until 7.  However, we had nothing else to do so decided to go.  Idalia is a fruit vendor and when we got to her house there was a lady buying fruit.  We started talking to her and found out that she's been a less active for 10 years!  We ended up having her join us in the lesson with Idalia, and about five minutes into it Idalia's husband came home early.  In the end we were able to teach all three of them, which wouldn't have been possible if we had come at 7.

Another small miracle was that we contacted a woman named Nelsi through LPE's (Which is street contacting where we testify of a principle, commit them to do something, and ask for a reference).  When we went to her house for the first time we found out her son was a member and going to serve a mission!  The next time we taught her, her son was there and he's serving in the Calgary, Alberta mission! Sadly, it doesn't include Edmonton, but that was cool to hear.  He knows English really well already.  Nelsi didn't know anything about our church, though her son is a member, and she doesn't really want to hear about our message as she's a devoted catholic.  However she's still agreed to be taught from us which is exciting!  We have hope for her!

Rosa didn't get baptized this week sadly, she was still smoking a cigarette about everyday, but she's stopped now, and we believe she is going to be baptized this Saturday.

Another miracle is that we contacted a reference, Raquel, one night and asked if we could come back again sometime.  She said yes and the next day her husband, who we had never met, stopped us in the street and told us that Raquel had waited for us to come visit her at three and we never showed up.  Though we hadn't set up an appointment to come back we apologized and asked if we could come by at 7:00.  (In actuality I don't think we planned on visiting them anytime soon, as Raquel hadn't seemed to interested!  When we arrived at her house we were greeted by eight children, all younger than first grade, and Raquel and her sister.  Both of them are mothers of four.

Their house is SOOO HUMBLE.  Their children are absolutley charming and beautiful, though very dirty with fleas or lice in their hair.  We had to sit on a couch that was completely torn up and covered in rice, dirt, and smelled like urine.  It's definitely been in my nightmares lately ;) Their kitchen is simply a fire with coals, and their house is tiny. 

The few days later we returned and taught the father as well.  He is really awesome!  He says he only wants his family to be safe and healthy, as he's already been very blessed to have four beautiful children.  He also told us that his door will always be opened to us.  We are really hopefully that they'll be baptized!  Raquel's husband is already working on getting them married, though they won't have enough money until December :(  They are a beautiful family.  I just hope nothing happens to them, as their four or five year old was playing with a huge knife and trying to cut an apple with it.  Raquel wouldn't have stopped her if Hermana Munoz hadn't asked if it was alright for her to have a knife!

Every Domingo I've been here we've only had 1 or 2 investigators at church, but yesterday we had 9!!!!  That was pretty exciting.  We were going to take Raquel and her family, but when we went to pick them  up they said they didn't have clothes, which is actually true.  Their clothes are super worn through, but we just gave all the extra clothes we've had for a while to the Nicaraguan family last week! 

We had another family attend church though of indigenous people, we haven't even taught them a lesson, but we asked if they wanted to attend church and they said yes.  I don't think they knew what they were getting themselves into though, because they can't speak Spanish all the well.  They remind me of the Nephites and Lamanites, because their faces are rounder and more flat than the Costa Ricans, their eyes squinted and they have wide mouths, but they are so cute!

Today for P-day we had the Check of the Month with the president where all the trainers and newbies have meeting with the president and then eat delicious food at his house.  On the way back home my companion and I sat between an Australian, British, and Canadian.  It was nice to hear that familiar "Eh?"

I love hearing about all the news!  Keep it coming!  Can't wait to see pictures of Joey's puppies, hear where Brett's going on his mission, etc.  I don't have anymore time, but just know I'm doing great and It's true what they say, Costa Rica is the best mission in the world! 

Les Quiero!

Hermana Bratt