September 19, 2016 - Day 1, Year 0 of his new life

Hi!!!

This week was good!!! Some great things! 

1. New companion! :) She is named Hermana Vargas, and is from Tegucigalpa! She´s the tallest companion I´ve ever had, so that´s exciting (.....I´m still taller, but, she´s almost as tall as me)...and with that, she walks the fastest! so it´s been fun haha. It´s been fun seeing her do things for the first time... yelling UPE to knock the doors, teaching the area, studying and teaching and everything. I´m remembering a lot my first few weeks as a missionary. I´m excited to learn a lot from her, and to see miracles together. 

2. Humberto got baptized!!!! He´s been so excited all week. He kept saying, that 17 of September is Day 1, year 0, of his new life. And that before he was a mason... (like the freemasons, in national treasure! haha. I don´t know a lot about them... just that they are very smart and that Joseph Smith and a lot of the prophets have been them)...but now he´s going to be  a Mormon. And on Saturday night, he was baptized!! And lots of members came to support, and it was just such a wonderful day. I am so so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary, for the huge miracle we had in finding Humberto and seeing his conversion process. Being a missionary is the best life ever. 

3. It´s been super sunny!!! I love the sun. It rains a lot a lot here... and I like the rain. But the days where it´s sunny all day it just makes me feel even happier. :) 

4. It was independence day here the 15.......so that means..... now Christmas is coming!!  Therés no Halloween or Thanksgiving here, so right after independence day it´s just time for Christmas, and Christmas decorations! haha so it´s fun seeing stores starting to put Christmas stuff out, singing Christmas hymns always. 

....and I know a lot of other great things, I just can´t remember and there's not a lot of time. But, everything is going really well. We´re ready to learn and work a lot more in the work of the Lord this week, and see more miracles and invite more people to come unto Christ. 

And, I love you all!!!!!! Have a great week. :) 

​the money is so cool in costa rica. and in those little animals it totally says pura vida in letters super super small. it's so cooool!! i just found that out this week. it's so neat. ​

and humberto!! yay! 

la zona.... before changes! 

September 12, 2016 - adios, Hermana Madrid!

Hola familia!!! 

This week was good!! Best news....Humberto said he is getting baptized the 17th!!!! So, it's super sad because Hermana Madrid flies out of Costa Rica on the 15th..... but it's okay, she knows she helped so so much in his conversion. And, he is so happy to finally have decided, and is telling everyone, and it is great. :) We are so grateful for the decision he has made!!! Thursday he told us that he was watching the news and seeing stuff about the wars and everything and all the problems in the world.... and he said he had the thought, why am I still doubting about making this step? if there's so many problems, why will I add more to the world? So he stopped smoking, and yeah! :) yay!! I'm so amazed by how the Spirit has worked in his life, and his love for the scriptures, and learning, and repenting, and becoming better.   He is seriously incredible. and hahah now I think the goal of the ward is that he gets married.... we're going to do a family night tomorrow with another woman in the ward who is single with the familia Jimenez haha, they planned it out.... so it's great! Haha I love this ward so much. 

And....everyone else is doing well! Maria Else and Alejandro came to church again! But, it was sad.... they live super far away, and have 4 little kids, so they got there late again, like at 10:45. But, I love seeing how much they are trying to do the right things, to keep the commandments and receive the Lord's blessings. :) 

We had the leadership meeting this week, and I can't say enough that President Hayes is the best president of mission in the whole world. He asked us, what our mayordomia... I think that means like stewardship or responsibilities as a leader are. And everyone was saying like, have a perfect area, be a good example, be perfectly obedient.... lots of things. And he told us, that it's to love. That we need to learn how to love the Lord, love the other missionaries, love our areas perfectly. That he is here, because he loves us and loves the Lord. And, that we should learn to develop so much love for the Lord that we are always perfectly obedient, that we can help the other missionaries have this same love so they can have all the success the Lord wants for them. I don´t know, I wish you gys could all just sit and listen to him teach!! !! He just has so much love, it's so inspiring, and listening him makes me want to be so much better. So, I want to be better, want to learn to love more...love the Lord, my companion, the whole mission, the people of Costa Rica. 

  ​last day with the compañera!!! so sad. 

we have a cosechas like 2 minutes from our house. it's the best. 

And, I'll be having a new companion, because Hermana Madrid is leaving! I'll be training a new missionary. Haha, I always get super nervous training.... but I'm excited, it'll be a great adventure. And all the new missionaries come from Honduras, so I'll get to keep enjoying baleadas, the typical food of there, and hearing her say cheque, pues. haha it'll be fun. :) 

and with Humberto and a family who has been so wonderful to let us always teach in their house!! he kept saying to her, ''foto sin pila''.....picture without the baptismal font haha. we will send her lots of pictures on saturday. 

Anyway, I love you all so much!!! Have a wonderful week :) 

September 5, 2016 - campeonas de zona toyapan

Hi family!!

All is well!! Yesterday we had Stake Conference. I love seeing the strength of the Church here when lots of members are together. And, it was great, Humberto could go to both the adult session Saturday, and on Sunday! and Hazel and Ariel came on Sunday. We hope they could feel the Spirit we felt, and that they can receive answers about baptism. 

Humberto is doing really well....but he still just says he hasn´t felt an answer about being baptized, and he says always he´s a man of his word, and so he is scared to be baptized if he can´t keep the commitment! But, we feel he´s so ready!! He hasn´t missed church for 2 months now, hasn´t missed a day of reading... so, we just keep praying for more faith that he can pray and really get his answer!! Because he is so, so good. 

We also had a good lesson with Maria Elsa and Alejandro. They work in selling clothes, and Sunday is the day when most people are in their houses, and they really do need money, because they have four little kids. But, we shared the lesson with them about Elijah the prophet when he told the widow to give him food to him first, and then after they didn´t lack in food ever. So, we talked about sacrifice, and having faith in the promises of the Lord, with not working on Sunday and going to church. And...it was a really good lesson. they said that after this Sunday, they will not put appointments for Sundays, so they can go to church, and not work and keep this commandment of the Lord. and, they also committed to getting married!!! So, it was a great week with them. They are loving reading the book of Mormon as a family, and I love visiting with them. 

And yeah! Everything else is great!! It´s been raining a lot, so that´s been fun! :) And we´re ready to have fun the last week of Sister Madrid´s mission and see miracles!! 

Bye, love you all lots!! 

​I had one of the proudest, best moments of my mission this week

There´s this game we play here, where someone goes in front and starts reading a scripture and we all look for it and when we find it we stand up and start reading from there. we play for like 10 minutes, and give points and everything

anyway. I´ve been dying to win!!!!! I always win a couple of times, but my zone leader always ends up winning. 

but finally, finally, this Wednesday, in zone meeting, WITH President Hayes there watching..me and my companion finally won!!!!!! so we have the honor of having the cup with us this week. campeonas de zona toyopan por fin!!! ​

August 29, 2016 - a big sacrifice for them to come to church

Dear family, 

This week was good!! 

Humberto is still doing well. He´s completely stopped drinking coffee, for a week now, and he says he doesn´t miss it anymore, and that hot chocolate is the best thing ever haha. But..he is still having troubles with stopping smoking. But, he´s working so hard to be able to do it!! He understands repentance so well. We´ve been having lessons about that in gospel principles, and I¨ve loved listening to his testimony about the Atonement, and that we learn and progress from the mistakes we´ve made. And, this week is Stake Conference, so I don´t think his baptism would be this weekend. But we´re hopeful for the next! 

This week the ward did a Noche de Grupo...it´s like family night but as big groups. It´s so fun. And, Hazel and Ariel and Humberto could come. After, they all commented how they loved that the church focuses so much on families. Humberto shared with everyone that he felt like he was now part of a family, and that he had never really felt that way before. I´ve loved seeing how the ward has really loved these new people, and showed charity and service to them. Moravia really is such an incredible place. 

We´re also teaching a family, they could only make it for the last hour of church last week...but the husband said he absolutely LOVED it, because he could see that the church is a church of order, and he knows that God is a God of order. They have five little kids under the age of ten, and it was a big sacrifice for them to come to church last week. And, we had talked to them about baptism a lot before, but they said they needed to come to church to see.... and they accepted a date this week! It´s not til like the end of October, because there´s a lot of things to work out with them...they need to get married and everything....but we´re so happy because they have really shown that they want to be closer to God and have sacrificed to be able to keep commitments. 

And....I don´t really remember what else happened this week! But everything is going well! :) We keep working on finding new people, and strengthening our own testimonies in the restored gospel. I know that the Church is true, and I´m grateful for the opportunity to share this message every day. :) 

Love you all! 

August 22, 2016 - look at the church through an investigator's eyes

This week was super fast. 

On Tuesday, we had a super great lesson. There was a girl named Hazel, she´s 19, and before she went to church for like months in the area of Coronado because she didn´t know she should go to Moravia. Anyway... like two weeks ago her and her boyfriend, Ariel, came to church!! And we´ve been having a hard time going with them but finally we got to go with them! She told us that she has already read like up to Jacob in the Book of Mormon, and has prayed and knows it´s true. And that she went to a lot of different churches before, and went to the church, and LOVED it. Her boyfriend has never really believed in God, but his grandpa died a while ago and has lots of questions about the Plan of Salvation. And Hazel went again yesterday to church, and they´re both reading the Book of Mormon. So it´s exciting teaching them! 

And Humberto is doing good!! He had his interview on Saturday, and passed! And it´s so cool, because the elder who did the interview said that honestly it was like doing an interview with someone who had been a member for like 40 years! But... he said that today, Monday, is his last day of drinking coffee and smoking. And, he really is a man of word. But we´ll go with him tonight and see, and so hopefully this weekend he can be baptized, but if not, very soon. :) 

And Yadira came to church yesterday!!! She´s super super Evangelical, but has always been super open to learning... and yesterday finally she came to church, and she said just to see how it is, because to really learn how are the Mormons she had to come. And, I think she loved it. She was paying so much attention, asking questions in the classes, said she really felt the Spirit during the Sacrament.... and she just looked so happy at the end!! 

I love the Church. And I know it´s true! We were talking to a member, who has been incredible with Humberto...he´s the elder´s quorum president, and he like takes Humberto to do visits with him and everything. Humberto said to him that when he came to church, he was so surprised because he found people who believed like him!! But he didnt know it existed. And he said he loves everything, that everything is so new to him and amazing. So the member was like, sometimes when we´ve been members for a long time, or our whole life, we fail to realize how perfect and incredible really the church is. So, yesterday, during the meetings, I was trying to look at the church through an investigator´s eyes. And yeah. The Church is so perfect and incredible. It´s so focused on the family, and the progression that we all need to have to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, through learning and teaching and serving. I´m so grateful to be a member of the Lord´s restored church, and share this message of hope. And yeah. Everything´s great. I love my companion so so much, and love the members and people here. And I love the gospel, and my Savior, and the experiences we are having here. 

Falling asleep again after planning.

eating lunch at the church building

Moravia

Moravia

okay! bye! have a great week! :) 

August 15, 2016 - He will always be our Father

Hi family!!

Humberto is doing well. Well, last Monday he told us that he had stopped smoking and drinking coffee completely!! We were so happy and excited!!!!! And then..on Wednesday he told us that he felt too sick, and couldn´t do it. So that was really sad. But he´s lessening and lessening every day. And, he´s doing great for having drinking coffee for all....60 years of his life. We´ve always heard that the Ticos give their kids coffee from the time their babies in a bottle...but this week was the first time we saw it!!! me and my companion were shocked. I couldnt even believe it!! But, no, Humberto is doing great, and is really esforzandose a lot. He wakes up at three every morning, and studies the scriptures!! And he cancelled a lesson this week haha because he was too busy sharing the gospel with his sister and forgot to look at the time!  Haha, it´s seriously so fun teaching him. He´s just really, really intelligent, and understands things really well. He loves the Restoration. And, he loves the book of Mormon. haha, in a lesson on Friday a member tried reading a scripture about baptism from the Bible. But Humberto said, No!! I don´t want anything from the Bible...only the new things, from the Book of Mormon!! And he talks really strongly so it was just funny and surprising, because usually everyone wants things from the Bible. But yeah. So we´re praying a lot for him, that he can stop smoking and drinking coffee, and that he can receive an answer about his baptismal date, because he doesn´t feel ready. But really, it´s incredible teaching him, and seeing how willing he is to accept the gospel, and the joy he is feeling in his life from it. 

Also, this week has been really interesting, because we´ve had lots of different lessons with different investigators who are super Evangelicals and they don´t really understand authority. They think that everyone who accepts Christ in their life has the authority to preach, to form a church, to be a prophet, an apostle. So I´ve really loved studying more about the Restoration, about the laying on of hands, and how important it is!!! I´ve never really realized before how important it really is that Peter, James, and John came down to give that authority, to make that unbroken chain. And...lots of times the people don´t believe in these events, because, they really are incredible. But that´s what makes the church true. The unbroken line of authority, the incredible events, the manifestations that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and so if there were events in the Old Testament with angels and visions....today we will also have that. and I´ve loved this week being about to testify a lot about that. And, then testify that reading the Book of Mormon is how we are going to be able to know all these thinds, and resolve all our doubts. I´ve thought a lot too, about the talk from Elder Stevenson...Where are the keys? And we are so blessed to know where the keys of the Priesthood are. I´m so grateful for the Restoration. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church here on the face of the earth. I know that only in this church is where we can receive the ordinances necessary to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. And...it was kind of interesting, because we found one of these girls yesterday, and she said she´s getting baptized next week in her church. So we explained to her to pray, and ask God if what we said was true! So hopefully she does that. 

And, also, I´ve loved being able to testify this week that we are all children of God. It´s another doctrine of the Evangelicos that I´ve heard a lot here.... that everyone is just a creature of God until they have received the gospel. And...honestly, I have always just felt so, so sad hearing that idea! Because the first principle that we have to teach is that God is our Loving Heavenly Father. of everyone. Even if we´re making good decisions, or bad, or if we believe in Him, or not. So this week our investigator Yadira said that everyone on the street were just creatures of God, and I couldn´t let her say that. So we testified that God is the Father of EVERYONE. That he loves EVERYONE. And, she didn´t really believe it. But, when we went back a few days later, she said she had meditated a lot...and said that we were right, that we are all children of God. So, I´m just grateful for these simple gospel truths that we have. I´m grateful that God loves all of us. And He knows us. Even when we are wandering in paths we shouldn´t go...He will always be our Father, waiting for us to come home. 

Tico Mother's Day - it's a big deal

Anyway, I´m glad for these experiences that I am having to help me strengthen my testimony in the restored gospel. I know these things are true. And I am happy for that knowledge. And I am happy sharing it with these people here. 

I love you all so much!! Have a great week :) 

August 8, 2016 - we've found lots of new people

Hey all!

Humberto is doing so so great. I´ve never had an investigator like him, someone who wants to know everything all at once!!  He told us this week that he wakes up at like 3:30 every morning and studies for like two hours the Book of Mormon, the pamphlets, and everything. He loves everything. He showed up last week at church with a button up shirt and tie, and yesterday also, even without us saying anything. He now has a lot of members who are friends, and he gave a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation to his sister and wants us to meet with all his family. And, we taught the Word of Wisdom... and he said that when he feels like smoking or drinking coffee, he reads the Book of Mormon. It just makes me so happy to see how he really is changing his life through the gospel!! He said though, that he is struggling with praying. He said he hadn´t gone to a church since he was seven, so he is having a hard time having the habit of praying, and feeling like God is answering him. So we´re excited to teach him tonight more about that.  And we just keep praying that he can keep lessening how much he smokes and drinks so he can be ready for his interview! I´m just so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary to be able to meet such incredible people.

Also, we´ve been teaching a woman named Patricia for a long time. She´s really good, she really understands that she can choose the things of the world, or the things of the Lord. And, we´ve seen lots of tender mercies in teaching her.... it was incredible even finding her, because her house is really hidden, but we met her one day when she was outside... she was going to start working on Sundays but we taught Sabbath Day and she prayed a lot and felt like God told her No to working on Sundays.... and she really wants to do the right thing. She went to church like...three weeks ago, and she loved it! but she hasn´t wanted to accept a baptismal date because she has a boyfriend and so felt bad about all of that. But we taught the  Law of chastity, and told her she had to talk with him, but she was afraid to do it. But she talked to him this week, and they said they could get married!! So she said yes to a baptismal date! so that was exciting, we´re hoping that she can keep listening to the Spirit in helping her make the right choices. 

And, yeah. Lots of other great experiences, but honestly the days all kind of blur together and I can´t remember a lot of things! But we´ve found lots of new people, it´s been a sunny week...like half the time and super rainy the other half... and yeah. Everything is great. :) 

​it rained so much and my scriptures got wet :( :( they were in bags but yeah. they still got a little wet. and they´re so hard to dry!!! so so sad :( 

​

And, my companion is wonderful! :) It´s fun being with a missionary with a lot of time on the mission! I haven´t had a companion with a long time for...a really long time, and it´s actually really fun to just be able to talk about experiences, areas, converts, trials, blessings and miracles..... I don´t know. It´s really fun! I love my companion a lot, and I´m grateful I´ll get to be with her for her last weeks of her mission. :) 

Anyway, I love you all a lot!! Have a great week! :)