what a wonderful week

Hi hi hi. 

okay so this week was crazy amazing. so i'll try and tell everything in the time allotted.

Monday- after mailng we went to tamarindo. its the beach an hour away in our area. we went to the Spaulding's house because Sister Spaulding was leaving on Tuesday. so we get there and she has all these nonperishable items for us to take home like ranch dip packets and taco seasoning and cinnamon and coco powder and just amazing stuff and it was like Christmas. because it was stuff we don't buy and it was like home. She then fed us lunch and it was amazing we had real broccoli and cauliflower steamed and it was so good and fresh. And she made chicken and noodles and alfredo sauce it was like being in the states! Then for dessert we had chocolate and dipped strawberries and bananas. so that was so so sweet of her.She gave us sugar cookies and banana bread. needless to say she's a saint and I felt so loved. we had a really good talk about giving back and she's so awesome because her and her family really helped out this branch so much these past 9 months and i'm so grateful for their family. So after that we went to the beach. awww so pretty and the water was so warm on my feet. and just so nice to see the beach. the pictures i look rough because it rained and im always sweaty so just take it for a grain of salt. i look like i'm always camping... because i basically am. hah.

Tuesday- we got up at 3:45 am and took a bus to San Jose for my Check after the first month and it was such a fun day. We got to see all the sisters and elders that came in at the same time as me and it was amazing to see the growth in all of us. I was so stoked to see Hna Starke and Hna Boer. It was like seeing my best friends and we were all so happy and its still so crazy to me how fast the time has flown. Any how we had a meeting with President Wilkinson and he just really focused on studying and working as hard as we can with the time that we have. So then we went to his house for lunch and again amazing food because we had really chicken and ranch and then cake and ice cream because it was his daughter emma's bday. Oh okay so random their oldest daughter Mary had three friends from utah visiting because it was their graduation trip and i walk in and i know of them from the one time i went to efy so that was pretty cool and random. Then we took the bus home and got home at like 10. needlesstosay. buses are so much worse than nonreving. i literally spent 10 hrs on a bus in one day.. but i'm glad i´m in santa cruz so i don´t mind sacrificing a little bit. 

Wednesday- well two different people dropped us today. and it was really sad. all of our other appointments dropped except for one. so it was a really long day. The one appointment we had was with alex and it was so exciting because he brought friends to listen to us and he told us hes given up coffeeeee and hadn't had it since the last time we talked. so that was awesome. we also had a ward family night today and i finally feel like i'm apart of this ward. i love the people. i love the kids. and i love that i can understand and talk to them pretty well. hah. at least in this activity i felt connected because we were playing a game and i got really competitive so that was fun.haha.

Thursday- today we had a zone meeting. we got there early so the zone leaders gave us our mail. I had three letters i felt so popular. one from Jordan Clark one from Dayna Gomes and One from a friend from byu. So it was really nice and then we had President Wilkinson there so we got to have an amazing lesson. So we talked a lot about pride. and If i were you i would read beware of pride by ezra taft benson its a really great talk. and we also learned of the new mission standards. it is amazing he's raising all the goals and standards of excellence up really high and we were all so so so pumped to start working and moving this work along. then after an amazing zone conference we had lunch of pb and j. I wanted to cry. PEANUTBUTTER! yummmmm. and so as we were leaving we're one of the last and the zone leaders said do y'all want this jar of pb and a loaf of bread so we were able to take home a jar and now we have 3 giant jars in our house. i'd say we have the most pb than anyone in the central or south american missions. hah. we're lucky. we had two from the spauldings and one from this activity. as you can see in the picture. the sweet tender mercies of life.

then we went and did work. we taught some amazing people and then we went to the church building and met up with the bishop to teach some less actives. it was so nice because they live like 30 min walk away and they need the help and they need the support. this is a family of 9. and they're all super young kids. and one of them has spina bifida and so this past week he was taken by the government because they're too poor and didn't have a house fit for him. its so sad so we went and we're going to help her fix up her house. then after that Pres.Sancho bought us pizza and took us home. it was really really nice. the pizza isn't anything like the pictures stefan used to send home but it was good. hah.

Friday-So we had weekly planning and this is our goal for this week. We are really working on being a disciple of Christ. So we've fixed our appearance to not look slack-ish or dirty but to always have clean shoes and hair and kinda nice shirts and skirts and then we decided to clean our apartment and we've decided to really be clean and have the spirit with us. We've been memorizing scriptures in spanish every week so we decided to memorize 3 nefi 5:13 He aqui soy discipulo de cristo el hijo de dios, he sido llamado a declarar su palabra entre los de pueblo... something something...a fin de vida eterna i do'nt have it all memorized yet.. that's close though  i think.. i'm just going of memory there.. haha. but i really feel a difference with this charge and change of mind. we're really working to not just teach people the true and restored gospel of Christ but really and truly bring people unto Christ. 

Saturday- okay so this is crazy. so today we worked so hard we had a member working with us from 1-5 and then from 6-8:30. we were cranking out lessons and it was amazingly awesome. we got two people to accept baptismal fechas and we desafiamos todos personas a asistir a la capilla. it was great we were on fire. then we were walking from one area to another and we saw a guy with a texas shirt so hna o said hey love your shirt. and we were talking to him and just walking and talking and ended up talking about the church and inviting him to come and he said yea he really wanted to. so we were just really excited because we were expecting a lot of people to come to church. Then we taught Gilmer and Alejandro. Gilmer has been reading the BOM by himself and is already to Jacob. its been a week since we last talked to him. and Alejandro asked if he could wear his school pants and graduation shirt to chruch tomorrow.. this just means black pants and a white button up and they were both just so excited to go to church tomorrow.

Sunday- so we get up and we walk and wake people up and remind them about church and Gilmer and Alejandro and then another Joven  go to church on their own and then we picked up a lady and walked to church with her-. so we get to church and its literally like a miracle like mana from heaven. we open up all the same and use all the chairs that we can but we still have a hallway full of people standing because our church is too small. we had 13 investigators at church. and there were 135 people at church and only 28 were gringos. that means 105 members, less actives, and investigators. So one less active stayed the whole time, and brought her scriptures and was actually participating. i've been working hard with her so this was a sight to see. and one of the investigators that came was the guy we just talked to on the street. he was so cute he said this was an answer to his prayers that he had been looking to change and when we talked to him yesterday he knew this is how he could do it. so that was really neat and really powerful and you never know whose ready or needs the gospel to just talk to everyone. Then we had the leadership training video the work of salvation and that was so neat to watch. first off i saw some of my friends in the missionary choir so that was cool and then second off the whole thing was just so powerful and its such a great time to be a missionary. i'm so pumped and i love the work. our branch is on FIRE. really its so great and great things are happening. I'm blessed to be  here. 

I love yall soo sooo much!!! 

p.s. i need no shoe socks. they die so fast here. holes and mold and crap.... so just like at christmas time thats all i want... haha. 

A few funny things :

-so yesterday I felt an earthquake. were supposed to have them often now but yeah its cool to say ive felt an earthquake,.

-and two we almost got eaten by a dog on saturday so we were going up to a house we normally go to and its noramlly fine and as hna o started to yell the welcome the dog whose *asleep* gets up and starts chasing and trying to EAT us and because this dog got up the other dogs in the street start chasing us too and its the scarriest thing ive ever experienced in my life.... seriously. we all were screaming and running away and shaking afterwards. i hate dogs. with a passion.. ughhh.

-and lastly. cool fact. i saw three monkeys this morning my first monkey sightings. ha

My spanish increased leaps and bounds

Holaa familia!! 

Okay so monday- I bought bright yellow keds for $4. Still got my cheap shopping genes. 

Tuesday- We went over to our sweet Dilian and Yara and taught them, and learned how to make Arroz con Leche. Its kinda like rice pudding but ten times more amazing. It was rico rico rico. I can´t wait to make it for yall. And we made it with fresh coconut shavings. mmmm. its weird I used to hate coconut and now its like my favorite thing in the world. So we had a really awesome experience with our golden investigator Ingrid. She lives across the sketchy bridge and she´s awesome, she really is feeling the Holy Ghost testify to her that the message we bring is one of truth. Then we taught Louisa- Louisa is a little old lady and is amazing. well this night  we taught about the importance of baptism, because she feels baptism is great because she needs to be cleansed from her sins since she´s old and gonna die soon.. but she didn´t understand that its really a covenant so we´ve been really working on letting her know there's more to baptism then just becoming cleansed from sins. So Alexander--He is 21 and sharing the gospel with everyone and I love that kid. This lesson he brought over his mom. So she could feel the joy and learn from us too. It was cool to see that he wanted to share the gospel because he´s been feeling the difference in his life and wants other to feel it too. But all in all an awesome day.

Wednesday- Well y'all can be proud today I taught a lesson. And by this I mean, I lead it and directed it and was able to explain and enseñar and really testificar to our investigator. This was the first lesson I felt like I have really participated and led and i really felt the spirit guiding me. So I don´t know if yall remember but last week I told you about a golden investigator Gilmer.. Well this night we went over to Gilmer's to teach him and he wasn't there but his mom and his little sister were there. So we´re teaching them and we have a member over there with us and we´re teaching the first lesson and the spirit is like amazingly strong. you can cut it with butter. Well anyway, we teach this lesson and have our member bare his testimony and its awesome, really just one amazing lesson and hna olgetree goes to desifiar and invitar the mom,Heylen, to be baptized and Heylen says.. no i´ve already been baptized. So we thought oh this is the problem we always have they don't understand the apostasy and the authority and poder de Dios para actuar en su nombre so we are like great... so hna ogletree kinda smartalik but with love says, In what church and by what authority. and Heylen looks at us and says with your church with a missionary.... andwe´re like oh........ haha. bien hecho. so the house really was meant for us because we were meant to find this inactive forgotten member of 13 yrs and to find her sons para auydarles a vivir juntos para siempre. so that was way neat. and way weird!! 

Thursday- We did splits today and we got a lot of work done. The most awesome thing that happened today was that I got to teach with hna O. a less active member Lourdis. Lourdis went on a mission and is amazing, and has a beautiful family but she´s gone through a lot and so she´s fallen away a little bit. Well.. she´s done a 180 in these past few weeks. She's changed her attitude and she finally came to sacrement meeting the Sunday before this Sunday and she´s talking to us more openly. She´s so knowledgeable in the church and so we decided to just read from the libro de mormón together. She´s trying to learn english so the last time we left her an english version of el libro de mormón. She's been reading it, so me and hna o read the verses in Spanish and made her read in English. It was really neat because we were all learning and progressing together in a language while learning the principles of the gospel. 

Friday- So we went over and saw Yara and Diliana and taught them about what to expect for tomorrow and they´re so so so giddy. Diliana is stoked because a cute Justin Bieber gringo gets to baptize her. hah. And after we talked with them (and ate more arroz con leche) The elders asked us to stop by a members house who have a 19yr daughter that isn´t a member and to try and talk to her. because Yara and Diliana and this girl are in their area. so we went over there and I have ya know aweful spanish but i just go for it and try and be the friendliest person that I know I can be and push through. So we invited her to the baptism and the ward activity after the baptism. 

Saturday- So today's the DAY!! So today we had weekly planning and then had to fill up the font so we didn't have many lessons. But during Weekly planning I got one of the best compliments ever! Hna Olgetree and Hna Bojorque told me that I was like a normal missionary and that my spanish was improving leaps and bounds.  so We got the baptism all ready and all nice and stuff. Me and hna Bojorque were singing I know that my redeemer lives in spanish in parts and solos and stuff. it was really smart of me because i´ve sang at the last three and so she wanted to help so i just gave her melody and harmonized off of her. and it was good and everyone loved it. The baptism was amazing! These girls were so happy and giddy and after they just kept saying how clean they feel and how amazing this is and the spirit was really strong. after the amazing baptism, we had a fathers day activity. The gringo family Spaulding are amazing! they made some nice american style mexican dips and then amazing american desserts. then we had the typical rice and beans and chicken for the main dish. we did fun activities and had a lot of people show up. Gansy the non-menber 19yr old showed up and it was awesome! She came up to me and asked for a picture so she could put it on her facebook. who knew  i was gonna get baptisms because i´m a gringo. hahah. but it was great to start a relationship with her. It truly was a beautiful day! 

Sunday- So we called so many people to remind them about church and a few had excuses and said they couldn´t come. sad so we passed by people and one little boy 16 yrs old chuma was awake and said he´d come with us  and then Gilmer and his brother Alejandro came with us too. So when we got there the church was ehh okay full... but then sacrament meeting started and in walked Gansy and her family and then walked in Alex and the less-active Mygela and then walked Lourdis and her family and the Chapel was filling up so FAST! we had 96 people there and only 9 were gringo visitors! It was a miracle to have 6 investigators and 4 families of less actives. After the amazing day at church we taught Heylen and we found out shes started smoking so we´ve been working with her to stop that. and alexander is totally ready for his baptism except he´s addicted to coffee so we´ve been working on that and really testifying of the power of the atonement and the faith in christ to fulfil all of Gods commandments. but really it was just the most beautiful weekend EVER.

so I know that Lords been blessing me. My spanish improved so much this week, understanding and speaking ability has jumped and it wasn´t because i just prayed and hoped it would change but i have been working my butt off and he´s just helping speed up the process and help me and guide me. all three of us have been getting up at 5:30 to give us an extra hour of language study. I get up and I read the book of mormon in spanish. I have seen the blessings and I can´t even explain how grateful I am for the experiences i´ve been having here. I am so full of joy and love for the Lord, this gospel and this work. 

Looooveee lots and lots.

hna coburn

Found some great new investigators

So I´ve got two more weeks and I´ll hit my first transfer.. crazy huh. I hope I get to stay in Santa Cruz and I hope I get to stay with Hna Ogleetree... so we´ll see how things turn out. It could be any which way. 

Okay so this week. We found a golden investigator! well actually two! so Tuesday we planned to cross this super scary bridge and go to cameroons and visit some references there so we spend 1hr looking for this house and finally find it and have a great first lesson kind of a getting to know you and lsn 2 mixed because the daughter (37 yrs old) and the Mom live together and the Dad just died 7 months ago. So after the lesson the daughter Ingrid comes up and says to me I feel this peace something I just can´t describe.. so obviously I´m dying to just stay and teach about the restoration and the holy ghost and everything but having been at that area for two and half hours we had to go and so we told them we´d be back on saturday and left them the plan of salvation pamphlets. So saturday we go back and we ask if they´ve read and both say yes of course and then we ask what they learned and Ingrid just goes off and basically understands everything about the plan of salvation. its so crazy because most people read it and then say they like it but don´t understand any of it. And Ingrid just kept saying well its crazy because i never knew any of this and yet it makes so much sense. so we teach about the restoration and she´s just soaking it in and the spirit is so strong and they´re both committed to baptism and i´m stoked because they are amazing and we need them in our ward. Then theres Gilmer. Gilmer is 21 he works and cares for his little 14 yr old brother their mom lives 15 minutes on bike away with her boyfriend. hes such a great guy and i know he´s prepared for this message. he really has a desire to know the truth and understand what the lord has planned for him and what he can do to make it back to the lord again. He´s also committed to be baptized and the cool thing is we´ve taught him twice and I was able to commit him and he´s already been keeping the commitments of reading and I know he's going places.

Yara and Diliana

So I don´t know if i´ve told you about Yara and Diliana- Their mom is a recent convert and they have never liked the missionaries until we came and started teaching them.. well they're getting baptized this saturday and their strength and their light is amazing!! They read and study and have questions for us and they keep talking about how much they love this gospel and how they want to be missionaries and share the joy they have with other. I´m just so stoked for them and so we asked what changed why now.. and they said well its just we´ve seen the example of our mom and how her life has changed and then yall came and were so loving and fun and taught us so well that we knew this was Christ´s church. So I´m stoked for that. I´m doing a duet with the Elders Quorum pres. haha

Madison w/ Yara and Diliana

So I sang again at the baptism last saturday. hah. they just can´t get enough of a white girls voice...  

So this week I feel like its been the best week for me. This week I´ve been able to really teach and talk and listen and understand. The improvement in my spanish was crazy this week and it wasn´t really an improvement in my spanish as it was in my confidence to just teach and talk and use the spirit. I know that I have been blessed with the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues and so i know i need to USE that gift. Its been a really great week and I´m just going to continue improving and getting better and better. Because I know that I can through Christ speak this crazy language and get across the principles of the gospel. 

weird fruit

Yesterday I gave a talk on conversion. It was crazy. I wrote it and had hna bojorque check over it and she said it was good so i just get it and i know it wasn´t a super great talk but i felt the words just coming from my mouth. it was awesome. Everyone after told me that for 4 week my spanish sounded like 3 months. And for me that was the best thing anyone could've said because i know that I can´t really do it and so I have to rely completely on the lord and I can see the fruits of that sort of trust. We have been having a ton of gringos visit our ward since its summer time and its so great we´ve had above 80 for attendance the past three weeks. so hopefully if this stays til august we´ll get passed for a new building! 

okay so while studying the scriptures I found the answer for why missionaries always come home fat.... go read proverbs 28:25. 

So you know in america we shorten words and its really funny.. and i´m like a big fan of it. well me and hna ogleetree decided to do the same thing for spanish.. so we say no se preoccupe and change it to no seps coup. its starting to trend amongst our investigators ahaha. so its awesome and really funny.

okay another random crazy coinsidence- so hna o was showing me her family pictures and she was like this is my cute cousin i should set you up with him and i´m like is that Sam Watkins.. and she´s like... uh... yeah... so me and sam were at byu together and like actually good friends. and anyways i was like did you go to his mission call opening and she wwas like yea were you there... and i was like no i was outside but i showed some people where to go for it and she was like wait were you with a group playing frisbee... and i was like yupp. so thats funny we met without meeting. haha. stefan or stuart.. you should date her.. she´s totes cute and spiritual and way cool. 

so i think thats all. oh this week i´m studying hard core the attributes of christ in pmg. especially patience.. i´m so bad at it. but after studying it and readying through book of mormon with patience in mind its helped me so much. the whole basis of patience is hope and faith and its so amazing how every attribute of christ is based on other attributes you really can´t have one without having the others. thats why its so important to not just come unto christ but to become like christ. 

I love you all alot alot alot. and I´m praying for yall.

p.s. can i have recipes of chesscake I know the gist i just forget which is 2 eggs and which is 1 egg. and then oatmeal pancakes, homemade syrup, cookies and a southern food that doesn´t need a lot of ingredients... and other fun easy recipes that just need a stove top.

love you lots thanks for the talks!! 

Madison and the neighbor and his puppy

Improving on the Language

Wow days just fly by but then its weird because its only been 3 weeks. hah. time is so messed up. So this week was a little strange so I´ll try to organize my thoughts.. 

 

okay Monday- We had pday and can i just say i´m gonna be as fat as anyone in america because i love the bread here... like alot. okay anyway so we taught this one kid Alexander. Super cute 20 yr old and golden. He´s so smart and asks the best questions. When we are teaching because he´s actually smart and young I have a really hard time talking to him, I know its stupid but i don´t like feeling stupid in front of him any way so I decided that since I´ve only taught him once and it was our second time teaching him and the last time we didn´t invite him to be baptized (I found out that they invited him the time before I came but he said no) So I decided I would invite him to be baptized. So the lesson was rough. We kept being interrupted by his talkative grandma and i would feel the spirit but then something weird or random would happen and I just felt like I couldn´t invite him because he´d say no.. but obviously me being me I had to follow through with my goal so I did my first real invitation to be baptized and oddly enough he said yes. It was awesome I really feel like he´s one of the elect you always here about.

 

Tuesday-Okay so our branch mission leader lives about 15 minutes away on bus and so we pick up our lunch to bring to his house and it smells delicious and when we get to his house he says i made you lunch so just save that for your dinner... so we´re in the kitchen as he´s fixing the lunch and he just chops up a fish and sticks it in a pot with water and vegatables... okay so fish soup is my trade off the smell itself while it was cooking was unbearable i wanted to throw up and die. i prayed so hard that my tastbuds would be turned off and that i could eat this nasty thing.. so let me tell you the church is true. i ate it all and don´t remember what it tasted like. I literally had a fish fin in my soup... blechhh so gross! his wife had the fis head and face though, so i´m lucky i didn´t have that. Oh okay then remember how i said i was getting over my fear of dogs... well its back because as we were walking to the bus stop two dogs just freakout and start taring after me and i´m like dying but then their owner calls them and they stop running. 

 

Wednesday.-so we head to Nicoya and I have my first real splits from my comps.  She´s awesome and shes only been out 4 months and her spanish is kicking. She took spanish in college but still just awesome i want to be as good as her. So we started the day at 6:30 and didn't get in til 10:40 to San Jose, where the secretaries were supposed to be waiting but they weren´t so that sucked because then we waited another thirty minutes and the AP´s finally picked us up. 

 

Thursday- okay so i went to the office and saw HNA STARKE AND HNA BOER what a joy! I got to spend all of thursday with them. we went to the embassy and did our embassy stuff and it was just so good to reconnect and see that i´m not the only one that has hard days with spanish. hah. then we take the 5hr bus back to Nicoya and get in about 9:30 and the other sisters are like OH MY WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? everyone has been calling for you.. so apparently the secretaries told my comps that i was going to be coming home by myself instead of staying in Nicoya for the night. so they were freaking out about little baby gringo traveling by herself.. but no i was fine and with a gringa and three hispanic sisters in that area. and we were starving and the tender mercy from the Lord happened as their cook made us food that was hot and ready for when we can back. Oh and I got to check the mail and saw I got my FIRST letter in Costa Rica!! Lauren had sent in a while ago and it finally arrived. tender mercy number 2.

 

Friday- so finally i get to get back to work. Today was fun. We taught alot and the next tender mercy that occured is that this SUPER less active lady Magela is friends with the investigator Alex and she said she´d teach a lesson with us! So not only did we get to teach Alex but we got to bring a super inactive sister back into the fold. We invited them both to church and it was just awesome. Oh and then we took out this 17 yr old recent convert to go with us to a few lessons and she was awesome. She´s a future missionary for sure. shes so funny she kept fixing my spanish and pronunciation and then she took a picture and was like i´ll put it on fb.. haha. i was like okay but i don´t have fb email it to me and she was like what no fb... 

 

Saturday- So picture those bridges you see in movies... the ones that have broken boards and are super high and cricky and swingy... i have to walk over one of those and every time i get SOO sick and queasy.. its the worst. ill take a picture some time. so today we started our fast and I was fasting for confidence with spanish. and I saw a miracle happen this day. I don´t know if my comps notice, but i talked more in lessons and talked more in the streets then i have ever talked before. I don´t know how but it just was flowing so mcuh better. I even recognized one of our contacts when my other copms didn´t. it was really a miracle. We then we went to the baptism--it was for the elders in our area. they asked me to sing with one of them, so that was awesome. It was a tender mercy to feel completely comfortable in my zone singing. Everyone was so nice afterwards too i felt like a movie star. I was also able to talk about yall because i took a photo of our fam and got it laminated and so i can now take it out with me everywhere. So it was a really great day.

 

Sunday- this week we worked so hard to remind people about church and to do everything we could to get them there  and then this morning we went around to pick them up and no one and I mean no one was awake or out or anything. it was so discouraging. so we get to church and its still pretty empty.. but then the impossible happens our ward normally has like 60 people and our goal is 80. well right as sacrememt starts 4 investigators and our inactive magela show up! it was amazing! then there were the random gringo vacationers. and so we ended up having 88 pèople at church! truly a miracle!! haha. Okay and I was asked to give a talk next week so thatll be fun. I cant wait to tell you about that!

 

Okay so I can´t believe you sent a PACKAGE. thats way tooo nice. so i know how hard it is when christmas comes around though so i decided to tell yo about random things that i always think will be good. Candy like my fav. peachrings sweedishfish and sourpatch kids, and then like individual wrapped stuff for children. and then stickers for the little kids tooo. and then mas crystal light packets and no show socks.. thats just random things because one sock already is ripping because its always wet and then rocks in my shoes and yeah. but i don´t need anyof that i just thought it might help if you had some kinda idea of practicle stuff.

 

wow!! dad  is awesome. International and a High Councilor!! I´m so impressed. Life at home sounds awesome and I love the pictures like aLOT they make me so happy. also the kitchen looks awesome way to work it out!! I can´t wait tocome home and see a new house... redo my room while your at it. haha.

 

I love yall alot!!!

 

Madison