Sweet note from members in her area

Our family loves your daughter/sister!  She is a rock star of a

missionary and we are so lucky to have her in our little branch in Costa

Rica!

Love, 

The Blanchards

Changes!

So first. TELL EVERYONE.. Only send letters AND packages to this new address!!!   
Costa Rica San Jose.
Apartado Postal 249-2010
San Jose, Costa Rica

Okay so this week was amazing and sad, but amazing. hah.
So Tuesday an investigator cut off his bananas from his front yard and at a carwash where

   

Making the Smoothies

he works DURING the lesson.. He leaves and comes back with milk, ice, sugar, and a blender and tells us that its time he gives us a real sweet treat. So we ended up getting smoothies in a carwash... on the fly. It was really cool!

So on Wednesday night we got the changes... My comps were getting 2 new comps.. and I was leaving... to be in a trio... with HERMANA STROUD (from Nicoya) and HERMANA WORKMAN! a TRIO OF GRINGOS! in SAN CARLOS! thats where my branch president is from.. so thats pretty cool... BUT I WAS GONNA BE WITH HNA STROUD! I WAS LIKE ITS A DREAM! MY BESTIE IS MY COMP! hah. .  . .this story to be continued.. 

 

 So I said goodbye to Santa Cruz on Thursday. Lots of people were crying and it was one of the saddest things I've ever had to do BUT I told everyone that I would come back in December.... sooo... I have to come back in December.. So that's the good part!  It was really hard though and one of our investigators started cryying and then illegally gave me a big hug,... hah. I was not okay with that , but what do you do after 9 months in an area. The saddest part was that Ana and Anita and Kelvin and Cristofer weren't there when I went to say goodbye so i had to say goodbye over the phone. I was literally almost in tears as I heard them crying over the phone.... it was the hardest thing ever. But I got on  a bus and went to San Jose. As we get to san Jose to the house where we sleep I see Hna Stroud and we are jumping and screaming and freaking out that we are going to be comps!! Then my district leader calls again..... and this is what he says.. .did you hear the rest of the changes... I was like no.... what... and he was like .. umm.... nevermind see you at the temple.

So in San Jose in the morning we went to the temple and WOW the temple was so peaceful and a great place to think. 

 So I know nothing about San Carlos.. but I'm so excited.. and then we rush off to the meeting with Elder Quinton L Cook.  So we are sitting there waiting for Elder Cook and I'm sitting and chatting with hna Ogletree and it was so great when all of a sudden President calls me up to him on the stand.  I go up there and he's like.. hna. first did the AP's talk to you yet.. I was like no... why... he was like You're not in that companionship really.. your comp is coming.. she's brand new and you're training and you're area is a whitewash.. So you're going to take the spot of the elders there previously.  And you'll have to train and learn where and how that area works.. I was like are you joking... haha. i can't do that.. And he's like yes. yes. you can.. then he looks at me and is like.. oh and by the way I need you to lead the music for this conference with Elder Cook! So I would be standing like not even 2 feet from Elder Cook for at least 6 minutes (with the opening and closing song)  So Elder Cook gets there and he's like I want an interview with everyone of you... so come shake my hand and look me in the eyes... so i  got to shake his hand and look him in the eyes and it was just incredible the spirit and presence that he has! and then we also had the seventy Elder Amado. The talks were really short because they ran late but they were so incredible.  We got promises of success and we learned a lot about love and a lot about the Lord and the special witness that a Prophet and Apostle are. It was just an amazing conference.

Then we left for our area... with no small miracle of fitting 5 huge suitcases. three girls and about 5 little bags into a tiny taxi that they have here... It was really a miracle and the taxi guy was like it won't fit.. but we made it all fit and we didnt even have to sit on each others laps. Then he said my car won't work with all this weight. I promised him as a representative of Jesus Christ that the Lord wants us to get to our area and that he will bless him for helping out his servants and that is exactly what happened.. the Lord allowed us to get there safety without problems and in good time.

MY NEW AREA! first off. It's green and has mountains and volcanoes and rolling hills and it's just so pretty.  Our chapel is HUGE and its just so fresco here. It's cold in the mornings and cold at dark or at night but during the day it's a nice warmness medio hotness. The biggest blessings are that 1. I HAVE HOT SHOWERS!!!!!!!!! i literally cried when i went in and not just had a warm shower but a full on HOT shower!!! then 2. WE HAVE A REAL WASHER AND DRYER IN MY APT. and we get HOT CLOTHES! I wanted to cry again. this new area will be a huge chagne and a real adventure because I don't know anything and I'm training.  But I'm so excited for the newness and for what the Lord has in store for me. I know that this is the true church. I know that The Lord  has a plan for each and every one of us and that he really cares for us and he cares about what we do and how we feel.  I get to wear sweaters now and have hot showers and I get to do my hair even though i still have this ugly hair cut. I have great companions for now and tomorrow I will be picking up my brand new companion  that I'm training from COLUMBIA!  It's all so new and exciting and scary.

Hugging our warm clothes fresh from the dryer

I love the Lord. The church is true. The book is blue and I love you.

Hna Coburn

Holaaaaaa

Okay so this week was a week of MIRACLES!

1. I learned something and its super interesting and its real and true. okay so first off I recognized a way that I've been increasing my faith. Its been through my prayers of gratitude. I have never thought that faith and gratitude were related. I knew gratitude was related to humility and happiness but to faith...it just never worked out in my mind that it was something that was related. After reading an article about gratitude I was really excited and decided to start testing and trying my faith. What I did was one day I was praying and we needed to work with members and do divisions, so I was praying and praying and then the thought came to me to trust more in the Lord. So I decided to thank him for letting us find a member to work with  and then was like why don't I trust him more and thank him for letting us not just find a member but thank him for having Nicole help us today. I was very specific.Then we went to lunch.. at Nicole's house because her mom gives us food, and as we walk in she says, I told my friends I was working with you guys today. What time would you like my help and where are we going?... hahahah. I was like wow. I knew the lord would make it happen but I thought it'd take a little more work on my part. haha. It was incredible.   I have been applying this more and my faith is growing so much and we are seeing MIRACLES just like this one.

2. This week was the crazy week of fiestas. I'm talking 24/7 fiestas that are the biggest in all of Santa Cruz. We heard from everyone that it was going to be a week of no work, but the lord blessed us as we had a total of 34 lessons. And they were really great lessons. We got to go and work with a lot of the members and go to the coast and get lots of references and it was just really greatttttt. He really blessed us.

3. One night we went to the church and we were looking to do a splits with one of the younger girls when.... all of the sudden we had three women from the ward ready to help us so we got to do a three way division!! It was so AWESOME! I got to go work with Hna Magaly. I just love her. ha. She's so sweet and the lesson was really great too.. and its just a testimony that the members really change everything.

4. Okay so Hafrum is a drinker and a smoker. She comes from Iceland (so its similar to Germany) Drinking is just what everyone does. This week we challenged her to stay sober and not take one sip... and guess what!!! SHE DID IT. Even though the smoking is a lot harder for her to stop. I was so proud and I know the Lord helped this chica fulfill this challenge and that it was only possible through His help.

5. Ana hasn't accepted a date for baptism BUT LUPE ACCEPTED! and he said he doesn't care if Ana won't accept that he will be baptized because he wont deny the answer he got from God. It was amazing. I hope Ana will lessen her pride and accept a date to be baptized..... because its just her pride that is stopping her.

6. Some really cool quotes I learned this week, ¨most men creep themselves into nameless graves when now and then one or two forget themselves into immortality.¨And then I like Minds full of Honor are Betrayed by anger.¨because a lot of the time we let anger or grudges or offenses changed and destroy who we are.. that's something that is a problem in our branch.

BUT THIS WEEK ROCKED. I find out about changes in 2 days... i'm nervous. I've said most of my goodbyes... so we'll just have to wait and see!!

Love you Lots!

Long Story

okay so this is going to take a while to explain but it needs to be done and that's all i'm going to talk about in this email.

 Ana and Lupe.

Okay so we´ve been going through a really rough time with them lately. In the past few weeks we´ve almost dropped them like three times Because Ana just kept trying to push us away. She did this with getting angry at us for stupid stuff, or asking stupid questions just to try to prove that this isn't the true church or just stuff like that... but every time we try to drop them.. I can't. I just can't do it. I can't because I KNOW that they are going to get baptized and I know that they are ready and that they just are missing something.. so On Sunday I fasted for them.. and really was focusing on them, studying for them and praying with all my heart for them. I know that Ana has been praying and asking if these things are true and that she just hasn't received or maybe that she hasn't recognized her answer yet... so I was really focusing on that part because if she could just get an answer she wouldn't need to wait to be baptized or need to question about stupid unimportant stuff. So after stressing about that for days after days. we made a plan.. that we'd talk about the apostasy just one more time.. and help her with that. So we got out the video called The Great Apostasy and we were starting to show that and it was like the enemy was trying to ruin everything. because at every second there was a distraction for her.. her phone, her kids, her husband.. everything and she was missing all the parts that just tell her what she need to hear specifically.. .so i'm stressing and finally she says something and i'm like no we're going to rewind it so you can understand what going on. So we watch the video and after that point when we rewound it she was completely focused and then her husband Lupe entered and we were just all focused on the spirit and what the lord would have us say. so then she starts asking questions again. and i stop her and I tell her (not loud or rude) but with the power and authority that I have as a missionary that I can prove that we are the true church. I can prove that we follow exactly what Christ teaches in the bible that I can answer every single one of her questions with proof from the bible but that is not our purpose and that I will not take away her opportunity to have faith and then she stopped asking questions. She started asking how it was that we felt the spirit  and then we just felt the spirit fill the room and we couldn't stop it. We just explained about prayer and about getting our answers and how or what we had to do to know that God was listening and that we could get our answer. and then it was just one of the best moments of my mission-- definitely the best lesson I've had. and then she was like I just don't know if i need to be baptized because i was already baptized.. and so i just told her that she has to ask God if she needs another baptism.. and then i was like we want to leave yall with a prayer. we would like you to pray and to ask if these things are true and she was like what do i need to ask and i told her to just ask whats in her heart. and so we knelt down and before she started i told her that we were all going to wait quietly after her prayer. she prayed with so much faith and fervor that i couldn't believe it and i couldn't stop praying in my heart. and she asked everything. She asked if she should be in this church if Joseph Smith was a prophet if the book of Mormon was true, if this was the true church and then she ended it. And then we all just sat there and i heard her praying.. i heard her start to pray something and then we all just sat there feeling the spirit TESTIFYING that all these things are true that you cant deny it and then we asked how they felt and Ana was like i'll tell you later and Lupe was like i feel like i was touched by God. and then we left so they could think on these things and then we found out that Ana left for Nicaragua so we couldn't visit her and check up until Friday night. We ran over there, and she got back right before we had to be in the house so we ran and asked how she felt and she said she knew.. she said this is where she needs to be and that she can't deny it. and it was just incredible then on Saturday from 11 til 8 we were at her house cooking setting up and helping for her wedding. We were passing out food and spreading the gospel. Talk about tiring. it was worse then working like normal all day long.

But yes. we should be seeing their baptism next weeek!! but i'm nervous because i could be leaving so if its not next week i won't see it.. and it'll be the saddest thing in my life.. but it will be the happiest day because i just want it to happen even if i'm not there.

Anyway its been a super great weeek! 

I'm nervous for this coming week because its the big fiesta weeeek... and idk who will be in their houses-.

Love yall so much!!

Miracles

So I thought with Christmas ending that I would see less Christmas miracles.. but we've seen more miracles than we've seen cockroaches.. and I'm telling you that means we've seen a whole lot this week! I don't have enough time so I'm only going to focus on two or three of these miracles.

Hafrum. Let me tell you all a little bit about miracle number 1. Well remember that girl we contacted from a while back. Well we hadn't seen her in like 4 weeks, but on Monday last week we were going to go visit Ana.. when we saw Hafrum standing in the road. so we started talking to her and just chitchatting and none of my comps were making a move to start teaching her so I just was like I'm a representative of Jesus Christ why am I not sharing the gospel? So I was like Hey, can we teach you a little about Jesus? And she was like yea of course that'd be awesome. So she let us in and we start talking and we start with a prayer and ask if there is anything that she would like us to pray for and she says she wants joy. So we pray and then just start right in on how God is our Heavenly Father and the gospel and his plan brings us joy, lots of blessings and happiness and everything. And the spirit is so strong my mexican comp said even without understanding anything that she felt the spirit. So we asked if she had questions and she asked what we believe in smoking and drinking and sex. and so we gave her a brief overview of the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. and she looked at us and she just said.. i need to change. but its so hard. and so we talked a little bit more and then gave her the restoration pamphlet to read and asked if she would pray to close the lesson and she said sure... but that she'd never prayed before. We taught her the steps and then she asked if she could say it in her native tongue.. Icelandic. so she prayed and the spirit JUST ENVELOPED us. it was amazing. and so afterwards I just asked her as we were leaving--I asked how she felt and she was like i cant explain it. i feel so good right now. so calm. Okay so we were then trying to find her a Book of Mormon in Icelandic because everyone should read or hear the gospel in their native language. but we didn't even know if they had them so we're on LDS.org and we find it and then the spirit guides us and we find all of the pamphlets in Icelandic in a printable version.. BUT DAD HERE'S THE DEAL WE NEED YOU TO BUY THE BOOK OF MORMON AND GET IT TO US AS SOON AS POSSIBLE: the mission said it could take like 2-3 months... SO THATS YOUR JOB BOM IN ICELANDIC! And TO US ASAP. :)) Okay so then we printed all the stuff out and found out there aren't missionaries over there but there are 254 members with 2 congregations. And so we passed by her house on the 1st... and we were talking with her briefly and she was like I tried.. I tried not to drink but after a few hours of people offering me and offerring me and offering me I gave in. its just thats what I do to party in my country since you're a teenager you just go and get drunk. but I'm trying to change it and I only had a few.. i really had a lot less than normal. and then we gave her the pamphlet in Icelandic and she freaked out with excitement. she told me that she tried reading but wasn't understanding and then she was like i'm going to go read this right now. So we went and we taught her again about being a child of God. And how important it really is and what it really means and the spirit again was so so strrong! and she just understands and gets it all. And she has such a pure desire even though she knows nothing about God or the church. I feel like we're teaching king Lamoni. Its incredible. And then at the end she said ... I want to do it. I want to do whats right. But I dont know how Im going to be able to make it through the week of fiestas... (Let me explain. this week of fiestas is in 2 weeks and all of costa rica will be having big huge fiestas.. but the difference is that santa cruz has the biggest fiestas and they are the only ones that are 24 hrs long of just drinking and partying and its throughout the whole town...) So I looked at her and I promised her that if she will decide to follow christ that she will be able to do it. And she made a joke about how she desires a metal if she gets through the week sober and I told her I'll make her a cake if she gets through the week sober and then the spirit still super strong i told her if she will pray and know that these things are true that we are teaching her that she will not have problems through the week because she will know that God will help her and that Heavenly Father loves her and wants her to be clean so that she can be happy really happy. and then I challenged her to be baptized and she accepted. Now the next time we passed she was reading the pamphlets of the restoration and word of wisdom and was taking notes in a notebook.  All I can say is that she is so prepared and ready for this gospel and to be a pioneer in her country and she doesn't even know it. She has such pure intent and i feel like we really are just bringing it all back to her rememberance. I feel the spirit so strong when we teach her and I know the Lord is working through us. I am so grateful for the opportunity to help her! 

Maikol okay so maikol is so incredible. He hasn't been smoking or drinking.. which was a huge problem for him and the lesson we had with him this week he started crying and he just said that hes never felt the love of Christ more than when he has been listening to us teach him about his atonement and how that can help him with his addictions. He is coming up fast for his baptism in two weeks!! right before I leave!

Paolo so he is just a normal guy. but so prepared. this week we taught him and he was like it just all feels right. But that he doesnt have faith so he has told us multiple times that he isn't going to pray until he has read the book of Mormon enough and has more faith... Well last night we were teaching him and the spirit guided us to say somethings and he accepted the challenge to pray and to ask Heavenly Father directly if these things are true! He too is preparing for his baptism.

Ana her wedding is this saturday. Im making the desserts with hna johnson.. Im so EXCITED! FINALLYYY!!!! WOOOHOOO!

so the elderly couple in our zone gave us money to eat a christmas dinner and we never did so on wed. we went to a restaurant and I got to eat FILLET MIGNON! or however you spell it... real meat! hah. it was awesome. last night I ate Iguana Eggs... i felt so sick afterwards but its a great experience.. Life is so good. Today we went to the beach and I got a little sunburn that will turn into a nice tan. hah. Its just getting hotter and hotter and i'm loving it.. but we are starting the fifth week of this change so i have this week.. and next week.. and then its changes.... and on the 24th of Jan. ELDER COOK is coming just to speak to the missionaries! So awesome! 

Love you lots and I'm grateful for all your prayers! 

Hermana Coburn