March 25, 2013

BUENAS!!!

March 25, 2013

Ok...so sorry that I didn't even talk about St. Patrick's Day in my last email. Yes, I did totally wear green and I gave the other missionaries a hard time for not. I can't pinch them because they are all elders. I tried to explain to people in our ward and my comp about this holiday. Yeah...it makes no sense really but it’s fun. I always love the little leprechaun hunts and making the little homes or forts. My favorite is the picture in the book that we had as kids that has the tree with all the little people inside. Don’t know if you guys understand that description but it's my best. Ha-ha. Oh and they totally have lucky charms here. Elder Bergeson and I were going to buy some and then totally forgot. How lame! But next year with you all. And you have to dye the milk green. It’s just a given. What are you all going to do for April fool’s day! So tempting to do something here but I'll just be with my comp and can't really play a joke on her (she's a bit more serious). Maybe on the elders. I'm excited for Easter for you all! The Easter bunny! Tons of chocolate! Yeah! this week is called Semana Santa and it's where all the Catholics (non practicing as well) get super intense and obsessed (more than usual and normal) over statues of Christ and scary blasting music like for darth vader. No joke. In almost every house, there's a shrine in their front area (where you would put a car but they don't have cars) of Christ and then chairs situated in front with crazy music playing. I said to my comp that if Christ comes with this kind of music playing in the background and this type of look on His face, I'm going to be sent straight to Hell. No joke. The face of Christ on all these statues is so scary! There's no mercy at all in His face just pure justice. The Catholics are so crazy this week. They told us to be careful walking around and knocking on doors. We can't take any pictures of it because it's disrespectful and they'll attack. Ha-ha. We’ve been attacked enough thank you. But won't tell you about that until after my mission. No worries. Never been robbed but there are weird drunk people all the time. Just saying...Costa Rica is a whole other world. It’s quite an adventure. But anyway...so everyone has work off this week and will be a semi great time to contact homes. It's just that it's like spring break....some stay home and others head to the beach. I'm excited to see what all happens this week with all the religious stuff. I am extremely excited for GENERAL CONFERENCE! I'll be able to see my home. Ha-ha. Side note...if you guys want, a picture of Salt Lake City would be awesome to send. Ha-ha. Or maybe I'll print one from here. Love our home. But trying to not be prideful that the prophet lives in my city. Ha-ha But I'm excited to hear what their advice and counsel is! It's a nice break as a missionary which I'm sure you all can relate. We'll see if I can watch it in English. But if in Spanish, it's fine. I can pretty well understand talks for the most part. I've been reading the Ensign of the last general conference (one talk a day) to try and prepare for this next one. Then I only have one more and then home. Crazy! Plus, we all get to chat in 6 weeks or so! woo hoo! Hope we can Skype again. Not sure when or what days but I'm sure we'll find out as it gets closer. Oh...before I forget, my release date is probably the second or third week in January but I heard you can go 30 days before your release date so we'll see if I can make Christmas this year or not. I sure hope so.

Glad the sun is shining for all of you! It will be nice to head outside a bit more. But the skiing in McCall sounded way awesome. Kind of like a dream with no one on the mountain and lots of snow. The spring there is the weather here. I love it. We’ve had sun for the last week which has been awesome. A few times it gets really hot but for the most part it's just perfect weather. I love Paraiso! Never want changes. Ha-ha. It's not cold but it's not the intense heat like in Guanacaste. Oh and Guanacaste is where we are all going to go when you come. It has the best beaches, zip lining, and animals. It’s like the most intense tourist place in Costa Rica. But I heard it's really pretty just crazy heat and sweating all the time. Don’t worry, it will be awesome. The heat here is more intense than in Hawaii! Trust me. Getting off the airplane and being soaked in sweat is a constant experience here in the hotter areas. San Jose and Cartago are more normal. But anyway...hope you all can bike more and go hiking and enjoy the grass! That will be a lot of fun for you. Oh and about the temple, we don't go with president. We just rode the bus to San Jose and then from there to Belen with our zone. Each zone has a different session time so we didn't really get to visit with other areas. But it was still a great experience. Also, so happy that Landon and Kimi got their car back and all that is going well! I totally used your tithing experience in a lesson last week. I use all of our family’s experiences in lessons. I share FHE ideas that we've done or how we always had one weekend day as a family, how there were times when dad didn't have work but just continue to pay tithing, Tyson works as a doctor but still takes time for his family at night....all of it. I hope that's ok. I just think you guys are so awesome and good examples. Can't help but use my family. :)

I don't invite our investigators to be baptized in every lesson. I invite them in the first lesson and then they need to show their interest by coming to church and doing the things we have asked. If they don't, I explain our purpose and that we can only visit them once or twice to teach but our purpose is to help people come closer to God through the covenant of baptism. I always explain that I could care less about numbers...that I just want all the blessings of baptism and the Holy Ghost for them. That's why we set dates. Before I say a date, I always explain that heavenly father works with goals and that we do too. That we would like to set their date for three weeks later (must have three times at church before baptism in our mission) but that if we get to that day and they don't feel ready, we can push it another week. But then I promise that over the next three weeks they are going to want their baptism sooner because of how close they become to God and Christ. I do need to look at it from an investigator's point of view. If this lady is going to church and reading, the missionaries don't need to be super pushy. She’s progressing just fine. We have another family we are teaching in Orosi who said no to baptism and just want to learn. We are teaching them this week and if they come to church this week, we'll commit maybe the next time and see how they are. After the first lesson you usually can see who really wants to change and who is just taking advantage of more knowledge. We’ve dropped a few because they kept making excuses for visits and weren't progressing. It happens. But I will do my best to look at things from the investigator's point of view. :) :) it's true that numbers really aren't all that important. It’s the people. Look at it from their perspective. I also always like to ask people in our first lesson why they let us in and what they expect from us as well. It’s good to get all expectations out in the beginning. But to be completely honest, I’m not the best with baptismal dates. So that's our goal this week. Ha-ha.

Ty and Sam, awesome about real salt lake. And we saw part of the game in a restaurant where my comp wanted to stop and grab some food before we returned back to the house. (Don’t worry, didn't buy anything). But yeah we saw they were playing in snow. I was cheering on the U.S. the owner was an investigator and still kind of is. I gave her a hard time and explained that the U.S. is my home. They asked if I lived in the snow too and explained about Park City. They asked how I managed the cold. Ha-ha. So funny. But way to go U.S.! Super awesome. Kind of agree not fair for poor ticos who only play in grass. But hey what can you do? Hope you guys can see some more games this year! The popular teams here are Barcelona and then Saprissa or the league of Costa Rica. But I hope that this week is a lot of fun for you guys getting ready for Easter and all that jazz.

Ok...me....

The family we are teaching is totally progressing! They came to the baptism the elders had this last Saturday. The elders had three baptisms!!!! And their baptisms were actually family members of Pricilla. No one even knew! Not a coincidence totally the hand of the Lord. Our mission president came to the baptism and talked with our investigators! It was really awesome. The ward is so great with this family. All the families want to have a lesson with this family we have. They are developing friendships and Pricilla has an aunt in the ward and cousin! So great! Pricilla talked with us about how she can help prepare her sons to serve missions just like us and got so excited telling someone in the ward about their baptismal date. :) Just hope they keep progressing! Their date is 13 of April! We are teaching a few other people but mostly new ones. Not really too much to talk about with them. But this family is incredible! Golden family! I just love them. We bought them triples, a hymn book, book of Mormon for children at the temple and wrote notes inside. It was cute because on Sunday they came with their big stacks of books for church and the little boys were carrying their book of Mormon for children. Just adorable! That’s kind of it with the work going on. I talked with the zone leaders and they said in December this area was doing maybe 23 lessons a week and now we are doing more like 50 lessons! The assistants called them and told them to keep doing what we are all doing. They said that our area is one of the only areas baptizing. My district leader asked me to plan a lesson for how to contact and find new investigators for the district meeting to teach everyone. Kind of nervous but it will be fine. My zone leaders are so awesome! They always tease me and give me a hard time. They gave me some great advice in saying the with my comp, she is my number one priority right now. I have to study for her before my investigators to really get her started on the right track.

Comp....she's progressing little by little. It’s a little bit slower for her but she's getting better. She has been teaching more because I don't have a voice. I had a fever last week and then flu then head cold so hasn’t really been able to talk. She's taken the reins and has been guiding the lessons. I have found that if I just shut up, she can teach. Ha-ha. It's not that I talk too much it's that I jump in and ask questions. But I'm trying to take the back seat and let her lead in the lessons. I told her that for the next 6 weeks, she's starting in lessons, committing, and pretty well teaching all. She's planning our week and each day with goals and I'm helping her figure out how we can meet our goals. We are going to start getting up early this week so she can have more time to study the book of Mormon so she can feel more familiar with it and use it more in lessons. I have started a list for her in what scriptures to use in each section to help get her started. She just has zero background of the church. Almost no knowledge at all. I have had to teach her principles before we go and teach our investigators. But that's what happens with people in Central America. Many don't have strong homes or any info of the church...how it's run. So I’m trying to help her with that. Hna. Cartagena told me to not pray for patience just for knowledge of how to help my companion. There are times where she is stubborn and won't follow my example at all but then she submits and does what I say. I just try and set the example but she doesn't really follow it. Ha-ha. But she's getting better. I'm calming down and just think....well....in almost 9 months or so, I’ll be home. Ha-ha. But I'm helping her out. Trying to leave her better and get her started on a good path. Trying to help her be obedient. But things are fine.

I'm a lot healthier. I can't even finish my food anymore. I haven't been eating bread at all. I eat cereal and fruits. They have been selling really good fruits lately. We eat bananas, watermelon, pineapple, apples, peaches, strawberries, mangos, nectarines, pears, and yeah. Ha-ha. We make smoothies occasionally. I hate papaya! It’s so gross. And don't really like platano. Ha-ha. But everything else, yes. I’ve stopped entering bakeries. No candy either. Now it's just step away from chips. Ha-ha. Always something. But I want to fit better in my skirts like before so walking more and eating less, drinking more water! I don't really drink soda so that's not a problem. Trying to be healthier. I’m trying to be more obedient every day so we can have the spirit. Overall, things are great! Just teaching and working hard. I miss home a lot but try not to think about it. There are times where I just miss America like American jokes, American food, English! Ha-ha all of that. The jokes here are kind of dumb. But because I love the people, I laugh. :) Anyway. Probably should head out. I just really love you guys and look forward every week to writing you. Thank you for your support. Oh and I’ve been reading about the gadianton robbers and making connections with the government in the U.S. ha-ha. jk jk jk. Well....have a good week. Be happy. The sun is shining. And I love you! Really really really miss you but love you none the less.  Love you guys! Xoxoxooxxooxoxoxoxoxxoxoxooxxoxooxoxox  - Hma. Jones