Monday, July 29, 2013

Monday, July 29, 2013

Ok... well...haven't read your emails yet but I'm so excited to have received from you all! Thanks so much for your letters. Love you all more than you will ever know. This email might be a bit short but I'll do my best to tell all.

To answer a few questions, when we do divisions, the sisters split - one set of sisters stay in our zone and the other set  work in the other zone. We split up. We are in charge of 4 zones of sisters. Today, we had a meeting with the other sister leaders to plan a conference with all the sisters August 15th. My comp and I are in charge of teaching the sisters how to better your relationship with your comp. It will be really good! We have 80 sisters in the mission! Crazy huh?! But we do 2 divisions with sisters every week. One of us goes there to work with one sister and the other one stays in our area with the other sister. We do it in 24 hours. I have learned so much about myself and from others in doing divisions. The sisters are so sweet and so willing to learn. I have kind of figured out why I am a sister leader helper person. All the sisters keep telling me that I am known for my smile and love that I show to everyone. This sweet sweet little sister in our zone found out that her mom has cancer and might die. She is staying on her mission - because there is not much that she can do at home to help things out. It's better for her to work hard and stay busy. But it's still really difficult for her to focus. I did divisions with her because my comp said I'm more sensitive to things like that. I took the sister to the temple and had us sit in the waiting room for 20 minutes so she could just think and read her scriptures. She told me a few other things from her past and said...I'm not sure why I'm telling you this but I feel like I can confide in you. I started to cry because I have heard that from so many sisters. I'm not sharing this because of pride by any means because who I am is because of Heavenly Father. I am His instrument and He is using me and my personality in ways that I never thought possible. I have been blessed with the gift of comforting others and showing compassion. Not sure why I am sharing this with you guys but I just am learning so much about myself. I feel like I was so insecure before my mission and really unsure of who I am. But now I know and Heavenly Father keeps revealing it to me little by little.

Anyway, so Belen is super Catholic or super Christian. There's not a lot of in between. I am really learning a lot about the Catholic Church. Hna. Portillo was Catholic before she converted to our faith. Did I tell you she was studying to be a nun? Yeah...so she helps a ton with her knowledge of the Catholic Church and the Bible. I am so grateful for her. We have had so much fun together. I have to work on not making her laugh so much because we have moments in lessons where we laugh and we really should be a tiny bit more serious. Ha-ha. But we get along really well. I'm learning a lot about her and what her past was like. She's such a hard worker and so dedicated. We have a lot of fun! We have met some people who are super willing to be baptized and others who have such a hard time letting go of their church. It's hard for me because this is all I have ever known. I was born into this church so I don't know anything else. To me, it's normal to have temples and prophets but to others they just don't understand. Hna. Portillo can relate to them a little bit more and helps me out. I try to put myself in their shoes and help them understand by what they feel. I get so excited to teach people about the Book of Mormon and Modern Day Revelation and the need for Prophets in our day and the Plan of Salvation - our purpose for coming to this Earth - why we are hear and where we go after this life. We have the answers to life's questions. The area of Belen is super focused on families. Costa Rica is actually the country in Central America that has more marriages than people just living together.

My comp and I gave talks in church on Sunday about Repentance and Forgiveness. I talked about forgiveness. I explained stories like the story of the prodigal son and Pahoran and Moroni. Well...it started out that way and then it turned into telling them to stop judging people in the church, being prideful, gossiping or hating others. I told them to not be judgmental, prideful and to not gossip – said it with a lot of love. I actually said....I'm going to be a little direct but I'm saying this with a ton of love...stop it. Ha-ha. I said quit talking bad about your brothers, sisters, leaders in the church. I said that I love them all way too much and I'm tired of hearing negative words about others. I might have literally called them to repentance. Ha-ha. I told them....repent and that a ward divided will fall when Satan attacks because they are right next to the temple. They need to be stronger. Well...after, the Bishop and his counselors told us thank you and our mission leader told us we totally chopped head with how direct we were. Another person said we talked like Isaiah with our power. I was a bit more direct than I have ever been in my life but I felt completely guided by the Spirit to know what to say and it frankly needed to be said. But anyway...still said it with lots of love. Ha-ha. 

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 Roger's birthday!

 Changed my hair color! Dark...but not really. Ha-ha. My comp did it from the box.

 Doing divisions!

Me with my comp.

 Divisions with Hna. Delgado.

Sisters being - Sisters!

 Baptism of Josue....we are teaching the rest of his family too.

 Pics with Roger in his white shirt and tie.

Me with Hna. Vicky.

 Me with Hna. Marquez today in our meeting. 

All the sisters are doing great. I'll be getting a letter from Hna. Ponce on Friday in our meeting with president. I am happy and trying to be healthier.

Baptism: We had a baptism of Josue! He's 14 and super awesome! Perfect kid! We are teaching his parents who will hopefully be baptized this month. First the mom needs to divorce her husband who she is no longer with and then marry her partner whom she is now with. We keep finding more teenagers than adults. It’s great! Oh and we had 127 people in church on Sunday which is more than we have ever had! This place is on fire! We are planning a fun ward activity in a few weeks. I'm loving Belen and working super hard. My prayers are with you. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Hermana Jones