Mission to Paradise: August 13, 2014

Familia,

So this week I have good news and I have bad news. Bad news, I don't have a Visa yet. Good news, I have plane tickets for COSTA RICA BABY!!!!! :) So they felt comfortable enough to buy all 28 of us going to Costa Rica plane tickets for Monday, so hopefully that means they are not worried about the Visas... That would be a lot of money wasted if they get delayed! So I am thinking we are all good! They said we will find out by Friday for sure though if we need to Visa wait or if we are good to go. YAY COSTA RICA!!!!! Wahoo!!!

Oh yeah, other bad news. I wasn't able to buy any sweet MTC sweat pants. Sad day. They finally got them in and I tried them on and the XS was super small and tight and the Small was super big and baggy. So I decided I will just buy a nice pair of Walmart sweats when I get home instead. Maybe even draw "MTC" on them with a sharpie. ;) They will be just as classy, right?

There are a lot of people here from Pleasant Grove. And they always come up to me and ask me who I hung out with, or someone from their district comes up to me and asks me if I know that Elder from their district. The answer is always no. You were in Junior High when I graduated High School. And The four years you spent in High School, I spent at College. But it is pretty entertaining. :) I did run into one of the Cook's cousins tho! Elder Stirling. I know his older sister Jessica, and Brian used to talk about the Sterling's occasionally, so almost a connection!

Yes I got the packages!! And I loved it!!! Thank you!!! The binder was adorable and the baby PMGs were perfect! And Hermana Fowler says thank you too! She loved hers! And also, the peanut butter bars were still in perfect condition and I ate them all!!!! I only shared a few... That's why we had to punish ourselves with our new "health contract" (see photo). We ate wayyy too much last week. But they were delicious! :) And I also loved the photo books and laundry basket and racquet balls!!! We play with them every night... I am sure our neighbors hate us now... Oh well! And Thank you Katie for the battery!? I am assuming that was from you and not just your beautiful drawing of a camera! That will be perfect and it was very needed! It works in my camera great!

We got to go on an adventure to the doctors office for my follow up from sinus surgery! That was exciting!! The doctor saw me for like two seconds and said it was all good, but the adventure was great! Oh and the random red thing on my chin is gone, so it's all good.

I leave in 5 days!!!!!! So unless you want to send something immediately, stick to just emails from now on! I will assess the mail system in Costa Rica when I get there. :)

Ohhh yeah... Other super bad news... I accidentally formatted my SD card and it erased all of my pictures... But now I know what buttons not to push while on my mission... And at least it was only my MTC pictures.. But still. Will you please save all of the pictures I have sent home in a really safe place please?? :) Thank you!

Now for some good news to counter that terrible news.. I had an excellent week this week! And I have learned so much more! I am almost ready for Costa Rica! Not in Spanish, I still need lots more Spanish learning. But this week was good. We had a feista for my teacher when he left, but not a normal feista, it was un espiritual fiesta! And I had some good pondering time. Before this week, I knew missions were good things, and service is super important and needed, but I sometimes I wondered what made me choose to do this, and 18 months seems like a super super long time. And maybe like it would be hard to get married and find a job when I get home. But those thoughts are no longer there. (okay, well maybe I still think getting married will be hard) But I now realize how amazing this opportunity really is. And I have realized that besides my decisions to follow our Heavenly Fathers plan and join my amazing earthly family in heaven, this is the best decision I have ever made. In my entire life. I have made some good decisions in my life, but serving a mission will bless my life more than anything has yet. And now I can bless the lives of others more than I ever have before. I am learning so much, and progressing towards my eternal goals so much more than I would have been at home. And even if getting married is hard and finding a job is hard when I get home and am old and moldy, this is worth it. I already love the people of Costa Rica and I haven't even met them yet! I am so excited to serve them and help them gain relationships with their Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ and feel their love in their lives!

Have a great week and always be happy! I love you all and I miss you all! But not enough to come home, sorry!

Love, Hermana Markle. :)

Items of Business....

1) No, I do not have a Visa yet. But neither do the other 27 going to Costa Rica.

2) Good luck indexing! It was way too hard for me last time I tried.

3) Brandon, you are a bum. Why only one to two replies? Don't limit yourself, just send letters!

4) Yes, Please send me another package! Thursday please! Hopefully you got my long list of things I need... Thanks!

5) Earlier this week I realized it was the fist time in 10 years I had gone an entire month without sending one text! But no, I haven't gone through withdrawals. Texting is super convenient and I wish I still could, but I never think about it at all here!

6) Feel better mom! Quit getting kidney infections! And go see Dr. Snow!!!

7) That is it for now! LAST EMAIL FROM THE MTC!!!! WAHOO!!! COSTA RICA HERE I COME!!!!

8) I love you all!!!! Have a good week!!!!

One of our teachers left us early because he was going to NC to visit his family, so we had a goodbye fiesta!

The PILLOW ROOM!!!!! It has 283 pillows in it! And they gave us 2 minutes to jump around inside while they took pictures! So comfy and so fun! I need a pillow room in my future house FOR SURE!!!! Easily entertained.