Dear Familia,
Hola! I am definitely not in
America anymore! But... I LOVE IT! Don´t worry about this too much mom,
but I am already looking around to see if I can move back here one
day... But it is only my first week, so maybe with time that will fade. I
currently live in Concepcion de Tres Rios. This is the only area in the
entire mission with NO humidity! Lucky me! We are in the mountains. It
is good and bad. No humidity is amazing! But it still rains a lot. It is
cold during the mornings and night, and hot during the day, but not bad
at all. There are lots and lots and lots of hills though... So my calves
are getting a good work out. For exercise every morning, we run up and
down our street several times and it is worse than the street by
Pleasant Grove High. So really I just jog/walk the hill for exercise. But
the miles of walking and mountain climbing during the day also count. I
like this area a lot so far!
All of the houses here
have gates and barbed wire and locks. It is a safe place, but Pura Vida
ruined Costa Rica."Pura Vida" or "Pure Life" is a very popular saying
here. It started out as a simple, "No worries" to an extreme "YOLO". And
now if you don´t protect your house with barbed wire and gates and
locks, you are inviting people to enter your house and take what they
want. So literally almost every single house in Costa Rica is locked up.
But they still open their doors to us, so no worries.
The food is good. The members who feed us lunch everyday receive blessings for
feeding us. So if we don´t finish the food they give us, we are taking
away their blessings.. And they give us A LOT of food... Most of it
tastes good, but I am definitely going to get fat. Even with the walking
and giant hills. Like I almost die from overeating everyday at lunch
time. It´s all good!
My companions are
great! I am in a trio with Hermana Garner, the current Mission Nurse
Specialist, and Hermana Uribe. Hermana Garner is from Meza, Arizona and
studied at ASU for her BSN. She does not know Bri though. Hermana Uribe
is from Central Mexico and was studying to become a Veterinarian. They
are both amazing teachers, but I am going to "kill" them both. Seriously.
Both of them will end their missions with me. They still work hard and
are not super "trunky" yet, but we will see. We get along great! Except
for one thing... President Wilkinson made them promise to only speak to
me in Spanish... I have no idea what they are saying most of the time.
It is loads of fun!
I am learning a lot,
and my Spanish is much better, but I still have a lot to learn! When my
companions talk to me, they speak slowly and clearly, so I understand
several words and get a lot from context. But when our investigators
speak... I understand nothing. So that is fun. It is hard to understand
their needs, how to teach them, and how to pray for them if I don´t
understand a word they say. But I try anyways! I teach my equal part of
each lesson and sometimes they even understand what I am saying! Hahah
Spanish is exciting.....
Our ward is amazing!
They just built a big new chapel, so we have great attendance! And great
means about 110-120 each week. We had two of our ify investigators
randomly show up to church yesterday! It was great! We have two others
with baptismal dates, but one just pushed hers back two weeks until her
kids get here from Nicaragua. Most of the people in Concepcion are from
Nicaragua. Everyone here is very friendly and most are open to listening
to us. At least once. Less listen more than once, but we will find
them!
Oh right, I will be
the new Mission Nurse Specialist for the Costa Rica San Jose Mission as
soon as my companion goes home in 9 weeks. She extended her mission an
extra 4 weeks to help train me. Apparently they called Church
Headquarters and asked to have me a transfer early, but headquarters never did
anything about it. They have know I was going to be the Nurse this whole
time, so I am guessing my call was supposed to say Nursing Specialist,
but oh well. I was greeted warmly as soon as I got off the plane and
everyone was excited to meet me in the office. The whole mission knew I
was their new nurse except for me! It was funny! Basically it means that
I get my own phone, which is a smart phone, and I answer calls all day from sick missionaries! I
set up appointments, diagnose and give advice, and make sure everyone
is staying healthy and clean. There is lots of extra paper work and
phone calls, but I am also a regular proselyting missionary. So far we
have only had maybe 10 calls this week, so we still have plenty of time
to teach and find and invite. I will keep you updated on my new nursing
duties, but for now they are focusing on training me how to be a
missionary.
All is well and I am
loving it so far! The Spanish is a little frustrating, but I am getting
used to the schedule and work nicely. I am safe and alive and healthy!
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
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