Mission to Paradise: March 23, 2015

Hola! :)

This was a great week! :) Someone asked me if I was from Canada! Cool, ehh? My Zone Leader is from Canada, he said I should take it as a huge complement. So I did. :)

We had a Mission conference this week with all 240 missionaries! Elder Maynes, I think that is how you spell it, who is one of the Presidents of one of the Quorums of the 70, came to speak to us. :) We had a great lesson about The Plan of Salvation and the Atonement. One day I will share my notes with you if you are interested. It was pretty awesome.

After the meeting, about 20 sick missionaries came and found me and formed a line to talk about their sicknesses. So that was pretty exciting. :) No broken bones or blood or surgeries this week! But we are still working on mountains and mountains of insurance claims.... We want to be all the way caught up before the mission split! But that is hard.... I think I would need a transfer in the office to get all of that work done. But I like being in my area working with our investigators, so the mountain will have to be patient.

We found a man named Walter while tracting. He was a little bit drunk, but was still able to listen and respond to our questions. We told him we would come back another day. We returned later this week and invited him to church with us. He started crying and said he wants to quit drinking and wants to change his life. And he actually came to church with us this Sunday!!!! :) We are ready to help him change his life through the atonement of Jesus Christ. He is great.

Also, Yerly is doing amazing! We are teaching her husband, and he just bought a new suit so he could wear it to church! :) That means good things.

Carla and her son Fernando also joined us at church this week! They live right next to our house, so it is easy for us to visit them frequently and they are awesome. Fernando had a dream that he was old and standing before God and felt dirty. He had vices and sins and God asked him about them. He is only 14 and doesn't have any of those vices in real life, but it scared him. He said he wants to keep his life clean. He wants to be baptized and stay clean for forever. Hopefully that means he will also serve a mission one day. :)

During the other conference we had, Elder Alonso pronounced an Apostolic Blessing upon us missionaries. I also received a letter from someone from my home stake that shared the Apostolic Blessing Elder Nelson pronounced on my stake during the last conference they had. I didn't even know these blessing existed until now, but they were both beautiful. Both blessed us with Angels seen and unseen to protect us. I started to think about all of the times in my life I have been protected by angels... I have done some pretty dumb things in my life. Even just walking in the street during the day is dumb and dangerous sometimes. I can clearly see hundreds of times I have been protected. And I am sure there have been thousands of other times I am not aware of. We are being watched over and protected and I know that there are angels with us every day.

Also, I used to make fun of returned missionaries who acted all funny and were different, but now I understand.... I guess.... I do want to be different when I get home, so sorry if I annoy some of you later. ;)

I love you all and I miss you! We are alive, well, and working hard! Stay happy, safe, and healthy!!! :)

Love,

Hermana Makensey Beth Markle. :)

Items of Business....

1. I also thought about while I was texting and driving and how dumb that was... And I know mom told me to not do it, but of course I still did it. I was definitely protected. But I won't do it again mom, don't worry!!!! I am smarter now. ;

2. I think transfers are back to normal now. That might have been a rumor... But no, I did not get transferred. I should be here for about another 6 weeks, and then moved. Maybe. But I am happy. :)

3. They moved the STL's into Escazu. So now we have the Zone Leaders, the Sister Leaders, and the Nurse all in one ward! Cool, ehh? They are trying to turn this ward into a stake center. So they needed strong missionaries here. I am not sure what the nurse has to do with that, but I just wanted to included myself into the leadership pool.... :)

4. Brandon still has never written me........ And Kami stopped writing me...... Madi did good this week. And Katie mas o menos recently... Just letting you all know.

5. I got robbed.... Someone stole my watch. It was a sad day. But oh well.... Did you send a watch in the package?? Did you send the package?

LOVE YOU!!!!!! MISS YOU!!!!!! :)