April 27, 2015

Familia,

Hello!!! :) Transfers week!!! :( :(  I already miss Escazu and I haven't even left yet... :(

I will be headed to San Francisco! Wahoo! But not in California. It is right next to the office near Zapote and Curridabat in San Jose. Sooo that MIGHT mean that I will be in the East mission?? With the new President from Idaho?? But nothing is final yet. We will see. :)

Sad news, Hermana Flores is also getting transferred! That means they are sending 2 Elders to replace us! That means that no one will be there to show them where all of the houses of our investigators and recent converts are!!!! :( I sure hope they find them and don't forget about them!!!! :( We worked hard! And I love them all! :)

I cried and cried and cried when we said goodbye to everyone yesterday!!! Okay, fine, I didn't cry. (Anyone who really knows me knows that I never cry. I mean never.).  But I was really sad! Escazu is an amazing ward with amazing people! But I am excited to meet the new ward of San Francisco and work hard with my new companion! I will let you know how things go with transfers next week! Photos will come! Hermana Flores really did cry and cry and cry ... It was really sad... :( She says she will miss me and that I was one of the nicest people to her ever.  I will miss her! She is very sweet! We packed all night - and now I am super tired today. I found another spider while packing, AND a few cockroaches. . .

Yesterday during church I felt so blessed to have the gospel in my life. I know I would have been a completely different person without this knowledge. And it would not be a good completely different person. I am happy with who I am and I love the opportunities I have had in my life! And I am eternally grateful to my Savior Jesus Christ, my parents, and my Heavenly Father for all of the blessings I have had in my life. :) I love me life!

I love you all! Be good and stay safe! Love life!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

Photo/email from Elder Sparks:    Good afternoon, I am Elder Sparks and my wife and I are Temple missionaries in Costa Rica.  Often we receive assignments from the President to visit different wards to help them with family history and temple attendance.  It is always a pleasure to visit the wards but the best part for us is meeting and interacting with the missionaries.  Today we were in Barrio Escazu and as you can see we met your wonderful daughter, she is such a delightful young lady and a great missionary. Her Spanish is excellent and it was fun watching her talk and interact with the members, especially with investigators and new members.  Everyone there loved her and it was very easy to see that she loved them also.  This group of missionaries had a strong bond and you could feel their love for each other, for the members of the ward and for the Lords work here in Costa Rica.  Your daughter is an outstanding young lady, thanks for sending her to Costa Rica.
We are taking this group to lunch tomorrow and my will give her a big hug from you.
Elder Sparks

My toes, after ingrown toenail removal . . . plus cute little "caps" for my poor blistered baby toes!

My new puppy -- since you won't send me my real puppy!

A member in our ward let us eat for free at their sushi restaurant! She is very nice!

My friend Monica got Married! Then they were sealed in the temple the next morning.

Saying Goodbye to everyone in Escazu . . . I have loved my time here, and LOVE the people. It is so sad to say goodbye. . . 

April 20, 2015

Familia!

Hello! Guess what?? I got two ingrown toenails pulled out today! Fun, huh!? I thought I only had one, but she found two... But she gave me a pedicure-ish thing for free afterwards, so it is all good! :) What a great day!

Fernando was baptized this Saturday! :) He invited his cousin and Jose loved it! He wants to get baptized as well and we are now teaching him too! The Elders had two baptisms the same day, which happened to be two young men, so we had a lot of support form the youth! 3 new young men in our ward. The youth program here is strong and they have friends and feel comfortable and it is great! Fernando´s mom came as well and loved it. She was so happy to see her son make a good decision. We are still teaching her as well. :)

Next week are transfers....... Dun dun dun.... I really like Escazú..... Maybe they will let me stay. :) I will keep you posted, no worries. :)

We went on division this week with the STL's! I went with Hermana Holmes and it was awesome! I may have cheated and talked in English with her.... Oops.... But I learned lots and will work on Spanish this week. :)

That´s all for today...... HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!! Love you all! Stay happy, healthy, and safe!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

Items of Business....

1. I ran out of things to write.....

2. I am really hungry....

3. I miss you guys!!!!!! LOVE YOU LOTS!

4. How is life? How is the world? Crazy stuff going on?

Fernando's Baptism

I got two ingrown toenails removed..... Ewwww..... these are the pieces that were in ONE toe, and the one from the other two got thrown away before I took the picture... Maybe they look small, but they weren´t. They hurt a lot. But now I feel great! :) I just have to put drops on them and shove cotton in them every morning. :) We had an ingrown toenail party. I went with 5 other Hermanas. 4 of us had ingrown toenails and it was lots of fun. :)

This spider on the wall was waiting for me to go to bed!

The Spider that almost ate me.... It was waiting for me by my bed to eat me at night....... So I killed it with a rock.

April 13, 2015

Hello! It is almost time for April showers to bring May flowers here! Or more like more showers in May. I hear that it will start to rain soon and then it wont stop until November...... Wahoo! Good thing I am styling some nice Crocs every day! Don't judge, you would do it too.

Fernando is excited for his baptism this weekend!!! He loves the youth in our ward and has lots of friends already! He is going to make an excellent missionary one day! We are still working with his mom, but hopefully his testimony with help slowly help her too. :)

We had Multi-Zone Conference this week and it was great! We learned how to plan and prepare better! Hermana Wilkinson sat in the back and looked through all of our planners and area books to see if we were doing what we should be doing... Scary! But I think my planner passed! Planning and preparing is a tool God uses in all He does. And it can greatly bless our lives in every aspect if we learn to master this skill!

I hope you all have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! School semester is almost done!!! Keep working hard! LOVE YOU!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

Items of Business!

1. I GOT THE PACKAGE!!!!! :) :) :) THANK YOU!!!!! :) :) I loved the Cadbury Eggs and Cinnamon Bears! Easter isn't Easter without Cadbury! I was looking for my Breakfast of Champions with a Reese's Egg but couldn't find one... I will keep looking. THANK YOU!!!! :) :)

2. The Crocs fit great! And I LOVE the watch!

3. It was a slow week, sorry.....

4. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!! 

Multi-zone conference

My package made it all the way to Costa Rica!

I found rotisserie chicken! Yum!

 

Weird fuzzy fruit. Very fuzzy, but tastes good.

We made earrings out of the weird fuzzy fruit's seeds . . .

Huge seed inside of fuzzy fruit

The ants found my wishbone from out rotisserie chicken. I am going to teach my companion about making a wish on a wishbone!

April 6, 2015

Mi Familia,

Hello! Funny story for the week.... One of the Sisters in our ward finished her mission and is going home tomorrow. She was sad to leave and was crying. She got embarrassed and Sister Yorleni (our cook) said, Don't worry, all girls cry a lot! Well... Except for Hermana Markle... I don't think she cries... Hahah! I wasn't even there when she said this, so she wasn't just teasing me, she meant it! Hahah We are at there house every day to eat lunch, but not much more. I didn't know I was supposed to cry during lunch time to be considered a normal girl! My bad. :) I will work on my crying skills.

Our Zone reached our goal for baptisms and we earned breakfast with President! Wahoo! Sister Wilkinson makes the best banana chocolate chip pancakes in the whole world. And that is saying a lot because I don't even like pancakes. So I am pretty excited. I know we are missionaries, and we should be helping people have their baptisms because we love them and want them to receive salvation and blessing from God, but food helps too. :)

Conference was amazing. I loved it. :) I remember falling asleep during conference, or painting my nails, playing conference bingo, or coloring pictures while listening before, but now I don't think I could do that! My conference notes are pretty awesome, you can read them one day if you want. And if you weren't able to listen, don't worry, its online and you can go listen to it right now! :) I will ruin the surprise, there were lots of talks about family and marriage, and I was tempted to come home and get married again... Family is important and amazing and I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! :) One day, one day, I will come home and get married and have my own family. I hope... :)

My companion and I are still doing awesome together in Escazú! We have found several new people to teach and 3 of them came to conference with us! Fernando is closest to being baptized. We shared the First Vision with him yesterday and it went way good! He is 14 years old and has the same questions as the Prophet Joseph Smith, so he immediately prayed with us to know if it was true. He is awesome. I have a feeling he will be an excellent missionary one day.

Well, that's about it for this week... No cool waterfalls this week, but I think we are going to Pricesmart for grocery shopping today? Maybe I will paint my nails and clean our apartment? Exciting stuff! I hope you all have an amazing week! LOVE YOU!

Love,

Hermana Maquensi  (that is how Hermana Munguía spells my name... I like it.)

Items of Business....

1. Brandon, you need to write me. You have waited long enough. Tallllkkkkkkk to meeeeee...

2. Katie, if you want to get married before I get home, I give you permission, BUT you have to get married in the Costa Rica temple. That way I can go. Thanks! :) I am sure nobody would mind coming to Costa Rica to watch you get married. It will be easy to convince people. You just need to win the lottery first I think to pay for it.... Or do you have a super secret marriage fund that you have been saving for years for in case your sister was in Costa Rica during your wedding??? That would be cool.

3. Madi, stop being a baby you baby. You will be fine in your apartment alone without Katie. Especially if you have other roommates. Are you friends with them? Or do you ignore them? Awkward.... Take Suki to the apartment for the week. Suki loves the apartment, it's her favorite!

5. Kami, HAPPY SPRING BREAK!!!!! No school! Wahoo! This is a good time to bug Brandon about taking you out to learn how to drive!

6. I get scared to walk in the streets at night now. Everyone we talk to says, Be Careful! It is dangerous out there! And then we go walking around in the dark for a few hours anyways. Oh well. 

7. The package hasn't made it here yet... But the whole Country shut down for Semana Santa (Holy Week) for the Catholic holiday... So the post office was not open. Maybe tomorrow! :) It is close enough to Easter still!

Our new pet. I discovered that we have these things living on our windows! They make funny noises. I thought the noise was from birds outside, but no. They yell all night long... but they are cute. :)