March 30, 2015

Familia,

 

I AM IN COSTA RICA!!!!!!!! For P-Day we went and saw the waterfalls in La Paz! And I finally feel like I am actually in Costa Rica!!! :) An amazing member in our ward took us! It was great, I highly recommend it. You even get a discount if you are a missionary. :) We saw monkeys, poisonous frogs, ant-eaters, jaguars, toucans, parrots, giant spiders, snakes, and all of the other cool animals that Costa Rica has that I have never seen here before! Don't worry, we were still missionaries while being tourists. We ran into a few members from Dallas, Texas and Holiday, Utah, missionaries from another church from Minnesota, and lots and lots of other people to talk to from all over the world! Not many will be going to church with us this Sunday, but maybe when they get home from their vacations they will find a building in their home towns!

 

I AM SOO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!!! Being in Escazu means I get to listen in English. :) I would be fine listening in Spanish, I almost understand most things... But last conference left me scarred, I think I will just go strait to English... I remember watching my companions taking really good notes and loving what the Prophet said, while I sat there wanting to cry because I had no idea what was going on....... Hahaha missionary problems. I am so grateful I have had so much help with learning Spanish and I don't feel like crying anymore. :) The Gift of Tongues is amazing and I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. :) I hope you all get to watch conference this week in your native tongue! ENJOY! :)

 

Oh we did have the chance to watch the Women's Conference this week. It was nice. But I almost called President afterwards to tell him that I need to go home, get married, and start a family, right now. (just teasing!) It talked a lot about the family! It was beautiful and I am excited, but maybe they should not let missionaries listen to that! Hahaha. But my sisters are allowed to listen! :) (Not you Kami). (But wait until I get home to get married!). :) I am grateful we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and gave us the opprotunity to have families here on the earth. I love my family. :) But I really like how they talked about how we are all part of our Heavenly Father´s family, and we should be loving and helping all of our siblings. And God helps his children through his other children so we can all learn and grow. :)

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter! :) Save me some chocolate! Or just send me some! ;) I will accept any reject Easter eggs.

 

I am excited to be sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ during this Easter Season. :) I heard there is a good Easter video you should all go watch about Christ. And share it with all of your friends. :) HAPPY EASTER! :) Happy Conference!!! :)

 

I love you all!

 

Hermana Markle. :)

Items of Business.....

1. GOOD LUCK KAMI!!!! You will do awesome at Drill try outs!!!! Dont be scared, you dance at competitions all the time and rock at it!

2. Good job Katie! :) Did someone offer to buy your winning art work??? Is your soon to be fiance super proud of you???

3. When is Spring Break?

4. Did you send Suki to me in the package??? :)

5. We went to a butterfly room just like the one in Cancun! :) Do you miss Cancun mom??

6. We should come here for a vacation one day.... Just saying. It is a lot prettier when you are not walking in the streets all day and you actually see cool stuff.

7. HAPPY EASTER!!!! Save me some cool prizes from Kathy!!!! :)

8. Dont worry, I didn't call President....

9. We are spending more time in the office to finish the paper work insurance stuff.... So we don't work in the area as much now... But we are still working hard!

10. I LOVE YOU!!!! :)

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!!!!!! :)

 

Two of our investigators at church with us - they are both awesome!

At the Mission Office

Pizza and missionaries - a great combination!

 

March 17, 2015

Buenas Tardes! ¿Cómo están? :)

Yes, yes, there was a volcano eruption... And yes, it was raining ash. And yes I breathed in a lot of ash and I will probably die one day in like 60 years because of it... Oh well! Hahah The funniest part was all of the calls I got from Elders complaining about their burning eyes and throats and how they were too sick to work and were really scared, buy I didn't get a single call from Sisters! We are tougher! :) Some missionaries did have to go home and stay indoors and wear masks, but we stayed out and worked because it wasn't tooooo bad here. When we were up in the mountains visiting a family, you could look down on the whole valley. The skies were blue and beautiful in most areas, but there was a huge dark cloud of ash covering San Jose, like San Jose was being punished for something, it looked pretty cool! No, no lava! Just burning eyes and throats.

 

Oh and for now I did not have transfers! I am still in Escazú with Hermana Flores! They are doing transfers differently now, so I am not sure what will happen. We don't have transfers every six weeks, we have transfers when President calls and says we have transfers. So it could be this week, or it could be in 3 months! Who knows! But I am happy because I love Escazú. :)

 

We are changing email day again, so please write me Sunday night again! :) I should be getting on Monday mornings or so... We will see. :)

 

I was reading in Mosiah this week and I liked this part.... Mosiah 2:20-25, We are in debt to God. He has given us everything. And he continues to bless us. But all he requires from us to repay him is to obey his commandments. We are given families to help teach us obedience. And he can bless us even more if we are obedient. That is all he asks of us... We can show our love to Him by obeying Him and we can thank Him by obeying Him. :) Not always the easiest, but always the best.

 

I love you all!!! Have a great week!!! :)

 

Love,

 

Hermana Markle. :)

 

Cleaning up the ash from the volcano eruption

We love Denisse!

Planner covers I made for an Elder that is going home. It is a mission tradition to make a "Trunky" planner cover for missionaries on their last transfer. I was pretty proud of my skills. . .

This is our kitchen.

Liliana

The Monge Family. They are so good to us. Great people!

Monica - She is the Sister that took me to dinner on my Birthday.

Liliana gave me a Harley jacket! Don't I look pretty cool now?!?

Denisse! She is awesome!

My name badge with ash on it - it is raining ash constantly since the volcano erupted!

The other half of our kitchen. All of our appliances in one view: a blender, a hot plate and a mini fridge. (Dad asked if I have an oven in this apartment. Nope. - and no microwave and no toaster. We make it work!)

I was so excited to find oatmeal! I accidentally made it "floody" though!

 

March 10, 2015

HELLO FAMILIA!!!! :)

This was a FANTASTIC week!!! :) Do you want to know why??? Well it doesn't matter, I will tell you anyways! :) :) :) First off, we had two surgeries this week. With probably another 20 hours in the hospital. Then we had Multi Zone Conference with a member of the 70 who is in the Area Presidency for Central America: Elder Alonso. Which meant more time out of our area. And we were at the office all day Wednesday like normal to work with the insurance claims. Which meant even more time out of our area... Needless to say, we didn't have very many lessons this week... BUT that is not why this week was fantastic, because that would mean I am a horrible missionary rejoicing in little work. I like to work, no worries. :) 

The Multi Zone Conference was amazing! It was centered in obedience and converting ourselves before trying to convert others. This was Friday.

Miracle number 1: Friday after the conference we had a little time to actually work in our area! We were walking home for the night after a few visits and a lady said hi to us as we walked by. Normally we are the ones to say hi to them and not them to us, so we stopped to talk to her. She invited us to walk with her to her house, so we did. She told us she has been having troubles with her teenage son and has been looking for a good church to send him to. They both want to be baptized and find help through the gospel. We said yes! Her son, Fernando, came to church with us this Sunday and loved it! He already made friends with the youth and is excited to learn more! The mom, Carla, had work, but is going to come next week! :)

 Miracle number 2: I cant remember what I have told you about Yerly already, but she is one of our investigators as well. She has been investigating the church for about 2 years ever since her son was baptized. Her husband is from New York, but she is Tica. We have invited her and invited her to be baptized and she keeps saying no. She wants to, but is scared. She knows the church is true and has received several answers from God, but says its not her time yet. Last month she had a surgery scheduled for the 18th of February. It was a fairly big surgery. A few weeks before her surgery, I felt prompted to invite her to be baptized before her surgery. We kneeled together and she prayed to know if this was her time. Everyone in the room felt the YES. I knew she needed to be baptized before her surgery, and honestly felt like something bad would happen if she wasnt. She too knew she should, but chose not to. I was soooo sad. She received an answer, and chose not to follow it. Well the day before her surgery, I called to wish her luck and see if we could help with anything. She told me that the surgery got postponed and would actually be the 9th of March! I immediately felt like this was her chance! This was a blessing from God to give her one more chance to follow her answer. We visited with her and brought the Elders to give her a blessing for the surgery. During the blessing, the Elder felt very strongly to invite her to be baptized before her surgery. She said no again... Well... Friday night I was thinking a lot about her. I prayed for her and wanted to find a way to help her. Saturday morning I felt like I needed to send her a text to invite her to be baptized one last time. (I know, I know, a text..? But seriously, a text. I knew if I called, she wouldnt answer. If we stopped by, she would say no to our faces. But with a text, she could read it, think about it, pray about it, and take her time in privacy..) So at 3:00pm Saturday afternoon I sent her a text inviting her to be baptized Sunday morning, the day before her surgery. We didn't receive a reply until 8:00pm...... And I was too scared to open the text message from her... So I waited until we were on our way home around 9:00pm....

Friday night Yerly had a personal problem come up. She didn't sleep. She woke up early Saturday morning and researched How To Fast on the internet. (apparently we didn't teach her about fasting very well... hahah) and she started to fast. She prayed and prayed for help. She said she finally opened her heart and gave her pride to God. She asked for guidance. And then she got my text... She said this was an answer to her prayers. She knew this answer came from God. She invited her whole family over, and told them about her decision. They read scriptures together, they prayed together, and then at 8:00pm she replied with a, Yes Hermanas, what do I need to do?

When we finally opened the text we were in shock! She said yes! What??? She said yes? We called the Bishop and the Zone Leaders and got the baptism scheduled for 8am Sunday and the interview for 7:30am. Yerly was baptized and confirmed Sunday. Her surgery was Monday. This is why our week was fantastic. :) We didn't have much time to work in our area this week, but I saw more miracles this week than I have seen in my entire mission. And I know without a doubt that my Heavenly Father loves me. And that He loves each one of His children more than we can imagine. He is there and He is guiding us. And when we are obedient to Him, He can give us more blessing than we have room for!

I hope you all had fantastic weeks as well! :) I love you all! :) Keep practicing your texting skills, they might come in handy one day! Mom, that is really why I texted so much before my mission, I was just practicing so I would be really good at it so I could help people receive more blessings from God though texting!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

 

Items of Business....

1. I really really really miss Suki. I was thinking about her this week... Will you send her to me? :) I MISS MY PUPPY!!!!!!

2. Transfers are this week... Everyone says that its my turn to leave Escazu... But I don't want to... So I guess we will find out what happens! Out of the 6 here, I have the most time in Escazu. But I LOVE Escazu!!!!! They cant make me leave!!!!! Okay, maybe they can, but whatever.

3. My companion is cute. I still don't think she understands a thing I say. Oh well.

4. Did you ever get the card I sent for your anniversary???

5. There was more I wanted to write, but I ran out of time... Maybe next week...

6. How are you all doing?

7. Anything new or exciting?

8. I love you!!!! :)

9. And I miss you too! Not just my puppy! But I do really miss my puppy too!

 

Our new apartment in Escazu

Making pupusas!

Making pupusas while talking to sick missionaries on the phone . . .

No big surprise - I am still living out of my suitcase in the new apartment!

Yerly's Baptism

Multi-Zone Conference

3 of the 11 Zones - the chairs are for President and Sis Wilkinson and Elder and Sister Alonzo. They only let us use our cameras before the conference - so sorry, no pictures with President and Elder Alonso.

The best text in the whole entire world!

 

March 3, 2015

Mi Familia!!!

Les amo muchísimo!!! Another great week! And really busy... Hermana Wilkinson told us we needed to move out of our house Friday night, and that we had one day to do it because Sunday was the start of a new month! Well that didn't happen because we were in the hospital with other missionaries all Friday night and Saturday. And Monday as well... So Saturday night we looked and looked and looked for apartments and we had about 5 good options. We looked at them all again with the other set of Hermanas and prayed and then looked again and then prayed again... Finally we narrowed it down to two! And after more praying the other Hermanas chose the apartment closer to the chapel and we chose the apartment closer to the park. They are both still within a 5 minute walk of each other. And they are WAY nicer than our last place!!!!!!

Yesterday we were at the hospital in the morning, ran home, packed up, signed new contracts and paid rent, and then moved houses, and then ran back to the hospital before an Elder went in for surgery. And it all worked out perfectly! We are still working on unpacking, but its all good. :)

Today we were talking to a member and it turns out that she knows both families who we are renting from! And she loves them both and trusts them both! She said we made excellent decisions! They are both safe, clean, and cute. :) I will send pictures next week after we unpack more. :)

Oh the owners of one of the apartments is actually a devout Jehovas Witness, but he was really excited to rest to us because he knows we are good people! That was pretty cool!

In other news... Last week during our District meeting I was part of an object lesson... I had to do 35 pushups and my whole district got doughnuts... (Girl pushups, don't be too proud dad). And then for the next 4 days my arms and chest were killing me! And they still hurt today, but not as bad.... I think I should probably work out more.... It was really really pathetic.

Also, There is an Elder here who was born in 1997. What???? That is 2 years before my baby sister was born??? And he is serving a mission??? How did that happen??? I was born in 1991 and there is an Elder who was born in 1997!!!!!!!

I was in the hospital this week with an Elder and found a German lady trying to communicate with the nurses, but failing. She knew English okay, but no Spanish. So I helped translate everything for them and got to talk to the German lady about the gospel as well! It was great! Who knew that learning Spanish would help a German lady!

Well. All is well here! Still working hard and loving every minute of it! I hope you are all doing amazing! You should come visit me in Costa Rica!!! :) Yes??? :) Okay! Love you! Chao!

Love,

Hermana Makensey Beth Markle. :)

 

Items of business...

1. GOOD LUCK Kami on the ACT!! Tell me what you get!!! And just tell me more stuff in general! You stopped writing me... And Katie and Madi and Brandon.... Weird..

2. We are SOOOOO happy to move out of the nasty house we were in. The landlord crazy and it was disgusting! Ewwwww.

3. Katie someone just saw a picture of you and asked if you were my twin! So that means people have said Katie is my twin and Kami is my twin and Madi is my twin. It's like we are sisters or something... Weird... I guess that means none of us were adopted. No one has ever said anything about Brandon being my twin though....... Oh and I like the box a lot! :)

4. It is March already!!! Holy cow!!!! The semester is almost half over!

5. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

We are all official! We got our Cedula's!

My Cedula! This means I am a Tica now!

Fowler and Markle together Again!

It happened to be Fowler's Birthday on the day we got our Cedula's - so we had a little party!

This is the hardware removed this week from one Elder's elbow. The hospital has become our home away from home!

Hermana Peterson and I working on Insurance Claims in the Mission Office.

After a meeting with Sister Wilkinson and Sister Coleman.

Hermana Fowler's Birthday cake!

We spend WAY too much time in the hospital looking after sick missionaries lately!