August 31, 2015

Hello!!!! 

Today is transfers day! Any guesses...? Hermana Montepeque has transfers and she is leaving me here all alone in San Francisco. :( And I still don't know who will be my new companion until Wednesday. :( There are trying it a new way this month. They tell us who has transfers, but not where or with who until Wednesday. And then we all meet together and it's a surprise! So I guess you will find out next week! Exciting stuff! But I am sad. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Hermana Montepeque yet.. We only had 5 weeks together - And she is so nice. 

But no worries! I am sure the next companion will be nice too, right?  Speaking of nice, a member in our ward gave us goodbye presents yesterday in case we had transfers! She gave us both a full work out uniform! With sweat pants and shirts.  And new running shoes for Hermana Montepeque because she didn't have any.  They are so nice!!!!! :) I love the members here! They are all sooooo great to us!!! :)

Nothing really new happened this week... You will have to be patient to hear about transfers... I think I will probably finish my mission here in this ward.... You usually have two transfers with new companions, and then I only have one left! AHHH!!!!

We are in a trio for 3 days until transfers because one Hermana went home last night - so her companion is with us. :) Exciting stuff! We will have a full house for a few days during all of the changes... That means lots of cleaning afterwards! On the bright side - I think I get to give flu shots to the whole mission this month!!! I am SOOO excited!!! :) Yay! I love giving people shots... (a whole lot more than they like to get them!)

My mom shared something she learned at church with me today, so I will share it with you too. :) Enjoy! 

''In church today, one of our High Counselors shared an analogy that his Mission President told him when he was on his mission. He said that we really can't be a good instrument in the Lord's hands if we are trying to counsel Him on how and where and when we want to work. We are not a true instrument if we try to put "qualifiers" on our service. A true "Tool" does not tell its master how to use it. Would a hammer ever tell the carpenter that it does not want to hit the nail, or that it would rather hit a different nail, or that it would like to hit the nail softer, or maybe tomorrow? A good hammer is a tool in the masters hand, and does the will of the master. The master knows how to best use the tool, and has a plan that is bigger than just the hammer. The master uses many, many tools, and the hammer is just a part of a very big picture, and doesn't get to orchestrate the project. I like that analogy, because I think we all too often try to counsel the Lord on how we would like to serve, and where, and when. We forget that in order for us to be a true instrument in His hands, we needs to surrender ourselves to His wisdom and to His plan. It won't be easy, and it will definitely take us out of our comfort zone, but the Lord knows what He is doing. We owe him everything. We need to be good little hammers and do the work of the Lord!''

I hope everyone is doing awesome! Enjoy the new school semester!! Work hard and be good! Let the Lord guide you in everything that you do. :) Love you all! :)

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

My hair has horns! (the joys of humidity!)

August 24, 2015

Hello!

MY LITTLE BABY SISTER IS GOING ON HER FIRST DATE!?!? WHAT??? What is happening while I am gone??

Well this week was cool! We had a conference with President Nelson! :) He gave an amazing talk! He was in Hunduras and it was broadcasted to 5 missions to watch. :) He spoke in English and had a translator next to him for Spanish. Sometimes he got so excited to say something he would cut off the Spansih and say something new! So the translator was trying to keep up with him so everyone could understand what he was saying. :) It was cute.

He gave us marraige advice too! He said, 'I know you shouldn't be thinking about marriage right now, but do it anyways!' Hahah so he gave us some good goals. For life and for the mission. :)

Nothing else too exciting happened.. You can't really beat President Nelson, my second favorite apostle.... Maybe I will let you read my awesome notes after the mission...

We are teaching awesome people right now. :) That's all.

Have a great week!!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

Here is a picture of us with Elder Duncan during the big conference!

Before . . .

During . . .

After! My cute companion had me cut her hair for her!

August 17, 2015

Hello family!!!

What's up? Besides going on two family vacations without me!!!! It's okay, we will just have to go on a mega-family vacation when I get home! Wahoo! :)

Guess what I did last week?? Went laser-tagging! Guess what else? I wore jeans for the very first time in over a year!!!! They kinda still fit... Almost... It was weird.

Also! Tomorrow is my one year in Costa Rica mark! Wahoo! :) And now I speak Spanish like a boss! But I still should probably study more... We don't quite get our hour every day to study.. Sometimes my companions still looks at me with a blank stare... Oh well. :)

Currently I am being eaten alive by bugs. I can feel them biting my legs and they itch really bad. Probably just flies though, not mosquitoes because we are in a building using internet... That's a lie. I just found it. It was definitely a mosquito and now I have like 16 bites... I tried to kill it, but it flew away...

Oh yeah! Happy Mother's Day mom!!! Saturday was mothers day here in Costa Rica. So we made little boxes and filled them with chocolate to give to all of the mothers in our ward! Yours is on it's way mom! ;)

This was a pretty bad week... My investigators called me old and fat all in the same lesson.... And they were being completely serious too... I asked, 'How old do I look?' and the 14 year old said, '27! or maybe 28!'....... And then at the end of the lesson the mom asked, 'Do you really walk a lot every day? It doesn't look like you walk very much at all... Be careful, because if you stop walking, you will get even fatter!'...... It was pretty sad... So I cried while eating a tub of ice cream. ;)

Good news! We found an adorable little girl who wants to be baptized! She is 13 and adorable! Her aunt is a member and she loves coming to church with her and going to Young Women's. :) We are trying to teach her mom too, but she's been pretty busy. But we will try again. :)

That's about it for this week... My companion was sick so we stayed home for two days and then had to work really hard for the other days to make up. But it all worked out. :) I hope you all enjoy starting school again! Have a great week! :) Love you!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

 

Items of Business.....

1. Kami, your hair is WAY better now! Thank you for changing it! I am happy now. :)

2. Congratulations on getting your license!!! You can drive! Wahoo! Are you taking over Brandon's car now that he's moving out??

3. Madi is a giant mermaid! ahh!

4. Brandon is moving out of my new bedroom! 

6. I think my intestines are finally catching up to moving to Costa Rica... I haven't had many problems with the food at all until now... But now my stomach is hurts lots every day, and other not fun stuff. It hates me. The food here is NOOOTTT healthy.... Oh well.

7. I miss you all and love you lots!

Yummy Mango Cake!

Our newest Investigator!

Maybe he will wait for me?

We played with the chalk at the mall!

mormon.org

Lazer Tag on P-Day!

Lazer Tag fun!

I ate this whole thing and then got very, very sick! . . . my bad! It was really good though - Peanut butter banana shake!

The twins that we are teaching.

I got fried! Where is my sunscreen??

Ouch!

The Andino Family. They are so good to us!

We love this family!

The Andino's feed us every Sunday! How sweet they are!

August 10, 2015

Hello!!!!

We had an amazing week over here in Costa Rica!!! :) Apparently there is a drought right now, and it hardly rains... But drought for them means, just less rain. So there is still rain. But it is really pretty here right now. :) A great week for a baptism! :)

Myriam is amazing! Her baptism was beautiful and we had a great turn out! President Hayes and Hermana Hayes even came! Afterwards lots of people got up to bare their testimonies and it was really special. :) She invited us over for dinner afterwards and we got to talk to her mom about the baptism a little. :)

We had a conference this week with Elder Duncan and President Hayes and it. was. awesome. I learned lots and lots and am excited to apply it to our area to help this ward and our investigators. :)

One thing they talked about was our motivation factors. Why do we do what we do? For ourselves? For someone else? To get gain? To improve quality of life? To do things the easy way? Or do things the Lords way?

'Para mi o para ti?' 'For me or for Thee?' For every decision we make, big or little, we should be analyzing our motivations and the outcomes and remember our Saviour Jesus Christ. If it is backed by love, obedience, progression, or service, DO IT! If it is backed by greed, pride, selfishness, laziness, or could hurt the progression of someone, DO NOT DO IT!

I know we are here to learn to be obedient, to learn to want to be good, to learn to help others, to learn to love and serve, to learn to learn and improve. And we have a loving Heavenly Father to help us at ever step. We have a loving Saviour to show us the way. We have the Spirit to guide us and to protect us. And we have our family and friends to give us support and love us. I love my life, this Gospel, and my family and I am happy! I hope you are all happy as well!

Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

Items of Business....
1. I think we are going lazer tagging today! Wahoo! Pictures next week if it works out....
2. ITS AUGUST!!!! Almost time for school again!!!!
3. My new phone is too fancy. The pictures it takes are sometimes too big to send through email...
4. GOOD LUCK mom at the new job and training at the old!
5. Kami your hair is still REALLY blonde!
6. Brandon, if you stayed home with Suki, where are all of my cute Suki pictures for the week??
7. MY COMPANION IS TINY!!!! Now no one bugs me about being short any more :)
8. That is all..... I ran out of things...
9. My sickness is going away, but now my companion has it... So I bought her antibiotics too... :)
10. Be good!
11. Love you! Chao!

A family in our last area started a wall (in their house) that they wanted all the missionaries to sign. We got to be the first!

Pizza with my new companion!

A great ward member who takes us to pizza every time their is a new companion!

Removing stitches from an Elder's leg! Wahoo!

Look! This little restaurant sells IN n' OUT burgers!!! YUM! ;) Hahahah

An awesome family in our ward!

MYRIAM! My new best friend for life! :)

President and Sister Hayes were able to come to the baptism!

August 3, 2015

Hello family!

Surprise! I have another new companion this week! :) She is ADORABLE! She is sweet and kind and excited to work! She has been here for about 3 months, so she is still pretty green. Her name is Hermana Montepeque, from Guatemala! :) And guess what?? She is shorter than me!!!! Can you believe it??? She is tiny! But cute! She has an identical twin sister serving in Panama right now. We get along great and I love working with her! :)

And now we are back at a tie... 4 from Guatemala and 4 from Mexico... Oh and 2 from the U.S... My 10th companion!

Hermana Vasquez went back home to Guatemala this week. She will probably need a surgery on her knee... But she served for almost 15 months, so she felt good about her work here and is excited to move on to the next step.

Myriam is doing GREAT! :) We went and visited her twice this week and she came to church with us again yesterday. I met her mom and her grandma, and maybe they will come to the baptism! Her baptism is this Saturday at 6pm. :) She has already invited a bunch of people to come and she is excited! She is nervous about the confirmation though, because she doesnt want to get up in front of everyone on Sunday... Haha So I told her, its okay, they will all close their eyes during the confirmation. ;) She passed her interview this week! Her dad and two siblings live in the U.S. so she is teaching them Spanish and they are teaching her English. She is 26 years old and in her last year of medical school. She helped me with a sick Elder at church yesterday. :) SHE IS AMAZING!!! :) I think she will be a good friend after the mission too. :)

I self-diagnosed and self-medicated myself this week! I went to the pharmacy to buy some antibiotics and they said, where is your prescription from the doctor? And I said, I am a nurse. And they said, do you have your lisence with you? And I said, yep! And showed them my lisence, and they gave me the meds! How cool right? Totally would not work in the states...

When Hermana Vasquez found out she was going home, we went to go visit some of her recent converts in Coronado to say goodbye! They are an adorable family! And I got to see some of Coronado! I took seet pictures of a creepy Catholic Church, but the quality is too high to send them through email... You´ll have to wait until after my mission to see how cool it is! Also, we are trying to set up an activity to go see a volcano this month! Stay posted! (Not the active volcano.. They wont let us go there...)

Good news! I learned more secrets to making the best Gallo Pinto in the whole world! Be super excited to try my new recepies when I get home! :) This week I will be teaching a family how to make caramel popcorn and maybe butterfinger cheese cake and they are going to teach me cool tico desserts!

Also, we did a service project on Saturday and cleaned up the yard of an old lady. I found so many cool bugs to take pictures of! I am pretty sure half of them are posionous... So I made sure to only take pictures and not touch them.

Thats about it... I love my new new companion! The members are all confused because they keep meeting new missionaries every week, but its all good! Have a great week!!! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

Big Spider!

Catholic church in Coronado

Gallo Pinto in the shape of a heart. :)

My new companion from Guatemala! She is adorable! (and very sweet and kind!)

A tasty pizza we made. Are you jealous?

Hermana Vasquez's last night in the mission - saying goodbye to a family.

July 27, 2015

Hello! :)

This week we got moved! Our ward is now in a new stake! We had a 'Historic Conference' yesterday with 3 stakes and the Area Presidency from Guatemala. They announced the 3 new stakes in Costa Rica and moved a few wards around. I was in Estaca La Paz (Peace Stake) and now I am in Estaca Los Yoses (No one knows what it means Stake..). And if you have a really good memory, you will remember that that was my very first Zone! :) And my new STLs are in Concepcion! So that means that if we have divisions, maybe I get to go back to my first area to work for a day! :) Wahoo! :)

Good news! :) I don't remember if I told you all about the miracle we had 2 weeks ago? But I will tell it again... :) Miriam came to our ward 2 weeks ago with a friend that invited her! The friend is from a different ward, and he was taking her to the other ward for a bit, but then he wanted to show her what her real ward would be like. And she loved it! And she came back last week and yesterday all by herself! And now she wants to be baptized this week! :) She is a doctor and is maybe 30 years old or so. When I first met her, she looked really familiar. I asked if she worked in the hospital that we go to a lot, but she does not... But she still looks really familiar to me. Maybe she was one of my friends in Heaven. She is awesome and I am excited to watch her progress even more! :)

I am sick. :( I have like a weird infection in my lungs or throat or something. Last night I woke up because I couldn´t breathe... So I had to sleep sitting up the whole night... And I have a nasty sounding cough. But good thing today is P-Day  and I can rest and I have loads of doTERRA I can take. :) I don't particularly like sleeping while sitting up.

My new companion and I are doing great! She has almost met all of the members, and we are still trying to get around to all of the investigators and show her the whole area, but it's pretty big, so that will take some time. She does not like having such a big house to sleep in, hahah she is used to the tiny houses we usually have. We had a few missionaries sleep over this week. A few just getting here, and 3 finishing their missions. So we didn't sleep much this week... Maybe next week! :)

That is about it for the new things this week... Oh! We were talking to a Catholic lady and she wants us to visit her kids and teach them! She says she likes our religion and wants her kids to listen to us! How cool? Right? Well have a great week! :) Love you all! :)

Love,

Hermana Markle. :)

Items of Business....

1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAMI!! :) You are 16!! (and your hair is freakishly blonde right now).

2. My throat hurts....

3. I bought the contacts today! They were out of the Acuvue, so they gave me Biofinity CopperVision instead.. They said they are the same material, just a little cheaper... Have you heard of that brand before? Hopefully my eyeballs don't die.

4. The Elder nurse that I am training for the West Mission does not have any medical training, but his dad is a doctor. He calls me when he is not sure what to do, so it's all good! We go to their office once a week to train and so I can enter the notes from him. And the rest will now be on the phone. He calls or texts me and I help him. But he's doing great!

5. Tell Sophie Congratulations and Good Luck for me!! :)

6. Keep being good! Love you all! :) :) :)

Hermana Woods! She just got here this week! She is friends with McKell  and Josh and went to their sealing so she told me all about the wedding I missed! :(

This is Elder Nielson with his planner that has me on it! :)

Dessert Papusas

Making dessert papusas! Yum!

Nursing work at mission office.  Insurance claims and reporting to mission department.

My companion with lots of money (that isn't ours).

This is me holding like $600 that are pretty and purple with butterflies. :)

This is my mission baby Elder Valtierra! (baby=training. Training to help with medical for West Mission).

Last photo with our old Zone.

Saying goodbye to our Zone.

My New Phone!!!

Yay! New Phone!