Hello everyone!
I have lots to write today. Lots has happened!
So first of all, remember Floribeth? The awesome member who´s husband, Melivin, who`s like 80 got baptized like two months ago. Well he passed away :( He has been really sick, and he passed away last week. It was so sad to hear that. So we and a group of members from the branch took a car up to where they live, which is kinda far away for the funeral on wednesday. Floribeth is so strong, and we love her so much. She has been helping Melvin so much by teaching him about the gospel and always being there for them. You could tell she was really affected by his passing but is very strong and knows that she´ll see him again. She wanted to have a little ceremony for him at her house and so I got to give a talk. I was really nervous because there was like 200 people sitting outside of her house and i just stood in front and basically shouted my talk. But i felt the spirit so strongly. I talked about eternal life and how death is not the end. It was a very cool experience to be able to testify to everyone there about life after death. It was hard to see the family going through such a hard time. But they will see Melvin again.
So hermana perez and I had a really cool experience this week. We were trying to find the house of a contact we had made so we could have a lesson with him. We had the basic direction but we couldnt find his house anywhere. We were asking everybody if they knew him and everyone sent us to another place and another and i was thinking, we are wasting so much time! Why cant we find him! So we went to one house that someone else sent us to, and he had no idea who the guy we were looking for was. So we asked him if he knew anyone else that we could visit and share our message with. He said that there was a really poor family who lived close. So we went to where he said they lived and it was on the other side of what used to be a river. And it did not look easy to get over there - you have to like go down the hill and then climb up the other side. We didnt know if anyone was even home, but something was telling us to go over there. So we did, and we could tell they were very poor. The house is only wood, with a couch and chairs outside and a bunch of things on the ground outside. And they werent home! But i knew that we didnt go over there for nothing. I saw a little desk outside of the house, and decided to leave a pamphlet there, even though we have never done that haha. I pulled out a pamphlet for the plan of salvation, wrote our names and number on the back, and wrote on the front, ´¨Hola! Vamos a pasar otro dia :)¨ ("Hello! We will come back another day!" Haha! So we left that there and left. A few days later we were in the same area and we saw that they were home! They were outside of their house.We were a little hesitant, because its not a regular house where you can casually walk up to it and start talking to them - we have to go down the hill and climb up, and theyre the only house over there haha. So we yelled hola to them, and the mom yelled back, ¨Are you the ones who came here the other day?¨ ¨Si!¨ Then she laughed and said, ¨Come on over!¨ Haha so we excitedly went over and they very warmly recieved us! They said they had even read the pamphlet. AND they used to meet with the missionaries and have gone to the church once! And theyre a complete family! Who knows if they are married but we are going to pray that they are!! So basically, I know without a doubt that everything happens for a reason. If we didnt go to each house that wrongly sent us to other houses until we met the guy who gave us the reference, we NEVER would have found that family. Everything happens for a reason, every person crosses our path for a reason, and we recieve every prompting for a reason. So follow the spirit!
Thats something me and hermana perez have been focusing a lot on lately - relying on the spirit. Every time we dont know where to go or what we should do, we stop, no matter where we are, and say a prayer. I love being able to depend more on heavenly father and the holy ghost to guide us, because they know a lot more than we do.
yesterday was a good day! We went to some waterfalls with the members Vivian and Jose, who live farther away. It was so pretty, and seriously so relaxing to just sit and listen to the waterfalls. then we came home and bought a bunch of ingredients to make mom´s chocolate chip cookies!!!!! I was in heaven making those things. It was not easy finding the ingredients (like at all) or measuring the ingredients but they miraculously turned out! And i was so excited to just eat the cookie dough. It tasted like home! I explained to hna perez and marielos (we went to her house to make them) that that is the american thing to do - eat cookie dough. Haha they loved it! it was so cute, because in the closing prayer marielos said, ¨Thank you that hna geis could be connected with her mom by making her cookies¨ haha! it was so fun! first time ive eaten chocolate chip cookies in 8 months!
We bought a blender yesterday. thats a big deal. We bought a bunch of fruits and greens and are going to makes smoothies in the mornings! yay!!
This sunday i gave a talk about studying the scriptures. I was excited to talk about that because that is something that i have gained a really strong testimony about. I talked about lehis vision, and about the 3 different types of people in his dream that try to ge to the tree of life. the first group, doesnt even tough the iron rod, or the scriptures. The second group gets to the tree but then listens to the people of the world instead of the scriptures. and the third group does something different: They are CONSTANTLY holding onto the iron rod, or the word of god. Constantly is the key word. We need to constantly read the scriptures to be able to endure to the end and to come to know our heavenly father and jesus christ more. its the only way. (go read 1 nephi chapter 8) This morning, i was studying the plan of salvation and i was reading all of the scriptures that explain that doctrine. Something amazing happened. Although i didnt completely understand all of the scriptures specifically, my understanding of the plan of salvation greatly increased. Everything made more sense and i really understood fully why we are here and why we need to depend completely on Jesus Christ to return to our Heavenly Father. Even though the scriptures didnt say the exact words to explain it to me, just the act of reading the scriptures brought the spirit, which is what really taught me and helped me understand. I know that reading the scriptures will bring so much light into our lives! If we really dedicate time to them and read them every day, with real intent and a desire to learn.
Another cool thing that happened: A member gave us a reference of a worker of a shoestore. They didint even know their name, but they felt like they should tell us to go visit her. So we did, and she is awesome and is so grateful for us coming to visit her and help her grow closer to god. Moral of the story: you never know who is ready to accept the gospel! These members gave us the reference of someone they dont even know who they met in the shoestore...never doubt the impressions you get for who could be ready to accept the gospel!
A chicken entered our house this morning and left a present in our bathroom. the problems of living in nicoya...
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