August 24, 2009
Hola,
We were supposed to be having three baptisms this week (Mariline, Carmen, Baikline) but some problems have come up. Mariline isn´t married to her "husband" and they are from Nicaragua and need to get a Costa Rican cedula or ID to get married. First, they didn’t have money for it because Mariline´s husband doesn’t have a job. We helped them find a way to get money for it but when they went to take it out they said it could take 3 months to get. We still need to find out more from them but it doesn’t look like we’ll be having their baptisms this week. They are the family that lives really deep in the middle of nowhere, and we always borrow member’s bikes to get to their house. The other day I had to use one that didn’t have breaks. That was fun but I could have died because the paths are really rocky and hilly.
Maritza and Karina would be baptized by now if Maritza could find a job and another house so she could not be so stressed and focus on baptism. A lot of people here have either economic problems and almost no one is actually married. Even though you promise them blessings from God if they just put their faith in him, it’s hard for some people to understand and believe. We started teaching a lady that works at the bus terminal, who we see almost everyday. We haven’t been able to progress with Max because his wife Vanessa has had Dengue and been really sick for a couple weeks. She is better now so hopefully we can keep helping him.
Our recent convert Adan is missing church lately. He is slowly slipping away from us because the evangelical chick we were teaching who left us because she heard we were diabolical is inviting him to church and he likes her. Nooooooooooooooo!
Maria Daisy and her family don’t have enough money to make it to church every week so they haven’t been progressing, but we found out they will be moving into a new house closer to the church in the middle of September. They are excited to have a new house and we’re excited too. They’re a great family and I hope we can help them get baptized eventually.
This last week we also had divisions with ‘LaRita’. Elder Belmont came here to Cariari with me. This week we also taught a few more drunks. Most of them were pretty nice but one of them wanted to hit me in the face. We’ve been working with a lot of inactives here as well. We taught one of the families last night. They are Max´s in-laws. The Father is turning into a Jehovah´s Witness and the mother is leaning evangelical. The family has been having a lot of problems getting along. The kids feel their parents don’t love them and the parents have thought about divorce. But in talking to all of them separately they each want to save the family and stay together. Something that has been causing divisions is the unsurity of what Church to go to. So last night I told them what they need is to know the truth. If they know the truth, life as a family will have more meaning and they will be more unified. I told them if they want to know the truth they need to have faith in God, faith that he loves them and knows what’s best for them. And if they have faith in that, they will ask him to find out the truth. I said they should ask God if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth because there can only be one truth. One path, one Lord, one faith. They seemed to take it well so I hope they do it, but what do I know. I feel weird giving people advice because I’m just a young inexperienced fool, trying to help people in all the tough situations of life. (don't feel like that, you are representing Jesus Christ. You prepare each day , study the scriptures and staye close to the spirit to be able to teach... but like you said they will have to find out for themselves through prayer, Don't underestimate the power of God in you. you are bringing the hope that the gospel of Jesus Christ offers to all and WE are very proud of you! ♥ )
I haven’t been too sick to work yet. I’m eating ok. We don’t have a cocinera (cook). We just eat wherever. Hna Pacita washes our clothes. There are a lot of restaurants to eat here in Cariari Centro. A lot of tourists stay here when they are on their way to Tortuguero. ‘Tortuguero’ is a national park near here. It’s on the beach but you have to take a boat on a river to get to it. Tortuguero is one of the places where the buried baby turtles hatch and come out of the sand and go to the ocean. This is the time of year that happens, but we can’t go to Tortuguero because you have to take a boat to get to it. The bike riding we do is hilly, rocky, and muddy when it rains. We do internet at an internet cafe on our street. We don’t get to go to the city Limon, we go to Siquirres for zone conferences.
Make good choices everybody!
Goodbye.
