Mayo 31, 2010
My first week in Cartago was pretty cool. We put a baptismal date with a man named Eladio for this Saturday the 5th of June. Eladio is a member's boyfriend named Arline's and he is a really great guy. So this week we will continue to prepare him and he'll be baptized this Saturday, "Si Dios quiere", (If God wants) como dicen los ticos (Like ticos Say). This week we knocked a lot of doors and found some new investigators. The people don't seem too bad. Some good investigators we found are William and Genori who live by the church. There is a family of part members I really want to complete as well. Xinia, Marianella, and Ana Gabriela (mother and two daughters) were baptized a couple weeks ago but Xinia's daughters Karen, Maria Jose, and Rosibel, and her son Lester, aren't baptized yet. I haven't met Lester yet, but I hope to soon. Maria Jose and Rosibel haven't been as eager to listen to us, but I think its because of their boyfriends, and yesterday I challenged them to read some chapters of the Book of Mormon that we left them and pray to see if it was true. Karen has been listening to us and she and her son Sebastian could be baptized this month. Sebastian turned 8 years old yesterday and we went to his birthday party the other day. It was fun, we ate food and cake, played musical chairs, and gave him a present that he really liked (some truck toy thing). We have family home evening with this family in an hour.
Also this week I went on divisions to Turialba. Its a really beautiful city in a valley at the base of a volcano. The volcano is acting up a bit and spitting ash. It takes like an hour and 45 minutes to get to Turialba, and the bus ride down into the valley is full of curves and turns that make everyone sick. I got a headache going there but i didn't get as sick as I thought. My comp and Elder Castro however, almost threw up. We have district meetings on Tuesday mornings in the church of Paraiso. The missionaries in my district are Hna Roundy (New York) and Hna Flores (El Salvador) in Cartago Sur, Elder Urbina (Honduras) and Elder Whitman (Gilbert, AZ) in Paraiso, and Elder Orton (Bountiful, UT) and Elder Castro (Honduras) in Turialba. Everyone in the district is pretty young in the mission, except Hna Roundy, because this is her last change. All the responsibilities of being district leader are the same as before (run district meetings, go on divisions, take numbers, make sure every companionship makes it home every night, call the zl's, do baptismal interviews, etc.) We have to get to know all of our districts investigators as well, so we can help the other companionship's in the best way. This week the district didn't do to well, and there have been some problems in the companionship's and the areas, so I have a lot of work to do.
Here in Cartago we have the best housing situation. We live in a part of a house separate from the rest with the dueños (owners). The dueña is named Doña Lijia and she and her family are catholic. Although they are catholic, the missionaries have lived there for 20 years. The reason they have live there so long is Lijia is such a great woman. She cooks us three meals a day, and cleans our house all the time, washes our clothes every day, and she really cares about the missionaries, its unbelievable. I wake up in the morning and breakfast is on the table waiting for me. I get home tired at night, and dinner is there waiting for me. I can wear a different shirt every day, while in other areas I've had to wear the same shirt for sometimes four days. I don't even have to make the bed, because when I get home our room is neat and clean. (Wow...better than home! *Ü* ) Of course I make the bed because I feel bad, but this housing situation is really sweet, and shes not even a member. (I feel so much LOVE for her already. What more can a M♡M ask for?)
Today was supposed to be P-day, but instead I had to go to a meeting in Los Yoses with all the Zone Leaders and District Leaders. It started at 9 am and ended at 3 pm. It was a great meeting. Its kind of like a knights of the round table type thing. I learned a lot from President and the other missionaries and received some key impressions about what I can do to help my district. We broke the Costa Rica baptism record again this month of May, with 141 baptisms, but President made us understand that even with that we haven't even hit the half of our potential. President is really motivating the mission to do more they thought possible before. He expects to put goals and meet them. This last month five zones met there baptismal goals, and one of them was Los Yoses, the zone I was in, which met the baptismal goal for the first time. Zona La Paz, which I am in now got its head chopped off because they didn't meet the goal. I saw a lot of old friends at the meeting as well, like Elder Bonn, Elder Tagliaferi, Elder Buckner (who is in my zone again) and Elder Chavez. Elder Chavez told me that not only are Paola and Byron getting baptized, but Juriel finally made it to church and he has another fecha bautismal for this month. They are also moving because we were eaten alive by fleas every night in Tres Rios, so they are moving to the cocineras house. The mission is really young right now with more the 50% with less than 8 months in the mission.
On Friday ex- Elder Lee (pres released him, because hes done), his mom, and his sister, came to eat lunch with us and our cocinera here in Cartago, because he was in this area a year ago. His mom says thanks for sending her emails, mom. Like pres says, if your going to put a goal, make sure you meet it. Make and meet your summer goals, and then your life goals. love y'all. chao.
ET
