June 14, 2010
Our main investigators right now are Karen and Sebastian. Last week we found an awesome investigator named Yahaira. She is so receptive and wants to be baptized. When we challenged her to be baptized on the 26th, although she said she wasnt ready, I could tell she really wanted to say yes. I could see it in her face and I could feel it. The problem is, like always, her "husband". They are not married and she doesnt know if she wants to marry him or seperate from him. She told us that he recently began having drug problems again and he was wasting money irresponsibly. They have an 11-year old son named Anderson who also wants to be baptized, but Walter (the husband) hasn't listened to us yet. Yesterday Yahaira told him if he didn't listen to our message and go to church with her this week then she was going to seperate from him. Hopefully he takes some responsibility so he can be a good example for his son and so the family can stay united. He is a pirate taxi driver, so he took us home yesterday, and I think we gained some of his confidence by talking to him a little bit. Hopefully he makes the changes his family needs him to make.
Right now we are also teaching Yahaira's neigbor Marcela. We taught Marcela at Yahaira's house and we put a meta bautismal with Marcela for July, but she didnt come to church this week, so well see how it goes with her. She did seem really excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon so she could be really good. We are also teaching a taxista we contacted and his family. The taxi guy is 74 years old but looks really young and has a lot of energy. His name is Cristobal and we are also teaching his daughter in law Margot, and his wife Luz, and his neigbor Nelsy *Ü* . Luz and Nelsy say they know our message is true, but they obviously don't understand it, because although they supposedly know its true, they want to keep going to there own church which to them is "true" as well. Margot had more dudas and questions which we answered, and I think she has more chances of progressing because she seems to understand that what we are saying is something really big if its true, and she promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Cristobal is Catholic, but doesnt go to church, and he came with us to church this week and seemed to really like it. He fit in really well at church because there are a lot of older guys in this ward, and he loves wearing a white shirt and tie, he wears them every day as a taxi driver, and even though the other taxistas make fun of him for it, he doesnt care, because he likes it. I think Cristobal would get along really well with Grandpa, they are very similar (he likes talking to every one, similar personality, similar type of smile, etc.).
On Tuesday we had a district meeting centered around being Humble (with companion and with our Heavenly Father) so that we can remember that we need to work well with our companion to have the most success and be happy, and so that we always remember that without our Heavenly Father we would not be able to have any success, Alma 26:12 so we need to trust in him and give him the glory for our successes. We also talked about Diligence, and how we cant let anything be a stumbling block for us in makeing sure that we diligently move forward with this marvelous work, which saves lives and brings eternal happiness to our brothers and sisters here on the earth. We talked about our goals as a district and what we were going to do to meet them. The district has been having some difficulties, so hopefully this helped a little. We set some goals with companionships this week and tried to help out in raising everyones spirits, and it seems to have helped a little. This last week the animo and work seemed better, so hopefully we continue to progress. We went on divisions with Turrialba again this week, and this week I am going to Paraiso to do a baptismal interview with Mariana, who they plan to baptize this Saturday.
On Sunday we went to pick up Cristobal to take him to Church. He is a taxista, so he drove us around to pick up other investigators. In the end no one else could come with us in the taxi but we got to church early and went to the Comittee Ejecutivo meeting and got the plan misional going with the ward. Karen and Sebastian made it to church as well as the the Hnas investigator Diego. There investgator Maria didnt come though, even though she promised and they went to pick her up, she wasnt there so that was super depressing because now who knows if she can be baptized this month. Cristobal seemed to really like Church. We went to consejo de barrio after Church.
Last week for pday we went to Parque La Sabana in San Jose for a Zone vs Zone tournament thing. It was our zone (Zona La Paz) vs. Zona La Sabana. In the end it wasn't very organized and we ended up just having a good time playing american football, soccer, and basketball. It was fun, parque la sabana is really cool, a lot of trees and sports stuff. We ate at Taco Bell afterwards.
Today for pday we had a district activity and we invited the zl's. We all went to Turrialba to see some waterfalls. It was really cool. On our way down the mountain we ended up getting soaked by the rain and getting pretty dirty. I was worried the bus driver wasnt going to let us on the bus, but he did.
Last week we had a really fun ward activity. The usual activities they have here arent really planned out activities. People just show up, socialize, and play simple games that they bring themselves. Its really cool. When we first showed up at the activity with a couple investigators and the only member there was the bishop, I got a little worried. Later on when more people showed up we started to play games and have fun. Some games we played inside were musical chairs, sack races, jacks, jump rope, etc., while outside they played soccer. I won the sack race and musical chairs competitions in my category (adult males) and went outside to play soccer every once in awhile. Investigators that came were Karen and Sebastian, who came with there RC family, and Yahaira and her son Anderson, who came alone. Karen was laughting a lot and having a good time and Yahaira told us she really felt good about how everyone treated her at the activity. There was also food. yum.This last Saturday Paola and Byron were baptized in Tres Rios. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
Los amo!
