Learning to Walk as Jesus Walked in Costa Rica: Costa Rica es mas tuanis que Mexico (bromas)‏

Haha, everything is going well here in Costa Rica! This week went really well. Elder Parker finally got some money (he lost his card for personal money), which is good because we were cutting it pretty close on not having any money haha. But we are all good now!

We´ve been working really hard with a family (well, partial family) that includes a mom, 2 sons, and a daughter, and then they also have 2 friends living with them. We´ve taught them a few times now and we´re really trying to help them! Our challenge with them right now is that they tell us that they will come to church after we teach about the Sabbath Day and we get 100-100% promises from them and then they don´t come, and so that´s what we are really focusing on. I think what the problem is that we have taught the kids a lot more than the mom because the mom is working all the time so it´s hard to actually be there when she is to share a message with her and her whole family. But the son is really into League Of Legends, so we´ve found a youth in the ward who also plays and we´re going to try and help him with actually coming.

What is the coolest thing that we do here? Good question. Thanks. Well, here in Heredia, Costa Rica we have the opportunity to play soccer every Friday and it´s super fun haha. We play at the chapel and honestly it is basically like playing in the parking lot but with huge cement walls and fence on top of them, so we don´t lose the ball (that much - I have gone retrieving a few, Elder Parker too..). We end up getting about 25 people there every Friday night and we can bring a ton of investigators to it because everyone here loves soccer. We divide into like 4 teams of 6 and essentially play king of the court where you score 2 goals to win and you get to stay playing if you keep winning. Our team did really well this last week because we have a less active we are working with named J and he is actually killer at soccer, so he came in and is winning it for us. When we first started playing on Fridays, it felt a little bit like the Hunger Games, not that people killed each other or anything haha just that there´s a team from the other ward in our building. It´s like 6 youth who have custom shirts because they´re the ward team or something and they are pretty good. They play really aggressively, so Elder Parker and I ramped it up and we beat them this week. All the investigators have a good time there. I would say this is one of the greatest things here; that we have a constant activity that all our investigators can come to and enjoy every week where they can make friends to help them go to church each Sunday!

Vamos a ganar cada semana, les prometo, pero estoy muy agradecido por su apoyo y correos electronicos! Que lo pasa una buena semana amigos amados!

**this is from a personal email answering questions (:

The week's been good. I think you know already but our internet is Tuesdays now with all our district together because missionaries were being disobedient and doing bad things - President told us. We had a meeting with him this last Thursday in Alajuela (the place where my soccer team is from, la liga!) and he put each zones' numbers up (there were 3 days of meetings, so the country's zones were split. We were with Alajuela, a part of San Jose, and then us, Heredia) of the three zones. We got our heads cut off the least. President cuts heads off a lot haha, like Jesus Christ did. The people from a zone in San Jose stood up and he put their numbers for the month so far on the screen and then he started hammering them with questions (it´s called cutting heads off when you get chastised essentially=) ) and our zone got the least. Granted, we still got some but not much because our numbers are all increasing. Guanacaste almost never gets its head cut off though because the success there is so high and if you ask anyone their favorite place it is Guanacaste. It's not even close and that's also where all the tourists go - ONLY to Guanacaste, or the temple if they are LDS.

Elder Parker and I are doing good. I think we were a little bit less than 100% obedient but we´ve gone into overtime. It´s never anything super bad, but we know we´ll get more miracles if we are obedient with exactness to the point. We never fight. I do most of the dishes and stuff and cook but he has to do district things so it´s all good, plus practice for marriage! =) We live in La Puebla. It´s a poor, dangerous part of Heredia and a kid got shot like 4 weeks ago, but our house is one of the biggest and nicest ones in the mission haha. So it´s worth it! =P Our cook is also the cook for the mission for meetings and stuff. She is really good, even though food is super expensive - she always gives us good stuff! We´re about 15 minutes away from Los Angeles, more or less. Walmart is just about in the Carpintera where all our ward leaders are. We work really close to Carptinera, but like 15 minutes away from the Walmart, or a little more than that normally. Our zone is Heredia, districts don't have names. Our zone leaders right now are Elder Guerrero from Mexico and Elder Gutierrez from El Salvador. They are both cool and Elder Gutierrez and Elder Parker have been companions before, in Guanacaste.

I got EVERYTHING in the suitcase as it was sent. =) We´re eating fast, but I stowed away some mac n cheese and the steak strips for later in the mish. Our ward is San Francisco but we meet in the same building as the Heredia Ward; it´s a stake center. 1 ward in our area, 2 that go to our building and it´s huge. We only work in a really small part because all our leaders are there (near the Carptinera) and we have more success.

beef jerky in the shape of Costa Rica ( :

There are about 7 stakes in Costa Rica; like 4 in San Jose, 1 in Heredia, 1 in Alajuela and 1 in Puntarenes, I think. But we just found out that the papers have been sent for a new one in Guanacaste and soon a new one in Limon also, I´m pretty sure. I think President said he has no doubt that the mission is going to split while I am here. I´m praying I get the side with Guanacaste if they split it like that haha. It´s very possible that I will go to Guanacaste. EVERYONE in my missionary genealogy is from there and Elder Parker´s other kid, Elder Cuevas, is in Guanacaste still as a district leader, so I should go there I think!

I didn't have my camera for the first two baptisms. I was hardly there for their teaching and I didn't know to bring it haha but I had it with the most recent one. I think you can send me like 1 or 2 in an email or you can dropbox, whichever you want but dropbox has a size limit. I don't know what it is.