Week 7

Although we are already a week into Novemebr, the Costa Rican people are already into the full swing of the Chridtmas spirit. Lights, trees, even music. Hard to believe. Considering their is no Thanksgiving here, the Christmas season is about twice as long as it is in the US. Excited about what that means! Fun Tican traditions, rumors of tamales, people listening to English Christmas music and asking me to translate it... those will be some good times. But if it turns out Mondongo soup is a popular Christmas food, I will have a new least favorite holiday. To save you the 30 seconds, I'm about 99 percent sure Mondongo is either cow intestine or Colin, and could be dangerous combination of the two... But this has been an awesome week! We had a conference down in San Jose with a few other missionaries to start out the week on Tuesday. Love the capital, and got to spend the night with the secretaries because the drive is so long. Got to meet a bunch of missionaries in person for the first time, and set some goals for the mission with president. Really good time!! Thursday we went and had zone conference down in San ramon, which is also about 3 hours away in the bus. President shared a lot about looking forward with an eye of faith, trusting in the promises of the lord. Loved this scripture that he shared 14 Y ahora os pregunto, hermanos míos de la iglesia: ¿Habéis nacido espiritualmente de Dios? ¿Habéis recibido su imagen en vuestros rostros? ¿Habéis experimentado este potente cambio en vuestros corazones? 15 ¿Ejercéis la fe en la redención de aquel que os creó? ¿Miráis hacia adelante con el ojo de la fe y veis este cuerpo mortal levantado en inmortalidad, y esta corrupción levantada en incorrupción, para presentaros ante Dios y ser juzgados de acuerdo con las obras que se han hecho en el cuerpo mortal? To really change, we need need have confidence so strongly in the power of Jesus Christ to make us more than we were before. I have tried to apply thus personally everyday of my mission as well as with the people we teach and interact with. Things were great until the bus ride back. Mom stop reading here. So the bus just completely stopped about 5 miles south of Ciudad Quesada (my area). And we had 6 missionaries on the bus. And after waiting a while, we found out there was an accident on a bridge blocking the road. Considering how little sense of urgency their is in Costa Rica to fix things like that, made the call to get off and start the walk hoping we could order an Uber. Walked about a mile then finally got reception. At this point it was about 8 o'clock. Dark? Yep. Raining? Of course. So the Uber showed up, and only had room for 4. So we sent the sisters and me and my comp kept on walking. Luckily a very nice man passed us and offered to take us back, so we made a new friend and caught a ride back. Crazy adventure. Rest of the week turned out great! Had a zoom conference with Elder gong from the courum of the 12 apostles!! Some great lessons with some of the families we are teaching, and some gringos at church visiting on vacation, always a shock to find people from the US down here. Came out to LA Fortuna for a lesson (where all the volcanoes are), and overall an awesome week!! So blessed to be here in Costa Rica. Thanks so much for reading!! Forgot to take photos all week, so got a selfie on the bus!