McClain Mission Part 2-Costa Rica

Happy Monday! Been a great week here in Santa Cruz, hope all are doing well! Things have become a lot more Costa Rican this week, have started eating coconuts. Cut them open by chopping them with a knife over and over, feeling a little extra Latino. Also saw some pitbulls start going at it in the street. People here don't train there dogs much at all, so at best they bark at everyone, and at worst they go start attacking the neighbor(')s (dogs). Classic. Saw a bunch of our friends show up to church yesterday so we are hopeful to invite several of them to baptized soon! Only took us about an hour of speed walking before church to invite them all once again, but all worth it. In contrast to church back at home, we show up every week sweating and beat red from practically running around the area picking up our friends. But at the last second a couple pulled up in taxis as well, and we all walked in together - great moment. Seen a lot of great miracles. Teaching a couple of famil...

Happy Monday!! Hope you all have been well! Had an awesome week with some wild moments here, I'll start with some of the crazy stuff... One night as I was falling asleep some enormous ant found its way into my bed so sleep did not come easy after that one. We went up to knock a door when a sleeping dog in the bush, that was huge, jumped up and started running after me. Horrifying. Was given a cup of water during a lesson with a healthy portion of ants swimming around. Our friend Francisco, during our lesson, wrote down his goal to come with us to church, then picked up the notebook, and threw it at his flock of chickens that had walked into the family room. So life was good this week. Taught a ton of lessons and found a bunch of new friends to start teaching, seems like everybody wants to hear the missionaries here and has talked to them at some point in the last. Every 5 doors or so we knock we end up meeting someone that was baptized, some within the last few years, and...

Happy Monday!! This week made it out to my new area, Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, after 2 long days of travel. Back in Bakersfield a transfer met meeting up at the mission office around 12, and being in the new area by about 1. Here is a bit different. Instead of the 2 hour event, we got headed down to the mission office Wednesday morning in bus. The trip took a solid 4 hours as we were literally crawling along. Made it the office. Had a mission meeting at 1. Then I had to get a bunch of transfer details figured out for the rest of my new zone, and conveniently enough an elder had made a long plan to pass by his old area on the way to Guanacaste to pick up the luggage he didn't bring. Not super conveniently his old area was about 3 hours away from the office, and then 3 more from Guanacaste. For those who don't know, showing up to Transfers without luggage is liking showing up to school without clothes on. So that was a disaster. We got things figured out and made it to the bus st...

McClain Easton Attachments Mon, Jan 10, 2022, 2:22 PM to me Happy Monday!! Hope you all has an awesome week! We had some great highlights here in the last week. Michelle was baptized yesterday! We had the service at 8, so that she could then be confirmed immediately after the sacrament meeting. My comp performed the baptism and I got to perform the confirmation. Special experience. We had a few other friends that made it to church with us as well, so over all a great Sunday. Spent a lot of time knocking doors and contacting this week, and said goodbye to some of the members all around as I am getting transferred tomorrow!! Have really grown to love the people in Ciudad Quesada, and leave with no regrets, put everything into it her. Opened the area 4 months ago, had a few other responsibilities, and jumped right into a new culture, so between the physical efforts, mental demands, and spiritual needs of the people we interact with daily, it was a stinking hard 4 months, but will lea...

Happy Monday and happy new year!! Hope 2022 is off to a great start for all of you. Hard for me to believe it is already here, and definitely a new years worth remembering... New years eve didn't seem like it would be too exciting until a member invited us over on the spot, called us at 7:20 and told us to be there by 7:30 so got moving quick. Had a big feast with there family - rice was not the main dish this time - and hustled home before the curfew. Next day bishop had us over, hauled some stuff around his house, made some huge pork chops, and got a lot of missionary work done over the phone at his house. Had to take turns on his tiny grill to cook the mountains of meet he has ready, so wasn't the quickest thing ever. Have some awesome members here. Had to help cook and do service in athletic clothes and church shoes. Athletic clothes because we were moving big dirt covered pots in the yard, church shoes because my mind bag doesn't fit another pair of shoes. Might be a...