McClain Mission Part 2-Costa Rica

Happy Monday! Awesome week out here. The missionary seems to be speeding up every week. Time is flying by! Yesterday we had one of the most special sacrament meetings of my mission (church meetings). We had 5 confirmations of converts! Doris and her son Franklin were finally confirmed after a crazy week, and the sisters had 3 more, and the ward always just asks me and my companion to do all of them. On top of that had a ton of our friends show up for church, and the typical group of gringos visiting Tamarindo. So all in all, finding a seat in the chapel was almost difficult. Great day. Got the some exchanges with the Huacas elders, the area right next to all of the resorts. Finished the day off with some tacos, first time I have had Mexican food in like 7 months. For those who don't know, there are very few similarities between Costa Rican and Mexican food, and definitely did not disappoint. Also made it out to the beach again for p day last week, streak broken today because hav...

Hey everybody! Happy Monday! Hope all are doing well. This week we had some eye opening experiences. Realizing just how much we have to be grateful for. On Monday we found out one of our friends with the goal to baptized Saturday was going to be kicked out of her house. Spent most of the week getting her moved into a new one close by that has been absolutely destroyed by drug users. Needles, used toilet paper, and broken glass piled up everywhere. Cleaned it up enough for her to be able to live there until things get better. But after all of it, she was baptized Saturday night along with her son. Possibly the most special baptism I have been able to perform. Left out a lot of details for her privacy, but it was the single hardest week I have ever seen anyone go thru, and with a smile on her face she changed her life and Saturday night and was baptized. She shared a powerful testimony of how the gospel has blessed her family, and how when the savior is the focus we can find joy in a...

Pura Vida! For those who don't speak Spanish that means - Pure Life. For those who aren't from Costa Rica (probably applies to you) that also means - good afternoon, how's it going, go away, I like this food, somebody is a cool person, relax, and a whole lot more. Hope you all have had an awesome week! We saw some pretty incredible miracles this week. Invited 3 more of our friends to be baptized, and had a bunch of friends at church yesterday. Did one of them show up 45 minutes late? Of course. However. Pura Vida! Looking forward to Doris's baptism this weekend, and her son just turned 8 and will also be baptized with her! That will be a big highlight this week, she has gone thru a lot to get to this point. Some big obstacles, nice long walk to church, her land lord threatened to kick her out several times this week, but she shared a powerful testimony of the restoration this week. Beyond proud to see her conversion. Great scripture in Alma 37:34, reminder of ho...

Happy Monday and Pura Vida! The week was a bit wild. Thursday morning just casually doing my push-ups in the Guanacaste heat when President calls. He asked me to get the zone ready and help with plans to have all the missionaries in San Jose the next day for a conference with the area president. For those who don't know a conference with the area president, the highest church official in Central America, is a pretty big deal. So we all got on the bus the next day, took the 6 hour ride down to the capital starting nice and early the next morning. Mission wide conference was awesome. Went and spent the night with the assistants in their super sketchy area. Made it home the next day. Lots of bus time throughout the week. Saturday got to work, a sister in the ward offered to pick up one of our friends to take her to chuch. All the member support - big time. So we went to super compro for popcorn to celebrate. Good times. Unfortunately had to walk a friend home from the bar so he...

Pura Vida and happy Monday! We had an awesome week out here this week, saw some hearts changing thru the gospel. Nothing like it. Spent a few days down on San Jose picking up my new companion elder Moran, as he had an immigration appointment, so didn't make it back to my area until Thursday at night and left Tuesday in the morning. But once we made it back we hit the ground running. Tons of lessons and saw some good progress. Saturday night had a lesson with Doris. Doris is a single mother from another country and lives paycheck to paycheck, so things had gone pretty tough for her when we showed up on the weekend after a week when she was unable to work. As missionaries we can't give monetary donations, so we offered to make breakfast for them considering she have several kids and they hadn't eaten much in who knows how long, and then they were able to come to church with us. We ended up getting to walk her home, special experience to see a single mother with 3 little k...