I´m
sorry everyone that I didn´t get an email out last week. I went to the
beach and the bus got back too late to do anything. There´s something I
learned, The buses run your life if you´re going out of town. If you
want to plan anything, make sure bus variations are included.
To respond to some questions:
I´m teaching a bunch of
people right now. We´re teaching many people who are less actives. About
one out of four lessons in a less active member.
My town is really... LATIN AMERICAN :P we have different "Barrios"
that are different parts of town. My companion and I have the north
part of town which doesn´t have all the larger shops and stuff, but
there is a "pulparia" (or however you spell it), which is a small super
market, or two or three in each Barrio. Lots of people, and because it´s
hot, everyone has their door open so we can see them as we walk up to
"ask for dirrections" which is our way to find people to teach. It feels
like a small community and is a bit like Layton, Utah (which is where
my family lives right now). I´m really far away from touristy stuff
except for the day I went to the beach (becase I was a "gringo" everyone
was trying to sell me stuff). Everything worth a P-day excursion is a
bus ride away (which could be hours on a bus).
My day is wake up, eat, get ready, study (4 hours), Eat lunch at
the cook´s house, Walk, Teach, Walk, Sweat, Walk, Teach, Walk Walk Walk,
Sleep.
We paid a member to do our laundry for us and it´s
ç10,000 per month. If you want to convert, multiply the american
currency in cents by 5 and then you have it in colones.
No Baptisms yet, but we have one person that may be getting close.
He has to stop smoking though and he can be really frustrating
sometimes because he loves to interupt people.
Beans have been
at almost every meal that we don´t make ourselves. Rice has been at
every meal. Lunch is generally provided but for breakfast and dinner we
are on our own. (lots of cereal and soup)
I have picture of my House that my mom will put on facebook as soon as I
get them on Dropbox (everything here loads so slowly) (If you don´t
have me on face book it is James VanderMeyden). There are only the 2 of
us in the house because the other missionaries in the area are the
sisters who live in front of the Cook and work South Nicoya.
I can´t really compare the cost of things here to in America because I
really didn´t buy much while I was in America and the conversion makes
things weird. I haven´t run out of money yet though. :)
I walk
everywhere in our area unless we´re running late to an appointment. It´s
great exercise and a ton cheaper ;) The Church is about 15 minutes away
by walking.
No Soda yet and No stomach aches. I get a head ache every once in a
while, but I am able to figure it out quickly every time (normally it´s
dehydration, but I normally have water). Also, No allergy problems yet
and no Asthma problems yet! I can breath really well, even though it´s
so humid. :)
I haven´t been able to play soccer yet, but one of the less active
members that we´re focusing on said that he was rally good so I´m gonna
set up a time when he can teach my (by the way, he came to church
yesterday!).
No time for the cool spiritual stuff:
This week for
some reason I´ve been really quiet but I was having some trouble with my
companion and keeping in some of my own issues too. We had a
Companionship inventory and I nearly cried because we did it in a spirit
of friendship and trying to be better for our companionship and
investigators. After that, even though I was still quiet (I´m sorry, the
language is hard) I was able to give3 really powerful testimonies in
the same day where I felt the spirit strong and I hope the Investigators
had their hearts open to hear it. One of the tesimonies was about God´s
had in my life and another about my tesimony of the Book of Momon and
what it means to me and our religion (it is the Keystone, and without it
everything falls).
We also just found
some Mormon Messages in Spanish and we´ve been showing them to
investigators and stuff. However, we started watching them last night
and this morning to see which ones we wanted to and could share (it´s
scratched up so we can´t show every one of them) and I can again testify
of the Gift of Tongues. The trick is to listen with your heart and your
ears, one is not enough. If you do both, however, you can understand
the entire thing without understanding most of the words.
Last thing: I went
to San Josè today for the VISA stuff and got to see some really great
friends. I also bought a stuffed Shy Guy from the Mario Brothers. I feel
like it is a good choice for me and it shows both my Nerdy and fun
sides. I also gathered a ton of shells at the beach (my companion was a
bit mad because I had to borrow a pocket in his backpack and I got it
super sandy).
That´s all for this week.
Elder VanderMeyden Signing off
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