Chapter 17: Light

Notice all the tea light? (don't notice the random missionary stuff)

One reason for this title is that we are no longer in darkness, there is a fulness of light and truth at our house after the long darkness of apostasy (Light outage). It was out for a week.  You never know what you have till it's gone. Happily, we no longer need candles to read by and such. A week is a long time. The gospel is like this as well. You can see the light in someone's eyes when they believe and are living the gospel. When you are not living the gospel, the light goes out, and while you still have some happiness (like daytime - when it's light outside), you are still in the dark much of the time.

All I have is one sad story of a man we found this week. He came up to us and told us he was from a far off place on the border of Limón and Panama called Xixaola from my best knowledge of spelling. He came to San Jose to pick up his paycheck and got beat up by the police. His phone was stolen and all his money too. He said he had been in the streets for 8 days and that he was thinking about suicide. I gave him a PB&J sandwich and Elder Hoover  gave him some candy. We can´t give him money or a place to stay but we did what we could and he got mad at us for not being able to do anything more. He walked away saying "I don´t think I can make it through another night on the street." The worst part about this is not the fact that the next day we heard in the news about him, it´s the fact that the Sister missionaries found him and he said that he hadn´t eaten in 9 days. Hmmm, would anyone else out there think that PB&J sandwiches are nothing? If you do then you are sadly mistaken and this man is a liar. It made me angry to hear that someone is making up such a big lie and falsifying papers to prove his story. I´m happy that I didn´t really fall for it and I went home feeling quite justified for everything I did to help him.

A picture of me - just because!

Reminds me of a moment- Our investigator who will be baptized today was playing Mario Kart Wii with his brother when we came over and I taught him the cheat where they both could play as the same character just like I did when my sisters were fighting about who was able to be Baby Peach. :P They both think I´m a video game genius, but it was just a small tidbit I remembered from back home. :)

Also, we started English classes which are going great. I really think that this time worked out so much better than the last time (in Nicoya, a complete failure). And today we´ll be teaching Rugby to the Ward. IE Elder Hoover will teach because I know nothing. ;)

Another shot of our room with all the candles

We hiked up to a mountain in Aserrí that had a giant rock called "La Piedra" (it´s also a slang term for marihuana). We had a ton of fun. What have I learned lately? I´ve learned about the cycle that the ancient Israel kings went through and how they were punished for being bad and rewarded for their righteousness. It´s also a goal of mine to finish the bible before I finish the mission. Wish me luck. :)