Raining Cats n Dogs.... N Earthquakes :)

Monday, May 27, 2013

Greetings Family and Friends from the Blog World and from the inside of your comfy trailer.

DUDE! EARTHQUAKE! Yes, I’ve lived through another Costa Rica Earthquake! It actually woke me up last night, but I thought it was my companion moving on the bottom bunk. Or a dream. Haha, gotta love it. How did ya´ll know about it?

 

Today, my p-day was boring. My comp sewed a new dress and I just waited and waited.

This week I taught my companion the phrase, raining cats and dogs. It´s nuts how heavy it rains here. I´ve never experienced anything like it before. Also, the thunder! The lightning! OH MY! It is all awesome.

Okay so speaking of rain, I may or may not have been walking around with a raincloud above my head. There´s this moment when you´re walking through the rain and nobody wants to let you in and you can be a little discouraged. It is such a bummer when your appointments fall through and you´re suddenly left with nothing to do. Or when none of your investigators show up to church Sunday. Naturally when all seems lost, is the nicest time to remember the badge I have on my sleeve. I am Hermana Workman. Representing the Workman Family, my ward family and Jesus Christ himself. I knew that we (Hermana Lopez and I) needed to find the miracle that God had prepared for us that day. So out we went. Even though all seemed dark and dreary. (Prayer can change the night to day. So, when life seems dark and dreary, don´t forget to pray.)

The first house we saw, my companion, who notices the strangest things when it comes to trees and such, noticed a funky looking fruit. So we decided to knock, and by knock, I literally mean yell until someone comes out. (Nobody closes his or her doors here. Ever. Unless it´s raining cats and dogs, haha) Out came a sweet looking old lady. We asked her about the fruit. It´s called zaracà, or something like that. It looked like a tomato or an apple...smelt like Cos (absolutely delicious) and oranges, etc. She gave us three. I asked if we could share a message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and she invited us in. She then, like any good Costa Rician woman, offered us fresco; Natural lemonade and Cheese and crackers. The cheese I´ve only seen in Ratatouille or in pictures from France or something, super rico. When we started talking about the gospel, she kept trying to convert us to Catholicism. Catholic Country. What a joy. She wasn´t having anything to do with our religion. She wanted nothing to do with us. She wouldn´t let me leave a pamphlet.  But, before we left, she went into her room and came out with a skirt to give to me. Here is this woman who wanted nothing to do with us, but kindly let us into her home, fed us, and gave me literally her clothes. These people are super good. They are so kind, so giving and I am so blessed. It was really sad that she wouldn´t accept God´s gift to her, the message of the restored gospel. After this experience, I wasn´t quite as bummed out. (depression? Isn´t that just a fancy term for feeling bummed out?!...Movie quote, name it!)

M.  A new convert of about 3 months now. She lives the furthest away in our area. We had prepared to teach her about fasting. We showed up and this woman looked like a hot mess. We clearly could not teach her what we had planned. We started asking her about how she´s doing with the church, and all that jazz. Good good she told us. I then asked her how she was doing with her prayers. Mas o Menos she told us. Why? I asked? She then started to cry. This poor poor woman. Who was abandoned by her family (she´s the same age as mom, but her ex and kids want nothing to do with her. Imagine how depressing.) She told us she didn´t feel like doing anything including breathing. She had been in the hospital, and didn´t have any food in the house, so hadn´t eaten for 5 days. (Okay she ate heated up milk) She just cried and cried. I shared the story of the prodigal son. How God is always happy to talk to us, even when we feel like He doesn´t want to listen. I shared a quote I like from Pres Benson “If we don’t feel like praying, then we should pray until we feel like praying.” I like it. I patted her back. So unsure about what to do, I said a silent prayer. “Heavenly Father, please send help. Please send us someone who can help. Send the bishop. Please. She needs help. More than we have.” Then, I sat back down close to her. Not five minutes later, a car came pulling up. I cannot express in words how rare this is. She lives so far away in the mountains in the outback. Out of the car come the Relief Society president and her husband and her parents, each of them with bags of groceries. I wanted to cry and what I was witnessing. They said that they had just got back from the temple and felt like visiting. They were able to give her a blessing. The most beautiful priesthood blessing I have ever heard in my life. (Turns out, he´s the stake patriarch. Go figure.) We had to leave, but I know we left her in good hands.

I know that prayers work. Our Heavenly Father heard my prayer and answered it. Sometimes we have to wait a little longer, sometimes it´s a lot faster. But I know that when we have the faith that He´ll answer, and patiently wait for His timing, prayer always work.

Here is a poem from the same talk by President Benson. He said he learned this in the Aaronic Priesthood and it has remained with him all these years.

I know not by what methods rare,

But this I know, God answers prayer.

I know that He has given His Word,

Which tells me prayer is always heard,

And will be answered, soon or late.

And so I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought

Will come in just the way I thought;

But leave my prayers with Him alone,

Whose will is wiser than my own,

Assured that He will grant my quest,

Or send some answer far more blest.

The funniest moment in my week happened while standing in the pouring rain waiting for a bus. My companion has a giant yellow rain coat. It is the funniest thing ever, but she lets me use her umbrella so it´s like, you look like a goofball, but it´s my fault. But we just laugh anyways. My umbrella had been spilling water all over her face. She said, ugh...Hermana...? and I turned to look at her and said sorry! Then I dumped a little on her on purpose (seriously, you know in movies when cars drive by and splash you more? yeah. It didn´t matter if we had raincoats or umbrellas, we were drenched. It was RAINING UP, the kind mom likes! Awesome!) So then she looks at me, raises her arm like a dinosaur and flings all her water on me. I´m not doing this justice, am I? Just know, we were giggling like lunatics. ESTE ES LA MISIÒN! I screamed. I can sing as loud as I want when it rains here, haha. It felt good. Okay, Bray, ready for your reference? She looked like the bad guy from Jurassic Park...Newman from Sienfield, in his raincoat when he´s trying to run away, drops the shaving cream stuff from his car, gets out in the pouring rain, but ends up getting eaten? Yeah, this was my companion. And we were even in Costa Rica. I told her to beware, she was about to get eaten, and she laughed. Good times.  By the way.... all of this rain makes for beautiful sunsets! The best!

J. and his famlily. I love them all. Today I´m going to go learn how to cook beans. YAY! haha. He gave a talk in church yesterday about ¨his invitation to salvation¨(from the ensign this month) and that one day after his own mission, he plans to write an article of his own. So awesome. His poor mother. There´s a lot of tension going on in this house right now. For a little while I couldn´t figure out why. My companion then explained it to me this way; Satan knows exactly what kind of family they could be in the gospel that´s why he´s working extra hard. But Heavenly Father knows too. With His help, we can do all things.

Okay. Brain freeze. And I have not much to say anyways. I think I´ll close this email with my testimony.

There are moment when life really sucks. And we may feel like we cannot do anything about it. But something that helps me is to think about Nephi. A scripture hero of mine. When his brothers, after a wild night of partying and dirty dancing, had mercilessly tied him to a pole of a raging ship and beat him and wouldn´t let his family comfort him, what did Nephi do? He prayed. For what? The strength to loosen his bands. He didn´t pray for his current circumstances to change, but for the strength to change, to endure, to keep going. When we feel like we can´t possibly go on for one minute more, pray. Sometimes we get to wait. What a blessing it is to get to wait. I’ve been studying in my bible. When Jesus was suffering on the cross, he had to wait a little before he could ascend into heaven. Sometimes we want stuff right now! But God, in his mercy, lets us wait a little bit longer. I realized that my Father in Heaven is letting me experience pieces of what our investigators are experiencing. S, with her prayers of doubt, but needs help making sure that this religion really is for her. R who is scared to pray not sure she is ready for the answers. J who is begging in prayer for the Lord´s help with his family. etc. Jesus could’ve healed the people solely with his power. But he chose to suffer so that he could properly know how to succor his people. I´m learning that as a missionary (and I´m sure for most of you out there) sometimes God lets us experience difficulty so that we can be properly trained for something bigger than our current circumstances. Prayer is an act of faith. How can we know if someone is listening, if we don´t first pick up the phone and dial? I encourage all of you to offer a prayer of gratitude this day. Thanking our Heavenly Father for all the good in your life. For those of you who are apprehensive to pray, I´d like to quote Nike. ¨Just do it.¨  I cannot state it better then them. We all need prayer, even if sometimes we don´t feel like it. For those of you who feel like you can´t pray, pray. Satan wants us to feel like we couldn´t possibly. That nobody is listening, but I promise, he is. Always.

I´m grateful for this good gospel. I never ever expected to be here defending the faiths I have known all my life. There are people here who don’t understand about life after death. About Joseph Smith. About Jesus Christ here in the American Continent. The peace that comes from living this gospel with your eternal family. But I am so grateful to be revealing, teaching, things that have never been revealed. I´m grateful for my brothers. Yesterday I realized what makes them truly special. Even though sometimes they want to kill each other, they the next moment can be the best of friends. And I know their bond is unbreakable. They´d die for one another. And then I realized why that is; Because we are part of an eternal family. Forever. I know that families can be together forever.

I love this gospel. The work is good, oh so good.

Thank you for all of your love and support. I thank you for every prayer in my behalf, and for the members here in God´s vacation spot, Costa Rica.

I love you all so so so so so much.

Love you!

Hermana Workman

Also, not sure about packages. Next week we will go check. I hope so! And I always have that song stuck in my head because I live, or used to, by some isles. THIS IS THE TALE, OF CAPTIAN JACK SPARROW!

Don´t drink the water here in May. Your tummy won’t like it. And in return, you´ll have to spend more money then one should on toilet paper. Ha, if you catch my drift. Mom and pharmacy friend, thank you for the anti diarrhea pills. 

Dad, I´ve been applying more sunblock. Thank you for the advice.

Guess who´s name I found scribbled under my desk: Elder Workman. Please cue the x-files theme song. How did that happen??!

I´m feeling Tica! Last week, Ivania, our investigator (29) and her mother (49) invited us over to make PINTO! Finally! They heard I love it and I told them how nervous I was to head back to the states and not have it. It was so funny when it came time to make the ¨fresco¨ slash drink. Coffee? Nope. Tea? Nope. What do you drink then? Milk. Easy. But she told me I had to learn how to at least make it, Costa Rican style. So I made coffee. Real coffee. We ate breakfast out on their patio, surrounded by sunshine, shade, and greeeeen! I love it here!