Pura Vida

Feb 3, 2014   Today we got out at 7 and went on a hike to Waterfall Cloud. AWESOME. But hard. It was about 7 miles and all uphill and then all downhill. It was awesome. Connor… it reminded me of you and all of our hikes we went on. It won’t be long and we’ll be hiking again.  Ry, the inactive guy with us took off his shirt to cliff dive and his tattoos are of Iguana’s saying “pura vida”. This country is the best. I´m sunburnt now. Which made me laugh as I read Ash´s email. Poor girl.

______-______--______---_______(heartbeats.)

Wed Jan 28   Happy Birthday Bren!

BEEEEP! Yep. I´m dying. Not from trunky-itis, but exhaustion. We have been working so hard, it´s amazing!

Monday the funniest part of the day was when we got locked out of our house. My companion fearlessly decided to just hop the fence. Now when I say that, don´t imagine white picket gringo fences. But high walls, roofs, dogs, trees, etc. She´s amazing.

Today we went to San Jose to get Hna. Coburn´s new comp, from Colombia. I´m kind of bittersweet about it-turns out the TRIFECTA thing was working pretty well. (Triple the effectiveness!-Love that Brayden)

I studied something pretty interesting about Priesthood blessings and how we should record them from our fathers, our patriarchs. Why didn´t I take advantage of that?!

San Jose was pretty chill. We just hung out talking. I RAN INTO HNA V! The bus ride was super relaxing and beautiful. I love everything about this place.  Well the 3 of them want to get up at 5:30 tomorrow and go running.....I said I´d at least try. Wish me luck.

Thurs Jan 29

Can´t.

           Move.

                       My body.

Man I thought I was dead before. Exercising is fun and all-we´re all joking saying we´re on the LGN diet. Look Good naked. Ha. My comp´s pretty much like a professional trainer-so awesome. And she has a tattoo.

Today was a day full of miracles. Our lesson with Y (*Mary’s daughter) went well. Her little ones were running around all crazy and she seemed so distracted. We did the best we could to explain to her that this gospel is what God wants her to have. It will bring her happiness. She´s progressed so much from the first time I talked to her. Later when we visited with Mary, she told us Y had prayed and felt content after our visit. I really hope she listens to the spirit.

Eventually we saw C and the first thing she told us was, ¨I’m going to go to your church.¨ This my friends was a miracle. You have to understand that months ago I invited her to be baptized and she seemed so uninterested. But she said her 11 year old son, M, who usually always listens to our messages-really wants her to go. I´m so happy for her!

Funny story: middle of a lesson, I feel something prickling my leg. This isn´t super abnormal-after all I am in Costa Rica. But I thought I´d gotten rid of it. Nope. Moments later, I feel it at my thigh. I squished it, calmly stood up and out fell a giant flying thing. Gotta love it! This is my life.

Friday Jan 31   Today was a good day, but a slow day. I don´t know how my companion has so much energy especially because she never sleeps! I just walked around feeling around like such a zombie. We got a little off trail looking for a secret trail way in the jungle. As we were standing there, I suddenly felt one million stings all at once on my foot. So I looked down and saw my feet covered with ants just attacking me. So the funniest part of my day yesterday was receiving about 30 bites all at once. Oops. (It eventually swelled up and grew. I think I now have elephantitis. haha kidding. kind of.)

The Lord works in mysterious, perfect ways. Yesterday R called because she wanted to go and visit people. But those plans ¨Fell through.¨ I put those in quotes because looking back, it was all the Lord. R still told us to pass by so we could talk to her sister, V. Remember her? I’d been teaching with Hna. V, but she got scared and dumped us. Yesterday, the Lord let us talk to her again. I just want to do good. She intimidates me-I think because I don’t want her to fall away again. It was a great lesson. Our focus was about the role of the Holy Ghost and how we can receive answers to our prayers. John 14:26 says that the Holy Ghost is the Comforter and also God´s gift to us. I imagine us up in Heaven so happy about the opportunity to come to Earth. Where we could smell sunshine on the pavements. Listen to waves crash. See the sun setting over volcanoes. But then when He told us we wouldn’t be able to remember all of this-because we’d need to be tested-I bet we were a little scared, sad, nervous. (ps mom, yesterday I went to youth Sunday School with Valeria. We talked about the plan of salvation too. Who knew youth were SO AWESOME? They were asking such good questions like: why would God put Adam and Eve on the Earth just to fail? If God created Adam and Eve, why are there some people out there that think homosexuality is okay? I invite all of you to answer these questions for yourselves.) But He promised us that we would not need to navigate this adventure alone. One of these gifts to help get us through, was the Holy Ghost. My favorite part of this verse is that the role of the Holy Ghost is to “bring to our remembrance.” I want everyone to understand that. As missionaries, the only thing we can do is to invite them to remember. What we’re “preaching” is not new. We all heard this plan before. I think what I´m trying to say is: 1. I love being a missionary and 2.  I know the Holy Ghost is real. I know He is a member of the Godhead. I am so grateful for this gift from my Heavenly Father.

Later, C asked us about baptisms for the dead. Always slightly awkward for a first visit-but she was hungry for answers. I remember she asked us-is there proof of this in the bible? And I said yes-and started to look and look. I thought of the answer Paul gives us (I need to study that better.) I was kind of panicky when I heard in my head a voice that said-Hija. Just breathe. Tell her what you know. And I remembered-oh yeah. I do know this. That´s the great thing about this work-we´re not inventing anything. This is what Jesus taught. We´ve all heard about this before. And through the Holy Ghost, we can remember. So I just explained it and testified. Then she asked a couple other questions about our religion: we sanctify Sundays, not Saturdays, right? Joseph Smith was called to open up the last dispensation, that´s where the church gets its name, President Monson, etc. She was like; do you really think God talks to him? And I was able to look her square in the eye and say, I know He does. Even though I´ve never met him, I know he´s called of God to be His mouthpiece. I really hope her and her family can progress.

Anyways, it’s been an AMAZING week. We worked SO HARD!!!!!!!!! I have seen SO MANY MIRALCES! I love you all so much!

Love,

Megan

Hey Dad!

I bet that is a yes. I´ll die with a gringa companion. My Heavenly Father really does know me. I´m so so so so grateful!!!! Spiritually I feel like I´ve grown a lot. Once someone asked me if I could do it all over again, would I? That’s a loaded question. The mission is so hard. Hard because we have to pretty much strip ourselves down, even though we thought we were perfect, and then rebuild ourselves the way God wants us to be. I don´t think at the beginning I realized that was what was going on. And I don´t think I realized that God didn´t expect me to do it all by myself. I look back and realize that of course He´s been with me all along. I´ve learned a lot of church doctrine. I´m learning a lot about the responsibilities involved with church callings. I´m learning how to make the best out of a rotten situation. I´m learning to see everyone as Christ sees us.

Physically: I´m DYING! haha I am so SO sore. But more on that later. Just know I´m good and PURA VIDA as we say.

I love you pa. 

Love,

Meg