Hola familia!

Another week flew by... It´s so true when they say that, in the mission, days are long and weeks are short. 

Thursday was a successful day--of course it wasn´t perfect and it wasn´t easy, but it was productive and I was dead tired at the end of the day. after the usual morning routine (exercize for 30 minutes, shower, breakfast, personal study, companionship study, planning, lunch) we did divisions/splits, with Hna. Morales with Stefanie (young member), Hna. Escobedo with Ma (our "mother" who cooks and does our laundry for us), and me with two young members (Goudy and Fabianna). For me, it was super hard because they don´t quite have the experience and confidence of a missionary, so I had to talk alot, which is so hard because my spanish is bad and I´m not always sure what people are saying--but it was good because I had to get over myself and talk.

Saturday was Costa Rica playing in the Copa Mundial, so people here treated it like the Super Bowl-everyone was watching the game. So our mission president changed our hours for that day, we proselyted from 9am-12pm, studied from 1-4pm, and then went out to proselyte again from 4-9pm (the game was at 1pm). COSTA RICA WON by the way...haha People went beserk and cars were honking at everyone :)

This sunday, we went on splits at 7:30 am, Hermana Morales went to the Ward Council Meeting while Hermana Escobedo and I went to try and bring our investigators with us to church. We tried a couple doors but no one was home, but then we went to the house of a family of brand new investigators (we haven´t even taught them a real lesson yet) and asked them if they would come with us for an hour or two of our church meetings. and they said yes! so we waited for them to all shower and get ready...which took a while...and unfortunately we were 40 minutes late. However, they caught the end of sacrament meeting and then stayed for the second hour of our meetings. They are adorable, and I look forward to teaching them the gospel and baptizing them. They are Catholic, and very good people. Juan Antonio (the dad) accepted a baptismal date the first time we met with him...so it´s looking up. I wish our ward would have greeted them a bit more..you know, to fellowship and make them feel really welcome, but with time and as we continue to work with the members to encourage them to also do missionary work, I know the ward will become better at that. I´m still trying to grasp the language...it´s mostly just hard to understand when people talk extremely fast, or when there are distractions, noises, etc (like rain pounding on the tin roof, or music in the background, or lots of people talking at once), that sort of thing. Well, I love my companions and the elders we work with in our area, and the ward members who often help us with splits and everything. I pray to see a miracle happen with this family, and to be obedient and worthy to witness such a miracle.

Love yáll! tell jessica to send me an email! I´d love to see pictures as well! until next week! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Sarah Flake