Hola Familia!!!
Thanks for sending photos of all the halloween happenings! Sweet costumes! en serio :) Good to know that everyone is doing good and enjoying this time of the year. I miss seeing leaves changing color and all the things that come with autumn and halloween :) I never realized how much I love the change of the seasons. Here the only change in season is the beginning of the day is hot and it always ends cold and rainy (but not freezing cold). Haha, I have heard so many people here say that their greatest wish is to see snow....The grass is always greener....
Things are good here in Coronado, Costa Rica! Recently we planned an activity that will be the 29th of November...we´re going to have an open house in the church! We will have ward missionaries and less active members teaching a small part of the Book of Mormon in different rooms of the church, as well as a member teaching about family history and the activities and programs of the church, as well as the opportunity to watch mormon messages. Then at the conclusion of the activity, we will have Humberto´s baptism. Humberto has been a great example to his family of truly changing. He used to do drugs and smoke and drink and hang out with the wrong kinds of friends in the street. But since meeting Veronica, he has changed completely, and will soon make this sacred covenant with God through baptism. Woo hoo!!! He just has a bit of a problem letting go of coffee....but we´re working on that...adictions are real and terrible....ergh...haha.
Speaking of addictions...Betty is another investigator that we have and we are trying to help her to give up coffee as well as cigarettes....We send her a message every morning at 11am with a scripture or something to help her resist the temptation....But it´s rough.
The other night we shared a quick family home evening with an adorable family in the ward. Familia Martinez have 3 adorable kids, 7, 3, and 1 years old. They are adorbale!!! They are from Guatemala and shared some Guatemalan food with us, for which my companion was estatic...(she´s from guatemala).
I am so grateful for how addresses are done in the states....here is crazy with directions....The streets don´t always have names, and if they do, good luck knowing because rarely are there signs saying what they´re called, and numbers of houses is another story.....they don´t existen, except for some houses have numbers and in no particular pattern or order...haha. In that sense, finding less active or inactive members is super hard because we usually only have their name and the general area in which we can find them....or not find them...haha. Welcome to Costa Rica.... ;) So, sometimes we go in search of inactive members and don´t find anyone, but we knock on doors and sometimes are let in. :) Yesterday we were in that type of situation. It was raining (shocker) and I had left my umbrella in an investigators´s house, so we were sharing my comp´s, laughing because of how ridiculous we look running down people in the street trying to share the gospel...when we decided to knock on a door. First door, the woman said ¨no gracias pero soy catolica¨. The second one finally let us in her house because of how pathetic we looked in the rain and wind practically begging her to just give us 5 minutes....haha. We ended up sharing a nice lesson and she brought us agua dulce and oreos. Then she said that she wanted to pray for us before we left....and she took our hands and began to pray asking God to bless these two angels that came to talk and share a prayer with her...haha. We weren´t complaining, haha. Hopefully she will let us share more of the message of the restoration with her next time.
I just wanna quote my good cousin, Crystal Snow Flake, oops, I mean, Sister Flake....¨I know when i get home i am gonna be the best doggone member missionary out there haha that is my goal!! We need member help SO BAD. we aint nothin without the members!! feed the missionaries this week! invite them in and find someone they can talk too!! reach out!! be brave y'all are already such awesome missionaries- keep it up!! we need y'all.¨ Amen.
For real, members are the only real way to do missionary work. We come and teach, but we need the members to invite their friends to listen to us, or accompany us with those investigators that we´ve found and have been teaching, but who don´t come to church because they don´t know anyone, or probably think they will feel out of place. Members change all of that. I don´t know if I already told y`all or not, but Rafaela is an investigator that we have that came to the baptism of the son of Hermana Karen. Without Karen´s help, Rafaela would have never had a desire to come to church or to see a baptism. But having a son the same age as Ethan, who was baptized, made all the difference.
I was studying today about lesson 1, the restoration, because we have an investigator who believes in prophets, but doesn´t believe that everything they say is true. He doesn´t believe that coffee is bad for us and that sometimes prophets make mistakes or only speak from their own knowledge....but I know that is not true. A prophet is a guide. A guide is worthless if we don´t know when we can follow them or when we shouldn´t listen to their counsel. A guide must be trusted and always show the right way. I love the following quote from Joseph Fielding Smith....
Ït was never the intention of our Father in heaven to leave men to grope and feel their way in darkness and that without any light to guide them,and expect them under such conditions to find their way back into hiskingdom and into his holy presence. That is not the way of the Lord. Alldown the ages from the beginning our Father in heaven has shown hiskindness for his children and has been willing to give them direction.From the earliest times the heavens have been opened, the Lord has sentmessengers from his presence to divinely appointed servants, menholding the authority of the priesthood who have been commissioned toteach the principles of the Gospel, to warn the people and teach themrighteousness; and these men have received this knowledge, thisinspiration and guidance from these messengers from the presence ofGod. This is true of our own dispensation. There is no need for men to shut their eyes and feel that there is no light only as they may depend upon their reason, for the Lord has always been willing to lead and direct and show the way. He has sent, as I say, messengers from his presence.He has sent revelation. He has commanded that his word be written, thatit be published, so that all the people might know it.
I say to you, and to the whole Church, and, for that matter, to the whole world, that a gracious and loving Father has in these last days spoken again from heaven to his servants the prophets.
His voice has been one inviting all men to come to his Beloved Son, to learn of him, to partake of his goodness, to take his yoke upon them, andto work out their salvation by obedience to the laws of his gospel. His voice has been one of glory and honor, of peace in this life, and of eternal life in the world to come.¨
I know that we are led and guided by a true and living prophet. I am so thankful for the knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope that we always look for opportunities to share our testimony with others, especially those we care about greatly. Love yall and sorry for not sending pictures.....I forgot to bring the adapter for my camera....Sorry that my emails are always boring....haha ç
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Flake
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