Things are good here in San Carlos, Costa Rica. This week we found quite a few less active or inactive members that we we didn´t know where they lived. We have a new district leader here in San Carlos...he is as tall as or taller than Jonba...haha. So we get a lot of looks whenever we are with the Elders here in San Carlos. Yesterday Carmen came to church! Carmen and Jorge have a baptismal date for June 15th (it´s so far away because we have to help them to get married...they have the ring and everything, just need plans). She loved it! Felt the Spirit super strong...it was fast and testimony meeting so she heard lots of testimonies. Anyway, after church, and after Ward Council Meeting, we took the bus to go eat lunch with the Gonzalez family and Bryon, a recent convert of the Elders. Later we went to visit people who live close to Carmen and Jorge, and we taught them the steps of repentance. As we were teaching, a woman entered and exited carrying items from her house. When we finished the lesson, I asked her if she was moving from her house. She said yes, and I told her we were going to help her. And we did. for about 2 hours we helped move clothes, beds, books, shelves, tv, bags, boxes, you name it. She was moving to an apartment about a block away, so we were like ants, moving stuff from one apartment to the other. Carmen and Jorge helped us too :) And then a neighbor boy (about 19 years old) jumped in to help carry the refrigerator, oven, and washing machine with Jorge. The best sabbath days are the ones filled with service. Anyway, Tuesday we will be teaching Lorena (the woman moving her house), Bryon (the neighbor boy) and his sister Diana :)
I felt so hopelessly defeated Saturday and sunday. We have been teaching and visiting Rosa and her family for almost a month now. Only Melanie and Juan Carlos (10 years old and 6 years old) have come to church....Rosa, Fransisco, Helen, and Noelia have not come. We have brought the Primary President, as well as her counselor, our ward mission leader, and a recent convert, and taught them the Plan of Salvation and Dispensations and Apostasy. Saturday night we went with the Elders (they wanted to help us commit them to come to church). we had already commited them to coming, and they had already said they would come. We taught them about Joseph Smith ending the Apostasy. We told them that to know if all that we are teaching is true, they had to come and see for themselves. And then Rosa told us that she is Catholic and wants to go to Mass....until she is sure about changing religions.....NOOOO!!!!! We explained and testified that she could only recieve an answer from the Lord if she puts forth her part in the investigation of the truth....then we invited her to pray to know if her and her family should come with us for at least 1 hour, and if they felt bad they never had to come again. She prayed. We told her we would call at night to see what she had decided. At 9:30pm we called. They said they would all come, for just one hour. Halelujah! Then morning comes. Message from Rosa: We are going to go to Mass. Respect our religion as we respect yours. umph. what a heart dropper. We love this family. So. much. we have testified and taught, laughed and cried. But Rosa just cannot get over the idea that she is playing games with God by coming to a different church....I just didn´t understand. I still don´t fully comprehend why it is so dang hard to help people to understand and to come to the truth. To let go of the false traditions and to open up their lives to the blessings of the restored gospel and all of it´s promises. It just makes me all the more grateful for having been blessed with the restored gospel for all of my life. I know who I am. I know God´s plan. I follow Him in faith. I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ. I will honor His name. I know that my family can be eternal thanks to the power and authority of the Priesthood that God restored to the earth again. And I don´t care if nobody ever believed on my words, or converted thanks to my visits. I cannot deny what I know to be true, even when it seems that sometimes the worlds is so blind, so hard hearted, or so numb to the spirit. I have felt the truth, and the truth has set me free. Like I said, we love this family. We will not give up on them. I know that one day soon they will enter the waters of baptism to start their journey towards being an eternal family. But I sure would like to know how to be able to get them to come to church. That would be a great start. ha.
The other day I was talking to Hermana Vasquez (my latest companion before Hermana Flores) and she asked me if I had known what a mission entailed and all the heart aches, the pains, the difficulties....if I would have still chosen to serve a mission. I told her that I would have probably studied Preach my Gospel more first, that I would definitely still have served a mission. It is hard. But I know I have changed. a lot. I hope. haha. I sometimes think about how I was just before the mission, as well as the few years before....I am not the same. Not at all. My mission has changed me, and continues changing me. Not saying that missions change us involununtarally, (that is not how you spell that....but there is no spell check here....haha), we have to allow it to change us. Sometimes my stubbornness prevents me from changing more.Well family. I love you so so so so so so so so so much. I always am testifying about yall. Literally. Haha. About eternal families. That is truly why I am here. I know that Jesus Christ lives. And he died so that we could live again. in families.
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Flake
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