November 29, 2021 -rendezvous is such a weird word

 Week 14

Service helps us become more like the Savior! 

On Thanksgiving I chose to express my gratitude through only saying prayers of thanks for the whole day. Wow! It was such a great experience. Throughout that day as well as the next I found it so easy to serve. As we are thankful for the things around us, we realize all we have that God has given us and we want to give what we have to others. And really with this charity it is so easy to give. 

We did have Thanksgiving here! We met together as a zone and had chicken, potatoes, sparkling cider, patacones chips, beans, rolls, pumpkin pie, and whipped cream. I even made sure the table was set with all the food like back home. They were thinking of doing it buffet style, but I said, no we´re setting the table and having a nice sit down dinner. I felt like my mom and grandma during thanksgiving dinner too - running around getting everyone food or whatever they need. Thanksgiving was the first of many days of service.

To end Thanksgiving day the other hermanas showed up on our doorstep at 10:30pm. They lost their phone. They left their phone in the uber. This made Friday so crazy. We basically had to organize a rendezvous with the guy who had the hermana´s phone (who by the way hacked it so he could get into their phone and call us) and our district leaders (because we were told that the hermanas couldn´t go themselves to get their phone.) In the midst of organizing this, we also had promised a neighbor we would clean their microbus. And my comp and I were receiving a lot of calls about the Christmas mission project we are working on. It was such a full day, but so rewarding as it was filled with service. 

Saturday we had our first English class and it was so much fun. Many people told us they really enjoyed it, especially the speaking in English section. We had interested people, members, and less active members there. It was so exciting!

Sunday was a great day because we had one of the people we are teaching come to church! This past week she has had a lot of trials in her life so we loved that she could come to church. Prayers for her would be much appreciated! Sunday was also the first day where everything was in person for church so there were so many people there. It was so exciting to talk to all the members in person. We also helped the other hermanas in our area again today and at the end of the day they called us their saviors of the week haha :)

Our schedule was really in the Lord's hands as we were running around helping the other hermanas, and somehow we still got our own things done. So many days were filled with service and running around trying to help as many people as we could and really those days were the best. It is so important to remember all that God has given us. “The Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him” (Helaman 12:1). This is what happened this week. My comp and I were blessed and we were able to bless others' lives as well.

 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton 

Plate of food

Pumpkin pie

angles of our feast

angles of our feast

Cute wall

English Class

the microbus we cleaned leaving because it had to go pick up kids

Tibas Squad

November 22, 2021 - Cajita feliz

 Week 13

"Strong, mighty, perfect understanding, a soul that did joy in the liberty and the freedom, heart did swell with Thanksgiving to God, and did labor exceeding for the safety and welfare of people." God has a plan for each one of us, I have been teaching this plan a lot haha but sometimes I forget that there is another person who knows this plan even better than me, Satan! Wow! That is why I liked these attributes of Captain Moroni in Alma 48. In this chapter, it talks about if all people were like unto Moroni, the devil would never have power over the hearts of men. Wow! I've got to start working on these attributes more! 

Now for the events of my week, we had many firsts:

We had our first uber driver that was deaf. Crazy that neither Spanish nor English helped us out here. 

My first baptism date to be canceled. But that's okay. When you can feel that a person just doesn't feel 100% ready, it's sad to have to change the date, but so great that we can help them build their testimony just a little more because it is such a big change. 

I asked the guy at McDonald's if I could have a happy meal (cajita feliz, which is not a direct translation!) And he said with so much excitement "por supuesto!" Whoo! So I got my happy meal and a cool toy from eternal that I will watch in 15 months to understand who my toy is haha 

I had a great exchange this week, spoke lots of Spanish, helped my comp organize some big mission Christmas plans, and finally our last miracle: 

One of the newest people we are teaching came to church! She connected with so many members which was great because there are only so many to connect with. Later we had a lesson with her, and her lessons are always a little difficult because she doesn't talk. Well after teaching the third lesson, we tried to gage where she was at and all that she said was that she wanted to learn more. Well later that night we had another miracle when she messaged us saying, it's hard for me to ask questions, but I have some for you!! Yes! We could finally really see where she was at and how we could help her personally. We're thankful that the spirit was really working on her! 

I hope everyone's hearts swell with Thanksgiving this week! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton

 

Cajita feliz 

Banana split.. so good!

Pretty art 

Johney Rockets is everywhere

 

New zone members 

Delicious meals from members 

November 15, 2021 - Chocolate Pudding

 Week 12

Yesterday we had the primary program, and wow even half virtual it was still so powerful. Two primary children gave talks and they are part of a family we have dinner with each week. As they shared their love and excitement for the gospel, I felt like a proud sister! They did such a great job. A primary program brings such a great spirit to the meeting. As we listened to the song  A Child 's Prayer these words stuck out to me: "Creo que el cielo muy cerca está, pues lo siento cuando empiezo a orar." How cool is it that just for a moment in prayer we get to talk with our Heavenly Father and feel his love so close to us! It definitely reminded me of how special a prayer is! 

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! On pday last week, many birthday miracles took place! First, I found chocolate pudding. Would you believe they didn't have any at Walmart? Well they didn't! And we needed it to make my annual cake! So we decided to try one more store but it was more of a local grocery store, so we weren't really thinking we would find anything. After we walked down most of isles, I thought we should go back to one that we skipped… and on the bottom shelf very corner of that isle was my pudding!! Haha a little crazy, but it just shows that God does really care about us! He helped me find chocolate pudding! We also found a cute little Christmas tree for about $1.50! Another miracle! My zone also surprised me with a little party. It was so sweet and I love how close our zone is! My day came to an end as I stepped in our neighbor's dog poop, but even after that it was still a great day! 

We finally met with one of our investigators to give her a Book of Mormon. She was really quiet during our conversation so we weren't sure how she felt. Afterwards, she sent us a sweet message thanking us for the Book of Mormon! We were shook and we're so excited for her! 

We also have someone on date for baptism! She has such a strong testimony and is always praying to be the best member she can be! We're so excited for her! And are praying it will all work out! 

Have a great week everyone! And like a member shared with us yesterday, esta bien no estar bien. Wow! It's okay to have those bad days just remember to keep trying because God knows your heart better than anyone else! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

We love the other hermanas in our area 

Our church 

Amando Sobore restaurant (look them up on Facebook we may be on there... idk because we don't have Facebook🤷‍♀️)

20

My cake

 Our usual pday meal

The pudding 

November 8, 2021 - that's Christmas to me

 Happy happy Monday!

In our district/zone council this week we were doing a practice lesson and I was the investigator. In the lesson, one of the Elders asked me if I would like to give my mom a hug right now who's in the United States. And I was like ya, but I can't… and then he was like how much would you love to hug God right now?... and in my head I thought well I can't right now. But just like with mom, there will come a time when we will be able to hug God again! And won't that just be so awesome! He'll just have to wait a little longer than my mom!

This week we spent a lot of time cleaning out our area book. This means that we made a lot of phone calls asking where people live. We talked to some people that seem so ready for the gospel! So it's sad when we have to send them away, but we're so happy for the missionaries in the area we are sending them too. This also means that we call some pretty weird people, but at least we now know who is not quite ready to hear our message. But our little miracle was at the end of the week we got a reference that has a baptismal date! So wahoo! 

Saturday was such a good day because we had a multi mission conference with Elder Gong! It was amazing! Just a few thoughts from that:

-As we spread the gospel we are fulfilling prophecy! (Joseph Smith history 1:33) If we don't bring the gospel to people who will? 

-We are called to our areas for many reasons, and all are part of God's love for us! 

-"Will you come to church with us on Sunday?" A commitment in all lessons and it is so important. Sadly, it's one of the hardest to do here.

Saturday was also a special day because a lot of our zone was invited to a recent converts house (recent as in that day) for dinner and to help set up a Christmas tree. It was so much fun and as we all were singing "That's Christmas to me," we were all almost in tears the spirit was so strong. 

My comp and I have survived our first transfer and we're both excited to see where This next transfer takes us! Also, thank you for all the sweet birthday wishes! I'm so excited read them all today! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

Christmas party

Christmas tree

Apparently it's bad luck to see a rainbow here

These jumping pictures took way to long 

A cool wall by our house 

A realllllly good panini  

Reallly good churos

Cool car and they probably don't even know it😎

November 1, 2021 - I recommend the double packaged kind

 Week 11

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend filled with delicious candy! 

This week in the Book of Mormon I loved how in Mosiah the Lord is helping his people, even in times of war. "I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." The Lord strengthens us and helps lift our burdens. I love to think of it as in all the moments of our life, God has been right there beside us. It's not that he allows bad things to happen, but rather he promises to be right there with us when they do! 

Last Monday on pday we went to a river that was literally in the middle of the road. Instead of going under the road, this river was the road that you had to drive over. We watched as car after car would drive through the river to the road that continued on the other side. It was a beautiful hike and we got ice cream at a pulpería at the top! 

An update from last week: Turns out that our miracle investigator that was interested in the Book of Mormon, is a baptized member. Haha we found that out in our lesson, so now we're going to try to reactivate her! Also in her lesson this week, I felt so comfortable speaking Spanish and I was able to express multiple personal experiences basically all in Spanish. 

We had another lesson with recent converts who are all teenagers. To make it interesting we made the lesson into a scripture chase. It was not only a lesson of gospel principles but also how to use the index and find books, chapters, and verses in the scriptures. A very important skill I'm glad we taught them. 

Friday was our ward Halloween party! It's a little disappointing when not all the people you invite come, but we had quite a few people show up and it was a lot of fun in the end. And the best was when messages from interested people were sent to us following the activity about how if we support Halloween we are worshiping the devil. Haha who knew? So I wrote this message to these people explaining that in our culture in the United States its just a day to dress up and eat candy. We don't worship the devil. And then we clarified that on Sunday we worship God, our Heavenly Father and Christ only them. It was quite a fun experience to explain our beliefs in this specific thing and they said they understood that we don't worship the devil 😅

Now for a few funny parts of the week: 

There was a short 2 hours this week when we thought we were locked out of our house. We couldn't unlock the front gate! Luckily, when we returned home for the night the owner was there and helped us fix our problem. But in those 2 hours we already had a plan of asking our zone to pray for us, then calling the zone leaders to basically get the okay to climb over the gate to our front door. We're thankful we didn't have to use our plan. 

Here in Costa Rica there are these gross little bugs that crawl over everything. Luckily it's normally just one or two at a time. Yesterday, I found soo many of them all over the mini reeses I have! It was sooo gross! I realized that while reeses are wrapped, they're not really sealed so those bugs were totally getting to my reeses! Sadly, I had to throw them away. It was our little Halloween scare and I learned a valuable lesson: buy double packaged candy! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

Some delicious food Hermana Gonzales made us!

 

 Papa John's

Our costumes for the party!

Crepes on my one month here mark!

The usually question is how long have you been in Costa Rica, so I have to know the answer... 

Our river hike on pday! 

Halloween package from the fam :)