January 31, 2022 - Fecha bautismal!

Week 23 

" If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth," (Isaiah 58:13-14)

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy is so important! As we choose to honor this day or not, we will see that ALL aspects of our life are affected positively or negatively. How crazy is that? But it's the truth! It is so important to do things on Sunday that are apart from the world to really reflect on our love and devotion as well as have that time of spiritual refreshment. 

Now for the happenings of the week! This week I learned that God really is preparing people for us and we just need to do our part, which is to look for and invite people. Keyna has been our miracle this transfer. After all our looking, we found her. She is so ready. We had our second lesson with her this week and in the lesson we asked her what she knew about prophets and if she knew of any. Well, she went on to say that Joseph Smith was a prophet. What?! After asking more questions we learned that she has asked many times and received an answer that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Then and there we knew she was ready, and in our next lesson we put her on date for mid February! She is converted and it is so exciting! What is even more exciting is that when we asked her to pray she prayed for her family and that they could one day come to know the truth like her! 

Another crazy contact was when we messaged 3 people in Facebook messenger  with the same name. We can't look up people's profiles because we don't have Facebook but we had these names to contact through Facebook, so we thought, might as well give it a go. And we got a response! At first she thought we were people with fake profiles...fugitives looking for money haha but after she video called us to verify our identities, we cleared things up and shared a message with her. 

What's crazy is with the baptismal invitation of Keyna and Albert (a whole other story….We found him last week and knew he was ready to be baptized with our first call, but he wasn't in our area. The elders in the next area called and in their first call set a date. Then they learned he's not in their area either haha but Albert will still be baptized and that's what matters) I was thinking about what happens if I leave and can't see the baptism. But wow was I comforted and prepared by the spirit this week that what was coming was what needed to come and aren't I lucky to be able to say I was part of the process and got to see the miracles I saw. And now guess what, yesterday we got calls for transfers and I will be transferred. So sadly I won't be in the area for the baptism of Keyna, but she's great and will keep progressing with or without me. 

I will be leaving Tibás and going to Monte Limar. It actually borders Tibás and is still in the same zone. I will be in a trio for a week as one of my companions prepares to go to her original assignment in Peru. And then I will be a senior companion with another hermana from the United States who has a little more time than me in the mission, but only 1 transfer in Costa Rica. 

That's it for this week and just a tip, if people aren't answering your calls, here's our system that we've found works pretty well… 

One call for their salvation,

One call for yours,

And one call for mercy's sake. 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton 

Our fruit friend Keyla (different from Keyna haha) 

 Last Zone call 

So windy! 

 But the view was great! 

 We got some weird looks carrying this around, but we know that this donation was much appreciated by a person we are teaching and her family 

January 24, 2022 - cada vez

 Week 22

This week was packed with miracles and really my testimony grew a lot in many things but 2 specifically: following your good thoughts (promptings) and it's so important to obey our leaders! Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same! (Doctrine and Covenants 1:38) 

I want to share them all, so here's a quick summary of almost all of the many miracles of the week: 

- A change in plans led us to a member's house who needed the comfort of our presence. She cried because she knew God had sent us to her! 

- A change in a lesson at the last minute ended up being the answer to a member's prayer. 

- We had the wrong number for someone but met them in the street this week and got the right number and have had a few lessons with them already. 

- Coordinación misional with one member where we talked about Plan Moroni (a plan to work with members that is the revelation of our leaders) led to a list of investigators from the past year which led to 2 contacts, 2 new people, and 2 asistencias 

- Trying to inform other members about Plan Moroni led to a member finding a list of all the members in our ward!... finally after more than 4 months! 

- People stopping us in the street to ask us questions! We can't contact in the streets right now so really it was all them we didn't do anything… but I mean we can't just not talk to people who talk to us haha 

- Albert! who after one lesson on prayer and scripture study is ready for baptism... we could both just feel it! Sadly, but happily, he was a contact in uber and lives in the other Tibas area so they will be the lucky ones who get to extend the invitation.  

- I am almost Tica! We went to the offices this past week to work on my DMEX (greencard). Oh and I had a great conversation with our DiDi who complimented my Spanish… a miracle!

And finally the biggest miracle of all is that this past week we were studying in preach my gospel as a mission and this week we were studying some of the lessons. I loved studying lesson 2, the plan of salvation! 2 things I loved: 

1. "Our purpose in life is to find lasting peace, joy, and happiness as families and to prepare to live with God." 

2. The word EXALTATION! 

I know that God does have a plan for us! It is a perfect plan! And the best way to learn it is to study it (especially in the Book of Mormon:)) and live it! 

Oh and as for my title, I don't know what happened but cada vez we have a reunion(meeting) with the mission I get called on to do something- the prayer, share an experience, read something… it started a few weeks ago and we think it's my comp… whoever is her companion gets called on A LOT! it's definitely starting to be a thing I prepare for before each reunion haha

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton

Albert is ready but he's not in our area 😢

1 year for my comp!! 

 🐇

Dolls from Coco 

a Mexican restaurant to celebrate 1 year! 

Cinnamon rolls from the hermana leaders to celebrate too! 

Celebration of my 5 months 

January 17, 2022 - Alma 19:8 one of our faves this week

 Week 21 

This week our miracles came in the form of contacts with less active members. As we were teaching a recent convert outside of their house Saturday, their neighbor came out and they listened to the end of our lesson. Turns out, this person is a less active member who we've been trying to contact but they don't answer our messages. He said he would love to have us over for weekly messages! Miracle! We also asked the recent converts where a less active member lives and when we went to visit them they were home and we taught a lesson there too! 

This week we had a zone conference along with a few changes with the COVID spike here in Costa Rica. Nothing too bad, but now we can't contact in the streets and we don't get references from media, so we're going to have to get creative with finding new people. We can still have lessons in person though as long as we keep our masks on so that's a blessing! We also have sacrament meeting in person and the second hour on zoom. These precautions are in place until the end of January, so we are praying that this is the pura palabra and that we'll be able to meet again in February. 

Our favorite fruit friends are doing great and progressing. We finished teaching them the restoration this week and invited them to read the Book of Mormon. After our invitation, one of them asked a question that is probably my favorite question so far… ¿Qué tanto va a cambiar mi fe? Our response was along the lines of how much do you want this book to change your faith? We discussed that this book will only help their faith grow as long as that's what they desired. Then they said they would read it! 

I loved this question and know that it's a question we all should ask and answer for ourselves. How much effect do we want the Book of Mormon to have on our lives? 

Cuídense mucho!

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

A gift from our fruit friends 

The bus - our best friend 

A very securely wrapped cake

A Chinese restaurant that's a lot like Panda Express

January 10, 2022 - Being on a mission is sick @Elder Warburton

 Week 20

Ye must watch and pray always and whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. (3 Nephi 18:18-20) 

We have been teaching a lot about prayer this past week and I have been thinking about how often I pray for things such as gozo, salud, and paz without really thinking about what I'm asking. They are things everyone wants and needs so we pray for them in almost every prayer. This week I learned how hard it is to not be at your best, and so as I continue to pray for these things I will definitely be thinking more about why we need them in our lives and what I'm really asking for and I hope all of you can as well! 

This week we had two awesome lessons with the owners of a place where we buy our fruits and vegetables. We had the first lesson with them this week during a lunch in their business that they invited us too. Like many conversations we have with people, they started talking about wine or coffee… some type of drink we don't drink. We then proceeded to tell them that we don't drink those kinds of things and then taught them the word of wisdom. This was our second lesson, after a Christmas lesson with them, and they said that they were going to try and keep the word of Wisdom! Our second lesson went just as they were very receptive to the first part of the restoration. They are so interested in learning more! 

We learned this week that we make plans for the day, and it's a good thing that our plans can change because the Lord definitely has other plans for us. On Saturday we messaged a less active member and learned that it was her daughter's birthday that day. So we made some room in our schedule to go sing happy birthday! Now as we were saying a prayer for the family before we left, my stomach started to feel a little funny… funny as in throw up funny. Luckily, I did not throw up there. But as we walked I told my comp how I was feeling and she was like oh I have something that will help. So we stopped at the park and after putting this pill thing in my water and drinking it, I proceeded to throw up. I felt a lot better. And it turned out to be a blessing because our appointment for that hour actually had troubles with his phone so when we called him later Saturday day night after our English class we actually had time to talk to him. 

Now for Sunday: We were fine, just a little tired. We walked for half an hour to get to a lesson only to have it cancel on us. But really Heavenly Father was watching out for one of the members in our ward. We went to visit her instead of this lesson which was an answer to her prayers! . As the end of the day approached and we were eating dinner both my comp and I ate our first taco but as I ate about half of the second one once again I needed to run to the bathroom and throw up. We were blessed to receive priesthood blessings of health, peace, and hope. And we're hoping that today with our day of preparation we will be prepared for the coming week! 

Wishing you all a healthy and happy week! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

Mission Conference

The tacos... 

 We only have one table where we eat and study 

Wishes were made during our street contacting 

Need we say more... 

January 3, 2022 - Corriendo con todo mi corazón

Week 19

Happy New Year! 

This past week we could definitely tell it was holiday season as there were fewer and fewer people on the streets to talk to. By New Year's Day it was like the whole city of Tibas was a ghost town. It was so hard to contact, but we continued to try and any effort in missionary work is never a waste! 

This week bright and early Wednesday morning as we were leaving to walk to an appointment about 30 minutes away we got a call from them that they needed to go to work soon. So we literally booked it to their house in 10 minutes and finally shared our first lesson with them. Then we were blessed the rest of the day with more lessons and walking. It was a very tiring day but I'm so happy we got to share a little bit of God's love with so many. 

On December 31 we also had a crazy day but for different reasons. Most people are either in Guanacaste or Limon right now at the beach. So today we planned a service and contacting at the park. Well on our way there we passed this book group of people on the street, it turns out there was a car crash with an uber eats. It was so sad because really we couldn't do much, but as we tried to comfort some of the family the spirit testifying of God's love for his children was so strong. We don't really know what happened to the man in the accident, but he was taken to the hospital and we are keeping him in our prayers! 

Then the day continued as we went to clean the park and then carol to different groups of people. We had some great contacts and even had people recording us singing. Who knows maybe we'll get famous from our caroling in the park. We had 2 parties on New Year's Eve. The first was with the other hermanas in our zone where we set goals, and the second with a family in the ward where we watched some bull riding. We went to bed at 10:30pm and then woke up at 12am to say happy new years and then go back to bed haha 

Sé que somos hijos de Dios. Moisés le preguntó a Dios sobre la creación y me encanta la razón de la creación que recibió! "¿Por qué son estas cosas así, por qué medio las hiciste?" Y Dios respondió "porque, he aquí, esta es mi obra y mi gloria: llevar a cabo la inmoralidad y la vida eterna del hombre." Los mundos sin fin son para nosotros los hijos de nuestro Padre Celestial. No puedo comprender la infinidad del amor de Dios para sus hijos! Él creó animales, plantas, todo para que podamos tener gozo y volver a vivir con Él! Sé que Dios es el padre perfecto! Y siempre nos amará! 

Feliz Año Nuevo! Y espero que puedan pensar y encontrar una respuesta a esta pregunta: 

¿Cuál será su meta para acercarse a Dios este año? 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

New Year's Eve photos shoot 

Service in the park 

New Year's Eve dinner 

Love Christmas lessons with members! 

Gallo pinto... literally my favorite meal here 

December 27, 2021 - montañas de milagros

 Week 17

"A sign at the time of his coming; for behold  there shall be great lights in heaven. And behold, a new star shall arise.

But behold, as I said unto you concerning another sign, a sign of his death, the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his light unto you; And there shall be no light upon  the face of this land" (Helaman 14: 3,5,20) 

I love that literally Christ is the light of our lives. With Him in our lives we have hope and light and everlasting life. And each child of God is lucky enough to be gifted with this light of Christ from birth! 

This week we had so many tiny Christmas miracles! And they were all so good I'll try to share as many as I can! 

My companion has a phobia of all animals except dogs. This week we went to a lesson and there were so many cats running around. I was so impressed by the strength of my comp as she sat in the room with all those cats and taught a whole lesson. Miracle! 

On Wednesday we tried going to a recent converts house, but she wasn't answering our messages when we got there. Well we didn't let that stop us. We ended up teaching her neighbor and some of her neighbors grandchildren who were sitting outside when we got there. 

Thursday was a day of so many miracles and it all started with a message from our district leader. After having looked at our full schedule our zone leader sent us a message asking how many new people we were going to find today. (New as in a lesson and an appointment for a future day). Well, we jokingly said 5 and then our DL asked us if we were serious and after looking each other in the eye, my comp and I said yes. So we had a crazy day with 2 member lessons that both went for like 2 hours because members love to talk! Then we delivered cookies to less active members and saw so many because when you say you have a gift and only a Christmas gift for them everyone will welcome you into their houses. We also had a mission devotional at the end of the day. But guess what, even with all of these activities of the day we still found 5 new people! So now our DL is going to buy us dinner! 

Now for how we celebrated Christmas here in Costa Rica this year! I actually had so much fun! Our neighbor, who isn't a member, asked us if we wanted our hair straightened on the 24th. Of course we said yes and had a gospel discussion as she did it. Then we went to the offices where 3 zones came together for an awesome Christmas party with food, games, gifts, and a devotional. The party was just one of 4 Christmas Eve dinners we had. But with enough Tupperware for each dinner we survived. We did a service with other missionaries during Christmas so that we would have something to do that day, and that was fun as well! 

I've now had one Christmas in the mission and only have one to go! Crazy! But this past week I have really loved seeing all the people God puts in our paths as we are putting in all we can and having the faith that He will make up the other part! 

¡Feliz Navidad! ¡Próspero año y felicidad! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

Service

 B bean bop for Christmas Eve dinner (I have no idea if this is how you spell it, but it was delicious)

Gifts from the Christmas party 

Dessert at the party 

My comp and I on Christmas Eve 

Our beautiful Christmas Eve day

. A sweet Christmas gift from the granddaughter of a person we are teaching