September 26, 2022 - La capillaaa!

 Week 58

We had a baptism this week whooo! I love teaching these little kids who love the church so much! As he leaves church meetings he wishes it was Sunday again. And his favorite commandment is the 4th, la capillaaa!! We had a few problems with trying to organize the confirmation and stake conference but it all worked out! He loves coming to church which helps his mom come. He may have been scared to get into the water, then after three prayers he was fully submerged, but in the end he didn't want to leave the font and was saying “Estoy feliz por mi bautismo!”

Exchanges on Tuesday also went great! I went to tres Rios 2 and It was fun to be able to see how their area is growing. We had such a great lesson with a member and at the end of the day we had put 3 people on date. We really can't decide if people are ready or not. We invite with the spirit and people have the opportunity to accept our message!

We are preparing another little girl for baptism and had a great lesson with her this past week. We asked her about how she felt about being baptized and she said all that she lacked was a date! Haha so we asked her to pray about a date with her parents. She has been a great example, helping her whole family come back to church.

We also had 4 people come to church! And many members because it was a ward conference. The most we have had since I have been here! Hna Jenkins, a sister here in the other companionship, and I also did a special musical number before the meeting started to invite the spirit. It went really well and really invited the spirit to a very strong meeting in which all shared their testimonies from the heart. The primary kids also sang follow the prophet and sang almost all the verses so that was very entertaining but also brought a very sweet spirit. 

Sunday night we got at 10:15pm from the asistents and we thought they were calling to congratulate us on our baptism like the last time. But it turns out they were kicking us out of our area. There are a few boundary issues here between what stakes have and what the church has. So for this coming week we may not have an area and all our people may be passed to another area and hypothetically half of our ward…we'll see what happens I guess. 

3 Nephi 18:32 “Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.”

I love how inspiring this scripture is. No matter our calling in the church, we are all called to minister, and all called to invite. And we know not, but maybe they will repent and come unto Christ. So we can never get discouraged. As we keep inviting members, less active members, and non members we just might help someone be healed through Christ. 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton 

Our baptism! He's 9! 

Exchanges with Hermana Jenkins

 One of our cute friends did our nails 

 Visiting members 

Finishing our lessons before the baptism 

Playing at the park 

 

September 19, 2022 - Let freedom ring here in Costa Rica

 Week 57 

There is such a cute little girl here we are helping get ready for baptism and she is helping her parents reactivate. She is 9 and what was so cute was that in our lesson she thought that we literally had to follow the example of Jesus Christ in everything, including His death. It was so sweet because she wanted to follow Christ so badly. I am thankful that what He asks is that we LIVE like Him. 

This past week I was also sharing my testimony about prayer with someone who has a hard time praying and shared my own experience about how at 19 years old I was scared to pray… in spanish. What I felt so strongly was that the spirit testified to my heart that I had shared what I needed to share. Then later in the week, we shared the restoration in 5 minutes multiple times this week and as we shared we could feel the spirit there. I thought about how that is our purpose as missionaries. We can't control whether people choose to accept or reject the message we share, but we should always teach with the spirit. 

Other fun activities this week were that we had 1 and half pdays! Monday we had a half day and the purpose was to do a deep cleaning of the apartment. It wasn't too bad because we clean weekly so we passed our test with the senior missionaries with flying colors! Then on Tuesday we had a great zone conference. As we spoke about the importance of the restoration and teaching that message with the spirit, the spirit was very strong helping confirm to each of us that He really is the teacher! 

Then another fun activity was that on Thursday we celebrated 201 years of independence here in Costa Rica! It was a lot of fun and like the United States, there are parades to celebrate. They are a little different with only students in elementary school to high school participating and they are a little slower, but if you walk against the parade you get to see it all! And it was lots of fun!   

"Our Heavenly Father has a full knowledge of the nature and disposition of each of His children, a knowledge gained by observation. His foreknowledge is based on intelligence and reason. He foresees the future as a state which naturally and surely will be; not as one which must be."

I loved studying this about our Heavenly Father this past week. He knows us so well! And that is why He can foresee our future. 

3 nefi 14:21 "No todo el que me dice: Señor, Señor, entrará en el reino de los cielos, sino el que hace la voluntad de mi Padre que está en los cielos." 

As the Bible says, faith without works is dead, so let's KEEP working!

Mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton

Lots of photos to make up for weeks when I don't have that many! 

 Zone conference

 a quick piano lesson

 Deep cleaning 

 Traditional clothing

 Lunch to celebrate 201 years 

 The parade

 Pura vida! 

September 12, 2022 - "Este es un nuevo día que Dios me regaló."

 Week 56

There is power in the Restoration: 

- We had a cool answer to prayers and to being obedient when during intercambios, we followed the invitation given in district council to that day share the first vision in a minute with a member to find a new person. In a call we hadn't planned for, we shared the restoration, and we asked if they knew of anyone else who at that moment had a lack of wisdom and they shared with us the name and number of their sibling who sent a member. 

- We have a family who has trouble coming to church and what's hard is that they know they should come, but the husband can't change his work schedule and the wife's first experience wasn't super great. But what I really loved is that in the lesson we had this past week, the husband was so sure about his belief in Joseph Smith, and the wife after I bore my testimony about Joseph Smith shared that she had felt that same warmth in her heart! 

Members: 

We got to know a lot more members through visits this week and hopefully we can keep visiting more and start following up on initiations to help people come back to church and also find new people. The coolest visit was with a recent convert who was baptized 8 months ago in Switzerland and is now here in Costa Rica. She shared with us her story and it is literally the coolest thing! She could write a book! Another member sang us a song she called "este es un nuevo día que Dios me regaló." It was very fun and haha one día maybe I'll be able to share it. 

As for the people we are teaching: 

Last week we met a mom outside of her house and this past week we went back after she texted us asking when we would be in the area again. That never happens! And when we got there she told us she had to introduce us to her kids. And she keeps telling us about more people we should meet. We talked with the whole family and they asked so many questions about missionary work. We are excited to share with them although we have learned they may be very catholic… but what's new. 

"Por conducto de un profeta moderno, Dios ha restaurado conocimiento en cuanto al Plan de Salvación, el cual se centra en la expiación de Jesucristo y se cumple al vivir los principios y ordenanzas del Evangelio."

"La Iglesia no es tan solo otra religión, ni es una iglesia americana, sino una restauración de la “plenitud [del] evangelio” (Doctrina y Convenios 1:23), el mismo que se reveló y se enseñó desde el principio." (Preach my gospel) 

We as members invite all to come unto Christ through repentance and baptism and confirmation to open the doors to the celestial kingdom. Each of us has been given the gift of the Holy Ghost to be with us forever and it is by and through that spirit that we can be sure that the Lord is pleased with the missionary work we are doing. We feel the spirit working through us to save others. And how great is that feeling! I hope this coming week we can all feel that a little more often! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton 

 Un gatito fell asleep during our lesson

 Our singing member 

 Denny's 😋

September 5, 2022 - ¡Están aquí los misionarios!

 Week 55

This week was a little slower because for 3 days we were basically quarantined, but not because we were just resting as the doctor ordered. So our days were filled with lots of calls. We had some fire lessons about coming to church, and sadly no one came, but a few of them sent us messages explaining why. I really liked in our zone council this past week that we talked about if people aren't attending church they really aren't progressing and so we should follow the spirit to know when to stop teaching them because there are people who will come to church. With one family we can see that they have a TON of potential because they had some major things happen Sunday morning making it very difficult to come to church. But we visited them and had such a sweet chat later and we pray that they will continue to progress. Haha "mamá están los misionarios." I think it's a mix between missionaries (misioneros) and hymn books (himnario) but we don't really know… 

It was also hard to find people this week. It was kind of sad because when we were in the house we were calling people and when we got to leave, we talked to people, but no one was very interested, until Sunday! Haha first we were turned away by many kids who sadly can't lie "just tell them we're catholic"…"my mom is busy right now" "my mom is sleeping"... then as we are leaving the mom says "why did you leave the door open?" Well on Sunday we found 2 open doors and shared 2 messages with 2 moms and they both were interested in hearing more and it was beautiful because with each you could see they had a different need but the gospel was the answer to both. We talked about finding the big fish! And I guess that's really what we were praying to find. 

We also had transfers this week and my companion and I will be staying in Tres Ríos for another transfer. 

Oh and a cute equipo de los sueños call was when we called someone and their whole family was on the other side of the call. And at one point they asked if we could talk to their daughter. Well, their 7 year old daughter was on the other side of the call! She was so cute and said that she had always wanted to talk to us because she has always seen our announcements on TV and has seen how much love we have for Christ. Haha the church does a great job advertising! 

"Un potente cambio de corazón; no tengo nada más que darte"

"How do we know that our heart is changing?

1. When we want to please God in all things.

2. When we treat others with love, respect, and consideration.

3. When we see that the attributes of Christ are becoming part of our character.

4. When we feel the guidance of the Holy Spirit more constantly.

5. When we keep a commandment that has been difficult for us to obey and then continue to live it."

I loved these steps of repentance shared in the last General Conference. As missionaries we have been called to represent Christ to help people be cleansed from sin and find more happiness and joy! I love how hopeful that message is and how many people are looking for the answers that we have, they just don't know where to look. So we are lucky and get to help them learn who they really are! 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton 

Zone council 

 Welcome to the jungle

 

 

Another chain calendar 

 A cute fam we're teaching 

August 29, 2022 - Hna, qué significa "what" en español?

 Week 54

Lots of little things happened this week so I'll share a few! 

We contacted 102 people in 2 hours during our equipo de sueños time. It's a record

Wednesday we had our first real lesson with another enrolled child. He is so cute and his mom told us that he gets up and says I'm gonna read. Then his mom will tell him he needs to take a shower then he'll come back and pick up his book turning to a page and say I'm gonna read. And the book he is reading is the Book of mormon! At 9 years old. Awww Who knows how much he understands, but if he can keep this desire to read up, he'll be blessed for eternity. He also has a baptism date for the end of September! 

We were also resting every other day more or less for Hna zarate so that she didn't need to walk a lot because she hurt herself on pday last week. Yesterday as we were planning I asked her if she was up to walking to someone's house and she told me no. So we made other plans and continued on, but later, hna zarate told me she felt we needed to go and that she would be able to do it. So we went and I am thankful that hna zarate was doing all that she could until the last minute. Because with our first real lesson we shared the restoration and our friend was amazed by the literal first vision of Joseph Smith. She wanted to read the Book of Mormon and we could just feel she had been very prepared. 

We got to support one of our friends this past week after her mother passed away. We helped explain the plan God has for us. How beautiful is it that we don't need to fear death. We also got to serve a few friends by helping them prepare for English tests this coming week. That is when for about 30 seconds I got to have the fun back and forth conversation of Hna, qué significa "what" en español? "Que" "what" "que" "what" "que" "what" "que"..."ohhh" 

Sadly with one friend we are teaching we had such high hopes for him this week with lessons and a baptism he could see. But we couldn't have either and he didn't come to church yesterday because of work. But we still went to the baptism to wait for him and I got to see one of my eds baptisms. Which means I was the first to contact him and have a lesson then he was passed on to his local area

There has been one thing that I have been learning while here in Costa Rica and I think it's very important. This past week I read in preach my gospel "Cuando una comunidad o una nación se vuelve negligente con respecto a las actividades del día de reposo, su vida religiosa decae y quedan afectados de manera negativa todos los aspectos de la vida." Sadly I feel this is what I have seen with people here, they work on Sunday to try to improve their way of life, but that isn't the way it's going to improve. The Lord will always provide a way, but we have to trust in that. 

Please pray for my companion as we have just found out for the next few days she will basically be on bed rest for her knee. 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

The sister of Tres Ríos 

 The cemetery we live by 

 District playa few weeks ago.