November 21, 2022 - Are you recording me right now?

 Our walking down mountains in the rain and really trying to invite everyone last week really paid off this week. We found different people and in different ways. A really cool social media reference turned into a great first lesson with him, his nephew, and a member present. And they showed a lot of interest in learning more. A few others were from contacts in the street, one from someone we are teaching, and another from social media. She was super nice and has even visited Utah a few times for work. What is still sad is that we haven't been able to find a lot of people through the members. 

I also really loved going the extra mile this week just to have quick short conversations with members or show them our love in small and simple ways. The members are so great in this ward and I hope that they each keep finding strength from the Lord in their trials so that one day this ward can be super strong!

Other fun things that happened during the week:

a nice guy named Jim pulled up to us on the side of the road, started speaking English, saying he's seen the hard working missionaries that we are and bought us lunch. Good ol jim! 

As we were walking down the street there was a group of about 7 kids standing on a porch watching us walk down the hill towards them. We heard them whispering about us as we got closer and then one got up the courage to say "hola." haha they all received a folleto!

Also gotta love my fun conversations with kids, "hermana, donde duerme?" "en mi cama" "dónde está su cama?" "en mi casa" "dónde está su casa?" "en tres ríos" "oh... no sabia que tenia una casa" I don't know where he thought we slept, but haha we do have beds and an apartment to sleep in as missionaries and it's not too shabby. 

On Wednesday I also had intercambios in Turrialba and it went super well! a few things I loved!

I loved loved loved seeing what it's like to work with references from members. They're really people who want to learn about the church and want to know more about God. So I had a great time listening to the spirit to reach people I didn't even know haha but it was so great! 

I loved teaching with Hermana Jenkins. She really is so good at loving the people she teaches. It was a little crazy with all the driving in the bus, i did get a little sick and on the ride, but luckily it passed quickly and we did some great things in 24 hours. 

I loved it as we were sitting at a bus stop talking to a 15 year old and starting to teach him a lesson and I watched as he pulled out his phone, hit a few buttons and then slowly swiped up (to grab a voice memo on whatsapp) and then he held the phone very weirdly by his side. Haha loved hearing hna Jenkins say, "are you recording me right now?"

I also loved all the food the members gave us. It was a good day for intercambios!

To finish up the week, Sunday we said lots of goodbyes preparing for our transfer calls Sunday night, and as we guessed, I'm getting transferred and so is my companion. We are going to different areas though. Haha, remember where I spent the first 9 months of my mission?... I'm going back to Zona Toyopan! haha but I'll be in a new area, El alto with hermana Santos and we will be white washing (we're both new to the area. There were elders there before).

Alma 34:38 "Live in Thanksgiving daily." I am so thankful for my Heavenly Parents and Jesucristo who know me perfectly and want me to learn and grow! They really want what's best for us and if they aren't to our aid right away, there is always a reason for it. They will always love us and will always want us to be learning and progressing ..."Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer." HAPPY THANKSGIVING 🦃

Mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton

 Some cool snowing globe cupcakes!!

Goodbye pics 🥺

 Swings!

 Tortillería

 Sharing the good word! 

November 14, 2022 - Slumber Party!

 Week 65

This week I forgot to bring my journal so we've got a bullet point list with a few highlights!

- This past week we went to a member's house. The members have been ministering to this family for a long time, the wife and her kids are members but her boyfriend is not. And we were able to share the first lesson with all of them after a year or more. We still don't know when we'll be going back, but hopefully soon he will be a new person that will progress to bless this big family of eight! 

- I celebrated my birthday whooo! I got to "blow" out my candles for a picture and then fan them out with my hand 

- we walked down some big mountains, but it's better than walking up them

- we got SOAKED! We got caught in the rain walking back from lunch and there was no escape. 

- a cute member invited us to her house literally just so she could give us lunch

- we had a slumber party with the sisters. Their apartment was under construction because they had humidity and mold on their walls. And after sleeping in that house for 2 days with all the dust and who knows what, they got some bad allergies and knew it was time to move houses. Luckily we had a spare bedroom and could buy blow up mattresses at Walmart

- one friend we are teaching is waiting for a miracle, which is hard. but he has a lot of member support

- a few less active members we were working with came to church

- The fast and testimony meeting was interesting and our stake president was on the edge of his seat for a few of them 

- We had a study with Elder Cordon on zoom. It encouraged me to improve my studies to be able to really understand what Christ wants me to learn in the scriptures about Him and I can then use what I've learned to help others too. 

I loved studying about prayer and fasting this past week. Prayer is not meant to change the will of God, but to obtain for ourselves and others blessings that God is willing to grant us, but we need to ask to be able to receive them. When we pray to the Father in the name of the Son, we are asking for what is correct and when we really pray in Christ's name, our desires are also His. There are so many promised blessings that come from praying in this way: He will guide us daily, He will help us make good decisions, He will bless us with feelings of peace and comfort, He will help us avoid danger, He will strengthen us to resist temptation, He will forgive our sins, and He will help us feel closer to Him. So many great blessings!! so keep saying your prayers! Do the small things! So that you too can receive these great blessings that our Padre Celestial wants to give us! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

PS Birthday shoutout to my wonderful Dad tomorrow! whooo! 

Apartado Postal 249-2010
San José, Zapote,
Costa Rica

 A 5 day sleepover

Go green

At least there's a rainbow after all the rain 

We got soaked... it's a lot worse on the other side 🤭

 Celebrating the birthday with the district 

 "Blowing" out my candles

November 7, 2022 - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 Week 64

We were in the mouth of a volcano! We went to Volcan Irazu last week on Pday with a member and it was so much fun! First, these members were so nice to invite us to go! It felt a lot like fall because we were literally up super high, so high we were above many of the clouds.  While there we took lots of pictures and these members were great tour guides! oh haha we also actually passed a tour for foreigners and the guide was pretty top notch as he pointed out the most important thing..."and here we have some Mormons." haha yes! 

We also had a fun lesson with Patriarch and his wife this week. They are really cute old grandparents.  The sister sent Patriarch to get us a little snack in a pulperia (like a gas station store on every corner). He came back with a big bottle of coke and some sweet rolls. Well you probably can't believe it, but he forgot to bring the sisters ice cream. Haha we tried telling them that we were fine with just the coke and rolls, but the sister sent her husband to get the sisters some ice cream. So we had some ice cream with half a peach and oreos to take home. All food that's great to feed the sisters from america!

After talking with a member, we got a list of a few people to look for, and it was actually so fun because as we looked we got to talk with people in our path and at the same time we were able to help this member find long lost member friends. In the end we ended up finding almost everyone. And while some may have moved, others didn't want anything to do with the church, we got an invitation back from one for the coming week when they're not sick. 

We tried so hard to find new people this week, but not just anyone, real new people who we could go visit and have a lesson with in person or people that wanted to come to church. Let's just say it was hard and toward the end of the week we were walking in rainy foggy streets or knocking on lots of doors in a downpour. And with the rain and cold it felt a lot like Christmas so we sang a few carols while walking around town. And our patience paid off. We set up three social media reference lessons in person this week with people we just got. And already 2 of the 3 are planned with members. So we are excited for the coming week. 

This past week we had interviews with the President and I loved what we talked about! One thing we talked about was success on a mission. Can a disobedient missionary have a lot of baptisms? Does the number of baptisms you have as a missionary show your level of success? It really is the conversion that marks the success of a mission because we each have to be converted to the Lord us as missionaries and the people we are teaching. Each day we should be trying to change our beliefs, feelings, and life to better accept and do the will of the Lord.

Muchas gracias por todos los deseos de cumpleaños! wuuu cumplo 21 años mañana!

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton

It's already Christmas here 

 It rains everyday, it's basically like it's always snowing 

 McDonald's soft serve! 

Volcán irazú (the crater, a lava rock, the sign and view) 

 A good book, you should read it 

October 31, 2022 - Happy Halloween 🌋

 Week 63 

I loved this week following up on one ivitation we gave to members to share the book of mormon because the young daughter had been the one who sought personal revelation and felt that she needed to give the book to a little boy in her class at school. 

We had a great final EDS lesson this past week too. We had it just before we learned we were going on hiatus and what was so cool was that she really was so open to learning about how we can do things to better communicate with God.

I have loved following the invitation of Elder Godoy to baptize our Bishop. In just this past week I have seen such a change! And even though we don't have a lider misional the Bishop is helping us so much! 

We also got to visit recent converts this week as well as less active members families. We also had a noche de grupo to encourage more ministering in the ward, and today we had many people come that we had visited throughout the week. Now we just need to work on keep supporting them while helping other families even more. 

Intercambios went great! I had a lot of fun contacting and teaching with Hermana Cardon. She helped me a lot to find a renewed sense of hope in the area and how I can keep strengthening it in these last few weeks of the transfer. We went about doing good all day long and I loved how she really showed her faith in the gospel and how everyone really deserves to hear it. The gospel is never an inconvenience. 

Haha sorry for the short email this week! We went to see a volcano!! Whoo! 

So here's my quick spiritual thought from M Russell Ballard kind of from a long time ago but I loved the way it talked about repentance...

"I remember as a child occasionally coming unkempt to the dinner table. My mother wisely sent me to clean up and then return. My parents would have been pained if I had taken offense and had run off—and I would have been foolish to do so. In the same way, the servants of the Lord occasionally find that they must, in loving concern, send some of Heavenly Father’s children out the door so they can return clean once again. The Lord does not want us to “miss supper.” In fact, he has a great feast prepared for those who return clean and pure through the door. He is greatly saddened when anyone decides they prefer to be unclean and miss the meal, or when they find an excuse to take offense, or when they run away. He is pleased to extend the chance to start over."

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Warburton 

Contacting in the streets 

Exchanges 

Pipa it's like a coconut but not :)