Walker's Week #14

so this week some of the people in my apartment got sick with diahria and otro (other) things, but I didn´t. But because they got sick it was really hard to get a shower without someone pounding on the door telling you to get out. The best part is that most the people in my apartment only know Spanish so they can yell all they want and I don´t understand.
(Q. What is a gedo door)A gedo door is just of a bunch of pieces of medal welded to a frame so you can pretty much see through it because there are so many wholes.

I found a piña (pineapple) that was bigger than my head it was very big.

So this week it was my companionships turn to go shopping with our cook. We went to a big market place. It was so cool because it was just a bunch of stands selling fruit. It was so good, I am pretty sure I ate at least half a pineapple. It was awesome!

So this week I went on divisions with the zone leader yep, it was great. We were in my area and I got lost and it took like 30 minutes to find the first house. But after that I semi sort of knew where I was going. So the first house we went to mi and mi companion decided to teach about the plan of salvation. So we were sitting there teaching and they were like we already know this so Elder Taylor started teaching about something else, I am not really sure what but I guess it was good. Then we went to an inactive familoy house for family home evening and taught something there too. But then she gave us food and that was the extent of our division. And then two days later we had to get a baptismal interview.

So we met them at a bus stop and Elder Epinal is like come with me, so we catch a bus and I had no idea what was happening. So we got off that bus and on to another and went to Heradia which is a capital of another place. Oh so you can pretty much go anywhere you want in Costa Rica for ten dollars. So that bus took like 45 minutes. So we went there and we had to convince someone to stop smoking. So there is this thing that if you mix ciggarettes in milk and drink it you will never smoke again, but its really nasty. So his wife was there and she is like if I drink it will you. So she made some and downed it. It was so gross. So he like tried to drink it but threw it up after like the first sip. So she finally got him to drink it and we left them with a picture of a temple. But by this point it was to late to do anything so we went back to the Heradia home which is a 4 elder house and spent the night there but there were 6 of us and only 4 beds, so we slid the bunkbeds together and slept sideways on them. I did not sleep good that night because one of the bunkbeds was taller than the other. Then we woke up at like 5 and left for Alajuela. I was so tired the next day.

Oh so transfers are next week so p-day will be on Wednesday I think.
So love you all, talk to you then

Courtney's Week #7

So we waited to email today because our travel plans are supposed to be here, but they must be coming tomorrow. Either that or my district leader has them in his pocket. Anyways I am going to save a couple minutes of email time just in case that way I can let you know my travel plans!!

 

I leave in 10 days! Hooray!! Things are starting to become more real. I am a little scared, but to be honest I am more scared about my first plane ride than the actual being in Chile part. I am so excited to leave!

 

So I guess as far as news for this week, my district has had some sort of flu bug going through so we were only half a district for most of the week, but I am happy to report that I have been healthy through it all.

 

We had our 4th apostle come and speak to us this week, we are so blessed because I guess it is quite rare to have 4 in a 9 week period. I'm still secretely hoping for the prophet to come next week though.

 

My companions and I took on the task several weeks ago to make little plan of salvations for the elders in our district, it was just intended to be a little way to be able to serve our elders, but it grew and grew. We made 14 plan of salvations and it took most of our down time for the last few weeks, but I am happy to report that they are all finished and delivered. We made one for Walker too! So I sent that off today, I really hope he gets it.

 

Hermana Taggart had a specialist appointment yesterday in the outside world. I went with her and sat in the waiting room. There was a Latino family sitting on the other end of the waiting room speaking kind of softly. I turned to my companion and asked if they were speaking Spanish, she listened closely then said yes. I thought that I was in so much trouble, because I didn't catch anything. But then after they had left there was another Latino family that came in and sat right next to us. There was a Grandma, a Mom, and three daughters. And guess what! I spoke Spanish! It was pretty cool because while Hermana Taggart was in her appointment I was able to share a little bit of our purpose as missionaries with them and then after the Grandma and Mom went in to their appointment I was able to talk to the three daughters, it was a little disappointing just because the one who asked me a ton of questions prefered to speak to me in English (probably just because my Spanish is so slow). But it was really good.

 

So Dad as far as things to report on for church, I think you should teach a little bit of a talk with scriptures and stuff too. I always like those kinds of talks. I have a couple scriptures that I have been thinking of:

 

D&C 38:30-"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear"

 

I really like this message because as I have been thinking about it, I have realized that we can always do things to prepare ourselves to be better missionaries and better people in general, but I know that the Lord has prepared me my whole life to teach the people of Chile, and that is why I am not afraid. It doesn't matter that I can't really speak Spanish, because the Lord has prepared me and I have done my best to prepare myself.

 

3 Nephi 13:34

 

I don't have time to write the scripture so please look it up and be sure to pay attention to the few verses before it. I love this scripture, we need not concern ourselves with the things of tomorrow we just need to push through today with patience and steadfastness and tomorrow will take care of itself. This is another scripture that has helped me as I am preparing to leave. It just has such a great message and it was exactly what I needed at the time.

 

One thing that I just want everybody to know is that I know that God will answer our prayers, he answers them through the Holy Ghost bearing witness through our feelings especially as we read the scriptures. If we are not doing our part to read the scriptures and really study them regularly we are not giving the Holy Ghost the opportunity to answer our prayers, our concerns, and our questions.

 

There is so much more I want to say, but I am almost out of time. Just know that I love you all and I love this gospel. I am an ambassador of the Lord and I am so grateful for that opportunity. I love the song "We'll bring the world his truth" because I am the missionary that I always dreamed about when I was little and in primary and even now. I have such a great responsibility.

 

I love you all so much!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #13

So before I start I need to ask for some thing. First I need Joe to send me his address in his next letter. Segundo(Second) if you send me a package I need, ok not really need but would like a black little hymn to match my scriptures. And if you send me sheets I want some that aren´t green or white I would prefer a bright color.

Okey, so we went to a new area this week that niether me or my companion had ever been to. It is 10 minutes walking to get to you bus stop from are house. Plus a fifteen minute bus ride plus another 30 minutes walking from there its great so segundo time we went up there we were teaching a lesson and it started like really raining. And it is a road that goes up like the valley of a mountain stupid place to put houses I know but they are there. So we finish and all are other appointments are back where we usually are.

 So we go outside there is just tons of water coming down this road it was like half way up my shins. So me and my companion are like were going to get wet no matter what so we start walking down this hill and it is steeper than any road I´v ever seen so we are trying not to fall all the way down. Then we get to the bottom which is a bridge over a river and we have to start walking back up and there is water coming from the other way. It was great it was so much fun. oh the picture is when we were at the bus stop.

Oh so we have geckos in are house because Alajuela is the cockroach capital of Costa Rica. at night you can´t go more than ten steps without stepping on one. so we catch geckos alot and that is what i am holding in the one picture. its so cool you can watch the gekos catch the cochroaches.

Another one of the pictures is the view out my ward mission leaders house.

This is a picture of a Catholic church, it is huge

 And the others are pictures of something awesome i can´t really remember what.

So I have time for another story we were knocking doors and we came to this house with a very gedo door. So we knocked on it and asked if we could say a prayer for there house. he said por que no (why not) and let us in. We walk down this hall and come to a room full of beds and a kitchen in it. We asked if we could have every one in their family come and participate in the  prayer and like 8 people all over twenty came out from who know where. I guess it was a family from Niceragua and they were all living in this little two bedroom house. So my companion prayed. And then we started teaching and more people came in. it was great.

Well I would tell another story but I am tired of typing so I love you all.
Adios

Courtney's Week #6

Well, before I start I need to add a few things to the list that I sent of things I need. I need a gray, a black, and a dark green sharpie. Because the laundry machines here hate me, I have been struggling with my clothes. Luckily there is an alterations place here that only charges 50 cents per piece of clothing to fix them so they take care of the holes that keep appearing in my sweaters and my pajamas. But, a lot of the elders use bleach on their white shirts and garments, but I think a lot of them don't really know how to use it so I have somewhat miniscule bleach spots that I now have on a gray skirt and a green sweater. It makes me moderately angry. Anyways so I would really appreciate some sharpies to reduce the noticibality of the spots.

 

As far as other things, this last week I was called as coordinating sister for our zone, which sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. I am supposedly kind of like the zone leader for the sisters, but after Sister Jonescheit leaves on Monday it will just be me and my companions. So I am coordinating sister of two sisters, whoopdeedoo. It also means that I have to attend weekly the most time-wasted meeting I have ever been to. I was excited until I realized that the whole thing is each of 14 or so coordinating sisters stand up and gives a report of whether the toilets are working. It is pathetic. On the other hand I do get to attend branch council on sundays, so I hope that meeting will be a little more eventful.

 

Supposedly my district is getting Travel plans next Thursday. In case you have forgotten I am leaving the MTC on June 6. I am so super excited and I am confident that when I leave I will not be able to communicate with a single person. So it is a good thing I am speaking to souls and not people.

 

Because my zone is in the "Pilot Program" each district now has one of the "training coordinators" training with our teachers. It is actually really lame because our training coordinator is not as effective in teaching the way we've been taught, but I guess that's what he is here to learn.

 

Our training "training coordinator" 's name is Bryton Beesley. He actually served in Ecuador under President Caldwell and loved him. I also met another person who served with President and it was either a Brother Wood or a Brother Twigg. I don't remember because we had these two subsititutes consecutively and they both had tree names, but it was one of the two.  

 

So this next week us Hermanas will be going off campus quite a bit. Even though we have already had two chiropractor appointments for me (I'm all done with those by the way) and a dentist appointment for Hermana Taggart, Hermana Taggart has at least four more doctor appointments in the next week for specialists and stuff. Hermana Kimball and Hermana Taggart had swollen tonsils, but Hermana Taggarts were much worse, it was kind of weird only one side was swollen, but she didn't really want to go to the doctor. But Hermana Kimball tricked her into going with her. The doctor didn't really adress Hermana Taggart's throat, but is sending her to the surgeon because she has weird humongous bumps on her arms. He is sending her to an orthopedic specialist because her feet have been bothering her. And she may have to go to a neurologist for her constant headaches and dizziness. Hopefully Hermana Kimball and I can go on splits and take turns going with her to her appointments. Otherwise I am never going to learn spanish.

 

This week we had new mail time restrictions placed upon us. Because mail time was becoming a distraction 5 times a day, our district leaders can now only get the mail once a day and give to us just before bedtime. It is kind of sad, but it is also probably better in a way. The only exception is packages.

 

So my district loves to watch mormon messages during nighttime planning, so I want to encourage all of you to watch some of our favorites:

 

Hope Ya Know I had a hard time

Good things to come

Lessons I learned as a boy

Choose you this day

 

Mormon messages are awesome, it is kind of funny though because the elders get in trouble for watching them during the day. Kind of funny when you get chastized for mormon messages, it is just a different world here.

 

Out of time,

Much love!

Hermana Evans

 

PS I was asked my first name to day and it took a solid 30 seconds to remember it.

Walker's Week #12

So this week there was an earthquake. It was so cool. I almost died. So me and my companion were walking down the street when we saw someone we knew, we said hi and left because we were in a hurry to get to our appointment. Well our appointment fell through so we started walking back and we saw the guy that we said hi to. So we went over to talk to him, because he looked a little stressed. We go up and he asks us if we felt the earthquake. My comp said no, because by this point I was completely lost. Anyways they had a cool little conversasion and I sat there and smiled. When we were done my comp told me there was an earthquake and that it was strong enough to break a mirror in the persons house and he got scared and ran outside. So we did not feel anything but every one I talked to that day asked us about it. So I guess it was pretty bad. And that is my earthquake story about how I almost died.

(Q. From Dad) So tell us about some of the people you are teaching, how is the work going.
Right now I have 2 investigators one, her and her husband have to get divorced and remarried, and the other is very catholic but she feels good when we come over they are both going to be baptized.


What is church like on Sunday, do you have a ward or branch, how big is it,  and what is the activity rate. Do they have all the block meetings and do people serve well.
My ward has about 70 people in it, and we do have all meetings. 

How has the weather been. I understand that the rainy season is about to start there. Is that right.
The rainy season is about to start. I still haven´t seen it rain because I have been inside teaching every time it does.


We are going to Salt Lake Saturday for Sam's home coming talk on Sunday.
Holy cow Sam is already coming home that was so fast.


Is the Spanish going good.
My Spanish is not so good. Well be sitting there teaching and my companion will look at me and I have no idea what is happening.


That is all the time I have.
love you

Oh, other thing my mission was the most improved mission this year pretty cool huh.

Courtney's Week #5

Hola!

 

So I have a lot that I want to say today; we will see how much I can fit into my half hour of email time. I also will be sending home a letter today with lots of housekeeping stuff. Just so that you are aware. It is way sad that you weren't able to talk to Walker for very long. As I was here on Mother's Day I kept thinking how hard it was going to be for you Mom. I hope that Walker's brief phone call made things a little better. I love you Mom!!!

 

This week both of my companions got sick. Hermana Taggart was just really dizzy and almost passed out a few times at Dinner and Hermana Kimball just felt like dying and throwing up. But it gave the Elders in my district the chance to give a blessing though. It was so great to be able to watch them. They were all very eager to be able to use their priesthood and give a blessing, but they were also very scared because they had never actually done it before. Because they didn't really know what they were doing they went and got one of the teachers to help them, but the teacher ended up actually doing the sealing, which was kind of sad because they just wanted his supervision not for him to actually do it. But I'm sure they will have plenty of opportunities once they get out to the field.

 

It's so weird how much time seems to go so fast, yet so slow at the same time. We had a district leave this last Monday, which included our Zone Leaders. It seems like we had known them for a year, when it had only really been four weeks. Crazy. Hermana Taggart had grown quite attached to the district that left so that was almost like a day of mourning for her. It was kind of funny because all of the Elders that left were just happy to be leaving so they couldn't sympathize with her at all.

 

We had another apostle visit us this week, Elder Anderson. It was pretty good, and he said a lot of things that our district was really struggling with.

 

So the missionary field just outside the gates of the MTC opened up this last week and I am proud to say that I do not totally suck at all sports. I am not too bad at Softball, as long as I don't have to catch the ball. The first day we played it was pointed out to me at the very end of gym time that I had a right-hand glove instead of left-hand glove. I hadn't noticed because I hadn't thrown or caught the ball at all, but since then I have made a point to get the right glove just in case it becomes neccesary to touch the ball.

I am starting to master the art of mixing and matching clothes. It is absolutely necessary to keep me from going crazy. Without mixing and matching you have a tendency to get really really sick of your clothes, but I have been doing better about mixing it up.

 

Hey, can you DearElder me Walker's emails. He doesn't send them to me, so I have only received the first one that you sent to me. If you could that would be wonderful! I miss him. He did send me a little snippet today and so that was really great, but it wasn't very informative.

 

Dad, do you have any cool stories about your mission? I have not really heard many. You should tell me some.

 

Funny story, so before the district left on Monday one of the elders in it gave me a "gift." It was his beloved jar of Nutella. He found it in the free box and remembered that I had mentioned that I liked it. I thanked him, but really I just thought he was absolutely ridiculous. How in the world was I supposed to use a jar of nuttella? Hermana Kimball suggested that I just waltz into the cafeteria carrying my jar. I told her that that was propostorous and I would definitely look like some sort of creeper. But then just yesterday a toaster shows up on top of the microwave in our residence hall. There seemed to be hope for my nutella after all. So I was able to sneak some bread out of the sack lunch line and I was able to have a glorious nutella breakfast while my companions were reading their novels that they get every p-day. It was glorious.

 

Good luck with your Engineering Camp Dad! I love you mom!

 

I love and miss you all!

 

Hermana Evans!

Walker's Week #11

(Q. form Dad) So tell us more about your apartment.
My apartment is okay. There is no hot water there is just water. We have a heater for our shower but it broke this week so we have very very cold showeres.
You say there are 6 elders there. How many are American?
There are 3 elders from honduras, including my companion(Elder Lopez). There is one from Canada. And one other latino not quite sure were he is from.
Can you give us your address so we can look it up on google map?
I have no idea what are address is because they don´t use addresses here. We are like 2 houses away from  the park Juan Santa Maria, between Mcdonalds and the park.
So you have a large area, do you live in your ward? If so haw far do the other elders have to travel to get to there areas? 
The area I am in is called Villa Armosa, Alajuela. The apartment is in between 2 areas and the others catch a bus to get to theirs.
How long has your companion been on his mission?
I do not know how long my companion has been out, I´m not allowed to ask and he is not allowed to tell. We get along pretty well. Yes my area is pretty big, I have walked for an hour and a half and still haven´t got to the other side.
How are prices of things, is it expensive or cheep to get food and things?
It costs about 200 colones to ride the bus which is about 40 cents, and thats all I really know. There is a pricesmart right next to where I live. Which is Costco they get all there stuff from Costco to.

I went to the Temple today, it is very small but I really like there chandalire and it is the first place I have been in that doesn´t have cinderblock walls and a metal roof.

Oh the other day there was a rain storm in San Jose and the lightning was lighting up the whole sky. I can´t wait for it to actually rain here. There was lightning at least every 2 seconds and the thunder is so loud it sounded like a shotgun and I was 30 miles away. It was so cool. I love it here.

Courtney's Week #4

Hola!

So I guess first off I need to tell you that we cannot call home on Mothers day here in the MTC, but on the bright side I should be able to call from the airport when I leave on June 6. Another item of housekeeping, yes I can get attatched pictures from email. I can just view them or I can print them out in poor quality black and white. The prospect of tranfering them digitally is out of the question due to the half of an operating system that these computers run on.

(Q. from Dad) Are you still in a threesome. I noticed that Hermana Jonescheit is solo. how does that work. Why leave you three together and have a solo. Do you have to stay with her all the time anyway?

Hermana Jonescheit is a solo sister because her companion moved up to the intermediate spanish zone. However, solo sisters are quite common especially with really obscure languages. The reason that we don't just split my threesome companionship so that she have a companion is because her district is two weeks ahead of mine. Solo sisters just have to be with two elders from their district at all times. The exceptions are the bathroom, of course, but then for gym, temple, and some other obscure things she has to be with us. Which makes our threesome a little more convenient because we can split two and two.

So not a whole lot happenned this week. Apparently my instructors believed that I needed some serious help with Spanish though. I was pulled out of class by the tutor for our zone who pretty much told me in a very tactful way that I needed not just one tutoring session but at least two for the next couple of weeks. My first tutoring session went pretty well though. I was a little bit nervous because I've never really been tutored for anything thus far in my life. But then again, I've never really struggled with anything so bad as I am with Spanish.

I am not really extremely worried about my lack of Spanish though, because I know that if I work and study as hard as I can the Lord will make up the difference. It is also a blessing that I am going out of the country, unlike most of my district, because my investigators probably won't know any spanish at all, whereas their investigators will probably know some English just because they live in the United States. So I will be forced to use and learn Spanish quite rapidly, which I consider to be an immense blessing.

So I want to tell you a little bit about my progressive investigators. We teach both of our instructors as a companionship at least once a day. Our instructors leave the room and go into an empty room and become one of their investigators from their own mission. Our two investigators right now are Refugio and Maria. Very exciting news, yesterday my companions and I commited Refugio to get baptized in three weeks.

I know it may sound a little silly to be so excited about a fake investigator, but to us we really do treat them as real investigators because our instructors act and respond just as they would. The spirit in our lessons is real, and the gift of tongues is so incredibly real as well. Our progressive investigators are the very best part of our entire MTC experience. They are so cool, and I really do love both Maria and Refugio. I admire the change that the real people really did make in their life.

Things have been much smoother with my companionship. We have learned what works best each of us. One silly thing that we have changed, is that I cannot sit in between them during classes. Sitting on the edge eases our tensions immensely, just because it means that I don't have to hear every single thought that comes into both of their heads. They both just like to share their feelings and talk a lot, which is great and wonderful, but I just could not handle it. Especially for both of them at the same time. Anyways after we became aware of this as a companionship we were able to make changes accordingly and things have been much better. Dad, I know that you will be a little bit disappointed that I was the commencer of problems, but in my defense I don't think I have ever had to digest as many thoughts and feelings that I have had the opportunity to hear of from my companions. I blame most of that on only having brothers and no sisters.

So I would like to bear my testimony that I know that this church is true. I know that Jesus Christ was sent to earth to establish his church and to redeem us from the fall. I know that Joseph Smith was called of God and that this is God's church in these latter days. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

I love and miss you all. I hope all is going well.

Much love!

Hermana Evans

Photos from Courtney

 Me and My Companions.
Hermana Taggart, Me, and Hermana Kimball

 Walker and I the night before he left at the devotional with Elder Scott

Walker and I the morning he left.

Walker's Week #10

Well this has been the first week in Costa Rica. I have no idea what any one is saying. So this week we taught this family and they are both married to somebody else. I guess it is really hard to get divorced here so nobody does. It sucks cause they can´t get baptized until they get divorced and married again, which takes like a year. I have not ate meat yet! it sucks! Every morning I wake up and make pancakes cause I havn´t been shopping yet and it is the only thing there. I study for 4 hours, it is a long time. And then go eat lunch at Sister Mayra´s house. She is awesome and makes us lunch everyday. I guess lunch is the biggest meal of the day here.

So Costa Ricans are very very laid back (lazy) and do not like any one to tell them what to do. This makes missionary work very hard. So my p-days are on monday unless there is a meeting or something.

Here are some pictures. One is of when I was flying out of Atlanta and the others are of me and my companion. It was raining that day, I was very wet. So far it has only rained once which is good but the day it rained we were an hour and a half walk away from home, that sucked.

Yesterday was Sunday which means testimony meeting. It was rather slow so my companion says hey we are going and took off. So I ended up bariing my testimony. It was very short I said something like ¨good day I am grateful to be here. I know the church is true and throught it we can return to god. In the name of jesucristo amen". So the second I got done 16  people got up and bore there testimonies. I am pretty sure because the spirit is so strong with me, or because they new they could do better than me. Either way it was great.

Oh so the sun comes up at 4 and goes down at 5. This makes sleeping very hard because the sun just lights up my shack. Oh this week is mothers day which means I get to call home on Sunday. I will be calling at 6 here, so whatever it is there try to answer. Pease be there, unlikewhen I called from airport and no one answered. It is hot here.

love you all