Courtney's Week #55

So first news, as you have probably noticed, today is Wednesday and not Monday. What happened is...WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE! It was so awesome! The first time in my whole time in Chile, and it was great! I forgot my camera in the house today so I will have to send you the pictures next week. It was like a huge spiritual boost that I really needed. Hey, GO TO THE TEMPLE! Don´t ever take it forgranted!

So the Santiago temple is absolutely beautiful, almost as beautiful as the Vernal Temple. It´s a little bit smaller, but super beautiful.

Other news this week, we had to drop a lot of investigators this week. It was really sad because I really love a lot of them, but that´s okay. God has better people waiting for us.

Well, so this coming week my companion and I are going to have a ward activity about missionary work, we really need much more help from the members in this ward so we are going to try hard to get them excited. So anyways, I spent all of my computer time doing invitations, so this email is really short, sorry.

Love you all,
Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #61

Hey guys whats up. This week was pretty good, we found two more families which is awesome because it kind of gives us something to do. So my comp is a Mexican and he says that the mission were Carlton is going  is where all the drugs and dangerous crap is so tell him good luck for me. So I got a new bishop this week. Oh to answer your question Bridger, we do have to pay tithing. Actually we had a nice little talk with president about that and he told us if people send us money we have to pay tithing on it. Actually he said a whole lot of stuff about money, but oh well. So the rain has started again so that sucks a little. But i got to go. Walker


PS in the photo I am in the bottom right corner.

Courtney's Week #54

Hey Family!

How is it going? Well, this week was pretty awesome. So the first thing that happenned this week is that my companion´s bike had some serious problems. The part that changes the gears totally fell off. There is a member in our ward who is a bicycle repairman, so its not really that big of deal, but we were already late for an appointment and we had a member waiting for us and when it broke we were like half an hour walk away from town. So we started running with our bikes, when we got there, the investigator was leaving so we couldn´t teach him, the member was a little bit upset, and we were a little bit sweaty even though it was a little bit cold outside. But point of the story, we are now without bikes for a few days until they are fixed.

Numero Dos, so this week there was a huge storm. It rained pretty hard, but guess what. I actually loved it for several reasons: 1) I get to use my awesome trench coat, my rain boots, and an umbrella, 2) I am no longer drenched in sweat like I was during all of summer, 3) The people here are really nice and feel bad for us walking in the rain so they let us in their house and we teach them about the gospel. Really, all things considered, could it get any better?

A bit of the downside though of the storm, the electric system here is a little unreliable, and so the power goes out a lot when there are storms. Saturday morning I had to go to a training meeting in Santiago, so we got up really early and started getting ready. We were in intercambios, so I was with a different companion for the day so let her shower first, halfway through her shower the power went out and stayed out. So I got out the candles, showered, got ready, and then we left. We had to bring a flashlight so that we could walk to
the bus station because it was still dark outside and there still wasn´t electricity so it was super dark. Three hours later when we got to Santiago I found that I had make up all over my face! I guess that´s what happens when you get ready in candle light. But nonetheless, it was kind of fun.

So things relating more to the gospel, last night it was almost time to go home, so my companion and I were slowly making our way back to the house talking to all the people that we could. There was a lady waiting for the microbus so we started to talk to her, she was kind of a little bit abrupt and really didn´t seem too keen to talk to us, so I started talking to her about other things just trying to make friendly conversation, she lightened up a little bit and then asked why we were out so late. I told her that we had to be out so late "so that we could talk to everyone, like Amelia (the lady´s name), who is waiting for the microbus in the street Avenida Argentina (where she was)." Her eyes filled up with tears and she started crying. We don´t know exactly what is going on in her life, but we testified the God loves her and then he is aware of everything that is happening. She started crying and invited us to pass by on her next day off of work. It was a really awesome experience, I think that some people feel as though God has forgotten about them, but He hasn´t, he will always send exactly what we need, in this circumstance, two missionaries on their way home for the day.

Anyways I am out of time, but I love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #60

Okay, so first off Sawyer a long time ago you asked me if there were leafs that were big enough to be umbrellas. And I told you I did not know because I had been in the city the whole time. Well this week I went to the jungle and there are leafs big enough to be umbrellas.

Second, can you guys find out what part of Mexico and when He (Carlton) leaves, thank you.

And third, can you guys ask Brother Batty if he remembers what a bot fly is. Yeah i got attacked by a whole bunch of them today. But its okay because I don´t think any got me.

So this week something amazing happened we found a family, which is super awesome because it is the first one I found here. There names are Marlo and Helin. And they are super evangelic so I don´t know how that is going to go. 

But sorry I am really late because the buses were really slow, so adios and good bye

Courtney's Week #53

Well, not a whole lot to say this week. This week was a little bit of a downer, but we´re not letting that get us down. We have super super awesome investigators, but they´ve kind of all hit road blocks. Fernando is one of our super super awesome investigators, he went to ALL the sessions of conference, including the preisthood session. I thought for sure that afterwards he was just going to tell us...BAPTIZE ME! But, it didn´t work out that way. He actually said the contrary, he told us that he doesn´t want to hear anybody pushing him to get baptized anymore. He said that he recieved his answer because one of the speakers spoke about how his dad was practically a member for years without being baptized until finally in his later
years he got baptized. Fernando has decided that he is going to be like that. He is going to do everything without getting baptized. We´ve really been struggling to help him FEEL that the church is true and not THINK that the church is true.

One of our other investigators is Evelyn. Evelyn is super awesome and has really felt the change in her life. It´s a visible change that is so cool to see. She told us about a week and a half ago that she felt ready for her baptism and that she knew it was what she needed to do, but after that we had to start teaching about the commandments. She accepted the Word of Wisdom and we started helping her to quit smoking, but then we taught the Law of Chastity and she didn´t quite accept that one as well. She has been dating a guy for 15 years, they don´t live together, in fact he only comes over like twice a month, but apparently the Law of Chastity is a big problem.

We also only found 3 new people to teach this week. This week has been really really tough. We fasted and I have been praying so hard because I know that these people really really need a baptism and the help of
the Holy Ghost, but I just don´t know how to help them get over their barriers. Yesterday a guy in the street started talking to us and wouldn´t accept anything. He told me that I don´t know anything that if God really loved him, God wouldn´t have left him thrown in the street. He wouldn´t listen to anything I seid and then ripped up the pamphlet that I gave him and threw it in the street. It was so sad just to see how some people think. Why is it so hard for people to understand that God loves them?

But on the brighter side, we found a super awesome new investigator yesterday too. Her name is Vaneska, she´s 23 years old, it was super awesome as we were teaching about the Restoration and the prophets in
the olden days she couldn´t understand why the people wouldn´t listen to the prophets. When we got to Joseph Smith and how he was called to be a prophet she asked us, "Did the people kill him too?" We told her yes, and then she was like "Well great, now we´re in spiritual darkness again!" We explained how after Joseph Smith there is a line of prophets and how we are not in spiritual darkness, but it was super
funny.

Well, I seem to be out of time. Love you all!
Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #59

Hi family, whats up, so this week was not my best week I have ever had. But oh well that will make this week even better. So yeah this whole week was a big catholic holiday and of coarse every one in Costa Rica is Catholic if it means they get to party so this week was a big party week for everyone. So every one of our investigators told us we couldn´t visit until after Semana Santa. So we really didn´t visit anyone, but some nonmember came to church this week with a inactive member. So we taught them and everything and I asked when we could pass buy and where she lived and she lives in the area next door. It was pretty depressing but yep. This week should be pretty good we have a lot planned for this week

Okay, so this week we went to the house of the Banana Man to make bread so here are some pictures. The first is of the river that's contaminated every one just throws all their sewage in it, the second is the bridge over the river that is super geto, and the third is the oven where we cooked the bread.

So adios
Oh and P.S. I am suposed to tell you all that if you send packages not to put food in them or at least not to say that they have food.

Courtney's Week #52

So, I have so much that I want to say this week. We´ll start off with my new companion. Her name is Hermana Wilcock from South Jordan, Utah. I love being her companion she is so awesome, it has been such a great and humbling experience so far.

So, just a few funny experiences to start off. My companion is still working on her spanish. She already talks much much better than I did when I got here, but for right now she just has a little bit of work in front of her. But the other day she was praying and she totally thanked God that we could get our bannanas from the bank. It was really funny, but the funniest part is she repeated it a few times.

My poor companion, her very first lesson here in Chile was on the Word of Wisdom, with an investigator who smokes, a lot. I was a little bit nervous on how she would respond, because we didn´t have time to
practice or anything, but she did really really well. The thing that I love about my companion is that she already loves our investigators so it makes it easy for her to have to courage to talk to them, love casteth out fear, I have really seen the truthfullness of that lately.

So General Conference was...AMAZING! We were able to watch it in English with all of the other Norte Americanos that are here in the Los Andes/San Felipe area. To watch conference here everyone gathers at the stake centers or one of the larger churches nearby. Something really cool, one of our investigators went to all the sessions of conference! We haven´t had the opportunity to talk to him much about how he liked it, but I am super excited I hope that he is just ready to get baptized now. We also had other investigators go, including the one is trying to quit smoking, Evelyn.

So quick story about Evelyn. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she wasn´t too excited about it, but it was a super powerful lesson and we committed her to make plans and write them down. We returned two days later, she told us that she was going to quit smoking before December. We were like, what? You can´t wait until December! You need the Spirit and the remission of your sins Now! So we commited her to have the faith to quit now. We gave her pictures of Jesus to put in her house and we also gave her some to put on her box of ciggarettes so that everytime she went to smoke she would feel a little bit guilty. At this time she was smoking a pack a day, which is like 20 ciggarettes. Well Saturday night we passed by and she had only smoked 3 that day. She went from smoking 20 to 3 in 2 days!

Well, I´m out of time. Love you all, talk to you all next week! Hey this week I´ll have 1 year in the mission! Crazy!

Much Love!
Hermana Evans

Hermana Wilcock her first day in Chile with President and Hermana Essig

Walker's Week #58

So this week was Conference. Yep for Conference here we go to Stake Centers because it's the only place with cable. But because we live an hour and two buses away from the Stake Center we had it in our Chapel but we had it only in Spanish and it would freeze every five minutes. I mean Conference was great and all but it could have been better. I mean just imagine how hard it is to stay awake normally, but now change that to another language and stopping every 5 minutes. I personally think it was a miracle how much I didn´t sleep.

So yeah but this week our only investigators left for Florida so yeah not much to say. Oh so today is the start of Semana Santa or holy week so we had our p-day changed to Friday. Witch I don´t really understand, we can´t change our p-day for our holidays but we can for the catholics, go figure. But its okay all of our contacts just tell us that they´re going to the beach and we have to wait till after this week. Yep, oh well, we´ll see what happens