I am so blessed. I love this work! This week was GREAT!!!
Tuesday
After internet... we felt like visiting Katia. She is the most interesting case. She is Catholic and tells us she is not going to change and has her own beliefs. Yet.... she KNOWS Joseph Smith was a prophet and believes in our doctrine and loves our culture. She always says "If I wasn´t Catholic it would be so easy to join your church!" What an awful excuse! :) So we spent a lot of time talking about authority and straight up asked her if the proper authority was in her church. She didn´t answer for a long time.. then said laughing, "see, this is the point I didn´t want to reach!!" We committed her to pray specifically about the authority. She says she is scared to change what she has always done and doesn´t want to distance herself from her family. But we will help her through it all! She will be baptized I know it! Then her daughter came... I think she will be baptized too!
Then we visited Mariana... she is still progressing for her baptism!
Then we headed to church so I could play the piano for the ward choir. Then Israel.. He is also going strong!! His mom still hasn´t signed :( But we have faith that she will!
Lastly we visited Marlon. Satan is attacking him this week... but not with what we thought it would be! But again... we know he will be baptized!
Today we are fasting for the four baptisms and also to know our new inspired goal for December. l Iove the mission!
WEDNESDAY
I had so much fun with Hermana Garcia today. She´s my pal. I´m trying to convince her to go to BYU after the mission so we can be friends.
At night we had divisions with Ana Rivera and her sister Antonietta. Hermana Garcia visited Mariana (she drank coffee!! Nooo!! But she is so innocent... She said her aunt made her, but promised to repent and not do it again) and israel (his mom lost the paper to sign!! Maybe it was on purpose) and Ana Munoz (taught the word of wisdom... we love Ana). I visited with Antonietta Marlon (he and his family talked for an hour and a half) invited a bunch more people to the big open house on Friday.. and visited Ana Munoz too jaja! (she committed again to reading and then gave me a free packpack to use until my other one is fixed because I was carrying all my stuff in my arms) Then home again home again jiggity jog. I just really love this.
THURSDAY
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! It was a little sad to be away from the family today but I am SO grateful to be here serving the Lord! I am truly blessed. I also ate two frozen burritos for Thanksgiving so. It´s awesome :) But it isn´t too rough because it doesn´t feel like Thanksgiving or Christmas here... it feels like summer still. So its all good :)
Today we visited Evida to invite her to the Open House tomorrow.. and Mario for the same. Then Ana Munoz. I love her. Then Marlon... todo bien.. he is so ready for his baptism! He sure scared us though... he slept over at his ex-wifes house... aaaaa... he withstood the temptations but we had a very stern lesson on AVOIDING temptation in the first place. Satan is trying to stop these four baptisms but he can´t do it! Then Hermana Fallas said "Happy thanksgiving! I have turkey for you!" HA! Actually they were buffalo wild wings Costa Rica style but they were delicious! I eat everything here by the way y'all. Fish. Clams. TOMATOES. Meat on the bones. Everything. And for that I´m gordita. But thats okay :) Then we headed to Israel and GOT HIS MOM'S SIGNATURE!! WOOO!! His baptism is very fijo. All of them are! Even Daniel and Mariana! we called them and invited them to fast with us tomorrow. Everyone is so set and I am so happy!
FRIDAY
Today I officially complete SIX MONTHS in the mission!! Crazy.
What a day most stressful and hard :) First we had Kiosco... Hermano Lascarez came to help invite people for the Open House tonight. He is a great ward mission leader and I´m so grateful for his help in the work! Then we were off to lunch with Nurita and Isabel. We ate way late because they were Black Friday shopping (did you know they have that here??) Hermana Nuria started crying thinknig about transfers... (the next transfers are this Sunday......... eek) It was so sweet. I truly love them! Then we were off to work before the four interviews! Mariana at 4:00... Marlon at 4:15... Israel at 4:30 and Daniel at 4:45. Then the Casa Abierta at 6:00! We visited 8 people... but no one was home. So we headed to the church and waited for the investigators to get there. Mariana got there at 4:15 and the elders interviewed her at 4:20... everything was great! She left... no Marlon... at 4:45 he finally came... 5:00.. no Israel.. no Daniel... 5:15.. Marlon STILL in the interview... finally at 5:30 Israel came but Marlon was still in the interview... at 5:45 they finished and israel headed in. Everything good with him... but no Daniel! We call him again aaaaaaand he said that he cant come and can't even be baptized because he has to work :( noooo! I told him Satan was trying to stop his baptism and he has to sacrifice to receive blessings. He said he would do everyting possible but didn´t sound like it was going to happen :( So we decided he could come Sunday before the meetings to be baptized and confirmed right after then go to work. Hope it works. Also turns out Marlon had some complications in the interview and needs a second one with a counselor of president. Aaaa we are praying so hard for him. He has truly repented so I have faith that he can be baptized! Oh ya... earlier we found Margarita and Rodrigo and they said our church is lacking in heart, praying, and shouting and singing. But the doctrine is great. So they are going to a different church. Anyway after all this it was time for the open house. We only had five investigators there and only a couple members :( but Ana Munoz came wth her daughter! The Casa Abierta was really beautiful... the ward counsel worked REALLY hard and did a great job! It was awesome to see them all working together for the obra misional! I hope it continues!! Even though it was only for five peple :)
SATURDAY
Today was the BEST day ever! It was absolutely crazy. All day we were running around like crazies getting everything ready and everyONE ready for the baptisms. Finally we got a hold of Daniel... he says he is not getting baptized. I talked to him for half an hour on the phone to help him with his doubts but it turns out he just doesn´t have a testimony and was only doing it for the pretty member he wanted to date. It was so sad. Ok so we will have three out of the four baptisms. That´s okay. Whatever is the Lord's will!
Marlon still had to pass his second interview. We went to the church with him and PRESIDENT himself came to interview him! Afterwards they came out with the HUGEST smiles.. I just had to take a picture it was the best. The joy of TRUE repentance!! At 6:00 we had the baptisms. Israel and Marlon came in white shirts and ties looking all handsome and worthy. And sweet Mariana was the first one there. And guess who else came?? PRESIDENT!! Wow pressure. But we had worked REALLY hard to organize the service well. It was the most organized that I´d done! We sang the favorite hymns of the converts and it was SO spiritual. We had a little testimony meeting and Marlon and Israel shared theirs... Israel´s mom was crying! And after the meeting israel sat and just cried for a while. While they changed I had everyone write their testimonies on pretty paper I made and then we made them each a pretty little book with everyone's testimonies like in our ward. It was so spiritual and SO great! the ward supported a ton and I am SO grateful for this opportunity!!
Then we cleaned up and SPRINTED to Dos Cercas so the elders could help us get Arturo to allow Melani to be confirmed... we gave her an alarm clock to help her wake up and everything!
What a BEAUTIFUL crazy day. My favorite yet. How glorious to be part of the conversion of three... no FOUR con Melani.. souls!
SUNDAY
I just love this. Today the three were confirmed... but Melani didn't come. So afterwards we prayed and got permission for the bishop to confirm her in his house. Arturo said we had fifteen minutes and we caught the bishop right before he left to work! FOUR CONFIRMATIONS! With that... the mission reached 200 baptisms which is the most we´ve had in the history of the mission! We have seen so many milagros and I am SO grateful to be part of this great work at this great time. The Lord is hastening the work... and we have got to catch up!!! The area president told us as a commandment from the Lord to double our baptisms... and we are going to do it!! I LOVE the gospel and I LOVE this work.
There is more that happened but I am out of time and want to send pictures! Love you all. THANK YOU for the love and support and prayers. I am so blessed!!
Hermana Cook
