Cass in Costa Rica: August 2014

Semana Doce: Nobody's Perfect

Well Hooooola!! Are you all so happy because I replied to everyone that emailed me right away this week?????? Progress, verdad???? Next week I´ll reply to all that email me right away AND those that are still waiting patiently for a reply from years ago!!!! Ha. Man I´m sorry. Okay let´s get down to business to defeat the huns shall we?

MONDAY

I think I talked a lot bout this day last week... Hmna Pizza left us. So sad but it´s great to have to participate more!!!

We had to go to San Jose TWICE today so we didn´t have any time to buy food..... this is gonna be a good week! :)

TUESDAY

We had a lesson today with Hermana Julia (Recent Convert) and her daughter was there with us. We taught about faith and her daughter ws just SOBBING! She has never been open to listening to us so it was pretty great. Then we had a lesson with David and he said he wants to wait a YEAR to get baptized. We promised him (quite boldly) that if he commits to stop everything and gives everything to the Lord, he can be prepared to be baptized this saturday. Wow. All day I was told we would be doing divisions so I was SO nervous because I would have to take one of the new sisters (oh ya.. all the new sisters arrived and are staying in our house and also all the sisters that are leaving are staying there so it is craaaaaazy) out on my own!!! SO SCARY! But finally I was so ready and had so much faith and was depending on the Lord! Then they said I didn´t have to anymore. Haha oh well.

WEDNESDAY

Today we got to go to President´s house for the breakfast with the newbies. We got there early to help with the food and I made AAAAALL the pancakes. There were literally a bajillion. She sent you a pick mama, did you get it???? Whilst flipping pancakes, we received a text from David which said he had prayed and decided he wanted to be baptized on Saturday!!!! What a miracle!!!!!!!!!! After president´s house we were SO motivated. He wants us to have 50 progressing investigators each this month! Wowza. So to work we went! We started a fast and started completely working on faith... praying frequently to know where to go and what to do! .... then we had ZERO lessons ha. Finally we had one with Ana Munoz who is WONDERFUL and seems pretty golden. Then no lessons again...... so we called every LPE H. Betancourt has ever done and FINALLY we got this woman to answer and she invited us over and turns out she lives right up the street from where we were!! We taught her whole family and it was greeeat! Then we did a mini interview with David and he is SO different! He is super hyper active and is truly crazy, but tonight he was more serious than ever!! There is seriously so much potential for change through the gospel!

THURSDAY

The olds left at 4 in the morning so we were up aaaaall night. It´s awful. But finally the house is ours!! They left BAGS AND BAGS of stuff! So that´s fun. I got some new clothes! But most of it is quite feo. We were still fasting today and were EXHAUSTED but finally we got to eat lunch with Grama! and guess what??? Her daughter was there visiting from SANDY, UT!! How loco, verdad??? She feels so bad that we eat with Mary Jane and I think she was offering that we eat with her every day..... :) Today David had his REAL interview. Elder Fisher said that at the beginning of the interview.. He thought that David needed more time. But by the end the spirit confirmed to him that he needed to be baptized this Saturday!! Wow que chiva enserio. When we got home the lock was backwards on our door.... which made us think some hermanas were there... but the lady that owns the house said no one came which is weird. Then we heard our water turning on and off down stairs and got a little freaked out haha :) All is well no worries.

FRIDAY

I was sooo ready to talk to everyone today and have a million LPES! ... I ended the day with five. Grr I was so frustrated. We had a lesson with Maritza and her daughter Melani... wow it was amazing! We set firm baptismal dates and Melani asked if she could be baptized sooner! Ha! Lesson with David again... continuing to change! There´s this woman on the street that we have seen like five times and today she cried to us saying she has been searching for God. So we of course set an appt for that night. We called her twice and she said she was on her way... but she never came. It was sad. Then we showed up at Jancy´s house and she was crying saying that her husband thinks she cheated so he is kicking her and the kids out and they have no whre to go! It is so sad. We were able to share a scripture and comfort her. We had a pooowerful lesson with Paola. I bore such testimony of the book of mormon it shocked me! :) I know that book is true!!! Our numbers are SO off this week. we are NINE lessons away from the mission standards and 60 LPES off... yikes.

SATURDAY

I read my missionary vision today and decided to just start picking things to become. I think it´s working!! Today I was aaaalways happy and didn´t complain ha :) We went to a YW activity at the church. It was beautiful! I thought you might like to see it mama. All over the world the YW of the church are learning these values! It´s great. BAPTISM DAY!!!! David was great. He was so excited that he posted it to Facebook immediately.... hahaha. Then we had a lesson with Jesus... It was tragic. He told us all our flaws and the things he hates about our teaching. He pointed out quite a few of my weaknesses and finally I stopped him and tearfully said, "I am so sorry, Jesus. I am not perfect! I have many weakness and it is heartbreaking to me to see that my weaknesses can influence your faith. I don´t have all the knowledge in the world but I DO have a testimony. I know this church is true and I hope you can remember that witness you once received too!" or something like that... then we went home and sobbed. I feel so much blame for what happened with him and his family! I have so many weaknesses.. and I can barely talk! I know that overall, I this is HIS work and HE won´t let us fail.. but I do know that my teaching skills and speaking skills have an impact on the effectiveness of the work and the understanding of our investigators! Also, our numbers were AWFUL this week which I didn´t get because we worked so hard and increased our dependance on the Lord tenfold! But still, I am ready to DOUBLE my efforts and give all I´ve got to this work!!!

Two things... today is Leslie´s birthday!! Everyone send her an email!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATELIN this week!! I love you!!!!

Also. there is mold on my magic norwex deoderant. It is truly magic! Anyone know how to get rid of the mold??

I LOVE YOU ALL! THE CHURCH IS SOOOOOO TRUE!!

xoxo

Hermana Cook

Stake YW Activity. Mary Jane is in the middle.

Stake YW Virtue Activity.

Decorated for lunch.

David's baptism. He's really never serious.

That's more like it!

Jesus' birthday party.

Love the kids! This is baby Ariel.

Jesus' birthday.

Making tons of pancakes at the mission home!

Semana Once: From Trio to Duo

Wahoooooo one change down!! Que Chiva!

I have become very accustomed to the smell of marijuana. Everyone and their dog smokes it.

Everyone says fetch (all the missionaries) just like in the Best Two Years! I am really trying not to pick that one up...

My garments stink so bad because of how long they sat in the bucket of water. No time to clean them. Oh well. :)

They always know I´m from the USA because of how hard I shut the car door! I never knew it was hard!!!! Do we shut doors hard??

I swear I have a letter just waiting to be sent. We never have time. I am MAKING time today.

When you say "Buenas! Como esta!" They always say "Bien bien gracias a Dios!" and forever I thought they were saying "Good thanks goodbye!" And so I´d be like oooookay.... I´ll stop talking to you. But really they are saying "Good thanks to God!" Ha. woops.

Okay in my scripture reading this week I read 1 Nephi chapter 6. Go read it yall! In it, Nephi says that he ONLY writes the things that are pleasing unto God and he gives a commandment to his posterity to ONLY write things that are of worth unto the children of men. You know what that means?? EVERY SINGLE THING in the Book of Mormon is pleasing unto God and of worth unto us!! So in your scripture study this week... find the worth of every verse!!!! I was thinking about the famous "my father dwelt in a tent" verse. You know what I realized?? Nephi and his family were rich.. they had lots of gold and silver and fine things. THey gave it ALL up to follow the commandments of the Lord. It must have been a pretty big deal to Nephi that his dad dwelt in a tent. Like the true demonstration of his faith. Food for thought! :)

Wow zero time! Ok super fast overview of the week:

Tuesday

Today we had a multi-zone conference with President. Hermana Bratt was there and when we got there we talked forever about all the things that we didn´t agree with that our trainers did. Then everything Presidente talked about was talking bad about our leaders. I was VERY humbled and realized that every assignment in the mission is directly from the Lord. OF COURSE my comps aren´t perfect!!! We all have much to improve! But they are great missionaries and when I changed my thinking from "What are they doing wrong" to "what can I learn from them" The whole week changed! We worked in greater unity then ever before and I truly feel love for these two girls! Also at the conference I met LEMUEL who is the son of LEMUEL the Cancun tour guide!!!!!!!! he said he´d seen me in a picture his dad has ha! He´s an elder in our mission!

WEDNESDAY

We have tons of Hmnas staying at our house so things are a little crazy but it´s all good! I´m meeting lots of sisters! Today we had an LPE (includes three things: Sharing a spiritual message of the restored gospel, extending a commitment such as visit mormon.org, and asking for references) with a 16 year old mom who ten minutes later called us saying she was hungry.... we bought her and her baby some bananas and crackers and juice. It is so hard here because so many people want money from us. We want to help everyone but we just can´t!

Guess what?? The food is good now!! Which is good! But also bad. Because I´m gaining weight. Yikes.

We have an investigator... Marlene... who was baptized a few weeks ago. Well she never showed up the next Sunday for her confirmation and has been running from us when we see her. She´s the mom of Jesus. Both have decided not to come to church anymroe and Hmna Marlene tried to give us back her Book of Mormon and all the folletos :( My comps were crying and I realized another thing I need to improve on. I felt sad... but I didn´t feel... ok like that scripture that says the missionaries in the BOM would quake at the thought of one soul being lost? I am noooot there yet. I think I need to work on Charity. I need to truly love these people and desire their Salvation more than anything else!!

THURSDAY

I truly feel closer to my comps than ever and feel so bad for the pride I´ve had and the way I´ve judged! We have lots to improve but I am learning to see it in a different way! As President says... Always happy NEVER satisfied!

Today we had lunch with Grama Manning. It was delicious of course!! We were late so she lectured us good and hard. Also she gave us like FIVE bowls of ice cream...!!!!

Also today we had a celebration at the church for El Dia de Madre!!!! There was lots of cultural dancing!! And lots of foood... but we had to leave before that part :( (I swear there is at least one fiesta of some sort every week!)

We had a lesson with an investigator named Paola. She is incredible!! She lives with Hermana Julia and is from Honduras. She left her four kids to come here to work so she can have enough money just to buy her fmaily a house with more than one room! She was SO excited and grateful to live somewhere so clean that she made us come see her room! It is just a plain room with cinderblock walls and a bed... completely empty otherwise. She was SO grateful and proud of that room! I am so humbled. The area I live in the houses are NICE! I am grateful for this opportunity to realize how truly blessed I am! I am so blessed to wake up every morming and preach the gospel in COSTA RICA!

FRIDAY

El Dia de MAdre!!!! Missionary Handbook says that holidays are the best because everyone is home with their families... which was true... but NO ONE would receive us because they were all home with their families!!! All six of our planned lessons fell and all six of our plan b´s fell too.. IT was awful! Finally we had a lesson with a young man and his mom and afterwards they had us do karaoke while they made us food.. it was so spicy I almost died. But delicious! The karaoke was Goodbye Earl... ha... memories... I finally suggested they put on the Christmas cd because I didn´t know how missionary appropriate killing Earl was...

SATURDAY

Lesson at 730 AM with Paola... seven lessons fell...ended up with six though!! Twas good.

SUNDAY

Woke up with a huge zit on my lip... so I had a fat lip. At church the kids said "que paso hermana cooook?????!?!?!" and I just laughed and said "Que feo, verdad????" Ha.

Today I participated equally in every lesson!! Well except for one with Fernando. Every time I was about to say something he would change the theme to something completely different and it took me a while to catch on! For example.. Hmna Pizza said something about the Book of Mormon and then he looked right at me and said "How many siblings do you have? Does your family support you serving a mission? Where do you live? Can I visit you?" for the rest of the night he was google DraperUtah.... youtubing alta high school... and google mapping my house. It was so weird. Also though they did find my house and I was so embarrassed because It shows the big excursion and our yard and a big house and a boat and a tramp.... It´s not even that big! But I felt so spoiled. Family- be grateful for what we have. We are truly blessed!!!

Also today... we got a call from the Zone leaders... CAMBIOS!!! (aka Transfers). Hermana Pizza is going to be a SPECIALISTA in another area and Hermana Betancourt is going to finish my training! Which means now for reals my comp knows ZERO English. Except for the tongue twisters I am teaching her. So now I will really learn spanish and HAVE to participate more!! It is so sad that finally when we get along so well, Hermana Pizza is leaving! I LOVE her!! We cried all morning ha. I feel a LOT of pressure now... like the whole area is going to crash because I have to do more without her! But she told me that she feels the same way with her new area but that President trusts us and the Lord trusts us. So we just have to trust Him! We are MISSIONARIES and can do anything He asks us to. So here we go!! A new week that is going to be VERY different!! But great!! I am a missionary and I can do anything the Lord asks me to do!!

Seriously thank you for all the love and support. So sorry I can never reply to all the emails but I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Keep being amazing missionaries at home too! The church is true!

Love Hermana Cook

I finally swept. That's only a corner.

Lemuel!!! Son of Lemuel the Cancun tour guide. We have a picture of us swimming at our hotel from 7 years ago! He is in my mission.

Hmna Sorensen! I followed her blog before the mish.

Kids playing soccer.

The lady in white is our "Grama Manning."

Sign on Grama Manning's fridge.

Strange holiday. The kids wear these heads and walk through the streets beating people with sticks.

Mattias y Jefferson - my first baptism.

Mother's Day Celebration at church.

Learning to cut a mango with the lovely instructions from mom. The internet man sure got a kick out of it!

We found an itty bitty baby lizard and trapped it in a bag.

Hmna Julia, Pamela, Fernando, Valerie, Chesny, Jerson, Joseph, Ariel and us.

Adios Hermanz Pizza:(

Semana Diez: Singing for the Ward Talent Show

My goodness. This is crazy. First of all, please post on my blog that I have a long list of people I have been trying to write every week and I ALWAYS run out of time. En serio it is the worst! Please let everyone know how grateful I am and that I really am trying to write back!! (I can´t figure out the hashtag button.. but hashtagandreasummerhaysauntmelandmanymore) I seriously love you all and am SO grateful. PLEASE forgive and I promise I will write back!!

Okay. Now I don´t just not have time during emails.... our companioship does NOT use time wisely and I NEVER have time. I am NINE days behind in my journal and it makes email quite difficult. I am going to try to just give an update on each day very quickly because today I´m sending PICTURES! So that takes lots of time and just.. . don´t hate me everyone :)

Okay MONDAY

After pday.. we went to a lesson but could find the house. This girl passing by just randomly stopped and started talking to us. We asked if we could share a message with her and we went in and shared with her whole family and they practically gave the lesson they were so prepared! It was amazing.

TUESDAY

Rough spanish day and I may have burst into tears in the middle of the street haha....However at the end of the day we had a lesson with Victor.. a menos activo. My comps didn´t know how to answer this question he had so they roughly got it into english and suddenly I had all the spanish words I needed to clearly explain the principle to Victor. It was truly a tender mercy and a little experience with the gift of tongues!

WEDNESDAY

Today I did SEVENTEEN LPEs all by myself!! More than Hmna Betancourt!! One of our LPEs said we were her angels and she has been waiting for this message. It is amazing how many people are prepared to receive the gospel! We just have to find them! Also we wasted a lot of time... :(

THURSDAY

DIVISIONS!! My goodness the best thing of my mission so far. There have been so many things I´ve been wondering about... turns out my sweet comps don´t quite do everything right. Of course no one is perfect... but anyways... lets just say I learned a LOT and Hmna Roundy told about LOTS of things going on that aren´t allowed or aren´t effective or good. I am a teensy bit worried that I´m not learning everything I can and need to learn in my training... but I know I am learning lots from my comps in many other ways! Secretly I am praying to be the one that is transferred this change so I can learn more... but you know. The Lord knows what I need and my comps need and the area needs so all is well.

FRIDAY

Finished divisions... she gave us scarves!! So nice. I was in charge of the phone today!! I actually made phone calls in SPANISH! Woot woot. Way to go Cass moment! Wasted lots of time.... comps have tension with a capital T. I am quite the middle man trying to keep the peace and have everybody love everybody.... all is well. Did 12 LPES. I realized that I do GREAT one day and really lousy the next... theN GREAT then lousy. But you know what?? I am a FULL-TIME MISSIONARY! Not an Every other day missionary!! Time to act like it!

Saturday

Went to our farthest area.. then back to our closest... then back to our farthest... then back to our closest. Not the most efficient pero esta bien. Then we had a ward activity that was a talent show. It was supposed to start at 4 but didn´t start until 6. we were there from 4-8 and only got one reference. BUT it was good in one way... the ward FINALLY knows me!! I sang Let it Go.... they went CRAZY! Everyone was talking through everyone´s talents and everyone would just do their thing... Let me tell you... I know how to work a crowd. I took the mic and was like "How´s everybody doin??? This is for the best ward in the world!!!!! Are you ready???" wooooo! Hahaha. Then I sang and I whipped my hair out of my pony tail when Elsa does and I ripped up toilet paper as snow. Twas awesome. Afterwards this man who lived in Utah for a while came and spoke to me for THIRTY MINUTES about how I need to start my own CD and stuff. He is very serious about my calling Jenny Phillips and saying "Jenny, how can you help me?" He also wants dad to talk to the people in Nashville. Hahha I kept trying to say "Well I still have 16 months to focus on my mission but afterwards maybe I´ll think about it!!" Then later he came around the corner singing in not the best opera "cilmb every mountain" and yelled, "REMEMBER THAT ONE SISTER COOK??" Hahaha funny.

SUNDAY

Only TWO INVESTIGATORS at church. Only five progressing. How did we go from 15 to 11 to 2?!?!?!? It doesn´t makes sense. But actually it does. After divisions and everything I learned from Hmna Roundy it totally makes sense. The question is... how do we change it??? I feel like I can see all the problems... and even a lot of the solutions!! But I cannot put them into practice!!! Also today they had me sing in the primary... the I see my mother kneeling song. I tried in spanish but couldn´t do it so I just finished in english and of course I cried. I am SO grateful to be blessed with a family that is so strong BECAUSE of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives and for the way it has changed our family!!! All these people need it for their own families. I love you all sooooo much.

Oh well. Nothing hugely inspiring this week. Just know that all is well here. My spanish is... well I feel like I can´t see my own progress but maybe one day I´ll just get it. I´m sure I´m progressing... but I can´t tell :) I am continuing to look for all the Good Things Costa Rica and feeling your prayers everyday. The Lord is strengthening me and through Him I can truly do all things!!!! I love you all INCREDIBLY much. Please forgive me for not being able to write you all and please know how grateful I am for you!!!

xoxo

Hermana Cook