Cass in Costa Rica: Semana Dieciocho: I'm a Trainer

TUESDAY

Today we went to the office to pick up all the newbies for divisions!!! My heart was pounding because guess what... the sister I´m going to train was there! But I don´t know which one!!! There are TEN Latinas and ZERO Gringas... so I´m training a latina! :) In the office... I got my PACKAGE!! Wow family THANK YOU! What a blessing!! You are seriously the best. My birthday will be so special!!!

Then we went to work with two of the newbies... we visited Christian and Sharon and had a POWERFUL lesson. They both committed to baptism on the 25th of this month and to be married before then! Wahoo!!

The nuevos are great... they have so much energy and excitedment for the work and it helps me feel the same way I did right after the MTC! I am so excited for MY nuevo and for the opportunity to train!

WEDNESDAY

Today we went to the office bright and early and President spoke to us.. then we went to his house for a delicious breakfast of gallo pinto.. At the house Hermana Wilkinson saw me and gave me the BIGGEST tightest hug of my life. She said "You DID IT! YOU MADE IT THROUGH AND YOU DID SO WELL! AND NOW YOU ARE IN CONTROL! YOU DID IT!" I nearly cried. :) It was so fun at the house because all my best friends of the mission- sister Geiss and Davidson and Bratt are all training too. We had a LOT of anxiety... por fin presidente announced the trainers and their trainees... he does it one by one and I was VERY LAST! I almost died. and my Trainee is.... Hermana Garcia!!!! She is from Guatemala and is AMAZING! I was so ready to teach her how to do everything... and be the leader for once... but before I could breath she was goin! She is DEFINTELY a leader personality and is not afraid of a thing. Plus she already knows spanish so she´s got that goin for her... :) She is truly great. I love being with her and am so grateful for the opportunity to help her refine the skills she already has. I think we will be a great team!

THURSDAY

With my comps before we only worked in Dos Cercas visiting the same people every day. As a result... we now have barely any investigators and I don´t know the other areas. So today we had to visit Christian and Sharon in Dos Cercas... (They said they now don´t want to get married until Sharon turns 18 in THREE years because she will lose the pension from her dad....) and then we spent the day working CLOSE to the church and with the members! I think we will have success....

We had a reference from a member and were trying to contact them... but instead we found the CUTEST girls that accepted baptismal dates and everything! Valery and Natalie.. We talked to the Young Women Pres and are going to visit them with her tomorrow!

FRIDAY

Today Mary Jane took us to teach us the limits of the ward... turns out there is EONS of area that I didn´t even know existed! We have MUCH work to do... MANY menos activos that we haven´t ever visited... man. There´s a lot. No more just in dos cercas... vamos a trabajar en TODO el area! We just have to find an effective way to do it!

SATURDAY

CONFERENCE!! We worked so hard to get people to come to conference... the mission goal is to have 500 people there! We had zero :( It was so sad because we worked SO hard! Conference was amazing though right??? Man I just love it! I was going to give commentary on every talk... but i don´t have time... :) Everyone study the talks for the months to come!

Then I felt we should visit Jendry.. so we did and WOW she had her WHOLE extended family there. They invited us in for cake and we taught them ALL about prophets and invited them to conference the following day! The sad thing is they

aren´t from our area... :)

SUNDAY

Conference again!! we went to pick up all our investigators and they were all getting ready to come and we were so excited! 8 investigators fijas! ... and then not a single one came. Natalie and Valery told us they wanted to keep going to their normal church and didn´t want us to visit them more... Christian and Sharon had some excuse... there was too much traffic for Jendry... Fernando had another excuse... EVERYone had something. SATAN! Get thee hence! It was a real bummer... we worked so hard to have people and then had no one. But for the second session all six of the people from Jendry´s family came!!!!! They are from Asseri, but at least they came!!! :)

I have been praying and praying to know how to organize our area and work better and more effectively and then I remembered Jd´s AREA BOX! So Jd... we will be starting that this week :)

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and love! Thank you for the packages and the prayers and the support. Thank you for your examples. I just love you all and pray always!!! Have an AMAZING week! I hope you can all come a little closer to the Savior this week!!! I love you all!

Love, Hermana Cook