Cass in Costa Rica: September 2015

Semana Sesenta y Cinco: I am a happy missionary.

Hi family and friends!!!

I am a happy missionary. I am just gonna give a few highlights of the week...

I don´t know if I have told you but I have a new best friend!! Her name is Sister Fowler and she is the greatest. She is gringa and is from Bountiful. She is Sister Loza´s companion so we live in the same house and it is the HUGEST BLESSING!! I´ve never had a gringa comp but this is the closest I´ll get and it is the best. Well on Martes we had divisions! She is my sister training leader so she came to my area to work with me. She is SO full of faith. We started out the day praying to be able to find three new families that have already been to church once. We went out to work as I always do... diligently obediently faithfully.. but we also had SO much fun :) Seriously I love her... when we finished the day we realized that we had found THREE new families and EVERY SINGLE ONE had been to church at least once!!! Do you all realize that Heavenly Answers our prayers!!??? He truly does!! IT just blows my mind. The next day I studied Helaman 10 and 11 and I saw it proven there as well! THe Lord WANTS to bless us... he wants to help us! And if we are righteous and obedient and our desires are righteous... He will give us what we want and need! I love my Heavenly Father... and also Sister Fowler.

On Wednesday I started teaching piano lessons again! I sent a pic. It is fun to be able to serve others in so many ways. I really do love to serve... I love to be able to use my talents and abilities to bless others... I am just so blessed people. I love my Heavenly Father.

Thursday was AWESOME too! In Every single lesson that we had we found new investigators!!!! As I said before, when our desires are righteous and we are working hard with faith... of COURSE Heavenly Father will bless us!! I love HIm and this gospel so much.

On Friday we did divisions and I went to Coco with the Bishop and ward mission leader and his wife and my comp went to Comunidad with Heidy. We had a great day and were able to visit many inactive members. We are going to activate every soul!!! How many less actives do we have in our ward unit? I am coming to help activate them.

Saturday we taught some english classes.. And all our other lessons included finding more new investigators!! We are SO BLESSED!! I love this work..

On Sunday we had 16 investigators completely confirmed and set on coming to church. Even Rosa Herba! Oh ya.. on Wednesday we went to tell her we weren´t going to keep teaching her... but she told us she wants to get BAPTIZED and completely committed to come to church. Well she didn´t come :( I don´t understand people. We were set on having all those 16 in church. So we woke up early and at 7 we left and set out hiking up the mountain to bring the world to church. We ended up with one... :) But hey! One is better than zero!! And this one soul is a beautiful daughter of God named Jennifer that truly needs the gospel so I am so happy she came to church.

Now it is the 14th of Sept... the 15th is a HUGE day because its the 4th of July!!! Apparently Guanacaste celebrates all out so I will be sure to send pictures next week.

I just hope you all realized just how blessed we are. We may not be the richest people in the world but we have SO MANY THINGS... seriously. In the worldly sense we are SO much richer than these sweet ticos and in that sense we are truly blessed.... but in a spiritual sense I can not even BEGIN to explain the blessings we have. Do you realize that there are people that DON´T KNOW that they can pray to their Heavenly Father?? There are people that DON´T KNOW how to have a happy family?? Or that they CAN have a happy family?? I just want each of you to take a look around at the immense way that Heavenly Father has blessed us. He loves us so much.... And I TRULY love Him and am honored to be serving His mission.

I love you all,

Sister Cook

My new companion Sister B from Guatemala

Excelente Maestra

Semana Sesenta y Cuatro: Monkeys and Marimbas

Hola! So I never found my other planner (my PLANNer not my journal.. no worries) :) so my companion lent me her planner from the MTC and I put it in a case I had bought at the beginning of my mission... aaaaaand I lost that too. I guess this is one of those moments that mom would say, ´´where is your head you space cadette?!?!´´ haha... woops. I am still working on that :)

But this week was glorious. Truly. Actually it was so weird because I numbers were REALLY low... But we had been working normal and we saw so many miracles... yet the key indicators did not reflec that. Woops. Well we evaluated what we need to improve and have set goals to do so... but seriously this week I just... I love being a missionary.

Last Monday they took away our p-day because my comp had to go to the Panama embassy during the week. So we had to work normal and it was actually so hard to focus. I had to repent a lot.. Then on Tuesday we went to Kukamunga to visit Katherine! She is preparing for her baptism on Saturday. While there we met her non member 19 year old cousin Hellen. She seems like a member already! She is great and we are working to help her be baptized in September. Then we started down the mountain and found a family of four! They actually have a lot of potential. Then we finally found Nuria.. we watched the Restoration and the DVD skipped and broke RIGHT at the first vision!! Satanás!!! But she agreed to pray to know if Joseoph Smith was a prophet. We finished in Pueblo Nuevo with Jennifer. Oh how I love her. She is progressing so well. When we got there and asked if she had read the Book of Mormon her brothers said, ´´she reads that thing EVERY DAY!´´ :) It was sweet. Then we ended the night with Rosa and the chicos (Eli Elian and Elias.. have I already told you about this family?) Turns out her husband has come back so she WON'T be baptized on Saturday :( So sad. But good that he came back I guess.

Wednesday was... I don't remember.

Thursday we took the five and a half hour bus to San Jose.. just so my comp could sign a paper... then we headed back (6 hours!) I got sick in the curvy mountain roads (though the ride is BEAUTIFUL! very green and jungly) In the office... they asked me what airport I want to go to so they could buy my plane ticket... it is getting real!!

Friday... oooooh Friday... it was glorious! We started out in Kukamunga for Katherine´s interview. To get there you have to go up a big dusty hill/mountain and in the one o'clock sun it is BRUTAL! After the interview we had an appt. in Pueblo Nuevo at the bottom of the mountain. After that we had another appt at the top of Kukamunga otra vez! (i know, bad planning). So we were ALMOST to the top when suddenly we got a test from Rosa that said, ´´Hermanas, Soy Rosa. El 5 de Sept me bautizo.´´ we screamed and ran dooown the hill, through Pueblo Nuevo, through Moracia, until we got to Chorotega where Rosa lives. Turns out her ´´husband´´ finally left for good so now she can finally be baptized!!! We helped her see that there is no reason to wait for next week when we have a baptism planned tomorrow! With tears in her eys she said yes! Her sweet boys kissed her and hugged her. She is SUCH a SPECIAL woman! This is what I love about missionary work...

Saturday.. Today Rosa Maria Serrano Rodriguez and Katherine Pamela Juarez Morera were baptized! Rosa´s son Eli baptized her and Katherine´s dad baptized her. IT was beautiful! Afterwards Rosa shared a tearful testimony.. I am SO grateful to be part of her conversion! Leda was going to be baptized too... we were at the church waiting for two hours but she never showed :( it was so so sad.. I don´t know why. I love her so much and I´ve been so excited that she could receive her first ordinance! We will keep trying to contact her.

Sunday... another amazing day. In the morning we stood by the door greeting everyone that entered and I suddenly got really sentimental and teary because I just LOVE those people... I love the members.. I love Liberia... and I loooooooooooooooooooooove serving a mission. I don´t want to go home. I mean I do... but man I just love it here. Then we went out searching for new investigators... our goal was pretty lofty... ten! We only found three... but those three we found TRULY needed us. We had prayed to be guided to someone that really needed the gospel and we found three. I just love being part of this work.. Then at 4:30 Marjori and her son and her friend were baptized!!! Three souls all because we opened our mouths in the super market! They weren´t technically OUR baptisms (well they aren´t anyone´s baptisms... they are the Lord´s baptisms!!) but we just felt so happy to see them baptized. Then in the night meeting they were confirmed. I just love being a missionary. Today I just felt so fulfilled and happy to be doing this work. Man I love this.

Thank you so much for loving me... I feel your love from here and can´t wait to be with you again. I miss you all and hope you have the best week ever!!!

love sister cook

Sister Santos

Sister Fowler

Monkeys!!!

Marimbas

McDonalds with President Laboriel

Semana Sesenta y Tres: I don't want to go home

Hola! So I never found my other planner (my planner not my journal.. no worries) :) So my companion lent me her planner from the MTC and I put it in a case I had bought at the beginning of my mission... aaaaaand I lost that too. I guess this is one of those moments that mom would say, ´´where is your head you space cadette?!?!´´ haha... woops. I am still working on that :)

But this week was glorious. Truly. Actually it was so weird because I numbers were REALLY low... But we had been working normal and we saw so many miracles... yet the key indicators did not reflect that. Woops. Well we evaluated what we need to improve and have set goals to do so... but seriously this week I just... I love being a missionary.

Last Monday they took away our p-day because my comp had to go to the Panama embassy during the week. So we had to work normal and it was actually so hard to focus. I had to repent a lot.. Then on Tuesday we went to Kukamunga to visit Katherine! She is preparing for her baptism on Saturday. While there we met her non member 19 year old cousin Hellen. She seems like a member already! She is great and we are working to help her be baptized in September. Then we started down the mountain and found a family of four! They actually have a lot of potential. Then we finally found Nuria.. we watched the Restoration and the DVD skipped and broke RIGHT at the first vision!! Satanás!!! But she agreed to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. We finished in Pueblo Nuevo with Jennifer. Oh how I love her. She is progressing so well. When we got there and asked if she had read the Book of Mormon her brothers said, ´´she reads that thing EVERY DAY!´´ :) it was sweet. Then we ended the night with Rosa and the chicos (Eli Elian and Elias.. have I already told you about this family?) Turns out her husband has come back so she WON'T be baptized on SAutrday :( So sad. But good that he came back I guess.

Wednesday was... I don't remember.

Friday... oooooh Friday... it was glorious! We started out in Kukamunga for Katherine´s interview. To get there you have to go up a big dusty hill/mountain and in the one o'clock sun it is BRUTAL! After the interview we had an appt. in Pueblo Nuevo at the bottom of the mountain. After that we had another appt at the top of Kukamunga otra vez! (i know, bad planning). So we were ALMOST to the top when suddenly we got a text from Rosa that said, ´´Hermanas, Soy Rosa. El 5 de Sept me bautizo.´´ We screamed and ran dooown the hill, through Pueblo Nuevo, through Moracia, until we got tot Chorotega where Rosa lives. Turns out her ´´husband´´ finally left for good so now she can finally be baptized!!! We helped her see that there is no reason to wait for next week when we have a baptism planned tomorrow! With tears in her eys she said yes! Her sweet boys kissed her and hugged her. She is SUCH a SPECIAL woman! This is what I love about missionary work...

Thank you so much for loving me... I feel your love from here and can´t wait to be with you again. I miss you all and hope you have the best week ever!!!

Love Sister Cook

Me and Sister Fowler cutting the cake for the baptism

Rosa's Beautiful family

Katherine was baptized by her Father

Treat Time

Semana Sesenta y Dos: Kathrin Pamela and Leda

Hola Buenas!!! Come están?? It was so fun to hear about the family week that you had and I can´t wait to be with you for the next one.

The work is moving along here in Costa Rica! We had another good week with ups and downs... one of the downs is that I lost my planner in the bank (with the pretty leather cover with my name engraved on it) :( :( Entonces I don´t reeeeallly remember EVERYTHING that happened this week haha. Here are some random updates.

While searching for some less actives in San Rafael a.k.a Kukamunga (so called because it is way out in the middle of no where) we found an ACTIVE family with a nine year old daughter that has not yet been baptized. So we will be baptizing her on Saturday at six :) Her name is Katherin Pamela. Very cute girl! And a great blessing from our Heavenly Father to help us reach our goals.

Leda will also be baptized on Saturday at six. Do you remember her?? She was SO great but couldn´t be baptized because she lived with her pareja.. well in the middle of the night she decided to keep the commandments and left him! But that meant she had to move to Avangaras... which is far. But still in our area! So now she can be baptized! But she can only come to Liberia ever 15 days because she can´t pay for the bus so much... but we worked it out so she can have this great opportunity!

Rosa... not Rosa herba... Rosa 2. (everyone and their dog is named Rosa here. Or Maria. Or Rosa Maria de los Angeles..) Rosa 2 was an investigator of Hnas Contreras and Flores... then of Flores and Loza... then when they split the areas she became ours! She is just the best woman in the world... her three sons were baptized but she couldn´t because she lived with her pareja. She comes to church weekly and even pays her tithing!! Well this week her pareja left her which was so so sad... we ran to her aid to comfort her and help her count her many blessings.. (it is interesting that as a missionary I have given more marriage counsel and advice than ever in my life and obviously I have no experience in that! The spirit sure helps us have the words... and the real trick is that whatever problem or challenge we have... the answer, counsel, and advice, is live the gospel!) But now she is realizing that she too can FINALLY be baptized! So... Saturday at six! Saturday will be such a blessed day.

This week we had a special video conference with PRESIDENT RUSSELL M. NELSON! It was so great. IT was great. we were taught that in all situations we should CHOOSE JOY! We were also taught some ways to have greater success in la obra misional.. how to work with members... fourteen topics that we should master in the gospel.. and even some marriage advice! :) He gave us a blessing.. envoking the power of his apostleship.. blessing us in the work and blessing our FAMILIES! So know that you have been blessed by an apostle of God.

Then there was a conference for all women of the church 18 and above with Sister Wendy Nelson (his wife). Wow, she is a cool woman! She is so smart and has written several books and was the president of the BYU Womens Conference.

I´m sure what I am going to share you have heard before but I loved it. She said that we can all do a little three day experimento... where every day for three days we choose one thing wherein we can by ´holy´She said we can all say ´´ what would a holy woman do? How would a holy woman wake up? How would a holy woman do the laundry? Make dinner? Study the scriptures? Clean the house? Be with her children? Speak to her husband?´´ etc. She then explained that for every single one of our weaknesses, there is a counter gift of the spirit for whcih we can pray and fast for to change one by one our weaknesses and REALLY make them strengths. SHe said that all the gifts of the spirit listed in the scriptures are only suggestions and that there are many many more. My invitation to my dear family is that every one can do this challenge! Every day for three days look for one activity in which you can be ´holy´. How would a holy many complete his responsibilities at work? How would a holy girl act in school? How would a holy boy obey his mom? etc.. you can all apply it to yourselves.. hasta Cal! :) Oh and Finley too I guess.. he can talk and stuff right? My oh my. Anyways.. there were some scriptures she shared but I wrote them in my planner which is lost.. so just look for ways to be a little holier this week :)

I sure do love you all. I can´t even explain it. Like I said, ups and downs this week. Spiritual experiences daily and also many frustrations and sad moments... but this IS the work of the Lord. And it is a PRIVILEGE to be part of it. I will forever be grateful and will do whatever it takes to please my Heavenly Father.

I wish you all the best week ever... especially happy birthdays to Kate and Les. I love you all and will see you so soon! Have a great week!

Straightening Rosa's hair

A FHE game designed by the Elders

Semana Sesenta y Uno: Seriously family I love you all so much

Here´s the biggy. You will have to forgive me again... I got a little carried away in all my personal emails to you all. I just can NOT get over how blessed I am. I can not get over it. I just want to cry and give thanks to my Heavenly Father and to ustedes all day long and not even say anything about my week. You are the GREATEST BLESSING I COULD EVER HAVE ASKED FOR and I can not get over how blessed I am.... goodness I love you all so much. Thank you for the love and support.. for your prayers and for your emails. I am also praying for all of you and wish you the best in this week to come.

This week was good! I dont remember much....... but it was Día de la Madre!! So we had a party and I MC-ed. I was kinda awesome and the ward had a great time. We played games and sang songs and the works.

Then on Sunday I spoke on families. No one in the world has a family like ours. I am so blessed.

Other things happened but I don't remember.......Oh today is cambios! I am still here to finish the training of my sweet comp Sister Santos. That´s one cambio mas (six weeks) then I will only have one more change... six weeks more! It is FLYING by but I am so grateful for every minute.

Not many fruits yet but that is a okay. I am so happy to be serving the Lord. He has blessed me so much I can´t even explain it... and I will labor away all my days to thank Him.

Seriously family I love you all so much. I just don´t even have the words to express it. Just please stay faithful. Please keep doing what you are all already doing and never stop. We can only get better every day. I LOVE YOU ALL! Have the best week ever,

Hermana Cook