Winning the battles, but losing the war.

This week was super hard. First of trios are hard. Secound Hermana Montepueque is in like all sorts of pain with her teeth and what not and wasnt really that nice but like you got to understand she cant eat or sleep. Third hermana Soe and I have a ton of anxity for the furture and honestly we are so scared to be left alone. And Last I was super sick and like wasnt a happy camper this week. And well the Mission is hard. 

All this week has just been weird. Teaching is weird and Hna M keeps trying to make us do stuff and we keep fighting her. Cause she like acts like shes not part of our compaionship but she is so we faught her all week long to not be left alone. And we won almost all of them untill she left this morning to get her wisdom teeth taking out and now its just me and Hermana Soe in this big Spanish World. So this is gonna be a fun week. Its gonna be the MTC all over again. And the conclusion I came to as WHy Im in this situation is becuase President trust me... I DONT WANT TO BE TRUSTED. I wanna be a problem misionary they have more fun. or at least less responsibility and resposibility in the mission is scary. But Yesterday I had a good boost. One of the members said my spanish has improved so much! He said he cant belive i UNDERSTAND SO MUCH FOR ONLY 4 MONTHS OF SPANISH EVER!! (sorry Caps Lock) So that was a good last min help with my confidence this week. 

Oh and this week as been SUPER HOT. Im dying. WE have been sweating and hiking all over our area its crazy. so if Im looking rough in my photos its because these last few days have been rough. 

Oh and one thing Ive really been learning and recognizing more is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost has one of the most important roles in this world. To testify of truth. And those who are baptised recive this Gift. THis gift is more powerful than anything you can imagine. Especially if you are living worthy to have it every day. We have to investagators in particular who this week told us that They could see the Holy Ghost in us. That the only reason the listened is becuase the can feel the goodness and the truth as we speak and even when we first enter thier house. I know this is because I am living worthy to have the companionship of the holy Ghost in my Life. Thats how powerful this girft is. People can see it and feel it even before you open your mouth to speak. I am so greatful for the guidence of the spirit in my life and for the opertunity to help other people recive this amazing gift. If your struggling with feeling the spirit we need to ask ourselves. Am I really Converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Am I reading my Scriptures everyday and obeying the Commandments of God... Every Commandment, especially keeping the Sabeth day Holy? Are my thoughts clean and worthy to have a member of the God head as my Companion? If you anwsered No to any of these no worries you can start today. Repent and Try again, set spiritual goals every week and achieve them! 

I love you all SOOOOO Much thanks for all your letters the really help when the language gets you down! 

Shout out to the Arkanssa Bunch for all their CHristmas cards this week. Nothing like a 2nd Christmans in Febrero to brighten your day!! Seriously I am so Grateful for you guys and all your love and prayers and letters! 

Stay tuned to find out all the trials me and Hermana Soe have to go through this week! haha Wish us Luck! 

Pura Vida! 

Hermana Freeze 

The Actual Fastest Week of My Life

Im seerious. The fastest week of my life. 

Tuesday

We have divisions with hermana Perez because she still doesnt have a companion... its crazy dont ask. 

Wednesday

We had a meeting that lasted from 8 in the morning to 5pm at the office. It was awesome but super long. then we had divisions with the other hermanas because my companion has to do that kind of stuff, so went to the other area to help hermana Perez! 

Thursday

We has to go out of our mission to get a Pano for the wisdom teeth of my companion which she has to get takin out. 

side note. 

We saw a miracle this week. We had been teaching a family and one day we went to teach them and the grandpa said no ones here. and we were like okay thats okay well just come back. and then he was like NO NEVER COME BACK. THEY DONT LIKE YOU. GOD WILLING YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK TO MY HOUSE.... and we were like uhhh okay were gona talk to Jose and stephanie about it but have a great day. And for like a good solid week we tried to teach but it never worked out and idk thngs were just weird. Well we had advice not to go back to the house without 3rd person and this day we still had Hermana Perez with us so we decided to go. The grand father was there but he was sick and sleeping on the couch. We started to teach the Restoration of the GOspel of Jesus Christ. The Most important lession and as we were teaching the Grandpa started to like move and wake up, but the spirit was so Strong and we just kept teaching and baring testimony of all these things and you will never belive what happen. The gandpa acepted our lesson.He even told us I never understood before, im 75 years old and still learning and I kno0w what your saying is true please can I have a book of mormon to read and know for myself... and were like uhhh yeah Ive got one right here for you. and Jose also was like I lovwe the bible and your telling me there is more than just the Bible... like God talks to all his people... and were like YES. Ah man seriously miracle. It was the most powerful lesson we have had so far. And I cant even Explain the joy we felt for them Super great day. 

Friday

Found out about our changes... Turns out I get a new Companion. Some of you may recognize her. She was my companion in the MTC... and yep we have the same amount of spansh... which means we are both going to die in our area. But Hna Montepeque will be with us for 3 weeks maybe but she will be having surgery... so were all on our own in this beautiful spanish world... help. 

Saturday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY COMPANION! we has a ton of fiestas it was so fun. The main one was at our favorite families house because thier little daugfhter Camilia has a birthday this week too! Seriously tho saturday was one of the most fun days. 

Sunday 

My companion got sick at church so we had to go lay down at a members house and the day just disapeared.

ANd here we are. Hermana Soe is sitting next to us. We have three girls living in this tiny apartment ment for 2 and well this might as well be the most interesting 6 weeks of my mission so stay tuned to find out how much spanish we really dont know.

Love you all thanks for your support as always! 

Hermana Freeze 

Another Fast Week

This week went so fast I didnt even get to write in my journal. We lost alot of investagators so we spent all week knocking on doors trying to find people. In my mision we have to have 20 progressing investagators at all time. So sincce we dropped down to 12 weve had to work really hard to find people. Which means exploring our area. and our area is HUDGE. Aparently it was opened with my companion just before me so we have lots of new streets to search in. Its hard becuase we have to take a buss like 10/15 min to get to the the other side so it means lots of walking and lots of talking to new people in spanish. My spanish is improving well and I understand a good bit. I even teach full lessons without help from my companion, but usually thats because the member or investagator doesnt like her and will only listen to me so I have to, haha. Latins are funny sometimes. 

Turns out that we have more rual areas in Jardin not just city. We found a nice man with a Cow and Gave him a book of mormon. and I even got to touch it, not sure if it was a good idea but hey you just got to do it. Also while contacting we found this kid who was like I dont belive in God. And man it was super exciting. We both like whiped out our scriptures and testified of our loving heavenly father and he even left with a Book of Mormon. (he doesnt belive in the bible) so if we can get him to see the truth in the book of mormon we can help him see the truth of Jesus Christ in the bible too. So Lots of fun.

Im still obsessed with all the dogs here and it usually helps us find people. I make friends with their dog and  my companion teaches them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And they usually let us come back. So in realitly the dogs are on our side too. 

Nothing much super Crazy happened this week. I honetly cant tell you what we did it went so fast. We had to cook our own lunches this week. Which actually turned out delicious and super healthy, except we made empanadas and I burned my companion... but like really her foot moved under the drop of oil. so im not sure. Another Fun fact! We have this nice little man that sells avacatos outside our house and we alwasy buy 4 for like a dollar and he thows in a 5th so we get to eat lots of fresh and delicious guacamole all the time! Super Rico 

Today has been a busy day too. I got my hair Cut... for 4 dollars and my companion went to the dentist... and she needs her wisdom teeth out soo depending on if we get transfered this next week its gonna be lots of time in our apartment the next month. SO wish me luck. I hear its borring because we really have nothing we can do.

Sorry for the random email. I cant even tell you how fast this week has gone but I did here something interesting. If your about to start reading the Book of mormon again read it from back to front. By books. Aparently its a completly different book and makes alot of since. So like start and read moroni 1 to 10 and then start then next book at chapter 1. Interesting I know but aparently it will help you a ton with your knowledge of the scriptures. 

Let me just finish my testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It does not replace the Bible and should be used with the Bible. For those of you who have not read the Book of Mormon. Read it. For those of you who have doubts. Pray about it. I promise you that if you pray with real intent ready to act on what ever anwser you recive. God will anwser and show you the truthfullness of his Gospel through this book. The book of Mormon Is Another Testiment of Jesus Christ and if you would like to strenghthen your testimony in Him. I advice you start reading it now. It can change your life and help you know of a surity that Jesus is the Christ. let me end with the last two paragraphs in the introduction of the book of Mormon and I extend this invitation to all. 

We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (SeeMoroni 10:3–5.) Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah.

I hope we all can understand the importants of this testimony in the last days. Faith is not by chance but by choice. Choose to have faith and I promise God will pour out his blessings apon you. I love you all! Thank you for everything! 

Hermana Freeze 

Where did the Week go?

This week went so fast and thinking back I cant even tell you anythig that happened.Im sure lots happened, good and bad. And im sure I have lots of spanish stories, good and bad, but I honestly cant think of any. The highlight of the week was Saturday. It was the craziest day. We took a Van 2 hrs to the othre mission and go to see Elder Baker (he was in the MTC with me) which was fun to talk about the differences in our missions and I got to talk to the Gang and see Hermana Soe who I LOVE! We had a little picnic and got fresh fruit and then we got to listen to an apostle of the Lord speak. A real special witness of the lord Jesus christ. That he lives and Guides the Church today! It was the most amazing experience that I cant even begin to tell you the things I heard, learned, and felt. I cant tell you that our Savior lives and he hasnt left us alone in this beautiful world! After the conference I we got bussed back and we ran to our ward activity that had already started and at the End of the activity we had 3 Baptisms. The childfren of a family we had been teaching! It was absolutly beautiful. After we spent an hour frantically looking for clothes. And one of her kids ended up wearing tights from our neighbors. Its a long story. But anyways this week was good and ended with the spiritial exspereince of a lifetime. Thats all I really have for this week. Im just so tired I cant remember anything. haha The mission is awesome but it kicks your but with sleep and work. I hope everyone is having a good week dont forget to read your scriptures especially the Book of Mormon. Thats the word of God at your fingertips. So go read it. It will change your life. 

Con Amor 

Hermana Freeze 

Ups and Downs

The mission is seriously the best and worst time of your life haha. And by worst its really not bad at all. It is all kinda really confusing. Lets take food for example.

All in one week I had the best meal Ive ever eaten on my mission and the worst. ewwww

Worst. We had white bread, white rice, potatos, some choped tomato with chopped up hot dogs in a liquidy red sauce oh and we drank jell-o as our drink. like straight lime jell-o that haddent formed yet. And remember every porton is a thanks giving dinner portion. So yeah that one was rough. Oh and my companion couldnt finish hers so I had to help. I thought I was going to die. 

But yesterday we had the most amazing meal. We had rice but it was like a different rice. honestly the best rice ive had in costarica with some grilled fresh veggies sauted acorn squash a grilled chicken that was amazing and a fresh limeaid with fresh basil and a cin-apple struddle for dessert. Oh my gosh it was so good. solike ups and downs everyday.

With spanish this week its been a big thing to tell jokes but like I dont understand any of them. I spend all day laughing at nothing. But I think my companion is the only one who realizes I have no idea what is going on.

Oh also this week we had a missionary get sick and go home so she has to trio with me and my companion but we have 2 areas Gravillias and Jardin so I spent half the week in one and half the week in the other and we had to find tons of members to help be companions. It is seriously crazy. I have no Idea how we did it. But I was in the other area this week and we were at an investagators house and I had actually taught once before there with Hermana Perez so that was fun to see because a Month ago the didnt want to go to church or do anything and now we are teaching there 17 year old daughter as weel. So we were teaching the law of Chastity and her little brother just starts climbing all over me and taking my stuff so im fighting of this 3 year old while we are trying to teach and Im talking he is ALL OVER ME like on top of my back and im like pushing him off like crazxy. Its aweful. The he gets a hold of my water bottle and straight in his mouth.... ewwww so I had to wash it like 4 times. you just dont really trust the mouth of a wild child ya know. The Hna Perez was praying and ive got my hads clapsed and as shes praying I am gaurding my stuff from this kid and he ends up like with all my stuff and standing on my back. Man it was a difficult lesson. This same kid while we were in the church waiting for his mom he like was Running everywhere so finally he runs into the bathroom and shuts the door and flushes the tolit with his hands in the water and hes drinking it too... lets just say it was a hard weekend.

But heres the cool thing this same family who didnt want to go to church or read their scriptures after a month they were at the baptism of the elders saturday night. Then on the way to there house the mom said I recived an anwser. I know its all true I want to get baptised tomarrow... and were like uhhh are you sure. dont you want to wait for your husban or daughter. and shes like no. this is my decision I want to get baptised tommarrow. And its like 8:45pm and if she wants to get baptised tomarrow it has to be at 8AM... so we called the bishop hoping he would say no... but he said yes. so within 12 hours we got called and got permission from everyone, called and got talks set, songs picked, filled up the font, set up all the chairs, found baptismal clothes (the hardest part), had the baptismal interview had members and everthing there at 8 am and she was baptised and recived the gift of the holy ghost in sacrament at 9am. 12hrs and the baptism went without a problem. It was lots of running and we had to wake up super early for the font and the clothes... it was seriosly crazy and I have no idea how we did it. And the good news is I didnt get robbed... yayyyy. seriously the biggest miracle I have ever seen. 

So as you can see its been quite a week. And we have an Apostle of the lord coming on saturday this week so stay tuned for that. Oh and saturday we have 3 more baptisms and a ward activity. so thats gonna be a fun day.

Oh I forgot to say I finally got my christmas packages from my family this week too! So I had a secound christmas in our apartment. It was great. we even had santa hats and stockings!

Oh and I got to hold a super cute cat this week. So you all can enjoy those pictures. 

Love you all! 

Hermana Freeze 

Wow, what a fast week!

Hola!

Well Honestly this week went by sooooooo Fast. Seriously. Monday is here and I have no idea what to write. I cant even remember my week. Something funny did happen a couple days ago. Well its not super funny but to me I just died laughing. We were waiting for the bus and this lady was asking us about what we were preaching and then she didnt really listen to us at all and instead started talking for a long time about how no body in this world has faith and that they have churches in africa or something like that... I dont know it was alot and it wasnt very interesting but anyways we got on the bus and she starts to preach to this old man and like super loud. So Im not sure if I told you guys about the busses but they are HUGE but like pretty nice. But these buss drivers drive like Crazy. If anyone had driven with my dad its like that but worse. They take off super fast and stop super close to other cars and the roads arent super good and they are really narrow and curvy. Well we are on this buss and this Lady is Preaching up a Storm and all of the sudden the buss takes the same usual Scary turn but this time it hits another car and BAM the lady preaching FLies out of her seat. Like im talking she just like dramatically fell all over the place. And like it jolted me a little but this Lady full on Fell out of her seat. And I know I should have been worried if she was okay and dont worry she is completly fine but seriously it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. It was like Slow Motion. She just went forward and was waving her arms everywhere. Seriously I was dying. It was so funny.

Another Cool Story. A couple weeks ago we we ran into a man on the street. He asked us where our church was and he was super sad looking, and he looked super just down. We told him and asked if we could pay him a visit. Turns out he is a member of our church but has been inactive for like 20 years. He just had a stroke and in going through physical thearpy and just has had a hard couple of years. We shared some scriptures and a thought with him and waited and he didnt come to church. We went to visit again a couple more times. Each time with more prayer and more scriptures. He was in a lot of pain so we had the bishop come and give him a blessing too. Each time we went he looked better and better. Then this sunday When he walked in the church it was an amazing feeling. But later that day we went to visit him at his house and he just had such a light. I have never seen him this happy. I Cant even discribe the difference we saw when he started to read his scriptures again and pray and come to church. I know that after partaking of the sacrament he had the holy ghost with him again. I could physically see a difference in him. I also know that God loves each and everyone one of his children. This man didnt look like much. He didnt have a family or a light of happiness anywhere near him the first time we met. but I know that God placed us in that street that day to help him and guide him back to the light which is our savior Jesus Christ. It was something so simple but I honestly saw God bless the life of a man who has nothing really to give but he was still given so much- God knows us all so personally its amazing! 

Lasty Something irritating. We were talking to a man someday and it started off with a question. He said he had a question. And he went on how the glory of God is his laws and that the laws never change and that the commandments of God are forever because its the glory of God and that Men keep changing Gods Glory and its not right. But after a little more digging his really question or problem was where in the bible does it say that Jesus Changed the Holy day to Sunday instead of Sarturday. Seriously this was his problem. After much talking and teaching we tried to help him see that profets were around to give guidence and help for each time and so there is some veriation in the laws because every aplication four our time and law can change but ultimitaly he didnt want to listen. So I finally said It doesnt say anywhere in the Bible that the Sabeth day is saturday. and he got like super ofended. Hes like YES IT DOES IN EXODUS and im like ive read the bible and the word Saturday is not in the bible. Well turns out the word Sabet wich can be translated to rest is aparently really close to Sabado in the SPANISH Bible. Whoops. haha like how was I suppose to know. That isnt in the English Scriptures. Anyways basically what I got out of this conversation is for all of you our there do not let the little things keep you from growing your faith. One day when I go to talk with God and Jesus and they are looking back at my life they are not going to tell me that because I worshiped on Sunday instead of Saturday I cant Go to Heaven... It really isnt important. What is important is the principle. We need to Give at least one full day for the lord. As long as I obey this Commandment in my heart The actual day really isnt that important. So Please Please Please do not let the little things that dont matter govern your faith. Please make sure that your Faith is centered on Christ, The Scriptures, Personal Prayer and Personal Revelation. I promise that if it is you wont let a problem like this slow the progression of your faith.

Last thing. Recently we have been reading the confrence talks for october in our studies and they are SOOO GOOD!!! I encourage all of you to get the Conference LIAHONA or Heres the link to read or listen to them on line. They are SO Good and will Change your life. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2015/10?lang=eng

A Few I really like are 

A summer with Great Aunt Rose

What Lack I Yet 

Its never to early and never to late 

It works wonderfully

But really they are all SOOO Good! Hope everyone has a great week!

Hernama Freeze  

Pura Vida!

Hey everyone! 

Still loving it here in Costa Rica! Another week of adventures but I think I have an angel watching over me. We had a Baptism so let me start off with that! 

So Saturday was the date for our investigator Jonathan to get Baptised. All was going well we didn't get robbed. Seriously great day. We turned the font on at 1:40 after lunch cause it takes like 3 hours to fill and we left and went to teach. We taught my favorite investigator and the went and checked on some others then we went to a baby shower for another one of our investigators which was fun as well. We played baby games and I got given a giant plate full of carbs that I had to eat. yay... but it was all good until we realized the font was still on. We kept trying to leave but it is so hard to leave people's house. They just want you to stay forever!! so we finally got out of there sprinted like crazy to flag down a taxi. My companion totally slipped on the gravel and almost died. We ran all the way into the church to turn of the font so we didn't flood the church and we got there and the water was off. The water was all the way up to the top step with just a little spilling into the bathroom but it was off. President happened to be waiting outside and when we went looking for a bucket we saw him and let him in. He took one look at the font and said who turned it off? We thought he did but he doesn't have any keys and we had the keys of the Elders so it wasn't them and no one else was in the church on a saturday. President takes one more look and says An Angel turned it off. And honestly it had to be. Since then I have heard 4 stories of missionaries who have flooded the church. But our water just stopped... Crazy right. well we had 30 min till the baptism and too much water so we spent 30 min using trash cans to dump the water down drains or the sink or the toilet. Absolutely crazy and we were soaking wet too. Good thing that in Costa Rica 6 really means 6:30 so we had extra time to clean and everything went great. 

Another fun part of the week is I had to go get my Visa Stuff taken Care of so we had to go to the office for that on Thursday. I showed up and guess who was there... Elder Winders Elder Gibby and Elder Jones! The Fam was back together! Except Hermana Soe and I'm not sure why. But it was a blast we got to go stand in a ton of lines and I got to hear about all the adventures of their areas it was  seriously awesome. Then we also had to have an interview in spanish about random things. Let me tell you that was hilarious. I had no Idea what was going on it was awesome. But I do remember he was drinking some nasty juice and he told me it was cucumbers and that it sucked. But I'm like it's good for the body right? and hes like yeah super good. And the rest of the questions about legal stuff I just blocked it all out. Cause it was hard haha. But I think I said the right stuff cause they took my fingerprints and I left! 

okay 1 more story. So My companion is the new STL for our zone which means she always has to check on the other sisters and we have to do divisions like every week. So this week a sister was having a really hard time which means I get to go to a different area with a new Companion! Yayy. Actually turned out super well. I didnt really know what was going on have the time but I just opened my mouth when she looked at me and spanish came out. Honestly I dont even know what I said, but she told my companion that I was awesome and that our lessons were super spiritual. So like the Gift of Tongues is real. Cause I can´t even tell you what I said that day but it was what some other people needed to hear and I was able to help in spanish! So that was a really good day. Then after that we were running home because we were late. On the way home I stepped on some cement covering of their draining system and it broke under me. I seriously thought I almosted died. But I kept running and I wasnt hurt anywhere.  Aparently that is how another sister broke her foot and had to go home for 3 months. Crazy I didnt even have a scratch. Angels  man Im telling you they are real.

Basically this week has been crazy and I cant even tell you the half of it. I do know that God anwsers all of our prayers no matter how dumb you think they are. He cares. I know God knows all of us personally and he has a specially plan for each of us. Filled with trials specific to what we can handle. If we reley on him through it all our trials wont disapear. But he will strengheth you and make your burdens Light. I can promise you that with all my heart. Thank you for all the letters and prayers. I love you guys. Heres my scripture of the week for ya. 

side notes:

We got a new Elder. Elder Ellis from Honduras. Super cool. Also The dogs I named still have there names and we are going to start teaching their owner Anna! Whoop Whoop! 

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” Ether 12:27

Be Strong. I love yo all 

Hermana Freeze