Reading, Praying, and Turtle Eggs

Hahaha, sounds like you guys are enjoying summer vacation. So you leave for Hawaii in 2 weeks? Wow, I bet Ashley´s getting really antzy to go. I´m really glad to hear Logan´s making friends in the ward, he needs that. A good confidence boost. What did you guys do for Dad´s b-day??? Anything special? I´m glad Dad´s able to keep himself busy with projects and stuff, and I bet he is too. What do I want from Hawaii??? Well since I won´t actually get it for another year or so...meh, keychain and maybe one of those louhou dolls for my car when I get home. =P I´d be content with that.
I did a little victory dance when you said you sent sour patch kids, just so you know. =D Hopefully I´ll get the package at changes.

Alright so, what´s new here...Well for starters the situation with my companion is still the same. Maradiaga just doesn´t care anymore, and his lack of decision making skills makes it worse. I´ve given up waiting for him to shape up. He´s a cool guy and we have fun, but if he´s not going to do his job and actually work while he has the chance then I´m gonna do it. Maradiaga will just have to follow my lead.
Saturday was National Service Day for Costa Rica. The 2 branches helped clean up an old folks home and the four of us helped out as well. The women painted benches while us MEN chopped down a tree, cleared out a ton of tall grass with machettes, and planted a dozen small trees. The four of us missionaries were pretty beat afterwards to say the least. But all in all it was good fun. Not much else happened this week, just work as usual.

This Saturday is the temple trip. I´m going to be pulling out money Friday from the account. I´m trying to be a little pinche this week so that I can pay for the buses with mission money, and be able to buy a few things I need at the temple store with personal cash. I´m looking forward to going to the temple again. I need the opportunity to clear my head a little and refocus, and the temple is a great place to do that.
We had lunch with the branch president, Pres. Reyneir, and his family yesterday. They´re so cool, and Pres. Reyneir is super enthusiastic, he reminds me a lot of Dad: funny, great with people, and always ready for the next task.
The closer I get with some of our menos activo families, the more I realize what a great job you and dad did raising me. I´ve taught on multiple occasions the 3 most basic principles in the gospel: read the scriptures, pray often, go to church. And every time I teach this lesson, I can´t help but think about the example you set while I was growing up. I remember when I was really little how Mom would always read us stories from the childrens´ picture version of the Book of Mormon, and how we all would always pray as a family every night before bed. Then of course there was Mom´s undying diligence of going to church every Sunday regardless of circumstances. But what I remember most of that time is how UNITED we all were. That´s what strikes home with me more than anything else. We were so much more ONE as a family in that time than any other, as far as I can remember. But it´s that feeling of unity I always stress when teaching less active families, because I see in them the same struggles we all faced together as a family. It´s all...well, I´m just really grateful for the effort you and dad put into trying to raise us kids right. For me it made the difference.

Hmmmm, well I don´t have much else to say really. Not a whole lot has been happening. I´m finally going to try mondongo next Sunday when we visit Pres. Reyneir and his family again. Oh yeah, some girl told her mom she´d start going to church again just to see me because I´m "tan guapo"...how bout them apples? I got a good laugh out of that. =P
Oh yeah, and apparently I´m humble??? Last night we were visiting a family from the branch who are having "differences" as they put it with other members in the branch. ...A situation we´re all too familiar with... Anyway as we were talking and I explained the importance of going to church not because of the people, but because of a sincere want to follow Christ, then mom replied that it´s not easy to ignore what other people say. That´s when the daughter of the family jumped in and said "That´s why we need to be humble like Elder Núñez!"
...I was a little taken aback, not gonna lie. I´ve never really seen myself as humble, I´ve just tried to do the right thing and screw up as little as possible, get along with people as best I can, yadda yadda yadda. Not that that´s always worked out for me, but at the very least I can say I tried. Not sure if that qualifies me for "humble" though.

Qué mas...oh yeah, Elder Litchfield and I had the honor of eating turtle eggs together. =P I tried turtle eggs back in Tibas, but that was a raw egg in a salsa drink that you just downed in one go. This time round was a little different. Thursday night we had dinner with our cook and Litchfield brought 2 cooked turtle eggs. I never handled a turtle egg before, it was weird. You learn in grade school the shell is like leather, but to actually feel it was interesting. To eat it we had to bite into the shell a little and suck out the liquid (it was really spicy, they cooked it in chile). Then you just opened it up and ate the core. It wasn´t too bad, but I like the salsa drink more. =P

Alright well I better jet. I love you all and I hope everyone has a great week. Changes are next week, so I´ll be emailing next Monday on whether or not I have changes. It´s about a 70% chance that I´ll be leaving, but anything´s possible. Oh yeah, there´s a book I´m wondering if you can find called "The Little Book of Missionary Reminders". I think it´s a bit older but hopefully you can find it. That´d make a cool little b-day present (ONE MONTH!). =D

Adios! Ciao! Cuidense!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

Rushed Letter

I´m glad to hear everyone´s doing great for the most part. Glad to hear Logan had fun at scout camp and that´s awesome he did so well in the shotgun shooting! Haha, Ashley working on her tan. =P When are you two flying out for Hawaii???

Alright so here´s what happened over the last week. Tuesday we had interviews with Pres. Gálvez, and I´m happy to say I feel Pres. Gálvez is just who we need to lead this mission right now. I had a good talk with him in my interview about the situation with my companion and he gave me some good ideas on what I can do as junior comp to keep things moving and not let my comp´s "I don´t care attiude" get in the way of what we need to do. Zone Conference was Wednesday and I won´t lie, it was a little weird. Spirits seemed to be down, the APs presentation didn´t have any real direction or message, and the APs themselves seemed to be a little distant from us and themselves. It was...a little off to say the least. Pres. Gálvez finished the conference on a high note with his capacitation at least. =)

Thursday and Friday we had divisions with the zone leaders. I was with my district leader Elder Gonzalez both days in the Cañas area and Elder Zavala was with my comp in La Unión. I was hoping Zavala might be able to give my comp some ánimo buuut...yeah, not sure that happened. Gonzalez goes home in 2 weeks, so he´s been working on his final report twice a week in the mornings. Friday we went to internet for him to type a few things up, aaaaaaaaaand we found Zavala and Maradiaga already there...doing email...and watching YouTube...yeah... I decided I´m not going to wait for Maradiaga to shape up. If he´s not going to make decisions or work on his own, he´ll just have to follow me. I´m tired of wasting time in the park every day.

Saturday made up for it all though. A month ago I threw out the idea with do a talent show for the 2 branches. Well we had our Noche de Talentos Saturday night, and I had a blast. =D I taught my district an easy kadence from drumline, and then we danced to a mix that Litchfield threw together and I ended up coreogrphing (spelling???). "We Will Rock You", "Mr. Roboto", "Kung Fu Fighting", the weird Las Ketchup song Ashley always use to listen to, "The Macarena", "Cotton Eye Joe", and "Thriller". It was really funny, I had a blast doing it. I´ll be sending fotos and video of it all next week.

Alright I have to jet, we´re in San José right now (Elder Maradiaga had to finish his immigration papers) and we have to catch our bus in 20 minutes. I love you all and I hope you all have a grat week!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- I don´t know if you can, but could somebody look through my stuff and send me my little white MP3 player???

Reflect on Your Present Blessings...

So this last week helped clear the cloudy skies that the week before brought in. I was on divisiones with good old Elder Litchfield Thursday and Friday, and that was definately the medicine I needed. We worked hard and had a blast doing it. Litchfield is so cool, just another guy I´m going to be chilling with after the mission. =D We found a new investigador (POR FIN), and taught some really sick lessons together. I can´t say how grateful I am to have Litchfield with me here. Without question he´s my best friend here in the mission. From the fallout of the week before to how horrible last Monday night went (none of our citas were home) hanging out with Litchfield saved me. I´m really blessed to have him there to pick me up as my comp goes trunky on me.

I got the package on Tuesday! Thanks a ton for the books, they´ve been really interesting to look over. Especially the Missionary Tools booklet, some really good ideas in there. Sadly most of them are out of the question in Tico Land, but others I´ve modified and I´m gonna see how they work out with some members this week. The shoe laces came just in time, thank you so much for that. =)

As far as this week goes, we have interviews tomorrow and zone conference Wednesday. In other words, we´re finally going to meet Presidente Galvez! We´re all really interested and excited to see what happens. Oh yeah, almost forgot! This Saturday we´re having a Talent Show activity. I offered up the idea a few weeks ago and the District President loved the idea, so every group in both branches (young men, young women, priesthood, relief society, and Los Elderes =D) is going to do something. I taught elders Maradiaga, Litchfield, and Gonzalez something from my drumline days, and then Litchfield threw together a dance mix and had me come up with a dance for all of us to do (yay drama!...yeah...). No one is ever going to forget us here, that´s for sure. I´m going to take video to send you guys. It´s going to be pretty hilarious.

Still on the search for a family. My comp still doesn´t want to knock doors...and no one ever has references...so I´m talking to everyone I can in the park. Someone has to invite to their house! I talk to 12 people a day, 7 days a week in the park. More often than not more than that. The odds of someone saying "yes" are not that far fetched, am I right??? =P

All right nothing much else from my side of the woods. I hope everyone is doing well and has a great week. I love you all and know that I´m working hard and I´m very, VERY grateful for all your prayers. It´ll all pay off soon, I know it will.

In parting I´ll leave you with some words from my good friend Charles Dickens which also helped lift my spirits this week. =)

"Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."

I love you all!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

These Are The Times That Try Mens Souls

Nothing special to report on my 4th of July. Just work as usual for us. Elder Maradiaga is suffering from mid-mission crisis has I´ve started calling it. He just doesn´t have the desire to work, and I´m running out of ideas on how to animate the guy. All I can do is get my contacts in for the day, and try to keep him from visiting the same menos activo family more than twice a week. Still haven´t found a family...but my comp hasn´t wanted to go looking either. It´s more of a disappointment than disheartening for me. I want to work, and work hard. But my comp doesn´t share my interest right now.

As I said not much to say about this week because not much happened. =( The ZLs are planning a Zone Activity for the last week of this month...a temple trip. I´d love to go, but at the end of the month a trip to San José is impossible. There´s no way we´ll have money enough to do it. We´ll just have to see what happens I guess.

Well I´ve spent this last week thinking about my situation and my companion´s lack of will. This shows just how much of a nerd I am when the first thing that popped into my head is a quote from Thomas Paine:

¨The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly.¨

Well, I´m definately in conflict right now. But it´s all too true. Anything and everything I´ve ever worked for was the much sweeter when it finally happened. That year long fight to get out here in the first place has made it virtually impossible to disanimate me. The 3 months of hard, hard work paid of in th baptism of Andres. And now? Truthfully this is the hardest things have been for me in the mission. This week was the first time I´ve had someone openly yell and cuss me out. Not a pleasant experience to say the least, but to ignore an insult is the true test of courage. And through it all, if by some miracle I find that family that we so desperately need right now, it´ll be reason to celebrate.
Because right now I just want someone to talk to. Who will listen with an open heart, and accept the what we have to offer. Right now that´s what I want more than anything else in the world. I just want someone to help. Because that´s what I´m here for, that´s WHO I am. And to talk to every soul that passes through the park as my comp watches from a bench and come up empty handed at the end of the day is MORE than enough reason to call it quits and go home. But I can´t do that, nor will I. If I joined my comp on the bench I´d not only let myself down, or everyone else back home, but those I was specially sent to help here. And that´s something I refuse to let happen without a fight.

*sigh* It´s been a long week. What can I say?

I hope everyone back home is doing fine. I love you all. =)
Take care and I´ll write, as always, next week. Cuidense.


Your Son,
Elder Nunie