Weirdest Changes Ever

I can relate with the hot weather...the other day Litchfield and I were like "Wow, it´s a pretty fresco day." Then we saw what temp it was...90 degrees...I´m going to absolutely FREEZE to death when I get home. =P

Alright well, talk about one crazy week. With Elder Litchfield´s companion Elder Gonzalez "dying" as we call it (going home) members were inviting the four of us to dinner every night, which was fine with my comp because he was living off a mil for the week (that´s about $2). I ended the month pretty well off cash wise. I had $40, $20 of which I saved to pay for the temple trip/lunch/and all that jazz. I´m pretty proud of my money managing these days, I´m almost never hurting at the end of the month. =D

The temple trip was a little weird... For one it was suppose to be a zone activity, and the 4 of us made it JUST in time for the morning session. But when we got there, the rest of our zone was nowhere to be found... The temple president kept asking us where the rest of the zone was, but we had no idea. Only 2 other missionaires showed as we were leaving. None of us were too happy with the ZLs on that. Turns out they woke up late and decided they couldn´t make the half hour bus ride, which is nothing compared to our 4 hour viaje. Really poor planning on their part, and Elder Gonzalez wasn´t too happy about it because it was his last P-Day.
Other than that little mishap I enjoyed myself. The four of us missionaries helped out our branches doing baptisms for the dead (Maradiaga and Gonzalez confirming, Litchfield and I acting as witnesses), and afterwards we went to the mall in San Ramon and enjoyed some good ol´ McDonald´s icecream sundaes with my branch president and his family. Good times, good times. =)

Nothing too exciting happened throughout the week. Things were a lot better than they had been in previous weeks. Maradiaga realized the campo makes him lazy, and he´s been trying to change things up a bit. I feel really good about last week, we did the best we could and that´s all I can ask for. Tuesday and Friday I was on divisions with Elder Litchfield. He´s such a cool guy, just another guy I´m going to be chilling with after the mission. 2 months in the MTC together, and now 4 months here in Cañas. We´ve definately become brothers in Costa Rica and close friends. Haha, he even offered me his little sister...if I can afford her...=P It was pretty funny.

Wednesday night Maradiaga and I passed by our baptism Andres. That kid is so awesome, I´ve never seen such faith in someone so young. 14 years old, goes to church every Sunday without fail, reads the scriptures every day, and understands everything so clearly. It´s been a blessing to be part of his conversion. He told us about how he gained his testimony and the moment he knew the church was true. I have high hopes for that kid. Mission hopes more than anything else.

Well that brings us to, for me, the most important news of the week. *DRUMROLL* Changes! Well we had our many predictions of what was going to happen, and we came up with almost every possibility we could think of. Our final conclusion was this: Gonzalez was going home, nuff said. They would close La Union (sadly), I would be taking off for my 3rd area, and Litchfield & Maradiaga were going to be companions in Rama Cañas.

We were wrong.

Dead wrong.

La Union is going to be closed, we were right on that. However Elder Maradiaga is leaving after 2 and a half months, and I am going to my 3rd area after all...Rama Cañas...with Elder Litchfield! All of it seems more or less like what we were planning on, only with me and Maradiaga switched around. But there´s more to it, and this is where things get weird. Elder Litchfield is not only my new companion, but ONE of my new companions. They´re putting a TRIO in Cañas for the next 6 weeks (por la menos). Why? This is what the APs explained to us:

18 missionaries are going home Tuesday (Aug 4). We were suppose to be receiving 20 new missionaries...we´re only getting 10. On top of that, 6 missionaries are leaving 3 weeks early for school this next change. In other words the San José Costa Rica Misión is only getting smaller and smaller. There hasn´t been a change yet as far as I´ve been here where we´ve received more, let alone equal, new missionaires than there´s been missionaries going home. 6 areas are being closed, La Union being one of them.
This trio thing has been a pain for us because we had to move all our stuff into one house (La Union had one, Cañas another). Maradiaga and I lived with a great family, who have had missionaries living there for more than 25 years. But the apartment we had was hardly big enough for 2 missionaries. 3 would be impossible. It was heartbreaking to tell Hna. Odi and her family we couldn´t live there anymore, no matter how much we wanted to. We had direct orders from the APs that we had to live in the other house, and that wasn´t going to change. We all feel pretty bad... =(

Well that´s all the news I have for the week. I´m going to be comps with Elder Litchfield! And I´m getting yet ANOTHER new companion Thursday. I´ll write next week with the details of it all. I love you all and I hope everyone has a great week. Mom, have a safe trip to Hawaii and tell Ashley the same. Enjoy yourselves!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- Will you be able to write me while in Hawaii???