Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! =D

So last week we had Zone Conference. It was LONG, but I enjoyed it. Presidente and Hermana Gálvez had really great capacitations, as well as the APs. They touched on things that are really what we deal with in Costa Rica as missionaries, and it didn´t feel like a discussion over things in general. I especially enjoyed Hermana Gálvez´s presentation on something I´ve mentioned before is a big problem here: Ticos have thrown the purpose of marriage out the window.
Presidente Gálvez also asked us to set up our Christmas calls home early and by internet. Christmas is on a Friday, so if you guys want to call me in the morning like we did last year. That seemed to work out pretty well.

Sunday we got a new ward mission leader, Jonathan Iman. He´s 23 years old, from Peru, and was baptized about 4 years ago. He´s a super awesome guy, he´s helped us out a lot over the last 3 months. We went out with us Sunday in order to meet some of our investigators. He´s gonna be a big help getting the members more involved in the work. =)

Also, one of our old investigators showed up again after disappearing a month ago: Juan Carlos. He showed us where he´s living now and invited us to come by later this week to continue teaching him. After a week of rejections this was a breathe of freash air. =)
The Zone Leaders also gave us the address to a girl they´ve been teaching on the weekends, but who lives in our area. Her name is Janet and the Zone Leaders said she could easily be baptized within 2 weeks, they´ve already talked a large part of the lessons and she´s been going to church for about a month now. All gold as far as I´m concerned. =D

Sunday I taught the Gospel Principles class in church since the sister they called to teach wasn´t prepared to. I threw together a quick lesson and it went pretty well. I definitely don´t doubt my decision to become a teacher, I really do enjoy it. Plus it makes me happy that I´ve progressed enough to teach in spanish without any second thoughts. My district leader told me I´ve been here too long because my english is horrible...and he has more time in the mission than I do...that´s what I get having latino companions for 8 months straight. =P

So during my personal studies this last week I´ve come to the conclusion that there´s a perfect example of what we deal with in Costa Rica found in the Book of Mormon. Namely in the conflict between the Nephites and the Lamanites, which is a similar conflict between the Ticos and the Nicaraguans (a.k.a. Nicas).
At times the light-skinned nephites were so proud and content they outright rejected the prophets and thrived in iniquity. While on the flipside, at times such as that of Jacob and Samuel the Lamanite, the dark-skinned lamanites were more righteous than the nephites, or kept commandments that the nephites flat out ignored. Amazingly enough we see the same thing here. The light-skinned ticos are very cold when it comes to talking about religion, and justify their iniquities by traditions. They´re also the most proudful people as a culture I´ve ever encountered. Whereas the dark-skinned nicas are far more humble and accepting BECAUSE of their humility. In thinking about costa ricans in general, a certain scripture keeps coming to mind which says:

"...this people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms..." (Jacob 2:23)

It´s been a long week, to say the least.

Oh yeah, our dueño has got to calling me "Papito", because I´m from Idaho...the potato state...okay well I thought I was funny. =P

Alright I gotta go. I hope everyone has a great week and a great Thanksgiving! I think the bishop has invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them...I think...I´m not 100% on that...I hope we have a Thanksgiving dinner! And even if we don´t that´s the mission for ya. =P

Have a great week! I love you all!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie