Just Another Day in Paradise

Hey hey hey family, I hope everything is going well back home. Siquirres is exactly what I thought Costa Rica would be like when I first received my mission call. Just a little town built up in the middle of the jungle. The humidity is something I need to get use to, it´s a whole lot more humid here than anywhere else I´ve been. Elder Logan is a pretty cool guy, he´ll be hitting a year in the mission this change. The Siquirres Branch is something I haven´t quite had to deal with yet. There´s a lot of apostacy going on here, and we´re just trying to keep things rolling. The vast majority of recent converts are inactive, but Elder Logan and his old companion, Elder Odell (from my MTC group) have done a lot of good work trying to put things back together.

My District Leader is once again an AP leaving the office, Elder Manning from Utah. He´s...different. He´s probably the most positive guy I´ve ever met. EVER. He makes my companion sick he´s so positive. It´ll be an interesting change. Hopefully my companion doesn´t kill the district leader. That would be bad.

Saturday we had an activity with the branch. The activity itselt was okay, not really anything special, but before anything started Elder Logan and I helped a lady remove a sloth from her house. It was just clinging to the wall right by the front door, and ticos are afraid of everything. It took a while to remove the sloth and release it into the jungle again. Those things are like Spider-Man in animal form, once it´s stuck it ain´t coming down.

I´ve had a lot of fun getting to know the people here. I´m having the hardest time convincing people I´m gringo, no one believes me. Usually my spanish gives me away, but apparently I speak like a true-blue tico. Even other latino missionaries don´t believe me. =P

Today we had a zone activity, we went to Puerto Limón and goofed off on a beach called Playa Bonita. It started to rain right when we got there, buuuuuuut after a few minutes it stopped and we started playing some soccer on the beach. One of my zone leaders, Elder Shrock from California, was going nuts watching all the big waves coming in. He´s a surfer boy, and he was having a great time pointing out which waves were perfect for surfing on how they formed and all that.

Alright it´s almost time for me to jet. I forgot to mention last week that I received the Brickers´ package at changes meeting. I haven´t opened it yet, saving it for Christmas, but I want you to tell them thank you for me. I still haven´t received your package yet, maybe next Monday I will. We have Interviews with Pres. Gálvez next Monday, as well as Zone Conference on Christmas Eve. I can´t believe how fast Christmas has come, it´s insane!!!!!!!

Alright I gotta go. I love you all, have a great week, and I´ll write back next week. As far as the phone call home goes, I´ll call Christmas morning. I need to find out how I do that again, because I don´t remember. We´ll finalize all that next week. Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

White Washed

Well, where do I begin. Friday night I got the call from my district leader, Elder Curtis, about changes. We knew Elder Muñoz would have changes, but it NEVER crossed our minds that we´d BOTH be getting changed out. They "white-washed" the area, threw 2 new elders in the area. Elder Muñoz is with the new elders today, showing them where our investigators live, the ward leaders, less active families, and all that jazz. He´ll be going to his new area tomorrow.
I´m now in the province of Limón, a little town called Siquirres with my first gringo companion in 7 and a half months, Elder Logan from Sandy, Utah.

Living Escazú was hard for a lot of reasons. First, Monday night Elder Muñoz and I put a baptism date with a young lady we´ve been visiting, Janet Torres. We planned everything for the 19th of December. A now I won´t be there to see it happen. =( Oh well, things happen for a reason. After we got the news of changes we had very little time to say goodbye to everyone. Several families invited us over for last minute lunch and dinner appointments Saturday and Sunday. I literally got sick from eating so much. The highlight of it all was seeing how much the members would miss us when we told them we were both leaving. Kenia and Sergio both came to church Sunday as well, which was better than anything else I could ask for.

Throughout the week, before getting hit with the changes news, we were really getting into the Christmas mood. Several families invited us to help them set up their Christmas trees. I loved it! Especially since I didn´t get to do that last year. =P

As far as the Christmas call home goes, I can´t call to set up the call like we´ve done in the past. President Gálvez asked us to set up the call by internet (what time and all that). I don´t know what the time difference is. Kind of makes things harder I guess. Just tell me if I should call you first Christmas morning, and then have you call me back. That might work out.

Alright I gotta go but I love you all and I hope you all have a great week! I´m doing good, exploring a new area with a new companion. Hopefully this sudden change doesn´t spoil Christmas. =P
Take care and I´ll talk to you next week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie