Elder Ryan R. Nunez

Fe, Esperanza, Caridad y Amor

2010-09-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean. Who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero. He is everything. He must be a complete man, a common man, and yet an uncommon man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. By word, by deed, without thought of it and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man of his world, and a good enough man for any world."

-Raymond Chandler

Iba a escribirles en inglés, pero ésta siendo mi última carta de mi misión decidí escribirles en el idioma de mi papá. El idioma en cuál mi testimonio está escrito en mi corazón.

Hace dos años dejé mi hogar y mi familia, mis amigos y mis sueños. De verdad dejé por atrás mi vida y entré en algo que nunca había imaginado. Salí de casa en pura inocencía y ahora, después de todo siento como por fin he aprendido algo de la vida. Me falta mucho todavía, sin embargo sé en quién he confiado.
No quiero dar una historia entera de lo que ha pasado en estos dos años, sin embargo deben sentir y conocer todo lo que siento en este momento.
Fui tirado en un país hablando nada del idioma y más perdido que un pez en tierra seca. Fui asaultado no sóla una vez, sino dos, con pistola a mi pecho. Fui rechazado y maldicido. Conocí personas que habían perdido su esperanza por completo y negaron la posibilidad de una vida mejor, y a las vez tuve la gran previlegio de conocer los escogidos del Señor en este pais que tomaron la decisión de cambiar sus vidas y luchar adelante cada día, los cuáles están a la par nuestra perseverando hasta el fin. Atrá vez de cada tristeza, de toda dificultad y prueba que he pasado en estos últimos dos años, lo haría TODO otra vez. Si supiera de todas estas cosas de antemano lo haría de nuevo. Porque ésta es la obra del Señor.

He visto milagros, y he sentido y visto el Espíritu de Dios literalmente trabajando a la par mía, y no puedo negarlo y nunca jamas lo haría. Sé que no soy nada, y siempre me he visto a mi mismo abajo de tódo. Sigo así porque así es. En las palabras de Ammón del Libro de Mormón "Sí, yo sé que nada soy; en cuanto a mi fuerza, soy débil; por tanto, no me jactaré de mí mismo, sino que me gloriaré en mi Dios, porque con sufuerza puedo hacer todas las cosas; sí, he aquí que hemos obrado muchos grandes milagros en esta tierra, por los cuales alabaremos su nombre para siempre jamás ." De verdad no he hecho nada en este país, porque vi la mano del Señor en tódo. Él que es el Todopoderoso realizó su obra, y doy gracias por ser el instrumento en Sus manos.
Mis palabras no son suficientes para testificar de tan grandes cosas. Sólo puedo decir lo que he dicho a todos, y seguiré deciéndolo por el resto de mi vida:

Ésta es la iglesia de Jesucristo. La única sobre la faz de la tierra guiado y dirigido por Él que creó el cielo y la tierra. Sé que el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios y que en él se encuentra las respuestas de todas las preguntas de esta vida. Por 180 años éste ha sido atacado como ningun otro libro religioso en historia y todavía está se sostiene, porque es un testimonio más de la divinidad del Señor Jesucristo, y fue sacado a la luz cómo José lo dijo, por el poder y el mandamiento de Dios Omnipotente.

Dos años han pasado y me siento como acabo de venir. No quiero irme. Hay mucho que hacer y almas que salvar, pero mi tiempo está al final y viene el momento por alguién más para continuar lo que empezé, y lo que alguién más empezó antes que yo. Con este pensamiento en mi corazón, les dejo con estas palabras más.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of good deeds might have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who if he wins knows the triumph of great achievement, and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

-Theodore Roosevelt
(quoted by John F.Kennedy in his inaugural address)

No ha sido facil, pero valió la pena. Estoy a punto de entrar una nueva división en la vida, pero tengo la base por la cuál venceré el enemigo de mi alma. Y ahora, me despido de todos. Hasta que nos veamos una vez más en la tierra de la restauración.

Adios.

Elder Ryan R. Nuñez
-Misionero del Señor Jesucristo
Misión Costa Rica San José 2008-2010

Opposition in All Things

2010-09-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

September 13 email:

This last week was insanely busy. Thursday I had to do baptism interviews in Grecia for the hermana misioneras. We ended up doing divisiones with the zone leaders since their planned divisiones with another area fell through (the bus route was closed). Elder Nelson and Elder Hoyt ran some errands for us in San Ramon in the morning as Elder Logan and I left for Grecia. I did one interview as Elder Logan did the other. It was interesting working with Elder Logan again after being companions. Some things have changed, others not so much. The four of us (Nelson, Logan, Hoyt and myself) spent the night in Naranjo. I slept on the tile floor as usual. I miss carpet. I think I´m just gonna throw myself out on the downstairs carpet for a good half hour when I get home. I might even sleep there at some point. =P

Friday morning Elders Nelson and Hoyt took off for San Ramon to fijar our baptism for Saturday as Elder Logan and I went to San José to pick up some legal documents for a wedding we had planned for Saturday. That turned out to be a frustrating mess. From one office to another, not once, not twice, but four times before we finally figured everything out. We treated ourselves to some Taco Bell since it was close by, and I realized my body just doesn´t deal well with fast food anymore. Not that that´s a bad thing. =P
Elder Logan and I continued working in Naranjo for the rest of the day. I met quite a few people that just made me depressed and frustrated to talk to. One lady went so far as to say she´s happy with life and doesn´t want any blessings from God. This is after having told us how her not-husband beats her and how they´re about to be evicted from their rotting wood shack.

Saturday morning I got back to San Ramon. We played some early morning soccer with some of our investigators, after which we stopped by to drop off our dirty clothes with the Hermana Mildred. Mildred had made us a surprise breakfast of flapjacks, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The rest of the day didn´t go as planned. I can honestly say I´ve never seen Satan working so hard to stop a baptism, but he was definately against us every step of the way. The wedding was planned for 3 p.m. At 2:30 p.m. the wife-to-be was not to be found and no one in the family was ready to go to the church anyway. They asked if we could wait until 4 p.m. We called the lawyer, who had another wedding to do at 4:30 and said it would be impossible to wait until 4. So we had to wait until 6 p.m. We ran back to tell the family, after which we had to call all the members and tell them of the time change. Then came our ropa bautismal problem. The hermana who was getting baptized is..."bigger" than those we usually baptize, and the issue came that we had no baptism clothes that could fit her. We found 2 dresses, one that was about the right width, just not long enough. We had the Hermana Mildred had one to the dress to make it just a little longer, and it was ready just in time for the wedding/baptism.

But even then Satan didn´t stop. First there was issues with the man´s ID, but we got over that issue and started the wedding. The couple had invited several family members to the wedding, and after they were wedded we began the baptism service. As one hermana spoke on baptism, a drunk cousin of the family apparently didn´t like what she was saying and yelled out something I didn´t understand through the drunken slur. The son of the family led the man outside as we finished with the talks and continued on with the baptism itself. I had the pleasure to baptize the Hemana Laura, and following that Elder Hoyt and I sang a duet of "How Great Thou Art" in spanish.

After all was said and done, Elder Hoyt and I felt exhausted and drained. We had had a few other issues with the branch presidency at the baptism as well, all of which I discussed with them yesterday after church. Luckily, the district president was with us. The man was so stubborn and so set in NOT doing things as they should be that I told him straight out if he didn´t listen, I´d call President Gálvez right then and there to set the record straight.

It´s been a long week, but the month isn´t over yet and we still have a goal to meet. We´re gonna be running ourselves dry, but we found a new family that´s just incredible and we´re working to get them all baptized by September 25th (it´s a family of five). The work keeps going despite the opposition. That´s all I can really ask for.

Today were just chilling with the district here in San Ramon. About 2 weeks ago Elder Hoyt and I found and carried home and huge stalk of bananas, of which has been all we´ve been eating ever since the bananas ripened a week ago. There´s still a lot of bananas and they´re soon about to over-ripen, so we invited everyone over to the Hermana Mildred´s house to make banana cream pies and banana smoothies. =P It´ll be good to kick back and rest for a few hours before we start killing ourselves at 6 p.m. tonight with all the work we still have left to do. =D

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Time really is flying. I just hope I can finish what I´ve started here before hitting the end.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Blessed in both body and spirit

2010-09-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

This week has felt like a week of blessings, in more ways than one. One the temporal side of things, last Monday we discovered the first and ONLY Jamba Juice in the country, which happens to be found in my lovely area of San Ramon. The zone leaders changed our district meeting location to San Ramon for just that reason. =P We had a "district Jamba fest" and the zone leaders went crazy. Everything is about half the price it is in the states since it´s so easy to find fruit here. The look on the Hermana Ho´s face (she´s from Guatemala) as she took a drink was hilarious. A look of pure shock and bliss. =D
It´s felt like we´ve been working a "reconstruction" of the area this last week. Since February the missionaries have been focusing in one neighborhood, and things are starting to slow down there. We´ve started to work one other area, where Eduardo and Jeannette live, teaching other family members of their´s. To tell the truth last week was just hectic. We´ve run into some legal document issues on top of that with 3 of our investigators, all of which need to be married. I´m praying the Lord will show us the way in how we can fix all of that, but I also have to accept His will if I´m suppose to be here when they get baptized or not.

Friday was work as usual, but we did celebrate the best we could. The fair was in town, so we treated ourselves to some churros and, of course, some Jamba Juice. It was raining all day, but I´ve gotten use to the daily downpours of Costa Rica. Friday morning our wash lady, the Hermana Mildrid, and her two kids called around 6:30 a.m. and sung me Happy Birthday. Later in the day we stopped by quickly, which was my mistake, because they all egged me 5 minutes before our next appointment. =P Friday night I made banana cream pie and Elder Hoyt made the crust. I´ve definately gotten better at that, it turned out great and we ended up sharing it with the Hermana Mildrid and her family, and they too loved it. =D
Saturday the Hermana Mildrid invited us to a "2-in-1" birthday party. Since the 3rd was my birthday, and today (the 6th) is her daugther, Tatiana´s birthday, the Hermana made a chocolate cake for both of us. It was pretty good. I´m not much of a cake person, but I did enjoy celebrating my birthday with good friends.

As I said this last week has been hectic. There´s so much to do and so little time to do it. Too much for just one companionship to tell the truth. San Ramon really needs four missionaries here. The work is progressing and last week we just couldn´t do EVERYTHING we wanted and plan to. It was simply impossible. We ended up teaching 30 lessons last week, and there were some other 10 lessons we ended up missing due to lack of time. Despite running around like a crazy man the Lord kept us going and we didn´t feel exhausted until lasy night (Sunday). It all hit me at once then. Elder Hoyt has been great though, I´ve been truly blessed to have him as my companion at mission´s end. He´s here to work and he knows what he´s doing. He only has 4 months in the mission, but he´s far from being a "greenie". Plus our common interests are off the wall, it´s been so much fun. I haven´t had a companionship like this since I was with my trainer, Elder DePriest.

The work keeps going and life keeps coming. Today we went to Volcan Arenal and took some pictures there. We all wanted to kill the zone leaders for making us go in ropa misional, knowing we´d be hiking around the volcano. One of the hermanas in San Carlos, the Hermana Turnbaugh, and I were plotting what we´d do to the zone leaders IF we could catch up with them. =P

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! It´s so weird that school has already started. Time really is flying. Cuídese mucho a todos. ¡Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

"That I may heal you"

2010-08-30T15:53:00.001-07:00

We´ve been really busy this last week. Monday night Eduardo and Jeannette were married, and it was incredible to see them together taking this step. Monday was a long day, what with all the preparation and what not, but it was well worth it to see their little family unified like that.

Late Monday night we received a call from the Hermana Soto, wife to the first counselor of the mission. The daughter of one of our members had been beaten (we later found out she had been beaten by the younger sister) and that she was in dire need of a priesthood blessing. Tuesday morning we left, finding the poor girl in horrible condition. Her nose had been broken, she had a high fever and she was having problems breathing. My heart was wrenched seeing her like that. Elder Hoyt performed the anointing and I sealed it with a blessing. We then had to leave pretty quick for Naranjo because we were already late for interviews with President Gálvez. I couldn´t get that girl out of my head for the rest of the day, and I found myself praying for her nonstop.

Interviews were great, I had a good talk with President Gálvez. He explained to me his wishes for my mission´s end, of which I totally agreed with. Working hard, giving everything I have, until that last day comes and I get on that plane absolutely exhausted, but unbelievably happy at the same time. I asked him how I should work with the hermanas in my district, since I´ve never been in a district with hermanas EVER, and he explained to me that little bit and then went on further in saying that we want me to end the mission flying, but it would be even more incredible if the district has a whole took off flying as well. Three of us are possibly going home this change: myself, Elder Nelson of course, and then possibly the Hermana Ho from Guatemala. President wants all three of us to have the most amazing month ever, and I´m totally on board with it.
The Hermana Gálvez also gave me an added responsibility: I am now the english tutor for the hermanas. It´s been fun so far practicing my teaching skills. I´m having fun with it.

Wednesday morning we left early to see how Victoria, the girl we had given a blessing to the day before, was holding up. Words cannot explain how I felt as I saw the same girl, who a day before was painfully trying to breathe from a beaten body, now eating for the first time in days with a smile on here face and breathing fine. In one day she had pulled a complete 180 from where she had been. I had never before borne witness of such a miracle, and the impact of it rested with me for the rest of the day. The power of the priesthood, the power of faith, it was just too much for me. I´m still in awe of it. Elder Hoyt started to sing softly has we left their humble home: "How Great Thou Art".
That same day as we were sitting in a visit with one of our investigators, Marta, the zone leaders and the APs showed up. We had been trying to put a baptismal date with Marta for quite some time, but the last time they had tried back in July the cold water had made her sick and flat out couldn´t do it. The cold water made her severly ill. Marta very sincerely told us she wanted to be baptized, but she couldn´t get into cold water again. I put Elder Hoyt with Elder Trost to set in stone a baptismal date for the coming Saturday, as the other AP Elder Christensen and myself started making calls looking for a place with warm water to perform the baptism. Our plan didn´t pull through, so Elder Hoyt and I started to brainstorm on how we could heat water and throw it into the baptismal fount. After hearing that Eduardo and Jeannette were to be baptized Friday night, Marta asked if she could be baptized with them, of which we were completely up for.
Thursday we spent in the chapel/house installing shower duchas in two of the three bathrooms in order to heat water. Thursday night the zone leaders showed up to perform a wedding and a baptism in our church since the baptismal fount in theirs was out of comission. The zone leaders spent the night with us and Friday morning, at 9:30 A.M. we began the long process of filling our baptismal fount with 4 cubic meters of water by hand. We had the two shower duchas running nonstop, filling tall garbage cans, while we had two HUGE pots of water boiling over portable stoves. Nine and a half hours later, the fount was full and the water was nice warm temperature. The four of us were dead tired, but when we began the baptismal service, I felt incredible content with what we had accomplished. I had the privileged of baptizing Eduardo, and Elder Hoyt baptized Jeannette and Marta. The first words Eduardo spoke as he came out of the water filled my soul with a joy I cannot explain: "Maravilloso".

This weekend we have yet ANOTHER wedding to prepare for, along with our plans for the month. In July there were 8 baptisms in the area. We finished out August with 9. There have been 36 baptisms in San Ramon since January, and Elder Hoyt and I want to hit 45 before I leave. But 45 means 9 baptisms, and seeing how these last 2 months were 8 and then 9, we´re aiming for the stars a going for 10. Ten sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father brought into the fold of the Good Shepard. I believe that would definatly be ending the mission "flying" as President Gálvez put it.

I love you all. Come Friday, I´ll be 22 years old. These last 23 months have been filled with experiences of every kind, and in this, my last month as an ordained messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can only pray to bare witness of His healing touch in not only my life, but in the lives of all those who are willing to listen to His words and feel His love. To accept His loving call to us all:

"...will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?" (3 Nephi 9:13, italics added)

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

The Reasons Why

2010-08-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

I won´t lie...that foto of Tylan walking into the airport was too much for me. I can´t believe he´s home!!!!
Oh yes, I know the return mission in Pocatello. Elder Mitton, he ended the mission as my AP. He´s a super cool guy, I actually plan on hanging out with him when we go down to Pocatello. And I love Elder Holland´s talk from last conference! I downloaded that the Monday after general conference just cause I could get enough of it. Elder Holland has such a commanding voice when he speaks, I love it!

My sudden change of area was a surprise, but the night of changes and all of last week made me realize instantly the reasons why. Hopefully I don´t leave anything out.

Monday night we visited a recent convert that my MTC companion Elder Trost had baptized, the Hermana Mildred and her family. I love that family! I´ll explain more on that later. Tuesday we visited another recent convert family who had been jehovah witnesses, and just to hear the mother´s testimony and how she had been sharing the gospel with literally ALL of her neighbors, I was just in awe. That night we visited a couple that we have on board for marriage and baptism, Eduardo and Jeanette. Another amazing family.
Let me start with some background on the area. For the past year San Ramon had been in a drought concerning missionary work. Not a single baptism for over a year. Then they sent Elder Trost here. He turned the area around, giving truth to my MTC teacher´s (Hermano Crane) words "Attitude makes the missionary." Elder Trost had the right attitude, and over the last 8 months there have been 33 baptisms in the area. Elder Trost baptized the Hermana Mildred and her family, she shared with me her conversion story and I have to give kudoos to Elder Trost, because he really was the only missionary who could have baptized that woman.
We spent the week finding new people and putting baptism dates left and right (we have 4 baptisms planned for September right now and we´re working for more). Our couple, Eduardo and Jeanette, were to be married Saturday (Aug 21), but Satan played his cards in trying to ruin it. First we had a back run in with mold that had infested all of our baptism clothes on Thursday. The Hermana Mildred called us at that moment of freaking out, telling us she had felt we needed help and if there was anything she could do for us. I count my lucky stars and thank the Lord for giving her that prompting of the Spirit, because otherwise we would´ve been left with NO baptism clothes for Saturday. About an hour before the wedding Saturday the lawyer called us, and gave us the unfortunate news that he absolutely couldn´t do the wedding that day. Eduardo and Jeanette had been counting down the days to their wedding, and there was no way I was going to wait until NEXT weekend for the big day. We´ve sacrificed our P-Day to get them married tonight, finalizing everything beforehand. Last night we passed by to check on the them, and luckily we did, because Lucifer had found his way back and had started to plant the seeds of doubt. I´ve said it before, I´ll say it again: I don´t know how many more times I can pour my heart and soul out in testimony. We spent a good two hours building up faith and testimony again until all was well and the wedding was back on a firm foundation. Elder Hoyt hugged me after we had left their house for joy. I guess he loved the way I bore my testimony to them. =P
Eduardo and Jeanette are getting married tonight at 7 p.m., and baptized Friday at the same hour. I ask for your prayers that they can stay firm in the faith until both these events pass.

There are so many people here I know I needed to meet before going home. So many tesitmonies I needed to hear, stories I needed to be told, and from day one in the area hasta la fecha, I´m still singing it.

I LOVE SAN RAMON!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

One Last Run

2010-08-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

Above Photo is of the bautism of Franklin

This last week ended with a lot of success, which is what I like to see. Tuesday morning we had a combined district meeting to discuss a few of the new points of focus we have as missionaries. Everything is still based out of Preach My Gospel, however they are 8 new focuses that haven´t had the attention they have well needed. And I personally bore witness of that Wednesday.
Wednesday we had received a referece from our cook, and since we happened to be working in that part of San Vito we took advantage of contacting the family the same day. Right from the get-go we began to apply a few of the new teaching methods we had discussed the day before, and we shared possibly the best lesson of my mission up to this point. The family we found is golden, and I would´ve loved to have baptized them for my birthday. Sadly that won´t be possible now.
Thursday we put a fecha with a joven we´ve been visiting, Miguel Ángel. We started planning his baptism for the 28th, which he accepted. Thursday night the missionaries from Ciudad Neilly came to do a blitz in San Vito. I finished Thursday night working with my district leader, Elder Perez from Honduras. Friday I continued working with Elder Perez while Elder Centeno worked with another salvadureño, Elder Garcia, in another part of San Vito. Elder Perez and I sealed in stone a baptismal fecha with Alondra once more, also for the 28th. The Spirit was there and she accepted the fecha readily without hesitation like past attempts. We also began teaching Miguel Ángel´s dad, who although very opinionated, was great to talk with and answer his questions.
Saturday we had the branch mother´s day activity (Sunday was Mother´s Day here in Costa Rica, HAPPY SECOND MOTHER´S DAY MOM!), which turned out really well. The new family we had found came and participated, making friends with the members and enjoying all the silly games we had planned. Hermano Chinchilla made "rice and bean" (gallo pinto cooked in coco milk and with chile panameño) which was incredible. All in all it was a great activity.
Sunday we had a great turn out, which I was deeply appreciated to see. We had 33 in church, with 3 investigators present.

Now for the surprising turn of events. Friday morning around 8 a.m. I received a phone call from the assistants. I was pumped when they told me I was the first in the mission to know about changes. I was sorely disappointed when they told me I HAD CHNAGES.
Sadly it was so. Once again, just as in Escazú, I was being taken from my area with only 3 short months, and being sent to who knows where. Elder Centeno is still in San Vito, he´ll have 7 and a half months before he leaves his first area now.
We got to San José Sunday night after a 6 hour bus ride from the zona sur. I spend a good part of the night talking with two of my good friends who I knew in the MTC, Elder Mitton and Elder Winward, who both go home tomorrow. It´s so weird to see this group going home right now, because they were with my group in the MTC for 3 weeks. This morning in changes meeting I meet up with my whole MTC district. Elder Litchfield and I started to make plans for BYU-Idaho and the whole nine yards. I said goodbye to my friends who are going home tomorrow: old ZLs, old DLs, an ex-secretary, and an ex-AP.
Then changes happened.
However disappointed I might have been about having to leave San Vito so soon was replaced by a sense of purpose as I was on the bus headed to my new area. I am now in San Ramon of Alajuela. San Ramon was part of my zone when I was in Cañas a year ago, but now it is part of Zona Central. Elder Nelson, who was with me in the MTC, and my old companion Elder Logan are my zone leaders. My new companion is Elder Hoyt from Houston, Texas. I´m the district leader over the zone leaders in Naranjo and the hermanas in Grecia. Once I saw I was district leader my only thought was "Oh snap, I need to teach district meetings now." =P The only thing that changes now is I can perform baptism interviews, which will be quite the experience.
Elder Litchfield had changes as well, he´s still in San José. My MTC companion, Elder Trost, is the new AP. We all saw it coming, and although he himself said he was nervous, I know he´s the man for the job.

Being in a new area for my last 6 weeks of the mission has given me a new jump of ánimo. San Ramon has been progressing ever since Elder Trost turned the place around, and I wll throw everything I have on the table, going "balls to the wall" as Elder Litchfield would put it, to keep it going and finish hard and strong. Elder Hoyt is a pretty cool guy. He only has 2 months in the mission, but he learned spanish before so language isn´t much of a barrier for him. He´s a percussionist like myself, he leaning more towards marimba, but we´re going to have a lot of fun.

I´m ready to go until I just can´t give anymore. To get it all I got and have no regrets.

It´s the Final Countdown. And I´m not going down without a FIGHT.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

It's been rough, but we're alive

2010-08-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a little quick, I don´t have a lot of time because I still need to make the tithing deposit in the bank before it closes. Oh the stress of being in charge.

I love how our family always has strange animals who make their home in ours. I hope you named that racoon like we did "Dinner" back at Grandma and Grandpa´s place. =P

Sounds like you guys are getting everything ready for the new school year. I won´t lie, it sounds crazy that school is about to start again. When I got to San Vito you guys were just getting out of school. No time has passed at all and you´re all getting ready to go back. What´s up with that???

This last week was tough, but we pulled through. This is the last week of the change, so Elder Centeno and I sat down last night after a really rough day and began to plan out every individual lesson with members we have scheduled for the week. My thinking is based off what the APs touched on in zone conference. 20 to 30% of those that members find get baptized, while only 1 to 2% of who we find enter the waters of baptism. If that´s the case, we need to be working through the members more than anything. But to do that we need to be visiting them and sharing lessons directed to strengthing their testimonies and understanding of the gospel. We´ve already started along that way, but we´ve kicked it up a notch due to our poorly depressing let-downs we had to experience over the week.

This upcoming Sunday, August 15th, is Mother´s Day here in Costa Rica. We´re planning a small dinner and activity for the mothers of branch, it should be pretty fun. I´m learning more about how to manage the funds of the branch, although I never imagined I´d be doing this kind of stuff.

I´ve been suffering from odd illnesses throughout these last few weeks, but I´m afraid it could all be from the same cause. Last Sunday I almost fainted while teaching Priesthood. I started seing stars, my hearing became an echo, I lost feeling in my limbs, the whole 9 yards. I felt better about an hour later, after having ended church a half hour early, but throughout the rest of the week I´ve just felt really weak at weird times. Every afternoon my head has just been killing me (like it is now). I´ve been taking some cold meds, hoping they´ll do the job, but so far nothing´s kicked this bug from my system. I hoping it´s nothing, but if I continue this way or somehow get worse, I´ll need to call the Hermana Gálvez.

I´m fine with visiting Derek, Ashley, Grandma and Grandpa October 8th. I´m itching for a nice road tirp, and to be the one driving (from Boise to Pocatello, verdad, no me gusta a manejar por las montañas mucho). It´s so weird to be making plans like these. This morning on the bus to Ciudad Neilly (I´m in Neilly right now), I realized I don´t even feel like I´m not in my native country. Everything´s so normal to me here, I don´t know how it´s gonna be when I get home. Mom, Dad, just so you two know, I might only be speaking to you in spanish for a while on my return. I don´t like speaking in english for too long, I prefer speaking in spanish. It´s just easier for me, I have to think to much to use english.

Alright, I gotta get going. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Take care, have fun, enjoy these last couple of days together before Ashley takes off for BSU, and be safe on the trip down. I can´t wait to hear from you all next week. Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- Hey Ash, take care and be safe in Boise. I´ll be seeing you ASAP when I get home. And just so you don´t forget, buy plenty of shampoo before your birthday. Egg can be messy. =D Love ya Sis!

P.P.S.- Tell the Carton´s I miss them and give Tylan and big hug for me. =P I can´t believe he´s coming home. That´s just too much to take.

Conversion

2010-08-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

I really don´t have the words to describe this week. It´s probably better if I just give you the whole story.

Tuesday we had zone conference. We´ve now hit a new point of Preach My Gospel. Starting in May of next year, the curriculum at the MTC will be altered. Preach My Gospel will still be the basis, but the focus will be more leaned to better ourselves as teachers. However, from this point on, all our capacitations will be based on this principle of being better gospel teachers. We saw a lot of that in President Gálvez´s capacitation Tuesday. A few other things have changed as well. We will now only be having zone conference every 3 months, and interviews with President will be the month following zone conference. In other words, Tuesday was my final zone conference in the mission. Interviews aren´t until August 31st. Two of my good mission buddies, Elder Mitton from Pocatello and Elder Winward from Salt Lake, gave their final testimonies in the conference. I´ve known them both since the MTC, and it´s was kind of unreal to see them giving their final testimonies knowing I´m next.
On that note, there´s been one major change. This group that leaves in a few weeks will be the last group to go home on a Tuesday. We´re the only mission in central america who holds their changes meetings on Mondays, and the Area Seventies said to change it. So starting with my group, changes meetings will be Wednesday, and because President Gálvez wants those leaving to be present in changes meeting, those going home won´t leave until Thursday. So you´re going to need to add two days onto the countdown, because I won´t be getting home until September 30th.

Now that´s just the news part of my letter. Now for the miracle part of it.

About a month and a half ago, a man named Franklin Mendoza found our branch secretary and asked if he could send us (the missionaries) to visit him. To give you some background on this man, he use to be an evangelical pastor. But to many of those in San Vito, he was more than just a pastor, a lot of people saw him as a prophet. About a year ago he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, on which they operated but he was still declared terminal. His health as decreased ever since, preventing him from continuing his practice as a pastor. With that, he was somewhat exiled from the church he once presided over, and realizing something was wrong, he began to look for something to fill the void he felt within him. Due to his health, his wife ended up leaving him, and he was left to fend for himself and his 3 sons. After talking with a member of the church on a bus, he was told to speak with our secretary, Hermano Chinchilla. The first time we met with him, he told us he was going to San José within a few days, and that the doctors were going ot amputate his leg due to an infection that had occured due to the cancer. We didn´t teach any straight lesson, we simply answered his questions the best we could, after the which he asked us if we could give him a blessing. After the blessing, I gave him a Book of Mormon with a chapter marked that he could read, and a number he could call to contact us. I also gave him the number to the missionaries in the area he would be staying in San José.
A few weeks later, I felt the impression we needed to visit him again. We weren´t even sure if he had returned from San José, but we called the Hermano Chinchilla and went. Franklin was there, and he hadn´t received surgery yet due to some complications in his divorce that wouldn´t permit him to leave town quite yet. He told us he had been reading in the Book of Mormon, and that he didn´t understand why people were so against it since everything he had read so far was exactly what he had been searching for since his illness began. Once again, he told us that he would hopefully be leaving for San José in a few days but that he would meet with the missionaries as soon as he left the hospital. That was on July 7th.
Friday morning I was seated out on the porch studying, when Elder Centeno came out with the phone. He told me that Franklin had called, that he was close by and that he wanted to speak with us. We met with Franklin outside the apartment, and he told us that once again his divorce had delayed his surgery, but that Sunday morning he would be leaving. Without any further hesitation, he asked us what he had to do be baptized before he left. All he needed was the desire and the faith, of which I could tell he had both. Prior to speaking with us, he had separated himself from the woman he had been living with knowing it was necessary to "be right with God" as he put it. He said he had no doubt in his mind that this was what he needed to do.
Not an hour later we were on a bus for Ciudad Neilly. We brought one of the district leaders in the zone to San Vito, and we had Franklin´s baptismal interview Friday night. He made the statement that he might not know a whole lot about the church as a whole, but he had gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and he knew it was true.
Sunday morning, August 1, 2010 at 7:30 in the morning, I had to previleged to baptize Franklin Mendoza. He was later confirmed and able to partake of the sacrament before leaving for San José and the surgery that awaited him. But before he left, he said he felt at peace.

There are times in the mission where you question if you´re doing all you can, and if you feel you are, then why aren´t the good things coming? Then an experience like this comes along, and you have to humble yourself for having forgotten to have patience, and feeling blessed to have had part in such a conversion of faith.

Franklin entered the hospital in San José this morning. If you could keep him in your prayers, I would be deeply grateful.

I hope you´re all doing alright and enjoying the few weeks of summer vacation that are left. I love you all.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Soaked to the Bone

2010-08-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

This week went alright, apart from the insane thunder storms that have been soaking us from head to toe. I haven´t come home dry in a while. =P

We managed to finally find some new families to teach, and the search continues this week as always. Yesterday we had 3 investigators in church, although we had to pull some strings so that members would pass by for them in the morning. We did finally have a Sunday with a "decent" church attendance. Friday my companion and I sat down and planned out everything for August. We´re going to be pushing ourselves a bit, but if we don´t no one else will.

Last night as I sat in bed thinking about what all needs to be down for the area, it suddenly hit me that I only have two months left. It just hit me like a brick wall. There´s so much to do here and so little time. If we just follow our plans, little by little I hope to see progress. As the saying goes "No one ever plans to fail; they just fail to plan."

Not a whole lot going on around here right now. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we have zone conference in Rio Claro. I´m looking forward to it, especially for President Galvez´s capacitation. Always a good chance to put into play new ideas we haven´t thought of yet.

Have I mentioned how weird it is to do the finances after church Sundays??? It´s one of the weirdest moments of the week, putting together all the financial reports to send to the central offices in San José. Just weird to be the one doing that stuff.

I´m glad to hear you guys have had a fun week. I hope Dad enjoyed his birthday. =D So Ashley is leaving for BSU on the 14th? She´ll be home for Tylan´s homecoming then. He gets home on the 11th (at least that´s what he last told me. I haven´t heard from him since they changed all our email accounts back in March). Just to be saying that sounds weird. Has time really passed like this?

Alright I don´t have much else to tell you guys about this week. Take care, be safe, and enjoy the time you all have together before Ashley leaves for college. I love you all.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

A Matter of a Few Degrees

2010-07-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

Elder Centeno and I actually had a companionship inventory recently, trying to figure out if we faulted something that could be throwing us off in our efforts. Yesterday I was listening to a talk by President Uchtdorf from the April 2008 General Conference. The talk is entitled "A Matter of a Few Degrees" and he spoke on of simply being off-course by ONE degree, it can put us so far off-course from where we want to be. As far as things we can improve on, the one thing that really stood out to us is that we´ve been spending a little more time in our appointments than we need to. I remember in one of our zone conferences as President Gálvez explained we should leave a home immediatly after the closing prayer, leaving those we visit with the lingering of the Spirit and to ponder more on what was taught. When we stick around for the offer of something to eat or even drink, we begin talking about worldly things and as we leave the lingering Spirit we desire to remain with them isn´t as strong or as present as before. As Alma taught: "...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6)

Once again we suffered in church attendance, but I´m not going to linger on it. My focus right now is to find new families to bring into the fold and fortify the kingdom here in San Vito. The saying "You can´t teach an old dog new tricks" has repeatedly entered my thoughts over the last week. We need new blood to rejuvenate and clean out the pereza that as intergrated itself here. There weren´t many who accepted us throughout the last week, but Im not going to give up. There´s a reason "endure to the end" is part of the gospel.

There´s been a change of schedule within the mission. Turns out Elder Falabella won´t be coming anymore, so our zone conference was changed for the 27th. Elder Centeno and I are taking it easy, bouncing ideas off one another as to things we can do to fortify the branch and what not. Did I mention I´ve been teaching the elders quorum? That along with everything else is a new experience. There´s definately a big difference between teaching the missionary lessons and teaching a class in church. I´m learning a lot, in every aspect of this experience, despite the difficulties we´ve been facing.

Notthing to exciting has happened lately, just know that I´m okay and doing fine. Keep the members of San Vito in your prayers please, along with myself. I appreciate it. =)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Tell Dad happy early birthday for me! I´ll talk to you next week. Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Some Peace of Mind

2010-07-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

July 12th email

To answer your first question, no, San Vito isn´t a poor area. In fact this is the first time (not counting Escazú because they were all gringos) that most of the members have their own car. I´ll be honest, if the church was better established here, I would have no problem living in San Vito. It reminds me a lot of John Day, Oregon. Yesterday we continued with a depressing church attendance: 14. We visited three families Saturday evening, an not one of them came to church.

Things continue to be a struggle, but I´m dealing with it a little better now. There´s only so many things we can do for the members to get excited about the work, and we´re doing just about everything. We visit everyone during the week. We call those who are assigned to give talks twice a week. We call everyone Saturday night about church, and a few special cases Sunday morning. What we fault more than anything is bringing new people to church, and it´s been a dead week in trying to find new investigators. Every free minute is dedicated to looking, and I pray we find our golden family soon. We´ve been placing pamphlets (is that how you spell it??? I don´t even remember) in every grocery store, bookstore, and copy shop we pass through with our names and number. The Lord works through small means. I can only hope and pray these small means lead to the results He wants.

President Gálvez called me last night as well. I was kind of taken aback at first, I mean come on, my mission president called me. There´s some pressure in that. He asked me how church went, how the members are doing, and what we have planned. I won´t lie, talking with President Gálvez gave me some peace of mind. I don´t feel like a chicken with it´s head cut off anymore. He agreed with what we´re doing and gave me some advice in other things we can do to strengthen our candidates for branch president. Everything just feels better when you know President is on your side.

Today we spent the day in Ciudad Neily with my district and the zone leaders. We went to a waterfall in the area and then played soccer with the youth. I´m looking forward to playing some soccer on the weekends when I get home. Although I doubt the games will be as intense as they are here.

My new district leader is Elder Perez from Honduras. This will be the first time I have been the only gringo in my district. I do feel my english is only going to get worse in the coming months. I´ve already found myself struggling to pronounce certain words correctly when I was trying to talk with the gringos that came to church yesterday. I couldn´t even remember the word "downtown". I just say "centro".

I dare say my father language is killing the mother language.

Alright well not much else to tell you guys about this week. I hope you´re all enjoying summer vacation and staying safe. Take care, thank Grandma and Grandpa for the money, and know that I am safe and happy. Thank you for everything.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

New Lessons in Patience

2010-07-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

July 4th email

You´re right, I have been a little frustrated this last couple of weeks. The more we do, the fewer the results. If I hadn´t been blessed with a fun companion, I would´ve tore my hair out weeks ago. Reading through old letters I´ve received as well as continuing in my studies of the scriptures helps me with the daily dose of ánimo that I need most right now, a blessing I am truely grateful for.

This last wek Elder Centeno and I have been praying and playing around with all the callings in the branch, trying to find what the Lord wants to happen. The people and the callings they have now just isn´t working, especially with the youth and primary leaders. I´ve really hit the point we´re I´ve accepted one of my old district leader´s mottos: "If they won´t go to church, find people who will."
Sunday just made me want to cry. We started sacrament meeting with only 8 people present (that´s including me and my companion). I can´t even find words to describe how awful I felt. I don´t know what more we could´ve done. We visited everyone during the week, called everyone Saturday night, we even called people early Sunday morning because we knew they would sleep in. And yet nobody came, and noday cared. Or so it would seem that way. This week we´re dedicating every free moment we have in finding people who are willing to do things the way the Lord wants it done. People who echo the Prophet Joseph´s personal rule: When the Lord commands, do it.

Changes were today. Elder Centeno and I will be together until mid-August, which I´m perfectly fine with. We´re having fun, and although things aren´t going the way we want them to, it´s good to have someone of good humor around to joke around with and lighten the mood. Everyone else int he zone has changes though. In fact, Elder Centeno and I are the only missionaries in the Zona Sur today. Everyone else is in San José. =P

Last night my companion and I revised our plans for the week. I will not allow another Sunday like yesterday to happen ever again. I won´t do it. Of those eigth in church, two of them weren´t even members from San Vito. There´s a student couple from Arizona doing a study here, so they´ll be with us until August. It´ll be nice to have some new faces around for a while at least.

Alright, there´s not much else going on here. I did find out that Elder Falabella of the Seventy will be visiting us on the 22nd. I´m looking forward to that. It´s been a while since we last had a General Authority visit us.
Take care and have a great week. Tell Grandma thank you for the money, I really appreciate it. =)

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- Mom and Logan: How are you two doing on your Book of Mormon reading?

The Goal

2010-07-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

June 28th email

Things have been pretty crazy around here. We were suppose to have interviews with President Gálvez on Tuesday, but they got changed to Thursday. So Elder Centeno and I ended up leaving Golfito early Tuesday morning. Luckily, we got back to San Vito by 11 a.m. Elder Centeno got back from San José Monday night, and thankfully, he brought your package along with him. We had some urgent puchases to make, I´m not sure how much money is left in my account and I don´t want to pull out anymore money for fear of overdraft charges.

We´ve been working hard with one family we found a few weeks back. The daughter, Alondra, decided she wants to be baptized, and we set the date for July 10th. One of my zone leaders wasn´t too happy about that, he tried to push into baptizing her this last Saturday (June 26) so that the zone would make it´s goal for baptisms. He was pretty speechless with my reply. I don´t chop investigators heads like a lot of other missionaries do, but I have no problem chopping a missionary´s head for being a number cruncher. If they don´t have a testimony of the restoration of the gospel, I won´t baptize them. Especially when every baptism needs to help the branch GROW. We can´t afford that anyone falls away. My zone leader came back saying that it´important to focus on retention as branch president, but I also need to focus on missionary work.

...I was under the impression retention was PART of missionary work...

In my interview with President Gálvez Thursday I mentioned this to him, and he took my side which gave me a decent confidence boost. My interview with President was good. I ended up asking him a landslide of questions about what I should be doing in the branch. He gave me my objective: When I leave, the branch needs to have a REAL branch president, not a missionary. I´m all for that, it´s not the same when it´s a missionary running the show. We´re only around for so long, and then when the new guy comes, plans change, and you´re pretty much starting out from square one. There´s no real progress that way.
Along with that President gave me some advice on what we can do to prepare and strengthen the leaders. We´re going to be cutting church short one hour, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 11 a.m. (Sacrament meeting and Sundayt school). No one sticks around for Priesthood or Relief Society, and until we get the few we have ACTIVE in the church, there´s no point in following through with that. We need to take everything back to basics. In Sunday school we´re already teaching Gospel Principles instead of the Old Testament. For mutual we´re using activities to teach basic gospel doctrine. In dropping the third hour, it puts more responsibility on our more active members to do their home and visiting teaching. It´s going to be a lot of work, but the hope is in doing this our one major candidate for branch president, the Hermano Chinchilla, will start to work more in the church.

Thursday after interviews we had divisions with the elders of Ciudad Neily. I was wih my district leader, Elder Sperry, in San Vito. I had to teach seminary and then the youth leaders didn´t show, so I directed mutual as well. Thursday nights have proven to be our busiest nights aound here.

Tuesday night I had a craving for banana cream pie, so I bought the stuff to make it. I just made the cream, didn´t want to spend my time on the crust. =P I can officially make banana cream pie now. I do think that is somewhat of an accomplishment. =D

Alright I gotta jet. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week. Take care, enjoy the World Cup, and I´ll talk to you guys next week. ¡Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Go Chile! Go!

2010-07-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

June 21st Email

Happy Father´s Day Dad! Tell Derek I said happy birthday as well. =)

I´ve been trying to keep up on World Cup stuff by asking members. There´s been some weird upsets, but I was so pumped when I heard Chile beat Honduras. I just heard a few minutes ago that Chile beat Switzerland as well. That just leaves Spain. That might hurt a bit, but I´m rooting for Chile all the way. =D

To answer your question about Changes, Changes meetings are always on Mondays every 6 months. I´ll be coming home Tuesday, September 28th. I should be getting my flight plans in August, so we´ll know times and everything then.

This week has kind of followed the pattern of a tough week, but I´ve accepted it´s just going to be this way until the end. A lot of work needs to be done, and I´m trying to play out my strengths to where I can help the branch most. It´s not easy, but I´m keeping my sights on the future: to when this small branch can flourish as a ward in a stake of Zion. It was kind of disheartening when I realized that apart from the branch secretary and the seminary teacher, all other leaders in San Vito are less active. The district president gave me some good advice though: Just work with the youth. If the youth are active, the parents will follow soon enough.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) we have interviews with President Gálvez. I´m for sure going to be asking his advice on a lot that´s been going on here. Yesterday (Sunday) was a bit rough though. We had 2 investigators in church, which I was glad for, but we only had 13 PEOPLE IN CHURCH.

This last week has found us working especially hard with a family we found recently. Juan, Isabel, and their daughters Nuria and Alondra. It hasn´t been easy. Alondra, who´s fourteen, loves everything we´ve taught and wants to be baptized. Juan, the father, is 86 years old and dying. We gave him a blessing a few nights back, and miraculously he was on his feet for the first time in weeks the next day. The mother Isabel is the tough one though. Preisthood authority is her brick wall right now, no matter how many times we´ve tried to lay it out for her. She just needs to pray and ask, it´s really that simple. But simplicity in the things of the Lord are not what people usually expect, sadly enough. I don´t think we´re going to make our goal for the month, but that only means we need to work even HARDER in the month to come. We´re also going to see if we should pick up an old investigator as well. The guy is an sadly an alcoholic, and has been for a very, VERY long time. We set the goal with him that he won´t drink AT ALL tomorrow (Tuesday). If he can go just ONE day without taking a drink, then there´s the chance of progress. This guy has some crazy stories though. He´s gone wetback into the states twice just for starters.

Food for the week is something noteworthy. Wednesdau we had cow tongue for lunch. I knew what it was the moment I saw it, but my companion didn´t have a clue. We started eating and Elder Centeno froze for a second saying "This meat is way too soft to be normal." I started laughing as did our cook. Elder Centeno was kind of shocked to learn he was eating cw tongue. After everything I´ve had to eat in this country, cow tongue was nothing in comparison.
Saturday our branch secretary made us Rice & Bean. I don´t know if I´ve told you about this dish before, but it´s a typical dish from Limón. It´s pretty much the same thing as Gallo Pinto (white rice and beans) but the difference is the good everything in coconut milk and mix in some chili panameños. It´s always served with roasted chicken which is also cooked in coco milk. It has to be one of my favorite dishes here, and it´s usually only good when a black man makes it. Ticos try, but this dish was created and perfected but Limonenses. Our secretary did a good job though, I was really surprised.

I´m in Golfito right now. My companion had to go to San José again to receive his residency. Friday night we got stopped by a couple of cops and they asked to see our IDs. My companion didn´t have any papers on him, but THANKFULLY immigration was CLOSED. The cops didn´t want to go through the trouble of taking my comp in, so they just told him he can´t leave our apartment or else they´ll take him in. President Gálvez got the ball rolling, and finalized my companion´s residency ASAP. The funny thing was Saturday night walking home we saw those same two cops, and they just glared at us with eyes that said "I thought I told you to stay home." They didn´t do anything, as I knew they wouldn´t, and if they had tried my comp had on him the equivalent to "diplomatic immunity" for missionaries. =P

Alright, not much else happening around here. I´m kind of stressed out about what I´m going to do with the branch, but I´m trying my best not to let it overwhelm me. Like I said, there´s just so much to do I´m not sure where to start. I´m going to take the district president´s advice though: just work with the youth and the rest will fall into place.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week, Take care, be safe, and enjoy summer vacation (because some of us have gone 2 years without one). =P

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- No, I haven´t received my new debit card yet. I´m hoping I´ll get it tomorrow at interviews.

Una Semana de Locuras

2010-06-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

This last week was more than a little crazy. Monday we went to Ciudad Neilly and spent the night there. Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Rio Claro, which was one of the best conferences I´ve had in my mission. 20 months in the mission, and there´s still so much I need to learn. There´s always something we need to do better.
After conference we were told at the last minute that my companion, Elder Centeno, had to go to San José to get his residency. Well that put us off on some weird divisions. I went back to San Vito with Elder Fotheringham, one of the missionaries in Golfito. We got home late Tuesday night, but Wednesday we had some big appointments planned. Those plans got destroyed when we got a call from the missionaries in Puerto Jimenez if we got pull together some baptism clothes and bring them to Ciudad Neilly. On top of that, I needed to figure out a few things about some checks that were spent, which added to my growing headache of the day. Well, after running around town all morning we had to once again descend from the mountaintops into Ciudad Neilly, having to drop the appointments we had in my area. Suposedly I was going to meet up with my companion in Rio Claro, but the missionary he was with didn´t listen to us and went straight to his own area with my companion. We didn´t end up getting into my area again until Thursday night. In other words, my area went 4 days without any missionary work. Something I wasn´t the least bit happy about.
To top it all off, my district leader called Friday morning and wanted to do divisions that same day. Apparently the zone leaders wanted us to put a baptismal date with a lady we´re teaching, but she hasn´t even been to church yet. I shut them all down. One, there was no way on earth I was gonna go BACK to Ciudad Neilly to do divisions. And secondly, why would I put a baptism date with someone who hasn´t gone to church once?
Finally in my area once again, I found out that President Soto, First Counselor of the Mission, was coming to San Vito Saturday and Sunday. I had a day to organize everything. Saturday night President Soto was suppose to leave with us to work, but he ended up not coming up Saturday night. Sunday morning we went to the chapel at 7 a.m. to meet with President Soto, but he never showed. Apparently there was a change of plans.
But, through all the headaches of the week, we did have some success. Saturday night we found a new family, of which they´ve been looking for something to fortify their family and better their relationships one with another. Secondly, we had 31 people in church on Sunday. That might not sound like a lot, but considering last week we had but 18, I was happy with it. Now to try and maintain that. Finally, I organized our home teaching for the branch as well. I´m learning a lot, of which I am thankful. I never thought I´d find myself where I am now, but it´s an experience I´ll never forget.

I hope you all continue to enjoy your summer vacation and that you all stay safe as well. Take care, enjoy the blessings you now have, and keep on keeping on. =)

I love you all.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Crazy Week

2010-05-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

Alright well, first off, I never thought I´d ever see the Zona Sur, but I´m glad to be here. I got a lot of friends in the zone with me from previous areas, so I´m really looking forward to this change. Elders Hansen and Villanueva, who were both with me in zonas Toyopan and La Sabana, are my zone leaders. Elder Winward, who was my ZL in La Sabana is down here, just to name a few.
My new companion is Elder Centeno from El Salvador. He´s a really humble kid, I´m really glad to have him as a companion after the 3-month headache I had with Elder Rodriguez. Elder Centeno was baptized a little over a year ago, and he´s only been in the mission for 3, almost 4 months. Elder Centeno and I are ready to have some fun and work our butts off to turn this branch around.
San Vito is the only fresco part of the Zona Sur, and I´m so glad to be here. When I went out to Cañas, I thought that was pretty campo. I got out to Siquirres and I was like "Wow, this is super campo." I can honestly say that San Vito is TRUE CAMPO. It´s so green EVERYWHERE. It´s just a nice, quiet countryside town. Nobody locks their doors, and it´s just super peaceful. If I end the mission here, it will be a very peaceful ending. I´m also like a half hour from the Panama border. I´ve literally seen both extremes of this country in the last year.

The first week was way more hectic than what I signed up for, I´ll start with that. I got into the area being told we had 5 baptisms and a wedding this weekend. Well, that might have been what was reported, but that´s not what I found. 3 of those fechas had a set baptismal date for the 29th, but the other 2 so-called "fechas" hadn´t even been talked to about baptism. And as far as that goes, the wedding which was supposedly already planned out had no meat to it´s bones. We had no lawyer to perform the wedding, and the people who were getting married didn´t even know WHEN they were getting married. Elder Centeno spent the whole week running back a forth from place to place trying to get it all figured out. Wednesday we found a lawyer who was going to charge us $80 and finished all the paperwork that needed to be done to have the wedding on Friday, challenged the 2 others to baptism on the 29th, got clearance to have the baptisms in a private river (the chapel here is a house and there is no baptism fount), and planned out when we would have the interviews. Thursday night I had to teach my young men´s and young women´s presidents how to run mutual, and then Friday morning my district leader Elder Sperry showed to do the interviews. The family we were getting married and baptized (Wilber, Melba, & their daughter Angelica) were up first for their baptism interviews, and then we went straight to the wedding. The lawyer was really nice to work with, we´ll more than likely be using her again if another marriage comes around. She ended up only charging us $40, half the original cost. After the marriage the next 2 baptism candadites (Maria & Victor) were up. These are the 2 who didn´t have baptism dates when I got into the area. Their teaching records said they had been taught everything, but when I reviewed the baptism questions with them there were quite a few things they hadn´t been taught. So it didn´t come as a surprise to me when Elder Sperry told me they weren´t ready. We´re going to keep working with them and hopefully get them baptized with strong testimonies in June. I know we can do it.

Saturday morning Elder Winward showed up at our apartment as well. Elder Sperry had been with Elder Winward´s companion, and vice versa. Apparently weird divisions happen all the time in this zone. Anyway seeing how we baptize in a river here, the others wanted to come a see. It´s a good thing they came along, because no other priesthood showed up at the baptism. If the other four missionaries hadn´t come, we wouldn´t have had witnesses for the baptisms. From there on everything played out smoothly though. I told Elder Centeno that from now on, all baptisms/marriages are to be fully planned a week in advance. I hate running against the clock in these things, it´s just too stressful. Planning makes perfect, and I like to keep to that motto.

Sunday was really different. First off, I conducted sacracment meeting. I improvised a talk as well because 2 of our speakers didn´t show. I taught sunday school for the youth because their teacher didn´t show either. An odd part of the day was teaching priesthood and Relief Society together for 5th Sunday. I don´t even know what I was suppose to teach in that class, but Saturday night when I realized I had to teach I pulled something together from Elder Ucthdorf´s talk in October 2008: Lift Where You Stand. I applied it to the branch, putting emphasis on magnifying our callings and working as a team, helping one another out where we can. Elder Centeno and I planned a Branch Talent Show for this coming Saturday, and we´ve planned several other activites as well. In President Gálvez´s letter last week he told me to use everything I´ve learned and experienced in my new calling. Well, if I´ve learned one thing, it´s that activites build unity. Especially when only 30 people come to church. =P

Yes, the branch really is that small. Actually, 30 people in church is a good Sunday here. They had assistance of just 18 a few weeks ago.

The weirdest part of the day was counting up tithing with the branch secretary. Signing all that stuff was just way too weird.

So much to do, so much to learn, and who knows if I can pull it all off. I´m putting everything I´ve got on the Lord right now. I really do feel like a fish out of water right now. Hopefully I don´t feel like that for much longer.

I hope you all have a great week. Have fun, be safe, and enjoy the start of summer vacation! Thanks for sending me Ashley´s graduation fotos!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Pray for me

2010-05-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

"And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed." -Moses 1:10

This scripture best describes how I feel right now. You´ll understand why as you read on.

This last week was busy and hectic. Tuesday we helped a family tear down a fence, and Friday we repaired yet one more rocking rock. I didn´t feel any earthquake on Thursday, possibly because we were on a bus, but a lot of people were talking about it. As far as I know there wasn´t any major damage.

Friday night our ward mission leader, Hno. Lopez, went out with us to visit a family we´d been teaching. They started out right from the get-go with one doubt after another about little insignificant things, and Elder Rodriguez began to respond with coments that would have for sure insulted the family- that is of course until I cut him off. I poured my heart out to those people using the clearest and yet sincerest language I could summon. As we left I was grateful to see in their eyes that the Spirit had touched them. Walking home, I had the strongest impression that I had borne my last testimony in the area.

I was right.

Saturday I began to say my goodbyes. I taught my last english class, commiting my students to come to church on Sunday. Saturday night we had a humble farewell dinner with the Familia Lopez (who Elder Logan and I married and baptized). That was very easily the hardest goodbye of my mission. After everything I had been through with this family, goodbye didn´t come easy.
Sunday we brought one of our families to church and as usual I played the part of usher as I counted up attendance. As the sacrament meeting started, I looked over the congregation, trying to see if I had really made a difference in the area. Three families we had reactivated were present, along with the two familes who were recently sealed in the temple. Another man who, but a few short months before I came to Siquirres, had once worked as a pimp in the red light district was also counted among those present, now the Elders Quorum President and having recently received his endowment in the temple. Two of my english students were present, and I felt a strong feeling of peace settle in as I watch a man, who was once excomunicated from the church, now seated with his family and partaking of the santa cena after ten years of waiting. In total, we had eighty-five people in church along with 10 Melquisedec Priesthood holders. When I arrived in Siquirres last December we had 50 in church and only 4 priesthood holders. But even after all of that, the greatest pain one can feel entered my soul as I took into account that those five, of which I had baptized over these last six months, were not present. Yurico had left for another town shortly after her baptsm. Orlando just didn´t come. And the Familia Lopez was out of town visiting family. A simple phrase from the book The Outsiders came to mind:

"Nothing gold can last."

I finished packing Sunday night, having spent the day saying goodbye and thanking all the leaders for their help and support. Yesterday, Monday, was Changes. Elder Rodriguez is now senior companion, and his new companion is Elder Brazington from Spokane. I pray they´ll take care of the area and help it continue to progress. After a seven hour bus ride from San José I finally arrived to my new area of San Vito in the Zona Sur with my new companion Elder Centeno from El Salvador. I have taken the place of my old companion Elder Tagliaferri, as Branch President of San Vito.

Now you´ll understand why I started with that verse from Moses.

If you remember my reaction when I won 1st runner-up in Mr. LHS my senior year, then you have a good idea how I reacted when President Gálvez announced me as Branch President. I complete shock. I have never felt so overwelmed in my life as I did in that moment. I have always said that trainers, zone leaders, and branch presidents are callings that President Gálvez saves for his best missionaries. And I in no waay consider myself among those elite. Nevertheless, I know better than to question President Gálvez. If he felt I could take on the challenge, then I can. There´s no question to it. I just can´t do it alone.
Elder Tagliaferri left me the branch president´s manual, of which will become like scripture to me over the coming weeks and months. But more so than that I will need the guidance of the Spirit with me, now more than ever.

I humbly ask that you all keep me in your prayers. I´m going to need each and every one of them.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Flood Sunday

2010-05-18T06:36:00.001-07:00

Lots has happened this week so hopefully I don´t forget anything. Wednesday we had Zone Conference and President Gálvez announced us all Family History workers because not one of our branches/wards have someone with that calling. We went right to it, making copies of the genealogy...registros...I don´t know how to say registros in english...that´s just flat out SAD. Anyway, I´ve been using my own family tree I brought with me as we´ve been teaching the recent converts. Also, the Hermana Gálvez had us discuss within our districts new ways to find more families to teach. Elder Holt brought up an idea he had mentioned at the start of March, and then I had to present our plan to the zone. I felt kind of bad because it was Elder Holt´s idea, but I was the one called on to present it. You know me, I don´t even take credit for my OWN ideas, let alone the ideas of others. Anyways we´re going to put that plan into action this week. I´ll give you more details on that after we´ve started with it.
After Zone Conference we had divisions, and I was working in my area with Elder Duncan from San Diego. He´s a pretty quiet kid, but he´s super cool. For only having 6 months in the mission his spanish isn´t half bad. The accent comes with time, but he has no problem saying what he wants and getting his point across. For not have had a latino companion yet he´s doing pretty well.
Friday we repaired 2 more rocking chairs for another family. I ended up doing one of the chairs, which didn´t turn out half bad for the first time...at least I want to think so... =P On Saturday two families from our branch were sealed in the temple. It was really cool to talk with one of the families after they got back. Saturday morning we spent the day painting a roof for one of the recent convert families here, a service of which we had to finish today (wasn´t much of a P-Day, but oh well).

Sunday morning was a headache. At 7:30 a.m. we were passing by the church on our way to pick up a family of investigators. As we passed the church, I noticed water leaking from the door to the sacrament room. We went inside to investigate, and to my horror, the place was flooded up to our ankles. How or why I do not know, but I´m pretty sure it was a gift for my 600th day in the mission. At least I like to think of it like that. We spent some 5 minutes trying to run the water out, but there was just so much I knew we needed to call the branch president. We ran to our ward mission leader´s house to use his cell phone, but the branch president didn´t answer. We ran back to the chapel just as the branch secretaries were pulling up. We opened up all the doors and began draining the place, my companion grabbing a folding table at one point to run the water out the doors. One by one as members arrived they began to help drain the water. By 9 a.m. the sacrament room was dry, and with chairs out and ready, we miraculously started on time. By the time sacrament meeting was over, the rest of the chapel had dried as well. We didn´t find out WHY the chapel had flooded, but just to see EVERYONE roll up their sleeves and start helping was really cool to see. Some branch unity I haven´t seen in my 6 months here in Siquirres. As I said when all was said and done, "Just another story for the Ensign."

After church we had a very special baptism take place. A man who had be excomunicated 10 years ago finally got the okay to be re-baptized, and there were some 40 members present for it. I won´t lie, it did bring back some old memories.

Alright, I gotta jet, shower, and get ready to work again. Changes are on Monday, so we´ll be getting a phone call Thursday or Friday about what´s what. I don´t see myself leaving just yet. My companion actually has better chances of getting switched out. But just as Elder Holt told me last night, "With President Gálvez, it´s impossible to predict Changes."

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Take care and I´ll write back next week. ¡Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

The Downhill

2010-05-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hey! It was great to talk to you all yesterday! Too bad I didn´t get to talk to Ashley, but let her know I love her and, like I said, I´ll be home in time to egg her on her birthday tico-style. =P

Yesterday went pretty well. I´m still more than a little disappointed that our asistence in church dropped again, but I should be use to the random ups and downs that occur here. It´s just kind of disheartening to see a decent leap forward one week only to witness a huge fall right back to where we started the next. One can only do so much, but that´s pretty much all it depends on: Just doing your part.

Today we took the zone leaders and the other companionship in our district to the waterfall in my area. The weather was on our side this time, with a decent cloud cover and a cool breeze. The last few times I´ve gone out there the brutality of the sun has murdered me, so I was grateful for a rest from the heat.

This week looks like it´s gonna be pretty packed. Wednesday we have our own personal Zone Conference. As I mentioned on the phone, the pass to San José was closed all last week due to mudslides, so we weren´t able to make it to the normal Multi-Zone Conference. That same day we´ll be doing divisions, so I´ll be working my area with Elder Duncan from San Diego. He´s a little new, but he´s a fun kid. Thursday and Friday mornings we have yet more service projects, and then comes a pretty tranquilo weekend. The end of the change is coming up pretty fast. Like I said, I highly doubt I´ll be getting changed out right now. I´m pretty sure I´ll be pulling the 7 and a half months and leaving for my last area in July, but we really won´t know anything until the 21st.

Just as last week my fotos aren´t uploading right now, so you´ll all have to wait on that. I hope you have a great week and I can´t wait to hear from you guys next week! ¡Cuidese mucho!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Festival de la Jama

2010-05-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

Alright, glad to hear everything´s going well back home and that Ashley was able to enjoy her senior prom afterall. =D Thanks for the pictures. Everyone´s gonna be asking me if Dad´s in the military, but I´ll get a good laugh out of it. Everyone´s really against the military in this country, more out of ignorance than anything else.

This last week went by really fast. Wednesday I had divisions with Elder Holt out in Guacimo. Elder Holt is super funny, we had some pretty fun divisions together. Elder Holt spent 6 months in the mission office as secretary, so we spent a lot of time talking about what it would take to convert our areas (which are branches right now) to wards. Guacimo is a lot further along than Siquirres, but we´re not too far off the mark either. To be a ward, we need an assistance of 85 in church and 15 Melchizedek priesthood holders. We average 60 to 65 on assistance, and we have 10 worthy priesthood holders. Yesterday we had 80 in church, which almost made my heart stop. Elder Holt and I developed a decent plan, which includes finding and baptizing 6 new families within the next year. Sunday I met with the Branch President to explain our plan and to put together another actividad misional. Although Pres. Acuña didn´t exactly grasp the whole 6 NEW families (he just kept talking about inactives who have more than 6 to 10 years of being inactive), with the activities I have in mind, we can definately get the ball rolling on this. I won´t be here to see it happen, but I can do my part to help form the first stake outside the San José Valley.

The branch activity we had Saturday was about half a success. No one really participated in bringing food (it was pretty much a potluck kind of deal), but plenty of people showed and we did at the end get a couple references. I made 3 banana cream pies, but annoyingly I had to make the crust for the pies (I´m lazy and I wanted to just buy them made, but of course I can´t do that here). The crust turned out okay, not bad for the first time. The filling was great though, everyone like it and just about the whole Relief Society asked me for the recipe, which made me laugh. I won´t lie, as I took a bite of one of those pies all I could think was "...I´ll be home for Thanksgiving...I´ll be home for Thanksgiving...I´ll be..." =P

The fruit of our labors were apparent Sunday with 80 in church and a handfull of investigators present. I´m trying to raise the bar and keep things moving forward. 3 weeks left in the change. I´m not sure how this will play out. I told one of the zone leaders today that I can pull off another change in Siquirres easily, but I can´t do it with Elder Rodriguez. Teaching with Elder Holt on Wednesday was the first time I´d felt the Spirit in a lesson for the last 2 months. That´s not good.

Alright I gotta jet but I want you guys to know I love you and that I´m doing well. I´ll be calling you guys Sunday after church like we did last year. I´ll be in the house after 12:30ish, so I´ll give you guys a call around 1 p.m. If you´re not home at that time, then I´ll call again around2 p.m. The number´s the same as it was for Christmas. I told you I´d still be here, but you didn´t believe me. =P

Alright I gotta go. ¡Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Scorch Week

2010-05-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

This last week went by rather smoothly, although I felt like I was living in an oven it was so unbearably hot. Days like that make me a little trunky, because all I can think about is "When I get home, I´m gonna freeze to death. And I´ll love it."

We spent 2 morning working on a cement floor for one family, and another repairing yet another rocking chair that our service has mainly consisted to. Not bad all in all. Assistence in church wasn´t what I had hoped for, looking at what we accomplished during the week, but that´s not an uncommon disappointment for me. I just want to leave this brach we a norm of 70 people in church. If I can do that, then my time here was well spent in my eyes. I´m definately thinking more in the zone of "If they won´t help to build up Zion, then find someone who will!"

Thursday President Gálvez, the Hermana Gálvez, and the zone leaders stopped by to do a house check and also for our interviews with President. A lot of missionaries we´re kind of weirded out and scared by these turn of events, but since our house is always pretty well clean and I try to keep our Area Book up to date, we we´re pretty calm about it. Interviews went great, it´s always a blessing to have a one-on-one with President Gálvez. The zone leaders we have right now are pretty cool too, and as always the Hermana Gálvez always has something funny to say about the missionary-lifestyle.

I´m trying to convince my companion to start running in the mornings, but he won´t hear any of it. 19 months, and I have yet to have a companion who´s up for a good morning run. It´s a sad story. =P

This Saturday we´ve planned a branch activity, Festival de la Jama (Festival of Food). I´m hoping for a decent turnout and I´m also planning on making a few banana cream pies. We´ll see how those turn out, I haven´t made on since my first Christmas in Tibás with Elder DePriest. =P I´ll be sure to send fotos, I´ve gotten a little lazy with that as of late. Mainly because I don´t trust the virus-filled tico computers that flood this country. On that note, yes I still have my camera, and yes I still have my debit card. As I said, I´ve gotten a little lazy with fotos. And as far as withdrawing money, I´ve never been able to check my balance, so I don´t know how much is in my account. Plus I´m never hurting for money. Here we are on the last week of the month, and I still have $60. I only pull out personal money for emergencies and other such things. I might need to pull out a little money to buy all the stuff for the pies, but we´ll see about that.

Okay I´ve said enough, nor do I have anything else to tell you guys. =P I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Talk to ya next week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Christmas in April

2010-05-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

The title is fitting seeing how Dad is just finishing HIS Christmas in April project, and mine seems to be beginning this week. =P

The last week as been really insane. A lot of work and a lot of service projects, as seems to be the theme of my companionship right now. 4 menos activa families called us up and put last minute citas with us, so then came the rush of rescheduling other citas and all that nonsense. Two of these families are those of which were baptized last fall, but when their missionaries left they dropped the church and would not receive visits from anyone. They flat out rejected Elder Logan and myself the last time we tried passing by in February. The other 2 families I had been visiting with Elder Logan, but they weren´t progressing. So we had made the call to give them some time and try again later. Three of the four went to church yesterday, the fourth...depending on how this week goes we might end up turning them over to the only members who do their home teaching. We have to try and maintain the 5 menos activos we visit, we can´t work with so many at once because we lose time in finding investigators and actually teaching and baptizing and all that good stuff.

In other words, it´s been pretty hectic around here.

My companion continues to be more than a little hyperactive, but with these two recent convert families who have started coming to church again he´s exactly what they need to feel comfortable...I hope. I´m really just scared people are gonna look at us like a joke, but I think Elder Rodriguez is finally starting to cool down a little...

This week we´re packed with service projects practically every morning. Between repairing chairs, laying yet more cement floors, and doing house repairs, I can honestly say I´m not even going remember going to bed at night I´ll be so exhausted. But if it all gets us results and helps the area, more power to it. I´ve also had some fun this last week playing around with the language as I´ve talked to people. I have a long ways to go in my opinion, but it´s really funny to tell people I´m panameño or guatemateco and nobody questions it. I´m starting to understand why my first companion, Elder DePriest, loved playing around with people like that. After going from speaking NOTHING to everything being natural you can´t help but have fun with it. =D

We´re also in the planning of a branch activity, something along the lines of what we did in Cañas last year. La Festial de la Jama (comida). I´ll give you more of an update on that next week, but we´re planning to have the activity the 1st of May.

Alright well there´s not much else happening around here besides the usual insanity of the work. =P This Thursday we have interviews with President Gálvez, which will be nice. I take advantage of every chance I get to talk with President, he always has something to say to change my outlook on the mission and help me do better. Hopefully the action-packed week we have planned out doesn´t kill me in the meantime, that would just be a sad Christmas. =P

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Take care, work hard but don´t over do it. I have to, it´s in the calling, but you guys should take at least 5 minutes a day to kick back and relax. If not for yourselves, than do it for me! =P ¡Ciao a todos!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

The Start of Another Change

2010-04-12T17:02:00.001-07:00

Changes meeting was today and we decided to come just to see what happens. Elders Litchfield and Nelson both left the zone: Elder Litchfield now has the temple in his area and Elder Nelson is a new Zone Leader out in Guanacaste. It won´t be the same without them in the zone, but we did get some decent replacements for them. I´m gonna be with Elder Rodriguez for at least another change. I kind of have the feeling we could be together for two more changes...I´m not 100% I could handle that, but we´ll see what happens.

Not a whole lot happened over the week. Just contacting references and trying to keep my companion from forming the habit of spending too much time in people´s houses. If a cita falls through he usually just wants to go to a member´s house to play UNO, and gets a little upset when I say no and have us knocking doors. Keeping animated has been a little rough this last week. However, things are starting to pick up as far as working with the members goes, so there is light at the end of the tunnel afterall. =P

I´ve managed to download a few of the conference talks to my MP3, but with such slow internet connection it´s been kind of a pain. Apparently within the next week you can download the entire conference video, so we´re going to try to brun off a couple DVDs for the recent convert families who didn´t get to see it. I´m trying to switch things up for the next few weeks so that I don´t get bored with the area, seeing how I´m going on 6 months out here. I made a Book of Mormon reading chart for the recent converts and for our investigators, so instead of asking if anyone read we just ask for the chart. At least this way we can monitor better of who´s reading and who isn´t, and focus our lessons from there. I´m really just looking for some priesthood power right now. The branch is growing a little stronger as time goes by, and ultimately the goal is to convert the branch to a ward and form a stake (Estaca Guapiles) outside the San José Valley. If Siquirres is gonna be a ward, we need some healthy priesthood to get the job done. Ulises, who Elder Logan and I baptized back in January, is now our ward mission leader. We´ve been teaching him what his calling his and planning out when he´ll leave/meet with us every week and all that good jazz. It´s a calling that brings with it a lot of responsibility, but it´s also a perfect opportunity to help Ulises continue to grow and learn. Hopefully I can help him get the gist of it all. Elder Rodriguez doesn´t really pay any attention at all as I´m explaining things to Ulises. Like I said, the kid just wants to play UNO.

Alright I gotta jet but I hope you guys have a great week and stay safe. Take care and I´ll write again (as usual) MONDAY! Love you, ciao.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

The Last General Conference

2010-04-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

That´s a real bummer you guys didn´t get to watch Conference. Try to watch what you can ASAP. You´re right about family being the topic, but there´s a LOT more to it than that. All the talks from Saturday we´re directed to parents, telling them to step up and teach their kids and youth better than ever before. EVERY talk on Saturday hit this topic. Sunday was more general in the topics. Although they did mention it, there was much more talk on the Savior and the Atonement, it being Easter Sunday and everything. I will say Elder Anderson´s final talk of the Conference hit it home. Elder Holland´s talk was especially necessary, along with President Monson´s closing talk in the Priesthood Session. Elder Holt, my district leader, said it best: Back to Basics.

Saturday morning we left for Limón to watch Conference. It was so cool to watch Conference with 3 of my best friends in the mission: Elder Litchfield, Elder Nelson, and Elder Butler (he goes home in May). Saturday night during the Priesthood Session we had an issue with one of the junior companions, and later that night calls were made to President Gálvez. All in all, it was a nightmare, but I tried not to dwell on the headache of it all and focus on the Conference talks. Right after the final session Sunday we jetted back for Siquirres just in time for some quick appointments before day´s end.

Today I took my companion and the Guacimo elders out to the waterfall here. The Limón elders were gonna come too, but they ended up having to deal with other stuff related to what happened Saturday night. We got out there on a perfect day. Elder Holt was in shock at how beautiful it was, since a lot of the nature has been destroyed by the people. I got pretty burned from the walk to and from, but it was a pretty good P-Day. It´s funny talking to Elder Holt because we only talk about all the old missionaries who use to be in the missions and our old companions. I can´t do that with my comp, and Elder Holt can´t do that with his because they´re both so young in the mission. I don´t consider myself an old missionary by any means (maybe when I have 20 months), but talking with Elder Holt is just like "Wow...everyone I know is GONE...that´s too weird." =P What was really funny was when I was talking with Elder Nelson in Limón before Conference. We realized all four of the junior companions put together didn´t have our time in the mission. That got us a little giddy for a minute or two. =P It just made me remember my first companion, Elder DePriest, and how he would say stuff like that at every district meeting. =P

Alright well I need to write Pres. Gálvez. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Tell everyone I say hey and that I´m still alive and loving life. Take care and I´ll write you all next week. Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Spring Break on the Mission

2010-04-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hey family, I hope everyone´s been enjoying Spring Break. This week has been pretty loaded for us. Sunday I had the opportunity to baptize Yurico. After every baptism it really does justify every rejection we meet day in and day out. The rest of the week has been filled with service projects. I´ve never done so much service in a single change, but with Elder Rodriguez´s background in construction a whole lot of opportunities have opened up for us. Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday we helped lay a cement floor for Yurico and her mom. Yesterday we built a closet for Ulises and Iraydelis. Last week we also repaired a few of this tico rocking chairs too. It´s been pretty busy.

Sunday a member came to us and said that she wanted her son to be baptized. They´re an active family, they just got lazy and didn´t baptize the son when he was 8. He turned 9 on Monday, and they wanted to have the baptism today (Friday). Long story short Elder Holt had to come down from Guacimo to do the baptismal interview Wednesday (which the family was an hour late to), and I spent Wednesday out in Guacimo with Elder Duncan.
While out in Guacimo we visited a recent convert family and after a little while talking they asked me where I was from. When I said I was from the states they were all really surprised. =P The mom was like "Are you serious? I thought you were from Panama or something!" I kind of laughed, I´m pretty sure I sound pretty gringo in my spanish, but when stuff like that happens it does make me feel good about how far I´ve come.
I´m not gonna lie, I´m not all too pumped about this baptism. The family is active, the kid´s been in the church his whole life, we don´t even need to teach the kid and to tell the truth I didn´t bother trying to. There´s a lot of missionaries that would be like "9 year old kid. Perfect. We´ll teach him everything in one go just to count him as our baptism." ...I´m the complete opposite. If I baptize, it should be to fortify the branch or ward I´m in. If the family was less-active, I would´ve taken the time to teach not just the kid but the FAMILY, strengthening the church. But this baptisim is just like a niño-inscrito. It really should have anything to do with us, but because the kid has 9 years old it falls on our shoulders.
I really have a hard time with stuff like this. It just goes back to the days before Pres. Gálvez, when the missionaires we´re baptizing for numbers and nothing else.

Tomorrow we´re headed to Limón for General Conference. We´re spending the night in Elder Litchfield´s house. =D This will be the 3rd time I watch Conference with Elder Lichfield. =P It´s gonna be a great weekend. Elder Holt and I decided this is the first Spring Break we´ve had in the mission. We have today (Friday) off because of the Semana Santa. Saturday and Sunday are General Conference, of which Pres. Gálvez wants us watching all the sessions (I love a mission president who loves us), and Monday is P-Day once again. 4 days off rest. It`s a beautiful thing. =P

Alright I gotta jet and eat something. I love you all and I hope you enjoy Conference! I´ll be sure to write on Monday. Ciao!

The Promptings of the Spirit

2010-04-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

This week I´ve been trying my best to do what needs to be done, despite my companions lack of enthusiasm. And because of that, the fruits of my labours have started to come forth.

I´ve been trying to pay more attention to the promptings of the Spirit these last few weeks. With my companion yelling and screaming all the time, it doesn´t matter where we are, trying to think for myself just doesn´t work. So I´ve been learning to rely more on the Spirit than ever.
Tuesday night we passed by one of our investigators, Yurico, who we´ve been visiting for a while now. She´s been in the same situation as a lot of people here: she wants to be baptized, but she´s living with a guy and not married. She´s 20, he´s 19. He doesn´t work, and he´s a nicaraguan who´s here illegally. Just so you know the back story to this, we´ve tried to help the guy get his residency papers, but he doesn´t care and keeps blowing us off.
Tuesday night was planned as the make or break with her. Pres. Gálvez gave me some advice on what we can do to help her along, and I put it in practice. We covered the Law of Chastity again, making the seriousness of the matter pretty clear and that the decision to change was in her hands, no one can make that choice for her. I invited her to pray, morning and night, and to give us an answer Saturday. Wednesday my district leader, Elder Holt, and one of the assistants, Elder Richardson, came to Siquirres to do some blitz divisiones in the area. My companion went with Elder Holt to visit some new investigators we needed to contact, and I took off for the other side of town with Elder Richardson in search of new people to teach. Knocking doors hadn´t been all that successful, and I had a feeling we needed to visit Yurico again. We weren´t too far from her house, so we passed by. I had a feeling to share about the "Sense of Urgency" Pres. Gálvez had talked with me about, and although Elder Richardson was completely lost with the screaming of little kids all over the place, I managed to keep Yurico listening to every word as I shared with her a few scriptures I felt she needed to hear. When I was done, she told me she had received her answer. Yesterday (Sunday) she talked with her boyfriend and told him to leave. I put a baptismal date with her for this coming Sunday, the 28th. I´ve never felt better in my life.
Apart from that, that same night we passed by a member´s home, Hna. Darla, to receive a reference. I had wanted to pass by Tuesday, but we didn´t have any time during the day. I insisted we pass by Wednesday, but I didn´t tell Hna. Darla why until we got to the house. Since Tuesday morning I had the impression this hermana knew someone we needed to visit, and as I explained this to her I asked if she could offer a simple prayer in asking who this person might be. She did so, and not wasting a moment she told us of a family that she had wanted the missionaries to visit for quite some time. We passed by the family the following day, and we´re passing by again tomorrow.

Along with the good news comes a new situation as well. Friday night the family Elder Logan and I baptized told me that when I leave, they won´t receive the missionaries anymore. They not gonna drop the Church or anything like that, but they can´t feel the Spirit with Elder Rodriguez around. I can´t blame them, seeing how he didn´t pay any attention to the lesson as he watched Motocross on the TV and screaming like a child. The family even told him to his face he didn´t act like a missionary, to which he got really offended. After we left the house I explained the situation to Rodriguez, and told him to shape up and grow up. He asked me why when only one family has a problem with him, and I had to lay out the truth that it´s not just one family that´s said this to me, it´s almost a dozen. It´s hard when half the ward tells you they don´t want you to pass by because they don´t want your companion in their house.

Alright, that´s about all that´s been happening around here. This week we have Zone Conference, and I also get to learn how to make a typical food found only here in Limón. Hopefully I can get it down so I can make it back home for you guys. =P

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Tell Ashley to hang in there, not too much more to go. If I can hold out, I know she can. And by that I mean 18 MONTHS!!! ...Yeah, I still don´t feel too old. Maybe when I hit the 20. =P

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

New Email

2010-04-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

MyLDSMail has done an upgrade, so we all had to get new email addresses to compensate for the new system. =D

Alright, not too much has changed over the last week. I´m still putting my patience to the test with Elder Rodriguez. He really just doesn´t care about obedience AT ALL. Friday we had interviews with Pres. Gálvez, of which I felt at peace for the first time during the week. Saturday and Sunday ended up being really hard days. I´ve just come to the point where I´m going to do EVERYTHING within my power to be obedient to mission rules, and if my comp has a problem with it, he can take it up with President. Just has Elder Holland said, "The promise is in the obedience."

Nothing much has happened during the week. We contact a pair of references, and our list of investagators is finally starting to grow some after having dropped everyone who wasn´t progressing. We´ll see if these can go all the way or not during this next week. Saturday the only appointment that didn´t fall through for us was our english class, which ended up with a decent turnout for once. =P I got to practice my teaching skills with something other than the gospel, which put a twist on things for me. Luckily I did my planning so everything went smoothly.

Sorry I don´t have much to write about this week. I kind of just want to forget it and put it behind me, starting fresh and over again. I´m trying my best not to be disanimated, but it´s taking a lot out of me without the support of my companion to do things as they should be done. Oh well. There´s a reason to everything.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Take care and I´ll write back next week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

The Gift of Patience

2010-04-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Give Logan a hi-five for me on giving such an awesome talk. That´s what I like to hear. I´m glad to hear the challenege I made is going through too. That´s a pain that the dryer and washer shut-down like that, I hope you´re able to figure that out soon. =(

This wekk I realized that although I had thought I had learned the principle of patience rather well, the Lord still sees it fit to teach me more. =P I´m refering more to my new companion, Elder Rodriguez. Over the past 48 hours not one, not two, but seven members have told him straight out he doesn´t behave like a missionary. I´m in no place to disagree. He´s a super animated and friendly guy, however his hyperactivity has him crossing the line of what a missionary should act like. I won´t even go into what happened during Sunday School yesterday, but let it be said we´re in danger of nobody taking us seriously.
I´m kind of humbled that the Hermana Gálvez told you I was an obedient missionary. I´m not perfect, but I´m trying my best. My companion questions any and all rules we have, especially the internet rules. I kind of feel like I´m training him over again, even though he has almost 8 months in the mission.

Elder Rodriguez does come into the area with some useful knowledge of course. He worked construction for some 5 years, and this coming week we have 3 days where we´re going to be helping some families with some construction stuff. Nothing too big, but doing more service like this will quickly show the fruits of our labors.

Not much else has happened this last week. I hope everything is going okay back home, and that nothing else decides to give up the ghost like the washer and dryer did. =P Take care and I´ll write back next week! Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Beachside Sunrise

2010-03-01T18:07:00.000-08:00

Alright, it´s been a somewhat eventful week.

First off I´m glad to heard everyone in Santiago is fine. I saw the news reports in a bus stop Saturday afternoon and was like "Oh snap!" I´m glad Grandpa and Grandma Nuñez decided to go home with everyone at the last minute. That would´ve been really sketchy. Nothing happened here, just people freaking out about the end of the world what with 2 devastating earthquakes in such short time (Haiti and now Chile).

Last Monday we went to Limón to play football with some jovenes, but it turned out just being us. I guess the kids got scared. =P Nah, it was fun though. Just Elder Logan, myself, and the Limón district. Wednesday we had district meeting in Limón to practice the song we had to sing for District Conference, and then we had a special divisiones. Elder Logan went back to Siquirres with Limón´s district leader, Elder Butler, to visit a family an old family they had both taught in their old areas. I stayed in Limón with Elder Nelson (from my MTC group), and work in his area of Cieneguita for the day. Thursday morning Elder Nelson and I got up a little early to go running along the beach, but we ended up just watching the sun rise over the ocean. That was just amazing. Thursday night we got the call about Changes, and Elder Logan started to pack his things.
Thursday and Friday we were just hammered with hard rains, to the point an umbrella didn´t mean anything.
Saturday we headed out to Limón, again, for the District Conference. We sang our piece, and then Elder Logan and I spent the night with Elder Litchfield and his companion. It was a good time talking with Litchfield, I love having him in the same zone.
Sunday we had a special satelite broadcast from Salt Lake for all of Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama. Elder Costa of the Seventy spoke, as did Elder Christofferson of the Twelve and President Eyring. I really liked what Elder Costa had to say in particular. He focus on the 3 basic pillars we need to support ourselves in the gospel: Family Home Evenings, Family Prayer, and Daily Scripture Study.

Today we had Changes Meeting, and the morning didn´t quite go our way. =P There had been a mudslide due to the extensive rain, and the main road to San José was closed. We ended up taking a 3 hour detour, but we somehow manage to make it to the meeting JUST as they were beginning. My new companion is Elder Rodriguez from Honduras. He made it a point to tell me the time he has is how much time I have left...I´d rather not think about that. He seems like a cool kid, kind of inicuo with internet though. He tried to sign into his MSN Messenger, to which I had to shut him down quietly.

January of this year we set a new record of 116 baptisms, which had beforehand been unheard of. February we made 2nd place, with 108. Things are changing in the mission. The way we think is different, as is the way we work. Everything´s becoming more efficient. And it shows.

Alright I don´t have much more time. Have a great week and take care. I love you all and I can´t wait to hear from you next week.

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Full House

2010-02-25T08:25:00.000-08:00

This last week was better in some ways and the same in others. Tuesday after district meeting we found and taught this black guy named Jefferson. We were really super pumped because he´s really humble and just a cool guy. The rest of Tuesday followed with appointments falling through and getting rejected, but it happens. Wednesday we went to the temple. I just remembered my first time going to the temple here during my first month in the country and how I couldn´t understand ANYTHING that was being said. Now it´s just like, "hey...I understand everything...when the freak did that happen???"
It was nice to be in the temple again. I can´t wait to live somewhere so I can visit the temple at least once week. Pretty sure I´d go insane without that.

On the way back from San José I was talking to Elder Nelson, who was part of my MTC district. He got me super hyped to go to BYU-Idaho. The thought of it just feels right. =)

Friday some of the secretaries came an ransacked our house. =P We had some extra matresses, an extra fridge, and a ton of tables lying around. Some new areas are getting opened up this next change, so they´re getting things ready to rent out apartments and what not.

I figured out where all the disánimo was coming from. After days and now a week of "bad days" Elder Logan and I just got really discouraged with it all. Our attitudes took a dive for a bit. I was looking over some of my notes from the MTC, and I found one of the last counsels Hermano Crane gave us the day we were leaving to enter the mission:

"Bad days don´t exist, only bad moments. But you can´t let those
moments bring you down. That´s Satan talking."

No matter how people may offend us, which they do try to do every day, all we can do is laugh, brush it off, and keep on keeping on. The work is going to keep moving forward, and the escogidos are going to be found and baptized no matter what. Who cares how many times we get rejected? It´s part of the job. We knew when we first made the decision to come what we were getting ourselves into, and we accepted it. And it´s not the people you need to get mad at. Only the false traditions of their fathers.

We ended the week on a mixed note. We had 88 people attend church, almost double than normal. It was incredible. We were pulling out seats from classrooms and squeezing them in where we could just to fit everyone. They even had to bless the water for the sacrament twice because 2 trays wasn´t enough. =P
On the flip side we brought our new "investigator" Jefferson to church...only to find out he was baptized when he was a kid. He just didn´t remember. Go figure. =P

Alright I don´t have much else to tell you guys, nor do I have a lot of time left to write. I´m in Puerto Limón right now, we´re going to play some real american football with some tico gangsters. =P This should be fun. ;)

I love you all. Take care and have a great week. I´ll write back, as always, next week. Oh yeah, Changes are next week. I don´t think anything is going to happen with me, but we´ll see. Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

2010-02-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

I don´t see myself havign changes any time soon. I actually expect to be out here until July since things have changed around here. 6 months in an area has become the new norm. There are changes on March 1st, and Elder Logan could be getting changed out, but we really don´t know.

This last week was a hard one. After our interviews with Pres. Gálvez Sunday we were way hyped to get out there a work even harder than before. Tuesday seemed like we were headed in the right direction, or so we thought. Wednesday we had our Zone Conference in San José and I had the chance to talk with the elders who are now in Escazú. It´s good to know there are some solid elders there taking care of my old area.
After Pres. Gálvez´s capacitation Wednesday in the conference we had even more ánimo to just go all out. We pulled out the member directory (it´s a miracle we have one in the first place) and came up with a new plan to work Siquirres: Contact all the inactive members, looking for those who are ready to come back. We started this Wednesday, and it seemed like we were on to something.

The next 4 days killed any and all ánimo we had.

Investigators going AWOL, people rejecting us to the point that there´s no time to even say hi, it´s just been a mess. We tried to make some root beer floats to animate ourselves, but tico ice cream is more cream than ice...yeah that really didn´t work out for us either. =P

Elder Logan and I decided if things are this bad right now it just means something good is on the way. We did manage to contact an old family of investigators, and Elder Logan feels they could be what turns things around. We visit them tomorrow, and I pray things start picking up soon.

This Wednesday we´re headed to the temple with the zone. It´s been 6 months since I last went, and I´ve been needing this for a while. I hate not being able to go to the temple as often as I want, I´m going to take full advantage of that when I get home. I´m just hurting for some inspriation on what to do in the area that hasn´t already been done. I´m hoping to receive some answers Wednesday.

Nothing else really happened this week. Hopefully this coming week is a bit more eventful. Today we´re taking a bus out to another part of the area to locate some members who recently moved out here. They´re strong members from one of Elder Logan´s old areas, and exactly what the branch here is hurting for right now. I´m hoping this week is just a week of miracles, because we need them right now.

Have a great week, stay safe, and know that I´m at the very least still alive and kicking. =P I love you all and I hope you had a great Valentine´s Day!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

A Sense of Urgency

2010-02-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

Saturday night we had the baptism of Orlando, which went off without a hitch. Sunday we had the confirmation, and to everyone´s surprise we had some unsuspected visitors attend church with us: President Gálvez and his wife Hermana Gálvez.
President Gálvez came in part to make sure that Ulises, who we baptized not quite a month ago, and also Orlando, would be ordained to the priesthood. The branch president here wasn´t going to do it, but it got done and President Gálvez did the ordainations himself. Slowly but surely we´re getting some priesthood power in the branch, which is sorely needed. We also witnessed a son preparing for the mission ordain his dad as well, which kind of hit home for me.

Elder Logan and I had our interviews with President Gálvez on Sunday as well. I had a good and necessary talk with President, and I felt really good afterwards. I figured out something I´ve been faulting over the last few months: A Sense of Urgency. I was seeing the work one way, and missing something key to it all. I´ve been kind of against the way my district leader has been doing things, but I can now see what Pres. Gálvez has said and taught, and how other missionaries have miscontrued it. I have the idea now, and I can see the big change Pres. Gálvez is trying to bring about in his missionaries. I feel a whole new surge of power to start over here ion Siquirres. We have some okay people right now, but Elder Logan and I both decided it´d be best to drop the ones who aren´t progressing and find those who will. We can´t play a waiting game anymore like we sort of have been, we need more of a sense of urgency to get things moving faster than we ever thought they could.

Today was a pretty relaxed P-Day. We met up with the other Limón missionaries and went to the most beautiful beach I have seen on my mission: Playa Cauhita. It was just gorgeous. We climb out over a palm tree and took some funny pictures. I´ll sent you fotos when I can, I had some issues with my USB and Elder Litchfield needed to replace a lot of my fotos from Cañas. Oh yeah, Elder Litchfield says hi too. =P

Alright well I´m sadly out of time. I love you all and I hope this week stays pretty tranquilo like that last. I´m doing great and feeling fine. We have Zone Conference this Wednesday, but other than that we don´t have any big plans this week. We´re hoping to put another baptism date this week, so wish us luck!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Return of the Kidney Stone

2010-02-01T16:19:00.000-08:00

Glad to hear the last week passed by pleasently. That´s always a good thing to hear.

This last week passed with the return of Elder Logan´s kidney stone. We made it a few days before the pain came back worse than before. We didn´t end up making it to interviews with Pres. Gálvez Friday morning, Elder Logan was bedridden and physically couldn´t move due to the pain. Pres. Gálvez had us buy shots to dull the pain, but sometimes they work, sometimes they don´t. It´s kind of sketchy in the first place that we have to do the injections ourselves...yay Costa Rica!
Saturday I was pleasently surprised though. We left to work and found a bunch of youth playing soccer at the church, along with 2 white kids you knew had to be missionaries. One of those guys was Elder Litchfield. It was a district youth activity, and since every branch needed a priesthood to accompany the kids, Elder Litchfield had to come down. I was nice change to talk with him for a little bit after being locked up in the house for so long.

Not much else going on. We have a baptism this weekend; Orlando, who´s the son of our wash lady. The work continues. We need to find some new people to teach though. I just hope we can pull through this month strong, because the more you work the faster time flies. It´s when you´re not doing anything that time drags on like an old lady crossing the street. =P

Well this letter isn´t very long, but like I said, my companion´s been dying from kidney stones. Not much can happen. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Take care, be safe, and tell Logan to KEEP READING! =P

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Kidney Stones! (not mine)

2010-01-31T16:53:00.000-08:00

Wow, sounds like a lot has been going on this last week. Glad to hear Grandma´s surgery went well, and that Dad´s taking it easier at work. I hope it all works out and he can make it to summer without too much worry.

Alright, we´ve had a bit of a week ourselves. To start out, we stopped by this old black lady who speaks english on Tuesday just to see how she´s doing. Her name is Edith, and quite frankly she has no idea what´s going on around her. =P It was the first time I had met her, aaaand it was really funny. She was telling me how see met me when I was about 6 years old when I came to Costa Rica with my uncle who was a pastor...and that she use to babysit me...I just kinda nodded my head and was like "Really? Yeah I don´t remember!" ...Is that bad??? She´s so far out of it I just didn´t have the heart to tell her "NO! You´re worng!." =P

Nothing too eventful happened over the week, by things did start up Saturday around 2:30 a.m. Elder Logan woke me up saying "Elder, we need to go to the clinic, NOW." He was in major pain, like nothing I´ve ever seen before. I tried calling our district leader, but nobody answered. So I called Pres. Gálvez, told him what was happening and where we were going, and told him I´d call back when we´d reached the clinic. I gave Elder Logan a blessing before leaving the house, and we walked to a member´s place not to far from us. The brother-in-law had been woken up a few minutes before by some unknown reason, and he called us a taxi to the clinic. We got to the clinic about 3 a.m. A nurse examined Elder Logan in what I called a shady excuse for a medical clinic, and after some poking and guessing they gave him some shots and said it would be about an hour before the drugs would fully take effect and the pain would die down. They said it could either be apendisitis or a kidney stone, but they had no way to know for sure with what they had. I´ll be honest, the clinic here looked like an old war hospital like they had in in France during World War 2. Rundown, with some beds thrown in one room and very basic medical equipment. Very basic.

I called Pres. Gálvez again and explained what was going on and what the nurses said. I told him I´d call when the hour wait was over. I spent the next half hour praying until my mind finally shutdown again. At about 5 a.m. (2 hours later) we had about 20 minutes left before the "hour" wait would be up (riddle me that). I got to go in and talk with Elder Logan for a quick second. They had him hooked up to some plasma and the pain had passed. They nurses had decided he had a kidney stone, but we didn´t know how they came to the conclusion without any tests. =P

At 6 a.m. (3 hours later) the "hour" wait was up and Elder Logan was released. After calling Pres. Gálvez and letting him know Elder Logan was feeling better, we went straight to Iraydelis´ house (she´s now our breakfast cook), however around 8 a.m. the pain came back just as strong. We took a taxi to the house while Iraydelis and her daughter went to pick up the precriptions Elder Logan received at the clinic. We called Pres. Gálvez again, and he sent the APs out to bring us into San José. Elder Logan twisted and turned in bed groaning in pain while I tried calling our district leader again, of which no one could get ahold of, not even President. After talking with Pres. Gálvez we decided I was gonna go into San José with my companion, seeing how we didn´t have any real appointments set and it would just be easier that way. Iraydelis came by with the precriptions around 9:30 a.m. and the APs got to us around 10:30 a.m. We got to San José at noon and we went straight to the Clinica Biblica, the only real safe and CLEAN hospital in Costa Rica. Elder Logan stayed with Pres. Gálvez in the hospital waiting to see the doctors and I went to get some lunch with Elder Holt (one of the secretaries) and Elder Rojas (the new assistant, he´s from Santiago). At 1 p.m. we got back to the Clinica Biblica only to find President and Elder Logan STILL WAITING to see a doctor. At this point the pain had faded a bit to were he could bare with it. Finally Elder Logan and Pres. Gálvez went in to see the doctor, and I kind of chilled in the waiting room. Sleep didn´t really come at all, it was way too loud with TVs going, a ton of people waiting and talking, and a few dense americans yelling at the desk clerks because they couldn´t speak english.

At 4 p.m. Elder Logan got out from all the tests, received his drugs, and was told it was a kidney stone, but they weren´t sure if he still had it or if it had already passed. We were all a little lost on that one. President took us to his house afterwards, were the Hermana Gálvez had made us guatemalan soup for us. After eating President took us to the mission home were we tried to sleep a little before the APs and the secretaries came home. That night as we were getting ready for bed the pain came back again. Elder Logan passed the night on the downstairs couch twisting and turning in pain. The poor guy didn´t get a wink of sleep. Sunday morning he was still in major pain. I stayed in the house with him while everyone else went to church. Elder Logan finally got some sleep right before everyone got home from church. We started making a big lunch for everyone (mashed potatoes, breaded chicken, corn, etc.) and then everyone left to work again while we stayed locked up in the house. We tried to keep ourselves entertained but there´s really nothing in the mission home to do that with. Around 8:15 p.m. we went to the office were the secretaries and the APs were taking the weekly numbers. Elder Logan wasn´t feeling any pain anymore and was really glad to to leave the house and walk around.

We left this morning for Siquirres. It´s been a long couple of days, but my companion´s still alive. That´s all that really matters. =P

Alright, I think I´ve taken enough time out of everyone´s lives with this letter. =P I love you all and I want you to know that I´m doing fine, even if I am a little tired. Have a great week and I can´t wait to hear from you next Monday!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

7 Days of Rain With Baptism

2010-01-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

Wow that´s crazy Hermana Dorsey got in contact with you. That family is so cool, I was really blessed with the opportunity to visit with them as often as we did.

Glad to hear things back home are going smoothly. Any more news if Dad´s going to need surgery again? I forgot to mention this last week, but I was wondering if you guys are still planning to pick me up at mission´s end. I´d actually like to spend even just a few days showing you guys around, but I don´t know the money situation back home. Especially if Dad´s going to need surgery again, I know that kind of put a dent in things last year.

After 7 days straight of rain, we had the baptisms for Ulises and his family Saturday night. There was a bit of craziness that happened, but in the end everything went fine. Elder Logan baptized Ulises and the daughter Carolinne, and I baptized Iraydelis. Elder Logan doesn´t have changes afterall, as we thought he would. He´s going on 7 and a half months in the area now. It´s going to be a challenge working since he feels like he´s done everything he can (kind of like I did in Cañas), but we´ll make it work.

Today we went to a hidden waterfall with the zone leaders, Elder Carr and Elder Shrock. I think the first waterfall I saw in Cañas was better, but this one was pretty sweet with the water flying out like cannon fire. It was so loud though, holy wow. My normal shoes are shredded. Not sure if they can last 8 months more, but we´ll see what happens. I´ve gone this long without buying a single article of clothing, I´d like to keep it that way.

I love you guys and I hope you have a great week. I´m doing well and working hard. Take care and I can´t wait to hear from you next week. Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Wedding Bells

2010-01-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

Lot to write about and not much time. It´s been a pretty crazy week. Yeah, I didn´t have time to write yesterday, I´ll explain why.

Tuesday morning we had our district meeting in Guacimo. Let me explain quickly the mindset of my district leader, Elder Manning: "baptizebaptizebaptize". He was just hitting us with baptize as many people as possible and worry about their understanding later. He sees our purpose as just baptizing, and that keeping converts active is the members problem and not our job. I kindly disagree on all fronts. Elder Evans, my first zone leader, said it best:

Study to Teach.
Teach to Baptize.
Baptize to RETAIN.
Retention is Progression.
Progression is ETERNAL.

Anyways, Elder Logan and I just smiled and nodded our heads during district meeting. That night we put a baptismal date with the a kid named Orlando. His dad, menos activo member, asked us to teach and baptize his son, so we started that. We put the fecha for Jan. 23rd.

Wednesday Elder Manning called and asked if we could do divisions Thrusday, because he wanted to talk to Ulises and Iraydelis. Elder Logan and I, fearing Elder Manning would kill the good things we have going with them, took the chance to prepare them for Elder Manning´s visit and talking more about marriage. We spent that night talking with them on the phone a little more and getting them to think about it more seriously.
Thursday came and we had the weirdest divisons I´ve ever had in the mission. Elder Manning and his companion Elder Foutz showed up at 3 p.m. to start divisions, with only 6 work hours left. Elder Foutz and I took the 4 p.m. bus back to Guacimo, and got there at 5 p.m. I helped Elder Foutz sun some errands. He doesn´t speak a lick of spanish, so I was working translation duty. Elder Manning and Elder Logan showed up in Guacimo later that night. Turns out Elder Manning had a district leader meeting Friday morning, so the four of us were spending the night in Guacimo.
Anyways, Elder Logan comes into the house and tells me the good news: Ulises and Iraydelis put a wedding date.
Then he hit me with the stress factor: They want to get married 4 days from then. January 11th, which was yesterday.
Elder Logan and I spend a good part of the night calling the lawyer, making a list of all the paperwork needed (cedulas and passport copies, family info, etc). We had to call Elder O´Dell, who was with me in the MTC, to tell him he was going to be a witness in the wedding along with Elder Logan (they were the two who found the family to begin with). We called the assistants to make sure we could have the wedding in the mission office in San José (Elder O´Dell is in San José right now, so we had to do it there for him to be present). In other words, it was completely crazy.
Friday we finished and emailed all the paperwork we could, minus the passport copies, and started to look for wedding rings. Iraydelis called us that night saying the a LOT of people were telling them not to get married, even though they´ve lived together for 10 years, but she didn´t care what other people said. Apparently she kept seeing signs that it needed to happen.
Saturday Elder Logan and I got hit with a virus that had us bed-ridden for the whole day. Apparently we had a bug that makes you SUPER dehydrated, to the point we felt so weak walking made us nauseated. We continued to do what we could to organize the wedding. Sunday night the rains started pounding down on us.
After some super stressful days and planning, Monday came. With heavy rains still coming down, we took a mini bus to San José. In route we hit a mudslide in the middle of the highway. I said a quick prayer that we would make it to San José on time to make it happen, and my prayers were heard. We even made it to San José a half hour early. =P
The lawyer was late, and we ended up playing a waiting game for him to show. Elder Logan and I were really worried he wasn´t going to come and we had done all of this in vain. The lawyer came, and I got to be part of my first wedding in Costa Rica. Afterwards Pres. Gálvez arrived and visited with Ulises and Iraydelis, which I was really happy about. We got home last night with no time to write home, only time to go right out and work. Luckily we didn´t have district meeting today, so we took the chance to write. =)

So that´s that. Wedding yesterday, and to make it all sweeter Ulises, Iraydelis, and their daughter Carolinne are all getting baptized THIS SATURDAY.

It´s literally been a crazy couple of days, but it all ends well for the change. Elder Logan should be getting changed out next Monday, but we won´t know anything for sure on that until Saturday night.

That´s awesome that Chris Lee was called to the bishopric in Clarkston 2nd! Tell me congrats for me. Keep me updated on dad. I really hope he won´t need surgery again, but we´ll see what happens.

Alright I need to jet, but I love you all and I hope everything´s going well. Things still feel a bit crazy right now, I don´t think I´ll be able to relax until after the baptisms Saturday. =P

Wish me luck!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

New Year's Breakdown

2010-01-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

Not gonna lie. We had an off start to the new year.

New Year´s Eve we had a bit of a scare. Our golden family, Ulises and Iraydelis, called us in the morning to have us pass by and have dinner with them. When we got to the house that night, Elder Logan and I both felt something was wrong. Just looking at the house we could feel something had happened. Turns out Ulises has some drinking issues they never told us about. I talked with Ulises, who felt absolutely horrible for drinking in the first place, while Elder Logan talked with Iraydelis. We managed to convince Iraydelis not to kick Ulises out and to talk things over. Elder Logan and I felt depressed for the rest of the night seeing our favorite family crash like that.

New Year´s Day we went out to this little secluded piece of paradise along the river. One of the hermanas in the branch, la Hermana Patricia and her little daughter, Iraydelis, her daughter Karolay, and also Ulises took us out there. Iraydelis was still infruiated with Ulises, which made things a little awkward. That night we made New Year Resolutions with them on what they´re going to change and what their goals for the year are. Iraydelis and Ulises are started to work things out little by little. They both came to church yesterday and were acting like husband and wife again (although they still need to get married).

That´s about all the news of what´s been going on here. Had some pretty hot weather, but nothing like what I was fighting with in Cañas. I will say that I´ve never eaten so many coconuts in my life. =P The people here give us coconuts everytime we leave a house, coconut trees are literally EVERYWHERE. They also use coconut milk and everything they make. They have a dish called "Rice and Bean". Yes, it´s in english. Most people don´t realize that it is here. Anyway it´s just rice and beans mixed together and cooked with coconut milk, but it is SOOOOOOO GOOD!

I liked your New Year Resolutions. =P My New Year Resolution is to do my studies EVERYDAY. Sundays, because of church, doesn´t give us a lot of time to study. Mondays, P-Day, is a day of which no missionary I´ve met yet takes time to study. And Tuesdays, with district meetings in the morning, take away our study time. That was part of my thinking on giving Logan my Book of Mormom Blitz challenge: To get him to start reading, and also to keep me studying on those days where it seems there´s no time. If I fix that now, I won´t have a problem keeping my studies up when I get home.

Alright, I better wrap this up. We have to buy some food today. =D I love you all and I hope this first week of the new year sets a good pace for the rest of the year. I can´t wait to hear from you all next week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Just Another Day in Paradise

2009-12-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T08:18:00.001-08:00

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

Vegan Thanksgiving?

2009-11-30T16:35:00.001-08:00

I´m glad to hear you were able to spend Thanksgiving as a family, I thought about you guys a lot that day. I actually ending up having a great Thanksgiving despite the fact of being away from home. Wednesday one of the american families in the ward, the Dorsey Family, invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner Thursday. About ten minutes after talking with them Elder Muñoz turned to me and said "Elder, the Dorseys don´t eat meat. They´re vegetarians!"

Easy enough said we spent the greater part of our walking time brainstorming what vegetarians eat for Thanksgiving. =P

However, when we got to the house Thursday we found a full-sized turkey and a HUGE amount of food set out, as well as a dozen Peace Corps volunteers who had been invited as well. =P After explaning a little about what we do as missionaries (and a short few rounds of Apples2Apples) dinner was finally ready. A few of the Peace Corps girls starting asking more about our lives as missionaries and one girl was in absolute shock when I mentioned I hadn´t talked with my family since May. =P Then there was the one hour of internet a week to write our families, the 9 p.m. curfew, and the nice thick missionary handbook with all our rules. I was just laughing at their reactions, because honestly after 14 months in the mission this stuff doesn´t even phase me. It´s just another part of life for me. =P

Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, partially to the fact I didn´t HAVE Thanksgiving last year. The number of pies/variety of course ´didn´t amount to the Thanksgivings I know and love, but all in all it was a great Thanksgiving. Definitly something I will remember for a long, long time.

Sunday was the Primary presentation in sacrament meeting. I only have one thing to say about that: I´m glad to see some things don´t change no matter where you are. =P

No I haven´t got the package you sent yet, I´m hoping I will next Monday. A week from today we have changes meeting, and with 6 months in Escazú Elder Muñoz is pretty sure he´s out, even though he doesn´t want to spend Christmas in a new area. Anything´s possible, but whether we have changes or not I still want to go to changes meeting. If only for the mail. =P

Alright I gotta jet and get ready for work. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Take care, be safe, and know that I´m doing fine in Tico Land. =D

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-23T17:23:00.001-08:00

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

Baptized...in a Pool?

2009-11-17T07:38:00.001-08:00

Wow sounds like things have been pretty busy lately. My week was pretty hectic as well, but I´ll definately learned to just deal with things better when all goes wrong. =P

Our Ward Mission Leader, Rand Layton, and his family moved back to the states Saturday. Rand helped us out a lot really and it won´t be the same here without him. Hopefully we´ll get another awesome ward mission leader but we´ll see what happens.

With that being said this week was flat out insane. The bishop announced the baptism we had planned wrong and we had to try to throw things together fast. Well, it´s not that he announced it wrong, bishop just announced it when he wanted it done: after church Sunday, when we had it planned for Saturday. I understand WHY bishop wanted it that way, but Pres. Gálvez told us flat out the baptizing and confirming on Sundays is a habit this ward needs to end, and as far as I´m concerned my president overrides the bishop on this. Pres. Gálvez has the keys to direct the work in Costa Rica, what he says goes in my book. So after a week of the bishop not answering our calls Thursday night we finally got a hold of him to let him in on the plans we had made since he wouldn´t answer his cell (why have a phone if you don´t answer it???).
We had made some calls and since the chapel here in Escazú is finally underconstruction, the second counselor in the bishopric, Hno. Dorsey, gave us the okay to have the baptism in his family´s private pool. It all went more or less smoothly. =P The Dorsey´s phones didn´t work all day Saturday, so there was some confusion as to whether or not we would have the baptism at their house or not. But, we had the service, people showed, and we had the baptism.
The bishop still isn´t happy with us shooting down his tradition, but I told him if he has any problems to talk to my president. I did my job and Harvin got baptized, that´s all I can ask for.

Thursday or Friday a small quake surprised us around 3 p.m. It wasn´t nearly as strong as the one I experienced last January, but it was still pretty cool. =P

Oh yeah, and apparently everyone and their MOM has Facebook here. Literally ALL the members communicate by Facebook, bishop and all the leaders included. ...that´s just a little weird to me...yeah...

Alright well I don´t have much else about this week. The Zone Leaders asked me the design something for the zone t-shirts they want to do, so I need to throw that together real quick. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Tell Logan he better work on his cooking skills because I´m gonna want something amazing when I get home. =P Tell Grandpa and Grandma I say hi as well. =)

¡Hasta luego!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Fugitives on the Lose!

2009-11-11T18:31:00.000-08:00

So Tuesday was exciting. Some Columbian drug dealing fugitives were on the lose in Escazú. Police cars were EVERYWHERE, officers were running in all directions, and while we were visiting Kenia y Sergio in the more ghetto part of the area a helicopter came in flying low and on the search. Pretty intense stuff. Then of course news of the hurricane passing by, but then turning and hitting Nicaragua as per usual. Not gonna lie, I was looking forward to a nice hurricane experience. As odd as that might sound. =P

Speaking of such, Kenia is doing fine. The burns have healed for the most part, however Sergio and Kenia as a couple are on the verge of splitting. Sergio flat out doesn´t want to get married, and Kenia is tired of waiting for him. She´s made the decision to move to another past of San José, Hatillo. Luckily, that area is part of my zone. I called the elders there and passed along her number. I also gave Kenia the number for the elders there. Supposedly she´ll be moving within the week, however it´s up in the air whether it will really happen or not.

Jarvin is doing good, we have his baptism planned for this weekend. Sunday was a bit of a pain though because we had the service planned for the 14th (Sabado), but the bishop wants to do it after church Sunday. However, Pres, Gálvez said NO to this after Janiel´s baptism. Janiel is doing okay too. We´re working with the leaders to get him ordained to the priesthood soon.

On the flip side I got some bad news Sunday. Our ward mission leader, Rand Layton, is moving back to the states with his family. Things just didn´t work out here for them I guess. It stinks because now we´re back to square one without a mission leader to help us out organize our efforts with the ward. None of the other leaders respond to us, except for one of the counselors for the young men, Brother Baker.
As far as fallout from the Halloween party, there´s been some friction between a few members and the bishop, but nothing major and nothing out of hand.

Sunday was also the start of something new for Barrio Escazú. They´re tearing down the capilla here and are building a much more spacious stake center in it´s place. Estaca La Sabana will be split come June or July of next week into Estaca La Sabana and Estaca Escazú. So, while things are under construction Barrio Escazú has been moved to the stake center, which is in San José centro. So to get all the members there, since only the gringos have cars, they rented out a bus to make the trip to and from church. It was pretty funny riding back from church in the bus literally FULL to the brim.

Thursday we had interviews with Pres. Gálvez. The Zone Leaders had a capacitation on finding and recognizing los escogidos. It was a pretty good meeting altogether. At interviews I got a letter from Tylan. Good to know the guy´s still kicking in Ghana. Can´t believe how fast time is flying though.

Elder Muñoz has been suffering from homesickness this last week or so. Birthday came and went, and Muñoz has just been sad. I´ve been trying my best to keep his spirits up, but thinking about home at all just makes him more depressed. Poor kid.

Okay well I don´t have much else to tell you guys about the week. Today I saw an old and grey nicaraguan man dressed as Moses. That was a funny site, not gonna lie. The sandals, the robe, the staff, just priceless. I wanted to snap a picture, but I was kind of afraid he´d see me and try to turn my camera into a snake. And that would just be bad. =P

Take care, have a great week, and stay safe. I love you all! I´m doing fine and livin life, no worries here!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Feliz Noche de Brujas

2009-11-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

I´ll start off with some things I forgot to mention last week. =)
I found out last week my mini-missionary companion from Cañas, Elder Zuñiga, finally got reassigned to a new mission. He left for Panana about a month ago, but before he left he got the chance to baptize his dad. Miracles really do come true. =)

Last week started out with a scare. Our investigator Kenia was in the hospital last Monday for 3rd degree burns. She was cooking and a huge glass thing of hot, burning oil shattered and burned her arms and her stomach. Oddly enough, this insane and, I´d imagine, painful accident somehow brought Kenia and her menos activo boyfriend Serigo closer. Their relationship has taken a 180 and Kenia said if they´re going to get married, she wants it to happen before the end of November. We´re working slowly bu surely with Sergio, I pray we can make this happen.
We had a baptism planned for this coming Saturday, but I changed the date for the 14th. Sunday came and I just felt something telling me it wasn´t time yet, we still need one more week with the kid. His name is Jarvin, and he´s the younger brother of the muchacho Muñoz and I baptized when I first got to Escazú, Janiel. Jarvin´s a great kid and understands everything perfectly, we just need a little more time for him to drop the coffee habit. =P

Saturday night the ward had a Halloween activity at the church. Well I should say HALF the ward had a Halloween activity. Halloween has a very different feeling to it in Costa Rica. The Catholic Church has a lot of influence here, and due to that influence Halloween is seen as a strictly satanic holiday that should not be celebrated by most all Ticos. Now, a good half of the Escazú Ward are gringos, and for us Halloween is a night just to goof off and have fun. We definately saw the division between the bishop and his friends, and those who are not friends with the bishop on this one. It´s been...interesting to see the fall out from the activity. Hopefully nothing ugly happens.

Today is Elder Muñoz´s cumpleaños! We went to the largest mall in Costa Rica (which of course is in my ridiculously rich area) with the rest of the district and hung out there for a bit. I bought Muñoz a little Superman Hotwheels car (he´s a big Superman fan, but it´s okay, that´s why we have repentance). All in all it was fun and chill, just the way I like it. We have a few citas with members tonight in celebration. I get to enjoy Elder Muñoz´s birthday just like Elder Zuñiga got to enjoy mine. It´s a great thing. =D

Alright, well I better get ready to jet. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Take care, know that I´m doing fine and loving life, and I´ll talk to ya next week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.D.- Elder Muñoz and I have started to play Slug Bug. I think he likes playing just because of my reaction when I lose. =P

P.P.D.- Oh yeah! Andy Call should be coming home this week!!!! You should call his family just to be sure!

Round 2 in Escazu

2009-11-01T19:16:00.000-08:00

Tell dad thanks for sending the fotos! It had been a little while since I had seen any new fotos of the house and all that. =)

Okay well I happened to leave out a few things from last week´s email. I was a bit out of it. Anyway last Monday we had a zone activity, a sports day of Zona La Sabana versus Zona La Paz. I´m quite happy of the fact 6 months in Cañas really improved my soccer skills. =P We lost the basketball game, won the soccer game, but then lost the football game. But it was fun all around.

We´ve had a bit of a hard week with our investigator Kenia and her menos activo husband, Sergio. Tuesday we had a family home evening with a gringo family in the ward, the Baker Family. It went really, REALLY well, and I felt really good about it. We put a wedding and baptismal date for the 7th of November, but knew it was going to be some work to make it happen. When we saw them again on Thursday Sergio...I can honestly say I don´t get the man. He wants the best for his family, but he wants it to happen without having to do anything himself. The lesson ended with Kenia running out of the room crying because Sergio just doesn´t want to change or make any commitment of any kind at this point. Elder Muñoz visited them again Friday on divisions with our district leader, Elder Curtis, but no progress was made. We saw them again Saturday and things had cooled down but Sergio still wouldn´t talk about the marriage. It´s been a lot of ups and downs with them this week.

Tuesday we visited Janiel, our baptism from the start of the change. His brother Jarvin was talking with us and asked what he´d have to do to be baptized too. We were just like "Wait, did you really just ask that???" Los escogidos are gonna come along if we´re doing what we need to, that´s all I got to say. =) We put a fecha with Jarvin for the 7th of November as well, and he´s moving along better than we could ask for.

Today was changes meeting. I´ll be with Elder Muñoz for at least one more change, and then he´ll bail with 6 months in the area come Dec. 7th. I saw Elder Litchfield while I was there, and he says hi to all of you. I love that guy. It was great to talk with him again about what life´s been like OUTSIDE of Cañas por fin. =P A lot of the elders that are going home tomorrow were pretty good friends of mine, it´s weird to see them leaving now. Elder Jones (my 1st district leader), Elder Cook (one of my ZLs from Zona Norte), and Elder Shoemake (was my ZL here) are the most notable. Elder Shoemake lives in the Tri-Cities area, it´s been so funny talking to that guy this change. Time is flying, come the end of the year and I won´t know hardly anyone in the mission. =P

Not much else happening on my side of the globe, just work as usual. It´s been getting colder here in Escazú, which is weird because "winter" is suppose to be ending about now. But apparently it starts getting cold when "winter" (o sea the raining season) ends. So weird. =P

Alright well I better jet. I hope all is well back home and everyone is doing fine. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- I passed by Chuck Norris´ house the other day. It´s freaking HUGE! Just a massive mansion. I´m contemplating knocking the door next time we pass, I mean everyone deserves a chance to hear the gospel, right? =D But I´m kind of afraid of getting a roundhouse kick to the face. =P

P.P.S.- Oh yeah, I got to thinking about this the other day. I was wondering if you could send me some Idaho quarters. I figured that´d be a cool little recuerdo to send to converts and comps for Christmas. =D

Servir sin Pensar en lo que Va a Venir

2009-10-19T17:14:00.001-07:00

This last week I´ve been a little distracted, not gonna lie, a talk in sacrament meeting Sunday helped me come to the following conclusion:

"Servir sin pensar en lo que va a venir."

Missionaries are always talking about what they want to do AFTER the mission. Always, without question, something is going to be said about plans for AFTER the mission. School, work, and especially girls. I´ve heard it said that no one talks more about their future wives, and at no time does anyone talk about their future wives, than a missionary in the mission field. And I can testify of that, sin duda. =P
But that´s what was bothering me throughout the week. It was sitting in the back of my mind when we weren´t teaching, until finally the answer to my prayers came to me Sunday. Serve without thought of what is to come. What happens afterwards is really just the whip cream and the cherry topping to the desert I´m making right now in the mission. I´m here to help people, to teach them, and hope that in one way or another they´re lives are changed for the better when it´s my time to leave. What happens after this isn´t all that important right now. Not to me anyways. This is the Lord´s time, and from September 24, 2008 to whatever the day is when I go home, what I do needs to be focused in what the Lord needs of me. When I´m released and no longer a missionary, THEN I can think about how to use MY time.

...Yeah I´m off the soap box...just had to let that out. =P

Sunday was full of surprises. Kenia, the lady were helping to plan her wedding and baptism, asked me to bless her baby. At first I was kind of in shock, because I´ve NEVER heard of a missionary giving a baby blessing. The bishop called Pres. Gálvez and asked if it was okay, and President gave the okay. So, I gave my first baby blessing Sunday. Tuesday night we´re having a Family Home Evening with Kenia, her soon-to-be husband Sergio, and the Baker Family from the states (Sister Baker grew up in Moscow). We just need to finalize the wedding plans and have the baptismal date solid, and then I might be able to relax some. =P

I don´t have much else to report on this week, sorry. I´ll try to make more exiciting things happen this week so I have something to write about. =P The work continues, I continue to climb hill after hill, all the while enjoying the time I have here. The ward is planning a Halloween activity, buuuuut because of the influence the Catholic Church has in this country EVERYONE thinks Halloween is a Satanic holiday that shouldn´t be celebrated. And seeing how 60% of the ward consists of gringos, everyone´s just like "Yeah, Halloween. Candy and costumes. What´s so bad about that?"

We´ll see what happens there. =P

I love you all and I hope everyone has a great week. Take care and I hope to hear from ya next week! Ciao!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Not P-Day

2009-10-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Sounds like lfe continues back home. That house has changed so much since we first moved in NO ONE would believe it´s the same house as what it was. But change is good. As I´ve said before, I thrive on change. Life´s just more exciting that way.

Today we had a Zone Conference, so no P-Day for us, just the chance to write home and then it´s back to work. It was a great conference though, one of the best I´ve had in the mission so far. Elder Don R. Clarke of the Seventy came and spoke to us. I love it when general authorities come a speak to us, because what we see watching Conference is nothing like how they are in person. Elder Clarke was hilarious, he really knew how to catch our attention and keep the ball rolling. It was a great conference, and I have a whole list of things to try out and change to help build the kingdom in Escazú. When I introduced myself to Elder and Sister Clarke, Sister Clarke asked me where I was from (in spanish of course). When I answered from Idaho she replied "Elder you´re suprising us!" I love it when that happens. I´ve been with latino comps long enough that I finally have a bit of an accent in my spanish, so it´s not hard to convince people I´m not a gringo. =P

This week Elder Muñoz and I have been focusing on one of our investigadors in specific. Her name his Kenia, and she lives with her menos activo boyfriend Sergio. They have a son whose a little over a year old. Muñoz and his last companion had been working with her for a few months, but trying to convince Sergio to get married was out of the question. POR FIN, Muñoz and I have gotten him on board and they´re working for marraige. Wednesday I had an idea so we found an internet cafe and quickly typed out some "applied scripture". We´re so close, we just need to sit down with BOTH of them and talk about when and how this is going to happen. I´m hoping we can plan the wedding date for the first Saturday of November, and have Kenia´s baptism on the second Saturday. Any prayers offered would be especially helpful. =D

I also realized I´ve walked so far and climbed so many hills in the last year, I might as well walk everywhere when I get home. I literally climb a MOUNTAIN every day here, and by some miracle it doesn´t phase me. Missionary endurance. Gotta love it.

Be expecting an email soon from a family here in Escazú. There´s a gringo family here, the Dorsey Family, who had us over for dinner the other day, took a picture, and Hna. Dorsey plans on emailing you soon. They´re a really cool family. Hna. Dorsey served a mission in Honduras, and Hno. Dorsey in Spain. Really cool family, really funny too. =P

Alright well that´s all I have for the week. I hope all is well back home and everyone is doing fine. No worries about me, I´m over the sinus infection and all that jazz. The cough is still with me, as usual, but otherwise I´m back in action. Now, Elder Muñoz got hit with a pretty tough cold, he was bed-ridden for most of Saturday. Poor guy.

Take care and have a great week. I love you all and I´ll talk to ya hoy en ocho. Oh yeah, this is great, guess who has a vacation home in my area??? Begins with a Chuck and ends in a Norris. I´ll be sending fotos in a few weeks. =P

¡PURA VIDA!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

WHAT A CONFERENCE!

2009-10-05T16:56:00.001-07:00

Woohoo! I´m glad the package got to you guys alright! That was really nice of the guy who offered to send it to you guys, I owe him an ever greater thanks because I wasn´t the one to put the chocolate covered passion fruit in there, that had to be him!

Well, I forgot to mention this last week, but last Sunday my annual sinus infection decided to kick my butt. Sunday I could feel it starting, Monday I just had a sore throat, but then from Tuesday on I was dead. It was a miserable week. I still have meds from when I was in the MTC, but sadly those expired at the end of September...so yeah. My nose is still running but that horrible cough I always get is finally faded and I don´t feel like a zombie anymore. Thankfully.

Wednesday we met with our Ward Mission Leader, Rand Layton. We´re going to start planning a Hawaiian Luhau (spelling???) for November. We need to get the members off their lazy butts and get them excited about the work, because the church IS missionary work! Rand is way cool, I´m really glad I have the chance to work with him. We´re also planning on having a capacitation meeting about Preach My Gospel for the members, because none of them know anything about it. And since it´s the literal manual of missionary work, they really need to know about it. Everything we do is because Preach My Gospel says we to do it, so it´s that much more important that the members understand it as well. I´ve put my plans together, since Elder Muñoz and I will be the ones leading the capacitation. I´m actually using part of my internet time today to throw together a Power Point Presentation. I figure a half hour should be enough time to write home. =D

I´m really glad you got to see Conference, Pres. Gálvez had all of us missionaries in EVERY session of Conference. I think that might be because we won´t have P-Day next week due to Zone Conference. =P
But I really enjoyed every talk during Conference, especially Elder Holland´s testimony. Everyone of us missionaries were like "Oh my gosh...that´s testifying with POWER!" I hope Dad and Logan had the chance to go to the Priesthood Session Saturday night. If not you should read over those talks when you can with Logan when they´re available. All in all Conference was amazing. I received a lot of answers to prayers and guidance about what we can do for some investigators we have. Really incredible.

Oh yeah, I don´t know if I mentioned this before. In my zone is an Elder Squirres from Nampa area. It´s good to have more Idaho blood in the mission, we´re an endangered species right now. =P

Well I don´t have much else to report on for the week, with me being sick nothing exciting happened. Just working in the rain. Coughing a lot. Losing my voice. That sort of thing. =P No really, I´m fine now. Happy and halfway healthy. =D
Tell Ashley I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! And that I found a T-Shirt I´m sending her for Christmas. I´m pretty sure she´ll like it.

Well family, I´m wet and cold from the rain. I forgot my umbrella today and we made the mistake of hanging out outside... =( I hope you all have a great week and I´ll be waiting to hear from you next week. Tell everyone I say hi and that I´m lovin life, as per usual. I love you all!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- I bet Prima Veronica was SUPER excited about the temple announcement for Concepcion! I was freaking out when President Monson announced it!

Baptizing At One Year

2009-09-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

Wow this week flew by. Where to start, where to start. Well, to answer your question, the church meetings are held in spanish, but about 40% of the ward are gringos and a good 30% of them don´t speak spanish, so they have translators for them. Weird stuff.

You´re totally right , this last year HAS gone by fast. I really don´t believe I´ve been out here for a year, it really doesn´t feel like it.

First off, Friday we had interviews with Pres. Gálvez. I love President Gálvez, he puts such a personal feeling to everything he does and with 150 some missionaries under his direction it´s nice to feel like he actually knows who I am. It was cool to talk with the rest of the zone, especially my zone leader Elder Shoemake. His from Tri-Cities and he goes home at the end of October. It was so funny talking to him. Also Elder Maradiaga is in my zone too. I talked with him for a bit about what he´s been up to the last month and what was happening in Cañas when I left. I don´t know if you heard about this, but the church finally released a new spanish bible like the english King James Version we use. I´m debating about buying it or not in the mission. I talked to President Gálvez and he said to hold off a bit until he can talk to the area seventies for a missionary discount. That´d be really helpful. I´m willing to bet we´ll be seeing the new missionaires coming in with the new bible.

Sunday we had the baptism of our investigator Janiel. He was so stoaked it was amazing. A lot of members were at the service which made it even better, and everything went smoothly. We had been visiting Janiel every day during the week to make sure nothing happened to keep him from getting baptized. I had a feeling problems might arise, but everything went perfectly fine.

The raining season has FINALLY come. Supposedly the raining season starts in May, but it´s been a really dry Costa Rican "winter". Really hot too (especially in Cañas). Over the last few weeks the rains have finally come. When I first got into the country, an older missionary told me there were only 2 season in Costa Rica: Rain, and Less Rain. We´ve been getting torn apart by the rain these last few days. Power thunderstorms that just turn the roads to rivers when we´re higher up in the mountains of Escazú. Just insane. Luckily the only thing I´ve found Ticos REALLY DO know how to make are umbrellas. I swear they make the best umbrellas in the world, that is if you go with the Penguino brand. =P

My ONE YEAR mark was pretty fun. My comp treated us to McDonalds for lunch (Mmmmmm Big Mac) and then he bought me a cake Thursday night. It was super funny. All day Elder Muñoz was asking me stuff like:
"What were you doing at this time a year ago?"
"...Ummm...I was just arriving at the MTC."
"WOW!"
Every hour was like that, I just laughed. So weird to think I´ve been away for a year. That´s just crazy. Doesn´t feel like it at all. That´s super weird about the jury duty thing. They didn´t really ask if I could come home, did they? What the freak??? Normally I would say they pulled a Tico, but I guess people like that aren´t only found in Costa Rica, I just found a way to ignore them in the states. =P

Alright well I don´t have much else to say about the week. The work continues and time keeps flying. My companion Elder Muñoz wants to marry Ashely, just thought I´d let her know that. =P

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week. I´ll talk to you next week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Bienvenidos a Utah

2009-09-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to tell you guys about this last week so bear with me on this one. It´s really been a packed week.

First off I feel like I found a small Utah-oasis here in Costa Rica. The bishop´s name here is Dave Pattey. He and his family moved down here when they´re neighbors, the Acostas, were called to be the mission president 6 years ago, before Pres. Arbizú. Our ward mission leader (I actually have a ward mission leader for once!) is Rand Layton from Utah as well. There are a ton of gringos here, so I won´t take the time to list them all, but another notable family is the Baker Family. Sister Baker is from Moscow. Small world huh?
Anyways yeah, it´s super crazy here. This has to be the most NORMAL ward I´ve seen in Costa Rica, but that´s also cause it´s run by gringos I suppose. Costa Ricans kind of do things their own special way I´ve come to realize. They are so many english speakers in the ward they actually have translators for the church meetings, how crazy is that? I gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting, 1st time in 10 months. I´m really happy with my spanish. I still need to tackle that freaking past-subjunctive bit, but I can speak well enough now that a lot of people didn´t believe me when I told them I was from the States. =P
When I tell people I spent 6 months in Cañas, Guancaste they´re all like "Yeah, you sound Guanacasteco." ...Cool...I can start telling people I´m Tico now for real. =P
With so many gringos in the ward I can definately feel the pressure they put on the missionaries. They have their expectations for the missionaries, but I´m trying not to think too much on what they think. If I just keep doing what I need to be and working hard, it shouldn´t matter if I meet the members expectations or not. Missionaries aren´t perfect, we have our faults. It just depends on whether we´re working or not.

My new comp Elder Muñoz is a super sick kid. He only has 8 months in the mish but he knows what he´s doing. He reminds me of myself when I first got to Cañas, kind of unsure if I knew what I was doing. I´ve been trying to help him with a confidence boost the last few days. We started singing a hymn before Companionship Study Tuesday and Elder Muñoz told me he´s in love with my voice. I don´t know if it´s been the singing hymns 8 times a day or what, buuuuut apparently I can sing for like real now. =P I dunno know, just thought it was funny.

After 6 long months of hard work in Cañas I´m started to see the blessings of diligence here. Thursday we put a baptismal date with a 17 year old kid named Janiel. In the last month he´s gone from smoking 40 cigarettes a day to ZERO. He understands everything really well, and seeing how he´s been going to church consistently for the last month we put the fecha for the 27th. I have a feeling Satan´s gonna be working extra hard to keep Janiel from getting baptized, so we´re putting a lot of effort into this week to help Janiel focus and stay on the straight and narrow. I could use some prayers over the next week.
We have another guy named Juan Carlos who we´re hoping to put a baptismal date with this week as well. He´s 30 something, I can´t remember exactly how old he is, but he´s super receptive and has a really good understanding of the doctrine. The trick is getting him to church, since he´s really poor and lives a good distance from church. We just need to help him have such a desire that the distance won´t mean anything. =D

Oh yeah, my area is freaking HUGE!!!! Holy freaking cow, it´s big. I´m pretty much on the outskirts of San José, at the foot of the surrounding mountains. When I was in my first area I could always see this cross WAY far away in the mountains and I always thought "Hmmm, I want to climb that cross." Well, that very cross is now part of my area. =P We´re gonna go climb that mountain next week with some of the youth and hopefully my district. =D

Oh yeah, Sunday at church there was this guy from Arizona who was visiting due to business. He offered to take and send the package I´ve been holding on to since last Christmas. =P Haven´t just gotten back into the city and with no time to look, I didn´t have the chance to send Dad or Derek anything yet (Cañas had ZERO stores from which to buy trinkets and the like). Tell Dad and Derek I´ll be sending them jerseys from the Costa Rica national soccer team ASAP. =D

Wow, a year has come really quick. I still don´t feel like I got time in the mission, I feel like there´s still so much I need to learn. I can only pray that The Man Upstairs can help me make up for what I lack.

Alright well I better jet. I hope all is well back home and everyone is doing fine. Tell everyone I say hi and I´m loving life as usual. Take care and I´ll talk to ya next week! I love you!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- Ugh, I hate changing areas. Mainly because the missionaries that leave never leave any plata to make through to the end of the month. I´m gonna need to pull out some personal funds tomorrow or else I won´t be eating anything for a week or so. Sorry. =(
Really $20 is all I need. Thank you!

Un Cumpleanos en Ticolandia

2009-09-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

Whew, talk about a busy week. I definately saw the fruits of my being here in Cañas for 6 months, that is to say the members really love me here. =D

Monday (Aug 31) night one of my favorite member families, Hna. Arelis and her 3 kids, brought me and Elder Zuñiga lasagna and Tres Leches as an "early" birthday surprise. Having not eaten lasagna in a year, it was really, REALLY good. =P
Wednesday (Sep 2) my baptism Andres and his family invited us over for hamburgers (REAL hamburgers, where there´s more meat than there is bread, as it SHOULD be), and gave me a few small gifts. =D
Thursday (Sep 3) was insane. First Hna. Arelis and her kids called me in the morning and sang "Feliz Cumpleaños", and then Elder Litchfield and Elder Stevens did the same. We had lunch with Hna. Arelis and her family (mondongo en salsa), the kids had bought me chocolates and then they brought out the real surprise: FLAN! ...yeah...I was really happy with that... =D
After lunch Elder Zuñiga and I decided to head out to a little pueblito called Sandillal, since we weren´t having any success in Cañas. It was a beautiful half hour walk out there, and contacted and few people, knock a couple doors, and for the first time in months people actually invited inside to teach them! I´m pretty sure missionaries haven´t even touched Sandillal before, no one there has talked to missionaries before. =D
After a 20 minute walk back we visited one of our menos activo families, Jeisson and Leidy Flores. We shared a short message with them and then they broke out the CHEESECAKE they had made for me! I wasn´t expecting that, but it was a welcomed surprise.
Next stop was the Elders Quroum President, Don Tomás, and his family. Now I´ve never been too sure if this family really liked me or not, and when they invited us over for my birthday I wasn´t sure what to think about it. But, after a full meal of chicken, rice, and salad I realized no one would do so much for someone they didn´t like. =P But when they turned out the lights and brought out a HUGE cake complete with candles, singing "Feliz Cumpleaños" I definately felt...loved by the members here. I´ve spent 6 months out here for a reason, that´s for sure. =)
Our last cita for the night was with Familia Zuñiga, another menos activo family. They´re also the coolest people in the branch along side the Branch President. Has a heads up, it´s a tradition here in Costa Rica to throw eggs at people on their birthdays. Think about that.
Well...Elder Zuñiga and I showed up at the house and my district leader Elder Stevens was there too. The alarms started going off when I realized Litchfield was no where in sight, ni tampoco the oldest son of the family, Roycito. Long story short, Litchfield jumped out a bush and cracked 2 eggs on my head yelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". Roycito followed jumping from behind the gate and cracking 2 more eggs one my head and neck. When I thought all was said and done, Hno. Zuñiga, the father of the family, walked over beside me, out his arm around me, and said "Feliz Cumpleaños, Nuñez. Disfrutelo." And then he crack yet ANOTHER egg on my head.
...it smelled HORRIBLE...to say the least.
I spent a good 10 minutes trying to clean the egg out of my hair, it was so digusting. =P Hna. Zuñiga had fixed Tres Leches for us, we played around with them for a while, and then made for home. I tried cracking an egg on Litchfield buuuuuuut he ran for the hills when he realized what was happening. =P

All in all, my first birthday in the mission was great. Awesome actually. I felt so sick after all the food and deserts, but it was a really good day.

Friday we found some really sick investagators who invited us back for Sunday, and we ended the night with a dinner of T-Bone steak, mashed potatoes, and CARROT CAKE. It was just a good follow up to my b-day. =D
Yesterday at church members were giving me b-day cards they had made themselves, most of which had Spider-Man on them. =P And I talked with the Branch President, Pres. Reyneir, about what Elder Zuñiga and I could do in this week to help him most. Seeing how this could be my last week here, I want to go out with a bang.

Friday Elder Reyes, the financial secretary, called me up about some money issues since my companion doesn´t have a mission credit card. We found out the day of Changes has been changed from the 17th (Thursday next week) to the 14th (next Monday). That means we find out about Changes Saturday night, and take the bus for San José Sunday evening. Giving us no time to say goodbye to anyone. =(

It´ll be interesting to see how things play out. But, I have at least one more week here in Cañas. Time to finish out here strong.

I hope everything back home is going well. Tell everyone I love them, and tell Ashley that when I come home, her birthday will be a week away. ...I will egg her for her birthday... =D

I love you all!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

P.S.-Has anyone found my old camera back home? Or how about that little white MP3 player? The CDs I have are getting scratched up, I need something that´s not a CD player or I´ll end up music-less in a matter of months.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi

2009-09-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

In 3 days, I turn 21. At this time I feel both old and excited. Old because I´m the oldest in my district by at least 8 months, and yet we all have the same time in the mission. ;)
Excited because this is my 1st birthday in the mission, which is awesome. =D

This last week was a rough one. Having been in this area for almost 6 months now I have managed to contact everyone who lives within my boundaries, most of whom I somehow remember by name, and I´ve knocked every blasted door 3 times or more, depending on the neighborhood. I count my lucky stars that Elder Litchfield has been with me every step of the way these last 6 months. I would´ve lost my mind a long time ago were it not for him. =P

In other words, I think I might´ve killed my area...just maybe... =S

I talked with the ZLs and my district leader, Elder Stevens, and we all decided they just need to do what we call a "white wash": Throw 2 new guys into the area who know nothing about it. Zuñiga and I keep working hard every day, by some miracle or another, but nobody wants anything from us. It´s both sad and disappointing, but it happens. My patriarchal blessing told me straight out the mission wouldn´t be easy for me, but I just gotta keep on trying. We really need to find someone new to teach, the investagators we have are not progressing and are on the way to being dropped soon if we can´t help them keep at the very least one commitment.

This week holds promise to be exactly what I need to keep on going for the next 2 weeks or so. The good thing about being here in Cañas for 6 months is all the members love me, which means they all want to give me cake. =D

And I have absolutely NOOOOOO problem with that. ;)

(Side Note: Mom you should try to find the recipe for something that´s called Tres Leches. It´s the best desert in this country!)

We have B-DAY appointments Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with a few of my favorite families. I will admit I am a little scared though...there´s a tradition here to throw eggs at people on their birthday...we did it to Elder Campbell before he went home. =P

Buuuuuut I´d rather that not happen to me until NEXT year. At least then they can ruin my clothes and I WON´T CARE, seeing how I´ll be going home 3 weeks later. =P

But I still have a year left. Which means, I need my clothes. =P

Alright well, not much else to say about this week. I´ve got quite a few fotos to send home, hope you like them. Thanks for sending the fotos from Hawaii! It was good to see some new fotos from the family. =D

I love you all, I hope all is well, and I can´t wait to hear from you again next week!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

¡Cuidado con la Torta!

2009-08-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

Sounds like Hawaii was amazing, I hope I get the chance to visit myself someday. I hope everything back home is okay.

This week was okay. We worked hard but we´re still struggling to find new investigators. We´re going to be trying some new things this week with members to get some references for once. I pray something happens to turn things around quick.
Thursday we went on divisions with the members, I was with the branch president Pres. Reynier. We went to visit our investigator Robin and his mom (por fin). We´ve been trying to talk with the mom forever, but we´re still at a stalemate with Robin. The mom doesn´t have a problem with Robin getting baptized, as long as it´s Robin who says something about...and he hasn´t said anything to her...there´s really no communication in this family whatsoever. It´s just kind of a brickwall in that arena until Robin has the desire to take things into his own hands. We can only do so much with where we´re at right now.
Saturday we threw together a youth activity for the 2 branches. We were planning on about 20 youth or so, so you can imagine our surprise when 50 YOUTH showed up at the church. We had very little leaders to begin with, 6 from my branch and only 2 from the other, but we made due. =P We had a ton of games planned, but it took so long to organize all the teams that we were only able to do a few. Human wheelbarrel race (I don´t remember what it´s called in english), tug-o-war, and then the water balloon toss were just a few we were able to do. We end with scripture trivia, and if you answered wrong you got a pie to the face. Overall a lot of fun and then leaders were really impressed with all we were able to do with very little money. =P
Poor Elder Zuñiga, he was pretty much incharge of the whole thing, and trying to control 50 kids was just fatal. It was a lot of fun though and with the amount of youth that came (both members and investigators) we definately accomplished our goal. We even found a few new investigators, which helps us out a lot. Elder Zuñiga and I knocked all week long and only 2 people let us in. It´s hard when I´m knocking everything for the 3rd or 4th time, and finding new people to teach through knocking just isn´t helping us out right now.

Today is my 11 month mark. Crazy how fast time is actually passing by. Weird to think I´ve been in this area for 5 months, going for 6. I just want to leave the area with one more baptism at the very least, and I know we can do it. Between Robin and this Jehovah Witness girl we´re teaching (Hazel) we´re SO close. Just need to keep working hard and with everything we have, and sooner or later it´ll all pay off.

Anyways, I hope you´re all doing well back home. I can´t believe you guys go back to school this week. Where did the summer go??? Well, when the end of summer you know what that means? BIRTHDAY TIME! 10 days till 21...freak I´m old. =P

I love you all and I can´t wait to hear from you next week!
Cuidense mucho y disfrute el nuevo año de escuela!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Zona Canas: Resucitado

2009-08-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

This week was very, VERY confusing. I hope you have time, because it´s quite the story.

Sunday was nuts. We had to figure out what house we were living in and then take EVERYTHING out of the La Union house and move it all into the Cañas house. That meant I needed to pack as well. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday was spent visiting people for Maradiaga to say his goodbyes and take fotos. Wednesday afternoon we left for San José and spent the night in the mission house. There was quite the party going on there for the new missionaries, complete with piña coladas, shishkubabs (spelling???), and yeah...it was pretty crazy.
Thursday was Changes Meeting, and Elder Litchfield and I recieved our new companion Elder Stevens from Mississippi...never could spell that state. =P Anyway we made the 4 hour bus ride back to Cañas, unpacked our stuff and made it home. At 9 p.m. we started planning for Friday when the phone rang.

It was Pres. Gálvez. And he wanted to talk to me.

Saturday morning I had to move all my things BACK into the La Union house.

Saturday morning I had to infrom the branch president of La Union that he has missionaries to work with.

Saturday morning I recieved my junior companion.

I´m back and going on 6 months in Rama La Union. I´m with Elder Zuñiga, who is also from Costa Rica. He served 9 months in the Guatamala North Mission, but some things went down back home (he´s the only member in his family) and he came back to Costa Rica to try and help. Pres. Gálvez met with Elder Zuñiga and told him he should finish his mission. That´s when Pres. Gálvez called me.

For the first time since I came to this area, I feel like my companion has the same drive to work as I do. Elder Zuñiga is a great teacher, he´s great with members, and we work great together. Finally, we can start to change the mentality of the area. Finally we can show the mission that you CAN baptize in Cañas. I´ve got good feelings about this change. We have a good amount of people who can easily make it to the waters of baptism, and a companionship ready to do it. I feel reanimated and I couldn´t be happier.

With the death of Elder Gonzalez (he ended the mission) and Elder Maradiaga getting changed out, Litchfield and I felt our "Zona Cañas" had died with them. But now? I´d say Zona Cañas is back and stronger than ever.

This week is going to be a little crazy. We have divisions with the Zone Leaders Thursday and Friday. Elder Zalava is still ZL and, drumroll please, Elder Jones has joined him. Elder Jones was my 1st district leader when I got into the country. =D
Saturday we have Zone Conference, but, we have to go to San José. Another change of Pres. Gálvez. We´ve got a lot to do and very little time to do it before Conference.

I hope everyone back home is safe and enjoying the end days of summer.
Mom and Ashley, have fun in Hawaii! Can´t wait for the pictures!
Dad, I hope your doing okay and enjoy your 2 weeks free of women. ;)
Logan, have fun and keep up with the exercise. You´ll be glad you did.
And Derek, take care of yourself and remember: Life after high school isn´t a walk in the park. Just roll with the punches and learn the best you can to make your mark in the world. I know you can do it.

I love you all and I can´t wait to hear from you next week! Hasta luego!

Su Hijo,
Elder Nunie

Weirdest Changes Ever

2009-08-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

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???

Reading, Praying, and Turtle Eggs

2009-07-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-07-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

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

Just Another Week in Paradise

2009-06-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well here´s the scoop from this last week. Talking with Hno. Crane and his wife was awesome. We met up with them in the park and just talked about our experiences in the mission so far and what they´ve been up to since we left back in November. They came down just to visit us, my group from the MTC. Apparently we were Hno. Crane´s favorites, or so his wife told us. She said every group after us got an earful about us every day. =P It was really cool to talk with them though. =)

Changes this last week came and went. My new zone leader is........ELDER ZAVALA! AGAIN! I was so stoaked when I heard that, he´s such a cool guy. I can´t wait to go on divisions with him. =D We´re patiently awaiting the arrival of Pres. Galvez this Wednesday. I really don´t know what to expect with the change, I guess we´ll just wait and see what happens.

My comp is getting a little lazy……I think the knowledge he´s gonna be in this area for 6 months total is getting to him. Our numbers last week were horrible, but my district leader Elder Gonzalez told me if I´m doing my part he´s got my back. I´m junior comp, but I´ve pretty much been senior comp these last 6 weeks. But there´s only so much I can do to animate Elder Maradiaga. All I can do is my part and keep on keepin on. We´ll see how things play out.
In truth I just want to find new people to teach, but contacting in the street only goes so far. And I can´t get Elder Maradiaga to knock doors to save my life right now. I don´t know if I told you guys, but back in my first area I put goals I wanted to accomplish throughout the mission. The mission goal is 1000 baptisms for the year, and since May we´ve been in 2x2x2 (2 baptisms for May, 2 for June, and 2 for July) in preparation for Pres. Galvez. But along with those I set my own goals, one of which was to baptize a future missionary which I accomplished in the baptism of Andres. =D
Now? I want to baptize a family. But that´s only going to happen if we do our part in finding people, and right now as a team that´s not really happening… =( Right now the branch is really desanimado with so few baptisms over the years. Things picked up a bit when we dunked Andres, so imagine what a whole family would do in reenergizing things here! I´m gonna need all the prayers I can get to find, teach, and baptize a family in the next 6 weeks. 6 weeks isn´t a lot of time, but it´s far from impossible. All we need is a little faith and things will fall into place. But with that faith we need to do our part, and that´s where I´m struggling right now with my comp getting desanimado and without a desire to work. =( Yeah…I´m gonna need some prayers in the coming weeks. =D

I´m putting together a package to send you guys, but I´m faulting a few things I want to send and Cañas is far from a good place to find trinkets and stuff. Not sure when I´ll get it in the mail…but it´ll get in the mail…eventually. =P
As far as packages from you guys goes…well I haven´t gotten anything in 6 weeks because I´m 4 freaking hours from San José, and almost 3 from the ZLs. The package you sent has probably been sitting in the office for a good month now, but I most likely won´t see it until Zone Conference in a few weeks. At least I hope I´ll get it then. The APs brought the wrong mail last time (for a different zone). 6 weeks without mail has been very, very sad. =P

Anyways I better jet but I love you all and I´ll talk to you next week! Ciao!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

Baptized by the Rain of Costa Rica

2009-06-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Wish Dad a happy belated Father´s Day, I´m gonna try to put a package in the mail for you guys sometime this week...or next...not entirely sure yet. Glad to hear everyone is doing well por la menos. I hope you foot heals up quickly before Hawaii Mom!

Soooo first off, none of us here in Cañas have changes so we have another 6 weeks of the Fantastic Four rocking Cañas like only we can. =P Por la menos, my comp and I are planning on 3 baptisms this change. We have on set for the 18th of July, and we´re still working with Juan Carlos and another lady named Johana that we found about 2 weeks ago. Juan Carlos was suppose to go to church with us buuuut when we passed by yesterday morning he was still sleeping... que barbaridad. Oh well, there´s always work to be done. The end of this month is the goal for Juan Carlos and Johana. Johana´s a little crazy…a little…but she´s asking the right questions and is really receptive so I have high hopes there. =)

Now this email was going to be named “Miracles” buuuuuut the title I gave it was mas tuanis and fit perfectly. You´ll see why.

Saturday was the baptism for Andres. After 3 months things were paying off. After English classes Saturday afternoon we opened up the fount, cleaned it out, and were about to fill it up when we found out the worst:
There was hardly any running water in the chapel. A Super Soaker could put out more water than the faucet in the fount was, not even joking. So we threw the hose from outside into the fount (which was putting out even less water than the faucet) and I starting filling up little trash cans with water from another faucet outside. After an hour we had maybe an inch and a half of water. It was 2 p.m. and the baptism was at 7 p.m. At this rate we were never going to fill the fount. That´s when God stepped in, having heard our pitiful prayers, and did what only He could do:

He made it rain.

I´ve seen really, REALLY hard rain here, but Saturday was the hardest storm I´ve ever seen, EVER. After an hour and a half we had 2 feet of water in the fount. I was running back and forth dragging bucket after bucket of water into the fount. I felt like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia as we tried to do all we could to fill the fount with RAIN. The rain ended around 3:30 p.m. but we still faulted a lot. We went back to trying with the little faucet outside the church and the hose but it just wasn´t doing it. Then came the rain one more time, even harder than the first. Hour and a half more and the fount was full., 90% of the water having fallen from the heavens. But it was done. Elder Maradiaga baptized Andres, I directed the meeting, and more people showed up to this one baptism than the last 4 I´ve had. But if not for the miracle of that storm, it wouldn´t have happened. I can even begin to describe how happy and grateful I was. Andres, in all honesty, was baptized by the rains of Costa Rica.

That was Saturday. Sunday we went to Upala, the closed area we´re incharge of, and meet with the family we´re teaching out there and the menas activa we visit as well. Upala is a good 2 hour bus ride from Cañas, and only an hour from Nicaragua. Just to give you an idea of how out of the way it is out there. But meeting with our family and the menas activa we set our goal for Upala as well. We´re going to try and do all we can to start up the Group in Upala otra vez, but to do it we need priesthood. That´s why Upala was closed in the first place: There´s not a soul up there with the priesthood. There´s a lot of work to do up there, and we can only visit once every 3 weeks for only 3 hours. It´s NOT going to be easy, but it´s why we´re here.

On the flip side, today is a chill P-Day for us. We don´t have anywhere to go or visit, but today is going to be weird to say the least. Why? Well, Thursday I was on divisions with Elder Litchfield and that night we got a phone call…from the APs. Our first thought was “Ummm…did we do something wrong???” But that wasn´t the case at all. Guess who´s in Costa Rica and is coming to visit Litchfield and I today with his new wife? None other than Hno. Crane, our teacher from the MTC.

…I already feel like the MTC was only like 3 months ago…yeah…

The APs gave us the number to call Hno. Crane and talk about déjà vu. Litchfield and I started laughing after we talked to Hno. Crane, it was just too weird. We´re meeting up with Hno. Crane at 1:30 p.m. today. I´ll let you know what happens next week.

As far as mail goes I haven´t seen a letter, let alone a package for 6 weeks. We got jipped this change with NO MAIL whatsoever. …Not cool… We probably won´t see mail until Zone Conference in like 2 or 3 weeks. A change without mail is a hard thing indeed, but it´ll be like Christmas when I finally get it. =D

Alright I better jet but I hope all is well back home and that you guys have a great week. Tell Logan I wish him a happy birthday and that I´m still waiting on those scripture covers for him. He´ll probably get them for his Christmas present. =P

I love you all!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

Baptism Anyone?

2009-06-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

I hope you can get that cast off soon for Hawaii Mom!!!
You read a 500 page book in one day??? That´s something I´d do and have done. But I didn´t do it out of boredom, I´m just a nerd like that. Oh yeah, I said something so nerdy today I had Elder Litchfield on the ground he was laughing so hard. I´m so glad to have that kid in my district, we have a good time.
HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY DEREK!!!! Can´t believe he turns 19 Saturday. That´s insane.

The mission activity last week was awesome. It was great to see my MTC district, along with all my friends here in the mission. I talked to Elder Tagliaferri and it looks like things are pretty much the same as when I left. He´s baptized 6 in Barrio Tibas (the closed area) and only 1 in Barrio Garabito. It was good to hear how everyone is doing in my old area nonetheless. It´s a ways off, but if you guys decide to come and get me at mission´s end, we need to visit some of those families. =)
As far as the new mission president goes, I haven´t heard much. All I really know is Presidente Galvez ended his mission when I was born. =P My comp knows a bit more about him than I do, but not by much. Pres. Galvez was a branch president in the Guatemala MTC, but Elder Maradiaga only saw him like 3 times. Nothing drastic has changed as far as I can tell, but it´ll be interesting to see what changes do end up taking place.

Another week passes by, and we´re that much closer to the end of the change. Time just flies, it´s incredible. This week we´ve been battling with the Zone Leaders and their want of numbers. Honestly I don´t see why they´re being so pushy right now, every week our numbers get better and better as we pick up the pieces from past elders. I´m just gonna focus on the work and what the area needs most from us right now. Which brings me to this week´s highlight story: I´M BAPTIZING!!!!
This Saturday is Andres´ baptism, POR FIN!!!! We´ve been working with him for 3 months but finally things are paying off. The first baptism in the branch since a year and a half ago, and we´ve got more we´re planning on. Our main focus this week, aside from Andres, is Juan Carlos. He found new work so that he could come to church Sundays, understood everything about the Plan of Salvation even before we got halfway through it, and he wants to take us fishing on our P-Day in a few weeks. =P
We´re going to see what he thinks of baptism when we see him this Thursday. Wish us luck!

The 4 of us here in Cañas are a bit jumpy right now. Changes are next week, and although none of us SHOULD have changes, you never really know what´s going to happen. Either Elder Litchfield or I could go. Litchfield because his companion goes home in 6 weeks, so they might have someone new come in who´ll have to learn the area, therefore keeping Elder Gonzalez. Or I could go, but who knows. We´ll find out Sunday night what the scam is.

We tried, once again, to visit the place with all the cave paintings but rotton luck struck again. Our best bet is in 2 weeks, but again there´s the chance Litchfield or I won´t be here to go. =( However, we did find the next best thing. An animal reserve, full of parrots, tucans, lynxs, pumas, monkeys, and jaguars. I got some pretty sweet pictures I´ll have to send. All in all it´s been a good day. =)

I´m finally feeling comfortable with the language. These last 2 months I´ve felt like I know the language well enough, but knowing and feeling comfortable are 2 things entirely different. Feeling comfortable for me is being able to express myself in spanish just as well as I can in english. To me, words are power. And if I can speak with force and verb, clearly, powerfully, and backed by the Spirit, there´s nothing I can´t do. I know there´s always going to be more to learn, but I feel really good with how I´ve progressed so far. =)

Alright I´ve gone on long enough. I hope everyone is doing well and that this week finds you all healthy and happy. I´m doing great, working hard, and will be celebrating along with you guys Saturday (Derek´s b-day, Andres´ baptism). I love you all and I´ll talk to you next week! Ciao!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- The Zits comics were a breath of fresh air. I wouldn´t mind getting those every week...if, you know, you can... =D
P.P.S.- What´s the chance I could get a Chile Selection Futbol Jersey??? An ex-missionary from Chile was at the activity last Monday and he was wearing one... =P

Good Morning Monday

2009-06-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

¡Buenos Días! We have an mission-wide activity in San José today so I´m writing a bit earlier than usual today. First I´m gonna start with a more private note on what I said about last week. I´m not sure why I´ve always faulted confindence in myself. It´s nothing that anyone has ever said to me, but as far as I can remember I´ve always dropped myself a few steps below the crowd. It´s just something I´m going to have to work to change, and the mission is the best place for me to do that. I like the idea of taking up that challenge of doing something dificult for me every day. That´s a good way to shrug off the fear I might have. For the last week any time I´ve been contacting or knocking doors, and I feel a little unsure, I just say to myself "No Fear" and do it. If I ever train in the mission, I´m gonna make that the number one thing I teach my "kid" as we call it. That and one other thing I´ve been thinking about this last week...

Whew, this week has flown by. Some weeks fly, others drag. I have yet to figure out how or why. =P Well a lot happened this week. Well kind of, it might be better to say I´ve had a lot on my mind this week. Wednesday my new zone leader Elder Lee came to Cañas, so I was on divisions for 2 days yet again. Wednesday I was with Elder Gonzalez again, and right off the back he told me I was teaching everything for the day with little or no help from him. I was all game for it. =D I felt pretty good about Wednesday. Yeah, most of our citas fell through but the lesson we did teach were great, an I felt really good about the Family Home Evening we had with some members and our baptism, Andres. That night was the Costa Rica versus U.S.A game, so trying to work was pretty much useless. Andres invited us to watch the game with him and his family, and we took the opportunity to visit will all of his family for once. Andres´ mom is inactive, as is his aunt and older brother. I feel good when I hit it off with a family really well, and I definetly won their confidence. =) Too bad the U.S. lost the game. =P

Thursday is a different story. I was with Elder Lee, and I got to see what kind of missionary the man is. He´s only got a year in the mission, and although we got along great, our focus and point-of-views here in the mission coudn´t be more opposite. Elder Lee has good intentions, but after all is said and done, he´s working for numbers, not for the people. At least that´s how it came across. Here´s why I say that. We started knocking some doors after our first 2 citas of the day fell through. We found this older Nicaraguan lady and starting teaching outside her house. Well she wasn´t paying attention, didn´t hear when we asked questions or anything. So as I was about to wrap up and leave, Elder Lee cut in. This lady had been agreeing with everything we´d been saying without listening to any of it, so Lee decided to have some fun with her. He flat out asked her that if our church is the true church, would she be baptized. Now that´s not a bad thing to do in other situations, but with this lady not listening to anything we said, it didn´t serve any real purpose. Lee did it to comply with our "1 baptism challenge a day" that HE challege us to do. Well the lady said yes to his challenge, and he put a fecha with her for the 27th of this month.
When Elder Maradiaga and I passed by the next day like we promised, she told us not to come back.

The whole day with Lee was just him asking how our numbers for the day were, and it got me thinking about some things. In the training we had with Elder Cook of the Twelve back weeks back, he recounted to us how Preach My Gospel came about. Before PMG, missionaries memorized the lessons and gave them by rote. President Hinckley, when he realized this, immediately set out to change this, because the lessons weren´t meant to be memorized, but to be taught by the Spirit.
The pre-written lessons were meant to give a guideline of how and what to teach, but in time they became things to memorize. The numbers and goals we have now are meant to help us work to our fullest, but in time missionaires have turned their focus from the quality of their work to the quantity.
I first started to see it with Elder Tagliaferri, who, when we were faulting lessons, would go to the park and teach some drunks. Elder Lee made me think about it even more. Like I said, the numbers are meant to help us work harder, but there are a lot of missionaries here who forget that. And in fear of getting their heads chopped for not making goal, work only for numbers out of that fear. And to that I say:

I AM A MISSIONARY OF JESUS CHRIST, NOT OF NUMBERS.

I´m looking for those who have been prepared to recieve the message we bring, and I´m working for QUALITY, not quantity. That´s why we´re here in the first place. We were called to serve not to help with a mission´s numbers, but to invite people to come unto Christ.

This is something I´m not going to forget. When all is said and done, numbers don´t matter. All that matters is the people you helped.

Okay I have to jet. I love you all and I hope everything is good and well back home. I´ll write again next week with fotos from today´s activity. =) Take care! I love you all!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

"Vamos a bautizar con fervor!"

2009-06-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

You broke your foot!?!?!? What happened? I´m sorry to hear about that. I´m glad the neighbors have been there to help, we have a great neighborhood now. =)
I am glad however to hear that Dad could finally get back to work and that he´s happy about it too. Tell Ashley and Logan I wish them luck on their finals. School is almost over for the year isn´t it??? Freak, where has the year gone? Time is flying by and I´m not even paying attention to it.
Haha, Dinner has met it´s maker. I´m not sure whether I´m laughing cause that rooster is STILL hanging around Grandma and Grandpa´s or because of the shear irony the name I gave it sealed it´s fate. =P

Alright, here´s the scoop for the week. Tuesday we had our final interviews with Presidente Arbizú, and Wednesday at Zone Conference Presidente, Hna. Arbizú, and their daughter all gave their final testimonies to Zona Norte. It´s sad to see them go, and weird to think I´ve only known them for 6 months. Presidente Arbizú is so awesome, I never get tired of hearing him speak. My final interview with him was really cool, the message he had for me was something I really needed to hear and to think about. I´ll get to that later. They also showed us a quick powerpoint presentation about Presidente Galvez and his family. We´re all excited and scared at the same time for the new mission president. We´re interested in seeing what might be changed, but we´re all scared that Changes Meeting might be done away with as we know it. I´ve heard it said if that happens there might be a small revolt... =P I don´t know, I´m curious to see what happens.

Tuesday through Thursday I was on divisions with my district leader, Elder Gonzalez. Wow, talk about a man who knows how to teach! I´ve never been more amazed in my life, I tried to learn as much from him in those days as I could. But ultimately he told me there´s only one thing I really need to learn, and it was the same thing Presidente Arbizú addressed to me. NO FEAR. I don´t know if it´s been because I´ve felt unsure about my language abilities or self-conscience about myself or what, but I really have been a little more timid than I have been for a long while. Elder Gonzalez told me that anything he did in the days I was with him, I could do just as well. Anything he said, I could´ve said. I understand everything I hear, I have no problems speaking, it´s all just in my head. After divisions, everything changed for me.
My companion Elder Maradiaga is pretty quiet, I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this before. I can barely hear him most of the time when he talks because he´s so quiet, almost a whisper. The last 3 days of the week I changed how I do things personally. I´ve been doing all the planning and stuff anyway, but I have something now I was faulting before: CONFIDENCE! In those 3 days I can see the change for myself. Our numbers were so much higher, we contacted so many more people, taught so many more lessons in one day than we had prior, and I put a fecha for baptism on my own. I feel like I finally kicked the training wheels off. =P

All in all I feel good, and I have high hopes for this month. You can tell Derek I´m baptizing for his birthday. =P I put a fecha with Andres, our 13 year old skater boy, for June 20th. He was super excited and I feel really good with where he´s at. This week we´re focusing on fellowshipping a bit more with him and some members that live close by.
Also we´re teaching a 16 year old kid named Robin, but we´ve hit a brick wall with him at the moment. His mom won´t let us pass by the house, so we´ve been teaching him in the house of some members. Yesterday he told us that his mom won´t give him permission to be baptized, which is the first thing he told us he wanted when we started teaching him. In this case the only power we have is that of prayer: but oh what a power that is. I KNOW with everything in me we can baptize Robin before I leave the area, but I´m gonna need your prayers to make that happen. But it WILL happen. =)
One the flip side we have 2 other people we´re teaching I´m going to need some prayerful help as well. One is a 23 year old guy named Juan Carlos, the other a 19 year old girl named Pamela, but they both need the same thing and have the same desire: To learn more and gain a testimony of their own. Juan Carlos found a new job so that he could go to church Sundays, and we´re having a Family Home Evening with some members tonight with Pamela. I have high hopes for both of them because they both want to know for themselves if what we´re teaching is true, they have a desire to learn and to know. We just need to pray that they´ll be able to feel and understand the answer to their prayers.
All in all, things are starting to turn around here. =D

We´ve also been working on gaining the confidence of the members, which with previous missionaries seems to have been lost. We´ve started with our branch president and his family, and little by little I can see that they´re opening up to us. It´s a good feeling when the members invite you over to their house for a change. =D

Ummm…oh yeah, I´ll give you the run down on the English classes I´m teaching. For starters, there´s a reason I never, EVER want to teach grade school, and my classes here just help to reinforce that reason. LITTLE KIDS ARE CRAZY!!!!! I´m teaching SEVEN little kids ages 9-12 english.
…yeah…good luck with that… =P
There are 2 kids that really want to learn, and they know quite a bit already. But the other 5…yeah…yeah…about that. =P The classes are fun nonetheless, I always feel good afterwards and when I see my students in the street. They call me “Profi”.
…yeah…I feel cool. =D

Alright well I don´t have much else to say…which is good because I´m pretty sure I just hit 3 pages with this email. =P The shoe laces on my Doc Boots snapped a few days ago. I managed to “repair” them as only a guy can. Just think about that for a minute… =P Hopefully I´ll get the package soon. Next Monday we´re having a mission-wide activity in San José, and we have permission to go (some areas are too far from San José to go and return in 1 day, so we got lucky being 3 hours from the city). I´m pretty sure I´ll get the package there…I think… We´ll just have to wait and see. =P

Oh yeah, guess what? I turn 21 in 3 months! How bout them apples? =P

Alright I better jet before I write anything more and meaningless on top of that. I love you all and I hope everyone is doing well. Tell everyone I say hi and that I´m working hard and loving life. Take care and I´ll talk to you next week. =)

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

Sick or not, I'm gonna work

2009-05-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah I got everything in the package, no worries there. Thank you again. =)
Tylan wrote me to tell me what happened. He´s walking a thin line right now, in and out of sickness like that. I can only pray he´ll come out on top through it all. I hate to hear my brother has had to endure so much in these few months, but I know he´s being watched over. As long as he keeps listening to the Spirit, all is well in Zion. =)
Nathan getting engaged, that makes 10 people I know now married or engaged since I´ve been in the mission! I´ve only been gone for 8 months! That´s just insane.

Whew, well it´s been a long week. For starters I got sick Tuesday, not sure with what, but it stayed with me till about Thursday afternoon. Sick to my stomach, migraines, body aches, throwing up, etc. etc. It wasn´t fun. I made the effort to try and work though. I made myself a promise I was going to work every day, rain or shine, sick or no, because that´s what I´m here to do and dang it, I´m gonna do it! For those 3 days we ended up leaving at about 4 or 5 p.m. to work, when it was cooler outside. I´m feeling better now but my stomach is still bother me sometimes. I haven´t eaten much, in fact Tuesday through Thursday I didn´t eat anything at all. The very thought of food makes me nauseated. =(
On the bright side I lost 5 pounds! I´m right back to where I was when I graduated now, a nice 130 lbs. That makes me happy. =P

But even with my being sick Elder Maradiaga and I made some huge improvements in the area this week. We brought 2 investigators to church, found a lot of new people to teach, and we´ve got 3 baptisms in planning. One, a 13 year-old kid named Carlos Andres. He´s reading, he has the desire to be baptized, we just need to get him to come to church consistently. We brought him with us Sunday and he enjoyed it. We´re going to try and put another fecha with him this week. Wish us luck!
Another hopeful is Nixon, but the man needs to get married before we can make the challenge for baptism. He´s willing, but wedding bells are what are keeping him from the gold right now.
Last but certainly not least is Michaela. She´s a foreign exchange student from Australia who´s living with one of our less active families. We had a family home evening with them Saturday night and I ended up teaching her the first lesson and parts of the Plan of Salvation.
First off, teaching in english is really, REALLY weird. Talking in english is weird enough after 2 months of straight spanish with my companions, but teaching after 6 months of spanish was just weird. I had to try and remember words in english and, well, it was pretty funny. But she was really receptive and Elder Litchfield and I are going to teach her again next Saturday after our English classes. It´ll be interesting how things play out there.

Bytheway, those pasta sides you sent in the package were a great idea. Muy rico. =D Elder Litchfield and I realized sending missionaries a package isn´t the easiest thing because only we know what we need and what we have access to hear, so we put together this little list of possibilities. =)

1) Fotos. I especially need a family foto still that I can carry around with me.
2) Music. Litchfield is a little better off than I am in this department since he has an Ipod, but I can only listen to the same 4 CDs before my comp wants to kill me. =P
3) Any easy to send candy is a treat. Starburst jellybeans, twizzlers, Reese´s Pieces, anything like that is great. Because as I said on the phone, sweetness doesn´t exist here. =P
4) Any off the wall things we might mention. Like right now I´m hurting for shoe laces. The laces on my Doc shoes are about ready to snap, so I need to tough, black laces to replace them with. Unfortunately you can´t just buy shoe laces in this country. I´m also in need of a vial for oil, since my last one got jacked while I was in the León XIII and I won´t be going to the temple any time soon (like until December).

Well...I can´t think of anything else for the week. =P The work continues, the rain falls harder and more often now. I´m going to pull some money out of the account today to buy an umbrella finally. We have our last interviews with Presidente Arbizú tomorrow and then Zone Conference Wednesday, all in San Ramon. I´m hoping I can find a good umbrella while we´re there. =)

I love you all and I hope this finds you well and happy. Take care and I´ll follow up with the "To Be Continued..." next week! ¡Les amo!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

Reboot in Canas

2009-05-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well it´s the start of something new. Changes was awesome, nothing different happened, it was the same as always, but that just means it´s a blast and a real ánimo booster. =) I have video to send you of changes meeting too.

Well my new companion is actually one of the first missionaries I met when I got into Zona Toyopan back in November. Elder Maradiaga from Honduras. Litchfield and I pretty much did a switch with companion status. My old comp had 3 months left and Elder Valerio from Chile was about to complete a year. Now, Litchfield´s companion dies in 3 months and my companion completes a year this week. =P Elder Maradiaga is awesome though, I was so happy to get him as a comp. It feels SOOOO good to get back to work again. Those last few days with Pliego were horrible. I couldn´t get him to leave the house until like 3 p.m. and then we just visited member families and didn´t teach anyone. That´s a sign that a man needs to go home. It affects me mainly because I don´t want to be labeled a lazy elder because my comp was. This week our numbers need to be INCREDIBLE. I don´t want to be a pain for the ZL´s or for President.

The first thing I did with my new comp was take him to meet our branch president. I never knew where the man even lived until last Monday when I forced Pliego to take me there. Our branch president didn´t like Elder Pliego at all, so Elder Maradiaga and I need to redeem missionaries in his eyes and get the ball rolling. We´re baptizing and nothing´s going to stop us!

Today was probably the best p-day I´ve had. We went out to Tilaran, hiked up some hills and then climbed up this big cross. It was a lot of fun, just a chill, relaxed p-day. Which is what I needed because this week we are going to about kill ourselves in the work. "The calm before the storm..." in other words. =P

I did get one of the packages at changes, along with a letter from cousin Mandy and Audre! I ALSO GOT MY FORROS POR FIN!!!!! About time, I´d been waiting for those scripture covers since January. =P All in all changes meeting felt like Christmas. That´s a nice feeling. =D

Also I didn´t realize I had such an audience in the whole blog thing. I feel kinda special. =P

Alright well I better let you guys go. Take care of yourselves and know that I´m doing well, trying to work hard, and loving life. Hopefully next week I´ll have some more exciting news for you guys. =)
Love you!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

I HAVE FOOD!!!

2009-05-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

Tell Dad thanks for the fotos! Holy wow, I´m not going to recognize a thing when I get home am I? I barely recognized the backyard! The front porch looks great, and I can´t even begin to describe the change of to the house across the street. They´ve definately pulled a 180 on that thing.
Sounds like everyone´s going to be busy this upcoming summer. A list of everything you want to do from May 1st to Sep 1st? Mom, you´re crazy. I can´t even imagine how long that list is, but I´m willing to bet I could use it has a blanket. =P

Wow, it´s May. Time has flown, it´s weird to think about. This week hasn´t been anything exceptional, still working on helping my companion WANT to work. I have a feeling he´s been slowly getting lazy for a few months now, about the time he left the office (about October of last year). Trunkiness has definately hit the man, and the members can see it as well.
I´m somewhat at a loss as to what I can do, since I´m just junior comp and Elder Pliego reminds me of that often. He calls the shots, I just follow. That´s how he likes things to work. Not exactly the most efficient use of the word "team" but I´m dealing.

Last week on Thursday we had to travel, yet again, to a conference. I´ve never had to travel so much before, it´s been a change for me. We went to a town called Puntarenas on the coast (I actually got to see the beach for once!). Elder Quentin L. Cook was visiting the MTC in Guatemala and invited all the Central American missionaries to watch via satellite. It was a great conference, Elder Cook really struck home some keys points of Preach My Gospel that we need to focus on. My companion just shrugged it off and didn´t take it very seriously, I´m guessing because he´s about to leave for his last area and then he goes home. I guess he figures it doesn´t apply to him because he´s been out for a while.

I made a game plan on things I´m going to change once Elder Pliego leaves. There have been no baptisms in this area for the last year, but I´m going to change that. We had 2 baptismal dates but Elder Pliego keeps delaying the baptisms because he feels they´re not ready. Kind of a headache, since they are far more prepared for baptism than my last 2 have been, but my comp feels otherwise. We´ll just have to see, but I´m afraid the more we postpone the more we risk them changing their minds.

WE FINALLY HAVE MONEY FOR FOOD!!!! I spent almost $40 on food, which is looking like it´ll last me well into the next month. Fine by me, less money I need to spend for next month. Elder Pliego kind of thought it was weird I was actually buying food other than eggs and bread, which is all he bought for himself. But I had enough of eggs last month. The only reason I bought eggs this time round is to make french toast (something Elder DePriest taught me). I don´t know what Elder Pliego has done in his 21 months here, but I´m gonna learn how to cook and not scrape by starving myself every month. I have 17 months to do it, plenty of time. =D

Alright well that´s all I have for the week. I hope everything back home is well and fine. Take care and know that I love you! ¡Ciao!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie

P.S.- The fotos are from the trip to Puntarenas. We had an hour to burn, so we took some fotos on the beach. =D

Hey-lo

2009-04-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

Talk about a busy, busy week. Wednesday we had divisions with the Zone Leaders. I went to a town called Naranjo with my ZL Elder Cook, who was also trained my MTC comp Elder Trost. Once again travel killed me on money. I had to pull out $40 from the home account, and when I got back to Cañas Saturday morning I only had about $3 left. I´ve come to hate buses with a passion. =P
But those couple of days I was in Naranjo was really fun. Elder Cook is from Bear Lake, Idaho, and he´s only 2 days older than me. =P We planned it that if we´re in the same zone when September rolls around we´re gonna have a birthday division. =D I had fun though, which is key. Divisions are suppose to be fun, as I´ve come to learn. However, I got eaten alive by mosquitos. By the weird thing is my left arm only has 6 bites, where my right arm has 37. ...Riddle me that???

A missionary cookbook would be GREAT!!!!! I´m tired of just eating eggs. Plus, as you´ll remember, I still can´t crack an egg without destroying it. I´ve tried, and I just shatter the poor thing in my fingers. We should be getting money this week for the next month, so I´ve put together a list for food that won´t cost me much and isn´t too difficult to make.

Ummm, there was something else I was gonna say...but I don´t remember what that thing was. Hmmm, no sé. Oh well, I do remember one other thing. Could you see if you can figure out my Priesthood Lineage? Over the past week I found that when teaching about the priesthood it´s helpful to have that on hand it explain how the Church can trace priesthood authority, and no other church can.

Well I don´t have too much else right now. As far as Mother´s Day goes I´m not sure. More than likely I´ll call a few days before to set up the call like I did for Christmas, but as for what day I´ll call no sé. I´m betting Sunday, but as to what time and all that we´ll have to see.

Anyway I love you all and I hope you have a great week! No worries about me as per usual, I´m doing fine and loving life. I´ll talk to you next week!

Your Son,
Elder Nunie =D

HEY! =D

2009-04-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm not even going to recognize the house when I get home am I? Tell Dad thanks for the fotos! It's always good to see pictures of what home looks like. I do miss the scenery of home. I haven't seen anything here that really puts me at awe just yet. =P Glad to hear everyone is doing great. Wow, the school year doesn't have much longer for you guys does it? Ashley has Prom this weekend, Derek's down to like 2 weeks of school left. That's nuts! Have I really been gone that long?
I can honestly see that whole story about Moses happening, that's a very Dad thing to do. I'm glad the porch has finally been started as well, I know you've been waiting for that for quite some time. =P

Well, what have I been up to this week...well last week on P-Day the four of us here in Canas went to Tilaran, a little town in Elder Valerio and Elder Litchfields area. We had a good time, it was a pretty relaxed P-Day, which I've been in need of. The heat is still getting to me, giving me headaches and the like here and there. But, I've finally made use of that Excedrin Migraine you sent me in the MTC. =D

With Elder Pliego, my spanish is coming along. He came up with a game to help me practice: Listening to spanish music and writing what I hear. We used that spanish CD you sent me around Christmas time, and it was not easy task figuring out what was being said. Mainly because the people singing on that CD have Argentine accents. I had to fight to understand but I got it. It was pretty good practice. Plus talking with Elder Pliego everyday is in and of itself practice.

We didn't end up buying food this week on the account that we have no money to do so. I have 3 mil 400 to my name right now which is almost $7. Our downfall was Tuesday, we had interviews in San Ramon, which is a 2 mil 500 bus ticket one way. So Tuesday, I dropped 5 mil on buses. So we're gonna be scrapping by for the last half of this month. We have a little less than 2 dozen eggs to eat for breakfast and dinner sooooo we should be okay. =P We get food from the members every once in awhile too so all in all I'm not too worried.

The work this week has been a little hard. Not because we couldn't teach anyone, we teach plenty. But there are other reasons. One of the numbers we report every week to the Zone Leaders is the number of contacts for the week, or in other words the number of people we've talked to in the streets about the church. Mission goal is 20 contacts every day for a companionship, 140 for the week. With Elder DePriest, I never had a problem making the goal, we always did without question, contacting every soul in the streets. With Elder Tagliaferri, I never made the goal. Tagliaferri didn't like contacting in the streets and would only contact in the park, which was virtually empty. So from what I learned contacting in the park is a bad idea. However, my contact numbers with Tagliaferri were better than they have been right now wit Pliego. Elder Pliego doesn't like contacting at all and therefore we just don't contact. The Zone Leaders called Saturday night and I talked with them for a little bit. They're getting one us and I'm trying to light a fire of animo under Elder Pliego to contact but he has one area left, 4 months left in his mission. The man is trunky and is content with how he's doing things, which is usually the case when an elder is so close to the end. I'm trying to keep the ZLs off our backs but as junior comp I can only do so much. Elder Pliego calls the shots and he says he's contacted the whole world here, so there's no point in contacting more. Just one of those things that happens in the mission. Every missionary has something they slack off in, you just have to try and work with it.

Something I've encountered here in Costa Rica has taken rise with quite a few of our investigators lately. The ticos call it "viviendo libre". In other words, they live together, call each other husband and wife, but they're not married. Somehow, I haven't figured out how, ticos have practically removed the institution of marriage from their society. Right now we have 3 families with the same issue: the "husband" is interested and wants to be baptized, but the "wife" isn't that interested and doesn't want to commit and get married. In this situation they have 2 choices: One needs to move out or they need to get married. Every one of them has at least 2 kids together, so moving out isn't really the best option. If they're not married, they can't get baptized. That's the Law of Chastity right there. I'm praying and trying to find someway to help them realize that "living free" isn't what God had in mind when he placed Adam and Eve in the Gardn. I could use all the prayers I can with these situations. =)

Something Elder Litchfield has caught my attention. It's this little reference book calld the "Missionary's Pat". I heard about it in the MTC but I didn't know what it was then. More or less it's a reference book for every topic imaginable and plausible in the gospel. I don't know if you'd be able to find this, but if you can, it would be pretty handy to have. =D

Alright, well I don't have much else to report for this week. I'm fine and loving life. I hope everyone is doing well and in good shape. I love you all and I'll talk to you next week. Ciao!

Your son,
Elder Nunie

P.S. Enjoy the fotos from last week. =D

Iguanas anyone?

2009-04-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

Wow, you guys have had quite the week. Glad to hear the bbq had a great turn out, that´s awesome you were able to do that! Sounds like things are going well back home, which I´m glad to hear. =) And no worries about the package, send it when you can, I don´t want to be a bother about it. You guys still have other things to worry about back home so no worries, the package can wait for it´s own due time.

Well I don´t have a whole lot to touch on about this last week, with the Semana Santa going on all Elder Pliego and I could do is visit menos activos. Semana Santa is pretty much Spring Break for Costa Rica. Schools out, nobody works, and come Friday only chinese restaruants are open. =P Since working Friday would´ve been pointless they changed our P-Day only for last week, so instead of having P-Day Monday we had it Friday. So we went 2 weeks without P-Day, and come Thursday Elder Litchfield and I were both dead tired. The only nice thing about the change was we could still email Monday. Another thing that made us happy was we had P-Day Friday and then comes today, hey, it´s P-Day again! =P

I surprised Elder Pliego with how quickly I mastered the Rubix Cube. He´s now teaching me a new way to do it, and I´m back to going to bed at night with a headache. =P We´ve been having a lot of fun together though, Elder Pliego is really cool and really funny. When it comes to teaching he knows his stuff and I´m learning quite a bit from him. I think it helps that he´s a convert, we´ve talked a lot about what helped him most while he was learning about the church. He was baptized only 6 years ago, and here he is now 4 months from finishing his mission. Incredible.
Elder Pliego has been teaching me how to use the Bible more in teaching. With a lot of the people we´ve been teaching they´re all very skeptical about the Book of Mormon, and many of them have visited with missionaries in the past. One guy in particular comes to mind, Nixon, one of our baptismal dates. He told me that before, all the missionaries used the Book of Mormon but almost never used the Bible, and it gave him the impression we put the Book of Mormon above the Bible. But, when Elder Pliego came, that changed. Nixon saw that when both the Bible and the Book of Mormon are used as equals, everything makes so much more sense than with just one book. Everyone needs something different to help them on their spiritual journey, and for Nixon he just needed to see that both books are equals. As missionaries we´re taught to focus on the Book of Mormon and the Restoration because this is our unique message to the world, but at times we can forget that the Bible is there to help us teach about this message too.

No worries about food, it´s not like I eat a whole lot anyway. =P No but really I´m fine. There´s a sister that makes us lunch every day and members offer us dinner here a lot more than they did in Tibas. =P We´re going grocery shopping either this week or next so I´ll be okay, no worries. I need to eat breakfast in the mornings though, that´s a habit I´ve never really had. When I was with Elder DePriest he always made breakfast so I got into the habit a little, but neither Elder Tagliaferri and I knew how to cook much besides eggs and I´m a little too lazy to cook in the mornings in the first place. =P

What else? ...I was bit by my first dog last week. =P I just laughed, how typical a missionary gets bit by a dog. Last week was really windy, which I was perfectly fine with. The heat is a beast in the afternoon, both Elder Litchfield and I are dying come lunch time. Doesn´t help that all the houses here are built from cement. Every house is an oven, I swear. Wednesday night we were invited to a members house for dinner. They gave us so much food! I looked over at Elder Pliego and said "Elder, this is more food than I´ve eaten in the last week." His response? "I know." He didn´t think I could eat it all but I got through it. Then they gave each of us a mango double the size of my fist. I love mangos, and every time we leave a house someone gives us one. It´s awesome! =D
Also, remember when I told you about the lizard that came up to me at church? Well we were walking home for lunch Saturday and about 5 feet in front of us was an iguana the length of my arm! I just stopped walking, staring at the thing. Elder Pliego just laughed and said "That´s normal." It was so HUGE! It moved really fast too, because as we got closer it got scared and booked it through a chain link fence. Such a huge lizard. There´s a neighborhood in my area called Barrio Berolice that reminds me so much of Fort Hall. The only difference is there´s no grafiti. =P But everytime I go out there it´s like I´m walking around Fort Hall, helps make the area feel like home. =)
Elder Valerio is from Valdivia, that´s the one. He´s so funny, we taught an english class together on Saturday, it was pretty fun. His english isn´t bad, he just needs practice, but he understands pretty much everything. He only speaks to me in english so he can practice, which is nice because I have a hard time understanding his Chilean accent. =P Elder Valerio has been teaching me some Chilean words and phrases too.
Well that´s all I got for the week. I hope life is well back home and everyone is okay. Take care and I´ll write next week! Love you!
Your Son,
Elder Núñez

Welcome to the Jungle

2009-04-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

I tried to email this morning but internet wasn´t responding. =(

Whew, talk about a busy week. Well here´s the update on what I´ve been up to. I went from being 10 minutes from San José centro, living in a pretty big house with a fridge full of food and the hustle and bustle of the city all around to being 4 hours from San José, my apartment is the size of the laundry room back home, and I´ve been living off peanuts and cashews that Tom´s parents sent me last week. =P
In other words, I´m once again loving life in Costa Rica. =D =D =D

My new area is Cañas of Guanacaste, a small little campo town a little smaller than Clarkston. And talk about HOT! San José is located in a valley, and it´s pretty cool most of the time. Some parts can be down right freezing even. But here? Freak, it´s so humid and hot I had trouble sleeping my first night here. It´s all good though, Cañas is one of the sickest areas in the mission, so I give thanks for that. =D Saturday morning at the church building a lizard about the size of my foot ran up to me and just stared. I laughed, nothing like that happens in the city. I´m gonna have a good time here.

The people here are also a LOT more nicer than the people in the city. The city slickers tended to be really rude at times, but the country folk are really nice and willing to listen. In my 3 days here we already have 2 fechas for baptism! YAY!

My new companion is Elder Pliego of Mexico. He´s so cool! I´ve been teaching him card games and he´s been showing me the ways of the rubix cube. I´m gonna have a good time with him, I can already tell. Also, Cañas is split into 2 areas, so Elder Pliego and I have the smaller part of Cañas while the district leader and his comp and everything else. My district leader is Elder Valerio of, guess where, CHILE! In fact he´s from a small city around Orsorno. I can´t remember where right now, I´ll have to ask him again, it starts with a B I think. Anyway, to add to it, Elder Valerio´s new companion is my buddy Elder Litchfield from the MTC! So pretty much I get to chill with an awesome group of missionaries every day at lunch. =D

Whew, so about conference. I have to say it´s a lot better in english. Elder Litchfield and I didn´t get a whole lot out of it, because they´re speaking in english but the translation is right over the top of them speaking, and it´s just a jumble of nonesense. I tried to focus on the spanish but my mind kept listening for the english and it was just hard. I was surprised, however, at how many speakers gave their talks in spanish. When that happend they zero´d the mic and it was the speaker on recording but in spanish. Elder Scott and Elder Christophersen, along with Elder Costa and another member of the Seventy gave their talks in spanish and I followed them fine. Both Elders Scott and Christophersen speak really, REALLY good spanish. Had I not heard Elder Scott speak at the MTC I might not have realized it was him speaking.
Alright so now that I´m in the campo it might be awhile till I get any letters, packages, or anything of the like. Anything like that I´ll probably get at Zone Conference or Changes Meetings. That´s a plus side to being in the city, you get your mail every week. In the campo it´s a different story.

Ummm, what day is Mother´s Day exactly? I was thinking it´s the 10th of May, pero yo no sé exacto. Also this week is going to be EXTREMLY long. Here in Costa Rica it´s Semana Santa, soooooo that means for the whole week everyone is gonna be at the beach. They changed our P-Day to Friday so we´re gonna be working today, and I absolutely hate it when they change P-Day on us. By the end of the week I´m dead tired and Monday is the day to recharge my battery. Buuuut now I have to wait till Friday, and all 4 of us here in Cañas have no idea how we´re gonna make it. It´s gonna be quite the week.
Alright I better jet but I hope all is well and everyone is doing fine. I´ll talk to you next week! Love you!
Your Son,
Elder Núñez

¡CAMBIOS!

2009-03-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Alright for first off, I´ve got Changes! We got the call last night and I´m leaving Thursday. I have mixed feelings about leaving right now. I´m excited for a change and everyone, I thrive off changes, we know this, but we just started to get things rolling with the ward and everything here in Garabito but hey, it happens. I´m a little nervous about where I might be headed though. We don´t find out until Thursday at Changes meeting so I´ll be writing next week about where I am and all that.
Here´s the scoop on how Changes meeting works here. First off, everyone who has changes meets in the stake center closest to the mission office. Most of the time anyone who is in the San José Valley is invited to the Changes meeting too. Anyways, everyone meets up there, President talks about the last month and what the numbers were (our goal for the year is 1000 baptisms) and then the lights go out, and Changes begins. President sets up a projector and he goes zone by zone, district by district, area by area. It´s like being on a game show, I´m not even joking. An area comes up and President will say something like "And in area Garabito we have Elder Núñez, and he´ll be receiving his new companion...ELDER BLAH BLAH!" And everyone goes nuts and yells and cheers and it´s just a bunch of crazy. Everyone looks forward to Changes meetings, they´re just a lot of fun.
Keep me updated on John, that´s amazing that he finished the Book of Mormon already. I wish we had Ticos that diligent. =P I´m glad Dad is able to keep himself busy again, I know just sitting around not doing anything just drives him nuts. I hope you have fun with Aunt Marsha! Well I know you will anyway but, you know, enjoy the time with your sister being all...well, being all sisterly and girly and all. =P
I can´t believe that little hen is laying eggs for Grandpa now, how random is that? And now there´s a rooster! Granpda is gonna have a farm again if this keeps up!
I do get Dad´s fotos aaaaaaaand the one of you made me miss you...and pies. A lot. When I get home I´m eating nothing put your pies for a whole week, maybe even too. Vamos a ver pero...sí...I miss your pies. Tico deserts just don´t do it for me para nada. Except for Tres Leches...Mmmmmmm...that´s a treat. Maybe you could find a recipe for that too. It´s amazing. =P
Anyways not much else going on besides...well besides what I´ve already said. Tell Tiara and Ken I say hi! They´re so awesome, I´m glad they´re in your ward. Tell the family I love them and I hope everything is going well. I´m alive and well, so no need to worry about me. I´ll write again next week with the results of Cambios. =D I´m so freaking nervous but I can´t wait!
I love you! Take care and I´ll talk to you next week!
-Elder Nunie
P.S.- I get to call home this next change! Just a heads up!

Got Lost in the Jungle Today...

2009-03-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

Whew, another week gone. This change has flown by, I only have one full week left! I won´t know for sure until next Sunday but we figure I´m gonna be changed out this time, but we´ll see what happens. I could pull 6 months in my first area, it´s not unheard of. It´s rare, but it´s not unheard of.

Have you guys talked with the missionaries about visiting John? If you do make sure you are there with them! I´m learning things are so much easier when members are present at a lessons. The Spirit is stronger, testimonies of members are more powerful, things are just better with member. And with my current ward here we´re working to give the members ánimo for missionary work, because truth be told us missionaries can´t do this on our own. It´s like swimming up river, it just doesn´t happen.

Alright so I do have a bit of news this week. Even if I don´t change areas this time round, we more than likely will be changing houses. We´ve recently discovered that our area is twice if not 3 times bigger than what Elder DePriest had shown me when I was with him. Because of this, we usually don´t get into the house until 9 p.m. on the dot. Johnny Wong, our dueño, got use to us being in the house at 8:30 p.m. Then, there are times on the weekends we can´t come home for lunch. Apparently all this as gotten to him, and he´s not selling us food anymore. Nothing. That´s really the only reason we´re in that house to begin with, soooooo we´re going to be looking for a new place. On the other hand, we were talking to one of the APs last night, and he asked us if we would like to change wards from Barrio Garabito to Barrio Tibas, which is the currently one of the closed areas in our zone. We´ve had 2 baptisms in Tibas, Fabiola who was my first baptism and then José Chaves who we baptized Saturday, both being referrals from members, and the members have been really helpful with everything, the complete opposite of what we´re experiencing in Garabito. So no matter what, things are gonna be changing up around here. I´m gonna have to start buying groceries...weird... =P

I hit 6 months tomorrow. I can´t believe I´ve been gone for that long already, time´s passing faster than I can keep track off. These last 5 weeks have been the fastest par none though. But wow, a quarter of the mission is already past. It´s weird to think about, it really doesn´t seem that long. I think it´s all in the mindset though. If you keep thinking it´ll be forever, it will be. If you keep counting the minutes and the days things will just slow down on you. I haven´t been paying attention to the time at all, I can´t believe I´ve been gone anything longer than 2 months. I´ve come to understand it all comes down to how you think about it. Something you said in your email caught my mind. You said something about sacrificing 2 years of my life. I remember the first talk I heard at my first EFY almost 6 years ago. The speaker was saying the 2 years we serve as missionaries shouldn´t be considered a "sacrifice" by any means, but more like paying back an I.O.U. We´re blessed with so many things in our lives, freak we´re given LIVES in the first place, we owe our Father in Heaven more than all of us put together can pay back, but that doesn´t mean we can´t try to pay back the debt. And the 2 years of missionary service is one way we can.

A few more fotos from today. One is from our baptism this last weekend, and then today we went to a national park and got lost for 2 hours. It was pretty funny, walking around with machetes, screaming like wild men. Good times. =)

Anyway that´s all the news I have for the week. Enjoy the fotos, just some shots from the Temple last Wednesday. =)
I love you all and I hope everything is going well. Take care and I´ll talk to you next week!
-Elder Nunie

¡Pura Vida!

2009-03-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

¡Pura Vida!

So Thomas is going to Korea? Wow, I hope he's ready for 12 weeks in the MTC. 9 weeks just about drove me insane. =P But, go ahead and pass a message onto him about the food. MTC food is great for like the first 3 weeks, but after that you realize they just rotate meals on you like high school. Best thing to do in the MTC is to eat an amazing temple meal before or after your session. My district had temple breakfast every Tuesday morning, and it was by all means the best part of the week. =P

I MISS YOUR PIES!!!!! Yeah, DePriest and I did end up making a banana cream pie for New Years. Buuuut, it wasn't the same. I figure when I get home I'll just eat your pies for 2 months straight. Mmmmmm....pie....

Anyways, in other news, did I mention we have a baptism this Saturday? =D His name is José Chavez and he's golden. It's a great feeling to find someone who's been ready and prepared to recieve the message of the Restoration. We still have a montón of things to teach him before Saturday, but all in all it's been a good week.
Thursday and Friday we went on divisions with the zone leaders. I went to Coronado with Elder Zavala of Honduras. It was kinda funny, I wasn't worried about my spanish at all and I was right not too. I had a great 2 days with Elder Zavala, he's so awesome. I felt especially happy that my spanish is where it's at for only having not even 4 months in the country. But, we never had trouble understanding each other and we ended up telling stories from home and the mission. I know I still have some work, but for where I'm at with the language I'm pleasently surprised. =D
¿Qué más? Ummm, oh did I ever tell you Ticos are white? It threw some of the other guys in my MTC district for a loop when we first got here, but that's why I've had people ask me if I'm Tico. I figure once I get a hold of the language more and FINALLY develop an accent I could tell people I'm actually from Costa Rica. =P
Oh snap, have I told you about gallo pinto??? Snap, Mom you should make this for a family breakfast some time, it's great! Whenever missionaries have a chance to eat pinto we jump on it! It's this rice and bean combination that's just really good, along with a side of scrambled egg and what not. Everyone makes it differently here with their own twists and stuff, but I haven't had a bad batch yet. At the end of the mission, missionaries put together a final report and part of the final report is a list of attributes we want our future wives to posses. Every final report I've seen says they want their wives to learn how to make pinto. It's awesome! =D
Anyway, in other news there was another earthquake a few days ago. Nothing major, it was a lot farther away this time and there wasn't much damage even though it was a lot more powerful than the last. My comp Elder Tagliaferri was freaked though, he hates quakes. I guess I weirded him out with how calm I was when it happened. I just kinda looked up and said "Hmph, that's cool." =P
Alright well I don't have much else to say about my week, just work as usual. I did get a letter from Kiah Richardson yesterday at stake conference. That was great surprise. =)
I do have one request though if it's possible. There's a CD called Solace by my friend Emily Peck I kinda want to have.
Alright well I better jet! I love you and I hope everything is going well! I'll talk to you next week!
-Elder Nunie

Setting New Goals

2009-03-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Alright, first off, glad to hear Dad is taking it easy and not over doing it. I´ve been worried he´ll hurt himself worse so good to hear he´s doing okay and that the neighbors are as awesome as they are. That makes me happy. =)
Tell Ashley good luck from me and I´ll be praying for her. That´d be so awesome if she gets elected ASB Vice-Pres, she´d have fun with that. I don´t know if I told you this already but my zone leader Elder Howell saw one of the pictures of Ashley and Spencer and said "You´re sister looks like she´d punch anyone in the face." I laughed, because she really would. =P
How´s Logan doing with school and all that? Is he doing alright without any of his big brothers around???
We had a correlation meeting yesterday aaaaand yeah. When we talked to the bishop about calling a ward mission leader it went like this.
Us: Hey bishop, we really want a mission leader.
Bishop: Yeah, so do I. *laughs*...
That was it. I don´t know, it´s hard to organize anything with the ward without any help from it. Elder Tagliaferri and I have made it our goal for this change to open the closed area, Tibas, because the members there deserve missionaries like none other while our ward just doesn´t seem to care. Tibas brings investigators to church, gives us references, and we set a baptismal date yesterday with a guy we´ve only met with 3 times! The difference between wards is a stark black and white. We´re trying new things to get our assigned ward animated, but we´ll see with time if anything starts to happen like it should be.
Oh freak, I totally forgot Randall Hansen would only be in the MTC for 3 weeks!!! Lucky guy, being there for 2 months drives a man nuts. Visa for Spain takes a while though. My buddies there got their calls 6 months before they had to report to the MTC so there wouldn´t be too much of a wait for the Visa.
I miss the Zits comic! If you could, you know, mail little strips to me, THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!!!! =D =D =D That would be totally and utterly amazing. Just a little piece from home. =) I´ve come to notice nothing really makes me trunky. "Trunky" is the term we use for someone who misses home so much they don´t want to work very much, or they just talk about how much they miss home ALL THE FREAKING TIME. I think because it took me so freaking long to get out here I´m immune to trunkiness for the time being, cause I can talk about stuff from home and it doesn´t phase me, but my new comp just gets depressed. Girls really make him trunky...yeah...it´s not good...oh well.
Anyway what else? Oh yeah, you asked me why I said "dump"? That´s something I picked up from DePriest. There is always some saying you pick up from your comps or other missionaries you around. "Dump" is just one of those things I´ve picked up. It´s not Costa Rican slang, that´s for sure. Costa Rican slang is like "¡TOME CHI CHI!" That´s pretty much like saying "Take it!" Most missionaires say that. Or there´s the national slogan "Pura Vida". It´s the same as saying "pece" but you see it EVERYWHERE. T-shirts, posters, mugs, EVERYTHING. Everyone and their dog says it. Not even joking. =P
AND WHAT THE FREAK! IT´S SNOWING AGAIN!!!!!! That´s just not right. It always snows when I´m not there, I swear. =P
Oh yeah about the picture with my mission pres...I never got one. Like they took the picture and all buuuut I never got a copy of it. I guess I should ask about that, huh?
Alright well I better jet but I love you and I hope everything is going well and everyone is okay. Thanks for sending me Mychael´s and Audre´s addresses! I´ll be sure to write them today. =) Take care and I´ll talk to you next week!
¡Pura Vida!
Elder Núñez

The start of a new month...

2009-03-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

Whew, sounds like a lot is going on back home. I´m glad to hear Derek is doing better with school and stuff and that it looks like he´s gonna stick with it. That´s awesome. =) So Ashley is taking college courses huh? That´s awesome, and that´s great she´s already thinking of what she wants to do. It´s usually best to figure that out your junior year so that senior year all you need to focus on is senior activities aaaaaand what college to go to. ...Freak Ashley´s gonna be graduated when I get home...that´s just weird. The social part of junior high is tough stuff, no doubt about it. But I know Logan can pull through. He just needs to find something to keep himself active in school and then things will just fly by. I´m glad you´re able to find things to keep you occupied, Mom. I can just see you playing with a bunch of junk making stuff. It makes me laugh. =P That stinks that Dad can´t do Christmas in Action, I know he usually enjoys that. I hope he stays careful and doesn´t overwork that arm of his. I know Dad isn´t the kind of guy to take it easy for so long but he´s gonna have to for the time being. Which stinks, but stuff happens.
Alright, so here´s the news for the week. One, I´M A TICO NOW! Friday I got my residency, so I´m an official Tico until March of 2011!!! My new companion Elder Tagliaferri is quite the character. He´s still really young in the mission (he only has 6 months in the country), and I´ve noticed he gets kinda frustrated when talking to Ticos who are set in their ways, but he´s a good guy. Sometimes it feels like I´m babysitting an 8 year old though, not gonna lie. Don´t think I hate my comp, he´s awesome, but there are times he´ll say things where all I can do is put my head in my hands and laugh. We have set a goal for this change though. With DePriest, we never, not even once, worked with the members in our ward. Partially because our ward is dump, and secondly because DePriest didn´t want to deal with them. Well Tagliaferri and I are trying to find ways to animate the ward along with other ways to find people to teach, such as english classes. We´re gonna try to start some english classes within the next week or 2 and hopefully this will help us find new people to teach, along with getting members involved. Our leadership in the ward really needs a change though, our bishop is totally unreliable. The man showed up at church yesterday an hour late for crying out loud! Freak!
That´s absolutely nuts about the peanut butter scare in the states. Luckily for me, the rich Tico man we live with, Johnny Wong, buys us peanut butter. =D =D =D =D It´s scary to hear news about the economy (or lack thereof) back in the states. Hopefully things will pick up buuuuut yeah...things look pretty gloomy.
In other news I got another letter from Tylan last week! YEAH! Letters are like gold in the field, but you and dad already know that. =P
Oh yeah, can you see if you can get me cousin Michael´s mailing address so I can write him? And cousin Audrey too (Mandy´s daughter). That would be way cool if I could get to writing them. =D
Anyway I better jet. Take care and no worries about me, I´m doing great. Talk to ya next week!
Oh yeah, and about the shoes. My Doc Martin´s are still alive and kicking. The only thing I had to worry about are the insoles, the shoe itself is a monster....I still haven´t recieved the package yet buuuut tomorrow I have interviews with Pres. Arbizú so hopefully I´ll get it tomorrow. We´ll just have to wait and see!
-Elder Nunie

The start of a new change...

2009-02-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

Hey family!!!
So this week has been pretty crazy. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I got to play mini-ZL with Elder Howell until I got my new comp on Thursday. Tuesday I also got my residency! YAY! No worries about getting thrown out of the country now. =P

Thursday was a pretty good day. Changes meeting was crazier than usual, the APs made some mistakes here and there...like not telling 2 companionships they had changes...yeah...that was bad. But, my new companion is awesome! His name is Elder Tagliaferri from Las Vegas. Funny thing is, he´s only been in the country for 6 months and he went from junior companion to what we call a potty-trainer and a district leader. (A potty-trainer is a newbie´s 2nd companion.) But yeah, I showed him around the area Thursday and then Friday he had to go to Moravia and give his first baptismal interview. Saturday morning we had to meet at the stake center for the district leaders meeting aaaand this week is going to be the only week my companion will be in our area every day. We´ve got like 6 divisions this change and since I know the area and Tagliaferri doesn´t, he´ll be leaving the area and I´ll be staying here in Garabito every time. Sooo yeah, it´ll take a while for my comp to learn the area since he´s pretty much never gonna be here. =( But he´s a cool guy and we´ve been having fun these first few days.

When Elder Campbell went home he left me his old bag, so I´m using that for the time being. I bought a new Biblia on Saturday and this girl in my ward gave me a new Libro de Mormón, so I´m good for now. I still need a new himnario but I´m working on that.

Other than that nothing much is new. Más o menos I´m training Elder Tagliaferri on how to be a DL, which has been pretty funny since he has 3 months more than me in the country. But then again, he only has 3 months more than me in the country and he´s a District Leader. =P
My spanish continues to improve little by little. I´m still struggling with casual conversation a little bit, but I can hold my own alright for the most part. I practice trying to tell stories in spanish, that helps a lot. Me and one of the elders in my district, Elder Bonn, have been deemed the story-tellers of the Zone. I´ve lost count of how many stories I´ll told in these last 3 months, but apparently I´m good at it. =D

Oh yeah so here are some details on the soccer stuff here. There are 2 major teams that most everyone are split on: Saprissa and La Liga (I think that´s how you spell it). Missionaries here choose their team within the first month in the country. Well, my first area is in Saprissa territory, so I went Saprissa. Helps that Saprissa Staduim is in my area. =P Elder Tagliaferri is for La Liga but hey, nobody´s perfect. =

How is Derek doing with school and stuff? How are Ashley and Logan doing with school and all that jazz? How´s work? That´s tough that Dad may be off work till May, that puts things in a tight spot. How´s he handling it?

I love you all and I hope things are going well stateside. Just know that I´m having fun and working hard. I can´t believe I´ve been gone for 5 months! That´s nuts. Seems like just yesterday I was watching How I Met Your Mother back home. =P The time is flying but I still have a lot of work to do. No time to just sit around! Take care and and tune in next week for more news!
...yeah I´m a dork...meh, it´s all good. ¡Pura Vida!
Your Son,
Elder Núñez

Last Week with Depriet

2009-02-16T09:31:00.000-08:00

Glad to hear that everything has been pretty tranquilo this last week. My week was pretty good too. =) Tuesday, I went on divisions with my other zone leader Elder Howell, which was pretty fun. He was a little scared of getting robbed so he didn`t take much with him when we were out working, but it was a decent work day. Thursday I was with another elder in my district, Elder Clark, because Elder DePriest is district leader and needed to do a baptismal interview. I was a little worried about working with Elder Clark just because he gave the impression of being a Negative Nancy, but we had a good time working together and it was definatly a blast to have in lessons. Elder DePriest started packing on Saturday. I can`t say enough about how much he`s helped me out in my first 3 months here. I dropped DePriest off at the mission home this morning, and Elder Howell dropped of Elder Campbell as well. I`m gonna miss them both, they`ve been so cool, but it`s part of the mission. For the next 3 days I`m gonna be with Elder Howell until Thursday, and then I`ll get my new comp. My guess, my next comp will be a latino, but we`ll see what happens.
One of the investigators Elder DePriest and I have been teaching over the past 2 months has been on my mind lately. His name is Eric, and he`s a really cool guy, knows the doctrine way too well, but he over-thinks things a bit and has a lot of doubts. More or less I can use some prayers on this one, he`s a great guy but the trick is getting him to feel. =)
In other news, I forgot to mention that Elder Madsen (from the MTC) went home 2 weeks ago. His eardrum blewout in the MTC and then here in Costa Rica he just got ridiculously ill. They couldn`t figure out what`s wrong with him here, so they sent him home. If they can fix him, Madsen might be sent back here or sent stateside, but either way it`s a sad story. =(
Reading over one of Tylan`s last emails I couldn`t help but laugh about his new fettish for ties. That comes with the mission. When the tie is the only thing you can change day after day after day, you learn to love ties. Elder DePriest had some 40 ties, half of which are now mine since he`s homeward bound. The favorite brand of tie here is called a Wembley. There`ll all polyester, which is necessary in Costa Rica cause silk ties get owned in the rain, and most of them look pretty cool. My collection isn`t that big, I have maybe 20 some ties, which is more or less what I had back home. Elder Clark has 138 ties, but none of them are really that good. If anything I`ve learned 3 ways to be remembered in the mission. 1) Baptize like crazy, 2) Be inicuo as dump, or 3) Have really nice ties. =D ¿Qué mas?
Have I mentioned anything about the fruit here? There are some pretty different fruits, and me being a fruity kinda guy am enjoying the variety. Guanabana is my favorite by far. I wish we had this in the states. Picture a pineapple without the green leafy stuff on top and the outside is a dark green. The inside is white and it`s SO GOOD. I love me some guanabana smooties. =D Mangos are pretty good here too. Whenever I pass through San José centro I grab a mango for the bus ride home. Mmmmm...mango... I had sugar cane for the first time Wednesday. It looks like a long wooden stick, not gonna lie. You don`t eat the stuff, you just chew on it and all this sweet, SWEET juice comes out. It`s ridiculously sweet, but it was quite the treat.
Oh yeah, you`ll find this funny. DePriest was breaking out some US money last night and he found some quarters. He threw one to me and I was like "FREAK! Why is it so small? Why did I use to think quarters were big???" A quarter is like the size of a 10 colones coin here. It definately weirded me out for a moment.
All right well I better jet. Thank you thank you thank you thank you for sending the insoles! =D =D =D =D =D =D And no worries about the package, emails and snail mail are blessings enough. Tell everyone I love them and that I miss them. And thank you for sending the words to the song...not gonna lie I kinda teared up as I read it...
Your Son,
Elder Núñez

Robbed Again!!

2009-02-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Holy smokes you guys have been busy this week. We´ve been working pretty hard to. Elder DePriest and I did get robbed again this past week. Not that I had anything on me but a bag I borrowed from another elder (oops) and some pass-along Books of Mormon. They didn´t get anything off DePriest since his bag of 2 years is literally in shreds, and they didn´t want the scriptures. I still don´t have new scriptures or even a new bag yet. Hopefully by this Saturday or Sunday, but we´ll see.
Other than that it´s been a lax week. The son of the less active family is getting baptized this Saturday, but other than that we don´t have anyone really progressing right now. I´m praying for a family, it´s been a while since we´ve had the chance to even teach a family but, who knows. As long as we have people to teach I´m happy. =)
Tell Spencer congrats on the state championship, that´s awesome! I bet dad is losing his mind being benched like that, but it happens. I hope he finds something he can do in his condition. I´m glad work is going well for you, mom. I always wonder what new bit of craziness might arise form that job of yours. =P Tell dad I´ve had that song he use to sing to us kids when we were little in my head for a few days now. I don´t know why but I find myself humming it whenever we´re out working. Humming because I don´t remember all the words. =P
Alright well I better go. Oh, but before I forget for the 3rd straight week, can you guys send me some shoe insoles??? The insoles in the Docs are so thin that I had to switch the insoles from the boots to the shoes and throw away that paper thin, hole riddled remains of the shoe insoles. I just need regular insoles, nothing special, just regular old insoles. We´ve tried looking for them here but every Zapataría we´ve hit doesn´t have them.
Anyways, I love you all and I hope all is well in the Valley. I´m sending some fotos (now that I found my cable). Enjoy!
Your Son, Elder Núñez

Robbed!!

2009-02-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, a lot has happened this past week with you guys. What mission in Spain is Randal going to? I have a few friends from the MTC who are there, so I´d like to know where he´s headed. =) And you should find out what mission in Argentina Cristian is going to! Is it Neoquen? That´s where Andy Call is so that´s why I´m wondering.
Alright well news this week is as follows:
I was robbed! Thursday we had divisions and I was with Elder Campbell in my area. Now, Elder DePriest has been in this area for almost 6 months and nothing has ever happened to him, and in the 2 months I´ve been here nothing has happened either. But, lo and behold, on Campbell´s first day ever in our area we got jacked. They took both our bags, our spanish sciptures, Himnos, one of the little flashlights you gave me before leaving, our coin pouches (I only had like 1 mil five hundred colones on me...so like 3 bucks) and they got Campbell´s watch too. But the weird thing is it was 4:30 in the afternoon! Broad daylight! One woman who saw what happened called us over and gave us a glass of water. We ended up consolling her she was so scared. Another guy gave us 3 mil and then gave us a ride back to our house too. It was quite the adventure. I´m borrowing a bag from another elder in the zone for the time being, and Elder Campbell is using one of his old comp´s bags (which I´m going to inherit from him when he leaves). S ad day, but hey! I have a story to tell! =)
On the flip side I got to baptize Jackie yesterday! Numero dos! It was a pretty good day all around. It was weird going through the last couple of days without a bag or anything to carry around with me. I still need new scriptures but I´m not worried about it.
So yeah. That´s what´s happened this week. ... ... =P
No worries about me I´m doing fine, even with the whole robbery. =P I hope dad is feeling better and the boredom hasn´t driven him completely crazy! I bet Derek is freezing, Lewiston doesn´t get real cold. Glad to hear Logan is feeling better and that Ashley is turning her focus back to her studies. I hope work is going okay with you and that nothing too crazy has been happening with the budget cuts.
I love you all and I´ll talk to you next week! Take care!
Your Son, Elder Núñez

News from the Jungle

2009-02-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

I thought it might have been my email because I was at 99% full last week... =P Anyway you'll need to send me fotos of the new carpet and stuff. We've had blue down there for so long I can't even picture it anyother way. How has this last week gone? What's new in the family? Things are going well here. We have 2 more baptisms lined up, one for this week and the other for next week. That girl we've been teaching for the last month and a half, Jackie, is getting baptized!!! And also the son of a inactive family, his name is Jason, is getting baptized. This kid is so cool! But yeah, life here has stayed pretty consistant. Elder DePriest is now District Leader, that's a change. A new elder came into the mission early, so our zone got changed around a bit. So for his last month here, Elder DePriest gets to play the boss. =P We've been having fun this last week and surprisingly getting a lot of lessons in a day, despite our actual appointments ditching out on us. =P I'm loving every minute of it though. =D
Okay so I learned this week Ticos cannot give directions. They just can't. Here's an example of the kinds of directions we get:
"Follow this dirt until you come to a big rock. There'll be a 3-legged dog lying next to it, and then a 4-legged dog will pop out of the bushes and they'll start fighting. When the 4-legged dog wins just follow him to the house. But, if the 3-legged dog wins you haven't gone far enough, and further down the road there'll be another rock and another 3-legged dog and when THAT 4-legged dog wins THAT fight, just follow him."
...yeah...try finding a house with that...=P It's all good though, I get a good laugh when we get something like that. If we weren't on the Lord's time I'd try to see if I could actually find the place, but we are and there's no way we'd find a house like that. =P Still pretty funny though.
Oh, yeah, almost forgot, how much money do I have in my account? None of the machines let me check here and 2 weeks ago I took out something like $60. I was going to take out some more today but I'm not sure how much is even in there soooo yeah. Anyway I still haven't found anything to send my Christmas gifts in. When we go into center today I'm going to look one more time before I just make a box myself. =D
So what's the scam at home? I hope things are alright and that everyone is doing well. I love you and I'll talk to ya next week!
Your Son,
Elder Núñez

Earthquake!

2009-02-10T18:14:00.002-08:00

YEAH EARTHQUAKE! Haha, San José really didn´t get hit too hard by the quake. I was at lunch with my Zone when it hit, and all of us gringos were just like "Oh, hey, earthquake, cool." But all the ticos in the restaruant were freaking and running out of the building. One of the elders, Elder Bonn, was on his feet heading for the door when my district leader, Elder Jones, started laughing at him and was like "Dang it Bonn, sit down!" We all started laughing. The northern part of Costa Rica got hit the hardest. And yeah, houses outside San José are just tin shacks. The only place you see houses like that in the city are here in Garabito by the river, where all the Nicaraguans live. Our baptism is this Saturday. Everything is going smooth, the odds of things falling through are real thin. I´m super excited.
Requests for a package? Hmmm...I´m gonna have to say any CD that has "Come Thou Fount" on it. I just really want that song. =P Pictures from home are always welcome in packages as well. =)
I can see Derek making that threat to his roomies, and I can see him just cleaning EVERYTHING like a madman. I know it´s gonna be a tough change for him but hey, he´s just going to school. Nothing too hard. At least everyone there speaks english. =P
I want pictures of Winter Ball! Hahaha...bumble bee...haha... I´m glad to hear Spencer has been helping Dad at the bank. Way to step up to the plate as the boyfriend. Tell him I say thanks for helping the family. =) I can believe Logan hasn´t slept in the attic much since I left, I really didn´t expect him to. Hopefully the change of rooms will help him. Is Ashley still working a rediculous amount of hours? Connie might be coming to Costa Rica? I really don´t know what she could bring with her. Oh wait! Suave, PEANUT BUTTER OREOS!!! Haha, you know me, my needs are simple. =P
Anyway not much else to report from Garabito. Changes meeting last week was CRAZY. Elder Madsen fom my MTC district is in my district here now. Our first district meeting Thursday was hilarious. We´re all gringos! And then Elder DePriest said: "When I got into this district, 5 months ago, I was the ONLY gringo!" One more month and the man goes home, that´s nuts!
Alrighty, I gotta bail. I love you and tell everyone I say hi and I´m loving it here. I´ll talk to you next week!
Your Son,

Elder Núñez

Fecha Set!

2009-02-10T18:14:00.001-08:00

Hola Mamá!
This week has been...well I was going to say different but it´s pretty much been the same. I got sick New Year´s Day though, stomach flu. I didn´t enjoy that at all and going out to work that night, although the choice itself wasn´t hard, but the feeling in my gut made it hard to stay on my feet. I got through the night though just as I told Elder DePriest I would. I did ask my comp for a blessing, and the next 2 days I felt better but not able to eat a whole lot. I´m a ton better now, so no worries here. =)

The girl Jackie that we´ve been teaching has hit a brick wall. She was baptized in the evangelical church some time ago and more or less just doesn´t want to understand why that baptism didn´t count. I´ve been wracking my brain, praying, and studying for some way to explain it better, but I´m drawing blanks. It´s a really simple concept: After the Apostles died, the authority to baptize and officiate in the church was lost. But she was taught that the Apostles did pass on the authority...which isn´t what happened. It´s discouraging but we´re trying. On the flip side, we have a fecha! The Tibas Ward has had an investigator coming to church for over a month now, and since that ward has no missionaries they called us! Her name is Fabiola, she´s 21, and she has 2 small boys. She knows a ton about the church, it´s been a blessing teaching her! The baptism is set for Jan. 17th, and that leaves us with 3 more lessons with her to cover everything not involved in the first 3 lessons. Time is short, but she´s golden. =)
I´m glad to hear Dad is feeling better and is back to work. If Dad gets bed-ridden by something I can only imagine how bad it was. I´m sure once Derek gets out to school things will start to fall into place. He just needs to relax and not worry about it so much. I found that when you worry, things just get worse. Or so it seems. Ashley´s going to burn herself out if she keeps it up. The body can only take so much! I hope she realizes this and takes things easy at work this new year. I´m glad to hear Derek and Logan have gotten a little closer since I´ve been gone. I´m happy Derek stepped up to the plate on that. =) I know it´s hard for you to focus at home with so much going on and in disarray. I hope things will start to slow down and you can get some much needed and well deserved rest. This is usually the down time for the family, so hopefully nothing too crazy happens to throw that off.
Whew, well Changes are this week. One of my Zone Leaders, Elder Evans, is getting swtiched out and then all 3 latinos in the zone are getting moved too. I´m still with Elder DePriest in his LAST change! The man is dying! Going home! Returning to the Land of the Restoration in 6 weeks! Haha, I´m trying not to bring that up much since my other Zone Leader, Elder Campbell, who is leaving in 6 weeks as well, is already bringing that up a lot. I don´t want my trainer getting trunky while I´m still here! =P
Alright Mom, I better go. Tell everyone hi for me and that I love them. I still haven´t sent off my package yet, I haven´t found anything trust worthy to send the items in yet. I did get your package when I went to the temple. Elder DePriest and I have been enjoying the change of music, since before all we had was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. =P Thank you for that! =)
I love you and I´ll talk to you in a week. Take care and don´t worry about me, I´m loving it here!
Your Son,

Elder Nunez

One month check up...

2009-02-10T18:12:00.000-08:00

Hey! So Christmas wasn´t anything special, but it wasn´t bad either. It was great to talk to everyone, that really made my day. Saturday was great though. I understood everything in the temple! I was worried I´d have a problem with that, but after so many visits to the temple in the MTC I just knew what was being said along with translating it. It was pretty cool. I´m going to test the waters for sending photos next week. Not sure how fast these computers are for uploading fotos, so we´ll see. For New Years Elder DePriest and I are planning on going tie hunting for a bit, hit the shops in San José Central, that sort of thing. Not a whole lot else is planned.

I feel bad for one of our investagators, Jackie, the 14 year old girl we´ve been teaching. We stopped by yesterday to teach her and we found out her dad had run off! Like left with another woman! And this wasn´t the first time apparently. Her mom went off for a half hour bashing on the guy, and poor Jackie was SUPER embaressed with some of the things the mom was saying. Poor girl, we´re praying especially hard for her right now. I got letters from Andy Call and Hermano Crane! Ah, both their letters made Saturday all the better. Good times, good times. Call hasn´t changed anything, still has blunt as ever. =P Anyway not much else has happend. We had 1 Month Check-Up today, so I got to see the MTC crew again. It´s so funny talking about the crazy things in our areas, everyone has a story to tell. =P I probably won´t get to see a lot of them until changes in February, when Elder DePriest goes off and dies on me. ;) That is unless DePriest gets swtiched out with 6 weeks left. ...I really hope that doesn´t happen...but, if it does, what happens happens. I´ll just roll with it. =)
Anyway I better get going. I love you all! I hope everyone enjoys their New Years! Take care, tell everyone I say hi, and I´ll talk to you next week! ¡Pura Vida!
Your Son,

Elder Núñez

Christmas

2009-02-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

Potlatch is no longer Potlatch...that´s so weird to me. That´s gonna be strange coming home to. I can´t believe the basement flooded AGAIN! Hasn´t it been a while since that last happened to us?

Things here in Garabito are going okay. Friday and Saturday were long and uneventful, mainly due to a major soccer tournament that was being held in San José central. But, Sunday brought some great blessings. =) Elder Depriest and I just went up a talked to this man who was sitting on his porch and started teaching him. His name was Carlos and what started out as an ordinary contact ended in the best lesson of the day and a return appointment. Most of our contacts never go that well, or we were estastic as we were leaving. Our longtime investigators Adrian y Alejandra have continued on their downhill slide. They haven´t even let us in the house for about a week and a half. But, the two families we started teaching about that time have made up the difference! Alan y Sandra are keeping their reading commitments and we´re hoping to get them to church next week. Gravin and his wife Mila are an amazing find and they´re so cool! We´re trying to get them to church next week too. A last but not least is our best investigator, Jackie. She´s 14 and her parents are members but haven´t been to church since they lived in California (10 years ago). Jackie and her dad found us and asked us over. Nothing makes a missionaries day more than when that happens. =) We started teaching Jackie and her older sister Victoria last week and it´s been great. Jackie was at our ward´s Christmas dinner Saturday and was at church yesterday too. Before the end of this week we hope to set a fecha with her. It´s great!

We don´t have any plans for Christmas yet. Elder DePriest figured SOMEONE would´ve invited us over, but no one has. Oh well, I´m sure something will happen. No worries here. =) It´s great to hear that everyone really got involved this year with all the Christmas projects. That´s awesome!I will be calling Christmas Day, and no worries about money or anything. I haven´t even touched my home account yet since I haven´t really had a solid chance to rumage through the stores in San José central. We´re picking up phone cards today. I haven´t got the package yet, but I´m hoping to get it at One Month Check-Up next week. One month in Costa Rica! I can´t believe it! Alright well I better go. I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and I´ll call you on the 25th! Probably around 2ish maybe...well 2 p.m. for me. I´m lost as to what the time difference is. =P
I love you all! !Pura Vida¡
-Elder Núñez

Hola!

2009-02-10T18:06:00.000-08:00

That´s so cool Tío Moroni y Tía Cluadia are adopting a little girl soon! =D =D =D That makes me really happy to hear. How are you and Dad doing? How are the Christmas programs going along? Christmas time is always the craziest time of the year, I hope you two aren´t getting over loaded.
Time is passing fast and the work goes on. We do a LOT of street contacts, 20 a day, but only like 4 or 5 agree to met with us. And from those we teach 2. And then we spend a week trying to find them again cause they´re never home. =P It´s all good though, I´ve met some really cool people and we have some great people to teach. Right now we´re trying to set a fecha for a couple named Adrian y Alejandra. Elder DePriest and his old comp had been teaching them since mid September and they´re the closest we have to baptism. Pray for us! The trick is just getting them to church.
The thing with Ticos is it´s really hard to help them understand every church isn´t the same. But, it´s all part of the job. =) Another family we´re teaching is a man named Lombardo, his wife, son, and daughter. There are a really cool family to teach and they´re so friendly. We´re trying to get them to church as well, which is tricky but it´ll happen. It´s raining all the time here. We´ve had 3 days in a row of no rain, it´s been nice. =) I´ve made good use of the rain jacket though. That was a good find. It´s really not that hot in the city. It´s pretty cool actually. At night is especially nice when there are clear skies. There´s a star only visible in December, they call it La Estrella del Rey David (The Star of King David). It´s literally the brightest thing in the sky I´ve ever seen, this star rivals the moon. When no other stars can be since this thing is a beacon of hope. Or at least, that´s how I see it. =)
Anyway today was a prety lax P-Day. Played some basketball with the zone, and then we ate a Wendy´s. =D I ran into elders Litchfield and Nelson while I was there too, it was awesome! We were trading stories about our areas and our comps and what not. It was so great to see them, it´s funny how close you can get to people in the MTC. Anyway after that Edler DePriest y yo went to this little tourist shop like they have in Chile. I found quite a few things I´m gonna be sending home as Christmas gifts. I definately pulled some of Dad´s bartering skills for a new money pouch. They wanted 1500 colones, which is way too much for a little money pouch. I got them to drop it to un mil. My comp was like ¨Wow, that was pretty good.¨ My reply ¨You can thank my dad for that.¨
Anyway I better jet. I love you all and I hope everything is going well. And about the letters, give them to everyone. Don´t wait for Christmas, I don´t remember what I wrote about that but yeah, I wanted everything to read their letters when you got them. =)
Love you all! !Pura Vida¡

Almost end of week 1

2009-02-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

Whew, talk about a crazy, crazy week. Not too many suprises here in Costa Rica, I´ve been adjusting pretty well. My mission president, President Arbizú, and his wife are awesome!!! They are so cool! My trainer is Elder DePriest from Boston. He´s way cool, we get along great. He´s been teaching me the ropes pretty well, I still get lost in neighborhoods here and there but he keeps me on track. My first area is in San José in Garrabito, Toyopan (area, zone). Pretty much I´m in the ghetto of San José. I haven´t seen anything crazy but it´s definately easy to tell this is the lesser side of town. We do TONS of street contacts, 20 a day is the goal, but we only get about maybe, MAYBE, 5 lessons a day. No one is ever home, or the Ticos give us lame excuses. It´s no big though, I´m having fun. There are a lot of Nicaraguans here in Garrabito. It´s weird cause I can follow their spanish better than I can the Ticos at times. Speaking of which, I´m doing okay with the spanish. Not the greatest, not even close, but I´m not dying for translation. I just need time, I´m trying not to get to overwhelmed by it. The food here isn´t that different from Chile. It´s different, but it´s nothing foreign to me by any means. Also, that Captain Animo video we found on YouTube before I left, was from last year. I saw number 3 at the Changes meeting Thursday. Oy, that was great. Our goal for the YEAR is 1000 baptizims. 1000!!! We´re sitting at about 730 some right now, I think. So we got a lot of work this last month!Anyway I don´t have much else to say right now, I´ve only been here so long. I´m not timed anymore so you can send Tylan´s emails to me. =)
Tell everyone I love them and I hope they´re doing well. By the way, did you get the package I had sitting at the MTC?
I love you all! ¡Pura Vida! (Tico saying)
P.S.- You need to send packages through regular mail. No UPS, FedEx or the like. If you go through anything other than regular post it goes through customs and we never see it. So Post Only! =) Snap, I forgot what the mission address is. I´ll email that to you next week, so you´ll have to hold out one more week before sending anything. I don´t want it to get lost or anything.

Ready to Leave

2009-02-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

Alrighty then I'll call you around 9 or 10ish. I'm not 100% when I'm going to be at the airport, we're suppose to meet at the travel office at 8 p.m., but I don't have a clue when we go where. So I'll aim to call you around 9, that'd be 10 p.m. here. ...I think...I hate time differences. =P
I haven't been able to get a hold of a box to send anything home in!!! Elder Litchfield received a package yesterday so I'm gonna see if it's what I need. If not I'll just chilean an empty box from the book store. =D
I can't believe how fast time has flown by. S o much I've wanted to say I haven't really been able to because of this blasted time restraint on email. I'm hoping the letters I'm sending home will kinda suffice to show what I've been feeling, thinking, and learning these past 2 months. More or less my conclusions to any firesides or devotionals that really stood out to me. Which reminds me, guess who we heard from on Tuesday? ELDER HOLLAND!!! Elder Nelson and I were singing with the choir (I don't think I've mentioned I've been singing in the choir yet, just another little thing I've forgotten to mention) when Elder Holland entered the gym and we both looked at each other with these huge grins on our faces and were like "YES!!!!!!" Ever since week one my whole district has kinda been like "How cool would it be to hear from Elder Holland?" and it actually happened! My district has been so lucky with talks here. We've heard from 3 apostles for crying out loud! How many missionaires get to hear from Elders Scott, Perry, and Holland within a few short weeks of each other?
4 days left...it still hasn't sunk in that we're leaving AGAIN. I haven't even started packing yet! Yikes! We're all starting to get anxious as Monday pulls closer. I'm staying focused these last few days, no worries there, but I still have a lot to do before Monday.
Alright well I'm out of time...again. I love you all and I hope everything is going well and everyone is okay. I don't know when you sent that package out buuuut....yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna get it before I leave here. Whever you say I should get something on Saturday I don't get it until Monday, because our mailroom is closed here on Saturdays. So unless you overnight that puppy I don't know what happens.
I figured out what you can get me for Christmas though! Family photo for sure but also if you could find a CD with the hymn Come Thou Font I would love you till the end of time (not that I won't already). Since that song isn't in the new hymn book it's pretty much impossible to find here, so maybe you'll have better luck. I'd prefer instrumental but with how hard it is to find I'm game for anything. =D

I'll probably be sending Christmas presents home rather soon so I'll need you, Mom and Dad, to hide them until Christmas.
Okay now I'm really out of time. I love you all and I hope you all know that. I'm looking forward to hearing from you Monday night. ¡Les amo!

Flight Plans!

2009-02-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

Hola! This past week has been crazy, sorry I haven´t had a chance to write much since last Tuesday. We got our flight plans on Friday. We fly out from Salt Lake at midnight Monday night (the 24th). We fly into Atlanta at 5:30 a.m., so 2:30 a.m. for you back home. When do you want me to call you? I was thinking I could call you before we flew out to Atlanta, around 9 or 10 p.m. for you. Would that work out? I'd feel bad calling you at 2 a.m. I was wondering if you could also talk to Tom's parents and get his number for me so I could call him while we're in Atlanta. We have a FOUR HOUR LAYOVER! And Lara's number too if that's not a problem. I'd really like to talk to both of them once more before I take off for good.
I'm going to try and send out a package either today or tomorrow. I just need to get a box first. I've been trying to decide what to do with that suit Grandpa Núñez made. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need the pants buuuut...eh. I don't want to ruin them, you know? Especially if it's the dark grey suit. But I do need them. How many pairs of pants are there? If you can keep the suit jacket and one pair of pants back at home for when I get back, and send whatever pants there are to me. It that makes sense at all. I'm not sure it did. =P
I love you all and I can't wait to talk to you. Dear Elder me ASAP about calling times and the pants and I'll respond on Thursday. Be safe and tell everyone I miss them!

2 Weeks Left!

2009-02-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

Hola! Cómo están? 2 weeks left! Can you believe that? It's so weird being the oldest district in the zone now, we no longer have anyone to look up to for guidance, we are the guidance! We're all starting to wrap things up here as the departure date gets closer. We get flight plans on Friday so I'll be emailing Tuesday with that info. I'm also gonna be sending a package home soon with stuff I don't need to take with me to Costa Rica and personal letters for all the family.

I'm glad Grandpa is doing better and I'm really glad you were able to go down and help take care of him. I'm not gonna lie, it really scared me at first when you wrote that Grandpa was sick. I'm really glad to hear he's gonna ba alright.
Aaaaand I just found out it's Veteran's Day. That's why there was no mail today. We were all wondering about that. =P Not a whole lot has happened in the past week, kinda the same routine. I banged up my elbow on Saturday pretty badly playing soccer. Lost feeling in it for a little bit, then got feeling back wishing I couldn't feel it anymore, it stiffened on me so that it hurt like a son of a gun to move, and so on and so forth. By Sunday morning it was fine and even now it's just slighty bruised, but I have to watch myself before something serious happens and I get delayed. That would be a heart breaker if ever there was one.
Tell the family I love them all and I think about them a lot. When I start sending things home I'll have letters for everyone. Take care and be safe! I'll write again Thursday night.

2009-02-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

I'll make sure to keep Grandpa in my prayers, I hope he's going to be okay. =(
These past couple of days have been pretty good. Another district in my zone left last night, and my district was pretty close with them so it was kinda sad. The elders leaving have been kind of the leadership for us, and with them leaving it's starting to settle in more that we ONLY have 3 weeks left here. It's so nuts. The past couple of lessons from my teachers have made me think about things in a different light. About my friends and stuff like that. The way I teach is slowly changing the more I think about it. I wish you could meet Hermano Crane, he's such an incredible teacher. You'd be glad I've had the opportunity to learn from him.
I hope everything else back home is going okay, with Derek, Ashley, Logan and Dad. I'll try not to let Grandpa being sick distract me, but if you can try to Dear Elder me with updates on how he's doing. Please tell him I love him and how grateful I am for him, and that I'm praying for him as well. Please tell Grandpa I miss him.
Okay I gotta jet before I get too emotional writing this. I'll have some time to write later today after the Temple. I love you and please take care!
-Elder Nunie
p.s.- I'm sending a package home today with pictures and a few other items. I don't know how long it takes to get there, maybe Saturday since mail actually comes for you on Saturdays. They don't give us mail on weekends. =P

Feliz Jueves!

2009-02-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

Hola! Feliz Jueves! So Elder Trost and I just finished teaching the first lesson in spanish again, and it was AWESOME! WAY better than our first time, I'm so happy right now I can't even explain it. Ah man it was a good lesson.
Tuesday night we heard from Elder L. Tom Perry of the Twelve. WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME AN APOSTLE USE TO BE IN THE BISHOPRIC IN LEWISTON????? I heard that and my whole district looked at me like "Hey, why didn't you know that?" =P
I FINALLY had my pictures developed, I get them tomorrow (Friday). I'll send them out on Tuesday, promise.
That's all I have right now. Have a great rest of the week and a great weekend. Send me pictures por favor! =)
-Elder Núñez

Elder Scott

2009-02-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

I TOTALLY FORGOT TO MENTION THIS!!! Okay so maybe I've mentioned it before, but 2 weeks ago we got to hear from Elder Scott of the Twelve! I'll have to tell you about that more on Thursday. We're all about to get dressed, head to dinner, and then go to the Tuesday night devotional. Since my zone sets up for the meetings and stuff w usually get a heads up on who's speaking. We knew before everyone else last time that Elder Scott was speaking, and this time we didn't get a name but were told the speaker tonight is of the Twelve. I'll tell you about it Thursday! I love you!

Feeling Better

2009-02-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia! Cómo están? No need to fret about me anymore, I'm feeling ten times better than I did a week and a half ago. My district leader on the other hand, Elder Silva, has been sick since week 2, and every time it looks like he's getting better he gets hit with something else. Elder Litchfield and I gave him a blessing last night (Monday). I've been worrying about him all week but after last night, I know he's gonna get better. THANKS FOR SENDING ME THAT LETTER FROM TYLAN!!!!!! You have no idea how that made my day Monday. The morning started out a little rough, but that letter made up for it. I can't even explain how happy I was to get that. Thanks for sending the gym shorts and clothes! The sweaters I'll end up sending back before I leave the MTC, simply because I'm not gonna have any use for them in Costa Rica. But I'll make good use of them here. It was snowing here about a week ago, can you believe that! I'm use to seeing snow only after January! Next Monday Elder Trost and I will teach our first lesson in spanish. I'm gonna need a lot of prayers if we're gonna pull through. =P

SEND ME A FAMILY PHOTO PLEASE! Any photos of the Gator and the old garage would be great too, I'd love to see what Dad's been up to. Alright I'll try to write more a little later today. I love you!

Service in the MTC

2009-02-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hey! So I'm on P-Day make-up right now so I decided to write you before cena. I told you I'd explain my service stuff a little bit, didn't I?
Pretty much my zone sets up for the big firesides and devotionals every Saturday night and Tuesday afternoon. Pretty much the same stuff I was doing for Red Lion what with setting up chairs, platforms, and all that good stuff. Since Tuesday are our P-Day service cuts into that time, so they give us P-Day make-up on Thursday nights. I don't know why they do that, we don't get P-Day make-up in the field but that's what happens.
Anyway, I was wondering if you could do two things for me though. First, I want to write Tío Eric, Tío Moroni, Grandpa Núñez and everyone else down there, but I need their addresses. If you could dear elder those to me that would be awesome. Second, I'm dying for some music, so if you could send me my EFY CDs I would love you to no end (not that I don't already). A small CD player thingy wouldn't be bad either. You don't need to send these things they're just ideas, I don't want to be a hassle or anything.
That's about all I can think of right now. I haven't had a chance to take some of the pants to the seamtress yet but I will tomorrow for sure. I better get going. I love you all and I hope everything is okay.
-Elder Núñez
P.S. Thanks for the money in my account. Yeah, I had to buy another notebook and a few other study things earlier. I shouldn't need anything else for a while but who knows. I love you!

Hey family!!!

2009-02-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

Hey! Thanks for the package, the meds helped A LOT! The chips and cheese dip were a big hit with my district too. I'm feeling much better today than I have been. My body is still making more snot than should be humanly possible, but I'm on the uphill. I didn't get a chance to see the doc about my hand last week. My thumb is still sore but it's healing. Slowly but surely. Just so you know I have been getting the Dear Elders, so no worries there. We have a seamtress here so I'm gonna see if she can widen the pants or not. I'll keep you updated on that. I should have tried those pants on again before leaving because I definatley gained some weight before leaving home. No bigge though, it'll work out. Pant wise I wear a 30/30 just as you guessed. I'm glad to hear you and Ashley were able to spend the day together, that makes me really happy. Keep me posted on homecoming for her, and make sure to send me pictures. Hard copy photos, none of this email attachment stuff. That doesn't work here and I don't like that anyway. Tell dad he'll have to send me those photos of the Gator by mail, I don't have time to look at them online. I only get a half hour to write and I'm already at 18 minutes. =P

I'm glad to hear Dad's able to keep busy and that he's made so much headway with the guest house. That's great! I hope you and dad are doing with and are able to keep up with everything. The elders in my district heading to Spain left this morning. It was pretty sad, since our district has gotten pretty close really fast. Elder Strickland was one of those elders to leave. He and I got to be pretty great friends these past few weeks. Sad thing is his grandfather in Spain passed away Sunday night, so he and I were talking about our families and the examples we've had in our lives. This past week we've been teaching the Plan of Salvation, so we got to talking about that too. We have so much in common it's pretty much ridiculous. I made sure to give him our home address and stuff for after the mish. I'm pretty sure I found another brother. =P There are two things I wanted to mention about this week in particular. One is every week our teachers have a progression interview with us. My teachers are Hermano Crane and Hermana Gallacher bytheway, both served in Argentina. They're both incredible teachers and I'm really blessed to have them. During my interview with Hermano Crane Thursday he told me some things that really hit home. He reminds me a lot of Chris Lee with the Spirit he has as he teaches and how he can just level with us at times. He sees in me the same things Chris always said he saw in me, and that really hit home. It was a big pick me up even though I didn't really need one. =) The other thing I wanted to mention, which I might not get to finish since I have 2 minutes left, is about the lessons. Teaching is so much fun!!! I can't even begin to describe how much I love teaching the lessons. Before I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it but it comes so naturally (when I've prepared and prayed and ton before). =P I'll have to share more about that later. I'll try to write on Thursday during my P-Day make-up time (I'll explain that later too).
I love you all and I hope you're all okay!

Greetings from the MTC

2009-02-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

The moment I signed on my District Leader Elder Silva plopped 2 letters in my lap. Thanks for sending my patriarchal blessing! Spanish is going pretty well right now. I might have said this before, but I remember a whole lot more than I thought I did. One of the elders going to Spain, Elder Strickland, and I have become pretty good friends. I might've told you this already, but he was in the same boat as me coming into the MTC. Both his parents are fluent in spanish, his dad having served in Spain and his mom being from Spain, but he only understood what he heard. Just like me it took him a while to figure out what he wanted to say in spanish. He's pretty cool though.
My companion said his grandpa works Thursdays at the Idaho Falls Temple. At least I think it was Thursdays. Maybe grandpa will meet up with Elder Trost's grandpa. =P
Just as a heads up I got sick Friday. I'm still dealing with a pretty bad runny nose and a slight cough, but I'm feeling ten times better than I did this weekend. Amazingly, I felt perfectly okay watching conference. I was pretty grateful for that. Beyond that I hurt my hand pretty badly playing volleyball on Monday. Not sure what I did but my thumb and half my right hand is swollen. I'm checking in with the doc today just to make sure I didn't do anything too bad.
Besides that I don't have much more to say. My district and I just got back from doing a session in the Provo Temple (which is amazing by the way). Oh! Could you send me the Carton's home address so I can write them? And if you could get Russ Moody's mailing address too that'd be great. How is everyone doing at home?
I hope everything is going well. Just as a heads up you should send letters via Dear Elder (unless you're sending photos). It's just faster and doesn't cost anything that I know of. If you could pass that message on to everyone else to Dear Elder me, that'd be great too. Getting letters is great, but waiting for mail is a drag. =P
I love you all. Take care and write me back!