P.S.

Hey Guys:) ha ha yeah yeah I know you all thought you were done hearing from me, but the Lord had a little mercy on me and gave me one last P-day and one last opportunity to write my favorite people in the world! I promise to make it quick, but I just can’t end without telling you about this last weekend.

It’s been one of the craziest weekends of my whole mission. Friday we had Fabian’s baptism! Like I mentioned before he asked Presidente Hayes to baptize him. Everyone got there right on time; we took pictures and got started. (I think we broke a Tico record because we literally started on time and not late like normal haha). The service was simple. The bishop spoke and we sang a hymn with the elders (number 99) it was really well done if I do say so myself haha. When they were both in the font I felt a spirit so strong but so sweet fill not only my heart but the whole room. Presidente obviously felt it to because in the middle of the ordinance he got choked up a little. Even Fabian’s mom and aunt felt it. His mom, Lorena was crying and later she told us that she felt "her heart growing inside". Isn’t it interesting how people who’ve never felt the spirit before describe it? Well it was perfect. Remember how Fabian loved the picture that was in that room? Well, we just happened to have a little one in the house and so we bought a pretty frame and it was the perfect gift! You should have seen his face, he loved it. 

Anyways after the baptism, (which ended before we thought it would, yes) the four of us missionaries got to go back to San Jose. In his car. With air conditioning. It was like heaven. And to top it off we got 2 hours just to chat with President and Sister Hayes. We got to ask him all the questions we had. The next morning we had zone conference. The thing that really stuck out to me was when Presidente explained the difference between faith and hope. I felt like he was speaking directly to me. How I understood it was that faith is our anchor. It keeps us safe and grounded but hope is the chain between our anchor and the boat. He also used this example. Faith is knowing that if I died today everything would be okay and I could accept it. Hope is doing everything I can to not die haha. He also talked about the trial of our faith and how very few people receive the blessing and miracles that comes after because they let go before its all the way over. I know that it was the Lord who asked me to stay. Not until February 2015 not until November not until March but until May 12, 2016. He KNEW if I didn’t I would miss out on so many people. So many of those that I hold so dear, some of the most valuable and wonderful experiences of my mission have happened in the last 6 weeks and I can’t imagine how sad it would be to have missed them. I feel so lucky to have been able to be a missionary at this exact time in my life. He couldn’t have planned it more perfectly. 

The same day as zone conference we went back to Turri and had a second baptism. Finally everything was really for Dariela! The baptism was perfect. Everything went without a wrinkle.

 Sunday was probably my favorite day of the week. And the hardest. I got to spend the whole day saying goodbye..... It feels like I’m tearing half my heart out by leaving Turrialba. Its sad because, while we are part of the peoples life here, they are literally MY WHOLE LIFE. I’ve spent all day, every day for months thinking about them. Planning for them, praying for them, and now I just have to leave them. It hurts a little but I’m sure Heavenly Father can understand the pain of separation too.  

Last though. Presidente told us that the atonement couldn’t be perfect without suffering. He also said that our missions and in turn our lives cannot be made perfect without suffering in one-way or another. The pain will come; the test is how we react to it. I know that God Lives and that he loves us. He cries when we cry and he rejoices when we do what is right. Thank you all for being part of my mission. I love you. Prayers from Costa Rica!
 

All my Love,

Hermana Kugath

La Ultima (Last Letter Home)

My most dear and wonderful family and friends...

Hey:) Well, we’ve finally begun that awful "lasts" phase. Last week, last P-day, last letter home etc. it’s a strange mix of excited, awkward, happy, a little sad and confusing. I would really love to take the opportunity to send you all my last Thank You from the mission field. If it weren’t for you all (mom, dad, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, church leaders, neighbors and loved ones of all sorts!) I would never have even made it to the mission field and much less been able to finish this mission:) from the very bottom of my heart, Thank You. Thank you for the time, energy, thoughts, prayers, packages, letters, e-mails, support, service, gifts, cards, and sacrifices you have sent to me, and to my family, in these last few years. If I had the words to truly express my gratitude it still wouldn’t be enough. Mosiah teaches us that when we are in the service of others we are only in the service of our God, so may the Lord bless you for each effort to help me in this time.

I’d also like to take just a moment to ask forgiveness of each of you if at any time I have offended you in any way. I’m sorry and I hope you can forgive me, I haven’t always been my best, but I’m trying now so I hope you can forgive my past mistakes and errors and we can help each other press forward! I love you all!

An interesting change happens in the mission. We, the missionaries, have the opportunity to reconstruct our personality and ourselves and as we work in the service of God we can become redeemed of our sins. When I come home I have the hope of being redeemed from the many sins that plagued my past before-mission life. Its kind of like a baptism;) we’re still physically the same person but we become new, better. I like to see it as a re-rebirth and I hope that by coming home everyone can give me a second chance and no longer define me by what I was, but to see and accept the new and improved Hermana Kugath. Obviously, I still have many defects and imperfections, but I look forward to beginning again. As one chapter of our lives closes a new, brighter chapter awaits us. Thank you for passing through this chapter with me, lets all forget the bad of the past and remember what we’ve learned and changed. Ill be looking at everyone else through new eyes as well..

OKay okay; so now let me tell you about the dedication of our beautiful chapel!!!! It was a very special day for all of us:) everyone was there! All the stake leaders, the stake president and even president and Hermana Hayes came! There was an incredible choir and many of the pioneers of the church here in Turrialba shared their testimony about the church. The dedicatory prayer offered many blessings and reminded us each of our responsibilities as members of the church of Jesus Christ. My favorite part was getting to introduce Presidente and Sister Hayes to Fabian after the meeting! 2 seconds after meeting him Fabian asked president if he would baptism him!!! And he said yes:):):) so Fabian will be baptized Friday at 6 by president and Dariela will be baptized Saturday at 7 by her grandpa! Yay:) what a blessing!

Well I think this is it for me guys. As a missionary I have few opportunities to share my testimony with those who truly mean the most to me but let me just say that I know that Jesus is the Christ. That because of him and through him we can be forgiven of our past and offered a brilliant future. I know that we are children of the living God and that he loves us each tenderly and desires that we come home. I know that our elder brother literally marked the path to show us all we have to do and that that path is the restored gospel, which is only taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I feel unworthy of the enormous privilege it is to wear his name and represent him and pray that the message we carry can go forth boldly to all the world. Thank you all for helping me become who I am and for strengthening my testimony through your examples and your words. Families are forever! Prayers from Costa Rica...

All my Love,
Hermana Kugath

Hold Your Horses

Dearest Familia...:)

While I know everyone (me included) is suuuper stoked about me coming home in just a few weeks now, you'll all have to endure at least a few more letters from me because hey, I got stuff to tell ya:) we've been working like mad this week because well i do not fade out like the sunset, at least not yet. the last part of the race is when you have to run the hardest not start to walk!

So let me tell you all the super great, wonderful, happy new from this week! first of all, Carmen and Adrian got married on Friday:):):):):):) yay!!! i am so happy! i feel o great knowing that i leave them both in very capable hands. It makes me so happy that they are happy. i mean yes i am a little put out that we have to find someone else to wash our clothes since she went to live all the way on the other side of Turrialba, but I can sacrifice for their happiness. They didn't have anything planned in the party department but everyone knows you cant get married without at least a cake! luckily Hermana Emma is a secret cake boss so she helped us make a beautiful and delicious heart shaped dulce de leche filled wedding cake! we snuck in their house and left them the cake, a few decorations and my personal favorite, a framed family proclamation:) yay for love! and marriage! haha.

In other exciting news we got to use la Capilla (the church) for the first time yesterday! if were being honest, I felt like it was the first time I've gone to church in months haha. but the wait was definitely worth it! i cant even describe to you how gorgeous the building is:) I love love love love it. it so much easier to feel the spirit! everything is so simple, well done and clean. oh I love how clean it is. the paintings are beautiful. we have a sweet oven and even granite counter tops. its so nice that i could literally spend all day just in the bathroom and be feliz. the best part is that on the first day we filled it almost to capacity! 25 less actives came and 14 investigatores (between us and the elders), it was super splendid! My personal favorite part is the baptism font..... never in my life have I seen a font so pretty! I'll take pictures because I can't really describe it. and lucky me, I'll have the opportunity to use it twice in the next few weeks! Dariela will finally be baptized next Sunday after the dedication of the chapel and Fabian will be baptized may 6th!

Every week I love more and more Fabian! Yesterday he came to church and he started out by telling us that it was a special day because he had been coming to church for a month, we were in the new church and because he was using the tie we had given him for his birthday! later we showed him and Siloe the font and they were both so excited! he saw the picture in that room of Christ being baptized by John and he said. This is my picture, of all the pictures I like this one the most! We had a great sacrament meeting and Gospel Principles was fabulous. we talked about the Priesthood and Fabian and Ricardo both paid close attention. After the class Fabian came to ask us when his baptism was and when we told him the 6th of May he looked a little sad saying why couldn't we fill the font up and do it right then. He told us that he had been praying all week and had received an answer a few days earlier. He said that he now knew that the Church was true, that he had to be baptized soon. Then he told us how it was his goal/desire to see as many chapels and temples throughout the world as possible. he said that he and Siloe were already making plans to be able to visit Salt Lake City one day:) Ricardo also confessed to us that he felt that the church was true and that he's excited to keep preparing for his baptism on the 21st of May (as part of the open house!) Yay!

One last little happy notice, maybe many of you don't remember Karol but she's the girlfriend of one of the members back in Gravilias who we were teaching. Well yesterday I got the news that she was baptized on Sunday!!!! and that she and Jorge (the member) will be married on the 28th of May! ush, Yay team missionaries.

Well thats all I'll make you guys read for today. I love you all so much and you will always be in my thoughts and prayers, but hopefully not too much yet! Prayers from Costa Rica!

All my Love,
Hermana Kugath

Hermana Kung Fu

Dearest Familia :)

Have you ever asked the question what is my treasure? I was reading in 3rd Nephi this week and I found the most beautiful little verse. 3rd Nephi 13:21 " For where your treasure is there will your heart be also". (Matt. 6:21). Well I thought about it and as humans really we have two treasures, our time, energy and money. I invite you each to think about this question, if money, energy, and time are my treasures, what am I using them for? We can all do a little self-evaluation to see where our hearts truly lie as we evaluate these 3 things. If we spend our time, energy and money with our friends/sports team/video game/etc. our hearts are obviously found there, but if we spend it with our family and with our God we receive a true recompense of Joy and blessings. Yay family!

Okay 3 quick experiences from this last week to share:

1. This week was Fabian’s birthday! We bought him a tie, to help him start up a collection for Sundays;) he’s going to need a lot seeing as he will be baptized soon! We had a great experience with him and siloe. They were in Angela’s house when we passed by and so we started chatting about how their assignment to read Nephi 14 had gone. They both had really profound and well thought out ideas and questions about the chapter. We talked about the significance of the 2 churches and the prophecies. Fabian said his favorite part was in verse 12 because it says "and I looked and beheld..." it said to him that Nephi himself was seeing it. It wasn’t something he’d heard, or thought up but something he saw with his own eyes. While we were talking siloes sister, viviana, came in and sat down in the doorway. We’ve always tried to teach her to but she really never been interested. But as she listened to us talking with Fabian and siloe she pulled her chair closer and closer until she could be part of the conversation too. She expressed to us that she had many questions and doubts and wanted our help. She told us how she realized that she wasn’t living how God wanted her to and she needed to change but she didn’t know how. She also said that she knew her greatest responsibility in life was to lead her children in the right way and she expressed her need to know for herself what was the right way. It was a great opportunity to share our testimonies and offer her the chance to discover the right way through the book of Mormon. I am so excited for this family!!!!! Yay:)

2. This week we had a great idea to help Katherine and Gerardo. We asked hermano Marvin if he could sneakily take the girls out to an ice cream cone on a certain day and a certain time so we could come over and talk with them privately. It was a miracle! The house was quite and the spirit was obviously present. We had prayed all day to know what to say and it felt like the lord was giving us exactly what to say. We read with them helaman 5:10-11 and Alma 34:14-16 and talked about how Christ paid the price of our sins with the condition that we repent first of them. Hermano Gerardo surprised us by explaining exactly what is repentance and how to do it. They both expressed a desire to be clean from their sins but at the same time a fear that they had sins/habits that they didn’t know how to overcome or that they would fall into again. They are committed to reading 1 column of scripture every day and having their family prayer. They’re making progress, slowly, but its progress!!

 3. This is my favorite of all. I wish you could know Jaime. He is such a special old man! He cracks me up and I really just love him so much. So we went to his house to watch the restoration and as usual he had invited his whole neighborhood to join us Haha. We began the movie with a running commentary from Hermana Jaime. He pointed out who joseph smith was and what he had seen and pretty much taught the restoration as we watched it. Later on he started passing out soda and slices of cake! (This man is the best host I’ve ever met. we never leave his house without eating). Well he finished and I told him to sit down in front so he could see and hear the movie. He whispered to me "I’m already saved, they’re the ones who really need to listen. Kungfu (he calls me that because its easier then saying Kugath) I saw the light, help them!” hahaha he is so cute and funny. Anyways, after the movie we took just a few minutes to talk about it and share our testimonies. As I was talking a was struck by the thought that this is really what my mission is all about. Exploring Costa Rica, learning Spanish, making lots of new friends, and eating bucket loads of rice and beans are all just extras while the real point of my being here is to testify that Jesus is the Christ and that his church has been restored through living prophets. The point is to help as many people as possible enjoy the blessings of the restored gospel while on Earth and then make it to our Celestial Home as Eternal Families. Isn’t being a missionary wonderful!:)

Well I hope you all know that I love you and miss you and pass my day praying for your health, happiness and testimonies! Prayers from Costa Rica!
All My Love,
Hermana Kugath

PS just some great news, next week we will be able to use our brand new chapel for the first time!!!! bye bye high school gym and hello Hermosa Capilla! Dearest Familia :)

Have you ever asked the question what is my treasure? I was reading in 3rd Nephi this week and I found the most beautiful little verse. 3rd Nephi 13:21 " For where your treasure is there will your heart be also". (Matt. 6:21). Well I thought about it and as humans really we have two treasures, our time, energy and money. I invite you each to think about this question, if money, energy, and time are my treasures, what am I using them for? We can all do a little self-evaluation to see where our hearts truly lie as we evaluate these 3 things. If we spend our time, energy and money with our friends/sports team/video game/etc. our hearts are obviously found there, but if we spend it with our family and with our God we receive a true recompense of Joy and blessings. Yay family!

Okay 3 quick experiences from this last week to share:
1. This week was Fabian’s birthday! We bought him a tie, to help him start up a collection for Sundays;) he’s going to need a lot seeing as he will be baptized soon! We had a great experience with him and siloe. They were in Angela’s house when we passed by and so we started chatting about how their assignment to read Nephi 14 had gone. They both had really profound and well thought out ideas and questions about the chapter. We talked about the significance of the 2 churches and the prophecies. Fabian said his favorite part was in verse 12 because it says "and I looked and beheld..." it said to him that Nephi himself was seeing it. It wasn’t something he’d heard, or thought up but something he saw with his own eyes. While we were talking siloes sister, viviana, came in and sat down in the doorway. We’ve always tried to teach her to but she really never been interested. But as she listened to us talking with Fabian and siloe she pulled her chair closer and closer until she could be part of the conversation too. She expressed to us that she had many questions and doubts and wanted our help. She told us how she realized that she wasn’t living how God wanted her to and she needed to change but she didn’t know how. She also said that she knew her greatest responsibility in life was to lead her children in the right way and she expressed her need to know for herself what was the right way. It was a great opportunity to share our testimonies and offer her the chance to discover the right way through the book of Mormon. I am so excited for this family!!!!! Yay:)

2. This week we had a great idea to help Katherine and Gerardo. We asked hermano Marvin if he could sneakily take the girls out to an ice cream cone on a certain day and a certain time so we could come over and talk with them privately. It was a miracle! The house was quite and the spirit was obviously present. We had prayed all day to know what to say and it felt like the lord was giving us exactly what to say. We read with them helaman 5:10-11 and Alma 34:14-16 and talked about how Christ paid the price of our sins with the condition that we repent first of them. Hermano Gerardo surprised us by explaining exactly what is repentance and how to do it. They both expressed a desire to be clean from their sins but at the same time a fear that they had sins/habits that they didn’t know how to overcome or that they would fall into again. They are committed to reading 1 column of scripture every day and having their family prayer. They’re making progress, slowly, but its progress!!

 3. This is my favorite of all. I wish you could know Jaime. He is such a special old man! He cracks me up and I really just love him so much. So we went to his house to watch the restoration and as usual he had invited his whole neighborhood to join us Haha. We began the movie with a running commentary from Hermana Jaime. He pointed out who joseph smith was and what he had seen and pretty much taught the restoration as we watched it. Later on he started passing out soda and slices of cake! (This man is the best host I’ve ever met. we never leave his house without eating). Well he finished and I told him to sit down in front so he could see and hear the movie. He whispered to me "I’m already saved, they’re the ones who really need to listen. Kungfu (he calls me that because its easier then saying Kugath) I saw the light, help them!” hahaha he is so cute and funny. Anyways, after the movie we took just a few minutes to talk about it and share our testimonies. As I was talking a was struck by the thought that this is really what my mission is all about. Exploring Costa Rica, learning Spanish, making lots of new friends, and eating bucket loads of rice and beans are all just extras while the real point of my being here is to testify that Jesus is the Christ and that his church has been restored through living prophets. The point is to help as many people as possible enjoy the blessings of the restored gospel while on Earth and then make it to our Celestial Home as Eternal Families. Isn’t being a missionary wonderful!:)

Well I hope you all know that I love you and miss you and pass my day praying for your health, happiness and testimonies! Prayers from Costa Rica!
All My Love,
Hermana Kugath

PS just some great news, next week we will be able to use our brand new chapel for the first time!!!! bye bye high school gym and hello Hermosa Capilla!

Obeying My Stake President

Dearest Family...

Hey:) what a great week it has been! Can you guys believe it April already? I mean I know it has been for 11 days already but it still blows my mind. Well I'm running a little short on time here today so let me jump right in to it!



I have seen no shortage of miracles in the last week. Fabian is the boyfriend of Angela’s (recent convert from January) daughter, Siloe. We’ve seen him on and off the past few months because he’s always around when we go to see Siloe and Angela. We’ve given him a book of Mormon, we watched the restoration and we’ve chatted lots about the church. But last week Siloe invited him to go to conference with her and he went! The next day we went over to help them practice their English for an upcoming exam and Siloe greeted us saying, "I have news! Fabian wants to be baptized!"... I for one was shocked. We talked for a little while and laid out the requirements for baptism and he agreed to each one. Later in the week we returned to teach the restoration. Wed left him a pamphlet and told him to read the first few page. He told us that he had read the whole thing! And he only hadn’t answered the questions at the back because he didn’t have a bible to look up the references.:) As we talked about the restoration he made very personal and profound remarks. When we talked about what revelation meant he said, "So I’m looking to receive a revelation from God to tell me to be baptized?" yes! Later as we explained how the only question Joseph Smith had asked was which church was true he said " that interesting, now I’m asking the same question!” it was probably in my top 3 favorite lessons of all time. We asked him to offer the closing prayer and as he prayed he really poured out his heart in the most humble prayer I’ve heard someone say. He gave thanks for the Lord having opened the door to him to be able to find the true church and asked permission from God to join the church if it was his will, because he does want to.     And that’s not all! But when we passed by just to say hi, we found him trying on the new white shirt and ties he’d bought especially for church this week:) I am dying he is so good! Yay!



In other news, Alfonzo, another recent convert spent 8 hours with us one day sharing his testimony and inviting everyone to listen to our message. He loves us so much, makes me think of the Lamanite converts of Ammon, what a privilege!

We are also currently working with all the recent converts in their family history so they will have names to take to the temple (hopefully sometime in April/early may! how I dream of seeing them in the temple!!)



Okay so I think I’ve told you how we don’t have a chapel right now because they’re rebuilding it. Well they’re just about done and its probably the mot beautiful church building I’ve ever seen. So every night on our way home we make it a point to pass by and look at it if we can. One night we were passing by and we aw lights inside. There was a guard at the gate and so we went and asked him if he could open it so we could see it.... well he said no:( but then we introduced ourselves as the missionaries of the church to whom the building belonged. He still said we couldn’t come in but asked about the church. We introduced ourselves and gave him a pamphlet of the plan of salvation and invited him to read it that night during his watch and if he wanted, to come to the church with us in the high school on Sunday. And he came! It was such a miracle. He came, stayed the 3 hours, and invited us to his house to explain more about the pamphlet and answer his questions. It was so cool! So that night we went to his house and we chatted about the plan of salvation and introduced the book of Mormon. His cousin came in and we gave them a copy to read. As we were teaching them the prophecy from Samuel the Lamanite in Helaman 15:11-16 came to my mind and I felt such a great joy at helping to bring the promise to pass.



Last thing, on Sunday I was so happy. There were so many good men that I’ve come to care for and worry about and love (like a missionary obviously) dressed in white shirts! Alfonzo, Jaime, Adrian, Fabian, Ricardo, José, Marvin, etc. it was beautiful! I love being a missionary and I love Turrialba!



But don’t be jealous, I love you all too! With all my heart and soul:) miss you lots and I’m really grateful for the notes, letters, videos and pictures you’ve sent me.

Prayers from Costa Rica!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath

37 days 20 hours 48 minutes (says mom's countdown clock)

Dearest Familia.....

Man if you guys knew what an awesome week this was! It was super crazy and we had to travel far more then Id ever want to in a week (especially in these buses that make you want to throw up and/or pass out) but it was so worth it! Let me just give you a run down of the week.

Monday- Cambios. Spent the whole day dropping off Hermana Mazariegos and picking up Hermana Chavez! I think I’ve pretty much already told you guys a little about her. She’s 22, from Argentina, and we spent 5 months living in the same house. Basically its just like the same (minus that Hermana Olsen and Hermana Turner aren’t here too:() we get along really well and working together is super swell! She’s a great teacher and really motivated. I was afraid I was going to have a hard time with my last companion seeing as I’ve had it pretty easy in the companion department my whole mission, but no, the Lord is taking it easy on me I guess:)

Tuesday- District Meeting. Basically going to, having, and coming home from district meeting eats up all of our day so there’s not to much to say about this day. Basically everyone spends an hour reminding me that I have to go home soon haha. Sometimes missionaries are merciless.

Wednesday- this was the only normal day of the week! We spent the day working in our area and it was awesome! Its fun getting to show a new companion the area and introducing her to everyone. It’s got to be overwhelming for her, but she’s doing great and already gets along great with all our investigators and members! We went up to Santa Rosa to visit Angela because her missionary daughter came home!!! We were expecting everyone to be bouncing off the walls but when we walked up (a little late, oops) everyone was crying. The poor family just got the news that Angela’s mom had passed away. We spent the night how I hope the savior would have, mourning with those that mourn, comforting those that stand in need and teaching the hope filled message of the resurrection! We watched the churches 2-minute message called hallelujah (no idea how to spell that in English or Spanish) and we had the opportunity to testify that death really has no sting and the grave has no victory gracias al Salvador JesuCristo. We also asked the recently returned sister missionary Brenda to share her testimony and she said that her grandma began a new life and that as she had been testifying of forever families for a year and a half she knew with un shakable faith that it was a reality.

Thursday- we went to see Jaime today:) he really is my favorite man ever. I was a little worried that he might not accept Hermana Chavez because he loved Hermana Mazariegos so much, but he started joking with her right away and I knew that it would all be okay. We talked about the priesthood and he was honestly humbled and awed that he now holds the authority and has the right to baptize and bless the sacrament in our savior’s name. The only bad thing is we had to leave running because we had to get to Paraiso before 9 :(

Friday- today we went to the temple! We spent the night in Paraiso with the other sister missionaries so we could wake up early and go to the temple. When I say early I mean suuper early, like 2:30 type early. I mean first of all 4 girls have to shower and get ready and make it to Cartago before 5 am. The whole morning I was afraid that I would fall asleep in the session or get a headache from being awake so early, so before we started I prayed that I could make it through without being sleepy, hungry, grumpy, etc. haha. And I enjoyed the whole session! Later as we were sitting in the celestial room I received some of the most personal and direct answers to the questions id been praying about. The Lord really does hear us and answer!

Saturday/Sunday- Yay for general conference!!!!!!! Man I love conference so much. Aren’t we so blessed to have loving and inspired leader who, like elder Holland said, spend hours thinking about us and praying to know how to help us. I think there was a personal message for all of us in their words. Was it just me or did they say the phrase forever families/eternal families like 10000000000 times? I personally loved Elder Duncan, Elder Myrvn, Presidente Utchdorf and Elder Holland’s talks. If there’s one thing that stuck out to me, and has during my whole mission, it’s that opposition is necessary if we want to grow. It caught my attention that he said, the devil tells us that we can’t grow, learn or progress because he can’t! But if we remember our divine identity as other counseled us, if we really understand that we are literal children of God there is nothing we can’t achieve. The Lord blessed us to have 9 investigators accompany us to conference:) it was unforgettable!  I invite you all to review the conference talks soon so that we can continually feel the peace of the spirit in our lives:)

Well that was my week:) I just want you all to know that I love being a missionary! I know that our families can and will be together forever, but that it depends on our obedience. I know that opposition is necessary to grow but I know that if we face our oppositions with Christ at our side they will help us learn and grow and help us to be perfected. If we face them alone they will break us and make us miserable. Our Loving Heavenly Father provided a savior, a healer and a counselor for us so that the opposition would benefit and not wreak us. I love you all so much, prayers from Costa Rica!

All my Love,
Hermana Kugath

Felices Pascuas‏ (Happy Easter)

Dearest Familia...

Happy Late Easter Guys  :)

I love Easter! It’s probably the most important and least celebrated holiday of all of them. Here in Costa Rica they don’t celebrate Easter like we do. The Catholic tradition is to spend the whole week remembering the last week of the Savior’s life. As for me, I like to focus my celebration on the Resurrection of our Lord and King and give a little les emphasis to His death. Yes He died, He died for you and for me, but the greatest miracle is that He lived again for you and for me. And it’s because of this miracle that we all can have hope; hope to be freed from the saddnesses, pain, sufferings and trials that are part of this world. But the best part is that were not from this world, therefore these things will be for but a small moment. The greatest hope that we have because of the Savior is that of progress, eternal progress. Try a little harder to be a little better.

So anyways, happy birthday tomorrow Jesse! Are you for reals 26??? Wow. espero que tengas un dia muy muy especial y feliz, aunque talvez lo pasaras en el hospital. mama me conto que tienes una fea bacteria o algo asi, tu y tu familia eastan en mis oraciones. les amo!

Also, cambios....:( The time has come, they took Hermana Mazariegos away from me.... sad day. The good news is that I already know and love my new companion! Hermana Chavez from Argentina! If you can remember back to gravilias we lived together for about 5 months even though we were never companions, how crazy is that! I’m super excited. So my first and now my last companions will both be from Argentina, bookends, as mom would put it. It will be a super change with her!

Before Hermana Mazariegos left we got to celebrate one more baptism together. Jaime:) awh he is so special for us. What a beautiful day it was! It was literally the perfect baptism. When we went to visit him afterwards he was o happy. He just felt so relieved that he could be forgiven of ALL his past.  Also before leaving Hermana Marvin threw a farewell for Hermana Mazariegos and we got to roast about 100 marshmallows (over a real fire this time and not just the stove). It was my first Costa Rica style bonfire:) it felt sort of like home.

Well, I gotta run. Love you guys! Lots of prayers for you all.
All my love,
Hermana Kugath