Aleena is being transferred and her companion will be going home, here is an excerpt of what she wrote to me about it, I loved what she had to say: "My companion is going to go home. tomorrow:( I'm sad. but I don't want you or anyone else to think anything less of her. She has sacrificed 6 months and she deserves to be loved and praised for what she gave and not rejected for what she didn't. I love her.
Dearest Familia and Other Admirers ha ha ;)
Is there anything better then Thanksgiving weekend in all its turkey, shopping, black Friday, family time, and pumpkin pie glory?!?!???!!! The answer to that is yes, but only for one reason, BECAUSE IT MEANS CHRISTMAS IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!!! (Which you know, means I soon get to call my favorite family in the whole world!) I’m so glad that every one of you had such a fun and filling weekend. I missed you. I did not cry, but I DID miss you. But don’t worry on Thursday night as my companion and I prayed over our little ham and cheese sandwich I thanked my Dear Heavenly Father for each of you! And lets not forget, I’m so thankful to be a missionary!!!:) Yay.
Well things are about to get real crazy here. Yesterday they let us know that my companion and I will be having changes. They’re going to put elders into our ward for the first time in years. So that’s sad.... I had hoped to be here for Christmas, but there are worse things and the Lord knows what he has planned for us. I will miss Hermana Turner, my house, my friends, my ward and everything that we’ve done here, but on to bigger and better!
Just a few thoughts from this week... on Thursday/Friday I was thinking about how wonderful my family is and how, although I loooooove being a missionary, I really missed them. I got me thinking about how/why I was on a mission. The clearest conclusion I could come to was that it was for
S
a
c
r
i
S f
e i
r c
L. O. V. E.
i b i
s e c
t d e
e i
n e
c
e
Whew. Man I hope you guys can see that because it took me literally 7 minutes or more to make that. Basically I made up my own definition of Love. Listen, Obey, Serve and Sacrifice. My whole life I put myself on the top of the list, followed by family friends etc. etc. and Heavenly Father was usually somewhere at the end of my list. I rarely listened obeyed served or sacrificed for HIM. Being a missionary has given me the opportunity to do all those things for him and for others. It’s the best.
Other thought, in sacrament one of the talks was on Which Brother am I?.. He talked about the 4 sons of Lehi. He pointed out how sometimes were exactly like Laman and Lemuel, they had spiritual experiences, they had testimonies, they’d seen miracles and received blessings and yet, they still murmured. Why?? Are we to tired lazy bored busy etc.? Why can’t we all just be Nephi?? Or at least Sam, Jacob or joseph?? I just really liked the comparison, it helped me see how its not just about Having a testimony that’s important, but that we act conforming to what our testimony tells us to do, whether we want to or not.
Just want to say I love you all and am super grateful to have you all in my life:) you’re the best a girl could ask for. Thanks for everything guys! Lots of love and prayers from Costa Rica..
All my love,
Hermana Kugath
11.30.2015
11.24.2015
The Week of the Turkey
Dearest..... (fill in your names here:) haha)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!! yes! one of the best holidays of all of November. what an excellent holiday. we just get to stuff our selves with moms delicious work and say how thankful we are for the heaps of blessings we received from our loving Heavenly Father. I'm personally a huge fan of this holiday and although it doesn't make much sense here I hope you all know that I will still be celebrating here in Costa Rica (maybe with just a little less food then normal..:() to start off let me just share a short list of the things I'm thankful for....(in no particular order obviously;))
1. Loving celestial and earthly parents
2. a knowledge of my savior and what He's done for me
3. the opportunity to be a missionary
4. the book of mormon and the bible (they're tied)
5. little brothers and older sisters (they're also tied...haha)
6. nieces!!!!!!!! they probably should be higher on the list actually.
7. brothers and sisters in law.
8. skype and email
9. marshmallow mateys
10. FRIENDS:) I love you guys
11. boots!
12. pillows
13. prophets.
14. hymns and pianos
15. MY COMPANION
16. laughter
17. Th church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
18. the priesthood
19. Christmas!!!!!
20. hot water to shower
21. temples
.... the list could go on and on and on and if I didn't want to bore you guys I'd keep going. but those are just a few of the things that come to mind right now. so lets talk about what happened this week!
We've been working with one less active named Douglas. He's a crack up. he's suuuper smart about everything but he wont stop smoking. We always drop by just to visit him a minute so he knows we still love him even as a "sinner" ha ha :). This week we went by and he called out to us and said he wanted to teach us something super "tuanis" thats like cool here. haha so he brought out a few shoe laces tied together and started teaching us those hand games like cats cradle and Jacob's ladder, its been years since I've played anything like that! it was fun because we got to just chat a little with him and we learned some awesome tricks too!
Another day we went up to dos cercas with a member to find a friend of hers. We went to the house and her daughter said she wasnt there. Estefani (the member) asked if there was anyone else we could go visit instead so we took her to see Yulesi. we walked in her house and in the front living room was the friend that we had been looking for! We had a great lesson with them and as we were leaving Estefani told us that she had prayed so hard that we would be able to find her friend and when she wasn't home she had been really sad. But she knew Heavenly Father answers prayers and it was confirmed by our little miracle!
My story of the week is about Francisco. We found him last Sunday and have been trying to refind him all week. Yesterday he called us and asked if we could come over because he wanted to talk about the Word of God. We took him to a members house and had a really great lesson about the Plan of Salvation (he even read the pamphlet and everything so he was prepared!). it was fabulous and as we were leaving the member's son walked in so they got to chatting a little. About 2 minutes into the conversation Francisco told him "Im getting prepared to be baptized. I've never been baptized before and I know I need to be, so they're (us!) helping me". it was so coolio!!!!!! Anyways, the members we were with invited him to choir practice because that's where they were going right the. And he went!! We sang christmas songs for 2 hours. It was an awesome day!
Anyways this coming week is going to be really special. I hope everyone can feel the importance of Thanksgiving and being grateful for our many many innumerable blessings! And after eating a huge slice of pumpkin pie in my behalf I hope you can all get into the spirit of Black Friday and ask yourselves "que mas me falta?" (what lack i yet?) but spiritually speaking of course!:) I love you all and am extremely grateful for your love support and prayers. you're in my heart and prayers!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!! yes! one of the best holidays of all of November. what an excellent holiday. we just get to stuff our selves with moms delicious work and say how thankful we are for the heaps of blessings we received from our loving Heavenly Father. I'm personally a huge fan of this holiday and although it doesn't make much sense here I hope you all know that I will still be celebrating here in Costa Rica (maybe with just a little less food then normal..:() to start off let me just share a short list of the things I'm thankful for....(in no particular order obviously;))
1. Loving celestial and earthly parents
2. a knowledge of my savior and what He's done for me
3. the opportunity to be a missionary
4. the book of mormon and the bible (they're tied)
5. little brothers and older sisters (they're also tied...haha)
6. nieces!!!!!!!! they probably should be higher on the list actually.
7. brothers and sisters in law.
8. skype and email
9. marshmallow mateys
10. FRIENDS:) I love you guys
11. boots!
12. pillows
13. prophets.
14. hymns and pianos
15. MY COMPANION
16. laughter
17. Th church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
18. the priesthood
19. Christmas!!!!!
20. hot water to shower
21. temples
.... the list could go on and on and on and if I didn't want to bore you guys I'd keep going. but those are just a few of the things that come to mind right now. so lets talk about what happened this week!
We've been working with one less active named Douglas. He's a crack up. he's suuuper smart about everything but he wont stop smoking. We always drop by just to visit him a minute so he knows we still love him even as a "sinner" ha ha :). This week we went by and he called out to us and said he wanted to teach us something super "tuanis" thats like cool here. haha so he brought out a few shoe laces tied together and started teaching us those hand games like cats cradle and Jacob's ladder, its been years since I've played anything like that! it was fun because we got to just chat a little with him and we learned some awesome tricks too!
Another day we went up to dos cercas with a member to find a friend of hers. We went to the house and her daughter said she wasnt there. Estefani (the member) asked if there was anyone else we could go visit instead so we took her to see Yulesi. we walked in her house and in the front living room was the friend that we had been looking for! We had a great lesson with them and as we were leaving Estefani told us that she had prayed so hard that we would be able to find her friend and when she wasn't home she had been really sad. But she knew Heavenly Father answers prayers and it was confirmed by our little miracle!
My story of the week is about Francisco. We found him last Sunday and have been trying to refind him all week. Yesterday he called us and asked if we could come over because he wanted to talk about the Word of God. We took him to a members house and had a really great lesson about the Plan of Salvation (he even read the pamphlet and everything so he was prepared!). it was fabulous and as we were leaving the member's son walked in so they got to chatting a little. About 2 minutes into the conversation Francisco told him "Im getting prepared to be baptized. I've never been baptized before and I know I need to be, so they're (us!) helping me". it was so coolio!!!!!! Anyways, the members we were with invited him to choir practice because that's where they were going right the. And he went!! We sang christmas songs for 2 hours. It was an awesome day!
Anyways this coming week is going to be really special. I hope everyone can feel the importance of Thanksgiving and being grateful for our many many innumerable blessings! And after eating a huge slice of pumpkin pie in my behalf I hope you can all get into the spirit of Black Friday and ask yourselves "que mas me falta?" (what lack i yet?) but spiritually speaking of course!:) I love you all and am extremely grateful for your love support and prayers. you're in my heart and prayers!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath
11.16.2015
One Year!
Dear Familia y Loved Ones....
Wanna hear something awesome.....? This week I complete a year of being a missionary:) 12 months total. Okay I’m jumping the gun, I don’t actually until Thursday, but I figured I'd just mention it today! Thanks to all you out there who have been there for me from the first day until now, you know who you are;) and for those of you who have joined my support group along the way, you’re cool too! Ha-ha I really have been so blessed that through these last 18 months I’ve felt so loved and gotten to see my heart expand and my family grow!
Anyways, so this week.. What can I say, it been a pretty casual week here. My companion has been really sick and so that kind of gave us a few extra hurdles to jump over but we know the Lord is mindful of us and our situation so he gives us all we need to get things done. I think I’ve talked a little before about our investigator Estefani (she’s the girlfriend of a member) anyways, she’s awesome. We get to go see her every Monday night since it’s the only day she’s in town. But I love her! She always reads and studies the chapters we give her and she usually has a list of 8-10 questions for us. It’s a really special experience to get to see people’s testimonies growing. She’s a smarty too, when we teach her I really feel like a missionary. The rest of the week was sort of a blur, sorry.... we had an activity where we got to watch the Testaments and I remembered how awesome that movie is! And we had divisions one day with some other Hermana’s that was cool. Oh and this morning a member made us breakfast! Yum. I feel real bad guys I’m searching my brain but there’s just not much else to talk about. I guess this week I'll pray to have more spiritual experiences so I can write you a better letter next week. Love you all and miss you bunches!!
All my love and prayers from Costa Rica,
Hermana Kugath
Wanna hear something awesome.....? This week I complete a year of being a missionary:) 12 months total. Okay I’m jumping the gun, I don’t actually until Thursday, but I figured I'd just mention it today! Thanks to all you out there who have been there for me from the first day until now, you know who you are;) and for those of you who have joined my support group along the way, you’re cool too! Ha-ha I really have been so blessed that through these last 18 months I’ve felt so loved and gotten to see my heart expand and my family grow!
Anyways, so this week.. What can I say, it been a pretty casual week here. My companion has been really sick and so that kind of gave us a few extra hurdles to jump over but we know the Lord is mindful of us and our situation so he gives us all we need to get things done. I think I’ve talked a little before about our investigator Estefani (she’s the girlfriend of a member) anyways, she’s awesome. We get to go see her every Monday night since it’s the only day she’s in town. But I love her! She always reads and studies the chapters we give her and she usually has a list of 8-10 questions for us. It’s a really special experience to get to see people’s testimonies growing. She’s a smarty too, when we teach her I really feel like a missionary. The rest of the week was sort of a blur, sorry.... we had an activity where we got to watch the Testaments and I remembered how awesome that movie is! And we had divisions one day with some other Hermana’s that was cool. Oh and this morning a member made us breakfast! Yum. I feel real bad guys I’m searching my brain but there’s just not much else to talk about. I guess this week I'll pray to have more spiritual experiences so I can write you a better letter next week. Love you all and miss you bunches!!
All my love and prayers from Costa Rica,
Hermana Kugath
11.09.2015
Gravilias
My Dearest Family and Friends,
Let me just say again how cool my boots are!!!!! Ha ha they cost me a little more then a pretty penny so I feel like I need to tell everyone forever how awesome they are. For those of you who have asked, my foot is doing super. It’s sore sometimes, but nothing that impairs me, I mean I’ve definitely had worse. Plus, every week I meet a new missionary and you should see the look on their face when they figure out that I’m "that one Hermana who fell in a sewer!!" its always the same reaction, and its funny every time so that’s okay.
Well let’s get right to the good stuff, being a missionary is awesome! Yeah its hard and whatever but the best part is that you get to talk about Jesus all day, EVERY DAY. And that makes it worth it. We had a really great week here in Gravilias! So great that it got me thinking about everyone else that I love in the world;) I realized that before my mission I had a testimony, I knew that everything was right and true and fabulous. But being on a mission has taught me the WHY.. And the why has strengthened my testimony more then ever before. I mean before I liked the Book of Mormon, now I love it. Before I thought Joseph Smith was pretty cool, now I can’t imagine a world without hearing his name. Before I knew who Christ was, I knew a few of the things he did and I was pretty sure he loved me, now I UNDERSTAND who he is, what he did for me, how to apply it to my life and now I feel his love for me that a desire has grown into an a surety of his love for me; imperfect, tired, stressed, silly, happy, sad, maybe a little chubbier, etc. etc. I know he loves me anyway:) sometimes writing home makes me feel a little selfish, like all I care about is me and what happened in my week ya know? How’s my testimony and stuff, so I wanted to make this email a little interactive.!! I want you all to ask yourselves these questions, just try it... okay, do I love Christ?? Am I sure? How do I know?? What does faith mean to me? Do I have a testimony of tithing? Fasting?? Why is the sacrament important? How do I repent?? Why is joseph smith so important? Is the Book of Mormon true?? Am I sure? Why/how do I know?? Yes there is a purpose to all these questions; our answers to these questions are our TESTIMONY. And you know what I want for Christmas..? I WANT YOURS! To anyone and everyone who’s reading this, for Christmas please send me a copy of your personal testimony. Letter, email, card, video, dear elder (sister ha ha) lo que sea! (However you want). I want to hear how what why when who, everything! Grand, small, simple or complicated. I just want to know how my loved ones feel about this miraculous gospel!
Well, I sure love you a lot. One of my constant prayers is that as am here serving, your faith and hope and trust in the Lord and his marvelous plan of salvation continue to grow. THIS is the most important thing in the world, in our lives. Blessings and prayers from Costa Rica!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath
Let me just say again how cool my boots are!!!!! Ha ha they cost me a little more then a pretty penny so I feel like I need to tell everyone forever how awesome they are. For those of you who have asked, my foot is doing super. It’s sore sometimes, but nothing that impairs me, I mean I’ve definitely had worse. Plus, every week I meet a new missionary and you should see the look on their face when they figure out that I’m "that one Hermana who fell in a sewer!!" its always the same reaction, and its funny every time so that’s okay.
Well let’s get right to the good stuff, being a missionary is awesome! Yeah its hard and whatever but the best part is that you get to talk about Jesus all day, EVERY DAY. And that makes it worth it. We had a really great week here in Gravilias! So great that it got me thinking about everyone else that I love in the world;) I realized that before my mission I had a testimony, I knew that everything was right and true and fabulous. But being on a mission has taught me the WHY.. And the why has strengthened my testimony more then ever before. I mean before I liked the Book of Mormon, now I love it. Before I thought Joseph Smith was pretty cool, now I can’t imagine a world without hearing his name. Before I knew who Christ was, I knew a few of the things he did and I was pretty sure he loved me, now I UNDERSTAND who he is, what he did for me, how to apply it to my life and now I feel his love for me that a desire has grown into an a surety of his love for me; imperfect, tired, stressed, silly, happy, sad, maybe a little chubbier, etc. etc. I know he loves me anyway:) sometimes writing home makes me feel a little selfish, like all I care about is me and what happened in my week ya know? How’s my testimony and stuff, so I wanted to make this email a little interactive.!! I want you all to ask yourselves these questions, just try it... okay, do I love Christ?? Am I sure? How do I know?? What does faith mean to me? Do I have a testimony of tithing? Fasting?? Why is the sacrament important? How do I repent?? Why is joseph smith so important? Is the Book of Mormon true?? Am I sure? Why/how do I know?? Yes there is a purpose to all these questions; our answers to these questions are our TESTIMONY. And you know what I want for Christmas..? I WANT YOURS! To anyone and everyone who’s reading this, for Christmas please send me a copy of your personal testimony. Letter, email, card, video, dear elder (sister ha ha) lo que sea! (However you want). I want to hear how what why when who, everything! Grand, small, simple or complicated. I just want to know how my loved ones feel about this miraculous gospel!
Well, I sure love you a lot. One of my constant prayers is that as am here serving, your faith and hope and trust in the Lord and his marvelous plan of salvation continue to grow. THIS is the most important thing in the world, in our lives. Blessings and prayers from Costa Rica!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath
11.03.2015
Boots on the Ground
Darling Family,
Last weeks letter was sure depressing wasn't it??? Sorry, woman and emotions right? I'm not sure why the Lord thought that would be a good combination...lets just say this week has been 298% better! for one thing, I don't think a missionary's feet have EVER been as happy as mine. I bought a pair of boots last week because, lets be honest the plastic rubber shoes just weren't cutting it. I haven't had wet, dirty, blistered, hurting feet in a week! its like heaven. not to mention they're suuuuuper cute. unfortunately they're not magic and they can't keep me from falling all over the place haha. Anyways, I'm happy.
It was a good thing I got them this week to cause it was a long week of walking. People here don't even celebrate Halloween UNLESS they can use it as an excuse to cancel our appointments haha. Funny? Yes. Frustrating? Maybe a little. We had some cool members come help us though this week. I love them members of Gravilias and I'm pretty sure they love us too:) Every day this week we had members helping us. Just in time to start NO TRACTING NOVEMBER too. Yay! As far as the investigators go everyone is doing pretty good. Yulesi is on track for her baptism in December, just pray real hard that she can give up coffee and we should be good (P.S. you should know that I betrothed her little girl Juliana to Cannon. she is adorable mom don't worry!!). We're also getting ready for Karol, Aaron and Harry's baptisms here in November. keep your fingers crossed!! and maybe pray a little too;)
One of my favorite lessons of the week was when we brought Ruth Lopez to meet Yulesi. They're almost the same person! They got along so well and it was a fabulous lesson. Yulesi set the family proclamation on the table and said "I want you to explain this to him (pointing to her boyfriend) and make him understand it!" haha. it was great though because Ruths husband also doesnt want anything to do with the church so she could help her and comfort her when he refused to listen to us. My second favorite lesson was with an old lady named Carmen that we met. We walked in and started talking to her and her boyfriend (keep in mind she's 80 something and he's up there in age too). We asked why they weren't married and she said she wanted to be married again (for the 3rd time haha) but they had decided not to because he didn't believe in marriage. but she said that if we knew anyone who wanted to get married we could introduce her to them.... that's when we invited her to church and told her there were lots of single elderly men there ;) hahaha she got real excited and said she'd come next week.
Anyways, Halloween was kinda lame, we didn't do anything and neither did anyone else, but that just gives us more time to get ready for CHRISTMAS!!!!! :):):) I sure love and miss you all. Thanks for the letters and emails and photos.
Prayers from Costa Rica!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath
Last weeks letter was sure depressing wasn't it??? Sorry, woman and emotions right? I'm not sure why the Lord thought that would be a good combination...lets just say this week has been 298% better! for one thing, I don't think a missionary's feet have EVER been as happy as mine. I bought a pair of boots last week because, lets be honest the plastic rubber shoes just weren't cutting it. I haven't had wet, dirty, blistered, hurting feet in a week! its like heaven. not to mention they're suuuuuper cute. unfortunately they're not magic and they can't keep me from falling all over the place haha. Anyways, I'm happy.
It was a good thing I got them this week to cause it was a long week of walking. People here don't even celebrate Halloween UNLESS they can use it as an excuse to cancel our appointments haha. Funny? Yes. Frustrating? Maybe a little. We had some cool members come help us though this week. I love them members of Gravilias and I'm pretty sure they love us too:) Every day this week we had members helping us. Just in time to start NO TRACTING NOVEMBER too. Yay! As far as the investigators go everyone is doing pretty good. Yulesi is on track for her baptism in December, just pray real hard that she can give up coffee and we should be good (P.S. you should know that I betrothed her little girl Juliana to Cannon. she is adorable mom don't worry!!). We're also getting ready for Karol, Aaron and Harry's baptisms here in November. keep your fingers crossed!! and maybe pray a little too;)
One of my favorite lessons of the week was when we brought Ruth Lopez to meet Yulesi. They're almost the same person! They got along so well and it was a fabulous lesson. Yulesi set the family proclamation on the table and said "I want you to explain this to him (pointing to her boyfriend) and make him understand it!" haha. it was great though because Ruths husband also doesnt want anything to do with the church so she could help her and comfort her when he refused to listen to us. My second favorite lesson was with an old lady named Carmen that we met. We walked in and started talking to her and her boyfriend (keep in mind she's 80 something and he's up there in age too). We asked why they weren't married and she said she wanted to be married again (for the 3rd time haha) but they had decided not to because he didn't believe in marriage. but she said that if we knew anyone who wanted to get married we could introduce her to them.... that's when we invited her to church and told her there were lots of single elderly men there ;) hahaha she got real excited and said she'd come next week.
Anyways, Halloween was kinda lame, we didn't do anything and neither did anyone else, but that just gives us more time to get ready for CHRISTMAS!!!!! :):):) I sure love and miss you all. Thanks for the letters and emails and photos.
Prayers from Costa Rica!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath
11.02.2015
Ahhh Reality
Querida Familia Mia....
I wish that every week could be happy faces, glitter, ice cream and baptisms.... but in the interest of being real, this week wasn't any of those things. It wasn't awful. I mean on the bright side I didn't fall into any sewers! Any week that I don't do that is a win. We just have to remember that although being a missionary is an incredible experience and more valuable then any experience in the world, we're still human. We still feel frustrated, sad, mad, guilty, disappointed etc. even as a representative of Jesus Christ. But it's the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps us moving forward. My light at the end of what feels like an eternally long and dark tunnel is the atonement. Sometimes the atonement is a very misunderstood doctrine. Some people see it as only a lysol rag to wipe away their dirty sins or only as a warm blankie to help them feel better. I learned that it fills these 2 functions and even more. The atonement is what tells me, "It's okay that you're not perfect right now, but I'd like to help you be better". The Lord isn't as interested in if Hermana Kugath is the best missionary in the world as he is if she's getting better every week, if she's trying harder, if she loves people more. The truth is that our Heavenly Father doesn't expect everything of us right now, what he wants more then anything is for us to progress. Better today than yesterday and a commitment to be better tomorrow than today.
I honestly don't remember a lot from this week (the week of the waterfall went a little overboard and everything's a bit blurred by tears ;) haha jk. I don't cry). I've realized that were sort of the experts in teaching the novios (boyfriends or girlfriends) of all the members in our ward haha. If you take a look at our teaching pool you'll see that 90% of the people on there are love interests of members. Part of me feels real great that they trust us enough with their sweethearts and part of me is just like " hello! Date members!". but you know, Latinos... We went to visit Julesi this week and we had a real spiritual experience with her. She was telling us how her boyfriend had been acting like a real punk that week. She cried a little and told us about some of the difficulties she's been having and also expressed a little of her dreams for the future for her and her daughter. We taught her about The Family Proclamation and the law of chastity and how if she lived her life according to these standards and commandments she was promised the help of God. At the end she even picked her own baptismal date! Up until that point she was unwilling to commit to a date, but the Spirit was really strong. hm, aue mas. I got my cedula this week! I'm officially legal here again so thats cool. oo oo Marta's husband said he would sign the divorce!!!!! Finally. It's a huge miracle! What would have been a 3 year plus process for their family is cut down to 1-6 months. What a blessing! There was a talent show in the ward this week and a group of young men danced and it was super awesome! Haha. there was this 14 year old who is the coolest kid we've ever met and him dancing made him even cooler haha. Last experience, this week we read in Mosiah 4 where it says: "are ye not all beggars before God?" and then king Benjamin gives us this great talk on service, loving one another and that as we give of ourselves, we retain a remission of our sins. One night we were walking when we ran into our friendly neighborhood drunk, Geovanny. We found him a few weeks ago and challenged him to give up alcohol. And he has! We asked if there was anything we could do to help him and he said "well i am a little hungry". My companion took out the granola bar from her backpack (literally the only thing we had, and it was Sunday so we couldn't buy anything else) and gave it to him. That is sacrifice, service and charity. Love people.
We'll gotta run. All my love and prayers from Gravilias to you!!
Hermana Kugath
I wish that every week could be happy faces, glitter, ice cream and baptisms.... but in the interest of being real, this week wasn't any of those things. It wasn't awful. I mean on the bright side I didn't fall into any sewers! Any week that I don't do that is a win. We just have to remember that although being a missionary is an incredible experience and more valuable then any experience in the world, we're still human. We still feel frustrated, sad, mad, guilty, disappointed etc. even as a representative of Jesus Christ. But it's the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps us moving forward. My light at the end of what feels like an eternally long and dark tunnel is the atonement. Sometimes the atonement is a very misunderstood doctrine. Some people see it as only a lysol rag to wipe away their dirty sins or only as a warm blankie to help them feel better. I learned that it fills these 2 functions and even more. The atonement is what tells me, "It's okay that you're not perfect right now, but I'd like to help you be better". The Lord isn't as interested in if Hermana Kugath is the best missionary in the world as he is if she's getting better every week, if she's trying harder, if she loves people more. The truth is that our Heavenly Father doesn't expect everything of us right now, what he wants more then anything is for us to progress. Better today than yesterday and a commitment to be better tomorrow than today.
I honestly don't remember a lot from this week (the week of the waterfall went a little overboard and everything's a bit blurred by tears ;) haha jk. I don't cry). I've realized that were sort of the experts in teaching the novios (boyfriends or girlfriends) of all the members in our ward haha. If you take a look at our teaching pool you'll see that 90% of the people on there are love interests of members. Part of me feels real great that they trust us enough with their sweethearts and part of me is just like " hello! Date members!". but you know, Latinos... We went to visit Julesi this week and we had a real spiritual experience with her. She was telling us how her boyfriend had been acting like a real punk that week. She cried a little and told us about some of the difficulties she's been having and also expressed a little of her dreams for the future for her and her daughter. We taught her about The Family Proclamation and the law of chastity and how if she lived her life according to these standards and commandments she was promised the help of God. At the end she even picked her own baptismal date! Up until that point she was unwilling to commit to a date, but the Spirit was really strong. hm, aue mas. I got my cedula this week! I'm officially legal here again so thats cool. oo oo Marta's husband said he would sign the divorce!!!!! Finally. It's a huge miracle! What would have been a 3 year plus process for their family is cut down to 1-6 months. What a blessing! There was a talent show in the ward this week and a group of young men danced and it was super awesome! Haha. there was this 14 year old who is the coolest kid we've ever met and him dancing made him even cooler haha. Last experience, this week we read in Mosiah 4 where it says: "are ye not all beggars before God?" and then king Benjamin gives us this great talk on service, loving one another and that as we give of ourselves, we retain a remission of our sins. One night we were walking when we ran into our friendly neighborhood drunk, Geovanny. We found him a few weeks ago and challenged him to give up alcohol. And he has! We asked if there was anything we could do to help him and he said "well i am a little hungry". My companion took out the granola bar from her backpack (literally the only thing we had, and it was Sunday so we couldn't buy anything else) and gave it to him. That is sacrifice, service and charity. Love people.
We'll gotta run. All my love and prayers from Gravilias to you!!
Hermana Kugath
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