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

Semana Santa (The Holy Week)

Dearest Loved Ones....

Hi:) What a happy week I have had! Are you guys ever just happy and you don’t know why? That’s pretty much my companion and I all the time. Maybe its because were hilarious, Hermosa, and exquisite cooks but who knows.... I know that the true fountain of happiness is found in our Lord and Savior Jesús Christ. Yesterday began a very important Tradition for Costa Rica, and well Christians. Its called Semana Santa (the Holy Week). For some its an excuse to go to the beach and do lots of things that are the opposite of Holy, but for us its a reminder of the last week of our Saviors Mortal ministry, his sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane and Calvary, His death and his triumph over death and sin. Lots to think about in only 7 short days. I invite you all to take the time to read Luke 21-24 it’s my personal favorite account of our Lords last week in mortality.

This week I got a package from my mommy! Oh if you only knew what a Little letter on an envelope and a few chocolates can do for a misionera:):):) and I finally got my fit bit back! I can know now how much I’m walking these days; I’ve been dying of curiosity. And its purple! My mom is the best thing that’s ever happened.  Okay well I have just a few stories to share with you all from this last week.

1. Our Jaime has caught the baptism bug! He is one of my very favorite investigators. He always makes us laugh and is such a goof ball. I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone like him. He’s an older man of almost 70 years. He likes to write poems about Jesús Christ and he even wrote one for us. Last week he told us that he felt a Little bicho (that means bug) in his heart, this gusanito (Little worm) was telling him he needed to be baptized. Haha isn’t it so interesting how people learn to feel and describe the influence of the Holy Ghost in their lives? Anyways, he’s going to be baptized on Friday, viernes Santo (holy Friday). Is there a better way to remember the day our Savior died for us the celebrating the baptism of one of his choicest children? Yay Jaime!

2. About a month ago Adrian was baptized. If I had only come on my misión to find and help him it would be worth it. Now I know what Paul was referring to in thes. 2:20 when he says that his converts are his glory and joy!! He and Carmen are planning on getting married in just a few weeks and within the year will be able to go to the temple:):):) Hermana Mazariegos will still be here in Costa Rica and I may just have to scrape up the money to be able to come too. Anyways, we taught him about the great apostasy and how apostasy can be in general or personal. We helped him set goals and make plans to protect himself, and his future family from personal apostasy and also to help his son learn the góspel as well. Yay Adrian!

3. This week we’ve been visiting some Friends of one of our favorite members. Ricardo and Marlene. They’re great! They have a lot of questions and doubts and the góspel has the answer for each one! Between Marta and Anna (two members who live close to them) we’ve been secretly bombarding them with love and opportunities to learn the góspel. We invited them to Ward activities, gave them books of Mormon, invited them to watch church movies, and attend the church. These ladies are awesome! ayways, its going well and they are happy:) yay family!

Anyways, everything is so wonderful here in Turri. I love love love the people. My neighbors the members, basically everyone I see! Its hard because everyone keeps says "were going to miss you so much when you guys leave us....." and it doesn’t help at all the my companion is having changes next week:( it makes me so sad thinking about all the people we will be leaving behind. But again we try not to think much about it.....Well I’ve run out of words. Love you guys so much!! Prayers from Turri,

All My Love,
Hermana Kugath

Though Hard To You This Journey May Appear

My Beloved Family....

Come come ye saints no toil nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way... I love this hymn! It reminds me so much of my work as a missionary. It reminds me that every single day there are things to do, people to teach, miles to walk, testimonies to be borne and etc. every day! but it also teaches me that everyday, especially in the midst of our work and even sufferings we can be filled with joy! I know that each of us has different trials and tests in this life, so many things that try and break us either physically or spiritually but I just want to encourage you to remember the following line of the song. Why should we think to earn a great reward if we now shun the fight??? I know that the Lord gives the fiercest, most difficult trials and hardships to his most valiant and trusted children. In the midst of your sorrow you don’t need to ask why me, the answer is because you are one of the many noble and great ones :) -Aleena and her family will find out on Thursday if Cannon, her 6 year old brother, has juvenile diabetes, this would be 3rd sibling.

This week has been so funny and full of wonderful little miracles. This week we were in the store in the checkout line. Behind us was a gringo couple and I decided to talk to them. We just chatted about the states for a second and then they asked why I was in Costa Rica. I started by telling them I was a missionary and etc. etc. a Little bit about the church and everything. I don’t know why but when I started I was speaking English fine but by the end I was all tongue-tied. At last I tried to invite them to church. After struggling out the directions with help from my Guatemalan companion I told them "you’re invited all the Sundays, all the Sundays at 9".... all the Sundays... I was mortified haha. How embarrassing. Anyways, it was funny.

Another interesting story starts in our apartment. Every morning a man comes around selling pipa (peepa) it’s like baby coconut with coconut milk inside. he passes by every day at 11 saying "pipa, pipa fría, dulce and fría la pipa". well one really hot day last week we decided to buy some. Bad idea. I’ve become a pipa addict. Every day we wait for el hermano de la pipa to pass by so we can get our daily. One day we decided to give him a pamphlet about the plan of salvation. We chatted a bit telling him we were missionaries and everything and he went on his way. The next day he came back with questions about the Book of Mormon. We ran up to our apartment and brought one out to show him. We explained it a Little and let him look at it. As he was leaving we told him he could have it and you should have seen the look on his face! He was like a Little kid at Christmas he thanked us and left. Day after day he comes by always with a question, what do we believe about tithing, the holy ghost, the laying on of hands, who is Joseph Smith, what is the gift of tongues, why we don’t drink coffee, etc. he has such a desire to learn and it is so wonderful to see someone hungering and thirsting after light and knowledge and not having to forcé spoon feed it to them. He shared the Book of Mormon with his wife and at first she was really against it but now has begun Reading from it to. We haven’t been able to visit them in their house yet because he works all day but hopefully this week we can go by.

Also this last week we got to go visit Alfonzo our recent convert at his house. He always came to his daughter’s house for the lessons but he was sick and so we decided to go see him. We asked his daughter directions and she told us which bus to take and where to get off. Then she said you’ll see a dirt road in front of you and you just keep walking up and up and up and up and up...... I thought she was just exaggerating and so we set off. We found the dirt road and it was pleasant for a bit. Then the road took an upward turn. It was steep. I mean were talking more then the temple road steep. And every time we came around the curb it was even more up! We walked for like 40 minutes before his daughter (Marta) caught up to us in a taxi and took us the rest of the way. It was exhausting but it was so worth it to get to visit him. He was so, so happy and excited to see us! He had told his whole neighborhood that his daughter and his hermanitas were coming to visit him. He showed us his whole house and invited us to drink coke and eat little breads haha. he is the sweetest:) while we were there we taught about prophets and shared the scripture matthew23:37-38. It was the perfect scripture for him because he was raised in the country his whole life. He said "so the prophet is the hen and were the little chicks and to protect us and not let us get eaten he covers us with his wings, I get it!” Success!

Anyways, that’s all I’ve got time for today, sorry:) I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for the letters and notes of encouragement. Thank you for the prayers on me and my companion’s behalf, we’re still a little sick and coughing like a bunch of smokers so the prayers are very appreciated. Thanks guys, love you!!! Prayers from Costa Rica.
All my Love,
Hermana Kugath

Praying for Aleena

Just a brief request- Aleena sent me a personal note today asking for the family to pray for her- she has been feeling sick this last week and hopes it won't get worse. She is bitten daily by mosquitos and they are in the heart of Zika Dengue and Chikungunya Virus that are all mosquito borne (it is there summer down there) and the virus count in Costa Rica is up over 600% from last year :(

Dearest FAMILY...

HEY GUYS:) haha so I didn't realize it until Maddie pointed it out to me buts it seems like I've been sort of on a "letter strike" these past few weeks.. oops, sorry! Its not that I haven't wanted to write a group letter its just that I have a very limited amount of time to write and sometimes I like to respond personally to your letter so that you know I really do read and love receiving them! but heres a brief summary of these past few weeks in Turrialba...

This last week we had a really awesome lesson with Katherine and Gerardo about The Family Proclamation. A miracle happened! Gerardo was there for the whole lesson! From opening prayer to closing! And he participated a lot in the lesson. We read most of it but really focused on the responsibilities of parents and children. It was a success to see them both understand that each member of the family has rules, responsibilities and rights. as each of us fulfill those 3 things we will find that we live in a happy, successful family. My favorite sentence from the proclamation says "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."  That is so important to remember. Our happiness comes from how closely we follow the Savior and do what he taught. What is it that he taught us? Unconditional love, forgiveness, patience, discipline, hard work, take time to teach and explain, etc. Its like Christ was the perfect Father even though his "children" were already grown-ups. Anyways, it was a great lesson and the Spirit was testifying very strongly about the family. I know that the family is ordained of God and that it is the ONLY way we will find true and lasting happiness. Im so grateful that I was born into a wonderful, loving, Christ centered family. I've also gotten to see how some of you have started your own families and I can see the same pattern of love and patience in your homes. Yay for families! We're the best:) love you guys.

Another awesome experience we had was with Angela and her daughter Siloe. Angela is our recent convert and we went to visit her. Her daughter who is very less active was there with her boyfriend who isn't a member. We've met them both a few times before but we haven't really been able to teach much. luckily we came prepared with a movie and popcorn to trap them! (I'll admit it's not like we casually showed up when they were home, we conspired a little with Angela..:)) Anyways, we watched the restoration and had a really great family night. This movie always moves someone to tears... this time it was all of us. Each of them expressed what was in their hearts. Sadness, pain, frustration and at last gratitude. Isn't it interesting how each of us have our own problems, pains, thoughts, personalities and needs but the restored gospel answers each and every aspect of our human suffering. There's only 1 place where we can receive the full blessing and comfort of our Savior. How blessed are we to have found it so early in our life!

well I gotta run, its not much I know but I'll get better! love you guys lots!!! Prayers from Costa Rica!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath

Happy Day

Querida Familia....

Happy Day of love and friendship!!! haha thats what its called here in Costa Rica! its not just about couples but about Friends too and I think that's sweet. I love you guys! Well another cambio has come, but Hermana Mazariegos and I aren't going anywhere:) lucky us we get to stay here in our beautiful Turrialba another transfer, yay!

Well this last week was pretty cool. Our favorite Investigator Adrian got baptized!!! yay yay yay. On Thursday we went over to Hermana Carmen's house with him to watch the movie "the Testament" and it was awesome! The spirit was so powerful and when Jesús came to visit America he had tears rolling out of his eyes. it was the sweetest thing. So Saturday finally came and he got his chance to dress in white! it was like the perfect baptism. The Elders brought one of their investigators, Marcos, who is like a real famous guitar player. He had only heard the song I Feel My Savior's Love 2 times and he already knew how to play it!! so he played for us while we sang and it was so sweet. I'm hoping that they will get married before we have changes again so we both can be here!! Adrian was confirmed on Sunday and also ordained to be a priest:) Yay.

Alfonzo was also confirmed on Sunday. He is just the sweetest old guy! he came to the Adrian's baptism because Adrian had come to his last week and "that's what brothers do". After the baptism he came with us to teach a different recent convert who has been having some problems with café. He encouraged him and cheered him up so much and it was beautiful to see. He said that he's going to make it a priority to come help us teach at least 2 times a week. He also told us about a miracle that happened in his life last week. Last Sunday we told him that he needed to wear a white shirt and tie to church  to be confirmed and he said okay. A few days later he was talking on the pone with his daughter and asking her if she had a long sleeved white shirt he could borrow because he had white shirts but they were all old and short sleeved and he wanted to look just right to receive the Holy Ghost. As he was talking to her he turned around and there on his bed was a brand new, long sleeved white dress shirt:) He says he has no idea where it came from and it was just spread out over his pillow. How aware is the Lord of each of his beloved children! This sweet gentleman has really helped me to become a more compassionate person. He told us that he used to be a drunk and would wander around all night in the streets drinking and doing other things like that.... It made me think of all the guys like that we pass everyday. Sometimes they're stinky or dirty or whatever and it makes me a little sick. but knowing that our Alfonzo was like that, and seeing how he is now gives me hope and a new visión for each of the guys we see in the street now.

Lots of love and prayers for you my dearest family and Friends. youre always in my thoughts and in my heart!

All my love,
Hermana Kugath

I Lava You from Volcano Land

Dearest Family......

Where do i even start? what a busy wonderful week! well go chronologiccally i guess. IM AN AUNTIE!!!!!:) yay for beautiful sweet new babby lizzy! what a wonderful gift stright from heaven. i love you already sweetie pie! you to jesse sam and char bar, congratulations to your family for your new addition!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHIE!!!!! man are you seriously 18 today? youre like huge. it doesnt matter how old you get (or how much more advanced you are in college then i am:P) youll always be my Little bubby who makes me pink milk and likes to watch the mummy until 4am. Love you so much brother and hoping that you have a great birthday! love you, Georgia and baby annie too:)

So its been kind of a party week here too. On Saturday Alfonzo was baptized!! yay:) We were so happy and so proud of him. The New Family in our Ward, the Weavers (we call them la familia gringa) let us use their house and their pool for our baptism! It was much more private and spiritual experience and it was so beautiful! Its still a Little bit far away so not a whole lot of members could come, but enough made the trip that it truly was a celebration. We even made brownies:) you wouldnt believe it but theyre a rare comodidty here in Costa Rica. During the baptism i was talking to Adrian and his fiance Carmen. He looked semi sad semi happy and I asked him what he was feeling. He said he wished that he too could be baptized right that minute but he knew he couldnt because he didnt have white clothes.......awh:) he is the best! good thing his baptism is on Saturday!


 But the woes of not having a chapel always seem to continue. On Sunday Turrialba was all a flurry of political propaganda and things because it was the day to vote. They use all the schools here as the voting centers and nothing else is allowed to go on in them. if you remember weve been meeting in a highschool gym the past few week and so this was kind of a problema for us... But thanks to the restored góspel and really awesome organization the Ward was allowed to bless and partake of the Sacrament in various houses all accross Turrialba. I just miagined like 100 mini sacrament meetings going on and it was actually really beautiful experience. We live right next to the Elders and a few other members so we all got together and had a sweet Little reunión at home. That was the first time ive ever had the sacrament out of normal church. it was cool! Yay for the priesthood and worthy preisthood holders who bless the lives of their family and Friends wherever they are!

Id also like to share a quick miracle that we had this week. On wednesday we went out to this área pretty far from the center and a place we didnt know really well. while we were there i kinda sort of accidentally lost/left our cell phone on the bench at the bus stop. we didnt realize it until we were already all the way back in the center. we went all the way back out there hoping and praying that miracle of miracles it would be there...... it wasnt. we searched and called it and prayed but no luck. the next day the elders came over and told us they had found it! A lady had picked it up and brought it home and later called them to tell them that she had found it. It meant another trip way out there the next day but that was 100 times better then having to go all the way to san jose and facing the shame of telling the secretaries why we needed a new phone haha. Good people are all over the world and i am so grateful and so blessed by their kind and honest actions! this week were going to go and visit the lady who picked up and returned our phone:)

just one last thing. My whole misión ive never had to eat anything weird. Nothing! i hear horror stories of people like my daddy eating baby bird soup or iguana or intestines and pretty much the only thing ive ever eaten is chicken with bones haha.But this week i was super brave and i tried just a Little tiny piece of mondongo (cow tummy) AND octopus tentacle. It was gross. thank heavens we were with two members that love us and so i didnt have to eat much of it, but on the bright side i now have at least 1 story about crazy food to tell my grandchildren. well, i love you guys lots! please be praying for Adrian and Alfonzo this week as they prepare to be baptized and confirmed. Also pray that Hermana Mazariegos and I can have a super stellar, obedient and awesome week since it might be our last week together:( lots of prayers from Costa Rica!

All my Love,
 Hermana Kugath

New Investigator - Andres (A #5) ha ha

Dearest Family,

         Happy Birthday Daddy!!!! Man can you guys believe that it’s February again?? I don’t know if you remember, but exactly a year ago today I came crutching down an escalator in the IF airport:) man how time flies! A year ago I wasn’t sure id ever even walk again haha and look I’m already a missionary again! This week has been a huge week of celebration, reflection and gratitude for me. It just amazes me all that our Heavenly Father can do for us in a few short months; he truly is a master creator.
      Well not much time but here a quick update. Alfonzo had his Baptismal Interview last week is getting baptized this Saturday. Yay :) The new gringo family is even going to let us use their pool so it will be a little more private and a little more spiritual. Also Hermana Weaver is going to make him a cake! i love gringos:) Adrian has almost finished all the lessons and will be interviewed this weekend. He and Carmen (our laundry lady) got engaged last weekend!!!! yay:):):):):):):) he also invited his son Andres to come to church yesterday and he came! we started teaching him the lessons last night and hopefully his dads example will help him to progress rapidly. Aaron is doing great. He’s ready from the Book of Mormon and has a very sincere desire to know if its true. We watched the long version of the restoration with him, Roberto and Emma last week and it was a very powerful experience. he said that he didn’t know all the Joseph Smith had to go through and he was impressed because all the prophets have been persecuted throughout history too. We even had Elder Neider (an elder who was here with us last cambio) call on Skype and share his testimony with him. An international lesson! Cool. I think that’s pretty much all i have to up date y’all on.
       Another thing really fast, this week we had the blessing and privilege to have Elder Cook come and speak to us. It was really incredible. He answered each of the questions I had in my heart and bore a powerful testimony of the reality and divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was a very spiritual experience for us. We all got home literally drained of energy from just listening to him!
         Anyways I gotta run. Please pray for our investigators to receive and recognize answers to their prayers this week. Prayers from Costa Rica.

 All My Love,
 Hermana Kugath

Four investigators who all start with A

Querida Familia :)

Hey guys! Sorry I didn’t write at all last week, someone (mom haha) distracted me. So now I get to tell you double about what’s happened these weeks:)

First of all Angela was baptized!!! It was super special. There were so many things going wrong that at first it seemed impossible, but with a Little bit of patience and a whole lot of prayer we got through it. We don’t have a chapel right now so we had to go to a public pol to have the baptism. When we arrived there was a huge wedding going on! Luckily we found a Little back room just big enough to have our meeting. A lot of people turned up, even people we weren’t expecting. So many people came that the brownies we had made weren’t enough! That was a huge blessing. My favorite part was when we got to take pictures with Angela and her family. We’d decorated a little table with pictures of Christ, brownies, and a picture of her daughter that’s on a misión in Chile. She grabbed the photo of her daughter off the table and held it in the picture so she could be in the photo too:) yay!!!

We have 2 other people who are preparing to be baptized in February. The first guy is named Alfonzo. He’s the father of a member of the church and has been receiving the missionaries for a long time, but this is the first time Hermanas have been able to visit him. His wife recently passed away and he told us that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to be baptized and be with her again. He’s already fought for 2 months to overcome smoking and drinking and when we told him he had to stop drinking coffee to he just said "okay Hermanas’ desde ya no mas" (okay from now on no more). He and his family went to the store and took a picture of him waving goodbye to alcohol haha with a caption that says "hasta nunca" or until never! He’s getting ready to be baptized the 6th of February.

The other investigator were preparing is named Adrian. He’s the boyfriend of one of my favorite members, hermana Carmen (she washes our clothes, like our misión mom haha). He is like my miracle investigator. He does EVERYTHING we tell him to do and MORE. He’s read all the pamphlets and the chapters of the Book of Mormon that we’ve left him. He decided to start Reading everyday from the book of Mormon and is already through 1st Nephi. He’s come to church 5 times in a row and always arrives early. He told us he looks forward to the day when he can take the sacrament as a member of the church. Hermana Carmen gave him a tie last week and he said that he didn’t have Sunday pants to go with his White shirt and tie. We told him jeans were fine and that he should just come in the best he had. But when we saw him on Sunday he came in a pair of new slacks that he’d bought especially for church:):):):):) we love him! He’s preparing for the 13th of February! Please pray for them. They need strength to overcome the obstacles that would keep them from being baptized and they need to be able to recognize the answers that our heavenly father will give them.

Something else awesome that happened is that a new family moved into our Ward. They’re gringos!!! The weaver family moved here for the next 4 or 5 months just to take a family break between moving their houses. They have 3 kids. Mitchell, 8- Kate, 6- and Jane, 4. They’re adorable! They don’t speak any Spanish except the mom who only semi speaks. But they’re a huge example to me of keeping the Sabbath day holy. Although they don’t understand anything of the meetings they come to take the sacrament every week. aaaaannnnddd... they have a pool in their house! Maybe we won’t have to use the public pool for baptisms anymore:)

One more fun experience from this week. Our Ward mission has a friend named Aaron. We’ve been waiting weeks to be able to teach him and finally this week we could! We had an fhe with Roberto and his mom and we watched The Testaments. Afterward we explained about the Book of Mormon and gave him one with chapter 22 of Alma marked (you know, where it talks about the missionary Aaron and how awesome he was!). A few days later we visited him again and asked how it was going with the B of M. he read the whole chapter and told us all about how the King had been converted and how he like the King, wanted to be able to know God better. We had a sweet lesson about the restoration and the spirit was really strong. You could just see it in his face that he was feeling and understanding that what we said was true!

Anyways, I love you guys so much! I feel so blessed to be a missionary and represent the Savior here in Turrialba. It’s such a sweet and special experience to get to testify of all the truths that we as a family hold so dear. Well I’m just about written out, have a great week fam! Lots of prayers from Costa Rica:)

All My Love,
Hermana Kugath

Two Weeks Worth!

Dear Family,
Um, sorry I didn’t write pretty much anything last week. We spent the day, THE WHOLE DAY, in Cartago waiting for the Elders. Literally sitting there waiting, for hours. haha oh well. Now I just have to catch you up on 2 weeks of my glorious mission life! So last week was transfers. Hermana Mazariegos and I will be staying here in Turrialba:) maybe I already told you all this.... may be not, oh well. So yeah, 6 more weeks here in the heat! So far everything has been going really great here. As far as I can tell I’m the most blest I’ve ever been as a missionary! We have a beautiful little house, we make our own lunch so that means no more rice and beans, I’m not freezing from rain or wind, my companion is like my Guatemalan twin and I just love getting to be a missionary! Its like the Lord has taken all my earlier trails from my first areas (food, language, house, weather) and decided I deserve a nice little paradise for a while. I guess you could call me spoiled.

This last week I feel like I’ve been holding my breath and waiting for something to go wrong. I find myself often thinking "its to good to be true"! We had some really beautiful experiences this last week. One of them was with an investigator named Angela. She’s an eternal investigator. Her children are all members, she even has a daughter serving a mission in Chile, but she herself has never made it to baptism. We’ve been talking about her baptism for weeks now, but she got it into her head that she wanted to wait for her daughter to come home so that she could be there when she was baptized. In their Christmas call she asked her daughter if shed like her to wait and she said "don’t wait for me mom, Jesus is waiting for you". The next day we went over to her house to visit. We had her close her eyes as we read 3 Nephi 11 when Jesus Christ appears to the Nephites and he invites them to be baptized. She began to cry and when she opened her eyes we had the clothes held out in front of her. We told her that the Savior had the same invitation for her and that he’d like to see her dressed in white too. It was very special and if everything works out the way we’ve got it planned Angela will be baptized this Saturday:) Yay!!!
Other people who have been progressing this week, Adrian. The one who showed up to church by himself a few weeks ago. He is so awesome! One of the Recent Converts has been visiting him with us cause they’re long time friends. They’re so cute! Just reading their scriptures together and stuff. Pray that he will accept a date to be baptized!

Katherine and Gerardo. Their family is so great I love them. The only problem is that they don’t want to get married and we can’t figure out why. They’ve been together for 15 years; they have 3 children (12,6,3 years old). And they are happy and in love! Casase! Wow. Any advice from the older generation (ah! my generation too guess since some of yall are married and stuff...weird) on how we can help them have the desire to be married?

We’ve also been finding a lot of less active families who have kids over 9 who haven’t been baptized yet. We’re working really hard with them so that they can be reactivated and their kids can be baptized. 2 last things, Sunday we spent the day in Noche Buena and every house we went to and just asked if we could come in and share a message about jesus Christ they opened the door wide and let us in. 5 times in a row. 5! It was something incredible.

Our last, but one of my favorite, experiences of the week... so we have these new neighbors. They’re kind of crazy. Its a mixed up family with friends and cousins and sobrinas boyfriends and all kinds of people living in their house.one night we went over to see if we could share a message with them and they let us in and we had a really sweet experience with lesson 2, the plan of salvation. The next day we were walking home when we saw 2 of them walking, we stopped to say hi to them. As we turned to keep walking the man stopped us and asked if we could help them get married. He said that 2 other missionaries had passed by once and talked to them about how marriage can be eternal and he said that they would really like to be able to have an eternal family. He said that he knew it would require being married, baptized and a lot of other things in the process but they were willing to do it. It was so cute:) yay for families!
 Well I gotta run guys,
Love you all and miss you buckets! Lots of prayers from Costa Rica,
 All my love,
Hermana Kugath

Missionary's Dream Come True

Dearest Familia....

Happy New Year!!! Man I love this time of year. I mean seriously. The whole WORLD is in the mood to repent! (Well, repent and drink buuuut were looking on the bright side). But seriously, something about January 1st makes people want to change, be different, progress... what does that sound like people? A missionary’s dream come true! I think its an excellent custom that we have to leave all of our bad habits and sins in the past and look to the future, knowing that we can become different then what we’ve been up until this point in our lives. Its excellent because the more we think about it the more we realize that if we depend on ourselves we will never be able to make the change we would like to. BUT, when we rely on the SAVIOR, really truly rely on his help and his strength we can become new people. Its just like the scripture Mosiah 3 19. Who we are, as sinners, the Lord can’t accept even though he loves us. He has given us a way to change, to progress, through the atoning sacrifice of his son. He provided the power to repent when he paid the price of our mistakes in Gethsemane. So how then do we become new? The scripture says we have to 1. Put off the natural man. Okay so we have to be humble, we have to stop doing what a natural man would do. 2. We have to submit ourselves to the influence of the Holy Ghost. That means we have to invite the spirit to teach us how to be. He has to show us, now that we’ve stopped doing the bad things, what the good things are that we need to start. 3. Become as a child. Remember, child like not childish. It starts to list some of the attributes of Christ. Meek, submissive, humble, etc. that’s the process. STOP doing the bad, ASK how to change and START cultivating Christ like attributes.

So now dear ones, I’ll give you the opportunity to help me decide how to change! I would like one suggestion from each of you on HOW CAN HERMANA KUGATH be different and better then she was in 2015. It can be anything! Keep your room clean; don’t wear the color blue, read the book of Mormon in Chinese, etcetc. How can I become a better daughter, sister, friend, cousin, niece, aunt, missionary, member of Christ’s Church. LO QUE SEA! (Whatever you want) just help me! I promise to take each and every suggestion into consideration and do my best to follow the spirit in becoming a new and improved me!

I’d also like to challenge each of you to do this too. Read Alma chapter 7 verses 23 and 24 and ask yourselves, how would Christ have me be?? Then DO IT! I love you guys so much. Talking to my family has sparked in me the desire to see each of them grow and achieve their potential. I know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that we are precious to him. We ARE his WORLD. The only thing he wants is for us to become like he is, AND WE CAN! I promise.

All my love and of course
Prayers from Costa Rica,

Hermana Aleena Kugath

Finally, Some Pictures!