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
1.11.2016
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
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
1.04.2016
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
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
1.03.2016
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