Personal Miracles

Dear Familia Mia....

Sorry this letter is gonna be a little shorter then usual. I’ve been a bit distracted. sorry (:

This week I mainly just want to talk about a few personal miracles. On Saturday, we were fasting specifically for some of our investigators and also to find a family that was prepared to hear the gospel from us. That very night we were led to the most adorable blue house. We’d chatted with the lady a few days before but never actually visited them. She was home alone doing little projects that she sells online. We talked for a few minutes and shared my favorite part of The Family Proclamation (the part that says happy and successful families are built and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, love, respect, work and play etc.). We asked her how she felt and she told us that she agreed whole heartedly. At this point her whole family came home! She’s married, has 4 kids, and lives with her parents and brother. they are all so adorable! their oldest son is 12 and this is the funny part. His name is Joshua, he looks like Noah (like identical) and he’s the same age as Elijah. ha-ha! it was such a sweet experience for me! they also have a 10-year-old who loves soccer and has brown hair (Malachi, Talmage and Cannon). Basically its like our family but all compact into fewer people (: When we asked the 12-year-old what he though his family could do to follow Jesus he said "I want my family to go to church together. I know that it will help us to all grow spiritually together". It was the most sincere desire of his heart. so sweet!

Another hilarious thing that happened was when we were in a noche de hogar (FHE) with Marta, Felipe and their family. Marta was a little frustrated with her husband and his brother and her kids and so in the closing prayer this is basically what she said "Heavenly Father thank you for sending my lovely, wonderful, precious, beautiful and special princess missionaries to my house. Please bless Eddy to stop being disobedient and rude and mean and stubborn. Please bless my husband because his character is fatal (direct quote ha-ha) and my naughty children to do what they’re told. But thank you for these incredible, bella, adorable missionaries that you’ve sent me, they’re my favorites and I love them and they’re perfect etc. etc. ....." I almost died laughing and I could feel my companion next to me giggling the whole time. Needless to say she’s our new favorite investigator.

Sorry that’s all I’ve got time for. Love you all and hope you know that you’re in my heart, thoughts and prayers!!!

All my love to wherever you are,

Hermana Kugath

Holy Sleep Over

Dearest Familia and Queridos (dear ones- for you non Spanish speakers- I looked it up )-

And so begins the week of the waterfall..... (transfer week)

To start out on a bright note, we didn’t see changes here in Gravilias:):):) well mostly.... I’m sad to say that one of my favorite hermanas, Hermana Olsen (the one from Pocatello) is going home in just a few days:( now we’ll just be two Idaho girls in the house. what a heartbreak. I’m so sad to loose her (but just in case she ever reads this) I am so extremely grateful for her example, her love and her friendship. now I know we can have a mission reunion whenever we want when I get back too!!!! yay for Hermanas from Home!

Basically its been a week of celebrating the ¨life¨ (mission haha) of Hermana Olsen! on Saturday we went to the temple with all our recent converts and investigators. it was a really sweet experience. we got to see all the great people wave been working with enter for the first time. it was really emotional too. we’ve grown together as hermanas in the Ward and there’s no better place to celebrate then together in white in the temple. We also had 2 going away dinners haha- the members here love to spoil us. Even though we weren’t the ones leaving we got invited to eat lots and everyone’s all emotional again about the obra missional (missionary work)! my favorite celebration of the week was last night when we drug all our mattresses down stairs to have a huge sleepover. we watched Legacy, ate smores and talked, it was like a normal girl party except that were representatives of Jesus Christ and not just normal girls so that made it a more holy Slumber Party haha.

This week we taught one of my favorite lessons of all time. So this girl named Yulesi (pronounced you lazy in English.... ha-ha its a killer name) is super incredible! last week we gave her a pamphlet of the restoration and when we came back this week to talk about it shed read it so many times that it had started to fall apart!! she underlined everything she liked, looked up the scripture references, wrote her thoughts and feelings in the margins and taught us all about the apostasy, the restoration and Joseph Smith. she even had the dates of the first vision and when he received the priesthood memorized!!! we answered the questions she had and then explained what the Book of Mormon is. you could just see the light in her eyes growing!! she asked how much she had to pay for the book! Obviously we just gave her one but she looked so happy it was really unbelievable.

We also did a street contact with a guy yesterday, he said ¨my names Gabriel, like the archangel¨ haha he told us he really wasn’t interested but was still really nice to us. later that night we found him in the street again and he called us over to talk to him. he told us that if he wasn’t a practicing Catholic he would be Mormon haha. he was really intelligent and we had a great conversation about our beliefs. We got cut a little short cause he and his friends were leaving but I’m sure we’ll find him again one day!

Anyways, prayers and love from Costa Rica to home!!!

Oh and good luck my little Kameroon!!! my own little Hermana Allison leaves to the MTC this week! go get em killer;) I’m so sos so sososososososososo proud of you and your decision to serve a mission. you’re allowing the Lord to mold you into what he wants you to become. I love you!

All my love, (no translation needed)
Hermana Kugath

Chiniada

Dearest Familia and Friends....

Well. Due to the inbox explosion I received for my birthday I don’t have much time to write about what happened this week:) I got to spend a delicious 45 minutes reading, listening to and watching my favorite people in the whole world wish me a Happy Birthday!!!!! Could an Hermana get any luckier? I’m not kidding when I say I’ve never had so many emails before. Thanks:) my companions often tell me I’m chiniada (spoiled) and after 3 birthday dinners, 6 videos, 50 plus letters, the whole ward singing feliz cumpleanos and receiving the most wonderful, candy and smore stuffed package I’ve ever seen, I’m beginning to think they’re right:)

So just in case I missed anyone, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!! You all made my 21st birthday the best 21st I’ve ever had haha. Its weird being old but I’m super happy and I feel so blessed, so thank you.

Anyways, just a few birthday miracles.... this week the big family we found came to conference!!! We had 13 investigators there and it was crazy. Now I know why the Mormons in the states with big families stay home to watch conference... lets just say it took 75 % of the birthday candy I just received to keeps those locos in line. Also I got to hear the prophet talk!!! Yay:) isn’t he adorable? Also my companion and house companions helped me have the best day ever! They made me wear a little crown around all day and everyone treated me like a princess. It was great!!

Anyways, no time, lots of love and prayers from here to home!!!!

Hermana Kugath

It's Raining Men... Halleluja!

Dearest Familia,

Hey Y'All...
Oh my good lands! the lord has opened the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing so great that there’s literally not room enough to receive it... and by blessing I mean rain. This past week has been crazy! every day it has poured for hours on end. Not that I don’t love being sopping wet and all, but I just really don’t love it. I know that Costa Rica needs the weather and that so many people have been praying for rain, but its a serious pain in the booty for missionaries. Apart from being soaked and freezing all day no one wants to stop and talk to us and no one wants to let us in, but the Lord always provides a way! One day we were walking through the little drizzle when it started to rain really heavily. we ducked into a little ice cream shop to wait it out for a few minutes when rain started to come in through the roof! we got buckets and brooms and helped the shop owners to clean out the water that was pouring in. Later when it finally stopped we invited them to church and gave them a pamphlet about the restoration and in return they gave us free ice cream:) ush! hopefully they’ll become investigators so we can frequent their shop haha.

Anyways, this week has been sort of a bummer. the rain sort of washing away our spirits a bit and also having a small affect on our health (just the beginning of a cold mama don’t worry) so we asked our DL if he could give us blessings to help us. In the Blessing he promised us both that through our faith we would see miracles.. Let me just tell you a few of the miraculous things we saw happen!

1. Y’all should be really proud. my comp and I are living examples of a harmonious companionship. So we don’t have anyone in the ward who plays piano during sacrament and it sort of bothered us so we sort of called ourselves as ward pianist. between the two of us (Hermana turner playing the left hand and me playing the right) we can get through the majority of hymns! this was our first week that we played in church and it was awesome!! we practiced a little but we were still super nervous, but the Lord helped us and we played each song nearly perfect:) it was a miracle because the music really helped us to feel the spirit more during the meeting.

2. One time I was wearing my companions white/cream skirt and I dropped a mango on it and there was a HUGE stain :( we forgot to take it to get washed last week but today when we looked at it the stain had totally disappeared!

3. The Lord blessed us hugely this weekend and gracias a el and also the members we had 9 investigators!! 9:):):) that’s the most I’ve ever had in my whole mission! the members were bringing their friends and boyfriends and family members and we even had some members go pick up other investigators (including 2 of the daughters from the big family of 11!!) Were super excited because they all had a great time and said they’d be coming back, with their families, for a session of conference:) woohoo way to go team!

Anyways, that’s pretty much a rundown of my week here. love and miss all yall back home! I’m super duper excited because in this next week we get to go to the temple and go to conference! I love conference. but I LOVE it. I hope each of you can do your best to be present (physically, mentally, spiritually, etc.) for all the sessions of conference. it is SO important. listen and the follow the words of our living prophets, they will literally guide and direct us so that we are safe and happy. they’re called of God after all! and don’t forget to think of me too;) just sayin.. love you lots!!! prayers from Costa Rica<3

All My Love,
Hermana Kugath

Par Avion

Well, This week was bipolar... one day we were crying in front of a drug hotel and then next thing you know were laughing and stuffing ourselves with doughnuts from Pricemart! The beginning of the week started out awful. Every day we had like 6 or 7 appointments- like set in stone, and each morning as we called to confirm our appointments one by one they cancelled on us... so there we are, only 10 am with nothing planned all day. And to top it off it rained for like 3 days straight! If you wanna make a missionary unhappy just tell her she has to walk around all day soaking wet. Needless to say we had a few days where our moods probably matched the weather, but the sun always comes after the rain!

2 super highlights of the week!!!
I got to send my second Dia de Independencia here in cost Rica! (It’s like 4th of July for us but it’s the 15th of September.) There were parades and activities and fireworks, they went all out. The only down side, they don’t throw candy in their parades. Lame.

This week we finally got to have our activity that we’ve been planning for about 2 months now!!!! It was so so excellent. It’s called the Avion (the airplane). Basically we built an airplane in the cultural hall of the church, and then we had every one get on and played sounds of an airplane taking off and everything. We even had flight attendants and security officers (from the primary! so cute). Basically everyone goes on this trip, but here’s the catch, the plan crashes and everybody on it.... dies. Sounds a little morbid but just wait for it. So everyone dies and they get sent to 2 other classrooms, half to spirit prison and half to paradise. They get to learn about who goes to prison and who goes to paradise and why. Then we take them to rooms representing the Telestial, Terrestrial and celestial kingdoms. They learn about who goes to each kingdom and why. It was soooo awesome!!!! We had each organization in charge of a room and they did an excellent job! Every room was decorated to look like its name. We had a great turnout of members, less actives and investigators. There were at least 25 people there who weren’t members!!!:):):) The very best part (next to the doughnuts obviously....) was that we had a surprise guest! About a week ago we called President Hayes to invite him and his family but we didn’t think he’d be able to come, well, he came!!! It was super awesome. He got to meet lots of our investigators and members and teach them a few minutes about the importance of the plan of salvation. We were so happy and honored that they came to share this experience with us. It was really special because wed been having such a down week before that day and being around him really cheered us up! Anyways, the activity was a huge success and it was super fun too. yay for ward activities!:)

Last I just wanted to share one experience we had this week while we were teaching. We went to visit an elderly lady named Norma, we’ve been teaching her about the restoration but really slowly so that she really understand the importance. We talked to her about how the Lord has always showed how much he loves us by sending us prophets to guide us. Then we asked her, wouldn’t it be great if we had someone like that to guide us today?? She thought for a second and then started to look sad at the thought that we didn’t have one. But then we invited her to general conference so she could hear and listen to the words of the Lords Latter Day Prophet and she got SO, but SO excited. It was like a little kid at Christmas time... it was adorable. Yay:)

Okay last thing I promise.... my companion is hilarious. This week she literally made me cry laughing. One day we were sitting at the table studying and one of the other girls in the house said "do you guys think I could learn how to be humble in 3 weeks??" my companion, dead serious turns around with this snobby look on her face and says "I did it in less......" I was dying... haha. Yay funny companion:) Well lots of prayers fam!

All my love,
Hermana Kugath

Way to Go IDAHO

My Dearest Family and Friends...

Patience: Patience is the capacity to endure Delay, Trouble, Opposition or Suffering without becoming angry, frustrated or anxious. PMG (Preach My Gospel) pg 120

Well, I finally figured out why I’m still a missionary! The Lord really, really, REALLY needs me to learn how to be a patient person. As I look back over the last 2+ years of my life I can see how I have had specific trials with delays, troubles, oppositions and even suffering... At first I was a tad upset like "Hello Lord I got it, you’ve given me one of each already good enough." But what I realized was that its not the trail that’s important, its our ATTITUDE During the trial. I’m a little embarrassed to say that time and time again I was given the opportunity to demonstrate my patience but instead I was frustrated and angry (which aren’t fruits of the spirit so we should actually NEVER feel them). I kept asking why do these things keep happening to me?? But the answer is simply because I didn’t learn from them what I needed to and the Lord needs me to learn to be a woman of patience and he needs to to figure it out now.

So this week has been awesome! Apart from loving my companion we have a great investigator! his name is Fernando and we Love him!!! he acts like a member in the lessons. asking all the right questions and understanding the scriptures perfectly. He’s really special because his ex-girlfriend and 2 kids are all members and although they’re not together anymore they still live in the same house.... secretly we would LOOOOOVE if they would get back together!!! they’d be the perfect couple/family:):):)):) sooo cute. So this week we went over and talked about the importance of FAMILY SCRIPTURE STUDY and FAMILY prayer. that was our subtle attempt to hint to them to get things straightened out. as my companions says, were Suuuper duper sneaky.

Have I mentioned how awesome it is to live in a house with 2 other Hermanas from Idaho?!?! I’m honestly being spoiled silly. I apologize because last week I did not do justice to the magnificence that is My new companion Hermana Turner. This is probably the twin I never had. She’s the most sarcastic, energetic hilarious person I’ve ever met (at least in Costa Rica:)). I have never laughed so much or so often in my whole life. We even have the same sense of humor so were double trouble. We have one of those freaky finish each other sentences and laugh until we literally cry kind of relationships. Its such a relief because when Hermana Mendoza was transferred I was afraid I’d be doomed to boredom without her, but the Lord knows what he’s doing. Let me just tell you a funny story from this week.. so we both sort of sing, all the time. And one night as we were getting ready for bed the theme was Phantom of the Opera. We were just being our usual weird selves and singing part songs or verses as we remembered them. My companion got up on her bed and told me to hush up so she could pray, but I wasn’t quite done so I came out of the bathroom toothbrush in mouth and in my best phantom voice sang "Pray for meeeeeee!!!" (you know, like when he says sing for me!! only funnier:)) its not a lie if I told you that we laughed for 16 minutes straight. On top of being hilarious were also brilliant... this week we started a tradition, every night we turn on our little counter stove and roast marshmallows:) it reminds us of Idaho and they’re also perfect delicious smoremallows! I’ve never been a happier missionary!

Just a few other tidbits... last week when we climbed the mountain we climbed 104 sets of stairs. our greatest amount of steps was 25,380.. also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK TO MY FAVORITE LADY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday Mommy:) I love you so much. I’m so sad I can’t celebrate with you, but I’ll be here wishing you a Happy Birthday and telling all these Ticos how fabulous and special you are! I hope its a beautiful, happy, wonderful day. I hope you know how much I love you and appreciate the example of sacrifice you’ve been in my life. I’m who I am today because of you:) lots of love and prayers from Costa Rica!

All My Love,
Hermana Kugath

Climbing With a New Companion

Dearest Family and Friends....

I’m sure I’ve used this before but it definitely applies today.... How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of them who publish peace!!! This morning we woke up at 4:30 AM to hike a mountain as a zone... why? I’m still not quite sure, but it was awesome! It was soo beautiful and the view was without description. Sometimes I feel cheated because I live in Costa Rica but I don’t get to enjoy it like other people, but today I got a little taste. The whole hour while we were hiking I just kept thinking "I betcha Nephi himself one day hiked this mountain too" I told my companion that and she said, " no, he cheated, he was carried away by the spirit to the top of it. He didn’t have to walk" ha-ha... sorry, when you’re a missionary your sense of humor changes a little;) but we at least think were funny.

Oh hey speaking of companions... Last week we had cambios! My little Hermana Mendoza was sent away to Cartago to blossom as the little missionary butterfly that she is. And guess who I got blessed with!!! One of the sisters who I found in the airport when I was coming back! My companion is Hermana Turner and she’s from Kimberly Idaho. Also she makes me laugh, a lot. We have the same type of personality so were actually hilarious together. I’m finishing her training and trying to help her learn to love the mission. Us Gringas (and just new missionaries in general) have it really hard the first few months. Everything is new.. We don’t know how to be missionaries, we're not used to the food, we don’t know anyone and most can't even speak the language for crying out loud. A lot of times that has a negative affect on the news, that’s why I love and appreciate my job so much! I just get to teach them the Love of the mission!! I get to teach them how to laugh and smile their way through the week:):):) I’m sure grateful that the Lord taught me how to first so now I can help my Hermanas.

Anyways, I promise we do more then just laugh and smile and sing and look pretty;) This week we were working with our two big families. We went to see the family of 5 and pretty much all they wanted to talk about was why we should go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday... it was sad. We tried explaining the Sabbath in every way possible but they just didn’t understand. Then we just gave them a book of Mormon, invited them to read it and pray to receive answers. They gave us some books written by their prophet and told us the same.... (This is the funny part, they’re all like the bible the bible is our guide and we follow everything it says etc etc, but their prophet is a girl... they should probably read 1 Corinthians 14:33-34 again hahaha) We also went to see our miracle family of 8. Last week they called us and said that they didn’t have anything to give their kids to eat for lunch the next day and asked us if we could help them. It was really difficult because were here to preach the gospel and we always only have money to get through the month, but I couldn’t stand the thought of those little kids not eating. So we called the bishop and he, with the help of the other missionaries in our zone, gathered up some food to take them. He went with us and explained how we as a church strive to do as Christ taught and feed the hungry. It was really humbling experience for us and for them.

Sorry this letter is sort of choppy, we got up extra early this morning.... anyways, love you all!! Prayers and blessings headed your way!
All my love,
Hermana Kugath