Instruments of the Lord

Dear all,

Another week come and gone, it's LOCO!

Time is such a crazy thing. In the book of Abraham we learn that 1 day in
heaven equals 1,000 years on earth. So you know what that means...my
mission is only 2 minutes and 9 seconds!!! What the craziness?!! SO much to
do in so little time.

And it really is true, this work we are doing is so important and so
urgent. It is the work of Salvation. I hope that I can be a useful
instrument in the hands of the Lord during my whole 2 mintues and 9 seconds
here in Costa Rica.

So what is an instrument? They come in all colors, types, shapes, and
sizes. They have different names and make different sounds. But one thing
they all have in common is that they are useless without someone to play
them, tune them, and use them.

So what are we? We are these instruments....all nations, colors, sizes and
languages. And we are absolutely nothing without God.

And what is our purpose here on earth? To learn to be humble and accept the
help of the Lord.

Only when we give our lives fully to Him, can He then make of us what we
are intended to be. He can tune us through trials and hardships, and when
we are placed in His hands he can perform beautiful music and miracles in
our lives. The more dependent we are on the Lord, the better the music will
be. And if we live our lives in accordance with His will, we are promised
a life full of blessings and joy.

"Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did
answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing
so many of you to a knowledge of his truth." (Mosiah 23:10)

I read this verse this morning and I just loved it because it is exactly
what has happened to me here on my mission. Here Alma is refelecting on his
much tribulations he experienced as a priest under King Noah. Then with his
courage and testimony, he escaped and taught faith and repentance to all
those who would listen. He then baptized 204 souls!

My first area has been filled with much difficulty and "tribulation" as
Alma puts it. And I know, just as Alma did, that the Lord has heard my
cries as I pray to him on my knees.

But here comes the best part, this week I have truly seen how the Lord has
used me as an instrument in His hands to do His work and bring others to a
knowledge of the truth.

Saturday was a rough day. They were doing a ton of construction near our
apartment so it was loud and obnoxious to study. We called to confirm our 7
appointments and every single one fell through, along with the 7 people we
had as a back up plan. So we go to lunch and our cook made a meal that
neither of us were thrilled to eat. So as we leave the house it begins to
rain. Oh but don't be fooled, this rain is like you can't even imagine.
Pounding and loud and instantly turning the streets into rivers. We drag
our feet through the water and desperately try to hold up our umbrellas
against the heavy down pour.

So we look at each other, I force a smile, and we get to work. We walked
and walked, and did our best to find people to teach. But since it was
raining, most were sleeping. Story of my life!

So after 4 long hours of straight nothing, I decide it's time to get ice
cream and take a break. I just wanted to sleep like the rest of the Ticos
at this point. I mean what was the point anyway? No one wanted to listen
to us. So we ate our ice cream in silence, listening to the pouring rain
wondering if it would ever stop.

I looked around and realized that I had contacted every single one of the
homes near by, twice. I have been here for 6 months you know.

I felt like giving up. So I decided to pray. Nothing came to me.

So we finished our ice cream and decided to go to a less active lady that
lived near by. While we were walking to her house I got the smallest, but
clearest impression to stop and visit this bright yellow house I have seen
about a dozen times a little ways off the pathway. But have never visited
it. So I stop and Hermana Ochoa stops. She looks at me, then I nod with my
head to the little yellow house.

She follows me and we approach a happy yellow house with a happy family
singing and dancing. Without even introducing oursleves, they gladly open
the gate and let us in. We have the most powerful first lesson ever. These
people were prepared. They ate it all up and had so many questions. They
wanted to come to church and anxiously accepted our invitation to read the
book of mormon. They are the family of gold I have been searching for my
entire mission.

We left with grateful hearts. And I know that the Lord truly heard my
cries. And only through Him and His merciful help, we were able to deliver
the message of truth to this amazing family. It was an experience I will
never, ever forget.

So along with the rain, the miracles began to pour out on us and on Sunday
we had 5 investigators come to church. There were 3 less active families we
have been working with, and we have 2 baptisms planned for this next week.
I know that if we faithfully serve the Lord, He will use us to do good!
Because this is His work, and we are just instruments.

Hermana Starke

TACO BELL

A VERY BIG DEAD CATERPILLAR

This is Jeni and her Family

Jeni

Call Me Maybe!!!

Hey everyone! How are you all?

This week was amazing, one of the best weeks of my mission. So my letter
home is about all the good things and especially all the good news from
this week :)

While all you at home are enjoying pumpkins and jack o lanterns, we here in
Costa Rica are enjoying MANDARIN season. Yep, baby oranges are blooming on
every tree and you better believe our apartment and stomaches are filled
with them. What great news, right? A little different than the Halloween and
October month I am used to, but I love it.

On Wednesday, the mission got to hear from Elder Amado of the 70! Let me
tell you a little about him...He is from Guatemala and is just the
littlest, funniest and cutest man there ever was. He has so much experience
in missionary work and has the answers to everything, I mean EVERYTHING! We
got to ask questions and listen to him talk to us all day long and it
was the greatest. I learned so much and it literally changed my whole
outlook on being here. I left with a happier, greater desire to work hard
and enjoy my missionary experience.

He also shared with us that prior to general conference, the prophets and
apostles spent an entire month preparing for their talks by studying just
one very special subject in particular: Faith in Jesus Christ. Super
interesting how it wasn't deep doctrine, or something extremely profound,
but the first principle of the gospel, faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Which means to me, that we still have ALOT to learn and study about having
faith in our Savior.

We also enjoyed a yummy luncheon and Hermana Wilkinson invited me to sit by
her, so I spent an hour chatting with her, President, and Elder Amado. It
was the best. President told me some exciting news...that an older mission
couple is coming to the mission the next change and he is thinking about
sending them to Orotina! I am sooo excited about this idea.

Then for what could possibly be the greatest news of all.........

We got CELL PHONES!

That's right people, the mission of Costa Rica is movin on up in the
technology world of missionary work. And we are so excited about it.
Complete with texting and all. So, I texted for the first time in 7 months,
in Spanish baby! Haha goood stuff.

Then we got surprising news and found out we had to stay the night in San
Jose because we had to do legal papers in the morning. So after enjoying 3
delicious burritos at Taco Bell we had a sleepover with 10 other Hermanas
in San Jose. Taco Bell is like the fanciest restaurant here in
CR...needless to say I was in Heaven. I may or may not have stuffed
handfulls of hot sauce in my bag to take home...

So we finally arrive home to Orotina and got straight to work. But after
having been super spirtually uplifted we decided to contact and find some
brand new, fresh people. It wasn't our original plan, but we missed the bus
and it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We taught this
lady named Flori, and the spirit was crazy strong. We bore firm testimony
of the Savior to her on her front porch while watching the beautiful sunset
and listening to the evening bugs and birds. A lesson doesn't get much
better than that.

Or does it?!

Friday we had to go to a city called Puntarenes for another meeting. We got
there a bit early, so we decided to do some contacting to help out the
elders in that area and we ended up teaching a family on the beach! They
were enjoyin the sun under a little hut made of sticks and palm trees just
waiting for us! So we taught them the first lesson and answered a bunch
their questions about God and why bad things happen and all that good
stuff. It was incredible.

And for the finale of happy news, we found a less active family of 8 years
that wants to come back to church! The youngest son has a baptism date and
the oldest wants to serve a mission! They all came to church this Sunday
and we are having family home evening with them tonight. I am so excited.
It's almost as if they were just waiting for someone, anyone, to find them,
invite them, and remind them of how important the gospel is.

Because of all the good news there is in this world, the good news of
the gospel is the BEST news of all.

XO, Hermana Starke

P.s. Update on Jeni and her family...she has a baptism date in November
along with her husband, and oldest son! We are so happy for them. They are
currently trying to quit drinking coffee! Haha looovee it!!!

Bye Bye old phone!

Hellooooo Cell Phone!!

So Happy for our new phone!

Dia de Culturas!

Hi everyone!

This week went by super fast. I think the fastest week ever in the mission!

But at the same time I feel like I have been a missionary since forever.
Did life even exist before? I just don't know haha. The mission plays weird
mind tricks with your brain. And so many things are different about the
mission than I had anticipated as well.

For example there are a LOT of common misconceptions about the mission:

"Oh Spanish must just come so easily because you are surrounded by it and
immersed in the culture..."

Let me tell you, learning another language is hard work! But after 6 rough,
bumpy months I am happy to say that I feel confident with my Spanish. This
Sunday I was able to bear my testimony without having to think really hard
about the langage and grammer and word placement. The words just naturally
came to me and let me tell you, there is no greater feeling. I also left a
lesson this last week and realized I understood *every* single word the
investigator said. What a blessing. All I have to say is that when you pray
everyday for 6 straight months for the gift of tongues, it will eventually
come :)

"I bet the food is sooo good down there. Everyone loves to feed the
missionaries, you are going to gain so much weight..."

False, false, and false. Like I have said, the fruit is to die for but a
girl can only eat rice and beans for so long before she needs a little
cooking from her mommy, aunt Raelene and grandma Starke! Just so you know
fam, we are hitting up In-N-out, Titos Tacos, AND a little chicky fil-A
first thing after the airport when I return to America. Land of the
greatest fast food in all the world :)

And sad but true, the people here do NOT love to feed the
missionaries...little different than having 3 dinner appointments in the
states! Ha

And as far as gaining weight goes. Lets just say I could probably win a
weigh in challenge on the biggest looser! I just keep sweating off pounds
weekly.

"All those central and south america countries are the highest baptizing
missions!"

Well not Costa Rica, It's actually one of the lowest. It may be called the
"Rich Coast" but we are not too rich in baptisms. But hey, I'm up for a
challenge! President is working really hard to split the mission and I am
here ready and willing to do all I can to help him.

"How do you live in all that humidity? You must just get used to it..."

Mmmm, no. Haha. I still sweat and sweat my little heart out every single
day. What month is it? October? I wouldn't know because it still feels like
MID JULY. Hot, hot, hot with a side of humidity. And for dessert, a rain
storm.

"Oh but the rain must be nice and cool you down!"

Wrong again. It actually makes it even HOTTER, if you can imagine that. The
rain bounces off the hot pavement and makes everything hotter. Its just hot
all the time.

"The beaches and the surf are sooo awesome! You are going to love it..."

Yes I will........when I return after my mission and get to enjoy it :) ha!

"Those crazy ticans, they party hard. They celebrate everything!"

Ok, this is actually TRUE! They do. Every day is always some random
holiday, but hey! I'm down!

Saturday, October 12th was Culture day and we celebrated with an activity
in the rama! My companion and I have been planning it for the past month
and organized the entire thing ourselves. The food, entertainment,
decorations and invitations...all us! We invited everyone. Members, less
actives, investigators, dogs...it was one giant party.

Luckily all our hard work paid off and we had about 70 people show up!
(church attendance is about 30ish lately) sooo I would say it was a
success! We had food from different cultures. I made brownies and they were
a huge hit. We also had a talent show and It was awesome. I made music with
a cup and sang in English. I wasn't nervous one bit. One, because no one
could understand me. And two, a mission has removed every shy, nervous or
embarrassed bone in my body.

So that was my week! Working super hard to make this activity happen. I
hope it will help strengthen the members. They all said they had a good
time. I was a little stressed and frustrated that since I wanted something
great to happen it all had to fall on MY shoulders, but the Lord trusts me
to do it, and I know that's why he sent me here. So at the end of the day,
at the end of the week, and at the end of 6 months, I'm just happy to be
here. In the service of the Lord. So, "Let us all press on in the work of
the Lord! That when the fight is over, we may gain our reward!"

There is a story in the Book of Mormon that I just love. After years of
being in the wilderness Lamen and Lemuel are complaining to their brother
Nephi...

*Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we
might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea,
and we might have been happy.* (1 Nephi 17:21)

They say, "we MIGHT have been happy". Well, that's truly a shame. We cannot
live in the past. We cannot change our circumstances, but we can change out
attitude and we can always make the choice to be happy. I hope that through
my mission, despite whatever good or bad days I have that I will never look
back and say that, "I might have been happy". Because we must life for
today and choose to be happy NOW!

Have a happy week,
Xoxo
Hermana Starke

I made this and hung this up in our church building

What the Tican's eat for breakfast

Beach day with our Zone

Believe it or not, that's the baptism font

Setting up for our Activity

Activity

God Speaks

Hello!!!!!!!

This week starts the mark of many things here in the mission!

It's October now. You know what that means? RAIN SEASON! Yes, we have been
in rainy season for some time now, but they say October is the month with
the most rain. And you better believe it's true. I don't think it's stopped
raining for more than an hours since I last wrote you guys on Monday.

And, October 3rd was my 6 month mark! I have been a missionary for six
entire months. I didn't even realize it until I had some time to think on
the bus on the way to an investigators house. But WOW 6 months! I feel like
I should be a way better missionary by now, know a lot more Spanish, and be
desensitized to the bugs. But hey, I'm doin  my best, and I still got a year
:)

Also, October always means happiness because we have the most wonderful
opportunity to hear the words of the prophets. And luckily for me, one of
the members let me listen in English on his laptop which was super nice!
It's just awesome to hear their voices and let my brain relax and enjoy the
beautiful sound of English sometimes. Ya know what I'm sayin?

One of my favorite talks was given by David M. McConkie. He said, "that the
biggest secret to gospel teachers (or missionaries, in my case) is two
simple words: GOD SPEAKS".

We know this because he spoke to Joseph Smith. We know this because he
spoke to the prophets of old and inspired them to write scripture. And we
know this because we have a living prophet today. And now, I want to tell
you how I know it.

While visiting a recent convert, Angela, we shared a sweet message, sang 3
hymns because her kids love it, and then begged her to please give us a
reference. I was a little afraid of her response because she has already
told us various times "no" and that she will not give us references until
things improve in our branch. But I felt so strongly to just ask *again*.

Expecting her response to be the familiar, "no" I had heard much too often,
I was surprised to see her pick up her phone and call her neighbor. My
companion and I looked and each other with big smiles and I watched Angela's
face light up while she was talking to Jeni.

Angela hung up the phone and said Jeni was very excited to hear our message
and was going to come right over! We thanked Angela for finally giving us a
reference and promised that we would do everything we could for her friend.

When Jeni walked in she put her hand over her mouth and gasped. We started
to introduced ourselves but she just shook her head with wide eyes. A
little confused and frightened I asked her why she was so shocked to see
us. So she began to tell us...

3 days earlier Jeni had a dream about 2 happy young girls coming to her
house, knocking on her metal fence, and calling her by name. They had on
name tags and were from the same church that the elders go to. But Jeni was
so confused because she had never seen hermanas, only elders with their
white shirts and ties. One was "morena" (darker skinned) with long black
hair and the other was "machita" (lighter skinned) with green eyes.

She woke up in the morning with a very powerful and strong memory of her
dream. She couldn't shake it off. What did it mean? She remembered
everything so crisp and clearly. Their faces, their voices, and what they
were wearing. And she wanted so badly to know why they had come for her.
The first thing she did after getting out of bed was open the front door
because she was SURE that the two girls would show up.

3 days later, her neighbor Angela called to tell her that 2 Hermanas were
at her house wanting and waiting to share a message with her.

She rushed right over, only to find the exact two girls from her dream just
3 nights before. Hermana Ochoa was wearing the same red skirt and I was
wearing the same floral blouse.

With teary eyes and goosebumps we promised her that God really wanted her
to hear our message and that it could change her life as well as the life
of her beautiful family. Looking at her 2 sons and baby daughter she agreed
to have the lessons and we set a return appointment.

When I challenged her to baptism in the first lesson her response was an
answer I have never, ever heard before, "when?!"

I know that God spoke to Jeni through a dream. And He speaks to us, His
servants, to bless the lives of His children. And I know that if we will
all listen, we can hear God speak to us in times of need and doubt. He will
also speak to us in times of happiness and joy. For he loves us ever so
much.

I love you all so much and feel the strength of your prayers! Open up your
heart and let God speak to you.

Xoxo, Hermana Starke

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/10?lang=eng&vid=2724456203001&cid=5

200!!!

Dear all,

I am sending lots of fun pictures home this week! For p day we went all
Tarzan over here in Costa Rica and went on a rain forest tour. Complete
with rain, snakes, monkeys, and crocodiles. Best mission ever award goes to
Hermana Starke!

So you know that game 21 questions? Well I thought we could play it. Except
let's just skip the questioning part and go right to the answers.

Here are 21, random, all you need to know, answers about CR:

1. The chocolate here tastes like plastic and the ketchup is much sweeter

2. Everyone here is obsessed with cake. It's the favorite thing to have at
any party. Forget ice cream, cookies, pie, or brownies. They all want cake.
And it's sooo expensive. Actually, everything here is so expensive.
Something I wasn't expecting before I got here.

3. We never drink water. Always FRESCA. Random fruit drink, kool-aidish
drinks. And everyone puts oatmeal in them. At first I was confused because
oatmeal is what you eat for breakfast or find in cookies. Well, come to CR
and you will find it in your drink!

4. The tomatoes here are the best in the whole entire world. I'm sure of it.
They are so big and juicy and plump and red. I love them!

5. Some moms think that shaving their babies heads will help their hair
grow faster. Just a little creepy looking sometimes. Not a fan of that idea

6. Many of the women use very colorful make up. Blue, green, pink and
purple. Whatever matches their outfit. Not sure I could ever pull it off
like they do!

7. Monday through Friday there is a super crazy popular game show that you
can find any tican wathing at 7pm. It's composed of 2 teams that have to do
tasks similar to wipe out. It's quite interesting

8. All the schools from kinder to high school have to wear uniforms!

9. The president of Costa Rica isn't a presidente....she's a presidenta. Yep,
that's right. First woman president of Costa Rica. Girl power

10. The Spanish here is a little different than what I was taught in 10th
grade, they don't roll their R's here. Kind of disappointing because it's kind
of fun, ya know?

11. At the end of all their words they say ito or cito or tico. I guess
everything is littler here

12. Everyone uses the usted form. Even with kids!

13. You can just say "ya" for anything. Its pronounced JAH and I say it
probably 80 times a day.

14. When something great happens you say "ooooosh" and shake your hand
until your fingers snap together. At first I thought it was dumb (mostly
because I didn't know how to do it) but again, if you were here, you would
find me doing it many times throughout the day. Ooooosh

15. If it's raining, don't expect ANYONE to do ANYTHING. But don't worry, if
you look hard enough, you'll always see the missionaries walking through the
stormy rain!

16. The rocking chairs and hammocks are amazing and I WILL have them in my
house some day!

17. There are 100 different species of ants, and I am almost positive that
99 of them originated from CR. I will forever hate ants. THEY ARE
EVERYWHERE.

18. Every house is securely gated with a huge iron fence and there is a big
metal box in front of all the houses to put your trash in. Little different
than locked doors and trash bins. But it totally works

19. Buses are the most popular form of transportation. Taxis are
ridiculously expensive and not many people have cars. As for us, we walk!

20. People really do say "pura vida" here, and quite often

21. And finally, like I said, Costa Rica is the best mission in the entire
world!

And you wanna know why? With the faith of President Wilkinson, the mission
acheived the goal of 200 baptisms in the month of September for Costa Rica! Isn't that 

amazing? The final count for the month of September was 206! Miracles DO happen. Prayers
 ARE heard. And Heavenly Father is smiling on the country of Costa Rica.

And a very tender and beautiful thing I learned this week, is that Heavenly
Father is smiling down on me too. He is very much aware of me and I feel
his merciful love ever so present in my life.

This Sunday as I was teaching the gospel principles class to our 1
investigator that came to church, Mariano, I looked up and saw President
Wilkinson(mission president) looking in through the window of the door. Nervous and 

confused, I greeted him and he asked if he could speak with me. Just so you know,
this is VERY rare and I had no idea what was about to happen. So he sits me
down and tells me he was sitting in sacrament meeting and had a very strong
prompting to come to Orotina and wasn't sure why.

He asked how I was doing and I was able to honestly tell him all my fears
and doubts that I have been experiencing here in Orotina with a branch that
is falling apart. Without going into details, families have been leaving
the church one by one and this week has been really rough. There were lots
of tears and prayers on my part, and not really much of an answer or
comfort in return. I was feeling alone, burdened, and hopeless. And to be
honest, a bit depressed that I don't have much to show for my 6 months of
missionary efforts.

So then he told me that he was placed in the exact same kind of branch when he served
a mission in the Dominican Republic ,and what he did about it? He fell down,
got up, and worked harder. He shared scriptures with me and made me feel
loved and comforted. He was able to help me find my faith again and the
motivation to keep going. I felt so peaceful and happy and loved.

I am so grateful that my mission President, with all the many tasks and
missionaries and things he has to deal with every day would listen and act
on a prompting and drive over an hour to Orotina without even knowing why.
But, I know why. It was exactly what I needed. And an overwhelmingly perfect
answer to my prayers.

I am amazed to think that the most powerful God of the universe, who has
created worlds without ends and stars without number cares about *me*. He
is ever so aware of me and knows me inside and out. I matter to him and I
think for the first time in my life I became so aware that God is our
loving Heavenly Father. Somtimes it's much easier to teach and preach that
to others, but to know it and apply it in your life is a much harder thing.

But it's true, and I know it. I know it because I have felt it and I have
seen his hand full of tender mercies in my life. I know God the Father
lives and He really is our Father. What a blessing I have to share this
message with others.

Remeber Heavenly Father loves you. Each and every one of you!

Xoxo,
Hermana Starke