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