Beverly Hills

Dear all,

So I see that everyone got married or had a birthday this past
week...congrats to all!

Meanwhile I am here living the LIFE in Costa Rica. And when I say living
the life, I mean spending my P days window shopping at the mall and eating
at Chilis. That's right, I ate some chilis chips and guac today. And you
better believe I am the happiest missionary there ever was.

So, I have secretly named Ciudad Colòn the "Beverly Hills" of Costa Rica.
Why? Because it's full of mountains, mansions, hills, and lots of money. My
life is literally like the Weezer song:

"Beverly Hills, that's where I wanna be,
 Livin in Beverly Hills
 Beverly Hills, rollin like a celebrity!"

There really is no other place I would rather be, here in Costa Rica
serving the Lord.  And as for the celebrities, the president of Costa Rica
lives just down the street. No, it's more like up the street because she
lives in this giant house on the top of the mountain. But I am just praying
missionaries will find her one day. Ha! Also, Will Smith and his son lived
here in the Sheraton Hotel while filming the movie "After Earth". Can't wait
to watch it after the mish just to be able to look at all the beautiful
green Costa Rica!

As for my week, it was incredible. I wore a sweater everyday. Remember
those cute cardigans you bought me Mom? Well I am sure you will be happy to
know I was finally able to pull them out of my suitcase. The weather is
cool and amazing here and I find myself saying "yo tengo frio" todos los
dìas! Isn't that great?

And I don't know if the members are just super nice or if it's true, but they
all compliment me on my Spanish. They say I barely have an accent and their
jaws drop when I tell them I have only been in Costa Rica for 6 months.
Then they complain and say they have been trying to learn English all their
lives. I just tell them to serve missions and then they are entitled to
help from God. For reals, it's the only way I am able to do it! But I am
starting to LOVE Spanish. I think in Spanish. I dream in Spanish. And live
Spanish. It's actually been a bit of a struggle to write this letter!

This Friday we also had our first group night. I tried to make my own and
have lots of these activites in Orotina, but here it's much different. It's
something that our Stake President and Mission President have been working
on and planning for the past 3 months. Ciudad Colòn was chosen to test them
out, and if we have success they are going to be used in all of Costa Rica.

It's basically an activity that is held in the house of a member in hopes to
reactive less actives, find new investigators and move the work forward.
Members bring friends, we bring the people we are teaching and everyone is
uplifted. In a happy, normal environment, our investigators can get to know
the members of the church. We have spiritual thought, play games, and eat.
It went really well and Hermana Hernandez told me that these group nights
are part of the reason I was sent here to help make them happen and
successful. Heck yeah, I am always down for a party!

Our stake president shared a message about the Love of God and then looked
at me to explain the game. What. I had no idea I was in charge of the game.
Luckily I stood up and explained a game I learned at efy. YAY FOR EFY! Oh
and guess what, Hermana Hernandez was an efy counselor in El Salvador
before the mission. Obviously we are having the best time together.

Saturday night the bishop called me to give a talk the next morning and so
I was praying for a miracle that what I would say would motivate the ward
to help us in the work. And sure enough come Sunday morning, the miracles
came through because we had 11 investigators come to church! That's more
than I have ever had in my mission. Just goes to show that when you have
the help of the members, it makes a world of a difference.

Sooooo many people are willing to help. It's amazing. Coming from a place
with little help, this is like Christmas to me and I asked my comp why we
weren't using them more! Because that's where we really have success. We came
up with goals and plans to make the members more involved in the work.
Because many are willing they just don't know how. We assigned 2 or 3
members to each one of our investigators to call them, love them, and
support them. The results have been great.

We also play basketball every Saturday and invite the whole world, then
after the game we tell them to come back in the morning for church ;)

My companion has also taught me a powerful lesson this week...the
importance of loving those you serve. I always knew this was important and
have tried to implement it in the work but I don't think I fully understood
why until now.

This week we have painted nails, helped clean, helped cook, and just spend
time with both the members and our investigators. And it really works
miracles. It's not wasting time because once they have a relationship with
you and trust you, the investigators will become converts, and the members
will give reference and their time. It's something that I feel is so crucial
in missionary work, yet so many missionaries think it's all about numbers,
lessons and baptisms.

Before Hermana Hernandez came to this area there had not been a single
baptism in a year and half. So what changed? Serve the members. Love your
investigators.

I am just so happy and busy that I barely have time to think about anything
else other than the work. We have well over the mission goal of 30 lessons
a week and almost half are with members. I really feel like I am fulfilling
my purpose as a missionary. I love my companion with all my heart. And miss
you, fam! But we can be together forevs. So no worries :)

XO
Hna Starke