Hermana Starke: Ooooh we're half way there! Ooohhh Oooohh livin' on a prayer!

Dear all,

9 months! Can you believe it? We are half way there! And just like the song
says, I truly have been livin on a prayer. I couldn't have made it this far
without it. The day I thought would never come, January 3rd, marked the
middle of my life as a missionary. I have lived half my mission! Which
means half of the blessings, half the tears, and half the experiences.
Heres to another awesome 9 months!

I have learned so many things in these past 9 months and am grateful I
still have 9 more to go. I know the Lord has got lots of things in store
for me. But for my letter this week, I want to share with you the 9 most
important lessons I've learned.

1. How to be PURA VIDA
When it's pouring rain and you are soaking wet, it's fine. Pura Vida! When
all your plans fall through for the day, not a big deal. Pura Vida! When
you realize you sleep next to spiders and find butterflies in your
bathroom, pura vida. You had a bad day? Pura Vida! When life gives you
Costa Rica, you make the best of it. And that is really what I have come to
learn and do here. My mission is so much different and crazier than I ever
expected but life is meant to be enjoyed and I am grateful to all the Costa
Ricans and their Pura Vida lifestyle for teaching me that.

2. How to be a Mommy
Obviously, I dont know how to be Mom yet, but I know everything I am
learning here is helping me to be a better one some day. I have new goals and new
dreams and new things are important to me now. I'm excited to be a mom and
teach my kids to serve missions :)

3. How to be a sista missionary
Well I never thought I could do it, but I have learned it *is* possible to
live without wordly things. Music, cell phones, facebook, internet, and
movies. I miss it, I really do. But I wouldn't trade the experience of
living without them for anything. I know that those things aren't what
really matters in this life. It's real conversations. Family. The
scriptures. And communication with our Heavenly Father. So yes, I am one of
those long skirt, croc wearing missionaries but I absolutely love it.

4. How to be missionary for life
Although my full time service ends in just 9 months, my testimony and
conversion will be with me forever. Maybe my days of carrying my scriptures
around with me all day long will end, but my love with them will always be
in my heart. My prayers won't stop. And I forever want to be a part of this
work!

5. How to speak another language
Last day in the mtc.....yeah guys I got this.
First day in Costa Rica.....wait these people are speaking Spanish right?
Hahaha and so it began. My journey to learn to speak like the Ticans.
Striving so hard to understand more than "hola" and read a verse in the
scriptures without sounding like a complete gringa. It was difficult. I
cried. I prayed hard. You want so badly to love and baptize people that you
can't even understand. But that's the miracle of it all! That the Lord
answered my prayers and blessed me with the gift of tongues and hey guys,
*now* I got this!

6. How to have miracles
Want to see miracles everyday like me? Pray for them. Then work for them.
Being on a mission has shown me how our Heavenly Father really is a God of
miracles. He didn't just part the red sea, heal the blind and multiply fish
way back when. But he continues to pour out miracles to his children today.
All we have to do is live worthy and open our eyes to see them.

7. How to teach
Before I started my mission I don't think I knew all the little parts and
circles to the plan of salvation. I didn't know all the stories in the bible. I
didn't know how to explain to someone what a dispensation was. But when you
teach investigators and they have questions, you realize you need to learn
how. And you need to learn fast! It's quite humbling. Apostasy. The trinity.
The old testament. Yeah, you gotta know it all. And you have to teach it
too. When I came out I thought yeah, I can do this. I taught primary. I
taught at efy. I have a testimony. But I have learned that it's so much more
than that. And while I am still far from perfect, my knowledge and
testimony have grown so much. And I am learning how to be a better teacher.

8. How to be happy
I see people with the gospel, and I see people without it. And the
difference is, those that have it are truly happy! I love how King Benjamin
tells us in the book of Mosiah: *And moreover, I would desire that ye
should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the
commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both
temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are
received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of
never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true;
for the Lord God hath spoken it.*

9. How to be patient
These 9 months sometimes feel like 9 years. Investigators progress slowly.
We sit in the apartment for 3 days when my companion is sick. Blessings are
delayed. Prayers go unanswered. Why? So that we can learn to be patient.
President Uchtdorf tells us, "Patience—the ability to put our desires on
hold for a time—is a precious and rare virtue. We want what we want, and we
want it now. Therefore, the very idea of patience may seem unpleasant and,
at times, bitter. Nevertheless, without patience, we cannot please God; we
cannot become perfect. Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines
understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for
peace. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with
something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith;
bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are
delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!"

I love you all, see you in 9 more months!
Hermana Starke