VIVE COSTA RICA!

Hola,

First of all........ HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, FABS!!! I don't know why the rule is
that we can only call on Mother's Day, but we should totally be allowed on
Father's Day too! Am I right? Anyway, sending lots and lots of love your
way. And happy birthday to the grandpa's and aunt Lisa. Love you guys!
Party it up in AZ for me this week!

So much has happened this week, for reals. I officially started my FIFTH
journal haha. I just love writing so much and want to have every single day
recorded because every day is filled with a new adventure and always a
miracle.

First, I have to give you all an update on Juan. Seriously he is just the
best, I love the guy. He started the book of mormon about a month ago and
is already in Alma. He sends us text messages all the time just thanking us
so so so much for finding him. He tells us that it's the biggest blessing of
his life and he just loves the scriptures and knows the church is true with
all his heart. He is the sweetest man ever, really you all have to meet him
one day. He just works all day long in his little security booth and when
there are no cars us he hurries over to his desk to get a verse or 2 in of
the book of mormon. He has every single pamphlet, including the first
articles of faith we gave to him all neatly organized in a protective
folder and has read them all a million times. He is truly a golden
investigator sent from above and is going to do great things in the church.
Now all we gotta do is find him a gf and get him married in the temple!
Haha!

We had an awesome week number wise. President sent us a text Sunday night
congratulating us which made us way happy! We found 19 new investigators
and 17 of them accepted baptismal dates. Holla! And almost all of them are
FAMILIES. We are so excited. It was so much fun finding them all because
they all live so close to each other. That's what I love here in CR. You can
contact an entire street and everyone knows everyone because everyone is
related. It's not like America where every kid lives in a different state
and you only see your loved ones at the annual family reunion. Here we are
just all one big happy fam. And that's the way I like it.

It's funny how at the beginning of my mission I was afraid to invite people
to be baptized in the first lesson because I didnt know how they would take
it or what they would say (let alone be able to understand their repsonse
in spanish haha). But now, it's just like I live for it and love it because
it's the entire reason we are here. If we truly represent Jesus Christ, we
have to do, teach and invite like he would. And when we do it with power
and authority, the spirit testifies, and the investigators say yes!

Have I told you guys about Yader? The one that was sitting down all sad on
the curb and we invited him to church? The one I left hanging but then
luckily the spirit reminded me we were going to pass by for him? Well he
has come to church 4 times now and loves it so much. The only problem is,
he has some gnarly drug addictions. He drinks alcohol, coffee, smokes
cigarettes, and does drugs *every day*. We are working really hard with
him, but the thing is, this kid needs professional help. But I know that
through the power of the gospel hes going to be able to completely stop
doing drugs and repent. He really really wants to get baptized but it's way
tough. Every day he is doing better though... and he's reading the book of
mormon which provides so much power. I just have to call him like 80 times
a day and remind him he is a child of God. And he tells me, you're right
hermana... it's true... thanks! I AM a child of god and I'm going to change.
I've been reading the book, it helps me a lot. But hermana, why does it talk
about Nephi so much. What's a Nephi. Hahaha oh Yader, just keep reading...

Oh and get this. So we brought him over an entire weeks worth of agua dulce
in a HUGE GIANT TEA POT that one of the members loaned us (it's like hot
water, sweetened with brown sugar... very interesting and super popular
here... I'll bring some home for you all to try) and he now has a week
without the coffee. But it was just so hilarious when we showed up at his
house with all this agua dulce, I was laughing sooo hard. Oh, the things we
do for our investigators.

We also had to drop an investigator we have had for 4 long months, Ruben.
We were so sad. But we have done EVERY THING POSSIBLE for this guy. He is a
single dad with 2 adorable twin daughters and I just hope and pray one day
he can decide to change. Its just so hard because he has come to church
like 7 times, has had 2 baptismal interviews, and already recieved a
comnfirmation that the church is true. Hopefully one day...

SATURDAY!!!!!!! Wow saturday was the craziest day ever but so much fun. As
I am sure you all know, the world soccer cup is going on and on Saturday,
Costa Rica played against Paraguay at 1pm!

So on Friday night we got a text message saying that the entire mission had
to leave and work in the morning at 9am and be in the house at 1pm...
studying. Boo! Haha but we were way stoked to do something different
because we have the same schedule every single day. We were excited to
change it up. Normally we study from 8 to 12 and work the rest of the day.
So we leave the house at 9am and everyone, I mean everyone is wearing red
and listening to music and just going crazy getting ready for the game.
Food and fiestas and dancing everywhere. There was even a fair going on and
it was awesome because we got to contact a ton of people! So we get in some
good lessons in the morning and head back to the apartment at one but
studying was basically impossible with all the noise and madness going on!
Well, the happy news is that COSTA RICA WON and the entire rest of the day
was celebrated with more loudness, cheering, eating, drinking, and pure
craziness but it was way fun to watch it all happen. The sister that we
live with bought us ice cream and we celebrated in the apartment with our
scriptures and liahonas... :)

Ok well that's a wrap for the week. I love this work. It's truly the best!
Hermana Starke