The Happiest Country on Earth!

Dear family,

Not only is Costa Rica breaking records of baptisms and opening new stakes
and wards, but we are now one of the best soccer teams in the
world!!!!!!!!!!! No central american team has ever made it so far. It's so
exciting and as you can imagine, everything and everyone here is going
CRAZY. But it's so fun, I love it! I have never seen or experienced anything
like this...

Yesterday we had to be in the apartment during the game and so we were just
waiting and studying and waiting to find out if we had won. Well we quickly
realized that we did when we started to hear horns, honks, screaming,
shouting, and cheering madness outside the apartment. Since the game was
over we decided to leave and try our best to contact people, and visit the
people we had scheduled. HAHA what a joke... it was literally impossible
trying to make our way through swarms and swarms of people. It was so loud
I couldn't even here myself shouting my testimony at people, just hoping
they would listen. Seriously, you guys have no idea how crazy it was. No
4th of july parade, no superbowl party could ever, ever compare to this!

The streets were jam packed with people and cars going crazy waving around
flags and going up and down the streets singing, "OLE, OLE, OLE,
OLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TICOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! TICOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Everyone was dressed in red with painted faces and totally decked out in
Costa Rica pride. The partying continued on for hours, all night long. We
didn't get much work done but it was definitely a once in a life time
experience. It was a day I will never forget! Everyone here is still
freaking out and just so excited. Now the whole world knows where Costa
Rica, who we are and that it's the happiest country on earth!

But seriously, they did a world wide study and for 2 years in a row now,
Costa Rica has been named as the happiest country on earth. Amen to that! I
am the luckiest ever to be here :)

Really this week was filled with lots of FUTBOL because on Saturday the
young men had a huge activity and played soccer and ate pizza. They all
were told to invite non members and we were so excited because about 30
investigators showed up! It was great. We ended up getting a ton of numbers
and directions of hopeful future investigators and their families. But
there was this one kid that was so little and tiny and only 12 years old
named Kevin that I just fell in love with. He came up to me and started
asking us a bunch of questions like...

Where do we go when we die?
How do you know the answers you're telling me are correct?
Who is that guy on top of your church?
Can I come to your church tomorrow?
What do I have to wear? Because I don't have a lot of money for a fancy suit.

That's fine, come anyway!!!

Then we told him about the sabbath day and how to keep it holy. So he folds
his arms and sits back and says what so I'm supposed to sit in my house and
do NOTHING all day??

Noooo Kevin there's lots of things you can do. Read, hang out with your
family, watch church movies...

Hmmm well I don't have any church movies. Where can I get one?! Awww hes
just adorable. And he came to church Sunday! We tried visiting and finding
him Sunday... but im sure you can just all guess how that went down... haha.

This week was also way exciting because Hermana Ponce and I decided to have
a meeting for all the hermana's in our zone and we taught them how they need
to talk to everyone and how to contact more effectively, then we had
breakfast and played games. It was a blast! I am a good party planner, if I
do say so myself.

Then I had divisions with Hermana Flake from Idaho. She's the oldest of TEN
KIDS and the first to serve a mish in her family. She's been out for about 5
weeks and it was so humbling just seeing her and remembering how sad and
funny my life was when I first came to Costa Rica, not knowing a single
thing. But having sooo much faith to do the impossible! It's amazing what we
can do and the people we can come to be when we have the Lord on our side.

I love you all, and can't believe 2 changes left and I will be leaving the
happiest country behind. I LOVE COSTA RICA!!!

Love, Hermana Starke

Trust me, it got so much more crazier then this in the city.