Three Rivuhz!

Buenas Familia!

So the dude next to me is listening to death metal and playing some facebook book computer game, so we'll have to see if I can concentrate...

Answers to your questions!

1)       We have Zone Conference about 1-2 times a month! In Zone Conferences we have to give training about the things that our zone needs to do better and all of that good stuff!

2)       The sister missionaries that live behind us cut my hair a few days ago! Her name is Sister Zumba from El Salvador, and she actually cut my hair super good!

3)       Hmm, so our current ward mission leader is okay. We don't really work with him that much, because he is a little lazy (like every ward mission leader in this country) So yeah, its alright I guess, but it's not like he does much for us.

4)       My favorite food to eat down here is probably gallo pinto with natilla (fried rice and beans with sour cream) It's amazing when people know how to make it! It's basically the national food here in Costa Rica.

5)       Yeah they sell peanut butter here, in fact they have a few places Pricesmart (Costa Rican equivalent of Costco) Auto Mercado and Walmart that sell basically gringo food.

6)       There is a Wal-Mart in my area now! I love it because I can buy American things! And it's a lot different than Wal-mart in the States. There aren't any Wal-martians there, they are all in the pulperias (Costa Rican food stores)

7)       I have felt very dehydrated here in the mission because they only drink soda here! We had problems with investigators because they said they had no money to go to church hen they were spending 70 bucks a month on Coca Colas! You don’t drink water in this country, its not bad or anything, but they ust always drink soda in this culture.

8)       President and Sister Wilkinson are doing well. President has gotten a lot of beef from the Area Presidency because Costa Rica hasn't been baptizing that much, but he is doing as good as he can with the missionaries he has (sister missionaries... just kidding!) Remember how like 4 weeks ago Elder Cruz had a dream that we needed to teach President and his kids a lesson? Well we went to their house and taught them a a little about fore ordination using Esther 4 and a few other stories from the bible, and it was AWESOME! Everyone was crying, and President's daughter told us after the lesson that she had been praying to have strength and that we were the answer to her prayers! I love being a missionary and following the Spirit!

9)       Yes, I sadly drink soda a lot here...

10)   I have never driven a car! We can only drive if we are secretaries or Assistants, and I will never be either one of those so it's okay!

11)   Sadly, I have not played the piano yet here in Tres Rios. This ward here is basically the same as our ward in California. It's huge and there is a lot of leadership and good members. Sadly there is also a lot of pride here, so we will need to help the members be a little less arrogant haha

Well, this week went well here in Tres Rios. We brought 12 less actives to church on Sunday! We are really focusing on re-activating families, and helping them to be sealed this year, and right now we have a couple of families that should be sealed in a couple of months. 

Sweet story of the week, so we are working with a family, Jimmy and Marilyn, and they have been investigators here for 9 months. The problem is they want to be baptized, but Marilyn doesn't want to marry Jimmy. We talked a ton with Jimmy and fought out that Marilyn doesn't want to marry him because he isn't romantic enough! SO we bought him flowers candies and a whole bunch of stuff to surprise Marilyn and propose to her, and she said YES! So we will have to see if they will finally be baptized the 29th of this month. We are planning on putting on a sweet dinner for them so Jimmy can put the baptismal date and all of that! But it was awesome!!!!

Also this week we got a call at like 7 in the morning that the government was destroying one of the sister missionaries’ investigator´s house! It turns out, this family is super poor, and they found government land (land put aside to build parks, playgrounds, soccer fields) and they built a house there. So we had to come in the morning and destroy their house! Like literally, we were smashing their walls with hammers, and kicking open doors and stuff, it was awesome! But now we are helping them to rebuild their house. But the sweet part is, I was talking with the dad a couple days ago. His name is Roger, and I as asking him how he felt and he said, " You know what, the night before we found out that they were going to destroy our ouse, I read the book of Job with my wife. We have no reason to complain. I will keep my faith in Christ, and I know he will provide for me." They are getting baptized this week. How amazing is the testimony of a future convert. I love his gospel!

Well not much new has happened this past week. I'm glad that Mom and Dad have a week off to relax and enjoy time with Katie and Cam and Joshua. I hope everything is well back at home. It's good to hear that Jase has that gig with the college, it will be sweet to have a professor as a brother. Well I love all of you. I know that this church is true! I know God loves us, and he answers our prayers! I have seen that countless times here in the mission! Take care, and keep on choosing the right. Love you all!

Pura Vida,

Elder Taylor

Photos: today for p-day we went to some sweet ruins. I don’t remember what they are called but they were pretty cool haha, some ruins in Cartago!