"I couldn't help but to let my thoughts drift to thinking about the usual Zerilli Christmas day"

I want to start by saying how amazing it was to Skype with all of you on Christmas. That seriously was the best Christmas gift!! You have no idea how much that meant to me. I miss you all incredibly and to see your faces and be able to talk (or not really) with you made my Christmas!! Especially because Christmas here doesn't really exist. No seriously, everyone celebrates Christmas on the 24th until all hours of the night/morning, on Christmas they sleep! 

 
Christmas eve was actually really fun. We only received 2 invitations that day but honestly that was all we needed. Around 3:00 we headed to a recent converts house to celebrate with him and his family. He's 18 years old and his name is Andres. He had previously asked me if I knew how to make those "marshmallow cereal thingies" and obviously I knew he meant Rice Krispy Treats! I brought the ingredients to make them to his house. For dinner we made carne asade skewers, tortillas, and plantains and it was delicious! We talked about family and Christmas and enjoyed each others company. Then it was starting to get late so we needed to make the Rice Krispy Treats. Well, it turns out that neither one of their light bulbs work. We were in the dark. Luckily mom had sent me mini flashlights, hahahaha, like how did she know that I would be needing those? That's all we had to use! I started to melt the marshmallows and everything on their stove which really was this little carbon metal thing that got extremely hot. I was sweating so bad as I mixed the marshmallows as fast as I could so that they wouldn't burn. I was so hot, I felt like I was going to die...I kept thinking "if I don't have a heat stroke now, I never will!" Eventually, we had chocolate Rice Krispy Treats and everyone thought it was a really fun experience. Hermana Herrera took pictures the whole time and in the pictures we saw that in the end, the carbon had got all over my face. I had black marks everywhere. Hahaha we laughed so hard. It was quite the experience and I've never honestly made Rice Krispy Treats in that type of setting before hahaha.
 

Christmas eve smores, carne asada,
(roll your r) Rice Krispy Treats in the dark

 

 

 

 

 

 

living up to my gringa name! and yes...we couldn't see the carbon on my face until after the photo with flash.
 Christmas morning...I look so bad hahaha!

After that house, we visited with a family of our ward. Their daughter is serving a mission in Mexico right now and wanted to have the missionaries in their home for Christmas. We had a small family home evening about the story of Christmas and ordered a pizza. It was absolutely perfect. I felt such love in both of those houses and was grateful that I had someone to celebrate Christmas Eve with.

 

Christmas, however, was really different! After my companion and I finished our Skype calls, we returned back home to have lunch. I enjoyed my nice pb&j (haha) and headed out to go visit people. Well, we didn't really visit anyone. We talked with a few people in the streets but even the members rejected us! Honestly, Christmas was really, really hard for me! The culture here is just different. I couldn't help but to let my thoughts drift to thinking about the usual Zerilli Christmas day agenda as I walked from house to house, looking for someone to share a message with. In the end, we visited with Andres and his family again haha That was nice. And we visited a menos active (less active) who gave us some type of food that was the saltiest thing I have ever tasted in my entire life. She gave it to us with pork rinds. Yes "it". I can't tell you what it was, but mom, I finally used the zip lock bags that I keep in my backpack hahahaha:) Well, that was our Christmas. Yes, it was different and yes, it was hard but it was Christmas nonetheless. I was able to remember my savior and that's why I'm here serving The Lord...to spread His gospel.  

 

This next week is New years! I cant honestly believe it. The rest of my mission is in this next 12 months and I'm determined to serve it well. One scripture that I really love is one that Parker sent to me in his Christmas letter. Philippians 3:13-14 " Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ." 

 

I think that this is my goal for 2016. Every day is a new opportunity to reach out and make a difference. In my life right now, that's through sharing the gospel. To be a representative of Christ. Your lives are different. How will you use your time? I invite you all to make a goal for this year. Not about your weight, haha; but about your time, your influence, your attitude. This is a new year! A new opportunity! I love you all so much and am thankful for all of the love and support I receive every day! 

 

Answers to some questions I get in emails...
 
Q- Who does your laundry now?
A- Um the lady who lives in front of us offers to do our laundry and pretty soon she's going to give us her washing machine when she buys a new one...so then we don't have to wash our underclothes by hand anymore. hahaha nooo!!  Washing machines here are so different. I don't even know how to explain it:)
 
Q- Is the area you are in poor? 

A- No the area isn't poor. Its kinda just normal? But then there's the really really nicer area that I like where the Stake President lives. We don't go over to that area.

 

Q- Do you get to eat a lot of fresh fruit?

A- We don't eat a lot of fruit here. In Aserri I did. Papaya is good if it's in a drink. People make their own drinks here for every meal. Natural drinks with fruit are my favorite. I don't really like the ones with syrup and water...its like cough medicine, no bueno!

 

Q- What do you do on P-day?

A- On pday...here...there's nothing. Buy necessities. Write home. Clean our house. Eat. I write in my journal usually. Nothing special.

 

Q- Are your clothes holding up?

A- My clothes are doing good. I avoid my long skirts because with the sweat they stick to my legs and it's really uncomfortable. hahahah ew I know.  

 

COWS!!

Definition of "do it for the photo" I stepped in a pile of ants. Here they bite!! it was awful.

Opening my Christmas box from home..my face is still burned from the night before, LOL! My companion didn't get a gift from home, so she was very happy with the stocking my mom sent her and says thank you...Also thank you for the shoes, I love them!! 

 

 

This calendar is probably the greatest gift that I could've received.

It makes me happy every time I look at it! 

 

Oh, and my $200 worth of chocolate...no joke (there's a lot more not pictured here)! These treats are like Gold!!

 

"Believe in Christ. Believe that He was, that He is, and that He is to come."

Merry Christmas!!

Please take a minute to look at this website to be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas

http://christmas.mormon.org/

 

Christmas is in 2 days!!! This week has been really fun. We have really been working hard in my area and I have seen such amazing blessings. Our progress is incredible and I know that we will continue to see miracles and blessings as we strive to search for those people who are prepared to receive this gospel and are obedient.

This past week I went on another division with Hermana Ortiz in Guacimo, her area with Hermana Moon. Well safe to say that it CAN get hotter than Guapiles. Haha, No joke I thought I was dying. It's really dry in Guacimo, so it feels like you are straight baking! Her area was really fun though and I enjoyed talking to Hermana Ortiz about her mission. She leaves next week and her perspective is great. One of the Hermanas in her area, her daughter left for her mission the day I was there and we had the opportunity to visit her. I was a little emotional to see her so upset. I imagined mom and just thought about what great love it takes to leave your family for a year and a half but also the love of the family to let that person go. Ah, this is so hard but its worth it! I know that her daughter made the best decision that she could at this point in her life. She is where she needs to be. 

 

This past Monday we had our mission cena...or dinner haha. It was so amazing!!! I felt so much love for all of the missionaries there, it didn't matter if I knew them or not. I got to see Hermana Perez and Munguia again and that made me so happy. They really are my sisters!! Well, as I've said before, my good friends (the zone leaders/assistants to the president) love to volunteer me to do things haha, and guess who got to say the opening prayer...Hermana Zerilli! Elder Mosias (assistant) told me that he has had my name on the program for 3 months...since the last conference. Hahaha it wasn't a big deal but my heart skipped a little when I saw the entire mission staring back at me. The entire program was perfect. The food was just like a normal American Christmas dinner!! I'm so thankful for my gringo mission president! Missionaries performed talents and we sang songs and in the end President Hayes spoke to us. He is so good at motivating us and bringing us all together. His message helped us to feel the spirit of Christmas. I learned so much and we all really felt like a family. 

 

This morning, I finished the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time, right before Christmas. What I love about the last chapter of Moroni is how it talks about Gifts. Gifts of the spirit, specifically, but it was perfect for me to read 2 days before Christmas. In verse 18 it says that "every good gift cometh of Christ." I don't think that there is any truer statement. Every gift, every blessing is from Christ. His birth, His life, His death. He came to this Earth to bless us. He loves us more than we can imagine. Verse 24 says, "if the day cometh that the power and the gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief."

 

I invite all of you to believe. Believe in Christ. Believe that He was, that He is, and that He is to come. He is the reason that we celebrate Christmas!

 

Those gifts under the tree, yeah they are fun, I mean everyone likes presents. But Christ is the gift that makes all others possible. I testify of him. I love my Savior. I love all of you and I wish you the happiest of Christmases with those you hold dear.

Tis the season!

Love, Hermana Zerilli

Mom, I have to tell you that you have no idea...every single one of those 25 gifts (from the 25 days of Christmas) that I opened one each day, have been perfect! You have no clue!! I know that you said the ideas just came to your mind in your sleep and in your dreams...but I don't know how you did it!!! I opened the package with the Kind Bars last night . OH YUM!! You sent me cold medicine and the next day I got a cold!! It was soooo awful but the medicine was what I needed!!! I can't thank you enough, it was like a miracle!! 

Oh, and I hope you know that I was the only one with the Conference Enzyne in English in the entire mission for about two weeks! You sent it the day that the mission got a shipment in Spanish but none in English, LOL! I have wanted it for so long and you sent it without knowing... I was dying! I told everyone that you said you just dreamt what to send and I was worried they would think you were loco, but everyone knows youre the best.! When they saw my Christmas package at the party there were like, "another package!"

Celebración de Navidad!

Taylor & Chase Able

Look who it is...Roseville California was represented

 well at the Mission Christmas Party

 

Reunited with my favorites, Hermana Perez and Hermana Munguia...we practically cried! I was wayyy too happy!!

 

Lizzie is President Hayes' daughter. She has become a great friend and I'm so sad because she is leaving to return to the U.S.

Santa gave us our packages. Safe to say mine was one of the 3 largest...Not that I was noticing or anything;)

 

Our relief society activity...
we all got aprons with the Relief Society theme on them.

Sad to say that these are the only pictures that
I have of my zone and my district:(

 

 

 

 

 

"It was a really nice activity and safe to say I was full of love...and food!"

 

Well this week definitely wasn't normal!!  Time went by way too fast! 

I had 2 different divisions this week. Tuesday Hermana Ortiz came and worked with us all day. Her companion, Hermana Moon is the specialista in our area and had to go with the Elders to San Jose for their regular monthly leadership meeting. It was really fun working with her. She's ending her mission this month and she has so much wisdom about the mission to share. I love learning from other missionaries, how they teach, how they find people to teach and their perspective of the mission in total. Also, this past Friday I was with Hermana Pena all day. My companion and her companion had to go to the office to take out their cedula?...is that English? haha ...So I got to teach her investigators and learn more about her area. Hermana Pena also has the same amount of time here in Costa Rica as Hermana Herrera and I. That night, Friday, we wrapped up our day at the park. The park here in Guapiles is so beautiful. They have giant light set ups like the Winter Wonderland event in Cal Expo last year. I was in awe and we took some pictures. 

 

 

 

Wednesday, my whole zone went to do service in an elderly home about 20 minutes from here. We performed the nativity story and sang songs. Then we visited with all of the people and served them lunch. It was really special. I'm not sure if any of them could understand me but those people were such kindred spirits. It makes me sad that some of them won't see their family for christmas but I'm glad that we could bring them a little bit of joy and the Spirit of Christmas.

As a ward, we had our Christmas activity this past Saturday. Ok it was more of an all day thing, hahaha! The primary had an activity in the morning. Then, we missionaries were asked to come help with the tamales because, as a ward, we were going to eat tamales from 1-4. We went at about 11:00, and oh  my gosh! What a process making tamales is!!
CLEAN the leaves, CUT the leaves, ASSEMBLE the tamales, WRAP the tamales, BOIL the tamales... EAT THE TAMALES!! haha... It was long and we were there for a long time. We had only planned on being there for about an hour but it turned into about 6 hours! We went out to teach and before we knew it we had to return for the dinner and activity part of the day at 6:00. We watched videos and the primary sang and of course...we ate more hahaha:)

 

Well, we eat a whole lot here. It was a really nice activity and safe to say I was full of love...and food.

 

 

In between the tamales part, there was also a baptism from the other ward and President and Hermana Hayes and Lizzie came. it was so nice to see them!! I love lizzie and I don't want her to go back to BYUI in January.

Other than those activities, I am so happy to have seen progress in our area. We have more investigators and had really great lessons this week. I had a really cool finding experience Monday. I saw a house and I just really wanted to meet whoever lived there. Well her name is Kayleen. She's 26 and lives here by herself with her dog while she studies. Her family lives in Nicarauga. She has heard of the missionaries and has seen the movie The Other Side of Heaven. We have taught her twice now and she is so open to learning more. I'm really looking forward to teaching her in the future!



"You smell like arroz and frijoles...you don't smell like Santa!"

 

BEST PACKAGE EVER!!

Well that is this week. I love you all soooo much. Feliz Navidad! OH, AND IF YOUR LETTER WAS IN MY PACKAGE THANK YOU....I BAWLED MY EYES OUT. Lots of love and blessings!

Seriously! Thank Papa & Paula, Nana and Papa, the Primaveras; and Grandma Haymore for my Christmas money! I feel awful that's too much...

Love always,
Hermana Zerilli

Below is my weekly check-in email to my Mission President and his response to me after my first week here in Guapiles...

Zerilli, Taylor Michelle

Hola President!
Well, I'm in my new area. Its been quite the adjustment. The area, the climate, my companera, everything. Honestly, I feel a whole lot of stress here. Not to compare numbers but in my last area, we had 29 investigators with a baptismal date. I came here to 2. That was really a surprise for me and every number that followed. My companion tells me about their investigators and we really don't have anyone to teach. However, I am here for a reason. My companion and I are working together for a reason. I'm going to work so hard to find new investigators everyday and I pray that I can find those who are prepared. Hermana Perez taught me well haha. I'm just nervous because I don't know this area at all and these past few days my companion has had no clue where to go. I am incredibly motivated to fix this and get this area moving. i want to do my savior proud. I absolutely loved the Christmas devotional last night. Its so beautiful that we get to share the message of Christ during this part of the year. Yes, I miss my normal holidays with my family a whole lot but when I focus on my purpose and the purpose of Christmas in general its a little easier. I'm really looking forward to cena and I hope that I can see progress in my area! Thank you for everything you do President Hayes!
Hermana Zerilli

10 Dic 2015

President Hayes

Now you know why you were sent there. Work hard as you did before and the Lord will bless you sister Zerilli. I need your leadership here among the sisters badly! Anything I can do to help... call me!

"Blast your Christmas music in my honor this week!"

 I'm in Guapiles  now...IT'S SO FETCHING HOT HERE IM SWEATING RIGHT NOW!!
 
 


Hermana Herrera is my new companion

This past week has been really crazy for me. Hermana Perez and I spent all day Monday and Tuesday saying goodbye to all of our favorite families in Aserri. We had to tell our investigators that we couldn't visit them but that Elders were going to come. They were a little confused but we are confident that they can continue with their lessons. It was really really hard to say goodbye to them. We had so many amazing investigators prepared for baptism and I had seen them get to that point.
 
Tuesday was really tiring. Hermana Perez and I packed all morning and then went out to meet with people. At about 6 we had to come back to our apartment and help the other hermanas move all of their stuff into another apartment. Then after that we had to move all of the stuff from our apartment into the old apartment of the hermanas for the elders. We had to clean ours too. This was an extremely long process and honestly we didn't go to be until 12. Yes, that is way past 10:30 but President Hayes knows haha:)
 

Slideshow with me and my new comp on the screen:)

 

Cambios were exactly as I had heard about. We had a slideshow and it was a huge surprise for everyone. My companion is Hermana Herrera! Another Mexicana!! She actually has the same time in Costa Rica that I do...3 months! How crazy is that? We are in Guapiles, Zone Atlantica. Its about 3 hours from Aserri with multiple busses but the climate is totally different. It is hot and humid here!! There's also rain so it feels a little like Hawaii!! Our area is really big and the nature is so beautiful. I really feel apart from all of civilization though.

 

Honestly, its been really hard lately. This area only has a few investigators and every one of them has marriage issues...like they aren't married but living together so we can't do anything! We only have 1 person has a baptismal date, ugh I'm stressed and nervous....we found 4 new people this past few days and I FOUND them and talked the whole time!!! I feel a huge responsibility to fix the problems here and get everything moving. I'm honestly a little stressed but I know I'm here for a reason. I hope I can be that motivation that my companion and this area needs. I think that's why President Hayes sent me here. Everyone else is with someone who has more time in the mission...we have the same amount. I think that this area needs me:) 

 

It's been really weird not to have 2 other Hermanas with us here. It's just us in our little apartment and the Zone Leaders work in our area too. They are super awesome, Elder Moss and Elder Tobledo. I knew Elder Moss from my first cambio in Aserri and so it's nice to see a familiar face.

 

Last night we got to watch the Christmas Devotional. I loved it sooo much. This time of year is super tough for me. I'm trying so hard to bring in the spirit of Christmas. No one really listens to Christmas music here and there aren't many lights. My new companion doesn't really care for Christmas either. The devotional was exactly what I needed! Joy to the World!! We have the Stake President in our ward and after the devotional he invited us to his house along with  other families in our ward for dinner. his house felt like home. It was gorgeous and looked like a normal American house!! Normal Costa Rican houses don't look anything like that. All of the families there were so nice and welcoming. I was super happy to be there.

For the random news...I'm Argentinean., No seriously everyone thinks I'm from Argentina!!! My Latina blood is doing me well haha!

 

Well that's it for this week. I love you all soooo much. Blast your Christmas music in my honor this week. This is the season to celebrate. Family, love, and above all, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Love you. Pura Vida!

Hermana Zerilli
 


Saying goodbye to my Latinas in Aserri

This is my nasty giant blister that I
got after 1 day here in Guapiles! 

 

 

 


Bringing in that Star Wars spirit... yeah I think this cereal was like 8 dollars but it came with R2D2 so I had to!

Our apartment is different...

 

 

 

 

I bet you can't get ready in front of a mirror that size;)

My bed...comfy comforter with my Dora pillow:)