“When the time for decision arrives, the time for preparation is past.”

Hey everyone! 

This week the lesson was, Communication is Important!! It was really interesting how the Lord taught me this principle time and time again. He also taught me how communication can be used for good and for bad. I love communication! I guess that's why I plan to study communication at BYU. The way we talk, the way we write, the way we sing....The power of words to transform the human mind and empower people to think or act! The most ironic thing that I have experienced is how my love for communication has been tested and tried as, at times, I cannot communicate in the way that I would like to! Spanish is an amazing language but man is it tough, haha. 

The first experience that I had with this lesson was exactly a week ago. My companion and I headed to Subway for lunch. Okay, shout-out to Guapiles for building a Subway sandwich shop here. LOVE IT (and you would to in the land of beans and rice)! We ordered and then sat down to eat. We were doing fine until I paid a little more attention to the song that was playing. "Forget You" by Cee lo Green. Innocent right? ha ha no! It got to the chorus and I quickly learned that Subway was using the explicit version of the song that repeats over and over again the F word. Within seconds I felt so uncomfortable. I asked my companion if she understood the song and she told me no. She quickly noted what the problem was. I sat there really not knowing what to do. The song was loud! I looked around searching for someone with some sort of sign of worry like I had. That's when I realized, that the people dont understand!! I was alone! It was as if I was presented with 2 options; 1. let it go. I mean, no one understands and I can just act as if nothing is wrong. or 2.Tell the workers! I thought of one of my favorite talks by President Monson where he says, “When the time for decision arrives, the time for preparation is past.” Another chorus past by and I decided that I needed to act! I got up and went over to the register. The workers were really busy helping the long line of customers, but one lady saw me and from far away asked what I needed. I nervously asked her if she understood the lyrics of the song that was playing. At that point and with that question, all of the workers looked at me and they all just seemed to shake their heads. I told them that I felt uncomfortable because I understood, and that the message that the song had was really negative and vulgar. She apologized, thanked me, and quickly changed the song, taking it off the playlist! This experience wasn't really anything big, but for that 3 minutes and something seconds I felt like it was. I felt pressure that the Lord was waiting for me to say something! That pressure was good, that was the spirit:) I know that we are all going to have moments in our lives like that. Do we ask them to change the song, movie or TV show? Do we ask them to stop using bad language or using the Lords name in vein? I invite you all to think about that and decide now. Yeah its a little scary but we need to surround ourselves with uplifting language. 

The second experience that I had was a big one! We got a phone call Thursday from the Elders that a teacher from a school in Bella Vista, who is the sister of a member in La Rita, needed help; and that it was a service opportunity. We called and she explained that they were having an English event and wanted to have a real gringo come. haha thats me!! We agreed to help and Friday the principal of the school came and picked us up at 9:30 in the morning. Well, Bella Vista is far! We had no idea. We kinda laughed as we drove with this stranger up a mountain, far away from our normal area. When we got there, it was so beautiful! There were many houses and the people were really humble. We arrived at the school and we met the teacher, Gendry. She told me that the event was a spelling bee and speech competition...in English. Also, some classes from the school had prepared readers theater presentations such as The Three Little Pigs. She told me that all of the kids were excited but a little nervous because she had announced that a real gringa was coming. I held back my laughter. A REAL GRINGA!! hahaha. We entered the room to see so many kids and parents!! Gendry directed us to a judges table where we would be. They had candy and glasses of water prepared for us. We felt really special. Hermana Velez and I had the opportunity to judge with 2 English teachers, one from the school and the other from Roxanna. I can go on talking about this experience but let me just say that it was incredible! Everything was in English!! Gendry directed the event in English. We and the other two judges introduced ourselves in English. The children all spoke English. I felt like I was home haha. About 6 students presented speeches about various topics. These kids were from 1st to 6th grade. Their vocabulary and pronunciation was so good. I was in shock! They weren't perfect but you could tell that they had learned a lot. I had such a hard time judging them because I wanted to give them all 100% just for trying! I couldn't have gotten up and given a speech in Spanish! Then for the spelling bee, it was my responsibility to say the word and repeat it however many times they wanted. I tried my hardest to articulate every letter because I know just how different the sounds are in English than in Spanish. I was really impressed with these kids. We wrapped up the event watching the readers theatre which was so cute!! Safe to say, I was really happy to be there! The greatest part for me was to be able to get up in front of the kids in the end, give out the awards, and then share with them how proud I was of them in front of all of their parents and the staff of the school. I did that part in Spanish. I told them that I understood their frustrations and their nerves to get up and speak another language. I told them that I wanted them to continue and to never give up on themselves. I testified to them that with patience and hard work, they could master English. Then I invited them to come to California after my mission and talk in English with me hahaha, they laughed! After, all of the little kids wanted to take a picture with me like I was Mickey Mouse or something hahaha! That event was something so special. I felt a little special to be honest, and I felt God's love for his children. In the end, it doesn't matter what language we speak or what our culture is, He loves us all the same. He wants us to reach our goals! I know that He is incredibly proud of those kids. I won't ever forget that day♥

The winners... 

The 2 teacher judges...

  My lunch, the meal that smiled back;)

Then last night, we had a lesson with Pamela and Alan. We sat at their kitchen table with Pamela, Alan, Steven, and Yanpul (the 2 year old). I was watching the YouTube video that Yanpul had on Pamela's phone. It was a video of video games of superheroes or something with baby music in English in the background. I started singing the wheels on the bus with him, teaching him the song and the motions. Alan then asked, "what kind of music can members of the church listen to?" I then pulled out my mini For The strength of Youth book and asked Steven to go grab his! I love it when the Spirit tells us what the needs of our investigators are..through the investigator hahaha. We read with them about music and dancing. He was a little relieved to know that we don't listen to hymns every day, haha. We taught about how we listen to music that invites good thoughts and enables us to listen to the Spirit. Thatttt was when things got a little funny. Pamela kinda threw Alan under the bus saying that he listens to bad music. I got to play judge once again. He told me that he didn't know if the music was bad because its in English. He started to tell me names of singers and names of songs. I then told him yes or no. If it was a good song or no. Really the majority of the songs were so obvious based on the song title and if it said explicit next to it, LOL. I taught them what explicit means. In the end, I told them that I couldn't say yes or no to a lot of songs. That's why its really important to recognize how we feel when we hear the song. If you feel like you could play that song in front of Christ, go for it! If not, you should reevaluate your choice of music. I told them that I understand how difficult it is. I remember so many times in my life where I have liked a song for the rhythm or beat, and the words have been absolute dirt. I'm guilty but I dont want to do that anymore. We all came to a conclusion that we are going to listen to good music and if they don't understand the words, they aren't going to listen to it! 

Communication. It's important. It's the cause of so many problems and the solution to so many problems. Our phone doesn't work very well and members always say "hey why didn't you answer the other day?! I called 3 times!" They are always so angry at us until we explain that our phone doesn't work very well. Hahaha Communication can cause a lot of worry also. Right now I'm experiencing that. "The volcano is going to explode!" "We are going to have another giant earthquake like Ecuador!" "We are in a terrible drought, there's no water in the house, we all need to buy water!!"

I'm so glad that I can be a missionary at this time. Yeah maybe I fall into all of that worry but at the same time, I get to communicate a word of peace and comfort to the people who live here. 

I love you all so much. I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have to communicate with you all every week. Lets use our words for good this week:) 
♥Hermana Zerilli

MORMON HELPING HANDS...Saturday, we woke up and headed to a part of my area to do some service. This area doesn't have a lot of money and the parks have gotten really really bad. No one takes care of them! We spent about 5 hours painting and picking weeds. In the end, we had paint everywhere. It was on my face and in my hair! The worst part was that the paint was made with oil...so bye bye leggings :( In the end, the one park that we were all working on turned out so nice. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to provide service to the kids and families in this area. It was a huge improvement. :)

Before... 

After...

 

I WAS IN THE SUN FOR 5 HOURS AND I FORGOT TO PUT ON SUN SCREEN

The drive to the Bella Visa School...

The river is filled with ash...

Welcome to Bella Vista, conserve water!

 Volcano Erupting right close to Guapiles 

I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been listening to Christmas music every day...haha Deck the Halls?

hOLA fAMILIA!! 

This week, I almost died...

   Hahaha No. So you all heard about the volcano right? I’m sure. For the past 2 weeks we have heard all sorts of things about the volcano in Turrialba. Each day this week, it was giving off ash and smoke. HOWEVER, I didn’t see any of it!! The wind blew everything to San Jose! We bought masks last week to prepare for any type of ash that came our way but nothing came. The poor missionaries in San Jose, the majority of our mission, couldn’t leave their homes all day Friday. The air was so bad and still is SO bad. There is ash on the streets, cars and attaches to clothing. The crazy part is that the volcano is SO close to Guapiles. We see it every day! Hermana Tere lives right in front of it! Luckily, it has caused no problems with our water or the air. It’s a miracle and a great blessing!

   Also, if you haven’t heard by now, I will be wearing pants! HAHA no! I really don’t want to. The people on the street already think that we are Elders. They literally scream from their cars "HEY ELDERS!.” Wearing pants is just another thing that will make them think "Elder".  Also, It’s really hot! Long sleeves and Pants? The people here already think that I sweat a lot...just wait haha! I know that it’s for our own good though. Recently I saw an elder in Guapiles get sent home for Chikungunya. The symptoms are similar to Dengue and Zika diseases, which are also spread by mosquitoes, but it is severe and disabling! It was awful! I don’t want that… So yeah Mom, I WILL use my repellant and maybeee I’ll wear the pants haha!

Below is the letter that President Hayes received and forwarded to the missionaries in my mission…

“To: Mission presidents in the Central America Area
As announced by the First Presidency today (see attached announcement), missions are now responsible to:
- Purchase insect repellant containing at least 30% DEET for all missionaries. In missions where mosquito-borne diseases are highly prevalent, missions should also purchase permethrin insecticide. Please ensure that all missionaries understand how to apply these products and use them properly. For instructions on applying DEET and permethrin, please view the video, Prevention of Mosquito-Borne Diseases on the Mission President’s Portal.
- Ensure that missionaries serving in areas where mosquito-borne diseases are highly prevalent (see attached list of missions) wear clothing that covers exposed skin—especially arms and legs.
- To encourage sisters serving in such areas to wear full-length dress slacks, the mission will provide funds for all young sister missionaries called prior to June 5, 2016, to purchase 3–4 pair of approved dress slacks. Senior sisters will purchase their own dress slacks. Sister missionaries called after June 6, 2016, will be instructed to purchase their own dress slacks.
- When attending Sunday worship services, leadership and zone conferences, and baptismal services, sisters may wear dress slacks to the meeting location and change before the meeting begins.”

Elderes y Hermanas. Les avisamos de los detalles esta semana

Then, as I am writing this, I just received another email from President Hayes…

"Elders and Sisters,

As many of you know, there are new rules regarding clothing. Here are the guidelines established by the church: https://www.lds.org/callings/missionary/dress-grooming?lang=spa

'If they wear dark glasses, they have to be simple, black or brown, and no other color or style. They can not use them when they are talking to people.

If you wear hats, they have to be similar to the examples on the page.' Be prudent, we can say more. For the sisters, still we do not know everything regarding pants, but we have more information in the coming weeks."

OH NO IM DYING!! EVERYTHING IS CHANGING!! SUNGLASSES AND HATS TOO!!

Anyhow, we are officially entering winter here. Yeah, so while you’re all celebrating summer, I’m heading directly into winter. That really doesn’t mean anything. The sun still burns but we are getting a whole lot of rain! If we are luckily, sometimes there is wind and the temperature is a little colder. If not, we are in pure humidity.

I am so grateful for the rain. The people here are still so worried about the water. There is hardly any! It needs to rain a lot! Apparently it will be "winter" until January 2017 here. I would be lying if I said that I haven’t been listening to Christmas music every day...haha Deck the Halls? I promise I won’t get burnt out, but when it’s dark and rainy (and it’s snowing ash), it’s hard to resist “Let It Snow” and a little Christmas cheer. Besides, what’s the first rule of the elf? "Treat every day like Christmas!"

Recently, I have been studying our identity as children of God. It’s amazing how that knowledge, that God is your heavenly Father, can change your life and your perspective. We met so many people this week who are just lost. They feel stuck in their problems and helpless. You are NEVER helpless with the gospel. There is always a way to get back to the happiness that God wants for us. I know that my Heavenly Father lives and he loves me! The same way that I know that he loves you all, and he knows you too. This week Carolina thanked us for teaching her about our Savior in a way that she could know him better. I asked her what she meant by that? She said that we taught that He is our older brother and that in her 31 years of life she had never thought of Christ like that. She never thought of him as someone that she could depend on and go to like an older brother. I immediately thought of Park. It’s true that I feel like I can ask Parker for advice or help and that he will help me. I’m truly grateful for that. It’s the same if not more with Christ. He is our older brother and He is there to help us and lift us up when we feel weak. He wants to be our friend. We can have that brotherly relationship with Him. I loved that! It’s amazing how through teaching the gospel, I am taught. Oh how I love my Savior and I love this gospel!

Please remember who you are and WHOSE you are this week! Have a great one, and from the words of one of the greatest movies of all time…High School Musical, “Schools out, Scream and Shout!”

Love love love you all!!

Besos and abrazzos for everyone.

I completed 10 months yesterday. I love my English speaking Mexican companion, she made me this adorable card to celebrate :) 

Mom, Luis Alejandro says thank you for his fruit roll up. He loved them so much, he ate 2.

 We made a roll…Plantains with refried beans and cheese inside. It was delicious and reminded me of my cauliflower crust pizza I used to make at BYU!!

 So thankful for all of my friends back home who keep in touch with me every week…Email from my friend Scott, He and the rest of our friends climbed Mount Tallac on Monday.

“Hey Taylor!! With cold hands from (almost) the top of Mount Tallac!! All is well, I’ll write more later…”

The Week of The Family♥

Hey everyone! 
Another week has past by!! I don't have much to say this week but that's OK. Last week was insanely crazy, we needed a little break. 

Unfortunately, that little break came with some illness. Last P-day while we were writing our emails, my companion got really sick! We ended up heading back to our apartment and she got worse. She had about a million symptoms from fever to stomach pain, and just overall weakness. Luckily, at about 6, Alejandro and Teresa came and took us to the clinic. My companion and I were there for about 4 hours as she had about 6 different IVs. The next day, Tuesday, she felt bad again. We had to head to the clinic and take exams to find out what was wrong. She rested a whole lot and took the medicine that they had given us the day before. It turns out that nothing was seriously wrong (thank goodness). She just had an awful bug. Unfortunately, Wednesday it hit me! I felt sick to my stomach and I didn't want to eat anything. I just felt really dizzy. We worked though because I had a little bit of anxiety about how we didn't work at all Tuesday! That's never happened in my entire mission. I think we both felt a little weak all week long. We fought with our inner desire to just go home and sleep. We knew that if we left the house and went to work, the Lord would bless us. This is the Lord's time, not ours. 

This week was actually The Week of The Family here! Every single day, the Stake had activities for the family. Monday, each family was supposed to have a family home evening and invite someone. We had planned a family home evening with members and Steven's family but we were in the clinic, haha. They still went though!! 

Tuesday was movie night! Our ward watched "The Other Side of Heaven". It was a little funny watching it in the chapel but I love that movie!! Its so interesting how my perspective has changed watching the movie from the mission. 

Wednesday was "Night of Desserts", There was a competition between our ward, Pococi, and Guapiles to see who made the best dessert. There were so many and our cook was one of the judges. Guess what won...BROWNIES! hahahaha No one makes brownies here and one of my favorite Hermanas from the ward made them and won! She told me "Hermana these aren't from a box ok? These are homeade!" haha. I was so happy! I miss brownies and chocolate chip cookies! Things that are so common back home. 

Our judges of the dessert contest

Thursday was "Adventure night". It was really cool. The adventure was that everyone who went entered the Cultural Hall and sat down facing the stage. It was a simulation of an airplane with a pilot in front and flight attendants. What happened was that eventually, the plane crashed. There were lights and fog and the sounds and everything. Then entered angels. One of the angels announced that everyone had died and gone to the spirit world. Luckily they all had the opportunity to keep living but that they were to have the opportunity to learn about the life after. Then a few angels were assigned groups to lead to specific rooms in the church that were the Celestial, Terrestrial and Telestial Kingdom. In each room, the groups sat down and listened to an explanation of what each kingdom is- At the end, everyone was reunited again and sang Families are Forever. The activity was so great! All of us missionaries got to be angels along with some members. They asked us to use temple clothing. Haha...well, we didn't bring our temple clothing so our only option was the baptism dresses! I enjoyed helping with the activity a lot.

 

Friday, there was "Couples Night". Obviously we didn't go but President and Sister Hayes went and spoke! 

Finally, Saturday was a day full of activities. In the morning there were games. Then for lunch, each ward was assigned a country to make food. IT WAS SO GOOD!! I ate about everything haha! Panama was probably my favorite though. United States....brownies and caramel corn, hahaha It basically was the dessert table. After the lunch, there was a show. It ended up being a clown! It was really funny and something different!! 

Yesterday, at church, during the 3rd hour, we watched the final video to end it all. The Presidency of Central America; President Duncan, Elder Alonso, and Elder Ochoa, spoke with their families about the importance of the family. There were also members of the government here that spoke about it too. In the end, I was really pleased with all of the effort that the Stake and Wards put into making The Week of The Family such a big success! I think we should do this back home! My testimony was strengthened so much. The family is so important! This week made me a little more trunky haha, but I know why I want to find and teach families. 

I love you all so so so much. I miss you more than you know! I hope you all are healthy and happy. I pray for you everyday! Have a great week! 😘

♥Hermana Zerilli

These are pictures that Pablo/Pedro sent me haha! Everyone calls him Pedro now because my Mom accidentally called him Pedro...hahahah! He's so great!! Him and Milenna help us out a lot and wanted pics with President Hayes because apparently president is good friends with Pablos future Mission President