We are Specialistas together and Loving our time with Lidieth! Have a Happy Halloween!

Hey everyone!!! It was another super fast week!!

Just so you know, today was cambios (transfers). I'M STILL WITH HERMANA MARTINEZ!! She's the best so I am very happy! We are also, specialistas together! President wanted to make companionships so that it's a little bit easier rather than just having one. I'm also very happy about that. 

So this week, there were just a few hilights. I don't have too much to share but that doesn't mean that it wasn't an awesome week, It was!

 First off, I want to tell you about a lesson that we had this week with Lidieth and Junior, our investigators who are progressing very well. This past Saturday we felt that we needed to go visit them. We were in Paraiso and we needed to go to Birisito, about 20 minutes in bus. Well after waiting a good 50 minutes for the bus to get to us, we were on our way. We had to run to and from the lesson because we had another appointment planned immediately after and like we realized, the bus never comes. So we got to the house and started the lesson. Judieth, the daughter, was asleep so we only got to teach the two. We began teaching about the restoration, Joseph Smith, the first vision etc... Lidieth grabbed her pamphlet and said "oh good!! I was reading this the other day!" We explained every part and testified. She nodded and even made comments during the lesson such as "correct. or that's right." It was like she was testifying with us. We finished talking about the restoration of the priesthood when we asked if she had a question or a doubt. She then started to explain what has happened to her recently. 

She said that when we had first gone to her house, she didn't pray to know if our message was true, but the second time she did. With tears in her eyes she shared with us how she prayed before going to bed that the Lord would give her wisdom to know if what we shared was true. She said that as she layed down the feeling that came over her was overwhelming, she felt cold and then heat. She felt calm. She said that the feeling was beautiful but it also scared her because she had never experienced anything like it before. The next day, she couldn't help but think about her experience all day. It worried her because she didn't understand. She was even planning on texting us, telling us not to come back because she was scared. However, she felt peace and she said "what if that is the Lord telling me that this is His church?" So she didn't text us. She read more of what we had left her. She went to church. She kept receiving the lessons. And now, she feels sure that she is learning the truth. Hermana Martinez and I felt the Spirit so strong there with her. I know that Lidieth has received her answer. It was incredible to hear such a powerful experience. Lidieth has attended many churches in the past but all of that ended with a really bad experience that she had with one of them. She said that if she was going to go back to church, it has to be the truth. She said that the day that we talked to her at the bus stop, she felt good about her choice to receive us. She thought that it was the right thing to do. I'm amazed at how prepared this family is. I'm grateful that the Lord is trusting in us to teach them.

Friday, we went to Leadership Council. Yes WE, Whoot, my companion went with me and Elder Hansgen!!! He left today to be the Zone leader in La paz. We are going to miss him a lot here in Paraiso but we know that he will be great! The meeting was awesome. Many more hermanas this time!! Hermana Hayes and President Hayes talked about the importance of working with members and did a demonstration with jump ropes. We all had a person on our forehead (less active, member, recent convert etc.) and we all had to jump in at the same time. Just so you know, it is possible to jump rope in a skirt haha! I'm excited about the direction that the mission is going, working with the members. 

Elder Vasquez, Hermana Moon and I!! Atlantica!

Hermana Burt!!!! She has been like a Grandmother to me here in Costa Rica♥

In the bus line in the POURING RAIN. We only had 1 umbrella for the 3 of us!

So I had to say bye to Elder Hansen too and basically Hermana Moon this meeting. Elder Hansen because he leaves this Thursday and Hermana Moon because she goes home in 6 weeks and I won't see her before then. I've always said that great friends is a blessing of missionary work and they are evidence. I'm so so soooo grateful for BYU, haha, we will all be together again soon:) We got home really late and really exhausted. I love how tired I feel after those meetings. I'm ready to put into action everything that was discussed!! 

Another one of my friends goes home!!! Elder Hansen!! Luckily I'll see him in January at BYU. He's the best!

So next P-day is Halloween. What am I gonna be? Who knows...they don't celebrate here. However, I'm super stoked to go hand out my Halloween candy!! We are actually planning a thanksgiving dinner with members too! We will see how it goes. 

I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS!!! We've got that Christmas music on full blast (sorry dad). And I'm actually freezing here even though its only like 60 degrees. I'm gonna die when I get home..and I dont even want to think about Utah. HAHA. 

   

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!! Carve a pumpkin for me...here they only have a vegetable called ayote, LOL:)

♥Hermana Zerilli

Our last picture together...

15 months!! Yes my companion called me Tay....hahahaha

My wall gets bigger every email!

Our District, We will miss you Elder Hansgen!

   

PURA VIDA...It's Been An Amazing Week♥

Bonita Beach

Hey everyone! This was a fun packed week!! Whoo!

Okay, so you already know that Monday we went to the other mission for the dentist. That was quite the adventure. I've always dreamed of having someone contact us interested in the church, and not the other way around. The only time that has happened was when we went to the other mission (the dentist was in the West Mission area) haha. I was like...so I cant really teach you and I'm not really sure how to refer you to the missionaries hahaha. Welp... 

Tuesday we did divisions again!! We had them with the hermanas from Cartago! I was able to work with Hermana Castillo this time! We went back to Birisito and visited Teresa and Jerrardo. Teresa's mom was there and she is very Catholic. However, something that I appreciate about them is that they don't want to argue, they just want to know why we believe the way that we do, and why we don't believe what they believe. I love questions!! Questions are the best, but boy...after 2 hours of questions and people talking over other people, my raging migraine told me it was time to leave. It was a lesson like no other. At the end, I had to take a minute to remind myself that we are responsible for teaching people the Gospel of Christ. Sometimes we are teaching things that are completely different than what some people have ever learned in their lives. We have to be patient and take baby steps! Even though at times it's a little hard, if we truly love the people that we are serving, we will take the time to answer every question and doubt. After the lesson, the hermanas had to go home and Hermana Martinez and I went to Hermana Rocios house to have a birthday dinner for Hermana Martinez. Our obsession lately has been sopazteca. ?? Is that what it's called in English? haha, We have eaten it 3 times in the last week and we love it! There's no rice! Hermana Martinez asked for that. It was good!!

Wednesday...oh boy. WE WENT TO LIMON!!!!! LIMONNNN!!!! So first, why? haha Well, Hermana Martinez is Salvadorena right? But she actually has lived the majority of her life in Peru. She's the only one of her brothers and sisters that was born in El Salvador! Her mom is from El Salvador and her dad is from Peru. She has family from her mom's side that actually lives here in Costa Rica, in Limon. She doesn't know them very well because they have lived here for 23 years, but they have been slowly becoming interested in the gospel! President thought that it would be a really good idea for Hermana Martinez to go meet her family. To get to know them, spend a day with them and introduce the missionaries there! She decided that since Wednesday was her birthday, we should go then! 

Elder Vasquez and Elder Hansen were more than willing to go with us that day so we wouldn't have to take a bus! We went early in the morning and spent almost all day there! First off, I had missed the humidity of Limon! Guapiles is so close to where we were and it felt the same!! Hermana Martinez kept on saying how hot she was and that she was sweating but we just looked at her and laughed saying that it was nothing!! There was hardly any sun out! We got to the house and met her cousins and her aunt and uncle. They were all sooo friendly. We talked for a while, ate breakfast and then headed out to see Limon. We were able to go to Moin beach which is different than most of the others. It's all coral rock but we were able to see many fish so it was nice. 

 

Then we went to the boat terminal. It's called the APM Terminal for all of the import ships. It's the highlight of Limon Central right now! We were able to see shipments of bananas and a bunch of other fruit! They are working on making it bigger and it will be finished in 2018. It will be the biggest boat terminal in all of Latin America! How cool is that?!? 

After, we went to Bonita Beach which is white sand and palm trees. It was beautiful and there were a lot of tourists there. Hermana Martinez's cousin said that a lot of cruise ships have been coming in to Limon. We were also able to go to town and buy patties which are the famous empanadas from Limon! They are made with chili in the dough so they are soooo good. 

PATTIES

BONITA BEACH

BONITA BEACH

Some history about Limon is that the majority of he people there know a language called Patua. It's a combination of English, Spanish and French. I actually understand a lot of it. In the past, a lot of Africans migrated to Limon and that's why there is a thick African culture there. Some speak an African language too. Hermanas don't serve there because they say its dangerous, but It's still fun to go for the day. Elder Hansen wanted to buy a Limon soccer jersey so we were able to go to the stadium!! It was cool, we hardly ever get to do that. It wasn't very big at all but still fun. 

AFTER THAT, haha we went back to the house to eat lunch! RICE AND BEANS!!! Yes that's what its called. There's a typical dish from Limon called rice and beans. I told you they know English. The Africans actually made it and gave it that name. Its sooo good and I missed eating it. In Guapiles we ate a lot of it!! It's basically rice and beans (obvi) and some type of meat (we had chicken) cooked in coconut milk and chili. OH MY GOSH ITS SO GOOD. it's probably the most flavorful thing that you could eat in Costa Rica. We were in Heaven!!

We talked some more and then Elder Hansen and Elder Vasquez brought the Elders from Limon to the house, Elder Fuller and Elder Solares. Hermana Martinez's aunt said that she wants to listen to them and that they can return this next week!! She was so nice to them and well, to all of us. Very welcoming. So, Hermana Martinez and I could not leave Limon without drinking pipa or coconut haha. They had a tree at their house but sadly, the stick that they use to hit them down broke! They wanted to get them for us so bad that her cousins husband went up to the second level, opened the window and started hitting them down up there. We were laughing so hard. It then turned into a competition of who could hit the most down. Elder Vasquez and Elder Hansen even did it. It was hilarious. We drank so many pipas. Hermana Martinez's family were like "Hermana Zerilli drink more!! Have another! You cant drink these in california!!" hahaha It was 4:30 and we had to leave, sadly. We said bye to everyone and thanked them for such a great day! 

We were wiped out on the drive home. All together it was a 6 hour drive. At one point the Elders had to stop for a bathroom break, so we took the mission car for a ride, LOL:)I felt like it was a road trip with my friends haha! I am so thankful that Elder Vasquez and Elder Hansen have always been so great about driving us places. They are great.

We got home and Elder Hansgen called and told us to go to their house. It was 8:30 and we headed over. We got there and the Elders had made chocolate chip pancakes to celebrate Hermana Martinez' birthday!! At the end of the day, we were so happy. What a day!!

So Thursday and Friday, we got to work again. Friday we did divisions AGAIN with the hermanas from 3 Rios! I was able to go with the hija of Hermana Cook! The newbie! Her name is Hermana Lopez and she's from Honduras. She has 5 weeks in the mission and was realllyyy excited to work with me that day hahaha!! I loved it. She's so excited about the mission. That's something that I have always admired about the new missionaries, their motivation to just work! We were able to talk about her training and the mission in general. I loved being able to give her advice and answer her questions. We had some great lessons. I love being able to learn from the hermanas, to see how they teach, what they share and how they explain things to the investigators. It's true that we all come from different backgrounds with different reasons why we are serving. 

It's always a surprise when I work with other hermanas, to hear about their lives and how they have gotten to where they are now. We are all so different and yet all of our lives have led us to this place, here in the mission. The Gospel is what gives us something in common. The day went great. I truly love that little missionary and can see that she is going to grow to be so great in this work!! 

Saturday, Fabian and Suyen got married!!! It was so beautiful! It's incredible how the Gospel changes our lives in different ways. In a little less than a year, they can go to the temple to be sealed for eternity! Fabian has changed so much. Him and Suyen are going to be so happy together. We love them so much and were happy that we could be there!!

Yesterday, was such an amazing Sunday!! Guess who came to church!! Remember Lidieth? and her 2 kids Junior and Judieth?? They came to church for the first time!! Alexa came too! We had 4 investigators in the church!! Lidieth and her kids enjoyed it so much and I couldn't help but smile through the entire Sacrament Meeting. I probably looked ridiculous, I was just so happy. They were happy too. They wanted to stay the entire 3 hours. The members were so great with them too. The members came up to meet them and helped them find their classes. Members even sent us texts today saying that they felt the spirit of missionary work yesterday at church seeing the new family. I was beyond grateful with my Heavenly Father for giving us such a miracle! I have to be honest, we've been working hard but haven't been seeing as many results as we would like to. Yesterday was a great blessing and we felt such joy!

So it was a great week as you can see!! This is the last week before changes. I'm nervous. I'll be honest, I have no clue what's going to happen!! We had interviews with President Hayes last week and he told my companion that he doesn't know what he's going to do with us!! Ahhh we will see!

Have a great week everyone. I love y'all to the United States and back...(and if your reading this from another country...to that country and back :)
Hermana Zerilli♥

chunky strawberry bowl...I'm going all jamba in our apartment:)

"People will learn when they are ready to learn and not when we are ready to teach them"

Hello everyone!!

First off...THANK YOU FOR THE HALLOWEEN PACKAGE!! Everyone is going to love me with all of the yummy American candy that I have to give them!

I'm writing today because yesterday my companion had a dentist appointment, she's been having some pain. The hermana that takes care of all of the missionaries has her office in an area called Pavas, in the other mission (Costa Rica San Jose West Mission)!! Let me just tell you that I felt the difference, it was probably mental but I felt it! Hahaha, On the way we saw the US embassy which was way fun!! I was like "I'm sure they speak English there!!" and my companion just looked at me like I couldn't have said anything more obvious hahaha! We got to the dentist office and I got to talk with missionaries from the other mission while we waited. It was really cool! One of the hermanas is from Los Angeles and is going home the same day as me!! We were with the dentist for a long time actually, and got back to our area really late. The only thing that I noted as we ran through the streets of San Jose were the millions of Christmas decorations! Seriously, the holiday spirit is here and I'm still trying to celebrate Halloween!! 

WE FOUND THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY, I FELT A LITTLE AT HOME HERE♥

This week was another great one!! Tuesday was particularly fun for me!! We were able to do divisions with the hermanas from Turrialba. I was able to work with Hermana Reinoso in an area called Birisito. Personally, I love Birisito because it is so high up, you feel like you are in the clouds. 

We had two lessons there that made big impacts on me. The first was with Teresa and Herrardo. Their daughter Vanessa was there in the beginning but had to run, telling us to visit her in her house. (will do!) This lesson, we taught prophets. Hermana Herrardo is great because he asks a lot of questions, he sincerely wants to know. He grew up Catholic and says that he believes it just because he doesn't know anything else. Teresa is so sweet and supportive. They both are doing everything that they can to learn, even in the midst of a bad illness that the family has been passing through, and working Sundays. They want to progress! I feel very happy with them. I feel that they are ready to receive the gospel in their lives and that they take our visits seriously. 

The second lesson was with a lady that we contacted at the bus stop last week, Lidiet. We went to her house and she was happy to see us! Her 8 year old son Junior too! They both sang I am a child of god loudly and weren't nervous to pray. We talked and they listened happily. We asked about 15 minutes into the lesson for questions and Lidiet looked at me and said "Are you 2 just coming this one time or are you going to return to teach us more?" I hesitantly explained that our purpose as missionaries is to help other people augment their faith. It's a process, and we will be returning to teach more each week. She was so happy!! She was like "okay! Good! I want to know more!" We ended teaching them and we put a baptism date. It was the easiest baptism date that I have ever put my entire mission. I asked if they would prepare to be baptized in November and quickly they both said yes! I had to ask them if they understood my question, ahhaha, and they did! We ended the night and the divisions and I was so thankful for the miracles that we had seen that day. It's incredible how the Lord shows us who is ready. 

This week we visited many less actives with many doubts, each one of them. It made me sad:( Their doubts were not anything usual, they were questions about doctrine and sacred things of the gospel. We tried our best to answer questions and comfort the less actives in their uneasiness but it was hard. It reminded me of 2 things. 

1. First, the talk from Conference by Elder Bradly D. Foster that says that people will learn when they are ready to learn and not when we are ready to teach them. I think no other sentence explains the pain of missionary work better than that!! If the people are not ready to listen to us and really ponder what we are teaching, they will not learn. Maybe it's not their time. 
2. The second, one of my personal favorite scriptures. Mosiah 4:9 "Believe in God; believe that He is, and that He created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that He has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."

I know that the church is true, The Lord himself established it! It's perfect! Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in questions and doubts that as the ticos say "nada que ver"...or that aren't important. God knows everything, and if we believe and trust in Him and in His Holy Spirit that testifies of the truth of all things, we will be okay. 

“We should not assume … that just because something is unexplainable by us, it is unexplainable." Elder Neal A. Maxwell

I've been praying for the people who have been affected by the hurricane. We've also been greatly effected by Hurricane Matthew, we have received A WHOLE LOT of rain. Friday we did nothing but knock doors in pouring rain for 5 hours. It's also been colder. It's been crazy here in Paraiso! 

Saturday, I received the dreaded phone call...Elder Winders called and asked me which air port I want to go home to because he was buying my plane ticket! Now that  my Mom has forwarded me that plane ticket, it's a little more real. I'm praying that time passes slow. The 29th of December is still far off and I have way too much to learn still. I'm grateful for this experience and I don't want to take it for granted even with the usual "You're dying (what people say when you are ending your mission)" comments! I am more alive than ever, LOL♥

Lets have an awesome week!! 

Love you all,

Hermana Zerilli

Here it is! It's official!!

Conference Was Amazing!!

Hey everyone!

I feel like I just "talked" to you all...which I did, so if this letter is boring I'm sorry!! Not much has happened!!

After P-day (Wednesday) Hermana Martinez and I had some really great lessons. We went knocking doors and even though it was tough because we were in an area in which no one wanted to open their doors to us (they just wanted to stare from inside), the Lord put many great people in the street! We talked to people at bus stops and helped people carry groceries. We took every opportunity to find people to teach. We are excited to return to this area this week to recontact. 

We also taught a recent convert's Mom. Well, "taught" maybe not, talked with is a little bit better haha. We were able to teach her a little bit about what a testimony is. She is strongly Catholic but she told us that she is for tradition. I was happy to tell her how her son had obtained a testimony about the truth from scripture study, church attendance and sincere prayer. We assured her that she could know the truth too! I love lessons like that. Sometimes I feel like people think that you just choose a church and then stay there until you die because that's the way it is. The truth exists. God has a church and we need to find it!

Okay so we all know the big event of this past

Saturday at Brenda's house

weekend. Conference was the best!! I loved the heck out of it, hahaha every minute! What did you all think of conference? What theme caught your attention...

Personally, I felt that they talked a whole lot about repentance and missionary work (whoot whoot!) Some of my favorite talks were: Elder Anderson with the puzzle, Elder Cook with the stumbling blocks, Elder Tamashita "Boys be ambitious", Elder Ballard "To whom shall you go?", Elder Rasband about our spiritual heritage, and Sister Reeves about repentance and the missionaries. So I pretty much liked them all!!! We were able to watch Saturday in English with Brenda!! It was way fun. She was able to enjoy it with us. Then Sunday we watched in the chapel, and before falling asleep (4 hours of spanish translations is tough) I ran to watch 1 hour in English outside of the room with the elders...Akward mission rules haha:) I loved the conference so much. I especially loved what President Monson said to all of us about the Plan of salvation. It's a gift, the knowledge that we have of the plan. It gives everything reason and hope. I hope that we can all reflect on conference and APPLY...That's most important part!! 

I love you all so much! I'm thankful for your prayers that work wonders. Lets have a good week!

Love you all♥

Hermana Zerilli

Extra note from Tay...LOL:)

"I can't believe it's October mom time is flying what do I do I'm so not ready to return to the real world! my Spanglish is hard core real...like the people are gonna make fun of me. 

🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃"

Our Conference Invitations♥

Saturday Conference at Brenda's house

Saturday Conference at Brenda's house

Sunday Conference at church

Our trip to Pricemart today!