I have such amazing family here in Costa Rica and I am beyond grateful for Milena♥

I am so blessed and felt so loved when Milena traveled all the way to Paraiso to visit me before I leave Costa Rica and return home from my mission♥ -Love you Milena

Happy P day!!!

Are we all feeling the Christmas spirit?? I know I am!! We only have 13 days left until Christmas!! Fa la la la lahhhh!!!! I'm so excited!!

So this week Hermana Martinez and I looked for more service opportunities!! It's good to serve all year long but something about the holidays makes it that much more fun!! We have been praying for opportunities and we had a few this week.

First off, we were able to help one of the hermanas in the ward move into her house by decorating her Christmas Tree!! That was way fun!! I miss being able to help decorate with my family, so this was a good replacement. It just so happens that that day, I had bought 4 packets of hot chocolate mix (yes you can buy them individually here), so we drank hot chocolate and decorated the tree! It was a good time and we think that the tree turned out really good.

Decorating the Christmas Tree!

We were also able to help another hermana from the ward with her roosters. Yes. Roosters!! This hermana's name is Eduarda. She's the one who lives on the mountain. We got to her house just in time to see that she was buying 6 roosters! 6!! So we were able to get to work with her and Lesdy (her grandson) building the coops. Honestly, our main responsibility was seeing that the roosters didnt take off running hahaha! We named them and everything! I love the country in this area. It's beautiful and so out of the ordinary from what I'm used to. haha:)

December is just full of surprises. This week Milenna messaged me saying that her friend Laura was going to be in Paraiso and she wanted to send chocolates with her to give to me. So Thursday we recieved another message saying that Milena's friend Laura was in the park waiting for us. She was wearing red. Hermana Martinez and I left quickly to go find her. We didn't think much of what was going on (we literally just brushed our teeth and ran out the door) because we were expecting to be recieving chocolates from Laura! When we got to the corner of the street, I knew that it wasn't "Laura". Milena was there waiting for us. Oh my gosh!! If I was crying that much to see someone who isn't even blood related, I am not ready for the 29th!!! hahahaha! I was ecstatic to see her! I just cried and cried, and hugged Milena. She invited us to go eat pizza with her. We talked and ate, and I was just really really happy:) I have such amazing family here in Costa Rica. I am beyond grateful for the opportunity that I have had to meet incredible people like Milena. I couldn't believe that she came all the way out here to Paraiso to see me. She is the best!

The Mexican candy that Milena gave us.

Yesterday was great!! After church we had the opportunity to go to the Stake Center to listen to the choir program. Every ward choir had the chance to sing. Almost all of the other missionaries were there too. I absolutely loved it!! There are so many talented people here in Cartago. This up coming week we are going to have more activities so that will be fun!

Okay. So the weirdest thing happened to me this week. I went to my table to start my studies and I saw that there were a few ants on my table. I brushed them away but kept on finding more. I finally found the source when I knocked over my English scriptures. OH MY WORD THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF TINY WHITE ANTS IN MY SCRIPTURES. I threw them on the ground (reverently set them on the ground) and tons more came out. I brought them outside and just didn't know what to do. My companion and I were swatting ants for a long time. Then we realized that in the binding of my Book of Mormon, there were more...and they had laid eggs! (vomits) I had to do surgery on my scriptures to clean them all out. The saddest part...this is the 2nd time that ants have attacked my scriptures. The first time was in Pococi, but it was way less of a problem. This time, the ants had literally infested my scriptures!! It was strange because there were only ants in my scriptures, no where else on my table. Then I got to thinking. How many "ants" have I met during my mission who only want to attack the scriptures or more specifically The Book of Mormon. As much as we clean up (testify, teach of doctrine) they keep attacking the same place (point. The Book of Mormon) What a bazarr experience!