Onward, ever onward

 Hola friends and family!
Wow. The weeks are really picking up. This last one was quite quick, don´t you think?
The work is progressing as normal.
We found out the Emilia (From panama) is moving pack to Panama at the end of May. I can’t remember how much I have told you about Emilia, but she is from an indigenous tribe of Panama and speaks two languages. Spanish and….. whatever the indigenous one is called. Opps.  Emilia is only 18 and pregnant with her second child with Maximo (member) and from the same panama tribe. They are really worried about having two children because they don’t have any money. Emilia is moving back home to have her family help out with the new baby and their two year old. Me and Hna Hernandez know that this is the best option, but we are sad because we will miss her a lot.
With Annabel and Thomas we had a really awesome lesson about the restoration, and we both felt the spirit super strong.  A few days later we were going to drop by their house and if they had time, have another lesson, when we ran into them walking to the Catholic church. Sups Awk. We tried to act cool, but we both kind of wanted to cry after saying goodbye to them.  Honestly, even though they didn’t do anything wrong, we felt a little cheated on. But we are going to remain hopeful and continue working with them. We really love them and want them to come closer to Christ through the restored gospel. 

We have been teaching Duglas, a friend of Rosa’s for some time. He recently went through a bad break up and super sad about it. We had gotten him to commit to baptism, and then a few moments later he said he needed to pray about it (Which was fine by us).  He is still hasn’t committed because he knows what a big deal it is. 

Ramon is the uncle of Duglas. He has always been around, but we never really taught him anything. One day, out of the blue, he started asking questions! Our mouths sort of dropped and we couldn’t believe he had been there all along and we hadn’t even tried to share the gospel with him! (facepalm!) He seems really interested, and has LOTS of questions so we are excited to see how this goes!





 Today for Pday we were invited by Duglas and Ramon to their house up in the mountains. Its was like a 2 hour hike up. But it was so worth it!

So beautiful!
 





 





They have a little stream that flows past their house, that Daniel (The son to Rosa and Bernal) swam in while we enjoyed the breeze and the STUNNING scenery.

I am pointing to the mountain I climbed today!

 












We ate lunch, and enjoyed Costa Rica. It was truly beautiful. I don’t know what I did right to deserve living in such a beautiful place, but I will take it! 

cows that came out of NOWHERE!!!

Questions from our readers:

Are you sleeping well? Oh yea. I sleep super good. My poor companion is having a real tough time though. Insomnia is the WORST. 

see how excited I was about walmart? Note- right after this picture was taken, some security lady came out and told us this was not allowed.... opps....

  How is the food? Suprisingly great. It reminds me a lot of Chilean food. Rice. Beans. FRUIT OFF THE TREES (awesome.), Chicken, Beef. Its all pretty good

What is the best food you've eaten?  Hmmmmm. I am not sure on this one. It’s all pretty tasty.

What is the weirdest food you've eaten?  So far nothing too weird! But when we got here we were forbidden to eat iguana. Apparently, it’s an issue and missionaries ALWAYS get sick.

How many dinner appts do you get? Zero. But it’s okay, because we have a member in the ward who we pay a little bit of money and she cooks lunch for us everyday (which is the biggest meal). She used to be a cook, so she is REAL good.   (Below is Rosa)

My missionary mom and investigator Rosa. We spend a lot of time at her house, because we teach her, her son, her husband, and loads of her friends at her house (because for various reasons, we can't teach at their houses)

Rosa's husband Bernal. He is crazy and is always making us laugh. 

How is your Spanish coming along?  Spanish is getting better and better. I am still far from where I would like to be, but I had a couple of really awesome compliments from members this week, which makes me so happy.  My companion said I was talking spanish in my sleep the other night! haha! SUCCESS!

What do you usually eat for breakfast? Because I’m lazy, usually corn flakes with bananas. Or toast with avocado from off the tree outside our house. YUUUUM.

 Lunch? Whatever Hna Rosia makes us. But it always has rice, and beans. Usually for desert, we eat pinapple, guava, pappya, or other super yummy fruit. I am loving the produce here soooo much. 

I didn't have cake on my birthday, but I did have this, which is close.

I love you guys! I hope you like all the pictures! You are individually all in my prayers! Remember to turn to the lord! He hears every word.

Happy 21st Birthday!

(Note from Lexi's mom:  No pictures today, so enjoy some of my favorite Lexi pics as she grew up!)

HOLY MOLY!
ARE YOU GUYS KIDDING ME?
HOW DID I GET SO LUCKY!
73 NEW EMAILS.
73!
HOW WILL I EVER HAVE TIME TO WRITE BACK? Answer- I don’t. I only get 50 more minutes. But EVERYONE who took the time to write me an email for my birthday. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I am printing them all out and reading them all one by one. You are all so amazing to me! 

Can you believe I am 21? Doesn’t that seem old?  To me, it totally does. I am no longer a minor everyone. AN ADULT. LEGALLY. Weird.
Today, I couldn’t help but reflect on the last couple of birthdays.
The year I turned 18- Me and the rest of the SRVHS choir gang on a bus to Santa Monica. I bought my poncho that trip, so I will call that a success.
19- Just returned from living in Florida and working for Disney. I just started my semester with the “moms” and me and Kayle Searle drove down to Utah for my “Good Luck Doug” cake.
20- Just finished spending week to remember in NYC. That trip was well needed fun. After 4 crappy months of winter and post david dying that trip was the first really good thing to happen in a while. We saw Newsies, spent some quality time with the extended fam, and had an awesome time.
21- Living in Costa Rica. Are you kidding me? WHO DOES THAT
We started out the day early because we had a 2 hour bus ride to Cartago. Why would we do this you ask? Because…. CARTAGO HAS A WALMART. 

 This is legitimally the only thing I wanted to do for my birthday. My poor companion rolled her eyes the WHOLE time. But she was such a sport. There are many products and things that NECESSARY that apparently Costa Rica just doesn’t understand.
The sad news was that Walmart didn’t sell HALF the things I was hoping they would. The things I did get were CRAZY expensive…. Sigh. But now I know. And I won’t constantly be thinking to myself “If only I can get to Walmart…”.
Because Walmart was kind of a bust (but I am still glad we did it)  we finished up SUPER early, and had time for a little birthday treat. 

And now, some questions from our readers.
do her (companion) feet smell? Haha. No.
Does she cook broccoli at midnight? Again no, but apparently one time she took a shower in the middle of the night because she had insomnia. I didn´t wake up so it was fine.
Does she cover her mouth when she sneezes? I actually have never heard her sneeze now that I think about it….. she´s a robot!
How's the weather¨;Its starting to get rainy and I LOVE IT! For two reasons: 1- its BEAUTIFUL when it rains all over the grean. 2- It’s not burning hot like the first week.
 and your shoes?: Good….. and always muddy now that it’s raining.
 and your investigators?: So many got cold feet his week. Lets pray more are excited about baptism this week.
and your ward?:Good. I still don’t communicate too much with the members because they speak so freaking fast.

How is your companion? Awesome. I got so lucky. She thinks Im funny even though my Spanish is horrendous. Also, she takes me to Walmart for my birthday.

How is the sick elder? Great. But we think he will probably be made an assistant and work in the office because he apparently has a “heart condition”. Sad.

How long has your companion been out? Only 3 months before me! She literally finished being trained herself the day that she started training me. But she is awesome, and knows how these new emotions feel.

Is her family LDS? Yes, all her life.

Do they support her with letters? Yes. They are VERY supportive.
  Life member or convert? MEMBER FOR LIIIIIIFE.
Are you sunburned yet? Nope! But getting more tan EVERY day. AWWWW YEA.

Hey kids! Good news! I have a FAST (Okay…. Not fast at all, but faster) address for you people to send me “small” mail to (Meaning letters, not packages)
Sister Alexis Patterson
Mision Costa Rica, San Jose
Apartado Postal #249-2010
San Jose, Costa Rica C.A.
Apparently this address gets to the misión home in about 15 days instead of 30! QUALITY.
Congrats Alex and Cindy on the BABY! She is adorable! I wish I could hold her! Can’t wait to meet her! 16 months and counting!
Sorry that I don’t have much missionary work updates. The good news: I’m learning to loose myself in this work. Such a good thing. Time is picking up, and I am not homesick. The bad news: MANY (and I mean almost everyone) that we were progressing with, have started (for various reasons) started having cold feet about baptism. Satan is working hard on them. If you wouldn’t mind, please keep Hermana Pattersons investigators in your prayers, they all need a little extra spiritual boost right now. It’s the craziest thing. But we aren’t about to give up! Nothing can stop the work from progressing!  

Sorry no pictures this week! The internet is being AWFUL!

Love you all!
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
Hermana Patterson

Swimming Pool Baptism

Hola friends and family!

It was such a fun surprise to open up my inbox and have so many fun emails! What a blessing! Thank you to everyone who has ever taken the time to send me emails or letters!! They mean the wooooorld to me. 

What an interesting week it has been. Each day gets better and better.

First thing- We had a baptism this week. Okay, thats not exactly fair. It wasn't exactly OUR baptism. But a baptism none the less. His name is Michael, and he has been working with the Elders in our area (How lucky are we to have FOUR missionaries in our area? It's awesome) since before I arrived. Apparently it took a lot of work to get him to baptism. He was a drinker, smoker and all the works, and has TOTALLY changed his life to become a member of the church.

 

 The first time I met Michael was waiting for the bus. Hna. Hernandez told me that he had a baptismal date, and he looked so HAPPY. HAPPY AND CLEAN. It's amazing what the gospel does for people! This is why I am here! 

I am not joking you guys. The baptism was in our small meeting house, IN A SWIMMING POOL! I love it! It was soooo much work! First of all, the Elders blew up the top part WITH THEIR MOUTHS because the pump broke. 

 

That alone took around 2 hours. THEN! It had holes. seriously. Then we filled it with water. Then the water spilled out ALL OVER THE ROOM. So we drained it, swept all the water out of the room, mopped it up, and tried again (no joke 4 hours). Lucky this time it worked. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The morning of the Baptism, we got a frantic call from the Elders. Elder Morales has suuuuuper sick, having heart problems, and couldn't breathe. The missionary nurse told the Elders to take a taxi to San Jose (2 hours by bus, about 1:30 in a taxi) to the Hospital that the insurance covered. The porbositos missed their own baptism! You could tell MIchael was pretty disappointed (can you blame him?) But none the less, it was a great baptism. We were worried at first, because it was only us two hermanas, Michael, the ward mission leader, and the guy doing the baptism (branch presidency) when it started, but buy the end, about 15 members of the branch showed up. It was great! 

 

 

This week we worked hard with Rosa and Bernal. Yesterday we had a scare that they wanted to "break up" with us because bernal wanted to "talk". Luckily he was just wanting to complain about Hma Lopez leaving some more. Although he says he is very greatful to have a new mission daughter (Me). He even wrote Pres. Wilkinson a letter he wanted us to give to him (which we will not, because we are sure it is full of rude things and words). 

We had a great week with Annabell, Thomas and Victoria this week. We only had one lesson with them this week, but I thought it was awesome. Annabell and Thomas both speak spanish (Thomas more than Annabell). I felt prompted to share my testimony with them in english about eternal families. I went with it. It was very powerful, and the three of us were in tears. I hope it helped them. My companion was not very happy, because she is worried that as my trainer she will get in trouble for not stopping me. I am trying not to feel bad because I really think it was effective. Gotta do what ya gotta do! Annabell and Victoria even came to church with us yesterday! Hurrah!

Things are going well with Marifer, Selena, and Diana. I love them so much! We got word today that if Jose Jaquin (Diana's boyfriend) does all the right things he can receive the priesthood soon enough to baptize them! Hopefully all works out! 

We also taught Emilia for the first time since I have been here. 

 

Emilia and Maximo are from an indigenous tribe on panama and VERY poor. There house is basically a steel shack and they speak an indigenous language. So many things about them remind me of the people of Chitiquixac Guatemala. Emilia can not read or write, so we cut out pictures from the Liahona to teach her. It will take time, but she seems very accepting and came to church yesterday as well. She is only 19, has a 2 year old and one more baby on the way. I couldn't help but ponder how easy my life is when I went to visit them. 

And NOW: a special segment- Questions from our readers! (Haha)

How many members in your ward/branch?: Branch. We are DEFINITELY a branch. I would guess around 50 people, including the primary. We are very small and everyone has to be involved. 

What was church like?  This week was testimony meeting. It was very interesting. Through out "Relief Society" we could here the kids yelling the primary songs and often kids would just leave to come sit in their mom's laps.

Did you participate? Does introducing myself and baring my testimony in front of the Branch count? I think so. So yes. 

 What is the town like? 

 

  I live in what is called "El campo" (The fields). So Its kind of a small town. Our area has 4 small towns (Think Orderville sized) That we are over and take buses to each one. There are small shops and stores, but nothing big. The biggest building in the town in the Catholic Church in the middle.

Rural, small town, small city med. city large city?  Small town to Medium town

What does the area look like?  flat? rolling hills?  a lot of trees? ROLLING mountains, that we hike every day. When we went to visit Emilia it was we took a 15 minute bus ride up, and walked down (Because there is only one bus that goes up that mountain a day) and it took us about 90 minutes to walk down. I better have a rockin body by the end of this. 

 How hot is it?  Hot, but luckily not as hot as I pictured. Its actually quite pleasant most of the time. The biggest thing is the humidity, which again, is not as bad as I pictured. 

How often does it rain? Again, not as much as I thought. As I write this, we actually have the most rain I have seen since being here. That being said, May is the start of the rainy season.... so..... I am basically digging my grave right here.

How do you do your laundry?

 

 We clean our garments by hand in the sink. It's awesome. 

If you would like to participate in next weeks addition of "Questions from our readers" Comments below or send an email to alexis.patterson@myldsmail.net

I love you all! Thank to everyone who has taken the time to send me letters, Dear elders, packages and emails! They mean so much to me! Keep them coming!

First Impressions

HERE I AM! I can't believe it! So much to say, and I don't even know where to start! 

1st of all- My companion is Hermana Hernandez. 

She is from El Salvador and it is great because she knows about 2 words in English. I got so lucky. First of all, she is SOOOO patient with my crumby spanish. She tries to help me out the best she can, and she never gets frustrated. I love her so much. She is only 19! She was actually the first 19 year old missionary in the Guatemala MTC! She has only been here 3 months, and just finished training herself! Now she is training me! The first day you could tell she was sooo nervous but she is so great. And she totally knows what it feels like to be overwhellmed just getting started. The other day I was telling her how homesick I was feeling, and how hard it is to not understand what people are saying to you, and not being about to respond and she knew JUST what to say to make me feel better. We really bonded over that conversation, and now we are the best of friends. We laugh together, work well together, and she helps "translate" when I try to speak spanish to other people and they don't know what I am saying! haha! She is a great example to me, and is already a steller missionary. I am very lucky to have her. 

My mission President is President Wilkenson

Holy cow I love the Wilkinson family. They are from Saratoga Springs, so they "understand my pain"(culture shocks). It was so nice that they could speak english to us newbies. This picture was litterally right after we left the airport. The first place they took us was to the temple. He told us that the temple is the goal of missionary work, not baptism. That we are trying to convert people, not just baptize them. The spirit was so strong and I knew that a mission was the right choice for me. They are amazing people. 

The area I am living in is called San Marco (Norte 100 M Oeste 150 M Norte 400 M

SAN JOSECOSTA RICA)
This is a picture of me in front of the meeting house. 

Its a converted house. It's so cute! We have yet to have an actual church service there since I got here, because of conference. Conference was great. Since Costa Rica is on the same time as Utah, we were watching in almost live. I couldn't help but think the whole time: "Holy cow, my family is watching this exact thing RIGHT now!". Considering we are not in the big city, we had a pretty decent connection. The problem is, the first 3 sessions, I had NO idea what was going on because the interpretures for spanish talk SO FAST! By the last session, we realized we could listen in spanish, but have english subtitles going. So I read the entire last session. HEY! I was so grateful to know what was going on. There are 4 of us missionaries in our area. Me, my companion, and two elders, E. Morales from Panama and E. Roberts from Missouri. It's nice to not be the only "gringo" in town. Haha. 
Investigators:

We actually have a lot of investigators right now, But I will only talk about two families that we really worked with the most this week:

Rosa and Bernal:

I had a very rocky start with these two. They were devistated to hear that Hna Hernandez had a new companion and that her old companion (Hna Lopez) had been transfered. They wanted NOTHING to do with me. Bernal has a mental illness and well as depression and he wouldn't even come out to meet me the first time we went over to their house. Rosa basically had a "break up" talk with Hna Hernandez saying that they didn't want to have us come over anymore because they were so upset. This was heartbreaking for Hna Hernandez because she felt very close to them and they were about to be baptized. She even started crying. I felt HORRIBLE, even though I had done nothing wrong. After we left for the first time, we talked about how we needed to make sure that our investigators were converted to the LORD, not us. We worked hard to get them to like me so they would let us come back and teach. The second time we went to their house, it was actually to teach someone else, but I had the "hijas de dios" (child of god) Stickers that mom sent me for Saint Patricks day and gave them to the little girl who was over. I  then showed the little girl my photo album of pictures of my family and we looked at it so much that the little girl had our entire family's names memorized. This won over Rosa and Bernal! They invited us over Sunday for Atol. I was soooo happy! Yesterday (sunday) was the icing on the cake. Bernal even called us his "missionary daughters" and they agreed to let us come back. 

I am grateful that the Lord softened their hearts and they are letting us come back! TENDER MERCY!

Maryfer, Selena, and Diana:

They are a part member family. The brothers Freddie, Andres, and Jaquin are all new and struggling converts. Maryfer and Selena are their sisters, and Diana is Jaquin's girlfriend and mother of his child. Maryfer is Libby's age, and is SOOOO darling.

 I told her all about my blonde haired, blue eyed baby sister and showed her pictures. She thinks libby is so pretty! Maryfer has some sort of disability, but I have yet to figure out what it is. Both her and Selena say they want to be missionaries like us one day. I love them so much! They came to two sessions of conference with us and love the gospel! I hope their mom lets them become baptised! 

Diana is a very young mom. The first time I met her, she was crying because she had just been in a fight with Jaquin. We convinced her to come to conference. She seemed to like it, but was very distracted by her baby David. That night, we taughter her the first lesson. I tried my best to recite the memorized "first vision". I am sure I totally screwed it up, but she was CAPTIVATED. The spirit was soooo strong. At the end we testified that God loves her, and she began to cry! THE GOSPEL IS AMAZING and we plan on inviting her to baptism this week! Can't wait! 

General Conference:

Here is a picture of the people who came to watch conference,  we actually had a pretty good turn out! 

To find where I live:

Google maps:

Los Santos - San José, 226, San Marcos, San José, Costa Rica

Here is my house. Cold showers (luckily, not freezing), a mini fridge, and the hot plate is it! (but its not as bad as it sounds) we walk, taxi, and bus everywhere. There are bugs, but not as bad in my area. luckily, I live in one of the cooler areas in CR, so it hasn't been miserably hot. we have lighting and our house is one of the nicests in the mission. Its very cute and quaint. 

Here is my kitchen! hot plate and all! 

Here is my bedroom

people can Dear elder me here, or email me at alexis.patterson@myldsmail.net

These are the best two options. We get no mail directly to the house. All of it goes to the mission office. So send anything there. We get mail whenever someone stops by the office, sooooooo who knows how long. Thus, email is the best. But I still expect mail! ;) 

TE AMO!

Estoy Aqui!!

Hola amigos y familia!

I am here in COSTA RICA! i can´t believe it! Yesterday was a very long travel day that started at 2 a.m. and didn't end until 11 p.m. 

I am so happy to be here! I am already in love with this place. When we got off the plane I couldn't stop grinning. We all made each of our flights (which was a bit of a miracle in it self) AND our luggage made it in one peace as well. What a blessing! 

We loved talking to people in the Airports and the planes about the church. I even got a guys card so  I could send him a copy of the BOM because I didn't have one in Spanish on hand. What a thrill!

Costa Rica is beautiful. I have struggling to think how I could describe it to you all, and this is the best I could come up with (or at least of what I have seen in the only 4 hours of daylight I have been able to see).

Ive decided it is the perfect mix between Guatemala and Chile. The architecture of the city and the streets, stores and products look very chilean but with the tropical humidity of Guatemala. LEARNING TO DEAL WITH THE HUMIDITY. We are all sweating like CRAZY. But hey, i will take the heat over the cold ANY DAY. 

I don't have much time to write, because they just wanted us to send a short note saying we were here, happy and in one piece  I will include more details in my first official email. Let me know if there are any specific questions you want answered. 

LOVE YOU ALL!

Hermana Patterson 

**Note from Lexi's mom.  As of right now, the best way to write her is through dearelder.com.  She will get a delivery from them once a week.  I have heard a rumor that she may be able to email everyone now, but until I know for sure do the dearelder.  I'll also let you know when I have a physical mailing address.