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!