Our Emilia- My first Baptism

I love this picture, but its a little embarrassing that it looks like I am totally posing all ¨model¨like. I can´t help that Im a model when I am not trying! ha. joke. 

Also- Emilia totally doesn´t look happy. I promise this is the happiest day of her life. 

 
WHAT A LONG WEEK!
That makes it sound like it was bad. It wasn´t. Surprisingly. For those of you who don´t know, my dear sister Lauren got married this Wednesday. I am super happy for her and Casey, but the selfish side of me was really sad and held a little pity party for myself because I couldn´t attend (Are pity parties legal in Costa Rica? Probably not……).  When I first realized that my baby sister would be getting married while I was on my mission I cried. It´s a total bummer, you know? On top of that, just weeks later 3 of my dearest friends in the world also announced their weddings would be in May or June. Honestly, if the prophet had not changed the missionary age to 19 in October, I would have turned 21 in April, and waited to serve a mission until July or August. I always knew that the Lord must need me now, and have been waiting to know why.
I was SORELY disappointed when Wednesday morning came, and I felt I did not have an answer. We had a super great lesson with our most progressing investigators Adriana, and her family Alex, Mauricio and sister Yanette. It was great. The spirit was super strong, and we left feeling great. But this wasn´t my answer.
Next, we ate lunch is San Marcos with the Elders, and then took a bus to San Pablo to visit Emilia. Sweet, sweet Emilia who can´t read, yet knows the church is true and that the BOM is the word of god. For each lesson with Emilia, we have to find pictures of the principles in the Liahonas and we tape them to her wall so she can understand. She knows every principle and wants to be baptized so very badly. The problem is that Emilia is from a tribe in Panama. In her tribe in Panama, she is married to Maximo (via a ritual, nothing else). Her tribe has absolutely zero records. This girl doesn´t even know officially how old she is. She thinks probably 20.  This makes things complicated because without documents, you can´t really be married by law. If you are not married by law, you either need to separate from your partner or be married to be baptized a member of the church. So you see our problem.
We always love to visit Emilia. She lives AT THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN. Visiting Emilia means spending the entire afternoon to visit. We luckily can take a bus to the top of the mountain (usually, when it decides to run) teach our lesson, and walk for about 2 hours DOWN the mountain to catch our bus to San Marcos. In totally its usually about a 5 hour ordeal. We always do happily because we love her so stinkin much. We were a little sad to make the trip this time around, because Emilia is leaving to move to Panama this week and we probably wouldn´t get the chance to visit her again. As a going away present, I decided I would buy a cheap note book and paste in pictures from the Liahonas of every single principle of every single lesson for her to take with her to Panama. My hope, was that one day, in her small, rural tribe she would run into other missionaries or members of the church and find a way to be baptized. It was a stretch but it was all we could do.

When we gave Emilia her notebook she was SO HAPPY! Our usual quiet and stonefaced, but sweet Emilia came to life. I explained that I wanted her to share the gospel with her family and most especially with her kids. Nicanor, her 2 year old was immediately interested in the pictures and me and my companion teared up as Emilia showed him each page with care and explained ¨this is Joseph Smith, this is the book of mormon. We need Faith in Jesus Christ, then we need to repent, then we can be baptized….¨And so on.

We then took this silly photo, with the three of us in her usual garb. Totes cute.

They want to be sealed in the Temple one day. Its adorable.

We left feeling more than a little sad. Our Emilia was leaving us, my family was on the other side of the world enjoying my baby sisters wedding, it was POURING rain, my socks were wet and cold, and we had to walk down a mountain for 2 hours. We walked in silence, holding back tears, and I couldn´t help but ask  myself ¨Why am I here now? Why couldn´t I come in June? Why can´t I be with my family this special day and enjoy the mission later? Should I have prostponed?¨ On top of everything else, my companion was more than a little homesick and sad herself. We were a sad looking companionship.
Exhausted, we returned to San Marcos where we attended our weekly Correlation meeting with the Elders and the Ward Mission leader. We talked about each of our investigators and when it came to Emilias turn we talked about our day and how sad we were that she was leaving, so ready and couldn´t be baptized. We talked about how sometimes its hard to follow rules and laws and such, because each case is just so different. The moment we left the chapel, my companion turned to me and said ¨ We are calling the AP´s (assistance to the president of the mission) . We have to get Emilia baptized.¨ We both felt strongly that there just HAD to be a way.
We called the AP´s and explained. They listened and gave us permission to call the President of the Mission. We called at 9:30 night. We talked about our problem, and he said he understood how hard we worked with her, how badly she wanted to be baptized. He said he would write a letter to the Area Presidency about Emilia and see if there was anything we could do. We cried together a whole lot that night. We sat on the floor next to our telephone and talked about how it wasn´t fair that someone who WANTED to be baptized, couldn´t be. We got on our needs and opened our hearts to the Lord. We begged to see Emilia baptized. We had a tiny pool of tears on the floor. The spirit was so strong that she NEEDED to be baptized, and now. We just weren´t sure how. We called the Elders, our district and zone leaders, and our new hermana leaders. We called our faithful members of the ward and asked them to fast with us for Emilia.
Our response from the Lord came faster that we could have expected.  The next morning we spent more time on our knees, and studying. We called Maximo and told him we were doing everything we could to get Emilia baptized, but we just needed more time before she left for Panama. He said he would do everything he could to change their travel plans. And then he said something VERY important.
Maximo: ¨Hermana´s, You know that Emilia and I don´t sleep together, right?¨
H. Hernandez : ¨What?¨
Maximo: ¨Hermana, ever since you taught Emilia about the Law of Chastity last month, I have slept on the couch. Emilia doesn´t want to live in sin. And Hermanas, Emilia is leaving next week for Panama, and I am not going with her. We won´t be living together anymore.¨  
This is something we could work with. We made the round of calls once again to the AP´s, the Mission president  who contacted the Area Presidency.  We got a speedy response that we could baptize Emilia, only if we did it NOW, and she moved out of Maximos house before she left for Panama.
The next two days were a blur. Crying with joy, more prayers or gratitude and joy followed. My answer had come. This is why I was here NOW. Emilia didn´t have until June, July or this fall. She needed US, NOW. 
Luckily we live in an apartment owned by a member. The apartment next to us is also owned by this member and is empty. We talked to her, and arranged for Emilia to live in the empty apartment for the next 5 days. We arranged emergency exchanges with the district leader for the Elders so that Emilia could have her baptismal interview the next morning and be baptized in the afternoon.
We travel back up the mountain to share our good news.  Never had I seen Emilia so happy and full of life. She cried with Joy. We cried with joy. We had a miracle! We couldn´t believe it was happening.
The elders dropped everything to help us (that dang swimming pool needed to be blown up again!). Litterally. Elder Mancera left for cartago without a change of clothes or money so that our District leader could be with Elder Roberts for the interview. They helped us move Emilia from her shack at the top of the mountain in San Pablo to our next door neighbor in San Marcos. Choice members were a god-sent. They sprang to life helping us getting everything set so that Emilia could be baptized. We were thrilled.

The swimming pool had problems. Lots of them. We only got it to stand up half way, so the baptism was done sitting down. Such a crack up, but we didn´t care.

My first baptism was Emilia Fransechis Montezuma. She was one of my best friends in the Premortal world, I KNOW IT. I promised to share the gospel with her back then, and on May 25,2013 we fulfilled that promise. It wasn´t easy. It was super hard. I gave up a lot to fulfill that promise, but it was so worth it.

Sick-Os

 

Hola todos!

Each P-day seems to come faster and faster. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I guess that is the true sign that ¨missionary mode¨ is in full swing!

First item of business this week- we got super sick this week. There is a virus going around Los Santos and because we visit and see so many people, we got it. Stomach aches ALL WEEEEEEEEK LOOOONG. Hardly eating. Regretting it when we did. It made working hard. Most days this week we could only attend one or two appointments  in the day without feeling absolutely horrible and returning home. One day we couldn´t even leave the house and got premission from the mission nurse to take the day off. Being sick is not fun when you can´t watch  tv or surf the internet.

But guess what Sunday was??!?!?!?! MOTHERS DAY!!!! One of the best two days of a missionaries year! For those of you who don´t know, LDS missionaries get to email home once a week, and only get to call/skype our families twice a year. Mothers day and Christmas.

 

 Honestly, I was a little worried about it. I had some pretty homesick days in April, and I felt like I was finally getting a handle on the emotion  train. I was worried seeing and talking to my family would un wind it all, but it totally didn´t! I was sad to say goodbye and everything, but It actually felt really good. I loved seeing my family through skype and hearing everyone´s voices. But I didn´t fall apart and cry myself to sleep the way I thought I would.

Right after we skyped our families, we went to visit a member- Susette, who is the Relief Society President (Organization of Women in the Church) for our branch. She only just returned from her mission in 2011 from Peru. She showed us her mission pictures and journals and we ¨mission talked¨. It made me so happy to be here! In just the 3 months I have been away from home my life has already changed in so many ways. My priorities are different and I met people every single day that change the way I look at the world. The mission feels so natural for me!

This week we have ¨cambios¨ or exchanges. Me and Hermana Hernandez are not going anywhere because I am only 1/2 done with my training, but it is probable that one if not both of our Elders with change. Because of the changes we had a Zone activity in Cartago today (about 45 min bus ride). Me, my companion, and the two elders in our area ( Roberts and Morales) arrived in cartago super early. We were to meet the rest of the zone at the ruins of an old Catholic church. 

 

This church has been rebuilt multiple times and every single time it gets knocked down by an earth quake. Finally the people of Cartago took it as a sign that, clearly, God did not want a church build on that spot. So they keep the ruins around and built a garden inside. Um..... RIGHT UP MY ALLEY.

 It was really cool. At first, we just admired it from the outside, because it was all gated up and no one was allowed in. Then my companion got determined to get inside. She found a grounds man and asked how we could get in. He said we would have to get permission from some city officials across the street. An hour later, and after talking to about 10 different people, we had a police man escorting us into the church ruins. TWANIES (cool/legit)! It was so beautiful inside! I am glad I have a strong willed Latina on my side to get me into cool places!

For our activity we visited the nicest mall in Cartago. After the Walmart disaster, I wasn´t expecting much. But it was really great. The only American store (other than places to eat) that I recognized was Hallmark (random.). But all of the stores were super similar to what you would find in American Malls. The Candle/ lotion stores, Forever 21 wanna-be and endless surf/ skate shops with zummez, hurley and roxie. I felt like I was back in the states! We had a wonderful time buying candies, playing in Toy stores and looking at clothes. Im sad that we had such a good time together today and that exchanges are this week! Well... the life of a mission I guess! And it will be good to meet new missionaries too! 

The elders had a baptism this week! Hermana Carmen. She is the mother of one of two YW in our branch named Julie! She is golden! Hey thanks for taking the time to read these emails everyweek! You´re the best.

No questions from our readers this week!

Have a good week everyone!

Xoxo Hermana Patterson

You can write Hermana Patterson at:  alexis.patterson@myldsmail.net

You can leave a comment here and I'll copy and paste it and email it to her. 

Bring on the rain

Hey everybody! (Some times you just got to change things up)
How was your week? How did my keyboard switch magically back to Spanish? Haha.
This week FLEW. Flew so super fast.
Lets start with this.
I HAVE BEEN IN COSTA RICA FOR MORE THAN A MONTH. I HAVE OFFICIALLY HIT MY MONTH MARK! (And as Michael Buble often sings on my Ipod at home….) And Im feelin’ good!
Lets be honest. I am so glad this past month is behind me.  It was a bit of a doozie. Its really kind of hard to be thrown into a country expected to teach people something as important as their eternal salvation and not really know much of the language.( I must include a little “sorry” for my Dad. I’m sorry for all the times I wanted to watch the English Disney tapes instead of the Spanish. I’m sorry I wanted to transfer my second grade education back to Larsen Elementary instead of continuing in a Spanish Immersion program, I’m sorry I really only took one Spanish class in high school and ZERO in college.. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry!)  I am excited that I have a months experience. Even though its definitely not much, its way better to say “I have been here in Costa Rica a month” than even saying “I have been here for 3 weeks”. I don’t know what, it just is. I feel much more accustomed (is that the word I am wanting to use? Yikes…. My English…..). I have the rountine down. I know where I buy my groceries and where I don’t. I know which streets to avoid at night, and which streets have the largest hills. I am slowly learning (okay, not really) the bus schedule. I have jokes with my companion and the Elders. All of these things make life much easier as a missionary.
And now for this week:
WHEEEEEW. What a crazy rollercoaster. Luckily, mostly ups.
Hna. Hernanadez and I have officially joined A.A. Yes. A.A. as in Alcoholics Anonymous. Now keep your panties on. This is actually, really funny.  Bernal. Has a smoking problem. This guy smokes like a pack a day. Luckily, he wants to quit, but after 35 years of smoking so much, it’s hard to do, ya know? Hna. Hernandez ‘s dad would take some of the youth in his ward to A.A. to help them out with their addictions and it really seemed to help.  We thought, “what do we have to lose”? And we took Bernal to A.A. WHAT A HOOT. You should have seen their faces when two missionaries (girls) walked in the door.  I was roaring with laughter on the inside. Someone was in the middle of their speech, and we totally stopped the whole meeting. We had to explain that we were not addicts of anything. We were simple there for moral support for Bernal. The thought that was just about the greatest thing and welcomed us with open arms. They told us that they all needed God to help them with their addictions and that maybe we could share something with them some time (Score!).  It’s great because every member of A.A. is called a “compenero” (aka- friend/ companion). After we walked in, every “testimonial” started with “Buenos noches Compeneros, compeneras”.  So great. We have a whole room of new friends and potential investigators.  They all want to change their lives through God, and here we are, ready to help.  We have been 2 times now (Wed and Sat) and both times I have felt the distinct impression that someone in that room needs the gospel.  It actually might be more than one person. It might be the whole room! So we are planning to keep going. It’s so great because now we will run into our “companeros” in the street and they always give us directions, free taxi rides and encouraging words to keep doing  Gods work. We are loving it. And can we talk about how this is LITTERALLY an experience you can only really have on your mission?
Something else this week: I’m not sure if you heard, but Obama came to Costa Rica this week. I am sure it didn’t even flash at the bottom of your screens in the US, but OH MAN was it a big deal here. I don’t have any idea what he came for, what he did or said, but the whole country was talking about him coming. Every newspaper and tv screen had his face on it. It’s kind of hard to dodge political talk (missionary rule) when your own president is making such a wave. I managed pretty well I think.
One of a few frustrating/sad things this week:
Rosa “broke up” with us Friday. Rosa, our “mom of the mission” who we spend so much time with, who feeds us regularly, who introduced us to HALF of our investigators. We (especially H. Hernandez) are super sad.  Oh and she didn’t just say “no more”. She had all sorts of anti-mormon information from the internet and even brought in a missionary from a different church to bible bash (which we did not).  It was frustrating, heartbreaking, and I only understood half of the things that were said so my poor companion was on her own. The spirit rocked it. She had a scripture for every question, doubt and problem the missionary and rosa brought up. She said that she hadn’t even seen some of the scriptures before, and they weren’t marked in her scriptures or anything. She would flip to a page, glance down, and there would be the PERFECT scripture to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Awesome. The church is true! The Lord defends his missionaries.
Also- this month is the start of the rainy season here in CR. Oh man. It rains at least a little bit every day, and sometimes it rains all day long. I LOVE IT. I love the rain. The smell, the fact that I don’t bother doing my hair, wearing rainboots and rain jackets, the fact that it is not sweltering hot. ALL OF IT. The lord totally knew who he was sending to CR. Now, ask me in about 3 months if I still love it.
And now, Questions from our Readers (okay, My mom) :
How are your clothes? Too big. (Huzzah!) And Im getting pretty board of looking at the same things every day, but… I will live, and this is part of the mission. Learning not to buy new clothes every time I am board (Downeast…. You did this to me!)  Shoes?   Really good. I am super happy with the shoes I brought. If anyone is interested for future missionaries, Keen and clarks have been super great.

How are your feet?  Depends on the amount of rain, and how much walking I do, but so far so good. Band aid blister block has been a miracle worker!

Are your neighbors friendly or afraid of you? When I arrive we had 3 neighbors. Right now we only have one.  She is the cutest grandma. She takes care of her two grandgirls who both come to church with their aunt (also a member in the ward). She is not a member but takes good care of us. She is the one with the avocado trees! 

How far away is the mission office?  About 90 minutes by bus, and then about a 15 minute walk. Not too brutal. I know some parts of the mission are 7-8 hour bus rides. YESH!
How many missionaries are in your district?  8, us four in Los Santos, and 4 Elders in Cartago. We are the only Hermanas. (Which I secretly love because they are constantly calling us to make sure we are safe, and okay.)
Where are they from?
Elder Bacca- Orem Ut, Elder Lundburg- Arizona, Elder Hampton- (Laurens friend)Orem Utah, Elder Guiterrez- Mexico, Elder Roberts (Los Santos)- Missouri, Elder Morales- Panama Hermana Hernandez- El Salvador.
 Who is your district leader? Elder Hampton
  Zone leader? Elder Bacca and Lunburg- They are a hoot!
  How often do you have Zone conference. Ummmm so far we have only had one. But we have district meeting every week, and its super fun.
What do you usually do on P-day? CLEAN our house, clothes, grocery shopping, other errands, and sometimes do fun things like waterfalls, volcanos etc. (Although I have only been to one “fun activity”- last week our outing with Bernal and Rosa.
 What service do you do?  When ever anyone needs service we do it. Members sometimes have little things we can do. We also are starting to clean the church every week.
How often? At least once a week.
How many investigators? About 20! (Awwww yea.) But we only have about 6-8 (depending on the day, and how they feel) that are progressing. This is still really awesome.
Sorry not many photos this week kids!
I will be in the office a couple of times this month, so this is an awesome time to send me mail (hint hint, do it now…)
Send small mail to:
Sister Alexis Patterson
Mision Costa Rica, San Jose
Apartado Postal #249-2010
San Jose, Costa Rica C.A.
Also- Shout out to Alyssa Whipple, I got TWO pieces of mail from her last week, and Emmalee and Cord, I got your Invite! Love love love!
XOXO Hermana Patterson