{alexis.nicole.etc.}

Dear friends and family,

I want you to know how happy I am. Usually changes are hard because you feel sad for leaving people behind and having to start over, but I can honestly say that I am so happy to be here in Purral. I have reflected many times this week on how gracious the Lord has been with me. Different circumstances in my mission have really shaped and carved me into the person I am now, preparing me for my future. I love this ward, I love the area, I love the missionaries in our zone, I love the sisters that we serve, I love my companion and basically I am just so lucky.

The ward mission leader (pablo) is on fire! He loves this work! He loves the missionaries, and he is willing to do WHATEVER it takes to make our lives easier.This ward has only had elders for 10 years, and I love being in a ward that has been awaiting sister missionaries so long! I am feeling so spoiled! Everyone wants to feed us (No! Seriously! They start fighting over who will have us over for dinner!) , the sisters are eager to work with us, and all around everyone is just happy to help! I have never ever seen a ward like this one here in Costa Rica! What a blessing and privledge it is to be here in Purral.

Said

I wanted to share an exciting experience we had this last week. Opening an area means starting from scratch, which sometimes can feel a little hard, but its also something that I LOVE. In my experience its easier to focus on your purpose when you start out with nothing.

As you can imagine, we have spent a lot of our time this last week connacting. One day, we felt impressed to enter a certain street, that actually looked pretty small. As we entered, we realized that the street was way longer than we thought with WAY more houses than we were expecting. We walked and talked, talked and walked until we got to the end. I am not sure what caused us to call out ''upe'' (how you let people know that someone is outside their house)  to the very last house on the street that looked like nobody was home.
 Luckily, Said (thats his name)  came out and started to talk to us. We talked about how we are missionaries, we talked about our message to christ, and he told us that he was interested in talking to us, but right in that moment he was busy. We made an appointment with him for the very next day. He arranged to give him a tour of the chapel and there were various key member of the ward at the time we met up with him for a ward activity that was happening. He met lots of really nice people and then sat down to chat with us.

We explained our purpose, we answered a lot of his questions and we taught him the restoration. It is very rare to find someone who is so ready to hear the gospel as he is. (I have only met two people like him in my entire mission- 1. Claudia and 2. Carolina) He was asking how he could become a member, when he could be baptized, and if he too could serve a mission(WHAT!!??!?!?) . The spirit was strong and he was excited about reading the book of mormon. For 15 days he will be in Guanacaste, but every day he texts his questions and his doubts and we talk him through it. Every time we talk to him the spirit is strong and we can SEE the faith he has in his eyes.

We are sad because there is a rule in our mission that if you share an area with Elders (like we do) you can not teach single men, and they can not teach single women, we have to pass it along. Because he is single, so we will have to pass him over to the Elders to teach when he comes back to Purral, but I am grateful that the Lord allowed us to be part of his missionary/ conversion experience. THE FIELD IS WHITE AND READY TO HARVEST! I am grateful for the testimoney of that I have gained of that principle.

My companion

Madison Coburn from ''just south of atlanta'' (and I hope you all read atlanta like adlana).

20 Years old.

1 semester at BYU provo under her belt.

She has served in Guancaste, and San Carlos (both very hot areas, and far away from San Jose).

She has 14 months in the mission.

We were friends on facebook before we left.

I.... LOVE HER!

I am thrilled to be with Sister Coburn. We KNOW without a doubt that our companionship was inspired because we work together so nicely. My stengths are her weaknesses. Her stregths are my weaknesses, so we have an incredible balance. We already feel like the best of friends. We can be so serious, and we can laugh for days. We already teach is a great unity, which is unusual for an new companionship. We are SO happy we are companions.

The Elders

-Elder Macias, The district leader, from ''Mexico''. I say Mexico in quotation marks because he is from a mormon colony in mexico were everyone speaks english. I Its basically Utah, just on the other side of the border. I am not even sure they eat tacos there..... He is basically gringo. But dont tell him I said that.

-Elder Reed, his companion, from Montana. He is hysterical. One night, Elder mecias was calling us to congradulate us for our numbers that day, and Elder Reed was in the backround yelling ''woo!'' every five seconds. He is the ''strong, quiet type'' but then randomly pulls out some ''woo!''s.

-Elder Reyes, Zone leadler, from Mexico. He has.... some time in the mission. I cant remember exactly how much time, but he is funny. He is SO skinny, but eats SO MUCH.

-Elder Mejias, Other Zone leader, from El Salvador. He has the voice of an angel. Not really, but he loves fake opera singing to get us all laughing, and it works, every single time.

The elders are SUPER jealous of us. The ward is CRAZY about having sister finally, and no body wants to feed them. I kind of feel bad for them.... but it will all work out.

We are happy! We are working hard! And I LOVE Purral!

I am excited to see the miracles that are headed our way!

Love you all!

Hermana Patterson