What a great teaching week! We have been teaching and working with two young men and their families for a few weeks now. We feel blessed to be able to witness their progress and take part in their journey of learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We had visitors on Wednesday. Elder
Christenson and Elder
Belmount, an Assistant to the President and Zone Leader, came to meet us and accompany us on a few of our appointments. They were sharp young men and taught with such power. We went to a local pizza place called
Tejas for dinner but first we went to visit
Honorio and his family.
This picture of
Honorio and 2 of his 3 children (he has a baby too) was taken at church on Sunday. He has been wonderful to teach. He reads the Book of Mormon, he prays, and he attends church. He says that he believes the church to be true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. What more could we ask for? We tried to commit him for baptism last week but he said that he needed some more time. The Elders were able to find out that one of the members of the branch had said something that confused
Honorio about baptism. We were able to clarify and answer his questions and he committed to be baptized on August 28
th. Elder Munroe will be baptizing
Honorio at our branch building. It should be an exciting day. Now we need to get his wife, Maria, to start attending the discussions again too.
You might remember the picture above. It was taken at
Honorio's home on our first visit there.
Honorio and Maria are in the middle with their 3 little ones below them. Maria's mother is on the far right side in the pink blouse. The rest of the kids are Maria's brothers and sister. We hope that the rest of the family will follow
Honorio's example someday.
Our next appointment was with Jose Jimenez, his sister, and her daughter. We had a Family Home Evening lesson with them at the
Ballestro's home. Bro.
Ballestro is our branch mission leader. They have had all of the discussions and attend church but have not wanted to commit to be baptized. The Elders tried to see if there was a specific concern that we could all help to resolve for him. He may have been more open about what is holding him back from taking that next step but there was a room full of people and he might not have wanted to share in front of so many people. We will have to attempt to help him again soon. Jose may need more time, however, his niece said that she is ready. She would like to be baptized soon.
Our last visit was to a couple (sorry, we
don't have a picture) who has been attending church but are not members. They are young and have a little girl who is three. They have had some issues with drugs over the last few years and have worked together to overcome that obstacle together. They feel that being members of the church would be something good for them. They committed to be baptized but we have to get them married first. We are "learning the ropes" of getting married in Costa Rica. We have to find them a lawyer that can marry them and then they will be able to be baptized. We are excited for all of the people that we are teaching and are thankful for them and the spirit that we feel as we associate with them.
Our Branch Relief Society had their very first Visiting Teaching Conference on Friday night. Instruction and ideas were given on how to be a good visiting teacher to those in need of a friend and a kind word. New assignments were also given to everyone. A delicious meal was served; tortillas filled with shredded chicken, refried beans and cheese, green salad, and a chocolate cake (pastel) that I made.
This is our branch R. S. Presidency: Hermana's Ballestero, Lilianna Rodriquez, and Majorie Guitierrez
The presidency had prepared a booklet for each of the sisters. Here is Hermana Jimenez (our Branch Presidents wife) and her daughter with Ginette (one of our investigators who is also one of their relatives) seated in the middle. 
We explored the southern most town in our area last week, San 
We stopped to look at some of the lodges. Each one of them was unique and had beautiful landscaping. 
If you look close, you can see hundreds of trout in the pond......
We stopped for lunch and ordered fish plates. We assumed that the fish would be fresh but little did we know just how fresh. We placed our orders and noticed the owner walk in with a fish that he had just caught from the river in back of his property. They cooked it up and Mike had it on his plate in minutes. Very tasty! We later learned that Mario, the owner, supplies trout for 
This is Mike and Mario, the owner. He is married to a woman from Canada and they have a nice cafe and bakery.
We had seen them around the neighborhood before but had never talked to them. We walked up the street the other day and noticed this little girl in the distance. She was waving her arms and acted so excited to see us. As we got closer she ran down the hill and her face was lit up with excitement as if she had known us forever. She hugged both of us and she kissed us on our cheeks. We have had many kisses on our cheeks here, it is the typical way of greeting someone here, but this was different. She gave us smooches on our cheeks and was about to burst with happiness. We smiled and stood there kind of 
Many of the locals wait for the bus in front of our house. We looked out the other day and Carolina and her sister and mother were waiting for the bus. We went out and talked with them for a while and we got to snap a few pictures.
We are glad that we met this cute family and especially Carolina.....she is a very sweet girl!
He is obviously a returned missionary and so he doesn't go by the title "Elder Howell" anymore but I can't remember what his first name is so I'll just call him Elder.....
Our next group of visitors stopped by on Sunday night. We had just 
We now know many people who are coffee farmers. Most of our local economy revolves around the growing and selling of coffee. With that said, many of our members have connections to coffee fields too. Liliana, a member of our branch, lives in the mountains high above our house and she is a true coffee farmer. She has acres and acres of coffee fields and plenty of young men hired to work them. She hikes around the hillsides like she is still in her 20's, a very strong lady. She invited us to her home for lunch one day last week. We had fun seeing her land, eating a delicious meal, and getting to know her better. 
The coffee plants cover the hillsides......
This is supposedly one (out of three) places that produces the best coffee in the world. Coffee growing is quite a tedious process and a lot is involved. Our area is known for having the perfect climate, soil, and expertise for growing coffee.
This is Liliana's home....
We had a very nice time visiting Liliana. We hope to be able to visit her 
Meet our mailman (
Most of you know that we visited Costa Rica two times previous to us receiving our mission call to serve here. We met 
Elder Munroe and two of the ward members.....
Elder Munroe and Juan....
The Campos kiddos! Thanks for inviting us to your ward party and Happy Mother's Day!
We were in San Jose yesterday and we stopped at the "Costco" of Costa Rica to pick up some items. We passed through the food court to get a drink and we noticed some bright white shirts. What a coincidence that we would run into a set of missionaries with one of the Elders from the mission office. They were definitely hungry and were devouring their pizza. We chatted a bit and then we were off to meet up with some members in a ward building in San Jose. You just never know where you will run into missionaries!
