Turning 20 in Costa Rica Isn't So Bad.

AAAAAHHHHH! Wait. First things first. I realized that I may not have ever directly said ''Happy Birthday'' to Mom last week, and I feel terrible. I hope your birthday was amazing, Mom! Elder Morales saw a picture of you and said you look 29 years old. Second, I did get the package last week and it was so amazing and wonderful and perfect!!! I'd totally been wanting the music on those CD's, and everything was just so great. All the people in the pictures look so different than when I left! Also, I laughed out loud really hard at the Scott thing. I didn't even need the explanation to know what it was about haha.

Normally a few times a week, kids ask me to speak English. It's almost always so they can marvel at the fact that there's a gringo talking in front of them, so I usually say something like ''I can speak English all day long if you want, but it won't even matter because you can't understand a word that I'm saying.'' That's what I said this week to this teenager who wanted me to speak English, except he was like ''...but I can.'' He turned out to be totally fluent.

Lightning struck like 50 feet in front of us yesterday. I'd never seen anything like that. Also, we have this amazing investigator. She's going to be a great member someday soon. Hopefully August 17 if all goes well. She came to church yesterday and said she has a big question for us next time we visit her. 

It does feel weird to be 20 and not have teen in my number. But yeah my birthday was fantastic! Elder Morales called the whole world while I was showering in the morning and everywhere we went all day people already knew it was my birthday and gave me food and sang to me.

I'm so psyched that you guys are going to Elder Baca's homecoming! There's one Utah missionary in our district right now. Hermana Roundy from Bountiful. The work is picking up here. We had six investigators in church yesterday. We've had to walk a ton lately for lack of money, but we normally walk a lot anyway because the bus routes aren't very convenient. Gotta go. Love you guys!

Love this quote. ''Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father in Heaven and how familiar is face is to us.'' Don't remember who said it.  A prophet. and it was quoted in this past conference.

--Elder Hampton

 

 

 

 

...if I'm excited for Friday? What's Friday?

P-Days are for some reason often kind of rough emotionally... for most missionaries it seems like. I was feeling like that towards the end of the last P-Day, and partly because we didn't have any good set plans that night. We'd been trying to contact these members whose names we didn't recognize, and I tried calling just one more time at the end of P-Day before going out to work, and the lady answered and was all happy and said to go over and gave us the address. Somehow it was just the think to make me feel better. I just stood up and shouted ''YES.'' for like ten full seconds. It turned out they were inactives of four years, and now we're going to start helping them come back.

There are lots of Subways here (as in the restaurant), but it's ridiculously expensive, like 10 dollars for a big sandwich. The other day they had this special offer though and I totally got a $4.80 footlong! Couldn't believe it. Day-maker.

There's this great album a lot of missionaries have called The Work. It's by a group called the Nashville Tribute Band. You guys should check it out, it's all about missionary work, and it's like country music. Also, I bet one of the songs on it called ''Bless My Son'' will make mom cry. A missionary in a house I went to this week has My Turn On Earth on his iPod, and I was all over that. But what's up with that depressing last song about places you'll never go, pages you'll never turn, and words that you never will learn? I only heard that part of the song, and it like haunted me haha. Maybe it's a more positive message within the song as a whole.

Like I told Mom, that meeting this week is cancelled. But we're actually going to the office right now so maybe my package will be there. Glad girls camp was great! I'm good on clothes and all that! I haven't told anyone about my birthday, and I'm not going to. All they'll do is smash an egg on my head. An annoying tradition they have here. I have to do the baptismal interviews for the whole district whenever they need them, so I get to do lots of exchanges and I love it. Just our companionship lives in our house though. 

The next changes are August 8, when Elder Baca goes home!!! Warren goes home just a couple weeks after. I'll find out his homecoming talk date. as well as Elder Baca's if you guys for some reason want to take a weekend trip to Vegas. Sorry, you'll never hear the end of that from the girls now. thanks so much for running to the bank mom! Love you! Love you all, and miss you! Thanks for the birthday wishes! I'm sure it'll be a good, normal day which is what I want haha. 

--Elder Hampton

Facebook, Heredia, and Wonderful Surprises.

Here's a rundown of some of our investigators. I'll start with our most recent convert: E---. First, flashback: After the baptism of H---- and J---, we were walking through the city, when a man stopped us and asked where the Cartago chapel was. His name was G---, and he was an inactive member. He'd grown up elsewhere, but had just moved in with his girlfriend in Cartago.

 

He brought her to church that week, and she loved it, and they got married to obey the law of chastity just a couple short weeks later. They have a little baby daughter. E---- was baptized this Thursday, and I hope to be able to attend their familiy's sealing in one year. I love them so much.

 

I loved the broadcast! However, missions like ours are the reason they said those new tools will be implemented ''in the coming months AND YEARS.'' Haha, we don't even have cell phones in this mission, and that's not because we get robbed. It's because we can't handle it as a mission. People abuse that stuff. Maybe if I'm super lucky I'll get to start using that stuff a tiny bit towards the end of my mission, but I very highly doubt it.

 

There are four big cities in the middle of Costa Rica: San Jose (where I basically started my mission), Cartago, Alajuela, and Heredia. I now am familiar with three of those four cities, because I had changes. I'm in Heredia. Our specific area/ward is called San Francisco, but we're practically in the center of Heredia. My new companion's name is Elder Morales, and he's from Colombia. He's only been a member for about a year and a half. I was excited because he's a hilarious, great kid.  I love the kid so much.

 

We only have one investigator in Heredia, named C----. He should be getting baptized on July 20th. We just started to teach him yesterday. I'm still district leader here, which I'm a little nervous about, but I'm already great friends with my district now and have found my place in Heredia.

 

To give you an idea of how safe I feel, Mom, the other night right after in our companionship prayer I prayed that we'd be safe throughout the night, literally as I finished saying the word ''Amen,'' a gun was fired nearby. And we didn't think much of it because it wasn't out of the ordinary. But like you say, we have the protection of the Lord. There are areas far more dangerous in this mission anyway. The worst thing that could ever happen to me would be give up what I'm carrying, which would be scriptures and maybe 10 dollars. So I actually don't feel that unsafe. We just have to be careful. 

 

''To believe in God is to know that all the rules will be fair, and that there will be wonderful surprises.'' I'm in love with that quote. I just am.

 

Love and miss you all!

 

Elder Hampton