Companion Letters

From Aleena's trainer: Hermana Anabel Bojorque (from Argentina) She is going home in two weeks! So sad we will miss her:

Hi Serena and the Kugath!!!!
I'm so grateful for your email it significate a lot for me!!!!
 I love your daugther like my sister (and she look like my real sister!!) She inspire me a lot and I know that is because you and your husband were such a good example!!! She is training me. She is crazzy but is the most better crazzy girl that I know in my life!!!
I'm going to prepared a good email for the next time but this is the most important things for me!!!! I'm so proud of her.
I love Kugath's family

Sister Bojorque
My Dearest and Most Adorable Family.....

From Aleena:

Happy Independence Day of Costa Rica!
Ha-ha yeah that probably doesn’t mean anything to you guys, but here it’s like the fourth of July for everyone! I like it because their colors are Red White and Blue just like ours so I feel like imp just celebrating America all over again. They have some sweet decorations though.

Anyways, this has been a really difficult, tough, emotional, taxing but rewarding week of miracles. As you all know, it’s started out a Little tough. But you needn’t worry, I found my motivation again and this ice princess moves forward. The first thing that really blessed me was my visit to the temple!!!! It was my first temple trip here in Costa Rica and was special for a number of reasons. We got to go to Belen (which means Bethlehem) were the temple is with all of our zone and another zone. We filled the rooms! It’s a teeny temple, allot like the Winter quarters or Idaho Falls temples. It was bursting with missionaries! We got there really early in the morning to take some pictures and it was flat out gorgeous... thanks to grandma and grandpa and this wonderful Little camera I have you’ll all be able to enjoy it too! I was admittedly a Little nervous because well everything was going to be in Spanish, but thanks to my previous experiences in the temple and an amazing gift of interpretations I understood basically all of it! I was shocked actually, but it was really cool. It was also a really special experience to share with my wonderful companion Hermana bojorque!!! Our time together is running out all to quickly so it was a sweet experience to have.

We had some other miracles to that might not seem so miraculous to you normal folk, but to us it was awesome! The first one is that for once we decided to have pizza. Wed saved our money and practically starved so that we could eat in san José during district conference. Lucky for us pizza hut was having a special the day we were there so we went in and ordered a large, pan, meat lovers..... We waited and waited and weren’t really sure why it was taking so long (keep in my mind were starving, and you know how I get when I’m hungry... yikes) but is, when it finally came it turned out that they didn’t have a large pan available to bake it, so they gave us 2 médiums for the same Price!!!!!!! I could have cried. Basically we ate pizza for 3 days straight and those were probably the best days of my misión... ha no joke, but really. It was literally a blessing. Heavenly father has a way of doing things like that, he tests our patience and if were good we get doublé the reward! Also in this day I received 4 letters!!!! Thank you to those of you who love me enough to write, how blessed I am to have family and friends like you :)

Another miracle we had was that we found 14 nuevos! That’s 14 new people to teach who accepted a challenge and scheduled another appointment. We found 2 beautiful families with 3 children each and 2 other single women who are both buenísimo!

This week I was having a really hard time. We had walked for what felt like days and couldn’t find anyone to let us in. it began to rain as we walked down another dark road. I was praying in my head and heart to have lessons when I made a promise to the Lord that if the front door of any house was open, id contact there. We came to an apartment complex with every door closed... except the very last one. There were 2 kids playing outside and so we walked up and started talking to them. Eventually the mom came to the door took one look at us, opened the door wide and invited us in with hugs and kisses!!! como  que?!?! Ha-ha turns out this woman had been receiving the missionaries before moving to Costa Rica from Nicaragua. She knew exactly who we were and had her libro de Mormon and everything! Wow.

In this same night we were walking another Street we passed by and all the doors were closed. The Street ended in a gate and we were forced to turn around. On our way back we noticed that one of the houses, whose door had been closed before, now had an open front door! We called in and a woman came to the door. She also knew exactly who we were! She told us her father had been meeting with the elders almost 5 years ago before had passed away and she invited us to come back the next day. doublé wow! What a miracle! To find 2 people who’d already had contact with the missionaries in one night! This was a beautiful night to be sure.

The miracles never stop coming and we enjoyed far more then I shared today but I really only have time for one more today. Yesterday I had to give a full 15-minute talk in Sacrament meeting. A full 15 minutes of just me, trying to speak this confounded language, Spanish. I was worried about it all week and dedicated allot of time trying to get ready but as church rolled around and they were finishing passing the sacrament I felt almost physically ill. Somehow I made it to the pulpit and began... I didn’t share anything earth shaking or deeply profound, but there was a momento when the words began to come without my trying. All of a sudden I was speaking the best Spanish I ever had! Then it left me and I stumbled through the rest of it until my testimony. When it was over I was so relieved. But I knew that at one point in time it literally was not me speaking. (My topic was examples and how the good examples we give allow us to be tools in the Lords hands Alma 17:11 if anyone was curious:)) Afterwards there were allot of people who complimented me on my Spanish! There was even a sister whose getting her masters in Spanish who told me that if she wasn’t a member and knew about the gifts of the spirit it would be impossible for me to speak like that in only 4 months... I felt really good after that:) now if only I could understand other people.

Wow, my fingers are tired, and I bet your eyes are tired from Reading this novel... but I hope that all is well at home with the ones I love! If I could ask for one thing, if you could pray for me to understand the language. I can speak mas o menous, but understanding is the key to helping these people accept the góspel. Thanks! I love and miss each one of you and am sincerely grateful for the support I’ve had this week! Prayers from Costa Rica!!

Also, Happy birthday to my most beloved Mommy this week!!!!! Turning 29 again I believe:) I couldn’t ask for a more lovely, caring, kind, sweet, spiritual, teacher, best friend and mother. I love you!!!

All my Love,

Hermana Kugath