Love my home and away wards :)

My Most Beloved and Beautiful Family....

Hi:) First of all, sorry if I scared some of you with the gunpoint mutual story haha. More then anything I was just letting you know that I know that I’m protected. Its funny but we walk these cold dark streets and I don’t even feel afraid. Maybe I’m just suuuuper naive... haha but I personally just like to think my faith is just greater then my fears.

I really just want to take 1 second to express how truly grateful I am to everyone of my home ward. I just love you all so so stinkin much!!! My mom has been letting me know how generous and incredible you’ve all been helping me and watching over my family. There isn’t a ward in the world that could compare with how much I love and appreciate you all! This week I have been searching out ways to bless the lives of others like you all have blessed my life. My favorite was taking a future missionary to the mall today and letting her pick out a whole outfit!!!! Shell be serving in Mexico, leaving in January and her family doesn’t have the money or support that my family enjoys. Some people may look on it as a sacrifice, but I look at it as a way to give back when vie been given so much. Hermana Rodriguez is going to Mexico lookin goooood!

My heart is broken for the Conrad family and certainly for Elder Conrad. This is a trial I couldn’t even imagine having to face. But don’t worry, the plan of salvation and the atonement have the power to suck out the pain and sorrow from even the deepest, harshest wounds. There is life after this; death is just a stepping-stone to the reino celestial! Knowing Hermana Conrad she is happily serving right alongside her son in the glorious work of salvation, she’s just been called to serve in another mission.

This week has been wow long..... We played so much ball last p day that I was extra tired. Also one time we tried to walk from our district meeting in Ipis to our first appointment in paracito. Bad idea, don’t ever try that. We walked for like 3 hours straight!!!! Up and down and up and down..... Whoa. I was exhausted en serio. But this week was incredible really. This week our miracles stacked up! I just should let you all know I am literally spoiled to live and work here in Moravia. We have the best ward!!! The most supportive bishop, the sweetest sisters, the best members who feed us day in and day out, and the Lord is blessing us with so many investigators we don’t even know what to do with them all!!!! Oh wait, yes we do..... BAPTISMS BABY! Hermana Montoya and I have a dream for Moravia. We want 2 companionships here. But to have 2 we have to have excellent success in this month. We have the ability to baptize 12 people this month, but our meta (goal) is 10. That’s a lot...... please, please pray for us to achieve this goal. Its seriously a crazy goal and we are going to have to work ourselves to the very ground, but we want this second pair of missionaries. Moravia is a HUGE  area and we need the help.

Anyways, sorry this letter was boring, my minds a little wacky today. Just know that I love you all and the Lord is the author of our lives, he is the perfect planner and we can always trust in his will. I miss you bunches upon bunches|! Prayers from Costa Rica,

All my love,
Hermana Kugath

More Miracles

My Dearest Darling Family and Friends....

Wow what a long week it has been. It feels like I say this every week but en serio, this week was jam packed with miracles. Let me start with my very favorite one.

MARLON GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m going to cry. Wow. Marlon for all you who don’t remember is the husband of MY DANELIA. la mia! Wow wow wow. That means in less then a year I get to go to the3 temple with them!!! I could die from happy tears right now. I can’t tell you how happy I am. (It will be really close to the end of my mission when they can enter so maybe mommy and daddy you guys can be here too! vamos a ver vamos a ver).

Another miracle is that a few weeks ago on a bus I lost my plaque. I was wearing the magnet one so the front just fell off and I didn’t realize it until it was to late. But yesterday on the bus the driver handed me a little black square... MY PLAUQE!! I thought it was a goner for sure and I was so so heart broken cause it was the plaque that I started my first day in the MTC. But because My Heavenly Father Loves me and he knew how much it was worth to me he found a way to get it back to me... wow, the love of a father.

Miracle three... this one is a little hard to explain so bear with me.. This week Hermana Montoya’s mom sent her a package. It was really big and so our ZLs went to the office to pick it up and brought it to the stake center. We had to go pick it up during the next district meeting. We decided that we would just take it from the stake center and put it in our chapel because to take it to our house would be extra money and time and then at the end of the day we would just pick it up on our way home. When we got to the meeting Hermana Montoya told me that she had forgotten the chapel keys so we ended up having to take the package home. at the time it was a little annoying and we were kinda grumpy because then we just had to go back to where we were. BUT!!! the next day we found out that that night there had been an armed robbery at the church during mutual... in between 8 and 830 which would have been exactly the time we would have gone to pick up the package again had it been in the church........ whoa. we could have very likely been on the outside of the chapel when these gunmen showed up. Our dear Heavenly Father was protecting us without our even knowing it. Luckily no body was hurt and the only things taken were a laptop and a few smashed windshields. But we weren’t around which was a huge miracle because it was our plan to be there. Thank goodness HE has different plans then we do.

This week has been filled with wonderful members, delicious food (until I was stuffed fuller then a turkey on thanksgiving day (they don’t even celebrate thanksgiving here!!)), good friends, uplifting lessons and meetings and more then anything this has been a week of spiritual growth for this little Hermana. I have so much to be thankful for. I’ve learned so much and felt the spirit so strong. I’ve strengthened relationships, made friends, lifted up the weary and been lifted in return. I love to be a missionary!

Today we had a special zone conference. We talked a lot about our responsibility as missionaries and our attitudes. We watched the most powerful video clip about the atonement. The point was this.... you want to become like Jesus Christ. Well, then you have to be willing to sacrifice like him. You have to be rejected like him, you have to act like him, talk like him, react like him. If you want to be like Jesus Christ you have to be more then willing, you have to pay at least a teeny tiny itty-bitty bit of what he paid. Or how else can you expect to be like him.   Christ was the perfect missionary; the perfect missionary and the world literally crucified him. I can take up my little cross and try a little harder to be a little better. There is NO easy way when it comes to missionary work. It’s not suppose to be easy, it never has been. But for those of us who are willing to pay the price the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices. I feel honored to be rejected, delighted to be disliked and at peace in the war of the world. I am becoming like my savior, my father, would have me be. THIS is MY mission.

The truth is I love you all so so much! You are my teachers, examples, my reason to be here. Everything that I know about the gospel is strengthened through my loved one. I literally pray for each and every one of you, by name, every night. My family will be forever. I love you guys!!! Prayers from Costa Rica;)

All my love,
 Hermana Kugath

Halllooweeeen

My Dearest Family...

Another week come and gone so fast! I can’t believe this week is already Halloween! wow.. The sad thing is that they don’t celebrate it here in Costa Rica. Why?? Beats me. Its like free candy and you don’t have to wear normal clothes, why isn’t Halloween every day?? Hermana Montoya and I are really excited because were going to celebrate it alone if we have to. (We heard that the missionaries aren’t allowed to leave the house this day or something like that because there might be crazy people in the streets..... but were not sure so we’ll see.) But for our costumes were currently planning on switching our nametags, we'll see! Anyways, yesterday was the day of cambios but luckily were safe and will be spending a minimum of 6 more weeks here in Moravia:)  I’m actually really glad! I love everything about my area. My companion, my investigators, my house, my ward an members, the town, the way we do things.. I’m really comfortable, happy and grateful that Heavenly Father still has a purpose for me in this place that I love so much. Of course we have a purpose here! Hermana Montoya and I are a powerhouse team:) we've had the opportunity to be part of a big change here in our stake, Toyopan. The Hermana Especialistas told us that for a long time president wasn’t really pleased with the numbers and results we were putting out because he knew that the zone could do more. But we’ve been working super, super hard this last little cambio to change that and this month our numbers were 2nd only to Guanacaste (which is like the promised land!) !!!!!!! So we were all very pleased. In fact, president was so pleased with us that he gave us permission to go to the cascadas (waterfalls) of Coronado today! We even have the privilege of wearing normal clothes! Whoa... ha-ha that’s a big deal folks; I'm wearing PANTS in PUBLIC! eso!!!

This week was really fun. We got to do divisions with the Hermana Especialistas so I got to go work with Hermana Pizza in Purral for a few days! A little bit of change now and again is refreshing. It was really good to have the chance to see someone else’s area and be someone else’s companion for a little bit of time because it helps us to see the things that were doing wrong and the areas that we need to change, work harder or be better. But also the areas that were doing really good! The areas of our strengths and the things we do the best. I learned a lot from my few days in Purral and were excited to make Moravia even better then it already is! One of my favorite parts of this mini transfer was that we got to play soccer in the mornings with some other missionaries. Everyone knows I’m not the hugest soccer girl, but these two days that we played it was pure joy! We had to wake up super early, but it was worth it to get to run and play around and for once get a good work out. The two days after we played my body of course hated me and rebelled.... but the pain was nothing compared to how happy I felt playing so it was okay. 

This week Gerardo was confirmed a member and given the Holy Ghost! In this same sacrament meeting we had one of our special investigators. Yamelet is an older blind woman that were trying to teach. Wow it is difficult trying to teach someone whom cant read and cant get to church themselves!!! But we have been commissioned to preach to everyone and so our struggle with blindness and people who simply don’t know how to read rolls forward. It was really sweet though because the members were all so ready and willing to help us! We had a couple come and pick up yamelet and take her to church while we were there others helped her find the bathroom, got her water, helped her to a comfortable seat, sat by her, talked to her, introduced themselves and welcomed her in every way possible. After church one family even drove her to the clinic because she asked them to. I LOVE BEING  MORMON!!! There’s no other people like us in the world. 

Anyways, I’ve got to get me to a waterfall sooo.... I love and miss each and every one of you! Please all of you eat at least 10 pieces of Halloween candy for me this weekend :) and remember that I am continually sending my love and prayers for you from the land of the lamanites ;) haha. Prayers from Costa Rica!

All my Love, 

Hermana Kugath