Hello everybody who still reads my emails and the blog. I was never any good at keeping up with the emails of my missionary friends from home, so I have great respect for anyone who still checks in now and then.
This week was very difficult, especially at the beginning. When Elder A left I alone held the knowledge of this area, which I had to teach all to Elder B. I was very overwhelmed, and reminded greatly of my first week in Costa Rica. It even rained for the first time in months to remind me of what it was like when I arrived. Once again, I received a good humbling. But luckily for me Elder B is exceptionally capable and helpful. Upon arriving he organised all of the information that I had in an easily readable and comprehensible manner. We now have a large whiteboard where we can record all of our information easily. Not only that, but we now have the Area Book app, which means we don't have to fill in (as many) paper documents! huzzah!
I feel I have a lot more in common with Elder B. He is a big fan of The Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering. While I am not specifically a fan of all of those things, at least I can appreciate the shared nerdom. We just have to make sure that our mutual interests do not become a distraction.
Saturday marked the completion of my fourth month in Costa Rica. I can barely believe it, and most of the other people here in P____ don't either. We all still feel that I am quite new.
I hope many of you have been enjoying the Come, Follow Me readings lately. A big example in 1 Nephi is how Nephi and his brothers react differently to the same situations. The brothers Laman and Lemuel are well-known for murmuring whenever any kind of hardship befalls the family. But murmuring never gets anything done. Murmuring did not convince Laban to give them the brass plates, it did not bring them food, and Nephi knew it would not build them a boat. In essence, complaining about the difficulty of the path does not take you any further along it.
With that in mind, I will continue striving to help the people of P____. Have a lovely week.
Elder Godivala
Appendix - The story of Familia Martinez, as told by Elder Godivala in lines of text messages
The grandparents were baptised in 2018
By missionaries
And since then the grandad has come every sunday that he can
But the grandma spent a long time not coming
Because she has a bad foot
And they love to receive us, and all week she said she would come to church
But never did
Always when we were visiting them we would give a nice message for the grandparents
But this actually had the effect of making the grandma feel that since the church came to her, she didn't have to go
She often tried to get the grandchildren to sit and listen 'to the word of the Lord'
But they were often restless and distracted
But when she finally came to church to see off Elder Amorim, she brought some of her grandchildren
Which was when we realised we had to change the approach
And began again, tailoring our lessons to the children
And recently they have been excellent lessons
The children sit along the wall, engaging in our interactive lessons
Grandma sits in her chair, glowing with pride as her grandchildren are nourished by the good word
And she brings them all to church
Because she feels responsible for them now
Not just herself
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