"One, two, three" in English, French and German

Lupita and Luis

Elder Davis, Elder Tingey, Luis, Elder Brassard

Hello!

Today we had our last district meeting for this transfer. Things sure happen quickly. Elder Brassard and I have had a lot of success here in Costa Rica II. This past Saturday, Luís was baptized, which was really fun. His girlfriend, Lupita, bore her testimony before the ordinance; it was powerful. She said how worried she was about her family members that are becoming less active, and they all ended up coming to church yesterday when Luís was confirmed.

Next week, Fernando will be baptized. His mom, Luísa, is member who has been less active in recent years, but is now super active after the two weeks that we have been teaching. She's the queen of referrals; I'm convinced that all of her neighbors will be active members in a few months. We teach at their house nearly every day, and everytime there are various neighbors there. We taught the ten commandments a week ago to 9 kids that had gathered in the house, using hand symbols to remember each commandment. Every scripture all the kids yell, "No, I want to read it!" "No, me!" and they all fight over who gets to pray at the end.

We always sing at the beginning of the lesson, and someone always counts to three to start us off. I think I've taught a good portion of the city how to count to three in English, French and German. I want to learn how to count to three in some other languages so I don't run out of creative ways to start off.

Lots of kids in the street like to practice English or learn new words, so they always yell at us, "¿Habla Inglés?" It's actually been a cool way to find families to teach, once we have the kids show us where they live. Earlier in the week, some kids asked if I speak English, and I just yelled, "¡No, solamente Alemans!" (Only German!) They all started yelling and chased after us. I guess word spread pretty quickly and now a lot of kids in that colony call me "the German." (El Aleman). I feel like Marcus Arelius in Gladiator.

We found a woman, Amalia, on Saturday. She has definitely been divinely prepared to hear from us. We talked to her in the street, gave her a pamphlet about the Restoration, and set up an appointment. A few hours later, we had extra time so we went to her house to teach her, and she had already read the pamphlet and loved it. She essentially challenged us to baptize her. Her mom, Marguerita, is this tiny woman in a wheelchair who is really sassy and hilarious when she knows what's going on. Amalia is really silly and funny and had the whole Gospel Principles class laughing in church on Sunday. She's living with Cándido, who as it turns out was baptized, but never went back to church afterwards, not even to be confirmed. But they are planning on getting married later this week, and Elder Brassard and I are going to be witnesses for that! So, they will probably be married and baptized and active members in two weeks. We taught the Plan of Salvation last night, and she was just in tears for most of the lesson. The Spirit was testifying very strongly as we explained what is happening to her father, who passed away recently, and how they can be an eternal family.

The amount of les active members here in Costa Rica is sad. We're trying to help the members realize the impact they can have, especially in supporting the less active membvers and helping them come to church. We find a lot of them, but we really don't have the capacity to fellowship everyone. When the members of the chuch have friends visiting them or accompanying them to church, they stay strong.

Things are going very well here in Mexico. Thanks for the support!

Love,

Elder Tingey