This week were so lucky to get a text and a picture from a dear family from Idaho vacationing in Costa Rica. Elijah has been sick and this sister's opening sentence was "we saw your healthy and happy son." What a wonderful blessing to our family. Elijah is having wonderful experiences in his new area. He is teaching a family of nine and is loving the new experiences he is having daily. Thursday he is taking the six hour drive to the capital to visit with the mission president.
This week Elijah sent us the letter he sent to his mission president in Spanish. We had Gera, a salesman that is like family, come for family home evening and translate it for us. It was wonderful. We are proud of how this boy is striving to obediently serve his Heavenly Father.
Elijah had a great week last week. He has been working really hard. It sounds like he has a huge area. There are two towns that they are mainly working and they are a two hour bus ride apart. It sounds like the area is very rural with lots of walking and bus rides. Most the members he works with are in Nicoya. In order to go to the mission home, he and his companion take a five hour bus ride into the city.
This week he and Elder Arriola had to go to the mission home, which made for a very long day. He missed his P-Day so the Mission president let him write home on Tuesday. He loves his mission president. He said its like being around his dad with how strict he is. We think its kind of funny as all the kids flee the house whenever their dad has a day off.
We can't believe he has been on his mission for seven months. The reality of it is how fast its gone. We love our Tico.
This past week Elijah had the chance to work with his mission president in his area. It sounds like it was a very busy week. Elijah said the highlight was attending church meetings with his mission president. They had an investigator attend church so they are starting to see progress! He says that it is great to be near the beach again. We love our boy.
The Elders in his area are invited every four months to go to a wild animal reserve. He said it was awesome. It was the first time he has ever been able to feed a giraffe (that's his hand in the picture), see zebras up close, and if you look closely, Elijah is pointing out the monkeys in the tree. He thought it was pretty cool.
He said that his new area is a little tough. He said that he and his companion one day knocked on nearly 100 doors. He said that they were let in twice and told that the people were Catholic and not interested. As they were going home, his companion asked him if missions were always this hard. He said that he didn't know what to say to him.
He said the best thing about this last week was being able to see the ocean. He said that he loved that. He truly is in a beautiful area. He said that while he was at the beach a man approached him and told him "thank you for serving our Heavenly Father." Elijah said that he started to totally bawl.
Elijah got transferred this last week. He is temporarily serving in Nicoya until they can secure housing in Samara which is a small beach town. He said that he has gone from the coldest part of his mission to the hottest. He said it is HOT and HUMID! He also told us that he has no hot water in his apartment. Every morning he says that he gasps as he takes a shower and there is no ability to warm up the water. He also informed us that he has to wash all his clothes by hand. This should be an interesting area for him.
He went to his branch this last Sunday and said that there are about 30 people. He and his new companion, Elder Arriola from Guatemala, have their work cut out for them. As he left the church on Sunday he took this picture of this lovely iguana outside the church. He said that he sees iguanas and wild chickens everyday. He also hears screaming monkeys everyday. He said that he is in the "straight jungle." We can't wait to hear more adventures from Lij.
