Email: Sept. 28

Hey everybody
I am doing really well, this week was really awesome. Tuesday night we started divisions with the missionaries in Aserrí and I went there to be with our district leader, a gringo. It was a great break. Speaking in English all the time was awesome. That area is a little bit richer and more educated and thus the people actually know how to speak Spanish, not hick-spanish. Nobody there believed that I only have 2 months in Costa Rica because all the other missionaries are awful with Spanish in the beginning (and many for longer). People asked me where I learned spanish and I told them ´San Miguel, for the past 2 months´. I also told a lot of them that my mother is Mexican and that made them less surprised that I can speak Spanish. In their area is a place called Jardín, we went to teach some of their inv. con recién conversos. They were alittle bit poorer and it was raining and there were about 10 other people there besides us. So we sat on the ground to teach them while rain dripped on me. We almost had to shout when the rain picked up. It was good to learn from our DL; mostly learned what not to do. Haha. Good missionary, bad habits. What more. I have a sorta funny story. There is a little community of old people between our chapel and the street so we had contacted them a bit ago. We went to talk with them again this week, and found Octavio, and 80 year old man, with bright orange swimming goggles on, on his front porch with tupperware bowls of dirt and liquid. We asked him what he was doing and he told us that he likes to experiment with things of the earth and sciences, but that what he was doing was way scientific and had big words that we wouldn't understand. Words like hydroperoxide and nitrogen. Haha. He had some gold coins and was stripping off the metal etc. It reminded me of Grandpa Lofgren a ton, except that grandpa is smart and not crazy. What more.. we didnt have our baptism, the mom of the girl thinks LDS´s are satanic because we know that he is a spiritual son of God too and that makes us satanic. We got references from our zone leaders for two families that live together. They are golden. They have been going to church with their boss in another area so we are teaching them. The dads are brothers and they all live together. But with every good thing comes some kind of conflict. This week was the end of the month and when you can really see what numbers you need to meet your goals. So, these families were going to come to our church to meet the bishop of our area etc, but the ZL´s called them Saturday night to set up an appt. In their church with their boss. So, that was a good boost for their numbers.. What a shame. So we need to call them and get on their cases. These families are super interested, told us they have prayed and received their answers (woot), and we put a date for their baptisms and marriages for the end of October. Sweet eh? We only have to deal with our ZL´s and its a smooth ride for their key the the kingdom of God, baptism. OUr other investigators are good too. We are hoping to have 6 baptisms this month. Those 4 and 2 others. The max would be like 8, but that would need a few miracles, so we are praying. Also, we contacted some other people yaddayadda and got to know them a bit and them us and they were guessing where we were from and they thought I was from Colombia or Peru. UYSH! One of the first to think that I'm not American. Fun stuff. Good week all in all. Hope everyone is doing fantastic.
Harrison