Howdy All! I don't have much time today to make a post, but since I am here I thought I would at least say hi and let you all know we are doing well and things are moving with God's help! We all have callings now in our Branch and are excited to really get to work with the endowment of God's Power! We were able to eat out last night by using a taxi to get to and from the resturante and we had the great opportunity to meet a very nice man, the owner of the resturant, who was interested in the gospel and, we felt like, was a golden contact. We were thankful that the Lord lead us there because he really did! We weren't planning on going there at all and actually never even knew it exsisted. It was the taxi driver that brought us there and we were thankful because the food was really really great!! And affordable. We ate, all four of us, for under 60 dollars and we had specialty drinks, wonderful entres, and deserts! We are very pleased and we grateful to be able to talk to Sydney, the owner of the store about the gospel! What blessings flow from a merciful, loving Father in Heaven!
We are excited to see what the future holds and are praying to find a way to pay the taxes on our vehicles or any other miracle to get them back. It is quite tricky having so many children and not having transportation! But it is a good time to trust in the Lord and in his ways.
Hope all of you are doing well, we miss you and love you!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
A New Year, Many New Experiences!
Buenas Dias, Hermanas y Hermanos, Amigas y Amigos!! Nosotros estamos muy bien! Como estan? We love you all and miss you so much! I am sorry that you have to wait so long between contacts with us but that is the trial the Lord wishes for us to experience right now, so we get to practice being grateful for many things! I am glad I have the opportunity today to post this for all of you! I am at the lab with Dannan and it is his birthday today!!!! Happy Birthday to Him! We all love him soooooo much and can't believe he's almost 40! Wow, time goes by so quickly, this life is but a blink of an eye and the Lord must compact our learning experiences into dense pockets of growth for us to be able to become the Celestial Souls he desires of us! I am thankful I get to go through these growth opportunities with my amazing and handsome husband! I Praise the Lord for him and for his amazing abilities! Hurray! for righteous men! the world needs more of them!
Well, we are feeling the great Mercies of the Lord and His loving remodeling of our meager cottages into Godly mansions every day! We are happy to say that we are all still here! We are doing well, we have food to eat and most importantly feel so thankful that we get to feast with Christ as he fills our souls with great joy and love!! I love my Savior and know that I am doing what he wants me to do. I feel ever humbled by my own nothingness and his greatness, but I feel the desire to rejoice in His gifts and in the opportunities he gives me to become the daughter of God that I know I can be and will be! I am so thankful that I get to come unto Him and partake of his great goodness and mercy, to be able to commune with the Father and read the words of truth everyday. I know that right now many of you are also experiencing great chastening and 'shaping' from the Lord and my prayers and love go out to you! I am grateful for all of your words of encouragement and love and I want you to know that I feel the same towards you and know that the Lord does too! All things work out for the improvement of our souls and for our good! I have learned so much from the past few months and I truly have felt closer to my God then probably any time in my entire life! I love to feel his Spirit and His love flood my heart and testify of truth!
There is so much to fill you all in on that I know I won't have time to record everything. So, I will tell you what I can and if you want more details you can call Dannan on his vonage phone 435-327-4522 and he would love to share more with you!
So the last post I wrote was right after Christmas and we had just gone over the border to renew our visas. Well, since then we have been to the border 5 or 6 times to try and renew our licenses on our vehicles and we were told pretty much different things every time. At the same time we were talking to friends and associates here who told us different information as well. So we continued to trust in the Lord and know that whatever happened would be for the best and his will. We finally ended up (after crossing the border in our vehicles, which we were told was very expensive and ended up being free! into Nicaragua and coming back into Costa Rica where we were told we would be able to renew our licenses for 3 months) having to leave our vehicles there at customs until, according to those particular agents, they would remain until we pay the taxes on them. So we are now car-less and it is quite the adventure, quite the humbling experience, and amazing to see the help that has poured out upon us from so many of God's helpers! It's hard to really explain how many amazing angels have been sent our way since we were sent here but I marvel at the mercy of the Lord. We have decided to list the vehicles for sale to see if it is possible to sell one and pay for the taxes on the other two. We are also talking with some different contacts to see if they can help us out or not. We will let you all know what becomes of our cars when it's all over. So Dannan was singing praises of Legalized Plunder, I am sure you can all imagine how much he enjoyed that whole experience. He actually was just telling me about how difficult and demoralizing it was to stand there and watch as the border agents mocked and made fun of us. They were very full of hatred towards us, it was quite humbling. However, I have to say that I have never seen him handle something that difficult so calmly and he has continued to be cheerful and thankful, trusting in the Lord's timing and miracles. I know that all will work out and we will be able to have our own transportation again. I pray that it is sooner than later!
So Rachael has good news!! She is expecting again and she feels certain it is girl twins! Can you imagine that! So we are excited for her and she would love your prayers in her behalf.
She is due then in September! (by the way if any of this seems way to ironic, just remember what Niel A Maxwell said, "what we can take now foretells what He can give later! This reality should be kept firmly in mind as we understandably pray for relief from short-term stress or long-term trauma. We would, if we could, put periods, if not exclamation points, where God is content to put commas in the process.")
The children are doing amazingly well. They seem to be getting along even better now that they have been living together with the Meyers for 3 months then they were during month 2, which, I think, has been the hardest. But, really, they are doing awesome! I am so proud of them for being very selfless and hard working! There have been a number of times that Rachael and I have headed out to the store and have been gone for a couple of hours and then coming home again tuckerd out we've descoto a completely clean and happy home.All of them spend so much time outside it's a little tricky getting in enough study time but they are learning great things running, playing, building, exploring, creating, swimming, imagining, and caring for nature!! It is really cute to see them pair up or even join up in groups and "go"! James and Leah are probably the funniest to watch as they get into mischief. James will wake up calling her name and off they go for a day of adventure! They will head out to their 'fort', calling out to the monkeys and catching bugs! The next time you see them they'll have taken their clothes off, pooped out side on the ground, cleaned themselves off in the hose (and cleaned a lot of other stuff too), and finished up with a skinny dip in the pool! We'll bring them in to feed them and redress them and they'll head off again to play in the dirt, see who can run the fastest, play fight or house or what ever else they think up and just generally have a gay old time! They do get into little tiffs here and there but they tend to get the best of each other and after some consolidation they are off to their shananigains again! Rachael and I just love to watch them and laugh, we wish we could capture some of their moments on film but one day soon hopefully!!
The oldest 4 are almost done with a fort they are building (well, mostly it has been built by Michael, but the others are "helping"). They are making it out of bamboo! It is like a log cabin style house and is about 5 foot square. It is pretty neat. Next to their house they have a pond with a swing they built that swings out over the pond and back to the shore. They have nature root benchs and "the best" climbing trees on the property, so, you see they are good at picking their real estate!
So, Joey turned 12 in December and he finally got the Aronic Priesthood Jan. 2. He had a Priesthood Lesson from Grandpa Smith and an interview with our Branch President who couldn't speak English. (That Presidency has since been redone, more on that in a second) He was very excited as he was asked to pass the sacrament the next week and the week after as well! (there are 3 worthy Deacons in our Branch and only 2 are need to pass the sacrament) He was able to go to the Temple with the youth of our Branch a week ago. I prayed for him to have a very spiritual experience and when he got home he had many stories to tell but not too many that were strong spiritual experiences, so I was talking to him about it later and he said, "Mom, don't worry, it was my first time going to the temple in a foreign country where just about everyone only speaks Spanish! I think for the first time things just might be a little confusing. That's okay." I felt humbled and hugged him tight. I love that sweet boy! I started to picture how the day for him must have been pretty difficult. He was courageous to go when he would have to spend the entire day (4 am to 5 pm) with Spanish speakers only. I am proud of him and I know that he is stronger for the experience. If you want to get all the details you can call and talk to him sometime!
So, about the changes in our Branch. I have shared previously how we came to live in Nicoya and that it was a complete and total miracle that we are in the house we are in. We have had an amazing window opened into the purposes of the Lord this past couple weeks. At the beginning of January our District leaders and Mission leaders were at our Branch meeting and we felt excited to make contact with those good people who helped us find the Pierce's and have to amazing opportunity to rent their home. They said they were only vacationing but when we got home Dannan pulled me aside and said the District Pres. wanted to meet with him the next Sunday. I felt happy for him and he felt scared!! We all thought he would probably get some king of District Missionary calling, I mean, what else could it be? So I spent the week praying for him to be able to be an instrument in the Lord's hand. The next Sunday I found out, right before sacrament meeting, that he was asked to serve the Lord as the 2 counselor in the Branch Presidency. We then sustained our new Branch Presidency in Sacrament meeting. Manuel is the new Pres. (he is one of my friends on facebook if you want to be friends with him!) He is such an amazing man, we all love him and his wife Jensy so much. So, needless to say Danna feels very humbled by such a call, especially since he doesn't, yet, speak Spanish. I feel like he has great work to do, with the rest of the Presidency. We feel certain we were sent to help our Branch heal from the effects of Leadership that has turned away from the Lord. There is much moral sin here, as there is everywhere, but it is definitely more obvious and wide spread because of the immorality of the cultural norm here. Our Branch has be functioning without the guidance of the Spirit for about 2 years now and has suffered greatly. We are excited to get to work, as Dannan already has been, and help these wonderful people feel the fire of the gospel and be able to strengthen home and family and spread the word! I was sustained and set apart last week as the Music President. I have steeped in a few times to lead the music before(which is no easy task when you have to lead with out any accompianment and with out very many in the congregation that can hold a tune and singing a hymn in Spanish that you've never sung in Spanish before AND being only given the notice when you walk in the door to the chapel AND you are only given the numbers for the hymns! I couldn't have done it without the Lord helping me. I would be able to look at the hymn and the tune and which hymn it was would just come to me and I would be able to do a decent job leading) but now I get to really prepare to lead and I get to start a Branch choir if I want to and arrange musical numbers, which we never have! I am excited, it is a very fun calling! Jacob was called last week as the new Young Men's President and we are certain this next week will bring even more changes to our Branch. We all feel like this is at least part of the reason the Lord has sent us here right at this time. Please pray for our Branch and for the old Branch President and his family. We know you all have been praying so much for us and we thank you! It has been very humbling to experience first hand the destructive power of the devil and his angels and the amazing control that they have over the hearts of men. The battle with evil is REAL and is absolutly combinded against the Saints of God to destroy the family and the sacred procreative powers given to Husband and Wife. Let us all strengthen our resolve to repent of all our sins and give up our pride, remain in contact with the Spirit through prayer and scripture study, that we be able to resist the temptations of the Devil and be warriors of Light!! The world needs our testimony to ring out! There are so many lost and sorrowful souls who just need some light and love to come to the presence of the Lord. Let us be those bearers of God's love!!! Let us share our precious gifts with others that we may all come to meet our maker again and rejoice in the value of rescued souls! My hearts swells as I am able again and again to share my testimony with others! I Praise Him for these opportunities!
So, that is a pretty good update on our lives. There are many details I don't have time to share but I hope you will enjoy reading about some of the things that are going on around here.
OK, so a little more....
work is still functioning by miracles from the Lord, for without him we would not make it!
We have enough to live on thanks again to special angels and hard, hard work from Dannan and Jacob.
We get to experience the wonderful joy of riding for hours on hot, crowed buses to be able to get to work and back and to deliver cases.
We get to also experience the great generosity and love of friends as we are given much needed help and service!
Thank You to all of you!
We love you all!
May God Bless you and your wonderful families and keep you in his arms!
The Royals!
Well, we are feeling the great Mercies of the Lord and His loving remodeling of our meager cottages into Godly mansions every day! We are happy to say that we are all still here! We are doing well, we have food to eat and most importantly feel so thankful that we get to feast with Christ as he fills our souls with great joy and love!! I love my Savior and know that I am doing what he wants me to do. I feel ever humbled by my own nothingness and his greatness, but I feel the desire to rejoice in His gifts and in the opportunities he gives me to become the daughter of God that I know I can be and will be! I am so thankful that I get to come unto Him and partake of his great goodness and mercy, to be able to commune with the Father and read the words of truth everyday. I know that right now many of you are also experiencing great chastening and 'shaping' from the Lord and my prayers and love go out to you! I am grateful for all of your words of encouragement and love and I want you to know that I feel the same towards you and know that the Lord does too! All things work out for the improvement of our souls and for our good! I have learned so much from the past few months and I truly have felt closer to my God then probably any time in my entire life! I love to feel his Spirit and His love flood my heart and testify of truth!
There is so much to fill you all in on that I know I won't have time to record everything. So, I will tell you what I can and if you want more details you can call Dannan on his vonage phone 435-327-4522 and he would love to share more with you!
So the last post I wrote was right after Christmas and we had just gone over the border to renew our visas. Well, since then we have been to the border 5 or 6 times to try and renew our licenses on our vehicles and we were told pretty much different things every time. At the same time we were talking to friends and associates here who told us different information as well. So we continued to trust in the Lord and know that whatever happened would be for the best and his will. We finally ended up (after crossing the border in our vehicles, which we were told was very expensive and ended up being free! into Nicaragua and coming back into Costa Rica where we were told we would be able to renew our licenses for 3 months) having to leave our vehicles there at customs until, according to those particular agents, they would remain until we pay the taxes on them. So we are now car-less and it is quite the adventure, quite the humbling experience, and amazing to see the help that has poured out upon us from so many of God's helpers! It's hard to really explain how many amazing angels have been sent our way since we were sent here but I marvel at the mercy of the Lord. We have decided to list the vehicles for sale to see if it is possible to sell one and pay for the taxes on the other two. We are also talking with some different contacts to see if they can help us out or not. We will let you all know what becomes of our cars when it's all over. So Dannan was singing praises of Legalized Plunder, I am sure you can all imagine how much he enjoyed that whole experience. He actually was just telling me about how difficult and demoralizing it was to stand there and watch as the border agents mocked and made fun of us. They were very full of hatred towards us, it was quite humbling. However, I have to say that I have never seen him handle something that difficult so calmly and he has continued to be cheerful and thankful, trusting in the Lord's timing and miracles. I know that all will work out and we will be able to have our own transportation again. I pray that it is sooner than later!
So Rachael has good news!! She is expecting again and she feels certain it is girl twins! Can you imagine that! So we are excited for her and she would love your prayers in her behalf.
She is due then in September! (by the way if any of this seems way to ironic, just remember what Niel A Maxwell said, "what we can take now foretells what He can give later! This reality should be kept firmly in mind as we understandably pray for relief from short-term stress or long-term trauma. We would, if we could, put periods, if not exclamation points, where God is content to put commas in the process.")
The children are doing amazingly well. They seem to be getting along even better now that they have been living together with the Meyers for 3 months then they were during month 2, which, I think, has been the hardest. But, really, they are doing awesome! I am so proud of them for being very selfless and hard working! There have been a number of times that Rachael and I have headed out to the store and have been gone for a couple of hours and then coming home again tuckerd out we've descoto a completely clean and happy home.All of them spend so much time outside it's a little tricky getting in enough study time but they are learning great things running, playing, building, exploring, creating, swimming, imagining, and caring for nature!! It is really cute to see them pair up or even join up in groups and "go"! James and Leah are probably the funniest to watch as they get into mischief. James will wake up calling her name and off they go for a day of adventure! They will head out to their 'fort', calling out to the monkeys and catching bugs! The next time you see them they'll have taken their clothes off, pooped out side on the ground, cleaned themselves off in the hose (and cleaned a lot of other stuff too), and finished up with a skinny dip in the pool! We'll bring them in to feed them and redress them and they'll head off again to play in the dirt, see who can run the fastest, play fight or house or what ever else they think up and just generally have a gay old time! They do get into little tiffs here and there but they tend to get the best of each other and after some consolidation they are off to their shananigains again! Rachael and I just love to watch them and laugh, we wish we could capture some of their moments on film but one day soon hopefully!!
The oldest 4 are almost done with a fort they are building (well, mostly it has been built by Michael, but the others are "helping"). They are making it out of bamboo! It is like a log cabin style house and is about 5 foot square. It is pretty neat. Next to their house they have a pond with a swing they built that swings out over the pond and back to the shore. They have nature root benchs and "the best" climbing trees on the property, so, you see they are good at picking their real estate!
So, Joey turned 12 in December and he finally got the Aronic Priesthood Jan. 2. He had a Priesthood Lesson from Grandpa Smith and an interview with our Branch President who couldn't speak English. (That Presidency has since been redone, more on that in a second) He was very excited as he was asked to pass the sacrament the next week and the week after as well! (there are 3 worthy Deacons in our Branch and only 2 are need to pass the sacrament) He was able to go to the Temple with the youth of our Branch a week ago. I prayed for him to have a very spiritual experience and when he got home he had many stories to tell but not too many that were strong spiritual experiences, so I was talking to him about it later and he said, "Mom, don't worry, it was my first time going to the temple in a foreign country where just about everyone only speaks Spanish! I think for the first time things just might be a little confusing. That's okay." I felt humbled and hugged him tight. I love that sweet boy! I started to picture how the day for him must have been pretty difficult. He was courageous to go when he would have to spend the entire day (4 am to 5 pm) with Spanish speakers only. I am proud of him and I know that he is stronger for the experience. If you want to get all the details you can call and talk to him sometime!
So, about the changes in our Branch. I have shared previously how we came to live in Nicoya and that it was a complete and total miracle that we are in the house we are in. We have had an amazing window opened into the purposes of the Lord this past couple weeks. At the beginning of January our District leaders and Mission leaders were at our Branch meeting and we felt excited to make contact with those good people who helped us find the Pierce's and have to amazing opportunity to rent their home. They said they were only vacationing but when we got home Dannan pulled me aside and said the District Pres. wanted to meet with him the next Sunday. I felt happy for him and he felt scared!! We all thought he would probably get some king of District Missionary calling, I mean, what else could it be? So I spent the week praying for him to be able to be an instrument in the Lord's hand. The next Sunday I found out, right before sacrament meeting, that he was asked to serve the Lord as the 2 counselor in the Branch Presidency. We then sustained our new Branch Presidency in Sacrament meeting. Manuel is the new Pres. (he is one of my friends on facebook if you want to be friends with him!) He is such an amazing man, we all love him and his wife Jensy so much. So, needless to say Danna feels very humbled by such a call, especially since he doesn't, yet, speak Spanish. I feel like he has great work to do, with the rest of the Presidency. We feel certain we were sent to help our Branch heal from the effects of Leadership that has turned away from the Lord. There is much moral sin here, as there is everywhere, but it is definitely more obvious and wide spread because of the immorality of the cultural norm here. Our Branch has be functioning without the guidance of the Spirit for about 2 years now and has suffered greatly. We are excited to get to work, as Dannan already has been, and help these wonderful people feel the fire of the gospel and be able to strengthen home and family and spread the word! I was sustained and set apart last week as the Music President. I have steeped in a few times to lead the music before(which is no easy task when you have to lead with out any accompianment and with out very many in the congregation that can hold a tune and singing a hymn in Spanish that you've never sung in Spanish before AND being only given the notice when you walk in the door to the chapel AND you are only given the numbers for the hymns! I couldn't have done it without the Lord helping me. I would be able to look at the hymn and the tune and which hymn it was would just come to me and I would be able to do a decent job leading) but now I get to really prepare to lead and I get to start a Branch choir if I want to and arrange musical numbers, which we never have! I am excited, it is a very fun calling! Jacob was called last week as the new Young Men's President and we are certain this next week will bring even more changes to our Branch. We all feel like this is at least part of the reason the Lord has sent us here right at this time. Please pray for our Branch and for the old Branch President and his family. We know you all have been praying so much for us and we thank you! It has been very humbling to experience first hand the destructive power of the devil and his angels and the amazing control that they have over the hearts of men. The battle with evil is REAL and is absolutly combinded against the Saints of God to destroy the family and the sacred procreative powers given to Husband and Wife. Let us all strengthen our resolve to repent of all our sins and give up our pride, remain in contact with the Spirit through prayer and scripture study, that we be able to resist the temptations of the Devil and be warriors of Light!! The world needs our testimony to ring out! There are so many lost and sorrowful souls who just need some light and love to come to the presence of the Lord. Let us be those bearers of God's love!!! Let us share our precious gifts with others that we may all come to meet our maker again and rejoice in the value of rescued souls! My hearts swells as I am able again and again to share my testimony with others! I Praise Him for these opportunities!
So, that is a pretty good update on our lives. There are many details I don't have time to share but I hope you will enjoy reading about some of the things that are going on around here.
OK, so a little more....
work is still functioning by miracles from the Lord, for without him we would not make it!
We have enough to live on thanks again to special angels and hard, hard work from Dannan and Jacob.
We get to experience the wonderful joy of riding for hours on hot, crowed buses to be able to get to work and back and to deliver cases.
We get to also experience the great generosity and love of friends as we are given much needed help and service!
Thank You to all of you!
We love you all!
May God Bless you and your wonderful families and keep you in his arms!
The Royals!
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