Elder Stott was able to Skype with us for 45 minutes on Mother's Day. It was great!! He looks healthy and HAPPY!! So a few random things from our conversation: He feels like he's back to 100%, but is sad that he looks skinny :) He says his mission is the toughest thing he's ever done but he's having fun. He says the worst thing is waking up so early every day. He related a very funny story from when he was sick - about his interaction with the hospital nurse who was giving him a shot, and his confusion over the location of the injection :) So, so funny...he described it as a 'peanut butter' shot, and said he couldn't walk upright for several days after. He's lost the love for beans and rice, and says the food there is pretty much flavorless - and he's begging for hot sauce. He's also gotten used to drinking milk from an unrefrigerated BOX. So strange! Another strange Costa Rica thing is that they don't flush their used toilet paper. They fold it up into little packets and put it in the trash. He says it's pretty foul. He really likes his companion, Elder Mejia (who we were able to meet - he seems like a character). He talked about how he plays the piano for church every week, and how nobody actually knows how to sing. They don't even sing the most common hymns correctly...they just make it up. He says it's very comical to try to play along with them. He said that the Ticos like to use English slang with him. He told us about a sweet little abuelita (tiny grandma) who feeds them every week - It just cracks him up because during dinner, if he slips and talks in English, this cute old lady will point her finger at him and say "hey, shut up". It's the only English she knows. So funny!
This Thursday marks his 100th day! We miss him so much. It was SO good to see and hear him - he's changed but yet still the same. He ended our Skype visit by sharing his testimony with us in Espanol - which was powerful. It was a great Mother's day gift!! Hoping this video clip works. Here's his email from Monday...
Hope all is
well in the good ole US of A! I'm proud to be an American :)
Had an awesome Skype visit with my family for Mother's Day yesterday!!
So this
week was great. A lot of great things are happening for us and the missionary
work!
So to start
off, this week was really REALLY super hot. It was in the high 90's and I was
not looking forward to wearing my suit on Sunday haha -jeez was I sweating
(that could be where I'm losing all my weight haha. So it's really hot because
apparently the rainy season is about to start. It's rained a few times and it's
nothing like I've ever seen in Oregon. I'm going to need to buy a new BIG umbrella or I'm going to spend my days soaked haha.
So everyone
here likes to call me names, speak English (including bad words), and my
companions and the youth love the fact that I wear Nike. Here they say it like
N-"eye"-K... if that makes sense. Apparently it's pretty expensive here. My companions say that everything I wear is Nike and that
anything less, isn't high enough quality for me hahaha
So this
week too, our flippin stove broke. Remember that our cocinera got me peanut butter and Quaker oatmeal?? So now I have 50 packets of oatmeal just
begging to be eaten in our kitchen but I can't :( It was kinda funny when it
happened. I was cooking with the little stove and it started to smell like burning
plastic. And then all of the sudden, the stove started to shoot out a load of
sparks and they hit me too. They were pretty cool because they were blue BUT they
stung hahaha. So that was just GREAT and I hate to see my full box of oatmeal now -
it makes me sad haha.
This week, I've heard a bunch of songs that I liked (and still like) before my
mission. Everyone here loves ACDC and Gun's and Roses. I heard "Paradise City" and I took a little minute break to rock out to it. I also heard a particular song by Sir-Mix-a-Lot on the bus and that was pretty funny because my companion and I
looked at each other when the song started and we each had a huge grin on our faces haha. That was a fun bus ride :)
So this
week, one of our investigators bought a new house. He literally has everything
in this life that he needs now. He has a HUGE house, a car, and an amazing family.
The only thing left is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One day we were out on the
street looking for people to teach and he drove by asking if we could help him
with his new home. We painted it and cleaned it as well - it was a great opportunity
to talk about blessings in our lives. He told us after that he had realized
that he started getting all these blessings after we had begun to teach him and
he said that he wants to get baptized for sure now. The miracle here is that he
was super stubborn and a tiny bit prideful but all these blessings seem to have
humbled him and now he has a desire to be baptized :) Such a miracle!
Hopefully
everyone is doing well at home! Remember to be thankful for the blessings that
you have in your life - there are people here with so little. They live very humbly and I am being humbled for sure!
Until next
week,
Elder Brad
Pitt, John Cena and Stott :)
Pura
Vida!
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