Elder Joshua Stott - Costa Rica, San José West Mission : Week 72

Hello world! How is everyone doing?

My week was pretty dang crazy... So here it goes!

So first, we always work in this barrio that's SUPER sketch - but it's cool because I'm pretty much friends with every sketchy person. Well lots of sketchy stuff happened this week.

In ONE DAY: this crazy boracho (drunk guy) came up and started talking to us - the norm. I usually give him a hard time about his nickname: "Minny" and I always ask him if it's like Mickey Mouse's wife and stuff. This guy is SO SO drunk so he doesn't really know what's going on. Well, he decided to spank me too, like 3 times, and that's what I gave him the "Bro, not cool" talk and he'll remember that. After that, we went to go visit a member who lives down there. Well, we always have to pass by a dog that is chained up - now this dog HATES me, and it's huge. It's crossed between a pitbull and an american stafford so this thing is a small horse. Well, this time it was tied with a tiny chord and I noticed how small and I said something about it to my comp. Well, later, we went to go buy a soda for this member when we had to pass by the dog again. This time, the dog went nuts. And sprinted straight towards me. THE CHORD SNAPPED LIKE FLOSS. So next thing I knew, it smacked into my leg in the thigh SO hard - this thing standing is almost 3/4 of the way to my hips. And I kicked it in the ribs. Well, for some reason, the dog backed away scared and left me alone. I don't know what happened because those dogs kill people and they don't stop until they've torn whatever it is to shreds - mexican drug lords use them. So, I feel really thankful that nothing happened, I know that we as missionaries are protected. If it would've bit me, I'd be home right now so I know that the Lord is looking out for us.

The Dog - like him but white. His name is Bruno too...haha ha ha.

Later, some mocoso (booger) came up by us after trying to fight with another guy. He came up to me & asked me if I had a phone like he was going to take it. I looked him straight in the eyes (I had to look down haha) and told him no. He walked away shooting me a sneer and I asked why he pulled that face. He came back and in my face lifted up his shirt to show something that looked like a gun wrapped in a shirt. My comp came over too and what is cool is that we both received an impression from the Spirit that it was only an airsoft gun and nothing would happen. We basically told him that he could be doing better things. He walked away all big and tough and Elder Fuentes and I just laughed to ourselves. We are protected here, and I've never felt in danger (except for the dog - almost had to change my pants haha).

Well, we've had some awesome stuff happen to us this week too. Some guy in the street whistled to us and called us over to talk - we rolled our eyes because we thought it'd be another boracho. Well after talking to him, we found that received the missionaries in the states and wanted to receive us here. He said he wants to show us to his family and read the Book of Mormon and everything. THIS DUDE IS GOLD - my jaw dropped because in almost 17 months of my mission, nothing like this has ever happened. It's really a miracle and we're going to go visit him today. Pretty stoked :)

Shoutout to Jocelyne Morales because she's cool and she speaks Spanish. Haha

Things are good here too. I'm loving it! The food is starting to take a toll on my stomach so I'm taking it really easy with fats and stuff - lots of veggies and fruits and oatmeal and eggs - GOOD STUFF. And, my package came - I'm going to grab it on Wednesday. Thanks MOM you da best :)

Gracias por todo el apoyo de todos ustedes! Les amo! Cuidense mucho!

Pura Vida y la Iglesia es verdadera!

- Elder Stott

Special shout out to my littlest sister, SOPHIE - happy birthday tomorrow! I love you so much and am so proud of you! I'm excited to see you when I get home and watch you play volleyball too :) Take care of emmy for me! Happy 10th! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!