Hey guys!
Well another great week out here. It was another crazy week, but really fun so it's all good. Last week was changes so we got to go to the airport and the temple with them which is always fun. It's always fun to see new missionaries because they're all so different. Some are excited, some are scared, some are just confused, but they all have so much faith and it's such a great example to us.
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| New missionaries from the Provo MTC |
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| The rest of the new missionaries |
Wednesday we took off for the Zona Sur, the zone farthest away from San Jose, which meant a seven-hour bus ride. It's funny though because I was talking to Elder Vasquez a few days before about how I had always wanted to take the bus down there and sure enough the next week President sent us down so I finally could check that off my ever growing bucket list haha and let me tell you it was awesome. I mean it was kinda boring at times, but it helped me catch up on all the sleep I had lost. That night we stayed with the zone leaders, who are Elder Garay and Maldonado, two of my companions so it was fun to get to see them again.
Thursday we took off for Golfito, a coastal town waaayyy down south that I had always heard about. It was awesome. Honestly one of the coolest parts of the country that I've seen. It was the Costa Rican independence day, too, so there were celebrations all over and people were giving us food left and right. I've never been so full in my life, but it was awesome.
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| "Golfito" |
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| "Iguana" |
Friday, Elder Maldonado took me to the border with Panama so I got get my passport stamped and be able to drive legally here. I had heard it was pretty simple so I went in without too much stress. I got stamped out pretty easily from Costa Rica, but then when I got to the Panama side, they didn't want to let me in because I didn't have a plane ticket to get out from Panama when my visa expired. So I was stuck with a stamp out of Costa Rica, but without a stamp into Panama..... and you can imagine how I was feeling in that moment. I started playing it out in my head and got to the point where I would have to spend the rest of my life on the border haha. So we went back to the Costa Rican side to see if there was anything they could do for us and they said we could get the stamp rejected from the Panama side and problem solved. When we got back over there, there was another guy at the window and he asked me why I needed to go to Panama anyway and I told him I just needed to get stamped out and then back in to Costa Rica to be able to drive. He looked at me, talked to the guy behind him, looked at my passport, looked at me again, talked again to the guy behind him, then miraculously stamped my passport and told me to go get stamped out. I couldn't believe it, but before he changed his mind I went to the other window and got stamped out and almost ran back over to the Costa Rican side and got stamped back in haha it was crazy but I felt so relieved. I'll never forget that guy that felt mercy for me and gave me that stamp. So to celebrate, we went to Burger King.
Then Saturday we took the bus back to Tres Rios at 4 am and got back home at about 11:30, just in time for lunch. Later that night, we got a reference from Salt Lake of a cousin of some temple missionaries who lived in our area. We talked to her and she said we could stop by at about 7:30. We made it over there, but the house was dark so we decided to wait a little to see if she got home soon. After a few minutes, we called her and no one answered. We kept calling, but nothing. After about 20 minutes we decided to just leave a pamphlet in the door and hope for the best.
The next day, we were getting ready for church when the elders from San Diego called us about some woman who had showed up with her 3 kids looking for us. We ran over to the church and sure enough, it was her! Apparently her phone had died and she had gotten stuck in traffic, but she decided to come to church anyway. And she loved it. It was so awesome, she got super into Gospel Principles, answering almost all the questions. After church, we went to go visit her, this time when she was actually there and got to meet her husband too. They both seem super interested so we'll see what happens! Miracles!
But that's about it fam! Love you all a ton! Have a great week!
Elder Hansen
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