Kirby, James

Hi everyone, How's it going? I wanted to quickly share an update on my week. Last P-day was relaxing. We bought some hammocks and hung them outside our apartment – it's absolutely fantastic! At night, it gets cool and windy, and because there's not much light pollution here, we can see tons of stars! There are a lot of odd churches around here. We often walk by and hear them chanting things that sound a bit eerie.  We've had a lot of our lessons fall through this week, so we've been knocking on doors all day, which has led to some goofy experiences. We've given out flyers to dogs, found snow, accidentally kicked a frog (it survived, don't worry), and even helped some drunk people with construction. It's been quite a week! We've also seen some amazing views of the volcanoes and the ocean. We visited a gas station just after it had been shot up and found out that many of the churches here are actually used as drug bunkers. That's about it for this ...

Good morning everyone! I'm back in Guanacaste! I love this area; the people are really friendly, and the views are always incredible. It's hot here, but the ocean breeze keeps things cool. Last Monday, we did some shopping and packed up my suitcases. We were surprised to find Prime in the supermarket! We said goodbye to Juan, Sandra, Josue, Oscar, and Candy. On Tuesday, we had my last district council in San Jose and enjoyed Venezuelan food for lunch. Elder Kingsford joined us for the day. We also stopped by Hermano Guillermo's; he worked his chiropractic magic, and my back was popping like popcorn in the microwave! I felt like a new person afterward. The next day was a long bus ride, but luckily it wasn't crowded. We all spread out and had our own row, which was much more comfortable. My first day here in La Cruz was fantastic. The views and the sunsets are absolutely beautiful. On Tuesday, it took two and a half hours to get to and from district council. We ate Taco B...

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great time at your Super Bowl parties. I'll keep this email brief. We had a fantastic week. We changed our P-day to Wednesday so we could attend the temple and perform baptisms with Natasha. We baptized and confirmed her father, who passed away about three months ago, and her grandfather. It was a powerful experience, and the small font was filled with the Spirit. We had zone council and then began exchanges with the zone leaders, who are training as a trio. I went to Hatillo with Elders Threlfall and Pope. We had a wonderful time and found many incredible people. We intended to follow up with a sister about how church went on Sunday, but we ended up having a deep conversation. We gave her the Restoration pamphlet, and she told us that the night before, she had a dream where the only thing she saw was the picture of Jesus on the front of the pamphlet. We stayed up talking about all sorts of things and delved into a lot of doctrine. While ...

Dear everyone, I hope all is well. Here's a quick update on my week: Last week we went to La Sabana Park and played baseball. It was a lot of fun, but I got quite sunburned! Our neighbor, Will, is from Philly, and he invited us to watch the Super Bowl with him and some of his friends at a bar. He jokingly said that if anyone tried to make us drink, he'd "beat them up." We declined but told him maybe next year. He's a cool guy and said he'll go to church with us one of these Sundays before he moves. One of our friends disappeared for around 48 hours. We said a prayer, and he showed up that night. My testimony of prayer has grown so much, and I have seen so many miracles. With school starting back up here, the traffic has been crazy. Our trips to Carpio sometimes take 20-30 minutes, but now they have been almost 2 hours, so we are considering only going once a week. One member gave us a gallon of soup and expected us to finish it in the 20 minutes that we were t...