Category: Spiritual

Marcelina’s House is Finished!

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the building of Marcelina's house. Construction was recently completed and Marcelina, Felix, and Gerardo moved in on Wednesday. I understand that they are extremely happy with the house and very, very grateful for all those who donated either their time or their money to make this happen. Continue reading Marcelina’s House is Finished!

Last Few Days…

Today was our last Sunday here in Costa Rica. Karen and I were assigned to speak at the last minute to cover for one of the assigned speakers. It went well, all things considered, but was quite emotional. I can't believe we've been here for almost a year, and that in just a few short days we'll be going home. We are going to miss our friends here, but we are also going to be very happy to see our old friends in Utah. We really wanted the branch here to be made a ward, but that is going to have wait a while until more members can be found. Continue reading Last Few Days…

Marcelina’s House – Days 9, 10

I've been running around getting ready to move back to the US, so I haven't been able to help out on the house. However, Wilfrido has been able to finish all the walls and put the wooden rafters up. We are now ready to start work on the metal beams that will hold the roof up. Unfortunately, today is too wet to be working with the welding equipment that is needed.

I had an interesting discussion with Wilfrido where he said that when we are trying to do the will of the Lord we are blessed. He mentioned how he has been without work for the last couple of weeks and has some property that he really needs to sell. Once we started building the home for Marcelina, he was contacted by another Tico who knows Marcelina and wanted to help. If Wilfrido hadn't started this project, he probably never would have met this gentleman. However, once they got to know each other, they began talking and one thing led to another, and now this person is going to buy Wilfrido's property which is a huge blessing for him. Continue reading Marcelina’s House – Days 9, 10

Marcelina’s House – Days 7,8

I wasn't able to help with construction on Thursday, but Wilfrido and Alfredo did a fantastic job. They erected another side wall and one interior wall, as well as hung the fiber board along the inside of the first wall.

Today we installed the electrical boxes and conduits, hung some more fiber board along the interior, and I suspect they will have finished erecting all the exterior walls. I had to leave around noon, but they were still going strong when I left. Continue reading Marcelina’s House – Days 7,8

Marcelina’s House – days 3-5

After a long break, we were finally able to get back to construction. It was decided that it would be much better if the house was a little bigger so that there could be a little more space in the bedrooms. Elder Ampuero and Elder Marsh came and helped for a few hours. Gerardo, Wilfrido and I worked until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. We dug a trench along one side of the concrete slab to protect the house from sliding down the hill. When then made the rebar framework to go in the concrete footings and up through the cement blocks. We mixed the concrete by hand, and poured the footing. This was on Thursday.

On Friday we went into San Jose to do some shopping and to show the car to someone who might buy it. This left Wilfrido alone to work on the house. He did an amazing job and got the cement block walls put in all by himself.

On Saturday Wilfrido took Harley (his son) and Jonathan (a friend) with him, and they mixed and poured the rest of the concrete floor for the house.

We are now ready to start building the walls. Continue reading Marcelina’s House – days 3-5

Marcelina’s House – day two

IMG_9197Today we worked on getting the concrete floor for the house poured. Luckily one of the neighbor's is also a contractor who happens to own a cement mixer. He is also a friend of Wilfrido (Wilfrido seems to know just about everyone in Puriscal), and agreed to let us use the cement mixer. I can't even imagine how long it would have taken us to get the floor done without the mixer. Continue reading Marcelina’s House – day two

Marcelina’s house – day one

Today was the first day of construction on Marcelina's house. We started at 6:30 AM and worked to around 3:30 PM. Yesterday we went and bought construction materials like sand, gravel, concrete, plastic pipes, and wood for the forms. We delivered the materials for use the next day (today). Most of the day was spent leveling out the lot. We then put in the lumber around the exterior to pour the floor. Next came the plumbing, very simple design. We mixed up some concrete and covered the plumbing so that it wouldn't move. We then poured the left over concrete in the back corner that is the low spot of the house. Continue reading Marcelina’s house – day one

A House for Marcelina

Marcelina is an elderly woman in our branch who is incapacitated. She has two adult sons who live with her in a very small and run-down home that they rent each month. She receives a small pension and one of her sons is able to work, but the money is not enough to support them. They rely on the church to make ends meet. Below you can see some photos of her home. Continue reading A House for Marcelina

Missionary Update

The work continues to go forth (albeit slower than I'd like). The missionaries continue to work hard and are having some success. We've had a total of 6 convert baptisms thus far in 2010.

Elder Torres was finally transferred after 7 months here in Puriscal. He was replaced by a brand new missionary from Colorado. However, after only about a week here, it was decided that he would be better off with an American companion who could help him learn the language. We then got Elder Zuniga from Honduras, who has been in the country for 2 months.