Monday, May 30, 2016

A lot of great experiences this week.

This week was a good one!! I think the Lord has finally decided that we have put up with enough and is starting to pour out the blessings that have been waiting for us for these past 6 months! I'll start out with a cool little story:

Two weeks ago I was driving with Elder Adams (I'm pretty sure I've posted a picture with him... he was one of the assistants) and we were going to pick up a cell phone from an area that was just closed down. As we were driving along, I noticed that one of the road signs had graffiti on it that said 916. And I was like woah that's pretty cool (because its my area code in Roseville). So I had Elder Adams sketch the graffiti and we continued on. After that, I didn't really think about it that much, until last Monday. Elder Fuller and I were walking around contacting because all of our appointments fell through, and we decided to contact this house that we thought two girls that we talked to the week before lived. As we go up to the house we start talking to three kids and a 23 year old named Arnold. We introduce ourselves as Mormons and they start asking why we are called Mormons. So I pull out my Book of Mormon and start explaining it. As I'm explaining it, Arnold takes the book out of my hand and opens to a random page and starts reading 2 Nephi 31: 20-21.
 20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

 21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.

After reading that verse he looks up and says, "This book is from God!!" and I just look at him with my jaw dropped. How did he pick that verse out of allll the other verses? It was exactly what he needed to hear in that moment!
So anyways we started talking a little bit more and he said he wanted to hear more about this "Mormon Book" and took out his phone to save our number. When he turned on his phone, guess what his background was? The graffiti of 916 painted on a wall! I said, wait what is that...? and he said, "oh, that's me!" Apparently he just really likes the number 916 and started painting it everywhere he goes. He doesn't really know why. I explained that it's the area code where I am from and he thought it was the craziest thing ever! I don't know why his graffiti caught my attention so much two weeks earlier... but there was some reason to it.

After that we found the girls that we were looking for and they just happened to be with 8 friends who all wanted to hear about the Mormons. We ended up finding 11 news in just 30 minutes that night. haha

There were two other amazing things that happened this week, but for the sake of time, my fingers, and your patience I'll keep them short.
A couple of weeks ago we met a girl named Susie, who is amazing. She is 23 and is super nice. She is really curious about the gospel and wants to learn a lot more. She lives with her mom, stepdad, and two sisters. We hadn't been able to teach any other of the family members because they were always busy, but this week we were able to teach her mom and older sister Candy. Let me just say... these people are so prepared for the gospel! They are very active in an evangelic church, but there are lots of things that they don't agree with there. We taught the restoration and watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and they accepted the whole thing! Candy said that she feels a lot like Joseph Smith in the movie, and that the restoration just makes sense. She also said that she felt something special when we were teaching. Something that she liked, but couldn't explain. I took advantage of the opportunity and challenged them to be baptized and they accepted to be baptized in a month! I really hope that they can make it! It would be during my last week here and it would be soo cool!

Also, Eduardo finally is starting to come around. We went over a couple of days ago and started teaching about the principle of repentance. After a little bit of talking we got out of him that he was scared to make some big changes in his life and he didn't want to change too quickly. With the help of Alma, we were able to explain the importance of changing. We taught a cool lesson involving fire... I'll show you later haha, and he really felt a strong desire to change. After teaching the lesson he asked, "and when could I be ready to be baptized?" I just handed him the calandar on my phone and said, "this is the month of June. You pick the day." He decided on making a baptism goal for 3 weeks from now. I really hope that he can do it! He really wants to be baptized and is taking it really seriously! At the end of the prayer at the end of the lesson, he didn't lift up his head. I thought he must have been silently praying, but as he lifted up his head a couple of seconds later, tears were in his eyes. He understood in that moment that what he had committed to was one of the most important decisions of his life. It was such a cool experience.

Missions are so cool! They can be so hard, but can be so rewarding. There is nothing better than being fully immersed in the work of the Lord. Dedication, obedience, hard work, and perseverance bring miracles.

I hope you all have a great week!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Volcano erupted and ash is everywhere

Hi!

This week has been filled with a lot of embassy's, a lot of sitting around, and lot's and lot's of ash. I have been kept pretty busy with this new group of missionaries that came in and I've also been trying to prep for the next secretary that's coming in (I should start training in two weeks. WOOH!). Costa Rican migration laws are becoming a heck of a lot stricter now and I'm having to do a lot more work to try to keep the missionaries legal. I would write all of the new processes that I have to go through... but I don't want to bore you. In short, I'm going to have to spend even more time in the office figuring out ways to make the Costa Rican government accept new LDS missionaries in their country. It's a fun challenge.

This week I got sick with a cold... and then to make matters worse the Turrialba volcano blew up. The whole state of San Jose is COVERED in ash. It was kind of cool at first, but now its just annoying. The areas that are closer to the volcano have to walk around with funny looking masks, so at least I don't have to put up with that! haha

This week I got to play soccer with all of the youth from the ward! It was a lot of fun! We had quite a few investigators show up to play so it was a really good missionary moment too! I didn't have time to change clothes so I just played in my missionary clothes. Luckily my shoes held up just fine! haha


Below is a link to information regarding the erupted volcano.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160521-turrialba-volcano-erupts-costa-rica-flights-ash/

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Taxi driver had waited to get a Book of Mormon his whole life.

Hello!
I survived changes this week! Hooray! This week a ton of missionaries had changes and I had to spend a lot of extra time on their bus routes. Also, there is a missionary named Elder Valle who is from Costa Rica who was supposed to serve his mission in the Dominican Republic, but his Visa didn't come on time. Soooo he got put with Elder Fuller and I to babysit him until we could get his Visa. Luckily it came the next day and I took him to the Dominican Republic embassy, picked up his visa and got him shipped off two days later. I felt kind of bad for him though... he had to witness what our lives are like during changes week... including waking up at 2:00AM to drop off the returning missionaries at the airport. I'm definitely not going to miss that part. haha

Not too much stuff happened this week. I taught the taxi driver about the gospel on the way back from the airport and he seemed to really like the message of the restauration. When I gave him a
Book of Mormon he asked me to sign it and said he had been waiting for somebody to give him one his whole life. It was a nice little experience. One thing that I have learned here on the mission is that sometimes missionary work consists of the little things you do and the small seeds you plant in peoples hearts. I don't know if this man will get baptized in a week, month, year, or even in this life, but I did my part and planted the seed.

Alma 32:27-28

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
 28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

Since you all seem to like the homework that I sometimes give... This weeks homework will to be to focus on the word "desire" in these two verses and figure out what the word means to you. After, search for other words in the scriptures that contain the word desire and try to link them the best you can.
Thanks for the emails! Keep em coming!! :)


Thanks for all the cool Finland stuff! I really like the shirt!
I already know I'm going to make myself sick from all this candy, but its okay!
Love you!!




Monday, May 9, 2016

"Take time to think about the things most important in life"

It is another one of those pre-changes weeks and we are also in the week of zone conferences so things have been pretty crazy here. I've gotten really used to the constant stress and mild headaches so when weeks like this pass by I just kind of turn in to a working zombie. All of the zone conferences are taking place here in the office and that's pretty cool because I get to go to all of them. Usually the stake president talks, president talks, the zone leaders talk, and a couples of others, so you can always learn a lot from the conferences. The meetings are always catered too, so that's a nice bonus. haha
E. update! He lost his job! I tried sooo hard to get him back with a baptismal date, but now he says he doesn't feel prepared. UGHH I dont know what to do with him........ Time will tell.
We are trying hard to find new people to teach. The people we have found are now slowly not progressing.
I'm really looking forward to being able to Skype tomorrow for MOTHERS DAY! (remember to do something nice for your mothers everybody)
Well since time is short I'm going to have to end here.... But I hope everybody has a fantastic week and takes out some time to think about the things most important in life. I'm also going to leave you with homework... One section from the bible and one section from the book of mormon to compare. Enjoy!

Romans 8:11-14
 11 Y si el Espíritu de aquel que levantó de los muertos a Jesús mora en vosotros, el que levantó a Cristo Jesús de los muertos vivificará también vuestros cuerpos mortales por su Espíritu que mora en vosotros.

 12 Así que, hermanos, deudores somos, no a la carne, para que vivamos conforme a la carne,

 13 porque si vivís conforme a la carne, moriréis; pero si por el espíritu hacéis morir las obras de la carne, viviréis.

 14 Porque todos los que son guiados por el Espíritu de Dios, son hijos de Dios.
Mosiah 2:22-24
 22 Y he aquí, todo cuanto él os requiere es que guardéis sus mandamientos; y os ha prometido que si guardáis sus mandamientos, prosperaréis en la tierra; y él nunca varía de lo que ha dicho; por tanto, si guardáis sus mandamientos, él os bendice y os hace prosperar.

 23 Y ahora bien, en primer lugar, él os ha creado y os ha concedido vuestras vidas, por lo que le sois deudores.

 24 Y en segundo lugar, él requiere que hagáis lo que os ha mandado; y si lo hacéis, él os bendice inmediatamente; y por tanto, os ha pagado. Y aún le sois deudores; y lo sois y lo seréis para siempre jamás; así pues, ¿de qué tenéis que jactaros?



Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Chase hit his half way point on his mission and celebrated by eating a pint of ice cream.

Hello,

So... I completed my year mark this week and guess what I did to celebrate!! Nothing... well besides buying myself a pint of ice cream and eating it all by myself, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. Really, it just felt like any other day, which is how it should be I think. The cool thing about a mission is that every day is soo important and you can't ever let yourself get distracted! It's crazy how fast time is flying by though... I don't really have that much to update you on... This week the Burt's (the office couple) took Elder Fuller, the Assistants and me out to lunch at Jonny Rockets. It was so good! The Burts are seriously so nice! They remind me a lot of the grandparents, especially because everytime they have a technological problem they walk right in to my office and ask me to fix it. (Just two days ago I had to wipe Elder Burts computer because he got a virus so bad that he got locked out of his own computer...)



I wish I had pictures of the activity from last week, but I forgot my camera, next week I should probably be able to steal some pictures from somebody. The activity was a huge success though! We have about 70 people show up and about 20 were investigators! It was really good for the ward and the community! President Hayes and his wife were able to come and they were really impressed! People loved what I made and were asking for the recipe for the sauces! I was so relieved that it all turned out well... haha

As far as my investigators go... Eduardo said he is ready to be baptized!! Only problem is that he can't go to church anymore... Yesterday we talked to him and he said, "I kept my promise to God and now I don't drink coffee! Now I can get baptized and I'll start going to church when my boss lets me get Sunday's off!" It was such a happy/ sad moment.  He was so happy to be able to finally make this big step in his life. His plan is to buy a motorcycle soon so that he can at least make it to the first hour of church before work. He promised me that he will get baptized before the end of the year and I believe him!

Well... since I don't have that many pictures, I decided to take a quick pic of Elder Fuller and I in the office... shoutout to the gangster barber for the fresh haircut