Interesting experience in the rainforest!

I'm so sad that last weeks email didn't get to you:(

It was such a good week! Luis Carlos got baptized and received the priesthood. And even though he was baptized at 8 in the morning about 30 people came! It was so good! He came to church last week and went to a special family history class that they were giving and now is excited to go to the temple to do baptisms for his family! It's always really neat to see how excited people get about the restored gospel!

Also... I'll try to tell the quick version of the crazy stuff that happened last week... It won't be as good or detailed as the first time around, but whatever.

After the baptism a member called us and said that she was really worried about her daughter that lived way out in the rainforest with her mom. She said that lately her daughter had been complaining of hearing voices and seeing dark shadows in her room. One night she woke up at 3 in the morning because she felt like somebody was choking her. Weird stuff, right? When she told us that, I said to her (jokingly) "well it looks like you're in luck, because I've been practicing my latin and I just restocked on my holy water... so let's do an exorcism!!" When the member heard that she said, "That sounds like a perfect idea!!" So.... off we went. We left the members house at about 2 on a Sunday and started walking under the midday sun for TWO AND A HALF HOURS through dense rainforest We finally got to the little house in the middle of nowhere and we were met by a really nice family of 6. They were all baptized a long time ago, but stopped going to church because the people stopped visiting them because they lived so dang far away. After a little bit of talking we got down to business and started to ask the daughter what was going on... after she shared a little bit we decided that we needed to give her a blessing. When we were giving her the blessing she started falling over... and started breathing kind of funny. When the blessing was finished she ran over to her mom and said that she couldn't breathe and burst into tears. The mom got all freaked out because she said that she had never seen her daughter cry like this before. Then the daughter said that she wanted to throw up and yeah... It was quite the experience. After that we headed back up the mountain and through the rainforest, barely arriving at our house before 9.

Well I guess that's a quick review of last week. This week not much has happened... I've been pretty sick with a virus thats been going around, but finally after 5 days I'm starting to feel a little better. I can't wait to feel 100% again so that I can work hard. Being sick on the mission is no fun... pray for me! 

Since I've been sick I don't really have much to share... I took advantage of my downtime and now I've almost finished Jesus the Christ... so I guess that's good? haha

Our cook also moved farther away and so now we have to walk a little longer to get to her house On the way I found a goat... so I'll attach a picture of my new friend to make up for the lame week!

Also, there are some crazy grasshoppers that are all over the place over here! They are so scary looking!

Hopefully this email will get to you.

Love you all!

Beautiful and scary grass hoppers!

Some members heard Chase wasn't feeling well so that brought him a huge hamburger.

Wow!!!

Just lots of pictures this week from his old and new area

A Chase original

New member of the church

Temporary Mission President while President Hayes is receiving medical assistance in the states.

Chase's friend George that lives across from the mission office. 

Chase and the lady that cooks and does laundry for the him and his companion in his old area.

Loving the new area and taught with a parrot on his shoulder

I AM IN LOVE WITH MY AREA!

Perez Zeledon is so awesome! I forgot exactly how much I missed places like this! When I first got to the area (on the fourth of July) a member family invited the missionaries to celebrate and eat hamburgers. I knew this family because the husband works for the mission because he has a minibus and drives everyone around. They are so cool!

The next day I went and met our cook. She is a member that has a really interesting story and has three kids. The kids are all awesome. Then we went out and worked. Remember how I was always complaining that nobody wanted to accept us in my last area...? That doesn't happen here! (for the most part) We had 10 lessons with new people in just a matter of hours! 

The next day was the same, it was great! I saw a tucan and taught with a mini parrot on my shoulder... that was a first.

I'll tell you just a quick story about an old investigator that I met. He used to accept the missionaries and went to church a couple of times. He liked the church and everything, but didn't want to give up the women... he likes them a little tooo much. (he's also like 65... gross) Anyways, the missionaries haven't visited him for a couple of months so we decided to stop by. When he answered the door you could tell that he was having a hard time walking and had to use a cane. He let us in and said how nice it was to see us again. When we sat down he told us a crazy story about how he was up on his roof fixing some holes, when he fell 3 meters headfirst onto the concrete! He said he doesn't remember any of it, just that he was laying in a huge pool of blood almost dead. Then he says that he woke up in the hospital and thought he had died. When he realized that he was still alive he said he knew that it was a second chance that God gave him to be "reborn in the things of God." Right when he said that I was like, "Well brother, if you reallly want to start over and be reborn, I've got just the thing for you!" hahaha I read him John 3:5. And the best part is that after I read it to him he said, THATS PERFECT! and he is going to start re reading the Book of Mormon, stop doing naughty stuff with women, and all that good stuff. He is set to be baptized at the end of the month... I hope it all works out for him!

We also are prepping somebody named Carlos Luis for baptism and he already had the requirements and everything for baptism, so I said to my comp "why is he not baptized" and he said, "You know... I'm not sure".  So we have reviewed everything and I put a date for this weekend. He's totes getting baptized. haha

All in all... I'm happy. This area is great! If any of you feel unhappy... do the things of God. That's always the solution. The blessings and the happiness will come at the due time of the Lord.

Sorry for no pictures... I forgot.

Leaving for his new area in 2 days!

Hello!

T-minus 2 days until takeoff! I'm so excited! I have officially packed up all of my things from the office and Elder Winders is all ready to fly solo! 

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before... but President Hayes is sick. Well, actually he got sick about a year ago and just didn't tell anybody about it. Two weeks ago it started to get pretty serious and he decided to go to a local clinic to see what was wrong with him. They couldn't find anything out, so Salt Lake told him he had to go to Utah for testing. Now we have a subsitute president, his name is President Arredondo. He served as a mission president in the Nicaragua North mission. I've been able to work with him a little bit when he has come into the office and he is a really nice guy. He really wants to help the mission. This week we had a mission conference where President talked to us about the importance of baptizing and gave us a lot of ideas on how to baptize more. I think it was exactly what the mission needed to hear. Everything happens for a reason, and maybe he was supposed to come here to share this message.

This week I have mostly been reviewing all of the office work with Elder Winders and have spent a lot of time finding news. We actually have had a lot of luck finding this week and I'm really excited for what is going to happen in this area after I leave. I have also been saying goodbye to a lot of the members around here, and it has actually been pretty hard. I have become pretty good friends with the members here and I'm going to miss them a lot!

That pretty much sums up my week here... I really am grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve here in the office. I have learned a lot, but I am so ready to move on! 

Sorry, I have been so bad with pictures over these last couple of months... here is one of me playing the bagpipes to make up for it!