Thursday, October 27, 2016

Good things are happening in the Branch!


This area is getting better and better week by week. It has been a really rough road (emotionally, physically, mentally) but it's so worth it all.

I would like to start off by saying, give references to the missionaries. Please. Every missionary will greatly appreciate it. A huge majority of missionary success comes from references from the members.

One member this week gave us a lot of references of old investigators that used to listen to the missionaries. We contacted the wife of one of the old families and she said that she had been waiting for the missionaries to come back to her house! She opened up and said that she really wanted to change. We taught a little bit about Jesus and put a basptismal date for her and she happily accepted it. But she wanted her boyfriend more than anything to accept our lessons because in the past he hadn't. We showed up a couple of days later to teach her again and her husband yelled through the door that she wasn't home. He definitely seemed like he did not want anything to do with us so we left. After missionarying for a couple of hours we passed back by the house and we saw the husband walking back home. He turned to us and said, "hey I'm really sorry that you guys passed by and my wife wasn't there... my mom always taught me that if we say we are going to do something, or be somewhere, we need to do it. I feel really embarrased and am very sorry." I then asked if we could  talk to him instead and after thinking about it for a little bit he said yes!

We sat down with him in the house and starting asking questions about his beliefs. He started really opening up and started telling us how he felt really far away from God and how he really wants to change for his family. We started talking about how he could start all over by being baptized and then I challenged him to be baptized the same day as his wife. Right as I put the date he said, That's my birthday!! What a great birthday present!! hahaha it worked out great! Some might call it luck.. I call it being in tune with the spirit haha The family has lots of problems and they will have to get married, but they can do it!!

Also we brought a family to church this Sunday and the members freaked out! haha they said ¨wow the missionaries finally have good investigators! That hasn't happened in forever!¨ Then they started offering to help us.

Sorry for no pics this week. I left my camera in the house.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Lot's of Pictures this week!


I can't believe how much time I already have in this area. It has been so hard but filled with lots of cool experiences. I have been so exhausted this whole week. This area is slowly sucking the life out of me. But the good thing is, usually the more tired I am, the happier I am, because I know that I am giving my all!

But as a result of being so tired, I cant remember any cool experiences that I have had this week.
Lately we have been focusing a lot on the branch members here. Something that I have seen on my mission is that if the members aren't fulfilling their callings, the church and missionary work won't go anywhere. The branch that I am in has been a branch for over 40 years and there is no reason that it should not be a Stake by now. The only thing that is holding it back is the participation of members. Like it says in D& C 58

26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is aslothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
 27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

So that has kind of been the theme for the week. Trying to get the members to do the things that they should be doing in the first place. Fun stuff.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Chase making empanadas



And donuts





















Sleeping on the bus


Thursday, October 13, 2016

Wow, lot's of amazing investigator experiences last week

This week has been nuts.

Let me just start out by telling a quick story about a new friend that I met last week. It all started when my comp and I were walking to an appointment that we had set up right behind our house. Right as we walk up to the front door I get a phone call. The family cancels. They never cancel. Luckily we decided to go to a house where the investigators are always home, and they only lived about 30 meters away from where we were. We knocked on the door and nobody was home... I turned to my companion and asked, "now what...?" I had barely finished the question when an unknown number calls us and when I answer somebody says.. "Elders, where are you?" I start asking questions, like who this person is and how he got our number, and he starts telling me that he is an inactive that dropped the church about 3 years ago and he wants to come back. He then said that he was going to show up outside our house in 10 minutes. It was perfect because we were already outside and had nothing else to do! Sure enough he shows up 10 minutes later and barely gets off his motorcycle when he bursts into tears. He completely opened up to us outside of our house and confessed that he had been trapped in lots of addictions and a couple of scamming businesses. After sitting and listening to him vent for about half an hour straight we set up a plan so that we could help him come back. It was such a crazy experience and the thing that hit me the most is that he kept saying, "Nobody knows this. You are the only ones. You are missionaries and you can help me. I know you can. So help."

We also found some amaazing investigators this past week. Two twins and their younger brother. During the first visit, we just taught one of the twins and she said that she wanted us to help her brother because he has been caught up in bad stuff, and doesn't listen to anyone. Well we taught the sister all of the first lesson and left her a book of mormon. When we came back 2 days later the brother answered the door. The first thing I said was, "I stole your book from my sister. I started reading it. From what I can tell, it is a book that was written by old prophets and talks about Jesus. I need you to teach me more." It was soo crazy! Something about the book of mormon softened his heart enough to let us teach him! Now they are all reading the book of mormon, they came to our English class and played basketball today with us for Pday! It's so great!

Last miracle... (sorry this is a long email)
Last week my comp and I were getting ready to go to San Jose to go to the temple. On our way to the bus stop I heard somebody yell out from behind us (in english), "Hey LDS missionaries!!!" Of course I was like... what the heck? Then I turn around and a little Philippino came running up to me and said. "Hi! I'm from the Philippines and I live here in Perez Zeledon. My boyfriend is mormon from Utah and I want to marry him. His mom says that I need to be baptized before I can get married. Can you guys help me?" Inside I was like...... Whhaaaaaat is going on??? But she wasn't kidding! This week she came to church and I had to translate the meetings and teach her a seperate gospel principles class because she can't really speak Spanish. hahaha it was crazy.

Anyways... I hope that you made it to the end. That was quite a bit and now my fingers hurt fom typing on this ghetto keyboard.
But... as far as a testimony goes. I know the Lord watches us and blesses us when we need it most. I have been begging for miracles to make the mission a little bit easier (because lately it has really been beating me up) and I love it when I can see answers to my prayers.


Friday, October 7, 2016

Changing Climate is Amazing!

Buenas,

This week was full of ups and downs and has sucked the life out of me.

Two families dropped us this week and the husband of one family got back into his old cocaine addiction and got thrown out of the house, just to name a few of the latest occurances.

General conference was super good this weekend though! There were so many good talks! I liked priesthood session the most though, because they talked about things that we really need to do better  as church members. I found it very interesting how much all the speakers focused on the importance of member missionary work and keeping things basic.

This P-day a member invited us over to his house that is out in the middle of no where at the top of a mountain. It is really cold up there and is pretty much always in the middle of a cloud. It was really cool to see how much the climate can change here in just a couple miles.

Because of time I'm not going to be able to write much more... sorry! I hope all is well with you all!

Watching the parade

I think Chase has a bug on the stick

Why does the white kid always look hot and sweaty?

Enjoying the waterfall on P-day!


Hiked 4 miles out in the heat.