Eduardo got baptized!

Hi!

I don't have a lot of time to write today... but guess what!! I had a baptism! Eduardo finally got baptized! It was so cool! Before he got baptized, he asked if he could say a prayer by the font. I said it was okay and left the room. He knelt down by the side of the font and started praying. After about 5 minutes, my comp looked in to see if he was okay and he was crying! He really understood the importance of his baptism and knew from that point on, he was starting a new point in his life.

The next day he got confirmed and in priesthood, they decided to give him the Aaronic Priesthood! It was so cool! I just had a lesson with him yesterday and we taught a really in depth lesson about the priesthood and it was awesome. He is so excited to progress in the church! I wish I had more time to tell you the awesome stories about his baptism, but it´ll have to wait.

The church is true, the Book of Mormon is true, and we always need to keep our testimonies strong!

Have a fantastic week!!!

Back to the Rainforest for Chase but this time on the Pacific Coast.

Hello all!

This week has been FABULOUS! Know why, I GOT MY REPLACEMENT! His name is Elder Winders and he is from Alaska. He´s really cool. He has about 8 months in the mission, so he is coming in with the same amount of time that I had when I came in to the office.

It's been fun training him on how to manage all of the migration stuff. I forgot how much I do, because I am just so use to the workload now... He is always sooo exhausted and stressed out. I feel kind of bad sometimes, but then I remember that that's exactly how I was when I came in! haha

We are prepping for changes together and it's been fun doing all that work with a helper! And speaking of changes... President told me where I´m going after the office in two weeks!! It's called Perez Zeledon or San Isidrio de Cartago. I'm going back to the hot rainforest!! Except this time it is going to be on the Pacific coast! I'm so excited to get back out there! It's a little branch and apparently it's having some problems so it will be cool to help out out there.

Two days ago I got to go to a very fancy web conference with the Guatemala mission about migration changes in Costa Rica. My comp, the migration secretary from the other mission, the church migration lawyers and I went to the Service Center of Costa Rica to meet with the head of Central American Mission Migration over a video conference. My comp was so lost, but it was really cool!

For todays P-day, I decided that I needed to make a last couple of purchases before I got shipped off far away, so we got permission to go to San Jose Centro. I originally went to look for new shoes to replace mine with holes in them, but then I got a little distracted. Elder Winders and I went to the sketchy part of San Jose and we found some really cool stores that sold all kinds of cheap stuff! We walked into this store that sold watches, glasses, bags, belts, coats, and all sorts of other designer stuff. We walked in and started looking at the watches... then we looked at the belts... then we looked at the glasses... and couldn't resist. The prices were just too good! I picked out a Louis Vuitton belt, a tag heuer watch, and some ray bans. I'm pretty sure they are real too. Elder Winders picked out a Gucci belt, a Deisel watch and Ray Bans. The grand total came out to be about $50 but we were able to talk her down $40 each. I'm so proud.

To top it all off, we decided to model our purchases... enjoy the pictures.

Tonight is going to be Eduardo´s baptism!! We had the interview last night and he seems so excited to be baptized! He is taking everything super seriously and say's he is so happy that he gets to take this important step in his life. I'm really curious to see how he will be after tonight!!

I hope you all have a good week! I love getting all your emails!!!

Praying for "Spiritual Experiences"

"Equilibren su vida con experiencias espirituales que les recuerden continuar ministrando a los demás diariamente."

"Balance your life with spiritual experiences that remind and prepare you for continued, daily ministering to others." - M. Russell Ballard

At the beginning of every change we get a new agenda that lasts for 6 weeks. As a mission tradition, we all decorate our agendas with pictures and quotes from the church magazines. This change I decided to make the main focus of my agenda this quote by Elder Ballard.

When I first started my mission I would pray for very specific and selfish things. I didn´t really understand how prayer worked. Now that I have some time in the mission, I have felt that some of my specific prayers haven´t been answered in exactly the way that I wanted, I have learned that I need to pray for "spiritual experiences". Sometimes after a really hard day, where I don´t see a lot of success, I ask myself, "Did I have a spiritual experience today?" Pretty quickly I can start to recognize all of the blessings that my Heavenly Father had given me throughout the day that I was so blind to see just a few seconds earlier. It is moments like these that motivate me to keep going at times when I feel like I´m not having success in the mission. In the mission you face problems with your investigators, your companion, yourself, and many other things, but if we put our trust in the Lord and realize that He´s always there, even when it doesn´t seem like it, we will have a much better outlook on life, and be much, much happier.

In other news...

Eduardo has agreed to officially get baptized!! On the condition that nobody goes to his baptism... it's going to be interesting to see what happens. We are hoping that it will be this Saturday!

We are still trying to find more people that actually want to listen to us.

It is raining a ton here and yesterday I forgot my umbrella in the house and got SOAKED. That's always fun though. haha

I hope that you all have a fantastic week and remember to pray for those spiritual experiences!

Message from Mom- Chase started training the new secretary and will be leaving the mission office in three weeks.  He is excited for the new experience.

BBQ at the mission Presidents Home

Short e-mail this week.

Hello!

Sorry this email is going to be very short... this week I don't really get a P-day.

There were some emergency changes this week and President called us into the office to sort things out.

This week not much has happened. I wish I could tell you some amazing story about some miracle that happened... But sometimes you just have routine weeks in the mission. I think it´s so that you appreciate the good weeks more.

I hope you are all doing fantastic! I promise a good letter next week!