The family from Siquirres got married and baptised!

Good afternoon everybody!

This week was a long, somewhat stressful, and very tiring. I wish I had a lot of cool stories to tell you, but most of the stuff that I did was just office work. I am working with all the new missionaries trying to get them all licenses so that they can be legal, but its always a huge process. I have to go to all of their countries embassies and get them all finger printed and lots of other stuff. Its fun though. I get to know everybody in the mission as a secretary.

I don't waste all of my life here in the office though. I usually get to teach after 4 everyday. This area is pretty tough to find new people that are interested in listening to you, but we have been blessed and have found three great families that are very interested in the Mormons. I love finding people with good, kind hearts here. It's so easy to become best friends with the people here, especially when you are constantly bearing testimony to them.

I do have some good news. Remember the family that I talked about a couple of weeks back, when I invited them to be baptized and I felt something on my shoulder... The parents got married and they all got baptized this last week! On the date that I challenged them too! I wasn't planning on coming to the office and missing their baptism... but that's just the way it works out. Its kind of funny how often that happens to me... I change areas and I miss my converts baptisms by a week! Oh well... I guess the Lord is just trying to teach me something. I'll attach a picture of their baptism. President Hayes and his wife got to go to the wedding and the baptism and they said it was really special and that I got a lot of Hello's from the people of Siquirres. It's nice to know that they haven't already forgotten about me haha

The mission is so great. You are tested and grow more than you ever thought was possible. I'm so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary.

Also... I got all the Christmas packages from the grandparents annnnd the Insanity workout videos! Huggge thanks for all of that! I can now guiltlessly eat all of my Christmas candy, because I workout with the videos every morning!

Happy Birthday to Madison! I saw pics from your birthday party and it looked really cool! I also saw some vids of you dancing... it was good but maybe by senior year you'll be as good as I am;)

Hope all is well with you all! Love you all so much!

 

 

Learning a lot and getting a new companion from Utah.

Well this secretary thing is going to kill me. I run on absolutely no sleep in this job. I had no idea all the of the work that the secretaries had to do. This week we had 19 new missionaries come in and my job is to get them all legal. I have had to go to all sorts of embassies and talk to a lot of different lawyers. I´m not usually a very stressful person, but this job is full of stress. I could get somebody thrown in jail or deported if I don't do my job right! I also walk the sketchy city streets with cash in my pockets trying to look as casual as possible.

 

I realized that in my last letter I didn't really give you any info about the area. whoops haha. I'm back in the city, so the work here is pretty hard again. There are a lot of Catholics and Evangelics in the city.  Luckily, our hard work is paying off and we have found some amazing people. We are hoping that we can bring at least five people to church tomorrow.

 

My trainers name is Elder Nelson. He is from Sandy, Utah and he's pretty funny. His old companion and him have been mission secretaries for a year, and are ready for a change. They both are really excited to get back in the field and be  "full time" missionary's. Elder Nelson  told me that he gained 30 pounds in the office because of all of the stress eating haha I've already eaten so much pizza here. There are a ton of really nice American restaurants in the city and huge malls that have really expensive stuff... I think I'm going to waste a lot of money here.

 

After this six weeks and we finish training, my new companion will be Elder Fuller. He's a tall red headed Canadian from Alberta. He is going to be the Financial Secretary and is in charge of getting all of the missionaries their money for the month. My job is a lot more fun because I get to talk to fancy lawyers and leave the office with all of the missionaries to take them to their embassies. I don't think I could handle his job and be in the office all day long. He's really cool, but he only has 4 months in the mission and can't speak Spanish... it's going to be a struggle. I always have to translate for him. Lessons will be interesting when I have to go out with him. Elder Fuller is an interesting person who plays the bagpipes, piano, and is always beat boxing while playing with one of his 6 Rubix cubes. I think you get what kind of a person he is. It'll be a great time though, I'm sure. haha

I hope everybody had a great new year! Thanks to everybody from the ward that sent me Christmas letters! I loved each and every one of them!

Keep the email's coming and I love getting pictures:)

Love you all!

Pictures from when Chase traveled by boat to the island.

Passports, ID's, lawyers, tithing money, truck, new computer program...Lot's of learning and growing.

Hello!

 

Saturday's will be my new P-days from here on out so you can expect to hear from me on Saturdays.

 

This has been my first official week of being the new immigration secretary. I thought that they would slowly train and work me in, but I was very wrong. I have now sent home 12 missionaries and am currently getting ready to bring in 19 new missionaries. Let me tell you... it's a ton of work! You have to do a lot of paperwork and you work with really professional legal people. One cool thing though is that we get a truck, and its really nice too. We get to drive it all around the mission to get immigration work done. I am also responsible for all of the mission funds, passports, ID's and other things related.  I handle a LOT of money!  I was so surprised to see how much money the church spends on all of this.  It is really scary though because I can't lose a cent of it because it comes from peoples tithing and I could get in trouble if I do.

 

Even though I'm the new secretary that doesn't mean that that's all I'm going to be doing in the mission now. I'm usually going to be in the office until 4:00 everyday and then I'll go out and work in the field during the night (which isn't that bad, because that's the time when everybody is home.) The secretary's area is kind of well known for not having a lot of success. In my three days here, I have already tripled the monthly goal of new investigators for the week. I'm pretty excited to get to lift up this area, I just hope that I can continue with this success.

 

Okay and now the e-mail is going to get a little nerdy, please bear with me... haha  So as secretary I am in charge of filling out a ton of paperwork to send to lawyers so that they can be legalized. The secretaries before would spend hours and hours filling out each form individually with all of the information and it was really tedious. So I looked at all of the forms that we needed to fill out and looked at the information we had and wrote a computer program that automatically fills out the necessary forms with the  right info. This has turned a three hour job into a ten minute job.  I am still working with the program to make it even faster.  I'm hoping with all of this optimization I'll be able to work out in the field more and save all the future secretaries a whole bunch of time!

I will try to keep the emails as exciting as I can with all of this office work. Hopefully I can find some more good investigators here and I'll be able to tell you all about that. I'm back in the city and I forgot how unfriendly the people are here... I miss the people in the jungle!

 

Hope you are all doing well!

Wow, a new big change for Chase and his resposibilities! Crazy last 3 days.

Wow, my mind is going 1000 miles per hour right now. First off, I would like to say how great that Christmas video call was. It was so nice talking to you all. I'm not going to lie... I got a little homesick when I saw all of the pictures from Christmas at the house, but I'll be home soon enough to enjoy Christmas with you all again.

Okay, so all of what I'm about to tell you happened in the last 3 days. Try to read it all, it's going to be a long one. I'll start with the morning the day after Christmas.

Remember George? That American that lives here in Costa Rica but is really really sick and I've been translating for him? Well the day after Christmas I got a phone call from Dania (The lady from my ward who has been taking care of George while he's been sick) and she said that she is caught up in a legal problem with George. George got really sick and almost died, and when Dania walked into his room and found him lying on the ground, she called 911 and the ambulance came and took him to the hospital. When he left for the hospital, he forgot his money and his passport in the hotel room that he was staying in. So Dania took them to keep them safe.... Well one of Georges friends is a lawyer and she accused Dania of using George to steal his passport and she wanted to throw Dania in jail.

Dania wanted me to go with her to the island that George lives on to personally deliver his items and record it with me being the translator. So a couple hours after, my companion, Dania, and I headed out to an island called Parismina.  First we took an hour and a half bus ride to a port, then we got on a little boat and headed off into the ocean for about half an hour until we reached Parismina. Its a tiny little island that has it's own little civilization. It's so cool! I'll make sure to send pics, it's so pretty there! So anyways, we get to the shack that George lives in and give him back all of his stuff and now things are all good.

Okay... so if that wasn't enough, as we are returning from the island the zone leaders call me... They tell me that I need to bring my white clothes to the church in 30 minutes because I'm going to baptize. The Zone leaders have been prepping a little girl named Tania for baptism and as district leader, I do the interviews for all of the investigators to make sure that they are ready to be baptized. well last week I interviewed Tania and I guess she thought I was pretty cool, because the day of her baptism she asked if I could baptize her! hahaha Tania's family is really interesting, the parents are really young and they have 6 kids. I have become really close to all of them and the 10 year old says that I'm his best friend. I love how loving all the people are here.

Okay and the last crazy thing. Last night we got home and started planning for the next day and our phone was on silent. After we finished planning I picked up the phone and we have a missed call and message. I first check the missed call and it's from PRESIDENT HAYES (the mission president) and I'm like... ohhhhh shoooot what happened? Because he only calls missionaries for important matters. then I check the message and it says "Elder Abel, call me" and then I know that I'm in trouble. So, I call him back as soon as possible and he answers and tells me that it isn't for anything bad, in fact it's for something really important. He asked me if I could serve him in the office for the next couple of months as the secretary of immigration! He said that as secretary I am going to know everything that goes on in the mission. I am going to be responsible for buying airplane tickets, helping with missionary changes, dealing with passports, the new missionaries, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I'll also get my own truck to travel to different places around the mission. I'm really excited, but really nervous, because it is a big responsibility. Tomorrow I have to be in the office super early and have to leave at 4 in the morning... Also, I think my P day is going to change, so I'll be writing home on a different day.

Annnnd I think thats enough for now. Congrats to you who read the whole thing, sorry if it was long and is hard to read.

I'll keep you updated on this new assignment, and keep me in your prayers por favor:) Love you all!

They made friends with this man who wanted to be a missionary for a day.  They dressed him up and hit the town.  Chase said it was a lot of fun for all involved.

 

Christmas Party with all of the American fixings

Merry Christmas everybody!! I hope that everybody is enjoying this
Christmas season! Christmas sure is different here in hot, sticky Siquirres. With the warm weather, the hard work, and the monotonous day to day routine. Christmas time doesn't feel anything at all like Christmas in the States, but it sure is nice to not get all caught up in the normal Christmas hype. I can totally put aside all of my wants this Christmas season, and can use all of my time and efforts to help others. How cool is that??

It has been soo hard to work here this past week though. Nobody is home! Its impossible to find anyone to teach because everyone is working or has gone to San Jose to enjoy the colder weather there. Plus the soccer finals are going on and whenever a game is on, nobody lets us into their house, because literally EVERYONE is watching the game.

Last night was our mission Christmas dinner. It was a lot of fun! It was really cool to see the whole mission together. There are quite a bit of us! It's a little weird though... Since I have been some time in the mission now, there are a lot of new missionaries that I dont know. Its fun seeing them starting out and remembering my first months in the mission. Gosh... I was so lost. hahah I sure have come a long way, but I still have a lot of progress to make if I want to have success. For the dinner we had a traditional American meal. Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with cornflakes on top, and a whole bunch of american baked deserts. It was so nice to be able to eat a full meal without rice!!! After the dinner we had a lot of special musical numbers performed by the missionaries. My zone sang a Christmas hymn medly. It actually didn't sound too bad haha.

We also watched the Christmas video for this year called, " What would the world be like without a savior?" Its really good. Heres the link:

https://youtu.be/Ly7c9scxB9I?list=PLq9T3v5R_q8s3PKfpND5SOh3lUZolLDMf

I invite everybody to watch it and share it with your friends! Its short, but powerful!

I'm exicted to be able to call you in a couple of days! Im sure you're all counting down the hours, but don't worry, it'll come soon!;) I'll make sure to study up on my English so that we can talk without problems!

Love you!!

 

 

Having some beach fun!

Hello everybody! I hope you all have had a good week, because I sure have!!

 

This Saturday we had a baptism for Joneiker and Monserrat. It went really well and they are both happy that they were able to take this big step. Their parents came to the baptism and it seemed like they really enjoyed it. I'm hoping that we will be able to start to teach their family soon, so that the whole family can enjoy the blessings of the gospel.

It's really hard to teach in December, because hardly anybody is home. Costa Ricans take Christmas seriously, they buy a lot of gifts for everybody. Ticos love to spend money. They all have brand new tablets, smart phones and huge flatscreen TVs, but the same people sleep on the floor and in houses without roofs. The priorties of the people here are strange... Since they are prepping to buy a lot of things for Christmas, everybody is working overtime to save up some last minute money.

This week we have been doing a lot of contacting, trying to find people in the new area that we adopted. It has been a fun experience because we have found many black people that speak island English. I got to teach a whole lesson in English, and it was so hard! I forgot so many words! I also have completely forgotten how to pray in English.

Yesterday we went to the beach! The beach is called Manzanillo and its about two and a half hours from my area almost to the Panama border. We went with the whole zone. A return missionary was visiting from Utah and he drove us around and gave us a little tour. We played soccer on the beach and just hung out all day. It was a lot of fun!
 

 

 

Continues to receive "celestial guidance".

Buenos Dias!

This week has been quite a long one. The mission always

brings interesting experiences, but this week has been almost
overbearing. I've felt realllly happy and I felt realllly sad. It’s
crazy how fast your emotions change in the mission. One person can be
progressing really well and the next minute they can cut you off.
Satan is real and it’s so obvious how hard at work he is when an
investigator is about to make a big change for the better.

Let’s start off with some good things. With this recent change, we

changed some of the leadership. There is a new zone leader, and I’m the
new district leader. As district leader It’s my job to help all of the
missionaries that are serving here in Siquirres. So far it’s been a
good learning experience, but it made me realize how much I need to
improve as a missionary and be a good example for others. So far the
biggest challenge of being district leader is making sure that the
other missionaries get along. And that’s not an easy task. Please
forgive me whining for this next bit: The new zone leader took over
control of the area and doesn’t let the old zone leader do much.
The old zone leader comes over to our house to vent about
the new zone leader. They don’t get along and their teaching methods
are super opposite. And as if that’s not enough, my companion is
starting to take sides with the old zone leader and they both gossip
behind peoples backs. It’s a huge distraction for our area and it's
hard to always stay positive. I’m trying real hard to just
keep my head up and be a good example but it’s tough sometimes..

Okay... back to some good news! Joneiker and Monserrat are going to

baptized this Saturday! We have already had the interviews and the
parents have given us their permission! I’m super stoked that they are
going to get baptized. They are really going to be good, strong
members.

We also have been working with a part member family. The husband (well

they aren’t married, but they call themselves married) was baptized
three years ago, but went inactive, and the rest of the family are non
members. We have been working with them on and off for about a month
now. They have always given us excuses as to why they can’t go to
church, and I was getting pretty frustrated. Last week in one of the
lessons, I decided to take a chance and invite them to be baptized
just to see what would happen. At the end of a really good lesson, I
started to say, "And if you come to gain a testimony of all of the
truths that we have spoken, will you...." And right as I was about to
say "be baptized" I felt a hand on my side. I turned around to see why
my companion touched me, but he didn’t. Nobody was there. A little
weirded out, I turned back around and tried to regain my focus. As I
started the invitation again, I felt the same hand run up my back and
then rest on my neck, as if to comfort me. Unphased by this feeling, I
kept on with the invitation and they accepted! Annnnd they all went to
church this week! I know that missionaries receive celestial
guidance to help Gods children return to him.
 
Another cool experience that I have had this week was the opportunity
to meet an 83 year old named George. George is from the United States,
lived in the Bahamas, and now lives here in an island off the coast of
Costa Rica. He doesn’t speak much Spanish and is very very sick. He has
an enlarged thyroid gland on his neck (about the size of his head),
skin cancer, parasites, and a whole bunch of other problems. One of
the new members of our ward saw him and wanted to help him, but
couldn’t communicate with him. After church yesterday she pulled me
aside and explained the situation and asked if I could translate. It's
been a really neat experience being able to translate in a way that
could save somebody's life.
 
Well that’s about all the time I have this week... Hopefully you all
can understand what I wrote, because I typed really fast.

Love you all, thanks for the emails!!

 

 

Three hours of playing soccer with no sun screen!