A mission farwell, and a future baptism

Well this week I have been sick with a really annoying cold... it's not too bad, but it's really been hard to focus. It seems like every time I have to take the trip up to San Jose I always get sick afterwards. In between Perez and San Jose there is a hill called "Cerro de la muerte" or death hill. It's called that because its so cold there that when the people were building the freeway through there lots of people froze to death. Whenever you go to San Jose the bus stops on the hill for 30 minutes and I think the big temperature change always messes me up.

This week I have been focusing a lot on a cool video that I watched talking about the importance of adapting to the changes that the Lord gives us. Here is the link if you'd like to check it out:

https://www.lds.org/blog/seeing-green?cid=HP_TH_3-11-2016_dOCS_fBLOG_xLIDyL2-3_

In life and in the mission sometimes the Lord throws some curveballs at you. Just when you think that everything is going in the right direction and everything is cool, Boom, something happens. I have had to learn to adapt to the changes that He gives me and move forward with what I have. It really doesn't matter what others think or say about me, as long as I know that my Heavenly Father is proud of what I'm doing!

In other news, this week one of the youth from our branch left to go to his mission in Peru! I got to talk at his farewell party about my mission and what I thought about it. It was pretty fun! And then later that night he baptized his cousin that we have been teaching.

Also, the Phillipino lady that we have been teaching...? Last week I put a baptism date for this month and she said that she would talk to her boyfriend about it. Well, she went to the baptism this week and said that she talked to her family about her own baptism. She said that she wants to get baptized!! BUT her future in laws say that they want to be there when she gets baptized.. so she will get baptized in a couple of months when she goes to the States. It's a bittersweet feeling haha she's going to get baptized which is awesome, but I was really looking forward to having an English baptism here in Costa Rica. haha

Mission Correlation Meeting

The sun is closer to Costa Rica than the United States!

This week we have received a lot of help from the ward in regards to missionary work. For example, we are supposed to have something called correlation every week where we meet with the ward mission leader and talk about how our investigators are doing.. well the last one we had was about 3 months ago. But this week we had one! And not just that, lots of the presidencies from the branch also came as well as a couple of youth that want to start helping us out and go on divisions with us! We got to discuss the needs of our investigators and they all seemed really willing and excited to help!

Wow... after rereading that I realized how sad the things that get a missionary exciteded are. haha Pura Vida

One thing that we have started doing (which I have now done in every one of my areas) is play soccer with the young men and other leaders from the ward once a week at night. Every church here has a basketball/ soccer court outside so it is a great opportunity to bring non members to church and see that we are normal. We have been able to see a little bit of success from that and I think it will keep getting better and better.

Today we woke up nice and early to play basketball with a couple of members and then we went to the church to play soccer with some other people right after. I am so burnt and exhausted it is not even funny. I don't know how, but I swear that the sun is closer to the world here in Costa Rica than it is in the United States, because when the clouds uncover the sun it hurts you. 

Anyways, tomorrow is Zone Conference so that means that tonight I get to enjoy a 3 and a half hour bus ride through the mountains. yay.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Teaching in the dangerous neighborhoods bring rewards

Another fast week filled with interesting experiences.

I have time for one story so here we go.

In my area there is this one area called Cocorí. It is kind of famous here in Perez because it holds the reputation of being the dangerous neighborhood. But... it is the best neighborhood for missionaries because the people that live there are a lot more humble than everybody else here.

When we were contacting in Cocori one of the members told us that there was a house that used to accept missionaries a couple of years ago. So with nothing to lose, we decided to contact the house. we met a 19 year old girl named Melissa who at first said," I am Catholic and I have no interest in changing..." like most people say here. But then we just started talking to her. After about 10 minutes of just talking she asked, "well, what do you guys teach?" And we started teaching a little bit about the plan of salvation. She then opened up and told us that her mom was a huge drug addict and was living in the street and eating out of garbage cans and a bunch of other stuff and Melissa was getting fed up of taking care of her mom. We said that we would help her with her situation and would stop by later to talk to her mom. Well we tried passing by 3 times, but the mom hid from us every time. Finally we caught the mom by surprise and she said, " Finally you guys got me!!" She then said that she has been praying to god that he would send angles to help her break her addiction. She then said that she felt really guilty because every time after she prayed we stopped by and she hid from us! So we started teaching her too and dropped off a pamphlet of the plan of salvation. Two days later we stopped by and she had read half of it and had a lot of questions and really liked it!

It just goes to show that we can be answers to peoples prayers without even knowing it. She also taught me that even when we beg for help from above, sometimes we reject the help that he gives us, because we know that it will require a lot of work on our part. But, it will always be worth the work  in the end

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.

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

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.

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.