Grateful for the power of prayer

Hello!

Well... time has run out again on my quick Monday writing sesh.

Here is a quick experience that I had this week that was awesome.

It has been hard getting people to come to church in this area... and I was really scared that this week was going to be the same. My comp and I had confirmed with our investigators that they were going to go on Sunday, but that never really works out. So early Sunday morning I was scared that nobody was going to come to church, (a missionarys worst nightmare). When I was in the shower and all alone, I decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to please help the members and non members want to come to church (as a missionary you say lots of prayers in the bathroom because its the only place where you can be alone.. so it's not weird or anything haha) Anyways, we went to church without bringing anyone and I was a little let down about that, but right as the meeting started a member walked in with his girlfriend! She is an investigator that lives in the Zona Sur which is like 2 hours from my area. Then right after that another member brought his girlfriend from another city that is like an hour and a half away! We were able to have 2 people come from suuuper far away and I am convinced that it was because of the simple shower prayer that I said! Now one of the girlfriends has a baptism date for the end of next month and we are going to work more with the other.

Prayers are answered and I hope this quickly typed, scatterbrained story makes sense.

Pres also came this week to visit us and he is really cool. He interviewed us and taught me more about the gospel and how to be a better missionary. acachete. 

Love you all! Hope you have a fantastic week full of miracles!

Celebrating a new members birthday!

Hiked to amazing waterfalls and had a birthday celebration

Hey, this is going to be short... just to warn you.

Here is a quick rundown of my day:

I woke up at 5:00am

Got on a bus at 8:00

Got dropped off in the middle of the rainforest at 9:00

Hiked an hour and a half down to some crazy sick waterfalls

Ate some sandwiches at 12:00

Chilled for about another hour

Sprinted back uphill for 3 miles to catch the bus at 2:30 and almost died in the process

So yeah... my day has been pretty crazy, but it has been really fun! I love being in such a beautiful country that has so many pretty places to offer!

Also.. thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes... I don't have time to respond to all of them individually, but thanks a bunch!

September 15 is independence day here so in Perez Centro there was a huge parade and lot's of cool stuff to see. The youth in the branch had a big food sale to raise money for EFY so we helped out and got to see the parades and everything! Then afterwards, the branch all got together and surprised me with a cake! They all sang to me and we played charades and it was a really good birthday.

Here in costa Rica they have 2 birthday traditions: one where they break eggs on your head for every year that you complete (I narrowly avoided that one) and the second is where the birthday person has to take a bite out of the cake without anyone shoving your face into it... I almost did it... two young women got me really good though and I spent about 5 minutes fishing frosting out of my nose. haha

All in all this week was a success. I hope everything is going well with you out in the real world! 

Much love!

A lady sent this picture a year ago to me on FB messenger and I just saw it. 

It is of Chase at the temple.

Chase with his new companion

Independence Day parade

Cake in his face for his birthday, courtesy of the YW in the branch

A couple of great experiences this week. Changes, Buses and Miracles

Well... I have now traveled a total of more than 16 hours in buses this week. I had to go to renew my Costa Rican ID (I'm officially old in the mission) and later in the week I had to go back to San Jose to pick up my new companion. Elder Palencia headed off to Limón and now I'm with another Salvadoreño named Elder Valles. He has more time than me in the mission, but not by a lot. I have always had more time than my companions in the mission, so this is going to take some getting used to!

This week has been good though! One crazy experience I had was when I was walking to an appointment when out of nowhere a man came out of his house and said, "You guys!!" and then said very quietly, "I need to listen to you guys one day..." and so I responded, "Why not right now!?" and then he let us in and explained that he has always wanted to go to church with us, but has been to scared to just walk in alone. He has studied a whole bunch about the church and even listed all of the BYUs that there are. haha It's not every day that somebody takes the initiative to find you and not the other way around! 

After that crazy miracle we kept walking up the mountain to where we were headed originally. (a little background info before this story is that the whole mission and church members in the country did a fast to pray for angels to help us in the mission work) So as we get to the top of the mountain we see this one lady run into her house and I think to myself that we have to contact her! So we knock on the door and she comes out and says, I know you guys!! and lets us in. As we sit down she starts telling us that a long time ago she accepted visits from the missionaries and was reading the Book of Mormon but never went to church. Then to start the lesson I asked if I could say a prayer. Before the prayer she said, "After the prayer I need to tell you guys something really important." So I said the prayer and immediately after she said, "Do you believe in angels?" Immidiately my mind started racing, thinking "What does she mean?? does she know about the fast?? Is this a trick?!" after asking the question she said, "when most people think of angels they think of wings and feathers with halos... but I don't. to me... you are angels. The Lord knew that I needed your help and he sent you to me."

It was such an eye opener... sometimes I am guilty of thinking that missionary work would be so easy if angels appeared to people and prepared them to accept the lessons. But if I look at it as this lady did, I can do the exact same that an angel can do. I just need to help!

Chase has been having fun with machetes

The weeks go by way too fast now... I try to look back at all of the things that I have done and its so hard to remember.

Let me start off with one the things that I didn't have time to tell you last week... last PDay my comp and I went up to the mountains to give service to a less active member. When we got there her grandson was waiting for us with 3 machetes and took us out back to clear out a place to plant  behind the house. It was soooo fun! It was a super dense rainforest out there and I went crazy with the machete and just started chopping everything down! It was a good 4 hours of letting out all of my stress on those poor little vines.

And this week... let's see. Lately, things have been really weird and slightly disappointing. We have been putting a lot of effort into finding people, and we have been blessed enough to find some amazing families.  One kid that we were teaching says that his mom wont let him come to church anymore because she wants him to go to her church (she doesn't go to church), one investigator that was begging to be baptized a month ago now says that he doesn't need god, one investigator that has family in the church and loved learning about the priesthood now says that he has heard too many things about the church that are bad that he doesn't want to continue with us... and that is just to name a few. The mission is full of disappointments and trials like that. And honestly, that's probably the hardest part of the whole mission. Whenever somebody doesn't complete their commitments, when a baptismal date falls, or they drop you, its literally hurts so much. You grow to really love the people that you teach. And when they just cut you off or cut God off... it's terrible.

Buuuut whenever everything seems to be going against you, God sends blessings.

Alma 26

 22 Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, andbringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually

 without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to 

revealthings which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall begiven unto such to bring thousands of 

souls to repentance,even as it has been given unto us to bring these ourbrethren to repentance.

27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we wereabout to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us,

 andsaid: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bearwith patience thine afflictions, and I will give

 unto you success.

Last week we were out contacting and knocked a door of a very Christian lady who wanted to reject us with every fiber of her being, but did not close the door on us. We started testifying about the importance of the priesthood and eternal families and she agreed to let us stop by in one week when her whole family was home. One week later sure enough they were all home and were all waiting for us. It is a great complete family. Husband, wife and three kids. When we sat down to teach I could tell that they were super hesitant to accept us. It seemed like the looked up a bunch of anti- mormon stuff on the internet to test us. But every question they asked I was able to answer with the scriptures and they were content with what I was telling them. I was answering questions with scriptures that I had never remembered reading, if that doesn't tell you that the spirit was helping me, I don't know what does. After about an hour and a half of questions and answers they invited us back to teach more! It was so nice to see how the spirit works in the hearts of people so that they can recognize the truth in our lessons.

Since I' ve been pretty lame with pictures lately... here are some pictures of the statues inside the National Theater of San Jose.

Short e-mail this week.

This week went by way too fast.. as well as my time to write.

Not too much has happened this week. We have been focusing more on the importance of less actives this week and luckily we have been seeing lots of success with that. We have also had the blessing of teaching families! It's always a lot better when the whole family gets involved and it makes it a lot easier!

Sorry I'm not going to be able to write a lot... but I hope you are all happy and healthy!!

Have a great week!

Meet some nice intersted neighbors

I'm finally starting to see change! It's been a long time coming, but this week has made me feel like I'm actually accomplishing things here.

The biggest challenge in this area has been bringing people to church. I would call and confirm with each of my investigators Saturday night and they would always say, "Of course I'm going to church! I'll see you tomorrow!"... and they would never come. That happened for almost a month. I got super frustrated, because it seemed like no matter what I did, nobody would come to church! I kept telling myself that I was just being tried, and eventually the blessings would come. Using Ether 12 to help me along.

This week I finally start to see a change in the area. The whole time that I have been here, I have always wanted to contact my apartment complex, but there always came up legit reasons to not have time to do it. One day, when we walked out of the house to go work, I got a strong feeling that I had to talk to all of the neighbors. So we did. We started at one house that we always walk by and there is always a guy laying on the couch and it looks like he doesn't ever do anything. So when we knock on the door I'm thinking, "Here he is again... laying on the couch.. he's so lazy he is never going to want to listen to us." But when he answers the door he is super nice. He completely opens up to us and explains that he has a 2 year old son that was born with a deformity in his mouth and he has to stay at home all day to take care of him because its so serious. He says that it has been tough on him and his wife and that he has been been looking for something that will make his life a little easier. We explained the restauration a little and he loved it! 

After that great contact, we went to his neighbor and met a single mother nurse who has two daughters. She also really liked our message and invited us back. We decided to contact one more house in our complex before we headed out and met this guy who used to go to our church about 10 years ago. He never got baptized, but really liked everything about the church. He says he wants to go again and fix his relationship with god. Not bad. 3 for 3. Then after that we went out and found a bunch more people who wanted to learn about the restoration.

Then this Sunday we had 3 people come to church on their own! It was so nice to come to church and just have investigators walk right in. They all really liked church and seem like they will progress really well.

I'm so happy to see that the area is finally starting to come together, despite all of the challenges.

Ether 12:6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerningthese things; I would show unto the world that 

faith are things that are hoped for and not seen; wherefore dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

Zone birthday party and go karting

This week has been a pretty average one as far as the work goes... not much has really gone on. We have found some new people, we have had to let go of some people, and we just keep on trying to march forward with the work here.

As far as fun and activities go... this week has been awesome! My whole district had a birthday in the last 2 weeks (except for me... you all still have a month to think about my presents ;) so one of the ward members invited us all over to have a big birthday party! We made pizza and had cake. It was a lot of fun. Then the next day, since the Zone met our baptism goal we got to do a Zone activity in San Jose! Since San Jose is so far away, we drove up on Sunday with the same family and had a nice little road trip with them. On Monday the whole Zone met up to go GO KARTING! It was so much fun! It was an indoor track that was actually really cool. It was set up as a tournament and the people with the best lap times got to stay in and move on the the next heat. I made it all the way to the finals but got third place... I blame it on the slow kart...I'm not bitter. haha 

I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Remember to pray, read your scriptures, and be somebody special.