Body is sore and tired after two years

Hello!

Well... good news and bad news. Remember those 2 baptisms that I was stoked about for this weekend well... they both are interviewed and ready to go... but there is a small problem with one. Keylin (the 17 year old) doesn't live in our area. I talked to our bishop and he said he had to talk to her bishop to see what to do. Well he talked to the bishop and he says that she has to be baptized in the ward where she lives!! Soo.. we are going to see what happens. hopefully she can still get baptized on Sunday so we can have a baptism on Saturday and Sunday! Francini is still going strong. the family decided that I would baptize her so that I "can take home a nice family memory of them." haha some ticos are just so great.

As far as other updates... I dont think I have any. I am just trying to hang in there till the very end. My body sure is sore and tired and I don't think I own a pair of clothes now that doesn't have a stain or a hole in it, but that's just part of the joy of serving a mission!

Love you all lots and lots!

Had some fun in the mud!

Well hello!

This week has been pretty darn good. In this ward I have learned that it is pretty much impossible to have success knocking doors so I've pretty much just been hanging out with members the whole week and hoping that they give us references, and it has been working out just swimmingly! The family that I told you about last week where the daughter and the dad aren't members... well we had another lesson with them yesterday and we now have permission to baptize the daughter in two weeks and the dad is really excited.  The dad wants to learn more and see the baptism. Who knows if he gets baptized too before I leave? It could happen. 

Also, we have been working with our cooks sons girlfriend quite a bit. It's been tough because she lives out of our area and we can only teach her once a week, but she has been progressing really well! This week was stake conference and she came. During the meeting I thought to myself... well, the district leader is here, and she is here... let's just do the baptismal interview right now and see what happens. So right after the conference we went into a room and asked her how her testimony was. She said, well as a matter of fact I was reading the Book of Mormon last night at one in the morning after praying like you taught me and all of a sudden I felt such a strong feeling. I knew in that instant that the Book of Mormon was true and I needed to be baptized. It was perfect! So right then and there we did the interview and she passed with flying colors! She will be baptized the same day as the other little girl on the 25th.  So that was pretty spiritual... and as a reward for completing last months baptism goal we got to do a zone activity! We went to a place called Fossiland and it was a lot of fun! It was high up in the mountains and we went zip lining, played paintball, went cave exploring, and went down a water bobsled. It was super fun but we got soooo dirty. It was kind of like a trust building activity so there was this crazy guy that was in charge and told dumb jokes and threw a bunch of water at us all the time. We had to do silly little challenges and the losers had to lay down in muddy rivers or smear mud all over themselves. It was honestly the weirdest thing but it was a lot of fun! I'll send some pictures this week and next week I'll hopefully have more of the activity.

Well.. thanks for the emails this week, I got more than usual... but they all had something in common.. "Chase I can't believe that you are almost home!! Sorry for not writing you hardly ever in the mission, but I can't wait to see you!!" I still feel like I have a lot left in the mission and I'm going to work as hard as I can this last month... but thanks for making me think so much about being in the real world again. haha

Love you!

Highlights for Chase last week; a possible baptism and being a DJ

Hmmm... another week has gone by and I can't think of anything to write...... These weeks are just going by way too fast now. 

One cool thing that happened this week is that I helped set up a YSA dance this week and we got to DJ at the beginning... just long enough to get cool pictures. haha

This week we have been seing even more miracles with the members. We are now seeing a constant church attendance of 160+ which is really good for a Costa Rican ward. We are also recieving lots of references that are really prepared.

This week my companion and I were walking down the street looking for something to do because our appointments fell. I thought to visit a less active family and since we were close by we got there quickly and started to teach the family. Then all of a sudden another family that I hadn't ever seen before comes down the stairs. Apparently the family lives there and the wife is a member but the husband and the daughter aren't. We started talking to them and the daughter said that she turns 8 this weekend! I asked if they were setting up for her baptism and the mom said that she has been thinking about that for a while, but she has been inactive for a long time. We said that we would help her out with her daughters baptism and she got really excited and invited us over to have a lesson with her daughter and her husband. Hopefully it turns out well!

Oldest missionary in the mission now!

Time is literally flying by so fast now. I am officially the oldest missionary in the mission now. Only 1 change left. It feels so weird.

Well... let me think updates.

D got confirmed and received the priesthood. He is going to be called as a ward missionary and he is super happy.

I don't have changes so I'm going to finish Elder Sanchez's training. 

Each Sunday night we eat with this one sister in the ward who has a tradition of feeding the missionaries every Sunday for 8 years. She has a massage chair. I fell asleep. Good times.

We also made district t shirts and they look pretty cool. Today we played soccer and basketball with the whole zone and it has been the first P-day that I have done something fun in months!

We had a bunch of people show up to church on S unday and we just started prepping them for baptism. Hopefully they can get baptized in March!

Sorry for the short e-mail.. I don't really have much this week to write about.

Loved hearing this, "God sent two angles"

This week has been insane.

First off, sorry for not writing yesterday. Today we had our month check at Presidents house for all of the new missionaries so our P-day got moved to today.

But crazy announcement. D got baptized on Sunday!! He has had a lot more challenges this week and he called us and said that he didn't know how much more he could take. His ex wife was not honest with him and said that she was going to bring his daughter that he hasn't seen in months to San Jose so that he could see her. But when he got to San Jose she was there alone and told him that she was going to get married and that she brought papers for him to sign saying that his daughter isn't his anymore and that his last name was removed from the daughters papers. Obviously he didn't sign the papers and left very hurt. 

After that we went to the ward mission leaders house to eat lunch. As D was telling us all that happened the ward mission leader said, D, when are you going to get baptized? And he said, my baptismal date is March 4th. Our ward mission leader asked, do you believe that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God? He responded, Yes. then he asked, Do you think that the Book of Mormon is true? Yes again. Then he asked, so then what stops you from being baptized tomorrow? And D thought for a second and said, Well... nothing. so we taught him the commendments right on the spot and I called the leaders to come over and do the interview so he could be baptized the next day! And it all worked out! That all happened on a Saturday and on Sunday we announced his baptism and like 40 members , President Hayes, Sister Hayes, and Presidents mom showed up at the baptism that night! And it was so spiritual! So many people started crying after D was baptized because he told his story about how he lost everything and God sent 2 angles to save him and pick him back up. Then he shared his testimony and it was so good!

After the baptism he pulled us aside and said.. when you guys leave, you are going to take a piece of my heart with you. And started crying! It was such a crazy experience!

Soo.. in short miracles come true. Challenge people and you will be surprised with what happens. Remember that a challenge is a challenge when you might not be ready to accept it and can be hard. If you invite somebody to do something and they are ready, its an invitation and doesn't always provoke the same growth as a challenge.

Life is good.

Service can change people's lives

Hello!

Well, I'll first start off with a D update. This week was pretty intense. Our ward has started having regular self reliance classes (which I have been hoping my wards would do for pretty much my whole mission) And we invited a whole bunch of investigators and a couple went. Including D. After the class we were going to have a lesson with him but when we got in the room with him alone he broke down and started telling my all of the stuff that had been going on during the week. He had been on disability from his little job that he had, but when he went in to work they fired him. He had no way to pay the rent, so then he had to sneak into his house because if his landlord saw him he would throw all of his stuff in the street. After that he got super mad and wanted everything to be over. We got to his house just after all of this had happened we talked with him for awhile and invited him to the self reliance class. He took it as a sign and went. Then we had the bishop and the ward mission leader give him a blessing and afterwards they took him to eat. The bishop went around collecting money from members to pay D's rent and the ward donated so much tht he had enough to buy food for a week! The next day when we saw D he said he felt like a new man! Another member from the church got him a job and now he is a happy as can be. He said this church just has to be true!! He said I just want to know everything NOW! Where can I get Doctrine and Covenants??  haha he is so prepared and so happy!

When D was telling us about his life problems I shared this scripture. (this is the reason why he wanted doctrine & covenants)

D&C: 121

Joseph Smith's prayer when he is in Jail and it seemed like the world turned against him:

1 O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?

 2 How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?

 3 Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?

 4 O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are, and who controllest and subjectest the devil, and the dark and benighted dominion of Sheol—stretch forth thy hand; let thine eye pierce; let thy pavilion be taken up; let thy hiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us.

 5 Let thine anger be kindled against our enemies; and, in the fury of thine heart, with thy sword avenge us of our wrongs.

 6 Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever.

And this is the Lords reply:

 7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

 9 Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.

 10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job.

Deep stuff. If we think life is hard... it could be worse. We could be like Job. And that would just be terrible. something to think about.

Love you!!

Another amazing experience

Good afternoon. This week has been quite splendid.

Last week our Ward Mission Leader´s wife called us and said that she had a reference for us and that she wanted to take us there to meet him.. but we were in a lesson and we couldn't go at that time... so she said that she would make an appointment with him for later. Well she called and called and he never answered. The next day we saw a guy walking really slowly up ahead. I felt like we needed to talk to him and I tried to get my comp to start a conversation with him (he is still very scared to talk to people and hardly ever does..) But after a 30 second conversation with my comp, I saw that I wasn't getting anywhere so I ended up starting the conversation. We started talking about the plan of salvation and if he thought that he had a purpse for his life and he started saying that he hadn't ever felt true happiness. He lost his job because somebody broke in and robbed his business, because of the stress of losing his business he had a stoke, after the stoke his wife left him with his 2 daughters, and now he has nothing and rents a tiny room that he doesn't have money to pay for... so it's safe to say that his life is hard.

After talking to him a little more he said that two days ago he was hit by a car and a Mormon helped him all day in the hospital... who was that Mormon? The ward mission leaders wife! He then said that he has had the feeling to talk to the Mormons ever since but he was too embarrased to ask for help. We then scheduled an appointment with him for the next day at the bishops house. We had family home evening with him and taught about The Book of Mormon. Over the next couple of days he started reading the Book of Mormon and said that he felt a happiness that he had never felt in his whole life. He said like he felt like his first love and he couldn't put the book down. Every night he fell asleep reading it. Then sunday came around and all the ward members wanted to take him to church, but he said he wasn't going to be able to go... but right before church started he said I'm here! He walked 45 minutes with a cane to come to church and didn't want anybody to help him because he didn't want to be embarrased. It was so crazy! The bishop was so exicted to see him there! It was super cool. He has a baptism date coming up and hopefully he can make it! Pray for Danny!

God puts us where he needs us so that we can help his children.

The Gospel is true. Love you all