Favorite Scripture

Doctrine and Covenants: 35

13 Wherefore, I call upon the aweak things of the world, those who are bunlearned and despised, to thresh the cnations by the power of my dSpirit;

14 And their arm shall be my arm, and I will be their ashield and their buckler; and I will gird up their loins, and they shall fight manfully for me; and their benemies shall be under their feet; and I will let cfall the dsword in their behalf, and by the efire of mine indignation will I preserve them.

15 And the apoor and the bmeek shall have the gospel preached unto them, and they shall be clooking forth for the time of my coming, for it is dnigh at hand—

Monday, November 25, 2013

Successful Week

We started to have a little more success in this last week, and we are satisfied with our work, here's the stuff that happened this week.

So on Tuesday we went to our first appointment, with a member, and she gave us a reference. Right then, we left with her to contact the reference (Meylin). We went and talked to her, and at the end of the lesson, she gave us 4 references! Yeah! References from an investigator! Then we went to another investigator, Bisente. He's an indian (Native American) from Nicaragua and speaks Mesquite. So we've started to learn =) Nasqui guaina = ¿Como estas amigo? Pine (like english) = bien . Anyways, we taught him... and ... 3 references!!! Once again, from an investigator!!! They help us more than the members... Then we went to a Group FHE in the church and... a member took a friend... another reference!!! Then, on Wednesday we went and taught Alis (male). He just said, "hey, I want to get baptized"  =) =) =) =) =) =) =) YES!!! And then, his "wife" (they're not married... yet) made us tacos. They were so good! Then on Thursday I went on divisions with our district leader, I stayed here in Alajuelita. That day, Alis proposed to Argentina (the wife) and the wedding should be this week! And the baptism should follow right after! Then on Friday we got some new investigators and then went and played soccer. My team only lost once, so we got to play almost the whole time. 43 people showed up!!! (it's a ward mission activity, the purpose is to bring investigators) And then yesterday, we went and ate Salvadoranian pupusas. They were pretty good. And we taught a few lessons. But the cool thing of the week is that normally we would just have a couple references and a couple new investigators, we recieved 15 references and had 12 new investigators! We are working very well here, I'm very happy with the work we're doing.

So that was my week, very satisfying, we are doing good work. Thanks for the support that you all give me, I'm glad to be here representing the Lord in Costa Rica. Love you all!

--Elder Black 

   Elder Hunter Black   
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                              
 Costa Rica San José   
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
sdfas2013-20142014

Monday, November 18, 2013

A New Perspective


We had an interesting week, basically lots of new things, and a new perspective on mission work, so get ready cause here we go.


So we have started to try to do more activities to get people involved. So on Tuesday we decided to have a FHE in the church. And we were able to have a few investigators there, so it was a success. Then on Thursday I went on divisions with an Elder Ramirez (not the same one as my trainer) and we worked hard. We ended up with 6 lessons, we recieved 8 references, and found some new people!!! Then on Friday we went to a multi zone conference with President Wilkinson. We were there from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. We learned lots of good things from that conference. We now know what our purpose is... Bautizar y Retener!!! Or Baptize and Retain. That is what we are called to do as missionaries, nothing more, nothing less. He also let us know that we accept, and give lots of excuses... but no more, we don't accept excuses! As we have begun to apply the things we learned from President, we are starting to see the fruits. Just yesterday we were able to place some baptismal dates, we found 6 new people, and recieved a reference. We are able to do all of this without knocking doors! It's a great time to be a missionary! We now know exactly how to do mission work, to have success, we learned that all you have to do is follow what Preach My Gospel says. That's the trick, follow the instructions and you will get the work.

And today we went and played with pidgeons in the park, got them to sit on our heads, we took pictures and just had fun.

I love you all, always remember that EVERY MEMBER IS A MISSIONARY!!!

--Elder Black


Monday, November 11, 2013

Another Week!

Well, not much happened in this past week, but hopefully I can still make this letter interesting.

Questions and Answers (aka for mom): What's my area like? It's kinda poor, at the foot of the mountains, and the people always give us food =) The weather is still pretty cool, and it's started to rain a bit again, apparently it's almost monsoon season, which means it's gonna start raining a ton. My new apartment is big. We have a main room that's big, then 3 other rooms. (there used to be 4 missionaries there, that's why it's bigger =) Also, it has a couch, that's always a nice thing to have. My apartment in Heredia was the best, nice and clean, lots of space, etc. My favorite comp? I'm not sure right now, I get along really well with Elder Zelaya... so we'll see. And yes, we have mamas, we always do. I don't wash my clothes anymore, someone else does. And yes, they still serve the same kind of food here.

So this week we tried to work with some of the members. Most of our appointments fell through with our investigators, we are trying to find some more so that we have more people to teach, and little by little we are starting to get the work here going. We have an awesome, new, ward mission leader who is very excited to work, and will not stop until the work is done (so... never!) He leaves to do visits with us on Saturdays and Sundays, is working with us to plan activities, and wants to get the whole ward active in the work. He's awesome! The baptisms that we had lined up fell through, the investigators didn't go to church... but we are doing all we can to help them =) We are going to keep working hard here to get the ward excited and willing to help us here in the Work of Salvation (it's not missionary work anymore).

That was my week here, it was Elder Zelaya's birthday on Saturday, so we had lots of good food and fun. Yep, life's great, all is good.

Les quiero mucho, hasta luego,

--Elder Black

 
   Elder Hunter Black   
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                              
 Costa Rica San José   
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
sdfas2013-20142014

Monday, November 4, 2013

New Area!


Yep, so once again I unexpectedly had changes. There have been crazy things going on, but you know, that's just how things are.
Questions: Am I happy I got transferred... yes and no, no because we had several baptisms lined up and the changes were completely unexpected. But yes because I am now in a ward, have a good comp, and we have some baptisms lined up. I am now in an area called Alajuelita (in San José). It's a little bit poorer than Heredia, but the people are really cool here. It's supposedly a dangerous area, but from what I've seen it's really chill... except one thing, but don't worry about that =) My comp is Elder Zelaya from Honduras, he's got 21 months in the mission, his birthday is this Saturday, and is obsessed with DragonBall. He's really relaxed and pretty cool. (He was the mission secretary when I got here). I will probably be with him until he leaves in January.  I haven't gotten my package yet...
That's crazy everything I've heard about the ward... what's going on?!!! Tell Riley I say hi. And good luck with all the people there.
Well, I only have a few minutes, not much happened this last week, I just got changed again and have been getting to know the new area. I like it here. I don't really have much news for this week other than I learned to solved a rubix cube, that was cool. And I've just been trying to learn from my comp, we'll see how things keep going.
Love you all, Pura Vida,

--Elder Black