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   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                

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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

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   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                

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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

Another Week

Rain, rain go away, come again another day...

So I'm just going to answer mom's questions (nobody else asks me anything!!!)

So the musical number last week, I played the piano and a member and Elder Garrett sang. The song was "I Know that my Redeemer Lives".  Today for P-day we just went and played soccer and basketball, and then went to Pizza Hut.  Transfers will be this Thursday and we won't know until Wednesday night. I still haven't gotten the package, they only go to the office the first Friday of every month.

So this week... I got a lot of excercise. We had a several appointments that fell through, but that's ok! It's been super rainy, so we got soaked and I just decided to start playing in the rain. Finally on Saturday we had a fantastic day. We were able to teach 7 lessons. We visited with Mayra and Beyanira (whose kids now are unsure about baptism...) And then we went and visited Sonya (she just had her first baby last Monday) and her husband has started to listen to us more! We went and visited Jimena and Sofia (daughters of a member, but still haven't been baptized and are unsure about it...) And then we went to Flavio's, and he's going through hard times (that's what always happens to recent converts). So we have so many possibilities here, we are just really working on trying to get these people excited. Yesterday we went and visited with Karen again, and we asked what she had read (I was expecting an answer like 2 pages of a pamphlet), she sighs and says, "...only 2 pamphlets" And we freaked out, we were so happy, that's the first person that I've had that has actually read all of a pamphlet... and she read 2!!! So we were able to talk with her a lot, and at the end of the lesson we asked her to pray. And she, naturally, said, "I don't know how, I don't feel ready..." but in the end we explained to her and she ended up doing it perfectly. Right when she finished she just sat there thinking and said, "I feel... something... I don't know how to explain it... it feels, good. I've never felt this before." She continued to talk to us about this feeling and asked if we felt the same the first time that we prayed. It was really nice to know that we were able to help someone feel something through something so simple as a prayer. I was really happy to have been a part of that.

That was my week, though rough at the beginning, we ended with a miracle. We just had to have a trial of our faith to be able to see the blessings.

Love you all,

-- Elder Black

   Elder Hunter Black   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                              

 Costa Rica San José   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                

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Week 42

This is a moth!  Or is it a clown...? 

Cow tongue, yum!

Mondongo (cow stomach), cow tongue, oysters,pig blood taco, octupus, clams and mango smoothie, all for lunch!

There is a leak in our shower...

So we made the "best" of it and had some fun.

Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in. We are going to go to the Q&A segment of this letter.

Questions and Answers: Transfers are next week, we will see what happens. I am not in San Jose, I am in San Rafael de Heredia. What did I eat interesting this week... I ate a pig blood taco, mondongo (cow stomach), cow tongue, oysters, clams, octopus, and a mango smoothie with coconut milk (that was all on saturday at lunch). My favorite fruit? I still like Manzanas de Agua.

So this week we had some very hard days. Tuesday, nothing. Wednesday we had a good day. We were able to have 5 lessons, all with investigators. We put baptismal dates with Jimena (an 11 year-old girl whose dad is a member) and we were able to put a new date with Carla (girlfriend of a member) and also get Flavio ready for his confirmation... but we found out that he had smoked again =( It's rough, but we just keep praying for him. On Thursday... another normal day. But on Friday we got up early to go to a multi-zone conference with Elder Amado (of the seventy) we had to be somewhere at 7...and we didn't end up getting back until 6:40. It was a really good conference and I was able to learn alot. He was really funny and a great experience too. We were there for a while to because we also got our cell phones! Oosh!! Finally! But the instant we got them everyone freaked out and was going crazy... Saturday, we had a great lesson with Flor (an investigator that has been investigating for months...) and we finally found out what her problems were with the church. It was a great lesson and will definitely help us to help her. Then, on Sunday we (me, Elder Garrett, and a member) perfomed a musical number in church. And it went over well especially considering how little we had practiced. And then that night I went and met a reference, Karen. She is the niece of a less active member. Well, Karen speaks english, asked perfect questions, already had a Book of Mormon, wants to know a lot, and immediately asked when we could come back. She's awesome!!! And then today, we went and played laser tag and I had the highest score on my team, second overall =) it was so freaking fun!

And that was my week. I would just like to make a shout out to my brother Cooper, happy birthday dude! Tune in next week for more in the life of Black.

Later,

-- Elder Black

Week 41?

Baptism!

This is what a missionary's fridge looks like, Yikes!

Calzone!

Monte de la Cruz?

Cathedral in Monte de la Cruz

So this week we didn't have very many lessons, but we had 9 investigators go to church, and we had a baptism!!! Ush, ush, ush!!!

So this last week was a little rough, I cook couldn't cook for us, so we had to eat out or make our own food. But I did learn from Elder Petlacalco (our district leader) how to make chilaquiles :) yeah, so I finally know how to make some food :) Also, one day we went and bought empanadas from Flavio, they were very good. Oh, Flavio, I went to tell him where Aunt Yamile was from, and he just says "I knew it, I knew that you were going to say that!!!" It was pretty funny. Oh, another random thing for those of you who speak spanish, Flavio prays in "Vos" haha Anyways, then on Wednesday we only taught two lessons, then at the end of the day we had to head to San José. We went to the mission home because at 3:30 they woke us up to go get fingerprints done so that we can get our residency here. We had to just wait around until 7... yeah, I was really tired, but at least I'm here legally now =) I also completed 9 months on Wednesday! Then on Thursday... another not so good day. Friday... another not so good day. Then on Saturday, I got to baptize an Argentino! And we taught some good lessons, had a good day =) Sunday, we had a good start to the week, taught some other good lessons, everything went very well. And then here I am today. Yep, that was the week.

Later!

-- Elder Black

   Elder Hunter Black   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                              

 Costa Rica San José   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                

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