Changes Week

Well, another changes week has passed here, so I hope you're all ready to hear what happened, kind of crazy things happened so here you go...

First of all, I'm going to answer the main question... no, we didn't have changes, I will be "killing" Elder Zelaya aka I'm his last comp of the mission. And the other question, no, we did not have any baptisms, that's one of the crazy things that happened. I can't go into much detail, but they just had a few issues and were not able to get baptized. Alis, we have confirmed that he does have to wait a year... =(  We're going to keep working with Claudia and Maria Jose, because they could get baptized this week, we are sure hoping that all works out. With Claudia we aren't quite sure what happened, all we know is that the day of her baptism, she was drunk... so needless to say, she didn't get baptized. Also, once again, we've had many appointments fall through, so we had very few lessons this week, the lowest in my mission actually, but we're trying to find more new people so that we can have more lessons.

And then today we had our mission christmas party, we went with half of the mission to an old people's home, sang hymns and talked with them. Afterwards we went to a church building, had lunch, sang more hymns, had a lesson from Pres. Wilkinson, they then gave us gifts (temple recommend holders with a picture of the temple here) and we just talked with people, it was fun. And he also gave us some good news... January 24... Elder Cook is coming to talk to us! It will be my first meeting with an apostle! I'm excited, it's going to be awesome.

Well, that was my week, love you all, talk to you later!

Oh, and P.S. thank you to the primary for the letters!

Con mucho amor(sh),

-- Elder Black

   Elder Hunter Black   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                              

 Costa Rica San José   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                

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Short Letter

So this week was pretty average. Sorry that I don't have much exciting.

Questions: Yes, Alis got married!!! =) And yes, I watched the devotional too.

So this week, I don't really know what happened. Our numbers were pretty low, we couldn't really find anyone to teach, we just had some issues this week. But, the good news, we had a baptismal interview with Claudia, and she passed! Also, Alis got married, and hopefully will be able to get baptized this week! Also, we have an investigator, Maria Jose, she's 14, but she's been going to seminary, YW mutual, etc. And she should be getting baptized this week too!! 3 baptisms this week!!! Anyways, that's about what happened this week.

Funny/sad thing: Everyone who went to the wedding ended up getting sick, something in the food...

Anyways, I'm a little pressed for time, so this is all that I can write for this week, talk to you later!

-- Elder Black

Another Week

So this week was kind of average, so sorry if you were looking for something interesting.

We spent a lot of the week doing service. We were helping Alis, who was going to be baptized, to set up a "soda" (sorry, I can't think of the word) or, a place where somebody sells food, kind of a fast food restaurant, just that it's not a fast food chain, just an indivdual (for his wife, Argentina). Anyways, we really wanted to spend a lot of time with him to get him ready for baptism. Good news = we finished the "soda" Bad news = He can't get baptized yet... He's awesome and has the desire, but because of some circumstances he can't get baptized quite yet =( But other good news, they opened up their soda and it's cheap so we can eat there often =) But yeah, basically we spent our week trying to get him ready for baptism. The good news is that we have some other people that should be getting baptized within the coming weeks, we are hoping to have at least 3 baptisms this month. But time is flying, I don't know that we'll have the time to get this people interested! That's one of the difficulties that we've been having... commitments, many times people don't realize why they should be doing the things that we ask them, so we have to try time and time again to get them to understand. We are working with a lot of new investigators, we realized that we needed to drop several of our current ones, so we are trying to get references to be able to work more. But that's about all we did this week, I would say that it was still a success, Alis is going to get married this Saturday even though he can't get baptized, they want to keep the commandments, so I'm happy about that. I'll talk to you all later!

¡A Cachete!

--Elder Black

Please pray for the following individuals:  Thanks!

Claudia and her kids - passing through hard times, but has gone to church and wants to be baptized.

Andrea - 19, a little crazy, has the desire to keep learning

Alberto - 17, is ready, but his mom won't give him permission

Maria Jose - 14, her friend is a member, already goes to seminary and does her Personal Progress 

   Elder Hunter Black   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                              

 Costa Rica San José   

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                

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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