I just wanted to share the quick miracle that happened. Last night, we had 3 baptisms =) yep, I was able to have the baptisms before going home!!! It was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've seen, it was awesome =) I'll give you more details on Thursday, make sure the car is warm =) See you later (and take food to the airport, I'm going to be hungry =)

-- Elder Black

    Elder Hunter Black    

  Costa Rica San José    

            

          2013-2014             

Last Email?

Well, I don't know if this is going to be my last email or not, so I think I'm going to copy Skylar and do the same list that he did.

This last week went alright, everybody is all like, "almost elder, you're almost home, just one week left" Yeah, so it's kinda weird. But overall things are going good. We found a new family of 6 to teach, they're cool, very receptive. Hopefully we can have some good progress with them. We are really trying to have 3 baptisms on Sunday... we'll see if it happens, I sure hope so.

Anyways, I just wanted to write the list of my comps, areas, etc.

Companions:11 (and one repeated)

1. Elder Ramirez (San Pedro Sula, Honduras) Trainer

2. Elder Garrett (Oklahoma) 1/2 Trainer

3. Elder Brindis (Chiapas, Mexico) Potty Trainer

4. Elder Elvira (Guatemala, Guatemala)

5. Elder De Leon (Guatemala, Guatemala) My son for 1 week

6. Elder Garrett (Again)

7. Elder Zelaya (Tegucigalpa, Honduras)

8. Elder Alvarez (D.F., Mexico)

9. Elder Ortega (San Pedro Sula, Honduras)

10. Elder Roldan (Guatemala, Guatemala)

11. Elder Rodriguez (San Salvador, El Salvador)

12. Elder Mejia (Guatemala, Guatemala)

Areas: 8

1. Naranjo, 6 months: Hot, purely hills, almost nothing flat there. A little bit in the campo, it's just a branch of about 60, but the members are really cool. Very catholic and evangelic. But the people are very humble. Famous for coffee, there are lots of coffee fields there. The area goes clear up to Zarcero which is famous for the garden sculptures in the park. And Zarcero is pretty cold.

2. Barva de Heredia, 3 Weeks jaja: It's cool, also has lots of mountains. Famous for the masks that they make and in August (while I was there) they have a huge festival and people put those masks on and go around smacking people with pig bladders full of urine... It's a ward.

3. Guarari de Heredia, 1 week=): Famous for being dangerous, drugs, etc. Lots of Nicaraguans. It's really chill, the people are humble. It's a ward.

4. San Rafael... de Heredia, 2 months: Cold, it's up in the mountains, has a lot of nature, it's very pretty there. Famous for the cook, it was a buffet everyday and she made good food =) A small branch of 80 members.

5. Alajuelita, 3 months: Very famous for being very dangerous, lots of shootings, drugs, poor people, dirty. But it's cool =) The members are awesome, it's a ward of 120. A lot of Nicaraguans live there and were fairly receptive to our message.

6.Vizcaya, 4.5 months: Right next to Alajuelita, also "dangerous" Part of the area is in the mountain clear in the middle of nowhere. It's an awesome ward of 130 members that are ready to work =)

7. Escazú, 1.5 months: Famous because of the gringos!!! And witches!!! Half of the ward are gringos. The bishop is gringo too. So everyone thinks that the area is loaded with money, but pretty much everywhere is poor. The members are pretty cool and almost everyone speaks a bit of english, so it was nice to practice =)

8. Tibás, 6 months: Famous for the Saprissa, the soccer team here (I'm not Saprisista, I'm Ligista, the enemy of Saprissa) The people here are also fairly catholic. The nice thing is the area is very flat. It's a small ward of about 85 people... so it's almost a branch... but we just got a new bishop and the members are getting excited to work. The members are very nice and give us lots of food. This area is pretty great.

So everything is the mission has been great, I've learned alot, I don't feel like I've changed... but I guess you guys will have to tell me. The people here in Costa Rica are awesome, the Ticos and the Nicas, I love them both. I'm glad to have been able to be here a little while and hope that when I get back I can make you all proud. I'm excited to see you all again, but I'm sad to leave here. See you all soon.

¡¡¡PURA VIDA!!!

-- Elder Black

    Elder Hunter Black    

  Costa Rica San José    

            

          2013-2014             

I truly have no idea what to say anymore... everything seems pretty much the same... those who have served missions probably know how I feel... the highlight of the week was that we had 12 investigators at church! That was pretty cool. We should be having baptisms this month. We want to have at least 7: Juana, Roy(cito), Charlie they are a family. And Wilfredo, Karla, Liseth, and Donovan are another family. Those are what we are hoping for this month. See y'all later!!! Have fun reading my letter, I know it's so interesting. Bye!

-- Elder Black

    Elder Hunter Black    

  Costa Rica San José    

            

          2013-2014             

November 2, 2014

So this week went alright, we are planning to do activities here in our ward to help the ward get bigger and more active. We are hoping to recieve several references by doing that and hopefully we can get things picked up a little here. We've been having some rough weeks but I'm sure that we can get things going. I'm going to work hard especially now in this final stretch. Pray for me, pray for the people here, and pray for the people there. We need help in all the world. This week didn't go to well but I'm sure that this week will be better, thanks for the support that I've recieved from everyone and keep it up please =)  Love you all!!!

-- Elder Black

P.S. Sorry it's short, it's just that everything seems almost the same now...

    Elder Hunter Black    

  Costa Rica San José    

            

          2013-2014             

So this was an average week. So I wasn't sure if I would be leaving the area, and so just in case I wanted to make sure that my comp could lead the area, so I let him take charge of everything... he got lost a few times haha. We lost a couple of days planning our talent show and getting everything ready. It was fun, but we pretty much didn't have any investigators... the only ones that showed up were the ones that we took ... but that's ok, we'll keep trying to get the members to help us! So yeah... the week was kinda normal.. Our bishop changed, and we had changes today... well, not really for us it's the same... so yeah... I'll have something cooler for y'all next week. Later!

-- Elder Black

    Elder Hunter Black    

 

  Costa Rica San José    

            

          2013-2014             

Excellent Week!

We had a pretty great week, one of the best of my mission I think. We were working like crazy!!! On Tuesday we did divisions and I went with Elder Hatch (a new gringo) to his area. He has one of the "most dangerous" places in his area. It's called Leon XIII. So we went (they had gotten robbed on Sunday) and everything was chill =) We had several lessons and found four new investigators!!! Then on Wednesday I returned to my area and worked well and found another new =) On Thursday we went looking for new investigators again and we found 4 more =)  On friday we found our super awesome investigator, Hazel, that will soon be baptized, she's already gone to church 3 times and is now living with a member (female, return missionary =) And on Saturday we also worked really well and put several baptismal dates, and found some new investigators!!! Éxito!!! And then on Sunday we had 7 investigators at church =) We are really hoping to have several baptisms in November and we are going to work hard to make sure they happen!!! Love you all, and talk to you next week!

-- Elder Black

    Elder Hunter Black    

 

  Costa Rica San José    

            

          2013-2014             

October 13, 2014

¿Como estan todos?

This week went pretty good, pretty much the whole week we spent looking for new people to teach, we didn’t end up having very many new investigators, but we are hoping to be able to return with some people that we met. We walked a lot, we’re a little tired, but we’ll keep moving forward. The good news is that a return missionary went to do visits with us yesterday and he showed us some tactics for getting new investigators and references, we received 7 references yesterday =) We are going to keep working to get new investigators =) Other than that things are going well, we’ve been playing soccer for activities (which brings several references) and today we played soccer so I’m beat, and my time is almost up, so I’ll talk to you all next week, see ya!!!

-- Elder Black

    Elder Hunter Black    

  Costa Rica San José    

            

          2013-2014