March 09, 2009
Hi, This week was pretty crazy. I had divisions with Elder Clark from the other companionship the night before they left Moravia. He showed me where their investigators live and introduced them to me because Elder Bonn and I are taking over their investigators. Elder Clark and Elder Stuetz left Wednesday morning. Elder Clark went to Pavas (other side of city) and Elder Stuetz went to Liberia (In Guanacaste, in Northwest of country). The new area is not too hard to handle so far and I already know how to get around the area pretty well anyway. I had divisions with my DL, Elder Tagliaferi, on Friday so he could give the baptismal interview to Vera. We also visited a few members and investigators. The interview went perfect and we got some of Vera´s grandson Michaels leftover birthday cake. Michael is Andrea´s son and his birthday was on March 3, like AV On Saturday morning we went to Wendys in Centro San Jose to switch back with our normal comps.
There are only four elders in our district now. Elder Tagliaferi, Elder Nunez, Elder Bonn, and myself. At noon we had to teach English classes at the church. We usually have classes every Saturday at 3. Before Elder Clark taught the beginners class and the rest of us would teach more advanced or conversational, but now its only Elder Bonn and I. Now I teach the whole class of mostly beginners and Elder Bonn teaches the more advanced people (if there are any that day) in the back of the room. None of the people that go to the class are members. Some are investigators and some just want to learn English for free. There are usually about 7-15 people that attend the class but we get more all the time because people bring there friends. Right after English classes we had to set up for Vera´s wedding. Then we ran to the store to buy chips for the wedding. Then Vera was married to Mario at about 2:30 (the wedding was supposed to be at 2 but everything in this country starts late). The guy that married them reminds me of the lawyer Jackie from Seinfeld. Half the people that came to the wedding were family and half were members. I wore my sick new white silverish tie. We ate food afterwards and it was really good. Then we ate the wedding cake. We didn't have a knife to cut the cake with so Elder Bonn and I went down to a local pizza joint and borrowed a big knife from them. People in the street looked puzzled when they saw me, a missionary, walking down the street with a large knife in my hand, but sometimes when we do service we carry around machetes anyway, so we´re used to it. After the wedding Vera Violeta Araya Sibaja was baptized by Elder Bonn. Elder Bonn dunked her pretty good (he basically slammed her into the water) because he wanted to make sure she got all the way under the water. While we were waiting for them to change i led the hymns but i basically sang solos because most of the people didn't know the tones of the songs or just didn't sing. Hopefully i didn't sound too bad. Anyway the baptism was awesome and Vera is a great example for her family.
On Sunday, yesterday, Vera was confirmed by hermano Jimenez. She got to church a little late and i felt bad because no one from her family came, but she was really happy to be confirmed and the members made her feel like they were family. Not only did we have the confirmation at church yesterday but we had 2 of our investigators and a members non-member friend at church also. One of the investigators is a reference we received from the bishop (Obispo Cruz) this week. His name is Leo Alvarado and he has been reading the book of Mormon for a month and is almost done with it. We have taught him about the restoration and he received the lessons about the plan of salvation and word of wisdom. He has a testimony already and we are probably going to invite him to be baptized soon. Another investigator that came to church yesterday also was Mario Aguerro who lives in La Isla and has a brother with Epilepsy. I think we will challenge him to be baptized soon also. We are visiting them both on Wednesday this week so we hope to challenge them then. We have an investigator class in Sunday school and we taught the lesson about the scriptures and explained to them about all the scriptures accepted by the church. Leo, Mario, Vera, and a members friend named Jose were in the class along with about four members who did pretty good in making the investigators feel welcome. All of the investigators and new members (Vera) were able to participate and did really well. Leo was even quoting Alma and it was awesome. During and after church i had the headache of filling out the baptism paperwork forms that ask for a lot of information. I don't see how some of the info it asks for is necessary or relevant but i got it all filled out anyway. Also had to update the area book and organize it the other day as well.
We have an hour every p'day to write and read emails. We can write letters on p'day. We only have one ward, before all four elders were in our one ward. The area isn't that bad, as long as you know which buses to take or where to walk. Sometimes its inconvenient if we have citas (appoitments) in different areas in a day but we try to plan to make it easier. Don't worry about my shoes. My vans are all sowed up and glued now. I had to cut up and use an old tie to patch some of the holes but it looks pretty good if i do say so myself. I'm trying to find street soccer shoes to buy but haven't found ones i want yet. My church shoes should be fine. I just need more super glue and plus i still have another pair of church shoes. The weather here for me is still pretty good. There were a couple of hot days and a few rainy days but i haven't had to use an umbrella yet. I let my comp use my rain jacket because it hasn't rained or been cold enough to bother me yet. My comp only gets cold because before this area he was in the humid jungle. Most of the time the weather here is moderately sunny, with a few clouds, and a light mist. The wind seems to blow the rain from the mountains to the city and it becomes more like a mist so I like it, but my comp doesn't. I already have a resistance band to work out with. My comp and I try to work out every morning. My comp has a good pull up bar that i use and its pretty good for working out my biceps, abs, and forearms. He also has push up handle things that we use. We plan to run but we just haven't gotten to it yet. Sometimes we have to run to appointments anyways and most of our area is pretty hilly too. I am in Centro San Jose right now because we come here almost every p'day now because in order to meet the other two Elders in our district we have to go through San Jose (that's where the buses go). The other elders are in Tibas, Garabito, Leon XIII (where Nunez has been jumped twice in the past two months). Good luck with everything going on at home.
Pura Vida!
