CREATED AND UPDATED BY: M♡M

...More Faith!

November 30, 2009

This week we had another baptism. On Saturday I baptized Daniela. It was pretty sweet. On Sunday, Elder Perez confirmed her and she recieved the Holy Ghost. We are also teaching her cousin Lucrecia and she came to church on Sunday. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful week. Elder Martinez, our district leader, is super trunky. He dies (goes home) this week. For Thanksgiving I ate chinese: Arroz Cantones and Chop Suey with bread and Fanta Naranja.

Today for P-day we played soccer (surprise, surprise). It was really fun, but we got a little sun burnt. David seems to be doing really well. He always comes to church and activities, even though he lives far away. Joan’s (Its actually spelled Johan, but pronounced Joan) family really wants to follow his steps and be baptized, but they still can’t. I think Lucrecia will end up following her cousin’s example and be baptized. We are teaching some other people that can be baptized soon, like Melvin and a 12 year old kid named Julio. We have a lot of Recent Converts to teach, so we don’t have much time to find new people, but we are getting a lot of references from members so that’s good.

We’ve been really blessed these weeks. We’ve been trying to have more faith and the truth is I don’t even know where our baptisms came from. Some people are just ready and our Heavenly Father prepares them and basically hands them to us having faith that we won’t screw everything up.

I hope you all had a thankful Thanksgiving. Did you save me any Turkey? I miss a lot of foods, but I can’t remember what they are. Hope everything is going good.

How to teach your children to be GRATEFUL: (Not that I’ve been the most grateful son in the world but here are just some ideas that popped into my head):
Teach your children the value of hard work, so they understand what it means to have something or earn something and be grateful for it.
Pray as a family and give thanks to God for all that you, as parents, are thankful for, and teach your children to pray and give thanks as well.
Thank your children regularly for the good things that they do.
Do volunteer work and service as a family so that your kids can see how other people have more problems than them and realize how blessed they are, and so they can feel love for other people and have a desire to serve them.
Make your home a happy home so your children can more easily feel and see the blessings they really have . Thank you!
Elder Tobler


Johans Baptism

David's Baptism

Daniela's Baptism


Well, Feliz Cumpleaños Mamá!

November 23, 2009

Espero que tuviste un cumpleaños muuuuuuuuuuuuuy feliz! Hope you have a good b-day week.
David was baptized this week. Juan Carlos was able to baptize him. Then yesterday bishop confirmed David a member of the church and he recieved the Holy Ghost and the Aaronic Priesthood. It was an awesome weekend. We baptized a Colombian in Costa Rica! *Ü*

Daniela has her baptism set up for this next Saturday, the 28th of November at 5:00 pm. We have been teaching Daniela at her new house (she moved to live with her aunt and cousins) and we have started teaching her cousin Lucrecia as well.

Yesterday David and Daniela came to Church. David is already feeling at home in the ward and he has been coming to the mutuals and activities in the ward as well. Daniela seemed to really like church yesterday. Everyone in the ward was really welcoming and was saying hi to her and talking with her. The young men were especially eager to welcome Daniela to the ward. By the end of church she was sorrounded by young men basically with their tongues hanging out. I hope they don't scare her away. *Ü*

Yesterday at night we had a Noche de Hogar (family Home Evening) at Hna Itza's house again. Hna (Sister) Itza's family and Hna Patricia's family, David, Daniela, and Lucrecia were there as well. We watched the "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" movie. It was a really fun FHE. Everyone loves that movie. We ate some chips and dip at the end. I think some people double dipped the chip, maybe even triple dipped but whatever.

We've been taking freezing cold showers this week because our ducha (the shower head type thing that heats up the water) exploded on me last week. In the campo it would be survivable (In Cariari we didn't have a ducha), but here its kinda cold in the morning and cold showers aren't something you look forward to. Luckily, Elder Lanza was able to fix the ducha and we can shower in warm water again.

We keep knocking doors around here. We don't have much success. We are trying out different ways to get people interested in our message so they will let us in. My comp gets kinda discouraged when we knock doors. He hates it. But if we have nothing else to do we have to knock doors. Lately i've been really eager to share our message with people, and we walk around with a Book of Mormon in hand. People just don't understand what they are missing when they reject us. Oh well, we have to keep trying.

I hope everyone is doing fine and loving life. peace.

Elder Tobler


Elder Tobler & Elder Perez

Hna. Patricia & Hna Gladys

...You still have the best years ahead of you so make them unforgettable.

November 16, 2009

On Saturday Joan was baptized. Only a few people showed up, mainly his parents Jessica and Norberto, his sister Genesis, a member friend Hna. Esperanza, and the Lider Misional Abraham. It was a cool baptism. Elder Perez baptized him and even though the water was cold, Joan seemed excited to be baptized. Yesterday at church I was able to confirm him a member of the church and now he has the Holy Ghost to guide him in his new life.

This last week we put two more baptismal fechas. We put a fecha for Daniela (16 year old girl we found while knocking doors) and David (a 15 year old guy who moved here from Cali, Colombia about 10 months ago). They are both awesome. Both accepted the compromiso (commitment) to be baptized really easily. They both had fechas (dates) set for this Saturday, November 21st, but we´re going to have to move Daniela´s fecha back a week because yesterday morning when we went with David and Juan Carlos to pick Daniela up to take her to church she wasn't there. We had told her we were going to come pick her up but for some reason she wasn't there. We have a cita with her tonight, so we´ll keep preparing her for her baptism.

After going to pick up Daniela yesterday, we also went to pick up Jeniffer, but she wasn't there either. At the end we just went with David, but other investigators that showed up were Jimmy (who always comes) and his brothers Melvin and Michael. Joan´s parents Jessica (who always comes) and Norberto came as well and obviously saw Joan´s confirmation. Carmen (mother of Recent converts Bryan and Rey) came also, and was able to see her son Bryan bless the sacrament for the first time. It was a good day at church and i think David and the other investigators liked it and made friends.

The rest of yesterday Juan Carlos and David accompanied us to all of our appointments. At night we had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with Hna Itza's and Hna Patricia's families combined. (Hna Itza is Hna Gladys's daughter and Juan Carlos is Hna Itza´s son). Hna Itza has two other sons, one is like 18 and is never home, and the other is named Daniel and is 5 years old. We call him pantalones, because he always runs around without pants.*Ü* When I got here he had long hair, but bit by bit they´ve been chopping away his hair. I think his mom has a hard time letting go of his hair because it took awhile to grow, Anyway he is always like, "Elder Tober, quieres jugar con migo?, Mira me Elder Tober. Elder Tober, Elder Tober!" , Hna Patricia has three kids. She has two daughter and a 2 year old son. we watched The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd I hope every ones good. peace.

P.S. Happy Birthday S........! I hope you had the best birthday ever! It sounds like for the most part you had a pretty sweet birthday. I wish i could have been there to party with you guys but it was probably better without me. You still have the best years ahead of you so make them unforgettable. Keep being a good example for me and our younger sisters and make sure you save me a doughnut, or a piece of your birthday cake. Jk. peace.

keep working and rely on the Lord!

November 09, 2009

This week we found a couple of pretty good investigators. Daniela, she is around 16years old, we found her while knocking doors. After teaching her the first time, we asked when we could come back and she asked us to come the next day. When we came back the next day she said she had prayed and knows it’s the truth. She asked us when she could come to church. We set everything up so that we would pick her up with some members her age but she ended up not being able to come yesterday. She says she will come next Sunday and we have an appointment with her tonight. We also found a guy named Kevin and he actually asked us for a Book of Mormon so he seems good. We received a few references from the members this week. Juan Carlos ((Hna. Gladys’s grandson) Colombian) who is preparing for his mission, gave us a reference named Jenifer, and when we taught her she said she knew it was the truth. She was also supposed to come to church yesterday, but when Juan Carlos went to pick her up she wasn’t there.

This week we also have a baptism set up for a 10 year old named Joan. His family should be baptized by now except for the father has to divorce his first 'wife' so he can marry Joan’s mom.*Ü*He’s a really smart kid and he’s excited to be baptized.

It’s a lot different here than in Cariari. Sacrament meeting's assistance is about 160 people. There is a better organization and hopefully more help for us. In January we are going to start going to Belen for sacrament meeting (Right next to the Temple) because they are going to remodel and expand our church building here. My Mission President told me in our last interview that this area is very important because they want to make a stake here in Heredia. So I have some pressure on me but we´re just going to keep working and rely on the Lord to help us.

Today we went to Volcan (Volcano) Poas. It was too cloudy so we couldn’t see a thing. I’ll send you pics later. We also played soccer. There is passion fruit juice here, but not as common as I would like. I’ve had the actual passion fruit but its not as good because it has a bunch of seeds.
Peace...Stay humble, but take over the world. *Ü*
Elder Tobler

My first week in Heredia...

November 02, 2009

My first week in ‘Heredia’ went pretty well. Heredia's a pretty big, loud city. It’s a lot different than being out in the campo. We don’t have that many investigators here becasue the Elder before me was dying (ending his mission) and I guess he was really trunky (missing home). We did have a few appoitments with investigators ,Ma...., and RC every day but we also had to knock doors every single day this week. In Cariari our days were usually filled with appointments or people to visit but here it’s harder for people to listen to you so, it’s different. Should be interesting though.

We put a baptismal fecha (date) with a 10 year old boy of a family we’re teaching for this Saturday. His parents want to be baptized but they aren’t married to each other. The father is married, but to another woman so we have to solve that little problem before they can be baptized.

There are a lot of Colombians here. Our cocinera (cook) and her family are from Cali, so we eat Colombian food every day. It’s pretty sweet. We are also teaching a fifteen year old who just moved from Cali, Colombia as well.

We don’t have a telephone line in our apartment so we were going to have to move, but after talking with the dueño, he agreed to put one in. Its good news because now we don’t have to use the public or member phones every night to call in. Plus I like our apartment. It’s big and in a good location. I also get to take warm showers for the first time in months.

It was Halloween on Saturday. For some reason my comp and I thought it was on Friday, so we wore orange ties all day, and then found out it wasn’t Halloween yet. Halloween doesn’t really exist here. There were a few freaks running around dressed up in costumes but not many. I think they thought we were just dressed up as Mormons for Halloween. I’ts seems to be a scary costume for a lot of the people here who don’t want to talk to us.

I forgot to tell you that before I left Cariari, we went Iguana hunting. Every one had been promising to cook me some Iguana, for months, but no one ever did. Before I left, we went to hunt them with some of the jovenes in the rama. The Iguanas live way up high in the trees, so you have to climb the trees and when you find one, you try to knock it of the tree with a long stick (actually like three big sticks, you tie together). When you knock it down, the people waiting on the ground have to jump on the Iguana without getting bitten. Unfortunately, it rained a lot the day we went hunting. That made the trees slippery and the Iguanas were hiding. Jesua, one of the jovenes, climbed way up high into the trees and spotted an Iguana, but the stick wasn’t long enough and he wasn’t able to ever reach it.

Anyway, supposedly iguana tastes like chicken (everything tastes like chicken), but hopefully I can eat some Iguana before I leave the country. One of the basic tico foods is Gallo Pinto, which is rice and beans mixed together, sometimes with egg, meat, bread, and natiya (some white sauce like cream cheese and mayonnaise mixed). In Limon they have something called Rice n Bean, which is, you’ll never guess it, rice and beans mixed together, with coco flavoring. *Ü*

No spiritual experiences to share here yet. Sorry. ARC did cry the other night, but it was because she is having a hard time leaving coffee. She says she gets really sick and feels unbelievable pain and feels like passing out when she goes a few days without coffee. We didn’t know she still had that problem. We found out because she told me she had been reading Doctrine and Covenants and realized some of the pages were missing. When I looked in her book the section missing was Doctrine and Covenants 89, which is the Word of Wisdom. We decided to read the section and talk about the word of wisdom. It wasn’t until the end that she told us she still had problems with coffee. We talked about it with her but she became a little angry and started to cry, saying she had tried and tried but she can’t stand the pain and that God understood her. “Addiction has the capacity to disconnect the human will and nullify moral agency. It can rob one of the power to decide" “We should avoid any behavior that is addictive. Whatever is addictive compromises our will. Subjecting our will to the overbearing impulses imposed by any form of addiction serves Satan’s purposes and subverts our Heavenly Father’s. This applies to addictions to drugs (such as narcotics, alcohol, nicotine, or caffeine), addiction to practices such as gambling, and any other addictive behavior” (Free Agency and Freedom) ~ Dallin H. Oaks
We CAN overcome our addictions through the Atonement of Jesus Christ by being humble and honest and calling upon God and others for help. “I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. “Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things” (Alma 26:11–12).

Yesterday we taught a dual lesson while we were knocking doors. The only one who let us in was a drunken man and his really old grandfather. My comp and Juan Carlos (a Colombian guy about to go on a mission) were trying to teach the drunken guy. I tried to teach the old man but he couldn’t hear me so I just ended up listening to him talk the whole time.

We are right now on divisions with DL Elder Martinez who dies in a month. And we are Going to play soccer with the zone today. Nothing else to report. How’s life? Goodbye, I guess.