March 8, 2010
The day of changes I went to my area in Tres Rios, dropped off my stuff, and went to Heredia for two days. I went there with Elder Lee, so I could show him the area a little bit. We walked all over the area, showing him the bus stops, homes of members, menos activos (less actives), and investigators, and other important things about the area. We went on a tour of Heredia Centro, Cubujuqui, over by the old and new hospitals on Monday night. On Tuesday we went to Carpintera, La Cuenca en La Milpa, Los Lagos, Guarari, Parque Los Angeles, Parque Central, Birri, Barva, Fatima, went to the Obispo's (Bishop's) business Bordatica, went in a complete circle of the area. I drew a quick map as well. It was really fun and it was a good way to say goodbye to the area. On Tuesday night we went to San Jose and I got to stay in the AP house with all the new missionaries that came in this change. There were 20 that came in, mostly from Honduras, and from El Salvador, and one gringo from Gilbert, Arizona. The next morning we ate breakfast at Presidents house. Finally. Everyone has eaten with Pres., or at his house, and got a picture with pres. when they came in the mission, etc., except for me because I came in the mission weird (middle of a change). It’s a nice house. Another thing I never did was have my one month checkup because me trainer didn’t know about it. Anyway, no big deal. After breakfast, I went with Elder Lee and we brought all the new missionaries suitcases over from the Ap house to the church in Los Yoses. We had to make a few trips in the truck. Elder Lee was glad it was the last time he would have to do that (Not Ap anymore). The new missionaries were practicing baptizing each other while we brought their stuff. Finally my comp arrived and I went to get to know my new area of Tres Rios.
In Barrio Tres Rios (Ward) there are four missionaries. Two Elders (Elder Sierra and I) and two Hermanas (Hermana Almengor (from Panama) and Hermana Bingham (from Texas) (Sister Missionaries). Even though we only have half of the Tres Rios area, it’s still pretty big. We live in the Hermanas area so we always have to walk about twenty minutes just to get to our area. Our areas are split by the freeway. Once we cross the freeway we are in our area. The area is really long. It stretches out at the base of the mountains. It’s kind of a more pine tree mountain like atmosphere. It’s harder to use the buses to get around here, not as convenient, so we usually just walk along the freeway to get to the different parts of our area. Parts of the area are San Vicente, Cedro, Carpintera, El Monte, Calle Mesen, etc.. Our cocinera and lavadera (cook & laundry lady) is Hermana Rosi Fonseca. The bishop seems nice, and the ward mission leader, Jeffrey, is interesting. The ward is pretty big, like 130 sacrament attendance. The ward mission leader I had in Moravia, Esteban, is now married and lives in this ward. Also, my first mini-missionary comp, Elder Cervantes (I mean, Gabriel) is in the ward next door, (Concepcion) so he comes with us on divisions sometimes.
Here I am in Zona Los Yoses. My Zls are Elder Buckner (My DL in Cariari) and Elder Valerio (My comp in Cariari), so that's pretty sweet. Today we went to the Institute building in San Jose. We ate at Pollo Campero and played ping pong, air hockey, and foosball as a Zone. While at the building, I saw Tamara from Heredia and asked how it was going to Belen in the bus with the whole ward. Also the other night I saw Michael Hernandez, his wife, and her sister, and her husband, all from the ward in Moravia. We were rushing to a cita (appointment) in Tres Rios and I saw them in the street. They were visiting some friends. It was crazy to see them all, especially because the week I left Michaels wife’s sister (can't remember names right now) had just had a baby and Michaels wife was about to give birth. Now they had the two babies in their arms, both being almost a year old. Wow.
Anyway, we have good investigators. Jaime y Brazilia could be baptized this month. We put a baptismal meta (goal) with them. Also Juriel, is a 22 year old that we put a fecha (date) with this week, for the end of this month. The problem is although we walked deep into Calle Mesen Sunday morning to pick him up and take him to church, he hadn’t gotten home from work (he works nights as a guard) so we then walked to church sweating in our suits alone and he still hasn’t been to church. The good thing is Jaime and Brazilia did and we are going to find more good investigators this week and keep working with Juriel.
In January, la Mission San Jose Costa Rica had its best baptizing month in its history. There were 115 baptisms. In February, we broke the record again. President Galvez is really into putting goals and meeting them, so I think that has helped a lot. Before people used to put a monthly baptismal goal and almost no one would meet there goals, but now if we put a goal we better meet it. In Heredia, we were blessed to meet our month’s baptism goal every month. It was amazing how when we put a goal we really wanted to meet, and we worked hard to meet it, how the Lord really helped us meet it, in a couple months at the last second (Like in January we met the goal the last week of the month, and in February, the last day of the month).
The day of changes I went to my area in Tres Rios, dropped off my stuff, and went to Heredia for two days. I went there with Elder Lee, so I could show him the area a little bit. We walked all over the area, showing him the bus stops, homes of members, menos activos (less actives), and investigators, and other important things about the area. We went on a tour of Heredia Centro, Cubujuqui, over by the old and new hospitals on Monday night. On Tuesday we went to Carpintera, La Cuenca en La Milpa, Los Lagos, Guarari, Parque Los Angeles, Parque Central, Birri, Barva, Fatima, went to the Obispo's (Bishop's) business Bordatica, went in a complete circle of the area. I drew a quick map as well. It was really fun and it was a good way to say goodbye to the area. On Tuesday night we went to San Jose and I got to stay in the AP house with all the new missionaries that came in this change. There were 20 that came in, mostly from Honduras, and from El Salvador, and one gringo from Gilbert, Arizona. The next morning we ate breakfast at Presidents house. Finally. Everyone has eaten with Pres., or at his house, and got a picture with pres. when they came in the mission, etc., except for me because I came in the mission weird (middle of a change). It’s a nice house. Another thing I never did was have my one month checkup because me trainer didn’t know about it. Anyway, no big deal. After breakfast, I went with Elder Lee and we brought all the new missionaries suitcases over from the Ap house to the church in Los Yoses. We had to make a few trips in the truck. Elder Lee was glad it was the last time he would have to do that (Not Ap anymore). The new missionaries were practicing baptizing each other while we brought their stuff. Finally my comp arrived and I went to get to know my new area of Tres Rios.
In Barrio Tres Rios (Ward) there are four missionaries. Two Elders (Elder Sierra and I) and two Hermanas (Hermana Almengor (from Panama) and Hermana Bingham (from Texas) (Sister Missionaries). Even though we only have half of the Tres Rios area, it’s still pretty big. We live in the Hermanas area so we always have to walk about twenty minutes just to get to our area. Our areas are split by the freeway. Once we cross the freeway we are in our area. The area is really long. It stretches out at the base of the mountains. It’s kind of a more pine tree mountain like atmosphere. It’s harder to use the buses to get around here, not as convenient, so we usually just walk along the freeway to get to the different parts of our area. Parts of the area are San Vicente, Cedro, Carpintera, El Monte, Calle Mesen, etc.. Our cocinera and lavadera (cook & laundry lady) is Hermana Rosi Fonseca. The bishop seems nice, and the ward mission leader, Jeffrey, is interesting. The ward is pretty big, like 130 sacrament attendance. The ward mission leader I had in Moravia, Esteban, is now married and lives in this ward. Also, my first mini-missionary comp, Elder Cervantes (I mean, Gabriel) is in the ward next door, (Concepcion) so he comes with us on divisions sometimes.
Here I am in Zona Los Yoses. My Zls are Elder Buckner (My DL in Cariari) and Elder Valerio (My comp in Cariari), so that's pretty sweet. Today we went to the Institute building in San Jose. We ate at Pollo Campero and played ping pong, air hockey, and foosball as a Zone. While at the building, I saw Tamara from Heredia and asked how it was going to Belen in the bus with the whole ward. Also the other night I saw Michael Hernandez, his wife, and her sister, and her husband, all from the ward in Moravia. We were rushing to a cita (appointment) in Tres Rios and I saw them in the street. They were visiting some friends. It was crazy to see them all, especially because the week I left Michaels wife’s sister (can't remember names right now) had just had a baby and Michaels wife was about to give birth. Now they had the two babies in their arms, both being almost a year old. Wow.
Anyway, we have good investigators. Jaime y Brazilia could be baptized this month. We put a baptismal meta (goal) with them. Also Juriel, is a 22 year old that we put a fecha (date) with this week, for the end of this month. The problem is although we walked deep into Calle Mesen Sunday morning to pick him up and take him to church, he hadn’t gotten home from work (he works nights as a guard) so we then walked to church sweating in our suits alone and he still hasn’t been to church. The good thing is Jaime and Brazilia did and we are going to find more good investigators this week and keep working with Juriel.
In January, la Mission San Jose Costa Rica had its best baptizing month in its history. There were 115 baptisms. In February, we broke the record again. President Galvez is really into putting goals and meeting them, so I think that has helped a lot. Before people used to put a monthly baptismal goal and almost no one would meet there goals, but now if we put a goal we better meet it. In Heredia, we were blessed to meet our month’s baptism goal every month. It was amazing how when we put a goal we really wanted to meet, and we worked hard to meet it, how the Lord really helped us meet it, in a couple months at the last second (Like in January we met the goal the last week of the month, and in February, the last day of the month).
