Cartago Costa Rica 6.9.14

Hola from Costa Rica,

Here is one of the miracles I saw this week. One of our investigators is named Roberto. He is looking for the logical answers instead of the spiritual. We say something and then he checks to make sure its correct through the Bible, Internet, and other people. Obviously and inevitably lead to him finding Anti-Mormon Literature. Ugh. He found a man named Packer who is an Apostate Mormon. This man wrote many articles about the things that happen in the temple. This lead to Roberto having questions. 

Elder Guevara and I prayed about the situation because we were stumped. We decided that we would continue teaching and hope the that the Lord could find a way to fix it.

The next day was yesterday. He had a lot of questions about the temple and the Lord had prepared a way for him. We stood outside the chapel welcoming people in when my companion told me to look at one of the cars that was pulling in. We saw that they had missionary tags and they were an older couple. We were not informed that we would be receiving Senior missionaries. So we decided to help the Hermana out of her car. As we took her hand we read her tag. There wasn't Hermana anyone. Just a regular name and the word Assistante. I was a little puzzled. Her husband walked around the corner of the car and I read his tag. "Ricardo Rivera (Last name) 1st Counselor of the Costa Rica San Jose Temple"

We were able to have a one on one chat with him and Roberto for a full hour during 2nd hour after he and his wife gave talks solely about the temple. What a miracle!

Right now we are in a finding stage of the work. We had 22 investigators, but because of the rules that come with Hermanas entering an area, we now have 4. We are not allowed to teach groups of women. Only men or families. If there is no man taking the lessons in the house, they become the investigators of the Hermanas. So our faith is being tested now in the sense that we have to basically stat over in this area.

Elder Guevara is the District Leader and I'm his companion. We have equal authority. There isn't a senior or junior companion. Neither is training the other. Its very different now.

We have one baptism this coming week which will make my 6th baptism in about 4 months. Before I came, Cartago was known as the Dead Zone.Now its thriving and I'm happy with the work I've done and am doing. The Lord truly blesses His missionaries. But we are neer satisfied.

I love you all.

Siga Adelante,

Elder Neider