Turriabla, Cartago, Costa Rica 9.14.15

Dear Family, 

Haha Brendon looks a little like he either doesn't know how to hold a baby, is uncomfortable doing it, or just let off a ¨spooky¨. hahaha. 

This week has been pretty great. We have a couple of possible baptisms coming up in October as well as a couple sealing ordinances in the temple with some of my first converts. I'm so stinkin´excited! 

Ok this is the story about the kid. One year ago, I had changes from Cartago to Cañas right? Well my first companionship there lasted only 2 weeks for many problems. (Now that's a story for another day) So we had emergency changes and we went to San Jose for 5 days. During that time we did divisions with the secretaries. One night Elder Lewis and I were working and we came to a point where we had no idea what to do. Everyone canceled on us and all the members were busy. So I suggested that we say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father where we should go. Elder Lewis offered the prayer and we began to walk. About 10 feet later we stopped to a woman how was sweeping her patio. We offered our help and she said no. We then presented ourselves and she invited us in. We asked if she wanted to invite her family to come join us. This is when the young man came out to listen. We taught with power and authority and invited them to be baptized. At the end of the lesson the young man asked when we could come back to place baptismal dates with his father and brothers. haha then I went back to Cañas with Elder Rivera the following day. 

Every once and awhile when I would call the office, I'd ask how this family was. It seemed as if the secretaries stopped teaching them a few weeks later. But every time I passed the office I knocked on that door to see if they were there and invite them to church at the very least, but they were never home. But I felt drawn to that door. 

Elder Vandermeyden became the secretary later and I asked him again about this house. He said we would go look for it. One day he found it and told me what had happened. 

This young mans name is Jorge. After our lesson with him, he became converted. Sadly his family no. He was 17 which meant he needed parental permission to be baptized which was denied. So this young man continued to attend church for the following 8 months until he turned 18 and was baptized. He is currently preparing to go to the temple to receive his endowment in preparation for his mission this following year. 

As I was leaving to come here to Turriabla, one of the sisters called him over to speak about things in his ward and I recognized him. So I went over to talk to him. I asked him if he knew who I was. He said that I looked familiar but that he couldn't recall where because he only knows the missionaries that have served in San Jose. I then told him how Elder Lewis and I had found his home. He began to remember and he told me his conversion story. 

It was a pretty cool moment that I had been looking forward to for a long long time. He is the convert that I only had to teach once. Pretty neat huh? 

Anyways, I love you all lots. Hope you have a great week!

Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider

Perez Zeledon, Cartago, Costa Rica 9.7.15

Dear Family, 

Hahaha what a head of hair! Congradulations! He is going to be such a stud. I'll teach him everything I know. I hope that he keeps growing great. What it feel like to be new parents Megan and Tim? How great is that. 

So I had transfers to a place called Turriabla. I'm still in the Zone of Cartago. I'll end my mission with 13 months in the same zone. My new companion is named Elder Godoy. He is from Honduras. He is super cool and has won a lot of confidence with the members here. It's a ward already so our goals are to purely baptize. It is pretty nice to not have to focus on anything else. He is the district leader so I also don't have to worry about that stuff either. 

We have had a couple cool and funny experiences. We talked with a man in the street and my companion testified that the keys of the priesthood have been restored. To which he replied, I have those too! He then continued to pull a set of plastic keys out of his pocket that had some verses of the bible written on them. hahaha um..... brother we don't mean like actual keys... haha esta bien. haha 

I actually came here once on divisions in my first area so I have seen a few of these places before.
Last night we met the pioneer of the ward. 81 year old Odily. I had actually given her a blessing 18 months ago. We asked her about the story of her conversion. One of the things that kept calling my attention was the way she talked about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She said that they just have been so good to me. I know that she knows them personally and that they have poured out blessings on her. 

I'm still learning the area so I'm pretty lost all the time. It'll come with time. What I heard is that I'll be here for this change and then President wants all missionaries to train the last 3 months. It'll be cool here. Plus the 2nd counselors legel name is John Baptist so how can we go wrong? haha

Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider

PS the only things that I would need in a package would be maybe a good long sleeve white shirt, (the last one was also kidnapped by a company), Doritos, Smores Pop Tarts and Oreos. Haha I'm doing pretty good. My companion was wondering if there are those little chocolate eggs from Easter. He likes those. But really just good old american junk food. haha thanks.

Perez Zeledon, Cartago, Costa Rica 8.31.15

Dear Family, 

Numbres, I was sitting there on the bus when it hit me. Megan is having a baby right! Haha I was waiting for the photo but looks like I'm just a few hours too soon. We have been praying hard that youll be physically ok with the birth and that Oliver we come with great health. So excited to see him next week!

Today was suppose to be changes. They never did end up calling so it looks like 7.5 months in Perez Zeledon. But then we received word that changes will be on Wednesday, so we still don't know. Looks like we will have to see. 

This week has been a very humbling and rewarding week. Although for the last change we haven't had a single investigator come to church, i feel like this has been one of the most successful weeks personally. 

I found that my prayers for the last little bit have been without faith. They have been very routine without a l...

Wait a second. Elder Jackman just received a call from the zone leaders. haha i have changes. I have to be in the office on Wednesday morning. We dont know where i am headed off to. President wants to look us in the face and select by revelation where we will go and with what companion. Sounds pretty cool. 

Anyways with my faithless prayers....

...ot of vain repititons. I would ask for very general blessings and without much effort. So this week I decided to repent. Oh what joy cometh to the soul! Repentance is the smartest thing you can do. I grabbed the Ezra Taft Benson book and I read the Pray Always section. I read a bunch and decided that I needed more faith. As we went home, I kinda just collapsed to my knees and prayed name for name for those whom I love. What a beautiful experience I had Since then I feel like I have been searching for more opportunities to pray one on one with Father in Heaven. He truly does listen and answer every heartfelt prayer. 

This week we found another 21 investigators. They show a lot of promise and we are going to work hard to bring them to church. My companion will be training here in Perez and im off to who knows where. 

Anyways, that been my week. Lots of cool things to be looking forward to here as we get changed, have a baby, and keep moving forward. Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider

Perez Zeledon, Cartago, Costa Rica 8.24.15

Dear Family, 

It's all good. Haha I know that only the most dire of circumstances would prevent a letter. No se preocupe. 

This week we had a pretty cool experience. We had a video conference with President Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve. What a blessing! It was cool because we heard from 2 of the mission presidents in Honduras, President Duncan of the Area Presidency, Elder Cordon of the Area Seventy, and President Nelson. What really stood out to me is the difference of how they talk about Heavenly Father in their own words. In General Conference, they kinda have to follow the talks they write for the translators. But in the meeting they all had the "freedom of speech" 

Elder Nelson told us of an awesome experience. But, "the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance and i cannot write more" I think I'll save this story for when I'm back. 

It was really nice to have had that conference. 

Yesterday we meet the husband of one of our investigators. Thats always an interesting experience because we don't know how he'll interpret our meetings or if he'll accept us. Luckily, he did accept us. We feel that they have been prepared. They have lots of questions. We learned in the conference that we don't preach about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon enough. Usually we only say, "We believe that the Lord continues to call His servants in our time" and really dont expand on that. Yesterday i was more specific. "We believe that the Lord continues to call His servants in our time, first beginning with the Prophet Joseph Smith" This immediately grabbed their attention. We invited them to read and to pray. I felt like it peaked their curiosity a lot. 

I love my mission! Such great experiences. I've been in Perez for about 6 months now. And my mission president sent me a message that gives me a feeling that I'll have changes next week. "Get your area ready to hand off to someone else" I think I've got one more area in me :'( 

Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider

Perez Zeledon, Cartago, Costa Rica 8.17.15

Dear Family, 

Well this week has been a different kind of a week. We went on divisions with my Zone Leader Elder Parker. We had a great time and we worked hard. During that time, I could see that the Lord has been preparing some more people in this area. I'm really excited to see what happens as we move forward. 

I have begun to understand my companions humor lately and now I'm constantly chuckling. Man this kid is stinking funny. I realized that he wasn't the problem but that I was. So I said a prayer and I decided to look for the divine within him. Now we get along very well and we are enjoying the work. We still aren't having too much success with baptisms or investigators coming to church, but we have been able to find happiness in magnifying our callings. 

There is a man here named Alberto Navas. He is the Costa Rican version of Uncle Donnie. This is the guy in the ward that you can tell he gives his whole heart to be serving the people in his ward without demanding or even expecting a reward or thanks. He simply does the work that the Lord has asked of him and is silently serving in the kingdom. This is kinda how ive always seen Donnie in his home ward in Idaho. You can just tell they put their hearts into the callings they have been given. 

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to help a family change houses and Hermano Navas was their to help. Afterward we left with him to do his Home Teaching. Really, they were the normal things that a Latter-Day Saint should do. But he was giving his all for those that he was serving. Before the home teaching, he kinda vented to us about the load he has to carry. He asked why it was him that the Lord has chosen to be that one member that the ward calls when they have problems. He said that they have a branch president, home teachers, elders quorum and Relief Society to help them. Hermano Navas doesn't have a formal calling and yet he serves more than anyone i have ever met. 

He is a great example to us missionaries. In response to his questions we answered and told him,"Hermano, it does not matter WHERE you serve, but HOW you serve" He doesn't need a formal calling to do what the Lord has asked. 

I know that the Lord is more than willing to accept what we choose to give. He loves us and only asks for our best. I know that if we do so, He will have room to shape and mold us into what He would have us be or other words to help us to be like Him. 

I know that this is the True Church of our Heavenly Father and He has revealed to us His plan for our happiness. I love you all and invite you each to more fully give yourselves to your callings. I promise that He will bless you for it ;)

Pura Vida, 

-Elder Neider

Perez Zeledon, Cartago, Costa Rica 8.10.15

Dear Family, 

Well bueno...  This week we went up to San Jose twice for a couple of special conferences. President Kevin R Duncan of the Seventy came to talk with us. He is the Area President of Central America. He is super cool. At lunch time I sat down with Elder Jackman to eat our food. And turned out that the only other seats in the room were at our table. So we ate with President Duncan, President Hayes, his wife and daughter, and the secretaries. It was awesome. Elder Duncan was full so he gave me his pork. SAWEET! I thought I made a funny joke. He asked,"Would you like my pork Elder?" "Sure thing Elder Duncan. I think I'm still within Word of Wisdom limits" he thought that has a little funny. 

My companion and i became a little sick from all the traveling. Thursday was a nightmare. I felt like there was a mouse in my brain, trying o push my eyes out of its sockets. It was horrible. But we are feeling good now. 

I have recently been praying a lot for direction in my area to find prepared families. SInce the baptisms of Daniel and Maria Elena, we haven't had people in the church again. So we are just looking for the next family that is willing to work on this message. I have learned a lot more about Heavenly Father's plan for His children. He knows what they need and when they need it. He doesn't seem to be too worried over all this. He is in control and He knows when it's time for what. I just asked Him for help to recognize when it's time for what. 

I love you all lots. I don't have much more to write this week. Sorry :P

Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider

Perez Zeledon, Cartago, Costa Rica 8.3.15

Dear Family, 

Well...bueno. Today we are in Cartago, (my first area) for a Zone Activity. Man, it was only a testimony meeting but man was it what I needed. It felt like every testimony was about overcoming hard trials and how the Atonement has blessed everyone. I was super grateful for all of what was said. 

We will be returning to San Jose on Tuesday night to stay with the secretaries for a multi zone conference with the Area President, Elder Duncan of the Seventy. Its gonna be SAWEET!!!

This last week I have also been having a little hard time with stress. It resulted that Hermana Markle thought it best to called the Mental Therapist of the Area, Elder Plaskett. Today we had the chance to touch base a little and we found that I have been having minor panic attacks. I don't have to take medication or anything, but we talked about a few exercises that I can do to calm my body down and relief stress. Nothing too major.

We have been enjoying El Dia de La Virgen in Cartago this last week. Basically its a celebration of the catholics of Mother Mary. Everyone walks by foot to Cartago Centro to get to the Costa Rican Vatican. Once there, they kneel down and walk on their knees to the altar to worship a volcanic rock which symbolizes her. It makes no sense and is the perfect example of idol worship but hey, it's all good in the hood. haha.

Not too much more to write except that I love you and I'm glad to hear of some much good news up there in the States. Please make it a priority to go the temple. Do what you need to make that a central part of your lives and youll always have enough energy, revelation, and strength to combat the adversary in the days to come. 

Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider