Turriabla, Cartago, Costa Rica 10.19.15

Dear Family,

This week has been kinda crazy. It was the week of changes. We went to San Jose to play soccer as a misión and it began to rain. But it was pretty great. I don't play so great right now because I had an ingrown toenail.

Which reminds me... haha this week I got my toenail taken out. haha it was getting worse and worse and then a fungus got into it. So we talked to a member here in Turrialba to check it out. She told me that the only thing to do was to get the whole nail removed. So we did. We went to the hospital in San Jose and we had a little surgery. Stay tuned for photos.

We haven't been able to work too much because the doctor told me I had to take a day of rest. So my companion went on divisions and I stayed in a members house. Good heavens how boring that was. No TV, no video games, nothing to read, etc. I am so glad that I can walk now because sitting on the couch all day is just plain dumb. I realized that I am an outdoor person and I love to work. Man that was so lame.

Cool decorations. We probably wont be able to decorate much here. The Ticos think its a satanic holiday. oh well.

Love you all lots. Thanks for the video of Oliver. Cute kid. I think he gets it from Corbin.

Sigamos Adelante,

-Elder Neider

Turriabla, Cartago, Costa Rica 10.13.15

Dear Family,

Sorry that I couldn't write yesterday. We ran down to San Jose for awhile to play soccer and by the time we got home to write, P-Day had ended. So we got permission to write today.

Yesterday we had a pretty cool experience. We have a young man named Pablo. He is a drug addict. So we took him up to a rehabilitation center because he really wants to change. We sat in on a AA meeting. I can't remember the correct name in English! haha I can only spell it in Spanish. Weird right? Alcoholicos Anonimos. It went well but we found that they wont take him in because he needs a certain medication to sleep. To quit the crack, cigars, and alcohol but keep the medication going wouldn't bring results so they refuse to take him. oh well. Eventually we got kicked out because he tried giving some cigars to the people in the facility. oops...

I got my temple recommend renewed yesterday as well so I'll be headed to the temple with Patricia and Juan Jose this October 31st to have them sealed together! I'm so pumped for that. It'll be a great week. Skype on Moms B-Day, Baptism on the 30th, Sealing on the 31st, Birthday on the 1st and our mom in the area is having her birthday on the 2nd. As the late great Maria Antoinette once said, "Let them eat cake".

Poor girl doesn't have a head now... shucks that's rough.

Things are going great here. We well have baptized 3 people this month so I'm feeling great. We are preparing for November now.

Yesterday as well was transfers. My companion, Elder Godoy, will be staying here with me for another change. He will at the very least stay here in Turrialba for 9 months. This is his first area. hahaha. It's possible that he'll be my last companion. If not, my last companion will only be with me for 2-3 weeks. haha it's coming to a close pretty quick.

Anyways I love you lots and I hope that everything is great.

Sigamos Adelante,

-Elder Neider

Turriabla, Cartago, Costa Rica 10.5.15

Dear Family,

This week was pretty great with the temple and conference. Haha I know that none of my predictions were right but oh well. haha. I have always really liked Elder Rasband. His talks always are about a verse that I've read thousands of times but he teaches it on a whole new level. Elder Renlund gave a talk last conference in Abril about a Saint is a sinner who keeps trying. And Elder Stevenson, I recognized his face but I didn't know anything about him. I could feel the Spirit strongly during their testimonies. I know they are called of God to help all of us. 

This conference the major themes I could gather were: The Sabbath Day, being an example, and searching for testimony in the basic principles of the gospel. I really enjoyed this conference because I could feel the global need for change. I felt that it was a true warning voice and man did they promise blessings for us all. I felt their council was direct and easy to apply. 

The temple was amazing. We all left feeling the spirit of consecration. Our mission president, after the session, pulled us all in to the chapel across the street to speak to us for a second. He spoke of consecration and what kind of blessings it could bring us. I can definately sense a difference between President Hayes and President Wilkenson. Both incredible. President Wilkenson really wanted to push us to do our best. President Hayes feels like he is on a higher plane spiritually than us and is beckoning us to come on up. I love these two men. 

This week we had a cool baptism. Camila. Her father, who was baptized as of 4 months, performed the ordinance. We will baptize another youth named Leiner this coming weekend and both will be confirmed on Sunday. The work is doing pretty well. 

That's about all that happened this week. Thanks for all your support! Love you all,

Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider

Turriabla, Cartago, Costa Rica 9.28.15

Dear Family,

This week has been pretty tough for me. Just a lot of learning and eternal progression stuff. We have a great month of baptisms coming up and this Sunday we had a big scare that people weren't going to come to church. Others haven't been answering their phones or returning calls. So we have been a little on edge. But, everything seems to be ok now that we have been able to contact them all again.

Well, this is going to be an interesting conference don't ya think? 3 Apostles are going to be called. I'm placing my money on Elder Tad R Calister, Chad Wilkenson, and Michael A Neider. But who knows? Anything can happen. Btw, what has Uncle Mike been doing since his release as a Mission President? It just dawned on me that I have no idea what he has done for a living. haha oops.

Tomorrow we will be going to the temple as a zone. I love the temple with all my heart. I'll have the opportunity to go regularly as I'm finishing my last 2 transfers here with sealings, zone trips, and the last visit in December. It's crazy how fast this is coming to an end. I don't like it haha but there is a time and a season for everything right?

I don't have much to report on other than that. It's been a pretty normal week. I'll end with a quick experience.

This is a man here named Hector. He is 66 years old and is originally from Limon Costa Rica. This is the zone where everyone is black and speaks a pigeon english called Patwah. But he is a small white Costa Rican... so imagine how he talks. When we came to his house the first time, he had his walls lined with pornagraphic material and photos of Jesus as a baby. haha it was kinda of a weird like, "I guess you can serve God and Mammon" thing.

We have been teaching him for a little bit and we invited him to church. The next visit we decided to invite him to remove the porn and replace them with pictures of Christ. He said he used the magazines to cover holes in his walls. So we left him a bunch of pamphlets with photos. When we came back, he had gotten rid of most of the porn and his walls are literally lined with the words and photos of the pamphlets. He said, " I couldn't get rid of all the girls I have because you didn't leave me with enough photos to cover up those walls. Sorry elders. I tried though." We laughed together and gave him a pat on the back. He really likes the changes that he is making in his life.

Yesterday he left his house at 8 to come to church. But forgot the way to the church. He eventually showed up at 9:47. "Listen gringo. I didn't break my promise. I left at 8 to get here on time but I couldn't find it. Not my fault" haha he is very sincere about coming unto Christ.

Anyways that's my experience for today. I hope you all enjoyed. I'll talk to ya next week.

Sigamos Adelante
-Elder Neider

Turriabla, Cartago, Costa Rica 9.21.15

Dear Family, 

This week just flew by. I have already been in Turrialba for a month. We are seeing a whole bunch of miracles here. We are preparing many people and everyone is receiving us well. One member told me, Elder Neider, you came just in time to harvest many. haha I can't complain about that. We have 10 possibilities for October right now. I'm super pumped. 

As well my converts from my first area have just had their final interviews to go to the temple and be sealed together. President Hayes is giving us permission to go and attend the ordinance. I have never been in a sealing before so im just plain tickled to see them in my first time as well. 

This coming week is Conference and I can't wait! I love conference so much. Please find some way to snag tickets. We take living so close for granted. GO! You'll always always remember and cherish being in a room with the living Apostles and Prophet. 

In other news Lauren got called to go to serve in the Florida Orlando mission! She´ll go in the MTC the 27th of January. SO cool!

Other than that there isn't much to report on. I love you lot and I hope you prepare yourselves for Conference.

Sigamos Adelante, 

-Elder Neider

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.