A bit of the celestial.

Elder Sepulvedra! Saw him in the zone meeting :)

Elder Vasquez his last "son", Elder Henry, Elder Guirola his first "son", and Elder Perez his "grandson"

The light one they named Henry after me (its the most gringo cat haha)

This week was awesome! Sadly, my companion Elder Vasquez had to have changes today, but besides that it was awesome.

The crowning event, of course, was when we went to the temple on Friday.

2 PM and we were on the bus headed to San Jose! We met up with Elder Guirola and my grandkid, Elder Perez, in the train station at like 5 and we went to Heredia by train! Woohoo! That was cool. and WAY fast. and cheaper! yay!

So we get to the temple, go buy some things at the distribution center, etc. and enter into the temple nice and early to wait. First off, what a wonderful moment to just wait and feel the reverence of the temple. It was so renewing for me. and I really learned a lesson about real happiness. The world's definition of happiness and God's definition of happiness are so different. While the world tells us that happiness is found in rushing around and loud noises and bright colors, real happiness can be felt in the quiet, reverent moments when you're alone and calm. So that was a great experience.

Then Margarita and the rest of the ward entered the temple! So that was wonderful and it was such a sweet experience to chit chat with them afterwards. So many people that I love so much. I just understood in that moment why service brings true happiness. When we serve, it makes us happy as we see those we served and them happy as they served us! It's like double happiness! But when we look to make ourselves better or benefit ourselves, we tend to have some sort of negative influence on someone else. So when we serve more and more and more, we're seeding more and more happiness which we can later reap and enjoy :) and the more you serve others the better it'll be. And the better you serve.

It was especially touching when Margarita, crying, shook our hands and thanked us for having taught her the gospel. Since she couldn't hug us, she just shook my hand and then Elder Guirola's hand and then my hand again and so on and so forth. It was so touching to see how much the Gospel has blessed her life. I know that, really, whatever missionary could have taught her and she would have found it, but I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to be the one that made the connection for her.

Apart from that, it was wonderful to see how the mission has helped Elder Guirola too. I've always thought that he's a better missionary than I am, but it's awesome to see how the mission has helped him develop a more sincere love for the people and a more humble character. He's really such a great guy.

I hope that we can all serve so that one day we can reap these sweet blessings of happiness. I'm planning on working harder than ever these last 6 weeks because I want to be able to look back on this time as a time of great happiness as well.

-Elder Henry

From his letter when he was teaching Margarita:

16 Dec 2014: 
Elder Guirola is amazing. He was baptized 3 years ago even though his family didn't want him to be (they were very Catholic). He decided to go on a mission even though he was the only member in his family. Then, about 2 weeks before he left, his mom was baptized :) His (only) older brother is receiving the missionaries along with his dad. He's amazing and is out here on a mission for all the right reasons! :)

We have just been seeing a ton of miracles here in San Ramon. One that sticks out is an investigator named Margarita. A friend of hers, Saida, who's a member, invited her to the Christmas devotional. While she was there, Saida took her on a tour of the Church building. When they walked into the baptismal font room, Margarita felt a strong impression from the Spirit. Even though she was Catholic, she felt that she needs to be baptized. Then, after that, the Christmas Devotional really touched her heart. The words spoken there rang true to her, until she was in tears. We're meeting with her to help her prepare and everything, but she has a baptismal date of the 3rd of January. Also, we're going to start teaching her family (3 daughter and one son in law). It's amazing that Margarita's going to be baptized all because a friend invited her to a church activity.

At the Temple with Margarita!

With Elder Guirola and Isabel the first person I baptized!

Love my San Ramon friends, with Victor!

With Andres!

With Indira and her children--I can not believe how big the baby is! He was a newborn!

My good buddy Andres!

I think this is an old photo but I can't remember

Zone Meeting =) FOOD YUM

Zone Conf last week--Elder Henry in back second from left

"Just a few chairs in a pickup!"

 

The Murillos surprised my mom with this pic =) Brother Murillo works in the temple so I got to see him there too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skype with the fam!

Keep your head up and keep working

Some of my favorite animals!

This was a pretty good week.

I cannot describe how much I enjoy studying the scriptures nowadays. I remember when I started the mission I was so tired and didn't understand a lot of things (oh, Isaiah chapters) and just fell asleep so much during studies. Obviously I didn't want to, but that's life.

Now, I really feel that I feast on the scriptures. Every day's like an adventure for me opening the Book of Mormon and reading all of the stories, interconnecting and understanding the details, and looking for the principles and what God wants to teach me.

And I think that God really wants to teach me something these days. We've been working hard but just not seeing the success that I'd want to see. I have the surety that we're trying hard, but we're truly in search of what God wants us to learn. And we're keep searching :) I was reflecting on it this morning and realizing that the easy times don't make me a better person or better missionary, but rather these challenging times where I really have to look deeper to see what needs to change. That's where my biggest lessons are learned.

But it is still so sweet to teach the Restored Gospel to people. We've been teaching G. a lot these days, getting him nice and ready for baptism on the 30th of this month. While he couldn't go to church because he was busy watching our for his brother, we went there last night and taught him about following a living prophet, and what a great blessing it is to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth. He, as always, had lots of good questions really looking to understand deeply the principle, and after the lesson it was so sweet to hear him give thanks to God for the opportunity to have living prophets and apostles to guide us. There is nothing in this world which makes me happier than knowing that someone else has found the restored gospel and really wants to follow it. It reminds me of the prayers that Cristofer always said in Paso Ancho.

Yeah, I really love hearing sincere prayers. Actually, that's generally the moment where I know if someone's going to pass the baptismal interview or not; in their opening prayer.

In short? I love this work and I love prayer. And we're going to find the way to have more success :) That's life, day after day, week after week. Keep your head up and keep working. I made a promise to my Heavenly Father that I'd keep working till the last day, even if He didn't want to let me see those fruits of my work while I'm here. It's fine. I'll just thank Him for the challenges and the opportunity to grow a little more.

Have a great week everyone! Keep a smile on your faces :)

-Elder Henry

 

 This sweet family sent Mom a photo on Saturday!

 He worked with these Hermanas, they are all going home from their missions now =(

 

 Elder Vasquez and a coconut in front of our house!

5:50 am at the Temple....selfie.

 District!

Guácimo!

 Some huge evil looking grasshoppers (there was about 50 on the plant in total)

 Manchas (Spots), best little dog EVER

What a wonderful abnormal week!

My comp went to get his cedula (ID), so while he did that, we baked a cake in the office!

 Rain picture! It's warm and sunny every day. And raining a ton. It rains for like 1-2 hours super hard.

 The baptisms :) President & Sister Hayes were able to attend. Lorena Jonathan and Carlos from our area and Dayanara from the sisters were all baptized!

442 white clothed selfie with Carlos!

Check it OUT! The Romanian husband of a member here made us dinner. it was soo tasty

 Selfie with some of our favorite youth, + Mario!

Temple trip! Waking up at 4 AM is a pretty tiring thing to do. After staying up until 2am reminiscing about the MTC days & former areas haha

 Holy selfies!

 Paso Ancho Ward missionaries photo :)

 (most) of the district photo!

 Gringo action at the conference! (That room was the English room)

 Swerve! Just like MTC times. Elder Carter is one of my best friends now!

 Hello everyone!

What a wonderful week this week. Normal weeks seem to be getting pretty hard to find here lately, because this one was really abnormal as well.

Monday we worked instead of having our free day, so that was pretty strange.

Tuesday was the normal District meeting stuff, and in the night, we headed over to sleep in the secretaries' house with like 20 other missionaries, because of Wednesday.

Wednesday, we went to the temple! So Wednesday became our free day. So after staying up till 2 AM with Elder Carter, my MTC comp, and the secretaries, who also came with us, reminiscing about the good old times, we woke up at 4 AM to head on out to the temple! The temple was really great and after the temple we had a little meeting with president which I loved a ton where he talked about being consecrated and living the higher law. It was really motivating. All in all, a great day! when we got back home, we slept for like 3 hours to catch up a little bit on all that lost sleep haha.

Thursday and Friday were our only normal work days, and then we got to conference! Which was a total blast. There's nothing like spending a bunch of time with all your gringo missionary friends! especially when that time is spent listening to living prophets of God. I loved the focus on keeping the gospel simple from President Uchtdorf, and how much focus they put on the Sabbath day. Its an ancient commandment but sometimes we put new, little things in front of the simple basic blocks of gospel living.

And that's the show, folks! Our investigator who came to conference, absolutely loved it as well. He said that there was one talk that he just felt like they were talking to him. He's a young father and it was the talk on being a parent. It was so wonderful to see him cherish the things that I too have learned to cherish. I love sharing the gospel!

     I love you all! Go back, study Conference, and most of all, apply it!

Have a great week!

-Elder Henry

 

 

Temple Trip with Paso Ancho!

 Everbody ready for a road trip! To the temple!

Paso Ancho Missionaries!

  Pure young men converts here in Paso Ancho!

 Young men and almost young men (us) temple shot! :)

Temple trip! Woohoo!

So the highlight of the week was definitely the temple trip. On Wednesday we had a Ward Temple Trip, and since we had recent converts, less actives, and investigators all going, President gave us permission to go as well! It was so wonderful to visit the House of the Lord, and feel the wonderful spirit that always abides there. 

I think my favorite part about the trip was how it affected one of my favorite converts. Maybe because he reminds me a lot of me before the mission. The difference is he lives with his grandma and his dad, who's a drunk and got kicked out of the house like 2 weeks ago. It's a really tough situation for him and a really gratifying experience to step in and be that mentor for a youth who doesn't have the support system we all deserve of a family. So he wasn't doing so hot, he wasn't reading in the Book of Mormon or anything, so we went Sunday and talked to him real clearly that he needed to step up his game. On Wednesday he went to the Temple, and since then he's just been different. More receptive, more spiritual, and more friendly with the other youth in the ward. It's really, really wonderful to see change take place in people's hearts. I love the mission so much and feel like where I have converts, I leave a piece of my heart. 

Have a great week everyone! Remember to get out to the Temple and enjoy the great blessing and convenience we have nowadays of entering a Temple.

-Elder Henry

Saprissa played, so we both brought our matching (design) purple ties!

I ran into Elder Tullis! And again today at the Internet cafe, he's companions with Elder Acuña, one of my favorite companions!

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April Fools!

This was his letter he sent home at first:

Hey everybody! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing great. I hope you all have a good week, I'm off to work!

-Elder Henry

Luckily, he did send a real letter and photos after that haha!

Moroni statue on the Costa Rica Temple

Heredia missionaries at the temple!

He didn't just ruin ONE photo....

Two...

THREE!

Sent from Yorleny on Mom's birthday =)

We were teaching a lesson and the cat there (who is super awesome) snuck into my backpack. I wanted to just close up the bag and take him back with me, but oh well.

This is John, an investigator we have. (ps: He looks EXACTLY like Kyler hahaha the one that I worked with in sparks)

I think I'm going to start an album of my companion petting random dogs in the street haha

Silly putty has been a problem this week. I had to covanent not to play with it anymore, because it is really really distracting haha.

Sometimes a selfie is just necessary

Saw Elder Velasquez (he was never my comp, but practically my comp) in the temple today!

Us and the San Francisco Elders

Hey everybody!

So I can't remember how much I wrote about my new companion, Elder Acuña, last week, but he is the bomb.

     He's Mexican, about as tall as me, we like a lot of similar music, I finally have somebody who understands how much I miss little Caesars pizza. Oh, and he makes a killer guacamole. What more could I want! Haha.

     But really, he is great. There's nothing more gratifying than having a relationship so open that, when somethings wrong, we notice it talk about it and fix it. It's just that simple! We both have our faults, and sometime (all the time) we make mistakes, but I really feel like we help each other to become better.

     Today we had to get up at 5 in the morning, to go to the temple! It was such a wonderful feeling. The spirit is so strong in that building, it's like being wrapped up in a blanket of peace and comfort! It was such a fortifying experience. It was truly gratifying.

     This week, we saw a really sweet miracle. On Saturday night, we went to eat dinner with some members (PS: It was really good)! Before eating, they asked if we had something to share with them. Of course we did!

     We shared with these members our goals as missionaries, to help more people come to Christ. We really felt the spirit in those minutes, and challenged them to pray about who they could help be baptized! Our goal is to have a week with a baptism every day of the week, so they committed to helping somebody get baptized on that Friday. We were going to call them to see how it went on Monday, and make plans to visit the people.

     Then, on Sunday, after a week of hard work with which I felt really satisfied, only 1 person came to the church. That was tough, especially because that very morning we verified that 6 were going to come! But, after sacrament meeting, as we were in the halls, that family (the Alfaro family) came up to us to present the mom's mom. They came close to us, and said to me: Look, Elder. We did what you said, and prayed. and we felt our answer!

     I hadn't even imagined that teaching them Saturday in the night would bring them to bring somebody to the church. But it was such a tender blessing, Especially in a week where we didn't have many people come.

     I testify, especially in this Easter week, that Christ lives. That He and our Father, God, love us! And that they're always watching, just waiting to give us blessings. As we obey, and try our hardest, the blessings will always come. 

     I love you all so much. I love being a part of this work! There is nothing more special then helping somebody overcome the barriers that keep them from realizing just how much God loves them. As a missionary I have the chance to feel a little piece of that grand love for them, too. I've never done something so gratifying in my life. And if any one of you don't feel that love of God in your lives, or want to feel it even more, talk with the missionaries. That's our work! :)

   -Elder Henry