The Power of a Testimony

The entire Costa Rica San Jose East Mission at the dual mission conference

Finally met Elder Stott also from a suburb of Portland Oregon! He was assigned to the West Mission.

Missionaries waiting for the meeting to begin

Paso Ancho Ward "alumni" with Bishop!

I met my "grandson!" Elder Guirola's training him. He's from Washington too!

Gettin ready for the buseta trip back to Zona Sur!

Shiblon with his blanket bed haha

Our investigator had his pig and cow give birth on Sunday! I touched the baby calf :)

Elder Acuña and Giles!

This week was a good week. Nothing too exciting in the work happened, until we got to Friday.

Friday morning we were on a bus headed up to San Jose because Saturday, we had a double-mission wide conference with Elder Cook! So we all got to shake his hand and then he spoke for about an hour, and after that some other General Authorities spoke as well.

It was such a special experience to really be in the same room as an Apostle of God. As I saw him, it was clear that he's a normal person! I mean, he's incredibly converted to the Lord, and has a grand calling, but he's a person! And he was so loving, and so humble. I could just feel God's love radiating through him and his wife.

He shared some really great things that I really loved, but what impacted me most was the testimony he shared. As he testified as an Apostle, as a special witness of the Son of God, I could feel the Spirit bearing witness to my soul. and now that's engraved in me!

After that, President Christensen explained something which I felt so true. He had once heard on his mission that the mission is like a 'mini life'.

When you start the mission, you don't know anything but accept that you don't know anything and learn a lot.

Then, you get to your adolescence, where you hardly know anything but believe that you know everything. 

And then there's that spiritual adulthood, where you know a little bit of something, but recognize that you don't know much, and rely on the spirit to guide you again.

What impacted me most from Elder Cook was his testimony. It was more important than any knowledge or any principle that he could teach me. This is the Lord's work, and he sends his Spirit to soften the hearts of the people! We as missionaries should be vessels of that Spirit so that they can have that life changing opportunity. So that made me reflect alot on how I viewed missionary work, and accept that I need to really try and be a better vessel of the Spirit.

Then, yesterday, we got to see this applied! We had this wonderful lesson with a man, Juan, and his wife. We had taught Juan a few times, and he was looking like he might progress, but this time he told us that his wife didn't really want to go to a different church, etc. So we invited ourselves in to teach her, too! haha.

There was nothing special about what we said. It was a good old, normal, standard lesson about the Restoration. But when we shared the First Vision, I could feel the Spirit so strongly. And so we testified! And helped them recognize that feeling as well.

I learned a big lesson from Elder Cook. A real, sincere testimony invites the Spirit and is so important.

So that's what I (re)learned this week. Our zone met its goal! Sometimes it seems to me like so few baptisms, but then I remember that there's 20 converts in Neily last year and only 1 is really well active, and I know that there were several really good converts this month. So I'm pretty happy with the zone's work   :) Yeah I saw Elder Tullis. I love the guy so much. That's so sick we're going to be roommates!

Have a great week, everyone! Rely on the Spirit and be a pure vessel of Him.

-Elder Henry

Cavernas Fila de Cal: Lessons from a hike in the caves

Gringos go to the caves, but they take a super long trail on the hill instead of going through the river. I don't think you'll ever go there though, Mom. A little bit of a rough trail for ladies :P

Hey so the video (below) I just sent is a super awesome lizard here in Zona Sur that walks on water. So we managed to record it one time. Whenever I see them I feel like I'm in Jurassic Park haha

Hey mom! That's super cool about Sherry in the play.

Hello from the jungle!  We just went to some super awesome caves!

I really did go into the jungle today! We went hiking and went to explore some caves here in our area with one of my favorite investigators, Ruma. It was a really wonderful experience. After walking about 40 minutes into the middle of the jungle (it's not really even a trail, we just went up the bank of the river), we got to the entrance of the caves. When you enter the caves, you just enter a whole other world. From the bright greens and blues...to blacks and grays. There were these little 6-legged spider looking thinks which I'm almost sure were blind, and little grashopper looking things with giant antennas (the antennas looked like big daddy long leg legs). Then, after we got in a little farther, we saw some cool stalagmites & stalactites, a river that goes through the cave, some really cool rock structures that the water has formed through the years, and "ELDER CHILD" written on the cave wall (that one really made me laugh). But honestly, when we turned off our flashlights and saw just how dark it was in that cave, Elder Ferrin made an interesting comment:   "Just imagine the Nephites for 3 days like this".

It might have been just a side comment for him, but it really made me think a little bit.

My whole mission has been great and has helped me so much become a better person and learn more about the scriptures and the gospel, but I have been able to have a very unique experience here in Zona Sur.

Zona Sur has brought physical conditions that I've never been in before! Let me explain myself.

I had never lived in the heat before. Nor a realy humid place. Nor jungle! I had never visited people who's life is cutting palm oil plants on the farms. I had never "mowed" a lawn with a machete! It's honestly just a different world!

But the special part is that this world is helping me to understand the scriptures in a personal way. When I spent 30 seconds in the pitch-blackness of that cave, I really started to understand how the people felt in 3rd nephi when the land was covered with darkness for 3 days. That's insane! I never had really imagined it until I lived it, even though it was just for a second.

I had never though about Peter walking around, whining about the heat before, but Jerusalem and all that is a pretty hot and deserty place! And now I feel that, walking around in the heat all day. When I fast here and stop sweating because my body just doesn't have water to sweat anymore, it really helps me to ponder on Jesus's 40 day fast.

It's a great help for me to really understand the scriptures in a personal way.

Apart from that, I'm really happy with this week. Elder Nuñez and I really weren't achieving our potential as a companionship, but we put a new plan in practice to manage an area so big in a more orderly manner, and we really saw big results this week. It helped a ton and now I do feel like we're realizing our potential. I love this work. Tough days exist, obviously, but I feel like every day I fall in love a little bit more with the missionary work. There's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

I love you all. Keep safe and have a great week!

-Elder Henry

Check out these Christmas lights! It's a TON of little birds that were all grouped up on some telephone cables one day. It was super strange haha. All the white "lights" are their bellies.

Missionary activity! We watched Meet the Mormons (more people arrived after I took the photo)

An epic rooster picture.

Shiblon, tired after doing some serious pushups.

We went to the hospital! President Meza, the district president, was sick and asked us to go visit him.

A cool little gecko (people say that if one falls in your food, it poisons the food and you'll die. But they're cool and, well, never fall haha)

Playing with Shiblon :-)

Living the Gospel

My baby, Shiblon.

 We finally found a pizza place in Neily!

Mcdonalds in Panama!

Hello 2016!

It's pretty strange how time flies haha. 2016 used to sound really far away haha.

So this was a good week. I was in a trio all week with my kid, Elder Gonzalez, and my comp Elder Nuñez. So every day we went and did divisions, which allowed to go visit some new areas and find some new people to teach. We're hoping that everything goes real well with a new plan in the area, and all that jazz.

This week I've been preparing my segment of the zone meeting which will be tomorrow. It talks about seeing the different Less actives through the parable of the sower. It just hit me that a lot of times we try and get to all the people, especially less actives, with the same approach and the same plan.

The beauty of the gospel is that it is one, and that it is always the same, but that each one of us is different and different parts can help every one of us. I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk about living the gospel simply this week as well, and I think that both those things are connected.

I love the gospel. It helps me grow. It helps me feel happy. But maybe the parts of the gospel that, in this time of my life, make me feel really happy and make me really grow, aren't the same ones that make you really happy or help you grow. That's the beauty of it! And when we go to invite someone who's fallen away from the church to come back, we need to understand that. Some of them are lost in vices and vain imaginations, like the thorn-covered land. So we gotta show them the beauty of repentance, and the peace that living the commandments brings us. Others have no root in themselves, and are not at all converted to the Lord! So we've gotta help them get some good soil, take root in themselves, and become committed people who strengthen themselves through acts of faith. And, there's some, who simply need the seed, because they're already ready. So we nourish them in a special way to make sure that the seed grows well and flourishes.

And that's the beauty of the gospel, to me. If everyone in the world could just understand how much happier they'd be with the gospel, they'd live it. So we go help them see that.

I hope you can all see the beauty of this gospel this week.

-Elder Henry

New years day, there was NO ONE in the streets. 

Shiblon up in a tree chasing after a cat haha

Just a toad

 I dunno why, but there were a TON of vultures over here one day. 

Dinosaurs existed when Christ was born, apparently...