It is the Spirit that counts.

This was such a wonderful week.

On the first page of Chapter 4 of my Preach My gospel, How to recognize the Holy Ghost, I have a quote by Ezra Taft Benson written:

"Remember, brethren, in this work it is the Spirit that counts."

Oosh! Only in the Zona Sur.

I think that just with that quote, I pretty much summed the week up!

President Hayes, our mission president, changed the schedule to help us have our full 3 hours of studies every day. So he pushed district meetings and weekly planning to the afternoon on their respective days, and we have all our studies in the mornings. It's made all the difference, because in this work, it's the Spirit that counts. It's been so wonderful to be studying every day. I feel the Spirit so much more in my life. Between those regularities in the schedule, and things we have to do as Zone Leaders (exchanges, extra meetings, etc.), I really had been deprived of my study time in these past few months. As I study every day again, a wonderful Spirit fills my life and the work becomes much more meaningful.

We met a new investigator. When we started talking to him in his doorway, he expressed to us that he didn't believe in Jesus Christ -- at least not the way that many of the churches talked about him nowadays. As we entered and started to listen to what he believed, it was clear that even he wasn't sure what to believe! And so we read in Alma 22 when Lamoni's father prays to God, asking him to be made manifest if he existed. And we started to explain to him that we weren't there to contend with him, rather explain to him the Doctrine of God and invite him to pray and know for himself it's truth. And this men just lit up. He started to explain to us that he didn't even like to share his beliefs anymore, because whenever he talked about religion, people just starting condemning him and saying that he was going to hell for not believing. And we could just feel the Spirit so sweetly with him. We went back and had a 2nd lesson and kept helping him with his doubts, an explained to him the Book of Mormon. But it was so edifying, both for us and, more importantly, for him. He's got a long ways to go, but he really has let the Spirit touch his heart.

And there's just been a ton of experiences like that this week! People are just coming out of the woodwork and we're having these spiritual experiences with them. And I know that it's a fruit of our efforts to be better missionaries and, especially, of studying every day.

I love this work. I love it with all my heart. I love it because I do it out of good will. I want to study, I want to work, and I want to teach, I want to obey. and the Lord helps me do what I could never do on my own. I know that He lives. He loves us. I've felt His love this week.

Have a great week, everyone! Love the simple details of life.

Proselyting with Shiblon, he is true to his name ;)

A little bug that always makes a ton of noise

 

 

Bird got into our house! Things always seem to fly into our house....

There's a bird on my towel!

I just want to be a missionary forever.

Elder Henry spent a week with his MTC companion Elder Carter in stunning Puerto Jimenez. 

Hello everyone!

This has been a long week. But a good one!

     Last Monday, I got back in to my area. My comp hadn't been in the area for a few days either, so there was a lot to do here in Neily. It was pretty stressful haha. Especially because we had a lot of meetings. Then we had a baptismal interview to do with San Vito, so my comp went up there and I was with Elder Gomez a few days! That was a lot of fun. I'm proud to say that I beat him in chess. Haha. It was really fun because he and I have both been in Paso Ancho and in San Ramon, so we enjoyed talking about our old areas together. Friday morning we had another meeting, for all the district leaders (Elder Gomez), via skype. But the skype didn't work... oops. 

Saturday my comp got back, and he went on divisions with Javier to work while I stayed with our Branch President, Presidente Villatoro, to a district leadership meeting with President Torres (Presidente Hayes' counselor). After that we went to clean the church, so that took up the whole day.

     Then, yesterday, three of our investigators came to church, and Pres. Torres gave a really great talk. After that, in the 2nd hour, they presented a 40 minute video about the new Area Plan, and in the 3rd hour we discussed it. It was really awesome because they stayed the 3 hours and participated a ton. So they are super super excited and just doing great. The wife wants to be the new Music director (so that I don't have to do it haha). Their baptism is scheduled for Thursday.

     All in all, we're just seeing a lot of miracles. This month we should end with 8 baptisms in the zone, which is more than Zona Sur has ever achieved that we know of! And February's also going to be a really good month.

     Missionary work, missionary work, missionary work! What else is there to think about? Haha. I really love the mission so much. I just want to be a missionary forever.

     This Saturday we have a meeting with Elder Quentin L. Cook! So that's gonna be way cool. 

     Have a great week everyone!

       -Elder Henry

A rooster in a tree...

"the yummy cream filled kind"--Timon (Lion King reference haha)

What a beautiful place to serve the Lord!

Macaw in it's native habitat!

Don't cry over spilled milk.

Look, a river! (the rivers are all brown because it's rainy season)

Hello, gulf! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golfo_Dulce,_Costa_Rica

A member in Puerto Jimenez works with a little airplane company to ship people down from San Jose.

Beach!

It looked like Northwest beach to me! It made me feel cold haha but the water definitely isn't cold there.And yeah mom if we come to Costa Rica, we're hittin' up the Zona Sur beaches. Way better than the standard gringo Guanacaste route. No gracias!

A little mud bumblebee home that was on the ground!

A really, really big plant haha. it's like 15-20 feet tall

 

 Hello, porcupine!

Hello, Paso Ancho! Long time, no see!

My adopted nephew here haha

Christian & Javier!

Zone meeting came included with lunch this week! Chicken & fresh tortillas :)

A picture in las fincas (the farms).

Other shot of the fincas (the first one was that line of houses you see in the back).

A bunny sleeping with a dog. whaat!

We were in the jungle here in Rio Bonito!

Jungle shack! Outside of that window, it's a cliff haha.

Sunset.

A paper mache minion!

A pretty normal looking house here in Zona Sur. La Abuela, she always gives us lunch every Thursday :)  (what a blessing these generous people are, to make sure my son is nourished!)

Just gettin to know our area here...

"Can you fish in that river?"

So the river flooded a few weeks back, and all the rocks you see there weren't there before. It was river before! Crazy stuff.

If you look good there, you'll be able to see that the bridge's support is basically gone too, from the flood. (sketch!)

Just getting to know another part of my area! (FYI: All these parts are part of the Ciudad Neily itself, not other places. It's just jungle everywhere!)

Jungle selfie!

Javier drinking some stream water (don't worry Mom I didn't drink it)

He grabbed a moth!

The home where we have the group meeting in the fincas(farms)

So, this week was interesting. My first normal week here in Zona Sur!

     It was pretty good. I had a few experiences which I felt that I could really learn a lesson from.

The first one was actually the last one, but it's the one that impacted me most. Yesterday in the morning, we made pancakes (uush, Sunday morning pancakes). So, to go along with the pancakes, I wanted to make chocolate milk. So I put the water and the evaporated milk in and blended it, and put the milk in, and it was SOO delicious. So put more in, so that there would be enough for everyone. But as I put that all in, I turned the blender around to see the measurements written on there, and the blender unscrewed from the bottom. So when I realize, there's chocolate milk all over the counter. So I think "Oh dear, I gotta get this thing to the sink!" Thinking the rubber sealer had broken. So I lift up the blender and BOOM! All the chocolate milk comes rushing out of the blender, as if a high pressure tube had broken.

I was so disappointed. First off, I got chocolate milk all over my khaki pants and alllll over the kitchen, which was frustrating. But after getting changed and cleaning up, I was just disappointed! I was making this great delicious chocolate milk, and I had already tasted it and it was delicious, and I lost it all! Ugh! and there was no more chocolate, so I couldn't make more.

     It would've been ironic if, in that moment, the phrase "Don't cry over spilled milk" had come to mind.

     Sometimes in life we work so hard to make or do something so great, and it just doesn't work out. Is a blender full of chocolate milk important to my salvation? no. But I took great pride in that delicious chocolate milk! It was something that I was really happy about. That can happen about a lot of things. Maybe we lose in our high school football game, or maybe our homemade fruit canning project goes wrong, or whatever it may be, things just go wrong sometimes. I realized that you just gotta keep going on, and stick a smile on your face. It's ok. It was never in the plan that everything went perfectly in this world.

     So that was a good take-away for me.

So yeah, just a few experiences like that.

     Apart from that, I got to know some more parts of my area today. Pure jungle; super awesome. I was checking out the map and I realized just how small our area is. Like, it's huge, but there's basically not people hahaha.

     So that's the week this week! I hope you all have a good one :) Stay happy and don't cry over spilled milk!

-Elder Henry
     PS Mike & Shavonne oh man! Your new HOUSE! it looks suuper nice.
Things are going well with Elder Morales! And Javier is great!!!
    As for things for Christmas, I don't really need anything... so yeah :/ I know I've always been lame to buy presents for. Just remember, if it's eatable, I'll love it. hahaha (he can purchase things in Panama inexpensively so we're planning to have him do that for himself and the children in his area if you'd like to contribute).