Friday, December 26, 2014

Hello from lovely and warm Pital, Costa Rica!  !Feliz Navidad!
I hope you all had a wonderful fabulous Christmas and took a moment in praise and gratitude for the Savior and the real reason for the season.  This is a time of cheer and goodwill and I am so grateful that I get to share that goodness with the people of Costa Rica.  It was wonderful to talk with my family through skype.  It really went off without hardly any glitches.  haha! My Christmas was wonderful and thanks to everyone for gifts, cards, prayers and thoughts. My BIG news is that President Wilkinson announced that Costa Rica is being split into TWO MISSIONS!!!!! So as of July of 2015 we will have 2 general authorities come to Costa Rica and the current  250 missionaries will double to 500.  I along with all the other missionaries here will be issued a new mission call.  CRAZY huh???  It is soo exciting!  The work is moving forth and our numbers are increasing.  My gift to you at this Christmas time is my testimony.  I bore it in Spanish to my family on skype and my uncle Casey translated.  My testimony is:  I know this is the only true church.  I know that its principles will bring us closer to our Savior.  I know that God lives and loves each one of us.  I love my Savior.  I love the atonement and the ability to change. I love being a missionary and bringing peace and happiness to the people of Costa Rica. I am so happy here! I love you all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

love--
Elder Caleb M. Adams



Thursday, December 25, 2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

So this week was awesome! I had the amazing opportunity to go to the Costa Rica Temple and it was beautiful inside and out.  I loved the opportunity to feel the great spirit there.  Before the temple we had a meeting/activity and we watched some videos of Christmas songs being sung and they brought the spirit really well. We even watched a video of David Archuleta singing in Spanish, Then President Wilkinson got up and talked and it was really good. He talked about Luke 2 and the Christmas story and the principles behind it. He then proceeded to tell us some really big news!  I will share the news  with you through skype. He then showed us some small gifts that had been made for us. A small key chain that says Costa Rica Mission and a Christmas ornament made for each missionary by one of the missionary's moms. Then we went and had a feast!!!! haha!!!! Well a lunch but,  there was a lot of delicious food and candy and it was awesome! Then I was able to check for my letters and packages and I want to say thank you for the letters and the packages.

---- I got a package from the family and one from grandma A and one small pouch package form Mrs. Case.  I also got your letters.  I do get letters but they are usually about a month late. Oh and thanks soooooooooooooooooooooooo much for the stockings! It made me super happy just to see the stocking and the fact that you gave my companion something was awesome as well actually that made me the happiest seeing that there was something for my companion.  :P
 Photos of beautiful Pital:






Love you tons and cant wait until Christmas!

Su Hijo Elder Adams

The below photos are a bunch from Esparza.  I love those people!  They are beautiful!




  Beautiful lighthouse



  This is when I went fishing.  This was my hand-made rod.  Amazing what a water bottle and fishing line can do. :P



  Elder Adams on the beach  :o)







Sunday, December 14, 2014

Hello!!!! I am in a different area with a different companion! Crazy huh? We had transfers  on Monday 12-8-14 and now I am in Pital, Costa Rica!  It’s so beautiful and my house is huge, because the house is also the chapel. The first few minutes I got to the house, the neighbor boy brought over a boa constrictor and placed it around my neck! CRAZY!  
                                         Me and the Boa Constrictor--how many                                                                                                      snakes do you see????


oh and hey I ate the fruit "Granadilla" and it was pretty good. Really sweet!



But really awesome haha I have been improving with the language. This area is a lot more open and a lot cooler weather wise. It reminds me more of Idaho; just a little bit. My new comps name is Elder Cordoba and he is from Honduras. He has 18 months in the mission, and I am excited to learn a lot from him. On Sunday we finally got some investigators to come to church in Esparza. It was awesome! We woke up super early and went and woke up some of our investigators and took them to church. I am sad that I left Esparza though; just when I was really getting to know the people.  It was a really good learning experience for me. I have realized though that my first area sometimes kind of felt to me like this example. A coal has to undergo a lot of pressure to become a diamond. I learned I ton from Elder Gomez. Right now I am kind of far away from the office like,  about 3 or 4 hours away so it will be a little more difficult to get my letters as often.

Now I just ask you to pray for the people here in Pital and pray that you guys can have missionary experiences in Blackfoot. I am excited to work here in this new area. I am pretty sure there are going to be baptisms in Esparza this month so I am kind of sad that I am going to miss those, but I know that this is where the Lord needs me to be and I know that I have been receiving the gift of tongues. I have been able to speak the Spanish language and some people say right off the bat that its gift of tongues when I tell them I only have two months here so that’s kind of cool. So thank you, thank you for your prayers. I can feel each one of them.  Thanks A bunch for everything and I will keep you updated in the coming week! :)

Con Amor Su Hijo Elder Adams

Below are some pics of me in Ezsparza:


   This is Benjamin(16) and his mom.  He was such a great freind and help you us in Esparza!  I true servant!


  Just a sample of our numbers

  These are palitos meaning "little stick".  They are a little like  cheetos that they have here.

  Elder Gomez and I had several opportunities to do some amazing hours of service while in Esparza!  I loved it!!!!



  I was able to meet up with 2 of the Elders from my MTC district, Elder Bullecer, and Elder Farnsworth on the day of transfers.  It is always good to see those you 1st trained with.


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Hello from Costa Rica!  I have not been able to update the blog lately due to some photo and mailing issues.  I did send a hand written letter home and so the following info is from there.   Anyways this week was good.  I finally found investigators by myself! (well with the help of the Lord).   My companion said its your turn\,so I will follow you.   Next we  walked a couple steps and walked right up to a door and said "Hey we're missionaries and we have a message about Christ. Well, I did talk with her for a bit, first about the area she lives in and mostly stuff like that. Then asked can we share a message about Christ with you?  I fully expected a no but she accepted!  Wow!  Now we have 3 new investigators! My LPE's have been getting a a lot better too.  These are the are like the street contacts.  One miracle we had was we were at a new investigators house saying Ulpe! Buenas!( over here there are no doorbells, so you don't knock, but just stand outside a persons home and yell Ulpe and then they come out.  Anyway there was no one was home but then the sister of the lafy who lived there passed by and saw us and said to us. "Oh hey you guys are the ones who helped my sister set up her Christmas tree and things like that, that is super cool. We are going to get together as a family and We would love for you to come!" So we went to her house and wow! They fed us and we laughed and talked and taught them and now we have 7 new investigators just from that one meeting! The Lord is amazing!  There are so many miracles happening here everyday! I love you all! 


This is a picture I drew for my little bro.  He is 8 and always sending me drawings, so I thought I would draw him one.  Look up the sciptures--they are excellent ones. 

Well here I am---With President and Sister Wilkinson.  They are very good to us.  This photo was taken during my first few days in the mission.


This is from the amazing 3  day zone conference that we had.  It was awesome!


We have been doing a lot of service for some non-members and it has been great.  One experience happened when we were doing service in the yard.  We were cutting the front lawn with a machette and gathering up the grass and throwing it away.  While doing this, we saw in a far off distance rain and storm clouds coming.  It was getting closer and closer towards us.  It was like a wall of rain coming our way and then just like 5-7 houses before it hit us, it stopped moving forward.  It just stopped and the rain stayed and my comp and I could see everyone getting wet, but we were not.  So we finished our service in the yard, said goodbye to the people and grabbed our umbrellas and left.  Then it started raining on us.  Amazing power that the Lord stilled the rain!

I have been eating lots of pineapples and bananas here.  The fruit is soo totally good!  Especially the pineapple!  Bien Rico!  I also have had horse and it is really good.  The milk here is always in boxes and does not have to be refrigerated.  People drink a lot of coca-cola here.  Sometimes I ask for water and all they have is coke.  The old time glass coke bottle that we consider antiques are super common here.  We have our big meal of the day at lunch time that our cocinera makes for us 5 days a week..  She is great and so good to us.  Well, until next time

I love you all!
Elder Caleb Adams

Monday, November 17, 2014

Nov 3rd-Nov 10th 2014

Hello hello! I have a lot of cool experiences and I am going to try and send a snail mail letter soon.
Things are good this week we had a normal start, but it ended up to be great. We got a ton of references this week---27! We have a lot of new investigators that we got this week. We were teaching a new investigator and asked the family if they had any references and a girl got a pen and paper and wrote down 17 names phone number, where they live, name, etc. of people we could visit. It was pretty much everyone she knew. Which is how it should be. . . everyone we know should be a reference because we don't know if they will accept the message or not.  I was able to do divisions(they are splits with the zone leaders) for the first time. I did divisions with the Zone Leaders in Barranca. So I went to Barranca for about a day and a half. It was good, and I learned a lot there. I really learned of things that we can do better. Also I learned that Barranca is a little bit hotter( they are closer inland to the ocean) than Esparza... haha! 
 Can you see me?


We went on a hike today for p day. It was cool!  We hiked all the way up a mountain/hill and we could see Puntarenas (a popular tourist town that is on the tip of the shoreline) and the ocean and cruise liners.  It was gorgeous!  I fed a Parrot... and then it bit me...  but it was still awesome. haha!!!!  

I am starting to get more used to the swing of things here. Oh and by the way on December 18 we have changes or transfers again and may get a new companion, so just a heads up. 

Anyways I have had a lot of experiences with the spirit. Today I went to get my name tag for my normal shirt and its also the one that I use for my suit coat on Sundays, but when I went to go get it it wasn't there. You would think that I would be worried because I lost my name tag, and I was . . . but it was a different kind of worried, because I thought about it and knew right where it was. Even though I didn't know exactly where it was, I knew it was ok. . . Anyway, it was weird because my name tag had somehow fallen out of my pocket of my suit coat and into a baby's crib that I had draped my coat over in a members house. My comp and I walked straight there and got it like it was nothing, but it was BIG!   It was a cool experience for me. Sometimes  I think of this and how to better my ear for the spirit, then I think of when God spoke with Oliver Cowdery in Doctrine and Covenants 8 and 9. It reads,  " have I not spoken peace to your mind" or something along those lines.  Good words of advice to follow.
  This is one of the neatest truths of our gospel!  What is even more cool is that I can read and understand it in Spanish --almost simultaneously!


Sincerely with love,
 Elder Caleb Adams! 

PS--this is a photo of my MTC district.  We got together a few weeks ago when we were in San Jose for meetings with President Wilkinson.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Hello Family from Costa Rica!


The above pic is of me with a member family here in Esparza.  The member did the baptizing of the two new members last week here.  They are a great family and are very kind and  good to us.  Anyways right now I am in San Jose because we had the monthly check up with president.  Anyways so this week was good. A little different without my other companion but good. I definitely needed it. My Spanish is improving. My relationship with my companion is improving. And I have been taught a lot by the Lord this week and I wish I could share it all, but I don't have a lot of time. Anyways so life here is good. I have lost some weight I think haha its hard to tell sometimes.
Anyways This week was a little harder because the people here are a little bit harder to talk to. I am starting to see why this Area was closed before. The people just don't want to hear us. But, we are obviously here for someone. At least that one family or one person that needs to hear this message, so that is the  thinking that keeps me going. I am super excited to work even harder this next week. 

 I have been reading "Our search for Happiness" and its such a great book! I just love the writing style of it. Please share that and this with the blog. Our search for happiness is a book written by M. Russel Ballard. and is not written to convert people or anything like that but it is written to help people understand where to find happiness and some of the concepts the Latter day saints believe and why we believe it I really love the writing style and I encourage people to read it.
Anyways I have to leave now but I will try to write more next time!  Take Care I love you all and think of you daily. But I totally agree 2 years is not going to be long enough. But I think the Lord has bigger plans for Costa Rica I have a feeling there might be two missions here someday and I would like to help make that happen! So I pray that I can work hard enough to help accomplish what the Lord has sent me here  to do.
Sincerely su hijo Elder Adams

Sunday, November 2, 2014

First off, thank you thank you thank you for all the emails!  They are helping me a ton.

Please tell everyone to request the movie Meet the Mormons to come here to Costa Rica. with the zip code 10105  Thanks!
http://meetthemormons.com/request-it    You should all request the film to come to Costa Rica! please!

We had two baptisms on Saturday! It was awesome it went great! I felt super happy for them. We had a good attendance of people show up too. We are blessed that the branch has a baptismal font. 

 We had the opportunity to prepare the font for the baptisms.  What a great experience.



The baptisms were  great!; one of the members baptized them. I felt super happy for them. 

Life here is good, I am learning the language. I am able to answer questions more and communicate with the members a little bit better. 
So today, we had Changes or Transfers today. So I was with Elder Reed from Montana and Elder Gomez from El Salvador. But, now Elder Reed (who was fluent in both languages) has left and Elder Gomez is learning English, So my Spanish is going to have to get a lot better. :o)
    
 
 It is soo beautiful and green here.  I love it!

What have I learned as a new missionary? - Well a mission is... Fun and Hard, Stressful and exciting, exhausting and full of new things I has its ups and downs. But I love it! The purpose as a missionary is to INVITE and HELP. As missionaries, we are here to Invite people to find out for themselves! We as missionaries can only teach people the knowledge, facts, and the evidence that this gospel is true. But in order for them to truly know, they have to pray and be taught by the spirit. They have to have a desire to find out for themselves. And we are here to help others. Help others get through their trials... Help others carry their heavy bags... Help others receive answers to their questions... But all these things should invite and help others to come unto Christ.  I have been able to see how these small simple things have been able to help people greatly. I have learned that the Members are needed greatly. It's the simple things that help the most. I love the mission! It has taught me a lot already, but I know that I have a lot to learn. Just remember:  the missionaries NEED the help of the members. They NEED your references. They NEED you to invite non members to your activities. They NEED every member to be a missionary.
Alma 37:6-8
Con Amor Elder Adams


Thursday, October 23, 2014

Costa Rica week 3 Oct 12 --Oct 21, 2014

Hello family, Life here is good. Anyways, I am alive here and doing well. I was able to go to San Jose and I had my fingerprints done and give my information so I can stay here for a full two years. We then went to McDonald's and to the Mall to get some things.  
The traffic is crazy here!  The bus ride from San Jose to Esparza takes about 2 and a half hours. So we have to leave pretty early from San Jose.




I bought an umbrella finally!, and it is massive! But hey, it works great! 


 The mall was massive! There were so many places to eat! 

We went to a museum while in San Jose on our P-day.  It had some amazing paintings and lots of these giant wooden balls.

 Hey some good news: Two of our investigators are going to be baptized this Saturday!!!!!!! So that is soooooo exciting!!!!!!! 

You will have to look at the pictures to be able to get more info of my life here because sometimes its hard to describe. But we have gotten a lot of rain here, and that is an understatement!  The thunder is still very very loud! I am pretty sure my language is getting better, haha so that's good. 

Here comes the rain--------always and forever!


 
  Look at it pour off the rooftop by the mango tree! This is a daily occurrence here.  It sure does make everything soo green and beautiful though!


We don't have a branch in Esparza, so we have to go to Barranca every Sunday to go to Church.  There are only about 70 people total that are there. We had 6 of our investigators come this week alone, so that was awesome! I found out that next week for my P day I will be in San Jose again on Monday, because we have our monthly check up with the President. 


My area is small, so it is not on the map, but it is about 15 miles from the coast by the Parque Nacional Caraca  (to your left on the map).

Our lessons have been going well I have been able to start saying more and more in lessons. But one thing I have noticed while being here is that this area has so much more potential then it knows. A lot of times when I ask why we don't have Ward activities or do certain things like that. The answer I always get is "It's different here" That is a hard concept for me to swallow because I feel that it has to start some where... So I would like to see what we can to do here to better improve our communication with the members. 
This is where and how I study every day--not bad  :)


-Su Amigo Elder Adams