HOLY COW 6 months in the mission!

HOLY COW! how do I have 6 months! my mission is going by way to fast!

Wow... haha the land of desolation is good... The map is super cool of the land of desolation from the B of M!  haha I can believe it, that Costa Rica is part of it. Its a beautiful land!

Pital is well... it could be better when it comes to a lot of things. This week, we had an attendance of 18..... 18 people! Super low. We did have two investigators in church, but that is also on the lower side. Here in Pital, at one point we were able to have 12 investigators in the church. But, the attendance was a little bit lower, because it was raining pretty hard and the people have to walk to church. We are going to work hard to raise the attendance.  :o)

 Right now we don't have a set group leader, so  my companion and I are basically the leaders here. That is a good learning experience, but man there are so many things that we have to do here. Sometimes it just feels like we are running and getting nowhere.... One thing I know is for sure, we need to change some things here in Pital---so that it can start to progress some more. Anyways, my companion and I started a new thing where when we plan at night.   We always count up the key indicators. Well, we have added our own key indicator--- Miracles! We always set a goal of miracles that we want to see the following day, and since the time we have started, we have done just that. We have always surpassed the goal. Every day we have had many miracles!   Sometimes we don't even realize them  until we are planning at the end of the day and then we see more of the miracles!

Picture of volcano here in Pital.

One thing I have learned is that usually we find the people in times just before something incredibly bad happens and without the gospel they would be destroyed.  For some of the people, the message saves them and for others not-- because they refuse to accept it. But one thing is sure, God knows when we are going to have our trials and  He is always preparing us for them. It’s our choice to accept the preparation or not.

Right now we are still working with investigators to help them get married. Some problems we have run into is that a lot of people are from Nicaragua, and some of them are illegal.... soooo first we have to get them legal.... then married...... then baptized! haha.

This week we found 2 families and they are both married----- already! That is truly a miracle!  I can count on one hand the families that we have found that are already married here in Pital. We are super excited to work with them. They both already have baptismal dates and sound excited to learn more.

I have been getting along well with my companion. This week we did some house hunting. We are searching for a new house to have for the church services. Cooking is good we found a blender outside the house in the shed infested with cockroaches, and we cleaned it up,  and repaired it and now we have a blender!  Whoot whoot! haha so that’s cool.  Actually, yesterday we made papaya shakes. They were soo good!  I haven't had a chance to find the ingredients yet for the recipes that I have,

  Anyways I love you all tons and hope you all had a great valentines day!

Su Amigo Elder Caleb M. Adams

Delicious! 

                                               CTR ring in Spanish--thanks Mom  :o)

These are the roads my companion and I travel daily in Pital.  It ti quiet, peaceful and beautiful!

Animal life here in Pital

This is how we hang our socks to dry here :o)

This is our "church cat".  She crawls through the bars of the windows at night and curls up to sleep, so she can be out of the rain, then meows for food in the am when we awake--reminds me of home and our cats there.  :o)

Oh so happy to serve . . . Feb 9, 2015

Anyways I forgot to mention last week but our president has been having issues for the past while with health and then the 1st pres told him he needed to have a surgery to continue as pres. so he has been in Utah for the past 2 weeks recovering and getting well. so we have been a functioning mission without our president for a while which is pretty cool, but we did have one of the 70 come to help the mission while in his absence. He should return soon but keep him in your prayers. 

So today in zone conference we got some news from the 1st pres for our area. which is kind of shocking.... first off they said the lord is hastening his work. and then they gave us the new assignment to visit all old investigators and ask them about the Book of Mormon and if they are reading it or don't have the desire to act we have been asked to take the Book of Mormon and go give it to someone who is preparing to receive the gospel. They don't want unused Book of Mormons getting dusty for no reason when there are people who need to hear the message. so I hope all of you are using the gift of the Book of Mormon as well. It is also to help[ people realize that without the Book of Mormon they will be missing some peace in there lives. Anyways it was a bit of news to me. 

This week was good though. We are working to try and get some marriages done. Talking to lawyers and things. A lot of people here in Pital are from Nicaragua, so we have to work with them to make sure they are legal in the country first and then we have to get them married, and then.... finally they can be baptized. 

I have been getting along well with Elder Acuna. We are pretty good friends. When he found out that we didn't have cake or do anything for my birthday he was a little shocked and said that the 16th of Feb we are going to buy a cake and celebrate a little haha so that's awesome. He has already made my bed a few times, shined my shoes, made breakfast, and I have been trying to do the same and that has been helping us to stay good friends. I just hope that we can start to find more of the chosen people because we are finding at least 15 new investigators every week but they are progressing very well. Some of them say yes, but some of them have so many challenges. I am hopeful though that they can change with the Lord's help.

Well I love you all!  Pital is good and thanks for all the prayers! 

Oh yeah we changed cocineras because every day we had to walk 30 mins to eat and we decided it was better to just buy our own food and eat in the house....... sooooo if you have any super super super simple recipes and things that might be good that you didn't send me before I will gladly accept them. 

I love you all tons!

Elder Caleb M Adams

 

Picture of the Last Supper that hangs in one of the churches here.

Waterfalls!

        So this week went well, We had kind of a busy week working hard with one of our investigators to prepare him for his baptism. One cool experience is we were doing divisions and I was with the District leader to go and do the interview with him for one of our investigators baptisms. and we were doing some LPE's and then the simple LPE turned into a lesson in the street and the lesson turned into setting a baptismal date with them. I don't know if anything big will come from it but we followed the spirit and set the dates.

So we were able to find some new investigators this week. which is good. We still need to work with the members more. But we are struggling because as of right now there are not that many members to work with in Pital. But we were able to find 13 new investigators not quite the goal of 15.

      We also had the baptism of an investigator, It went well my companion got to perform the baptism. We had to work pretty hard with the investigator to make sure that he would be ready for the big day but it all turned out in the end. Then we got a call from two Americans, and they asked for me and I talked with them in English and had to give them directions to the Pital church house. it was interesting at first because we didn't know who they were, but then on Sunday they called and were able to come to the church and they were super nice and they had live in Costa Rica for about 6 months about a year and a half ago. and were just passing through for about 3 weeks. ---- So on Sunday we were supposed to have the confirmation of our investigator. and we found out that he has to move to a different area and will be attending church with some other missionaries in San Jose after this Sunday so it was a must that he came for the confirmation and we called and he said he was coming and everything and then we were sitting and waiting for him in the meeting and he still wasn't there so we called him and he said that he missed the bus and  he lives about 15 mins outside of Pital. so he wouldn't be able to get there until about the end of sacrament meeting. but then my companion had an idea to ask the Americans if we could use there car and he said yes and he drove us and we got the investigator and brought him to church and under the direction of the bishop we were able to confirm him in the end of the meeting and I was able to preform the ordinance. it was a pretty cool miracle.

    My companion and I  found a shortcut this week and it involved crossing a small river. My comp took a video  of me crossing I will have to send it some time.

This is me crossing the river----whoah it was slippery!

It was super cool and big.

It was an  an awesome experience! Here is Elder Cordoba, the hermanas and me

We had a group p day yesterday! It was fun. We went as a district on a hike in the mountains and deep in the jungle and found a waterfall that one investigator  lead us to.

My rocking district!

 The waterfall was so very beautiful!!  It was    like a picture out of a movie only better!

Here I am in in the elements of Costa Rica.

 The scenery here is breath taking!

 I had the opportunity to be like Tarzan for a little bit.... haha there were some vines hanging and so we practiced swinging on them. It was a pretty fun experience.

Thoughts to consider:

Mark 2:1-5, this group of scriptures has soooo many principles that can be learned. here are some of the things I  learned this week:

--We need to find the best way to people to Christ, as a team.

--We need to go '"above" the normal in order to get our investigators to him

--If someone is not doing their part or not "lowering the rope" equally with the others the investigator is at risk to fall.

--Are we strong enough to "stand" for whats right when others are crippled by disobedience and bring them unto Christ.

--Christ was preaching and someone was brought to him. he stopped in the middle of preaching and instead of assigning an apostle he healed the man.

-Su hijo, hermano, y amigo. -Elder Adams

Happy January

Hello from Pital!  Here is a quick note that I sent home to my family to keep them updated.  Ha ha ha!

Actually, I did write two lengthy letters home and this post is ex certs from those letters.

Letter ex cert from 12-19-2014:

"Hello my family!  Muchas gracias por sus cartas!  I have really enjoyed the package and wanted to let you know that I did get your letters and love them!  The miraculous news about 2 missions in Costa Rica is surely a sign of the second coming.  Anyways, I love it here in Pital,Alajuela.  It's is nice and open here and a little colder, I have been told it can get as hot as Esparza.  My companion is good.  He is from Honduras and has had 19 months out and is a really good teacher.  I am in the idstrict of San Carlos.  There is my comp and me, 2 other elders, and 2 hermanas (sisters) in our district.  There are actually 2 sets of missionaries in San Carlos.  So every Tuesday we take a bus to San Carlos, that is about 1 hour and 10 mins away.  We have our district mtg and then email from the ward building which seems huge to me.  Our ward building at home is actually 2 times larger, but this building seems huge in comparison.   My perspective of things has changed just a bit after being in Costa Rica for 4 months now.

        So anyways there is always mud here, everywhere!--haha!  Lots and lots of rain---but hey it makes everything very green and lush.  I played soccer with some members on p-day and got pretty muddy!  It was a blast!

We are planning some baptisms in January.  The mission is awesome and I feel my first area was such a learning experience for me. I still have my challenges, but I am slowly improving and learning.  I am grateful for all of that.  I am healthy and doing well with almost everything I can think of.  I still struggle a bit with the bus rides . . . . Oh man . . . quite the rides they are . . . 

       I hope you all had a chance to read form Luke 2 for Christmas time.  If not, read it now.  It is never too late.  One thing I learned from Luke is that of the story of the wise man.  The bible tells us that it took 2 years for them to find Jesus Christ.  They kept searching and enduring until they found him.  They had a goal and they never took their eyes off that goal.  From this, we can learn a thousand things, but I think that it teaches us to--NEVER GIVE UP!  Don't give up on goals and with faith in Jesus Christ, we can do anything.  One of my favorite scriptures before my  mission and even more so now is Luke 1:37.

     I got to go the Costa Rica Temple and it was amazing even if it was all in Spanish.  The spirit was sooo strong!  I love you all"

JesuCisto

El es la Dadiva (He is the Gift)

Los Estados Unidos

(United in one thing)

Love you all! 

Elder Caleb Adams :o)

So my lil bro Jeb and I share back to back birthdays--mine on Jan 16th and his on Jan 17th. So in my scripture study, I made a cool connection that we share with JSH 1:16-17.  We share pretty cool birthdays!  Look it up! 

Playing soccer!  So much fun!

  My district (San Carlos)

  Pineapple fields

My living quarters at the church.

January 2015 Pital

Hello everyone!!!!

 Anyways so this week was good I had the opportunity to do divisions. I went to Ciudad Que Sada and the district leader went to Pital and worked with my companion. Divisions taught me a lot. I went with Elder Rosander. He only has a month in his mission. After District meetings, when we started division,s and we decided to set the goal to talk with 40 people in the day because we wanted to make sure that we would definitely reach the normal goal of 20 every day. So we starting doing street contacts and working and Elder Rosander although he doesn't know a ton of Spanish still he was willing to put him self out there and talk with everyone. Long story short when the night came we added up all of the names and phone numbers that we had written down and the number totaled up to exactly 40. I know that if we are doing are part and telling our goals to the Lord he is going to be with us. 

I have been able to do a lot of service projects lately on P day. this p day we helped build a house. it was cool to learn how to build a house and help people. there are oranges everywhere around that house and so through out the day we were able to eat a lot of oranges while working. after the project we helped some kids move these large pieces of wood to their house and when we did we heard some noises in the trees and so we walked over to that area and looked up and sure enough we were able to see a lot of monkeys! and their babies! it was pretty cool! then our member friend and neighbor Freiden, showed me a leaf...... haha he touched me with it and I got a lot of hives on my arm..... haha but, they went away after about a half an hour, My health is good I am a little sore after all those service projects!, but its all good. 

                                                   Getting friendly with the wildlife here  :)

Anyways My birthday went well. It was a normal work day. But about a week ago I set a little alarm on our phone that would say happy birthday to me when I woke up haha. By the end of the day we hadn't done anything special so I called and ordered a pizza and we shared with the neighbors and it went well.

I also bought some ingredients and Freidyn our neighbor/member friend showed me how to make "Copos" they are delicious! its like a snow cone thing but a little bit different. frozen water mixed with Kola flavoring. then shave the ice and mix it with some powdered milk stuff and add some syrup. oh man it was good. On P day we were able to play soccer. It was really fun but it was raining almost the whole time so I was covered in Mud. We are set to have a baptism this weekend with one of our investigators. He is a cool guy. His name is Gabriel.

This week finished off a lot better....... I think its the closest that me and my companion have been since our first week. So that's good. I actually did some study. I read Alma 36:3 that mom gave me and when I was in Esparza I received the scripture 1 Nephi 7:12 when I was really struggling. So I took the two and examined them and compared them. I learned a lot about what it means to Trust in God. Its funny a lot of people say trust in God, but what does that really mean?! Well I found out that it doesn't just have one meaning but Trust equals faith. and that realizing that everything is going to be okay if we realize that without him we are nothing but with him we can be everything. I read all of Alma 36 and then prayed about it and I actually think that that experience is what made everything better for me. Sometimes we only pray to use God as a "help line" kind of thing and it shouldn't be like that. We should Pray always. Anyways I learned a lot and I really hope that I can remember what I learned now for the future! But thanks, thanks, thanks again for all the good advice!  It really really helps me. Love you tons!

Su Hijo Elder Adams

This is my first official convert baptism of a Pital fellow. It was great!  It was really awesome! The investigator was so ready and he has gone through so many changes to prepare for the baptism.I was able to preform the ordinance! It was awesome! I spent some time making sure I had the words down but everything went great.  The water was a little cold, but other that that every thing went according to plan! 

 

3-Liter Coke bottles;    they sure come in handy for many things.

Playing soccer-----good times! 

Pineapple Fields!

  Loads and loads of pineapples!

  The church house as well as our home  :o)

  This is looking inside the church house.  This is the main meeting room.

So I haven't eaten that many types of fruit here yet and I told one of the our member friends and he made sure that I tried every fruit that we saw walking in the street.  haha Here are some of them!---they are all delicious!!!

Rice anyone????  Holy rice bowl!!!!   We celebrated a members birthday last week and they made a ton of rice!!!!!!!  

Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes! I am looking forward to a good week. Please tell everyone thanks for the birthday wishes I feel pretty old now! I love you all tons! and I haven't gotten any of the packages or letters but I will be sure to let you know when I do!

Love you all--

Elder Caleb Adams

Jan 6, 2015

Greetings from Pital

 This is the church house where my companion Elder Cordoba(Honduras) and I live.

We are set to have another baptism this Saturday. It should be cool.  The man we are going to baptize is actually a brother to one of the member families and he came to church in December and that’s how it started. I actually set his baptismal date while talking with him in the street on the way to his house. He actually has some difficulties mentally understanding things, but he has been able to remember exactly everything we have taught and kept his commitments. Anyways it should be a cool experience. One cool experience is we were walking trying to do LPE's or street contacts because all of our appointments had fallen until 8 and it was about 6:30. so we decided to say a pray in the street, we prayed specifically to be able to find a family and then we started walking and then after a while walking, we remembered an LPE that we had talked with about 2 or 3 weeks earlier. So we decided to go visit that house and we did, and the man of the house was the only one there which apparently was rare because he is usually always working. But long story short--He was very friendly and they are a Family of about 6 or 7 people, and he was interested in our message and wants us to come back. So that was a cool answer to our prayers.

 

This is beautiful waterfall that is naturally in our area.  It is actually in one of our investigators backyard.

  Iguanna---AHHHHH!!!

Love you all very much! Sincerely Elder Adams

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!!!
Greeting from warm Pital!  

  I got to enjoy great food and company with some wonderful members in Pital.  

Yes--I am eating fried chicken---yummmmmmm!!!

Sundays are good here. We actually were able to have 11 investigators in the church it was pretty cool. So Pital is shaped kind of like an octopus it has really long streets that don’t connect until the center.   We have a family that lives on the other side of a field and a small river and there is no road in between so they have to walk all the way around and it takes about a half an hour.  (this is the same family that we lent our  umbrella to)  Anyways so this Sunday, they wanted to come but like you already know it takes the a while to get to church walking. But this time on the Saturday before, Elder Cordoba  and I found and used a little shortcut across the small ditch and then they decided to cross there as well too on Sunday. Anyways usually we text the investigators to come on Sunday morning and if they don't answer we call them and if they don't answer that we go to their houses. So we were walking to take the shortcut to bring this family and we met up with them at the river just in time to see them crossing it and we were able to help them .I was carrying the 5 month old baby and the kids so that they could come to church. It was really cool!  

We had a baptism this, just after Christmas Sunday Dec 28, 2014.  It was really awesome the investigator was so ready and he has gone through so many changes to prepare for the baptism. It was a really cool experience to be able to be a part of. We are seeing many miracles here and are really trying to work with the members more.  They are definitely the key to helping us here.

(Elder Cordoba is in the middle and the new member on the right)

 What a great way to spend the holiday, centered around the gift--His Gift.  #Heisthegift

I encourage all of you to participate in the missionary work. Invite someone over to eat at your house at the same time the missionaries come to eat or something like that,

Anyways the life here is good and it definitely has its ups and downs but I am really enjoying the missionary work and bringing people unto to Christ. But always remember  every member a missionary.

Con Amor Su Hijo Elder Adams