The work moves on!

Wellllllllllllllll............ It was a good week!
Going to the Temple on Wed 4/15/2015 was definitely the highlight of my week.

Here is our zone at the Costa Rica San Jose Temple

This is the San Ramon Zone.

My companion, Elder Zepeda is on my right.

This week was a little wild for us we had to go to San Jose again on Monday for the monthly check with my comp. Then on Tuesday, in the night we had to take an hour bus to san Carlos and sleep there in the elder's house and then wake up early and leave on Wednesday for the Temple. We lost almost 3 days of working time so that was a hard hit to our numbers for the week but more importantly to some of the investigators but I am grateful for the power of simple Text messages.

We have been working with some great people here and we have many dates set for May. But the main challenge right now is marriage.... I have made several phone calls to some lawyers to see what we can do but it’s a work in progress.


My Companion is Great!!!! We get along really well together and he is learning the work and the ways really fast.

This is Elder Jose Zepeda and myself with the newest converts, The mom and daughter were baptized on Easter morning and then confirmed the following week. They both have a beautiful testimony of the gospel.

We went and looked for a new building to move the Branch into. That was a good experience. We think we have found the one. Now we just have to wait to hear from the church headquarters with their approval. As missionaries here we have a lot of leadership responsibilities and the members look to the missionaries for direction.

Well I just have to say that things are going really great here, The people here are so humble and really friendly. I really love them!


Right now we are working with an investigator and we hope to have a baptism here in 2 weeks.
They are preparing to be baptized. I love you all and pray for you always!
Love—
Elder Adams!

HELLO!!!

HELLO!!!
Things are great in Pital we found 16 new investigators, and we put 17 dates throughout the weeks, so we are pretty excited to see the results of May. We were able to have an attendance of 58 and we brought 11 investigators to Church so that’s good. The Lord is really working hard in this area and we are blessed to be able to see the results.

I have really, really, really seen the importance of references here in these past days. Wow I was able to confirm the daughter of the 2 baptisms we had and what a great experience. References are the strongest converts. not always but most of the time. Wow what a testimony they both have! I am so happy that I was able to take part and see their lives be effected by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Anyways the work progresses here and I can't tell you how many important things I have learned about leadership and organization in Pital, It’s been a great experience. I didn't get a chance to send pics home this time. Anyways Guess What! We get to go to the Temple this Wednesday! and I am so Excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait!!!! it has been way to long since we went.

Training is good.  My new comps name is Elder Zepeda, He is from Honduras. He is a really nice Elder and I love training.
 Elder Zepeda. He is super great! I love working with him and have really learned a lot from him already. Actually, today we had a meeting with President in San Jose and it went really well. We ate in his house.

Well I love you all and have a great week! I pray for you all. Love you guys!

Su amigo love Ya Estoy orando para ti siempre.
Elder Adams

This how we as elders entertain ourselves.  :o)

 Elder Acuna and myself.

  Pineapple, Pineapple                                      what do you see???

Pineapple field

  

Just a sampling of the gorgeous flower life that is here. This is a  hibiscus flower

Hibiscus up close.

 Chickens, cluck, cluck, cluck!

  Sunset in Pital---  :o)

Volcano in the background---- little hazy still.

The road we travel--  :o)

Lots of trees and plant life.

Enjoying the nature here  :o)

Yummy, yummy, yummy~  Eating is gooooood here in Costa Rica!

Conference--SWEET!!!!

Picture of Entire San Jose Costa Rica Mission with Elder Maynes and Elder Duncan of the Seventy

This is one great "Army of Helaman"!

I loved general Conference, it was amazing!!!!! We had to leave the area Saturday in the morning to go to Ciudad QueSada. About an hour and a half away, to watch conference and then we slept there on the floor of the elders house in that area, until Sunday. Then Sunday Morning we woke up early and we had an amazing Baptism! Wow !!!!!They were really prepared to be baptized and it was so great to be able to be a part of the whole experience. It was a mom and her daughter. Then we all went together and watched the General Conference. Man, it was a really good example to me. The mom and her daughter hadn't ever been to the Chapel. The only thing they had gotten to know was the house church we have here in Pital. But for their baptism they were able to get to know the Chapel in Ciudad Quesada and then see all the hundreds of people watching general conference. It was great to see their eyes light up, but even greater to know that they didn't need to see all those nice things to be converted to the gospel.

The conference was really great, I loved every part. I did really enjoy the priesthood session as well. I gotta say. We are a pretty blessed people to be able to listen to the apostles and prophets in their native tongue. and be able to hear their tone of voice and everything. The general Conference was amazing and one thing I really liked is I heard a quote from Elder Nielsons talk. he said that sometimes finding new things and progressing isn't always just a matter of looking in new places. Sometimes We need to look with new eyes. I thought that was really good because sometimes we feel that maybe some houses don't have potential because we have already contacted them but if we look at them as possible references or other things maybe that don't count as numbers service, etc. We will soon be able to see more success.

Well I hope Easter was great and I hope your week goes well! Love Thanks mom for the inspiring words. and for the great pictures! haha I am sure that they were all really great! I love you mom and thanks very much for all you do. My new comps name is Elder Zepeda, he is from Honduras. He is a really nice Elder and I love training!!!!!. We get to go to the Temple this month so that is exciting! love Ya Estoy orando para ti siempre.


Thanks for everything!

Love-

Elder Caleb Adams

The work continues . . . .

Thanks so much for the letter! Have fun watching General Conference this week!  When they announce the mission in Costa Rica, you can give a little shout out for the mission! haha Seriously, I hope that you will ALL take advantage of General Conference! It is one of the greatest times of the year!!!!!!! Happy Easter to all of you!
These pics are of me and my comp Elder Amores at the church house in San Ramon.

 This is us harvesting Cacao. Its coco beans, they are really good, this week we ,made real chocolate from the seeds and it taste pretty good.

  The tree has flowers that turn into pods and then the pods have seeds in them that you remove and crush down to cocoa.

This is the cacao plant  when it is young. The stock in the middle grows to be the tree.

Ratio of colones to US dollar is about 500 colones equals one US dollar.

This is my "mini missionary"--Elder Amores.  He is from Costa Rica.

Here I am reconnecting with Elder Bullecer from the MTC.  He was in my district at the MTC.  So sweet to see him again.

This is the church house in San Ramon, which is a good size for one here.

The murals on the inside and the architecture are gorgeous!

 We also went to San Ramon.  I don’t know if I told you or not, but President split some zones in preparation for the new mission and now there are 14 and we are part of San Ramon zone.  Anyway, we went there and those are pics of the chapel there and at one of the bus stops in Zacerro, We found that park with the cool arch ways of bushes.  :o)

 Garden in park with Ava Maria.

Anyways, things here are good, Tomorrow we have to take a trip to San Jose again. My mini missionary is going to finish his mini mission and I am going to begin training the new missionary here in Pital. We have 2 baptisms planned for this Sunday, right before General Conference so we are all pretty excited for that and I am especially excited to be able to here from the prophet and the apostles. One experience I had this week: We start the day off with great plans and things were going in order. I was sure that if things went right and followed the plan we would find a lot of success. Well, we made some calls to confirm things, and it went well there too, but then as we were eating lunch, we got some phone calls and the plans completely changed.  This kind of messed everything up. We have to walk everyday, so we have to take in account the time it takes to walk to appointments, so I was pretty bummed when I found out things were not going as planned, but anyways long story short, we went about doing the work and following the spirit and we ended up finding 11 new investigators that day! I was reminded in this experience, that sometimes no matter how good we think our plans are,  our thoughts are not the Lord’s thoughts. Sometimes He has a better plan for us. We just have to have faith in his plan and timing even if things change and we can’t control it.

Anyways I love you all and thanks for the great support! The work progresses here in Pital! 

Elder Caleb Adams

Changes

Hello! I had to wake up pretty early on Thursday morning. We took a bus and then pick up other companions in Ciudad Quesada. Then we took an hour and 15min bus back again to the house.  On the way back, my comp  threw up,  soooo we had to get off and then take a taxi back. Once he felt better, we packed his bags because he has changes and then we went and bought some stuff at the pharmacy for him.  Then we took another bus to Ciudad Quesada again. Then from there we took a 3 hour and something bus to San Jose, then a taxi from there to the office.  
Things here are good I am actually going to be training a new missionary here alone. Right now I am with a mini missionary. things are good. We had a great meeting with Elder Maynes. I got to shake his hand and talk to him for  a bit. Nice guy! I also visited with Pres Duncan.   Elder Maynes is an apostle, on of the  members of the presidency of the 70's. So, I am going to be a trainer and  my  new comp. is Elder Amores, he is going to be my comp. for about 2 weeks. He is tico (means local) from San Jose. Sometimes its a challenge trying to focus in all these different things, but it's good and keeps me busy. I have fallen really behind in my journal though... really behind, because we have been busy. 

But anyways things here are good. We had a baptism planned for this weekend. we had the font all filled and everything the talks prepared by the members and then our baptism called and said that he didn't feel ready to be baptism in the last minute. I talked with him over the phone but he was still un-confident. but he said he was in his house. Soooo we took a 45 min trip to his house to talk with him and when we got there he wasn't there. sooo yeah we had to cancel the baptism, which was kind of a bummer and really weird because he has come to church with us 5 times in a row. and he didn't show up this week for church either...... but on the bright side. guess how many we had in church! 60! it was awesome and packed. The Lord really is doing everything here and helping the attendance in Pital. 

Well I love you guys and the work really is progressing rapidly here in Costa Rica in preparation for the Second coming of the Lord. Thanks a bunch you all for everything!

con amor, Elder Adams

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Things here our good.   Changes happened this week, but nothing changed for us here--I am in Pital and  I am with Elder Acuna.  This week, and well past weeks as well we have been really focusing in on the less actives and recent converts. We have been able to find some less actives that haven't talked with missionaries in about 3 years. Our goal  was 10 less actives and recent converts every week and now the goal is 20. We had 21 this past week. The attendance was a tiny bit lower this week. We had 50 in the church building. 

              It's definitely a lot easier to feel the spirit in the house when the house is clean. We were able to organize some  things and the amazing members now have a schedule to start cleaning the church every Saturday. Pital is great and we are planning on having a baptism this coming Saturday, so we are pretty excited for that. We also have a meeting with Pres. Duncan this Friday in San Jose so that will be a fun adventure. I might be able to stop by the office and pick up that package, who knows. Anyways, yesterday I did some planning and I was really reminded of the importance of goals  and how we need to have goals to help mark our progress and to help push us to be better. The second thing is to have a plan to achieve those goals. I have many times in my life set goals and then forgotten to set the plan. It's like a train without tracks.  The plan is essential and then finally the action. Daily action of what  you are going to do to achieve that plan. 

Well have a great week and thanks for all the prayers and support! Happy St Patrick's Day!

Elder Adams

The picture below is of where the volcano in Turrialba is located.  Pital is located northward up from about the 5th gray triangle over from Turrialba.

Volcano in Turriabla

The current series of eruptions began March 8. It marked the second major eruption of Turrialba in the last five years. Prior to 2010, Turrialba last erupted 145 years earlier.

Ash from the eruptions fell over a 40-kilometer (20 miles) area, according to the Volcano-logical and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica. There was a concern that lava flowed from the volcano       and officials said super-heated rocks, not lava, have been thrown from it.  

The prevailing winds are out of the east, which will blow any dust or ash toward the Pacific side of the country.

The volcano that was erupting on Thurs & Fri in Costa Rica has quieted today.
I am not any  near close this area, as Turrialba is east of San Jose and Pital is upward north from San Jose.  It is interesting history though.

 The scientists predict that it is just getting going and it could be a long haul, possibly months.  They say there is no danger, but it does make it interesting.