Chapter 2: Super

Superpowers. So, I am taking a cue from my uncle. He loves all things superheroes. Recently, he wrote to me about how everybody has superpowers, usually personality traits or things we are good at. Super powers like these are amazing. It is part of our divine inheritance. It makes sense that our Heavenly Father has passed down these amazing abilities to us. I want to find my "Super Power" too and I´ll be searching for it every day.

Superbusy. Things in the office are always superbusy. I solved 3 big problems on the same day and I got my drivers license. I´m getting used to the fact that I´m here and I´m actually solving a ton of problems that I´ve found through sheer curiosity. I know that they say that curiousity killed the cat, but it also saved the Costa Rica, San Jose mission quite a bit of $$ from the looks of it. I don´t say this to brag, but I do say thank you to God for this little gift that I´ve found. I´ve also been going a little bit insane on some days in the office. Not crazy murderer, but unfocused yet super-focused secretary me. I am not working in the same way as before because now, over half my day is in the office and stuff. There are some amazing things here but I won´t let them go to my head. :)

super-missionaries. I have 3 companions right now. Elder Lewis is my main companion for this month, but Elder Hoover will be my only companion after that. Elder Pratt is also in this companionship and he is crazy. :P Elder Lewis is a ton like me but more sporty and Elder Hoover is really fun and I´ll get to know him really well. :) I am doing amazing and we love the 70s and 80s songs in our companionship. am the best with using Spanish in the office, just because the older 2 have been used to speaking English for 4 months and Elder Hoover likes to sing the English 70s songs so much. :)

Super-families. We actually have more progressing here than we had in Siquirres 2, 5 of which weren't progressing before I came but started to afterwards. It´s not because of me that they started progressing, but we taught a really powerful lesson when I first got there. It rocked. :) With Luck and the Lord we´ll have more than 1 baptism this month, which doesn´t normally happen with Secretaries. :)

Super-ancestry. I also did a bunch of Family history work today and found a date at -451 (as in BC) and taught Elder Hoover too. I´m also working with Family search from out here and I found a bunch of things that need to be reserved. It´s exciting that I finally found something :D

Super-city. We have a McDonalds, Subway, Carls Jr. and others, but I haven´t eaten there yet. (you can send gift cards, I don't mind ;) ) We don´t eat out too much, we make our own food, have a laundry machine and dryer. So no more cook or laundress here in the city. It will be different.

Superfun! The mission is great. I really got a boost of animo from my mission president and I am rockin´ and rollin´ ;)

Peace out,

oh - the pictures are of us in the office. We are working hard :)

Chapter 1: Stuck? NOPE

So last week we went to the temple and while we were inside they closed the pass to Siquirres, we thought we were stuck in San Jose for the night and made plans. However, they opened a bus route that went through turrialba so we weren´t stuck, but we had to take a 4.5 hour bus ride home. :P

I also thought that I was going to stick around in Siquirres this cambio but it turns out that the Lord had different plans for me. I am not "Stuck" with my old companion either, but I have been put into a huge place of responsibility.

You may say that I´ve been stuck in the offices because I am the Secretary of finances. It´s not a position that I thought I would have but I´m learning a whole bunch and I am where the Lord needs me. I´ve already solved a major problem in financing and I am able to learn a ton from my current trainer, Elder Lewis. My new Preparation day is Saturday (SUPER Weird :P ), but I don´t have much time because of the conference today that I´ve watched in 100% Spanish (and I loved the talk that happened in Spanish too :D ).

I heard that my old companion, Elder Gonzalez, is with a great missionary, Elder Gonzalez. The new one is from Mexico, and my old companion is from Guatemala. I´ve already received news that the Mexican is laying down the law and is really strict. I know that it´ll be really good for the Guatemalan. :)

I want to thank all of you who emailed me about hope last week. The hope and faith as active principles are fundamental to the missionary and their teachings and for everyone else too. Those emails have been awesome to read and have helped me a lot. I wanted to share this poem I wrote.

Trials come and trials go,
It´s your choice to hate or grow.

Truths are sudden and sometimes sad
But I´d be something else if I never had
These blessed packets of "growing pains"
If I don´t think on it, the hurt wains.
I´ll never forget the past I say
But I´ll live in the present, that means today.

Conference was awesome today. I loved Elder Neal L Andersen's challenge to "gain a personal witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith” by letting our “voice help fulfill Moroni’s prophetic words to speak good of the Prophet.” He said to do this by finding scriptures in the Book of Mormon that we feel and know are absolutely true. He encouraged us to then share the scriptures we found.

I took the Elder Anderson Challenge to find and share scriptures from the Book of Mormon that are 100% true, so here they are Mosiah 2:17, Helaman 5:12, Ether 12:27, and 2Nephi 26: 23-24.

I actually realized this last week that I wasn´t smiling all that much and that I needed to begin to do that again. I applied a quote from Brigham Young to make it more me. He says that if you don´t feel like praying, get down on your knees and pray until you do. My quote is "if you don´t feel like smiling, just smile until you do" ;)

Have a great week, guys.

Remember, my new p-day is Saturdays, so make sure you write me before then so I can get your emails. Also, I am super behind in my emails, so if you haven't heard from me, and you wrote me personally, I haven't forgotten, I just haven't had much time. I will get back to you! Stay safe and enjoy conference!

Love,
Elder VanderMeyden

Building a sure foundation, dia de indepencia, and more nature

A fun part member family we know

A very cool looking spider scorpion

A huge caterpillar (tomato hornworm maybe?)

Elder VanderMeyden - bricklayer

Whistle while you work

Making quick work of this foundation

He must be loco being the only one in long pants, long shirt and a crazy hat :)

And the rain begins.....

and goes on and on

The awesome Atlantica Zone

Dia de Indepencia

More Parades

Even in Costa Rica we have Jake the Pirate

Here we have Faroles - the lanterns that are ornate in memory of independence day

And bands in parades

Chapter 17: Building

 I don´t have too much time. We`re going to the Temple on Wednesday and so we have to email in the hours of not proselyting.  :) I am so excited to go to the temple this week. We only get to go like every 4 months, so when we can, it is a big deal. It is muy bien to feel the peace we can find being in the house of the Lord.

One reason for my title: I can say I officially have helped build a home. I now know masonry. Me and my companion and the other elders in Siquirres helped build a wall that was for the bottom part of a house in the coldesack where president Urbina (branch president) lives. The houses have a cinderblock base and a wood top; I´m going to make one as a clubhouse when I get back. :)  Mom, please put pictures from the dropbox onto the blog so they can see the building we are doing.

The other reason for my title  is the re-building of the Ogden Temple. I am super jealous of mi familia back home. All I heard about this week is the Ogden Temple Re-Dedication and Cultural Celebration. I am super pumped that everybody got to participate and be a part of it, but super bummed that I could not be there. I am very jealous of the oportunity that you all had. I´ve always wanted to be in one of these dedication programs, but it looks like I never will. I know that the Spirit was with them. The spirit is all around the temple, even before the dedication. I´m actually blessed to be able to go this week to the temple on Wednesday. I am hoping to make the most of my oportunity because it only comes once every 3 or 4 months.

Another reason for the title is building the best day you can. This last Saturday I was a bit worried about home, so to put my worries aside, I tried very hard to make Saturday the best day possible. I do realize happiness is a choice and so I did everything this Saturday to help boost my mood. I made a conscious decision to find the good and IT WORKED! Sometimes it's hard for me to be motivated to do that though. It can really take a ton of energy, but I know it's worth it, even if at times I can't see it. So my advice for you all is to pick one day and put forth all your energy to making that day the best day ever. I promise you, you will not regret it.

Some random things:

* I played street soccer with a giant lemon fruit thing.

* A fight happened outside our house so we couldn´t leave for 30 minutes, making us a bit late to one of our appointments.

* I also got tricked by Elder De Leon, jokingly, to drink coke :P

Have a great day!

Love,

Elder VanderMeyden

Chapter 16: Celebration

So last week I made a small mistake and put chapter 13, it was actually 15 and now, finally, "me di cuenta".

Anyway, the celebration was el Día de Independencia and it wasn´t a bunch of floats and stiff like the USA it was a bunch of schools and their Drum lines(?) that all march through the town. There were small kids and high school too. It was a celebration with fireworks yesterday, but there weren't as many as my hometown. I don´t mind though because I was able to sleep on time. :P

Another Celebration that I need to share is my companionship with Elder Gonzalez. I know he´s not perfect but I´ve been putting him in a rather bummer light in the past few weeks. I know that I´m not perfect and part of the reason he is here is to help me reach my potential. I am now celebrating the moments that we have together because we won´t be together forever. I hope that I've been a good role model for him and that what I´ve taught he´ll be able to use too.

Th th th th that´s all folks. ;)

Elder VanderMeyden

Chapter 15: Fiddler on the Roof

Okay, so maybe the title is more since my family just finished doing Fiddler on the Roof, but there are some correlations, I think, especially if you think of the songs:

Instead of a Fiddler on the Roof we get lots of rain on the roof that sounds like dancing when it rains hard.

Wonder of Wonders, Miracles of Miracles: For miracles I don´t have any that come to my mind immediately but I´ll check my journal before the next P-day. With Less actives though I do have a good news- We were looking for a less active member about 7 weeks ago and we found the house where he lived by asking at a house that we thought was nearby. It was his house, but he wasn´t home. When we passed the next week, nobody was home but it looked like there was so we called into the house and a teen walks up and asks who we were looking for. IT WAS HIM! We had only passed the 2 times but we found him and he´s getting more active. I think it was amazing to find him. :)

Far from the Home I Love/Do You Love Me?: Yep - I am missing you all. I would love to get real snail mail letters, and if not that, emails will work as well. And thank you to all of you who are emailing me. Pdays are a great day for me to hear from the family and friends I love and miss. It truly buoys me up when the mission gets difficult.

To Life: To be honest, one of the craziest things that has happened while I´m here is the fact that I am actually able to find some of the plants and animals that we talked about in Biology class. They are wild here and it has been really cool. But what´s even more amazing is the animals that I never even know existed, espacially insects, some more disgusting that I thought possible, while others more beautiful and majestic. :)  Look through my blog my mom keeps up (eldervandermeyden.blogspot.com) to see some of the crazy animals/insects.

Tradition: And last, but not least, I just want you to know that the traditions we have in the gospel are what keeps us grounded. In whatever language, English, Spanish, Norwegian, whatever, the scriptures teach of Christ, we pray to the same Heavenly Father, the gospel covenants are the same. While the world may change, the gospel doesn't, no matter where we live. In difficult times, lean on the gospel 'traditions' and you will be stronger for it.

Love,

Elder VanderMeyden

Chapter 14: Cold sore

So this week I had a cold sore in my mouth that really hurts when I brush my teeth. I hate it and it bugs me a whole bunch, but what can you do? It´s started to disappear, but it´s the 3rd time it´s happened here on my mission, way more common than it ever was at home. :(

Double meaning of the day is not that this week has actually been cold in Siquirres. On the contrary, it has been hotter than ever, which actually makes me a bit sore. Another Sore point is that I think the heat was affecting my head and I fell into a bit of a rut mentally. I have climbed out of that rut and am now much better; something about Preparation day and email time always gets me in a better mood. :)

To be honest, there´s not too much to report, but I am having fun and I´m doing well with health too. :) I´m a bit sad though because we had to cancel our weekly Fútbol day because there were many people showing up uninvited and causing ruckus.

Also, I found a bit of Irony in the Scriptures this week: Deut. 25:19 It says that they will be blotted out of remembrance but says that they shouldn´t forget it. Just a bit of Irony. ;)

Last though- A game that has gotten huge down here on tablets and smart phones is called Geometry Dash and has cool music. Some of the youth here showed it to me and I thought I´d tell ya´ll to give it a try. :)

That´s it for today,

Elder VanderMeyden signing off ;)