Chapter 1: Changing my Sole/Soul/sol/soul food

The first part of my title is about my sole - meaning the soles of my shoes. I had ants eat a hole in the sole, so I still need to look for a place to change soles!

The second part of my title is changing my soul - my spiritual moment: I had a night when I was really sincere with Heavenly Father and I felt a huge peace that day and I never wanted it to end.  I had to fall asleep though, so  :/ But it was a really nice feeling and warmth, I normally don´t feel the spirit like that, but I´m glad He gave me that moment telling me everything would be okay. I am doing so much better this week, my soul is lightening and I feel a ton better. Thanks for all your prayers.

The third part of my title is the sol, or sun. On my birthday, it rained, but the sun came out a little and brightened the day.

The fourth part of my title is my 'soul' food - I made fudge - who doesn't love fudge?

So, I had changes!!!! I am now back in Limon, cariari. :P I like it here and my companion is Elder Coronado De León, another guatemalteco. I am pumped - my companion is super funny and wants to be an engineer like me, so I am really looking forward to having a great time with him and working super hard to baptize and help lots of people. My area is 20 minutes away from the other areas and the zone leaders are 40 minutes away. Stay tuned for lots of fun stuff. It's fun to be out in the country again and out of the big city.

Foodie moment: I´m ready for more "Rice an´ beans" in my new area. Did I mention that I made fudge from our cook book? Last P-day after internet we had an international food experience. The 2 mexicanos made tacos (the right way) and la columbiana made a salad with Piña and I made the fudge. :)

Love you all,

Elder VanderMeyden

Me and my fudge :)

Us having our awesome meal we made

A special baptism

A special baptism

Um, YUM!

Two Hermana's, me and Elder Avendaño and the ward mission leader in Flores

Chapter 12: Sick and Tired

These last few weeks have been a little hard. Last week my companion had been sick. This week, I was sick. It isn't a big deal - stomach issues. I am able to do my work, but my stomach is clearly mal.

I had a tired moment this week. I got into bed one moment, said my prayer and my companion got up and I was already asleep. :P

wet moment, we were walking to an area but I didn´t have my umbrella, it started to rain a bit, but not hard so my companion didn´t take his out. somewhere along the way we learned that we were soaked while talking to a member. It was a slow soaking but we were soaked. :P

This week I was lead to some great talks about how adversity is the refiner´s fire and that God never leaves us solos. One that really stood out to me was one from the February 2014 Liahona (I think). There were 2 talks about prayers and feeling the Holy Ghost. One was by Elder Oaks and he really helped me. I read the talk and realized that I was in one of the circumstances he described. As you know, I´ve had times in these last few weeks where I´ve felt that God has not been answering my prayers. I felt that maybe I wasn´t praying with sincere intent or that my ideas for what I wanted were´t what God had planned and so He didn´t answer me. I learned otherwise! In the article by Elder Oaks It talks about sometimes God doesn´t answer us with a yes or no. He´s still listening, but He wants us to ACT. He wants us to take that step into the unknown to help us learn and make us become what He needs us to be. I had always thought that he would tell us EVERYTHING that we want to know but it s not like that! He hears us always but what He wants is that we can do His will without having to be told to. While writing this letter I learned that if we go to him for everything and wait for the answer EVERY TIME then we would be slothful servants. I can´t tell you how much joy I feel to say "while writing this letter I learned..." because it means that I´m still listening and worthy of the spirit to teach me and receive "pure knowledge" flowing into my mind.

Love you all,

Elder VanderMeyden

More Flores Pictures and what a transfer looks like

Me and some elders awaiting transfers

More waiting (we all meet in the same square to do transfers)

What missionary luggage looks like at transfers

More waiting in Carl's Jr. (at least a good restaurant is in the square)

This is Dario baptizing a convert

Elder Avendaño in the home of our cook

What my skype session looked like (at the home of the guy baptizing the little boy above)

Another awesome family!

Hey, look! We got to attend a wedding!

These look heavy, but they aren't

Me and Elder Avendaño

Me and another Darío!

Chapter 11: Dream On

I had a funny dream because I dreamed I was in the movie of Avengers One. My sisters were also there. It was funny because I was Ironman but I wanted to be Hulk. :P I guess that means even when we are superheroes, we sometimes dream of being someone other than we want to be.

Spiritual moment:  I really enjoyed a lesson with one of our investigators where we learned about his past and the other churches he´s visited. It was really cool because when he started talking about some things you could feel the spirit and we were able to teach him something new about baptisms for the dead. It caught his attention and we shared the scripture in Corinthians. I hope he gets baptized soon. :)

Funny moment was the fact that we were invited to the pareja activity in the ward (mom note: I had to look up what pareja is - it means couple - so he was invited to a couples activity) because they were going to give us dinner there. We didn´t participate, but it was funny that we were invited. :P

We have a new high for investigators with fecha and progressing- 5 and 10. I hope that it´ll keep rising. :)

My district and I are having troubles with bringing people to church. We´ll keep working on it. Any suggestions to get people to church on Sundays would be welcomed (besides bribing them to come to church). :)

That's about it for this week. Keep dreamin' everybody.

Elder VanderMeyden

Chapter 10: Back to Basics

I am back in San Jose today for my pday. They need me to re-create some of the files I made when I was secretary, but now do it for the new mission that is being created. So I am back to my old stomping grounds. It's always  nice to come back here, though. So I don't mind.

My week was good, Sunday was the worst in the morning, but it turned around to be the best of all. I finally am getting a hang on being district leader and I´m going to make changes in my area this week to be the best missionary that I can be. I really tried hard this week in finding news and LPEs but they both fell short. I realized that I was working hard, but not listening all that much for inspiration. I did feel the spirit strong in a few lessons this week and one time was with the last family that we visited, a set of news called the Rodriguez  family. They were a miracle because normally we´re not let into houses at night, but he let us in. Another thing he said is that "I don´t normally let people like you into the house, to be honest this is the first time ever" It was a special moment to hear that, and, even though we can´t visit him this week he´ll be in my prayers.

Funny moment was the fact that my companion has shoes that are destroyed on the bottom and with the rain it made the water enter into his shoe. It´s not so funny for him, until I step into a puddle and the water enters my shoe too and we´re laughing together. I really like my companion because he laughs, even at my stupid apple jokes. :)

The fact that I  forgot my umbrella at the house of a member before the rainstorm the next day was an oh crap moment until I remembered that there was another in the house! :)

See ya'll later!

Love,

Elder VanderMeyden

Chapter 9: A Good Call

Okay, so ya, yesterday was a good call. It was from Dario's home, a recent convert.  A little bit of freezing screens and no sound and such, It was a bit weird though when the camera wasn´t on on your side so I didn´t know where to look. :P But we got it all worked out. It was nice seeing my family again. It's crazy that it's been almost a year and a half since I have seen them in person.

Thanks for those that sent me moments. It was a blast to see the moment you guys are having! If you haven't sent me a moment yet, there is no time limit. I am always up for reading your awesome moments. I have to admit, I am jealous of the techy moment. I swear when I get home I am going to watch like 20 movies. Avengers will be on the top of the list! 

Here are my moments:

foodie moments- I have had it up to HERE with the snow cones in Costa Rica. Sometimes they are called granizados, sometimes Copos. I have wanted on for the past WEEK and they haven´t been anywhere to be found. Then, Sunday someone comes out of nowhere to sell them. SUNDAY! I just want a snowcone thing :(  Little fact, the granizados here use shredded ice, powdered milk, condensed milk and the syrup (the classic for the ticos is Kolita flavored, don´t ask me what it is, I have no idea).

Spiritual Moment-  Talking to escojidos. This week we talked to many people chosen, Tal vez not in my time here, but they will get baptized eventually. One that I want to note today is Andres, he´s the man that has had some troubles with his family recently, he was really depressed when we first found him walking the dog right before we went home. He needs help and we are helping him, but the first time we met with him he agreed to do the last prayer and it was nice and humble. His family is good too, and I hope we can help the family. :)

Oh Crap moment- This Thursday was a great rainstorm in my area and the oh crap part is that the lighting was literally striking with the sound of thunder. It was SOO close. I haven´t heard thunder like that since Nicoya when it set of the car alarms from the blast. :P

Funny moment was when I slipped on some loose gravel and slid into the drain system on the side of the road. Luckily it was empty :P

This week was a bit sad because we had 9 people who PROMISED to come and only 2 made it. We´l work with them again this week and make it happen! I also received a bit of personal revelation telling me to be more humble and just trust in the leaders. Even if you think you have reason, you also have reason to obey. This week we only had 81 LPEs. I did almost all of them and felt a bit like I was justified to let my companion do the rest but now I know that it´s not about if my companion or I do them, it´s about getting them done because these are to help the children that know not where to find the truth. It´s not about me, nor about us (speaking about my companionship), it´s about them. I need to be more humble and admit that always.

Love you all,

Elder VVVVVVVVV

Chapter 8: A little Short

haha, so this has nothing to do with me being a little short. Honestly, in Costa Rica, I am average sized, so I can't say I am a little short here. :)

Sorry this email is a little short. I don't have much time, but I am excited to talk to my family on Mother's Day. I´m doing okay. Not the best, not the worst. I hit a low this week with numbers and my District meeting was horrible. I was also a little short on time preparing my first district meeting. In this last week I prepared a district meeting at 5:30 in the morning because the Zone Leaders told me I was the new District Leader right before going to bed with a meeting the next day at 10:00. I worked something out, but it wasn´t a smooth lesson. I´ll work on it more for TOMORROW, my next meeting. It´s a bit stressful. So, yep, I am the district leader. I feel a little unqualified for it, but I guess if I do the best I can, the Lord will help me. It might be that I lack confidence or that I´m hyper critisizing myself, but that´s what I feel. This week was hard because of having a new companion. I really like my new companion and I think we will get along well. Most of the time I´m not the best planner, but when I work with my companion I can get things done right. The good news is that with my companion we´re doing well with teaching. I know we can do better, but it's a good start.

We are a little short on our appointments this week. Honestly, this was a hard week and many appointments fell. We´ve hit another low with progressing investigators and investigators in general. Most of our investigators just vanish without a word and we go looking but they are not to be found. The ward is doing well with attendance of 124. :)I´m going to put a ton of prayer and fasting into it this week. Pray for me and my area, help us find new please.

No special moments to report this last week, sorry. No time. But I love how my Nona wrote me an email about her moments. So I challenge all of you to write me a quick email - especially if I don't get a chance to see you on mother's day - and tell me at least one special moment. I am missing a lot of the friendships and family from home and to hear some of your special moments would brighten my week. ALOT! So here are some moments my mom always asks me for:

*spiritual moment
*foodie moment
*oh crap moment
*ah, memories, moment
*funny moment
*way cool moment
*techie moment (okay, mom didn't ask me for this one ever, but please tell me some of the new tech/vidgames/movies that you love and that I am missing)

So, please, even if you don't write me much, please reply to this and send me a moment - pick one, or two, or even three if you feel like it. I will know who actually reads my emails by who can just reply, even with just a one-liner.

Love you all!
Elder VanderMeyden

A Train Ticket

A ward family

Some of the people we were working with

Goofing off at the mission home

Helping out the new office elders

Another baptism

Hey, it's me and Elder Hoover again

Whoa, me and my papa - Elder Saavedra

A couple who we helped get married

A great returned missionary, Hermana Corales

Our district at lunch