Damaris's Testimony

Last week we went knocking doors and contacting alll night and ended up getting lost wandering around. We ended up at 8:30 next to a baseball stadium and we went and looked to see if we could get in. The guard guy let us right in and we watched a professional baseball team practice. We figured out on a map later that night where we were, and not only had we left our area, but we left our zone!

Hello, I also mailed your Christmas package last Tuesday and they said that it would get there in 2-3 weeks so it should be all good before Christmas.

Instructions..
When you get it don’t open it. Just set it under the Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve when everyone’s there open it and give everyone their presents. They’re all more or less wrapped. Everyone can open them together and then read the letter that I put in there. Luke and Jenny and Jeffer and Gwen’s presents are in there so I don’t know what to do to get them to them. But there’s also a present for dads birthday as well as his Christmas present but he can wait till Christmas Eve to get it. Any questions?

Did you guys watch the Christmas devotional last night? So amazing….

Sooo mommm I did decide on one thing that I really want for Christmas... I really want the new Costa Rica jersey. But it’s like 60 bucks. And it would be way easier for me to just buy it since they sell it right here in San Jose.. :-)

On Saturday we had our ward mission Christmas activity. We planned for our whole district to come and sing but everyone bailed last minute so just me and elder Cherrington sang. It was decent. The biggest turn out we’ve ever had at an activity here.

Saturday Damaris's son is getting baptized. Her daughter and husband live in the area right next to ours and we started teaching them then sent the reference to the
other missionaries. But they say that they don’t like them so they want to come
to church in Paso Ancho and get married and baptized here. So maybe we will baptize them in the next few weeks but we will have to get special permission.

On Sunday Damaris stood up and bore her testimony, that was the first time I’ve seen a convert bear their testimony at a testimony meeting but she was crying and talked about when we first came to her house and didn’t understand how we could be so sure when we said the church is true. But she said that she stands before us testifying with all her heart and soul that she knows that it’s all true.

Thank you very much for the gift for Hermana Mena she will be very very happy.

Also on Sunday a less active member that we have been working with blessed her baby and asked me to bless it. So I blessed my first baby.

And I need to plan out with you guys this week or next the phone call on Christmas. I just got an email from President Galvez. I’m pretty sure it will be in the afternoon like 3ish my time. But I’ll have to plan with the elders in my house this week.

But I gotta go! Love you thanks for everything! Elder Graham

Carl's Jr. comes to San Jose! Happy Day!

A decent gist of Costa Rica. Beautiful but full of
trash.

SO HAPPY! NEW CARL'S JR!

The outside of my house.
The bottom floor is a restaurant. The 2nd floor is where we used to live and
the top is where we now live. Yepp a supperrr haggard part of town. All
night we get woken up by gangs fighting outside.

Hello. How was thanksgiving? Who all came to dinner? I completely forgot about thanksgiving until my bishop late in the evening told us happy thanksgiving and asked us if black Friday was real in the states. He didn’t really believe me. Did you go do your black Friday shopping this year with the Deb Meister?

On Friday night we were walking through San Jose and we turned a corner and saw the most glorious sight. Carls Jr! That may sound silly to you but there is now Carls Jr in Costa Rica! We then cancelled our lunch for Saturday to go and it was the nicest restaurant ever. There are waitresses that come to your table and bring you honey mustard and refill your pop and such. It’s the nicest restaurant in this country.

Today I’m hitting 2 thirds of my mission, which is so crazy. I still feel brand new here.

We have a family that just needs to get their divorce through so they can get married and then
baptized. We’ve been waiting over a month now for it to go through and the second it does they will be baptized and married. In their house their mom was a Jehovah Witness and died 3 weeks ago in the house. Ever since they haven’t felt good in the house, so Friday they asked us to bless their house. When we kneeled down to do it and I said the blessing I felt a blanket of the spirit cover me and when we finished they were all crying. The house just felt much brighter and happier. It was a cool experience to see the night and day difference so quickly of the blessing of a house that needed it.

Today we’re making final purchases for the Christmas packages and sending them. I’m gonna need to take out some cash for all that and maybe a decent amount.. Could you cover that??

Buttt i gotta go.
Love you.
Elder G.

The Streak is Over

Elder Cherrington~Elder Graham~Elder Reimschizzle

As a joke before the meeting I asked to get a picture with Elder
Reimschizzle because he was leaving and turns out that my joke came true

Heyy therrree. How can that even be possible about Oregon
losing? What happened?

Today was changes but we had it on Monday this time.
So it was pretty nuts. All this week we kept saying that Elder
Reimshizzle was gonna go AP then we found out that he didn’t have changes.
But I kept saying that he was gonna go AP and they were gonna surprise
him with changes. It was basically a joke. In every prayer we
blessed Elder Reimshizzle in his new calling as AP and he was getting really
mad and annoyed but we kept saying it anyway. and sure enough he went AP today.


Soo there was a Zone leader spot and an open spot in our
house and the greatest thing happened. Elder Stevens from the MTC was
called to fill that spot. So we get to be roommates again for a change.
I’m pretty happy about it.

This week things have gotten a touch better but I realized
that the personal goal Elder Reimshizzle I had to baptize every month this year
won’t happen because I won’t baptize this month. The streak is over.
But things look pretty good for December so were hoping for big things
there.

So I’m not sure if you’re gonna send me a Christmas package.
But if you do. The only thing that I request is that I want to give
a Christmas present to sister Mena. She is the greatest and told me that
she was gonna get me something so I told her i would get her something but here
there’s really nothing cool I could give her. But I was thinking about
some nice framed picture of Christ or something like that from Deseret book.
Her house is a very humble one so something like that she would freak out
about. She deserves something nice for everything she does for us.

We have started going to the mutual activities just to teach
all the young men. About 40 young men show up to their mutuals because they
just have a 20 minute message then they play soccer. 85% aren’t members so we
have gone the past 2 weeks and we teach all of them. It has been fun
because the way the places are around here in Paso Ancho all the kids just hang
out in the street all the time. Everyone knows everyone so no matter where we
go we know everyone and all the kids in the streets and they yell heyy elders!!
And the idea is to get in with all the families of the kids. But it’s
a process. But it has been fun to work with them. It gets me
excited to be a high school teacher. Along with that we have started
teaching English classes on Saturdays for everyone to come for free.
EVERYONE in this country wants to learn English so we get a decent turn out and
it makes me excited to be a Spanish teacher.

We have an investigator named
Jennifer who is a 24 year old girl who had a baby 3 months premature and it has
been in the hospital 2 months with 5 holes in his heart and it finally died on Friday
and when it died that night she took the body home with her and slept with
it... She slept holding its hand. Quite possibly the creepiest
thing I’ve ever heard.
Yesterday at sacrament meeting
it was pretty fun. I was just sitting there hanging out and the first speaker
spoke and then we sang the intermediate hymn.
Then the bishop stood up and said ok, now we will hear from our concluding
speaker, Elder Graham. I looked at him like you’ve gotta be kidding me.
Then I looked at the time and I had 25 minutes to speak. And
literally not even 5 seconds to prepare. I stood up with absolutely no
idea what to say. They have called on me before but they let me know
before it starts because someone didn’t show up and asedk me to speak for like
5 minutes. But I guess they planned for a long time that I was the
speaker just no one let me know. I was even in the PEC meeting before
church and no one said anything to me about it. So I had to whip
something up without any preparation whatsoever. And after I got more
compliments on that talk than ever before.

Sooo I had to take some money out to pay for part of a divorce and a little for christmas prresents... can you check my account, and maybe put some money in? Thanks Mom

Annnnndddddd……I’m out! Love you,
Elder Graham

Tutorial for Passion Fruit Juice

1. This is passion fruit. First you cut them in half. Then you put them in
boiling water
2. Then you blend it up with water and sugar and strain it. Then you put in more
water and sugar

3 passion fruits make 4 liters of the most delicious fresco. It’s super super sour and citrusy you blend the whole fruit. We also made a starfruit one last week. and a fruit called cas. At walmart here you buy packs of 3 for a dollar



Heyy there! That’s pretty exciting about Oregon
beating Stanford. I talk us up pretty big here with all the Utah kids so it’s
nice to come to zone meetings after knowing that we won and Utah keeps losing.
It’s good to let everyone know where the powers at.

Interviews last week were pretty good. Mine was the
longest I’ve ever had. One of our zone leaders kept coming to my area to
see a girl. A member from Paso Ancho called President Galvez and so we had a
long talk about everything that he had done. and he was then given e changes.
So theres a new ZL in the house.

I’ve really been enjoying the meetings/interviews with
president lately. He always asks my opinions about things and talks about
my ideas. He doesn’t always just teach me he always asks what I think
about things. It’s really cool to have these types of conversations with
him because he is a man that will no doubt be a seventy and he is valuing my
ideas and opinions.

We had a pretty awful week last week as far as not being
able to teach many people. But we have been really getting in better with
all the members and we’re getting them to start working. Every day this
week we have appointments set with references in the houses of the members and
all of them supposedly are all legitimately already interested. So we are
hoping to have a good week even though the past 3 or so have been absolutely
terrible.

I stood up and preached again
in the bus but I did it with Elder Cherrington but he was afraid and can’t
really speak well enough to do it so I did it all alone. Some people pay
attention and listen and sound interested but the majority completely ignore
me. We’re not really getting a whole lot of success from it but we’re also not
getting a whole lot of success from anything so I’m going around challenging
everyone in the streets and buses to be baptized in hopes of finding one.

Alright I’m out. Love
you.

Elder Graham and Elder Stephens and their "kids"

Great big old moth

Hey thereee.. First off the leadership conference was absolutely amazing. The things that President Galvez talked about in that meeting were nuts. He did some serious head chopping because last month was the worst month in a very long time. But he decided to teach us about heavenly father. He had a 3 hour presentation about our heavenly father that was the most intense and epic presentation I’ve ever seen. It was the most powerful thing ever and may have changed my life and the way I think about the world.

I did the divisions during the conference with Elder Portillo. He was my ZL in Moravia and just went from being ap. He was pretty good to work with.

Last week I did divisions in Hatillo and me and Elder Solomon stood up and preached very loudly in a very full bus. I want more than anything a picture of me preaching in a bus. It was a definite adrenalin rush and I finally found someone to do it with me. We went through and got 5 people who said they we could come to their houses to teach them from the bus preaching.

As far as working it has been really tough. We have just been contacting and knocking doors like crazy. We had 15 appointments fall through Wednesday and Thursday so we decided that we needed to change the members here. That has been very tough because the missionaries before us have all been soo lazy and everyone in the ward has hated them. One of them is in Don Bosco and still goes to my area to see a girl every time he gets a chance and members see him and it makes us look terrible. So we decided to make a survey and we have been going around to every single member and asking a few questions. For example we ask the people to think of the best missionary that they’ve met and to describe the things they did to make them so good. Then, we did the same but basically asked about the worst ones and what made them so bad. And I asked what we could do to be better and what they thought they could do to make the work better here in Paso Ancho. It has gotten better in these few days. I asked to give a talk this Sunday to get people excited so we will see if we can make changes.

Today we had our one month check up for Elder Cherrington. This is the meeting where I went to that mountain with President Galvez, but they don’t go to the mountain anymore. We just went and had meetings with president and the aps. We had a meeting in president’s office with only the trainers and he said that we are the kings of this mission and that we really truly are the best missionaries in the mission right now and we have a longer lasting affect than anyone else in
the mission. Because we basically decide how good the next generation of missionaries are. It felt pretty good to have him praising us so much. And tomorrow we have interviews so that should be pretty good.

I met a new missionary today that’s serving in la Rita right now and he said that his parents found and read my blog and that they sent him pictures from my blog.
I gotta go. I love you all.

Elder Graham

Happy Halloween!

The pics of the little kids are so cute! Those are the silliest little guys. I’ve asked several times and no one has told me does Calvin wear glasses?

That’s soo exciting about Nick Hess’s job! They really have been called to serve their lives in the Portland area. I’m hoping I am too.

Happy Halloween! What’re you guys doing for Halloween? We’re celebrating by getting our heads chopped off. As a zone we didn’t meet our goal. But As a district we did! Hopefully that will save me a little.

Elder Cherrington is good. He does make me think of me a year ago but he’s a little different. He’s a much more quiet person then me. With members and people he’s not quite as crazy. I’m always running around chasing the little kids and joking around with the members so that they feel comfortable with me. You can see that he’s a way good hardworking missionary but he’s just gotta come out of his shell a little. Yesterday we were walking in the street with a member and I was chatting with the member and all of a sudden I looked around and didn’t know where my comp was. I looked back and a block behind he was contacting a guy alone. That’s something I wouldn’t have done a year ago. He teaches me a ton. He’s a very sincere missionary that just wants to do the right thing at all times. We set a family and a man over 18 as our goal for November and that’s something that if you set and don’t get everyone hates you and you just get your head destroyed. So I haven’t set it in a while. But we knew we could do it so we’re working hard to do everything possible to do it. He’s my first comp since Elder Felipe that really doesn’t hold me back. I can work as hard as I want, be as obedient as I want and he will never complain. I’m really in the best work rhythm I’ve ever been in.

I got a weird allergic reaction last week.. I thought, where on all my joints I had weird spots like mosquito bites that itched a ton. I called the mission nurse and she explained that that’s just a result of being tired and stressed.

I can tell that the lord knew I couldn’t handle stress before the mission so he puts it on me where I have no choice but to perform. Before the mission when I has stresses about school or anything I would just run away from it. If I was worried about a class or homework, instead of being stressed about it I just wouldn’t go. Or I wouldn’t do it. And I would just try and forget about it. But the lord put me into a place where I have to do stuff and I don’t have a choice. I can’t run. I have to work under high expectations. I’m a training district leader. Really probably the hardest thing to do, because even as zone leader you have a companion who’s a zone leader. But I just have to do it all. And I have no doubt that that’s not by accident. The lord puts leaders and trainers there because they have a lot to learn.
Alright I’m out. Love you. Elder G.

Another Week in the City

There’s a family from California that was in don bosco for 3 months while the dad was working and they always had us over for dinner. They don’t speak Spanish so we would go to the primary to translate for them. The dad is from India so they always made us Indian food and they
eat the rice with their hands. So that’s us eating with our hands. For some reason the kids who were always jumping all over us got really shy when I wanted to take a picture with them.



Well hey there. I don’t feel like much is new. Last week we found 3 families that we taught and all got really excited about baptism and then they all had to get married and they all wanted to get married. But 2 of them need to get divorced from their old husband/wife to be able to get
married. And the other one came here from Nicaragua when she was little and has no id or passport or any sort of papers. She’s basically a ghost. So those were all very exciting moments that got really discouraging. I’ve already called the lawyer about all the cases and he’s already
gotten the divorces going though. But a divorce takes from 1-3 months. So we will see how they come out.

Training is coming along great. I’ve never been so tired in my life. I never have time to even sit between district stuff and then working.

Next Monday and Tuesday there’s a 2 day leaders conference with all the district and zone leaders and elder Martino who is in the presidency of the area of central America will be there. We will have to present our goals from last month with what we met and what we didn’t meet. President Galvez and he will just be sitting in chairs right in front of me with all the rest of the leaders behind them. But we already met our district goal so that’s good.

Last week I went to Hatillo in my district to do a baptismal interview and I didn’t go on divisions. I took Elder Cherrington with me. When we got there the lady was just completely set
on not being baptized. Elder Solomon who is also training and I had about 2 hours of her saying no and we just had the best lesson and it ended with me doing the interview and her being baptized. That was my first real call as a district leader to fix a problem with someone’s investigator.

Today we played soccer.

Last week price mart was good I bought a bunch of stuff! Peanut butter, instant oatmeal, a giant thing of Gatorade powder that will finish my mission, etc.

I gotta go. love you.
Elder G