Hermana Amy Geis: 2015-01-11

Hello everyone!

Honestly these weeks are flying by. I cant even believe that we are already halfway done with January basically. Its almost scary how fast the time goes by! Time has never gone so fast, I keep thinking about how in High School the year would just drag on haha but not here!

This week a lot happened and it went by super fast.

On Thursday we had Zone Conference, and then after that we did divisions with the Sister Training Leaders (or Hermanas especialistas). Hna Carrera came to Nicoya with me and Hermana Perez stayed in Liberia. It went well! It was interesting because Hermana Perez and I both realized the things that we do really well together - and of course things we can improve on. But yeah, I'm grateful for my companion! :) We've already planned a Disneyland trip in a few years ;)

Yesterday for Pday we got up super early to go on a hike with the Elders and Maria and Stuart. Its a famous hike here in Nicoya (maybe because its the only one) but its super steep and high! And Maria is in a wheel chair right...so the Elders and Stuart pushed/carried her the whole way! It was not easy but we all made it! And it was super pretty at the top. We could see allll of Nicoya.

After that we went grocery shopping and then went to Vivian and Jose's house, the one we went to for Christmas eve that we have to take a bus to get to. We made pizza and then later went to a river! It was really pretty. So it was a full day but a lot of fun! We are realizing that we have the rest of our lives to rest and sleep, so why waste a Pday just resting?! Haha ;) we want to do all we can!

We are working really hard to find a lot of new investigators. And we have found a ton! We just have to work hard with them so that they can progress. Getting people to church is not easy, even when they have nothing else to do. So we are going to work more with the members, because that is the key to everything.

We've been working a lot with Letty, who was going to be baptized in December. We have had so many spiritual experiences with her and she has always said, Yo voy a bautizarme ya! Always super excited and what not. Well, she's been going through a lot of trials lately, and instead of turning to the Lord to help her, she has turned away. She says that she's the only one who can get through her trials, but that's not true! We NEED the Lord to help us, we can't get through anything alone. It's been hard because we can see her heart hardening and there's nothing we can do about it. She doesn't believe that if she puts the Lord first, He will bless her.
She doesn't believe that no matter how much we testify of it. So everyone, let your trials soften you, instead of harden you. We can either be humbled or hardened, as it says several times in the Book of Mormon. This life is a time of trials and tests so we are going to be tried. And we can only get through our trials with the Lord by our side. And he will always be there if we ask him to be.

Well thank you for all of the support, I got some more Christmas cards at our last Zone Conference last week. I just loved getting all of them - Grandma Joanie, Stephen & Jessica, Alissa & Jordan and the Fallentines, Kirbys, Stohs, Wilkes - your families are just beautiful! And to the RB Young Women again, thank you :) I love you all!)

Have a great week!!
Love, Hermana Geis

Hiking up the mountain (The Elders carrying Maria)

Hermana Perez and her stick!

View of Nicoya

Feliz ano nuevo everyone!
It is so weird that it is 2015. 2014 seemed to just disappear because i left for my mission halfway through it! And its cool because almost ALL of 2015 (minus december, so weird) will be dedicated to serving the Lord. And 2015 will be the fastest year of my life, im betting. So yeah its super weird to think about!

So it is really really hot over here. Luckily, there´s a lot of wind too. But they say in February-April, its like miserably hot. No wind, just sun and heat. People say they just dont even leave their houses cause its so hot. Haha so good thing ill leave right before that comes! (unless i end up serving my whole mission in nicoya, who knows ;) ) Haha.

This past week was good! We are working hard! One night, I think it was saturday, I was the most tired i have ever been in my mission. My body was just aching and I was so tired. After we got home and after planning for the next day, I went to bed and fell asleep in like 2 minutes, or so said my companion haha. But being tired is good! Because it means we are trying to give it our all!
We found a lot of new investigators last week - 16! Its always hard to know if we should continue with some or not, because a lot of people here will talk with anyone of any religion to ^escuchar la palabra de Dios^ but they dont really want to act or do anything about it. So we just have to keep praying to find the people who are really prepared and who are ready to accept the restored gospel.
Theres a member here who we just LOVE who always helps us with missionary work who´s named Heidy. Shes awesome. One of her daughters is married in the temple (her daughter is Geiry, wife of our ward mission leader who i sent a pic of a couple of weeks ago), but her other daughter is inactive. Her name is Angee. We talked with her a really long time ago, and she was super closed off about everything. But weve been talking with her just normally when we go to visit Heidy and everything, and then we started to teach a friend of Heidy, Danilo (the son of the member who doesnt remember being baptized haha) in their house so Angee started listening. And in one lesson, Angee´s boyfriend Arturo was there so we started teaching them all the restoration. And basically Angee expressed a lot of doubts that she has about prophets and what not, and her boyfriend whos not a member started like clearing up her doubts! Haha it was perfect! And then when he had questions, she would answer them! And then she started to express all these things that she really likes about the church. So it was really great. But she kept on saying she has doubts about Joseph smith. And i asked her, Do you know the whole story about joseph smith? And she admitted that she really didnt know anything. So last night we went over and we watched the Restoration movie with her and danilo (arturo couldnt come). It was so good. Afterwards she said that she wants the movie! And we committed her to read the book of mormon - she said that she hasnt even ever read it - so theres the problem! So we are really excited about her. Ive never seen some really get reactivated here, so ive always felt discouraged about reactivation. But she is really progressing.
I seriously love watching that movie. That movie really helped me with my own testimony of the restored gospel. So many people died for the gospel, and for the Book of Mormon, so we need to be grateful. And we need to read the book that so many people died for. And pray about it! I promise you´ll get the answer if you read it, and really pray about it, believing that God will give you an answer.

A funny thing that happened this week: We were looking for someone with the lovely directions of costa rica (aka going to each house asking if they know the person) And we yelled buenas (how we knock doors here) in front of one house and someone yelled back buenas but i couldnt see them. Then they did it again, and i could not figure out where they were. And then my comp said, its the parrot!! Haha i really have never heard a real talking parrot before! And they totally sound like people! Its the weirdest thing

Another funny thing: we started visiting some people on a new street and there are like 20 dogs that want to kill us every time we walk down the street. so we have to get big tree branches to fight them off as we walk down the street.

So we have started to have meals with members on sunday afternoons! I am so glad we started to do that! Because theres never been a list that goes around in relief society like in the states haha, but the new elder here suggested doing that for sunday afternoons so thats what we´re gonna do. We had our first meal on sunday and it was so fun! It reminded me of all the times we´ve had the missionaries at our house for dinner. Im excited to go with the different members and gain more of their trust and strengthen them as well, and get them excited for missionary work.

We went to the beach yesterday for Pday and it was awesome as always. The beach just makes me so happy. And we ate at a vegan restaurant - when we have the option of healthy food we take it!

Well times up so i hope everyone has an amazing week! I love you all! happy new year!
Love, Hermana Geis :)