Week 73- Obedience Brings Blessings

Hello Everyone!

So I thought that my last transfer would be a little slower than the rest, but no...this is the fastest transfer of my whole mission...

This week was a little harder than the rest, just because we had some ¨bad luck.¨ Even though I know that bad luck really doesn't exist, everything happens for a reason!

There's a scripture in Hebrews that I LOVE, that basically says that without suffering, we cannot become perfect. So I am grateful for trials, because they are what shape and mold me.

On Friday we had the Leadership Council for the mission. I always love those meetings, but I was kind of dreading it because it was my last one :( I couldn't believe it. And what's worse, I had to give my last testimony - they always have those who are leaving give their testimony during their last meeting. I really couldn't believe it. It's bad, because it still hasn't hit me that I'll be leaving soon. Like at all. I am SO GLAD you guys are coming here mom and dad, because if I had to go home right away I don't think I would be able to handle it haha.

So we've been working with Luisa, right, and something crazy happened this week.

She told us that she was definitely going to go to church on Sunday so that she could see what it was like (because she just went to General Conference) and see how she felt there. So we called her on Saturday and she said that she didn't know if they would be able to go to church with us because the Pastor of her church had just called them and told them that Abigail was going to get baptized the next day!!!!!  We were like, This cannot be happening. So we were just praying so hard that we would be able to help them understand.

So we went over that night and we watched the movie of The Restoration. Afterwards, we testified SO directly and powerfully about the Restoration and the authority to baptize, and everything else. But they were not budging. They just did not want to accept what they were feeling from the Spirit. So we were just inviting and testifying, and then all of the sudden Luisa turns to Abigail and says, ¨Lets go tomorrow!¨  We were like, wait really?  And guess what...they totally came with us to church!  That was a miracle, for them to not do what the Pastor said and come with us!!  And guess what else, they totally loved it!!  Luisa said that she got her answer, that this is the true church. And when we asked her how she felt she said, ¨The best thing about all this was meeting you two. I will never forget about you two, and what you have done for us.¨  That was amazing to hear that.

Angela and Mauricio and their kids are progressing great. We visited them on Thursday and had a very spiritual lesson with them. We talked about baptism and about their date. William (their 18 year old son) said that one day when he was reading the Book of Mormon, he felt something different...he said he couldn't explain what he felt, but he accepted that as his answer that everything was true. Mauricio said that he wanted to be baptized, but he just got a job that would make him work every weekend. Of course. He said that that is the last thing he wants - he wants to be with his family, and he wants to be able to continue in the church. And if he takes this job, he won't be able to do either of those. So we invited him to pray about it, and that we would ask everyone we know about job openings. He said that he didn't even care if it paid a lot less, he just wanted something else.

So yesterday they weren't able to go to church because William got sick. But we were able to meet up with them in the church that night to talk for a bit. We read 3 Nephi 11, and talked about following Christ and having an eternal family- Angela said that she has been asking God for them to be able to follow Him as a family, and then she started crying. Her husband and kids all got close to her to comfort her. She said that all she wanted was to have her family all together in church.

Then Mauricio brought up the job situation. I had shared an experience about someone quitting a job that made them work on Sunday, and then getting a way better job like a week later that only worked during the week. He said that he really pondered about that, but said that it was a lot harder to think like that when you have a family that you have to take care of. So we talked about faith. We talked about how faith is taking a step in the dark - leaping into the unknown when you really have no idea what's going to happen next. Because if we knew exactly what was going to happen, or if he knew that someone was going to offer him a better job the next day, it would not require faith, it would not require trust in God. He said that God has always provided for them - so we said, ¨if you don't take this job so that you can follow God, do you really think he is going to let your family suffer?¨ No. he wont.

I have been reading soo much in the scriptures about obedience, and how god blesses us. What I've learned about it is amazing. If we are exactly obedient to the commandments, God will not let us fall. He will provide for us. 1 Nephi 3:17, Mosiah 2:22, and the story about the 2000 stripling warriors - all these teach us that principle. So we are just praying so hard that Mauricio will make the right decision. I have no doubt that he can get another job - so really we are just praying that he can make that decision.

So I hope we can all remember that, that we need to put God first. If we take steps of faith and give everything to him, He will bless us more than we can even imagine. A member shared something cool with us: Sometimes we think we are living off the blessings of God. But sometimes we are living off the mercies of God. He always loves us and always gives us tender mercies, even when we are not obedient. It is when we are obedient that we receive the real Blessings from Him.

I love you all! Hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your support and emails! :)

Love, Hermana Geis 

With Pres. and Sister Hayes

Luisa and Abigail at church

My favorite fruit!

Week 72- Hermana House Inspections???

Hey everyone,

So this week we did divisions again. I went to the area next to ours with Hermana Herrera, who is also being trained. Her companion Hermana Bratt ends with me and went to my area with my companion. I was there for all of Tuesday and all of Wednesday, and it went really well. We found some great people.

A cool experience: We went to a house of a family that the Hermanas have been teaching, and they couldn't receive us so their neighbor who was with them came out to tell us that. So we asked if we could share something with her, and she said, "No thanks, I already have a church."  And then we explained how our message is for everyone and that it is centered on Jesus Christ.   And she just looked at us not interested...so we asked,  "Can we just share a quick message with you and your family?"  And she said, Okay why not. So we went in her house next door and her daughter was there with her.  The lesson went really well and she totally accepted the challenge to be baptized and is super interested. Haha so that just shows us that we can't give up too easily!

On Thursday we had a Zone Conference with President Hayes and his family, and a couple who are in charge of the health of the missionaries in Central America. We learned a lot from President, about how we can progress more. He talked about how we are on a staircase to get to God, and we have to figure out where we are on the staircase and what is holding us back from taking the next step. Like they said in conference, "What do I lack to progress?" I really like that. It's really hard to accept what we are lacking and to change it, but I love that we CAN change, and progress always. His wife talked a lot about the little things that can help us have the spirit more, like eating right (the couple in charge of the health talked A TON about eating right) and having a clean house. We're gonna start having house inspections, but the fun part is that I have to inspect the houses of all the Hermanas. Haha 

We were able to find a ton of new investigators again this week, I was just in awe at how much the Lord was helping us find people to teach. But now we need to focus on working with the members, so that we can help these people progress and get more references from the members. Go out with the missionaries people and help them out!

Today for Pday we went hiking :) so fun! 

Well times up, but thank you all for everything! Love you all!!
Hermana Geis

Zone Conference

With Hermana Pena

P Day Hike!

Week 71- Trip to Guacimo

Buenos dias!

I know that i always say that the past week was super crazy, but THIS past week was probably the craziest and most busy!! 

So on wednesday after our district meeting, I went to another area to do divisions. I went to an area called Guacimo with herman Hidalgo from el Salvador, and her companion came to my area with my companion. Guacimo is even hotter and more humid than my area haha. Its just crazy how different the places in Costa Rica are - costa rica is so small, but you go 20 minutes in bus and its like youre in a different country! 

So anyways i was in guacimo for two days. And we learned soooo much. The hermanas there have been having a ton of problems and have not been having a lot of success. And we saw miracles those two days! We found a ton of new people and really got a lot done. Hermana Hidalgo said that shes been struggling and has been feeling really down lately, and after those two days she said that she felt so happy and excited to work! I was soo happy that she was able to feel better. Ive been really trying to figure out what i can do to help all the hermanas, and it was just a really cool experience for me to completely focus on them and their needs, and not my own. And i have felt so much love for them, and such a desire for them to enjoy their missions. President has told us that that is the goal - for everyone to really enjoy their missions. So we have to help them with everything, so that they can do that. So anyways i was in their area wednesday and thursday, and on friday i had to go to san jose to renew my cedula (residency card thing)! One of the sisters in the area right next to us had to go too, so me and her just went and left our daughters (haha) together in our area. So we were in san jose doing that on friday, and we were going to go back with our companions when we got back, but i decided to stay with the hermana from the other area because they had plans to go with some of their progressing investigators who i really wanted to meet. So i stayed in their area that day! And that went really well :) And then FINALLY i was able to go back to my area. So anways that was some of the craziness of the week! 

We were able to visit Angela and Mauricio again on saturday, and they came to church again on sunday :) They are progressing so well! We talked about the Book of Mormon and they were super interested and excited to read it. They have a baptismal date for the 7th of november, so we are praying a lot that they will be ready for that. 

it has been raining sooo much here, its crazy. It was crazy one day because it was raining pretty hard, and there was A TON of lightning and thunder. Literally there was so much lightning that we were afraid to go outside. They say that a lot of people get struck by lightning in costa rica haha i dont know if thats true or not. But i kinda believe it! 

Things are going great with my comp, we´re like sisters. She makes me laugh a lot. She only knows some phrases in english (shes learning pretty fast) and so she always just says, ¨Stay with me Sister Geis!¨ hahaha. 

Well things are going great! but the weeks are passing in the blink of an eye. Everyone asks me about when im ending and im just like, i dont even know how much time i have left haha i really am not counting. Im just trying to do everything i can to end strong!

Well i love you all soo much!

Love, hermana Geis :)

Week 70- A Week of Stories

So this week was kinda crazy. 

Im just gonna tell some stories about the people we are teaching!

So there's an hermana named Liseth. We met her on the street a while ago. Years ago, sister missionaries lived in front of her house. They were really good friends and they shared messages with her, but she never went to church or anything. So after meeting her on the street we called her a few times to go visit her, and she finally said we could go. She ended up telling us her whole life story, which is a pretty sad one. Shes like 30 and just separated from her husband, and lives with her two kids. She has been super involved in a church-type organization that helps women get through their trials and what not. But she recently left that because of her work and not having time. So the second time we went she said that she hasn't wanted to receive anyone else to come talk to her, but she felt like with us it was okay. But she said that she didn't want to meet with us very often because she was just so busy, and also because she didn't want to confuse her 10 year old son with a new church and what not. So she was like, i was thinking you two could come over every 2 weeks. And we were like, well we are here to help you learn more about the gospel and to help you progress, and we really aren't going to be able to help you very much if we come over once every two weeks. And her little son said, ¨Mom wouldn't it be better if they came over twice a week?¨ Hahaha. So we got the little boy´s confidence so that's good. So she agreed that we could come over once a week - but i know that as she learns more she is going to have the desire to learn more about this message every day! One funny thing was that the day that we were going to go over the second time, we texted her to confirm but she never responded, so we just went over and tha'ts when she told us all of that. She said that she really didn't want us to come over but she didn't have any minutes to respond to us hahaha. But she said that that was supposed to happen because she knew that we were meant to go over :) 

So last week i wrote about a family who we visited, the mom doesn't have the bottom half of her legs. So we visited them 3 more times this week. And they are progressing insanely well. We have been teaching them about the Plan of Salvation, that answers the questions of where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. The dad, Roberto, has a ton of questions always, which i love :) because there's always an answer. Whenever he has a doubt about something and says he wants to see it in the bible, we pull out the scripture and he's happy :) he says that he doesn't like any religion because of all the different things he's seen happen or because of all the different doctrine, but he loves everything we are telling him because he has never heard of these things before - everything is new to him, and he agrees with everything. The second time he went he said that he has never recieved missionaries before. He said that everytime they have passed in the past hes just said, ¨No gracias!!¨ but since the old lady whose a member brought us over, he had no choice! While we were there one day the pastor from another church the wife used to go to came over and he didn't let him come in...the wife marielos was like, ¨See? He doesn't let anyone come!¨ Roberto told us, ¨Its amazing that this is your third time here...¨ haha because he usually doesn't let anyone come in, or come back. The second time we went over he told us, ¨The thing is, i don't WANT to accept you guys...but something just tells me that i have to!!!¨ hahaha. And now he loves it when we go over :) they have a baptismal date for december but we´re hoping to move that up :) 

Luisa and Abigail, who i've written a lot about, came to a baptism this past week that the elders had in the church! After conference, Luisa said that she didn't want to recieve us anymore, even though she loved conference. She was just afraid to change. But we went over like a week later, and she said that she had been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and it was all marked up and everything. we were SO happy.  So they went to the baptism with us and LOVED it. Then the next day, sunday, we went over to watch a video that the church made about the Apostasy, that talks about Wilford Woodruff and how he was searching for the exact church that Christ established so that he could be baptized by the right authority. Luisa´s other granddaughter and her husband were there as well, so we were a little hesitant to watch the video with them there without knowing anything about our message, but wow it was perfect. After the video, we testified boldly and clearly that Christs church was on the earth, and in that church they should be baptized. It was awesome. They had so many questions and are super interested. Luisa is just so scared to change! But she knows its all true! So we are going to keep helping her get that courage to follow Gods answer to her prayer. 

So anyways, those are some stories for ya. Things are super busy. I never have time to write in my journal because of all the calls i have to make at night so sometimes my companion write in my journal for me. Haha its pretty funny. 

Oh and good news, mi hija hermana moon is now a sister training leader! So now its actually legal to talk all the time ;) the assistant was like, ¨can you call her and explain all that she has to do?¨ ¨YES please!!¨ Haha

Hermana chatwin went home this week and its super weird...:( 

Anways thank you all for everything!

LOVE, Hermana Geis 

Week 69 :Enjoy Every Moment !

Hello everyone!

So this week was pretty awesome! We really tried to use every second to work hard and find people! We had the blessing of finding 18 new investigators!!!! So that was amazing. We met up with one couple who we talked to a while ago, and we had a lesson with them in the park! So that was pretty cool. It was actually a really powerful lesson. I just love when we can testify boldly, not being afraid. Because they cant say anything about a powerful testimony. We have the privilege of testifying of truth! So there's no sense in being soft, or shy about it. That's a lesson that I've learned - to not be ashamed, and to testify boldly.

 We were visiting a member whose like 80 years old named Daisy, and she was telling us about a lady that she was visiting that just had a surgery where they amputated her legs.  She told us that she had been talking to her about the church. We were like, we would love to go visit her!  And so Daisy said, Lets go right now!  So this 80 year old lady took us to where the lady lived (and it was pretty far for an elderly lady to walk) and it was awesome. This lady, Marielos, lives with her husband and two kids and they are SO prepared for the restored gospel. We are so excited for them!

So that family that we have been visiting that has the mom who is less active and who we had a really spiritual lesson with them where she was crying, is doing really well. We visited them on Saturday and the dad Mauricio, did not want to go to church. He said that he didn't know how he felt about changing churches and all these things. So we talked a lot about prayer, and how he can only get the answer from God and the Spirit. He basically said that he wasn't going to go to church the next day. But guess what...they all came to church the next day! It was so beautiful to see them there. It was testimony meeting, and almost all the people talked about what we had taught him the day before (prophets and apostles) it was perfect. So we are going to do EVERYTHING to help them progress and keep coming to church. We already have planned to go with a ton of members to help teach them.. Oh by the way, this family lives super far away and it is like a forest. Its awesome.

Time is going by so fast! I really can't believe it. There are so many missionaries who are ending their mission in these changes, its so weird. We just have to enjoy every moment!!

Well I love you all!!  Thanks for everything!

Love, hermana Geis :)

Sunday Afternoon

P-day Water Balloon War !

It rained right after our game

With Elder Toledo and Elder Miller

With Elder Olsen and Elder Lewis

Week 68: Come, Come Ye Saints

Hello everyone! 

This week was so crazy! But really good :)

So one cool experience: There's a less active member named Angela. She talked to another member and said that she wants to come back to church, but her husband and her kids aren't members of the church and have never gone. So she wanted us to go visit them. So we went, and we were extremely happy and surprised to find them as a complete, unified family. So we sang a hymn, and Angela said the first prayer. She could barely get through the prayer, because she started crying. We asked her why she was crying, and she said it was because she felt the Holy Spirit, and because she wanted her family to accept the gospel. So it was extremely spiritual. Her family accepted the challenge to be baptized, but her husband has a lot of doubts and doesn't want to rush things. So we`re gonna have to work with them step by step to help them progress and accept the gospel, so that they can be an eternal family.

We`ve been working a lot with Luisa and Abigail, I wrote about them a couple weeks ago. Luisa has been praying a lot to know if these things are true, but she said that she hasn't gotten the answer yet, and she has felt that her other church is keeping her from having an open heart and receiving the answer. But this week she asked us to tell her how she could pray more correctly to get the answer. So we told her that all she needed to do was direct the prayer directly to God, as the specific question, and end in the name of Jesus Christ. So she said, ¨Wow...I haven't been praying that way. So I'm going to do that and get the answer.¨ I don't think I've ever seen someone who wants to know so badly whether or not these things are true. One time praying with us, she said, ¨Heavenly Father, I NEED to know if these things are true. Please help me know.¨

So we were really praying that she would come to General Conference, so that she could feel the spirit as the prophet and apostles were speaking. And she did go!  She went to the Saturday morning session and she said that she felt really good. After the Conference we asked her how she has felt as she has prayed about everything, and she said, ¨Well I felt enough that I wanted to come today!¨  We were like, hallelujah!  So we are super excited for her progression.

On Friday we had the Leadership meeting. It went really well!  It was the last time Hermana Chatwin and I were gonna see each other :(  It was so sad!  And other missionaries are leaving too.  It's always hard to say goodbye to other missionaries because you don't know if you'll see them again. But you really meet the coolest people on the mission.

Then of course we watched General Conference!  And of course it was great. I really loved the talk about asking the spirit to tell you what you need to change to progress. It is not easy to be so open to the spirit and so humble to accept what it's going to tell you, but I love the promise that the spirit will tell us specifically what we need to change. I know that there's a ton of little things like that that I need to change to progress.

I'm so excited about the 3 new apostles!  They seem so awesome, and so humble. I know that we will all learn so much from them. 

Another really cool experience we had last night: It was pretty late and we were far away from our house, and as we were walking out to the main street we missed the bus....and then another one came behind it but we missed that one too!!  So we were like, why did we just miss two buses in a row!!  Haha so we started walking down the road thinking of who we could visit and we passed by a really big and pretty house. I thought, ¨that'd be cool to teach the people in this house!  But how scary it would be to knock this door!¨  But I recently put a goal to be more brave! and so I stopped and said, ¨Hey let's contact this house!¨  And a lady like in her 50's came out. Usually we ask them a random question to start the conversation, but we just said, "Well we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we have a message for the families about Jesus Christ. Can we share it with you? and she said, "Yeah come on in!"  Haha  I was soo happy and surprised!  

So we taught her and her 23 year old son.  And they LOVED it. We read from Alma 7:10-14, and she was all ready with her Bible so we told her it was in the Book of Mormon. After reading the scriptures we asked if she had any questions, and she said, ¨No, but I'm still in awe about this book!  I really like it!¨  So anyway, the lesson went great and we invited them to be baptized. as we asked them if they would prepare for a specific date, she said ¨Honestly, no. because I am used to my religion.¨ So then we let her talk for like 5 minutes about how she wasn't interested in changing, and as she was talking, she led herself into accepting the challenge haha. So then we asked, "Hermana, if GOD tells you that you should do it, will you do it?"  And she said, ¨Yes absolutely.¨ Haha so we didn't do a lot- we just let her talk and let herself realized that she really would do it. It was great! 

This week as a Ward activity we watched the movie "17 miracles", about the pioneers who crossed the US after joining the church. It was AMAZING to watch that. It was mostly amazing because my great great great grandma was in that exact company. And she lived through it all. And I realized - if it weren't for everything that happened in that movie, i would not be here on a mission in Costa Rica. I would not even be alive. Thanks to Julia Hill, THOUSANDS of lives have been blessed. My mom went on a mission, my brother did, and so many cousins who are all descendants of Julia.  If she didn't give up everything to follow Christ, none of us would be here. 

So just think about the Legacy we need to carry on, and everything we owe to the early Saints who gave everything to follow God. We owe to them to do the same.

Anyways I love you all!!  Please go listen to Conference again, I'm going to do the same. And we can really try to apply what they taught and change.

Thanks for everything!

hermana geis

Hrm Pena

Leadership Conference

Elder Saavedra, Slder Macias, Hermana Davidson, Hermana Chatwin and I

Saying goodbye to Hrm Chatwin :(

Trainers Meeting

Taking a short cut to Luisa's house !

P-Day Pizza

Week 67- The Only Way to True Happiness is Giving it All to the Lord

 Hello everyone!

So this was a super crazy week....

On Tuesday night we had to go to San Jose to stay over night there, because we were going to the temple on Wednesday!  But before we left on Tuesday it just started POURING rain. it was crazy. I will attach a picture.

So we got up suuper early on Wednesday and got to go to the Temple with President Hayes, his wife, and two other zones. It was so awesome. I had never felt the spirit so strong, probably in my entire life. And it was awesome to have President there with us as well. Then after the Temple as a Zone we went to San Jose and ate and then walked around San Jose and bought some souvenirs!

So after getting back to our area Wednesday night, I ended up not even being able to walk on my ankle basically...so those next two days I had to rest it, and we only went to the most important appointments. Which really stinks,  because of course, all appointments are important. Then on Friday we went to San Jose again to finally see a doctor, and he found that I do have damaged ligaments/tendons and some liquid in my ankle. So he prescribed some insoles for me and we will see what happens! :) 

On Saturday, we had a baptism! The granddaughter of a recent convert got baptized. Her name is Keydelin. she was terrified of the water, and for that reason didn't want to get baptized. But she got over her fear and is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ :) After the baptism we had an activity with the Relief Society. A talent show!  So I got to sing and play la guitarra! it always feels good to do that. Then we watched the General Women's Conference. 

Today we had the monthly check up with all the trainers and new missionaries. It was great. And then we got to eat American food which is always awesome.

So this week we are going to work extremely hard. Something President told us today was that when we don't want to work, we have to work even harder. When we don't want to pray, pray harder. Its so true. At the beginning of my mission it was always tough to give up my desires. I went out to work, but didn't really want to. I think that happens with every missionary. But then I learned to give it all up and do it because God wanted me to do it. That's when our desires become His desires. There's a talked called The Fourth Missionary, that talks about the type of missionary that is the most happy and gets the most out of his mission. The talk says that there are days when he doesn't want to go out, and there are days when he gets discouraged. But he goes out anyway. But he doesn't go out resenting it, deep down wanting to do something else or be somewhere else. He does it because ¨it is the only intelligent thing to do.¨ Maybe this doesn't make sense to you, but I love that lesson!  We must do what God wants not just because it's our duty, and we can't be hating it the whole time, really wanting to do something else. We must do what God wants because we know that that is the only way to true happiness and salvation. 

Well everyone have a great week! I love you all! 

Hermana Geis

With Hermana Pena

Yummy food made by President Hayes!

Pouring Rain...

Eating our favorite fruit--mamon chino

River

We bought these dresses in Gringo Alley! All of the elders call them our "multi-use dresses".  They say we can use them as sheets,curtains, chair coverings etc...hahaha :)

At McDonalds

With Hermana

Keydelin and her family

With Keydelin

At Subway!!

The funniest secretaries ever-- Elder Nielson and Elder Nelson

Almost all of our zone: Zona Atlantica!

With some members

In Gringo Alley!!

With Hermana Moon and Hermana Chatwin :) We saw them at the office on Friday because they were getting some residency stuff done

Back with mi hija!!