Week 27- Casi Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas...Almost!)

Hello Everyone!

I cannot even believe christmas is next week. Like not at all. It is so weird. 

We bought a christmas tree! Hehe that was fun. And decorated it with what we could afford hahaha. Im excited to pass christmas here and focus on the birth of Jesus Christ with my comp and the members and everyone else.

This week was a little more difficult. We had lotsss of lessons, but almost every new person we found was super hard and rejected us haha. Its hard because we explain everything, and they agree with literally everything, but dont want to act on anything. Mostly because of their religious tradition - not beliefs, but tradition. We were talking to one lady and she was like, Ive been catholic my whole life. I really like the christian churches and dont really like the catholic church, but my family doesnt want to go to other churches so ill just keep going to the catholic. Like what....we have free agency so that we can be happy and choose for ourselves! But for lots of people its hard to stand up to their family and break tradition, as many converts know. 

Our investigator, Letty, is doing great. We had a great experience with her this week. At the end of the lesson we all knelt down and had her offer the prayer, with the specific question of whether or not these things are true. We told her before to stay kneeling with her eyes closed for a few moments after the prayer, to really listen to the spirit. So she did, for a good amount of time. Then she finally opened her eyes, and said that her heart was beating como nuna antes - like never before. :) 

We did the same thing last night, because she doesnt know whether or not her daughter mariam should get baptized the same day - her ex husband doesnt want it to happen. So we prayed with that question and stayed quiet after again, and i did not even want to open my eyes. I felt such peace and love. I was getting a response right along with her - that these things are true. Missionaries grow and progress right along with the investigators.

The time is going by so fast. the weeks fly by, the months fly by, and before you know it the year has flown by! We really need to live one day at a time, and enjoy every day. We have been talking about goals, and how we cant say, oh ill complete that goal tomorrow, or the next week. because before you know it the month is over and you never completed the goal. We have to think in TODAY, because each day is important. 

So we are going to san jose today, staying the night, and then we get to go to the temple tomorrow! Yay! Then after we have a christmas lunch. Im super excited!

I hope you are all enjoying the christmas break and can all spend some extra time with your families. Families are so important and we should never take them for granted! God loves you all and wants to bless you all so much - just have a little more faith and a little more trust in him, and exercise your faith. One thing i like that ive learned is that when we pray, we are exercising our faith. Because we are talking to someone we cant see. When we read the scriptures, we exercise our faith, because we are showing the lord that we believe they are true or can learn something, or will be blessed by reading them. when we go to church we are exercising our faith because we are showing god that we believe we will be blessed by keeping that commandment. So exercise your faith! :) 

I love you all! Have a great week! :)

Love, Hermana Amy Geis :) 

with the familia torres that i love :) (members)

Our tree! Haha

With the familia torres that I love :) (members)

Week 26- Cambios

Hello everyone! 

So changes were yesterday right....and i am still in nicoya!!

I was shocked for real. I had accepted that i was leaving haha. I washed all my clothes on saturday, took a bunch of pictures, like i was ready hahaha. And then they FINALLY called us at 8:30 on SundayNIGHT and told me that i was staying. I was like, ¨What??¨ Haha. I guess Im still needed in Nicoya - I think this will honestly be a challenge because after being in an area for so long you start to wonder what else you can do here. And this change is 8 weeks longs, so i will be in nicoya for HALF of my mission. The people are going to get so tired of me! Haha. Everyone companionship in our district got one changed out, except me and hermana Perez. Its so sad to see the other missionaries go! When i told presidente solis i would be staying he said, ¨Yesss youll be here for the christmas dinner!¨ Oh presidente...

So I told you all that the mission reached 200 baptisms right? Well we had zone conference on thursday and they read a bunch of stories about the CRAZY things that happened - a couple churches didnt have water (what are the odds) and the missionaries were like calling the firemen hahaha but ended up using garbage cans to fill up the font with water, and other missionaries had to go to someones pool and had the baptism there! Crazy things like that...but it was so awesome to hear how the missionaries didnt give up and how they still had faith to have the baptisms and bring these souls to Christ.

So we found some miracles this week! We found some people who are really prepared to accept the gospel :) One hermana is named Letty, and she lives with her 8 year old daughter. She recently separated from her ex husband, and is going through some hard times. And she is so willing to accept the gospel. She came to church on sunday despite many difficulties that could have kept her from coming, and she and her daughter are going to get baptized the 27th of this month :) She even knows a bunch of people in the branch, and luckily lots of people reached out to her on sunday as well.
We also found another single mom and daugther - Maria and Eva, who is 11. Maria has doubts, and feels confused about the different religions. But she really wants to learn and we know that she is going to get baptized as well. Eva has already read 10 pages into the Book of Mormon and loves everything about what we teach.
We are also teaching some neighbors of Eva, Dayton and Yerlan, theyre brothers who are 14 and eleven. They make me laugh, they are so cute! And Dayton has been reading the book of mormon and underlining the verses and all of these things, and they are super excited about their baptisms for the 27th as well. Weve been wanting to talk to Daytons mom, but she doesnt have the desire to listen.But she told us, I want them to listen to you so come whenever you want! haha. poco a poco con ella :) 

Time is flying! I cant believe christmas is so soon. We bought a fake tree the other day to put in the house haha so that will be fun! Sunday night there was what is called Festival de la Luz. Its like a huge parade where everyyyone is in the street watching, and its to start of Christmas or something. We didnt get to see it thought because we watched the Christmas devotional in the church - it was so good! Have you all seen the video that the church put out for christmas? In spanish its El es La Dadiva i dont know what it is in english haha but we have cards that we pass out to everyone to go watch it. And i heard that on sunday, the Church took over youtube!! How amazing is that!!! The front page of youtube was only things of the church. So awesome. AND theyre advertising the video in times square!!!

I am very grateful to be a missionary this Christmas. I am able to focus on whats really important - That Christ was born. Im so grateful to our heavenly father for sending us his son, as his gift to us. We owe everything to him. We should all think about a gift that we can each give our heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ for christmas. 

I love you all and am grateful for all of you in my life.
Have a great week :)
Love, Hermana Geis 

(click pictures for full size)

With Dayton, Yerla, and Eva!

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

Little bananas!

P-day at the beach

Hermana Perez and me

Service! Cleaning el lugar de los ancianos

This couple just got married in el lugar de los ancianos

Hermana Holmes and Hermana Jensen who just got transferred 

Saying goodbye to Elder Toledo.  The people on the left are people that he baptized a few months ago--Maria and Stwart.  They just got married a few months ago.  They are AMAZING converts to the gospel.

Us and the elders

Floribeth and her grandson,Yane

Yummy food from Maribeth

Stress relief mask from cousin Emily. ( She may or may not have been requested not to share ;) )

Week 25- Happy Thanksgiving!

Hellooo everyone
So yeah they changed our writing day. Pday ends a little early now on mondays, and our whole district writes together on tuesdays after our district meeting. Its a little difficult to find 10 computers to use all together but hey it will work out!

So this week was crazy just like the rest! ;) 

On tuesday we went to San Jose for the Multizone conference. It was really good. We have a goal of 200 converts this month - and its going great. President was in Panama the past week for a conference with all of the mission presidents in central america, and everyone wanted to talk to him to figure out what is happening in costa rica because there is so much success happening here! God has prepared his children and wants the church to grow here. So thats awesome.

He used an example during the conference about how we cant stop working when we think everything is going well...and guess what he used....the Utah football game when the guy dropped the ball before the touchdown!!! Hahaha. He was like, this is the best football team in the world, (hes from utah and is a utes fan) but they made a mistake! haha so he told us to not drop the ball before making it to the end zone. It was funny because an elder had to explain american football to the latinos before we watched the clip. 

Sooo with our miracle family! So much has happened haha. Basically the parents have a lot of problems :( but Jerson is going strong! He is pumped to get baptized and wants to serve a mission and everything. One day when we were with him this week, he said that he hadnt gotten an answer yet to know if the church was true. So we asked him what he was expecting to recieve as an answer. he said some sort of sign - which is what many people wait for. But we explained what it says in Galatians 5:22 - the fruits of the spirit are hope, love, faith, peace, etc. And we get our answer through the spirit. So then he stopped for a minute and said....then i think i got my answer. :) So we are preparing him for this saturday.

On Sunday we had the primary program! Soooo different from the states of course, but wow the spirit was so strong :) There were around 10 kids, and each gave a little talk and we sang some songs together. It was so adorable because two of the kids were Fabricio and Denis - Denis is the brother of Fernanda (the 10 year old girl who got baptized in july) who hasnt wanted to get baptized and Fabricio is a ten year old boy who asks us everytime we visit him when he can get baptized hahaha. hes hilarious, he knows pretty much everything about the church, and asked us when he can go to the temple and everything haha. Fabricios talk was about baptism which made me laugh haha. So we got the idea to invite Fabricio and Denis to be baptized this saturday as well!!! We went last night to talk to their parents. We had a good experience with Fabricios mom - we have been teaching her but is very strong in another church. she said that she would let Fabricio get baptized, but she wants to talk to the dad about it. So we are praying very hard about that - thats all we can do! And then we went to Denis and a miracle happened. He has never had the desire to get baptized, because hes been nervous about it. We went last night and talked to him about it and his mom said she would let him, but she didnt think he was ready or had the desire. So she told him, Denis, say yes or no. And he stopped for a minute...and then looked up and with a big smile on his face said, ¨Si yo quiero!!!¨ Haha we were seriously so happy. So this weekend will be a special one. Please pray that everything will go well!!

So im trying to teach hermana perez english right? I tried praying in english yesterday and it was a mess...hahaha i was translating from spanish into english and could not even do it

Last night we had a family home evening with some members, Fabian, and another recent convert couple of the elders. We watched a video about the restoration and ate empanadas (the weird ones with cheese and sugar but its okay). I just love the video of the restoration - because thats why im here! Because this is the restored church. We challenged each one of them, including the members, to read the book of mormon that night and pray to know if it was true. I have done that here on the mission even - and when i did it a while ago, i felt such peace and warmth in my heart. God will always give us the same response, that yes its true. So I invite each one of you to do the same - read the book of mormon, and after pray to ask if its true. You will recieve the confirmation that it is, if you ask with faith, not doubting that God will answer you.

I realized this week that I really need to change. And guess what, change is possible. But not just to change our behavior - we can change our nature. A lot of the times we think the opposite - we say, ¨Thats just the way i am. I cant change that. So i will accept my weaknesses and get along.¨ No! It is necessary to recognize our weaknesses and accept that we have them, but we do not have to live with them forever. We can change. You know why? Because that is exactly why Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. He didnt do that for nothing - he did that so we could overcome our weaknesses. If we think we cant change our nature, we are saying that Jesus Christ and his Atonement cant save us. So have faith! I was praying about overcoming my weaknesses this week, and a sentence came into my mind: Christ suffered so I could overcome my weaknesses. Its true. We can change completely. We can change our nature. Only, however, if we depend on the Lord and give ourselves to him. And we can do that! Its not impossible!

So thank you all for everything! I hope you all have an amazing week :)

Oh yeah and happy thanksgiving! So weird! ill have to celebrate somehow. i bought some sweet potatoes to make that day because they remind me of the casserole we eat at thanksgiving...hahaha 

Love you!

Hermana Geis :) 

Week 24- More Miracles in Nicoya

Hola everyone!
This week a looot happened. 

On thursday we went to san jose and i got my cedula (residence card - its like a license here, people need it for everything) ! Its a pretty big deal ;) I am tica now!

On tuesday night, we went to visit a member that I have visited a lot with each companion. Shes great. We shared something with her and then asked her who she knew who we could visit. She ended up telling us that her neighbors had talked with the missionaries a lot before, and have gone to church several times, and they have a book of mormon, etc etc. The missionaries were taken out of nicoya for a while and when that happened they stopped going to church. We were like, why havent you told us this before!! ;) haha nah we were way excited to hear this. So we went the next day, and only the wife was home (halleluja they are married). She said, Oh yeah if the missionaries had stayed just a little longer my husband would have been baptized! Haha. So we had a lesson with her and she accepted a baptismal date for this month!
The next day, we went to their house and the wife wasnt home, but the husband, Jose, was. We couldnt enter since there werent any other women in the house so we just talked with him outside for a few minutes. And wow...we were blown away. He told us how much he loved talking to the missionaries and how much he loved church, and we asked him if he has read the Book of Mormon recently. He said, Oh yeah im actually reading the Pearl of Great Price right now. Like WHAT?! Who does that! Hahaha we dont even know how he has that. So we left feeling super pumped and planned to come back the next day.

So the next day we went and neither Jose nor Felicia were there, but their daughter Isabel was. She has two babies and isnt married but wants to get married so thats a start haha. She started off saying she was catholic and didnt seem very interested but at the end of the lesson she readily accepted a baptismal date and is super excited to work with us and be baptized! 

We went back the day after that hoping to talk to the parents but they werent there again. This is when the biggest miracle happens. this time, their son Jerson was there. Hes 20 years old. We started a lesson with him and he started saying things like, I have always wondered where the truth is. I just feel so confused because everyone says that they have the truth but i have always wanted to know what really is the truth. And i ask God to help me but I just havent found the truth yet. We were like, WOW you are prepared! haha and then we taught him about joseph smith and the book of mormon etc etc and i have never seen anyone understand everything so well. We taught him about the Book of mormon and he said, okay so i have to read it, really medidate it, and then ask God in the name of Jesus Christ if its true. Yes jerson that is what you have to do! Thank you! haha. In his prayer he said, Thank you for the hermanas who have cleared up my doubts and helped me know what is true. He accepted a baptismal date for the 29th of this month. The next day was the district (stake) conference in liberia and we all went in bus as a branch (its like an hour away) and he came with us!!! The conference was soo powerful. Our mission president is such a powerful speaker. everyone is just completely silent when he talks. His talk was completely inspired: Dios es nuestro amoroso padre celestial. God is our loving heavenly father - what better topic is there? He told us a bunch of amazing stories of God answering prayers. Basically, God will do ANYTHING to answer our prayers. He starts answering our prayers before we ask them - he starts preparing people to be the answers to our prayers before we even pray. He has 7 billion children on the earth right now and is listening and answering prayers of every single person. Why? Because he LOVES us. And only for that reason. :)
So after the conference, know what Jerson said? He said, You know what? I want to serve a mission. And then he said, When is my baptism again? [the 29th! do you still want to prepare to be baptized that day?) Yes of course!! Ahhh milagros. En serio. We went with Isabel, the sister, and Jerson again today and they are both still totally excited to be baptized.
We found out that Jose has been talking with missionaries for YEARS haha. Our ward mission leader actually served in this area (hes like 23 and got married to someone here so now lives here) and even HE taught him! But we know that everyone has their time and we have the faith that this is his time? He said he has prayed and asked if its true but hasnt gotten an answer yet. We think he has gotten it - he just hasnt recognized it. The fact that he wants to keep reading the book of mormon and the pearl of great price and all these things is an answer in itself - feeling enlightened and a desire to learn more is also an answer from the holy ghost. So we are going to help him recognize that!

So last night i got to sing! It was an activity for all the married couples and single adults, and it was so funny - guiselle made this big introduction and they i walked in the room as the surprise haha awkward. I was so nervous, like always!! But honestly, it felt so good. I missed it so much. I sang come thou fount of every blessing and then two songs from efy. Im so grateful for the opportunity i had to do that.

In other news i cut probably about 10 inches off my hair today! hahaha woohoo!

oh also we also went to the district conference saturday night and it was so good. They said that during the priesthood session when president wilkinson was speaking, that they had never felt the spirit so strong. And we found out that as a zone we cleaned like 700 names out of the cimi!! so we are all ready to be a stake! the first presidency just has to review everything :) Pres Wilk. said that this conference was historic, because it would be the last time as a district. He also said that each member and missionary and everyone in guanacaste (the zone) had been prepared in the pre earth life to be here in this moment, to help turn the area into a stake. Wow.

well i love you all!!!! bye!!!

hermana geis :)

Cut 10 inches off!

Bus Ride to District Conference

Making tamales

Singing at the branch social

Members at the branch social

Members at the branch social

Teaching our seminary class

Week 23- Trust in the Lord Seimpre

Hola everyone!
I cant believe we are already in the second week of november. That is so weird.

Well winter is ending here in costa rica, and instead of raining all the time it is now dry, super sunny (because it wasnt sunny before or anything), and windy!! I like it haha. Everywhere is putting up christmas decorations! We are totally going to decorate our house. Somehow. Haha! And I am trying to figure out how to celebrate thanksgiving by myself hahaha.

Today we went to San Jose at three in the morning, again, so that Hermana Perez could do fingerprints. We have to go at three in the morning AGAIN on thursday so i can get my residence card. Very tiring but hey its what needs to be done!

We went to a place called price mart today which is costco just with a different name! I was in heaven...i felt like i was in the states! I was marvelling at all of the american products and food. It was weird. We bought a bunch of american snacks haha so that will be fun to have.

This past week we kept on working on cleaing the list of members to get the stake here in guanacaste! It is a very exciting time - establishing a stake is a huge deal! But it is not easy to find these people - we are walking around asking everyone if they know these people hahaha oh man. Im assuming its a lot easier in the states! But yes the stake is very close! :) Fabian is going to recieve the melchizedek priesthood this sunday at the district conference. We are all taking a bus up to Liberia (2 hours away) sunday morning for the conference. This is a great work and a big moment! :)

This past week was hard because we found a lot of promising investigators, and almost every one of them flat out told us later that they dont want anything anymore. Usually when we stop going with investigators its because they dont progress - but these people dropped us! that was really dissapointing - but not discouraging, because we know there are thousands of people in every area ready to accept the gospel. Its crazy to think about that - thousands of people ready to accept the gospel. We just have to find them.I feel a little overwhelmed thinking about how to find these people who are prepared and then I remember that I cant rely on myself. the Lord will guide me. He is in charge and he knows who is prepared.

I was reading the Liahona magazine for october and wow, it is so awesome. Everyone read it! I felt the spirit so strong. I was thinking, wow, there are so many strong members in all of the world. And reading all of the conversion stories and what not gave me hope that people can stay strong in the gospel! Sometimes i think we ask too much of the people- but we dont. Its Jesus Christ asking them to follow his gospel. And it is completely possible for each one of us to do so.

So this sunday we have an activity with all the couples in the branch. The branch presidents wife got me a guitar and has asked me to sing a few songs!! So weird! Im pretty sure i forgot how to sing!! And i have no idea what to sing because i would feel really weird singing regular songs haha soo hymns it is? It was hilarious, when she was announcing the activity she was like, and we have an international singer coming to nicoya just for us! Shes from the US and you guys have to be here to see her! You wouldnt believe what we had to do to get her to come to costa rica. HAHA everyone was like, who is it!!! when they see its mee theyll be like, aw man its just hermana geis. Hahaha. 

Well i love you all so much!! Have an amazing week!!!! Trust in the Lord siempre!

Love,

Hermana Geis 

Price-Mart

Week 22-A White Weekend

Hellooo everyone.
Holy cow this past week/weekend was the most stressful thing ever! I dont even want to write about the details because ill get stressed again hahaha but just know that everything worked out!!
The wedding turned out great. It was pushed back a little bit because there were two baptisms of two 8 year olds right before, and they had a dinner too. But the church was all decorated, we put on wedding music for siany to walk down the aisle, and we had a member speak about marriage before the lawyer, because we knew he doesnt talk much. And there was a lot of people there to support them so that was awesome!! Siany looked gorgeous and it was so special to see them make this step together :) Without going into detail, the baptism was changed to sunday morning. So after the wedding everyone ate all the food, and we cleaned up and went home! The next morning before church, at 8:30 am, they got baptized :) They looked so happy. After they recieved the holy ghost, their faces were just glowing. It was awesome. And guess what, Fabian recieved the priesthood that same day!! Like what! Gustavo did too, finally, and im ecstatic that gustavo got that too. Fabian and siany might go to the temple with the district on november 8th, so that would be amazing. We gave fabian and siany a big laminated picture of the temple in costa rica with the date of October 26th 2015 - the day that they can get sealed as a family for eternity. We know theyll make it, and we will still be here and will be able to go with them! :) 

So remember Paola, the one we felt to go talk to in her house? She told us a little more about what happened that day. Just before, she had been talking to her mom, crying. She had said that she wasnt going to believe in God anymore because she didnt understand why bad things were happening to her. She had asked got to show her a sign, and thats when we showed up. So amazing! :) God could have answere her prayer in any way he wanted. But he LET us be an answer to our prayer. He let us feel the prompting and go and talk to her.
Today we helped paint our investigator runias hair salon! Runia has come to church a lot and everything, but has no desire to make a commitment to be baptized. We are working slowly but surely with her to help her make covenantsso that was good haha
This week we are going to work super hard to find the people that have been prepared by the lord. We know that there are people waiting to accept the gospel and we need to find them.

Well thanks for everything, until next week!!

Hermana Geis :)

Hermana Gonzales, Siany, and Hermana Geis-- at Siany and Fabian's wedding!!

Fabian, Siany, their son, and the hermanas

The whole family.

Fabian and Siany's baptism day!

Week 21

Hello everyone!

So this week was pretty good! :) I feel like a lot has happened! I´ll start by giving an update on Fabian and Siany.

So we werent able to see either of them all week because Siany was in San Jose and Fabian had work all week, so we were only able to communicate with them through text a little bit. It was funny, we left Fabian a pamphlet for the word of wisdom for him to read, and then we texted him asking what he thought about it and he explained completely what the word of wisdom is in his text haha and then we asked if he would follow it and he said, ¨Claro que si hermanas! Queremos estar en el camino de Dios.¨ So awesome :)
So they came to church on Sunday and brought Siany´s brother with them! He´s about 18, and is really interested in everything. We have high hopes for him too. So they really enjoyed church, and seriously they are special because the members just love them. They really reach out to them, which doesnt usually happen. Later on Sunday we went over to teach them a couple more things, like certain commandments, to prepare them for their baptismal interviews. Our district leader Elder Stewart came over and after the interviews he told me - ¨I have never seen anyone so prepared! And ive never seen anyone so excited to pay tithing!¨ Hahaha they are such a miracle, and continue to be a miracle. They accept everything so wholeheartedly and just want to do EVERYTHING they can to follow Christ and change their lives. They were asking us about what they shouldnt do and what they should do etc etc. Theyre so ready.
So they are both going to be baptized on saturday, after the wedding! We are so excited. Theyre borrowing a dress and suit from members, the members are going to help us with food, and we´re going to somehow buy decorations to decorate the church and what not. I feel kinda stressed, ok really stressed, to make sure everything comes together but I know everything will work out great :) We already have the baptism planned, like who is going to talk and everything so thats good. This week is definitely going to be focused on that but we really have to focus on our other investigators too! There´s just not enough time in the day haha.  

So guess what, we had another miracle this past week. We were walking around a neighborhood that we are always in one night and we passed by this one house we always pass by. I glanced in and saw a girl sitting in there watching tv, and we walked a little further and then stopped. ¨Should we go and talk to her?¨ ¨Nah...¨ ¨Ok lets go!!¨ Haha so we went  back and started talking to her. Her name is Paola, shes probably mid 20s and has a 4 year old son. We asked if we could come back the next day and she was all for it, so we were excited about that. So when we went over for the appointment, the lesson went great. She accepted a baptismal date for the 15th of November :) And heres the amazing part: She said that she saw us walk past her door, and then stop and hesitate to come back or not. She said that she had been crying all day feeling stressed and overwhelmed, and then we showed up. She said that her mom told her that we must have been sent by God to her for a reason. So we are very excited about her :)

Something really weird happened...one of our investigators, Keilyn, said she wanted to show us a video. We were like, well it depends what it is haha we probably cant watch it! And then all of the sudden I hear myself singing. IT WAS SO WEIRD. She had randomly come accross me on youtube. What are the odds of that. And it was weird...I thought to myself, who is that?! Haha.

It was freezing in san jose yesterday. I actually bought myself a hot chocolate. Pictures next week :) haha

Well i love you all! A lot! Have a great week and always put the Lord and your family FIRST!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Geis