September 11, 2012

Hey guys. I was actually in San Jose the day of the earthquake and all of our zone which is such a blessing because our zone is right where the earthquake was. Nothing happened at our house tho and i think there was only deaths which is pretty good for a 7.6 i thought. So the picture of me and the girl i don't know her name haha i don't hardly anyones name it's always hermano or hermana haha. Wow that is such an amazing stake presidency that we have now and that's so cool that you guys had two general authorities. Oh ya i'm sorry i didn't write you yesterday but we were at San Jose for changes and we had a little fireside like thing with 3 general authorities but i'll tell you that at the end of this email so i can just keep you guys in suspense haha. Any ways the language is coming and it's so much easier to understand. 

For breakfast everyday i pretty much have 3 over hard eggs with orange juice and then we never really have dinner unless we're at a members house and they offer us some but that's usually on sunday. Which is fine tho because after a big lunch i never feel like eating dinner. This week we actually had 2 of our investigators come to church which was so nice since we hadn't had anyone for 3 weeks. There names our Kimberly who is 15 and Sharon 10 they are both super cool and we just hope that their mom will let them get baptized. 

Oh ya my package got here last week but for some reason the place you went through sent it to a different address than you put on the box so it was held up for a while and no one told me about it. But your package was correct. Oh ya i don't need English scriptures anymore either  because i found them so it's all good. But if you could some blades for my razor and some shaving cream would be awesome because shaving cream here is 10 $ it's crazy expensive.

Now for the General Authorities we had 2 apostles and a member of the first presidency which what President Wilkinson said had never happened in any mission that he knows of. We had President Eyring, M. Russel Ballard, and D. Todd Cristoferson. We also had President Martino of the seventy and last week on wednesday we had Elder Duncan of the seventy too. About a month ago President Eyring, Elder Ballard, and Elder Cristoferson said that they wanted to come to the Costa Rica mission and so President Wilkinson this whole time was preparing us for it but we had no idea. It was the most spiritual and amazing thing that i've ever attended. I had tears in my eyes the whole time. They truly are called of God and love all of us so much. . Usually when a general authority comes they talk to the members too but they only wanted to talk to the missionaries this time. They helped us all really realize our purpose and gave us a new desire to deliver this wonderful message to the people of Costa Rica. At the end they each stood at a door and we got to shake on of their hands. I got to shake Elder Ballards hand. They told us that Jesus would want them to shake their hands and that when we shook them to imagine that we were shaking our Saviors hand and it was so amazing. 

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Anyways that's what has happend this week and i can't wait to talk to you guys next week.

Con Amor, Elder Anderson

September 3, 2012

Hey guys how's it going. this week has been really good we found two golden contacts that hopefully by the end of the month they will be baptized there names are Regina y Gabriela. They are so awesome. I can't believe that President Wheeler has been president for 9 years that's so crazy! Him and Sister Wheeler will do great where ever they are sent. I'm sorry to here about the lawn that's always abummer when something like that happens. I hope you guys get it all fixed. Anyways San Jose was awesome it was really nice to get to see my friends from the MTC so that was really cool. Um we didn't really have one on one interviews like i thought we would instead we all just me with President in the Chapel. He just told us that we need to always be working and to obey with exactness. President is really serious about obedience he wants this to be a clean mission which i think is great! He is such an awesome man.Ok to name our Investigators we have: Regina, Gabriela, Yareliz, Vismar, Luis, Vismar, Zeyli, Kimberly, Sharon, Corinas, Chata, Eliza, Luis, Maria, Delvin, Dennis, y Alba. They are all such awesome people they just need help going to church. This week we didn't have anyone at church again which was a bummer but that just means we have to work harder this week to get them to church. Um my package hasn't gotten here yet but i think it will be here this week. Any ways this is a picture of me with a girl in our branch. Well i have to go i love you guys talk to you next week!

August 27, 2012

Hey mom and dad i don`'t have much time so this is going to be short um this week has been pretty good we got 7 new investigators and that puts us at 14 we just can't get any of them to go to church so we can't baptise them pecause President Wilkinson has a rule that they have to go to church 3 times before they can be baptised because he wants them to be active in the church and not fall a way which is good. President is such a special person and so is his family i'm so glad to be able to serve under him. Well I'm so sorry but i have to go catch a bus back to cañas because we're in san jose and it's 3 and a half hours away from here so i'll talk to you guys next week i love you guys so much and miss you.

August 20 , 2012

Hey how's it going guys. This week i found out i had a sinus infection and was pretty sick but they got me on some antibiotics and i feel a lot better now, i just have a cough. I'm so excited to not be sick anymore because now i can start to work to my full capability. I unfortunatly do not have any baptisms this week. It's really hard to get our investigators to come to church on sunday because there not used to going to church for 3 hours and some of them live pretty far away and dont have cars. But it's all good. It's really strange now talking to people about marriage and asking them to get married and baptized in three weeks. Most of them say no that's way to fast so we just tell them it's a goal and it can be moved back if they need to but we believe that they will be prepared in three weeks. But anyways we taught this new person this week Yarelli and Willian. Willian is an inactive member and his girlfriend isn't a member but she's super receptive to our message. And they excepted to be married Sept. 8 and she would get baptised that day but we have to move it back a day because they didn't come to church this week because they had to go to her moms house unfortunatly. It always seems like they have an excuse when ever we go there. So when that happens we just always teach about the importance of going to church to them for the next lesson. A lot of people down never get married they feel like if they get married they lose a freedom or something. So that's the challenge we have with 3 out of 7 of our progressing investigators. The thing that's really hard like you said dad is contacting people in the street i don't know but that's just super hard for me because it's so fast and i can't respond fast or understand them when they talk to me fast so it's just hard. And also in our area Most of the people we contact gives us false directions to there house and false telephone numbers. Like the month before me with elder Ramirez other coompanion they had 60 contacts that month and only 2 of them were ligit so we try as hard as we can to just get references from members. Anyways i lied last week about the directions to our house when your looking at the massive catholic church in cañas look north from the back of it about three streets down theres a clinic on the north west corner and we're the house right next to it if you go north down the street one house. And the tempature you're reading in San Jose is nothing like the temperature in Cañas. Cañas is super hot all the time it's probably about 20 degrees hotter than san jose. I've been drinking a lot of water now which has really helped. Hey Let Brother  Buckley know that i got his email. Anyways love you guys! ¡Pura Vida!

Um I don't need a blanket because it's super hot at night only some fitted sheets would be nice. The picture was from today we went to a few beaches for our P day. The language is coming slowly i feel like i haven't learned that much new stuff but i've gotten a lot better at the stuff i already knew. It's really hard because they have this verb form down hear that you never learn in classes because it's slang but every bo9dy uses it. i am starting to understand it a lot better now when i don't have a headache but it's going pretty well. Um We go back for interviews next P day and i will be able to see if the package is here yet or not.

Um i probably could i just never thought about that ha ha. I'm glad to hear that kace prestwich is doing better. An That's awesome darbi got that job. I only have about 10 to 15 minutes left just so you know.

August 13, 2012

August 13, 2012

We saw some monkeys on the way to chata's house we thought it was pretty cool. Anyways thanks so much for everything. Love You guys!!! Pura Vida!!

Con Amor Elder Anderson

August 13, 2012

August 13, 2012

Hey everyone! How`s it going? My first week in Costa Rica has been pretty interesting and really hard. I quickly found out that i don't know spanish at all haha. But oh well i'll get the hang of it eventually. My first area i was assigned to was Cañas it's a town about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride north west of San Jose. Our area is way massive. We're on  of the few companions to live with other companions so there's four in our house. My first companions name is Elder Ramirez and he's from Honduras and he know about 30 words in English. So  it's been super interesting trying to communicate and it makes it a lot harder to learn the language because he can't explain the word in english. But other than that he is a super nice guy he's been out for 7 months and he's super cool. We already have 2 Baptismal dates for August 25! And in the training program it said that i had to challenge them to baptism so i did and they accepted! It was pretty cool! Our area has a branch of about 110 people but only about 70 show up for church on sunday so we've been going around talking to the inactive families a lot this week trying to reactivate them which kinda worked because we had 80 people this sunday! We don´t any tracting at all it´s not really a thing down here. Instead we contact people in the street but not everyone. President Wilkinson said that our first priorities are Families and Men old enough to hold that preisthood so we always contact those two. But we only have about 1 h our maybe 2 for contacting every day because since i´m new we're in the house till twelve doing things. Then at 1 we go to Sister Marta's house and she cooks us lunch and she is an amazing cook but she gives us each enough food for 3 people and we have to eat all of it. The weather here has been so hot and no rain. The people here are called Ticos like we're called Americans. But the people are so humble here and are always happy even though they live in these tiny houses with nothing. I love them so much I'm so glad i got sent to Costa Rica for my mission. I'm glad to hear that the Reunion went well i wish i could've been there but oh well. My Address is. Costa Rica has been having problems with drugs being sent into the country so don´t send me any food or candy cause it will cost a ton of money to get it out of the postal office. And you can only send through the USPS not through fedex or ups or dhl because the church doesn't deal with them because they put a lot of taxes on things. But if you could it would be awesome to have newspaper articles about the olympics and the Eagles when they start playing. And pictures of everyone in the family and my friends if you can. I love you guys so much and thank you so much for your support. Pura Vida! 

Elder Drake Ashton Anderson

Mision Costa Rica San Jose

Apartado Postal 249-2010

San Jose; Costa Rica

America Central 

We live about 700 meters west of the big Catholic church i think right next to this health clinic. Oh ya we have a lime tree in our back yard which i thought was pretty cool. Elder Kemp is from West Jordan Utah and Elder Cruz his companion and mine are from Honduras. Those are the elders i live with they are super cool i'm so glad that we have 4 people in our house i think it would be so boring otherwise. Herman Martha cook for all of us everyday except for Sunday and Monday. It is so awesome here i just wish i wasn't sick so that i could actually work harder. It's so hard to understand Spanish and speak it when you have a pounding headache and feel super dizzy. But oh well i got a blessing last night so i should be better in the next few days. I know this week will definitely be more successfull. at the end of the month we go back to san jose for our one month interview with President Wilkinson which will be nice to see all my buddies from the MTC. 

August 6, 2012

August 6, 2012

Hey everyone! How`s it going? My first week in Costa Rica has been pretty interesting and really hard. I quickly found out that i don't know spanish at all haha. But oh well i'll get the hang of it eventually. My first area i was assigned to was Cañas it's a town about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride north west of San Jose. Our area is way massive. We're on  of the few companions to live with other companions so there's four in our house. My first companions name is Elder Ramirez and he's from Honduras and he know about 30 words in English. So  it's been super interesting trying to communicate and it makes it a lot harder to learn the language because he can't explain the word in english. But other than that he is a super nice guy he's been out for 7 months and he's super cool. We already have 2 Baptismal dates for August 25! And in the training program it said that i had to challenge them to baptism so i did and they accepted! It was pretty cool! Our area has a branch of about 110 people but only about 70 show up for church on sunday so we've been going around talking to the inactive families a lot this week trying to reactivate them which kinda worked because we had 80 people this sunday! We don´t any tracting at all it´s not really a thing down here. Instead we contact people in the street but not everyone. President Wilkinson said that our first priorities are Families and Men old enough to hold that preisthood so we always contact those two. But we only have about 1 h our maybe 2 for contacting every day because since i´m new we're in the house till twelve doing things. Then at 1 we go to Sister Marta's house and she cooks us lunch and she is an amazing cook but she gives us each enough food for 3 people and we have to eat all of it. The weather here has been so hot and no rain. The people here are called Ticos like we're called Americans. But the people are so humble here and are always happy even though they live in these tiny houses with nothing. I love them so much I'm so glad i got sent to Costa Rica for my mission. I'm glad to hear that the Reunion went well i wish i could've been there but oh well. My Address is. Costa Rica has been having problems with drugs being sent into the country so don´t send me any food or candy cause it will cost a ton of money to get it out of the postal office. And you can only send through the USPS not through fedex or ups or dhl because the church doesn't deal with them because they put a lot of taxes on things. But if you could it would be awesome to have newspaper articles about the olympics and the Eagles when they start playing. And pictures of everyone in the family and my friends if you can. I love you guys so much and thank you so much for your support. Pura Vida! 

Elder Drake Ashton Anderson

Mision Costa Rica San Jose

Apartado Postal 249-2010

San Jose; Costa Rica

America Central 

July 31, 2012

July 31, 2012

Hey!! We got here safe yesterday it is way cool. i will find out who my trainer and where my area is at 2 today. talk to you on monday because those are my pdays

July 26, 2012

July 26, 2012

Hey so you asked me what you could send me and i've been thinking and all the elders in my district have been having there moms send them their ipods with some church music on it with a little speaker since you can't use headphones on your mission. So i was wondering if you could send me the Ipod shuffle with some music on it like Jon Schmidt, Jenny Oaks Baker, BYU Vocalpoint, Piano Guys, And any classical piano stuff. And i would also need the wall charger with the shuffle too. If you could send it that would be awesome! Thanks so much mom for everything. I'll try to send you my SD card today or tomorrow it's just that last week was really busy so i never really got a chance. Oh ya and if you could put some disney soundtracks on there too like tarzan and hercules that would be awesome! An anything that will help make my hair grow back cause i don't want to come home with no hair thanks mom:) Love You! 

Email

From: Drake Anderson <drake.anderson@myldsmail.net>

Date: July 16, 2012 12:01:58 PM MDT

To: Richard Anderson <rimrock43@gmail.com>

Hey sorry about last week my companion had to get a root canal taken care of so i was gone all day. I got to see the stadium of fire though which was pretty cool but it's nothing like the fireworks back home. Time is going by so fast here. We all get our traveling plans this week!!! Wooooo!!! We're all so stoked! It's been raining a lot here to. The MTC is going great I love it here but i'm also ready to get out and go to Costa Rica. The Spanish is coming but i still feel like i'm so far away from where i need to be.But oh well as long as i try my hardest the Lord will provide a way. Me and my companion teach around ten to fifteen lessons a week now. We have six different investigators. I haven't had to give a talk yet but i probably will pretty soon. Oh ya last night Jenny Oaks Baker (Elder Dalin H Oaks daughter) came for our fireside. She is the most talented musician. You should look her up on google and maybe show her to Mark i think that he would be interested. Well it's good to here everything is going weel at home and i'll keep The Prestwitch family in my prayers. Thanks so much for all the packages and pictures! Love you guys!

 

Elder Drake Anderson