Guácimo

April 9, 2012

Dear family, 

Finally I´ll be able to write you guys for real! I hope you haven´t gotten bored with my emails in weeks past, and now don´t want to read anymore. ha 

By the way congrats to Trevor and Eastan on finishing their missions!! You are awesome. Return with honor! 

Well let´s see. My companion and I are getting into are third week together. Where has this time gone? So as I said Elder Gomez is from Fresno, California. It´s really awesome to have two California brothers together. So he does have a hispanic name and latin heritage, but he´s a full blood gringo. In other words he doesn´t speak very much spanish. We are working on him feeling more comfortable with the language. It´s a struggle, but I know exactly how he feels. 

So we got along super well, and are excited for all the work we have here in Guácimo. 

I don´t remember telling you all, but my last week here with Elder Martinez we baptized a young man named Jose David. He is an excellent recent convert, and we are currently teaching his wife Angelica. She is very nice as well, but not as dedicated. We´re hoping to baptize her this month so they can go to the temple in a years time from now.

Our conference and Easter weekends were pretty calm, but the weather has been out of control. It can´t decide if it wants to pelt us with rain or make us wither with the penetrating heat! 

Having a newbie companion has taught me some great things, and we´ve enjoyed funny times. The other day the Sister who makes lunch served us a whole fish with eyeball and all. Elder Gomez had never eaten fish before, and was scared to death haha He made it through though. I´m really happy and and glad to be serving a mission especially in this time where we are remembering his triumphant resurrection. Happy Easter! Love you all

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller 

April 6, 2012

Yikes! I am really late on getting back to you guys, sorry! Believe it or not I do not have time again today. Monday for sure will be a good day.

Well this week has been awesome to say the least. I am introducing my greenie companion to the beauty of what is Costa Rica. Its so much fun!! haha So Elder Gomez is from Fresno California! 

This week I wasnt able to write you guys because we went to the temple on Wednesday. We were planning on writing home then too, but every single business in our area is closed down. Here spring break is called semana santa and it is a huge holiday. 

I promise to write much more in a couple days, and let you know all thats happening. 

Love you 

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller 

March 26, 2012

Hey there everyone, 

Well the bad news is that I don´t have much time again today, but the good news is that I´ll be staying in Guácimo for this transfer, and hopefully the next as well. 

So right now I´m with Elder Burgerner. If you´ll remember he was my companion in my 2nd area, Ojo de Agua. Today and tomorrow are his last days in the mission. So we´ll only be together for a couple hours. Tomorrow I will drop him off and pick up my new companion who is coming from the MTC. I´m going to be training! wo-ho! I´m way excited, and I know it´s going a lot of fun, and a great learning experience. 

This past week and I Elder Martinez baptized a young man named Jose David. It was an amazing baptism, and a great story of how he was prepared by the lord. 

I´m super behind on sending photos, but I promise to send some next week.

Thanks for everything

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller 

March 19, 2012

Well this week I had the the interview with President Galvez that I´ve been waiting for. So.... he told me if I´m going to leave early it will have to be a whole transfer early! I was a little suprised. Apparently he does not want to leave the new President with these kind of issues. So I accepted, and he told me he´d make the arrangements. 

Also, he is not allowed to set apart missionaries while still here in the mission. So if you guys were to come I would be a missionary still. I would need to keep the rules and behave well until I get home and the stake president can set me apart. haha

The date in which I´m free is June 21st 2012!! 

Love you all so much! 


Elder Joshua Miller 

March 12, 2012

Dear family and friends, 

I´m glad to be writing you again. How did we get to March already? 

Well, this week Elder Martinez and I had a lot of fun together. You always have those companions who like to joke around a lot, and the two of us seem to be doing that pretty often. There is a lot of down-time when you have to walk miles and miles to each appointment. (We don´t take any buses here) Part of that is good because you can talk, but the other part is your feet hurt and your shoes get worn down pretty fast haha  

Guácimo is an interesting small town. Some common jobs here are working on a banana plantation or a "breateador" - man who cuts grass with a machete. They make me laugh because they always carry the machete on their belt or attatched to their bike. 

Our investigator Ivan Mendez drives a tractor and works super long hours. He is an excellent guy, but is having a hard time chaning his beliefs. He doesn´t believe in eternal families and therefore doesn´t care if his partner goes to church with him. So she hasn´t been yet, but he made it out for the fourth time yesterday. 

In church I taught Gospel Principles class with investigators. I didn´t prepare much, and I thought I could slide by without a lesson plan. However I learned that preaparation is key in allowing the spirit and the gifts of the spirit to be present. It wasn´t a bad lesson, but planning is always the best choice.

 We talked about the scriptures and did a small activity. The class was to write a note to their children as if they were going to pass away tomorow. After all wrote something, I asked if a letter between a parent and child is something important. (Seeing as how many of the scriptures we have are of this type of writing; father-son) Afterwards I ripped up the letters and explained that if we don´t study the scriptures they´re not worth much. It would have been mean if I did that to their actual letters, but they were random papers instead and I returned them what they wrote. 

I personally love the scriptures and I know they come from our Heavanly father. I love you all as well. Thank you for your support! 

Pura Vida

Elder Miller 

March 5, 2012

Hello! 

I hope everyone is doing great. 

Well this was a super quick week. I really did not feel it go by. So we got a pretty suprising email today. Our new Mission President has been announced!  Here is a small bio they sent us :

Buenos dias Elderes y Hermanas

La oficina de la mision Costa Rica,San Jose

New President for Costa Rica Mission

Chad Read Wilkinson


Chad Read Wilkinson, 47, and Allison Marie Wilkinson, four children, Saratoga Springs 4th Ward, Saratoga Springs Utah Stake. Brother Wilkinson is a stake president and is a former high councilor, bishop, Young Men president and missionary in the Dominican Republic Mission. Assistant administrator, Seminaries and Institutes. Born in Murray, Utah, to Joseph William and Clytie Wilkinson.

Sister Wilkinson serves as a Primary teacher and is a former counselor in a Young Women presidency, enrichment leader, Primary music leader, counselor in a special needs Mutual, Sunday School teacher and Relief Society teacher. Born in Provo, Utah, to Gary Douglas and Carolyn Marie Ford.

I thought it was pretty funny that I wrote a little about that in my last email. It was also exciting news, eventhough I probably will not get to know this President very well. 

So on Friday I was able to make my first return trip back to Siquirres (my first area) to do a few baptism interviews. It was so fun to see familiar sights and faces. The interviews went great, and I have really loved havig the opportunity to do them. District meetings are proving to be fun as well. 

Elder Martinez and I are getting along super well, and we are ready to have some success together. The upcoming days will be pretty crucial for us to complete our goals.

I really love the Guacimo branch. It is very small, but has a lot of heart. We are trying to work closely with members, but its difficult  when there arent very many. haha 

Anyways, thats it for today. Take care all. 

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller 

Feb. 27, 2012

Dear family and friends,

Thank you all for thinking of me on my B-day! I really appreciate it.
It was an okay day as far as the work goes, but we got to eat Tres
Leches which is my favorite desert ever so it made up for it. It´s
strange to be 21 because I still feel like I´m 19. ha

Yesterday we did the normal Sunday routine, and unfortunately we had a
family of investigtors drop us. There was also a young man in our
branch that opened his mission call and he will be headed to México.

Today I was able to take a much needed nap. Hooray for preparation
day! I have been dead tired lately.

This week we were favored to have another General Authority with us!
It was Elder Martino of the seventy and central america presidency.
Their niece Sister Martino is actually serving here in the mission.
It´s been interesting to see that every time someone visits us they
tell us how awesome our mission president is. President Galvez has
done a ton for the Mission over the past 3 years, and the improvements
are noticeable. The replacement President has been called, but we
don´t know who it is yet.

Well right now we are working with Ivan Mendez. We found him a little
while ago and now he´s been to church twice. We´re going to try and
involve his family in the upcoming week, as well as find new
investigators.

Well thanks again everyone. I love you guys!

Pura Vida

Elder MIller

Feb. 20, 2012

Hi guys,

whew! I´m completely exhausted. What a week. I´m remembering what it´s
like to a be a missionary out in the jungle. Things are going well
though.

Well let´s see what is new? I´m super happy to be here in Guacimo. I´m
thinking it would be way cool to finish my mission in the same place I
started, but we´ll see what happens. Lately I´ve just been an area
hopper.

My companion Elder Martinez has a lot of energy and loves to work hard
so he is keeping me going. We are currently teaching a bunch of
familes which is great. The one thing about being outside of the city
though is that no one really has the motivation to go to church. We´re
going to have to find new ways to motivate them. I love the culture
and the food of Limon. It´s probably my favorite in Costa Rica.

So our apartment is... okay. If I could compare it to anything it just
kind of looks like a garage haha. The cold water here is kind of love
hate thing. It would be quite refreshing for a time right now when
it´s blazing hot, but in the morning it´s less than gratifying ha.
Especially on days where we need to go to San Jose like Wednesday and
we need to wake up at 4.

All in all it should be a great area. I´m looking forward to helping
families come closer to Christ in Guacimo! Love you all.

Pura Vida

Elder Miller

Feb. 13, 2012

Well the unthinkable happened!

As you can see in the title I´m no longer in Escazú but in Guácimo. A
pretty crazy transfer which I was not expecting at all.

Well Guácimo is in Limon! The area where I started. It´s actually in
the same district of Siquirres which was my first area. I´m stoked to
go visit because I will be district leader here.

It´s going to be a super radical change because my last couple areas
have been well-off mellow towns. Guácimo is pretty much the opposite
haha I feel like I´m in a different country.

Well as far as companion goes his name is Elder Martinez! I must get
along with Honduran comps or something because he is my fourth from
there. He´s got a whole 6 weeks in the mission so we will be finishing
the new training program together.

I´m pretty excited for the change, eventhough it will be a lot of
work. I guess getting to know another new area will keep me on my
toes.

So that´s about it for today. I let you know more next week. Love you all!

Pura Vida

Elder Miller

Feb. 6, 2012

Well Hello Errbody,

We have arrived at the last week of the change. Time continues to pick
up speed and I don´t know where this transfer went, but I feel very
satisfied with the work that we had this change. My companion and I
were obedient and we worked hard. I feel that we were also blessed
according to the effort we gave. I´d love to have a 2nd transfer with
E. Velasquez because we have a good rhythm going, but whatever happens
happens.

This week especially we gave a strong effort. Almost every lesson we
had was carefully planned and thought out. It really helped us out in
the case of Ronald and Cristina. We knew they were going to have
struggles getting to church so we made plan A and B to get them there.
We also made sure they understood the Sabbath day well.

Sunday morning we were walking to pick them up and we ran into them in
the street before we could get to there house. They threw us an
interesting curve. Aparently since Ronald hadn´t been to mass in a
while he missing it. They ended going to their catholic church, and
made us a deal they would come to ours afterwards.
So we waited outside the catholic church for them (haha) and they kept
their end of the deal.

I´m hoping they were able to see a difference between the two, and
felt the spirit more strongly in Sacrament meeting.

Ronald and Cristina are about the only investigators we have at this
moment. We are doing a lot of street contacting of families and
working on Wards retention of recent converts. Apparently as a mission
we are dead last in Central America for retention, but we are one of
the top missions for Baptizing families. That´s one thing we´re really
good at! ánimo!

Pura Vida

Elder Miller

Jan. 30 2012

Hey! What´s up??

Happy Pday ha

Well Sister Miller would have officialy finished her mission by now.
I´m glad I´m Elder Miller though, and I have six more months!! I still
feel unready to come home. I´m enjoying myself too much. (not to say I
don´t miss you guys)

We had a solid week. I´m very happy because Ronald and Cristina are
now progressing as a family together. We´re trying to get Cristina to
chill out because she has so many questions. They have catholic
background so she was having a hard time gripping the fact that Jesus
created the Earth under the direction of the father instead of God by
himself. (It´s really not pertinent to your salvation we basically
told her.) My companion and I have just been focusing on making a
perfect spiritual environment when we go over there. Their 1 year old
daughter Maria Paula makes it pretty difficult though. Cristina is
also working on Sundays. Bringing members to lessons is going to be
very key.

In order to work with members we have all the men in priesthood sign
up for a time to go out with us during the week. We did it the first
time, and it worked awesome.

On Friday we also had a FHE with members and investigators. There was
more particapation on the wards part than the investi´s but it went
well.

I´m trying to think of funny things that happened, but it was a calm
couple of days.
Apart from us not having any food. In our fridge right now there is
just a bottle of water haha. Luckily they deposited money early today.

Anyways, thank you for your support! Love you

Pura Vida

Elder Miller

January 23,2012

Hola todos

 

 

Well I´m afraid this will be a short email seeing as I don´t have much time. First I just want to congratulate Christian Davis for the mission call! Way to go budy! I hope we don´t go 4 years without seeing eachother haha

 

Okay, so the highlight of the week was definitely the mission conference with Elder Clayton. In my whole year and half of being in this mission, never have met together as an entire mission. It was very special.

 

Accompanying Elder Clayton on the mission visit was his wife along Elder and Sister Amado from the area presidency in central america. As they came in we each had a turn to shake their hands. It was then that I realized that the Clayton´s were from Irvine. haha I guess I should have known that before. Anyways, Sister Clayton told me we´d take a picture afterwards, and we did so Mom you should get that in your email sometime soon.

 

The training portion of the conference was awesome. Short and sweet. I loved listening to the general authorities speak. Each of them said things that I felt were directed to me by the spirit. All in all it was a wonderful day because at the end I was also able to recieve my christmas package! Thanks fam!

 

Missionary work in Escazú continues to move along. The sister missionaries had 4 baptisms this week so we have a consistent flow of new members in the ward. Elder Velasquez and I had to drop several investigators this week. We did find new ones though which is good. Lately finding has not been much of problem for us, but it´s getting the people to progress which has slowed us down a little bit. We are now working with a couple named Ronald and Cristina. They have a 1 year old baby girl, and seem to have a lot of questions for us.

 

Okey doke. That´s it for today. Thank you all-

 

Pura Vida

 

Elder MIller

January 16,2012

Hola! What´s up everyone?

Things are still going great with us. This week we gave it all we had
and came up a little dry, but nevertheless it was a good week.

The coolest news that I recieved was probably from the youth. In Costa
Rica about 450 youth from all over the country attented EFY in
Alajuela. They do it a little differently here and it´s called SOY,
but it´s the same concept. Anyways, one of the young men in my ward
here was partnerd up with one of my converts that I had in La Campiña
ward. (Sebastian Solano) He asked him if he knew an Elder Miller and
he told him I was serving in Escazú. He also told me that Sebas shared
his testimony and is doing very well. I was pretty happy to here that.

Let´s see... What else?

We are working right now with a man named Luis Flores and this week
was his second week in church. His family is from El Salvador and I
can tell you that they make delicious Pupusas. (Empanada from El
Salvador)

We also have a couple named Max and Berlín. They are from Nicarauga
and have ten years together with out being married. So the obvious
plan is to marry and baptize them as quick as we can haha

This Thursday we´ll have a mission visit from Elder L Whitney Clayton
so I´ll let you know how that goes.

Love you guys

Pura Vida

Elder Miller

January 9, 2012

Hello, 

My short time in Escazú has been awesome! I thought it would be a pain getting to know another area so quick, but it has been a smooth transfer. The area is really pretty and there is some nice city views from up in the mountains. 

I love my companion Elder Velasquez. He is pretty different from the other two Honduran comps I have had. He is very humble which makes the missionary work easier and more pleasant. He also loves learning English so we are having a lot of fun with that. 

So a little info about the apartment. (primarily for my mom) We live with members, and we have a small atahced apartment to their house. Yesterday they had us over for dinner and they are nice people. The single mom of the family was baptized in 1966 and one year later the missionaries started living at her house. So do the math on that one haha A long time for the Elders and some sisters that have lived there. It´s a got a small charm, but really needed some help in the cleaning department. This morning I spent a good 4-5 hours trying to get it fixed up while my companion slept. jk haha He helped a little bit. It still needs a good scrub, but it looks a lot better than the first time I saw it. 

So this is my 3rd consecutive area with 4 missionaries serving together. This time we share the area with sister Missionaries? haha Nah It´s actually pretty cool. The Sister´s seem to be hard working. One of them is Sister Hunter from the Laguna Niguel stake. So we are representing Southern California here in Escazú. 

We are definitely not the only gringos in the ward thoug. Escazú has by far the most that I´ve ever seen and probably more than any other ward here in Costa Rica. 

Well, last but not least we baptized a family this week.!! It was a cool little welcome in present.Their names are Francisco and Joselyn, and the Elders had found them knocking doors about 1 month prior to me coming here. We also had the chance to take them to the temple on Friday the day before theor baptism. They loved it and said they´ll be back in 1 year to become an eternal family!! 

Talk to you later guys. Love you 

Baptism Day

Pday Fun

Josh finally gets his Christmas package

Elder and Sr. Clayton

1/2/12

Hey guys!

Well this past week I think I finally got all the things out of my suitcase and got settled in the area of San Ramón. I was thinking I would be in that area for a good long while, but I turned out to be pretty darn wrong. Saturday we were called and told that both my comp and I would be leaving! It was a pretty big shocker. All in all though I felt pretty peaceful, and I know the change was brought about for a reason. 

Sunday was my last day in San Ramon and I ended up giving a talk in sacrament so that was pretty fun. I didn´t get a chance to know the members very well, but it was a fun six weeks in that small branch. 

So my new area is called Escazú. I believe it is one of the most wealthiest places in Costa Rica. Well see how the work goes! haha 

I´m very grateful to be here and to have this opportunity to serve!

Well I had a mellow but fun New Years Eve, and I´m expecting great things to happen in 2012. Thanks for all your support!

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller 

12/26/11

Merry Christmas Everybody!

What a pleasure it was to speak with you and know that everyone is doing well. I feel blessed to have such an awesome family. 

Well for those that I didn´t talk to let me tell you a little about the week that we had here in San Ramón. I think I´m getting to know the area pretty, now being here for a whole transfer. Those six weeks went by incredibly fast. I think the more time you aquire in the mission the easier it is to get transferred and having things changed around. 

We didn´t have too much development happen here speaking of investigators and mission work, but we have some prime possiblities for the next couple of weeks. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas were pretty mellow for us. The 24th we had carne asada, tamales, and arroz con pollo, which is traditional grub. You´ll have to remember that central americans believe that Christmas is more of a party than anything so they also like to light off fire works and there is a little gift exchaning.

I´ll be happy to return family traditions next year. 

Enjoy the rest of the holiday season everyone! Love you 

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller 

12/19/11

Hey Hey everybody, 

Hope all are well. Today we had a fun p-day as a district. Early this morning we went to a place called Grecia. There we visited some dark underground caves and we played around in a river/waterfall. It was up to our knees so no worries about breaking the rules. It was super refreshing though and everyone enjoyed themselves. That was up until we missed the bus though and had to walk an hour to get back into town. It was all good though. 

Well this week for me it was a battle with the flu. I more or less came out on top, as I am now feeling better but not quite at 100% still. We did manage to work and get out of the house almost every day. I felt a little strange speaking to everyone because I had lost my voice, but I guess people could at least understand me. 

So the baptism we were going to have on Saturday did not end up happening. It was for one reason. Teodosia, our investigator had a baby haha She was actually in a lot of pain on Sunday when we did the interview so they walked straight to the hospital afterwards and the baby was born. I think there is like a 40 day wait period for her to go swimming so we´ll see what happens with the baptism. We very happy for her, but we wish the baby would have waited a little longer so they could have been baptized this month. Melvin and Teodosia are basically the only investi´s we are working with right now. 

We did not have a very high attendance in church on sunday because it seems like the whole town of San Ramón has left to go pick in the coffee fields. I guess it does provide jobs for a lot of people though. In San Ramón this week Guinness world records was also here. In the town center they made the biggest tamale ever in Costa Rica. Unfortunately we didn´t get to try it or take pictures. Tamales are super popular here to make during Navidad. I´m sure I´ll eat much more in the upcoming days.

I hope everyone has a wonderful christmas. 

Best wishes & Pura Vida 

Dec. 12

Hey there everyone, 

Well today has not been the greatest day ever, but I´m still in good spirits. Saturday night I started feeling bad and yesterday and today I have been hanging out in bed. I did talk with the mission nurse and she said I probably have a virus which has taken away all my strength. Walking here to do internet was even a struggle haha Apart from being sick, things are going along pretty well. 

We have put a baptism goal with a family that went to church yesterday. Their names are Melvin and Teodosia. If everything turns out okay we should have them married and baptized by the end of the week. They are super humble people but have really big hearts. They have been investigators for a while, but not until recently have we been able to find them. It´s a pretty funny story. The Elders went over there to teach them one time and found out they had moved. They don´t have a phone or any means of contacting them so we went weeks without seeing them. Finally other Elders were walking around town and saw Melvin. They had moved because they couldn´t pay their bills and went to another side of San Ramón to pick coffee beans. Luckily they still live in our area. 

We have not able to teach other investigators because they have left to pick coffee as well. I guess this is the season when the beans are ripe and ready. 

Well I think that´s it for this week. I apologize for the short email. I think I´m going to go home and lay down again haha

Thanks to all, with love

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller 

Dec. 5,11

Hey, What´s up ?

Well we are all working hard here in San Ramón. This month of December is pretty darn important for us. As a mission, President Galvez has put the goal for us to baptize 100 families. That´s pretty much unheard of. Last year December was the worst month for us so he wants to make sure we don´t let it happen again. We usually baptize an average of 20-25 families a month so you can see how big of a stretch it will be for us. My companion and I are working together for two families. It will take some big miracles in order to have everything work out.

As a zone this month we all covenated to make sacrifices in order to recieve blessings. I´ve really come to understand a lot more about covenants than I did before. They are very sacred and deserve complete dedication, devotion, and fidelity. 

We have a lot of possibilites as far as teaching people goes. We worked really hard to get most to church, but in the end none were able to make it. We did change chapels this week to another house in the area so we were expecting the attendance to drop a bit but it actually went up a good share. We also had the Christmas devotional that we were inviting people to all week. I guess it didn´t spark an interest in anyone, but I loved it. I believe that was probably my first time watching. I hope you guys saw it too. 

Anyways, that´s about it for today. Thanks for your support! Love you 

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller