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