John - November 15, 2010

Hola familia.
well this week we had changes and I´m in a new area, Nueva concepción. So i have a new companion Elder Canaza. New stuff. One thing i would like to say is that my companion is the branch president, so im the first councler. Ha dad, good job on the second councler, but i won. hahah no i´m just joking, but seriously im the first councler, My first sunday and a had to give a talk and teach the gospel class. So that was interesting.
Well right now i don´t have time to write we got into apopa late. So bye. Oh and don´t worry about my camera charger i found it.

Elder Paulsen

Picturas!

079- The temple
080- My district in the mtc
094- in front of the temple
109- Adam And I! In the MTC
125-My MTC district
145- My first day in El Salvador146 our study area
147 The front door
149 The bathroom
150 The back door
153 the baprism of my first person. José Luiz
170- A way cool Dragon fly!

John - November 8, 2010

Hola mi familia,
Hello, well this week we have changes, so i don´t know if i will be leaving or staying. I hope i stay, but honestly i wouldn´t mind a new comp. its not that i don´t like him, its just that sometimes he wants to do things that are a little bit against the rules. Like for example he drinks pepsi. Stuff like that. But i love this area that im in. The members are really cool. I´ve decided that our cook reminds me of Teresa prater. Ha just the attitude she has, is like the same. Haha. Yeah and all the members are pretty cool. So mom to answer your questions, well it hasn´t rained in a while, like 3 weeks i would say. Atleast i haven´t noticed if it has rained. Yeah my comps are doing fine. Having two latin comps has really helped me learn spanish faster. I remember when i first met them, i could understand about 60% of what they were saying. And now i can pretty much understand what they are saying, like 85%, but of course there are always words im still learning. And plenty of words that they say that i don´t know. but from where the conversation is going i can tell what they mean. I still have a bunch to learn. But i know that it is all by the spirit. I have days when i think that this is me talking, and then everything goes down the toliet! Hah. Oh and also about katherine, of course i would want you to go to the showing. I actually knew Jay before i knew Katherine. Ha. Oh but that news brings sadness to my heart. Give her a hug for me. Jay was such a special person, he was great. I know Katherine is going to miss him...
So there are a few things here that i really love. One is the pan dulce, and the other is called ¨Choco-bananos¨ Oh! they are so good. Its just a frozen banana dipped in chocolate. Oh goodness its good. And they are only 15 cents for one. What a deal. So i got a few pictures i can send to you today. A few are old pictures, but there all great. I just hope this little gadget works for me. Well i love you all. Things here are going great. I can´t believe i´ve been out for 4 almost 5 months now! Time is starting to go by so fast. Well i love you all. Till next week. -Elder paulsen-

Adam - November 1, 2010

hey Family,

I´m on today. I´m still feeling like i want to go home. So much has been on my mind this week... as usual. But i feel like my reasoning is a little different. I feel like i´m trying open my heart and listen to those promptings on what I should do. i´m trying to be more obedient and trying to listen to the spirit. The weird thing is... i still feel the same. I still feel like i want... i´m supposed to come home. It´s really odd, but i´m trying to have more faith and less fear in the things to come. I´m still constantly thinking and praying to know what is right.

Elder Adam Paulsen

Hey family,

This week has been... odd, but i can say that i´m feeling a little better. I´m still not great, I have a really hard time pulling myself out of bed, eating a lot, and being happy. This week has especially been hard on my sleep. The last two nights I can´t sleep very well, which is really weird for me. Usually when i lay down to sleep, i´m out until the alarm goes off, and even through the alarm sometimes. But this weeks i´ve been having a hard time sleeping. Getting to sleep, staying asleep, getting comfortable, it all just makes it even harder to be obedient. I usually wake up about 5 times a night.

Well, on a better note. Yesterday was Halloween. In Costa Rica, nothing happens on Halloween. It´s just another day of the week, but my comp and I felt like we needed to celebrate it. So we went to the candy store and bought a Kilo of candy for 3,000 Colones (6 bucks). We have so much candy and it´s nice to have some little snacks all day long.

I´m sure you´re all wondering how i´m feeling about my decision whether I´ll be coming home or not. Right now i´m feeling like I´ll be coming home. I´ve been thinking so much about an answer, and thought back to the temple. I realized that I had an answer. That I need to have faith in what i´ve been told and continue being obedient. I know it all sounds a little weird, that my answer is to come home, but i´ve prayed about it, and still felt the same. I´m sure that you might be thinking that it´s just me making me feel like that answer I want. But that´s not how i feel. I feel like that´s what i should be doing.

I talked to Cami this week. She was really really nice, and i opened up to here and listened for advise. It´s actually pretty cool what happened. We had just gotten back from lunch, we decided to walk back to the house really quick to finish some numbers for the month that we didn´t finish the night before. We weren´t planning on coming home, but 5 minutes after walking in the door, she called. I thought it was really odd, but somewhat inspired. So I listened to what she had to say and took all the advise she had to give. She said that Costa Rica is really hard, and she couldn´t even imagine how hard it would be being on a mission. That she had it hard enough that she got really depressed, and after 3 months, still doesn´t like it here. But it is getting better. That it doesn´t just click, that you slowed get accustomed to everything.

She also said that I did have a tough situation. That she didn´t know what to say concerning my decision. That what i need to do is pray, with a decision in my heart, asking if that´s what i´m supposed to do. Asking for a confirmation from the spirit that I´ve made the right decision. So that´s what i did, and i´m not going to say that i got some huge answer/confirmation. But i did feel a small... i dunno... feeling of... good. I felt okay. The only reason i´m not 100% positive of saying that I am coming home is because i´m afraid of it. I´m scared of what will happen, what people will think, how things are going to work out, that I am making all these feelings and promptings up in my head.

One thing that i´ve that´s stuck out to me this week is this: that ¨Fear and Faith cannot coexist¨. Two people, Mckell, and my comp, both told me this, and it´s been in my head a lot. I need to have faith in what i feel. Faith in my answers. I can´t fear, by having this fear, I´m making it harder on myself.

Everyone seems to say that I haven´t given this decision enough time... enough though. I don´t feel that way. #1- I´ve been thinking about this 90% of the day, everyday. #2- I´ve been deciding on this since September 27th. That´s a total of 35 days, about 900 hours, 6 weeks... however you want to look at it. I´ve visited with the Mission President 3 or 4 times. I´ve talked to him about 15 times. I´ve talked to Mom and Dad on the phone twice, and John once. I think i´ve given it enough time/thought. I´m done waiting and putting all this stress on myself. It´s making me sick, physically. Just know that I have thought about EVERYTHING! About all the things i´ll be losing, all the regrets i might have, and all the opportunities and people i´ll be letting down. I know it all.

Well, I love you all so much. I haven´t gotten a phone call from Brayden´s Grandpa, but i´ll be looking forward to it. The changes meeting is on the 10th of November. They will probably be sending me home on the 11th if that´s what happens. I´m sure you´ll find out more this week whether it be through my President or what. I love you all.

Elder Adam Paulsen

John - November 1, 2010

Hello everybody,
I´m sorry that everybody didn´t get the email from last week, but i thought i sent it, it was in a draft addressed to dad. So i don´t know if it got sent or not, but i sent it out, just before this one. Well this week, has been good, i have pictures i can send you all of you. So stay tuned after this email. My comp, E. Ramos has a little thing that can transfer the usb to the memory card. so i can use that and send them to you all :) Well this week i have written that oh ha. So Last week after eating, we went to a little restaurant called, Pollo Campero, or chicken camper in english. ha well there we shared a big plate of chicken and bread and salad(kolslaw) well one of the pieces of chicken i got had the brain in it... So i showed everybody and they said to eat it... ha so i did. It was a bit softer than the normal meat. Hah so now i have eaten chicken brain. This week we had a multi-zone meeting. So 4 out of the 6 elders (including me) that were in my district in the mtc were there, so that was cool to see them. This meeting was a basically a big machete party, ha i mean that they just said a bunch of things that elders shouldn´t be doing. Like listening to inappropriate music, or having girlfriends on the mission. Ha seriously there are missionaries that have had this. Like legit girlfriends here in El salvador!! Rediculous right? well thats what i thought. Oh and while there i they gave the missionaries who baptized families, ties. So i got a tie from president Perez. Cool. Ha its a missionary mall tie too. But it looks good, I like it. Only 3 or 4 other companionships did this, in our multi-zone. So that was cool.
This week we have two possible baptisms, Billy who is 19! only 6 months younger than me. Like Brayden! So thats cool. And María. She has been to church a bunch of times, before, too.
Well yeah, that about does it. If you still have questions about El salvador, tell me. I don´t know what i´ve told you, and what you know. Love you!!
-Elder Paulsen-

John - November 1, 2010

hey
things are going good this week, I can´t really complain. I have tried to keep my head in the work this week after the bad news. I talked with adam on monday, which was a suprise for me. I knew from your emails that he was going to call me sometime, but i had no idea when. So after i had written adam, we were all walking to play soccer as a zone, as usual. Then Elder Salinas comes walking next to me talking on the phone. I was so Suprised to find out that it was adam. Ha we really probably talked for an hour or two. It was really hard to hear him, because i was riding in the back of a pick-up, so it was windy. But we talked and basically there was nothing i could say to change his mind. He was siting with the president while talking with me, so the decision was already made. After that phone call i tried to forget it and keep my mind off it by playing soccer with the zone. So that was that.

Ha well i´ve got a few things to report this week. First on my list, Ha it is so hummid here that those letters that i got from lana have all sealed up. Ha all of them. But don´t worry i have plenty more that are of a different kind. So they didn´t seal. also something that i noted in my agenda here. I have to shave every day or it just looks terrible at night. oh also when you send the next package put one package of superglue in it. The super glue here is a discrace Its terrible. So ha those are some things that i put in my agenda this week to tell you.
Ha dad the story about ¨Star Trek¨ ha just cracked my up when i heard that! Thats awesome. So wait if your the second counsler then who is the new bishop?! Doug is gone? Hey and with the FHE thing yeah i´ve realized how we never did that, ha. Its okay. There is nothing we can do about it now. But I think the meal thing with the families is very important. I loved eating together. I made us more of a family, and playing board games together. I miss those moments...
Right so to answer your questions dad. We do get exercise here. We have a half hour in the morning to do whatever. And on P-DAY (today) we play soccer usually, but sometimes we play basketball, but thats rare. So i get my exercise. and with walking everywhere, yeah im good. So today i did my pull-ups and i did 9! wow! Last week my record was 6, and in the MTC it was 12... but those days are long gone, haha.
And wow im suprised to hear that alta got 2nd. I bet Bingham is going to crush them this year. But i hope Taylor Eyring does well, its good to hear that he was one of the big scorers on the team. I always though he was going to be something great. You could just tell with his size, Ha like when we would play dodgeball with him, im not going to lie, i would have a little fear with me. haha

-Elder John Paulsen-

Adam - October 25, 2010

Hey fam, i´m doing good. I´m having a lot of different thoughts right now. I don´t know what to think exactly. It seems like every monday i come and read all the emails and get all emotional and don´t know what i want. I was thinking just 30 minutes ago that I was 95% sure i was coming home. Now i´m just not sure. It´s so frustrating.
So here´s what´s new. I had interviews (as a zone) with president Gálvez. He offered me something really... odd. He offered me a secretary position. That would mean that i´d be in the office most of the day doing paperwork and talking on phones. I don´t know exactly if i want to do it or not. I told him i would, but 5 minutes afterwards i had a really bad feeling about it. I don´t know exactly. Being a secretary would mean that i´d be around president all day, i´d drive a car around, i´d eat fast food a lot more, and i´d live in a really sweet house. The thing is, that´s not really important to me. Yeah, it´d make things cushier, but i´d still be hating life, and after 6 months or so in the office, i´d have to go back out to the field. I just want to go home, but i kinda feel like everyone would feel differently if i did. That i´m not as good or that i´m a bad person if i do. Nobody but missionaries understand really how i feel so it just makes it hard.
I probably spend 5 hours a day thinking about why i want to go home, or what reason i have, but i can´t really think of an exact answer. I think it´s just that 2 years is a lot of time, I don´t want to give that up. Just imagine stopping your life for the next two years, and you are stuck in... jail or something. It´s just so hard.
So today i´m thinking i´ll be telling president that i´m not going to take the secretary position and i still want to come home. We´ll just see how i feel next week though.

My Dear Family,

So this week has been extremely tough. More than usual actually. I´ve been trying to work hard, trying to forget myself, trying to be the missionary that God would want for me. I tried hard, Elder Squires and I walked everywhere because we´re running out of money (It´s the end of the month). We tried making appointments with every one of our investigators, we visited all the people we could think of, and probably had the least successful week a missionary could have. We had a total of maybe 5 lessons, that were mostly with recent converts that are completely active, and the lessons with the investigators were mostly just check-ups. Every appointment we made fell through, seriously every appointment. It was really depressing, and it seemed to follow me too. I went on divisions with leader of the Zone and we only had one lesson out of the 5 or 6 that were planned.

That´s all fine though, I´m done with it, and somewhat getting used to it. What´s been tough is that President threw a curveball at me on Friday. We had a meeting as a whole Zone and Presidenté Gálvez was there. We had individual interviews and the Zone Leaders gave a lesson or two about the work. Well, in my interview, President offered me a new position. He offered me to work in the office as a secretary. I´m not sure exactly what i´d be doing, only that i´d get to drive a car, be in the office all day doing paperwork and talking to people on the phone. I told him that i´d give it a try, but 5 minutes after saying that i felt horrible. I felt sick to my stomach and really upset. I spent the next 2 or 3 hours of the meeting thinking about it, praying about it, and considereing how it would change my mission. ´Maybe that if i´m struggling with the whole proselyting thing, teaching people, that if i take a break, i´ll feel better about it. But i realized that i´m having a problem with other things. It´s that i don´t want to give up my time. That my time here has been the most depressed, worst time in my life. I don´t want to feel this anymore and I´m ready to come home. I said that i´d try the office because it had a lot of ´´perks´´. i would get to drive, i´d have a cell phone, i´d use a computer all day, get to listen to music, not be outside walking all the time, and i get to eat a lot more fast food.

Anyways, I don´t think i´m going to be doing the office thing. I need to tell Presidenté that i still want to come home. That means that i´ll probably be coming home on the 11th of November. I´ll probalby have a more concrete answer next week. Love you all so much. Know that I do have a testimony of this church and I love the church. I know the book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is one of the most amazing prophets ever to have lived. (Just behind Jesus Christ) I love you all so much. Until next week.

Elder Adam Paulsen

P.S. Today we made a cake, it was pretty fun and tasted great!

Adam - October 18, 2010

Hey family,
So i went to the mission office again to talk to John. It was good, but we didn´t really have much to say. We just talked about the mission and the living conditions. Nothing much. Well, after my call with john, i talked to my President about starting my process of coming home. He told me to email my Stake President. I did and found out that the first step in the process starts on President Gálvez´s end.
I know everyone is really upset and sad for me. I know, but i don´t think anyone understands how upset and sad i am here. I´ve talked to so many people and so many people have talked to me. I´ve prayed and fasted and prayed and went to the temple and prayed. I´ve done everything, but i still feel like i want to go home.
President Gálvez said that he´d like if I stayed until the next changes meeting. That means for another 3 weeks. He said it´s just what´s fair for the other missionaries and investigators. The thing is... i know it can be done sooner, that everyone would get along just fine without me, that the same ammount of work would go on with or without me. I feel like it´s going to be a LONG, three weeks of pure torture if i feel the way i am.
Mom, you can´t come to Costa Rica. It´d just be easier for me to come home. And I don´t know what the possibilities are for a mission in the future. If i could come home, see if the way i´m feeling goes away, and go somewhere stateside? I just don´t know if #1- I´d want that and #2- If i can do that. I just don´t have the desire to be on a missionary right now. Part that i don´t feel like a mission is all that it´s cracked up to be.
I just don´t know. Well, I know what i want, but i know it comes a big price. Well, I love you all. I hope that i´ll be seeing you soon. The thought of finally coming home is what i look forward to everyday. Sorry for all the sadness and problems I´m causing. Love you all.

Elder Adam Paulsen

John - October 18, 2010

Hola, Sorry everybody i don´t have much time to write to you all. I spent a lot of time writing adam and such. I will tell more later. well i´ve got to go. I love you all.

Adam - October 11, 2010

Hey family,

So not everything is as good as it´s been sounding. I´ve been having a really hard time here. Dealing with emotional things, physical things, and spiritual things. Last week there were E-changes to get me closer to the President so we can talk easier. I asked him to go home to weeks ago but he´s been having me wait, pray, and make sure that´s really what i want. After listening to Conference, and praying a lot, I don´t feel like i´ve gotten any answer to stay here. I know what kind of consequences there will be, and i know i´ll letting a lot of people down, but i feel for some reason that this is the best thing for me.

I don´t know really what more to tell you. I love you all so much. I know i have a testimony of the church and that i want to live the rest of my life with a wife and a family as members of the church. I just love you all so much.

Always,

Elder Adam Paulsen

John - October 11, 2010

Hello everybody,
Wow dad 2nd councler on the bishopric!! wow that is way awesome! Hah, That is so cool, i could just picture dad sitting up on the stand, next to the bishop and all. So cool. and wow your 3nd calling, it seems like more than three callings, but no your right. Oh by the way can you send me an email telling me about why you came to utah for school and not anywhere else, dad? I know you´ve told me, but i want to hear all of it. Also how you came to know this church was true. I know the outside picture, but i want to hear how it happened inside:)
Well yes things here are probably getting dryer, i never really know because as misionaries we can´t watch news or anything, so im out of the loop on everything. But it hasn´t rained here in like a week almost two, which is really wierd so it must be the dry season now. Plants are still as green as can be. I don´t know if i´ve told you before, but this place is just exploding with plants and everything. Anywhere there is dirt, basically there is something trying to grow there. Also there are a ton of raoaming dogs, the trick to get them to stop barking at you or stop approaching you is to bend down like your going to pick up a rock to throw at them, and they will run away.
Umm, so about general conference, yeah i loved the talk from Elder Uctdorf about ¨don´t enhail¨ also like all the talks in the priesthood session were awesome!
Hah so a little story for you about how hummid it is here, well. In the States ya know how gum is really stiff and keeps its form, ha well here it is so soft and floppy. Like if i keep it in the wrapper and hold it on one end, the top will just flop down to the bottom. but yeah, also paper here is really soft, because of the moisture in the air.
well yeah, ha so this week Our compañero mayor... older companion, superior companion, no... ha sorry im having a hard time recalling what this is in english. well anyway since Elder Ramos had his nose surgery, he can´t go procoliting with us, Elder Linares and I. So its been him and me. Ha two missionaries who have the same amount of time in the mission, almost 4 months. But it seems like this whole next week he will still have to stay indoors. Wow its wierd to say i´ve been out here for 4 months. 4 Months.... wow. well i love this area im in. The family, Familia Palacios, that E. Brotherson and i baptised really likes us, they always say that we have a special place in their hearts :) They are an awesome family and i like them a lot. They have a two year old son, Alberto, and everytime we go over to teach them something i play a little bit with him. I like it, it reminds my of my days at Dimple Dale (Dell?). Anyway i like it and they say that he loves it! well... I´m not really sure what else to write... i love you all!
oh also if anyone want to make contact with me, it could be a good idea to send me an email instead of normal mail, because normal mail takes so long. Oh by the way tell the Olsen´s that i recieved Emma´s letter. ha that she sent about a month and a half ago. I doubt she is still in town.
-Elder John Paulsen-

Adam - October 4, 2010

Hey family,

So I have some interesting news for you all. I got changed. I know i said i didn´t have changes, but there was an issue and they moved a few people around. I ended up getting changed this morning to a new area. The city is called Guadalupe, and it´s a pretty big city. I love it so far. There are so many more people, especially families, and actual stores. Today for my first meal, McDonalds. It´s was a nice little piece of heaven again. I love anything from the United States here, you should be grateful for what you all have.

So my new companion is Elder Squires. He´s from Idaho and he´s about 6´6. People are pretty scared of us because we´re white, and both really tall. We tower over everyone. But I´ve only been with him for a few hours. He´s really cool, and a great missionary. He´s super excited about our area and wants to work hard. That´ll be a good change for me.

I don´t know much about my new area, from what i´ve heard it´s a little dangerous. I think we´ll be okay though. I don´t think any little short punk is going to try and get any money out of two guys twice his size. The members here are pretty sweet, we are big enough to even be a WARD! How sweet is that? I´ve only met one of the members, but he´s pretty sweet. He´s a recent convert of like 3 or 4 months and is planning on serving a mini-misison here in Costa Rica in December for a change or two. He´s really cool. My area is a lot cooler than Barranca. It´s really nice, and we have a doucha ... aka warm water for a shower. I´m pretty stoked to try that out. We live in a small house with two rooms. THe bathroom is super small. You kinda have to step over the toilet to get to the shower, but it doesn´t stink so thats a bonus. We have a cook that makes us breakfast and lunch here. That´ll be nice

So USU beat BYU. Thats awesome. I´m glad i´m not a BYU fan right now, that´s kinda embarrasing. USU only won like 2 games last year. I wish i was there for that game. That would´ve been awesome. I guess going independent might not have been the best idea. ha ha.

Conference was great! We got to sit in a room and listen to the conference in English. Half we watched on the computer, and half on a tv. It´s hard to pick one talk that is my favorite because they were all really good.

I got mom´s letter. Checked on the package, but it´s still not here. I guess they only check it a few days every week, so maybe it´ll be coming next week. Thanks for sending another. I´m excited to finally get something from the unted states. They just can´t do anything the same here.

Adam - September 29, 2010

Dear Family,

How is everything in the good old United States? Things here are a little tough. The weather has been pretty nasty. We´ve had rain everyday for the last 5 or 6 days. Not anything super hard, but just enough to make it a ¨gloomy day¨. It´s actually great weather for missionaries though, not too hot, and not too wet. The biggest problem is that Ticos are afraid of water or something. So we had barely anyone at church and nobody wants to go outside. But this just means more time to teach right?

So success this week... we had our baptism. Sandra finally got baptized this week. Her daughter got baptized the week before, but Sandra couldn´t. I got to baptize her and everything went... okay. Problem #1 was that the branch was having an meeting at the same time so the president of the Branch and the District both were stuck in that meeting. #2 Not many people came to support her for her baptism. Kinda depressing, not even the branch president would come sit in. I guess the meeting about Mutual was more important... :( That made E. Portillo and I a little upset. Problem #3 (a little embarrasing) It took me 3 times to actually baptize her. She just wouldn´t bend her knees. I promise it wasn´t totally my fault.

Big thing of the week (also the reason for the late email) We had changes meeting. Let me explain that real quick. So most missions have changes every 6 weeks. This is where people move to new areas, get new companions... stuff like that. Well, Costa Rica does it a little different. We have a huge meeting in San José where all the people that have changes, are going home, are coming to the mission, or just want to go. It´s like a big huge meeting in a chapel. They had all the missionaries leaving bare their testimonies, then the pres and the pres´s wife talk a little, then they put all the the pictures of the missionaries and their new comps on a projector screen. It´s like a big game and everyone just screes ¨Usshhh¨ (I don´t know its just the thing the mission does) and claps/snaps. it´s pretty fun.

Well, I didn´t get my package. I really thought It´d be at changes meeting, but i guess i´ll just have to wait a little longer. I miss you all a lot... too much actually, but i´m doing good. Working really hard. Love you all!

John - September 27, 2010

ello everybody,
awesome to hear about how things are going at home. Yeah so i don´t know why the houses roofs look like they are pink. Its just he way they look. Well we had a hurricane come through these last couple of days. Hurricane Matthew. So there has been a ton of rain! i got a video of what it looks like, i think you will get a kick out of it. That is whenever i send a letter home.
This week has really been awesome! We had a wedding and then a baptism for them after. It is a family of four, but three are old enough for baptism. They are an awesome family! They are going to be a very powerful family here in El Salvador! They are a very smart family. E. Brotherson and i have seen them change so much! Its amazing what the gospel can do! Its hard to difficult to really get connected with this anyone here when you can´t speak their language very well, But i feel pretty close to this family. I baptized Claudia, daughter; and E. brotherson baptized the parents, Dimas and Yessica. They have a son who is 2, he just turned two just last sunday. Anyway they are awesome! E. Brotherson is going to keep in contact with them when he goes home, and i will try to keep in contact with them, too.
So something cool this week. I went on divisions with a other gringo in our zone, by the way our whole zone got a baptism this change so Presidente Perez is coming out to take us all out to lunch today! Right anyway so i was on divisions with E. Price in his area and we talked to one of the persons that is getting baptized next week and i talked to her sister about the book of mormon all by my self! At times it was difficult to say what i want, but i got it across the language barrier. So that was cool, I think it really opened her eyes. I hope so.
Well changes are this wednesday, so my comp is leaving for home. Hah he isn´t very "baggie", that basically means he would want to go home. But he has really been pretty focused when it really comes down to it. umm... so i wil get a new companion, probably a latino. Which is good. This will help my spanish skills explode! I just hope he likes to work hard, because in this area there are people that are ready.Well i love you all!
-Elder John Paulsen-

Adam - September 20, 2010

Hi everyone,
Elder Adam Paulsen reporting this week from Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Life here is good. I had a good day this week with a friend from the past. Elder Kirk Logan! Let me explain

So everytime you have a baptism you have to interview the person, but it has to be done by one of the mission leaders. This week we had a baptism of a girl named Silvia. She is 9 years old and her and her mom are planning on becoming baptized. Anyways, the Zone Leaders wanted to do some divisions, and we needed someone to come do an interview, so one of the Zone Leaders came to Puntarenas with me. And it just so happened to be Kirk Logan. How random? I think they´ve been planning it because it took a little bit of work to make things work out like they did. So Elder Logan and I were together for a whole 24 hours. It was so fun! Here are some reasons why I liked it so much:
#1- We have been friends ever since I can remember
#2- English
#3- We talked about the good old days of Sandy Utah
#4- He´s an AMAZING missionary and taught me lots of things that Elder Portillo failed to mention
#5- His spanish is a little bit Gringo-ish so I was able to understand him a lot easier
#6- He´s funny.
#7- We ate out
#8- We worked really hard and met a bunch of new people
#9- It felt a little bit like home, but not a homesick ¨like home¨, a good ¨like home¨.

There are probably a bunch more reasons, but I can´t think of them all. It was great, and he told me some of the things I need to teach Portillo. Well, we had a baptism this week like I mentioned. I actually baptized her. We were planning on baptising her and her mom, but her mom had an issue and decided to do it next week. It was really cool baptising. It made me think about my baptism and how important baptism is. That we have taken upon ourselves the Name of Jesus Christ, and have His Spirit (The Holy Ghost) with us always. Baptisms are so uplifting and make me excited to go work and find some people.

Well, all the things from home sound exciting! Dad, Nat, and Brady with your new callings. I love hearing about it all. I can´t wait to hear what Dad is going to be now. Mom, how´s the knee? Nat/Brady, How´s work and school? Lana, how´s work and the puppies? Hey, I still haven´t seen a picture of Max... ya, I´d get on that if I were you! Well, nothing new to report really. I´m pretty comfortable here, except for the cold showers. Those get me everytime! Loving life and I love you all!

Elder Adam Paulsen

P.S.
Pictures:

001 - Just a sweet sunset that we saw. I think you can see the ocean.
002 - The family that we baptized and are baptizing this week. The little boy is just a neighbor, he´s not getting baptized.
003 - Elder Kirk and I.
005,004 - Elder Logan and I playing with some fruit while waiting for some other missionaries.
006- The Baptism of Silvia
007- Just a funny picture at a member´s house. That bird is pretty sweet, but it pooped on me. Not cool!

John - September 19, 2010

Hello everybody,
Well things here have been going good. My comp (my ¨dad¨, as they say) is dying (going home) in a week and a half. so i will be getting a new comp in about a week and a half. So that will be exciting.
Things here are going good. We are baptizing a family this coming saturday, after they get married. We have been working with this family since we first got into the area. Seriously like the first or second day. We were walking up the street to see a family that the elders previously had (which they never progressed so we had to drop them), and this little girl came up to us and said, hey come over and talk to my parents. Ha so we were just like alright, yeah. Kinda stunned this had actually happened. So now it is awesome that they are finally getting married, after 10 years of being together, and BAPTIZED! woot! So there are some amazing things happening. Also this week we had a really positive guy, he had already read half of the book of mormon, and seemed really positive, but worked a lot; so we didn´t see him a whole lot. Well we had about a week and a half time where we didn´t see him. So one day something told us to go see if he was home, and we went and he was home. He said he couldn´t listen to us anymore, because one of the doctrine. But we proded more and found the real reason. His old pastor had come to his house and macheted him for listening to us. So we talked and now he is positive again. We are meeting with him this week, so that is exciting. Also so we are teaching these two older ladies, and they call over their friend, who listens and is very interested, so then she wants us to teach her kids. She has 5 neices and nephews we are teaching with them. so its way sweet what the Lord has done for us these past couple of weeks.
Dad that is exciting to hear a new calling. I wonder what it will be. Ha you don´t think bishop, come´on dad be positive. It could happen haha. Wow bingham crushed herriman, talk about sending in your 3nd stringers at half time. Ha. Oh and i bet the alta jordan game was intense.
Wow thats kinda crazy to hear about this fire out in herriman. crazy a few houses got burned up.
Well i gotta get going, I´ve got a few minutes here. well i love you all.
-Elder John Paulsen-

John - September 12, 2010

Alright, well hello everybody,
Everything is going well for us, Can´t complain. Ha we had a baptism this last sunday morning, and i baptized her. Her name is sonía Contreras. She can´t read and to be honest just isn´t very smart. So we had to change our teachings a bit to fit her needs, Which is what we do for every investigator. It goes like this, when we find some people that are interested in our message, we ask questions and find out a need they have that we can teach them. Then after teaching we listen to see if they remembered what we have taught. This is the cycle for everything, Its just a big teaching circle. So yeah thats what happens. Here we do some door knocking to find people. We don´t really do any contacting in the street unless we feel prompted to. Because in our area, its like way ghetto. It is so hard to find someones house, they would probably describe it like this, oh yeah i live down that street and the yellow house by the tree and the cow. Ha it is very difficult, so we do door knocking mostly. This last week we found these two old ladies on this side street, and they are so awesome. Hah i lov´em. there would be like the cool old ladies on the block back home. Hah they just have so much of their youth still in them. And they are taking to the gospel really well! Totally going to get baptized!
So a little bit about my area, so basically everything is sloping upwards toward the volcano, So its not flat, well not all the time. alright well about our little house. The size would be like the one living room, we have with the big windows, and probably the other dining room too. So just those two rooms, and thats being generous too. I think it would be less than that size. But that contains our sleeping room, room with our clothes, and kitchen-study area. We have a refrigerator, a little mini stove thing that you plug into the wall and it has two coils, we don´t really use that though. and a sink, which we found out this week has a hole near the mouth of the drain, ha that was fun. so now if we need to wash some plates or bowls we do it out of the bathroom sink. Yes i have a mattress. The city probably has a few thousand people in it. like...10. i have no idea im just guessing.
Thank you for the future package, I´m sure all of that will taste awesome! oh i don´t need a CTR ring, i´ve never been much of a ring wearer.
So about the Pres Hinkley emails, there good, but they do take up a lot time, so just dont send them. oh also about mail. i just got your pouch mail stuff, i wouldn´t send it through the church stuff, it takes way too long! almost a month to get to me.
So i think from what E. Brotherson has said, i will be here for probably 6 months, or so.
That is so awesome to hear that Adam Bryner is heading out! thats way sweet! and i can´t wait to hear where Brayden goes.

Hah thats funny dad to hear about the snow white thing, i had a good laugh. And wow its 44 degrees! wow. I think the people here would die if it got that cold! so the hottest its gotten here was 97 degrees i think. I have it on my alarm clock, which is cool that it can record what the past temp has been. Right, so about the walmart thing, there is a store in our area, that is bought by walmart, called despert don juan... its something close to that. I know that i spelled it wrong, but i haven´t checked to see if it has a pic thing. I will check today. So if i sent the memory card home in a letter it would probably get there in about 3 weeks.
For breakfast i usually have some cereal, frosted flakes. Yumm! and maybe some peanut butter, it depends if we do some lifting in the morning.
Oh and when we kick rocks and stuff, its not like gruesome. You make it sound like we are trying to kill eachother. Its just what ever is on the ground in front of us. Hah except dog poop!! Thats off limits. most of the time its just small rocks, pebbles and stuff. well i got to go i love you all.
-Elder John Paulsen-

Adam - September 14, 2010

ello All!

How is everyone doing? Things are great here in Costa Rica again. The big news of the week is that I got my first baptism. I didn´t baptize her, but I helped teach her and I was there. Her name is Mariela, she is about 24, has a little 2-year old girl and another on the way. And she´s the daughter of the Branch President, so she has been around the chruch almost her whole life. I´m sure she´s had a lot of missionaries over and hear the lessons a lot so I think it´s cool that she finally accepted the invitation to be baptized. We visited her last night and all seems to be good. She was excited and so were we. That´s one down, and the rest of Costa Rica to go.

So yesterday was P-Day, but we had to go to San José AGAIN! I guess they do a 1 month review with all the missionaries. So yesterday I met up with all my friends from the MTC and we just talked about our trainers and how things were going. I loved it, it was so good to see all the guys from the MTC again and talk about all the things that we´ve been having a hard time with. Mostly everyone just said that they were frustrated with Spanish and our trainers weren´t very understanding with how hard it is. Almost all of us had a native comp so we were all in the same situation. It was just really nice to kind of vent about the things that have been bothering me.

Elder Portillo and I got in a little argument yesterday. Now that I look back at it, it was a little riduculous, but I got really upset. I don´t know why because I´m not that kind of person. I don´t like conflicts and I usually just go with the flow, but this time I was pretty set in my ways and wouldn´t budge. The argument was about some of the doctrine that Elder Portillo teaches. He likes to teach some doctrine that isn´t doctrine. For example, when E. Portillo teaches the Word of Wisdom, he says that Coke is against the W.O.W. When I heard this the first time I was a little blown away. I couldn´t believe he was teaching it, I mean, if it were against the W.O.W., then I need to repent. We do have a mission rule that the missionaries can´t drink it, but we shouldn´t teach that to the investigators. Well, we talked about it and he still feels like its bad, so I asked the mission pres yesterday. The judgement is... I´m right! Ha ha, Point for Elder Paulsen!

Well, all is well. Everyone sounds like things are going great. Dad, the whole new calling thing is getting me super excited. I can´t wait to hear what it is. Any guesses? I´m thinking bishop... I know it´s a stretch, but I think your ready. Well, sorry I don´t have time to answer all your questions this week. I got a little preoccupied with scripture covers. Well, I love you all and can´t wait to talk to you next week. Love you!

-Elder Adam Paulsen

Adam - September 7, 2010

Hello friends and family,

This week has been quite a good one. I did a lot of traveling. I went to Orotina, where our District Leader is serving and did an exchange there, and went to San Jose because we were having money issues. So this week has been a little stressful and busy. The best news that I have is that we have a Babtism this saturday, and hopefully three more this month. That´s huge and it makes me excited to finally speak the language and teach some lessons. On tuesday, we got a call from the Secretaries saying that a woman contacted them asking to take the lessons. She had the missionaries over in 1995 and just started reading the Book of Mormon again. She said that she is ready and willing to be baptized. So now we just have to go over all the lessons with her and her two kids and get her to come to church 3 times. She came on Sunday, so we´re getting closer.
So I want to try to answer everyone´s questions:

Living Conditions:
Not too bad, but a little dirty. We live in a tiny house that has 3 small rooms. I do have a mattress mom, it´s a little old and there are a few spots that you can kinda fall into, but for the most part, it´s pretty comfy. We have a fridge and a small stove that is electric and sits on our counter.

My Area:
I live in a city called Juanita Mora. But it´s really small. I´d tell people that I live in Barranca, or in Puntarenas. It´s really poor, and everyone has really small houses and rides bikes EVERYWHERE! It rains a lot, but it´s not as consistent as somewhere towards the middle of the country like San Jose. The beach makes the weather a different everyday. I live about 20 minutes from an ugly beach that nobody is ever on. It smells pretty funky too. We have a really big branch, almost 90 or 100 active members, and we recieve a lot of references. So we don´t tract a lot. Mostly we are running from house to house teaching lessons.

PriceSmart:
This is my favorite place in Costa Rica. They only have a few and they are all in San Jose. We went there yesterday and I loved it. What it is is.... COSTCO! It´s Costa Rica´s version of Costco. It´s a members only store that sells things in bulk. It´s set up almost exactly like costco with the electronics on the left right when you walk in and the clothes in the middle. It´s a little smaller than the average Utah Costco so it´s a little different. The absolute best part though is that it has AMERICAN FOOD! It´s like walking back into Utah. I loved it. I can´t wait to go back in a few weeks and just reminice of the good ol days at home. Well, I bought a few things to keep me from starving. I bought a 10 lbs bag of Pancake mix (Krusties of course), Syrup, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and jelly. All are from the US and I love eating them. Definitely the highlight of our week.

Well, all is well in Costa Rica. Mom, I don´t think you should get the ring. Thats a super long time and it´s not that important. You can buy them here... I think. But thanks anyways. I love you all and I know this gospel is true. It´s such an amazing feeling to show someone the blessings that the gospel can bring into their life. Actually seeing a change in their thoughts and actions. The work is hard and long, but when you recieve those results you´ve been working for, it´s so worth every minute. I´ve realized that the church can do so much for a person if they accept things with humility and are willing to change their lives. I love you all so much and know you love me. Can´t wait to talk to you all next week!

Con Amor,
Elder Adam Paulsen


P.S. These are pictures of my house, my roommate and I, the scenery on the bus rides, the jungle, and I think I had one of a monkey that we saw last week in Monte Verde.

John - September 5, 2010

Hello, family!
Well things are going well here, we had 4 of our investigators come to church this sunday, which is kinda a let down, because the people we have been teaching have been swayed to not come to church and its frustrating at times. Their salvation is on the line. But things are good, always having a good time with Elder Brotherson. we play this little game, when we are walking, its whoever can kick little rocks or crushed bottles, really anything, through eachothers legs Gets a goal.
well it rained a lot this week, we talked (ha well E. Brotherson talked i just tried to listen) to a construction worker and he said it was becuse there was a hurricane that hit on the gulf side, So i was wondering if adam got any rain like we did. Speaking of raining, when it does rain my comp and i just bring out our umbrellas, which works awesome. He says it has not rained as hard as it usually does, but yeah. So what im getting at is, that if i had a rain coat i would not use it! Umbrellas work great.
So our for our investigators this week, we have one woman who should get baptised this sunday morning, because she works on saturdays, so that is why it is on sunday morning. Anyway, she has two younger daughters, but they are not progressing as she is. Like she was the only one who went to church this sunday out of the three of them. Hopefully she does get baptised this sunday, she it seems like it could. When we teach her, we have to teach extremely simply, because she does not know how to read and is not very smart, to be honest. So we just have to repeat a lot of things with her. But she is progressing so that is good!
Oh so for my plaque thinger, i want to use the scripture i used in my farewell talk. Matt 5;16 i believe. ´´Let your light so shine before men´´ so yeah i would like that one. Right so the name of the town we are in is called zacatacoluca, area is nonualco. There are 8 missionaries in the town total. We are a little west of the main part of town. If you can find a fast food place called Biggest, then we are west of that and across the bridge, across the street. In a little colonial there. There is an intersection really close that is a four way, but its kinda like a three way. Well its cool there are two volcanoes to the north of us. And just over those volcanoes is San Salvador.
What Brayden is getting his call! wow thats way awesome! Make sure to tell me where he is going when you find out! Thats way sweet
I will tell you about this one story, this happened just yesterday, So I knocked this door, and the door had a picture of christ on it, so we knew that these people were going to be very religious. Well E. brotherson started talking to him, and he brought up the point of why catholics baptise when they are babies: And this man had said he believes in this. So we were about to bust out this scripture that totally destroys this belief, Duet 24:16 and there are like 4 others that say the same thing, Then this guy says that he wants to hear some thing new, from the new testiment. E. Brotherson got really frustrated because says he is catholic but does not belief in the old testiment? Like What? thats retarted. Anyway we did not have any sucess there, but there is one story for you. Also while i have been here i have seen two naked little boys walking on the side walk with their mom. Hah so thats kinda funny.
Well other than spanish things are going good, I can not complain. No Puedo Quejarme
Love you all -Elder John Paulsen

Adam - August 31, 2010

Hello family and Friends!

All is going well in Costa Rica. It´s still really hot, and rains a lot! Everything is going really well. I´ll start off with the cool experience I had this week.

So today is Tuesday, P-Day was yesterday and we had quite the experience. It started off at around 7:15. We got a phone call from our district leader, Elder Sorensen (The cousin of Justin Sorensen, and he played football at BYU), saying that we wanted to go to Monte Verde as a District. We didn´t have a lot of money left over because it was the end of the month, but we heard that the secretaries added all the money to our accounts that day for the month of September. We quickly went to the bank to check, but my new card didn´t work. I ended up using my personal card and took out 20,000 colones (40 bucks) and we headed back to the house. The other Elders showed up at our house at about 8:15 and we all headed out to the bus stop to Monte Verde, but right when we got out the door, the bus we needed left. We asked some of the Ticos when the next bus comes and they said not for another 3 hours or something, so we got a taxi and tried to catch it at the next stop. Yet again, another fail. We missed the bus again. We sat there for a while letting out our frustrations, when another bus came by... what the? We jumped on it and headed for the wonderful Monte Verde.

Monte Verde is a big tourist attraction in Costa Rica. It´s high up in the mountains, and has lots of rainforests and cool things like that. We took our 2 hour bus ride up through hills and mountains. All I can say is that I felt like I was riding in a Safari Jeep. The bus was rocking and bumping the whole time. We finally made it and when we got off the bus got horded by tourist company people. I couldn´t understand anything though because i was so distracted by how cool ( temperature-wise) it was there. I loved it! We followed one of the guys and he convinced us to do a ¨jungle hike thing¨. We took a taxi and got off at our destination. We started our journey through the crazy jungle. It was nuts, unlike anything I´ve ever seen in my life! There were huge trees with vines and moss and leaves everywhere. It was so GREEN! I hope i can send you some pictures. Our hike took about 2.5 hours, but we didn´t see much animal life. We saw a few bugs, catepillars, and spiders. But they were all pretty small and not too different than what i can see in the street. So we were all a little disappointed cause we didn´t see much, when.... we found some monkeys!!!!! MONKEYS!!! Thats what i´ve been waiting for! It was sweet. they were so high in the trees and we couldn´t see them that good, but they just jumped from treetop to treetop. What a cool experience. I don´t think i´ll ever forget it.

Well, we took the bus home, and didn´t make it back until about 5:15 so we didn´t have time to email. That´s why i´m sending it today.

Spanish is going pretty great. It gets pretty frustrating at times, but it´s slowing getting better and better. I can say pretty much whatever I need to, but it´s in a really weird way and I have a feeling that the people can barely understand me.

So everyone should be super proud of me. On sunday, we had lunch with an investigator and we had FISH. but get this, it wasn´t just some ordinary fish.... it was a deep-fried, skin, bones, fins, and tail. I ate most of it, until i had to eat around the spine. That grossed me out a little bit. I still don´t like fish though. ha ha

Everything is good, if i had to say i was craving anything, it´d be ranch. I miss ranch! and maybe some chocolate. These first two weeks have been hard because i haven´t been able to buy a lot of things. We didn´t get a lot of money, but now that I do, I´ll get to buy more things. I was talking with Elder Bateman from Copper Hills, and he said that his mom sends him mac n´cheese. That sounds so good right now. It´s such a simple thing, but they don´t have it here. The food is good though. Today I ate the most delicious steak I´ve ever had in my entire life! And we always eat rice and beans... Always. It´s growing on me.

Well, all is well. I had to give a preisthood blessing yesterday. I didn´t know how to annoint in spanish, but my companion helped me out luckily. It was cool. Well love you all. I love the work. It´s really hard, and results come really slowly. But I love it. love you all

Elder Adam Paulsen

P.S. I tried to send some pictures but the computer is really slow. Next week i´ll start it sooner. Sorry. Love you all!

John - August 30, 2010

well hello family,
this week has been pretty good. I mean as far as understanding about half of what they are saying goes. This last saturday i baptised José Luiz, he was one of our investigators that the missionaries had before us. But they never gave him a baptism commitment, so our fist meeting with him we gave him a baptismal date. He acepted and boom there we are. ha it was funny i didn´t know i was baptising him untill the night before. I guess they had said it in spanish to eachother and i must have missed that part. Anyway it went smoothly, i had to do it two times, because i didn´t get his whole left hand under the water. Then that sunday, yesterday he recieved the gift of the holy ghost. it was kinda a little bit of a scare, because he didn´t show up till like 15 minutes till the end of sacrament! but its okay, all is well. So this Saturday i baptised one and our branch president baptised another. So two baptisms.
It is wierd how some days i can understand the conversation that they are having, and then other times i am totally out of it, and not understanding anything. I think it has a lot to do with what they are talking about though. But spanish is coming along, It won´t come to me in a click, but with time. I always say to my comp, con tiempo. Which means with time.
ha dad its funny you should say the things about ¨free meal!¨ because that is not how it is at all here. There aren´t any places that are like that. Oh and i am getting your emails and everything just fine. For breakfast i usually have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then for lunch we go to our cook´s place for some good food. Then usually we don´t eat anything for dinner, because it is a prime time for doing lessons and stuff. so i´m suprised that im not starving here. But things are good. Also so we read a lot of scriptures down here. I don´t know if you have an impression that we don´t read much, because I am learning so much right now!
Mom I´m glad that your knee scope went well, good to hear that things are healing up good. Oh yeah about the package. I would really worry about sending most of that stuff. You can send it, but we don´t have to worry about wet wipes down here our toliets are pretty good. I´m just glad that we have running water all the time in our house. So another thing that would be nice would be if you could send beef jerky down here. They don´t have any of that here.
Well thats about all i have to report for this week. Oh so the place we are at is called Nonualco. That is our area. Right now I´m in San Vincente in an internet cafe. So about letters i think there will be a two week delay between letters, I don´t have a ton of time to write letters, so i might just stick to emails. well i gotta go. i love you all, i hope you all are enoying life, because im enjoying it here, Because im in the service of our lord and bringing people unto their salvation! -Elder John Paulsen

Adam - August 23, 2010

Well, I´ve had quite the interesting week. It´s been pretty intense with the whole culture shock thing. I´ll start with my first day here. We can pretty much call it my first day of the mission because... I´ll explain.

So we got to the Mission Office at around 10:30 and we were all exhausted from the crazy-ness of traveling. Well, we got there and had to fill out a few forms and take a picture and finally got to go back to where the AP´s were staying. They had a really nice house. It had a big garage and 3 floors with at least 4 bathrooms. Well, after a little bit of unpacking (enough to change our clothes for the next day) we got to sleep at around 12:30. We had to wake up at 5:45 for breakfast with the president, then we went downtown to get fingerprints for our visas. We got back to the office, had 2 hours of lessons about money, mission rules, etc., and had interviews with the mission president. President Gálvez is a great guy, so is his wife. They don´t speak spanish, but I could tell they had a genuine love for us. Anyways, the trainers all started showing up at the office, we got paired up, and left for our areas. My companion is Elder Portillo. He is about 6 feet tall, and definitely native. He´s from El Salvador, and is... I dunno... different than me. He has a lot of different views on how to work, maybe thats because he´s been in the mission for 9 months, but I was ready to get to work. I guess the President told the trainers to take it easy on us for the first weeks so that we don´t want to go home. But I was completely opposite. I hated going and visiting the members for an hour and a half and waking up really slow, barely studying anything in our four hours of study time. Well, he told me that he was doing that on purpose yesterday and that now we are going to work hard.

So the reason that I said we should call this my first week in the mission is because I couldn´t understand anything that was going on. I could barely pick up on the conversation, and when people ask me a question, I just look at them. Thinking to myself ¨What in the world did they just say?¨ I thought I could understand Spanish pretty good, but with natives it´s another story. Well, luckily Elder Portillo can speak pretty good English and can help me out a lot. Right now, after a full week with the natives, I still can´t understand what´s going on. I don´t even understand why we go to the MTC, it doesn´t help. Well, I´m here, and I´m trying, so that´s all that matters.

My area is called Puntarenas. It´s a pretty big area, so they might put the name on the map. I live in a little crap-hole city called Juanita Mora. It looks like i like in Mexico. I took a picture of the street, but I don´t know how to send it just yet, so next week you´ll be recieving visual confirmation of the place they call a city. Well, my house is tiny, and smells so bad. Elder Portillo said that the apartment is cursed. It stinks and they can´t do anything about it. There are 4 rooms. One is the kitchen/living room where we have desks and a sink. Then there is a small room that is maybe 10x10 for our closet. We have two tables that we have our bags on and live out of. I don´t have anything to hang my shirts up or pants so I just try to fold things nicely. Then we have our bathroom. This is the source of our stench. It REAKS!!!!! I try to hold my breath when I shower, but I end up running out of air and giving in to breathing. Get this, a cockroach died in there on maybe Thursday, and it´s still in the shower. Just sitting there ha ha ha. We don´t have anymore toilet paper, so I´ve been holding it in for a couple of days.... ha ha. Well, the last room is our bedroom. It´s barely big enough for 2 beds and a desk inbetween them. It´s my favorite room in the house because it has a fan.

Well, the weather is pretty good I guess. It´s SO hot in Puntarenas. I´d guess about 90 in the middle of the day. And it is so humid that you start sweating when you sit down to study at 8. Yesterday was the worst day of rain. It rained for about 2 hours and the road turned into a river. We tried riding some member´s bikes home to not get our feet wet, but we aren´t the most coordinated bikers and both of us fell over and got our feet wet. The water was so deep that our feet were getting wet while pedaling the bike though.

All is well family. I´m doing good, feel good, a little homesick, but that´s life. I love you all so much and can´t wait for this next week. I´m hoping my spanish gets better, and the days have more work in them. Love you all so much.

Elder Adam Paulsen

P.S. This guy in our Branch came up to me on sunday and was wondering if you could sent him a HLJ (CTR in Spanish) ring from Deseret book. He said he was a 9 or something. He didn´t care what it looked like, but that it was in spanish. I also would like a ring if you are sending something. I´m a 10.5 and I want a cool CTR ring. It doesn´t need to be in spanish. I told him to pay me when it gets here. If that´s a lot of work, or it´s really expensive (over 20 or 30 bucks) don´t do it. In other words, tell me how expensive it would be to send a ring or two here and I´ll let you know if i think it´s worth it. He´s a little crazy so whatever. And you can send it to the mission office. It´s the address that I sent you. We don´t have and address, I don´t know how you could send a letter to my house. Love you!

John - August 23, 2010

nice thats good to hear that lana got a promotion. Alright well today is my P-Day! Monday. well let me start from the beggining, we got off the airplane when it was raining. We went through outside to meet our mission president, He is an awesome man. and very patient with all of our spanish hah. So he speaks some english and his wife does too. Our first dinner we went into a restaurant and had some little taco things. It was good. it would be like chiles in the states. I think i heard the whole dinner was like 20 bucks maybe. and we had about 18 people with us there. The mission president´s Assistants were there, Elder Evans and Elder Brotherson. He told us that he would be training one of us. He was an AP for 8 months. So we stayed at the AP´s appartment, if you can call that an apartment. hah it we slept on the floor those two nights, with pads, so it wasn´t terrible. But it was way hot! and hummid!
so then our second night here we had dinner at the mission presidents house. and wow is it nice! way nice, he has three daughters i think, the oldest is 14 or something. anyway that was way nice.
Okay so we Then had to wake up at 4 to get ready to go on the bus. 5 of us that were the new incoming missionaries are in my area. But only one Elder, Elder Hyde is in my zone, and a sister, Hermana Wilkes, its kinda funny adam would know her, because she was in his district back in the MTC for 3 weeks. anyway i found out that my comp was Elder Brotherson! crazy. He has said that the president never puts new gringos with a gringo trainer. But with our whole district he has put all of us with gringo comps. So we got onto the bus, and left my companion, Elder Harvey, ha good-bye Elder Harvey and Hello Elder Brotherson. I like this change. Ha sad but true. Elder Brotherson is the bomb, i like him a lot. He is way funny. anyway we got into our room around 6 that night. the place was a mess. Lets just say the living standards are a little lower than in the US hah. Its okay though. we are doing good in the area. We have two people set for baptism for the 28th of this month. Ha i can´t really say that its my baptism because in the lesson, i don´t talk much. Since I´ve gotten here I´ve realized how much spanish i don´t know. HA . Yeah but its getting better already. The first day i got in here i could not understand a word the people were saying. But last lesson we were in i was picking up on a lot of what they were saying. Oh and those two people for baptism were already people the Elders were working on before we got here. So they aren´t really ours to begin with. but thats okay.
So the people here are really humble. They have a ton of problems with marrige and getting divorces. In this country its really hard to get a divorce. Right now we are working with a family who the parents need to get married. Get this the dad is like 70 and the mom is like 36 gross right? wierd. Well anyway they live in one big shack that has like 8 beds in it with a table in the middle. They live in humble circumstances, lets say. Its wierd most people here have like tvs and stuff but there housed are crap. I think they have their priorities a little mixed up. hah but the people are willing to listen so thats cool. well its about time i got off.
Right well if you had to send a package, i would send it to the mission office, and fill it with wet wipes, cristal light, and life savers. Hah yeah thats about the only thing that i need. Don´t send it to our house, because i don´t even know the address to our house. so i don´t know how you would send it there. Its okay to send it to the mission office, because the mail system here in El Salvador is pretty secure, its just getting it through mexico that might be the problem. So put some pictures of Jesus on it, and it should be fine.
If you want to look at where i am, The main city that is closest is San Vinceti or something like that. The house is about an hour bus right away from that. Our area is called nonualco, or something close to that.
Well i´ve got to get off and write a letter to the mission president. Bye Love you all. -Elder John Paulsen

Adam - August 17, 2010

made it here!!!

Costa Rica is a beautiful place i just wanted to say that I made it here safely. I love this country already... except for driving! It´s nuts and I feel like I´m going to die whenever I get in the car. There are barely any rules and people just weave in and out while speeding down the street. We even saw a 4-wheeler driving along.

So last night was not too bad. We arrived at around 10 and got back to the mission home/office at around 10:30. We had our first Costa Rican meal... Taco Bell! It was quite heavenly! We had to fill out a few forms, and take a picture or two, then we went back to the Area President´s and house and slept there. We didn´t get to bed until around 12:30 though. I´m crazy tired today!

President Galves is awesome! And so is his Wife. They met us at the airport with this huge banner that said "Bien Venidos Misioneros del Mundo" which means welcome missionaries of the world. They gave us a big hug and we headed home. They don´t speak much english so it was a pretty quiet car ride. I feel so lost with the spanish! I feel like I´m back to week #3 in the MTC. Everyone speaks so fast and I can barely pick up on a few words. I feel really dumb when I have to answer a question because I don´t really know what they are asking. In the MTC, we could try in Spanish, and if we fail just say it in English. But here, you can´t do that. You just have to try and not sound too stupid. Luckily, the missionaries in the Office speak english and are really friendly. They don´t speak too much spanish in front of us ha ha.

So I found out that Kirk is a Zone Leader, so there isn´t really a chance he could train me, but I have about a 50% chance of him being my Zone Leader. That way I would still be able to see him. That´d be really cool. Later today we go to our areas and get our new companions. We don´t know who they are yet, but it sounds like it´s going to be way fun!

Well, I love you all! Just wanted to let you know that all is going well. I love Costa Rica and the people here are awesome! P-Days are mondays so I´ll give you an update on my life then. I know the church is true and I´m doing the right thing!

Always, Elder Adam Paulsen

P.S. Costa Rica is pretty cool. I haven´t gotten out of San José so I haven´t seen any amazing beautiful things. Mostly, it´s just dirty! Ha ha. Love you All!