O Dearest 6 Months, Where Did you Go?‏

Hello Everybody, 

I hope you have all been safe and happy! This week has been really rewarding for me, M did get baptized Sunday, it went really well and she was super happy. So, that´s one family that now has the fullness of the Gospel in their lives. Hopefully they invited me to the temple in a year to see their sealing for time and all eternity, they told me they would! I´ve been thinking a lot lately, about how to help the district, how I could help these other missionaries, my companion who is new, and also myself to be excited about working hard and seeing miracles. I decided today in the morning before the district meeting that I was going to talk about faith. More precisely that I was going to talk about Alma 32. This chapter in the Book of Mormon explains very clearly what faith is. It compares faith to a seed, that we nurture and help to grow and that as it grows it will bring our lives great joy. This chapters also applies really well to missionary work. We as missionaries plant seeds in the lives of other people, we work with faith, believing that they will want to accept the gospel. We add works to our faith to show that we have faith, but also because we love these people, we want to nurture them and help them become strong. ¨Faith without works is death in itself¨ If we don´t nurture these seeds carefully, their seeds will remain dormant as though they were dead. But in the end, if we work and nurture and prune as well as we can. We will reap the reward for our labors. Or as it says in Alma 32 our reward will be the fruit of our labors, which is more pure than all that is pure, more white than all that is white (Baptismal clothes =D), more precious than all that is precious. We will see our friends and loved ones enter into the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father and of Jesus Christ here on the earth. I´m thankful for all your love and support. Have faith that God will help you in all that you do in your life. Have faith that he exists, and that he loves you. I know he does, I have no doubt. We are His children and He has a plan for each and every single one of us. Until next week!

Love, Elder Lohberg. 

G & M on M's baptism day 

Wooooooooopppss, almost forgot to send a general email!‏

¿Como están rasticos? Hello!! This week went well, we worked really hard with M, G´s wife, and the plan is that she will be baptized this Sunday before church! We also started working harder with J´s family, J was baptized in December I believe, and he has been awesome! He´s been sending messages and talking to all of his friends, asking if they want to listen to us haha, it´s funny how he does it, he sent one message, ¨Mae, pregunta a su mama si ella quiere escuchar dos maes de la Iglesia.¨ We need to help with that, haha. Translation is like, ¨Dude, ask your mom if she wants to listen to two dudes from the church.¨ But what´s really cool is that he is talking with all his friends, he has this desire to share what he now holds dearly. We invited him last Saturday to invite his family to church (They aren't members) and he told us, ¨I already did, S (his brother) says he will come.¨ 

I love being able to see how different J´s life is now that he has the gospel, and how much he wants to share it with others. J is only 14 and he goes door to door with us talking to the people and sharing his testimony. I always wish I would have done more before I came out here haha, that I would have gone out with the missionaries more, tried to help more in the Lord´s work. I encourage you all to do so now, do what you can, talk to your friends, talk to your family and then talk to the missionaries, they will help you as best as they can. Have a desire and then act on it. 

Love, Elder Lohberg!  

What do missionaries do on preparation day (p-day) you ask? Well they play ping pong! They play basketball or soccer.  They take random pictures with ginormous zebra's (:

Allo mis Amigos y Peeps

Aaron and his "kid" Elder Contreras

Well good day my beloved friends. I do indeed hope that you have enjoyed this delightful week that has now slipped from between the very tipsies of our little fingers. But yeah, this week was pretty cool... lots of stuff happened, I´ve been super busy haha. Monday and Tuesday I had to take an Elder as my companion to the office, because he was going home, finished the mission. And then Wednesday I got my companion, Elder Contreras from Mexico. He´s pretty new... has a lot to learn, but then again all of us do, ehh? 

Having a new companion has put a lot of stress on my shoulders, added with being district leader and I was really struggling for a time with everything. I decided that I was going to relieve this stress by working as hard as I could... I don´t know why I thought that would be a good solution but that´s what I did. When Sunday came the results for our labors during the week weren´t where I wanted them at all... but I talked to a really good friend of mine here, a member, and he gave me encouragement and helped me out.. after that I worked harder with only one goal. I´m going to work as hard as I can, become the best as I can, but i´m not going to stress too much when I fail. I´m just gunna get back up and keep working. I´m grateful for all the support you guys give me, I hope you have been safe and are enjoying every day of your life=) one day we will meet again, and as the Sons of Mosiah, I hope we are all strong in the Lord. =D 

Love, 

Elder Lohberg!

**from typing back and forth this week:

Aaron: haha sorry, we were in Alajuela for a multi zone conference with president cordon... fetch.. my life is so hard now, haha... training and to be district leader sucks all my time... it´s super tiring, doesn´t look like we´re going to hit the goal again and they gunna cut meh head off.. i´m thinking about just going ham to help them prepare for march. 

Mom: what is going "ham"?

Aaron: going ham is like giving it my all

Mom: well then - there you go - go HAM big time - as that's really all you can do.

Aaron:  I gotsta go mom, but i love you, love the family so muchhhhh!!!! :D :D :D: :D we´ll talk, Ima work hard and have lots of faith

Hello Everybody!‏

Lohberg & Toledo power team!

Welllllpppp, we had changes yesterday, Elder Toledo got the call Sunday of all the people who were going to have changes, and it turns out that every single area in our district had changes haha. Elder Toledo got sent to be zone leader in Cartago. I have officially declared that I am the trainer of zone leaders, because I have now trained two. Andddddd, I´m still here in San Francisco, Heredia, however, I will be training a new missionary (Don´t know if it will be a latino or a gringo still, but we shall see=) ) and then I got assigned as district leader; in fact today was the first real meeting that I have directed and taught, it was cool. So, Elder Toledo left yesterday to go to Cartago and I will be with Elder Hugie from Idaho who was the district leader in the other district of our zone, which is super cool because he´s always given me advice. He´ll be going home thursday, so we are going to go to the office tonight, and then tomorrow I will receive my new missionary-companion and he will stay in the office to go home. 

I´m very grateful for this opportunity to be able to train a new missionary, and to be a district leader. I know that the Lord doesn´t give us anything we can´t do, the Lord loves us, His path isn´t always easy, but it is clear to see and it can be followed. I am thankful for all the love and support you all show me, I love being a missionary and I´m going to try and love every moment of these two years. Time passes by quickly, but the memories and the friends we will make will be with us for eternity, I know this is true. 

Love, 

Elder Lohberg

 pictures from transfers today - via Diego ( :
 Transfers are held in Central Parque in San Jose

**from emailing back and forth:

Aaron: allo

clearing out of the "danger zone"

Mom: hello!! how are you?!!! oh and since you are the "trainer of zone leaders" - then are you training yourself? lol

Aaron:Good Good, Todo bien, todo bien=) I´m gunna receive my kid tomorrow morning.. and breakfast i think=DDDDDD

Mom: So - giving birth eh? you will have a son - a son old enough to shave! lol.  Yes! You will probably get breakfast! YUM!!  Heard president is in the states - had hip replacement - do you know when they expect him to return?

How many elders are in your district? and are there any sisters there as well?

Elder Henry is in your district right? is he training as well?

view from the front window - old apartment

Aaron: yeah he is in the other companionship of elders in my district, no, he trained a kid for his first transfer in his old area in alajuela, i think i will only stay one transfer of my kids training, both the districts in our zone have 4 elders and 6 sisters, so there are 12 sisters in the zone and 8 elders. We´ve known for a while he was gunna have that, he told us he would be back in 2 weeks, really you are supposed to start walking the day after hip replacement, so should be okay 

Mom: so 2 districts in your zone (if I understand correctly) and you are DL for one of them - and have 2 sets of elders and 3 sets of sisters in your district? 2 wards in Heredia then - both elders? where do the sisters serve then?

last time in this room

Aaron: Yeah, two sets of elders in Heredia, we are in the stake center, with 2 wards, 2 elders for each ward, the sisters are in a branch, Santo Domingo, they have two branches i think? or maybe only one, but their are two sets of sisters in Santo Domingo, and 1 set in the branch of San Rafael. 

Mom: you head out tonight for the mission home or tomorrow I forgot what you said - if it's tonight do you stay with someone out there or where?

Aaron: im with the missionary who isgoing to die right now, he has to go to the office tonight, with all histhings, so im going with him and ima sleep there, which normally trainers dont do, and then i will go in the morning with the secretaries or something to get my kid and eat brreakfasttttttt

**after last weeks email where he told me there had been gunshots right outside his door - I messaged Sister Wilkinson and explained what was going on there - she said "i talked to him today - he has moved - he is safe - he is living in an apartment that the bishop owns. Live is good - and he is happy! he had told me they wanted to move before - but they wanted to move just because it was a "better" place. I just checked my text messages and he never said anything about shootings and Drug Lords.........bless these cute Elders - the Lord truly does watch over them!"

Bishops truck LOADED down with EVERYTHING!

Mom: so tell me - is your new place - I see the picture - the kitchen is crazy!! looks small which you said it would be - but is it the same cost as the other place? it's a better area at least - which is good!  whose truck moved you? the bishops?

Aaron: yeah bishops truck, he wanted to do it all in one move lol.. he was like, you guys didn't believe me.. didn't believe me.. it´s a bit cheaper, 40 mil, 80 bucks

Aaron: ima get fat when i come home lol.. i just want to eat.. a ton.. of american food=P.. year and a half more=P=P

View of apartments - they are in the top flo

Mom: lol! your mac n cheese all gone now? can you buy more there?  What about beef jerky etc? If you could have one thing to eat right now from here what would it be?

Aaron: yeah they have that mac in pricesmart, cosco, its like 5 boxes for like 8 or 10 bucks i think? the jerky gone, i want fetching teriyaki and innout and your fried chicken and your chicken tacos and fetching enchallads and the frozen chimichungas and burritos.

but yeah, I'ma go now mom, my comp just got off, i love you tons and the fam, =) tell em that

Mom: when you are preparing to come home - I promise to feed you my son!!  whatever you want to eat =D

Aaron:lol but ima be fatttttt=D bye bye mom hahha

**pictures from Diego - from Aaron playing soccer with the ward:

Diego & Aaron