Return to our second home!

It's been 7 months and it seems like we never left. The dirt roads are worse for wear, I guess there was a lot of flooding this rainy season and Hurricane Herman left it's mark on all the beaches. The beaches aren't as pristine this time, there is a lot of debris that the ocean hasn't taken back out to sea yet. I hear the fishing isn't as good either because the water is still so murky.  A lot of our old friends are still and it's been so nice catching up. The Spanish congregation is all the same people and they shook their heads when they realized my Spanish has gotten worse instead of better! I told them in my Spanish/English Candace language that life got in the way and my Spanish lessons unfortunately were the first to go. Tonight is our first meeting so I hope some Spanish comes back to me because only the Congregation Bible Study is in English.

Thursday Marty and I attempted to go out in service. What a shock to our systems to go from 30 degree weather to 90! We lasted 2 hours and had to go back. We were tired, sweaty and hungry. Finn was listless on my back and asked to please go home. We bought him an ice cream at the little store and walked the 2 miles on the dusty road back home. Friday service was better, we had a car with air conditioning that day and we worked some Spanish and English territory in a little town called Estrada. Don't worry, we'll get back into the swing of things! It's nice to be back.

C.O. Visit

        So this week we had the Spanish C.O. visit. They have been here 6 years, and are missionaries from Canada. Last week one of the local pioneers asked Candace to be on a demonstration at the service meeting. Well Candace was nervous thinking about having to be a Spanish householder at the meeting for service Tuesday morning, when I reminded her that we had the C.O. visit. So she asked the sister she was having the part with if she maybe meant the following week, the sister laughed and said no she meant Tuesday, but not for the meeting for service, but for the service meeting. So needless to say Candace was even more nervous now, but we all know Candace when she put her mind to something she doesn't stop until it is done right. So all day Tuesday she practiced and practiced, and when it came time to do the demonstration she nailed it. Everyone after said that her Spanish was good and couldn't believe she had been holding out on them for so long. I was very proud of her and even shed one single tear of joy as I watched her on stage.

So most of the week we worked Spanish territory, which involved me walking about four miles a day, needless to say my clothes where a little wet by the end of the morning. Good thing everyone else's  were also or I would have been embarrassed. Candace also has a really good bible study, that she will be sad to leave behind. She is turning it over to a new sister from the states, so at least it will continue when we leave. Saturday night the hall had a dance party for the C.O. and his wife at David and Amber's home, everyone here loves to dance, so it was nice to get together. Well we are only a week and a half away from returning and are very sad to leave. We have come to love it here as our home away from home. There is still so much work to be done, that it is hard to leave. So we will use this as motivation to return next year, knowing we have new friends, and family to come back to as well as a hardly worked territory that holds so much promise. With that said we can't wait to see everyone, and be back in Portland for awhile.

                                 Finn tired after dancing!

Zone Visit

So a zone visit is something i have never experienced before. Certain countries get them and basically it is when members of the Governing Body visit other Bethel branches and schedule a special meeting while they're here. Ours was Sunday the 11th in San Jose. It's held in a outdoor stadium and your congregation is bussed to the location. There are two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and it is for the whole country!

Our congregation was assigned to the morning session and there was 14,000 in attendance. There were 3 talks and the session started at 9 am and was over at 11:30 am. It was all in Spanish but super exciting none the less! After it was over we had to rush through the crowd to get on our assigned bus. It was crazy! 14,000 people and hundreds of busses creating the biggest traffic jam you have ever seen. Once we got on our bus it took 1 1/2 hours to get less then 5 miles. By the time we were getting out of the traffic jam, the other session attendees were arriving in their busses and everyone was waving at each other and yelling"hola"!  It was quite the experience and we were very privileged to be a part of it. We come home in exactly one month and it's going so fast! Tomorrow we pick up Jeanie and Kris and head to the Caribbean, i hope everyone has a great time!

Congregation Get Together and Mapping Trip

So I've mentioned the Oldham's in the past, they have really done a lot to get the English group up and running these past few years. Well they have to move back to California and might not have the opportunity to come back for quite awhile. So of course the congregation threw them a going away party! It was a surprise party at Eric and Anita's house and Eric has a great swing attached to a very high branch on the ancient tree on his property. The kids and adults played on that swing for hours. Of course some of the guys tried to see how close to death they could come, fortunately no one was seriously injured! We all ate a huge spaghetti dinner and Amber made awesome cheesecake for dessert.

Yesterday we also finally took a trip to check out the bottom of the peninsula and see how much English territory would be there. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive all on dirt roads, with a couple of river crossings. We would only be able to reach this area during the dry season because the rain would make the rivers impassable and roads too muddy. We have already mapped half way down, with pockets of English areas but nothing like we encountered in Manzanillo, Santa Teresa and Mal Pais.  These towns are all English! They will take at least 2 to 3 days to work with one or two car groups. We weren't expecting this at all. I guess this area isn't a "secret" surf spot for Americans any longer!

So now we have to see if we have time within the next month to plan a preaching getaway! If not, we'll probably have to wait until the dry season starts again in December. So realistically this area will be worked at the most once a year for a few days. So if anyone wants to come visit next year we can plan a service excursion! The beaches were more aquamarine then the beaches here and a little more lush and green, they must get more rain during the dry season. We don't get rain in Samara for about 5 months during this season creating a lot of dust, but it's always sunny without a lot of humidity.

Next week Jeannie and Kris are coming to visit and we're going to explore the Caribbean side of Costa Rica for a few days. I hope it's a lot of fun, I'll be sure to write all about it.

Memorial

So this was my first experience at a Memorial in a foreign country and wouldn't you know, it was exactly the same. We had a 133 people with about 40 people sitting outside. There were chairs set up outside and a speaker system. All the attendants had to wear suits and i could tell they were all dying from the heat! Here's something funny, Marty was the greeter because he is so smiley and speaks Spanish so well. Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but it was great to see him step out of his comfort zone. The talk was only in Spanish but by now we can at least understand way more then we can speak. Jair gave the memorial talk, he is the Coordinator for the Buena Vista Congregation and a Special Pioneer all at 25! He is the one in the middle between Marty and Kevin in the picture.

Tonight was the first night that we used the new song book!  Costa Rica just received their shipments of the new song books a few weeks ago. We practiced the 2 songs to be sung at the Thursday night meeting last week so that we didn't all sound terrible at Memorial. Of course, we had to sing them in Spanish. A lot of work went into preparing the Kingdom Hall for Memorial and it was a great privilege to feel like we had a full share in the process from cleaning to painting. It was an experience that we will not soon forget.

It's a Party!!

Tim and Adria Oldham were sent here 3 1/2 years ago to help form the English Buena Vista group. To see how far it has progressed I hope makes them realize how much of an impact their sacrifices have meant to all of us. Sadly they will be returning back to California for an undetermined amount of time because of family responsibilities. They will be leaving in less then 2 weeks and Adria still found the time to host a bilingual kid's party for all the young ones in the hall.

Finn made sure that everyone knew that he was at a party. He told everyone that would listen. All the kids were very excited and had a great time. They ate tunafish out of ice cream cones and had a treasure hunt. There was even a cookie decorating table, most just ended up taking frosting by the spoonful and stuffing it into their mouths.

We are all going to miss the Oldham's very much, it was a pleasure getting to know such a wonderful family!

Memorial Cleaning

Starting on Wednesday of this week, our congregation has put extra effort into making sure the hall looks great for Memorial. We needed to paint inside and out, paint the fence, power wash the gutters, and do a general cleaning. Today Amber and I left the kids with the guys and helped paint the inside of the hall.

We got organized and an elder in the hall got up on a ladder to start cutting into the wall so it could be rolled. He hadn't even done one brushstroke before the fan gashed open his scalp! He hadn't realized how low that particular ceiling fan was. Blood was gushing everywhere and he had a 2 inch long, deep gash in his head. Amber and I thought he needed to go to a hospital for stitches….oh but wait, the closest hospital is about an hour away. So they went to a brother's house and super glued the wound shut! The picture is after the super glue, I guess it works pretty well. Good to know. Bill came back after his head was glued back together and finished painting. Did I mention this brother is 70 and surfs everyday possible?

We finished painting in about 4 hours and have the deep cleaning before Memorial on Monday. I'm really excited to attend Memorial in a foreign country and it's only going to be in Spanish. Our congregation got a very limited amount of Memorial invitations, but I still think the attendees will fill the hall and be spilling into the street.

Finn was so excited, last week he got to finally ride a motorcycle! It was a dream come true for him.