La Finca (The Farm)

Saturday we went and visited a farm of a teacher that is a family friend of ours. Her family and her bought a farm in the mountains to go to on the weekends or as a "home away from home". Her son turned 17 on saturday so we went to the farm and celebrated with the WHOLE family. There were tons and tons of people speaking spanish. But most of them know english too which made it nice. We ate tons of food...except for the kids and raychel. As you can tell in the picture of the three plates mario has. Because it's very rude to waste food in front of the people here so mario had the food wrapped up to take home. :) It was quite funny. So yes we gained a few pounds this weekend. But we hiked in their mountain and looked at all the cool trees and plants and the VIEW which was amazing!


An update on school....It has been difficult at times but I beleieve i'm going to get this language! God is helping me every step of the way! We are learning different feelings and emotions and a new form of talking called "subjunctive". I have a lot more homework this year and it is a lot more talking in class which is great practice! So this is my reasoning for not updating as much...I'm trying (That's what I always tell the people here when I speak spanish to them...lol)

My Visit to Los Cuadros! (This post is a little late...Sorry!)

Wow! What an awesome weekend I have had! For all of you who don't know...We have 2 churches here in the country of Costa Rica. One of them is in Pavas which is Pastor Blake's church. That is the church that we usually attend every Sunday. It is about 20 minutes away from where we live. The other church is in Los Cuadros which is about 30-35 minutes away. Pastor Dustin got here last week and on Sunday he preached at the Los Cuadros church and all of us got to go with him!!!! I was sooo very excited to find out that I was going to get to go to that church!!! It was truly like Christmas for me! Los Cuadros is a very dangerous place with a lot of drug use and violence. So Mario has been very hesitant to take us there. But it has been something I've been wanting to do for a very long time. The people there were very sweet people and they had so much joy and happiness. The service was great, I think about 50 people fit into this little room. The place was packing out so they had to bring in other benches and seats so more people could fit! Pastor Dustin did an awesome job preaching and many people filled the altars and the power of God moved through that place. After the service we went to the "Ranchos" which are the very poor areas of this country. These people live in tin shacks and dirt floors. There is sewer water runing everywhere and burning trash all around so it smells awful. But enduring the smell was definitley worth it to see how these people live and where they live. Pastor Dustin told me it takes about a day to build one of their shacks. And they just find a spot and build it out of sheets of old, beat up tin. One lady has some "land" in her back yard which is very fortunate to have and she has chickens, geese and a few dogs. We all got to hold a baby chick and she gave them as a gift to all the kids but Mario & Dee said no...Thank Goodness! :) When we were leaving the little kids were up on the hillside waving goodbye to us and saying "you are our friends and God Bless You"! It was the cutest thing ever! I'm very thankful that I got to experience this. It put such a fire and a real excitement inside of me that I can't explain! The people I met really seem to have joy and are content even with what they don't have. They are blessed because they have the 1st most important thing which is Jesus Christ living inside of them. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in life we don't look at what we do have and how blessed we are and that we have Jesus Christ. Really that's all we need to make it!

Round Two...Here I Come!

I'm back in Costa Rica! I've been back for exactly one week today! I am very happy to be home (my second home) away from all the cold....I got enough of that while I was in Colorado! And I'm glad to be speaking in spanish again! I forgot a little of my spanish but it came right back to me once I stepped off the plane and everyone was speaking spanish! :) I am amazed at how many people speak spanish in Colorado! You don't realize how many people speak spanish until you learn the language. It's pretty fun when you're walking through the mall and can understand what someone is saying or if they are talking about you and they don't know you can understand! :) I've finished my first week of school and it has been great so far! We have been reviewing and next week we will start a new subject!! This trimester I will get a lot more practice in speaking the language which I am sooo excited about! Thank You for all your prayers and supporting me in the decision to come back for another trimester! I love all of you and I will try to keep this thing updated for the most part but let me warn you in advance that I will be having A LOT more homework (or "tarea" in spanish) this trimester than the last! I have learned that word very well! :) Keep emailing! It means sooo much!