Birthday And The Beach!

What a weekend! From Birthday Celebrations to Beautiful Sunsets on the Beach! Thursday March 15th marked the day of my 18th birthday....Do I feel any different? Not really...but I feel completely different from the beginning of this trip until now, the closing weeks of my adventure to this country! It was a bit hard to celebrate my big 18th birthday away from my family and friends but my family here made me feel completely at home! They threw a great party for me with my favorite meal that Dee makes here...Taco Salad!! YUM :) And of course the Arroz con Leche..Rice Pudding, which has become my absolute favorite food here. I watched Carlos make it this time and took notes so I can make it when I come back! The next day Raych and I went to our first hour class for an important test to take then we headed off to....THE BEACH! Yes you read right...I went on my first beach trip in Costa Rica! We traveled about 6 hours away to a place called Guanacaste, which has tons of beaches. We went to this private resort where they have their own section of the beach then you go into the resort and there are pools to swim in. It was an awesome time. It's so hard to put into words but I will tell you two of my favorite parts that are beyond description! We had a boat come pick us up and we rode out to the middle part of the ocean and we went snorkeling! I got to see the coral reefs and tons and tons of tropical fish. They were neon blue and yellow. Our guide dove down to the bottom and got a star fish, sea urchin, and a blowfish. He brought it back up to the top for us to hold and look at. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. The second thing was watching the sunset go down on the beach...It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! Pictures can't really do justice to how spectacular it was. It's amazing how some people can look at something like the ocean or the sunset and STILL say there's no God!

Well my parents will be arriving into San Jose, Costa Rica tomorrow afternoon. I am very excited to have them here with me and to show them everything I've been doing these past 8 months! They will be staying for 2 weeks and then 2 weeks after that I will be packing my bags an dcoming home for good. So I'm going to enjoy my last 4 weeks here in Costa Rica and will probably have just a couple more posts for everyone and then the blog will come to an end :(

I love You all and God Bless!

God is Good! There's not much else to be said :)

Hello to all my faithful reader's of the blog. I seem to always have some kind of excuse for not updating. So yes here comes yet another one...I just had oral surgery last week. I got my wisdom teeth extracted! Let me tell you it was the worst pain I think I have ever felt. Not the surgery itself but the post op. I'm still hurting and sore but each day I'm getting better. I finally started eating all my meals yesterday and I can almost eat about anything. Glory to God!

School has been going great! I did miss 3 days from when I was recovering from the surgery but I really didn't miss too much. We are learning 15 rules of this form of talking called subjunctive and right now we are on rule # 12. So we are almost finished! I can't wait to bring it all home with me and put it to use!

A couple sundays ago we went to the Los Cuadros church and had a BBQ. It went great! We served about 200 hot dogs to the people there! Quite a few drug addicts came out and were ministered to. One lady broke down in tears and you could really tell that God was touching her.

My life here in Costa Rica is quickly coming to a close. I will be leaving this wonderful country that has become so special to me next month! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I am making every moment count during these last weeks here! I can't wait to see you all and appreciate the prayers, love and support!

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!

Let the Christmas Spirit Begin!

ok I have A LOT to update about!!! Here we go....first off I want to say that last night we all went to the mall to watch a movie and there were none in english so we decided to try to watch one in spanish!!! So we watched Santa Claus 3 and I understood it!!! My first movie in spanish!!! wooo hoooo!!!!

Well I guess I should start with Thanksgiving....Pastor Blake's Family, The Santistevans and our family went to this really nice 5 star hotel and had a nice Thanksgiving dinner. The food was a little strange because we could barely pronounce the names in spanish let alone english...but all in all we had a good day! It's kind of hard being in a different country during a holiday. I'm very thankful that i'll be able to come home for Christmas!

Last Sunday we went to Limon, a provinince here in Costa Rica, and watched Caleb's Taekwondo tournament. We had a lot of fun! It was a 3 hour drive but it was worth it! We also got to see the beach! We'll be going to the beach in January when me and Raychel get back from the states!

On Tuesday we decorated the tree for Christmas!!! YIIIPPEEE! It was lots of fun! The boys went out and got the tree (a fake one) and the girls started making the ornaments and decorations!!! We had a lot of fun making them! We also made brownies...YUUMMM!! In Costa Rica there are a lot of Catholics and they buy these nativity scenes and on December 24 they put baby Jesus in the manger. Then on January 6th they have a party celebrating the three wise men's arrival. So DeAnza decided to pick up this tradition....LOL....so on January 6th we are going to have a party for the three wise men and for us coming home since that's the day we get back!!! Gloria thinks it's the funniest thing that Dee wants to celebrate a Catholic tradition...lol....Don't worry now, we're not converting to Catholics...lol

Also, We had Carson's Birthday this last week!! 2 years old!!! It was a lot of fun. We had a family from the school come over and Gloria and Carlos. He loved unwrapping the gifts and eating the yummy blue frosted cake!!! :) Then it was Gloria's birthday last week (her REAL birthday this time..lol) So we went over to their house and celebrated with her and some of her family. We've taught them how to play uno and sorry. Our favorite so far has been uno!! It's very fun!

Well that's about it so next time i'll try not to make it such a long time in between posts.

Hope everyone is having a GREAT holiday season so far!!! Can't wait to back for Christmas!!! Love You All!

Un Decision Grande....A Big Decision! :)

I am posting this to make it official. But most of you know that I have made the decision to come back to Costa Rica in January for another trimester! It was an extremely big decision and I went back and it took lots of prayer and lots of talking with my parents. I went back and forth on it for about a month but in the end decided it was something I should do. I have learned soooo much already but I would like to get a little better handle on the language. My class is mving extremely fast. We should only be finishing present tense spanish and next trimester moving on to past tense. But we have already finished both present and past!!! How amazing is that! So I am very excited to come back and learn even more! I will still be coming home for christmas (which I am anticipating the arrival of December 18th very much!!!) and then I will be returning to Costa Rica January 6th and staying until April 18th!! So this trimester will only be about 3 1/2 months instead of the four months. I can't wait to come home and I appreciate all the prayers and support and of course comments from everyone!! I love you All!!!

All Good Things Must Come To An End

look @ Carson...picking his nose!!! thats a daily thing!






















i think me and raych wore him out! :)



























look how handsome he looks in his suit!!




















me and bray bein crazy!!




















(left to right) me, milton, manuel, kenneth, kendra, raych
carlos, and roy
























P. Blake & P. Jones with some of the guys






















mallory lookin cute n crazy





















LOOK @ THOSE LIPS!! GRANDE!! :)




























Lando & Mallory on crazy day @ school!

























us playing UNO!




Well yesterday Pastor Jones and Marie headed back for Colorado. We have had an awesome time with them. Saturday we went to Parque de Diversiones. It is an amusement park here in costa rica...kinda like a miniature six flags. we got there at about 12:00(cuz it took us like an hour and a half to find it...poor mario....we stayed there until about 4 or 5 cuz it started to rain...which is not an uncommon thing here. after that we went to a restauraunt in pavas...right down the street from the church. it was really fun. there was a jungle gym and me and raych became kids again and played tag with the kids!! it was VERY tiring!! they have sooo much energy it amazes me!! raych is like a big kid...she's funny!!! well my spanish is going good...we have started past tense and they have a lot of diferent kinds of past tenses. like if we want to say something in past tense we just add "ed". i wish it was like that in espanol! :) but i'm lovin it! we had a three day weekend this last week and when we saw gloria at church on sunday we could barely talk to her cuz we hadn't used our spanish in like three days!!! that night they came over and we ate none other than gallo pinto(rice and beans) :) then we taught caleb and gloria how to play UNO!!! u would think they would know how to play since it's a spanish word...lol Gloria didn't get it so she quit but caleb loved it so i think it's gonna be a favorite game when they come over!!! well i have an encouraging story...today i talked to a lady from the school on the phone in ONLY spanish!!! i was very happy!!! i actually did pretty good!!! well i will be posting another blog soon here so keep checking up! i love you all and appreciate all the prayers...someday here soon (or is it soon here...you start loosing your english when you learn spanish!! lol) well anyways some day here soon i will be doing a post in only spanish!!! HOPEFULLY!!! :) it will only be beginner's spanish though!

Laughter Brings Joy to Life!!! At least laughing at Jess Does!!! LOL

Ok so last saturday i was in the middle of a great sleep when i hear someone on an intercom at 6:00 IN THE MORNING. so i thought it was someone trying to sell something like they usually do here. Then the door opens and dee looks at me and it kinda freaked me out cuz she just stared at me with her wondering eyes! so she asked me, "do you hear that?" and i told her no...then we walked out and opened the door. When we opened the front door there were about 75 people walking down our street! they were all led by a van with two big speakers on top. then behind the van was a "catholic priest". at first i didn't know if he was a preist or a member of the KKK. but then i looked behind him and saw a big statue of mother mary being carried by some of the people. Then dee noticed they were all wearing rosaries. so we then concluded that they were catholics. but the wierd thing was that they were all extremely depressed looking people and they had this scary music BLARING from the speakers at 6:00 IN THE MORNING!!! then the musci suddenly stopped and the priest would mumble something...it was seriously a mumble...i think he was chanting something because it was neither spanish or english! so then after he qould do his chant the people would do the chant back. And they kept doing that down the enitre street...who knows where they were going or where they went but personally i'd rather it be kept a mystery. soooo the whole point of that story i guess was to complain about how i got woken up at 6:00 IN THE MORNING ON A SATURDAY!!!! can u believe it? well neways that's enough of that story...

Harry Hutchinson preached on Sunday morning and sunday night. They were both GREAT services and many people got saved and healed! But i have a funny story about sunday mornings service, so here it goes....DeAnza bought all of us little fans to bring to church while she was in the states. So we bring our fans with us on sunday mornings because it is very hot in the church. The kids already stare at us because we're gringos (americans) so to make matters worse now we are fanning ourselves during church AND we're gringos! So raychel pulls out her fan and is enjoying the breeze and i'm listening to Harry pray for people down at the altar when i hear this sound like a motor slowly dying. So i look over at Raych and she has her fan stuck in her hair....so me and dee are crackin up at her and she is laughing and trying to get her hair untwisted from the fan all at the same time. So DeAnza tells me to stand up and ignore it because we are causing a huge scene....people were looking at us and laughing...not helping with this critical situation i might add....lol...so raychel finally gets her hair untangled from the fan and there was a big knot in her hair so she ripped it out. But no worries she is not bald! :)

Ok everyone seems to like my funny embarrassing moments so i thought i'd give you another one...it's a recent one too! It happened today at school! So school just got out and it was raining very very hard...now first i've got to explain the rain here...it is the most amazing rain i've ever seen! It comes down soooo hard that you can't hear what the person in front of you is trying to say. So imagine walking in that!!! So after school i had to go get carson from the nursery. There are about 2 staircases that you have to walk down to get to the lower level. So i walked(in the POURING rain) down the first one and i made it ok. So then i attempt the second one and i got down. so i started to walk on the sidewalk and i lost my flip flop. so i had to turn around and get my flip flop. so i put my flip flop back on and started to walk but it wasn't all the way on my foot. so i trip over my flip flop and my back pack was so heavy that it lunged me forward and i tripped at least 4 times before i finally got my balance again!!! I almost did a faceplant into the concrete!!! So i regain my composure and by this time everyone around me is laughing soo hard so i just stood there and looked up to the sky and i said "don't tease me" in spanish!!! it was very embarrassing but i didn't turn red....i think i'm getting so used to being embarrassed that i don't turn red anymore!! :) To top it off i broke my flip flop and had to walk down the sidewalk in 2 inch puddles of rain!!! So when i finally got to the nursery and fixed my flip flop and got carson and left!!! but it was very very funny!!! then i found out when i got home that mallory was watching me fall fom the gym the whole time and her and her class were laughing at me!!! LOL

Well i think this has been a pretty good update and now i need to go and get some rest for tomorrow's day of school!! FRIDAY!!! TGIF!!! Thank You all for your prayers!!! Keep our family in prayer for health!! We have been passing sickness around and i missed two days of school this week so pray that we all get better! Love You All and Miss You Muchos!!!

Dios es Bueno! ~God is Good
Jess Mo

I also included more pics of me for all of you who say i don't put enough pics of me on my blog and for those who want to see all the "weight" i've gained!! :)