The End of a Wonderful Journey

Months have come to an end weeks have also come to an end and the days are quickly approaching.

There's a bitter-sweet feeling inside of me right now because 5 days from now I'll be flying out of this amazing country which I cannot possibly put into words as I have described it many times before. Where I've spent these last 8 months away from family and friends but it has been a place where I have met new family and friends and where God has constantly been chaning me. Where God has also shown me things in my life I need to change and where I have learned so many lessons, not only spanish but life lessons that I would never trade for anything. I have been amazingly blessed by this country and the people here and by my wonderful family here and I pray that I have been a blessing as well. One of the little words of wisdom I received while I was here and always held it close to my heart was "It doesn't matter if I don't learn the language because maybe God sent me down here to change me and shape and mold me, and spanish was just a little extra something that came along with the package. God really does work in mysterious ways. When I came here I had one purpose in my mind, and that was to learn spanish. But he gave me a lot more than that!

Well this will be my last posting. Thank you everyone for supporting me and praying for me while I've been here. It means so much to me and this really has been an experience of a lifetime and I know I'll never regret it. I will be taking my final exams on Monday and Tuesday. So please pray for me in that area. I'm very nervous about taking them. One is a written and one is an oral over everything I have learned so far.

I have a few pictures of when my parents were here last week. It was a lot of fun. They should be expert spanish speakers by now :) But I am very proud of them...they took a taxi while they were here and the guy spoke spanish with some english but they got home. Most all of the pictures that I took while they were here are on their camera which is in the states so I am working on putting a mini-slideshow together of my personal photos so I can show them to everyone. Well the last post is coming to an end and I'm welling up with tears a little. I'm not very good with words so I hope I got my point across well enough. I love you all and I can't wait to see everyone and share my stories and experiences!

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!