Costa Rica Life

Hi all!! Again my blog is delayed because as usually life happens and although life here is tranquillo is seems the days go by fast and slow at the same time. The owners of our house came into town for 16 days so we had to move out while they were here. That was a huge process! I'm so glad we only have to do that once a year. It does help us keep things simple. The less we have to move the better! So every time we think about buying something...we remember that we have to move it!

We had planned on going to Nicaragua for the time that they were here but we got offered another free house so we took it. Tyler was in the village supermarket and ran into one of our neighbors. She just happens to also be the local vacation rental manager. Tyler mentioned that we were getting the house ready for the owners and she asked where we were going. He told her that we had just planned on checking out Nicaragua for a few weeks. She said. "Well if you want to stay in Ojochal I can get you into one of my rentals thats available for free!" How could we pass that up? It was going to cost a bit  to take the bus 9 hours into Managua! It was a really nice house. 2 story and in a valley so it was a bit warmer than our house here on the hill. It had a pool and was right next to a river. The only downside was it was next to that river! The first day that I was moving stuff over I did a double take as I drove down the driveway because I could of swore I saw an alligator in my driveway! After further investigation I found out that the river was home to a family on Cayman! Needless to say we did not fill the pool because... well do I need to explain?? I still have some city girl in me:) That was the only cayman we saw so I was pretty happy about that. We had almost no internet for the entire 16 days which led me to realize I would rather be without water than internet! 

Now for some experiences. Last week I promised some from Nicaragua! A brother and sister are moving down there in February. They have been here for 4 years and have decided that they are ready to go to another area. They visited Pearl Lagoon and loved it. Most people there speak english or creole as a first language and spanish as a second or third. One day a week this congregation boards a boat and travels to a nearby island. They use a boat provided by the branch. They leave before its light out and work the territory until almost dark. They have had so much interest on the island! Yolanda, the sister that went, had many experiences but I will just share one with you all because there are SO many! She walked up to a house and noticed that an entire family of about 8-10 were outside having a BBQ. The brother said to her, "Go ahead." She was very nervous. As she approached the group all eyes were on her. She started her presentation and pulled out the video Would you like to study the bible. All of them watched in silence! As the video ended an additional person walked outside and asked what was going on. Her family told her that she needed to see this video! So Yolanda started it again, and again they all watched. They left several sets of magazines and a few bible teach books and made arraignments to go back and start a group study with the entire family! This congregation has very limited funds and it is hard for them to get to this island each week so they are currently having any friends who have experiences there, send them to the branch in hopes that they might soon get a more efficient motor for their little preaching boat. 

Now onto Costa Rica! We started doing cart witnessing on the beach last week. I know rough life, right??!We have been working a lot of spanish territory since we became a group but we starting to slowly shift our focus back onto english as we work to adjust to our new group status. It is hard to stay in practice at talking to people in english when we don't have an english service meeting and school. As a result the methods used in the territory are, at times, outdated. The reminders we get at the meeting on showing personal interest and starting conversations are crucial to our success in the ministry. Because we don't get them weekly we have to put extra effort into learning and appreciating these points. The school helps keep you fresh because we all know that sometimes we go out and may not speak to one person. I have come to realize how much more I appreciate the meetings now. Jehovah knows what we need. We are starting to get creative with our ministry here so that we can talk to as many people as possible. One big thing we are starting to do is street witnessing. This is great for the kids! We try and have them talk to at least one person every time we go in street work. They have never really done street witnessing here. Bus stops and just walking around where english people are, having our cart outside the bus station and the grocery store that english people frequent are all new or not yet utilized ideas for the friends here that are just starting to trickle down. The internet is invaluable too. Every Spanish door I go to I always ask, "Tiene Internet?" Because if they do have internet I can direct them to the website. 

Another big challenge here is the roads. They are dirt, they are steep and rugged. Many times people are impressed that you took the time to drive up to them:) The territory is fun though I'm not going to lie! We basically go jeeping every week and the kids love it! We continue to have nice conversations with people and season the message all over our territory. One person that was witnessed to here went  home and by the next year when she came back, she was a bible study! 

Learning Spanish is going good. We started reading out of the bible story book in spanish every day. We basically sit at the table and take turns reading out loud and it has really been helping! I didn't think it would because we don't know what we are saying but it does! A sister form Venezuela recommended that and I'm so glad she did! We are all feeling more confident speaking our new language. In fact Tyler had an hour long discussion with our gardner last weekend and placed a bible teach book, a bible and showed him the why study the bible video. They are going to continue their discussion the next time he comes. He told Tyler that his wife is very catholic but that he thinks it wrong for people to have to pay for prayer books and pay each time they confess. It was a great conversation! I can't wait to see what comes of it:) 

Tyler gave his first public talk last weekend and he did so great! There was an audience of about 25 which was good for our little english group. He has another spanish part coming up next month so he is already preparing for that. 

We already have to do another Panama run this month! I can't believe that we have been here for almost 6 months. We have visitors starting to plan to come visit us over the next few months so we look forward to getting a little piece of home. We miss everyone! 

 

This is the house we stayed in for 16 days. It was pretty cute! 

This is a sitting room and I loved it!! The monkeys came by almost everyday and since this was on the upper level you could see them perfectly! 

Asher taking out the trash. It's down the hill so he gets to ride a quad down to the bins. His new favorite chore! 

Tylers first public talk! 

Our day at Nauyaka waterfall

One of our many get togethers! We have a lot of chefs here:) 

Cart witnessing! 

BEACH:) 

A common road blockage here.. 

We love the beach! 

until next time ! 

Mucho Calor!

Hello everyone! Well it's almost the busy season here and its starting to get hot..like really hot! Summer here is from November-ish until May-ish. Everyone keeps telling me that Summer is Muy Caliente! Mucho Calor is part of my everyday vocabulary now:) 

The congregation once again is changing! We have had another new family move in with 2 kids. We have some visitors here from Florida also considering a move here in the future so that is really encouraging. We also have a new couple that just moved in from Canada. They were in the french congregation but also speak english. They are both pioneering and Eric, the brother, is an elder. Oh how we needed another elder! The Dons ( as I have so aptly nicknamed them because ..well they are both named Don) have been working so hard! One of our Dons will probably be leaving us soon as they have decided to cross over into Macedonia..yet again. In this case Macedonia is Nicaragua:) They just got back from there and have some amazing experiences. I will share those in my next blog. The preaching work is awesome in Nicaragua! Okay but ler me back up to Eric and Rachel's  story. They wrote the branch and wanted to come to Costa Rica. they actually requested a Spanish congregation but were sent back word to come to our group instead as we are really in need. Rachel doesn't speak Spanish and was very apprehensive about going to a Spanish congregation. She said that when they got the news from Bethel, they were really excited to be asked to come to an English group! ..and English is their 2nd language!  We all already love all of our new people!  

I had my first part as a householder last week and it went good! I was so nervous. After the meeting a little sister came up and told me that she understood almost everything I said. I'll take it! LoL Also Tyler had a 10 minute part, Solo Espanol! He did great. We had to bring our TV from home and rig it up to show the video. The kids loved it! Ty;er is also giving his first public talk the first week of December, in English. 

Service is good. It will kick into high gear once all of the people start coming for high season and Im so ready! Last weekend in service me and the sister I was with possibly restarted a study in Spanish. We also had some great 45 minute conversations with people so we will see what comes of those. 2 new bible studies were started in English last week also!  Very exciting:) 

The English group is planning on venturing out and working farther south soon. We want to start going to more remote areas where the English haven't been preached to yet so hopefully we will get that going in the next few months. It will require being gone overnight, maybe even 2 and a lot of planning since it seems like most everyone wants to go:) 

Okay its short but sweet this week! Here are some pics from the last 2 weeks:) 

Ella & her new friend Kyla in service 

Beach fun! 

This is a cave near a private little beach! so cool

cave tic tac toe 

yep people still do this here 

Asher found a Turtle hanging out outside the Kindgom  Hall 

Tylers part 

  Girls pool party! 

 After meeting for field service the girls, coloring together. 

 This is our territory.. all of those blue squares are English speaking people. If your wondering, the roads are actually that sketchy. and most territories do have rivers you have to cross😬

Never a dull moment in Costa Rica

Hey everyone! Things are going fantastic here in Costa Rica! As usual things are busy busy busy and time got away from me so it's actually been almost a month since my last blog! Yikes!

We went to Panama and re-stamped our passports for another 90 days here. A sweet sister drove down with us to show us the ropes. We are about an hour and a half away from Panama. So we drove down there in the morning and were in line by 8:45. We paid our exit tax of $7 per person at the Banco National and then went to the next building to get stamped out of Costa Rica. Once we got stamped out of Costa Rica we got back into our car and drove down the street to the Panama Immigration office. This area is okay to drive in because its actually still Costa Rica..its weird. We stamped into Panama and then the wait is on. We walked over to McDonalds and the little shopping center while we waited out our time. Technically they can require that you are in Panama for 72 hours  before allowing you to stamp back out but here they fine if you stay a minimum of 3 hours. So out of Panama we stamped and then drove back over to the Costa Rica office and stamped back in. YAY! So this is a bit of a hassle because to enter Panama they require that you have a confirmed plane ticket from Panama back to your country of origin within 180 days from entering, $500 US cash or a bank statement proving you have that much money, and patience because its a pain!!! We just brought our credit card statement showing our available balance and they were fine with that. Fortunately Orbits has a no fee 24 hour cancelation policy so we were able to book our tickets that morning and cancel them that night with no fee. On return into Costa Rica they require proof of exit. For this we used a bus ticket we bought before we moved here. It's good for 1 year and its from San Jose to Panama City and its free to change the dates anytime within that one year. That part was just a phone call so all in all it went pretty smoothly We even met a missionary brother at the immigration area doing informal witnessing.  He had a tract sticking up in his pocket. The only thing you could see was the question,  it seemed like a great conversation starter!  It was so nice to meet him! He even spoke a little bit of english:) Here are a few pictures from that day:

We ran into some friends at a witnessing cart in the City Mall area. These friends were from Panama.

They let us in!!!! As usual Asher is THRILLED to be having his photo taken :)

We live very close to Playa Tortuga which is one of the many places in Costa Rica that turtles migrate to to have their babies. We were so excited to check out the turtle reserve for a little school field trip. That day they happened to have some babies hatch! Here are some photos of us watching the release of Olive Ridley babies!!!! 

The 1st picture is of all of the volunteers and the kids. These volunteers sleep in a make shift base camp to protect the turtle eggs from poachers. 

 They transport these turtles to a safe place after their mom lays the eggs. They rebury them in special areas to protect them. When they hatch, they dig them up and release them into the sea. About 1% will return to Costa Rica to lay future eggs. Sadly many of them do not survive once they go out to sea. That does not stop these people from doing what they do! We met people volunteering from Scotland, Germany, France and so many other places. Volunteers come from 2-4 weeks. Locals can even do a night watch!

 Peyton holding a baby. He was so excited! Kids rarely come to see the release since they never know when it will happen. They loved having kids there. In fact they saw us taking tons of pictures and the microbiologist {In the blue shirt} asked us if they could have copies if the pictures we took to put on their website because they really want more kids to come out and experience this process. They were very kid friendly it was awesome. Although about 20 adults were there, he focused on talking to the kids and letting them hold the babies.

 It was a bit of a trek to get from the reserve to the beach hatching spot.. a little sketchy.. but that made it more fun! We wore boots but Ticos aren't as paranoid as us so he wore sandals:)

 No need to explain the boots really....I mean.. this is Costa Rica! Tromping through these areas there is an obvious risk for snake bites so we took precautions. No worries, not a snake in sight.

 These are a few workers digging up the babies for release.

SO FUN!!!!!!!

Theocratically we are also busy. Tyler gave his first bible reading and I finally joined the school as a house holder. My first part will be in December so I have a little time still. Most of our service is in spanish so I don't have any incredible experiences yet, but soon! We are adjusting really well. I'm so proud of my kids they have been so great. They don't complain {that much} about anything. They must be travelers at heart. We live much simpler now and on much less but they don't seem to care. The only real obstacle has been learning spanish. Of course it seems overwhelming for them at times { I feel the same way}  so I feel like when they tell us their frustrations we can say that we REALLY understand. 

I have learned many things so far from this experience. The first: You have to stay positive! Focus on the benefits of whatever you are doing. There are so many potential studies in spanish here that they are turned away simply due to lack of people to study with them. Those are our future studies:) We are supporting a congregation and that is huge! These are some of the things I tell the kids..and myself when I'm frustrated. Being out of your comfort zone is a little bit of an exciting feeling. Like you don't know if your more scared or excited. 

Second: Take it one day at a time. Like the bible says, tomorrow has its own anxieties. So true! You will  take the joy out of today by focusing on tomorrow. 

Something else I have learned is that my husband is really brave. 

{ Don't tell him, he doesn't read my blog! LoL}

When I think about everything he gave up it really makes me appreciate him. Men, family heads,  have a lot to shoulder, supporting their families. He gave up a job he loved and was really good at to come to a place where he didn't speak the language, with no real prospects for work in the future, all to expand his service to Jehovah and be with us more. I never would have been brave enough to do that. Sometimes I get nervous just going into town because I don't speak very much  spanish. He doesn't. He doesn't worry too much about the future and I envy that. That is exactly why I am trying so hard to do step number one{above}. He has been so adaptable and I know that's why the kids are doing so great! 

Many people have asked me what is difficult or different than I thought it would be. I have never really wanted to answer that. I always want to be encouraging and say, "Oh nothing! Life is peachy keen! It's so great!!!"....but seriously..like anything in life, Satan is always there to push you down. Some dear friends gave us some wonderful advice before we left and shared good and bad experiences with us and that has helped us so much! More than I can express!  It prepared us for the things we might face so that we weren't blind sided or discouraged. Almost everyone who has asked me this question has done so because they were contemplated a move themselves. Being prepared is crucial.  So now I can finally tell you what is hard about living here..

 My best friend had her first baby and I missed it. That was my first real emotional moment here. It's hard leaving people, leaving behind the comfort of close friends. Those relationships take time to build and the thought of starting over with new people can be scary. Life continues after you leave. Lives continue to change the same as if you were still there. Seriously..Time is a thief!:) If I told you that it didn't completely break my heart to miss that moment I would be a big liar and my pants might catch on fire:) That is the hardest part about moving. I can handle the language, the heat and the weird food, even the bugs. But it's the people. They are the most important thing.  I didn't appreciate them all fully until they weren't right there, a car ride away. I didn't allow myself to dwell on it before my move. So many people have impacted my life especially my many friends in the Firgrove congregation. I miss them. But don't worry! It doesn't last. It comes and goes and you never really lose them. My advice, be sad a little, throw yourself a little pity party and then move on..quickly. We are one huge extended family and we are connected no matter how far apart we are:)   

Here she is!!!  Maisie Lillian Grace Amos:) 

On the flip side: The great things about living here are too many to list! So here are a few more pictures of what we have been up to: 

Tyler rigged up his motorcycle to be surf/beach ready. It actually works really well and saves  on gas when he solo surfs. 

Asher got an electric guitar and has been relearning as part of school. He missed playing so much and really loves it. He is taking online lessons. Our gardner was outside working and heard Asher playing and decided to come in and do a little La Bamba jam session to show him how it was done:) 

Peyton and his buddy Fritz! Fritz is from Denmark and was baptized years ago but became inactive for many many years. When he moved to Costa Rica to retire the brothers found him and he became reactivated! His wife is VERY opposed but he still continues on in his spiritual routine and was just appointed as a ministerial servant. He is one of the sweetest brothers I have every met. So kind and humble. You have to hear his story if you visit! 

Asher was in a little incident in service this week. A brother was mapping territory and ..oops! His rig tipped right over. No one was hurt. 

 Assessing the situation..they got it back on 4 wheels eventually and drivable.

 I took some photos on the beach this week. I thought photography was fun... until I tried it with my 3 kids!!! 1 subject = easy! 3 subjects = kids crying
Believe me folks it is not as it appears in magazines!

 These 2 are 2 peas in a pod!

 An amazing Rainbow Eucalyptus

 Some beach shenanigans. Ella with her new friends Kianna and Kristelle. They just moved into our congregation last week. Sweet, Sweet girls!

 More beach shenanigans!

 Boogie boarding when a bogie approached. He was harmless. Most dogs in Costa Rica are.

 He belongs at the beach!

 My little beach beauty.

I mean..of course.. This is where I would go to buy a cat..a grocery store

 We walk down to this river a few times a week. Its about 15 minutes down the hill from our house. The walk back up almost kills me every time. Good times:) But the kids love skipping rocks here

 Just a picture with my phone. No filter needed here, this place is stunning!

 Wellllll...... my stove is broken but we still need our brownie fix. I threw the mix in the crockpot to see what would happen. It's not pretty but we didn't care! They were delicious and gone in 5 minutes!

Talk to you again soon!!! :)