School SnAkeS & Other Stuff

Hello everyone!! Well we started home school last week and it was pretty good! I have had to make a few changes to the kids curriculum because I was way overloading them!I have heard that this is a typical Homeschool newbie mistake. So now that I am back down to reality things are good. We did try and enroll the kids in school down here but that proved to be very challenging. They want so much paperwork its ridiculous! School here is only in spanish but other need greater families have really encouraged us to put them in school here and continue some of their homeschool curriculum also. When we mentioned this to the kids they were so excited. They really want to go to school to learn spanish! I had no idea. I was pretty impressed with their attitude. Kids are so open to change and new things. No wonder Jesus used them as an example! School here runs from February- November. We have stayed on a U.S. schedule for our homeschool program so they have started 1st, 4th, and 6th grade this past week. If they go to school in February they would start those same grades but continue in the U.S. homeschool  program on the same schedule. It may be tricky. We are still deciding on that whole situation. Okay enough about that..

We had our first snake sighting and it was in our house! Off of our bedroom is a screened in sitting room and this is where our computer is. The kids were in there watching a movie with the light off. I went in there and turned the light on and there he was just chilling..kind of looked like he was watching the movie. Well because we are "new", we cannot spot a venomous snake VS non venomous snake just by sight so we had to chop him :( So sad. He was a baby about 1 foot long.  Afterwards we identified it and it appears to have been a baby Tree Boa. We think it got in through an open door. That will never happen again! I was a little concerned that my kids weren't that scared honestly!

The congregation is doing well. As usual we still have some changes going on. When the CO came around we got 3 new Ministerial Servants! So we now have 4 servants and 2 elders in just the english group. As a whole we have 6 servants and 4 elders.

We found out this week that a couple is coming from France in November! They are, of course, the talk of the hall now. We love when people visit or move here! We just love people here:) We also have a family of 5 coming in December that were here last year. They are moving here permanently. And of course my sweet friends Sara  and Kressa will be here soon!!!! Sara for about 4-5 months, and Kressa for 1 month. Can't Wait!!!! We met a sister from Florida ( @ our meeting) today who was here  last year. She is here for 1 month helping out a congregation about an hour away. She was so sweet! She is hoping to come back and serve in Uvita again next year if finances permit. I hope so!! It really is awesome to see so many young sisters who are not afraid to come out here and serve. They are so brave. I really admire them.  Not to leave the brothers out..we have one servant in our hall who is also younger and has chosen to be here where the need is great. He is currently in the states. I haven't met him yet but he has been in Africa at the International Convention in Zimbabwe for 5 weeks and now saving up to come back in a few months! The things these young people can experience from choosing this life of full time service is amazing. It really does change their whole life. Jehovah opens so many doors for them.

This week and last week we have had no speaker at our Sunday meeting ( In English) so we have only been able to do the Watchtower study. The spanish have this happen often also. There are usually 15-20 people at the English meeting each week. Its hard to get speakers, many halls are stretched pretty thin around here. Like...so thin that if you visit us..your giving a part of some sort... I'm totally serious. :) Because of this the branch is trying something new with some groups, ours is one of those groups. Soon we will start to have our meeting right before spanish on the weekend. Right now Spanish has their meeting on Saturday and we have our meeting on Sunday.  So starting soon, we haven't really been told when, we will have our meeting on Saturday at 5:00 and the Spanish talk will start at 6:30 and then we will have a spanish Watchtower study. So its an interesting arraignment. We don't have a back room so that has complicated things. I'm wondering what is going to happen in the future because our Kingdom hall is at full capacity right now. Per our branch diagram on the back board we can legally only hold 9 more people in the building than we have now. There has been talk of putting chairs outside the hall next to the windows! Ummm I dont know about that! But apparently thats what ya do here when ya reach capacity. True story! Seriously..They have done it in the past,  years ago before spanish split. Don't even get me started on my problems with that..night time bugs to name one..BIG ones that fly and jump and ..YUCK! I imagine the sisters and kids would  have seats inside..I HOPE:)

Yesterday we had a very bad storm! To get to our house you have to cross a small bridge but when it rains really bad the water comes up over and covers the bridge and its impassable. This almost happened yesterday and once last week. Yesterday our house got struck by lightening and it zapped  some of our electrical outlets and fried our modem. Costa Rican electrical wiring is sketchy anyway so if any other factor comes into play it just flat won't work. One caught on fire the other day when I turned a fan on..LoL Costa Rica I love you!  On top of that Tyler got a flat tire yesterday in service and on Sunday nothing is open. Tomorrow is Costa Rican Independence day so everything is still closed. Of course the jack he needed to remove the spar tire and put it on was missing from the car we bought! Costa Rica! Thats what we say every time..We love you Costa Rica but you do things  S..L..O..w..l..y.. Very slowly. So fortunately the house we caretake for has a car we can use so we were saved!!

We have been doing a lot of spanish service since we got here. With the campaign in August we were really pushing to help complete the spanish territory. Last weekend we did some english territory and that was great! We had been given the direction to go ahead and finish our english territory with the campaign tract in this area.  We met some very nice people. People here have such interesting stories about how they got here. It's very neat to chit chat about life with them. Almost always they will take the literature. This week we are going to add some more service into our schedule. Now that we are settled into our house and getting school under control we want to add a midweek day for service to our calendars this month. Hopefully next month we will be able to add more service time in. We are pacing ourselves though because learning the language is our priority right now. The more spanish we know the better we can learn from the meetings and the more people we can preach to. We have a simple 1 line presentation right now and then we say have a nice day. Its so hard for me sometimes because I want to do everything just perfectly when I speak spanish (I'm a perfectionist and I really hate it)  So a sister took me aside and said, " Just say it Amber! You won't learn until you let go and start speaking incorrectly. That's how you learn". Ugh!  She was right. I am so happy she told me that. So sometimes I don't know what I'm saying. It is humbling and sometimes embarrassing but I feel like I'm making progress. Someone told me don't measure your progress by how you did last week measure it by how you did 6 months ago..6 months ago!!! Okay ..that was a hard pill to swallow but its true. Big changes take time and patience. That advice came from a gringo who learned spanish too.. so theres hope for us yet!!!!

Thanks for all the emails and pictures!! We didn't bring a lot of pictures with us:( The next time we go into the city we are going to get them all printed so we can put them around our house and in albums so please keep sending us your pictures. We wish we had brought more because  those make our house feel a little bit more like home, so keep em' coming please!!! Until next time, Adios Amigos!

We tried to tell them that that's not what a surf board is for .. 

2 sweet little sisters from Spanish giving a talk

Peyton & his buddy Mylos

Service pics... I had to choose between rickity bridge or washed our creek..

Asher & Tyler are loving surfing and boogie boarding 

Snake intruder.. 

This is our Gardner Fransisco taking Tyler to the property we have to check ok as part of our care taking job. it's a but rural...

Care packages are hard to get here but we got one!!! The kids were thrilled ..

This is the bridge to our house but here it just looks like a stream!!

Ella with her watchtower.. December cover Costa Rica!! 

a little cuteness❤️❤️

This was a bridge to a house in service! 

Can't remember if I added this one.. Asher running mics:) 

A little congregation bowling! 

A sloth trying to cross the highway

Some things haven't changed.. Legos are still his go to toy 

Ella getting some backyard surfing lessons 

Regional Convention

Hey everyone!!!! This weekend was our regional convention. We have been looking forward to this since we got here. Seeing the friends again that we met last year..we couldn't wait!! But a few things dampened our plans:( Last Saturday (weekend before the convention)  Tyler fell really ill. At first he thought it was the flu and just tried to stay in bed but by Tuesday I just felt something wasn't right so I pretty much begged him to go to the doctor. I had already been the doctor the week before for some ongoing ear issues with all the kids and I really liked the doctor. Well 2 shots later and $100 in prescriptions...he had a bad lung infection AND the flu! I have never seen him this sick before but he is finally getting better. Funny little story..Our Co ordinator owns the pharmacy in town and when Tyler got to the doctor they actually had to drive down to that pharmacy and get the shots to give him! So our coordinator knew what Tyler had before he did! Small town?... I think so:)
So off we went to the convention on Thursday morning.

The convention (what we were there for) was amazing! Tyler and I were asked to do a part last minute which we were so excited about. We did the skit on public witnessing. We played the part of  the couple passing by the table that got ignored. It was so fun! Some of you may have seen the video I took of our rehearsal. It consisted of us doing the part on a sisters porch while the CO skyped in to watch. Then on the day of our part, we ran out of time during the walk thru and had to show a team of brother the actual part in a 4X15 hallway backstage! There was like 20 people in this little hallway! It was crazy but so much fun!!

Friday we were only able to stay for the morning session and same with saturday. Tyler was really bad you guys, I was really worried:(

I want to share 4 experiences from our convention that were so awesome:  The first is a couple who were in the 32nd class of Gilead and had to learn Chinese. Just 1 year later they were relocated to Costa Rica and had to learn Spanish! Seriously!!?? A YEAR later. That brother and sister are my new heroes!! " Hi I know you just learned..CHINESE..now learn spanish..and could ya make it snappy because were moving you in 4 months..Thanks" Okay maybe it didn't happen like that but I'm probably not too far off! They have been here ever since. I just wouldn't have the room to share the tidbits of experiences that they shared but they have had such a rich life serving Jehovah. The way he found the truth was by being invited to a talk in someones house when he was in his late teens, 3 years later he was a regular pioneer. They are now very up in years but still faithfully special pioneering! WOW!

The other experience was a couple serving in Panama. They are from Canada originally. They were only in Panama 2 years before they were invited to attend the couples school. They serve the english circuit, but in Panama couples school is only in Spanish. So they had 3 months to learn Spanish before couples school and thats exactly what they did. Now that I know what it is like to learn another language as an adult I am really amazed at this brother and sister.

The third experience was a sister who came into the truth after she was newly married. Her husband had tried on many occasions to get her to stop her study. She went back and forth with her study because of this. One day she decided that she needed her study and she knew it was the truth. So she resumed her study. Shortly after that, one day she came home from her study to find her husband home early. She went to take a shower. Little did she know that while she was in the shower, her husband had called her bible study teacher and said that they had better come get her because she was on her way out! Unbeknownst to her, she got out of the shower,  got dressed and stepped into the living room. She saw a brother standing at her open front door, thats when she heard the cock of a gun behind her. She begged the brother to leave but he refused and said he wasn't going anywhere. She pleaded with her husband to just let her go as she slowly walked toward the door. He did. She left that day with just the clothes on her back and became our sister. She is in my congregation, so if you ever come visit,  you will be able to meet this fearless sister.

Last but not least, was not actually an experience but a couple that we met who sat in front of us. They are from Nicaragua serving as special pioneers. They are in Managua which is about 2.5 hours outside of Costa Rica. They told us about all of the wonderful experiences there and how the congregations are just growing tremendously! They serve in a Spanish congregation but told us that nearby is an english congregation with almost 100 publishers that more bible studies than they can handle! The sister, Karen, spent several years in Nicaragua when she was a child. Her parents went there to serve where the need was great and thats how she learned spanish and also developed a love for the ministry. She watched her parents struggle with the language and never forgot that. She was 6 when they moved there and actually got so accustomed to speaking spanish that she started forgetting english! So her parents made it a rule that at home, english had to be spoken:) They were so encouraging and had some great stories! I was glad we were early that day because we spent the whole morning hearing about life in Nicaragua. Even the kids were intrigued by everything they were saying. Of course they insisted that we must come visit them for at least 2-3 weeks. That's just how it is here, you never go anywhere for a few days.  They were amazing and I actually am really excited to be able to visit them and experience what Nicaragua is like!

Okay I'm adding another one! Brother and Sister Morales talked about their experience going to couples school and serving as special pioneers. They then asked him to explain to us what it was like to serve on an elder body with Brother Pierce . He said that Brother Pierce kept very quiet during elders meeting and always let everyone express their thoughts. "Sometimes", Brother Morales said,"We all just wanted to look at him and say... Just tell us what to do, we know you know." It was so funny! He went on to explain that Brother Pierce was learning spanish and I never knew that! He said that he often made mistakes and asked the friends to please correct him. When he was asked what he felt was the most memorable thing about Brother Pierce this is what he said:
" His time. He never made you feel like he had other more important things to do. When he would invite those from the congregation to his room at bethel he would be preparing the meal and he was present in that moment. Not distracted by other things but present with you,  getting to  know you and allowing you to know him." He even said brother Pierce would often call other brothers and ask their opinions about things. It was so sweet the way he spoke of Him. He said that when he died,  the congregation wasn't upset because they had lost one of the anointed, but because they lost a genuine friend.  

SIDENOTE: For those of you who read my blog before I changed it... Bro L is still alive! lol There were 2 experiences on the   program about GB members and I got the names mixed up! Thanks mom! LoL She about died laughing when I related the experience and said," ummm Amber he's not dead" So there you have it, Bro. L is alive and well:) 

Phew! Okay It was a great program (what we saw anyway). There were only 650 at our convention this year. Last year there were 850.  It has been a difficult adjustment for many, learning a new language so this convention was a huge boost for us all! So although our numbers have shrunk, the friends spirit of happiness has not! More will come as they always do and Jehovah will make sure that there are always enough people for whatever is needed.

In other news: In San Jose we got to eat at McDonalds and Outbacks Steakhouse!!! We found Price Smart! Its just like Costco. This will save us so much money on food,  we were thrilled. Also, my mac died you guys:( I know I'm so sad!!! I came home from convention, tried to turn it on and..nothing...just the 3 beeps of death. And of course it's out of warranty by 2 weeks! UGH! So no pics this blog, sorry. I will try to add some later.

The kids start school next week! I'm a little nervous about that but I think we are ready. We are actually getting a really good routine with work and service so I think everything will work out really nicely.

Thank you so much to all of you who email, text and Skype us! We love it. Really, the highlight of our month a few weeks ago was when Tyler & Paul skyped and he was just leaving the meeting and we got to see a bunch of you!!! Firgrove will always be our true home:)  We love you guys!
Well I better get going guys I still have dishes and some cleaning to do ( Yeah, those things followed me to Costa Rica:). My plan is to do a blog every 2 weeks on Sunday or Monday and I would love to hear from you guys too! Talk to ya soon!

Spanish ..Spanish and more Spanish

Hi everyone! Its been a while since I have posted anything because it has been such a busy 2 weeks for us! A lot has been going on. First off we had our CO visit this week for Spanish and that has been quit an experience. Our CO only speaks spanish. So honestly, for the kids, this week has been a little overwhelming. 3 spanish meetings this week and an english meeting talk and watchtower  tomorrow was a bit much for them. So I actually stayed home from meeting with them today while tyler went to the Spanish meeting. Besides moving to an entirely different country, they are learning a new language. I wish we would have had a little time before CO visit to get our bearings a little and get a little more familiar with the language. 

Our meeting Thursday night was so great. Our CO gave a talk on our congregation going back to a group and merging with spanish. He said that while he was out in service the day before, they met many spanish and english. Our territory has a lot of both. He said that with the spanish and english meeting together we will become like a strong pillar. Before, we were 2 small pillars, both needing help. But now the spanish can help us learn spanish and we can teach them english. This will have a great effect on our territory and out ministry because eventually we will all be able to preach to either language. In Costa Rica 99% of people either speak english or spanish. That really makes you think! This type of arraignment is happening all over Central & South America right now. Many english congregations are going back to groups. This helps make the load lighter on all of the brothers ,but, as I have been able to see, it really benefits the congregation in so many ways. Of course there are challenges. Think about it. You walk into a Kingdom Hall and it’s easy to talk to those who speak your language. But you cant do that. It would be very easy to segregate yourself and only converse with those that speak english. Or when speaking to the spanish friends one could  limit themselves to simple phrases like “how are you” “Nice to see you” but you can’t do that. ( okay at first you can, but eventually you need to say more:)You have to step out of your comfort zone and try to speak this new language and pick up what you can.  I say “ No Inteindo”  a lot! :) But listening to them speak and just being at the meeting  has helped so much. In fact there is one spanish brother in our hall who speaks a little english and the CO asked him to relate an experience and part of his talk in english during the meeting  Thursday. It was so encouraging and he wanted to make sure we knew how he felt about all of our hard work and our struggle to learn the language. 

“Good Job” he said in english “mucho corozon” (Much heart) It was so sweet! After the CO’s talk I really wanted to say something to him. Its so frustrating not being able to communicate what you want to. So I went up and said that I didn't understand what he said but very good.. thank you:) I know, kind of lame LOL but of course he did what I feared most..Started taking to me..in spanish. So I have learned to nod and say si a lot. :) I am so glad that we are here. We get to be involved at the very beginning when the hall is merging and starting this whole process. We get to see it all! I am so glad that we came when we did. Our hall has only been merged for the last 8 weeks, so all of us who speak english are learning spanish together. We have each other to lean on. Everyone is always checking in on each other and making sure non of us get too overwhelmed. I really cant wait until the CO comes back around in 6 months, I know I will be able to tell him how I feel then!

Okay so in addition to that, we moved! Our house was in need of so many things that we decided it was just way too time consuming and we needed to get out of there. So we prayed about it and started looking. You may not believe what I am about to tell you …but it’s true and I still have goose bumps!!!! Tyler had driven a Bible study home after meeting 2 weeks ago and he lives in a town 20 minutes up the road. Tyler loved this town. So he thought he would just pop in the location on craigslist and see if anything was available for rent there. (Usually you get terrible deals on craigslist but we thought it was worth a shot) Well the first thing that came up was a care taking gig. The house looked awesome so Tyer had me send them an email with our information. Of course no email back..so Tyler, being the persistant person he is, decided to call. The owner of the house had added a youtube link with a video onto the craigslist add and at the very end of that video he said his phone number. So Tyler got a hold of him and they talked for about 20 minutes. He asked for us to send him an email about ourselves and some pictures. He said that they need use of the home 3 weeks in November every year, otherwise the house is ours for the rest of the year!We pay no rent, just utilities, a landscaper each month, maintain the pool and his car and check on 2 other properties he has here in Ojochal. We also have use of their SUV because they don’t want it sitting all year and use of a quad on the property.  I’m still pinching myself! I cant even believe it! So I have included some pictures of the place and its amazing!We are waiting on our internet to get hooked up, which in Costa Rica .. could take a while. 

In other small happenings, we found out we can ship things here from the states using a vey reasonable container service. Only $8 per cubit foot. It still takes a month but hey its possible so we are happy! We just have to send our stuff to an address we have in Florida by the 20th of each month and we get in the following month..on the 20th:) 

A lot of people asked me how you know when to pay your bill since there is no mail here and we thought they just email you a bill..nope. If you don’t pay your bill on the due date  every month, they just shut your power off or your internet. No warning. Thats how they do it here. So every month you have to go to their office and pay your bill or the next day it will be off. 

Tuesday I’m doing my first border run with some sisters from the hall. They go just to the Costa Rican border ( before Panama) where there is a Costco type store and a mall!! No Target :( but Im still excited!!! They go every 3 months and stock up on food ( I can’t wait to get cheese!!!!!!!) Talk to you guys soon!

I love our back deck! 

Can't beat the amazing view here..

Our bedroom

This patio is off of our bedroom and open air {but screened to keep the spiders out} :) 

and here is the view looking into this room 

Our new and improved living room!! I love this place !! Still can't believe I live here you guys!! 

The kitchen 

check it out.. a real stove !!:) 

I have a pantry now.. 

no more clothes line!!! yes!!! 

Peyton & Ellas room 

The kids bathroom 

Asher's room 

pool/ outside  bathroom by pool 

pool shower but scroll down and look what lives next to it... 

NO thank You!!! 

check it out... AC!!! but we don't use it lol we live up on a hill now and it's much cooler thankfully!!

This is our AC:) 

I couldn't resist one machete picture:) Tyler's patrolling our driveway for unwanted visitors 

This is a pipa knife... for cutting down coconuts. it's about 7 feet long and as you can tell.. slightly modified 

Just a few random scenery photos ..

This is a huge Mango tree

This is the road to our house.. sketchy?  yep .. jk :) not too bad this is a typical road here 

and for fun.. some ridiculous prices:) They are in US dollars because I was at the Panama border yesterday 

He hung out for a while and then met his demise when Tyler got home 

Talk to you guys soon!!! 

Uvita Spanish Meeting

Last night we went to our first meeting in spanish. We were all nervous and excited. We had studied very well in English during the week but didn't study it in spanish yet. We weren't quite sure what to expect and we really didn't want to overwhelm the kids. We were a little concerned about how they would react to the entire meeting in another language.
 When we got to the meeting there was a visitor outside and he spoke english! We got to introduce ourselves to him and it turns out that his wife is a witness and he decided to come to the meeting that night with her. After meeting Tyler ended up giving him and his family a ride home and found out that he is Italian but grew up in Holland and speaks 6 languages. He  told us that he has a restaurant where he lives about 20 minutes away in a little town called Ojochal and we should come by and try his true Italian pizza. Tyler agreed that that would have to happen real soon! So as we came into the meeting and found our seats, the kids quickly disappeared. They were already right at home with their friends from english and their new friends from spanish playing alongside the Kingdom Hall. As the meeting started I was very quickly lost. All of a sudden I really couldn't remember what I had studied. What was this lesson about again??? Im still trying to figure out if I should listen and follow along in my english publications or listen and follow along in my spanish publications. It seems like everyone has different methods for learning the language in our group. One thing is for sure, our study at home has to be thorough otherwise the kids are missing out on valuable spiritual food. Tyler & I started studying together last week,on monday, for the mid week meeting. Then for family worship we study it again with the kids in english. Then (next week) we will go over it again before meeting and translate our english answers into spanish. There has to be a better method for this so I'm open to suggestions:) One thing I know for sure..I will learn spanish...eventually:) Now for some highlights from the meeting!

This is Fritz. He is from Denmark. He is in his mid 60's & English is his 2nd language, Spanish is his 3rd! Here he is reading for the congregation bible study. 

These cute little blondies kind of stand out:) 

Here is Tyler running a microphone. It was a challenge for him listening for the questions in Spanish so he would know when to run the mic up the aisle. Then he had to really pay attention because he doesn't know anyone's name...but as you can see by the smile on his face, he is happy to do it! 

This is Don he is the secretary for both the congregation & our group. Here he is conducting the school and he doesn't speak much Spanish. He was reading a lot of what he is saying. He also filled in for the bible reading! Wow, I'm still in awe over this brother! 

The sister on the right is Spanish speaking only. The sister on the left, Amy, doesn't speak Spanish but this her 2nd time as a householder! She told me that there are so few sisters in the congregation that she wanted to get right on the school to lighten the load for them. She's so awesome! 

This is Josh. He is our service overseer and he is giving the opening part for the meeting and speaks very little Spanish. He is mostly reading his part.  There were a few chuckles from some kids in the audience but he didn't let it phase him. He did great! 

He even did a demo in Spanish! The sister who is playing the householder speaks no English.How did they pull this together, not speaking the same language??? 

And here is Don being interviewed about his duties as the secretary. Again he mostly read what he had translated earlier since he speaks very little Spanish. 

 So that's it! It was a great meeting. The Spanish friends are being so patient with us. I imagine we all sound like kindergarteners to them :) 

Next week we have CO visit for Spanish and he doesn't speak English and neither does the only Spanish elder so I'm not sure how that works.. But it will! I wanted to share one thing with you guys that was so encouraging to me. Some of the friends in Spanish don't read well at all and because of this they are reluctant to join the school or reach out in any way. Since we have combined with them they have seen us in English fumble our words and make mistakes from the stage. But they are so encouraged by the spirit of the friends to try, that now some of them have joined the school and are reaching out. They no longer feel embarrassed or that they can't do it. When I heard that it in turn encourage me to not give up! 

In closing we went to Ojochal today and tried Fabrittzio's pizza and he wasn't kidding! It was fabulous! He said the only pizza that comes close is in Italy! He served our pizza with imported Parmesan & fresh homemade Pesto sauce! We agreed that all of our visitors have to try out Fabrittzio'z for themselves! Love you guys! Can't wait to get some visitors!!!:)