Cheesecake Anyone!

Ok so we got our first invite to dinner tonight. I wanted to make something, the only dish in the house to bake with was a cheesecake springformed pan....

The Friends that invited us are from Michigan, they're here for a year to help out the cong.

Laundry! & Insectos!

It's never been my favorite thing to do, however, hanging your clothes from palm trees is pretty cool. Clothes dry really fast cause its so dang hot!

Here are also some pic's of our house and our room. The photo of the french doors and hammock in view is from my bed. You can see the ocean in the day and the stars at night. Its beautiful.

Our little friend caterpillar, I found it next to my bed! It is the biggest one I've ever seen! David also found a scorpion in our room. I'm afraid of getting stung by one cause its a high likelihood, they like to hang out under dirty clothes on the floor. The fire ants sting bad! If you pass by them it seems they wait to get all on you then bite the crap out of your feet! There is a family of them hanging out by our front door, yeah not as cute as monkeys!

Beautiful Barrigona Beach

This is Barrigona (I think thats how you spell it) beach its "mel gibsons" beach. After Service on Saturday we decided to check it out. Its a 5 min drive from our house. This beach has soft white sand and big beautiful blue/green waves. There was no one there just us! The wave's were great, I got totally wiped out twice, so then thats all I did. To get to this beach is a little dirt road that you have to drive in four wheel drive! We saw a family of howler monkey's crossing the trees above us. I first thought it was a pig on the side of the road but then we realized it was way to loud for that, they have such an unusually loud noise they make.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday our English Group had a short Circuit Overseer visit and David got to have his first experience witnessing in English in Costa Rica. Both days were productive. He had one call that accepted literature and said she would try and come to meeting next Sunday and another call on Saturday that was a 95 year old eye doctor who grew up as a Quaker. David comes from a big Quaker family so he was able to get some common ground with him and is going to come back next week to answer the question : Can man live forever on earth in perfect conditions where we wont need eye doctors? Sunday the english group had it's very first Public talk and Watchtower in english since it was formed back in July of 09! The C.O. announced that the group will have these two meetings every Sunday now! Before that they were only having the bible study in English on thursday. It's an exciting time to be in the Costa Rica Buena Vista Congregation!

Getting Around in Samara/Spanish Service

Wanted to show you a few things about our daily drive in and around Samara, the town we live near. In the pics you'll see a sign that sais "Esterones" this is the area we live in. The pic of the car and river is us getting ready to cross the river to get from samara to our little town. Today was our first day in service in Costa Rica! It was definately different than any service day we have ever had in the states. Alot of the Bro & Sis dont have vehicles here so we meet in different locations throughout the week to accomodate one another. Today we met about 4 km from the hall at the y in the road heading to Nicoya another town about a half hour away. It was alittle confusing since none of the roads have names but I know we'll get used to it soon enough. While we were meeting for service there was a huge turkey hanging out with us so it kept the children entertained while we made our groups. Once we got to the territory the brother who was taking the lead, a special pioneer paired each of us off with a spanish speaking brother or sister who spoke little or no english. I think this is going to help all of us learn spanish. Amber was working with his wife who spoke no english so you can imagine how that went. I was surprised when we all met back from working the territory how well it went. Everyone we talk to is very nice even if they aren't interested in the literature you can still share at least a couple scriptures with them. They always welcome you in ask you to sit down and get some shade from the sun and offer you a drink or refreshment. Another thing we thought was interesting is you dont knock on peoples doors like the states you just yell "Buenas" to let them know you are there. Most of the doors are either open because of the heat or they have no door. Before we knew it we had been out for nearly 4hrs and worked the entire territory, I guess most of the spanish territories here gets worked quite often. But there is still alot of interest. The special pioneer brother "Jair" said he limits himself to 8 studies at a time even though some are known to have up to 30. Friday will be our first english service day, cant wait! We were excited to hear the english group that we are in is getting a 3 day visit from the Circuit Overseer. So we will have our own seperate meeting on Sunday for Public talk and Watchtower. We also found out we are going to have those two meetings in english from now on! Before we got here they were only doing bible study in english. The english group is normally only about 9 publishers so as soon as we got here that number doubled. And I guess there are some more english speaking bro and sis coming from the states soon!

Here are some pictures of our beach trip today. We had meeting at 9 this morning - I am still pretty lost. Brooklyn answered and tells me the verse and chapter. Her numbers are really good! Then a few families joined up at the beach. On our way there we found a family of monkeys - one with a baby on its back, So cute!!! Its pretty tough in some ways but I think it will get better the more time that goes by.

Our shopping trip

Ok not only do we not know how the money works but the food is totally different!

The Day Has Finally Come!!!

It has been a big job to get to this point. Thanks to all of our friends and family's support it's all working out. With tears and fears and the excitement - We are doing it!!

Ok, what is left to do.....

Who gave you that shiner Noah?

Fancy Nancy Party!!!

Count down begins...

Here it is - COSTA RICA! Soon to be the home of the Jackson five for the next 3 months...