Its not "one" its "Jaun"

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, we have been super busy and have a lot going on here. David's mom is here so we have been showing her the country the past week (that will be another blog). I have so much to blog about and more to come with the upcoming assembly this weekend. However for now I'll tell you about today.

David had been asked to give a part tonight and it was great. it was with a brother named Kevin (who is from Nicaragua) who has become one of David's best friends down here, he is a great brother. Young, full of life, and doing awesome in the congregation. His part was the one in this weeks k.m. on how to offer the teach book (aka) "ensena book". David nailed it, he is so good at the door and also with his spanish, he has a great accent, brothers came up to him after and were telling him he sounded just like a tico! They worked on it a few times and kevin is a great teacher, they have had this little thing going ever since they met, David talks to Kevin in spanish Kevin talks to David in english, that way they both teach each other. So far Kevin's winning, cause the kids and I mostly talk to him in english...

It was a small group tonight cause the english group has assembly, but we were glad to stay and be a part of it. During the meeting tonight we got incredible loud rain that just came all at once and as soon as it did it was gone, I was like ok everyone is acting normal, but it was so loud you could barely here Jair on stage. I didn't know what it was at first, If it were in our house I could tell, you know you get to know all the noises and what they are, animals, strong wing gusts, rain, but it was fine, just kind of funny a few brothers went out to look and came back in drenched! It was so hot have to admit I was jealous.

We also went in service today, It was just us, David's mom, two Tico brothers and one Tico sister. None of the Ticos in our congregation have cars so at first there was some discussion as to how all 9 of us would fit in our 5 seater pathfinder. So after prayer... I hopped in "back" of our car and all 9 of us headed off to Delicias and Esperanza, these towns are off the most bumpy uncomfortable roads ever. I'm not kidding when I say bumpiest ever either. There is a brother down here who loves to tell the story about an African brother who was visiting Costa Rica and said "I thought we had the worst roads in Africa, You guys have it way worse". The roads are no bueno! Anyway we had some great calls maybe two more studys and Mary got to work with Myra one of our awesome tica sister's. She placed a book with a man on the beach while we were stopped for a min to use the pottie and stretch our feet. You'll see her in the back ground while ruby played at the beach. The Day all and all was great!

Our View

Today was such a beautiful day, and the evening was just breathtaking. David and I walked out to the end of our bluff and watched the sun quickly go down over the hills! What a treat this has been to be able to be here in beautiful Costa Rica!

My Package!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!!!

I got it! Man, I love you Asia! I just got my package I was waiting for this, I am so excited! Who new I would miss brownie mix and smoked oysters so much!

We are so happy this will keep me going all week! The kids got toys, they have been twisting grass to make stick people, this will be great!

This is how I get my mail! Eric road up to deliver this to us tonight, what a guy! Love the cheesy face to boot!

Thanks Asia! We love you

Buena Vista English Group

Our biggest English meeting yet! We had 38 in attendance! Quite a difference from last weeks 16. Half of which being children. We had lots of visitors this week. It was really nice. It's been so encouraging meeting all the new friends. Everyone you meet seems to have similar goals in simplifying and doing more for Jehovah. When we arrived to Costa Rica our group had 8 publishers, 2 elders, and 1 servant. And they were only having the bible study in english on Thursday nights. So having the public talk and Watchtower on Sunday has been so nice. It seems as if every week we find out something new about the progress of the group. On sunday one of the elders told David we were going to start doing the bible highlights in english as well and asked him if he would want to do them in a couple weeks after assembly. What a priviledge! This also means we will all have to be more prepared to have our own bible highlight comments to support this new arrangement.

Hola Mono!

There was a family of howler monkeys out side our front door tonight. We see this all the time around here there really cute, the babys on there backs are my favorite. So Cute!!!

Field Service

This has been the highlight of our trip. Now that we are starting to get comfortable working in the Spanish we've developed some really nice calls. Friday morning we met for service in Samara at one of our local sisters house. The territories here get worked once a week or so, so when we meet for service the whole group usually goes to the same territory and we do the whole territory in one day until it's done. once we got our arrangements figured out we said prayer and started walking to our cars. Then Brother Jair said for us to read the first part of Philippians 3:2. He then told us the territory we were about to do had alot of mean dogs. This made us really nervous since everyone has told us how mean the dogs can be here. It turns out this territory was the most productive one we had worked so far.

In the morning we worked the part of the territory that was along the beach. So we could do some english. We found one interested German lady who was very interested in learning more about the bible. We talked to her for about 45 mins and told her we would bring back a German Bible teach book and Bible. We have a German sister in our English group who lives here all year round so we told her we would have her come back soon. I think we will be able to start a study with her soon!

Then in the afternoon, we met back with the others in the spanish territory. This is where things got interesting. Most of the houses did have dogs and so we would stay back from the property a little further than normal until the home owner came out to greet us. Then we would ask if it was ok to come in and they would let us know. Then we came to a house with a young nursing mom who was sitting in a rocking chair outside. After she told us it was safe to come onto the property, we began to share the tract "would You like to know More About The Truth" with her. I showed her the 6 common questions on the front page and asked her which one she thought was interesting. She chose the one "What happens to us when we die?" so I read the answer on the next pg and shared Gen. 3:19 with her. We asked her if she had a bible and she said no, but that she would like one and she also said she would like to learn more about what the bible sais on this subject. We told her we would come back in one week and bring her a bible teach book and a bible in spanish and that we could study the chapter on where are the dead. We are so excited and so nervous at the same time since this will be our first study in spanish.

Then on Saturday we started 1 more study and a had a good call in a small town called Delicias. The first call was a young women who David spoke too. He read the small introduction on page 12 of the reasoning book that shows how we can demonstrate a free home bible study with the help of the bible teach book. She excepted and we went thru the first 5 paragraphs and told her we would come back in a week to discuss the next subheading. Next door to her we found a young man who was familiar with the gospels and Jesus but beyond that didnt know to much about the bible. We were able to share some scriptures with him and at the end of our discussion he welcomed us to come back.

Field service is so much different in Costa Rica. In many ways it is much harder since we dont get to take breaks at starbuck anymore, we start service at 8:00 am, its 95 degrees by 10:30 in the morning, there are no paved roads, we walk at least a couple miles every time we go out, and our car that seats 5 usually has 6 to 8 bodies in it. However it seems to always be so rewarding with all the great calls and beautiful beaches that we get to stop and view while we are on our way to the territory. Amber and I are now cramming to study for our new spanish bible studies, since neither one of us is fluent it is going to take alot of effort to make it work. This is where we feel we are really going to start progressing with the language! We will keep you posted on our progress.

Our Kindom Hall

Our kindom hall is right down the road from Buena vista Beach. Its very small but does the job it was in the house next door until it was built in 2004. David was chairmen sunday and did mics for our small group, and Marty was Watchtower reader and did stage its so nice being able to help out. It has cielling fans so that helps a bit with the heat. Its about a 15 min walk from our house. We usually average about 20 to 25 in attendance on Sunday's for the public talk and Watchtower however there was a family who was sick and another family who was out of town so this Sunday we only had 16.

Fun in The Sun!

It's a tough job but somebodys got to do it!!!!

The kids!!!!

The kids have really been having a blast! They are loving service, except for the cramming in the car, often times they have to sit in the very back with no seats air and comfort, cause many of the bro and sis here dont have car's, but they look forward to going out. The beach, the brother's and sister's they meet, the kids here, and everything has just been a great experience for our whole family.

We had some visiting brothers from Patterson Bethel who we went out in service with, then we all had lunch at a little tico pub where you can get an ice cold beer and a bowl of soup for less than 2 dollars.

Noah got to ride on Jair's (our 25 yr old coordinater/special pioneer) motorcycle or "moto" in service, of course this was the highlight of his day. Brooklyn witnessed to a little tica girl, so so cute she did this while the sister we were working with was witnessing to her mom. She read psalms 83:18 and tryed to explain that Gods name is Jehovah in English and Spanish. The little girl was about 3. she was a perfect little householder.

El Lagarto

Man oh Man rib eye never taste so good. So a couple we met sunday invited us to join them at a nice steak resturant. It was so beautiful right on the beach. The stars were huge and the food was incredible. Normaly this meal in the states would of been crazy expensive but it was 15 bucks for a rib eye, potato, tomato and zukini all grilled on an argentinian style open grill.