We had the missionaries over for dinner. It was Elder Reese’s birthday, so since his own momma couldn’t spoil him, this mission momma did. Am I the only one that is drawn to missionaries in hopes that some other momma is doing the same to theirs? It was really fun hear their mission stories, and get to know the people in this area and the needs that exist. They are working so hard and I am just so proud of all these young people that are trying to spread the love of Christ throughout the world. Elder Ozorio said that the sunset tonight was God’s gift to him nad his gift to Elder Reese.
Oranges aren’t really orange here. Although the fresh juice tastes better than any “Orange” orange I have ever had!
Pineapple is bought in bulk in this family! It is soooooo good here! LIke we eat pineapple every day, all day kind of good.
Absolutely love the “tomates”!!! They are always firm and make the best salsa. Although the word salsa her means any kind of sauce, like Ketchup. So if you want salsa like we know salsa to be, you have to ask for Pico.
Costa Rica has two seasons, the rainy season (beginning of May to end of November, with the rainiest months being Sept-first part of November), and non-rainy season (December through April.) So we are in the rainy season, but right now it is usually beautiful and sunny in the morning, with clouds rolling in and dotting the sky with just the right amount of shade. You can see the rain clouds coming in the late afternoon and it comes quickly, dumps hard and fast and then usually clears up again.
Sometimes you get caught in the rain while at the pool! As you can see, that really doesn’t stop Kenn from enjoying her time there. Hopefully you can tell from this rooftop picture just how fast and furious the rain falls here. But don’t worry…. After the rain, comes the rainbow.
Rainy afternoons call for a little baking! I would say that I am pretty good in the kitchen, but this baking at sea level has really tested my skills! A little extra salt and sugar…slightly different oven temp… some creative substitutes (I can not find some common ingredients here!), and some mouths to eat the final product. (No problem with this one… I love having Marshall around! He eats all the leftovers and literally whatever comes out of the oven.)
Sunny afternoons call for pool-side Spanish lessons from our Maestro (teacher) Marshall. He is very patient and explains things very well. Travis, Micah, and Kenn are killing it in their Spanish 301 class!!! Conjugating verbs in present, past, … something about perfect, imperfect, predicate, irregular and a bunch of other terms that I am not quite sure about. Nevertheless, I try to absorb a little every time and Marshall is sweet so always give me the easy questions and praises me when I get it right! I do wish that I was better at it, but I told myself from the beginning that I wasn’t going to stress about the language and make it a road block in my life. I feel like I have a lot of changes in right now and I am focusing on absorbing them all and being ok with all the feels that come with them. But I am super proud of my little pool-side class of Spanish speakers.
Latest picture from Kymble. We got to log on to the zoom baptism for Angel! Being able to see your child in action on the mission is one of the greatest results of the pandemic. It makes his mission seem so real for us and I love to see his face, hear his voice, and witness these big smiles of happiness. Brings so much joy to a mission mom! The hand sign they are doing in the picture is common in Chile. It means BAPTISM as you take your thumbs up and then “dunk” them into the waters. It’s so cute, but I’m not sure Kymble will ever be able to take a picture now without it! HaHa!! P.S. – do we love his shoes or what!? I secretly hopes he brings me home a pair!
Honestly, Travis and I haven’t had a date night since we arrived in CR, so we thought it was about time! We went to dinner at a restaurant in Surf Side called Hemmingways. The food was great, drinks were amazing, and the of coarse, watching dinner at sunset was beautiful. I am starting to think that I should have named the blog PURAVIDASUNSET !!! I know you might get sick of me posting them, but I don’t! They are a source of peace and calm in my life right now and just maybe it is God’s way of saying, “everything is going to be alright , Alicia, trust me
Saturday, we drove inland to visit the Catarata (waterfall) la Caterdral (Cathedral)… the Cathedral Waterfall. It was amazing! On the way there we drove through fields with beautiful shades of green, cows, a volcano (Rincon de la Vieja) and huge windmills. As we got closer, the roads got smaller and after getting lost for about 30 minutes, we finally found the entrance. You have to walk through this sweet family’s farm to get to the waterfall, so they offer a guide to take you there and show you around. (I guess we actually paid for the guide :)We loved walking through their acres and acres of orange trees, sugar cane, bananas, lemons, and limes. The falls were raging, so we were not able to get into the Blue River, (Rio Azul) and actually hike up into the waterfall. (Darn rainy season!) But it was still beautiful and really fun to see.
