C.R. and Panama!

This has been such an awesome weekend. But I should start by writing about the week; it just feels like forever ago.

We did service Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Yay, finally we have enough calls and knowledge of the area to stay out reallly late! But not past dark, because we are not allowed…..haha. Plus me and Emily have been starting early. We just walk outside our gate and start talking to people.I love how even the really busy people will take the magazine and read it while they walk. Emily started an amazing Bible study with this girl who already prays for holy spirit before reading the Bible. Emily is going back tomorrow.

Then on Thursday we took the bus to Panama! at like 6am in the morning. I am the lazy butt who couldn't get out of bed early enough to walk to the bus station so we took a lovely 2 dollar taxi. I love the affordable taxis! It was hard work going from the bus ride to customs to walking across the Panama/Costa Rica bridge/border, then customs in Panama then a bus ride to the water, then a boat ride to Bocas del Toro island!   But well worth it! The cell phone did not work here so we found a pay phone and called the Pauls and then waited for them to meet us. I got the yummiest blended coffee with banana and cinnamon!

Emily's friends the Pauls are sooo nice and hospitable. We walked around the center for a little and then ate dinner at the Pauls, then played rummy! We stayed at this little hostel next to their place and got to take hot showers at their house!

Friday it was a little overcast, so we rented snorkel gear from a sister for 5 bucks. That was my first time snorkeling and it was awesome! Apparently the conditions were bad, but I had never seen better conditions, so I loved it. We saw coral reef and two little black fish!

I will finish this post later cori needs the interenet to do schoolwork!!!!!! andways i misss you guys!!!!!!!

More pictures!

bus ride home

happy sunny faces, at the bus station

mud bath?

SUNSHINE!

So the weather report said today was the only non raining day this week, so we ran off to the nearest pretty beach. Cahuita beach was super pretty. It reminded me of the bachelorette when they are in tahiti. You could walk out like a mile (I am guessing, i was too scared to go that far) and the water is all waist level and calm and the perfect temperature! And on the other side of the beach their Cahuita National park which we walked a few miles through to get to the pretty beach. We saw so many monkeys in the trees and these giant sized lizards. I think they might actually be baby iguanas or snake lizard mutations. I'm going to look them up later. And we saw lots of crabs. I love the bus ride back at night. The windows are really big so you can see all the trees and the ocean on the side of the road. It was super loud and the wind was blowing a lot! And it was kinda cold because it was night.

Pictures! that i stole off emily and cori's facebook

Me and Cori can't tell who is who in pictures sometimes...

That blob is a giant pig that Emily and Cori saw out in service.

Sunny day in service

Puerto Viejo

This is our little apartment

This is where we shop! It is like 5 minutes from our house.

Air matress in the water!!

hehe PIZZA anyone.....??

I crashed their lesson! :)

Cori and Emily saying "buenos!"

Mom doesn't he look so much like Gidget?

At the bus station

another one from the congregation beach day. I love this picture.

Week 2 Limon

We went to Peurto Viejo last weekend. It was sorta rainy…We did get to go to a monkey rescue/rehab place. The monkeys were so cute! We were put in a cage with them and they got to hang on to our necks and we got to hold them! Monkeys hand's are kinda creepy how they look so much like human hands. We also saw a friendly toucan bird. It looked just like the bird from Lion King! There was this couple getting a surf lesson on the cloudy beach… I wanted to surf soooo bad, and he gladly let me tag along with them and lent me a surf board!!! The waves were so fun!! There is this random huge rusty metal ship looking thing in the middle of the ocean which created a fun little break! Apparently all the rainstorms has caused the oceans to get all mixed up, so there was tons of branches and weed things in the water.

Monday was crazy! It was torrentially down pouring all day. And poor Emily got really sick.. She couldn't eat for a couple days. :( But now it is Thursday and she is feeling better. Me and Cori went on a cooking spree being stuck in the house from the rain.

Service has been wonderful! It is crazy this trip is already half over. I feel like I am just beginning to know my way around Limon and how to get to my calls. We went to the pioneer meeting on Wednesday. This congregation is so loving. It was such an encouraging meeting! What stood out to me was the emphasis on being positive and not comparing Limon territory to our territory back home. And the part about taking a break and not burning out. And then at the end of the meeting they gave everyone bookmarks with their names and scriptures, it was so sweet. And then they gave all the local pioneers pretty umbrellas with their names on it. And the little kids turned on the Rhianna song Under my umbrella and then all the cute old pioneers danced with their umbrellas. It was so adorable!
We are planning a little excursion to Bocas del Toro next week. I hope it is sunny!!!

The territory here is really amazing! Trish has 18 Bible studies! She is an awesome Bible study conductor! I took lots of little notes from all the illustrations she used. She lives off $25 a week. She is awesome! We met like 5 minutes from our place today. It started to rain like 10 minutes in to doing territory. It was hard to do mapping and detailed note taking with the rain coming so hard, so we did return visits. I went on a ton of Bible studies with Trish. Then we ate lunch at her house, she has so many spices; we don't have any spices in our house, and made hot tea and went back out into the rain. It was actually pretty cold! I was so glad to have my dorky croc shoes. The dinky umbrella is pretty much trashed after today... It was pretty exciting. I started 3 little Bible studies this week! One with this 94 year old Jamaican, another with the lady who makes the yummy fried yucca rolls with meat and cheese, and this other lady who goes to some church, it was hard finding her house!

(Someone......Invited us for pizza....It was interesting to say the least. )

Cori and Emily had a chill at home day today, they had to do like tons of walking yesterday- They worked the beach territory and walked through tons of mud. It sounded pretty cool (I did calls with a sister who has a car-haha no walking).

Tomorrow we are going to Cahuita! I want to surf soooo bad!!! It is so interesting living with two vegetarians! We eat a lot of vegetables and rice. I sneak onions into my guacamole and found yummy Carribean chicken out in service. So I tried working out really hard to get really hot so the cold shower would be more bearable, but it didn't work....

WEEK 1!!!

Limon is lovely and sooooo ghettto. We did service all Friday it was very hot! Saturday we did service all morning, I placed like 2 books and 2 magazine and started my notebook of return visits. None were crazy interested people but they are so chilled out and easy going. My presentation went something like "If you could live forever would you want to?" response.... "Yeah man of course!!!" We have to work the territory slower than usual, because the CO just came and emphasized taking not at homes which is hard work since they don't have street names or numbers. So they have to draw a map and then fill in tons of information.

We went to this little local beach after service. It was only 5 minutes away and yes there was trash on the beach too. Cori made a delicious noodle and pepper dinner and we played cards or something and went to bed. Sunday we had meeting in the morning and then the whole congregation has like there big beach day! We went to playa Folleta. It was very pretty, much more junglier than the one we stopped by the other day. The congregation is such a hoot. I will have to post some pics later. I love the little girls from Canada, I feel like I can relate to them, something about rolling in the dirt and being super bored and hot.

We did service again today! There is a cruise ship that docks here and they set out a table which we sat sat for like an hour! It was awesome! We saw lots of russian people. I love how like 1 out 4 people when waling around speak English.

The congregation is amazing. They seem to always have at least 20 people at the meetings for field service. They are so zealous and have a very big territory. There are a total of 13 congregations in Limon! They even gave us a cellphone to use here!

Oh so I heard about  3 Indians who live in Limon and so far two of them are my new return visits. They own little stores.  Krishna and Loxshmi are their names, how predictable..okk more later!!!

ahh weird internet wont let me upload this funny picture....

Limon, Costa Rica

 I like this place! We caught the C.O visit. And today we went out in service for 8 hours with the group! It is very hot. I forgot how the sun here seems to penetrate into your skin so much faster. (lots of spf needed) I went on 5 Bible studies this morning with this pioneer sister and her 2 daughters. She had to pull a lot of arms to get her family to move here from Canada. She is super good at talking with a Jamaican accent! We ran over a really bad pot hole that was covered with a piece of cardboard. All these guys start laughing at her beat up old car and then she jumps out and says "yo man what you be laughing at. You think that's funny! Of course I ran over dat hole. You put dat cardboard dere. Now I am gooing to make you read dis magazine!" She is awesome! Her 2 girls are soo cute, but look bored as ever. They endure a lot of heat sitting on those studies!

I love how it is so hilly that when you get to the top you can see the ocean. We got a really cheap place...with internet too.So now we can afford to go on excursions! YAY. The congregation here is so amazing! I think they have like 50 publishers but the attendance is always double.

Corri and Emily and I get along great! Me and Emily did p90x cardio yesterday! Corri has been getting over a cold :( so she stayed home today.

BUENOS NOCHES!

This Bed and Breakfast we are staying at is so cute. I can't wait to see what it looks like outside tomorrow! But we can hear a waterfall and there is a big cliff right outside the front door. The owners are witnesses and the even pick you up from the airport!

We tried ordering food in Spanish, but forgot the word for beans- frijoles. Now that's important! Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Limon! Hasta Leugo mi amgios!