The Lord is constantly on our side!

Hola Hola!

Yep I'm still me! I still get WAY too excited over cotton candy!

Holy cow another week! Its pretty hard to believe that it's another Pday. Hermana Geurts and I have realized that Pday is the hardest out of all of the days of the week. We are reminded of home and that's tough. I love the feeling of losing myself in the work the other days of the week though. Time really does fly when you don't think about yourself and solely focus on the needs of other people.

This past week was the Independence Day of Costa Rica! It was kind of like 4th of July in the United States, but not as big of a deal. I was searching for the fireworks but unfortunately there were none. We did get to attend a parade in the morning which was super cool. I loved seeing all of the little kids and all of their cultural outfits. It really helped me to realize that I really am in a different country. However, red white and blue are still my colors! God Bless America!

So I'm still not fluent in Spanish...dang it LOL. However, I see little differences and blessings every day. I received a blessing by someone in our ward last Tuesday and it has helped me so so much. I am no longer nervous and feeling burdened by this language. I am working on my patience and I know that I will learn it. It will just take time. Chill Tay right? Everything is just so different, for every 1 spanish word there are 48392392 English words. Hermana Perez and Mungeau are so funny! They think that English is sooo easy. Just add "ation" to the end of every word and its English.. They call us Herman"ation". We try to tell them that every word is completely different but then we end up being proved wrong. Salvation. Adaptation. Relation. Oh ok. OH and their choice of "oh my gosh" is "oh margot" however, they say it like spanish...so the Margot sounds like Margawt. You can only imagine our horror every time they say it! We are like NO MORE!

Tell Andrea! Elder abel is apparently the poster child for the gift of tongues here. Everyone is so impressed by him, 2 months and hes got it. The girls from the MTC who are in his area told me the other day when I got to see them. Oh yeah, I got to see my MTC people the other day...tears of joy, felt like home!

So Hermana Geurts and I are teaching an English class every week now. We are super excited. It will help a whole lot with our Spanish, being able to translate and plus its service! Everyone in the ward has told us how happy they are to be able to learn some English.

So I've already started planning some intense workouts for when I return. These people eat carbs, carbs, and MORE CARBS. And they drink NO WATER. I feel sick after half of the meals I eat. Oh, and they put ketchup on EVERYTHING. The food is really good...but really bad for you. We went shopping and I bought fruits, vegetables and healthy cereal. Lately I've been craving a giant Boudin salad! Salads don't exist here unless they have some sort of sugar on them. Hermana Geurts jokes that she thinks they sprinkle tang on everything...I think she's right hahahaha!

I've started writing in a miracle journal. Everyday I see miracles and I don't want them to be overlooked. The lord is constantly on our side. This work is hard but its so worth it. I meet people with broken hearts every day. People who lack faith. Who have deceased family. Or people in general who are happy just living their lives. The gospel is for everyone and anyone. I'm really grateful for this experience. I love you all soooo much its crazy! Thank you for everything you do for me and have taught me. I think of you everyday.

Les amo muchisimo!!

Pura Vida!