Ethan Week 5

Hola amigos, how it is in the States? Today I am going to talk about some church topics, going to the temple and some things that happened this week.

The first day we came to church when we didn’t know if we were going to stay in the ward, the Bishop told us that he had been praying for us and had callings in mind for Mom and Dad. We get that everywhere we travel to but I guess God needs us to stay here and help this ward. Lots of member have helped us settle in by finding us a car, furniture and a house. In return we have given people rides, visited members, and cleaned the church and we hope to do much more. We are pretty close to the Partio family, William and Massiel, who sell us Papusas every Saturday (Muy delicioso! But are actually El Salvadorian food). Massiel is also our seminary teacher and doesn’t speak any English.

About a month after we got here Dad was called as the young men’s president, Mom was called as the Primary pianist/teacher (the church’s program for children) and I was called as the Second assistant to the Bishop. In Latin America they have a hard time finding committed people to give callings and getting people to come to church regularly.

Last week we had to opportunity to go to the temple here in San Jose. A temple is where we preform saving ordinances for the living but mostly for the dead. I got to preform baptisms for the dead (by proxy) in Spanish which was pretty cool. I thought I was doing pretty well until my friend who baptized after me sped right through the prayer in half the time I did. Spanish after all is one of the fastest languages and the names are quite difficult to pronounce. Most of the temple workers speak English because they were called form the States to serve in Costa Rica.

After lots of I practicing I was also able to bless the Sacrament (An ordinance that completes the repentance process) and have been doing so for the past few weeks.

As I mentioned before Sean and I attend seminary in the evening. Seminary meets three days a week at 6pm and there are about 4 other students that attend. Sean and I also do online seminary so Spanish seminary is so we can learn Spanish and spend more time with the youth. I have to do double work because I have to translate the material and then write in the answers to the questions not to mention answering the teachers questions in Spanish.

We are settling quite nicely in our new house though we still need a microwave. After a week of living in our house we managed to clog 2 of the 3 toilets. Apparently, the pipes in Costa Rica can’t hold toilet paper, requiring you to put it in the trash instead, which is a hard habit to break. Dad gets quite angry when someone forgets this new rule. We also hired a woman from our ward named Nancy to be our maid. She comes for about 6 hours a day to clean, cook, do laundry, and watch the little kids. Now we only have to clean up after breakfast and dinner. We have to careful that we don’t become too spoiled but it is nice.

It was a pretty fun week as we try to find our place in our new ward and figure out a schedule for each day. I want to try to learn Karate or something like that but I am going to have to wait until we take some intense Spanish classes. Aaron also had his birthday on Monday and turned 11, so happy birthday to Aaron!!

Well folks that’s it for today and thanks for suffering through my emails😉

The Blessings

OK, I'm just going to say it: Life here is hard. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing we didn't expect, but day to day living is difficult. Moving is hard no matter what, but moving to a new country and culture takes "hard"to a whole new level. Nothing is normal. Everything we took for granted has been disrupted and we must find new ways to do life. We are swimming upstream constantly. 

Yesterday a man knocked on our door and told us he was here to cut the electricity for an unpaid bill. Apparently everyone knows when and how much to pay. There is no mail service, so you don't recieve a bill. You just go to the bank or the grocery store, give them your account number (which we did not have!) and pay your bills in cash. Graciously, he gave us 1 hour do get it done. We are constantly tripping over new hurdles and we have to be ready to jump at any moment.   

There are pockets of normal. The first time we went to Wal-Mart, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Sure the cashiers speak Spanish and everything is listed in colones, but the environment FEELS familiar. There are cheaper places to shop, but for right now, it's Walmart until I have the mental energy to shop for bargains--which may be never! Church feels normal. We don't understand the words, but we know That Spirit.  We also know the schedule, the people, the lessons, the materials, the songs. And of course, the Temple. There is a wonderful American couple that works there and whenever we go we find an excuse to visit the office and talk to them. It's lovely to speak English to native English speakers and converse with people who understand us, both verbally and culturally. This week they told us another family from the states moved into their ward, homeschoolers who are here to learn Spanish. They are going to connect us.

I have heard rumors of other families like us. One lives in Quepos, several hours from here. They are here to surf. I heard a story about a family who came for a one month vacation to San Ramón. While they were here, the stake president told them The Lord prompted that he was to be the next bishop. So the family made arrangements to stay for three years.

As hard as it is, the most overwhelming feeling we have is gratitude to be able to be part of something magnificent. Almost since the moment we arrived, we have run into people who we are able to help and literally be an answer to their prayers. I know the Lord takes care of His faithful children in many different ways and if we were not here, our friends would find help in some other way. But it is so FUN to be dropped into this tiny place in Costa Rica and have the Lord use US as instruments to bring about His plans for others. 

It has only been 6 weeks and so much good has happened. It has been difficult for sure, but the payoff is huge. Payoffs both in what we've been able to do for others and the spirit we've felt with us as we navigate difficult tasks. We've seen the hand of the Lord in our lives more in these 6 weeks that in several years at home living in relative comfort. There is something about being uncomfortable that allows the Lord work miracles. I pray my children can have their eyes opened to the wonderful gifts the Lord has given them and the joy that comes from sacrificing to share them freely with others.  

Ethan week 4

Hola,

Another week has passed and we are still in Costa Rica. Today I am going to talk about our third trip to the beach, our new house, and whatever crosses my mind as I write this email. I don’t really miss the US as much as I thought I would, as a lot of places look like the US, but it would be nice to practice my English more often.

               On Tuesday we left the house at 6:30am for the beach so as to avoid traffic. With all 9 of us in the microbus things can get pretty cramped. Two of the seats fold down in order for everyone to exit the bus and it has even less trunk space than our van at home. As a matter of fact, I would have to say that the whole bus is smaller than our van. What makes the car ride even worse is when all the little kids feel the need to bring their personal pillow and blanket along!! Argggggghhhhh! Anyway, we went to Jaco beach which I think is the best beach so far. Dad bought four boogie boards and we could coast pretty far on them. I’m a little tired of the beach now since there is nothing really do to except swim, boogie board and swim some more. Everyone else seems to love it though. My style is 90 minutes of swimming then I’m done, any more than that you run the risk of getting sunburned for no good reason. I do realize that it does take 2 hours to actually get to the beach, but whatever.

               While I was chilling on the sand, I spied quite a few Iguanas crawling about. Later we drove around a little bit and saw even more! The best ones are the blue ones, but the green and orange ones were pretty big as well. For lunch we got some pizza and hamburgers which was the first American food we’ve had in 3 weeks! For breakfast that same day we stopped at a fruit stand and got smoothies. I got a star fruit smoothie which was pretty good and way better than Jenna’s passion fruit smoothie, whatever that is. Mine was white with little black seeds and is what I would imagen Piῆas would be like if they were drained of most of the flavor and all of the color.

               We signed the contract for our new house on Tuesday in which we agreed to rent the house for 10 months. The house is in a gated community so we don’t have to be too careful, plus there a little park just down the street. The house is unfurnished so we spent the rest of the week getting furniture until Friday when we officially moved in. We have a small 20ft by 20ft yard just big enough for Autumn and Luke to get dirty in and track it all over the house. The house only has three bedrooms so Aaron and Isaac have to sleep in the space in between the rooms on cots. All our beds are uncomfortable so everyone is up at 6:30am except for Mom and Dad because they obviously have the best bed in the house.

               It is interesting how the natives pronounce our names with their Spanish accent. They pronounce all the vowels and every letter has one sound and one sound only. My name in Spanish is “Etan” which I think is way cool. Sean has it worse off than that, whenever they try to say his name is always comes out as “John.” Autumn in Spanish is “Otoῆo” but everyone calls her Autumn anyway. When she was born we used to call her “Otoῆo Rosa” (Rose is her middle name) and that was when Mom was going through one of her Spanish phases.

               Men and women greet each other differently when they meet. Whenever men meet each other they usually shake hands but sometimes they do a bro hug but with more formality. With women it is a whole different story. When two women meet they kiss each other on the cheek though it is more like touching cheeks. When women meet man they only do the kiss thing if the know the man fairly well. I just reached that stage and I enjoy it.

The adventure has only just begun with 10 months still left to learn Spanish. The house is great even if the toilet is clogged and we occasionally find squished geckos in the door. They like to eat the bugs around the lights but I’ve only seen two so far. It not too American down here but they do have a Walmart down here (yeah, I was surprised too). It’s just a little bit of home. Thanks for reading and tune in next time to hear Ethan talk about his life.  

Our New Normal

We have been here almost a month and we are finally in a permanent house. It's been since June 1st that we've been transitory and it feels good to be home. We rented a large condo in a gated neighborhood with a large park down the street. Our contract is for 10 months.  It makes me nervous to live in a neighborhood so close to everyone. We don't really fit in anywhere, which is why we've always been more comfortable outside civilization. We thought we were strange in the US, but here we are completely mind blowing. However, it was fairly obvious to us this is where the Lord wants us. We looked all over and found nothing else. This was the only place that came close to meeting our needs, but it is very comfortable for us. We realize that we are here to learn Spanish and to serve. The Church is the ideal place to do both. The closer we are to the church the more we can do.  Between seminary/Spanish lessons and youth night on Wendesdays, the kids need to be at the church every evening Tuesday thru Friday. It is nice to be close enough to do that easily and to interact with members as much as possible. 

The house rents for $1000/month which is half of what we were paying for our airbnb. The catch is that it's completely unfurnished. We spent the last few days gathering the absolute necesities (beds, fridge, stove, kitchen items). It's a bit of a pain, but we should come out way ahead in the end. We've trolled the Costa Rican Craigslist, OXL and facebook marketplace for the larger items, bit the bullet and bought a new couch and bed. Ethan and Sean got new mattresses and we found a bunch of cots at PriceSmart (the international version of Costco). And then spent the rest at Walmart: bedding, kitchen things, plastic chairs, etc. Our new mantra is, "Can we get away without it?"

Once we signed the contract on our house, I was able to get our church records officially moved. By Thursday both Seth and I were asked to serve in callings in which we will be sustained this Sunday. On Wednesday night--when I accompanied Jenna to YW--I was asked to serve as a counselor in the Primary. I was a little surprised at being called as a counselor, as the President doesn't speak any English and my Spanish is still pretty slow (I was really hoping for a primary class!). I can understand a lot, but speaking is still difficult. (However I have noticed that at church, I understand about 80%, whereas on the street it's more like 50%). I came home with the same feeling I have every time I interact with members, but much more: I need to bring my Spanish up to par ASAP. The faster I can reach fluency, the more I can do to help. And they are desparate for the help we can give. 

Then Seth met with the bishop on Thursday where he was asked to serve as Young Men's President. He reminded the bishop that he doesn't speak hardly any Spanish. Yep. So Seth came home with the same feeling. We need to do something. We are looking into Language Schools nearby. Most of them specialize in teaching tourists and so they have intense programs by the week, with the ideal length being 4 weeks long. 

We attended the temple last week and finally met some other Americans. Probably half of the temple workers are Senior missionary couples called from the States, I asked one Elder, did you speak Spanish before you came? Nope! He said he served as a young missionary in Argentina, but had long lost the ability to speak. He is able to converse fairly well after a year, but his wife has simply memorized the ordinances in Spanish and cannot speak much beyond that. It was inspiring to see these older couples who could easily just enjoy thier retirement be willing and happy to learn another language and live in another country. They have eachother. And they live in a complex right across the street from the temple, so they are being taken care of. 

We are finding our place and the Lord is taking care of us too. It's a struggle and an adventure.  God is just getting started writing the story He has planned for us. We know that all of it will work toward His glory and our benefit if we just give it enough time. 

Ethan: Week 3

Hola amigos,

Welcome back to the next chapter in our Costa Rica adventure. At the present I am going to discourse upon the weather, housing, the living styles of the natives and hiking in a real cloud forest.

              So, the weather, now you must know that it rains nearly every day this time of year. It is the rainy season which will end in December, when the dry season starts. Sometimes it rains really hard for about 5 minutes then it stops suddenly. You know it’s going to rain sometime during the day so you always bring an umbrella wherever you go. The dry season is when most tourists visit Costa Rica. It literally is 80 degrees all the time with only a 10 degree difference throughout the year. I personally am looking forward to having my birthday in summer! It does get a little chilly up in the mountains, but San Jose is the perfect place because it is right in middle of hot and chilly. Hence, it is where most of the population live.

              All right, now the houses. since it rains all the time down here all the houses are made from tile or cement. Even inside the houses they don’t have any carpet and very little timber. Homes are also gated; they are all squished together and heavily gated because apparently crime is a big problem down here. Our floor is usually slightly dirty and it is very common to see ants crawling around on the floor looking for things to eat. The internet in our house is really crappy and goes out whenever it feels like it. We often have fights that include “Your taking up all the internet!” and “Who has their internet on? I’m trying to do my math!” Sometimes it can get pretty loud as we only have three bedrooms, one main room and no yard.

              The natives have a very different lifestyle than I am used to. From the couple of houses I have seen I have a vague idea of what life is like. They have no air conditioning so they just leave the door or the window open to cool off, though I haven’t seen any hot spells yet. Most families only have one or two kids, probably because they just can’t afford much more than that. Most people can walk wherever they need to go and some don’t even own a car!

              Costa Rica doesn’t do daylight savings so we are on mountain time until fall. As a result, it gets dark at around 6pm and dawn is around 5pm which throws off my sleep schedule a little bit. People never apologize for being late because being late is the fad down here. Most people usually arrive 30-40 minutes late, but hey 8:45 still has an “8” in it. They have a cash system which divides the bills in the thousands; so they have the 1 mil (Spanish for thousand), the 2 mil, the 5 mil, the 10 mil, and the 20 mil (which is about 40 bucks). I mean why would you ever need more than $40 in cash?

              The other day we drove an hour or two to a cloud forest (which is a wet tropical forest that can be in the clouds sometimes). We paid about $80 for the whole family to walk through what looked like a jungle. We were rewarded by seeing a toucan, a sloth, and a little monkey. We hiked for a good while and barely made it back to the pavilion before the rains came down and the floods came up. That was our field trip for the week because a lot of us were sick nearing the end of the week.

              Also, Luke and Autumn finally learned how to swing by themselves which frees up hours of mytime. Well folks that’s it for this week, tune in next time to hear about our new rental house.

Looking Toward the Future

Whenever we told people we are moving to Costa,  the next inevitable  question is something like, "And what are you going to do there?" Well, now it's time to figure that out.

First step, find a car. Check. Seth and I visited a lawyer and finished purchasing the car. When you buy a car here, you also buy the plates and assume any fines incurred. So a lawyer certifies and notarizes the transaction. Another interesting fact: they noted on all legal documents a person's name and marital status. It appears that any legal document signed by Seth is also bound to me as his wife. 

Next, a house. We want a house in the country with lots of land and space. But we just can't find anything. William, a member of the church, took us to visit another of the members in a gated community with condos. We found a three bedroom spacious house (unfurnished) for $1070/month. It's right down the street from a park, 20 min from the temple and 15 min from the church. It's not what we were expecting, but it was too good to pass up. We felt that, all things considered, this is where the Lord wants us to be: In the Tropicana Ward, close to the church where we can fully participate and, heaven forbid, with neighbors. 

Our experience here in Costa Rica is not matching up with what I read about a typical expat experience. The only other native English speaker we know is one of the Elders serving in the ward. We are mixing with natives constantly, and it is because of our membership in the church. In our church, we don't choose where we attend. There are clearly defined geographical boundaries and if you live in this boundary, you attend this ward with very few exceptions. It is truly the Lord's way of taking care of all of His saints. This system turns congregations into less of social clubs, and more like families. There are still elements of a social club, as there should be, but there is never a question about whether or not someone belongs. If you have (or seek) a testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and you live in the ward boundary, then you DO belong. Period. It doesn't matter what language you speak, how much money you make, how old you are or what race you are. When we walk into the door on Sunday, we have friends who love us and genuinely want to help us. Time and time again, we have had the opportunity to strive for the unity Paul speaks of to the Corinthians, and this is no exeption. I'm amazed at how much we actually have in common with the members here. The church culture gives us a lot in common, but we are all moms and dads, struggling to take care of our families, fulfill callings and minister to our fellow saints.

Ethan:Week 2

Hola

Well my friends, another week has passed in the land of eternal summer. We have had a good week, buying our van, going to the beach, and trying lots of new things. Today I am going to expound upon the people, some more exotic fruits, and our first real experience at the beach.

The people down here are nice and welcoming although I mostly come in contact with members of our church. They speak very fast, enunciate all of the vowels and laugh at the end of almost every sentence. The community is very friendly and you can walk down the street and say “hola” or “buenas” (that is short for “good morning” but you can use it anytime of the day) to everyone you meet and most of them will respond. They are definitely more friendly than us Americans and love to dance at parties! They have a great community, if you know one guy you know them all.

We have come across a few more new fruits in our exploration of the market that are quite good. Every Monday Mom always brings back a million pounds of whatever she can find and its always a party! We had some water apples that are have the shape and texture of a pear but taste like…..well……water apples. We also cracked some coconuts for the family to snack on. In order to eat a coconut you’ve got to crack it, drain out all the water out, then break it open to get the white stuff inside. When you crack it looks just like a coconut but the white stuff is hard to chew. You have to break off the shell with a knife and then really chew it, it’s a good snack if you have the munchies. We also had some cooked plantain which look like giant bananas. You can fry them into chips when they are green or you can cook them when they are yellow and they are quite sweet. Bread and cheese are not very common here except in the bakeries. They use the bread mainly for pastries which are really good! You can get a good pastry for a dollar a piece and they usually have cream or meat inside. They don’t have sandwich bread here so we have to improvise and have rice for lunch. Cheese is quite expensive here, but I mean like, what would you use cheese for? Life is good with a smoothie for breakfast, Pastries for lunch, and tacos for dinner.

We finally got to go to a real beach this weekend near Puntarenas. It was about an hour away but we got at least three hours of swim time. We also went to a beach last week for Isaac’s birthday but it was mostly for surfing and there wasn’t much to see. This beach was a small beach but there was almost no one there so we had a blast. We saw some monkeys in the trees and got some good pictures of them when they weren’t trying to steal our food. There were tall palm trees, warm water, and soft sand so we just chilled. We spent most of our time body surfing and it was fun diving in and out of the waves.

This week Sean and I started night seminary (a short Sunday school for youth that happens usually in the morning) in Spanish, which was a challenge, but a cool experience. They have it a night here because the students have to catch the bus at 6:30 in the morning!

After jumping through a couple of hoops we finally purchased a micro-bus to carry all nine of us, instead of driving two cars. We now can tour the country in relative comfort. Ciao!