Service Adventures- Sometimes you just have to make due

Today was an adventure in service. After picking up two people from a car that broke down we headed up to do some mapping territory. However as we were driving, our throttle cable kept getting stuck. After realizing it couldn't be fixed and needing to drive 20 minutes to the nearest mechanic, Brian got creative and realized that he could tie his shoelace to the throttle and control the gas with his hand. So off we went to Nicoya to get it fixed. We were able to do some calls in Nicoya so it wasn't a ruined day of service.

 Our new car (this one with way better gas mileage) has official earned the name "Jimmy", due to the fact it had to be jimmy rigged to make it to Nicoya. And they didn't have the part we needed in stock so the mechanic jimmy rigged it with a bicycle break cable as our throttle cable until it could be fixed correctly.

Let the service adventures begin!!!!

The days are getting hotter

It feels like each day is getting hotter and hotter outside. The temps have been in the high 90s this week. Which makes a 6 hour service day seem like a 10 hour service day at home. It is only going to get hotter too up until May when rainy season will start.

 

Both Brian and I got a few calls this week in service. It is really hard from having lots of calls and a study to starting at scratch. But slowly we will build up our call base. In this area it really feels like you have to take a different approach to service. At home you need to tell people why you are there within the first 10 seconds. Here you have to chat a bit and then get into the truth. The CO encouraged us to become people's friends then slowly bring in the truth. Both Brian and I wanted to work on our informal witnessing so this has been perfect for that. One afternoon after territory we decided we would just go into the town and make conversation with people. It is a bit awkward at first but you slowly get the hang of it. We met this really nice girl at a fruit stand. She grew up in the States and Germany. She asked what type of volunteer work we were doing down here and we were able to give her a really nice witness. Only thing was someone had talked to her earlier and already left her something to read. Guess everyone in our hall is trying to put informal witnessing into practice :)

 

We have a huge mango tree in our yard that hangs over part of our house. So at first I thought how cool is this we have a mango tree in our yard. However when the mango are constantly falling on your tin roof it is not so cool I decided. Thru out the day and night you will hear a huge bang that will make you jump. Not sure I will ever get use to that one. I think I will be pretty excited when mango season is over.

Here is the beach that is a 5 minute walk from our house.

 

 

 

 

Brian's new favorite study spot.

It is never quiet at our house. We have our neighbors chickens and dogs which think they live at our house, monkeys that are constantly howling, horse tours going down our road, cows on the road, men selling fruit super early in the morning and a lot of random people that like to walk thru our yard. We also have a 3 foot iguana that keeps visiting too. Brian likes to refer to it as Godzilla. I don't think I have ever seen an iguana so big before. Here is a picture but it is hard to show how big he is. His tail goes out of the picture.

 

 

And  a pretty sunset to end this post

 

 

Our First Week

We are here!!! I can't believe it has already been a week. We are in our home and getting all settled in which is really nice. The day we arrived we were able to buy a car which actually went really good. Buying a car here in Costa Rica can be a really big stress. Since you have to pay a lot more for not as nice of a car and you have to go through a lawyer to buy it. But we found a decent Montero with 4 wheel drive which is needed for the roads around here. We spent one day in San Jose before making the 4 1/2 hour drive out to Huacas where I use to live. As soon as we left the city our check engine light came on. The car seemed to be running good. But it still made for a very stressful drive, along with the already crazy driving here in Costa Rica.  We have already seen two roll over accidents and a semi that back end was jack knifing but somehow he saved it.  Our check engine light now goes on and off now when we hit bumps. One of the local brothers was like ohh cars always have that light on.   It was so nice to get to see all my old friends and make some news ones as well. Were able to spend two days  in ministry. We got to do witnessing with the cart for the first time in one of the tourist towns close by. Which was cool since our hall at home didn't have one yet.

On Saturday we made the almost 2 hour trip to our new home. After getting a little lost we found the kingdom hall. Everyone was there doing hall cleaning so it was a perfect time to meet everyone and jump right into helping. Our hall has about 30 people in it right now but only 16 of those are more permanent (that's including us). They have 2 elders and Brian will make 3. At our first meeting Brian was asked to do the public talk in 2 weeks, bible highlights tonight for CO visit, me a talk in a week and both of us an interview tonight. Its nice to hit the ground running.

Sunday one of the couples in the hall did a big super bowl party. There were 8 people from Seattle so we were pretty exciting since the Seahawks won!!!! There were some funny moments with bugs after the game ended. This brother who they were calling the "bug whisper" caught a Chinese cockroach which is basically a huge cockroach. He tied a string around it and walking it around like a little dog. We couldn't stop cracking up. Then they also found a tarantula spider. Some were even holding it. But definitely not us!!!

 

 

The last few nights we have been hearing the howler monkeys. Poor Brian didn't know what it was at first. But when I woke up I was like "ohh we have monkeys here." He is like those are monkeys!!! Howler monkeys sound a little bit like lions, hence how they got there name. We saw a bunch of them hanging out in the tree this morning. It was super cool, even some little baby ones.

We have a basic two bedroom tico style house. It has all the basics and all we really need. I am still getting use to the cold showers, which hopefully I will eventually. I figured out the best time to shower is mid day when it is so hot outside that the cold water actually feels good. There is a mango tree right outside our door and some banana trees so I can't wait until they are ripe.

Our Casa- Our car is so dirty

We live about 10 to 15 minutes outside of Samara and in order to get here we have to cross a river and all the roads are dirt. However once rainy season starts we will have to drive around since the river will be too high which can take 45 minutes just to get to the small town.  We heard everyday in service is 4x4ing. The bad part of that is it takes a toll on all the cars. They constantly are having problems. So I am sure we will have lots of stories in the future.

 

This week is CO week so it will be busy and it will be nice to get out in the ministry here in our territory. Let the adventure begin!!!