November in Costa Rica

Dear Family & Friends

 It has been fun It's almost been two months and if this is an indication as to how fast the mission will pass, we will be home before we know it.  The temple grounds have just been planted with hundreds of poinsettias and all of the flowers are so beautiful.  Ted is the engineer and so far he's done a great job. There is quite a bit to learn in a small temple as he is responsible for all the maintenance and running of the machinery, including the grounds, utilities and upkeep.  I, on the other hand, already had the knowledge to clean bathrooms, vacuum, wash, dry and fold mountains of laundry.  We have workers who help but when their shift if over they have to leave to catch their buses.  I do have responsibilities of training the sisters, making sure everything is running smoothly, etc.  

The temple missionaries went on a day trip to one of the bays along the pacific ocean side of the country.  We stopped at one of the many fruit stands along the way..  The red, funny looking fruit above is a favorite of the people here but I wasn't too enamored with it.  I've never seen it in the states.  They have a huge variety of fruit in Costa Rica.  Each Friday morning we go to a feria, or fruit market.  They are only open once a week and grow most of the fruit locally.    

At least that is what we thought.  I was buying some purple plumbs and Ted asked the girl if she grew them.  She said no but, very proudly said they were from California. Duh!

 

There is a bridge on the way to the beach.  It's quite a tourist attraction.  Below is a large sand bar where, as you can see, the crocodiles float around and rest on the sand bar from time to time.  It seems they are waiting for lunch, just hoping that someone will loose their balance while looking over the rail.  There had to be at least 25-30 of them.  These are in the wild and are not restricted to a certain area.  They were fascinating

This was the grand daddy of them all.  He has to be 20 ft long and weighed at least 800 lbs.  One one side of the bridge is a gift shop and a boat that will take you on a sightseeing tour down the river.  We didn't have time to do that but hopefully it will be on our list of 'to do' things.

Here's some of our group.  I was really grateful to see trees and shade as it was very warm and muggy.  We enjoyed hot dogs and various dishes furnished by each couple.  We have a great group of missionaries here. Officially, there can only be three North American couples and two in the presidency. We have a Latin couple in the office and the other counselor is Latin as well.  We have a great love for the Latin people.   We will be in need of another NA couple in February.  If any of you would enjoy serving in the temple in a beautiful country this would be a wonderful choice.  Of course, there is one restriction.  The husband must speak some Spanish  
                                     
                                      

 This is the bay.  The water isn't as clear as I would have liked but Ted and others enjoyed cooling off.  One of the sisters can back with a rash on her arm.  She believes it was a jelly fish.  Others said that little fish bit at their legs.  I wasn't sorry to have stayed on the beach and chatted with the others.

 The foliage here is amazing.  Since it rains most of the year, daily, everything is very lush and beautiful.  They grow everything from cactus, pine trees, palms, and many, many other varieties.

  

 On one areas we found these shells embedded into coral.  It looked to be hundreds of years old.

Our ward is located right behind the temple.  The children's program was last Sunday and was decorated with banners, pictures and bows on each chair.  All of the girls had on red, yellow or blue skirts and had matching bows in their hair.  Only in Latin America!  They all had memorized their parts and sang with gusto. New benches with blue upholstery have replaced the chairs and adds such a reverent feel to the chapel.  The members will be very surprised and thrilled.

The poinsettias were planted a couple of weeks ago.  This little girl reminds me of our granddaughters.
She is so active and loves to have her picture taken.

We had dinner with a missionary couple (the one in pink).  The sister missionaries were there and a couple of sisters from the ward.  The young sister on the left side is married to a Costa Rican.  He is not a member and travels a lot for work.  We have befriended her as she is very homesick and doesn't speak a lot of Spanish yet.

Well, that about does it for November.  We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are preparing for the greatest event in history, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We feel so blessed to have so many loved ones and dear friends.  We wish you all the best and pray for your happiness always.

Love to all,

The Jackmans

Dear Family and Friends,
Well, this is my first blog of the mission and I'm still learning how to put the pictures in the right order.  We arrived on the 11 of October and have been learning the ropes with the new house, area and temple responsibilities.  There are some wonderful NA missionaries here that made us feel so welcome.  That's one of the great things about a mission, instant friends.  Ted and I are very comfortable in our home.  The computer area and front room are shown above.  We finally got our AppleTV working and can enjoy some downtime relaxing in front of the boobtube.  Why do they call it that anyway?  Plus we got to listen to the BYU game on Saturday.  Whew, that was a close one!!

Our kitchen is stocked with everything we need, even a crock pot.  I do have visitors from time to time. Ants that are so small, I'm not sure how they live and breath in such a tiny body and cockroaches about 2" long. I've only seen one so far and we sprayed it with poison until he stopped moving.  We also have Gecko lizards and I always think of the commercial when I see one.  I understand they also sneak into the temple at times.

This is our bedroom  Ted didn't seem to notice the clothes on the bed and chair when he took the picture. But we don't even have a king size bed at home and it even has a memory foam topper.  I'm liking this place better all the time.  

We live in a neighborhood with security guards.  Usually they are listening to the soccer games and trying to stay awake.  In the middle of the street is a beautiful garden area with benches and a table plus a barbeque area for groups.  One of the missionary couples lives down the street about 5 houses and another couple from AZ, the Haws, are arriving on Friday and will live across the street.  We already played a game of Dominoes the other night with a couple from Round Rock, TX and the other from Snowflake, AZ. The only problem is they don't keep score and you know how competitive we are playing games.  But they'll soon fall in line.

This is our patio. The only difference between here and home is that this one is in the front of the house. It is fenced and gated. We lock the gate. This picture was taken from the garage part of the patio. It is full of plants, and a table and chairs all covered by a roof. It is very nice and comfortable. We haven't used it much yet because a rains a lot still. Last night it began raining around 5pm and didn't subside until about 8pm. It rains very hard and we can hardly hear ourselves speak inside the house.

Here is a view of the temple. It is about 10,000 square feet and very beautiful. It serves the entire country of Costa Rica. The population here is about 6,000,000, There are only 6 stakes, but it looks like one of them might be divided soon.  The temple is only open 4 days a week with 5 sessions tops. We clean the bathrooms and vacuum the carpet every day the temple is open plus we do the laundry.  That keeps us busy during the down time.  One of our responsibilities will be to attend the different stakes and encourage them to attend more often or to live worthy of a recommend.  We will be buying a car very soon.  Ted will be in his true element for a while looking for just the right used car.  They are quite expensive and we want to buy one that will have a fairly good resale when we leave.

We hope you and your families are doing well and staying healthy.   So until the next time....
Love,
The Jackmans

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, we're finally going tomorrow.  We will be arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica about 7:15 p.m. after a 71/2 hr flight.  We are anxious to get started and hopefully will draft a blog about every month.  We also have an Ooma phone number, 801-980-9220.  Until April, 2015 we'll think of you a lot.  Take care,

Love,
Ted & Sharon