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
