Dear family and friends. We know that you are thinking that we don't do much work down here, but in actuality we do do a little. The problem is that we can't discuss some of our dongs inside the temple, so we just try to make you think all we do is play. We try to take advantage of every opportunity we have to go out and enjoy the country. I have speaking assignments every Sunday somewhere different and so since we have a car, we visit various wards and branches after which, we stay in the area for an extra day of so to visit. We do this every month or so. The weather is changing now and we are beginning the wet season. It usually rains every afternoon for an hour (very hard rain storms) and in the mornings it is usually sunny and warm. Actually it is always warm. The picture below is on the east side of San Jose up in a mountain. I was asked to give a talk at the a Heredia Stake Youth Conference. This picture was taken out over the valley right after one of the rain storms I mentioned. In real life it was even more beautiful than seen here.
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Here we are in our apartment (home) having our Easter dinner with all of the North American missionaries. Sharon prepared a wonderful turkey dinner and the rest of the group each brought something to add. There were four couples, the Craigs (temple president), The Jamison's, the Haws (full time missionaries) and ourselves. It is called family home evening, but also has the substitute name of Family Home Eating group. We enjoy getting together once a month in one another's homes.
Pictured here are President and Sister Craig and Elder Haws. The rest of us are in the kitchen.
Last week we visited a ward about two hours from our home. We were given time in both the sacrament meeting and taught the adults in the third hour. We love these people and enjoy being in their presence. On this particular Sunday after church, we were invited by the Stake President, President Chaverri, to come to his home for lunch. We had a wonderful visit with them and I enjoyed being with their five children children who I promptly adopted as my surrogate grand children. There are four girls and one boy. President Chaverri and his wife are wonderful and dedicated people. We enjoyed our visit with them along with a beautiful drive home in the rain. They designed their home after having been in Utah. Rock on the outside and the design is very much North American style.
Here we are on a river bordering Costa Rica and Panama. We are crossing to the Panama side just to say we visited Panama. We took a little trip again speaking in a ward and continuing on to spend Monday and Tuesday on the Caribbean side of the country. We stayed in a very small town on the Caribbean sea called Cahuita. As you can see below our dinner was of traditional food, chicken, salad, fried bananas, and of course rice and beans.
This is "Jack Fruit" It is behind the apple and pineapple. It is a very sweet fruit and very large. We had some and did enjoy the taste. Pineapples here are very inexpensive. That is about the only thing here that is inexpensive though.
This little guy showed up as we pulled into a bay after snorkeling. He and another came up and ate right out of our hands. We had fun feeding them until we saw a big sign "Favor de no dar comida a los monos" (Please do not feed the monkeys). When we were asked if we could read, we responded by saying "we're not smoking).
This is a termite nest. They are good for the forest, but not so good in town.
Before returning home Tuesday afternoon we had a guide take us into an area where several indigenous families live. In order to get to their village we had to hike through the jungle and cross over a canyon and river on this suspended walk way. Sharon didn't like the way it swung to and fro but made it across just fine. The jungle on this side of Costa Rica is very, very thick green and beautiful. Our tour included learning about the many trees and plants used by these people to stay healthy. They have natural medicine that can heal stomach problems to leukemia, plus many more. They work in the banana plantations and have very little money to purchase things. They completely live off the land. Below is the home of the family we visited. At night they hang hammocks to sleep in, The floor is wooden as are the walls. The roof is thatch. They believe in one god and do not get married, but when they fall in love they are required to stay with that person forever.
This is the large room or the living room. You can see that the furniture is home made. We sat on the logs you see in the corner and were served lunch. First they put two bananas on the floor in front of each of us. Afterwards they brought us each a bowl made from banana leaves. The bowl was filled with various boiled roots, fruit and vegetables. The fruit was boiled banana, a type of sweet potato and various roots from plants. It was palatable, but mostly all of it had a similar taste. We did eat a good portion of the food, but what we couldn't eat we slipped through a large opening in the floor. The house is on stilts due to heavy rains so the two dogs below had our left overs. Oh, I forgot to mention that there was also a small piece of chicken in the bowl too. Not purchased from a store however. They also raise their own chickens.
Here we are given a opportunity to learn how they communicate with one another. They use conch shells. They are very hard to blow on, but Sharon did a pretty good job with it. I don't know what she communicated to the other families, but it must have been okay, because no one came running.
Here is our lunch.The chicken is on top. The rest is below it. It was intriguing to see how they made their bowls. There were no utensils either so we with our hands. We rinsed off from a bucket.
This little lady is in charge of making chocolate from the cocoa plants that are growing all around them. She grinds the seeds using the two stones shown here.The stone she uses is very smooth, large and heavy. It is told that the young girls in the village can try to grind the beans when the reach 12 years old. If they can do it correctly they are allowed to be married. This little lady at the coaxing of the guide, sang to us. Later Sister Haws took a turn at it and as she did we all sang to the natives "I am a child of God". It so impressed our guide (a young woman of about 25 years old) that she wanted to know more about our church. She said she felt a very strong spirit when we were singing. I told her that we would send her a Book of Mormon and a few copies of the Liahona for her daughter to read.
It was a nice couple of days. We got three referrals and are sending each of them some Church literature. So you can see that our work is not only for the dead, but also for the living. Anyone want to come down and work with us?
We are healthy and enjoying being in the temple. The people are so loving and kind. Well, take care of yourselves and keep in touch. We have a Ooma phone, 801-980-9220 toll free. Call when you have a chance, it would be great to talk to you.
Love to all,
The Jackmans
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