October - Rainey Season

To Our Wonderful Family and Friends;

It's been a couple of months since my last blog but only because we really haven't traveled much or seen anything different.  Since the closure of the temple for cleaning, our time has pretty much been spent around the house and in the temple.  We've been blessed with great health, well except for a few dental problems.  We are so blessed to be here and meet so many wonderful people and extend our friendship circle.  We look forward to the Ottley's visit in a couple of weeks.  They are friends from Escondido.  Hopefully we will have a week without too much rain so we can enjoy taking them to the sights of Costa Rica.  Our daughter, Carolyn and husband Scott, will be here on the 6th of December for a week also.  We can't wait to see family again.  Then the Kessler's (friends from Utah) will be here in January.  I'm sure the months will fly bye.  

We are getting a new couple in November and another two couples in January.  Ted is in charge of procuring for apartments for them.   The two new temple films were finally downloaded and now we are using four different films each month.  A different one each week.  We are hoping that this will increase temple attendance somewhat.   

We did visit a beautiful garden called "Only Roses".  They have over

500 varieties and the following pictures are a few that were my favorites.

At the end of the tour of the rose garden they gave each of the sisters in our

group a bouquet of roses.  We had a great day with everyone.

On the way home, the Haws and us went to get something to eat at a 

restaurant call "Tres Hermanas" or Three Sisters.  It has great food and atmosphere.

We mentioned it was Ted's birthday and they rolled in this Brahma Bull.  We had a 

hard time getting Ted off of it too.  Not too sure what's in the glass!

Each year our community of Belen celebrates their Independence Day with a 

parade.   Actually, each town has it's own parade and celebration.  They decorate their home with flags and banners.  And they love to set off fireworks for any holiday actually.    We decided to walk down to the center of town to enjoy the festivities.  I was expecting bands, horses (there are some beautiful prancing horses in Costa Rica), probably girls dressed up in costumes of yesteryear. Instead it was a parade of only small children up to high school age.  Each school was represented and most of them had a drum line like the one above.  The kids in the middle are on stilts  and had a mile or so to go before the parade came to a close.  

                                          

                                       
 

One of our workers in the temple is Bro. Wayne Richardson.  He and his wife

have lived in Costa Rica for five years.  He bought 22 acres on a hill top that overlooks a beautiful view of the city and jungle.  They invited Ted and I plus another missionary couple to spend the night at their home.  This is the guest house,   They felt like they would spend the rest of their lives here and wanted the peace and quiet of Costa Rica.  Unfortunately, it was too quiet for them and now they are trying to sell it but so far not one person in two years has come to look at it.  We had a great time getting to know them better.  

Well that's about it for now,   I hope to have more pictures next time and maybe some adventures to share.  We were supposed to go to a district conference this weekend very close to the Panama border but it was cancelled as of yesterday.  It should be rescheduled in a month or so.  We've never been that far south before and was looking forward to it.  

We hope all is well and may you receive the Lord's choicest blessings.

Love,

Mom, Dad, Sharon and Ted