First week in CR

My first week was truly a blessing. I started in Coronado and stayed with some local friends and went in field service with them a few days. The territory was neat. Mostly smaller nicer houses with gates out front so the tradition was to tap on the gate and just yell "Buenas" until they came out or you realized they didnt want to talk. They work their territory pretty frequently in that area. I had a few good calls, I was talking to one man when he broke down and started crying. He just had so many problems. Since my spanish is so limited my partner was able to share some scriptural comfort and encourage him to go visit the hall where he lived and he promised to do so. Also, since most of the houses do not have numbers, their not at home slips are just a series of descriptions. The second day I was out I was given one that said, "la casa de color de papaya." Or the papaya colored house. I still have no idea what color that is, but apparently its a mix between orange and yellow...?

I left Wednesday with a family who lives in Coronado part time and in Bella Vista outside Guapiles from Wednesday through Sunday. Wednesday we arrived at their house in Bella Vista. Its an open style house with screen for windows. It was very nice spending time with the family and since they speak no english I spent a lot of time with my dictionary. But as is the norm with other theocratic people you rarely need a lot of words to communicate. Eventually we'd work out a system where if I learned a new spanish word I would teach them its english equivalent.

The meetings in Bella vista are on the front porch of the home of one of the brothers. The congregation consists of about 16 publishers. 1 elder is local and another is from Guapiles and drives out to assist for every meeting. They were very happy to have me there and assigned me a Bible Highlights for next week. The meetings are at night so its cooler and because of that many bugs will fly in attracted to the light on the porch. I think I'm the only one who even notices even on the first night when this monster bug flew in and hit the microphone while the brother was talking. Since the meetings are on the front porch some of the local youth will drive by and honk their horns and yell to cause a distraction, but most are very respectful and the brother giving the talk will just pause until the car passes.

The territory is very spread out. We walk alot on very rocky roads. You have to be careful you dont #1 step in anything an animal left behind, and #2 dont step wrong on a rock and twist your ankle. Other then that, those that listen are very kind and helpful. I met one lady and was doing my presentation and she stopped me and said in english "its ok you can speak english". She was from Texas and had just moved there. She was very impressed that someone had come all the way out Bella Vista from the states so she promised to read the brochure. I went on a few bible studies with the brother I'm staying with too. One was on a family who had a very simple house. As we are sitting there the goats and chickens are just wondering in and out of their home. But even though the study was with the father, the whole family was sitting in the kitchen listening and when we would look up a scripture the man would yell the chapter and verse to his wife inside. I looked over my shoulder at one point and saw his little girl reading along in my book over my shoulder. Again here there are no real "addresses" so in order to make a return you have to be very very descriptive. Below are some photos of the local territory