Zona Los Santos

We are serving in the Zona Los Santos region of Costa Rica. It is high in the mountains, south of San Jose, the nations capital. Small towns named after Saints are scattered all over the valleys and ridges with coffee plantations surrounding them. We live in San Pablo, next to San Marcos and San Maria, which are all in the same valley. It is extremely green here and rivers and creeks are everywhere. Beautiful flowers grow in the fields and along the roads. Pat almost faints each time she sees them because she would normally pay a pretty price for them in the states and here she is walking on top of them because they are so abundant. It is also nice to have fresh fruit daily. It can't can any fresher than just picking it from the tree, can it? Avocados, mangoes, etc. We have even seen many Noni trees with fruit. The scenery is beautiful and we truly feel that we live in paradise. The best news though.....is that the weather is nice and cool here!

On Costa Rican Soil....

We arrived in Costa Rica on June 22nd. It was nice to be back in San Jose and this time....as missionaries!Our mission president, President Galvez, was in meetings when we arrived so his assistants picked us up from the airport. They took us straight to the temple in San Jose and it was a special way to start off our time in Costa Rica. We got a bite to eat at Rosti Pollo and then headed off to the mission office to fill out some paperwork.Mike and Elder Espinal in the mission office. Elder Espinal is from Honduras and he has been assigned to work with the church lawyer in the office. The mission has a lawyer present to take care of all of the passport/visa issues, etc. He is an extremely sharp young man and was very helpful.Pat filling out paperwork and resting for a minute.We went to the mission home that evening to stay the night. It was very nice to stay with the Galvez family and get to know them better. We had a delicious meal together and shared great conversation. The next morning, we packed up our things and left for the area that we will be living in. President Galvez and his family....

Costa Rica Bound.....

Our original travel itinerary was changed a few times but we finally were on our way. We left Utah on the morning of June 21st but didn't get to San Jose until Tuesday. We had more travel issues due to weather and plane problems so we ended up having to stay the night in Miami. Here we are on one of the MTC buses on the way to the Salt Lake City airport.Checking in all of our luggage....It was a long trip and we were definitely excited to finally be in Costa Rica.

Wrapping up our time at the MTC....

Our time in Utah is quickly coming to an end. We have had an amazing time here and have met many nice people. We will be flying out to Costa Rica on Monday morning and we are excited to finally get there! Here are a few pictures of our last few days in Utah.Pat with her Spanish teacher, Marisol Vargas. It was fun to meet Marisol in person and to continue to have personal lessons with her after spending so many hours together on Skype previous to coming to Utah. Mike with Marisol and Bro. Bird (his Spanish teacher).Here we are with a group of couples that we worked with during our second week here. We all took the mission office classes together. Pat at her computer getting ready to learn more about office management.Here we are waiting for a shuttle.....Enjoying a picnic lunch outside instead of going to the cafeteria. Pat standing by some beautiful rose bushes on the Provo Temple grounds....Mike and Pat in front of the Provo Temple.

Giddy up!

Dear Family,
We were kept very busy our first week at the MTC. They put us up in the Super 8 motel about a mile from the MTC. This means that we take a shuttle to the MTC at 7:15 am and do not return until 8:30 pm because we have two hours of language training in the evening on top of the full day of training. So we felt like the donkey in the attached picture.
Love
Mom and Dad

Welcome to the Missionary Training Center...

Our mission has officially begun! We entered the MTC on June 7th and are having a wonderful time. We are kept extremely busy learning and studying....always on the move. Costa Rica.... here we come!We went to the Provo Temple with a couple from our district and attended an early morning session. We took some pictures on the grounds afterwards.....Here we are with a few of the couples in our district and one of our teachers....We stopped by the MTC bookstore to order some more name tags and get a treat......Hermana Munroe waiting to go to dinner in the cafeteria....Elder Munroe with his online Spanish teacher.....