Baptism at Los Chorros Waterfall

We traveled to a beautiful, majestic place just outside of Grecia on Saturday for a baptism. Elder Munroe had the opportunity of baptizing a great man named Jose Luis. We met him a few months ago in San Pablo. He had a child with one of the women in our branch but they have since separated. He was in town to visit his son and we ran onto him at church. Elder Munroe spoke with him and gave him a Book of Mormon and a Principios del Evangelio (Gospel Principles) manual as a gift. He returned to his town and we didn't see any more of him. Last week we got a call from our Zone leaders in Naranjo informing us that they have been teaching Jose Luis in their area. He was ready to be baptized and requested that Elder Munroe have the honor of baptizing him. Jose Luis said that he wasn't really interested in the church until he received his very own materials. He read the ENTIRE Gospel Principals manual and looked up all of the scriptures as he read.....cover to cover. What a prepared young man!

This is the Los Chorros Waterfall located just outside of Grecia. It was a beautiful place for Jose Luis to be baptized. We have to admit that it was a bit of a steamy and muddy hike to reach the falls, but the view was absolutely breathtaking.

Here are some of us hiking in. You can see Elder Munroe in the distance carrying his white clothing for the baptismal service.

Elder Munroe, Jose Luis and his 3 brothers who are not members of the church but wanted to attend to support their brother.

Elder and Sister Munroe with Jose Luis.....

Elder Munroe, Jose Luis, Elder Belmont, and Elder Logan before the baptism.....

Getting ready and in place for the baptism....

Elder and Sister Munroe.........

Los Chorros Waterfall.....

Hermana Lewis, a member of the branch that Jose Luis attends, serving cakes that she made.

The Elders helping out with the refreshments.

The Youth of Zion.....

Here are some of the youth of our branch after church. Meet the Palacio kids. Yes, they are all from the same family.....brothers and sisters. What humble and yet strong kids!

Dia de Accion de Gracias....

Thanksgiving was different but very enjoyable for us this year. We had a Spanish lesson planned for Thursday afternoon with Vivi, the daughter of Hermana Ballestero, our branch relief society president. They realized that it would be Thanksgiving Day in the United States, so they decided to make it special day for us in C.R. too. They planned and executed a beautiful Thanksgiving meal, something that they previously knew little about, just for us. It was delicious and extremely thoughtful!Here we are with Vivi before our 2 hour lesson. She was very helpful and we look forward to our future lessons with her. We mostly worked on phrases that are typical in Costa Rica and used by the "locals."

Here is Hermana Ballestero, Leda, with a poinsettia that we took her as a thank-you for our dinner invitation. It was a perfect match to the Christmas decor that they had displayed in their home. Costa Ricans put their things for Navidad out early since they do not typically celebrate Thanksgiving.

Here is Elder Munroe with the Ballestero family enjoying our Thanksgiving Meal. They had never celebrated Thanksgiving and thought it was fun to take part in the event with us. The meal was very nice and it definitely made missing a Thanksgiving at home much easier. Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias! We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving surrounded by your families and friends too!

English Class Visitors....

This afternoon, we went to the High School in San Pablo at the request of our friend Rosy. She asked us if we would be willing to help her English class with their speaking skills in conversation. The class was great and in no time they were "chatting up a storm." It was fun because the teacher, a woman from San Pedro in San Jose, had all of the students take turns asking us questions. They started out with basic questions about our family, where we were from, our ages, what were our occupations in the U.S., etc. Then they branched out and it got interesting. They wanted to know what we did all week, if we drink coffee, how often we pray, and more. It turned into a neat mission opportunity for us to explain the Word of Wisdom and a few basic principals of the gospel.

We were able to ask the students questions too and then we finished up after an hour or so. We finished up by sharing some treats and soda that the students had brought for everyone. They invited us back and so we said that we would return in 2 weeks. They are very dedicated students....their class is 5 days a week for 6 hours each night. The class lasts for 4 weeks. That is a lot of time spent in English class. We look forward to seeing them all again soon!

Soggy Letter Home.....

Family and Friends,
Tropical Storm Tomas has played havoc with Costa Rica The government declared a national emergency yesterday. The pacific coast has experienced massive flooding putting many people in shelters because their homes are flooded. While flooding is the problem in the lowlands, land slides and debris flows are the problem in the mountains. Several communities in canyons along mountain river banks have been completely destroyed by debris flows. The worst one was in a suburb of the capital city San Jose. It hit in the middle of the night while folks were asleep. The water shed above their area had received 6" of rain in a very short time. So far they have recovered 20 bodies with at least that many missing. At the last count ten bridges are washed out and most highways and roads are either blocked or partially blocked by flooding or landslides. My neighbor told be this morning that three men repairing a water line in our area were hit by a landslide and "disappeared". They have evacuated some of the folks here that live close to the rivers. That is the bad news. The good news is that we are safe and dry with plenty of food, candles, flashlights, batteries, propane and drinking water. We have lost our water and power several times but both are on for now. We were without water most of yesterday, all of last night and some of this morning. As soon as it came on today we did the dishes and took showers. We have everything that will hold water filled with rain water in case we lose the water again. The tap water is cloudy right now and the rain water is clear. We are staying put and will not venture out until we get the all clear. I feel sorry for Costa Rica. As we have driven almost every major road and many not so major we have come to realize that Costa Rica was way behind in it's maintenance and repair of roads before this storm and the one before it hit. On our last big road trip we went south to the Panama border on the Interamerican highway and returned on the Coastanera highway. Along the way we saw a lot of areas that needed repair and passed a lot of areas being repaired. The country was behind before this storm and now they are really behind. I doubt if they will ever catch up. Their is one place on the Interamerican in the mountains that we drive through every time we travel to and from San Jose. It is a side hill fill with only one lane because the other lane has slid off the mountain. The mountain is straight up and down here and it would take a tremendous amount of earth work, retaining walls and drainage to restore the lane. So for two years that we know of, there is one down hill lane. So when you get to this spot you either yield or scoot around it quickly hoping that you don't meet an oncoming semi. Today and tomorrow have been declared a national day of mourning for those who have lost their lives. As we have watched the news it seems that the poorest folks are the ones most impacted. It is a sad time for Costa Rica.
Mike and Pat

Flooding and Mudslides....

It rains here all of the time but today is the 3rd straight day of hard and intense rain. We lost our power last night @ 9:00 and just got it back at 2:00 p.m. These towns are shutdown where we live because of flooding and mudslides. We watched the Costa Rican T.V. channels and saw that many people have lost their lives with this mornings flooding in other area's of the country. We drove into San Pablo this morning and bought more water. We have a good supply of candles incase we lose power again tonight.We took these photo's this morning from inside the car. They are not too clear since we were driving but you should be able to get an idea of just how wet and saturated the land is here.

Zone Conference....

We traveled to San Jose last week to attend our first Zone Conference. It was a very long yet inspiring day. We heard nice messages from our mission president and his wife as well as Elder Falabella, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy. (Hermana Munroe, Hermana Galvez, President Galvez, Elder Falabella, Hermana Falabella, Elder Durfee, Hermana Durfee, Elder Munroe). The Durfee's had been serving here in Costa Rica for about 10 months. They transferred out of our mission a few days ago and now "Los Munroes" are the only "senior" missionaries in Costa Rica.

Los Munroe with Los Falabella.......

Elder Falabella is in the Quorum of the Seventy and is serving in the presidency over the Central American Area of the church. We received a phone call from him a few months ago as he was "checking up" on us and to see how we were doing. It was nice to meet him in person and to hear his mission advice and council.

The Elders enjoying the lunch break.......

The Hermanas chatting and enjoying the lunch break too.

Wedding Bells....

Ginnette and Jairo were married at a Public Hall in San Pablo on Saturday night. We have worked with them for a few months and it was great to help them realize the importance of marriage. The branch worked together to help them plan a nice wedding ceremony. President & Hermana Jimenez, our branch president and his wife, were their best man and matron of honor. We estimated that about 100 friends and family attended and seemed to enjoy the Chop Suey dinner and dancing. A female lawyer performed the wedding ceremony. It is law in Costa Rica that a judge or lawyer perform civil marriages. Ginette and Jairo have a 4 year old little girl named Deilyn. She looked so cute and seemed loved following her parents around in their "fancy"clothes. We are proud of this young couple and their desire to be married and take this step toward being baptized as well. They plan on being baptized on November 13th. They have asked Elder Munroe to baptize them and we are excited to see them become official members of the church.

Happy Halloween!

We invited two families from our barrio (neighborhood) to come "Trick or Treating" at our home. Not many people celebrate Halloween in Costa Rica. It is mostly because of such a strong Catholic presence and the holiday is thought to be "devilish" as opposed to being a fun time for kids. We wanted to expose them to a "fun" Halloween and so we even invited Marcela, our hair dresser, and her family from San Pablo. None of these families had ever been out "trick or treating" before and were excited to wear their costumes. We gave them large Snickers & Milky Way Bars, popcorn balls, and hot chocolate with chocolate chip cookies! They all liked trick or treating and will probably be coming again next year. We have now "infected" Costa Rica with Halloween!
Rene, Rita, and their kids.....

Rita and kiddos....

Honorio, Maria, and their kids.....

Our dressed up guests.....

Marcela, our hair dresser, and her husband, Edwin......