Missionary Cottage Meeting....

Our Branch Mission Leader, Hermano Ballestero, planned a nice Cottage meeting to try and boost branch member involvement in the local missionary efforts. Sadly enough, the meeting was poorly attended by branch members. The great news is that we had 4 adults and 3 children, all who are not members of the church, attend the meeting. We met at the church but decided to take everyone over to the Blanco's home to have a cozier "family" atmosphere after realizing that the electricity was out at the church. Hermana Munroe and Hermana Blanco......

Hermano Ballestero led the meeting and shared his testimony. It was very powerful and the spirit was very strong as he testified of the Saviors love. He had to pause many times because he was choked up and had tears in his eyes. Elder Munroe shared the Plan of Salvation video and Hermano Blanco shared a few scriptures. Hermana Blanco shared her testimony and even pulled a framed picture of her family off of the wall and testified of eternal families. Elder Munroe passed out Book of Mormons to the 2 people that did not have one and Hermana Munroe gave the closing prayer. A nice thing was that every member that attended, only 6 including us, were able to serve by taking part in the program.

We finished off the night with hot chocolate and cookies that Hermana Munroe baked. It was a very nice night and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully we all were able to plant some "spiritual seeds" in the hearts of our friends that will someday grow and bless their families.

Noche de Hogar at the Munroe's....

We had a special Family Home Evening/Noche de Hogar on Monday. We invited our good friends, Marcela & Edwin along with their two children, and the Blanco's. We wanted to have FHE with Edwin & Marcela, who are not members of our church, but we also wanted to celebrate 4 birthdays that took place in January. Marcela, Pat, Maria Blanco, and Edwin Jr. are all January babies. Pat made a nice lasagna dinner with salad and French bread.....We sang Families Can Be Together Forever and Hermano Blanco offered a nice blessing on the food..... Edwin Jr. came a little late because he had futbol (soccer) practice. One of the mothers of a child on his team dropped him off at our house so he could join in on the birthday fun.Here is their oldest, Sophia, with Marcela. Sophia and Edwin Jr. have become Pat's "Costa Rican grandchildren." They are very sweet kids! Marcela has a salon that is VERY popular in San Pablo. Pat took Sandi there to get a pedicure during the holidays and Marcela answered the phone multiple times and had to turn people away because she was overbooked. Anyway, she has not only become Pat's good friend, but her beautician. She does a great job!

Here is the birthday cake that Hermana Blanco brought....

Then we all took turns blowing out the candles. Edwin Jr. was up first....

Then Marcela......

Here is Marclea, Maria Blanco, and Maria....

It was a very successful night and we are glad that we could spend time with these two great families!

Our Zone....

This picture was taken of our zone back in November. We had a conference where Elder Falabella, from the Quorum of the Seventy, spoke to us. We wanted a digital image of the picture but had to settle for a printed copy because there was only one camera used and then the mission office made us all copies. It took a few months, but we are glad to now have a copy of our zone. Some of the Elders have been transferred to new areas but it is pretty much the same. Elder and Sister Falabella are seated next to us and then our Mission President and his wife are in the middle.

We're legal....

We went to San Jose on Tuesday to pick up our residency cards from the immigration complex. We have been waiting for a long time and it was nice to finally have these important cards in our possession. Estamos legales! We are officially considered "Tico's" now! We finally got our residency cards after waiting for 7 1/2 months.

This is one happy group of Elders! There were about 40 missionaries with us at the immigration offices and we all got to pick up our cards. These Elders will be able to walk with a little more assurity in their steps from now on. We have had missionaries who have had to spend the night in jail for being stopped by the police and not having their residency cards.

Elder and Hermana Munroe entering the Immigration complex....

Here is the proof! We aren't illegal anymore.....even if our pictures do look like we are WANTED CRIMINALS.

Hermana Munroe and some of the Elders....

President and Sister Larkin....he is the 2nd counselor in the Costa Rica Temple Presidency.

Happy Birthday Hermana Munroe....

We celebrated Pat's birthday in San Jose yesterday. We returned from Samara, Guanacaste and needed to stay in San Jose so that we could get Sandi to the airport. It made for a fun setting to have a nice family dinner and celebrate together. In lieu of a birthday cake, Sandi bought a watermelon in Guancaste and served a piece of it to Pat with some curly candles that sparked.

Pat blowing out the candles...all 35 of them....ha!

.....and she did it!

Butterfly earrings from Gaunacaste were among some of the gifts that she got....Then we headed to Outback Steakhouse in Escazu, San Jose for a nice dinner.

Happy Birthday Hermana Munroe

New Years Day 1-1-11.....

This was the sunrise on New Years Day. What a beautiful site to wake up to.

We got out to the beach early and placed our beach chairs in the perfect spot.

We went to a resort called Guanamar for lunch. It is in Playa Carrillo and looks out over the bay. This picture was taken from our table in the restaurant. Here is Pat with a Pineapple drink at a restaurant called Coco's. We went there in the evening for salads and shakes.

Happy New Year!