Our little friends....

We got a visit today from Max, Lara, and their mom, Rita. They live up the street from us and we have become good friends. We have had them over to our house many times for dinner and Family Home Evening. In fact, you might remember posts about them when they came Trick-or-Treating or when they came to learn to make popcorn balls.They got umbrellas for Easter (Semana Santa) and wanted to show them to us. They also brought us some Easter gifts. Then we went to buy eggs at one of Rita's cousins home, Carlos. His little girls were super cute and showed us the baby chickens in their backyard. Their family was so sweet that, as we were leaving, they invited us to stay for lunch and then the mom gave Pat some perfume before we left. We had a nice day with our "little friends."

Special Saturday Afternoon....

Last Saturday we attended the wedding of two couples. Today we attended their baptisms. We usually hold the baptisms at a members home but due to the holiday weekend and scheduling conflicts, we used the church instead. Hermano Ballestero conducted the meeting. Oscar, Judith, Nolyn, and Josue....

Honorio and Elder Munroe baptized them....Elder Munroe and Oscar.....

Elder Munroe and Judith as they were preparing for the baptism.....

Nolyn, Josue, Honorio, and Maria.....

The baptismal font that the branch president built. Many people have offered to help make it a more sturdy font by adding fiber glass and other materials but it hasn't ever happened. The branch will have to resolve the situation soon because the jacuzzi that we normally use wont be available anymore because the family who owns it will be moving.

A Double Wedding Day....

We had a double wedding yesterday. Maria, Honorio's wife, comes from a big family here in our town. We first met them all when we would teach discussion in their home. Maria's brother and sister and their significant others had recently taken a more serious interest in the church. They worked with the Hermanas and decided to be baptized.....both couples needed to be married first. That is where the branch came together and we had a double wedding. One of the visiting Elders from another area helped with all of the decorations and balloon animals and flowers.....

Then it was time to start the wedding! It was held at our humble branch building. It is a carport of a home that was converted into a church building. That is Honorio and Maria in the middle of the picture.

Here come the brides and soon to be sister-in-laws......Judith and Nolyn

Oscar & Judith (Maria's sister) and Nolyn and Josue (Maria's brother)....

An LDS lawyer from San Jose came to perform the wedding ceremony....

The first dance....

Josue and Nolyn.....

Oscar and Judith....

The whole wedding group with the Hermanas and Hermana Torres (from the branch).

There was a dance and dinner after the ceremony. They served meat, rice, salad for dinner. Hermana Munroe took 5 chocolate cakes to serve for dessert. Here we are at the wedding.

Overnight Guests....

We are having two weddings this afternoon at the Church. Because of this, the Elders needed to stay over in Los Santos for the night. We put them up in one of our guest rooms. Elder Romney, our Zone Leader (serving in San Jose), and Elder Whittaker, our District Leader (serving in Cartago), were our first over night guests since our daughter was here at Christmas. It was fun to have them in our home and get to know them better. Hermana Munroe fixed fried eggs and Elder Munroe fixed French toast and we even had large Cinnamon rolls! The Elders certainly didn't go away hungry!

Elder Munroe and his French toast setup.....

Elder Romney and Elder Whittaker....

Getting down to business and filling up for the long day.....

Thanks for visiting Elders!

Zone Conference in San Jose....

We traveled to San Jose today for a special Zone Conference with Elder Richard Hinckley, son of Gordon B. Hinckley. He is in the First Quorum of the Seventy and serves as the president of all the LDS missions in the world....all 340 of them. He could not say enough about how great President and Sister Galvez are. He told us that we should feel very blessed to be serving under their direction. We also learned that our mission had baptized the most people, out of all the missions in the church, in the month of March. It was nice to meet he and his wife and to be able to hear his powerful message. He explained that he will be released during the next General Conference because he will be turning 70 years old. We felt lucky to have been able to meet him and hear his message before he is released. Here is Elder Munroe visiting during with some of the members of the stake during the luncheon.... Here is Elder Mitchell as he fills up his plate. He is a nephew to our daughter-in-law Susan and is currently serving near Cartago.

Just another day of work.....

Finger Lickn' Good....

This is one happy Elder! We were in San Jose last week and stopped by one of our favorite fast food places called Teriyaki Experience. Elder Munroe walked across the parking lot to get a sweet treat at KFC. Costa Rica has pretty much all of the fast food chains and restaurants (Outback, etc.) that we have in the states. None of them are near to the area where we live though. It is nice treat to be able to pick up an occasional Subway sandwich or piece of greasy KFC chicken when we are in San Jose.

Strengthening the members....

We continue to focus on helping to strengthen the members of our branch. One way that we do this is to have Family Home Evening with them. We invited Honorio and his family over last week for an activity. The kids should be in the Munroe family because they obviously like popcorn as much as we do. Neilyn, Jason, and Mario attacked the popcorn bowl with Elder Munroe.....

This sweet family has progressed so much since their baptisms at the end of February. They have all started to dress up for church now and they are so supportive of all of the activities and meetings. They happen to live up the road from us and so they stop by often. These pictures were taken in front of our house, before church, last Sunday.

We recently found out that they are expecting a new baby in the Fall. Congrats to Honorio and Maria!

Jason.....

Spring Flower in the Summer.....

One great thing about where we live is that it has the perfect climate for growing amazing flowers. I've take to growing orchids and it seems that my "green thumb" still works pretty good. I have a couple orchid plants that I bought in our first few weeks of living here and they continue to blossom. It is Summer here but it is nice to still have "Spring-like" blossoms year round.