Our Trip to Costa Rica

Earlier this month they closed the dental clinic for a week, because of a holiday celebration that blocks the road to the clinic.  So we took advantage of the break and took a trip to Costa Rica with Elder Jeffrey and Sister Ellen Clason and Elder Ross and Sister Kari Sanford.  Elder Clason is the new AALC working with us in the legal department and Elder Sanford is a dentist.  The six of us flew to Costa Rica and stayed in the Barcelo Hotel in San Jose.  We toured the city and took a trip to Volcan Poas and a privately owned park with a butterfly nursery, zoo, and beautiful waterfalls.  We attended the San Jose temple and had a relaxing Sunday with the Saints in the inner city.  The Sanfords and we spent a day white water rafting on the Pacuare River through the rain forrest.  It was incredibly beautiful.  All of us took a trip to Tortuga Island off the Nicoya Penninsula where we saw sea turtles breeding and a humpback whale with her calf, did some snorkeling, and enjoyed the beach.  We also spent a day riding the ziplines through the rain forrest canopy.  It was a fun week and a nice mid-mission break.  We developed deeper friendships with our fellow missionaries and enjoyed Costa Rica very much.

Our Guatemalan Summer

This is the season of the year they call "invierno" (winter) in Guatemala.  But for us it has been an incredibly beautiful summer.  We have had sunny cool days (70´s or low 80's) and overnight rains all through June and July.  Everything has been so green and fresh.  When I get up at 5:00 a.m. it is often still cloudy from the night´s rain, but in short order it clears up and is very nice throughout the day. They say the time is coming when we will have steady rains for several days, like it was last September when we arrived here, but in the meantime, we have enjoyed just about perfect weather all summer long.