Week One!

Culture Shock!

Coming into the end of my first week in Costa Rica I would say I am almost fully adjusted to the culture change, except the fact I can´t really speak Spanish.. but other than that I´m good! The main differences from the U.S are cold showers, the toilet system is a little different, bugs are EVERYWHERE, it rains almost everyday-which I don´t mind, the language obviously, and the food is a bit different, but a good different. Now most of this stuff I was already expecting because I came here last year on the high school trip. However, now that I am here by myself the changes are a little more drastic because no one else is here to be going through the same changes. Aside from the culture change.. My religious journey has only begun. After only being here for a few days the Obandos have taught me so much and answered so many of my questions. I am very blessed to have this opportunity and lucky I get to share it with you all! Just to know sort of what goes on here I will give a mini description of what we have done so far:
Monday- I arrived, ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant ironically,Jessica and Marlon surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake one of their chef friends made, and I got settled in.
Tuesday- Read the bible some in the morning, prepared a big lunch [Costa ricans eat big lunches and very light or no dinner] and then later went to cell church
Wednesday- Went shopping in Turrialba! Short story- I told Jessica about how everyone in kingwood goes to value village or goodwill to get cheap clothes for certain events or just to have, and I described it as pretty organized for a cheap place and how everything is on racks and separated by category and she goes.. ahh let me show you costa ricas thrift store: we walk in and there is a giant room with clothes all over the floor and giant bags in the corners of the room and people digging through all the clothes, children hiding under them and running all over them, even a lady breast feeding out in the open! When I thought it couldn't get any more wild, an employee opened up one of the bags in the corner and dumped the clothes out and everyone ran to the pile climbing over each other to find something new. It was CRAZY, I have never seen anything like it, now Value Village will always seem like a luxury store to me HA!
Thursday- Pretty laid back day, I sat with Jessica for a while and asked a lot of questions I had about God and the bible and different stories. We cleaned and did dishes [life of a missionary (; ] and sat through a pretty intense thunderstorm! It has rained every day I have been here but I enjoy the rain so I don´t mind
Friday- Really bad storm all day so we did not get to go with Marlon to Plantanillo for church     :( so we cooked and read the bible which is a fine day with me!
Saturday- Marlon's sister got married! So we ran around all day trying to get everything together. I curled Celeste and Licy´s hair and barley had time to do mine. Then we all put our pretty wedding attire on and left! Of course being used to American weddings I was expecting some church for the ceremony and a fancy large room for a reception. Well... After driving up the mountain for a while we park next to this tiny building with plastic tables inside and balloons and some red and white decoration paper. Turns out this tiny room is where the wedding AND the reception was. It was so beautiful though because people in America can get so caught up in having the perfect wedding they forget the whole purpose of marriage is uniting with the one you love which was all that mattered to Marlon's sister. It was an amazing eye opening experience for sure.
Sunday- We woke up and had church. God was really showing his love today. Worship was AMAZING as always. I like to call Marlon DJ Marlon because he is so good at playing all the right music.. even though I have no idea what any of it says cause it is all in Spanish.. I still love it! Then for the rest of the day Jessica and I sat at the table reading the bible and she showed me a lot about christian living and baptism and how to deal with the confusion of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.. Just so you know THEY ARE ALL ONE!
   So that sums of most of my week and my journey so far. I don´t get a lot of computer time so I don´t think I will get to post a ton, but I will when I can!
I hope you enjoyed reading this and maybe feel like you would want to go on a journey like this yourself! Remember, God has a plan for everyone so be patient and glorify him in all that you do (: