Costa Rica: Day Five

My heart is so full tonight. Today was the best day yet!

At Bebitos we seemed to be more helpful and used the small amounts of Spanish that we know to ask what we can do and lead games, crafts and transitions with the kids. The teachers are so amazing!! I love them.

They gave me this rice pudding stuff. First time I got close to gagging in my life over food, but I scraped my bowl clean. I've had some weird stuff here like cauliflower with egg, cooked banana and who knows what some of the things I eat are, but for some reason I almost couldn't stomach that rice pudding.

The kids are so well behaved, its amazing. They left us alone to do art project and get other thing ready. They don't understand us, yet they listened. The girls LOVE sitting in my lap and using my camera. My classic funny faces stole the show today. They were so entertained by the faces I made in my pictures, that they just wanted me to take pictures of my face over an over again. It was very funny.

Also they had a dance teacher come in and teach them dance. So we were able to show off our moves as well.

After Bebitos we met up with friends and continued weekend planning. We are almost set in the plan and are close to figuring it all out. We are going to Manuel Antonio.

The culture in Costa Rica for all these volunteers we keep meeting is to party and dance and go to bars every night. Me and Kylee don't drink and choose not to live that lifestyle so we have been kinda secluded from night life, which is totally fine. And really where I comfortably have been my whole life. However today we found a blessing from Heaven.

I was explaining things about our church to one of our best friends that we have met, and just saying something about soccer jerseys.

The boy (who we marked as RM from day one) over heard and asked if we were LDS. We instantly bonded. It's amazing how much you can spend time with a person or talk to a person, but when that person I talk to is LDS they already understand 90% of who I am. It felt safe to find someone who could relate to us in so many ways.

He spent the rest of the afternoon with me, Kylee and Emily. And we had so much fun shopping and walking around downtown San Jose.

Then Emily, Ky and I took our first cab ride and made it home just in time for dinner. I'm so glad we met Emily from Canada, shes so much fun to be around and really easy to talk to.

Dinner was amazing tonight!! Mostly because I love guacamole. We scarfed it down and got back on the bus. Then Ben took us to institute. The church has its own institute building in San Pedro. And it was SO nice. Best bathroom I've used in Costa Rica, hands down!!

The lesson was covering a lot of Alma. And we were divided into groups to act it out. I'm very impressed with every person in that room. The five of us from the states were divided so that we could help those learning English. We acted out the scenes and laughed and laughed through the whole class. The teacher is from England with an awesome accent and sense of humor. And most of all what I loved was the spirit in the room of all these happy people who believe the same as I do. There are so many different backgrounds and life stories, but we can all come together as one with faith and understanding in the gospel.

I love this gospel and the opportunity we had tonight to experience the same beliefs and feelings in another part of the world. I am grateful for the example of humility I get from all the Costa Ricans that I have met. I am grateful for the example of selflessness with each volunteer and their story.

I am just grateful to be in Costa Rica. Every day gets more and more amazing and it is a testimony to me that God answers prayers and has a plan for my life. I am so happy, and that happiness has been a constant for months. If I pray to Him with faith, I will be guided through each day. Whether He sends me trials or blessings, I will grow and realize true happiness. I will continue to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and realize all I have is through Him. I love my Savior, I love this experience and I am grateful for so much.