COSTA RICA and PANAMA!

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...........

Oh my goodness... I can´t believe how long its been since I was able to write here. Sorry for not being able to keep in touch very well.... I was really surprised because when we arrived into San Jose, we went straight to the Bethel and it was far away from anything touristy so there are no internet cafes or anything nearby. So far we have had an absolutely FANTASTIC trip. I´m keeping record of everything and will write more details soon. Just as a quick update, we spent time in San Jose with the English Congregation and it was really really nice, but to me it was like the spitting image of Cancun. We met some really wonderful brothers and sisters there (and I even ran into some old friends) hahaha.... More stories to come soon....

After we left San Jose on monday we made our way down to Changuinola in Panama. It is in an area called Bocas del Toro which is touristy because of the nearby islands on the Carribean Ocean. The town was pretty ratty, but that was where Amber and Curtis lived.... we had a GREAT time with them... I slept on their (very hard) tile floor, and went in some of the best field service of my life. At the first 3 doors, the people invited us in, asked us to sit down and we stayed for 5 or 10 minutes talking to the people, reading scriptures and teaching them... on the intial call! It was AMAZING. Amber says you can have as many bible studies as you can handle. She has 14... Curtis has 12... and there is so much interest in the territory they simply can´t handle it all. Everyone there LOVES getting the Watchtower and Awake magazines. One of the days Amber was walking down the road back to the house and this guy ran up to her... ¨Do you have the latest Watchtower and Awake! magazines?¨ ¨Yes, I do. Would you like them?¨Amber replied. ¨Of course!¨ he said. On the bus as we were leaving to another town, I offered some magazines to a man sitting behind us who looked bored, he grinned so happy when I gave them to him... I showed him 5 different magazines and told him to go through and pick the ones he wanted. Well, when we were about to get off the bus I asked him in my very bad spanish ¨Would you like to take some of the magazines home?¨ He looked at me shocked, then started hesitantly unzipping his bag, and looking at me with this confused look on his face like ¨I have to give them back??¨ finally when I realized what happened, I´m like... don´t worry if you want all of them, you can have them. He breathed a big sigh... ¨Yes, I want them all.¨  HAHA... Ok, ok... sheesh calm down! I couldn´t believe it. Anyway, the stories like that keep coming... there are so many to tell.

Right now we´re staying in a town up in the mountians called Boquete. There are coffee plantations EVERYWHERE which is awesome because I´m drinking tons of coffee... yay!!! Some of the best coffee I´ve ever had too! hehe.... Tomorrow we´re leaving to go to San Jose again for the English Assembly for all of Costa Rica. I´ll write again when I get the chance.

Love to all!
Michelle