¡costa riquísima!

remember how i said that the blessings from the lord have been flowing more rapidly than i could receive them?

how true that is.

in so few words, a little while after getting back from my mission, i thought i was going to explode with all the decisions i had to make. among the largest looming ones was that of an internship; it's a requirement to have a capstone experience asi for my major, but i wasn't feeling the opportunities i found in the utah valley area. i wanted to do something meaningful, something that would stretch me, and something with spanish. after some searching, emailing and calling, this literally fell into my lap. from above, i tell you! for sure no other option.

i am an intern for the church teaching the lds employment resource services workshop in costa rica for the summer.

for those of you who don't have a clue where that is, or who are thinking of puerto rico--which, in all probability, is most likely somewhere around 95-100% of you--it's the part in verde.

america. but central style.

i will admit, when i applied, my top three options were guadalajara, distrito federal, and puebla. aka mexico. i wanted to go to mexico. 

but when i eagerly ripped open my "call letter" (aka my acceptance letter) outside the kennedy center, i read, "you've been assigned to labor in...costa rica." costa rica?! 

i knew the lord has something else in mind. 

and i trust him.

feelin super blessed.

We had a faaaaabulous week of training up at church headquarters. 

first of all--what a HUGE blessing! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!! 

second of all--i love temple square. go temple square sisters. the spirit up there is unreal! walking around and passing building after building that has been dedicated for a spiritual cause just blew my mind. zion!

third of all--we are in such good hands; the ecclesiastical leaders and those who work for the church ROCK. sinceramente, i felt so inspired and spiritually fed all week long. THANK YOU mike, jeff, tim, michelle, wayne, gustavo, liz, and ron!

seventh--josh/jared are in lima, peru. taylor/abe are in puebla, mexico. and that leaves laura and me in costa. with matt. no, just kidding (i do love me some matt costa, though. what a guy).

and then we boarded a plane.

and then we got off a plane.

and then we were somehow in costa rica.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
(and it really is the happiest country in the world. i don't know how one would go about defining, measuring or determining maximum happiness, but costa ricans are it.)

solely for your enjoyment. 

and when i say "little"/"small"/"tiny" in this clip i mean it in an endearing way, not that this is really a little place, because it's totally not. we're feeling super great and spacious-esque over here! and this is a furnished apartment--which is bomb. what on EARTH would i have done without a blender? surely i'd be dead.

aftermath.

on thursday we taught our FIRST TALLER!!! 

(just for knowing--taller is how you say workshop. chances are that i'm probably never going to actually go that far out of my way to call it a WORK-SHOP. way too hard. so it's a taller. se pronuncia thai-yer.) we spent the week calling ex-misioneros (aka rms. when i first heard that term on my mission it sounded bad...like they'd fallen away from the church or something. ha ha. no. exmisionero=rm.) (enough perenthesis ya?) (cool) and inviting them because this taller was taught in ENGLISH. which was weird but good for us. we'd prepared and practiced everything all week long in spanny, but it was perfect to get a grasp on the beast in one fell swoop in our native tongue.

by the way, i've never once in my life called spanish spanny before. i hope that never happens again. ever.

so wow, anyway, above is laura drawing a pie chart with datos on employment searching. 

it reminds me of real pie.

(i truly ate this during training week. in the church headquarters cafeteria. um ya.)

drawing my terrid coat of arms. i'm no artist!

laura is a master teacher. she has taught me soooo much and we've only just begun! i am amazed and grateful to be here with someone who is sooo wise beyond her years. she's incredible. i know that if i humble myself, ask for her help, and constantly try to follow her awesome teaching tactics, she won't have to drag me so much, we'll have the spirit to be with us and we'll be suuuper successful. :)

we had piña three nights in a row for dessert. it's becoming a norm! ha ha!

____________________

on saturday we went with the adultos solteros (ysa) to do a "service project" of picking up litter at Playa La Herradura, Las Tunas.

(oh, and then spend the rest of the day chilling at the beach.)

 great service project everyone!

laura serving. doing away with what strongly resembles but hopefully is not a human femer. um?

just a couple cangrejitos! (baby crabs)

fossil much? i thought it was beautiful!

so after the "service", i sat my grateful self on the rocky-ness to bask, loving life. a chavo named ivan joined us, then another named johnny. after chatting we got in the water with some other clowns, and didn't get out for about three hours. needless to say our faces got sunburnt. but we had a PARTY swimming out way far (very carefully, parents!) and then playing in the waves. 

de verdad, como un pez en el agua!

i feel so at home in the water!

then there was water por abajo y por arriba. 

it started raining and i almost started crying i was so happy. swimming in the ocean in the rain?! 

that's happiness.

we left a little while after, but this picture is my euphoria.

gotta happen.

do you see those villas? imagínense!

this was what our drive there was like.

through the jungle and over the river (full of crocodiles)... to the beach we go... 

ivan, our friend from the beach ayer, invited us to his house to eat gallo pinto--a traditional costa riquence plate. basically beans and rice. ha ha. but so different! 

(and ps. that sorta looks like huge chunks of butter on our platos. jamás! it's yuca! 

ivan and his adorrrrrrrrable grandma. who asked me to take a picture of her. 

this was after she cooked for us. what! what service.

they live up in the mountains outside of san jose.

beauuuuuutiful. so fake!

eating empanadas and licuados. not even knowing what to say.

costa ricans always say this--"pura vida!" it literally means "pure life." it's a greeting here, and i LOVE it. it's basically a hakuna matata typa phrase. 

costa ricans are soooo chill and easygoing. i love them. and i love their outlook on life.

so to all of you, i say pura vida. 

lets live the pura vida! 

it's oh, so good.