San Jose Temple Trip, by Kevin
Saturday, December 14
On Saturday I drove four hours to the San Jose Temple with Pres. Duran and Dianaise -- it was the youth temple trip. I stayed at the house Friday night to maximize sleeping time. To save on energy costs, Pres has his water heater disconnected which made for a quick wake-up.
The night before we had a young men's activity. It was my first time playing soccer down here. I was stronger but I can't compete with the style that the Ticos play with. It was really fun, in spite of my bright red face from over-exertion/humidity.
The drive was great. I loaded up on junk food and some fruit the night before for the trip. Pres and I made ourselves sick. Stopping at McDonald's on the way in to grab cheeseburgers for the youth didn't help.
The young women were on their final day of young women's camp and we met them at the temple to do baptisms. The temple is right off of a normal road and offers a stark contrast to the city around it. Interesting to so quickly from normal life to a serene, peaceful setting.
The temple was a neat experience. I was able to be the one to baptize all of the youth during the ordinance. The prayer was in Spanish, of course, and I got to try my hand at slaughtering Spanish names and forgetting the last names of the youth doing the baptisms... "What's your last name, again?" Bleh. So embarrassing. Oh well, little-by-little I'm learning.
After the temple, Pres and Dianaise went with me to PriceSmart (Costco's international brand). It was like walking into Costco in the states. It was great to stock up on a bunch of stuff and get Christmas presents for the kids. It made me a bit homesick, though. The food was still pricey but significantly less expensive than in Guanacaste and reminded me of the conveniences/comforts of being in the U.S.
We didn't get Pres and Dianaise home until around 1am and I forgot to put a carpet into the car that had been protecting the roof from one of the Christmas presents (that we are storing at their home). Some nice family that lives somewhere between Pres/Dianaise's home and ours inherited a nice, new rug from Costco, *sigh*.
I got home around 1:30am and unpacked the car until 2. It was worth it, though. Jodi said it felt like Christmas when she woke up.
Although, I wondered if I'd made a big mistake. A few days earlier Autumn had shown me a small jar of Jet-Puffed Marshmallows that Jodi had bought to make fudge. She was so excited about this little jar and the next thing I do is come home with an entire car packed full of "excess" (although, I guess stocking up on food isn't really excess but we don't really need the American brand foods so it kind of is). There's still plenty of time to ease into this new culture. I can't believe we've only been here 5 weeks -- it feels like so much has happened since we've been here.
On Saturday I drove four hours to the San Jose Temple with Pres. Duran and Dianaise -- it was the youth temple trip. I stayed at the house Friday night to maximize sleeping time. To save on energy costs, Pres has his water heater disconnected which made for a quick wake-up.
The night before we had a young men's activity. It was my first time playing soccer down here. I was stronger but I can't compete with the style that the Ticos play with. It was really fun, in spite of my bright red face from over-exertion/humidity.
The drive was great. I loaded up on junk food and some fruit the night before for the trip. Pres and I made ourselves sick. Stopping at McDonald's on the way in to grab cheeseburgers for the youth didn't help.
The young women were on their final day of young women's camp and we met them at the temple to do baptisms. The temple is right off of a normal road and offers a stark contrast to the city around it. Interesting to so quickly from normal life to a serene, peaceful setting.
The temple was a neat experience. I was able to be the one to baptize all of the youth during the ordinance. The prayer was in Spanish, of course, and I got to try my hand at slaughtering Spanish names and forgetting the last names of the youth doing the baptisms... "What's your last name, again?" Bleh. So embarrassing. Oh well, little-by-little I'm learning.
After the temple, Pres and Dianaise went with me to PriceSmart (Costco's international brand). It was like walking into Costco in the states. It was great to stock up on a bunch of stuff and get Christmas presents for the kids. It made me a bit homesick, though. The food was still pricey but significantly less expensive than in Guanacaste and reminded me of the conveniences/comforts of being in the U.S.
We didn't get Pres and Dianaise home until around 1am and I forgot to put a carpet into the car that had been protecting the roof from one of the Christmas presents (that we are storing at their home). Some nice family that lives somewhere between Pres/Dianaise's home and ours inherited a nice, new rug from Costco, *sigh*.
I got home around 1:30am and unpacked the car until 2. It was worth it, though. Jodi said it felt like Christmas when she woke up.
Although, I wondered if I'd made a big mistake. A few days earlier Autumn had shown me a small jar of Jet-Puffed Marshmallows that Jodi had bought to make fudge. She was so excited about this little jar and the next thing I do is come home with an entire car packed full of "excess" (although, I guess stocking up on food isn't really excess but we don't really need the American brand foods so it kind of is). There's still plenty of time to ease into this new culture. I can't believe we've only been here 5 weeks -- it feels like so much has happened since we've been here.
San Jose Temple Trip with the Youth from our Branch
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