During a 3 day weekend in March we went to see an active volcano here in Costa Rica (Arenal) it was spectacular to see the power God had created in that volcano. We stayed directly across from the volcano on another mountain. We had a great view the first day but the clouds set in after that so we didn't get to see the lava flowing at night. We did however get to see the lava rocks flying out during the daytime. That was awesome. While we were there Kandi and Matt had the chance to zip line through the rain forest. Now that was a thrill and what a view of the rain forest. Matt had to get a different view so he went upside down for awhile. Now that was crazy.

Here are some of the animals that we have saw the last month or so. Yes that is Kaitlyn petting her first wild iguana. We were able to feed them cauliflower as they came into this souvenir store from the river.

The other day we went to a very interesting park as a family. There were several very large bushes that had been sculpted to different things. This particular bush we are standing in front of was two sumo wrestlers. Now these are interesting works of art. The people in charge of this park are a lot more talented than I am. The girls loved playing in the house and school bus.

This is a picture of Matt at Otero's (the pizza restaurant we go to on Thursdays) cooking pizza. Claudio (the owner) learned that Matt likes to cook and invent new recipes. He asked him to help create new recipes that scream Gringo (North American). Matt created a cheeseburger, BBQ Chicken, Alfredo, Pineapple pie, and cinnamon sugar. He modified several recipes he found on line and also had a little help from a friend back at home (Max). Thanks again Max. The pizzas turned out great and Claudio and Matt are shopping for the new ingredients this week so Claudio can decide on his new pizzas. This was a great chance for Matt to develop a relationship a little deep in order to spread the truth of the Gospel to more people. Please be praying that Claudio Otero will be open to the Gospel and that God will create a prefect opportunity for Matt to share it with him.

This is a picture of Matt's teacher (Ale) that just came to know and trust Christ in a personal way about one month ago. She is now beginning to share her new faith and hope in Christ with her family and friends. Please be praying for her as she does this. Often while Catholics in Costa Rica share their new faith and begin to leave the traditional church there is persecution. She has a lot of love for the Lord and will be a good witness. Next week she has invited her mother to come to the school so she can share her new faith and testimony with her in front of her students. Wow that is brave. Please be praying for her.

This is a picture of Matt with the guys from Church on their hike in the mountains. The view is of San Jose. It captures the majority of the city. There is about 2 million people living in this city surrounded by the mountains.

The girls are enjoying some time outside with no rain and waiting for their friends to come home. It sure is good to see them playing nice together some times.

Since December we have not had any rain here. This may not sound like that big of a deal but you need to realize in Costa Rica during the rainy season we get around 2 feet of rain per month. This is a huge contrast to the dry season when for 3-4 months we will not get any rain at all. Since dry season began our yard has began to get cracks. They have grown deeper daily. The other day the girls were playing in the backyard and dropped a 20 colone coin (about 4 cents) in on of the cracks. IT dropped about 6-8 inches down and the girls were determined to get it back. Mckenzie was carrying small cups of water from the bathroom to dump on the crack and Kaitlyn was digging her heart out with a plastic sand shovel. They have not gotten it yet but each day they work a little bit more on it.

Recently we went with he school to a park about an hour away. It was a beautiful setting. Kandi and I had a chance to wear traditional Costa Rican attire. Kaitlyn and I rode a horse together. The girls swam in a freezing cold swimming pool and we all got to enjoy the company of many school friends.

The first part of Feburary several of us held a back yard bible study for a neighborhood that a house had been started in. The study we held was for all ages and the goal was to attract more people to the house church. Several adults came but not as many kids. Kandi and I were in charge of the preschoolers we had Mckenzie and one other little boy but we still had fun.

Here is a picture of the setup.

Here is a picture of Kandi and I behind the curtian singing with puppets.

Here is our group making fruit loop necklaces.

Matt is helping make playdough animals.

Here is a picture of the final wrap up with several of the participants singing.

The girls love the fact that they now have 4 new missionary friends on our street. This is a pic of the girls talking to Caroline through our front fence. Caroline and here family were leaving for the store but the girls had to talk for a minute while her parents were finishing getting ready.

After a full day of Spanish at school Mckenzie is very tired. A lot of times she crashes before she even eats lunch. She sure is cute when she is sleeping (she can't be sassy).

After a full day of spansh in school Kaitlyn is ready to have an english class (even if it is only her teddy bears).

Kaitlyn goes to gymnastics Monday and Wednesday after school and she loves it. She has learned how to do many things to worry Mom and Dad at home since our house has all concrete floors.

These are a couple of pictures of our school campus. Carlos does a great job with he landscaping. The girls school is on the same campus and is only a couple hundred yards away from us. We have a teraza (a covered picnic area) for our breaks. Also on break there is a store called Cosas-R-Us which is a small snack shop. We really like the campus and it is very convenient. It is only about a 10-15 minute walk from our home.

We went to Los Palmas right before Christmas on our short Christmas break with about 18 other people for a time of relaxation. It was about 4-5 hours away. It is on a beautiful beach. (Caribbean side) It was so beautiful!! We were able to snorkel the whole time about 2 feet away from the shore. We saw many vibrant fish, sting rays, flounders, and many more neat things. The girls had a blast flying their kite with Daddy.

We walked around our hotel and saw many great animals!! These animals were out in the wild!! The middle picture is a picture of sloths. These boys were standing in the middle of the road as we were driving holding the sloth with her baby. The bus driver stopped and the boys brought the sloths onto the bus. They are the strangest animal. They move so slow that it takes them a year to get from tree to tree. The monkeys were so neat just watching them with their babies. Yes, that is an iguana, right outside our hotel in a tree. At that time, we saw 4 different iguanas sitting around.

Christmas morning! The girls were enjoying themselves! We had a very nice Christmas. It was very hard being away from family and friends, but God gave us great peace. We were able to get together all day on Christmas Day with other missionaries. We played games and watched movies and of course, we ate a lot!!!

Here is a pic of most of the cards we got for Christmas. Thank You all for remembering us this Christmas Season.

We had our missionary friends over to help celebrate Kaitlyn's Birthday. She had a great time and enjoyed all her gifts.

These are pictures of our local produce market. The market is every Saturday in the morning and this is where we always go to get our fruits and vegtables for the week. Once we get the produce it all has to be cleaned in a bleach solution prior to eating. These pictures were taken later in the morning when it had slowed down a lot, normally there is a lot more people.

The girls were in a Christmas program at school this week. They both learned a few Christmas songs in Spanish and presented those to us. It was great to hear them speaking the language. They normally don't like us to hear them speak Spanish. Kaitlyn was an angel in the nativity and it was very cute. We are very proud of both of the girls and all they have accomplished in the last month.



Here is also a picture of Kandi and the Girls decorating the Christmas tree at our house. It was a very fun time. We made our ornaments this year and had a good time as a family doing it. I wish we would have done this sooner.

We have also been on a couple of ministry projects the first was to a drug rehab center pictured here. This center is a Christian facility that teaches the love and truth of Jesus to the men and they actually live at the center and work during the day making blackboards and desks for schools. The men were very nice and a joy to be with. As a team we went in to teach work safety, interpersonal relationship skills, and cooking. Kandi and I presented how to cook banana bread. It was great, I felt like I was on the food network except I was talking in Spanish (well reading in Spanish).



We also spent two days going door to door distributing the Gospel of John to several hundred people with a team of Ticos(Costa Ricans). We also invited the people to come back to watch the Jesus video and during this presentation there was 2 people that wanted to make a decision for Christ. The local pastor will be working with them to make sure they understand what that means and discipling them but it was very exciting to see the Holy Spirit at work.
Kandi and I have been making relationships with several nationals and hope to be able to witness to them soon. My relationship with Carlos the store owner down the street from us is growing very fast and I think God is preparing a witnessing opportunity. Pray that I will see the chance when it comes and that I will have the words that I need for him to understand the truth.

For the last month or so we have been very busy. We have been going to class each day for about 4 hours. Our class is in Spanish only, so since day one we have had to listen to our teacher talk only in a language we don't know. It has been interesting learning this way but it has worked very well and Kandi and I both have learned way more than we would have thought. We are in class each day with 8 other peers that we know very well and have come to be very good friends with.

On some of the days we spend time in the city getting to know the Latin America culture. We have toured the Basilica here in Costa Rica. It was sad to watch people praying to Mary instead of Jesus Christ. We can't wait until the day we know enough Spanish to explain the truth to these hurting people. We also went to an interesting play on women's rights put on by a Baptist church in the area. The play was in Spanish of course but it was also in the dark and the actors had paint on that lit up under a black light. It was very interesting and very good from what we could understand. We have also gone to a parade to celebrate the oxen and ox carts here in Costa Rica. This is a very big part of the culture and they went all out for this parade it was very interesting.

Today we reached the end of our barefoot classes. As a treat our teacher took our class on a little road trip to the mountains. The view was beautiful as we went. We saw many gorgeous flowers and spectacular waterfalls. It is so awesome to see God's creation in another country. We decided God did not spare anything here in Costa Rica when he was creating it.