Time for an update, but with many fotos!

Since I haven't posted a blog in a few days I'm going to update you all with pics from this week and give details as I put pictures 😄 

Martes! Means an all day CDI day! Here's us will the kids that were there during this session, a little girl named Aisha was sitting in my lap. She's super sweet and always has such a big smile on her face. On Mondays and Tuesdays for the CDI each kid comes once (sometimes twice) so we did the same lessons as we had done on Monday. We played a lot of ninja, uno, and vete a pescar (Go fish). Very good day! It's been cool the last few times at the CDI especially thinking about last summer when I was here when I felt like I couldn't do much besides clean and play. Both are 2 very important roles, however now it's been fun to be able to do more than I could before like helping with homework and being able to explain things and also help leading some of the things that we do with the kids like lessons, English, and games this time with a bit less help than before. That feels really exciting to me, yay for learning and growth! 

The gals! I love that Sheryl takes a lot of pictures, sometimes I forget what pictures she's taken lol like this one. 

Look at this awesome tower Aisha made herself and that Matthew stuffed blocks inside of! 😆

For the past few weeks, even before we got here, the Ohio team had been doing a bible study every Tuesday night to invite anyone that wants to learn about the Lord on a deeper level together. We are keeping them going for the remaining weeks that we are here. With that being said, this was our first week hosting it! Some of the kids didn't get picked up until about an hour after the CDI was supposed to be over, so we sent Sheryl, Matthew, and Livie to the house early to clean up/set up the house and bake some brownies. While Sam, Ana, and I waited until the kids got picked up. Then us three got in an Uber and went home, however we didn't get home until almost an hour and a half later, about the time that the bible study was supposed to start. The whole ride home, Ana and I played some imessage games and a few other ones while we were in the car. 

Thankfully none of the students had arrived yet once we got home, so then we all just chilled and waited for others to arrive. There were lots of snacks and things to eat so we all just started eating whatever was there. Ahh snacking, oh how much I love snacking lol. Anyways, everyone started showing up! Those that joined us we Soho, Diego (tattoo diego, iykyk), Diego (hiking diego or "high king" diego also iykyk 😂), and Jordie. It was very exciting to see for guys show up and unusual to not see any girls. We started the evening with some worship and prayer in between songs. The worship songs this time were in Spanish and they were Aleluya by Maverick City and another one by Evan Craft but I don't remember the song name. We decided to go through the book of Ephesians so we read through the first chapter a few verses at a time together. Some of us read in English and some of us read in Spanish, which was very fun to try and follow. We're doing the bible studies like a DBS so Matthew asked the first question which was what sticks out to you from this passage. There were so many good answers given and so much good discussion. Then more questions were brought up like how do we each imagine heaven, why do we continue to pursue Jesus, and a few other really good ones. It was all really good and even got me thinking about my own personal relationship with the Lord (which has been a frequent thought of mine for the past year). The night went on and many more questions were asked and more good conversation occurred. I was super exhausted as I imagine others were too, so I ended up being very out of it towards the end. The night didn't go as planned, but went how it was supposed to go, praise God! 

It was fun to experience a version of homegroup in mostly Spanish. I think it would be really cool if a bilingual or fully Spanish homegroup were created in Fellowship to serve the Latino community in College Station. 

Next Wednesday, which is H@ngout day! In the morning a few of us met Ana and Carlos at Walmart to help shop and take things back to the house to then cook the food for lunch that day. Eventually Livie joined us at our house to help and then once everything was done we loaded up in Ubers and headed to campus. Even though, Sam, Livie and I left earlier than the others we still arrived later. Definitely not sure how lol. 

H@ngout was a lot smaller this time now that the Ohio team has left. We did the usual, eat food, chat, and play games. Sam shared a little bit about why we are here and shared the gospel a little bit then we continued on. It was an interesting time because the parrots or some other type of bird were going crazy and kept pooping on all of us. Which was annoying, but made for a funny story later! I sat and talked to Monse most of the beginning and I had told her that if she would rather she could speak to me in Spanish so then I am forced to practice and respond back in Spanish. So that was fun and to be actively corrected as I talked. I'm slowly getting over my fear of being wrong when I speak. 

Small side note, I tend to talk about my Spanish progress a lot especially since this last year I have put more time into learning the language outside of school so it's fun for me to write down or think about how far I've come since the beginning. As I look back on these, I feel I will gain more encouragement as I go on especially during times where I don't feel like I know anything. 

When everyone was done eating a few of us decided to play some games. I joined in on a game called "Unstable Unicorns" which I had never played before. It was quite interesting and took about 2.5 hours, but a good time nonetheless. 

Here we are playing "Unstable Unicorns"!

When the game had finally finished the whole group rejoined together and we played Werewolf! I'm naturally bad at being a character that is innocent or guilty sooooo these kinds of games never go well for me. I had predicted that I would be voted out first or second and indeed I was correct, I was voted out first 😂 oh well. Oh oh also this was my first time playing this game in Spanish! So again, super fun to do haha. 

After one round of Werewolf, I joined Livie that was sitting on the side then we went to get some food. We both decided on going to Mcdonalds and then bringing it back. On the way she asked me about my times here in Costa Rica and asked about my plans with school, what I want to do, etc. I asked about her life and the weeks she's been here in Costa Rica. It was really fun conversation! Before we had left, Sam had asked me to bring him back something so once we got back I gave it to him. What's funny though is that they were playing the Werewolf game still and apparently Sam had chosen to be an owner of Mcdonalds so it all worked out great and wasn't even planned LOL. Eventually people had to start heading out so then we all went our separate ways and we came back to our house. I was pretty tired, not just physically so I decided to chill in my room for majority of the evening and go to sleep early since the next day Sam and I were going to the CDI while Matthew and Sheryl were going to campus. 

Here we are at Thursday now, a full CDI day but this time just Sam, Doña Maria, Georgen, y yo. Which I was a bit nervous for especially because we need to walk the kids to school with at least 2 people with the kids, however now there is 3 schools that kids go to which makes things more complicated. Other than than I wasn´t that worried about it. Sam and I left pretty early to set things up and wait for kids to get there. The first session of kids went very well and they were pretty attentive during the devotional. They got excited about memorizing the verse, which is Romans 12:10. We ended up not doing the English lesson to play more instead and focus on other things. Towards the end of the first session Georgen and Doña Maria taught us "La anatomia de un tico". This included a few different words to call different parts of your body. Shown in the picture below. 

We also learned the words "carajillo" and "chamaco" that both are used for the word "niño". 😆

Sam and I either before or after the anatomy lesson walked Julianna to school. During the walk we realized we were all matching shirts so we had to get a picture! 

Look how cute she is! 😊 During our walk we were also her "alas" (wings), so we lifted her up a few times over larger steps and stuff 😁. 

Second session of the day went the same except there were more kids, but this time we had more hands praise God. Esther and Ana had joined us! This time there was a bit of fighting between 2 of the boys, I felt bad for Sam because he was the one taking care of it. I didn´t really know how to be helpful since language is definitely a useful tool to talk to them about their actions, so I didn´t know how to do that. It eventually settled and everything went back to normal. Since Sam and I did the CDI we decided in the morning that after the day ends we would go to Mcdonalds to get Mcflurrys as "rewards" or rather just because we want to. Once all the kids got picked up, everything was cleaned, and everything locked up. We headed to Mcdonalds before heading to our bus. 

Dub right there 😎 (probs was very American of us, oh well no shame here 😂)

We caught our bus and headed home! Near the end I started talking to Sam about a few things that have been on my mind a lot this week so it was nice to process a bit and get some input. A lot of our walk home was me explaining how I was feeling about the trip and how I have felt spiritually recently. I feel I have a lot to think about now and that is really good, I am not very good at processing things well though because I get distracted or just cannot come to a conclusion. Pray for me to get good times with the Lord for me to process well. 

Later that evening we all decided to get dinner at Oxígeno which is the mall very close to us so that we could have more options on where we wanted to eat. Twas a good time together, even when Matthew was keeping a queen ant with us at our table for most of the time lol he eventually put her where she should go. When we were leaving we walked behind the lady and I noticed that she immediately stepped on a different queen ant right in front of us. I got offended on Matthew's behalf, so I think I'm slowly growing to have a little more care and appreciation for bugs. Not roaches though, never roaches. So, thank you Matthew for making me care for bugs a little more. 

Alright now were closer to today lol. 

Ahora viernes ✌ 

We woke up to do worship and prayer as a team. It was nice, I felt out of it though again, so I didn't feel completely engaged. After worship we headed to Café Momo to meet up with Matthew's aunt who is here on a business trip. I also invited Esther to come along since her and I were hanging out afterwards anyways. 

Breakfast finished and we all walked to Esther's apartment so that Matthew could change since he was going to La Sabana to use his longboard. Sam dipped and headed back home because he was zooming with the other team that is supposed to be coming to know what they will be doing here. Sheryl, Esther and I stayed at her apartment and watched a movie and just chilled for a while. At about 3ish we left to join Ana and Livie at this gelato place that Ana recommeded called "Corazón contento¨. Apparently it's experimental gelato meaning this lady is testing out different types of gelato flavoring and mixes and stuff. Each month there is different flavors that are put out. It was so so so so good! 

It was fun to have a girls day and just hangout. 

Are we surprised that I just got chocolate with chocolate and more chocolate? Probably not lol, it was fantastic! Can't go wrong with chocolate 😆

Finished our gelato and then headed back to Esther's apartment to just chill until it was time for church! We ate some popcorn and played the game Sequence. Headed to church not too long after and enjoyed some worship led by Matthew and then a sermon by Gomez. 

I believe Lagos asked Sam to give the teaching next week at church, so definitely be praying for him with that. 

For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant called Wong's and got to spend some good time together. 

Here's just a fun picture from dinner, we were each trying to pull a napkin out with chopsticks. Don't ask me why because no tengo ni idea. 

Yeah idk why but it was fun, even the waiter was laughing lol

I would say it was a good week! 

Today, some of the H@ngout students wanted to go to Monte de la Cruz, which is a place you can hike at and it has a park. I decided to stay home today to rest while everyone else went. So, here I am now catching up on the week and blogging. 😃

Prayer Requests:

• Good quality rest and time with the Lord
• Sam's teaching next week
• This second half our time here to be filled with the Lord's leading and his spirit
• For us to make the most of our time here (can't believe how fast it's going!)
• For the kids and the students to feel so much love from the Lord in their lives and for them to know him