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My parents arrived without delays on August 20th, in spite of Tropical Storm Fays attempts to impede their departure from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  We spent the one week they were here visiting Arenal volcano, the Pacific Ocean, and two Waterfall Gardens.  My Dad was even adventurous enough to ride the zip line! 

We had a great time and enjoyed being able to travel with them to show them the sights of Costa Rica and to introduce them to our national friends.  They attended our first ever combined Bible study (our two Sunday groups combined) and they were all so overjoyed to meet my parents.  Doña Violeta even made them some of her famous arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and another family gave them a delicious pineapple.

We shared some good memories and some good laughs like the time we were at a restaurant and my Dad ordered a tenderloin steak.  The steak was really tough and all he had to cut it with was a butter knife.  We alerted the waiter about the toughness and he just brought Dad a steak knife.  When asked about different options of meat, he indicated that the other cuts of meat were the same, “they are all from the same cow”!  Maybe someone should alert the USDA and let them know they can charge the same price for cube steak and filet mignon, because after all, it’s all from the same cow!!

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Two trimesters of language school down and one more to go.  As we’ve said goodbye to another semester, we’ve also said goodbye to more of our classmates.  One (not pictured) is moving to a Spanish speaking country in Africa, one to Chile and the others are returning to Mexico about 24 hours by car from where we will be living.  That just leaves three of the original members of our class. 

The results of our oral proficiency exams ranked us at Advanced Low, praise the Lord!  Thanks for all of your prayers.  We definitely would not have made it to where we are today without them!