"...But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing POWER belongs to God and not to us..."

I’m sorry that it has almost been a week since I have updated you! Surprisingly, I have been VERY busy! I can’t believe it; I have now been here for an entire week!

My first week of classes went really well! My conversational class is pretty fun. There are only four of us and we spend two hours each day critiquing our conversation skills. My grammar class is not so fun… I’ve never really liked grammar! Does anyone? Last week we somehow covered almost every tense that I spent three years studying! And we have our first test this Tuesday. Have I started studying? No. What will I be doing ALL day tomorrow? Yes – studying! ☺

I will update you on a few highlights from my first week.

Thursday night My Tico parents took me with them to go have cafecita with Willi’s parents. We arrived at their house and I was surprised to discover that it is a mansion! No exaggeration – it would be a mansion in the U.S. and the houses here are very tiny, so that is saying a lot! The grandparents are both in their eighties. The grandma is so cute and tiny! She really took a liking to me and kept touching me! She would kiss me, and then pull me in and kiss me again… and she kept touching my face and saying “!Que lindo!” Maybe she has never seen someone as pail and blond as me? Haha! The house was very elegant on the inside and they even had a maid who lives there to cook and clean for them! She served us tea/coffee and apple pie! It was delicious. As we were leaving, the grandma pulled my face close to hers and in English (with a heavy Spanish accent) said: “I love you!” Haha, what a cutie!! I quickly responded “Te quiero!”

Friday was an awesome day! After class I met up with Kier! How cool is God that Kier and I are both here in San José? What are the odds? Well, Kier met me at the Institute. I took her back to my house to meet my Madre and then we headed off to her house to spend the night. She introduced me to public transportation in San José – which will come in very handy! We finally made it to her house and spent the evening playing phase ten with some of the locals that were there for Friday game night. The locals that were there were pretty young and spoke much faster Spanish than I’m used to hearing! After several hours of listening to conversations and trying to converse I was mentally exhausted. The next day Kier and I walked around San José. She showed me la Universidad de Costa Rica, the inner city, an open-air market, and Pizza Hut! It was great hanging out with her and I was thankful for a familiar friend and a break from Spanish immersion! ☺

Saturday night I went to my first “singles” event! The institute puts on various events for the single students – gotta love Christian community! The event was a progressive dinner. It was so much fun! I truly enjoyed spending the evening with my new friends. I feel so blessed to be taking classes in a Christian environment! How true it is that Christ brings us unity. I have only known these men and women for a week, but already they have been such a blessing in my life! Everyone has such inspiring stories… everyone is here for a reason and purposefully living a surrendered life for Christ. What better company could one ask for?

Today was father’s day, which makes this the first father’s day that I haven’t been with my dad! How very sad that is. It is one of those reminders that my life is changing. I missed being able to celebrate with my dad and family. On the bright side, I did get to go to church and celebrate father’s day with my host family. The church service was 2 and half hours long! I loved going to a service in Spanish. I was able to understand the general idea of what was being said as long as I actively listened, but it was very exhausting!

This afternoon we went back to the wealthy grandparents house to celebrate father’s day with the entire family! I’m so blessed to live with such a welcoming and loving Tico family! My tico mom calls me her daughter and even introduces me to everyone as her daughter! She tries very hard to make sure that I’m included and that I know what is going on. Sometimes if someone is talking to me really fast, she will summarize what they said to me in slower Spanish that she knows I can understand! There were probably 30 relatives at the celebration and everyone seemed very rich and spoke fast Spanish! One of the Costa Rican brothers was married to an American woman from Boston. Now they both live in Massachusetts but were here visiting their family. I felt bad for the wife because she didn’t speak any Spanish! My tico mom quickly realized this and pulled both of us to a couch and told us to “practice our English together!” haha! It was very refreshing to talk to another American. If she can be a member of an all-Spanish speaking family, knowing no Spanish, - then surely I can handle living here for six months knowing some Spanish!

Today has been a very long and exhausting day of nothing but Spanish, Spanish, and SPANISH! Now that I have updated you on some of the things I’ve been up to, I have to be honest with you and tell you some of the things that I am feeling now that I have had a week of this under my belt. This is probably the hardest thing I have ever done and the enormity of this journey that I have just begun is finally starting to hit me. As much as I absolutely love this – the people, the culture, and the entire experience, I’m also very overwhelmed and daily discouraged. I will forever be able to sympathize with any foreigner. Where as I used to simply think that those Mexican’s that we encounter in the U.S. almost daily, who struggle to communicate, were ignorant or maybe even a little stupid - I now know that they are normal, intelligent people just like you and me. They are struggling, feeling like they don’t belong, and every encounter with English and American culture only leaves them feeling helpless and beset.

I think that Satan is attacking my thoughts and thus trying to steal my joy and peace as well as discourage me. About halfway through the week, when the honeymoon stage of this adventure was starting to dwindle, I started asking myself, why am I here? Honestly! What am I really doing with Spanish…What am I doing with my life?! The frustrating part is that I don’t have an answer to those questions. I don’t know how I’m going to use Spanish. This has been a long journey involving much prayer, and simply walking in faith. God hasn’t shown me how I’m going to use Spanish someday (or even IF I will use Spanish), but He seems to have been leading me to continue. Every time I wanted to quit, I couldn’t. There was always something that kept me going – a scholarship, a lack of peace from quitting, encouragement to continue from a professor etc. As a type-A/perfectionist type of person, I struggle with not always having a “plan”. God obviously knows this and uses this to keep me close to Him through not letting me know His plans for the future five years in advance like I want! I don’t love Spanish enough to just learn it for the sake of learning it or to sacrifice six months of my life (which is also adding six months to my expected graduation date) for struggling through an immersion process like this. But I have to trust that for some reason, God knows that His future plans for my life require Spanish. When I hear the natives conversing and I have no idea what they are saying, I easily feel defeated thinking that there is no way that I will ever be fluent – there is far too much that I still have yet to learn! I wrestled these things out with God tonight and received some peace through His word. I am praying that He will use this experience to bring my relationship with Him to a new layer of depth. I’m trusting that I’m walking in His will and that He will use this experience for His glory.

As 2 Corinthians 10:5 says:
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

And what does this mean? That we must take every thought captive. Every thought that contradicts who God is and His promises that He has given to us through His word must be made obedient unto Him. The best way to do that is through scripture. So I’m using scripture to counter my thoughts and discouragement.

My friends, please be encouraged and know that we have so much power through Christ and through His word. I only share all of this with you because I hope that somehow my experience can encourage someone else. I’m finding that there is so much power in the word of God:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing POWER belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you." 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

Buenas noches amigos!