Turrialba, Elections, and eventful trips to San José!!!

We have only a few weeks left of GAP 2014! I absolutely cannot believe it. I’ve waited for this year for so long, I cannot believe it’s actually almost done. I have been so blessed with many once in a lifetime opportunities through this year. One of them being I’ve been blessed to be a (Very) small part of Primera Batista Iglesia de Turrialba! I love that church and community so much, I cannot imagine life without knowing them at this point! They are so sweet and growing and anointed, I cannot wait to see what other amazing things happen through them in that community. This last weekend I was allowed to go on my last trip there, it was sad, but oh so joyful. I got to visit friends I made back in January. Maryellen and I stayed with Lynn and Manfred in their apartment. We had such a good time visiting with and getting to know them. They educated us on the election that just took place on Sunday, the day we left. Now Maryellen and I really want Luis Guillermo t-shirts, so if any Ticos reading this would like to donate a couple, or even if you want to sell a couple, let me know! Anyway, that was a lot of fun. Also, Sunday morning at church I learned SIX completely new songs in Spanish and sang them with Joy and Ruben. That was helpful to my Spanish, but really made my brain hurt! That night, back in San Jose, after GGP (Our Sunday night English church) the ENTIRE country had a huge party, and being in the capital I think we got to see the best of it. I was going to go downtown with some Tico friends and join the party, but that fell through. Which was okay because on the way home from church we walked home waving Luis Guillermo flags and yelling “Pura Vida!” “Costa Rica” and other Costa Rican slang. That kind of made up for not going out, and I still got to bed at a decent time, win-win. Monday was a good relaxing day that ended with a four hour very eventful trip to San José. A group of us went downtown to film a video for graduation, however as soon as we stepped off the bus it started raining. We squeezed in a few shots before it started pouring. Some people left but some of us stayed and got dinner in San José. We found our other group of GAP students and took some more shots for the video because it had stopped raining. When we got done with that, Danita, Hope, Zack and I stayed in downtown a little longer and stumbled upon a reggae concert. THAT was interesting. I am fairly positive that I got a second hand high from that, not sure how I feel about that, but in the city not much you can do about it. How many people can say they’ve lived in Costa Rica and been to a legit reggae concert where everyone around you is high as kites? Let’s be real here, it will not be a night I easily forget. So that was my weekend, I only have about three more here to spend with my GAP family. Keep praying for us so that we might finish strong with our studies, with our devotions, and with each other. I can already see some people getting that end of the semester itch, living with people for nine months starts to wear on you after a bit. Pray that we remember that we have a short time here to be with each other and that we enjoy every moment of it. As far as an update on plans for summer and next year, I am getting some answers, but waiting on some more before I can really talk about them. If you’re in serious suspense pray harder! ;)

Love & Rockets,
Allysa