Don't cry over spilled milk.

Look, a river! (the rivers are all brown because it's rainy season)

Hello, gulf! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golfo_Dulce,_Costa_Rica

A member in Puerto Jimenez works with a little airplane company to ship people down from San Jose.

Beach!

It looked like Northwest beach to me! It made me feel cold haha but the water definitely isn't cold there.And yeah mom if we come to Costa Rica, we're hittin' up the Zona Sur beaches. Way better than the standard gringo Guanacaste route. No gracias!

A little mud bumblebee home that was on the ground!

A really, really big plant haha. it's like 15-20 feet tall

 

 Hello, porcupine!

Hello, Paso Ancho! Long time, no see!

My adopted nephew here haha

Christian & Javier!

Zone meeting came included with lunch this week! Chicken & fresh tortillas :)

A picture in las fincas (the farms).

Other shot of the fincas (the first one was that line of houses you see in the back).

A bunny sleeping with a dog. whaat!

We were in the jungle here in Rio Bonito!

Jungle shack! Outside of that window, it's a cliff haha.

Sunset.

A paper mache minion!

A pretty normal looking house here in Zona Sur. La Abuela, she always gives us lunch every Thursday :)  (what a blessing these generous people are, to make sure my son is nourished!)

Just gettin to know our area here...

"Can you fish in that river?"

So the river flooded a few weeks back, and all the rocks you see there weren't there before. It was river before! Crazy stuff.

If you look good there, you'll be able to see that the bridge's support is basically gone too, from the flood. (sketch!)

Just getting to know another part of my area! (FYI: All these parts are part of the Ciudad Neily itself, not other places. It's just jungle everywhere!)

Jungle selfie!

Javier drinking some stream water (don't worry Mom I didn't drink it)

He grabbed a moth!

The home where we have the group meeting in the fincas(farms)

So, this week was interesting. My first normal week here in Zona Sur!

     It was pretty good. I had a few experiences which I felt that I could really learn a lesson from.

The first one was actually the last one, but it's the one that impacted me most. Yesterday in the morning, we made pancakes (uush, Sunday morning pancakes). So, to go along with the pancakes, I wanted to make chocolate milk. So I put the water and the evaporated milk in and blended it, and put the milk in, and it was SOO delicious. So put more in, so that there would be enough for everyone. But as I put that all in, I turned the blender around to see the measurements written on there, and the blender unscrewed from the bottom. So when I realize, there's chocolate milk all over the counter. So I think "Oh dear, I gotta get this thing to the sink!" Thinking the rubber sealer had broken. So I lift up the blender and BOOM! All the chocolate milk comes rushing out of the blender, as if a high pressure tube had broken.

I was so disappointed. First off, I got chocolate milk all over my khaki pants and alllll over the kitchen, which was frustrating. But after getting changed and cleaning up, I was just disappointed! I was making this great delicious chocolate milk, and I had already tasted it and it was delicious, and I lost it all! Ugh! and there was no more chocolate, so I couldn't make more.

     It would've been ironic if, in that moment, the phrase "Don't cry over spilled milk" had come to mind.

     Sometimes in life we work so hard to make or do something so great, and it just doesn't work out. Is a blender full of chocolate milk important to my salvation? no. But I took great pride in that delicious chocolate milk! It was something that I was really happy about. That can happen about a lot of things. Maybe we lose in our high school football game, or maybe our homemade fruit canning project goes wrong, or whatever it may be, things just go wrong sometimes. I realized that you just gotta keep going on, and stick a smile on your face. It's ok. It was never in the plan that everything went perfectly in this world.

     So that was a good take-away for me.

So yeah, just a few experiences like that.

     Apart from that, I got to know some more parts of my area today. Pure jungle; super awesome. I was checking out the map and I realized just how small our area is. Like, it's huge, but there's basically not people hahaha.

     So that's the week this week! I hope you all have a good one :) Stay happy and don't cry over spilled milk!

-Elder Henry
     PS Mike & Shavonne oh man! Your new HOUSE! it looks suuper nice.
Things are going well with Elder Morales! And Javier is great!!!
    As for things for Christmas, I don't really need anything... so yeah :/ I know I've always been lame to buy presents for. Just remember, if it's eatable, I'll love it. hahaha (he can purchase things in Panama inexpensively so we're planning to have him do that for himself and the children in his area if you'd like to contribute).