Hola! I hope you are all doing well! We have just finished out 5^th week. This week was calm and slow, we've stayed in San Juan all week and studied. We changed teachers this week and that has made us work harder. My new teacher has taught me a lot and at a much more rapid pace. They are prepping us for an evaluation exam on Tuesday. He's very nice though and is encouraging when I get things correct. He tells me lots of jokes and makes me laugh a lot too. It took us all week just to learn David's teacher's name. And yet, yesterday in our prayer time- he got his name wrong and in actuality prayed for God to reveal Himself to ice cream. For those of you who know David- you understand why this is especially funny. I had a hard time not laughing through the rest of the prayer time.
We also got to experience Dia de Madre here (Mother's Day) which is an enormous event here- Sunday started with a marching band and bombas at 4 in the morning. I'm not sure why they insist on celebrating so early- but it is getting much easier to tune it all out! The rainy season has started in earnest here- raining very hard for about 30 minutes per midday and off and on the rest of the afternoon and night. Our street literally turns into a river and our mother likes to stand on the balcony overlooking the street and watch it. She talks to us everyday about the weather and her prediction for when the rain will come. She has it down to a science that Aunt Beth would appreciate, and usually gets the clothes off the line seconds before the rain starts. She is very pleased with her talent and is often smug after her success!
David gave me a haircut this week- I explained the process and the shut my eyes and prayed. He did a very good job:) He's also pleased that I don't have to pay someone to cut my hair. Go figure.
We are looking forward to going back to the mission with the Baptist church we've gone to. Last week was fun- but it was a very organized program for mother's day and we really couldn't do much. We are hoping to be able to help more this week.
Please pray for us- for our team to have unity and love for one another.
Pray that we will continue to learn and be encouraged in speaking spanish.

Pray that we will have opportunities to share with people, especially our family and teachers.

We love you and miss you! Please send us updates on how you are doing!   

Our third week has come and gone now and with it many new adventures. Early last week we confined ourselves to studying hard and staying in San Juan in the afternoon. David and I got up early one morning to wash our clothes and get them on the line by 7:15- since the rainy season has somewhat begun, there is a 50% chance of rain every afternoon and its important to get the clothes dry as early as possible:) We had a short week because Friday is Guatemala's labor day, thus no school. So we planned a beach trip to El Salvador for our 3 day weekend. We came up with a shopping list assuming(correctly) that things would be more expensive in El Salvador. Since I was elected head chef and of course that suited me just fine- I got to brave the market with instructions from my host mom on what type of pineapple to ask for and how much things should cost and I am pleased to report that I am pretty darn good at shopping in the market. I got three of the sweetest pineapples you could ever imagine for less than $3.00. Wild huh? Early Friday morning we were picked up in a mini-bus and headed out to the beach- a 4 hour trip more or less. The place we stayed was nice by standards here at least:) A little rough for standards back home. 5 girls in 1 room, and 2 boys in the other. But the place had a tiny pool and was ocean front and for $80 for 3 days and 2 nights-thats not too bad. The beach was great- different, black sand and rocks, but warm water and great waves! I swam more there than I have in a long time. Lots of surfers- and David had a lesson on Saturday morning:) He said it is much harder than it looks and I believe him! We cooked supper the first night (me and Mandy) in the hotels' kitchen- which is also the kitchen for the restaurant in the hotel. I kinda felt like we were in the way. But they assured us it was OK and I think they enjoyed watching me struggling to de-skin the chicken with a dull knife. Not easy. But we produced fried chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and pineapple that was consumed with gratifying gusto. And no one got sick- thank heavens. The next night David and I actually went on a date! The rest of the group went to a restaurant down on the beach- but Dave and I crossed the road to a little place across from our hotel and enjoyed french fries (my first in 3 weeks and y'all know what a big deal that is to me) and garlic chicken for me, mexican chicken salad for David and cokes in the bottle (even after several weeks, that still makes me smile-I think I will still love that after 2-3 years). We had a great time just being by ourselves. Sunday was slower and then came the ride home. Not terrible but not great- it seems the travel agency overbooked the bus home and we had one more person than we had seats. So yup- of course I'm the skinniest and I was sitting on some German guys' backpack on the floor unable to see out the window. That only worked for an hour until car-sickness overtook me and my wonderful husband took over for me. Better on my stomach, but worse on my nose as I then had to sit beside the German guy who did not smell so pleasant. Our driver was determined to make up the lost time spent waiting on the 3 German guys by zooming around every vehicle in sight for 3.5 hours. Needless to say I was overjoyed to set these two feet back in the dust of San Juan del Obispo- which I realized when we got back to our house and my heart jumped a little, really is feeling more like home. Monday, we went to school and when we got home, I became sick- for the rest of the day, then David got sick and another girl. So as much as I enjoyed El Salvador, I'm not a fan right now! We are on the mend now, just tired from fighting the fever and nausea and still having some ill effects of the stomach. However, our host mother has not rested in making sure we are ok- making us different herb teas (one that really did help), making us hot bananas for breakfast, offering to take us to the doctor, bring us buckets to throw up in, you name it- she really is like a grandmother:) I like her because she laughs full out and often and likes to tease me and lets me help her sometimes. We skipped school today but we are hoping the rest of this week will continue more normally and uneventfully!
Please continue to pray for our health, our ministry to our team mates, our relationship with our family and teachers, opportunities to share and opportunities to minister to the people here in San Juan. Pray that we will be protected from the enemy and strengthened daily by God's Word. Pray that our feeling of home will be in Him alone. Please let us know how you are and how we can pray for you!