Our Adventure with Cashew Nuts

OK, I am finally able to make another post to all you wonderful family and friends out there! We are doing well. Life has been pretty hard lately but when it's hard, it's good. Right? Well, that's what the Prophet teaches us. We are thankful for all the hard and even more so for the blessings and sweet miracles that we are given.
We are still here in Nicoya in the Swiss Family Robinson house. We are praying and hoping for the ability to get into our own homes but are grateful to have this one for now. We love being with our good friends and we still are good friends, that in itself is a miracle!
We are excited to go get our vans back in a couple of weeks!! They have been parked in Nicaragua for the past 3 months and now, supposedly, we can drive them back into the country. In all actuality we don't know what will happen to them for sure because the border agents here are so corrupt it could be just another story this time of why we can't!! We will have to wait and see.
(Just a side note, if you want to see more pictures of us here in Costa Rica you can go to my Facebook page. --Melanie Smith Royal--)

So, some fun things we have been doing. It's mango season right now and we just picked buckets of mangos! We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE mangos!! They are seriously my favorite fruit. I could just eat them all day, and around here you can because they grow everywhere! There are many different kinds of mangos, little ones, big ones, green, yellow, purple, red, orange ones. Mango trees are usually very big and produce tons of mangos. They grow in clusters and hang from a long stem. To get them down you just hit the branches of the tree and they fall to the ground. They are pretty firm so they don't bruise. It's pretty cool.
So, it's also Cashew season right now. I was able to take some pictures of our adventure with the cashews. This here is our Cashew tree. We have a few of them but this one is the biggest. On the tree you can see the red fruit of the cashew. So when these little guys started growing a couple of months ago we had no idea what they were. We really love these trees because they are very pretty. Their leaves are really big and they vary in color from green to yellow to red. So when to fruit on the tree started to ripen and turn red it was a very beautiful sight to see. So we decided to pick some and try it. Well, Rachael loved it but they rest of us, not so much! We were very curious about what kind it was and the very interesting "seed" that was attached to the top. So we had some friends over and we asked them if they knew what it was and after looking up the Spanish word in the dictionary we discovered that it was a cashew. We got really excited about that because, well, we LOVE cashews! We asked our friendshow you get the cashew out of the shell and they told us we have to roast them or cook them over a fire. Wow! How fun! We spent a few weeks gathering cashews as they fell from the tree. And then we had a cashew open fire roast!! It was a blast and the kids loved every part of it, from the gathering to the roasting and finally the cracking and eating!! Yum!

So besides that, we have been doing typical household chores and raising this large bunch of children. We spend our days, working, playing, and studying. I spend quite a bit of my time on my Primary calling and it is wonderful to serve in the Primary. I just love being with the children. We have started, for this first time ever in this branch, the Faith in God program and we had our first meeting two weeks ago. It went well and I think the children are excited to be getting together for more than just Church. They have not had Primary programs and activities here since, I don't know if they ever have. We have been successful in reactivating a few members with Primary children, so our primary is growing. It is hard work rebuilding a branch but we are excited to do it and are praying for success. May the Lord be merciful to these people. It is hard sometimes to see all the sin and wickedness that is rampant here in Costa Rica and, I am sure, all over the world. I can't believe how merciful and long-suffering God is to his children. May we all let our light shine a little brighter and reach out to the captive. We have the truth that will set them free, let us share it!
Well, we are car-less right now because the one we were borrowing is broken down. We are hoping to be able to get it fixed soon. But we are also looking forward to the possibility of having our vans back also.
I think we have all pretty well adjusted to the culture here, not that we don't still miss the States and the culture there, but it does seem more "normal." (except for the trash, I don't know if I'll ever adjust to the amount of trash that is 'literally' everywhere! It is sometimes overwhelming to see all the trash that is stuck to the sides of the riverbanks and filling the ditches. It's funny how Costa Rica is praised by the Left for being so eco friendly, yet their refuse runs in the streets and their trash flows down the rivers.) But, as for other things: the high prices of food and merchandise, the Tico slowness and general ineptitude, the poor quality of goods...these things are becoming just the way it is. Basically, I think that if you had a lot of money and could buy your own piece of paradise and live there pretty much exclusively and just go and visit the places you wanted to with the ability to fly home whenever you needed to stock up on all the stuff that they don't have here or that is ridiculously overpriced you could really love "Costa Rica" even though you wouldn't really be "in" Costa Rica. If you are just living among the Ticos then it is definitely a choice to be here and the rewards come from doing what you know is right and from the value of souls, which, of course, is the most important thing you can value. The people here are wonderful and the joy that comes from being with them and serving them and sharing the gospel with them is truly great. I am so thankful to have the great opportunity to be with these people and to serve in the church here, there is so much work to be done.
So, right now, we are squeaking by financially. The slow season has come and it's slow! We are praying for more work and busier dentists. But are counting our blessings that we are still in business and have enough to live on.
We love all of you and miss you all very much!!! Spanish is coming along, poco a poco! It's taking more time then I hoped it would be I do learn a little more every day and surprise myself sometimes with how much I can understand. I am down loading the first session of conference right now! I am excited to go home and watch it!! We weren't able to watch it yet because they, of course, broadcast it in Spanish down here. So we get to do a session a day this week!!!
Love you all!! God bless you and keep you in His care!