Julia
Overall living in Costa Rica was a really great experience for me. It's definitely had its ups and downs but I'm really grateful we were able to do this. Even from the things that were bad, they taught me something. You can always looks back on a bad time in your life and realize the good that came from it, you realize that you learned something and (hopefully) came out of it a better person.
The hardest thing about being here was leaving my friends and family, but nine months really isn't that long, and honestly the time has gone by pretty fast. Not being with them for so long has just made me realize how important they are to me and like everyone always says, you don't know what you have until it's gone. The other really hard thing was having to go to school. I didn't really have any friends and going to school here was hands down the most boring time of my life. I had to wake up every day and put on an ugly uniform and go to school for seven hours and sit there and read or write in my notebook.
On the other hand I have had many incredibly amazing experiences here. I've been in a boat surrounded by 300 dolphins, I've zip lined though the canopy of a tropical rain forest, I've been snorkeling, I've been to two volcanoes and lots of beaches, the list keeps going. I've done and seen more cool things here in these nine months than a lot of people will do or see in a lifetime. The animals I've seen here include sloths, monkeys, crocodiles, poison dart frogs, dolphins, flying fish, starfish and jellyfish, toucans, scarlet macaws, and lots more cool birds and fish. I have also met a lot of amazing people and have good friends in our branch that I'm gonna really miss. We've had fun youth activities and I've had a fun time hanging out with a few of the young women.
I'm so grateful for this experience here in Costa Rica and I'm both sad and happy to go home, this is something I'm gonna remember for the rest of my life :)
Caleb
I'm definitely glad that we came here and it was worth it overall. I've learned so much while we were here and I partly wish we could stay here longer, but I also miss a lot of people and the schools in Utah. I also realized by coming here that I take a lot of things for granted, like all my friends and family, schools, pianos, comfortable beds, good showers, good roads, good milk, carpet and chocolate.
I'm also glad that I had the opportunity to learn Spanish. Learning Spanish taught me a lot about English too, and I think knowing Spanish will help me during my life.
I've made a few friends here that I'm going to miss, but I have a lot of friends in Utah too that I'm excited to come back to. At school I have some really good friends and there are also a lot of kids who aren't very nice to me. I'm going to miss the few friends that I have and my teacher, but I don't like school very much overall.
I've seen so many animals here that I would only be able to find in the zoo in Utah, like sloths, monkeys, crocodiles, scarlet macaws, toucans, jellyfish, dolphins and lots of kinds of fish. If we came to Costa Rica and almost always stayed in our house, but still saw all of those animals, I think it would still be worth it. All of the amazing animals here include bugs too, unfortunately. I'm always covered with mosquito bites.
Coming to Costa Rica has also showed me a different culture that is completely different from Utah. I love passing the sacrament in church here because every time I can count how many cups are left afterward to see if more or less people came to church that day. In Utah, if there are more people at church than the last time, it's probably just because less people were sick or on vacation.
All in all, Costa Rica was an amazing experience but I'm excited to come home too.
Dylan
Sometimes when I'm mad I think, why did we have to go to Costa Rica? But now that I think about it, not every kid gets to go in their front yard and see parrots, toucans and squirrels. My favorite animal that I've seen is a scarlet macaw. Before we came here my favorite animal that I saw was a dog. Before we came here I didn't even know what a scarlet macaw was.
I've made three friends here. One of them is named Fabricio. I met him at school. He's Nelsy's son, the one who helped find me when I ran away from school. We've been to each other's houses. I have another friend named Jacob. He's the nephew of the guy we're renting from. We can play about every day. There's another one named Parker. He's from Utah, so he speaks English. I met him at church. He has two brothers and three sisters.
Caleb, Jonah and I go to a store that's really close to our house called the Que Barato (it means, "how cheap"). We can walk there, buy a treat, and walk back home. I'm going miss it. I love the beaches here. The water is so warm. And I got to learn how to surf. The best thing that I've done here is going to the National Park called La Carara. That's where I found the scarlet macaw feather. Here's a picture of it.
Costa Rica was awesome, but I'm still exited to go home.
Jonah
I like coconuts. I like going over the crocodile bridge. I like going to the waterfalls. I like my friends. I don't really like going to school. I like the trees. I like playing Minecraft and listening to music. I like going to the Que Barato (a small store up the road from our house). I don't like the giant waves at Costa Rica. I like fish. I'm going to miss Costa Rica because we're going back to Utah in seven days. I like my dog Izzy (our dog at home) and I like Bonita (our dog in Costa Rica).
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