here i am about to be eaten by a hippo, hahaha, but when the whale saw what was happening saved me and kissed me also, arent whales cute?? haha

Puente de Las Américas

Here we are at the causeway very close to the panama canal, and that bridge behind us is the "Puente de Las Americas" (Bridge of the Americas) not too long ago that was the only bridge connecting South America and Central America, cool hey

at the mall, random pics

We were hanging at the mall and we went to the pet store and i found these snakes so i took a pic of it, the one that needs to be adopted is the one on the my right hand, which would be your left one. it is a boa and the other one is a python. arent they nice??

No hay otro pueblo mas macho que el pueblo "KATRACHO"

Hey rose I was going through the mission pics President Wilson sent us and I had all this memories coming back to me, and I dont think I have shown you pics or anything like that about my mission, probably I have but well, these pics are from the christmas party at the President's House the one in the blue circle is (My Daddy) Elder Christopher Steven Spiker (to hondurans his name was SPRITE like the pop, hahaha) from California; in the red circle is my second companion Elder (Lio Ammon Tamasepani) Brown from Samoa (he is the one who gave me my blue lava lava) we were together for 2 weeks only but he cooked soooooooo good, hahah, he lived in Kerns, Utah but after getting married moved to Hawaii and has invited us over; the one in the yellow circle is my 4th companion Elder (Walter Dennis) Urias (Santamaria) from San Salvador, El Salvador.

On the 2nd pic the one on the red circle is my first son Elder (Nathan) Goodrich, hahaha I remember once we were in Villa de San Francisco (where he was born) and we were on our way to Danli for Zone Conference in a JALON (hahaha) and we were in a pick-up's bed and just sitting there and the guy was speeding soooooooooo fast seriously, hahahaha, and my nose itched so I let go of my backpach to scratch it and I probably touched my badge and it flew and got smashed on the street (hahaha, all of this like in slow motion to me, haha), so I had to order a new one at the meeting, but I didnt have another one, but Goodrich did, hahaha, so I wore his badge for like a month hahaha, and everybody in town asked us if we were BROTHERS hahahahaha, and we told all these stories about how we have the same father but different mothers and my mom was white and his was not, hahaha (it is not wrong) and people were like, oh yeah, thats why you guys are so alike, and we were like oh yeah we have 2 eyes, 1 nose and 2 cheeks right?? and the people like, yah yah yah, hahaha. And the one in the white circle is the one who killed me Elder Adams (my 10th companion).

The other ones in the pic i had a close relationship with for being in my districts and zones, the 2 sisters are: Sister Lauti, from Tonga; and Sister (Naomi) Navas from Costa Rica.

Oh well, this brought me a lot of good memories and I just wanted to share it with you.

Is fun to think that those 2 years for me and 1 1/2 years for you made us so different; I remember when I first got to Honduras it was mids of april and right in the middle of summer and it was sooooo dry, and from the plane everything looked brown and when the plane gate opened, besides that we had to walk through the landing strip (haha cool by the way) it literally stunk so bad, seriously, I thought to myself like "... what have I gotten into.......meh, I'm here already so I better do what I'm supposed to..."; but I did not love the people nearly as much as I end up loving them along with the place though, when my time to leave arrived I could not believe it, it passed so fast, and I was perfectly fine to the moment I got accomodated in the plane, when I felt the plane engine was on and we were moving - oh my goodness - I started crying as a baby, seriously though. Good thing that one of the flight-attendants was a member of the church and she saw me sitting there winning and she came to me and called me "..ELDER.." hahaha first of all it was weird to me that I did not had to correct her (so I thought she was a member for not calling me ELBER, ELMER, etc, etc) and then told me that she was a member of the church in Panama and offerered her help but she also understood, she had also served a mission, hahaha.

I'm so grateful I learned to love people as I do, I prayed and my mission presidents did as well, for me to learn how to love "katrachos", and I know the Lord himself allowed me to feel a minimum part of His love for all of us, His children, I have felt it and it means a lot to me, and it is a great responsibility that I have been given with this.

Well thats it for right now, thanx for reading, hahaha, this is actually a good journal entry, dont you think??

This looks like a jurasic park kinda leaf, doesnt it?
i LOVE how big it is. and i think that to this kind, in costa rica, we call them (CARA DE BURRO) haha, dunkey's face, interesting huh?

Have you ever seen a NINJA TURTLE taking a leak?

Well, there's always a first time, but this only happens behind the scene, hahaha.

Charity!!

Last night I was late to talk to you, and I'm sorry for that, I really am!

As I was walking out of our complex a guy was walking in, and close the gate behind him, and there was this kid calling for the guy, when I finally walked out the door, this guy started talking to me, by his accent I imediately knew where he was from (Nicaragua) and he started explaining to me how he, his mother and his 4 little sibblings went out of Nicaragua because the hurricane and the socio-political situation is causing people to starve and to trying to get money by not so legal means. Anyways they left nicaragua, and did not have any money, they bought 2 passports for the mother and one of the sisters (or brother i really dont remember), and the rest of the very little money they had was barely for transportation and food (no shelter, and by little money I mean LITTLE MONEY, they had 20 CORDOBAS (nicaraguan currency) which is like 500 colones the equivalent to 1 DOLLAR for 6 people, can u believe that!!).

As I was listening to the guys's story I felt impressed to help him, as we were walking up road we stopped to get chinese food for this family, and he was telling me his story, and I felt bad for the situation they were on, and how specially he (ernesto, 22 years old, and the older of the sibblings and the one taking care of the family) suffered from epilepsia (drop) and with watery eyes told me how they just wanted to live their dream, he also told me how his oldest brother came to costa rica illegally a few years back, on "rubber boots" and now he has a tiny little house; a tv; a radio and a little pick up that he uses to sell vegetables (honduras style, haha).

He told me how they have been helped by other "ticos" and he was quite amazed by this, cause they thought costaricans would call immigration on them. And while going to the bank for some money, he told me about this particular lady who stood out to him, who gave them blankets to spend the night and "un billete rojo de este pais" (a red bill of this country, meaning 1000 colones the equivalent to 2 dollars, which is worth NOTHING), and the whole family where so grateful for this.

Long story short, thats why I told you last night that I was so happy.

Oh rosie, I feel so much joy when I help people, and I KNOW that if everything goes well enough for us in our lives, and our family is doing good. I'd love for us to be able to help as many people as we can, wherever we live and whatever we do for a living.

I strongly think this is the best way of feeling the love the Savior and God have for us, and the excitement they feel when we help our brothers and sisters, their SONS AND DAUGHTERS, as any parent would be grateful with whoever did a favor or something good for one of their children.

What do u think??

ps. on this pic I am sitting with most of the amazing people who represented Costa Rica at the 2007 Special Olympics in China, we can learn so much from this people, I also KNOW they are closer to our Heavenly Father's presence, and they can show us the way.