San Jose Costa Rica Temple

Temple #100

San Jose, Costa Rica

May 23, 2018

    San Jose Costa Rica! It was going to be our 100th temple to visit and we were so excited! Crazy beginning getting there though. After Peru we flew a six hour flight to Mexico City. We got there around 11:00 p.m. and then stayed at the airport that night because we were leaving in the morning at 9:35, so we just pulled two benches together and slept there. We weren't feeling too well when we went to sleep but hoped it would get better. We eventually got to sleep around 1:00 am.

     When we woke up, around 4, we were both sick with food poisoning, most likely from the street food we had eaten the day before in Lima. We got on our flight and flew to San Jose. We felt terrible and didn't want to do anything so we went straight to our hotel. The next day we had a river rafting excursion and we wanted to feel good enough to go so we went straight to bed, although it was 2:30 in the afternoon. It also started raining when we first got there and rained all that day and night, so we figured it was the perfect day to sleep. We slept great and woke up at 6:00 a.m. to go to our excursion. We felt much better in the morning and went on the river rafting excursion, an 18 mile ride down the Pacuare River, supposedly one of the best in the world. It was also perfect sunny weather, although it was supposed to rain all day!

    Had breakfast before and ate alongside the river some delicious burritos and fruit. We went through a lot of fun rapids. Eventually we got back to the hotel and felt fine. We felt we were so blessed because, although we got sick, it was really the only time since we had left home that we got sick, and while traveling it was a good day to be sick since we had nothing going on that day. It's hard to look positive on something so miserable but it's what you've got to do. We were just glad we felt good enough to raft that day.

    The day after rafting we woke up early and took an Uber to the temple. It's a ways from the city center and closer to the airport. It's not really on a main street or anything, but just in a neighborhood. It's a simple, cookie cutter temple surrounded by gorgeous flowers of all different colors. Ivy had been there years before with her family so it was fun to finally go back together.

     Since it was our hundredth temple we wanted to do somerging specual there. A few days before Ivy was wondering what we could do, and wanted to spend the entire day at the temple for our 100th temple. That same day she got an email from Family History of a name of an ancestor that needed all her work to be done. It was a little message to us that going through the entire temple was what we needed to do. We printed off a name for both of us at the temple when we got there and started with baptisms and confirmations. We then did initiatories and then did a session. The endowment room had a pretty mural as always of jungles and trees. We finished in the Celestial room and it was so fun to have done everything.

    We then left because the temple was closed during the day. We ate some pizza, and Ivy spontaneously decided to cut her hair shoulder length! She looked really cute, yet they didn’t do the best job. We then went back to the temple and did sealings to finish the day. It was a great day and we loved it! Although it took all day to do everything, it felt as if it went by quickly.

    After the temple a kind missionary senior couple took us to our hotel which saved us time and money. The next morning we went to the airport and back to the United States we went.

    We were so blessed to have been to 100 temples! Every single one was great and spiritual and we loved them all. We also had loved our time in Central and South America and were sad to leave. We loved the Latin culture and all the kind people we met, but we were glad to be heading home.