Life Before the Field – Language School

Life Before the Field – Language School

A Time for Preparation

Before our missionaries join the field, they go through a series of trainings.  One is Language school.  Hear from missionary, Jessica Dennis, about what it’s like trying to learn another language.

Voy a compartir mis noticias de esta mes contigo.  Feliz dia de independecia!   Esta en mi corazon el deseo de estar contigo en este dia per no es posible. Pero, la buena noticia es que vamos a tener una celebracion despues de clases en miercoles.

Or: I’m going to share my news with you for this month.  Happy Independence day! I wish to be with you on this day, however, it’s not possible.  But the good news is that we are going to have a party here for all the students after classes on Wednesday.

(Yup, I can write like a 5 year old!  Better than the two year old from a couple months ago!! and in all honesty, I had some help with the use of some of the words. My original sentences were more like a 3.5 year old)

Wow what a time this has been back in Costa Rica.  Not all good and not all bad, but some of each!  Which is life right?  A few highlights:I had a friend visit, many of you know Sharon Potzer, she came and spent a few days here.  It was a nice treat to have a familiar face here and we did some fun stuff!

Jessica in CR

Ligia and I went to Limon for a weekend, she owns a house there and we went for 2 nights.  It was definitely not my favorite place to go in Costa Rica, the weekend ended up being quite different than I expected.  We did have a nice time at a beach nearby.  Here we are drinking limonada con hierbabuena (Lemonade with mint)

Jessica smoothie

The following weekend, I went with a friend to Guatemala for my visa run.  We spent three nights in Antigua, and I fell in love with that city.  I cannot wait to go back.  The food was amazing, but we just touched the surface of all there is to see there.
group in Guatamala

Another family also came to Guatemala for the weekend, and we got to spend some time together.  This is the Fletcher family and they have been amazing and a source of much encouragement for me, Jason and I are in classes together at the Institute and Rachel is fluent from growing up as a missionary kid in Paraguay.  Their kiddos are awesome, and number 5 will be here hopefully before I leave!

Volcanoes

This picture is of two volcanos in Guatamala.  The one on the left is Volcan Fuego, it erupted about a month ago and several hundreds of people (maybe even thousands) lost their lives.  It was pretty amazing to be so close to an active volcano.  You can see it had just erupted when I took this picture.

How am I doing?

This season has been stretching for me.  I changed the primary picture of my newsletter because it represents how I’ve been feeling.  I have spent much of the last two months feeling like that boat, just being tossed around and a bit adrift.  And while that hasn’t changed totally, my perspective on these last several weeks has changed a bit.

I am currently standing at the bottom of a mountain right now.  The journey up is going to be difficult, as it’s going to change the idea I have of who I am.  It’s going to change my perspective.  It’s going to change how I would have attempted to climb this mountain in the past, which frankly would have been to find a way around it.  Surely there is a tunnel or another road I can take that goes around it?

Nope, not this time and not this mountain.  Because this one is important.  I am important enough to climb this mountain.  What waits for me at the top is more than I can imagine.  More than I can think of to ask for.  And this season is for asking.

They warned us in our first few days of language school that while we will learn Spanish while we’re here, that won’t be our primary reason for being here.  That God will use this time to grow us closer to Him than we’ll learn Spanish.

While this is all mostly metaphors, God is asking me to do something physical as well.  There are two entrances to the institute.  The south gate is the closer of the two gates to me, and the one I’ve been using since the third day of classes here way back in January.  The north gate is the main gate, but in between me and the north gate is a hill.  It’s a big hill for me, and every time I climb it my knees remind me that they are not so young.  But God has asked me to climb it every day until I leave. And so I have been.  Not sure what will come out of this.   Even if it is only obedience to what he asked me to do, I’m doing it!

Love and Miss you all!

Jess
(PS — if you think of it, I’d love to hear from you!  Even if it’s a prayer request or just to share something that is going on with you! Or even just a note to say hi!)

Jessica headshot

Jessica Dennis

Jessica grew up going to church and knew she wanted to be a missionary and work with children from a young age.  Life got busy and she spent her time raising her son.  Attending a missions trip in February 2017 with her church to the Dominican Republic and working with SCORE, she knew God was calling her at this time to move forward with that dream.  He has continued to make the pathway clear, and she is excited to be moving forward in His direction.

Missionary Page

Address Book Address Card adjust Alarm Clock align-center align-justify align-left align-right Allergies ambulance American Sign Language Interpreting Anchor Angle Double Down Angle Double Left Angle Double Right Angle Double Up angle-down angle-left angle-right angle-up Angry Face Archive Archway Alternate Arrow Circle Down Alternate Arrow Circle Left Alternate Arrow Circle Right Alternate Arrow Circle Up Alternate Arrow Down Alternate Arrow from Bottom Alternate Arrow from Left Alternate Arrow from Right Alternate Arrow from Top Alternate Arrow Left Alternate Arrow Right Alternate Arrow Square Down Alternate Arrow Square Left Alternate Arrow Square Right Alternate Arrow Square Up Alternate Arrow to Bottom Alternate Arrow to Left Alternate Arrow to Right Alternate Arrow to Top Alternate Arrow Up Arrow Circle Down Arrow Circle Left Arrow Circle Right Arrow Circle Up arrow-down Arrow from Bottom Arrow from Left Arrow from Right Arrow from Top arrow-left arrow-right Arrow Square Down Arrow Square Left Arrow Square Right Arrow Square Up Arrow to Bottom Arrow to Left Arrow to Right Arrow to Top arrow-up Arrows Alternate Arrows Alternate Arrows Horizontal Alternate Arrows Vertical Arrows Horizontal Arrows Vertical Assistive Listening Systems asterisk At Atlas Audio Description Award Backspace backward Badge Check Badge Balance Scale Balance Scale (Left-Weighted) Balance Scale (Right-Weighted) ban Band-Aid barcode Alternate Barcode Barcode Read Barcode Scan Bars Baseball Baseball Ball Basketball Ball Basketball Hoop Bath Battery Bolt Battery Empty Battery Full Battery 1/2 Full Battery 1/4 Full Battery Slash Battery 3/4 Full Bed beer bell Bell Slash Bezier Curve Bicycle Binoculars Birthday Cake Blanket Blender Blind bold Lightning Bolt Bomb Bong book Book with Heart Book Open bookmark Bowling Ball Bowling Pins Box Alternate Box Box Check Box Fragile Box Full Box with Heart Box Open Box Up Box with US Dollar Boxes Alternate Boxes Boxing Glove Braille Briefcase Medical Briefcase Broadcast Tower Broom Browser Brush Bug Building bullhorn Bullseye Burn Bus Bus Alt Calculator Calendar Alternate Calendar Calendar Check Calendar Edit Calendar Exclamation Calendar Minus Calendar Plus Calendar Times camera Alternate Camera Retro Camera Cannabis Capsules Car Caret Circle Down Caret Circle Left Caret Circle Right Caret Circle Up Caret Down Caret Left Caret Right Caret Square Down Caret Square Left Caret Square Right Caret Square Up Caret Up Shopping Cart Arrow Down Add to Shopping Cart certificate Chalkboard Chalkboard Teacher Area Chart Bar Chart Line Chart Pie Chart Check Check Circle Check Double Check Square Chess Chess Bishop Alternate Chess Bishop Chess Board Chess Clock Alternate Chess Clock Chess King Alternate Chess King Chess Knight Alternate Chess Knight Chess Pawn Alternate Chess Pawn Chess Queen Alternate Chess Queen Chess Rook Alternate Chess Rook Chevron Circle Down Chevron Circle Left Chevron Circle Right Chevron Circle Up Chevron Double Down Chevron Double Left Chevron Double Right Chevron Double Up chevron-down chevron-left chevron-right Chevron Square Down Chevron Square Left Chevron Square Right Chevron Square Up chevron-up Child Church Circle Circle Notched Clipboard Clipboard Check Clipboard List Clock Clone Closed Captioning Cloud Cloud Download Alternate Cloud Download Cloud Upload Alternate Cloud Upload Club Cocktail Code Code Branch Code Commit Code Merge Coffee cog cogs Coins Columns comment Alternate Comment Comment Alt-check Comment Alt-dots Comment Alt-edit Comment Alt-exclamation Comment Alt-lines Comment Alt-minus Comment Alt-plus Alternate Comment Slash Alternate Comment Smile Alternate Comment Times Comment Check Comment Dots Comment Edit Comment Exclamation Comment Lines Comment Minus Comment Plus Comment Slash Comment Smile Comment Times comments Comments Alt Compact Disc Compass Compress Alternate Compress Compress Wide Concierge Bell Container Storage Conveyor Belt Alternate Conveyor Belt Cookie Cookie Bite Copy Copyright Couch Credit Card Credit Card Blank Credit Card Front Cricket crop Alternate Crop Crosshairs Crow Crown Cube Cubes Curling Cut Database Deaf Desktop Alternate Desktop Diagnoses Diamond Dice Dice Five Dice Four Dice One Dice Six Dice Three Dice Two Digital Tachograph Divide Dizzy Face DNA Dollar Sign Dolly Dolly Empty Dolly Flatbed Alternate Dolly Flatbed Dolly Flatbed-empty Door Closed Door Open Dot Circle Dove Download Drafting Compass Drum Drum Steelpan Dumbbell Edit eject Horizontal Ellipsis Alternate Horizontal Ellipsis Vertical Ellipsis Alternate Vertical Ellipsis Envelope Envelope Open Envelope Square Equals eraser Euro Sign Exchange Alternate Exchange exclamation Exclamation Circle Exclamation Square Exclamation Triangle Expand Alternate Expand Expand Arrows Alternate Expand Arrows Expand Wide External Link Alternate External Link External Link Square Alternate External Link Square Eye Eye Dropper Eye Slash fast-backward fast-forward Fax Feather Feather Alt Female Field Hockey fighter-jet File Alternate File Archive File Audio File Check File Code File File Contract File Download Edit File Excel File Exclamation File File Export Image File File Import File Invoice File Invoice with US Dollar Medical File Alternate Medical File Minus File PDF File Plus File Powerpoint File File Prescription File Signature Times File File Upload Video File Word File Fill Fill Drip Film Alternate Film Filter Fingerprint fire fire-extinguisher First Aid Fish flag flag-checkered Flask Flushed Face Folder Folder Open font Font Awesome Full Logo Football Ball Football Helmet Forklift forward Fragile Frog Frowning Face Frowning Face With Open Mouth Futbol Gamepad Gas Pump Gavel Gem Genderless gift Martini Glass Glass Martini-alt Glasses Globe Globe with Africa shown Globe with Americas shown Globe with Asia shown Golf Ball Golf Club Graduation Cap Greater Than Greater Than Equal To Grimacing Face Grinning Face Alternate Grinning Face Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes Grinning Face With Sweat Smiling Face With Heart-Eyes Grinning Squinting Face Rolling on the Floor Laughing Star-Struck Face With Tears of Joy Face With Tongue Squinting Face With Tongue Winking Face With Tongue Grinning Winking Face Grip Horizontal Grip Vertical H Square H1 Heading H2 Heading H3 Heading Hand with Heart Hand Holding Hand Holding Box Hand Holding Heart Hand Holding Seedling Hand Holding US Dollar Hand Holding Water Lizard (Hand) Paper (Hand) Peace (Hand) Hand Pointing Down Hand Pointing Left Hand Pointing Right Hand Pointing Up Pointer (Hand) Hand Receiving Rock (Hand) Scissors (Hand) Spock (Hand) Hands Hands Heart Helping Hands Hands with US Dollar Handshake Alternate Handshake Hashtag HDD heading headphones Headphones Alt Headset Heart Heart Circle Heart Square Heartbeat Helicopter Hexagon Highlighter History Hockey Puck Hockey Sticks home Home Heart hospital Alternate Hospital Hospital Symbol Hot Tub Hotel Hourglass Hourglass End Hourglass Half Hourglass Start I Beam Cursor Identification Badge Identification Card Alternate Identification Card Image Images inbox Inbox In Inbox Out Indent Industry Alternate Industry Infinity Info Info Circle Info Square Inventory italic Jack-o'-lantern Joint key Keyboard Kissing Face Kissing Face With Smiling Eyes Face Blowing a Kiss Kiwi Bird Lamp Language Laptop Grinning Face With Big Eyes Laugh Face with Beaming Eyes Laughing Squinting Face Laughing Winking Face leaf Leaf Heart Lemon Less Than Less Than Equal To Level Down Alternate Level Down Level Up Alternate Level Up Life Ring Lightbulb Link Turkish Lira Sign List Alternate List list-ol list-ul location-arrow lock Alternate Lock Lock Open Alternate Lock Open Alternate Long Arrow Down Alternate Long Arrow Left Alternate Long Arrow Right Alternate Long Arrow Up Long Arrow Down Long Arrow Left Long Arrow Right Long Arrow Up Loveseat Low Vision Luchador Luggage Cart magic magnet Male Map Map Marked Map Marked-alt map-marker Alternate Map Marker Map Pin Map Signs Marker Mars Mars Double Mars Stroke Mars Stroke Horizontal Mars Stroke Vertical Medal medkit Neutral Face Face Without Mouth Face With Rolling Eyes Memory Mercury Microchip microphone Alternate Microphone Alternate Microphone Slash Microphone Slash minus Minus Circle Minus Hexagon Minus Octagon Minus Square Mobile Phone Alternate Mobile Mobile Android Alternate Mobile Android Money Bill Alternate Money Bill Wavy Money Bill Alternate Wavy Money Bill Money Check Alternate Money Check Monument Moon Mortar Pestle Motorcycle Mouse Pointer Music Neuter Newspaper Not Equal Medical Notes Object Group Object Ungroup Octagon Outdent Paint Brush Alternate Paint Brush Paint Roller Palette Pallet Alternate Pallet Paper Plane Paperclip Parachute Box paragraph Parking Passport Paste pause Pause Circle Paw Pen Alternate Pen Pen Fancy Pen Nib Pen Square pencil Alternate Pencil Pencil Ruler Pennant People Carry Percent Percentage Person Carry Person and Dolly Person and Empty Dolly Phone Phone Plus Phone Slash Phone Square Phone Volume Piggy Bank Pills plane Alternate Plane Plane Arrival Plane Departure play Play Circle Plug plus Plus Circle Plus Hexagon Plus Octagon Plus Square Podcast Poo Portrait Pound Sign Power Off Prescription Prescription Bottle Alternate Prescription Bottle print Procedures Project Diagram Puzzle Piece qrcode Question Question Circle Question Square Quidditch quote-left quote-right Racquet Ramp Loading random Receipt Landscape Rectangle Portrait Rectangle Wide Rectangle Recycle Redo Alternate Redo Registered Trademark Repeat Repeat 1 Alternate Repeat 1 Alternate Repeat Reply reply-all Retweet Alternate Retweet Ribbon road Robot rocket Route rss RSS Square Ruble Sign Ruler Ruler Combined Ruler Horizontal Ruler Vertical Indian Rupee Sign Crying Face Loudly Crying Face Save Scanner Scanner Keyboard Scanner Touchscreen School Screwdriver Scrubber Search Search Minus Search Plus Seedling Server Share Share All Alternate Share Alternate Share Square Share Square Shekel Sign shield Alternate Shield shield Ship Shipping Fast Shipping Timed Shoe Prints Shopping Bag Shopping Basket shopping-cart Shower Shuttle Van Shuttlecock Sign Sign In Alternate Sign In Sign Language Sign Out Alternate Sign Out signal Signature Sitemap Skull Horizontal Sliders Square Horizontal Sliders Vertical Sliders Square Vertical Sliders Smiling Face Beaming Face With Smiling Eyes Smiling Face Plus Winking Face Smoking Smoking Ban Snowflake Solar Panel Sort Sort Alpha Down Sort Alpha Up Sort Amount Down Sort Amount Up Sort Down (Descending) Sort Numeric Down Sort Numeric Up Sort Up (Ascending) Spa Space Shuttle Spade Spinner Spinner Third Splotch Spray Can Square Square Full Stamp Star Exclamation Star star-half Alternate Star Half step-backward step-forward Stethoscope Sticky Note stop Stop Circle Stopwatch Store Alternate Store Stream Street View Strikethrough Stroopwafel subscript Subway Suitcase Suitcase Rolling Sun superscript Hushed Face Swatchbook Swimmer Swimming Pool Sync Alternate Sync Syringe table Table Tennis tablet Alternate Tablet Tablet Android Alternate Tablet Android Rugged Tablet Tablets Tachometer Alternate Tachometer tag tags Tape Tasks Taxi Tennis Ball Terminal text-height text-width th th-large th-list Thermometer Thermometer Empty Thermometer Full Thermometer 1/2 Full Thermometer 1/4 Full Thermometer 3/4 Full thumbs-down thumbs-up Thumbtack Ticket Alternate Ticket Times Times Circle Times Hexagon Times Octagon Times Square tint Tint Slash Tired Face Toggle Off Toggle On Toolbox Tooth Trademark Train Transgender Alternate Transgender Trash Alternate Trash Tree Alternate Tree Triangle trophy Alternate Trophy truck Truck Container Truck Couch Truck Loading Truck Moving Truck Ramp T-Shirt TTY Television Retro Televison Umbrella Umbrella Beach Underline Undo Alternate Undo Universal Access University unlink unlock Alternate Unlock Upload US Dollar Circle US Dollar Square User Alternate User Alternate User Slash User Astronaut User Check User Circle User Clock User Cog User Edit User Friends User Graduate User Lock user-md User Minus User Ninja Add User User Secret User Shield User Slash User Tag User Tie Remove User Users Users Cog Utensil Fork Utensil Knife Utensil Spoon Utensils Alternate Utensils Vector Square Venus Venus Double Venus Mars Vial Vials Video Video Plus Video Slash Volleyball Ball volume-down volume-mute volume-off volume-up Walking Wallet Warehouse Alternate Warehouse Watch Weight Hanging Weight Wheelchair Whistle WiFi Window Alternate Window Window Close Window Maximize Window Minimize Window Restore Wine Glass Wine Glass-alt Won Sign Wrench X-Ray Yen Sign 500px Accessible Icon Accusoft App.net Adversal affiliatetheme Algolia Amazon Amazon Pay Amilia Android AngelList Angry Creative Angular App Store iOS App Store Apper Systems AB Apple Apple Pay Asymmetrik, Ltd. Audible Autoprefixer avianex Aviato Amazon Web Services (AWS) Bandcamp Behance Behance Square BIMobject Bitbucket Bitcoin Bity Font Awesome Black Tie BlackBerry Blogger Blogger B Bluetooth Bluetooth BTC Büromöbel-Experte GmbH & Co. KG. BuySellAds Amazon Pay Credit Card American Express Credit Card Apple Pay Credit Card Diner's Club Credit Card Discover Credit Card JCB Credit Card MasterCard Credit Card Paypal Credit Card Stripe Credit Card Visa Credit Card Centercode Chrome cloudscale.ch Cloudsmith cloudversify Codepen Codie Pie Connect Develop Contao cPanel Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution Creative Commons Noncommercial Creative Commons Noncommercial (Euro Sign) Creative Commons Noncommercial (Yen Sign) Creative Commons No Derivative Works Creative Commons Public Domain Creative Commons Public Domain Alternate Creative Commons Remix Creative Commons Share Alike Creative Commons Sampling Creative Commons Sampling + Creative Commons Share Creative Commons CC0 CSS 3 Logo Alternate CSS3 Logo Cuttlefish Dungeons & Dragons DashCube Delicious Logo deploy.dog Deskpro deviantART Digg Logo Digital Ocean Discord Discourse DocHub Docker Draft2digital Dribbble Dribbble Square Dropbox Drupal Logo Dyalog Earlybirds eBay Edge Browser Elementor Ember Galactic Empire Envira Gallery Erlang Ethereum Etsy ExpeditedSSL Facebook Facebook F Facebook Messenger Facebook Square Firefox First Order Alternate First Order firstdraft Flickr Flipboard Fly Font Awesome Alternate Font Awesome Font Awesome Flag Font Awesome Full Logo Fonticons Fonticons Fi Fort Awesome Alternate Fort Awesome Forumbee Foursquare Free Code Camp FreeBSD Fulcrum Galactic Republic Galactic Senate Get Pocket GG Currency GG Currency Circle Git Git Square GitHub Alternate GitHub GitHub Square GitKraken GitLab Gitter Glide Glide G Gofore Goodreads Goodreads G Google Logo Google Drive Google Play Google Plus Google Plus G Google Plus Square Google Wallet Gratipay (Gittip) Grav Gripfire, Inc. Grunt Gulp Hacker News Hacker News Square Hips HireAHelper Hooli Hornbill Hotjar Houzz HTML 5 Logo HubSpot IMDB Instagram Internet-explorer ioxhost iTunes Itunes Note Java Jedi Order Jenkis Joget Joomla Logo JavaScript (JS) JavaScript (JS) Square jsFiddle Keybase KeyCDN Kickstarter Kickstarter K KORVUE Laravel last.fm last.fm Square Leanpub Less Line LinkedIn LinkedIn In Linode Linux lyft Magento Mailchimp Mandalorian Mastodon MaxCDN MedApps Medium Medium M MRT Meetup Megaport Microsoft Mix Mixcloud Mizuni MODX Monero Napster Nimblr Nintendo Switch Node.js Node.js JS npm NS8 Nutritionix Odnoklassniki Odnoklassniki Square Old Republic OpenCart OpenID Opera Optin Monster Open Source Initiative page4 Corporation Pagelines Palfed Patreon Paypal Periscope Phabricator Phoenix Framework Phoenix Squadron PHP Pied Piper Logo Alternate Pied Piper Logo Pied Piper-hat Pied Piper PP Logo (Old) Pinterest Pinterest P Pinterest Square PlayStation Product Hunt Pushed Python QQ QuinScape Quora R Project Ravelry React ReadMe Rebel Alliance red river reddit Logo reddit Alien reddit Square Rendact Renren replyd Researchgate Resolving Rev.io Rocket.Chat Rockrms Safari Sass SCHLIX Scribd Searchengin Sellcast Sellsy Servicestack Shirts in Bulk Shopware SimplyBuilt SISTRIX Sith skyatlas Skype Slack Logo Slack Hashtag Slideshare Snapchat Snapchat Ghost Snapchat Square SoundCloud Speakap Spotify Squarespace Stack Exchange Stack Overflow StayLinked Steam Steam Square Steam Symbol Sticker Mule Strava Stripe Stripe S Studio Vinari StumbleUpon Logo StumbleUpon Circle Superpowers Supple TeamSpeak Telegram Telegram Plane Tencent Weibo Themeco ThemeIsle