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Today is my birthday. We've been in Costa Rica for about seven or so weeks, and we love it here, but today, for my birthday, I wanted something a bit familiar for our special lunch. I chose Pizza Hut. In actuality, I've been planning this special birthday lunch for about six weeks, when we found out that there is a Pizza Hut within walking distance of the seminary. It's not cheap to eat there, so we've been saving up for all this time to have this special treat.
After our (fantastic, outdoor) Spanish class, Liz and I walked out the back gate and down the road, beginning our adventure. It turns out that we were less than prepared for ordering our pizzas in Spanish. It took quite a bit of banter back and forth with the waiter and us to finally order what we wanted -- A large, thick crust pizza, with half cheese only and half Italian Sausage only. There is a possibility that I may have ordered the pizza with one "fear" (miedo) cheese only and one "fear" sausage only, instead of one half (medio) cheese and the other half sausage. After we finally ordered the correct type of pizza, using some Spanish and some hand motions, we had another round of issues trying to order a couple glasses of water. In the end, it took a nearby Costa Rican lady (Silvia) to explain that he was just asking if I also wanted water, and not just Liz. This lady may have only said two sentences to us, but they were the two key sentences that made us finally understand what the waiter was saying. I've named her "My Costa Rican Pizza Hut Birthday Angel." Her real name is Silvia, but I think my title was pretty good too.
It may have just been the struggle required to order, or the exercise it took to walk to Pizza Hut, or maybe Costa Rican Pizza Huts use fresher ingredients, or simply because we're not used to Pizza any more, but it seemed to me that this was the best pizza that I had ever eaten in my life. As we were leaving, a well-dressed man at a nearby table said Thank You (Gracias) to us. We said Thanks back and headed out the door. After about ten steps, I realized that the man was probably the General Manager or something. I felt that I really needed to pass on this Truth, so I went back inside and asked him if he was the boss (I didn't know the word for General Manager, so I just used "boss"). Another guy sitting at the table said that yes, the well-dressed guy is the boss, so I told him that this pizza was the best pizza I had ever eaten in my life. Considering that Pizza Hut isn't exactly a super fancy restaurant, he may have been a little bit surprised. I told him that this was way better than the Pizza Huts in the States. We said thanks again and headed out the door.
It might be a strange post mentioning so much about food, but I think that there is also a life-applicable truth to the whole thing. We've spent the majority of our trip waiting for today. We've planned it and hoped for it, and waited for it, and when the moment actually is here, it's more delicious due to the waiting. I think that much of our trip is like that waiting. As we go through this first couple months of training, we're doing some of the ministry, like teaching English classes and fixing videoconferencing equipment, but most of our work is training for that which is to come. All of this work now is so that we can do even more important work down the road. And all of the waiting and all of the hoping and all the slow trudging now is going to make all of the stuff in the future taste that much more delicious.
Thank you again for your hopes and your prayers and dreaming with us for the future. Thank you for the financial support and encouragement and birthday wishes. Thank you so much for joining with us as we prepare for awesomeness.
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