MEXICO!!!

Wow, what a week! Let me tell you ALL about it:



Friday: Mom and I left for Phoenix at 9 am in our "filled to the gills" van. We were going down early with all the vbs supplies to shop for the food needed for the week. During the 12 hour trip, I memorized 12 verses! One an hour.. haha. It was a very uneventful trip, but not bad. We arrived at our hotel in roasting hot Phoenix at 9 pm.



Saturday: We woke up early, traveled the four hours to Tony's house in Nogales, and unloaded everything. We had lunch with Tony, Darrell and Lisa, and Kay and Victor at Carl's Jr. then headed back to Tucson for our 3 or 4 hours of food shopping at Costco and Food City. After that, we went to another hotel in Green Valley for the night.



Sunday: We woke up kinda early, had a small breakfast, then drove to Nogales. After a delicious brunch at IHOP( our last bit of America for a week :)), we went to Tony's house to meet the 10 other people who had driven down on Saturday. We loaded up, crossed the border and headed to Los Encinos. That was a city where Tony and Maggie's church is located. The guys stayed at the church, while the girls stayed at Lollita's house. After unloading everything at the church and organizing a bit, we drove to Adrienne's church(I think) for our first vbs. With only about 12 kids, it was pretty easy. There was teaching with felts done by Cathy and Yolanda, face painting by Aubrey and Michelle, games by Selah, Job, and Micah, and crafts by my Mom, Lisa, Michelle, Terri, and the rest of us. We, Job, Selah, Terri, Aubrey, Micah, and I also performed a skit for them. When it was finished we went back to the church, ate dinner, and Darrell drove us girls to Lollita's house for the night.
None of us ever want to do a vbs on a sunday again... we need to organize more, plus we need to pass fliers out at the towns at least a day in advance. Every time we had a vbs we had to send runners out to get kids.



Monday: The longest day. We had one vbs in Los Encinos, one in Colosio, and one at another church. The mime team, which I had directed, practiced their mime that day as well. Doug, who was the dad in the mime, couldn't come down to Mexico. Therefore, Rafa, who had seen the mime a number of times and really wanted to do it, filled in. He wasn't perfect of course, but it was really awesome. He has such a good heart.

Tuesday: Another long day. One vbs occurred in Colosio, then we traveled 30 minutes to the women's prison. Here we stayed for 2 or 3 hours, singing, listening to preaching in spanish, and dying of heat. Everyone still loves going there though! I think it's cuz we can see these broken up ladies stuck in prison just worship God with all their hearts. The mime really impacted them too. This was the first year for me not being in the mime in about..... 4 years? So I finally got to see the looks on their faces during the mime. Plus we all got to lay our hands on them and pray for them at the end. It's really amazing. After dinner, we headed up to a men's drug and alcohol rehab center. Sounds scary huh? At first I was just like, "Are you kidding me? I'm not going!!" Then Rafa told us all the men were believers. And oh boy they were. I've never seen guys, old and young, worship God like that. It was outside above the streets where many people could hear their voices. But they didn't care at all, they just lifted their voices as high as they could. That was one of the best parts of the trip. We performed the mime here as well. Micah had gotten stung by a bee and wasn't feeling up to being in the mime. So I took Selah's place, and she took Micah's. It was really cool. And next year I will be in the mime again, cuz I realized how much I love it.

Wednesday: A more restful day. After our last vbs in Los Encinos, we headed down to San Lazaro. The road is more paved every year. It's really cool. Hopefully in a couple years it'll be all done. We arrived there at about 3, unloaded our luggage, chose rooms and beds, then relaxed for a bit. My relaxation was filling candy bags with about 7 Mexican kids that I knew. They didn't even eat it until I said they could. I was surprised. The power and water had been off since the day before due to a storm. So that night.... haha fun times now that I look back on it. We get to the dorm after dinner all ready to get ready for bed... It's pitch black except for a few flash lights, a red, furry, tarantula is crawling in the hallway, a humongous beetle is in a room... Therefore I sleep in the vans with Aubrey, Selah, Mich, Job, and Sunny.

Thursday: A good, but hot day. We had two vbs's, one in Santa Cruz and one in San Lazaro. I face painted, did clown skits, and performed the mime. Not much else went on...

Friday: Our last day. We headed down to Cuitaca for a vbs at about 10 in the morning. Once again, no fliers had been sent out, so no one knew about it. But a couple hours later, due to some people going out and telling kids, 76 kids showed up! How amazing is that!!?? Plus a mom gave us a name of another town where the need vbs next year! Isn't God amazing??? That was a really fun vbs despite the awful heat. Later that night after packing some stuff up, about 5 mexican vineyard churches met together for a celebration in San Lazaro. I loved watching the Mexican people go crazy during worship. And how cool it is that even though we don't know the language we can still go crazy with them! then all of us had supper together.. Jesus didn't multiply the food this time. At the end, my mom was putting out pbj sandwiches. But it was all good.

Saturday: We left early in the morning, stopped at the border for shopping, and left Nogales at about 12. We arrived in Utah the next day at about 10 pm

So all in all it was a good trip. Not my favorite, but not bad at all. Hopefully I didn't bore you too badly. All my pics are on facebook so feel free to check those out! I'm heading off to youth camp on Thursday so pray for us! Thanks. God bless.

My Weekend in Colorado and more...

Last weekend I traveled with Susanna to Lake City, Colorado for the fourth of July to visit Charity, Jordan, and baby Adelaide. It was mucho fun! We walked around town, bought turkey legs, ice cream, coffee and soda, we saw beautiful fireworks, a parade(my favorite was Jordan on the youth float singing Family Force 5), and beautiful Colorado scenery..... It was a very enjoyable weekend and I already miss them. Adelaide is a beautiful baby. I love her red hair, the little noises she makes, and how she falls asleep anywhere. Now I have to wait two more months to see them again, and then who knows after that. But I'll make it don't you worry.

A couple weeks before, I spent with Sarah, Luke, Shalom, and Naomi. They came here for Jeremy's graduation. It was tons of fun. I love those little babies so much! And miss them a ton. I cannot wait for our family reunion in September. That'll be amazing.

Last week Josiah came down from Canada and spent a week with us. That was purty fun, although he beats up on me too much.

Sometimes I wish that all my family would live in Utah, but then I realize that where they all are now is where God has placed them. That makes it better usually. It's really hard though, cuz all the babies that are being born, I'm missing a lot of their lives... and I miss my older siblings who live far away too. I miss being able to talk to them in person instead of on the phone or through the computer... But this is part of God's plan, so I just need to remember that.

Tomorrow I leave for Mexico. My mom and I are going down early to do all the food shopping. We did that last year and it was a blast for both of us. So I'm excited to do it again. Hopefully I can memorize 14 or more verses in 18 hours so that I won't have to memorize down in Mexico.... Did I mention I'm doing a bible bee? I can't remember if I did. Oh well, I did now! Anyway, I'm super duper excited for the whole trip!! Except for the heat that is. It's bad enough here, but it's gotta be way worse down there. Hurray for the rainy season though. I'll probably blog about that when I get back, so until then, have a great week!