The woman I wrote about a couple posts back just had her seventh child, who came about a month premature but seems to be doing alright.

Our college ministries have ended (as their schoolyear has ended) and went very well, as I was involved on the CUAAD campus and we saw growth in breadth and depth of relationships.

My school year has ended on a good note. I got a 3.75 gpa for this semester, but that may later change to a 4.0.

I have direction: I’m going to be in Texas next year on the SAGU campus getting my degree in Theological Studies with minors in Spanish and Missions. God has blessed me with vision to someday open up my own Engage location. I’m not sure how far off that is, but my goal is to be back on the mission field long-term by the time I’m 30. What comes in between, I do not know…and that’s okay.

Since the last writing, I have had three major firsts. My first time leading worship was Easter Sunday, my first time telling the bible story for our children’s ministry (in spanish, of course) was this past Saturday, and my first time preaching at a service was last night. All of those went better than I could have expected, although I learned things to improve on from each one (which is exactly what I wanted).

Finances are horrible. I’m about $6,000 behind where I should be for my year here, I have no idea how I’m going to pay for school next year (I’m already taking out full loans, but without a car in Texas I am very limited in what jobs I can apply for, so I’m hoping to find some work while I’m home for August, be it house-sitting, digging ditches, filing paperwork, whatever it takes to be able to buy a car so I can work my way through school at a good job), and I’m having great difficulty finding scholarships for someone like myself.

My spanish is tremendously improved. I can hold pretty solid conversations with most people and I feel capable of doing most spanish work…last week I translated a message successfully in front of over 600 people.

I fought bulls.

I went paintballing (sorry Adrian).

A while back, I posted about continuing to pray for the campus we took spanish classes at, and to have an impact there. We have. We just sent home a very good friend we made there through soccer and classes. He committed his life to Christ while he was here, and he basically lived with us for the last month. We’re seeing other impacts we’ve made as well. It’s exciting.

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the next few months. I expect to be able to post something substantial every couple weeks, and I’ll try to toss in a few photos and anecdotes. Thanks for reading, caring, praying, and giving. Be blessed.

I think the lack of writing stems from what’s been going on in my life lately (more poignantly: what hasn’t been going on). I went through about a month of spiritual dryness that left me without inspiration, without passion, and without direction. I had nothing flowing through me, and it mostly stemmed from the fact that God had been trying to tell me something for about a month before that, repeatedly, and I’d been calling His voice that of the enemy, blocking it out and actively praying against it (trust me, the irony is not lost on me). Eventually, I guess God decided that since I wasn’t listening (and therefore, I wasn’t obeying), He would cease speaking to and through me. My prayer life was dead. My Bible reading diminished. My relationships around the house were all stressed. My health suffered. Eventually, I got a ton of people to start praying over me and something amazing happened. The thing God had been telling me to do was the first thing I heard in my head. I broke down, sobbing, recognized it as the voice of God, and immediately repented and obeyed. That was the easy part.

That obedience brought about a huge change in my personal life and lead to an outpouring of all that I’d been missing spiritually, which lead to a completely different outlook on our ministries, my time in Mexico, and all the people in my life (two thirds of that is still going strong). That obedience further led to more commands and understanding of things I was doing wrong, which led to more obedience and more outpouring. Now that I’ve confused anyone reading this, I can honestly say that my heart hurts. The problem with obeying, learning, worshiping, etc. for me is that I want everyone else to experience what I’m experiencing, and I try to do the Holy Spirit’s work for Him instead of being faithful and trusting.

Now, I look back on the past few days of judging and being frustrated, and I wonder why I wonder why I feel alienated and alone. How could I not expect that to happen? Today, I spent most of the day fuming over relationships in the house and pitying myself, only to go off to worship practice at my Mexican church (by the way, I joined the worship team, only I’m currently not really doing anything except running the sound board for practice) and sit at the sound board in the back, not talking to anyone for three and a half hours except occasionally being yelled at to change something (which I mostly didn’t understand anyway). Occasionally, I heard people asking the worship leader what my name was so they could yell at me too. How could I expect to feel fellowship when i sit around complaining and grumbling, then go someplace where I’m further isolated by the language barrier and don’t attempt to talk to anyone?

I currently have no direction. I’ve been sticking to my guns about being called to be a college pastor and then a senior pastor, but I’m realizing more and more that those are just things I felt would fit very well. The only true callings I’ve ever genuinely heard or felt were to go do missions in Holland and that being second in command in a church is in my future. I have no idea what I’m doing right now, but I feel more and more like God has something in store for me that I’m not expecting. Normally, that excites me. Right now, it drives me crazy.

I’m also feeling useless right now. Most of my strengths lie in discipleship, counseling, speaking, and singing. Guess what four things I don’t get to do here? You’d expect some of that from the language barrier, but I feel it in the house more and more. For the most part, people don’t want to hear what I have to say. I see it in meetings, in daily life, in ministries, everywhere. When I pipe up, someone else either talks over me or people just roll their eyes. Usually, I have one person who consistently listens to me, but the ratio is just overwhelming. (Note: this is about students. I feel like most of the time our leaders do a very good job of listening to everyone).

I suppose that’s enough complaining for one night.

On the bright side, our ministries are flourishing, my prayer life is improved beyond belief, and my passion for the people of Mexico is greater than it has ever been. I want so badly to see people all across the world accept the hope and promise that comes with a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want to be a part of that, and that’s something I’ve never really had this same passion for. I guess I’m finally understanding the way God feels on this level.

If anyone reading this could pray for direction, wisdom, and peace in my life, I would greatly appreciate it. If you could pray for unity in our house and for Jesus to be shown through our actions, words, and our hearts, I think I’d appreciate that even more. Finances are also extremely low for me, but that’s normal at this point.

Yes, that sums it up nicely, I think. The last point to me is the most poignant, and the most frustrating. We’ve been on that campus for four months in a controlled environment with a captive audience of international students and professors and we simply don’t have the fruit to show for it that we should have. Perhaps that’s because we only started seriously considering it a mission field over the last month, not really praying for the campus or the students or the professors until recently. Perhaps it’s because we didn’t invest fully into the lives of other students there until the last month or so. Either way, we’re fixing both and we won’t be forgetting.

Loree (one of my housemates) has a beautiful vision for a revival to break out on the giant plaza on the campus, shown below. I’ve been playing soccer with international students twice a week and I get to continue doing that for quite some time, thankfully. Other students are joining the theater club, volleyball, and playing ultimate frisbee. We have several students coming over to our house for the Superbowl this weekend, as well. We’re building relationships, casting vision, and praying fervently and frequently for everything about this place.

Not a big update tonight, and not exactly prose, but I just wanted to mark the end of this time as a transition, rather than with a mark of finality.

Panorama shot of UAG

• My first Sunday back in town, I spoke at Solid Rock Family Worship Center, where I have friends and a new section of my church family. They listened intently as I spoke for about ten minutes about our established ministries, our Hell House event, and what we hope to accomplish in the coming years in Guadalajara. God truly is moving in Guadalajara and it was evident that this church now has a heart for the “heart of darkness.” They gave a very generous offering, covering an entire month of my budget. Additionally, several people declared their intention to give regularly over the coming months, which is how most of my funding works anyway. One woman even offered to send Christmas presents to all of our El Colli kids. I was very blessed to spend time at Solid Rock and I am looking forward to giving them regular updates

• Also in that first week, I set up a new email system on the website so people can auto-subscribe to the monthly newsletter I’ll be sending out. If you’d like monthly updates, please enter your name and email on the right side of the page.

• On December 9th, I finished my first semester back in college. I cannot fully describe how good it feels to be done with semester number one. About a week later, I got my grades: a 3.25 gpa. While that isn’t as good as I’d prefer, I suppose I’ll keep in mind just how much I was adjusting to. I expect higher grades in the future, but I’ll be content for now.

• I have a girlfriend for the first time in over four years!  The young woman I am now dating is named Anna. She’s a beautiful and compassionate daughter of God who is a teacher at a local Christian school. I am absolutely beside myself with joy at having found her. Obviously I could go on forever about her, but I’m keeping all of these updates brief, so I suppose I should stay consistent. I’ll post a picture of us at the bottom of this entry.

• I went swing-dancing last night. I never expected to enjoy it as much as I did, but I think I want to pick it up when I come back to Yakima permanently.

• I’ve had dinner at the houses of two prospective Engage students. Both were wonderful dinners filled with poignant questions, great laughs, and gregarious stories. I think both would be excellent candidates for Engage and recommended strongly that they both seriously pursue the program. Honestly, I would recommend this experience for just about every Christian high school graduate. So many aspects of it are beneficial for the age group and it’s a phenomenal learning environment.

• I had my first Reuben. It was delicious. I did not expect to like it, since I’ve never liked rye and never tried sauerkraut, but I was blown away. That’s a delicious sandwich.

• I’m buying a Mac. It just makes too much sense when I’m moving into graphics work, starting musical composition, and potentially doing video editing. I know, I know. I never thought I’d make the switch, but I’m in.

• I discovered that I lost inches while I was in Mexico. I’m actually noticeably thinner. I guess that’s a good start, but I’m still not where I’d like to be.

• I learned how to do drywall. I know, this isn’t exactly something you’d normally write about, but it was actually pretty exciting. Over the last week I’ve been working with a friend who is a general contractor and I’ve learned a lot of things that will come in handy when I have my own house someday, since repairing things is one of my favorite things to do and doing it myself is way cheaper than hiring someone else.

• I miss speaking Spanish. I never thought I’d say that. I’m very much looking forward to picking it back up.

• I received some very exciting news regarding my future as a pastor. It’s confidential for now and in the very very infantile stages, but I’ll be praying on it constantly and looking forward to whatever develops.

• Tomorrow Anna and I are driving over the pass after church to be with the Diehls for a few days. I’m not sure if I’m speaking at church at all, since nobody ever got back to me on that, but I would love the opportunity if it presents itself, since my funding is terribly low and nobody really knows what we’re doing or how to help. I’ll be praying about that tonight as well.

I think that’s it for now. As promised, the picture of Anna and I:

Anyway, I suppose I should recount the hilarity that always seems to accompany me on my traveling adventures.

At 1am on December 1st, I left our house. Richie, Jen, and Rachel accompanied me in our van after the three of them had spent a good chunk of the day arguing over who would get to take me. Eventually, we realized that Steve had the truck keys, so we had to take the van, which meant everyone could fit and we could have a grand adventure. Being an adventure, we all simultaneously decided to adopt outrageous accents. After “freerunning” around the Wallmart parking lot, we finally headed off to the bus station, where I managed to speak clearly and thoroughly in Spanish with the ticket agent. I was a bit stunned. Maybe I should always be exhausted when I’m trying to speak Spanish.

I purchased my bus ticket to Puerto Vallarta for the 1:40am bus, then sat down with the three hooligans for a while before they realized I’d be perfectly fine without them there (to be honest, I was sad when they left and had very little to do).  I hopped onto my bus and settled in for a nap that never came. I tried to sleep. I was sleepy. I was sitting in a very comfortable chair. The bus was quiet and incredibly smooth-driving. There was one issue, however. The bus was at least 90 degrees. Seriously, the bus driver must have blown right past “heat” on the dial and right on into the “fiery pits of hell” setting. So how hot was it? I’ll tell you how hot it was. It was so hot, I stripped down naked and put ice packs all over my body and was still sweating. It was so hot, the demons left everyone on the bus and retreated to Hell for some reprieve. It was so hot…ok, so it wasn’t THAT hot. But I was still sweating so badly that I couldn’t sleep. Not my favorite way to start a 27 hour journey.

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta around 6:15am. It was still dark. After grabbing my luggage (I packed light enough that I only had a backpack and a carry-on), I sauntered up to a group of cabbies and asked where the best breakfast on the beach was. They all gave different answers, so I went with the one who described the food the best (story-tellers know food, am I right?). We meandered through the beautiful buildings and palm-lined parkways until we finally arrived at a dead end that was about 20 feet from the beach. Then I discovered I only had 50 pesos, so we had to scoot over to an atm. I think he expected me to bolt, but I paid his full fair of course (the guy did swindle me a bit, but he was getting me to beachfront and delicious food, so I let it slide).

That’s when I found out that nobody was open until 7:30, and there was no way I could afford those restaurants. And the beach was dark. And cold. And rainy. I still got to stare out for a while admiring the absolute creativity and beauty involved in God’s creating this earth. Seriously, He knew what He was doing, and it was done well. Eventually, after being soaked in a combination of sweat, sea water, and rain, I decided to find a bus to the airport. I had to ask a few bus drivers, but I finally found the spot to wait at and got on the right bus.

I waltzed over to the Mexicana check-in and had a nice 15 minute conversation with the lonely attendant. We talked international politics, the greater ramifications of life decisions, the meaning of life, and Jesus. It was nice. Then a family finally showed up and I noticed they were speaking in both Spanish and English. Seeing as how we all had to wait for the security personnel to arrive before we could proceed with our day, I struck up conversation in Spanish with the dad (Rogelio). We talked a little bit about Spanish and my purpose in Mexico before I asked where they were headed for vacation. He then replied that they had just finished their vacation and were now headed back home in the States. I asked where they were from. He said Washington. I asked where at in Washington. He said Yakima. I said no way. I said I lived on Naches Avenue and Martin Luther King. He asked why I lived in such a bad area, then said they were actually from Sunnyside.

We eventually found out that they were headed through Mexico City, then Phoenix, then Seattle, whereas I was flying Mexico City, Dallas, Seattle. The security guy finally showed up and we separated for an hour or so. I had some breakfast, read some of Hebrews and Romans, then headed to Starbucks to sneak a wireless signal for my computer. There, I met a couple guys from Chicago who were having trouble getting in touch with their hotel, so I looked up a phone number for them.

When I headed over to the gate for my flight, I reunited with the Sunnyside family and asked if they knew how to get onto the airport shuttle from Seatac to Yakima. Instead of answering me, they decided they wanted to drive me home after their flight got in. I was floored. God provides in such creative ways.

The flight from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City was mostly uneventful. I sat with an empty seat between myself and a really nice kid who plays soccer for a second division club in Mexico, but who spent two years playing at San Diego State University. We talked a lot about soccer, California, future business planning, and Jesus. We talked about laying up treasure in Heaven instead of on earth, but at the same time being responsible stewards of what God has put into our hands. It was very beneficial for him, as by the end of the conversation he’d decided to go back to school and make sure he had a plan for life after soccer.

I met a few really delightful people in Mexico City. One was a girl from Tyler, Texas who sat next to me in the airport. The other was a British girl who grew up in Holland, but was now flying from deep in Southern Mexico after studying political corruption (she’s a social geography major) and taking a trip to a rural part of Argentina to study there for a couple weeks. The British girl had sat across from me while I was sitting down at my gate, reading and listening to music. I couldn’t help but notice her awesome shoes (they had a monster from Where the Wild Things Are) and made a comment. She blushed and said thank you. Then we both went back to what we were doing. She ended up sitting next to me on the plane (with an empty seat between us. I have no idea how I managed to get that arrangement twice), so we talked the whole way from Mexico City to Dallas. I remember one moment in particular where we both looked out the window down onto the clouds as we were skimming across the tops of them. The sun was just dipping beneath them, illuminating each particle in brilliant shades of orange, red, purple, pink, and yellow, while the moon was rising in a crystal blue sky, full and bright. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

When we finally landed in Dallas, it was night, cold, and rainy. We had plans to meet up for dinner on the other side of customs, but I never found her. It was a bit sad, but then I remembered I had a US phone I very badly needed to check. Life got busy at that point. Texts, tweets, voicemails, calls, you name it. I had a lot of catching up to do.

The flight from Dallas to Seattle finally caught up with me. It was a packed flight and neither of the people I sat between was in the mood to talk, so I just watched UP! on the in-flight movie. I really liked it. It was cute. We touched down in Seattle around 10:45pm. (Accounting for the two hour time difference, 11pm ushered in hour 24 of travel and hour 40 of being awake.) The Sunnyside family landed at 10:57, so I met up with them at their baggage claim, we hopped in a hotel shuttle, hopped in their car, and headed home. After getting lost several times, the dad finally took my directions and we got onto the freeway. That’s when the mom started asking me everything there is to know about the differences between Mexican Catholicism and Assemblies of God doctrines. I must say, that was an absolutely wonderful conversation and it kept us all awake until we got to Yakima and dropped me off at Wallmart, where Kim and Thayne picked me up about 10 seconds after the family drove away. The timing was impeccable. It was still at 3:15am though, so I was tired.

They took me back to Thayne’s place and he and I stayed up watching some ridiculous tv show called Tim and Erik Awesome Show Great Job. It was absolutely hilarious and we stayed up watching that and wasting time with our laptops open until after 5am. It was a delightful way to end an amazing trip.

Now I’m here in Yakima and staying at a different friend’s house for the remainder of my time here. I’m pretty sure I found a job for while I’m here, I get to speak at a church this Sunday, and I have a bit of homework to finish while balancing time with many many friends and families here. I love this life.

For the Halloween weekend, we completely transmogrified (thank you, Calvin & Hobbes) our youth center into the set for a 5 act drama, wherein we depicted the errant life of a Mexican teenage boy who, instead of going to church, goes to a party, gets crunk, crashes his car, dies, goes to judgment, and is sent to Hell. The storyline also included a funeral, but that obviously didn’t have our main character doing anything. The set took hours upon hours, over a week to set up and we ended up opening late our first night so we could finish everything last minute.

My role was originally going to change each night, but due to unforeseen scheduling complications and the fact that Brittany simply doesn’t make a passable silhouette for God, I was a party participant and God every single night. Because there were two very short scenes between the long party scene and long judgment scene, I had to run out of the party and around the entire youth center to get to my position before the group came in. A couple times, I didn’t make it in time, which ended up being pretty comical.

We had a great many hiccups throughout the weekend, which to me signifies that the enemy didn’t like what we were doing. Instead of getting down and broken, though, our entire team managed to keep spirits up, devise quick solutions, and laugh about everything.

hiccups:
The curtain hiding God (and also showing His silhouette) fell. Repeatedly. Every day except the last.
The lights going out on the Judgment scene.
Music/ipods missing, starting at the wrong times, playing the wrong tracks. Every night.
Not being in place on time.
Bottles breaking in the party scene.
Lightbulbs breaking all the time.
The power went out one night.
Rowdy kids.
Hannah got egged at the entrance door. Also, she’s slightly crippled right now and had to be the bouncer.
Physical, mental, and spiritual exhaustion.

Solutions:
We bought tape. We bought other tape. We finally drilled to nails into the ceiling and strung up the curtain. One night, there was no taping it, so we wrapped me in it for every group after I ran in from the party scene. This was by far the most ridiculous hiccup.
We figured out that it was just going to keep happening, since the only place we could plug in the lights was poorly placed. I just plugged it back in after each scene, but the first one was a scramble.
We laughed. What else could you do?
Samesies here.
Played it off like it was a real party and gave the person a hard time, then swept it up between groups.
We gathered up all the broken lightbulb glass and put it at the car crash. Nice touch.
There was no power on the whole block, so we prayed for God to reveal His power and that we needed no light aside from His, that if we had to change our story to whatever story He wrote for us, we would be willing and happy to do so. We then started preparing to do the night without power, but when Matt and Mike went home to get all the backup supplies, the power company showed up and made it happen.
Hannah is straight up a champion. I have no idea how she did it, but she kept kids from stampeding, killing each other, or killing her, all the while yelling and singing and entertaining them in Spanish for four nights. She was amazing.
Prayer.

We had a ton of friends throughout the city helping us out on various nights. Jensen played Satan one night, Isai supplied us with party music he made, Adrian stuck it out with us all four nights in the party room and in post-Hell prayer, Uriel helped with partying and prayer, Alina was a guide for a couple nights and the sister of the main character two other nights, Brittany helped us party, pastors showed up to help with prayer, even one of our Spanish teachers showed up one night. Oh yeah, and God kinda helped us out I guess.

Some of the most entertaining moments were due to groups interacting with us at the party scene and, from what I heard, in Hell with our demons and Satan. However, the best moments for me were during setup and prayer each night. We came together as a group, many of us not initially believing this would be successful, and threw our full support and our whole hearts into the project. We knew that if even one person over the four nights was reached and transformed and came to know God intimately through a new relationship with Jesus Christ, then our efforts were well worth it.

Setup and makeup for the demons cracked me up every single night. Initially, Loree was our only makeup artist. As the second night drew near to the opening, we discovered that there was yet much to be done. What happened at that point? Oh yes, you guessed correctly. I joined the makeup crew. Here’s a little-known (I usually like to keep it that way, but this is worth spilling here) secret about my past: my sister and I went through modeling classes, including makeup application, lighting, commercial spots, and runway stuff when we were kids. I managed to retain all of that information and, coupling it with what I learned in theater in high school (where I was the only straight guy who could do both my own and other guys’ makeup), I set to work making Mike terrifyingly beautiful. He looked like Heath Ledger’s Joker, no joke. This guy looked terrifying every night. On the second night, I put a hole in the middle of his throat –complete with dripping blood– on top of the cheek scars and generally horrific demon look. On our final night, Loree was getting frustrated and was exhausted, so I ended up finishing everyone’s makeup after she got the base stuff on them all. I have been trying not to boast lately, but they looked fantastic. Rachel, Jen, and Justin all looked awesome (HUGE assist from Stacia, Rachel, and Katlyn on making Justin into an incredibly stunning Satan), but Mike was my pride and joy. I slit his neck with makeup. No joke, it looked like someone had slit his neck and let it scab over, but that it had opened up and dripped in a few spots. I think this is the best art I’ve ever done, oddly.

I just spent over 1100 words not telling you the most important parts of the Hell House (La Casa del Terror) experience, so here’s the good stuff. I expected maybe 20 kids a night. We had 106, 102, 106, and 126 people on four nights. I didn’t know if anyone would give their lives to Christ. Our count showed 294 people praying for their salvation over the weekend. We handed out 400 Spanish Bibles to a neighborhood in desperate need of hope. When we heard the final tallies, I broke down. I was blowing snot bubbles while tears streamed down my face, and all the while, I laughed. The Lord filled me with such joy that He would be so gracious as to use us in such a way. I, a sinner for sure, was no more deserving of His grace and mercy than any of the people I met that weekend, yet He used me to reach them and establish His relationship with them, expanding His Kingdom.

After those four nights, after the previous two weeks, we were dead tired. And yet, as much as we all wanted to go home and sleep for a week, we knew the hard work had just begun. The Great Commission of Matthew 28:18b-20a says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” It doesn’t say “get people to say a simple prayer and then return to living exactly as they have.” Jesus tells us to make disciples, to baptize, to teach. That means that our work is just beginning, and that we have an incredible task ahead of us. It’s time to get to work.

Ministered to tons of kids through song, dance, and helping with the day’s Bible story (I was a discus champion, and I was good at it)

Handled a parent’s questions in Spanish by myself (and figured out who her kids were)

Discovered that being called “Gordito” by the local kids is, in fact, not offensive here (I’m still not sure I believe that)

Lashed out in a passive-aggressive manner towards people yelling nonstop in the study room (I apologized later and I should have handled my need for quiet in a more tactful fashion)

Ate a lot of honey-roasted peanuts and hershey’s kisses. (I truly think this might be the best combination of snack foods)

Wrote a paper on an amazing book (the paper is below, and significantly less impressive than the book)

Admired Seth’s and Baby Henry’s incredible costumes (Baker In Training for Seth, Pooh and a Pumpkin for Baby Henry)

Had a great chat with a mentor (although part of it was more hilarious than mentor-mentee relationship)

Ate amazing food, all throughout the day. (Home-baked goodies, tomato basil soup, baked potatoes, yum)

Did the best makeup job I have ever done for Mike’s demon outfit (Seriously, he looked Joker-esque)

Complained about the egregious lack of good tape in this country (I honestly have no idea how they hold their stuff together without the glory of duct tape)

Continually ran back and forth between a fake party and the Judgment Seat, where I then draped myself in a sheet that wouldn’t stay up (due to lack of good tape) so I could play God

Met a couple of very cool new people and got to practice my Spanish in a long car ride around 1am. (They said I spoke very well!)

Had a very healthy and helpful chat with a very good friend on the way back from that long car ride. (I’d been looking forward to this particular conversation for a while)

After the service, everyone changed into swimsuits and gathered in one of the lower pools. There, Rodolfo baptized 7 people, much to the delight of all involved. It was a very exciting way to take a huge step of obedience for all of these people, and it was an incredibly lively and supportive group. I was absolutely blessed to be a part of this.

After hanging out in the pools for a while, we all migrated towards the food, which was plentiful and flavorful. There was pollo molé, a marlin dish, tons of fresh fruit, and a delicious pasta salad. On top of all of that, there was a pastor’s wife trying to feed me until I popped. This was one of those times they trained us for, where you smile, say gracias, and eat everything they put on your plate or in your glass. It hurt. It hurt so good.

After stuffing our faces with food, everyone decided to jump back in the pools for a a few hours of some bizarre version of volleyball, wherein Rodolfo decided to announce every move that was going on. It was hilarious. Also entertaining was everyone’s reaction to my lack of participation. I didn’t feel like swimming today and I don’t particularly enjoy swimming in pools, so I didn’t join. Daniel’s mom kept trying to hit it by me to entice me to jump in out of reaction, but it never did work.

After a few hours of doing nothing, the three of us headed back over the hills, but took our time so we could stop and take tons of pictures of all the great views and interesting stuff, including random Mexican cowboys in the mountains herding cattle off the crazy road.

The whole adventure put several different thoughts into my head. Principally, I started thinking about how we need to celebrate the rebirth that baptism symbolizes. Honestly, we put on some pomp and circumstance and make a production out of it, but is that genuine? Is that true celebration? Are we honestly rejoicing in the progression and the obedience people are displaying and committing to? Another thing I thought today was how truly evident God’s creativity is everywhere we go. How do we miss it every day? How are we constantly ignorant of it? I pray that I would keep my eyes and heart open to see the evidence of God everywhere I go.

After we got home, Stacia and I laid around in the living room doing homework and complaining about being hungry for sweets. We finally found Katlyn and asked her where the remnants of the no-bake cookies were. After we scarfed those, we set to work finishing our reading, lectures, and an assignment (we actually turned an assignment in over a week before it’s due!).

Eventually hanging out in the living room caught up to us in the form of everyone in the house gathering around us and making noise, making studying impossible. We all decided to go to Plaza del Sol, where we ate Pizza Hut (or, as I call it now: Pizza Butt) and some extremely stale pastries. After running around trying to find everyone by yelling Marco Polo, Richie and Jen decided to soap all the fountains in the whole plaza. It was not very successful, but we got a lot of funny pictures and we had a great time.

Now we’re back at home trying to organize a game of Mafia that just won’t work. Everyone’s complaining and laughing at each other and I’m just sitting in the corner as a witness to this calamity. I’ll add some pictures to this post as I get my hands on them.