God is good!

this morning i didn´t get to school until right before the bell rang, but one of my friends told me there were two letters for me. and i saw a tall white male with a nice camera (what i was really focusing on) that i kind of recognized. when amy gave me the two letters she said some man was asking for me and said he worked with my cousin and brought them... i put two and two together and realized it was one of jan´s coworkers from EMM who was coming here and she sent them along! what a great way to start my day!

spanish classes are going well so far.. sometimes i feel like everything is way over my head and other times it feels too easy cause all we do is play games (like memory)to review simple verbs. but my spanish IS improving and will continue to do so which is important. my teacher´s birthday was yesterday so i gave her a card (found your hidden school picture mom.. thanks!) and we had flowers for her and sang. she was so surprised. her name is albertina and i really like her. she is super energetic and keeps the classroom fun. there´s only two other students besides me.. two girls. we have spanish homework every night on top of our reading.. so i think this is the most studious i´ve ever been (no comments, sarita)!

last night i went to bed at 930pm and woke up at 7 but still felt pretty tired. it is nice to get a lot of sleep though. this afternoon we don´t have a group activity so i am in the internet cafe with amy and then we´re going to get icecream at a ´store´ called sarita! i can´t wait. it hasn´t been that hot here, and it´s actually been kind of cloudy.. so no tan to speak of yet. but it´s nicer than the weather back home! sorry guys..

every day after school when i get home i race my little brother up the stairs. naturally he always wins. he laughs the entire time. it´s fun and gets me some of my daily exercise. my mom lives really close to casas so we´ve been walking in the mornings which takes about 10 minutes. i´m so glad i´m able to do that. i love getting the fresh (though not always fresh) air and getting some exercise. it reminds me of my walks at home with my mom!

one neat experience happened monday night when my mom and i went to a church meeting of hers and then to a soccer game and dinner with her best friend michelle. at the church meeting they were bringing their passions and new ministry ideas to the table. my mom talked about how she has a burden on her heart for single mothers (she is one) and she wants to start a ministry for them. it was so neat to hear her talking about it and made me appreciate her a lot. i´ve wanted to ask about why she is a single mom or what the situation is but i´m not sure how sensitive it is or if that´s rude to bring it up so soon. i think i will wait for a while, but it made my heart so full to at least see that she has a desire to use her experience to help others.

later that night at dinner her friend michelle left to answer the phone (her dad owns the restaurant) and ishi started talking to me in english. i was kind of confused at first cause i wasn´t expecting it. she told me about some struggles her friend is having with relationships and that ishi is trying to be with her a lot and show her what a healthy and Godly relationship is like. she said that´s why i would be seeing a lot of her. at dinner her friend michelle said she doesn´t believe in ´all that God stuff´ anymore, and later ishi talked to me about that (in english) and said it makes her sad cause they grew up together and she doesn´t understand how someone could really mean that. this experience also made me appreciate ishi more because it showed me part of her concern and love for her friends and that she desperately wants to help. it made me feel a little closer to her because i have felt similar things in some of my own friendships. it also made me think about the language barrier... i was glad she talked to me in english about it cause i could actually understand her. i do want to improve my spanish and talk to her in spanish as much as i can.. but i feel like at the end of this experience, i would rather come to know ishi better as a person and connect with her on deeper levels (even if those conversations have to happen in english sometimes) than to leave having improved my spanish but feeling kind of distant. we will see what the rest of my time with her brings.

now it´s time for some ice cream!
happy wednesday everyone.
Gracias a Dios por sus bendiciones (Thanks be to God for his blessings)!