My Confused Self

Hello all, sorry about my long delay between posts. I have felt very uninspired as of late. But I figured that I had better write about SOMETHING, so here you go.

On Sunday, I was with Atalie and Kayla. We were walking/running to her house after Journey. We stopped to swing around some stop signs and other such objects, and on one of these, I banged my right knee. It hurt for about two minutes, then was fine. But the next morning, my LEFT knee hurt really bad, and my right knee was fine!!!! What is up with that? I even have a small bruise to prove I really did hit my right knee, not my left. So at tennis, I basically had to hop around whenever I wanted to run. I could run if I wanted to, but it just kinda hurt. So there you have it, the story of how confused my body is! I bang one knee, and the other one hurts. hmmm...oh yeah, I also have something very sad to say. TENNIS ENDS TODAY!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Plus, it looks like our last practice might get rained out. again I say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! At least tennis club will start soon!

Mexico again

Hello all,
As you know, I just returned from my first Mexico mission trip! Without a doubt, this was one of my best Easter vacations ever. So that you are not left wondering what on earth I did while down there, I will attempt to summarize my week as best I can.

The ride down was very long and loud. And when I say loud, I mean ‘crazy seniors in the back of the bus’ loud. But I managed to survive the long journey. Thankfully, the only real mishap we had was when a tire on the trailer carrying most of our stuff went flat. No bus breakdowns! Yay!
We arrived in Mexico Saturday afternoon. This left us enough time to do some shopping. The first stop was a bunch of tents and stalls filled with interesting little souvenirs and tidbits. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and had to leave before I had bought anything but a bracelet for Michelle. Oh well, there is always next year.
Sunday we went to a sunrise service at the church in Ejido Puebla. We had to leave the hotel at five, so our room had to get up at around three thirty in order to leave enough time to get ready. AUGH!! The service was good. (we had a translator) After the first service, they gave us all breakfast, which was also good. Then at around ten o’clock we had either Sunday school then a service, or the other way around…I forget. The rest of the afternoon we spent getting to know the kids. My friend Atalie and I made friends with a cute little girl named Fernanda. It was kinda sad though, because for the rest of the week we would be in Colonia Polvora, and wouldn’t get to see her anymore. That evening we had lots of time to spend at the hotel, and I was able to witness (from a safe distance) a few people get thrown into the pool. Despite my brothers threats, I never did get thrown in. (Whew!)
Monday was our first day of VBS. I was on the drama team. Our first day was really hectic, since no one was really sure of what to do, and the order we did things didn't work out too well. The different events we did were: singing, drama, games, crafts, snack, puppets, Chadder the Chipmunk video and Bible lesson. Several of the adults worked on putting tiles in some showers at the church the whole week while everyone else helped with VBS, then played with the kids in the afternoons. Let me tell you, the heat was SCORCHING!!! But we managed all right. At this village, I became friends with another cute little girl named Myra. There was something not quite right with her legs, because she used crutches half of the time, then sort of hopped and limped the other half. But she was very sweet and managed to play all the games the other little girls were playing. That evening we set up a movie in the nearby park and invited people to watch. Despite several technical problems, it got set up eventually and everyone enjoyed watching it. After the movie, the pastor of the church we were at preached for about en minutes, and we passed out tracts.
Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty much the same. We worked out the VBS schedule and things ran more smoothly. My Spanish continued to be horrible and the heat continued to be very hot. We also had chapel in the evenings. On Wednesday night, we all went to Chinese food for dinner. Some of it was pretty good, especially the fried rice. It was kind of funny, since this was my second time eating Chinese food in Mexico.
Thursday was our last day. *tear* After VBS, we had to quickly pack up all our stuff and head over to Ejido Puebla to set up for the carnival. We did it in Ejido since it is bigger than Colonia. I was running a game where you try to toss the balls into the buckets. We had everything set up in one large building, and with the heat, the dust and the noise from a couple hundred kids, I felt just about ready to drop once everything was finished. Not to mention that the little balls the kids were throwing bounced everywhere and either I or the other guy working the game had to run around picking up the balls. But all the kids looked like they were having fun, so it was worth it. After cleaning up and taking a break, we went in to the evening service and saw three of the guys from our church get baptized. After this, there was nothing left to do but to hang out with the kids and relax till we went back to the hotel.
The ride back wasn’t much different from the ride there, except it took longer to cross the border. And finally we were back. The whole week seemed like it had just flown by, and I already found myself looking forward to next year.
So there you have it, a brief summary of my trip to Mexico!!!

Me And Fernanda

I will post more pictures later. I have to do math right now. :(