I'm Here

Hola!  We are in the city and are doing well! Ít has been a great time, and we have already tried so many new things! 1. Lomo Saltada (a beef dish with frech fries, onions, and tomatos) 2. Inca Kola (a peruvian soda that tastes like cream soda, yum!) 3. Pavo wich is arguably duck (we couldn´t decide though because pato is duck and we might have eaten something else¨) 4. a motor cycle taxi (wich when cramped fits 3 okay, we had four in one :) We are busier during the days and explore more often in the evenings. We will be three weeks out and one week in while we are here so this is our first week in. I was excited to hear that the internet comes with where we are staying! So I should be able to keep in good contact for a whole week while we´re here.  We are yet to get over being excited to be here and no one is sick... yet :)

Oh and one more thing, something funny happend today, while we were hanging out in our rooms one of my friends came in and we were all talking and he said ´guys be quiet. He said we need to put our clothes in our bags and get out of the hotel and on the street because they´re spraying for dengue. (which is rare) so we husseled and put our things away then hurried out just as a guy dressed like a gost buster came in and blew stuff around. we were then informed that it would be a half hour before we could again enter our residence (which is quite accomodating) and we went to supper then :) a rather fun adventure that i regretfully did not take a picture of... any way love you!

okay this is another letter written on monday the 24th.  We leave today to take a 30 hour boat ride on a boat with 700 people... this could be interesting. I will be gone for three to four weeks and we are not planing on staying for a whole week next time, but it all depends on how we feel. I am certain that all is going well for you all.  I will be trying to take good notes and detailed journal entrys to be able to remember important events while I am gone.

Things I will be missing, the breakfast and juices here are amazing... i´m not sure if i will have them for the next three weeks. also, running water, fans, electricity, easy transportation, food that we do not need to cook. and other such things. also the very sweet little girls that remind me of kallen and lincoln... i´ll miss them too... Things i will not miss the noisy city, the yucky sewage smells at times among other things. :) no one is sick yet so that is very nice.:) They have many things in the city that we can buy if we need things which is very very convenient. I will not be writing again for at least three weeks.   We are excited to learn about nature and people.

Overview in Photos

My favorite boots? You bet!

Some pictures of San Fransisco

We walked about (no less than) seven miles on streets like these...

These are what I call the potato mountains.. right? they look like potatoes! Arizona

this is our assent of Squaw Peek

inside a divot on the potato mountains

Phoenix below squaw peek

sunrise from the top followed by racing the sun down.

20 miles in less than 24 hours in New Mexico = fun but exhausting adventure

These are a few highlights of the year I hope to have more to share later!

I have not included all the great adventures I've had with family over the past month! I love you all!

PRESSING ON

This packing has been quite a process, I am quite exited to be leaving shortly, but I often feel as though I will be leaving behind something very important. It's a rather scary concept. But I know that I will have everything I need and all else is just a luxury. It is amazing to see how little we truly NEED in comparison to how much we often have. I fear that we have grown accustom to such lives of luxury that we often forget what is luxury and what is necessity. I cannot wait to embark on this journey I will miss everyone here but I know that the best is yet to come when there will be no more crying, no hurt or pain. I'm living for that day. My thoughts are with you as I know this life is difficult and tedious at times I hope you always remember what is important in this life, and what means nothing in the end.

If my blogs no longer sound like the person you've known me to be, know that I am no longer in charge of posting these things and may begin to sound much cornier than I usually am. :] But I will miss these sunsets at home :)

One Look Before I Leap

It has been far too long since my last entry and for that I am sorry. I have been very blessed with a very good year of college and am so thankful for everything that i've learend this year! I am very excited to take a year off of school and learn about the culture in South America! This whole school year has been a year of learning that no matter what happens everything will be alright because we are all taken care of and cared for more than we could ever imagine or know. If hardships should come if I am comfortable or sleeping on a concrete floor in freezing weather it will all be ok. How comforting it is to know that no matter what happens it is not about me and what i want but about bringing ultimate glory to our Father. I cannot wait to explore a new country and discover the unknown cultures and customs of the people there. As well as learn about the plants and the habitat there. I hope I will be privileged to make friends with the people there and that we can exchange stories. I hope that we will learn a lot from each other and that I will not portray a bad image of Americans but that I will set a good example when we should come into contact with people. Please think a lot about me as I go there. That my friends will be safe, that we would have a great experiance exchanging stories and hopefully build a good relationship with a different culture. That we will be good examples and show what America is really about. This year has been difficult and I have been so glad to make it through all of my classes having learned so much and growing stronger and closer to my Best Friend day by day. I will be thinking about you often and will hope that you have a great beginning to this new year. I hope that all you do will be for all the right reasons and The right cause. With love.
SDG

one life one love to save us

Well, it has been quite a while since I last wrote and I am in fact one year older. I hope I am also wiser. I've been asked to give an updated list of things to think about.
One of the biggest things is team unity. As I'll be living in tight quarters with a group for a while under some stressful situations we will need help to continue to cooperate well with each other.
Personally that I would remain focused on what I'm here for. That I would not waste the time given to me that I would grow to be a mature leader who takes initiative.
That I would be given direction for what I am to do for certain in the year to come.
I have been blessed to have raised all of the money that was needed for tuition! For that I am thankful!
That I would learn to thrive under pressure and stress as well as during normal circumstances. Nothing is too big with the right help.
This is just a quick list and is by no means exhaustive. Also the people that we will be working with that they would be open and not afraid of us. Thank you all for your thoughts. It means a lot! I'll try to post some pictures and such soon!

I forgot to blog the cool thing that Dad did for me later that day. So I had finished at the restaurant and joined the others at an apartment which took ALL DAY to clean. At the end of the day I was the last to leave at five o'clock. I grabbed all of my things and began the normal search through my huge purse for my keys. I couldn't find them and I remembered that I had set them on the counter earlier that day. I went to the counter and looked everywhere, but the keys were no where to be found!
Now, I must pause to tell you how important these keys were. These were not just keys to one apartment but the master keys for every apartment complex that belongs to my boss! It would be a GREAT miss fortune to lose these keys!
I began frantically searching through everything. In the trash, in the mopping bucket, under and in my car, and every where else I could imagine. I traced my steps all the way back to the restaurant I had worked at earlier that day. All I could do was ask Dad continually to help me find these keys. I said "I know you're in control and are trying to teach me something, but please let it be learned quickly and end in the finding of these keys!!!" All of this asking was to no avail... My heart sunk as the only other thing I could think of was to call one of my bosses. The phone rang and I heard him pick up "Hello?" he said. "Hello, um... yes hi.. well um I uh.. I seem to have misplaced the keys..." He quickly jumped in with "Oh, I know where they are!" Incredulously I asked "you do?!" "Yeah, Luke ended up with an extra set of keys, they're in the office, you can pick them up Monday"
Yes, my Dad is so good :) I'm still not sure if I was really supposed to learn something from that, but I do know that I will be keeping the keys much closer and not on a counter.

Well, I thought that my first blog entry should be a story about how rediculously hard I like to make life some times. :) As some of you may know,I have been blessed with a job cleaning appartments right now before turn-over. I was asked the other day to go with two co-workers to clean a resturant. It was a fairly large job that took the whole day. The next day we had finished everything except mopping the floors in this old restaurant. Now, because there had been some water issues or something earlier with the place the water was off out there and we had the priveledge of filling and hauling 5-gallon buckets out there to mop the floor. Since I decided that only one person was needed out there (because there was only one mop) I was all alone mopping the place with my five gallon bucket of water sitting in a very dirty, but rolling mopping bucket. I had worked my way all through the kitchen and out the front door when I remembered that I had left some cleaning supplies inside as well as leaving the lights on. So I decided that the best way to get accross the wet floor without leaving foot prints on the wet floor would be to take my bucket of water out of the moping bucket and to get in the bucket and pull myself to the dry part of the floor. I was feeling pretty cool like agent 86 from Get Smart and was pretty proud of myself for having manuvered my way up a small lift from the door way to the kitchen. As I prepared to propel myself across the kitchen with my newly aquired Jedi skills, the bucket flew out from under my feet. I remembered looking at the tile floor before plunging to the ground in a graceful Wile E. Coyote fashion. Well as I was lying on the floor trying to decide if I had broken anything I began thanking God that I hadn't fallen on my face and broken my nose causing a bloody nose or something else that I would have had to clean up. Right after thanking God I heard my mother's beautiful voice ringing in my head with that anoying advise that comes only after you mess up "Pride comes before a fall". Yes, thanks mom... I learned two things that day. One, when you feel like you're doing something really cool, don't get pround about it, and two next time just walk across the floor and mop up your footprints as you head back out the door... But what an adventure!