Three weeks already?!

Well, last week was completely LOCO and I’m stinking exhausted, but I had an absolute blast! In fact, I think I had more fun last week than anyone else lol. It’s amazing how much fun you can have when you don’t acknowledge the stressors and look for the best in the people around you rather than the worst. The VCOM students were so much fun to work with, and it was a totally different experience than I’d had here before. We’ve done medical missions when our church has come down here, and I’ve translated in the clinic, but I feel like I got so much more out of it this time. I was really focused on trying to connect with the people I was working with, both the patients and the students. It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone after spending just a few minutes with them, and even more after a few days. Just putting your hand on someone’s shoulder and genuinely asking them how they’re doing always seems to put a smile on their face. I know it sounds cliché, but smiles make people happy and there aren’t many things that can make you happier than knowing you put that smile on a person’s face.

This week is back to business as usual. Even as good as last week was, I’m glad to be back to the old schedule where I actually feel like I have time to breathe. We’re back to feeding, which I love, and tutoring the Shine kids. Yesterday we had a Superbowl party (let’s just say I was making a rather extravagant scene during most of the fourth quarter), but the point is that at the party there was a missionary couple who feed lunch to the homeless people at the dump on Wednesdays and I think we’re going to go with them to do that this week, and I’m definitely looking forward to that. I’m anticipating that it will be a much different experience than I’ve had here yet, so I’ll update after that happens.

One interesting thing I’m noticing is that as my Spanish improves, my English seems to be getting worse. I mentioned it to Amber and she said that the same thing happened to her when she first got here. She said it’s because you have to fit your English vocabulary into such a smaller number of Spanish words and consequently that gets mirrored back to your English too. And that sounds exactly right to me. I’ve never been especially great at verbal communication anyway, so now I just find myself tripping over words in English even more than usual lol. At least it makes for good entertainment for Amber and Alli and Tess! And hopefully it’s proof that my Spanish is getting better!

Before I left, I asked a lot of you at home to be praying that I would have confidence in what I’m doing here. I want to follow through on that by saying that I think those prayers have been answered thus far. I still don’t know exactly what my purpose here is, but I have no doubt that even if I never have some huge revelation about what exactly it is, I have been able to touch people and build for God’s kingdom here. And I know that after only being here for three weeks! I can’t imagine what the next ten will bring! Thank you all for all of the prayers you’ve been lifting up for me, they’re very much appreciated! I love you!