Back from the reentry program

hey! so like I just got back from the most amazing 13 days ever with around 30 or so other missionary kids. It was such a beneficial time, it was a time that God used to really give me hope that everything is ok and that it is possible to adjust to life in the USA. I really connected quite fast with everyone and they all taught me soo much stuff... it was amazing to hear their mk stories and even though they are like polar opposite then my experiences we can still relate so easily ... I really came to love everyone at the seminar .. thanks guys for making my time at the reentry seminar the most memorable and beneficial time thus far in my life here in the USA.. i really do truly love all of you!! (a lot more than just having compassion for you! jeje)

so I am dead tired.. we pulled an all nighter last night and didn't sleep a wink, and I have to work tomorrow very early in the morning.. My life living in the Mk bubble has ended and I am back in the real world!! :S jejeje..

So I am back in the world where the question .. "Where are you from?" "Where is home?" takes on a whole different meaning.. but you know what?? I am ready for what is to come .. the seminar helped me get ready.. I am still scared don't get me wrong.. but I think now I am ready!

San Fransisco with the tios!!

ok so about 5 days before I came here to the reentry program in LA I was able to go to San Fransisco and hang out with my aunt and uncle for 5 days. It was literally the best 5 days I have had in a looooong time! I was able to just really have a breather and be able to sleep in. I felt

more at home there than I have ever since I stepped foot back on American soil. We went to the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE!! which by the way is NOT gold! jejeje omgoodness.. i was soo excited I acted like a freakin wierd tourist! jeje.. but I loved it.. we went to chinatown and japantown and had the most amazing food in this one place! jeje.. It was soo awesome to be back into a big city and the fact that basically at all times I was hearing more than one language.. it made me feel soo much at home.. I had a blast! thank you auntie and uncle for such an amazing time!

mk reentry!

ok, so as an MK i know i am pretty wierd... but as I have learned I am not alone in this! jeje.. i have been in CA for about a week and a half and I have another week to go.. and I have been at an mk reentry program. What this program is is basically mks from all over the world come through here on there way back to the USA to study at college. The people here at the program kind of help us get back into the swing of things and adapt to living in the US culture. And the thing that is most valuable to me is it gives us 2 weeks with people my own age who have gone through similar experiences and we are able to connect so well and have amazing talks. I have been here less than a week so far and I have become so close to everyone so quickly... God is really using this time to be a launching pad for a lot of transition and change that I am going to be going through. He has and is providing a support system for me. thank you God!

oh and most favorite quote: No one is normal, we are all just different levels of wierd .. LOVE IT!

time with the "family"

hey all.. so I have had a fun 3 days or so here in Colorado with my "adopted" family here. It was barely enough time as I would have liked to be able to spend with them. But I had a blast seeing them again after about 2 years. My adopted Aunt and Uncle and cousins picked me up from the airport Tuesday evening and I spent wednesday with them chillaxin and talking. Then on Thursday morning I helped them out at VBS and then I went to my adopted grandparent's house and have been chillin with them since then. It has been a blast talking with them and enjoying some quality time with them. I am now just chilling in there family room watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Women!! hahaha I haven't seen that show in soo long I love it! jeje.. and I am off to the airport later on tonight off to Minnesota...

Update

Now it’s time for a quick update on the last month of my time in Costa Rica. Have I mentioned how big and good God is? Well He is very big and extremely good! For the first few months of my time this semester in Costa Rica I had been constructing a very good friendship with David, a youth pastor at a church here in Costa Rica. After much prayer and talking with a lot of people who are important to us, we decided to enter into a dating relationship. Crazy huh!?! Throughout my relationship with David God has been teaching me a great many things. It was a very hard decision to enter into a dating relationship because of the fact that in the end of May I was going to leave Costa Rica and begin a new chapter of my life in the USA. We didn’t know if it was in the best interest of our emotional status to begin a relationship and then a short time later have that relationship change into a long distance relationship. We have decided that right now this is the direction God is leading us to. I would ask for your prayer in regards to David and I. It is not easy to have a dating relationship by skype, we have already felt the strain and it has only been a week that we have been separated. We are praying that we follow God’s lead in walking step by step in His will and not run like we as humans have the tendency in doing.

Thank You!

Wow, so I know it has been like forever since I have last updated my blog. Its been a crazy ride. First off I want to thank those who were praying about our mission trip. God is good and He once again showed us just how big. Two weeks before the deadline of when we had to have the whole amount of money in we still hadn’t raised a fourth of what was needed. But in those two weeks we raised $3,000 dollars more than what we had originally asked for. That money went for beds for Don Alvaro and his family, the family we built a house for. We also used some of that money to go for scholarships for other Latin students who are interested in assisting Portantorchas, the Bible School I attended for the past year. So once again thank you for your prayers.

MIssion Trip is finally here!!

Please be praying! We are going on the mission trip tomorrow. Satan is already attacking. We have had some unexpected complications and they have been very difficult. People are also getting pretty sick :S .. Please keep us in your prayers as it is going to be a very long, hard, and hot week. But God is good and faithful!

Birthday Surprise!

So as most of you probably already knew, my dad came to surprise me for my birthday! My mom gave him an early birthday gift which was a ticket to come to Costa Rica and it was also a gift for me to celebrate my birthday with my daddy! I was soo excited I couldn't believe it for a while! We had a blast the week he was here, hanging out with my friends, seeing the places where he used to hang out and live, and he also got to meet and interogate my now boyfriend! jejeje. oh yea, I have a boyfriend! jejeje.. His name is David, I will write more about him in the future. But yes, It was an amazing time! I loved it... oh yea, I AM 19!!! jejeje (the picture in the middle is of David, my dad and I... then the picture at the top and the bottom is when my dad surprised me!)

PANAMA!!

hey everyone! Well, once again the upside of Bible school in Costa Rica is making itself shown. Because in this world there is a thing called Visas, there is also a thing called visa renewal.. go figure huh?!? jejeje.. well anyhoo, It is that time again, to renew our visas and in order to do so we must leave the country for atleast 3 days... so as anyone in their right mind would do, we turn these three days into a vacation! So that is where I am at. At vacation in Panama! Myself along with 11 other students (we are a lot less this semester than last) are enjoying a fine time on the wonderful island of Bocas de Toro. We have a hotel in downtown which is kind of cool, i like the whole atmosphere of downtown surfer beach town. Its an adventure. Tomorrow we are off to snorkle! Have an early morning and traveling 12 hours total takes a lot out of you. So needless to say i need sleep. Will post up some pictures soon. Bye!

Chillin .. and letting God take the reigns

Hey everyone! yea sorry i haven't written in a while :S .. my mom got after me yesterday so I am writing here for a quick update. There has not been much new here. God is continuing to work in and through me and its been amazing! Last weekend we had a soccer tournament to raise money for our mission trip. We still have LOTS of money we need to raise, but we are putting it all in God's hands. Starting tomorrow we are on vacation for Semana Santa (kinda like the latin version of spring break but is related to Holy Week/ Easter). A lot of my friends are going to the beach to chill and relax, but I am off to work at a camp as staff. I am quite excited. I would like to be able to chill, but I know once I get there I am going to be soo happy and excited! I will let you all know how it goes.. oh and Sunday there is going to be a HUGE soccer game here in CR.. the two biggest rivals (La Liga and Saprissa) are playing.. GO SAPRISSA!! jejejeje.. i am going to the game and i am soo psyched!!

Mission Trip Planning Update

Wow! the trip was actually quite amazing! It was really hot, and the tiko family I stayed with had a little 3 year old girl who would not let me sleep past 6 am or take any naps! But other than that the trip was a huge blessing! The mission trip is going to be 7 days of packed ministry opportunities and physical labor, but I trully believe it is going to plant many seeds in many hearts and gain more people for Christ! What can be better than that?? The pictures I have up are of our relaxing time at the hot springs!

Creative Leadership Retreat

well, this past weekend I went to a Youth Leadership conference and it was amazing! I met a lot of really good friends and God really used the seminars to teach me a lot and to pin-prick me in a lot of areas. But hey, I can manage a good pin-prick once and a while... with the pain comes tons of growth and I can take it! (with God's help ofcourse) The trip was really a blessing! I had a blast! :)

Life in Port

Hey all! Sorry I have not updated my blog in so long. I am going to have to work on that. Well, just a quick update. I am doing fine, I have not had a hospital visit yet which is actually a record! jeje I am living in the casita which is the girls' house, we are 9 girls living in one big room with three bathrooms. It is quite interesting and makes up for some really funny sleep talking and walking stories. I just have to remind myself to sleep with my camera so I can capture everything on film! muahahaha... Well God has been doing some amazing stuff with the students and with myself personally. Last week we had an amazing bonfire worship time. The Holy Spirit really just made His presence known. He has been really confirming a lot of things for me which is soo amazing! God is so good! Ofcourse with the good always comes the hardships and I have had quite a few hard bad days, but God is faithful and always seems to send the right person at the right time to help me through everything. Have I said that God is so good?!?!?!!

first week or so at Port

Hey! sooo its been about 5 days since I got here and it has been a whirlwind of emotions just flying all over the place. You first feel excitement for being back and seeing old friends again then just as quickly you remember everyone you left behind and the life that you have traded for a whole new one. Then with those two polar opposite feelings comes a million other feelings that sometimes I don't even know how to describe. I am just hoping I get all my weird feeling thing out of the way before new students come. My weirdness is going to freak them out anyway..can you imagine how scared they would be with my emotional wreck added on top of my weirdness?? Ya, I don't even want to :P.

These past few days, Emily, Sophie, and I have been taking classes on Prayer with Tom our director. They were the best classes ever! They were exactly what I needed. What I think made them so special was the time that we would take just to pray about the new students, returning students, staff, and for each other. Prayer really just united Sophie, Em, and I in a way that I can't put into words. It gave us a renewed hope and vision for this coming semester and a view into what God wants to do with us. The topic of prayer couldn't have come in a better time for Em and Soph as these past few days have been hard for them. It really showed us that all we can do is pray and believe that God has everything under control and will accomplish His will in our life.

Coolest thing ever last night Em, Soph, and I took out a bunch of blankets and went outside to lay out and look at the stars/moon which where usually covered up by clouds. But we had a blast just snuggling under our blankets (because it is freezing outside!) and talking, crying, praying, and playing games. God is so good!! He brought two beautiful girls in my life who I can connect with on a much deeper level than just superficial friendship, we can connect on a spiritual intimate level. Portantorchas is seriously my home away from home, a pesar (can't think of that word in english sorry jeje) of all the hard goodbyes. I Love you girls!! (I love everyone from my Port family!)

Back in good 'ol Tikolandia (Costa Rica)

Hey everyone! So Monday was an extremely long and tiring day. I didn't finish packing until 2 am and had to leave my house at 3 am. My journey consisted of flying from Guadalajara, MX to Houston, TX to New York to Costa Rica... it was about 18 hours or so sitting in a plane! I arrived in Costa Rica at 10 pm and stayed up talking with my tiko friends till 4 am . Lets just say i have had some extremely tiring days.

I have mixed feelings with being back here at Port. I am excited on one had because I love being around these people, my friends practically family. But at the same time it is very sad to leave my family and not have direct access to mexican tacos and tortas ahogadas (drowning sandwhiches). I will be living in the casita, which is a house that up to 10 girls stay in with 3 bathrooms. I am very excited! jejeje.. Right now there are 5 students here who are taking part in planning different activities for this coming semester. I am extremely excited to get started and am anxiously waiting for all of the great thing God has in store for us this year at Portantorchas!!

Vacation!!

Hey everyone! We just got back from the beach!! It was one fun week i can tell you all that much! I spent like 6 hours a day playing beach volleyball!! I sure got my excercise in that is for sure... The only bummer was that the last day we were at the beach it was cold and rainy :( ... but that was probably a miracle in disguise so that we wouldn't pass from being just tan to being way burnt. :P

Life update

So just for a little update, I arrived back to guadalajara the 28th of November to spend time with my family. It has been quite a relaxing time with my family. I find myself sleeping in till 2 o'clock pm and going to sleep around 2 o'clock am. My mom is not too thrilled with my new sleeping habit (and my "I am catching up from my lack of sleep in college" excuse no longer works) so she is gently starting to break it and lovingly wakes me up at around 9 am to try to get me ready for my college schedule in CR where I have to wake up at 7 every morning!! I have been coming down with the sniffles and a cough. Sunday night I began to loose my voice and yesterday it was pretty much gone. My family, especially my siblings, did not forget to let me know how lovely it was not to hear my voice all the time, in which case I responded with my lovely, crackling voice trying to explain to them that my voice wasn't gone completely because it did manage to leave a crackly, man sounding voice in its wake. jaja.. It has been quite FREEZING here lately!! yes, I know it is probably not as cold as it is in some of those northern states in the USA right about now, but hey for my Latina blood it is freezing! jejeje yesterday my dad commented how he was tired of being cold (and I must add he said that while wearing his leather winter jacket.) He was always confused why he brought his winter jacket with him to Mexico, but he has now uncovered the reason for his madness (so he won't be the first person to freeze to death in MEXICO!!) Needless to say we are all looking forward to our beach vacation!! We leave on Sunday to Puerto Vallarta for some fun in the sun!!