Wow I guess I have kinda forgotten about my blog, dang that happens a lot! It is really great to come back to read and remember.

This month has been crazy for me and I think me stress levels have been pretty consistently off the charts. My best friend Jordan got married almost a week ago, my birthday’s coming up, I’ve been trying to find an internship, and a new job at the same time, I hate my job but tragically necessity keeps me there, and my roommates are driving me crazy, I got my first bloody nose, and a whole lot of other things that I can’t remember. Bleh. I’m over it. Lets just say I’m ready for September.

Ohhh how time flies...

Wow is really all I have to say about how fast my time has gone here in South America. Leaving the states I felt like I was taking off on an adventure that seemed to be never ending and now it’s coming to a close 10 days left and counting. So as this adventure comes to an end just thought I could summarize a few of the things that I have learned, and some that I have re-learned:

tHiNg 1: You can live happily no matter where you are in the world; happiness is in the small things. It sometimes is an everyday challenge to find those little things and sometimes we look so hard for the small things our eyes get tired and we miss them

tHiNg 2: God has an incredible plan for our lives…if we are obedient to what he has commanded we can wait for the blessing that he has already promised.

tHiNg 3: We never know the ripples we can have in someone else’s life…or how many they can have in ours.

tHiNg 4: The Lord has asked that we give our all not just 50% not even 95% but our all, like the boy that had the 5 fishes and 2 loaves the Lord didn’t ask for 1 loaf and 1 fish (which he could have just as easily blessed and made sufficient for all) but he asked for his all and when given the Lord was able to consecrate and bless his small and humble sacrifice to feed THOUSANDS. It is the same with our small sacrifices if we give, alone they would never be enough for the multitude but with the Lord's blessing they are enough

tHiNg 5: I love Spanish.

tHiNg 6: I am not Peruvian.

tHiNg 7: The Lord pays attention to ALL the details

tHiNg 8: I am meant to be happy!

tHiNg 9: I love seafood in most of its varieties especially in ‘Ceviche’ yumm!!!

tHiNg 10: Life doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it, slow down and learn to laugh with life.

btw these tHiNgS are not given in any certain order, just as they came to my head which is really no order at all!!

So I guess I joined the ranks of those that start a blog get lazy and forget about it for a while…dang it! If it is any consolation I thought about writing in my blog and I had some awesome entries in my head…so all of you are free to create what in your mind is the best blog entry ever written and pretend that its mine, thanks in advance.

The last couple of weeks have been some that will always be in my fondest memories. The trip to Bolivia was full of…well there was a little bit of everything from tears to unstoppable laughter. The fact that I was able to return to Bolivia with my companion and visit the area that we served in, the people we taught, the people we baptized, and the members that we worked with was incredible, there aren’t really words to describe it. Half of the people when we showed up at church thought that we were still missionaries. During the trip I went to Argentina and Chile as well, which was pretty cool both of them had some awesome scenery.

I think that one of the most important thing s that I have learned during this trip is that if you are in the right place at the right time the Lord is able to bless you with the thing that you need, even with things you didn’t know that you needed. I have been able to see that over and over again in this trip, and realize how many times it has happened in my life.

It’s really hard to explain all the feelings that I am having…I guess some of them I don’t even recognize. As the airplane started to descend into Lima I heard over the intercom “Seniores pasajeros, vamos a aterrizar porfavor abroche sus cinturones” and I all I could do was smile as I looked out the window over the city I grew to love two years before, and I started to think of the last time I was looking out an airplane window over Lima, with tears in my eyes as I left for Bolivia.

Wow how time flies. I got off the plane and wandered to immigrations and customs, half smiling half with an expression of awe, after waiting about fifteen minutes for my bags all I could think was “Yep pretty sure they got left Colombia” they finally rolled out on the huge conveyer belt. I walked out looking for the people who were supposed to receive me, but there was nobody. Then I remembered that Latinos have no sense of time and almost always show up late…they did show up just 30 minutes late ;) ohhh how I love Peruvians, they understand my lateness hehehe.

Every little thing was fascinating to my walking out even bickering with a taxi driver brought a smile to my face which by the way is not helpful when you are trying to get him to lower his price. It has been a whirlwind of memories walking and driving down the street I walked up and down day after day for eight months. Last night I was laying in bed and I couldn’t sleep(which is rare for me) even now as I sit here typing I can’t really believe that I am in Peru, and I still have 3 months here, crazy!!

More to come…..

Alright I’m new to this whole blogging thing so this should be either fun or horribly painful for all parties involved.

Okay so here I sit on the airplane that’s starting an adventure that will last the next three months of my life...WOW that food for thought. I don’t really know what’s in store for me but I feel/hope that it will be good things, lots of you have asked “So what are your plans down there?” and I think been somewhat surprised by my answer of “I don’t know!” In truth I guess I surprised myself. I’m not really a fan of having no plan for the next three months of my life but I know that the Lord does so I’ll have to trust him. I love the song “Lead Kindly Light” (Look it up!!!!) the lyrics I would say pretty fairly describe my current situation.

On a completely different note…just so ya’ll can get a taste of my surroundings. I’m skillfully contorted into a window seat of this small plane, my knee jammed into one of the little metal hinges of the tray in front of me, I’m at the very back of the plane so the engine is literally, literally right outside my window which has made sleep (which is my usual refuge on flights like this) pretty much impossible. The lady to my left is your stereo typical grandma; she started talk to me as soon as she got on the plane and only recently took a break to read one of the Danielle Steel romance novels, I took that window of opportunity to slip on my headphones and start typing. She asked me to switch seats cause as she said “with my bladder I’ll have to make lots of trips to the little girl’s room” which is why I’m now in the window seat instead of the aisle seat, I’m a sucker for grandma’s I’ll pretty much cave in whatever they ask.