My pinky hurts :(

ok i can't type much cuz i jammed my pinky this morning when i was running and fell so just a little update...1st 'sunday service was good....very interesting seeing as how i understood absolutely nothing of what any of them were saying...but that is ok. It was still good to see people worshipping God in a different culture. And everyone was super nice to me and wanted to come up and meet me cuz i was new...and when i went to help in the children's room one little girl was desperately trying to talk to me and stuff but it was really difficult because she didnt speak english :(.
We are just kind of hanging out this week and tackling tasks as they come up...Working at the church a bit with organizing Awana stuff and cleaning up the house little by little....sorry i cant right more. Hope everyone is doing well....Thanks SOOOO much for the comments!! i LOVE them! Ciao for now! (hehe that rhymes)

God is Good

Well, it has definitely been an eventful first couple of days. My first day here some of TJ's (the son) friends came over to plan their senior trip and afterwards we all went over to the Morsey's church and went swimming. He goes to a missionary school so they all speak english and are all from the states which was really nice for me. It was really crazy however to go from wearing coat and genes the day before and then to be in a swimsuit soaking up the sun. It was AWESOME! His friends were all really nice and fun to hang around too. God has definitely answered my prayers about the family. I have not found it difficult to fit in at all and am getting along really well with them actually. They are a really wonderful family but I was a little worried that it would be awkward with TJ but it totally isn't and we get along great. Yesterday was soooo busy and full...we left in the morning and took the Metro to downtown Santiago where we met up with another missionary family that is here and walked around the city all morning and afternoon. It was soooo cool to see another part of the world and the different cultures again and stuff like that. They have some really cool older looking buildings in the city that are really awesome. While there we climbed this little mountain/large hill that once you reach the top you can see all of the city...it was really cool. So after that we came home for a bit of a power nap and then headed off to the Mitchel's house, the same missionary family that we were just with for dinner and games. That was SOOOOO much fun. They have 2 sons, one TJ's age and one 2 years younger but just as fun, and then they had their neice staying with them for a couple of weeks and she is in her 20's. So yea that was a blast and by the end of it my stomach hurt from laughing so much. I am so thankful to God for how great He is and how faithful He always is. Tonight we will go to another B-B-Q with another 3 families but these ones are actually from Chile so it will be interesting to see how this all works out. I think some of the kids speak english but not the parents. Anyways, thanks for the comments they are ALWAYS grealty appreciated!!! Hugs and Kisses to all!!!

CHILE!!!

Well, I am here and safe! My flight went well....it was a total of 10 and a half hours and I'm pretty sure that I slept most of it. But when I wasn't sleeping I was talking to man from Switzerland that sat next to me. He was such a talker which was fine with me cuz I like to talk and it passed the time so that was actually really nice. The food was alright..they served us a dinner and a breakfast and they had movies that you could watch if you wanted but I didn't have time to between sleeping and talking hehe. When I arrived at the airport I went to Customs but no one was around to help or tell me what to do so I ended up having to go through a different line to pay a tax fee of $131 to get into the Country and then I had to go through the customs line again but they didn't tell me that I had to fill out a slip of paper for my Visa or something there so I had to go and do that and then came back and was finally alright to pass through. Then I had to ask someone what baggage claim matched with my flight number because it wasn't marked very well. But I found my baggage and went through security where they asked me about the peanut butter I brought and no one knew what it was so they just let me pass, hehe. Peanut butter must just be a huge U.S. thing. So I got through all right and then met up with the Morsey's. We drove back to the house and I got situated and then slept :). They are a very sweet family and I think I will fit in nicely here...not too different than what I am used to as far as they go. I have already seen a dog running along the streets by himself so I think that is going to be a struggle for me :/ but the house is very small, as well as the rooms, but its nice.
I had to reset my password for this thing cuz I could not figure out for the life of me what it was, hehe. But owell it is working :) Love and miss you all!

2 weeks left

I realize that it has been a while since I have posted anything and for that I apologize. Life has been pretty busy since we got back from Sydney. It has been a good couple of weeks and it is hard to believe that I only have less than 2 more left. My heart is so torn. I am so thankful to God that He has blessed me with all that I have been able to experience here and these people have been so awesome. I will be very very sad to leave my friends and it is really difficult because I know that for some I will probably never see them again. I know that that is all in God's hands but it is still going to be very difficult to say goodbye. At the same time....I cannot wait to see all of you back home!!!! I am so glad that I will be home for the holidays. I have missed everyone greatly and can't wait to come back and share stories and everything. So pray for my strength that I will be able to get through these next 2 weeks fully enjoying them and looking forward to all of the things that God still has planned for this next year and my time here.
On a lighter note, I said that I have been pretty busy...I am still working at the church and finally finished the really big project that I had started on but had to take a break from to decorate the church a couple of times, hehe. So that is amazing...it felt really good to have accomplished something that I know will help the church. Other than that I have been busy hanging out with people, going shopping, attending birthday parties and having so much fun! Last Friday I attended my first Ballet! It was so incredibly beautiful! It was outside at this big amphitheater thing that they have at the Botannical Gardens in Melbourne. A bunch of us took blankets and food and had a picnic there while waiting for it to start. It was so cool. I was very glad that they give you a program that tells a little bit of the story otherwise I would have been totally lost, haha. Then last night I attended one of Melbourne's Carols services. There were tons of people there and my friends and I had a blast listening to the singers and watching the dancers and just singing along and hanging out. The church's Carols service is next week, my last Sunday :(.
Well it is Sunday morning here so I should go and finish getting ready for church. Love and miss you all and can't wait to see you!

Sydney Trip

I am now living proof that dreams do come true and prayers are answered. Ever since I was young I have wanted to go to Sydney and visit the Opera House and see the Harbor Bridge and now I can officially say that I have. I am so thankful to my father (both earthly and heavenly) for making this possible. We arrived in the city around 7:30 or 8:00 and went straight to our Hostel where we were staying and unpacked, ate and just watched some TV, relaxing after a long days drive. The next day, however, we walked down to the city to buy our public transportation passes and we are just going down this hill when I turn my head and stop dead in my tracks. I jump up and down, squeal, make a complete fool of myself and almost start crying as The Opera House comes into my view. I could not believe that I was actually seeing it in real life. We were still on the other side of the bay from it but it was just so awesome because you just looked to the left a bit more and there was the Harbor Bridge. We took a bunch of photos from that distance and then proceeded on towards The Opera House so that we could climb the stairs and look around (you aren't actually allowed inside unless you pay a bunch of money for a tour). Standing in front of it was more incredible than I could have imagined it. I was filled with smiles and giggles and just complete awe! It was amazing! After that we went on a ferry ride and ate lunch in the park right by it. We ate lunch under a really large tree and I decided after I ate that I wanted to climb it really badly so we did :). That was a lot of fun and we were all pretty crazy. Saturday we went to the Gleeb Market. (Gleeb was the street that our Hostel was on) They have the market every Saturday and it is a really cool set-up where you can find cool clothes and different things for a lot cheaper than in regular stores. After that we got on 3 different buses that we didn't need to and tried to find our way to Bondi Beach, haha. We eventually got there and just relaxed in the sun for a bit. It was beautiful, of course, and it felt so good to lay out under the sun again. The weather was absolutely perfect the whole week that we were there. Sunday we went to the inner-city Hill song church. It wasn't the massive one because that campus is really far from the city and it would have been very difficult and costly for us to try and get out there to the hills. But the City campus service was really good. The people were super nice and we met some really cool girls that made us feel less out of place. After church we went to another street market thing that happens only once a year. It was so cool because we just happened to be there the Sunday that they were putting it on. It, also, was on Gleeb street and there were just tons of booths up and down the street selling clothes, food, jewelry, gifts, they had bands playing and a few bounce houses set up and stuff. It was really fun and so awesome that we were able to be there for that. Monday was absolutely packed. We went to the Aquarium in the morning, visited the Queen Victoria Shopping Center Building in the mid-morning/early afternoon, ate lunch at The spinning Tower Restaurant in the late afternoon, shopped again after that, walked all through the Royal Botanical Gardens in the evening and then ended the day with a fairy ride at night. It was such an awesome day! The aquarium was really fun and we were able to see lots of cool fishies and sea creatures and the restaurant was really nice and the food was delicious (I actually ate Kangaroo)! The shopping part was so much fun and we had a blast being hyper and taking photos and video in the stores and some really funny events happened in the gardens that really us girls would only find funny because we were there but it was great and then the ferry ride was just so relaxing after the long day. Needless to say, we all slept well that night. I was very very happy because on Tuesday we decided to go to the Blue Mountains. I didn't think that we were going to be able to go but everyone seemed to think it would be a good idea and a bit of a different experience than just the city. Plus the Blue Mountains are really popular here and everyone has said that I needed to go there. So I was very glad when we decided to drive out there. They were about and hour and a half to two hours away from the city so we left fairly early so that we would be able to spend the majority of the day there. There are many different sights that you can go to because they are just so big. We chose to go to two of them. The first one that we went to we chose to walk down two different trails. The first trail was one that led to a small but old aboriginal cave like thing where the aboriginals had left hand prints all over the walls of the caves. It was really cool to see some real genuine Australian History. For those of you that don't know, the Aboriginals were the people that were first in Australia before the Europeans. Then the Europeans came to Aussie and tried to "civilize" the people and it didn't and hasn't gone over well. Anyways, the second trail led us to a gorgeous look out where you overlooked a huge river and hills that were filled with tons and tons of trees! It was beautiful! After we were done with that sight we drove farther and went to another sight that was supposed to have some water falls in it's paths. We probably chose the path that was the most difficult one that we could find and hardly ever traveled on and it took us forever to find the water fall but once we did, oh my word, it was so unbelievably amazing!!! There were other people there but they eventually left and Erin, Amy and I went exploring some and took lots and lots of photos. The rocks were, of course, super slippery, haha and so them mixed with my lack of balance ability led to me slipping (quite hilariously) and falling right into a little crevice of water that was in one of the Waterfalls pools that it ran down into. It was probably one of the funniest moments of the trip because I just looked like an idiot and was half soaked, lol. It was great and I loved it. After that I was tempted to just jump in but the water was SO freezing!!! That ended up being the only trail that we took for that stop but that was alright because the hike back up was SO hard! We were so out of breath and our legs were so ready to be done. We would have been a funny sight to see. So that was Tuesday and then Wednesday we had to pack up and head home. I slept for a bit of the drive in the morning because I was just worn out but after about lunch time we all woke up and were just in crazy hyper moods and we had a blast belting out music and dancing to it in the car. It made the trip seem alot shorter coming back. So all in all it was an amazing indescribable trip that was greater than I could ever have imagined. I was very please and VERY thankful to God for his provision and safety through it all.
It is strange to think that if a few hours all of you will be celebrating Thanksgiving. We were going to celebrate it tomorrow as well but we moved it to Saturday because Mrs. Loftis has to work tomorrow so Saturday would just be easier. So I still get a Thanksgiving :)
It is even more strange to think about the fact that I only have one more month here! I can't believe that it has already been over 2 months! That just doesn't seem possible. Well, I am still tired from my trip and my fingers are starting to hurt from typing so much, hehe, so I am going to go to bed now. I love you all! Thanks so much for all of your prayers!

XOXOXO

More Photos

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/jmktraveler/

Crazyness

Last weekend was so unbelievably busy and crazy! It was the church's 20th year anniversary and they had a weekend celebration. Friday night we had a big game night at the church where we played soccer, basketball, board games, and just hung out with each other. Saturday we had a big dinner and ball and Sunday we had the regular service in the morning and then a dedication service/afternoon tea later in the day. It all seemed to go really well. Friday was a blast just hanging out with everyone and being able to play some soccer and b-ball with some of the guys was really awesome. After that some of Chris' friends spent the night so we were up pretty late just having fun. Saturday morning I went over and helped set some stuff up at the church for that night and everyone was running around kind of crazy like trying to make sure that it all got done in time. The actual evening was really really fun. All of us girls got ready with one another and JoyLee did most of our hair. It is so much fun to have an opportunity to get all dressed up. I had my mom send my prom dress over so that I would have something to wear. I was super glad that I had another opportunity to wear it and everyone seemed to love it which, of course, made me feel special. The whole night was full of just picture taking, eating, and kind of dancing. It was great. So after the Ball we went over to some friend's house to just hang out for a bit longer and didn't get home till pretty late. Then I had to get up really early Saturday in order to be ready for church on time and everything. The service was great as well as the afternoon tea. After that a bunch of us kids walked home and played some games at the Loftis house. So after all of that I was pretty exhausted and did not want to wake up on Monday. thank goodness I don't normally work on Mondays.
Last night we had a meeting for our Sydney trip just to plan out how we are going to get there and some of the little details. I can't believe that we are leaving Thursday! I am SO excited!!! I probably won't post anything till after so it will be a while before I write again but I will as soon as I can! Pray for our safety and that God's hand will be upon us as we travel and sight see :) Hugs and Kisses!

Trip to Belbrae

It's been a while, I know, but I have been gone and very busy! I CANNOT believe that it is already a week into November!!! Where has the time gone?!?! Anyways...Belbrae was so awesome...We stayed at a place called The Belbrae Country Club. I think I might have given the wrong impression earlier though...this Holiday house wasn't actually at the beach like the last one, it was about 10 minutes from it...but you were back in a woodsy kind of area. It was really cool because where our house was you could look out the living room/kitchen window and see the trees and hills and stuff. It was absolutely beautiful when the sun went down (which isn't till like 8:00). They have some animals there and we were right in front of the fence where they would roam and eat so I was able to go down and feed the horse, 2 mules, and a goat that they had :) it made me very happy. The first couple of days that we were there it was overcast and one day even poured down rain (which was nice because they really need it since Australia is in a huge draught). We didn't do much Saturday, however us kids did go to the indoor pool, spa, and sauna that they had which is ALWAYS heavenly, lol. Sunday, Pastor Tim spoke as a guest speaker at a really small Baptist church. It was pretty nice and he did a very good job speaking on the Sounds of Grace. It was really really interesting. We went to lunch with 2 of their friends from that church at a casual Italian place where I had amazing pizza. Monday, Pastor Tim and Mrs. Loftis had to return for PT to get surgery on his pinkie finger. He broke it (again) playing footy (Aussie rules football) at a Men's Retreat that he spoke at. Chris also went back with them so that he could play in a soccer game. So it was just the 3 girls...me, Saralisa, and Melody. Melody and I went on a hike that took roughly 2 hours which was SO SO SO Amazing!!! We could never get really close to Kangaroos because they would hear us and hop away, lol, but we did see lots of little groups from a distance. Let's see....we went to the pool after that to relax and then came back, ate yummy spaghetti (haha, again Italian) and watched Australian Idol and Tarzan...good old Disney. PT, Mrs. Loftis and Chris returned that night as well. On Tuesday Chad, Erica and Leif (oldest son, wife and baby boy) came out for the day. We watched the Melbourne Cup and had b-b-q hamburgers...it was lots and lots of fun. Leif is absolutely adorable. To explain the Melbourne Cup a bit....it is a horse race that pretty much all of Australia takes part in. It is a huge event, and is even considered a holiday where people are given work and school off for it. It's amazing. They film pretty much all day and have a fashion-at-the-races part and announce a bunch of statistics about the horses and their riders...it was all pretty interesting. Anyways so that is pretty much the basics of what we did....we returned Tuesday night and I went back to work today (Wednesday). It was a crazy kind of a day because the church's 20th year anniversary celebration is this weekend and there is so much that needs to be done and, of course, not enough time to do it all. It will all work out though....these things always do. I'm going shopping with Amy tomorrow (one of the girls going to Sydney with us) so that should be fun....she's really awesome and laid back. One of those girls that is just herself no matter who she is with or what she is doing. I love it. Kk well I'm tired and I still need to get ready for bed so I'll catch ya'll later!

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/jmktraveler/?bulkComplete=1194440107918

A few new pics