Trying to get a profile photo....

Hopefully I can use this photo to make it into a profile photo...

My New Year's was wonderful, I am going to put a photo of the snow on here, just so everyone knows how happy I was that it was cold and snowing! It snowed on New Year's Eve and the photo at the end is of a road near camp. It was really neat how you can see the snow flakes fall! I went to camp for two nights and we had a Bible study, small group skits and lots of fun. I had gone twice before and I really just love it. We talked about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. On Saturday night, the first night, my friend Jason and I decided to not go to sleep until the New Year. So we didn't, which meant we stayed up all Saturday night and then weren't allowed to sleep during the day on Sunday and then went to bed several hours after the New Year on Sunday night. It was a lot of fun. Because of that I really didn't keep much from the Bible Study though... Not good... It was really good to see some friends and catch up with them.

At this camp event (for young adults and it is called RUSH) we always celebrated the New Year with communion outside. It is really wonderful and one of the best ways I can think of to start a New Year. Start it directly thinking about God's promise of forgiveness and salvation through his son Jesus Christ.

I was home from that for a night before I went to my university to visit friends. I had such a wonderful visit there and I got to see a lot of people. Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to see some people as much as I would have liked and because of time I couldn't get into some conversations with some people that I would have liked to have gotten into. Oh well, I guess I have to wait until fall now. There I also got to see two of my cousins and their parents (as my Aunt and Uncle live in that town as well). It was just wonderful. I was up there three nights and I stayed in a different place each night. Twice on campus and once at my Aunt and Uncle's house. The time there really made me realize how much I miss it! I have not been gone long, nor am I gone for too much longer, but the short time away was enough for me to realize how much I miss and I miss it a lot. My friend Ben even came down from Green Bay to see me, so I got to see all sorts of people!

At my Aunt and Uncle's house a man named Yule was staying there as well. He is from Taiwan and he and his family are good friends with my cousin who teaches English there (see Anna under family links). I will be visiting my cousin shortly so I will get to see him as well (he returns before I go there). He seemed really neat, although I did not spend much time getting to know him, though apparently he is a tea master and I like tea!

Monday through Wednesday this week I stayed in another town of Iowa to help out with hispanic missions. I basically shadowed Pastor Bo and helped him out with things he needed help with. He started an ESL class on Tuesday which was really interesting to see. I enjoyed my time there immensely and it is something I can see me doing in the future, but I can see me doing a lot of things. Pastor does a lot of house visits to get to know the people and he helps them out by helping them find resources and other sorts of things. He leads several Bible Studies, one is call Panorama de la Biblia and it is to give someone with a small Bible knowledge and bigger Bible knowledge base.

This week I get to relax at home for a while and next week I get to see my university's wind ensemble on tour. I normally would be on tour with them, but not this year!