Well, another weekend over and back to school I go. It is always nice to have a relaxing weekend to just kind of sit around and not do much. That is sort of how this weekend was...Saturday was pretty relaxing. Kelly and I went to town to do some shopping and once again got sent on a wild goose chase looking for "S" hooks. Sadly we did not find them here in Pucallpa, but we are hoping that our soon to be neighbor can find them for us in Lima. Once we have those lovely hooks we will be able to hang up our hammocks that we have had for about 2 months now.

Today was a little busier but it was still a good day. After church and lunch I came back and took a nap for a little bit...always nice on a Sunday. I then got to talk to my mom! I love talking to my mom...she is great! I then told myself that I HAD to get some work done and so I took my computer and headed over to my classroom. One of the great benefits of living right next door to the school is being able to go over easily on the weekends to do work. I sat at my desk, turned on my wonderfully crazy Matt music and started to work. I actually got a lot done in the hour and a half I was at school. I finished grading all my papers for the 3rd quarter and got all the grades put into my computer so I can figure out grades by Tuesday. I got back home and talked with Kelly for a bit and then decided that my toenails needed to be re-painted. So Kelly and I had a fun little pedicure session and now have pretty purple toes!

Anyway, today at church the sermon was on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. It was a really good message and of course spoke to my heart. This passage is talking about suffering and how Christians suffer and go through hard times so they can learn how to comfort others and how to completely rely on God and not on their own selves. The things my pastor pointed out were so true and I could see how God has already used many trials in my life so I could help others. How else are you going to know how to comfort others going through hard times if you haven't been through them yourself. You need to first experience the love and comfort of God before you can show that love and comfort to others.

It still amazes me how God can use me to encourage others. They are usually going through something that I have never experienced and yet God still uses me to encourage and help them during their hard time. I continually feel honored to be used by God and love serving Him in the smallest ways. I was told today that I have such a great attitude, especially towards life here. You know, as nice as that is to hear, I have to remember it is not because of me that I have a great attitude, it is completely God. Without Him, I would not be able to have the attitude I have about life here in the jungle.

Well, enough of my rambling thoughts for tonight...remember that God is so much bigger than any of our problems...even the ones that seem ginormous to us. Go to Him for your comfort and you will find loving arms to hold you tight and carry you.

A new friend

So, I am sure some of you are probably wondering where the second post of vacation pictures is...well let me explain. I, first of all, have a very slow internet connection and uploading pictures onto my blog just takes forever and is annoying. Second of all, I haven't had much time to just sit and upload pictures onto my blog. And lastly, I made a new friend this week and would rather write about her right now instead of uploading pictures.

My new friend's name is Sarah and she is here visiting for a week. She was a teacher here at SAM Academy last year and was roommates with my roommate, Kelly. She went back to the states last summer and decided that she wanted to come back and visit on her spring break. So here she is visiting for the week and I am so glad that I have had the chance to meet her. She is an amazing woman and we get along really well. It is always fun to meet new people who have been where you are and you can find lots of things to talk about. I think I have kind of shocked her a bit as we have talked. She has been asking me all the normal questions people ask the new missionaries...how do you like it here, are you adjusting, how are you dealing with culture shock, what do you miss the most from the states, how long are you going to stay. Well, my answers to those questions are not really the ones you would expect to hear from someone who has only been here 5 months and doesn't really speak the language. But that is ok...it is fun to shock people sometimes.

Today I started my Spanish tutoring with Rosemary and Emily. I think it is going to be a great help to me. We are going to focus mostly on conversation and verb conjugation. Two things that are pretty hard for me. But this is going to stretch me a lot and it will definitely improve my Spanish before I get to language school this summer. I can't believe that I only have about 2 months before I will be leaving my wonderful home of Pucallpa and heading to Arequipa for a month and a half. One of the missionaries tonight asked me if I was getting excited about language school in Arequipa...and I was honest with him. I told him sort of but I really love it here in Pucallpa. He thought that was a good thing because that guaranties that I will be excited to come back at the end of my time in Arequipa.

Well, that is about it for now. Please pray for me as I finish the quater this week and have grades to do by next Tuesday. Also please pray that I will be diligent in my Spanish studies and that this time before language school will greatly improve my Spanish. One more thing, pray that all the details for language school will work out and come together quickly...it would be nice to know that I have a place to live and a spot in the school. Thanks!

Vacation pictures part 1

This blog is going to pretty much be all pictures....if you want more details about vacation...just ask!

SAM Peru conference '08; A beautiful church in Chile; Cathedral in Arequipa


Mountain view; Matt and Kelly playing at the hotel.

These pictures are from the monastery we visited...great tourist thing to do in Arequipa.

More from the monastery.

Matt and Kelly checking things out; Matt taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.

Me and my roomie! More monastery pictures.

Kelly and Matt...I'm not sure what they are doing; beautiful old doors.

More beautiful pictures from the monastery...it was very easy to take great pictures.

Matt and Kelly enjoying the view of the city from the roof; Waiting for our delicious meal at a Turkish restaurant; A LLAMA!!!

Baby alpaca; grown alpaca.

My many travels

Well, I am almost back to Pucallpa after 2 1/2 weeks of traveling. I am currently in Lima and fly out tomorrow morning...I can´t wait to get home. I have been to many different places in my 2 1/2 weeks of travel...I went from Pucallpa to Lima, Lima to Tacna, Tacna to Chile, Chile back to Tacna, Tacna to Arequipa, Arequipa to conference, conference back to Arequipa, Arequipa to Lima, Lima to Piura, Piura to Mancora, Mancora to Piura, Piura to Lima and finally Lima back to Pucallpa. It has been crazy times but also lots of fun. Conference was great! I really enjoyed being with all the SAM Peru missionaries and getting to just hang out with them. They are a great group of people and made the week fly by. Our speaker for the week was great and it was fun getting to hang out with him and get to know him. I also got to hang out with him and his wife today while they were hanging out at the guest house waiting for their flight back to the States. They are a great couple and lots of fun. It was also nice to have more young people to hang out with. It was fun to hang out with Tim and Hannah, Sierra, Kyle, Chris, David, Kelly and Emily. They are all great people and it was fun getting to see them all together.

After conference Emily, Kelly, Matt and I all spent a few days in Arequipa...it was fun to get to know the city a little better. Especially since I will be living there this summer for a little bit. We got to do some fun things and just enjoy the beautifulness of the city and the wonderful food they have there. We then all headed back to Lima for the night before flying to Piura on Monday for our vacation. While we were here in Lima for the night, Emily´s boyfriend came down and surprised her for the week. It was a good surprise and I think they had a good time hanging out with each other this week. So the 5 of us (Kelly, Matt, Emily, Jared and myself) headed to the beach for a nice vacation. For the most part it was a great vacation...it was nice to be back somewhere warm after the mountains but not as hot and humid as the jungle. We got to do some really cool things while we were there. We rented a yatch and got to go snorkeling along the coast of Peru. We also rented a dune buggy and got to go exploring along the crazy dirt roads of Mancora. Kelly and Matt took surf lessons and we ate at some wonderful and amazing restaurants! The food was so good, it makes it hard to want to go back to cooking all my own food.

Anyway, like I said for the most part it was a great vacation. There were a few times when I just wanted to be back home in my own bed with the hot mugginess and bugs. But I am glad to have had the time away to relax and enjoy my friends. I´m sure there is a lot more that I should write about, but I don´t feel like it right now. So I am going to end this post for now. When I get home I will try posting a least a few of the many pictures I took while I was gone. Until then...have a great night!

Chile adventures

Well, as I wrote last night there are a lot of interesting things that happened durning my trip to Chile. So I have some time and will tell you about the things that happened while I was there. So I arrived in Tacna, Peru with my fellow missionaries, Tim and Hannah. We found a taxi to take us across the boarder into Chile, which was great. So we finally get to our hostel in Arica, Chile and we arranged with the taxi driver for him to come back and get us at 6:30 am on Saturday. So we got settled in the hostel and then went looking for the Peruvian consulate. We arrived at the consulate around 2pm (Chile time). We asked about getting our visas and they told us to come back in the morning because the bank is only open until 2. Well, we weren´t going to leave so easily and Tim kept asking if they were sure that we could´t get our visas today. Finally the guy realized that we didn´t have to pay for our visas and so they could take care of it all that day. So we spent about an hour at the consulate and left as Peruvian residents! The rest of the day we just kind of hung out and saw some of the town. Then Friday we decided to go to the beach since it was just a 15 minute walk from our hostel. So we headed to the beach and spent about three hours just enjoying the sun and watching people. Sadly I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs and now they are bright red and hurt a lot! But that is ok....it was still fun. Friday night we played some games and just enjoyed hanging out with each other. Then came Saturday morning. Our driver was supposed to show up at 6:30am and at about 7 we decided to call him and see were he was. We didn´t expect him to be there right on time...I mean he is Peruvian. But when Tim called the guy was still in Tacna, an hour and a half away. Our flight to Arequipa was scheduled to leave at 9:40am. So we told him not to come and called a local taxi company to see if they could take us over the boarder. They said yes they could, but they didn´t show up until about 8am! By this time I was starting to worry because that only left us an hour and a half to get back to Tacna. Well, sadly to say we didn´t make it on time. We got to the airport just as the plane was taking off. So we decided to head to the bus station and see if we could catch a bus back to Arequipa. We got there just as they were loading up the bus to leave. Talk about God´s perfect timing! So we took a 5 hour bus ride instead of a 25 minute flight! But we finally got to Arequipa and I have been enjoying it for the most part. My legs hurt and I am trying to get used to the cold...but it should be a good time. Now it is time to check out of the hotel and head to church. Have a great week...I won´t be able to update until next weekend.

Official resident of Peru!

Well, I headed down to Arica, Chile on Thursday to finally take care of getting my resident visa for Peru. I am now officially a non catholic religious resident of Peru. Kind of fun! Friday while I was still in Chile I got to spend some time at the beach...however my legs have been sunburned and feel like they are bruised all the way down the front. Oh well, at least I had a good time in Chile. There is lots more to talk about but not much time so I will save that for another post. Now I am in Arequipa and tomorrow we head to conference for the week. Then it will finally be time for spring break. Hopefully my legs will heal enough by then that I can enjoy the beach in Mancora. Well, time for bed...it has been a long day of travel.