Field conference 2009

This past week was the SAM Peru field conference. It was a great week of fellowship, meetings and teaching in English. I helped out with the music and while it did make things a little more crazy for me...it was a good time. Here is a picture of Kyle, Rosemary, Matthias and me leading music.

This is everyone who attended the conference this year. There are a lof of us...see if you can find me.

The craziness continues...

School break officially started Friday at noon. Some would think that with break things would calm down...it would be more relaxing for the next two weeks...not true! The craziness continued right into the weekend and will continue this week as well. Saturday, Laura and I went with Marshall and we bought a new dining room table. It is big enough to fit 6 people comfortably with the food on the table. It is a wonderful feeling to sit down to dinner and have room for everyone and all the food!

After we bought our table, we of course had to set it up in the dining room and make it look all nice. I then worked on some power points for the music for conference. It has been crazy but I think I finally have everything for leading music this week ready...that is except for my voice. =) Leading music for conference was not really something I ever thought about doing...but now that I have been asked to do it, I am getting kind of excited to do it. We will see if I am still excited to it after tonight. I know God will use me no matter how horrible I might think my voice sounds. It is just hard to be ok with singing in front of others when you know that your voice is not what it used to be. So if you think about it this week...please pray that my voice will hold out through all the singing and that I will just get over myself and allow God to work through me.

Conference starts tonight and will continue through Thursday afternoon. I am glad for the time to gather with all the other SAM missionaries in Peru and just have some good time of fellowship. Before conference starts I will be going to another motocross race this afternoon...it will be fun and I am looking forward to some time outside getting some sun and getting dirty! =) Should be a great week...but probably a little crazy too. I will try to get some good pictures and post them sometime next week!

You know you're a missionary in Pucallpa when...

~you wash and reuse your ziplock bags
~you have a "cool room" which can also be used as the "warm room"
~you get excited about connecting to the dial-up internet the first time
~you are told something will be done mañana, but really it doesn't happen until two weeks later
~you make special trips to a gas station just to get some decent chocolate from the US
~you have to collect buckets of water when the power goes out
~you have to go to 10 different places just to get 2 things you are looking for
~you have to wash dishes in the bathtub

These are just a few things recently that I have run into and thought it would be fun to share with you all. The last one just occured last night...it was an interesting experience. If you want the full story...you will have to ask! =)

¡Feliz Día De La Amistad!

Happy Valentine's Day! Today was a very full day...but tons of fun. Laura, David and I were up and off to Cashibo by 7 this morning for the two of them to run in a triathelon held by the Swiss Mission. They both did really well...David came in 3rd for the guys' race and Laura came in 4th for the women's race. They were both very tired when they got done...but I know they are both very happy to have just finished the race. After the race David worked on his bike for awhile, while Laura and I talked and hung out with some of the other missionaries. The three of us had lunch and went out on the boat with the Gahagens. We went through the caño out to lake Yarinacocha. This was the first time I was actually able to get all the way through the caño and the first time for Laura to go out on the lake and through the caño. It was a lot of fun and I am glad we were able to go and spend some more time out on the lake. It is such a beautiful lake and it was a wonderful day. I got the right amount of sun...not too much to burn...but just enough to get a nice tan.

Finally we headed back to SAM Center around 3:30 and enjoyed the AC in David's car on the way back. We decided that to celebrate the victory of David and Laura in the race, we were going to go out for dinner and then watch a movie. So at 6pm we headed out to our favorite restaurant...Orlando's. It was great food like usual and we had great conversation about past Valentine's Days and all the jobs we have had and other random things like that. After dinner we went for ice cream, which is always good. I had two scoops of maracuyá (which is passion fruit) which was very good and I could probably have eaten more than two scoops. The sweetest part of the whole night...Kyle and David didn't let us pay for dinner or ice cream. They had decided that the girls shouldn't have to pay on Valentine's Day. It was very sweet of them and both Laura and I appreciate it. We came back and tried to watch "Gladiator" but the DVD is a little messed up and so we weren't able to finish it. That is ok...Laura and I were both falling asleep and probably wouldn't have made it through the whole movie. In all, it was a great day and I am so thankful for the friends I have here...they know how to make the weekend fun!

I will try to post pictures from my birthday dinner and from the race in the next few days....hopefully the internet will behave!

Swimsuits and birthday

I love the fact that I can get pretty much anything made here. It still amazes me and I am so glad that I can take advantage of it. Yesterday, Laura and I went with Rosemary to get some swimsuits made for us. We both had some material we had found and found pictures of what we wanted while we were in Lima. So we took the material, the pictures and headed to the store. Now the name of the store might mis-lead you if you didn't know any better...but Rosemary says they make good swimsuits. The store's name....Sexi Cho'pa (Sexy Shop). I wanted two swimsuits so that I have options...options are always good. So I decided to get one tankini and one 1 piece. I only had enough material for the tankini so I decided to look at the material at the shop. I found the best material! If I wear my 1 piece and sit on our couch...I will blend in! The print on my 1 piece is a Shipibo Indian print in black and brown...I am very excited to see what it looks like all done. Oh and get this....the total cost for two custom made swimsuits...is about $30! Crazy and wonderful all at the same time!

Tomorrow for my birthday, Laura is making my favorite meal, Honey Glazed Chicken and we invited the guys and Karen and Victoria over for dinner. We will then probably play games and just enjoy hanging out. I am looking forward to just spending time with friends on my birthday. School is a short day and so I have all afternoon to relax and really enjoy my birthday. It is still kind of weird however to have hot weather on my birthday down here...I am too used to the snow and cold. =) I definitely don't miss it though! Thanks to all who have sent me birthday wishes, cards and packages...it makes my birthday all the better!