We just got internet at our apartment!!! I'm so excited! Expect to hear from me very soon. 

Well, as it has been entirely too long since I updated, this post is going to be quite large! Life here continues to be very busy with studying Spanish, teaching English and Violin and just getting to know the people here better. I am still loving my job and loving my time here in this amazing place. God has been teaching me so much about Himself and relating to other people. I've seen more than ever how imperfectly I love and how desperately I need Him to teach me how to love. I don't have time to post about everything I've been doing, but I'll just tell you about some of the highlights.

XV Años
Last weekend I played my violin in the Quince Años birthday celebration of Chuy's niece Mary Jose. It was a really fun event - just like a wedding - only without a groom.


Mary Jose

With Mary and her sister

With my sweet little student, Karen
Veracruz
Two weekends ago, I went to Veracruz, Veracruz with Ana (the girls' prefect) to visit a mutual friend and go to a surprise 50th birthday party of another friend of Ana's. We had a great time whisking around the city, seeing as many things as possible in 2 days. Mabel just recently started working as a missionary at the church, so we were able to stay with her in her cozy little house. Brother Rullan was the hero of the weekend by making sure we got to see the city and for taking us out to eat three nights in a row! I have to say, the pizza on Friday night was absolutely delicious  (yay for Domino's!!!). We had so much fun getting to see the beach, Boca del Rio (where the river meets the Gulf of Mexico), shopping at the artisans' booths and just hanging out with Mabel and Brother Rullan.

Mabel and Ana

With Mabel

The Mariachi Band at the party

Animal Adventures
Three weeks ago, all the 2nd and 3rd year students went out for their week of missions. It was so strange being here with only the first year students and the teachers. It was a good time to get to know the new students better, but I really missed my 2nd and 3rd year friends. Anyways, one of the guys (Abner), asked me to take care of his Beta fish while he was gone. I agreed, and he brought the fish to me, with instructions to feed it 2x a day and change the water every other day. After about 3 or 4 days, the crazy fish decided to get all weird on me - hardly moving, not eating, "breathing" rapidly, and the dreaded "side tilt" started to show up. As the fish was not mine, I began to stress out over it's poor state of health. My teacher Mary was very merciful and helped me take the fish to a fish store to get him looked at. Oh how we laughed when we left after being told "the fish is just stressed out - you'd be stressed too if you had your home changed every 2 days!" We bought some water treatment vitamins, and, oh yes, a fish for me. After 3 or 4 days, Abner's fish was fine and I gave it the name "Trouble."


Abner retrieving his Troublesome fish

I have had numerous other animal adventures as well. There was the pigeon in the chapel - flying back and forth frantically trying to get away from the guys waving towels at it, and the dog running from one end of the chapel to the other, barking as if to say "come down bird! I want to play with you!" There was the tarantula they found tonight and brought to show me in the kitchen - EEK!!! Umm, oh yes! And los conejitos!!! I went to the other side of the campus last week to see the baby bunnies (please don't ask why they raise them... you really don't want to know!). They were sooooo cute! I spent nearly an hour holding them, playing with them and looking at all the different ages of runny babbits, I mean, bunny rabbits.


Marco and the silly pigeon

Beto and Didi

My favorite little rabbit

My other favorite little rabbit


Oh yes, and my other favorite little rabbits... wait, I love them all, what am I saying???

Soccer
The weekly soccer games are something I enjoy. It's the one time a week I can get away from the campus and sit outside for awhile. This week the yellow team slaughtered the other team 10-4. OUCH! But that was only after having been beaten by the other team 2 or 3 weeks in a row...lol.


Francisco, Hno Arce, Josue (3rd year), Cristian, Nacho, Eliezer, Brandon, Hugo, Daniel, Josue (1st year), Bani, Yoiner, Oscar, Nahum

Silly boys! Oscar, Daniel, and Josue

Daniel

Cookies
On Thursday, I spent the entire afternoon in Sister Chuy's kitchen baking cookies for her family. We had a blast talking about crazy things, singing, and laughing. Two of her boys (William and Brandon) "fought" over who got to use the electric mixer and Brandon decided that he wants to be a chef one day and start his own upscale franchise...hmmm.... he did get awfully tired, awfully quick stirring the cookie batter.... guess we'll have to see about that one.


Chuy holding Karen on the way back from grocery shopping

Me in the kitchen with my helpers - William, Brandon and Kevin

Conference
This week there were about 40 church leaders here at the school for a conference. The speaker was Mark Engelthaler from Texas. He spoke about the holiness of God and how it should affect us as leaders. It was so convicting and really gave me a fresh perspective of who God is and how we should view the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. My brain is still trying to digest all that I learned from the conference. Last night Dan treated a few of us to dinner at a wonderful restaurant here in Cordoba.


Dan and Chuy Hall

Alfredo Marquez and his wife Ruth

All of us...well, almost, Sister Ruth didn't quite make it in....hmm...


Well, that's all I have time for right now. Tomorrow I am going to two different churches - my church in La Cumbre in the morning, and another little tiny mission church about an hour from the school in the afternoon. I'm really excited about the mission church - it is always so encouraging to see how a tiny group of believers comes together every week to learn about the things of the Lord and then go out to share it with their community. More to come soon.