So much time, so little Blogging I've been doing.

Hello everyone!!!!
I have done such a terrible job at keeping this blog up to date so I'm going to do my best to fill you in on everything without making it brutally long.

A couple weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to climb Iztaccíhuatl (one of the volcanoes here in Puebla). She is the love of the warrior Popocatepetl who killed herself after realizing that the love of her life was "killed" in battle. This is part of the legend of the 2 volcanoes. There's more to it but like I said, I don't want to make this brutally long. We made it all the way up to 16,060 feet!!!!!!! There was snow on the trails, INCREDIBLE views, really thin air, and 10 hours of hiking :) All of it was totally worth it!! It was beautiful! There were 3 people in our group that got altitude sickness but were troopers and made it all the way back down.

We've had about 2 weeks of being able to meet with Becky (the girl who recently accepted Christ)! We gave her a Bible and walked her through how to read it. Her response was, "Yay, now I'll have something to read in my favorite spot." :) I was just reading an article called "Lifetime Laborers To Lead Into The Harvest." It talks about how Heaven parties everytime someone accepts Christ. Then it says, 'What a difference it would make if we even celebrate these small steps students are taking to enter His kingdom." It's cool to think about rejoicing and celebrating everytime someone makes even a baby step towards God and how those baby steps are eventually going to turn into something big. I want to apply this idea of rejoicing all the seemingly small stuff because it's evident that God has His hand on these small things too.

Alice, one of the volleyball players, applied to go to Costa Rica for one of their Athletes in Action summer tours. It's just like the basketball tour I did 2 years ago here in Mexico. Things have been kind of chaotic in the process but as soon as she gets the green light saying she's accepted, she gets to start raising support!!! This could be huge for her walk with God because it will take her out of her comfort zone, teach her how to share her faith with others, help build our relationship because we would be doing the training camp material together, and she'll get to practice sharing the gospel!!! I just remember what an amazing time it was for me and how God worked through that tour to bring me back here to continue teaching me things. Please be praying that A) she gets accepted B) She can raise all her support, and C) That this trip would be monumental in her walk with Christ!!!!! That her life will be changed for the better as a result of going on the trip :)

Thanks guys!!!! Love you lots!!!

Finals

The girls basketball had their semifinal game the other night against UDLAP, the #1 seed. They were so pumped going into the game and had been practicing really well the weeks prior to the game. Gameday came, and they lost by 16. It was an INCREDIBLE crowd and a fun game to see but they didn't come out on top. They play today for 3rd or 4th. It was hard to see all their faces after the game (especially Karla, one of the captains because she fouled out early and it was one of her last games she'll ever play with Tec). It was great to be able to hug them after and encourage them as hard as it was. It's interesting trying to figure out what to say after games like that because I remember games like that and the last thing I wanted was for someone to tell me good game or really say anything at all. I mostly resorted to giving them a hug, saying I'm sorry, and leaving it at that. They're such an amazing group of girls and I'm so grateful that God has given me the opportunity to get to know them better and be a part of their lives and vice versa.
The UDLAP volleyball girls went to Monterrey last week for nationals (about a 15 hour bus ride but luckily they got funding to fly). THEY GOT 2nd!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These girls are legit and I'm really proud of them for getting second.

Diana has been bringing her boyfriend to our meetings and we had some GREAT conversation last week. She's excited about inviting her teammates to meet with us too. It's an awesome platform because she lives with 5 of the girls from the team so she sees them all the time and gets to have great conversations with them. Please be praying that more girls from the team would be interested in comoing to talk with us too!!!!

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Summer Stuff

I wanted to give you guys a sneak peak of the summer stuff that's going to be happening down here and to ask if you'd be praying. At the end of May, there are 2 soccer teams coming down from all over the U.S., one men's and one women's. They'll be here for about 8 days and will be playing in a tournament with 3 other teams from around Puebla. The UDLAP soccer coach is organizing everything with the tournament. They'll be spending a lot of time with all the opposing teams, building relationships, sharing the Gospel, and also helping with another local ministry.
A few days after the soccer teams leave, a Sports Performance group, from Liberty University in Virginia, is coming for about 10 days. They're going to be working mainly on 2 campuses with coaches, players, and trainers doing different strength and conditioning, physical therapy, and medical assistance training, etc. There's a pretty big need for that among all the teams down here so I know the teams are excited to have help in those areas. It's also going to be a cool time for some more 1 on 1 conversations to happen.
A few days after they leave, a women's basketball team from all over the U.S. to do a summer project for about 2 and a half weeks. I'm STOKED for this group because the summer project that I went on is what sparked my interest to come down here again!!! My roommates and I will be playing with them in a tournament (well, 1 of the 2 roommates since Katie won't be completely released to play from mono, so she'll probably be our Assistant Coach). There'll be 4 teams in the tournament that we're working closely with the Tec coach to help organize. The rest of the time will be scrimmages, practices, spending time with the local teams and really trying to build relationships in a short period of time. It's amazing what God does through these teams even though they aren't much time at all in the grand scheme of things.
Please be praying for all of these projects and that some amazing relationships will be built and the gospel can be shared and that people from the projects would feel called to come back to Mexico to serve for a longer period of time ;) Hey, crazier things have happened. Please pray that the teams here in Mexico will be excited to really get to know the players coming down and that God will prepare their hearts to want to learn more about Jesus!
I hope you're all doing amazingly! Thanks for the prayers :) Love you.

April already

I have failed miserably at keeping my blog updated, my deepest apologies. My friend from college that I haven't seen in about 3 years came to visit a couple weekends ago. Neither of us knew that we were both in Mexico. She was visiting her aunt and uncle in Cuernavaca and then she came to visit me in Puebla!! It was so good to see her again. We went to African Safari (a massive open land area where they have a ton of sweet animals... see the pictures I put up) and spent the whole day exploring and getting to know the outskirts of Puebla. I'm hoping she'll be able to come back and visit after her meditation class that she's taking now. She got sick all day Saturday the weekend she was here and so our time together was kind of cut short.
We went to a conference this weekend that I wrote about in my newsletter. It was awesome to hear Julio give his testimony in front of everyone. The goal was to keep it to 5 minutes just to be courteous of time and audience friendly but he spoke for 22 minutes! Here's the kicker... he's so good at speaking in front of people and so animated that it felt like it was 10 minutes. Everyone else said so too. Afterwards we talked to him and he said, "I didn't even say anything that I had planned to say. I said everything else though :)."
Katie is still in the states but is feeling better!!!! She should be back here in the middle of this month hopefully!!! Thank you for all the prayers :)
I wrote this in my newsletter but wanted to go a little bit more in depth here. Yost and I have both decided to stay in Mexico for another year. Our first year ends in September so technically, I should be back in the States September of 2013 (unless I feel called somewhere else). We were given the deadline of April 1 to decide and I was a complete mess that first week after I realized how quickly the deadline was coming up. I didn't know what to do, I missed my family and friends and really was just a big crying wuss of a mess. I can honestly say that this is the first really big decision that I have had to make where I feel like I have really tried to seek out what God wants me to do and really remove any selfish ambition that I had (that's brutally hard for me to do). After talking to lots of people and praying a ton, I really feel at peace about staying here. It's kind of a weird feeling because I was CONVINCED that I was going home after this year was up but I really feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be right now. There were some consequences that went along with my decision but I feel like this is the right thing to do.
Thank you all so much for all your support!!!! Love you guys!