time to dream BIG.

so the two weeks after we got back from our mini outreach we had the best teacher. His name was Joseph, and he is from the states! finally someone that taught in english first! that was exciting in itself. He taught us all about "Releasing our Destiny." We learned all about our dreams in life and how God gives us our dreams for a reason. He also taught about all the different things that are a part of us that make us who we are and who God made us. It was really interesting and really cool and he was really fun. I learned a lot from him. We learned about how to make our dreams a reality. 

This week we have another teacher from the u.s. He's from seattle and he's teaching on the attributes of God. The identity, transcendence, character and perfections of God. It's interesting, but his teaching style is a little boring (especially compared to Joseph the last two weeks) and so it's hard to pay attention in class. but supposedly he's more interesting if you talk to him one on one. 

Everyone started to get sick last week. I was one of the first ones. At first it was just like a really bad cold and i was really achey and yucky feeling. but after a few days it progressed. but i'm doing a lot better now. we're pretty sure that its from the water here. we all drank the tap water since we got here and it was fine and no one had any problems. but now that the weather is getting a lot hotter, the bacteria in the water are moving around more or something. i dunno, i just know that its making me sick. and now i get to go and buy bottled water for the next 3 1/2 weeks before i leave for outreach. oh well. 

last friday my wonderful friends back at home threw me a benefit concert to help me raise money for my outreach. and i am very, very thankful to them. you guys are awesome. and i miss  you and i can't wait to come back and give you big hugs. i am so appreciative of all that you guys did. especially jamie for putting it all together. and i am also glad that you reminded everyone that i am still alive. that probably sounds funny. oh well, you know what i mean if you were there. i feel so loved. and from so far away too. 

tomorrow is thanksgiving. and i wish that i was going to be eating ALL day like every other year. and that i was going to be eating all the great food at the Carroll and Garner festivities. i was a little sad because they don't celebrate thanksgiving down here in south america, i don't know if they celebrate it anywhere else besides the united states. but they are having a real thanksgiving dinner (or as close as it gets in pichilemu) for all of the north americans! i am so excited. we are having turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and various other goodies. yum! i can't wait to have food from home. not that i hate the food here, but the food that they feed us does not compare to any food from home, probably cause they have to make food for like 80 people for every meal, but i miss food from home. and i also miss coffee. everyone here drinks instant coffee, and i'm not really a fan. but one of the girls in my house has a french press, and we finally got some real coffee sent to us so now we enjoy it on a pretty regular basis. okay, back to thanksgiving. it'll be really nice to have that dinner tomorrow night. i'm very much looking forward to it.

with a little help from a friend, i got my plane tickets for england and thailand! it's official. i'm going. we leave for england on december 31. we're there until february 3, then it's off to thailand til february 28. and then back to england for a 2 day layover. then back to chile on march 4. we'll be in birmingham and close to lichfield for the first 3 weeks in england, then close to oxford for the last week. and in thailand we'll be in chiang rai the whole time in thailand, other than traveling to and from bangkok. i'm really excited.

well, it's time for dinner. so that is all for now. i love you all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

i know it's been like 4 weeks since i've written, and i am sorry. i wanted to write before i left for my mini-outreach, but i didn't have time or the internet wasn't working. and then i was gone for 2 weeks with no computer access and this weeks has been really busy since i've been back. i don't really remember all that happened the week before i left. but i'll fill you all in on my two week outreach. 

there was 14 of us including our leaders: brian, ashley, reese, junior, elyse, kelsey, sally, priscilla, nicole, blanca, david, maria, and rafael. it was so much. we went to cerro alto in arauco, chile and worked at a church for 2 weeks. there was a service every night except for monday nights. so we were in charge of the service every night, and different people gave the sermons each night. everyday we would all pray in the morning for God to tell us who should speak and what they should speak about, and it was really cool, cause i've never done anything like that before. and each day God would tell us who and what, and not everyone would get a word from God every single day, but when they did they all matched up and made sense. even i preached one night. i gave a sermon/teaching on blessings and curses. and one day i sang in church too, cause they wanted to hear some of the worship in english. so that was a new experience, i've never sang in front of people before, and well i didn't really know all the words etiher, but it was still good overall. hmm...what else. i stayed in a house with blanca, and we had a great little family for 2 weeks. they fed us SO much everyday, like at least twice as much as we get at the base, and the food was like 10 times better and now i'm a little fatter because of it. we would eat dinner super late at night. because church didn't end til after 10 and then by the time we got home and dinner was ready  it was at least 1045 or 11. the culture is different there, everyone, even the little ones, stay up til at least 12 and then everyone gets up a little later in the morning. not like in the states where the kids go to bed early and get up earlier than everyone else, it was all the same. it was weird. we saw a lot of cool changes in the church in those two weeks we were there, and it was really cool to see some of the bonds be broken and some freedom to be experienced while we were there. okay i want to write more and i know that i really need to post new pictures, and i'm trying but i've been so busy this week. okay so more to come soon.