What Am I Doing Here???

Can you believe it’s already September??? I can’t!!!! Speaking of which IN LESS THAN A MONTH I WILL BE AT THE FINCA!!!! (24 days, not that I’m counting)

Last weekend we had our New Missionary Retreat with two current missionaries, the co-founder of Farm of the Child (the story of her and her departed husband’s journey/mission is beautiful and I wish all of you could hear her tell it in person), the director, and one of the Franciscan Sisters from the Finca. I officially feel like a missionary and I CAN’T WAIT to get to Honduras. Last week I said that I would try to give you a snapshot of my weekly schedule in Antigua but recently I have decided that what I am doing here is less important than what I am here to do. 

So what am I here to do? 

1. I am here to be a missionary, to bring Christ to the people who I meet. Of course, in order to bring Christ to others I have to first have Him myself so in order to prepare myself spiritually for my time at the Finca I am trying to make it to daily Mass and adoration as much as possible.
2. I am here to learn spanish. The reality of what it means to be entering into a bilingual community in less than a month really hit me last weekend during our retreat. We had some reflections in english and some in spanish throughout the weekend. One of my main priorities right now is to practice spanish as much as possible before I have to use it all the time. 
3. I am here to be a friend. I am currently in Antigua with four other missionaries who will be with me the entire time I am at the Finca. Right now we are getting to know each other through praying together, playing cards (this includes inventing our own ridiculous card game), attempting to speak spanish together, laughing together, traveling together, and sharing the struggles of being far away from home together. It is important for us to get to know each other now so that once we are at the Finca we can work together as well as have more time to get to know the missionaries who are already there. 
4. I am here to serve in whatever way I am needed. One of the other things we talked a lot about on our retreat is a willingness to serve not only with our strengths but also with our weaknesses. I am already getting a taste of that as I am volunteering at a school for poor children in Ciudad Vieja (a nearby city) a few days a week. My weaknesses are working with children under the age of twelve and speaking spanish and they are certainly being put to use. 

I hope this give you a better idea of why I am in Antigua as well as what I am doing right now. The other missionaries and I are going on a missionary bonding adventure to Coban this weekend. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to learn spanish, get to know each other, and prepare (physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally) for our arrival to the Finca.