Some memories.

As I approach my first trip back to the States I want to take a moment to share some of my favorite moments from the past eight months, in photos. 

October- meeting the kids and seeing some of them make their First Communion

November- joining the social work team... here we are!!!

December- Christmas which included a visit from our Foundress and her children, plenty of new clothes, backpacks, and toys for the kids, and this Nativity play (the highlight was definitely when one of the “angels” got mad at her older sister for messing her part).

January- attending my first Quinceñera...

...and welcoming a new child to the Finca

February- cows on the beach (this is actually one of my favorite things year around, it’s such a paradox to me)

March- Backpacking to Belize with my friend and fellow missionary Sara to visit my friends from Benedictine, Shelby, Sean, and Russell. 

April- Easter and a missionary adventure to one of the top ten most beautiful places I’ve ever been (which is less than an hour drive from where we live). 

Also, going fishing with the youngest boys...

May- Celebrating the 17th anniversary of the Finca with a Marian Festival featuring songs written and performed by the kids and their caregivers.  

I hope this gave you a small look into my life as a missionary these past eight months. I’ll try to include more pictures in the future, unfortunately, my camera has a tendency to stop working every time something exciting happens so to give credit where credit is due, most of the above photos were taken by other missionaries. 

Pila 101

This is a pila*...

*lion's head not usually included but one of my fellow missionaries saw someone selling them on the side of the road and bought it, I like it, it reminds me of Europe

...it is my washing machine.
Actually, it's not a machine at all but it's very effective for washing clothes (provided that the person washing the clothes is a capable clothes washer). Here's how it works: As you can see, on the left, the water comes out of the spigot (or in this case the lion's mouth) and is caught in a basin. This is a really handy feature around here because we often don't have running water. The right side of the pila is where you do the washing, so if I were to wash my shirt, I would place it over the washboard, use the little blue bowl to pour water on it (this is really important, you always use something clean to pour water from the left side to the right side, if you dunk your dirty clothes in the basin then you no longer have a clean water supply), next I would lather it up with soap (which conveniently comes in the shape of a cylinder so that you can just roll it over the clothes, and then get to scrubbing. Once I've nicely scrubbed my shirt using the washboard, I dump more clean water over it to rinse out the soap, ring out my shirt and put it outside on the line to (hopefully) dry. I love doing laundry, I find it relaxing and I always listen to music while I'm washing my clothes.
...and my dishwasher...
We also have another pila in the kitchen (without a lion's head), except that instead of a washboard on the right side there is just a drain in the middle like a normal sink. We wash all of our dishes there, if you have to wash all of your dishes by hand it's a lot more effective to dump a bowl of water on them than to try to rinse them off with the little stream of water that comes out of the sink. In fact, when I encounter normal sinks I get really confused and have a slight panic attack- what is this contraption? how do I use it? where is the water basin? I have to turn it on?
It's going to be hard to go back to using a sink... and maybe even a washing machine...

Some Stories

The past few weeks I've had some really thought-provoking experiences in Honduras which I would like to share with you:
One morning I was sitting on a porch selling shoes (we were selling the shoes which were too small for our kids so that we could get rid of things we didn't need and use the money to buy the shoes which we do need) and a woman was sitting on the porch with me waiting for the clinic to open so that she could go see a specialist which was in town. The woman began talking to me and telling me about her life. It was the story of so many Honduran woman. She was from a town up in the mountains and had walked over two hours to see the doctor about back pain she had lived with for years. She was in her thirties and had four kids ages 20, 18, 16, and 7. The kid's father(s) had left her and she was struggling to make ends meet with the help of her oldest kid who had to leave school because of financial reasons, her second oldest was studying in the university. She told me "this is what we [women] do here, work hard to try to provide for our kids because the men leave us to do it alone." Machismo culture is still predominant in Honduras and the sad reality is that many woman do settle down with a man and have a few kids with him and then afterwards he leaves her and she has to find a way to make ends meet. It is always a blessing when I see a man caring for his children, attending church with his family, and not only providing money for his kids but also actively participating in their lives, unfortunately it doesn't happen often enough here.
One day I was on the bus from Trujillo to La Ceiba and the food vendors were coming up to the bus selling food and sodas (actually, one of my favorite parts about riding the bus is bus food, yes Mom I eat it, no I don't get sick). I bought a bag of popcorn balls and mango slices from some kids selling food on the bus wondering each time what their lives were like, whether they had parents, whether they got to go to school in the morning. A really nice man came onto the bus selling bread (which I couldn't buy because I had already eaten too many popcorn balls), he was nice and stopped to chat with some of the people riding the bus. I noticed he had a wedding ring and wondered about his family, where his food came from, maybe his wife made it, whether he had kids and if selling food on the bus everyday was enough to support his family.
Last weekend on of my kids was in the hospital and I spent the day with her on Sunday. One of our nurses had been with her the night before and when I asked her if she wanted me to bring her anything in the morning she asked for hand sanitizer and toilet paper because they didn't have any toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms. We sat in the hospital all day waiting to leave but unable to because the doctor doesn't come in until the evening on Sundays. I watch the kids play in a sitting room during lunch wondering why they were in the hospital and overheard their mother talking about how they wanted to leave too but also had to wait for the doctor to come and give them the okay. There are some things we take for granted that should be taken for granted because we should always be able to have them, like doctors, soap, and toilet paper in hospitals, and yet so many people don't had access to them.
This is life in Honduras (and I'm sure in many other places all over the world). Please pray for everyone who has to go without lives basic necessities especially the last couple weeks of this Lenten season.

A Day in the Life

One thing that people often ask me is "what is an average day like for you?" or "what is your schedule like everyday?". Well, as a social worker at a children's home in Honduras, I think it's safe to say, I don't have an average day. My "typical" day is waking up every morning and knowing that my day will probably be anything but "typical" and definitely will not go as planned. For example, last night, I was planning on going to the office after dinner and working on case notes and some other paperwork while listening to my Friday Night Country playlist (because nothing says Friday night like sitting in your office doing paperwork), but then one of the girls in one of my houses asked me if I would come help here with her division homework (and you just can't say no to a kid who wants to do their homework on a Friday night) and then one of the other girls asked me to bring a game so that we could play afterwards (we ended up playing Disney princess addition flash cards, classic), so at the end of the day I could safely say that I'm still behind on office work (as always) but what I did with my time was probably way more important in the long run. So, in order to answer the question "what exactly are you doing in Honduras anyway?", I've decided to start a new blog series called "A Day in the Life," which will be sporadic like all of my blogs, and will capture some of my "typical," or not so typical, days at the Finca. Here I go... 

A Day in the Life, mid-January, 2013

2:30 am- I wake up to the sound of rain pounding on the "techo" (rooftop)

3:00 am- I wake up to the same sound thinking it's a few hours later

5:45 am- it's raining really hard again

6:13 am- I wake up to my alarm clock, it's still raining really hard

6:17 am- I get out of bed even though I know if it's been raining this hard we probably won't have morning prayer

6:21 am- I look outside, these are the biggest waves I've ever seen here, there's no morning prayer, but I decide to stay up and write a letter instead of going back to bed

8:30 am- today would be a "rain day," [the Central American equivalent of a snow day (go ahead and smirk, I used to smirk at it too but (1) we can't make it to town to pick up our vegetables or go to the bank because the rivers are too high and (2) even if you don't have to drive through a river there is no way to walk anywhere without getting wet,  unless you own a rain suit, which most of us don't] except that there is a psychologist visiting and giving training for all of the staff and we need to "aprovechar" his time here, so I put on every bit of rain protection gear that I own (and make sure to wear my Christmas socks under my rain boots  because when else are you going to wear socks in Honduras?, thanks mom!), and I walk to house 3, the youngest boys house, to cover so that their tía can go to the charla. We also don't have electricity or water because of the storm (but that's nothing unusual here, it doesn't take a storm to lose either of those things)

8:30- 9:30 am- Things ten-year-old boys say: "El mar es furioso hoy" (the sea is furious today), "Hay un posa atras de nuestra casa" (there's a swimming hole behind our house), "¿Puedo traer Lolo a escuela del invierno?"-no, you can't bring your pet baby squirrel to winter school with you 

9:30 am- we run across the Finca to winter school during a slight break in the downpour, I tell the boy's we're playing a game: whoever gets to the bibilioteca the least wet wins. My game doesn't stop two boys from running into the pond that has formed next to the school, I arrive when they're already up to their knees in agua, luckily I stop them before they get their shorts wet. 

1:00 pm- during lunch the missionary coordinator informs us that we are "abajo de un aviso verde" for the next 48 hours, which means it will probably keep raining but there's no danger

5:30 pm- still no water, or electricity, good thing a "montón" of water is falling from the sky, we set up tambos in the courtyard and I start writing my journal by candlelight 

7:45 pm- HAY LUZ (we have electricity)

A "typical" day in the life of a Finca social worker...

Happy New Year

As we enter into 2013, I wanted to take a moment to share some of my favorite moments of 2012. So, if you were me, these would be some of your best memories from the past year in “that moment when” form. 

Top “That Moment When” Moments of 2012

1. That moment when you find the mission you want to be a part of the next two+ years of your life and you turn in the application the first day of your last semester of college
2. That moment when you get your picture taken with Carlos Gonzalez at Spring Training in Arizona- GO ROCKIES!
3. That moment when you are at a coffee date talking about how much you want to know whether or not you’ve been accepted to the Finca and you get a phone call two minutes later saying you’ve been accepted 
4. That moment when you commit to spending 27 months serving at a home for orphaned and abandoned children in Honduras
5. That moment when you graduate from college 
6. That moment when you are driving a jeep up a giant rock in Utah to celebrate graduating from college  
7. Those moments when you drive 6-10 hours to see your friends one last time before moving to Honduras
8. Those moments when all of three of your roommates from your senior year of college show up at your house within two weeks of each other (but, unfortunately not all at the same time)
9. That moment when you get to language school in Antigua, Guatemala and meet the four other people you will be sharing the next 2 1/2 years with 
10. That moment when you go swimming in a cave by candlelight in Guatemala
11. That moment when you arrive at your home for the next 2 years and meet the kids who you will come to know and love 
12. That moment when you receive a letter in Honduras 
13. That moment when you walk out of your room to find a dance party going on in the courtyard of your house
14. That moment when you jump off of a rock into a river 
15. That moment when the sun is out and the Caribbean Sea is your favorite shade of blue 
16. That moment when you’re playing soccer with the girls on New Years Eve and one of them says, very impressed and a little surprised, “Emily, sí puede jugar” (“Emily, you can play soccer”)
17. That moment when you score a goal playing soccer and every time the boys talk to you for the next three days they tell you how cool it was when you made a goal
18. That moment when after playing soccer you jump into the Caribbean Sea to cool off and play in the waves
19. That moment when you can’t walk for three days afterwards because you’re really out of shape
20. That moment when you realize how blessed you are to have had such a wonderful year

Happy New Year!!! I hope that this year is filled with blessings and moments of joy for you all as the past year was for me!!! 

Disconnected

“The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.“ -Mother Teresa

I have been at the Finca for just over two months now and one of the challenges of living in Honduras is being disconnected from my family, friends, and culture. To give you an idea of where I’m coming from and where I am now:

I used to see my friends at college everyday...now I haven’t seen any of them since August. 

I used to be just a phone call or text message away, pretty much all the time... now I’m reachable by e-mail which I’ll get 3-4 weeks later or they can send me snail-mail which will reach me in about the same amount of time. 

I used watch at least a couple movies or TV shows a week... now I watch a movie about once a month. 

I used to check my Facebook account multiple times a day... now I’ve deactivated my Facebook account. 

I used to want to be constantly connected, reachable, in touch... now I’ve realized there are more important things and that any relationship worth having does not rely on being constantly connected but remains connected in thought and prayer. 

Many of you may have noticed that you don’t hear from me as often now. It is not because I don’t miss you or care about you but because I simply don’t have time to constantly be on the internet writing blog posts or responding to e-mails. I expected this adjustment to be hard but I think it’s been harder on the people back home than it has been for me here. For me, it is a freedom not to need to be constantly connected, to put all of my relationships in the hands of God and trust that even though I am far away they will become what they need to be. It is also a freedom not to be constantly sitting in front of the TV in boredom. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a great movie or a witty TV show now and then, but I’ve come to realized that the television has become a sort of “god” in our lives. It’s somehow expected to always provide entertainment, relaxation, or escape no matter how much we use it. Television can do all of those things, but not to the extent that many people use it. I know that back in the States many of you reading this rely on your SmartPhone to make your life run smoothly and Facebook is essential to planning an event. However, during this season of Advent and “season of giving, sharing, caring etc.”, I encourage you to take a step back and reflect on the words of Mother Teresa:

 “The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are.”

Then turn off your TV, computer, SmartPhone, even for just one hour and look around for the people who are waiting for you to give to them even a simple smile as you walk past on the street. Spend some time in prayer or reflection, volunteer at a soup kitchen, bake cookies for a friend, write a letter, or spend some time with someone who is lonely. I guarantee you that it will be more satisfying than the next episode of whatever your favorite TV show is. 

My New Home

I made it to the Finca!!! (Almost a month ago) My life has changed so much in the last month that it’s hard to decide where to start. I have been going through new missionary training and trying to learn all of the nuts and bolts of life at the Finca.

I also have a job!!! I will be serving as a social worker here at the Finca!!! I will be working with a second year missionary who is also a social worker, two Nicaraguan psychologists, a Franciscan sister, and eventually we are hoping to find a social worker to join our team as well. I will be in charge of three houses: Casa 1 (the youngest girls), Casa 3 (the youngest boys), and Casa 6 (the oldest girls). I have been training for my job the past few weeks and will officially begin on November 1st. I am both excited and a little bit intimidated to begin my job. I will also serve as a girl scout leader, tutor, and a member of the spiritual life committee this year.

So what is my life like? I’ve had so many new experiences the last month that it’s hard for me to even know where to begin. In many ways, my life here is too hard to explain, I don’t realize how different it is until I sit down and try to write about it and then I just end up spitting out random snippets such as: I live in a house with 19 other missionaries, I’ve learned how to wash my clothes by hand, I’m learning how to cook over a fire, and I’m learning how to be a social worker. So I guess that’s what this blog is going to be for the next two years random snippets, stories, and thoughts that attempt to describe an experience beyond words.

Goodbye Guatemala, Hello Honduras

Well, it's official, I've finished with my time at language school in Antigua, spent about 15 hours (broken up by a night in Copan) to La Ceiba, and on Monday I will arrive at the Finca. If I could describe my emotions about finally making it to the place where I will be living for the next two years it would be PUMPED!!!
Since my internet access is going to become a lot more limited, I wanted to take a minute to show some of my pictures from my time in Central America so far:

An early morning picture taken from my rooftop in Antigua:

A crowded market in Chichicastenanga: 

 View of Vólcan de Fuego erupting in the distance:

The other missionaries and I hiking in Semuc Champey: 

 A marching band celebrating Independence Day:

 Two of my fellow missionaries and I dressed in Ropa Típica (do we look Guatemalan?):

The stereotypical Antigua picture taken from Cerro de la Cruz:

Ruinas at the church of San Francisco in Antigua:

Honduras at last! Mayan ruins in Copán:

I have already been blessed with many great adventures in Central America, however, I am very excited to make it to the Finca and start doing what I came here to do. Please pray for me as I begin my time as a missionary at Finca del Niño. The next time I write, I'll be at the Farm!!!

Vaya con Dios... Corriendo

Last Friday we participated in a Guatemalan Independence Day tradition known as the “antorcha” or “torch.” As a sign of their independence there is a tradition of running a torch from Guatemala to Costa Rica. It is also a tradition for schools to have their own “antorcha” running through nearby towns and on Friday our school participated in this tradition (above is a picture of me running with the torch) with a 15K run (of which I may have run about half of and carried the torch for all of five seconds). 

The run reminded me of some advice which Sarah Swafford, my Resident Director my freshman year at Benedictine (she's pretty awesome, she has a website now http://www.sarahswafford.com/, and she was on EWTN), likes to pass on in regards to finding your future spouse, “run with God and then see who is running beside you.” This advice always makes me want to literally run for some reason and while I was running on Friday I reflected a lot on what running means in my life. 

Running is a sacrifice, I don’t like doing it, but I’m usually happy that I did afterwards. I remember one time I was running with a group of girls at Benedictine and one of them said she wanted to offer up our run for someone and asked us who if we wanted to offer up our run for anyone. Since then I always offer up my run for someone as a way of uniting my sacrifice to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and praying for someone in need. Running builds community, if I don’t have someone else running with me I won’t do it but if I tell someone I will run with them most of the time I don’t back out. It’s also a great opportunity to get to know someone better, I’ve often had great conversations while running, especially when we pray and offer up our run together at the start. Running is a time for me to reflect on my relationship with Christ. Thanks to Sarah Swafford, I now associate running literally with metaphorically running towards Christ and often while I am running and thinking about how much my legs hurt I turn my mind towards Christ “am I running to him in my life right now? how fast? how much do my legs hurt?” 

So as I was running this 15K (it was all downhill so don’t be too impressed), all of these things were going through my mind. The group running with the torch would get ahead of me and other people would fall behind so I was stuck in this awkward lonely running by myself state and my legs would be hurting and my lungs would be burning but then I would pass some Guatemalans walking along the street or sitting outside their house and they would cheer for me, and it seemed like they would always cheer louder for me than for the group in front of me, maybe because they could see the anguish on my face caused by the running, or maybe because it looked like I was even more tired than I was because my pale gringa face gets really red when I run. In my run to Christ these people represent the Saints, up in heaven cheering me on, giving me the little extra energy I need to keep running and to smile while doing it through their intercession. Sometimes, I would get tired of running by myself or think my legs couldn’t carry me further. During these times I would hop on the bus that belonged to the school and ride it until we caught up with the group up front (hence why I only ran about half of the 15K). In my run to Christ the bus represents Christ and the sacraments. Sometimes our legs can’t carry us anymore, but during these times Christ carries us. When I got on the bus I would be handed a bag of water to drink. The water was like the Eucharist, replenishing me, giving me strength. Sometimes on our run to Christ we get lost or weighed down in sin and we need the sacrament of Reconciliation to lift off that weight. Sometimes I would get impatient or frustrated with myself because I couldn’t keep up with the faster people in the group. Likewise, sometimes we get impatient because we feel like we aren’t becoming holy fast enough. It’s important to remember that virtue is build one step at a time, through faithfulness to the little things. Little by little we grow and maybe the growth is so small we don’t notice it but eventually, step by step, with the help of others, the Saints, and Christ, we are 15K farther down the road and we’re running faster and faster. 

As for who is running beside me a.k.a “my vocation,” that is not a concern for me right now. I have two years in Honduras which I’m going to use to run towards Christ and when the time does come, that man is going to have to run really fast if he’s going to keep up with me. 

Poverty

One thing that the other missionaries and I have been asked to reflect on in the weeks leading up to our arrival at the Finca is poverty. Poverty is something which is easy to encounter in Central America but often we forget that poverty does not only consist in the physical sense but also there is spiritual and emotional poverty. Mother Teresa often talked about these types of poverty, she reminds us: “There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.” 

Poverty is not something reserved for those lacking money, we each have poverties in our own lives and recently I have been reflecting on the poverties in mine: 

1. I am poor in my ability to speak (especially in Spanish). Sometimes when I get frustrated with the mistakes I make while speaking Spanish I have to remind myself that I often make errors when speaking English. 
2. I am poor in my ability to work with young children. Put me in front of a group of children under the age of twelve and I really don’t know what to do with myself, I’ve been slowly learning though. 
3. I am poor in humility (and many other virtues). Some virtues come easier than others. 

(To name a few) 

One of the challenges we are asked to accept at the Finca is that sometimes we will be asked to do things which require us to use our weaknesses rather than our strengths, sometimes our primary job for the year might even be one of the things we feel we are worse at. This is contrary to what we have been taught most of our lives, which is “figure out what you are best at and study that” or “figure out what you enjoy doing most and work on that.” Believe it or not I am excited to get away from this mentality and discover how weak I really am during my time in Honduras. After all, when we recognize our weaknesses we also realize how much we require the help of others and how much we need to trust in God. It is also important for us to remember that not all weaknesses are bad, Jesus reminds us:

 “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven...” Mt 5:3-11 (RSV) 

Often we who have so much lack what is most important: Love. I didn’t come to Central America to find poverty, as Mother Teresa reminds us, we can always find people who are lacking in love, beginning in our own families, but I hope that during my time here I can learn to recognize what poverty really is, beginning with my own poverty, and I challenge you to find the poverty in your lives, in your friends, and in your families, and combat poverty with love. 

"The deepest desert is the human heart when it looses the capacity for listening, speaking and communicating with God and with others." Pope Benedict XVI

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. 

Random Snapshots of My Life at Language School

I’ve been in Antigua, Guatemala for language school for two weeks now and I wanted to take a minute to give you a quick snapshot of my life in list form (because I love lists). 

Things I’m better at: 

1. Getting up in the morning- Sunday I slept in until the late hour of 8:20am, if you know me at all you know that it takes every ounce of willpower I have to get up that early at home. 
2. Eating vegetables- I think that I get served at least half a plate of vegetables every lunch and dinner, I really don’t like vegetables, especially not cooked ones and they’re always cooked, I’m trying really hard to eat them though. 
3. Exercising- two of the other missionaries convinced me to start running with them last week, they both have a goal to run a marathon, needless to say, I cannot keep up but they are really patient and encouraging. Also, Antigua is about 5,000 feet above sea level which is almost as high as Denver. 

Things I miss: 

1. Cooking my own meals- my host mom cooks three meals for me everyday except Sundays when I eat out with the other missionaries.
2. Hot showers- fortunately, we do have a water heater in our shower which usually keeps the water at a temperature ranging from cool to almost comfortably warm. 
3. My friends and family- of course I miss you all but I haven’t been homesick at all and I’ve been blessed with four fellow missionaries to share my joys and challenges with. 

Things I don’t miss: 

1. Doing my laundry- every week we take our laundry to a laundromat where they wash, dry, and fold our clothes for us. We get two pounds for free through the language school, normally I have about eight pounds of laundry for the week (that’s a random fact I never knew before). 
2. Driving to Mass- There are four churches, one of which has a Perpetual Adoration Chapel, within a ten minute walk of my house which is less time than it takes me to drive to church back home. 

My favorite things: 

1. Spanish- I just love hearing people speak Spanish, I wish I was learning it faster though. 
2. Traje Típico- Many of the women here (especially outside of the city) still wear their traditional clothes which are really colorful and pretty. 
3. Fresh tortillas- I get to eat them pretty much every day. 

Next week I’ll try to give you a snapshot of my weekly schedule in Antigua. Please keep me and the other missionaries in your prayers this weekend as we have our New Missionary Retreat with some of the current missionaries from the Finca. 

The Journey Begins

It’s hard to believe that it’s finally here!!! After weeks of excitement, running around like crazy trying to get everything done, tons of goodbyes, and many questions about what in the world I have gotten myself into, I have arrived in Guatemala. It’s hard to believe that one year ago today (well now that I'm posting this yesterday), the Feast of the Assumption, I was in Spain and excited for the start of World Youth Day, which was where I decided that I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country to do mission work. This same day many years ago St. Francis Xavier, the other patron of missionaries arrived in Japan, the same day that many years before he had departed from Portugal for India.

Today I arrived in Guatemala for six weeks of language school on my way to Honduras where I will spend the next two and a half years!!! Being far away from home hasn’t hit me yet. For one, I am still in the same time zone (until the US changes times, then I’ll be on central time). Secondly, I have been to Central America before and much of the things I have encountered in Guatemala so far are familiar to me- the language, the smells, the sounds, the rain, the cold (or at most lukewarm) showers, etc. Finally, I already had four new friends, the other missionaries going to the Finca (Farm of the Child) with me, waiting for my arrival. It's great to finally be here!!! Side-note: I sent out my first e-mail update today, if you want e-mail updates from me and are not getting them please e-mail me. 

Saints Therese of Lisieux and Francis Xavier, patron Saints of missionaries, pray for us!

Less than one month...

Right now I am here...

In less than one month I will be here...

(image from Wikipedia)

Sunday was officially the one month mark for my departure to Guatemala for language school on August 15th. Today (Monday), I woke up and had my first "what the heck am I doing?" moment. It was one thing on Sunday to say to myself "I'm leaving in one month," but as I was brushing my teeth this morning I though to myself "I'm leaving in LESS THAN one month" and the LESS THAN seemed much more intimidating.
 So, I immediately snapped into "I'm moving to another country for 27 months in less than one month mode" and I tried to make a list of things that I need to accomplish in less than a month. It looks something like this: 1)finish cleaning room (I've been sorting through everything I've ever owned and getting rid of anything that I'm not taking with me and I won't want when I get back), 2)fundraise, 3)go shopping for random items such as clothes, tennis shoes, a mosquito net, a travel alarm clock that will actually wake me up, LUGGAGE (you would think that someone who in the last four years has travelled to Nicaragua twice, Italy, Costa Rica, and Spain, I would own my own luggage, but I don't, I usually just borrow my parents), 4)fundraise, 5)say goodbye to friends and family, 6)fundraise. Ok, so the list isn't actually that bad, although a side-effect of "I'm moving to another country for 27 months in less than one month mode" is  always thinking "I must be forgetting something." In fact, if I had to leave in a week I'm confident I could get everything done with the exception of fundraising. So, I took a deep breath and decided I should wait to freak out until I reach "I'm moving to another country for 27 months in less than two weeks mode" or "I'm moving to another country for 27 months in the morning and it's 1AM and I still haven't finished packing mode" (which will inevitably happen, I know because I've experienced "I'm leaving for a mission trip to Nicaragua in the morning and it's 1AM and I still haven't finished packing mode," "I'm leaving for college in the morning and it's 1AM and I still haven't finished packing mode,"and "I'm leaving to study in Italy/Spain in the morning and it's 1AM and I still haven't finished packing mode."
So, if any of you were wondering what it feels like to be moving out of the country in less than one month this is how it feels, "what the heck am I doing?," "I'm not ready," "I can totally do this," "Jesus I trust in you, Jesus I trust in you, Jesus I trust in you," "I am so going to rock my last month at home," "I'M ABOUT TO HAVE THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME AND IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!"
I think that random rambling blog posts are also a side effect of "I'm moving to another country for 27 months in less than one month mode."

Alma de Missionera

I wanted to explain why my blog address is almademisionera. When I was in Spain for World Youth Day in Madrid last August one of my favorite songs that I heard was called Alma Misionera. During my discernment of my call to missionary work this past year I often reflected on the lyrics to this song:
Here is the chorus, I translated it into english in the parenthesis:

Llévame donde los hombres  (Lead me where the people)
necesiten tus palabras, (need your words)
necesiten, mis ganas de vivir. (need my desire for life)
Donde falte la esperanza, (where hope is lacking)
donde falte la alegría, (where joy is lacking)
simplemente, por no saber de ti. (simply because they don't know of You)

You can listen to the song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEr3Byr1PCk&feature=related
or here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIFZRYXgIoA

Also, I just bought a plane ticket to Guatemala!!! I will be leaving on August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption for Antigua, Guatemala where I will be brushing up on my spanish at language school and bonding with the other volunteers in my missionary class until October when we will arrive to the Farm.

My next adventure...

Since I graduated from high school four years ago I have been blessed with many adventures. I have been on two mission trips to Nicaragua, spent a semester in Florence, and a summer in Seville. Not to mention all of the road trips, weddings, and crazy outings I had while at Benedictine. Now that I am graduating from college in less than I week it is time to begin my next adventure. In August I will embark on a new journey to be a missionary in Honduras. I will be working with orphans through an organization called Farm of the Child. I expect that this will be the craziest, hardest, and most rewarding of all of my adventures so far.
Over the next few months I will reflect more on my preparation for this mission and once in Honduras I hope to continue to inform you of my mission through this blog. I invite you all to join me in my mission through reading my blog and, if possible, offering financial or spiritual support.

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, until the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20