I dont know where to begin! This past week has been crazy and ridiculous exhausting! I guess I should just start at the beginning. Well It started Wednesday morning with a Worldviews midterm and Church planting class. Mean while out advocates were out buying food for the week ahead. We were given a packing list of (2 pairs of clothes, flash light, canned food, and only toiletries that you have to have and a sleeping bag) After class we go back to camp and pack are camel backs. We then go to our regular Wednesday night prayer meeting and afterward me and Erik drove Nahimana and Bahati back to there house and there mom gave us a piece of home made bread and I dont know why but that bread is so amazing! We eat is really fast and then drive back to church where out cohorts are waiting for us. We then drive to Fonda's apartment. At around 9:00pm Russ comes in and gets the Peru team, then the India team. We have no idea where there going or whats going on. We have a folder with 2 envelopes in it we open the first one that night at 10:00pm it reads you will be leaving at 6:00am for a flight to Denver, Colorado. So at about 11:00pm Russ finally comes and gets us we get our back packs and then we drive to there airport. There we lay out our sleeping bags on the floor and try to get some sleep. 5:00am comes very fast and we get out stuff and then head to catch our flight. It went very quick and after arriving at the Denver airport we get the instructions to find 3 points in Denver using our GPS. We plug in the #'s and see there miles away. Transportation was very expensive and at this point were not quit sure how were gonna get to the points. Thanks to being military we know people everywhere. I have a close family friend who happens to live in Denver so I call him up and with excitement he comes to pick us up and drives us to our first point. After we get to the mosque we walk to our next point which was a Jewish Holocaust memorial we eat a can of cold ravioli that we brought from home for lunch. After we find our 3rd point which happens to be a Lutheran church we were exhausted and asked the church if we could have a place to lie down. They gave us a nice room where we all crashed. 2 hours later we head out and eat dinner at some outdoor tables. We had summer sausage and tortillas. It started to get really cold so we went into walmart and sat and waited till 8:00pm which was when we could open our next envelope. So 8:00pm rolls around we open the letter and it says we will be leaving for Salt Lake City, Utah by grey hound bus the next morning. So no we have to figure out where to stay the night. We decide heading to Tonys house would be the best thing. We catch a bus to his street and walk a little ways till we of course got lost and had to call him to come get us. Tony offers us a place in his gymnastics gym to sleep. It was so awesome! We got to jump on the trampoline and do flips in the foam pit and all kinds of crazy stuff. I also got to see him do some flips and back hand springs. It was awesome! I forgot how amazing he is. He also shared with us that he will be training a group for the 2012 Olympics. Oh and did I mention there was a sanah! So after freezing all day we jump in there to get warm then we head to bed. We go to the bus station the next day and meet with the guy Sudan group. They looked terrible! They had slept under a bridge in the freezing cold with trains going by all night. Those poor guys didnt get any sleep! I felt bad for them but we did try to call and invite them to the gym but they never answered. So we get on the bus and prepare for out 11 hour journey through the beautiful mountains to Salt Lake City! We arrive around 7:30pm and have 6 points to find we decided for the Sudan to break up in 2 groups boy and girls since it was getting late. My group had to walk to 3 points which all happened to be miles away! We were worn out and hadnt eaten and there was no transportation. We were supposed to spend the night at the airport because we had to be there at noon the next day and wait for a phone call with further instructions. However, we were out late that night and the other group was done and heading to the airport. We then realize the bus has stopped running and we now have no way to the airport. We start to face the facts and realize were probably sleeping under a bridge. Luckily me and Becca happened to be standing by the road where 2 guys pull up and ask if we need a ride we immediately answer YES and we all hop in. About 5 mins into the drive to the airport we realize this guy in pretty high and not right in the head. He had a horrible mouth and talked about robbing places and all kinds of stuff. He drops us off 4 miles from the airport because he was scared of security. So really he didnt help at all. We walk to a hotel and ask for help and a kind worker there offers to drive us. After out journey to the airport we meet with the other group and lay in the hallway of the airport and all head to sleep. They next day we see the India and Peru team there! It was like a reunion and they tell us they had been to New Mexico and LA. Im not gonna lie I was kinda jealous about going to LA. We all are waiting for the phone call and it says go to International airport in 10 mins. We all run and get to the terminal. Then we get a message that says we missed out flight to Honolulu Hawaii. We were all kinda confused and didnt know if we were being tricked or not. Anyways so we catch a bus downtown and go to a Mormon temple where we got a tour around. After we head outside and see 3 big, gold SUV's coming down the road. The first one started honking and it was Scott!, second one Fonda, the 3rd Russ! We didnt know what was going on except we realized we were never going to Hawaii. Scott tells us to get in so we run across the street and hop in the cars. We drive a little ways up to the mountains. Extremely pretty and had snow covered on top of them. Once we get there Scott tells us we will be living in the Mountains the next 2 days and we have GPS points to find. So we get to the place we decide on sleeping and we gather wood, and collect water to boil and clean for drinking. I had 2 pairs of socks on, 2 layers of sweat pants, and 4 layers of shirts and 2 hoodies on top. I had the hoods on them up and tied under my chin and also a pair of gloves on. So after knowing all that you think I would have been warm...but in below 20 degree weather in a nylon sleeping bag...well lets just say that didnt happened! I was FREEZING!! I was hurting and my hands were burning because they were so cold. I thought I had frost bite on my hands. We all get up as soon as the sun rises and break into our groups we head to our GPS points. We hike quite a ways of the mountains. It was very exhausting but the views we saw were very worth it! We hike all day and finally arrive to our camp site where we all met back up. Once we got there we had to have someone from each group climb to the highest mountain in the West. I volunteer for the job along with Mara and Rebekah. Man was that hard though! That mountain was way higher then it looked and it took us hours to climb that thing! After we finally got back the Sudan team made there own fire and we slept extremely close for body warmth. I was next to a guy so it was kinda awkward but I did stay warm! I think I slept a little to close to the fire though because my sleeping bag had holes all over it where ashes burned into it. I also put rocks in the fire, waited till there were hot and then wrapped them in my shirt and put them at the bottom of my sleeping bag. It did keep my feet pretty warm. We get up the next morning very early again and we clean the 3 cars, went out to lunch, and then headed to the airport. We left at 6:00pm and had a short layover in Denver and then arrived back in Kansas City at 11:00pm. We didnt get back to the house till 1:00am and didnt get to sleep till 2:00am That was partially my fault for taking a 45 minuet shower. But I mean you would too if you hadnt showered or cleaned up at all in the last 5 days! We smelled horrible. We actually got a couple comments at the airport about how we smelled like outdoors and campfires. So this morning I get up at 6:00am completely tired and warn out and my legs were so sore from climbing. We had Arabic this morning but praise the Lord we didnt have to take our test! Anyways that was the rundown of our crazy week! The next training is contingency training...Im pretty pumped and worried about that one! I hear you actually get slapped around alot. Scott said he had a busted lip when he did it. I cant wait for it though! Its gonna be crazy and fun! Anyways continue to pray for me even though everything I say sounds like its all fun...which it is but the down side is that you get sooo warn out! So pray for my strength through these next weeks. Its very hard no matter what training were doing Fusion always pushes you to your limit. Im so excited though that this weekend 3 of my most favorite people in the world Blair, Jared, and Stewart will be coming to Fusion and staying for the weekend! Wahoo! Well I love everyone and thank you all for your prayers!!
God Bless!!
