It's still hard to understand people in stores and restaurants though. It's intimidating too! I got my hair trimmed the other day and wow, that was an experience. Literally could not understand the girl one bit. I looked up the words for "layers" and "trim" before so she knew how I wanted it, but she kept asking me questions, and the whole time, I was just like, "No entiendo." (I don't understand.) So embarrassing!
Other than that, I'm fairly well adjusted. The city is great; we walk EVERYWHERE. It takes me 15 min to get to class, which isn't bad at all. I think my legs have gotten more muscular from it, haha. It's slowly starting to get colder, too. For the most part, it's pretty cold in the mornings, then gets HOT in the afternoon, then gets cool at night. I'm ready for the cold weather so I can go shopping for more winter clothes ;) I'm still so in love with my host family. We have so many great conversations and Eloisa is seriously the sweetest mom ever. We just laugh and laugh about the randomest things. Dario, the seven year old, is precious too. They told us a story tonight about a huge grasshopper flying into the kitchen one time and them all screaming to catch it. These stories are seriously 398234x better in Spanish, too :)
On Wednesday, we had another holiday for some Saint and didn't have school. (Isn't that great? Random holidays for ALL the Saints. Almost makes me wish the U.S. was a Catholic nation.......buuuuuut not really. Nothing against Catholics.) There was a medieval market where we found tons of awesome jewelry and food and really cool birds just perched under a tent. I've never seen such gorgeous owls in real life! There were all kinds of neat medieval decorations. We had fun walking around and I got a super pretty ring and gifts for friends. I'm trying to get alot of my souvenirs for friends shopping done now so Will can bring all of them home when he returns from London. I didn't realize I have so many people to buy them for!
Yesterday, I went to bible study, and we talked about Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman. Usually, there's about 10-12 of us, half residents of Granada, half Americans. We split into two groups and read the passage in Spanish, then went through it and asked questions about why Jesus did certain things in that chapter of John. The whole fourth chapter is pretty much talking about water and food, which are basic necessities of life. Jesus says He is living water, that His food is to do the work of the One who sent Him. It made me make the connection that we need God for spiritual sustenance. Without Him, we're going to be thirsty and hungry, and turn to things of the world to fill us up. But God will always satisfy our thirsts! It says that He will turn our desires into fruit for His kingdom. I really enjoyed diving deep into this passage and realize things I had never thought about before.
And this brings me to now. It's a Friday night and Caiti and I are resting. It's wonderful, actually. I've been researching some of the various places I'm going in the future and trying to learn as much as possible. Barcelona is going to be so beautiful. I just read all about the architect Gaudí on Wikipedia who dedicated his life to designing/building the Sagrada Familía in Barcelona, and he's my new hero. What an awesome guy. Will is casually chatting with me on Facebook, and I'm so happy with how life is going right now, traveling and learning Spanish and hanging out. However, I know the future weeks are going to be difficult; I've realized that in order to make the most impact here that I will have to suffer for the gospel. Suffering brings glory to God. Even if I have to miss out on something my friends are doing that I want to do too, through God's strength, I need to discipline myself. I need God's guidance and wisdom in my decisions and His help to be intentional in making connections, adding the salt of the earth to conversations with both other American students and the people here. Otherwise, this trip is solely for my benefit, and everyone will leave here pretty much the same as they were before. This isn't what Christ called us to! I think this will be the hardest mission trip I ever take, to be quite honest. It is so hard to stand out and be different when the majority of your friends are non-Christians. If you know me at all, you know I love it when everyone's happy and likes me and there's no conflict. Here, I kind of worry about people not wanting to hang out with me because I don't go out/drink a ton/want to party. It's a bit hard to explain...idk. It's definitely been very interesting so far and I'm learning how much growing I have to do and how urgent it is to put to death the desires of my flesh and how each day is a new battle against what I want to do and the enormity of sinning, that sin equals separation from God, which equals DEATH. Yep, learning lots. But I hope that if you are reading this you will say a quick prayer for me, that I'll keep fighting, keep seeking Him, keep loving people more than myself.
Tomorrow morning we are waking up bright and early to go to Málaga and Ronda with ISA. It'll be nice just leaving for one night and coming back. I have a lot of homework to do (in every class), a movie to watch (The Tree of Life), a painting to finish (for the girls who lead our bible study), a book to read (The Motorcycle Diaries), and a Bible to study (Colossians and 1 John)! So I'm hoping we come home by Sunday afternoon haha. Life is busy, but I woudn't trade where I am for anything. I love you all and eagerly anticipate hearing from you.
P.S. Shoutout to my dear friend Amber who got accepted into Legacy School of Discipleship for next Spring!! IAMSOEXCITEDFORYOU.
Also, thank you for the Funfetti cake mix in my paquete (package), Aunt Buppies! I can't wait to make it for our family!
Blessings to all!
No comments:
Post a Comment