Air Conditioning Filters

June 26

Shalom! Today was an exciting day for the air conditioning crew. We got to go up to the rooftop! It was a beautiful view and we got to climb all over stuff (even if that meant slamming my head into metal by accident…) It was nice to be out in the sun even though it was draining! It was our last day working with Biebier because his daughter is getting married tomorrow, but it was a lot of fun! Everyone got walky talkies today so we were able to joke around with each other while we worked. 

After lunch we cleaned out the room with all the clean filters. You don’t even want to know where they put clean filters. It is probably the dustiest room in the building. I felt like I was in a dungeon! It was so dark and dusty! By the end my hair was caked with dust and when I blew my nose it was black! But it was a lot of fun and we got lots of good work done!

I’ve really gained so much respect for the people on this team. Everyone is such hard workers and never complain. They are such testimonies here at this hospital. God is working through us in this place. I mean, some of these people have never heard the true Gospel and now they are seeing it lived through us! It’s an amazing thing.

I was totally exhausted by the end of the day so I tried to just rest a bit before devotions and Ladies Bible Study.

In Philippians we talked more about what it truly means to live for our Messiah. “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Dying as believers is the best thing that could ever happen because we will be in the presence of our Messiah! But we are needed here on earth to proclaim the Gospel and share His love, and that is also a wonderful purpose. Everything we do should be centered around Him. He should be our number One in everything we do. It’s a very easy thing to say, but a very hard thing to do. It is a really sad thing, I realized. When I truly think about it, being entirely honest with myself, I realize I don’t always put God number one in my life. For instance, sometimes my friends are. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with having friends and spending time with them. In fact, it’s a necessity of life! But what IS wrong is I realized, I would drop my Bible in a heat beat to go do something fun with my friends. I would cut my quiet time short or cut it out completely so that I wouldn’t have to miss out on other social plans. As I said, there is nothing wrong with having a social life. It is so needed in this life! But when my social life is prioritized over my time with my Messiah, that’s when it becomes a problem. This is something I majorly have to work on. It’s a process, but I can’t give up or pretend it’s not a big deal. I want my life to be centered around Messiah, no matter the cost. The sacrifice will always be worth it.

I was thinking today, and this may be a cheesy analogy, but it really helps me to put things in perspective. I was cleaning the air conditioning filters and we were talking about how important it is that they are clean. These filters help the air be clean for sick patients. For patients who are about to go into surgery. They need clean air! The filters need to be clean! And I got to thinking, wow, we as believers are the air conditioning filters. Unbelievers are the patients. If we, as believers, try to control our own lives and accept no help from our Messiah because we think we can do things on our own by not putting him number one in our lives, we will start building up filth. We will get so dirty and guess what, the patients will get sick from us. But, if we let our Redeemer put up the water pressure and hose us down and make us clean from our sin, we are able to put out fresh air to these patients so they will be able to breathe fresh air and be help them in the process of being healed by their Redeemer.

I don’t know if that makes sense entirely, but it makes sense in my mind. I need to be cleaned. Not just wiped down, but I need the water pressure on HIGH. It may hurt, but it will be worth it. In order to reach out the lost, I need God’s help. I need him to make me clean, because only then will I be able to share the Truth of God’s love.

Anyway, after devotions, we went to Ladies Bible Study. I love these ladies so much. We finally learned everyone’s name! (We were bribed with chocolate shekels!) And three of the ORIGINS girls were able to share their testimony. It was so encouraging to be able to hear how God has worked and is still working in their lives. It is truly a miracle and a wonderful thing. I will never be able to understand God’s love or comprehend it and for that I am grateful. His love will never run out or give up on me. And for that, I can only pray that my love will overflow as a result.

We also got to learn about what the ladies have been learning in their Bible study throughout the year which is also very encouraging. To hear about how God has been working in these ladies’ lives over the past year is just so awesome. He works in amazing ways and we as believers are always learning and always growing. There is always more and more to learn no matter how many times you read a passage from the Bible there is always something there to learn that you didn’t notice before. That’s the great thing about God! He is forever.

God's Will.

June 25

Sometimes as I think back on the day, I’m just like, “Oh my goodness, all this stuff just happened in one day?! How am I supposed to collect all my thoughts and remember everything?!” So, forgive me if I’m a little disorganized. But that’s one of the reasons I’m keeping up on this blog. I’m afraid I will forget!

Anyway, I was back with the air conditioning crew today, except Kaytra switched with Charity in the kitchen for the day so that Charity could get a little bit of a break. The kitchen is a hard job! Today was probably one of our dirtiest jobs. It reminded me of that show, “Dirty Jobs.” As you can see from some of the pictures that I posted, we had some pretty gross muddy water to clean up. It took all day, but we got it all cleaned and we cleaned out an entire room of metal scraps and even had a few coffee breaks. ;) Turkish coffee isn’t too bad by the way, but I think for now, as a beginner, I’m going to stick with regular. But today was a really fun day, with lots of laughter while getting a lot of work done. Nachman, I think his name was, was the man we worked with today and he is just so full of energy! He’s hilarious and so much fun to work with!

We had some free time and had devotions and College and Career at the Kehila tonight but I’m going to clump it all together into one thought because for me tonight, it all went together. College and Career was of course tons of fun being able to fellowship and play silly games like "Sheep Meh" and just laugh and laugh! I laugh so much I should have abs of steel by the end of this trip!

During free time I was reading a book called “Radical” where I was reading a chapter about God’s will. Then we talked about Philippians where we talked about God’s will. Then at College and Career we talked about Ruth and one of the topics was God’s will! It really spoke to me because sometimes I wonder what God’s will for my life is, but it is SO clear! It’s to proclaim the Gospel in everything I do! Let the Holy Spirit live through me so that people who don’t know about Yeshua can hear. The exact way I do this is something I still have yet to figure out, but that doesn’t change the will for my life. God wants me to be a servant, like Paul. Like Ruth. And proclaim the gospel with no shame and no fear. I don’t need to be embarrassed, because “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” It’s a win-win situation! If I’m living for the Messiah then it doesn’t matter what happens to me. God’s will, will be done.

There are BILLIONS of people out there who have never heard the Gospel. They need to hear! They need to hear about salvation! It is only through the Messiah that they can truly live a life that matters and spend an eternity with Him. It is OUR responsibility as believers to go out there and let the Gospel be heard! My heart breaks for these people and I sit here and just feel like crying as I think about millions of people that are dying every day who has never heard. The only way for a true meaning in life and the only way to spend paradise with our God one day is through our Messiah. Paul and Ruth were servants. Ruth never left Naomi, no matter the cost. She gave up everything for her. Paul was beheaded for sharing the Truth. A believer’s life is not easy, the Bible never says it will be. But one thing we do know is that God is perfect and just. And he has given us a great responsibility. We need to have a joyous attitude as Paul. No matter what the cost, I will live for Yeshua. He will live through me. I cannot just sit back and live an “American Dream” while there are so many who are suffering.

It’s about having a servant’s heart and sharing the abounding love of our Redeemer. This is God’s will.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade.

June 24

Well, it’s Sunday! And that means it’s the beginning of the work week here! So, back to the hospital we went! Today I switched with Jen so she could get a chance to see a little more of the hospital by cleaning the air conditioner filters and I took her job copying medical records.

I was by myself, so in the beginning I was a little socially awkward because everyone around me was speaking in Hebrew and I wasn’t assigned to do anything yet, so I just sat awkwardly and stared at people. But then after we started to warm up to each other, I got to talk a lot! After every time I copied a file, I would be told to sit down and rest! So, one time I was able to talk to a man for about an hour! It was actually really interesting. We talked about all kinds of different things such as family, and our lives, and the differences between Israeli and American culture and he was religious so after he ate he had to read a booklet to bless his food and all kinds of stuff! I also got to speak to another man who made me a cup of coffee which I expected to hate, but I actually was able to drink the whole thing! Israel is going to make me a coffee addict! A woman came up to me as well and said, “You will be my teacher!” And she wanted me to teach her English! So I taught her how to say, “My name is” and “Cheese and jam” and how to say the time. She also taught me some Hebrew, but I think she was the better learner.

Yeah, before lunch I didn’t get a lot of work done, but lots of talking! But after lunch I was able to get a lot of work done and made like almost 400 copies! I was a speed demon. ;)

We were going to go to the IDF base tonight, but unfortunately, the people who were supposed to contact us about it never got back to us so those plans fell through. I was a little bit disappointed, but it’s ok! We got another day off! (Gabby and I had a pretty epic dance party...) We ended up going to the mall again, and since it was my last time probably at the mall I did splurge a little bit… it was fun. When we got back from the mall some people were watching Anastasia which made me really excited because I can literally quote that entire movie! So I stood behind all of them and mouthed the whole movie. People were pretty impressed I must say. Though I don’t think everyone else loves it as much as I do… it is pretty creepy. I don’t know why I watched that movie every day before kindergarten with my Captain Crunch Berries! Oh well. I think it’s a wonderful movie.

In our devotions we are still in Philippians chapter 1. Today we talked about the versus, “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.”

Wow, talk about optimism! It seriously blows my mind how much joy Paul expresses in the book. I mean, as I said, he’s in PRISON. And with these versus, we get a little inside look on what it is like. Of course there are people there who supported him, but there was also the people who were envious of him! Paul was an apostle! And some of the people there preached the gospel because they were envious of Paul. They were selfish and weren’t preaching because they wanted the gospel to spread, but to spite Paul. But Paul didn’t care what they said about him. He didn’t care what they thought about him at all. In fact, he rejoiced because either way, the gospel was being preached!

It is not about the Gospel teller. God can work through anything and anyone. The fact is, the Gospel will be spread. And because of this we should rejoice!

Being here in Israel is really teaching me about joy. I mean, I’ve always thought of myself as a joyous person, and I think other people see that in me as well. But TRUE joy comes from God, and being here in the Holy Land gives me joy like no other!! Being able to talk with His people and to serve them as Yeshua did is AMAZING.

I love to serve. I love to serve these people. In whatever way I can, I want to have a servant’s heart like Yeshua. God is using this place to mold my heart into exactly what He needs me to be.

No Fear.

June 23

Saturdays for Israelis are like Sundays in America. We got to sleep in a little bit today, we had Kehila at 11am. We had Sunday School first and then the regular service. It’s really interesting having a translator! They speak in Hebrew and then have Russian and English translators. The people at the Kehila are so encouraging. I mean, part of our purpose of being here is to encourage the people in the Kehila, but I can only hope that I encourage them as much as they encourage me! Their testimonies are absolutely amazing. They are such joyful people and as we are learning more and more about what joy is, I see that these people have it! Their love for God is outstanding and they have huge hearts. Wonderful, wonderful people.

After Kehila, we got to hang out at home for a bit and then went back to the Kibbutz to play volleyball and fellowship! I’m probably better at softball than volleyball (and that’s saying a LOT) but, it was fun! Just being able to spend time with another is awesome (even if that means getting wacked in the head with a volleyball by Charity with such force that it makes you fall over… which totally wasn’t me… ha…). I also learned an Israeli card game! It’s called Yoniv and Sonya said it’s a very popular game to play in the army. It blows my mind that every Israeli citizen is required to join the army once they turn 18. Boys for three years and girls for two. I can’t even imagine being required to be in the army! But we had a lot of fun with that before heading back home for devotions.

Devotions tonight totally convicted me. We furthered into the book of Philippians and we studied the passage, “Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Chris. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” When Paul was writing this he was in the Roman prison! Paul knew what true joy was really about. Despite his circumstances, he was able to have joy in which he knew God was in control and would use him for His glory. You’re not always going to have the answers. You’re not always going to know why. Through all circumstances, God is in control and that is why we can have joy. And guess what, he was able to spread the gospel! This is what his life is about! In the book of Acts he says that it doesn’t matter what happens to him in this life as long as he is constantly living for the glory of God. And what really convicted me is that he does not live in fear. And when he proclaimed the gospel to his brothers and sisters in the prison, they were able to “proclaim the gospel without fear.” Without fear! It didn’t matter what other people thought about him. It didn’t matter what they did to him. They proclaimed the gospel without fear. They had no fear in life or death because they had complete faith in God.

It make me think of the song, “In Christ Alone.”

No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. From life’s first cry to final breath, Yeshua commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand. Til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I stand.

This is what I’ll end with because it needs no more explanation. Just let these words give you a slap in the face because we don’t need to live in fear! OUR GOD IS THAT GREAT.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I can only hope that as you read this blog, you’re not only reading about my experiences and growth, but that you can experience it with me. Love you very much.

Shabbott!

June 22

Wow. What. A. Day. I would love to go to bed but I know if I don’t write this down now, I will never get the chance, and I will kick myself. SO. First, all the girls woke up bright and early to be ready to leave by quarter til 8 so that we could help clean an apartment. We’re all ready and we go downstairs to wait for the guys to come up and we wait… and we wait… and we wait… it’s 8:15 and we’re like uhhh… where are they? We then grow to realize, that they have left. Without us. Then we find out it was a mistake. They didn’t need us to go today. Only three girls! Ahh! So, most of us went back to bed (including me) and woke up about 2 hours later to go to softball! The two hours actually made a huge difference and I felt much more rested.

Softball went much better than I anticipated! I mean, we’re not going to talk about outfield. I did absolutely terrible out there. BUT batting, I hit every single ball!!! And I even made it to home half the time!! I was so proud of myself! Of course, I  can’t give all the credit to myself. I knew that the men who played were competitive, and I didn’t want to ruin it for them by not being at least somewhat of a challenge, so right before I would go I would just shoot up a prayer, “God, please please please just let me HIT the ball. I don’t want to ruin the game for them!” And guess what. I hit the ball EVERY time. It was a miracle!! Of course, it didn’t help my speed at all. It was hilarious because I was on base and the guy behind me ended up hitting a homerun and while I was running as fast as I could, he ended up catching up to me and slowly jogging behind me while I was running my heart out. It was hilarious. He came up to me and he’s like, “Wow… you’re fast…” All I could do was laugh. It was so much fun!

So after sweating off 20 pounds, we went back and prepared to gain all the weight back and got ready for our Shabbott dinners. Small groups of us were assigned to different host families for dinner. Shabbott is a time for all of Israel (it’s not just a religious thing, it’s a cultural thing) to get together with their family and friends and just spend time together! It’s really a wonderful tradition. Anyway, I ate SO much food. There was about 14 salads that were just appetizers! And bread of course. And then there were pierogies and chicken and burgers and hot dogs (kosher) and pasta salad, and potatoes and all kinds of food. Then we had ice cream for desert which was DELICIOUS of course. And chocolates. I am so full  beyond belief right now.

Before Shabbott we had devotions, continuing on in the book of Philippians. We talked about versus 9-10. It says, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” It was really interesting because we talked about what he meant when he says your “love”. Chris explained to us that love IS the fruits of the spirit. Love consists of joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. If every single person showed love in these ways, we wouldn’t need any laws! This is what true love consists of. True love also consists of real knowledge. He explained that in a relationship, when you get married, even though you already knew your spouse, you’re still getting to know him or her every single day. And the more you know him, the more you love him. That’s the same way with God. You can’t base your relationship with God on emotions without any foundation, the same way you can’t in a marriage. Your relationship has to have a foundation of the knowledge of who God is. Emotions will cause a roller coaster, but a true constant foundation is the knowledge of God and His consistency and love and power and mercy. The list goes on and on. The more you get to know about God, the more you will love Him. It’s an endless love because every day there is something new to learn.

Anyway, at Shabbott, I met a guy named Taylor who is from Texas. He is studying Hebrew at the University here. When everyone got back he offered to take us a walk around town. We went to the Orthodox part of town (after looking totally awkward by circling around three times before finding a parking space… and then trying not to look awkward by getting out one van at a time but then just making it look awkward anyway because the other people just sat in the van awkwardly and waited for us to walk away but then met with up with us anyway when they got out of the van and then we awkwardly stopped talking every time someone passed us and we were standing in an awkward circle and everything about that was awkward…) but it was really fun! After Taylor talked to us a bit about being in Israel and the town and how Israelis will walk around really late at night and it doesn’t matter! They don’t care about privacy as long as you’re not bothering them so we could walk literally anywhere we wanted. (Except maybe inside a house!) So, Brett, Gabby, Hannah, Tyler, Chris and I walked around and we ended up running into some guys who asked us where we were from and he told us about how he used to live in Brooklyn and he was just a cool guy! He invited us over his house and told us all about how a rabbi convinced him to become religious and we got to know a lot about him in just 10 minutes! We ended our conversation with him and then walked around a bit more until we all met up again. Gabby and I laughed all the way home. Just too many inside jokes tonight!

But yes. It was such a fun day and I could go on and on but seeing as it is almost 1:30am and I don’t want to fall asleep in Kehila tomorrow (the congregation meets on Saturday mornings) I bid you farewell.

Remember I have all my pictures on facebook so sorry about the boring blog with no pictures! I almost have one full album and it's only been a week!

One Week of Volunteering Done!

June 21

Shalom everyone! I am officially finished a full week of volunteering at the hospital. The Jewish week is Sunday to Thursday and then the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Friday is their Shabbot which lasts until Saturday evening.

Today was a lot of fun cleaning the air conditioner filters. We got a whole bunch of work done before lunch. Actually, the funny thing that happened is the patients kept asking us to fix their temperature and if they were too cold we would ask them if they wanted it off. We later found out that the word “off” in Hebrew means chicken! After lunch Chris had to take Rachael to the ER because she was having an allergic reaction to her mosquito bites. (Don’t worry, she’s ok!) So, Matt, Kaytra and I went to the office to ask what we should do next. Eurim said he would go get the man who would tell us but they didn’t come back for a very long time! So by the time they got back they told us to just leave because we wouldn’t have enough time to get enough done! But it ended up ok because we got to know each other very well through questions and talking about all kinds of different topics. We also named the fish in the fish tank. We became good friends. There’s Steve, who always bullies Kevin. Methusala (I think…), Greg and Billy Bob. 

And while we were waiting, a worker at the hospital recorded me on his phone... I didn't realize it for a few minutes... I guess he thought my laugh was funny enough to record? Who knows! 

I love being able to talk to these people, even if it isn’t much. And smile. They are always so surprised when they see a smile. Even when I use the shower (which isn’t always the cleanest…) to wash, I love to sing and just spread joy to this place.

After the hospital, we went to the Kubbitz to for Gal’s birthday. He’s a friend from Kehila. We also celebrated Danielle and Rachael’s birthdays that are this weekend. We played volleyball (or tried to play…) and ate ice cream. We had lots of fun! We also got to hear Gal’s testimony which was absolutely amazing. It just reminds me how powerful and merciful our God is. He can change a person and the ways of his heart. A man who had a really hard past is now full of peace and love. It’s a wonderful thing.

We went back to the house after his testimony and all the men went to the men’s Bible study at Kehila (AKA sports night…) so the girls got to hang out. We went to the mall and I drank my first entire cup of coffee! With espresso! It was a Mocha Coffee so it had chocolate and milk and it was actually really good! I was so proud of myself. We also bought Gal a volleyball for all of us to sign that we’re going to give Gal tomorrow for his birthday.

We walked back to the house from the mall, it’s only about a 15 minute walk but it was a lot of fun! Rachael then video taped us all pretending to be a van and doing a U-Turn. (We do lots of U-Turns when we drive.) I was the driver, or Chris. With a really weird accent. And a coffee cup of course. We then continued to scream and “do a U-Turn” and there was a police officer standing at the corner who was staring at us like we were crazy! It was hilarious! Hopefully she’ll be posting the video!

Well, tonight’s going to be a shorter blog post because we’re watching Finding Nemo and I would like to get to bed before 1am to play softball tomorrow! (Or try anyway… hehe)

So goodnight! Lalatov! (Or something like that…)

Jewish Santa Exists.

June 20

Shalom! Today was a very interesting day at the hospital. We were cleaning the air conditioning filters in the ICU unit. Yeah. It was pretty disturbing at first because we saw lots of patients in critical condition or on life support and there were beeps and things we didn’t understand. We even had a dead body get rolled past us. It was pretty freaky and I felt really sad for these people, wishing I could help them more. But then I realized that a lot of these patients were fully aware of everything that was going on around them. They were just diseased and sick. So, I decided to be a little more friendly. I mean, they're just like everyone else! Even just a simple smile and a hello can brighten up their day and help them realize that nothing is wrong with them! They shouldn't be ignored just because they are sick. So, every time I went in the room I would say “Shalom” to every person who was awake. It was amazing the results! In every room I would have somewhat of a conversation. A lot of them didn’t speak English so the conversation would be more like “Shalom!” “Shalom! Ahf uiosfh cs chchchchchchchch!” I would stand there puzzled for a moment and go “Me America! Englit??” And then would say, “HUF cfh chchchchchchch!” Until I finally went, “Lo Hebrew!” Then they would laugh at me. They always laugh when they realize you only speak English. I don’t really know why. But quite a few of them actually could understand and some of them I was able to explain to them that we were volunteers which always put smiles on their faces. It surprises them so much! I got so many smiles today. One of the men that was working at the desk saw and said, “Hey, can you help me?” We thought he was going to ask us a questions about the computer so we went over and said, “Well, we can try!” Then all of a sudden he pulls out this bowl full of fruit! He says, “Here you go!” It made us laugh and we had to decline because our hands were disgusting and told him we would come back later. We did, but he wasn’t there. Bummer.

We also ran into a Jewish man who was literally the Jewish version of Santa. He had this huge belly with a button missing and he was following us all around and singing. He was the most adorable man. In one of the rooms, one of the men was able to translate for us and he asked us why we were here volunteering from America. So we told him, “We love Israel!” And he answered that yes, Israel was a wonderful land and so on and so forth. He then asked us where we were staying and who was paying us. So we explained to him that we were paying for ourselves and he could not believe it! He said, “You pay to work here? You mean you’re not being paid for this? I don’t believe you!” He was so shocked that we would actually pay to come serve in Israel. He followed us for the rest of the time singing songs. He even followed us down the elevator and he started to follow us to the offices before a nurse or doctor got a hold of him! In the elevator every single person who came in he would tell all about us and they would just stand there and stare at us. So we just had to smile and pretend we knew what he was talking about! It’s amazing how quickly the word spreads about the work we are doing there! 

Eurim, the man in charge of the maintenance department, also showed us the largest Mezusa in the world! It's hanging on the wall in the ER of the hospital! We also saw a Coca Cola Bear made out of Coca Cola items. This is such a cool hospital. Like for real. People who don't even know us just come up to us, "Slowly, slowly! Relax! Eat! Coffee!" One of the men brought us into his room and he had loud music playing and he was dancing. He was pretty awesome! 

So yes. It was a good day at the hospital, and then we had the rest of the night off! It was nice to relax, some of us went to the mall and did a little shopping. Of course we had devotions too. We talked more about Philippians continuing on through the verses. But actually, what stuck out to me most during our devotions time was a comment he made at the beginning in passing. Just in comment to a song we sang. It’s “As the Deer” which I’m sure most of you know. But in the chorus it says, “You alone are my heart’s desire.” I mean, when we sing that, are we just singing it or do we mean it? Is God ALONE the desire of my heart? Or am I replacing Him with something else? Whether it be affection or longing for a companion. Whether it be school work or any other kind of relationship. When I sing, “YOU alone are my heart’s desire.” Do I really mean that? Are the desires of my heart lining up with the desire of His heart? In Philippians he talks about how they are always in his heart. He says, “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” It is ok to have other relationships and long to be with other people! But notice he says, “with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Yeshua is still the center of his desire. And that is how it should always be.

So, today was a pretty chill day. I dominated at Egyptian Rat Slap again of course. Buttt didn’t do so well in Uno Hearts!! We had lots of fun, got to talk with each other more in depth, and just laugh with each other. It’s just a little family going on and I love it. I can’t believe that it’s already been a week! And I also can’t believe it’s only been a little more than a week that I left home! Crazy stuff. I can’t wait to see all that God has in store for this upcoming week.

Thank you again, love you all!

PS. If you all wonder why I’m loud, I get it from my Jewish side. Everyone here is LOUD. It’s wonderful. I’m the one who actually talks on a normal volume level!! ;)