Learning God's Language

Wow! 100 days already! Somehow it seems like way less and way more at the same time. Over the past 3 1/2 months, lots has happened. I have moved, settled in a new house, and begun language study. I have gone from very minimal Spanish to being able to follow a bit more. I am now able to use 1 of 5 Spanish past tenses and present tense, which still leaves a long way to go, but I am beginning to be able to converse in more than just what is happening to me at this present moment! On Monday I have my final exams and hopefully I will pass and officially have an A1 level of Spanish. (In order to begin ministry I have to have a B2). Many of you have also been asking if I am enjoying the warm weather here. To be honest with you, it actually isn't that warm (although two days this past week we got sun and plus 15!). Recently, it has been raining a lot. I would compare the weather to Vancouver. There is no snow (although we had hail one day), but the wet cold is something completely new t

November has already been quite an interesting month for me! I have been quite busy and I've had highs and lows. This past week I was quite sick for most of it, but God was gracious and gave me exactly what I needed when I needed it. I also had midterms this week and since I have such bad test anxiety I was worried about it, but once again God provided for me. On the exciting part of things, yesterday was an extremely successful day for me! I finally got a Spanish phone number! I am so thankful for this as I no longer have to carry two phones and I just feel as if the whole world is opening up for me. I also had a bit of homesickness this past week and God provided in little ways for me, like Rice Krispies and Ginger Ale. What gifts! :) An interesting event that happened this week was reverse culture shock. I had gone grocery shopping with Angela (a fellow Canadian) and we ran into Debbie (the field director's wife). As we were standing there speaking in English a man cam

I just realized it's been almost a month since I have written on here. Time has been flying by! But more than that, time has been hard. This past month has been a hard month of learning, adjusting and growing. I have been learning lots about Spain, lots of language and most of all lots about myself. These last couple of weeks, I have been just trying to survive as I had put huge expectations on myself of where I should be and what I should be doing. However, this has now changed. This past week I decided to make a BIG change in my life. I decided to drop a class. At first I was embarrassed about this because I should be able to handle the workload I have been given, but after some consolation with other missionaries and my team leaders, we believe that doing less things, but doing them well, is far better than doing more things at a lower standard (while also running myself dry). At this point I already am feeling much better. The stress level is down and I'm beginning t

Well the last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy and life has definitely ramped up for me! Here's what's happened... - I got my official residency acceptance (for the next 6 months) - I got a Spanish Bank Account - I've had driving lessons from Adam - I've continued to set up my house - Countless meetings - I attended my first Pueblo (kind of like a town) Festival - We've begun to harvest from our trees in our orchard! - I had my VERY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! A lot of these things I would've assumed would be pretty standard and straightforward until I came to Spain. But, I have been learning lots about flexibility and letting go of expectations. My residency actually went quite well and although there was lots of online things to do and forms to gather we only had to go to the office once for 1 hr! It was a record set for our organization and I was so thankful for that. The stamp that officially says I can live here!!! My Spanish bank account an

Wow what a last couple of days it has been for me. I only need say one word and you know what I've been up to... IKEA. Although here it is pronounced (EE-Kay-Ah). On Friday, we made the official trip with what we thought was only a few items to buy. We packed up Adam's car, and the four of us (Adam, Josue, Laura and I) made the 40 min trip to IKEA. Upon arrival we pulled out our lists and got ready to go through the maze. We were originally planning on taking only 1 1/2 hrs to do our shopping, but decided we might need longer so planned for most of the day. Our time started out normal enough, Josue and Laura looking at couches while I looked at different chairs. Then we continued onto desks, beds, mattresses, office chairs, bedside tables, shelving units, bar stools, and the rest of upstairs. At this point it was 1pm and we decided to stop for coffee and an early lunch (yes early in Spain!). Then we attacked the second floor. This took quite a while as well as we needed, kitc

Well, its been 7 days officially. In some ways it feels like I have been here for so long and in other ways it feels like I just got here. Today was a crazy busy day as we went shopping to buy things I need to live. It has been quite interesting setting up house here in Spain as everything is different (as is to be expected). Today we (Adam, Angela, Josue, Laura and I) went to a couple of stores to buy some things for the house, but it started out slow. We arrived at Alcampo, a type of Walmart all in one store, but still quite different. The first things we looked at were coffee makers and toasters. We tried to find 2 different coffee makers and a toaster and were unsuccessful in locating them ourselves so we asked for help. We waited quite a few minutes for the first person to come help us, but when she didn't arrive we ask another person to come help us. He arrived and told us that those things were out of stock and he couldn't guarantee when they would be back. This starte

Well I have officially been in Spain now for 3 days! I can't believe how quick time is flying by and yet it feels as if I have been here for far longer than 3 days. Today I have been reflecting on the new experiences and embarrassing moments I have already had in such a short amount of time. I thought I might share some of them with you. :) To begin with though, I'm going to give you a bit of a recap to my last few days. On Tuesday September 6th, I finished packing, said goodbye to the farm and headed to Calgary to get ready for my flight the next morning. It was a sad and surreal experience, but I am thankful for the extra time that God had given me there. Wednesday morning came early, partially because I didn't sleep much that night and partially because I am just not a morning person (just ask my Mom!). We had planned on being at the airport by 7:30 but were a bit late because of me and Popcha. I worked on getting checked in, my flight connected, and my bags weig