Things have been really good lately. I haven't written because there hasn't been anything special and new that's gone on, so sorry! Let's see, what can I talk about today....

Our friend Kirsty moved up to Villa Verde! She has been living in Gracias, but decided to live in the mountains when she realized how much fun we have up there. :) It's been really fun to have her hanging out in our house every night, eating supper with us, visiting our neighbors and coming to church with us.

I'll talk about church a little bit. There's a little, tiny church near our house that all our neighbors go to. They have services three times a week, but we only go on Sundays. Service is at 7 pm so that's a little different. I think there are about 20 people that attend when we are there. The 'sanctuary' is one room with some cut-out, white letters reading "Cristo les ama" (Jesus loves you!). There's also a couple random crepe flowers hanging from the ceiling, a verse written on the stage, and a big pile of wood with more crepe flowers sticking out of it. There's a few benches without backs and some plastic chairs to sit in. So! Not much to look at, but obviously that's not the point of church so I don't mind! Our neighbors are so kind to us and get so excited when we show up for church each week. The service begins with some singing, people sharing songs, and one or two people giving a testimony. Every Sunday, the congregation refuses to let the service continue until us teachers get up and do a little musical number. :) We always sing in English, but we try to sing slow, pretty songs so they at least feel our emotion! Maybe one of these days we'll actually sing in Spanish. :) The singing is my favorite. I don't know most of the songs and they don't have any hymnals, overhead projectors, or slips of paper with the words on them, so I just have to listen and watch, but that's usually enough. There was one week that the 'pastor' (Don Luis- he was also our guide when we hiked in Celaque) was practically doing an Irish jig across the stage because he was so excited. His granddaughter, Abi, (who's 3, I've talked about her before) decided to mimic him, but with her sweater pulled over her head. She fell into the pile of wood and crepe flowers :) That's another thing about the service. Little children are running around the entire time. One night, a cat came. There were seriously 6 kids up at the front of the church yelling, "Gatito!" through the sermon. :) Lots of different people give the sermons. If it's one of the older men giving the sermon, it's pretty hard for me to understand them, but I can still follow along with the passage and get the gist.

I love the atmosphere of the neighborhood, but of all the things from the United States, church is one of the only things that I feel I don't get enough of here. I've been spending a lot of time reading through my journal of notes from sermons this summer at the DTC or Westchester or from my devotions and that has helped. :)

Anyway, life is great. Yesterday, we were cleaning up our house and found a billion ants had decided to make a stop in our garbage, so we made a bonfire and burned a bunch of trash. That was fun. :) We were a little nervous we'd end up burning down the entire national park but! it's still there!

Well, that's about all for now. Honduras lost against the US 3-2, but they play El Salvador tonight so I'm hoping for a win. In case anyone's keeping track at home, BRONCOS ARE STILL UNDEFEATED!!! OH! Also, Jacki's friends are coming from the US tomorrow so not only is that exciting, but they're bringing seasons 1-5 of The Office. Now all I need is for my friends and family to move here and I'll be set for life ;)


Que pase una buena semana! (Have a good week!)