Very overdue blog

A hope of mine is that the people around me get to know "the real me." I feel that I am a transparent person, (hopefully I don't overdue it), and even though I am away, I desire that you would still feel like you know me. So, I am going to share briefly the highlights and downers of late.

Highlights:

• Josh and I have been learning and growing a lot in our relationship together. We have a whole new appreciation and understanding of each other since being here and working together - it's been really great.
• I have had a chance to bake and cook a lot! Which I love to do.
• We have become great friends with many of the other missionaries on SI staff and have some good friends outside of SI, and in the communities where we work as well.
• We've been blessed by all of our financial supports, everyone has been so awesome in remembering us here.
• We absolutely love our two dogs - Snickers (doberman) and Lucy (mutt) - and they provide a lot of entertainment
• We really enjoy our "job" here. We love that it changes from season to season and that we get to implement our own ideas and talents into it.
• I love that every morning I get to watch the sunrise and daily see the beauty of this place... it's another daily reminder of how gorgeous God is.
• Our residency process is finally started!

Downers:

• I've been really tired lately, not just in the morning but throughout the entire day
• Josh and I have been experiencing spiritual warfare - which is a mixed feeling really. When we go through warfare it's really hard and exhausting but a blessing at the same time to know that we are fighting for God's kingdom.
• By now we had hoped to be further along in Spanish... we have learned quite a bit which is good, but it's still frustrating to not be where we thought we'd be.

Prayer Requests:

• Language learning
• That God would continue to show us how best to invest in the semester student's lives
• For energy
• For strength to fight in the spiritual battle
• For God to fill us each day with an abundance of joy and love so that we can give that to those around us

Final thought: I have been thinking a lot of past missionaries... in Biblical times and recent history, and have been learning/remembering how God used not people who were perfect, but people who were willing. I have been learning about how "un-perfect" I am. And sometimes I am so certain that I am messing up God's plan. The great encouragement to me has been remembering that I don't change peoples hearts, but God does... all He askes of me is that I am available to Him.

On that note, I am going to go... but I wanted to let you know that Josh's and my new goal is EACH try blogging once a week... so if you check back in soon, Josh should have one posted too.

Thank you all for your love and support, both in prayer and in finances. We love and appreciate you all so much.