Loving in a New Way

One of my favorite verses in the bible is this: " And love means living the way God commanded us to live. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is this: Live a life of love." It is from 2 John 6. Heck, I even named my blog after this verse. Over these last few days, The Lord has been preparing me to love in a new way.  I have learned the importance of living a life of love through service. I am starting to realize that I may not be able to show my new friends or parents love through words, but I can love on them through my actions. The verse in 2nd John says "love means living the way God commanded us to live," and his command is for us to love in all aspects. These different ways of love consist of giving, affirmation, touch, service, time, and many other ways.  The Lord didn't call us to just love in one of these ways, but to employ all of these qualities when we love because each person differs in the way they receive love. I have begun to understand the words, "live a life of love" more over these last few days than I ever have before. I thank God for using these powerful words to encourage me to live alongside others and love the way He loves me. 

So, my Spanish is improving! I know it will take a while, but I am starting to understand more! In Spanish class, we have started to just practice with vocabulary instead of learning how to conjugate verbs in different forms. I am excited because more vocabulary is really all we need right now. This morning, we wrote words in English and in Spanish on the board then had to create sentences using them.  After that, we played a sort of "hot potato." We had a card that we were passing around in a circle, but in order to pass it to the next person, we had to say a vocabulary word in both English and Spanish. This game is very helpful because it makes you have to say a word on the spot, which is very practical. Later, we played the same game, but we had to say the word and then use it in a sentence. This was much harder, but it is going to help so much! 

Now I am going to give a short update on what I have done since my last post. Every week day usually consists of roughly the same thing.  I wake up in the morning around 7:00 and will usually run with my friend Taylor. After running I will take a shower and then eat breakfast.  My mom, Pura, always has breakfast sitting on the table for me with bowls covered by plates and then all covered by a towel so that the bugs can't get to my food.  She does this for every meal and not just breakfast. I love it because it creates a sense of surprise.  Every time I sit down at the table, I take off the towel and then remove the first plate from on top of the bowl. It is fun, because I have no clue what is under there and it is always a surprise!! For breakfast, I usually have some bread with cheese or butter on it along with coffee or hot chocolate.  But, this morning was different. I had scrambled eggs, yucca root and potatoes.  All of the food my mom makes is very good, but there portion sizes are insane here! After breakfast, I go to school from about 8:30 to 10:30 and then stay til around 12:00 just using my computer.  The computer center is just a few minutes down the road from my house, so I leave a little before noon.  When I get back home, lunch is usually waiting for me on the table.  After lunch, I usually go sit outside on the porch with my dad.  He owns a animal feed business and just sits outside all day while customers come by, so I enjoy keeping him company.  Depending on how the previous night's sleep was, I might take a little siesta. The afternoons are usually spent hanging out with kids in the community along with my friends from the states.  Alicen, Taylor, and I enjoy singing on Taylor's front porch while she plays guitar.  I usually eat dinner around 6:30 and then just hang out with my parents until I go to sleep either watching TV or just talking.  I have learned that the electricity turns off at unexpected times so my family enjoys watching TV when it is available.  I tend to go to sleep between 9:30-10:30 depending on if I get hooked on a specific movie or not. May is supposed to be the month of rain, and I have noticed the rain slowing over these past two days which has been so nice.  I have actually slept during the night more than a few hours! I have noticed that the chickens and roosters have no since of time because they cluck and cock-a-doodle-do at all hours of the night.  Last night, I knew it must be the morning because all the roosters were crowing but it was only 2:00AM. I guess this is something I will just have to get used to. I think the weekends will usually be spent just hanging out with the community.  On Saturday, it was raining the bulk of the day so weren't able to do a whole lot. On Sunday morning, I went to church with my family.  They have established a really small catholic church in the community.  It was great to see how involved my family was in the service! My dad is the priest and my mom leads all the singing.  Although I couldn't understand hardly anything that was going on during the service, it was great to see how passionate these individuals are for The Lord. After church, my family and I had breakfast and later Taylor, Alicen, and I had our own worship.  My mom was telling me that she was going to be at church again from 11:00-12:00 and that she would leave lunch on the table for me. While at Taylor's house, her mom asked us if we would like to go up to the church again.  I wasn't sure what we were going to do there, but we all went again.  I think it was basically just a late service, although once again, I couldn't understand much.  I think our families really appreciate us being there though! That afternoon, Taylor and I spent more time singing together.  It was fun because some people came by and just sat and listened to us sing.  We only know one song in Spanish, but everyone seems to get a kick out of us singing "Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord," in their language. Two young girls came by and listened to Taylor and I sing for a while. After we were finished, we started to talk with them some.  The phrase that I used the most was "Yo no entiendo," which means, " I don't understand." I could tell that the girls were getting frustrated because I didn't know what they were saying by they would speak really slowly and use hand gestures so hopefully I could get the gist of what they were saying. They were so patient and it was also great practice for me!  When I didn't understand something after multiple trials, we would just all sit and laugh together! Later, I took them over to my house and we made some bracelets together. It was fun to be able to do something that didn't not require words. I am very glad that I was able to meet these two girls and I know that our friendship will continue to strengthen! Anyway, it is almost time for lunch here so I better go! Thanks again for thinking about me and I am hoping to posts some pictures soon!

-Kinsey