so tell me...

This blog is going to be pretty random as far as I can see at this point. I don't really know if there will be any organization to it, so we'll see what happens I guess. I'll probably just ramble about stuff I'm thinking about or things that have happened to me, or I might just make stuff up, I'm not really sure yet. So I hope I can keep it interesting, and I hope I can post new things somewhat regularly. Well anyways, enjoy!

Monday, June 25, 2007

And back again

So I am now back from Peru. It was a very fun and fanciful trip and it was great to see all that was going on down there. Everything went relatively fine, the only bad part of the trip for me was the two days of traveling back that we did, and that was more due to the fact that it was long and I couldn't sleep rather than being sick or anything. I'm pretty sure that I either have an iron stomach or am immune to everything. Not even once on this whole trip did I even start to feel sick, it was great. I tend to think it's more that I'm immune to everything. Well I'm not immune to everything, but it's pretty close. I got sick often as a child and therefore my body got used to all those illnesses and now I am untouchable. At least I like to think so. But it has been a really long time since I was sick last. At least 3 years. Sorry, I'm getting off track. All you need to know is that I didn't get sick. The trip was really good and much different than I expected. I thought I was going to learn so much about my relationship with God and how I need to change, but that really didn't come up at all. Well I guess it did a little bit, but that is definitely not what really stuck out. What did stick out and I did learn is what missions is all about. I saw the passion that a missionary has and the difficulties that doing that type of work involves. The Rosengrens really do have a genuine passion for what they are doing and they are so certain that they are doing what they should be doing. It was really cool to see that and find out what it looks like. It was also interesting to see the difficulties that missions bring to the table. There are so many factors that go into that type of work, and they are working through every single one of them. So this trip really made me appreciate missions work a whole lot more and has given me a much better idea of what spiritual warfare really means.

So nothing brand new that I learned, just illuminating some more of what I already knew. Well now that you have some thoughts about what I learned, I want to tell you all a little bit about what I appreciate about the country/culture and things that I don't necessarily appreciate. First - what I appreciate.
Peru has ocean, mountains and jungle. Not many countries can say they have all that.
Everything is pretty darn cheap down there. Who doesn't like that?
The country is beautiful. It made for some pretty great pictures. (None that I took myself, of course.)
The traffic is really crazy and they don't really obey any of the traffic laws.
The weather is perfect down there. Never rains and lows of 50, even in the winter.
Now for some things that I didn't appreciate quite as much.
Not being able to drink the water.
Long and windy bus rides.
Rock hard pillows.
Lots of dirt.
People trying to sell me things I either a) already bought, or b) would have to get paid to take it away from them.

I'm sure there is lots more of each, but the good things certainly outweigh the bad, so overall, this trip was really great. I hope to be able to go back and see the Rosengrens again, but that will be a long ways away from now. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm sure you'll hear more stories/thoughts about Peru in the future. El mono está en la mantequilla.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

In Peru

So here I am in the middle of Peru. Well I don't exactly know if it is the middle, but it feels like it. The trip has gone well thus far and we're actually on our last full day here. I would put pictures up here but I don't have a camera and therefore no pictures, so sorry. It has been a lot of fun to be down here and we've done a lot. We didn't do as much work as I had expected, but we did see and do a lot of other things such as shopping in the market, driving up a really tall mountain, navigating through intense traffic and many other things. It will be kind of sad to go, but it will also be really nice to come home, although the travel isn't going to be too much fun. Well that's all for now. I'm sure I'll write more about Peru later, but I think there are several people watching me like hawks to see when I'll be done with the computer.