Guatemala Missions Trip :)

Hola! This is Emily and my first time writing on the blog in a while. Here's just a (long) update of today and yesterday. Yesterday morning everyone woke up around 5:30-6:00 am to get ready for breakfast and devotional. Our large group loaded the cars with supplies for the pharmacy and for our trip this morning and I got the chance to call my parents before we left. This trip had so many delays on the way to the church. First something was wrong with our car breaks and so we had to stop to take a look. The decision was eventually made that the car was not in good enough condition to drive so everyone squeezed into other suburbans. Not much later they car I moved to had a flat tire that took some more time out of the day. The spare was put on and we were back on the road. Then the same car had another flat tired! They were fixed as well and so we continued on the trip. This was definitely some spiritual warefare and either God was protecting us from something or the devil just did not want us there today. When we finally arrived the clinic time was cut in half because of the vehicle troubles. We arrived and I was assigned to the Gospel sharing station. This is where the team talks about the patients' illness/pain, about their faith, and ask if we can pray for their pain or any other things going on in their lives. If they aren't already Christians, we present them with an evangecube to explain the Gospel. My translator Andrea and I were able to share Christ with a six-year-old. I thought that was really neat. At the end of the clinic, everyone packed up and were ready to head out until the same car with the two flat tires had a hole in one of the spares! Everyone called me a jinx because every car I had been in had had some probem. They got rid of three people because of the flat tire. I was apparently the Jonah of the trip so they threw me out of the car to avoid anymore problems. After that the funny thing is they never had another problem. The group arrived home for dinner and a group meeting. And that was the end of yesterday.
Today was sadly the last day of working in the clinic and everyone made the most of today. This morning Mr. Munhall taught on God's plans for us (Romans 8:28). Once the devotionals were finished everyone loaded up into the cars again for the trip to the clinic. It was about a two hour drive to the church where we are serving today and the car ride is always an enjoyable couple of hours. Except once again a car's engine had problems and needed work. Thankfully that didn't cause much of a delay. We were back on the road in about ten or so minutes later. Once we arrived at the church where the clinic would be, everyone helped unload the cars and set up for the pharmacy, the childrens ministry, and the Gospel sharing station. Everyone was quickly assigned to their stations. At first I worked with the children and they were just getting out of their classes when we arrived. When we walked by their classrooms they kept running from us for no reason. We played their little game of tag and they kept on running until they gathered round to watch us perform our worship songs. While we were dancing, those kid's faces lit up and they had the biggest and sweetest smiles on their faces. After everyone finished with their first station the group breaked for lunch. All week the lunches that was prepared for us have been delicious! Today we were served rice, tortillas, beef, and broth. The next stations were assigned and begun. I helped at the Gospel station the second half where we spoke to the patients with the help of the translators. I don't know exactly how many people were lead to Christ today, but I do know that one of the teenage boys helped lead a lady to Christ.
After the day were done at the church, the group drove back to the mission center. At the mission center, the men and boys left to go to a nearby church. They are still there right now. While they were gone, the women and girls had the privelege of hearing a lady named Kristina tell her story of being in a car accident and how that brought her closer to God. After we heard Kristina's story, we prayed over a friend. Then it was time for a game. Everyday we see women walking around with big baskets on their heads and towels wrapped around their heads to help balance the basket. We decided to take towels and try the same thing! It was pretty funny watching everyone trying to slowly making their way across the kitchen to the living room. Priya won and Lizzie got second. Then Mrs. Bull showed the girls her cowboy boots and everyone took turns smelling the boots. No, they were not smelly, it smelled like new leather and it smelled really good. I called my brother Josh too and left a voicemail. I really miss my whole family. That's about all for today. Tomorrow we will be going to the market and I think it will be really fun and exciting!
Can't wait! Emily :)) <3

SUMMER!!

Oh. My. Goodness. Summer is almost here!!! It feels like this school year has flown! I don't think I've ever in my life been so excited for summer. This school year has definitely been the hardest, but I've managed to get through it. It feels like summer started last tuesday because dive practice started and the last day of one of our classes was yesterday. And the last day of all of school (except for math) is this monday. So excited!!!

This summer we'll still be really busy. So far my summer consists of: dive team, math, 2 or more vacations, gold rush (at Perimeter church), a missions trip to Guatemala, having plenty of sleepovers, and going to the lake. Those are for sure, but some things I possibly will do is: work in the YES crew (Camp All American), get a job, go on a camping trip, and...... I'll probably come up with more ideas later this summer. :) Sadly, one of the top things to do was to see the One Direction concert on June 26, but I'm going to be out of town. :( Well I can always wait until next year. Well I hope you all have a great summer!

Ballad: The Sprite

For our literature class, we were learning about ballads.


ballad |ˈbaləd|
nouna poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.
So our class had a "battle of the balads." Here is mine :) See if you can figure out what it means.

The Sprite

Shots of golden hue, I thought

Scared at first of what I saw

It was a dream, was it not?

This thought that came at midnight

Gone at once, this sight so new

The fiery golden shine

Throughout my mind, the thought flew

The thought of the gleaming sight

The flash returned, oh so swift

Flickering it’s spangled glow

Decorated like a gift

I alleged it was a sprite

Closer the shine fluttered

It had a look of pleasure

A tune it tried to utter

Those blue eyes shone with delight

The song seemed bright and merry

Until she skipped in panic

The melody was scary

And I was concealed in fright

If I could, I would have hid

That song nearly pierced my ears

But I woke before it did

Ending my dream from last night

Another E-mail

This is from my friend Katie who was very, very, very bored is Spanish class and decided to send me a very random e-mail. This made me laugh so hard, so if you have time to waste, go ahead and read it.

Hey guys!! I just wanted to let you know that I am leaving on vacation tomorrow and I think I'll be back intime for nexttt sundays (Easter) church. I'll ask my parents if they want to go. I'm soooo boreddddddddd. School stinks. It's the last day though!! Hey you remember Jake from dive team? The little brown child? He goes to my school!!! He's really nice but he used to be mean. He was mean to me at dive but now he's always like HEY KATIE. It's nice. Thank goodness Joey doesn't go here. blaaahhhhhhh I've never been soooo bored ever. never ever. what are ya'll up to? abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz they should really put the keyboard in alphabetical order. It would make everything alot easier to do. you know what else they should put in abc order? tests. the you could just go abcd abcd abcd and get a 100!! if i ever run a school, that's what I'm going to do. All the kids will get abc tests. i have a feeling they won't learn much. Sorry if this have been a waste of your time. I know it has, and if you actually are finishing this letter instead of just deleting it when you see how long it is, i have great respect for you. next time i see you i will clap extremely slowly. do you take spanish? i don't like spanish. i'm gonna change the computer backround to one ddirection soon. right now it's puppies. i want a puppy. and an otter. mostly an otter i wanna change my house to a aquaruim. no i take that back, i don't like fish. i just want polar bears and otters and pengiuns and a tiger. but the tiger might eat me so a pony. but i might fall off the pony so a unicorn. but unicorns are extinct. so a pegasus. yes. a pegasus. and i will ride it everywhere. have you guys seen the movie arigon? we were having an asembly and chris and i forgot our permission slips so we had to go watch arigon in the chorus room. the reason i'm bringing this up was because the ride dragons. i want a dragon now. a purple dragon. I CAN BE A DRAGON RIDER!!!! o gosh i have to leave time flyes when your not doing your work in school!!! don't listen to me i'm a bad influence. ok well if you read this the key word is pickles. ok i really have to go have fun thanks for reading all this sorry i wasted your time. i hope you found it enjoyable!!!

-katie

The Hunger Games: Movie Review

Here are just some thought about the movie that I had after already seeing it twice!

They captured the idea of the book very well and thankfully there weren't too many graphic scenes, except for a time Cato broke someone's neck and killed him, Glimmer was just attacked by the tracker jackers and her face was gross looking (ew), there were times that people were stabbed or burned and it showed the wound which was kind of nasty, and at the end, blood was coming out of Cato's mouth and dripping down the sides of his face.
Although they captured the main events of the books, they left some scenes and details out. I really wish they had kept Madge in the book since she was the one who gave Katniss the mockingjay pin. And Gale hardly had any lines or scenes, but they will probably put him in the next two movies because he was much more involved in the others, especially the last.
I wish they would have let you get to know the characters better. I felt that when some people in the book died that I really liked in the book, it didn't have any effect on my in the movie. I hardly felt anything for the characters in the movie like in the book.

I know that just about every book that turns into a movie is never as good as the book, but my friends and I were thinking about the books that have been turned into movies and the quality of the movies. Like Narnia. Those movies turned out really well! And The Help. That was a great movie although I never read the book. Those were just some main thoughts that I wanted to point out. I hope the next few movies are better than the first!

The HUNGER GAMES

     As most of you probably know, there is this new movie called The Hunger Games. It comes out tomorrow at midnight and my friends and I are super excited to see it during the midnight premiere! It is actually based on a book series called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, that everyone who is anxious to see the move should review and read first. The story takes place, well, I think sometime in the future in a country called Panem. The capitol of Panem strictly runs everything, everybody, and every event; one event is called The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is an annual event that involves kid's (age 12-18) names being drawn to compete in a fighting for their lives in an arena. There are thirteen districts; one being destroyed long ago by the capitol because of the start of a rebellion. Now there are only twelve, and every year, two names, one male and one female, are draw out for every district to determine who fights in the arena until there is only one tribute left.
     That is how the story starts, so if you are going to read the books, I'm not going to spoil it for you. Although many are strongly against their kids reading this series, we can't exactly blame them. The plot is disturbing and children are being killed. I'm not going to disagree with you there. But there are also good points people tend to miss because of being biased against whatever violence the book might possibly have. The books gives lots of examples of courage, overcoming fear and achieving bravery, never giving up, having hope and be willing to die for good, standing up against what is wrong and protecting lives, protecting their country, protecting what is good, destroying evil, and more. Yes, it is violent, but there is so much more to look for in this book than ignoring it all together because of an idea. The actual games is, believe it or not, is only part of the book. Within the second and third book, a whole new idea comes into action. Although the book contains some violent scenes, it is not graphic.

     As you now know the movie is coming out, my friends and I are very excited to attend the midnight showing. Just a couple weeks ago, we went to a cast, question and answer and got some pretty good pictures too. 

We saw Gale (Liam Hemsworth)

 Rue (Amandla Stenberg)

Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi)

 Glimmer (Leven Rambin)

 and Marvel (Jack Quaid)

Here is the whole cast (well the part that we saw)

Over the Edge

Ok, well before I just paste what I have already written, let me explain what I am about to paste. For our lit/comp class, we were told to write a six second story. Basically our (amazing) teacher, Mrs. Mills,  wanted us to write two pages about an event happening within the time of six seconds. Not so easy! Although it isn't easy, it's actually pretty fun. We had to choose our own six second situation and to make it last two pages, we had to write down the thoughts, the feelings and the actions of the main character. Well here is mine. :)

Over the Edge

Speeding, rushing, knowing I was running late. It became that moment I had

quickly realized what I saw wasn’t a dream. It all seemed so blurry and everything

happened so quickly; too quickly. In front of my jerky car sped another straight

towards me unable to stop. The driver had panicked looks smeared across his

ghostly pale face as they bumped up the road. It became obvious one of us had to go.

The child contently seated in the car seat seemed oblivious to everything and

everyone except his new transforming toy he continued to tinker with. He didn’t

know what was happening, he couldn’t know, and I didn’t want him to know. I

hardly knew. Too many thoughts had just raced through my head. It seemed that for

a second my hands became paralyzed and I was unable to steer the car. In front of

me I had just realized that behind the wheel of the dirt covered minivan were faces

and expressions that couldn’t be put into words. So it just hit me that the next choice

I was forced to make was life or death.

All those thoughts soared through my mind and only one second crawled by.

I wasn’t able to give my son any calm notice; there wasn’t time. Not even to turn

around. But I could scream. No, I shouldn’t. It would scare him. Unwillingly, I

shrieked out his name and his head shot up throwing back his long blonde mane.

Immediately, another second flew by. The thought of where we were speeding

became drowned within all the new feelings that flashed back and forth. It became

clear that a big squished-in family were about to drive themselves over a cliff, but

maybe they didn’t have to. Inside my car sat my son, only six years old, and me. I had

a chance to save a family, but at the same time I would have to sacrifice two very

valuable things, my life, and the life I created. He was too young. So innocent. Has

this type of thing happened on TV before? Sure. Like my favorite show. Wait, was

this was real life? I had to make my mind up fast. But I suddenly knew what I had to

do. I knew in just a couple more seconds I would be where I wouldn’t want to leave,

a place I could live happily with my child, and a place I would meet my family once

again. It wasn’t over.

It was the fastest decision I had ever made. With my hands still feeling paralyzed,

I quickly jerked the steering wheel off to the side and couldn’t let go. My wet hands

felt glued to the leather. Turning off the side of the cliff, our car blocked out and

stopped the minivan of the poor terrorized family, but it didn’t stop us. I felt the

color in my face flush as we dropped. It was only three seconds ago that I was on my

way and running late to the funeral. The feeling came as soon as the front wheels left

the dirt road. It was far different from any roller coaster ride. Yet it was similar. I

didn’t have time to check on my son. No time to see is face again. I didn’t know if I

would want to. I could just imagine the pain in his intense blue eyes. And no time to

tell him I loved him. Well, at least not now.

My heart seemed to have stopped for a minute as a sharp shriek from the back

pierced my ears and my heart. In midair the thought came that my life was just

beginning. The shrubs at the bottom seemed so far away, but we were getting closer.

Maybe we would become heroes. Maybe no one would ever find out. Maybe we

would be forgotten and no one would know what happened to us. I knew we didn’t

have much time. The blackness of the surrounding leather slowly crept its way into

my vision. That became all I saw. There were only few seconds left to live, but that

didn’t matter. We were leaving the life of death and we were on our way to a place

where we would never have another worry in our lives again, all in just 3… 2… 1.

Tennis

Yay! I'm finally getting back into tennis! We all took a break from it throughout winter and I was really missing it! But about a month ago, we started going back to our neighborhood's tennis courts and we go to Academy. It's basically two days a week (Sunday and Thursday nights) and we play with a bunch of kids. On Sunday most are above us, but on Thursday, they are all our level. It's more fun than it was last year because for one thing, there are less kids so we get better instruction, and we know the kids better than we used to. Yesterday we went and like always, it was awesome and I actually did better than I was. But that't not saying much because we took like a four month break from it and we were awful!! But now I am pretty sure we aren't taking anymore breaks. Now that I'm back I already need new tennis shoes (mine has a big hole) and new grip, not including lessons (which I need desperately). So I'm glad we are back at tennis. Now I just can't wait until the summer when I can start dive again! So. Much. FUN! I'll probably be just as rusty, but at least I won't be completely new at it.

Tumblr = Lot of Fun Stuff and Lots of Wasted Time from Your Life that You Will Never Get Back

Well, to start off, if you do not know what I am talking about, there is this blog site called Tumblr. It's a company that creates blogs for people so they can "follow" other people or "like" things or "reblog" them. Really neat idea! So I was looking for a blog site to publish some pictures and I joined Tumblr. It looks boring from the outside, but once you're in, it's like Narnia!
My blog was called thatawesomephoto.tumblr.com and it was filled mostly with beach, ocean, surf, or Christian pics I have taken (not really) or reblogged. But I was wasting SO MUCH time on it! It was ridiculous! I would literally sit there on Tumblr for hours at a time every day.... or more. I was always staying up really late the day before the test or before class because I hadn't done some work. Well actually I still do, but I guess that's just normal high school work. My mom would always get really mad at me because I wasted so much time. So finally decided that I needed to delete it. The first feeling I had was sadness. I had spent months on this blog with over 1,000 posts (a.k.a. pictures). But then I was relived and was glad I got rid of the temptation to always go on.
Stupidly enough, a couple of months later, I got another one. Yes. I know. Big mistake. Not doing it ever again. Never. Ever. Again. Well I started it, and it lasted about a week or so until I decided I didn't want to waste my time all over again. So about 15 minutes ago, I deleted that one. That was one of the reasons I wasn't blogging very often a few months ago. Well now it's gone :) and I only have blogspot. On my other blogspot blog thatawesomephoto.blogspot.com I posted some pics I have taken to replace Tumblr. Not as fun, but not nearly as addicting.

More of "Wheee!!"

Yup! I was right (aren't I always? JK!). The trampoline is still AWESOME!! So much fun! Love it! Yay! Awesomeistasticer (a word my sister made up). This is basically another post about the trampoline, similar to the last one, kind of an update, but yeah. Well if you are a friend (meaning I have to like you too), then you have to come over and jump on it!!!! I jump on it about every day and turn flips, cartwheels, front handsprings, splits, and just jump! I think I can do a back pike which is basically doing a flip while bending over to touch your toes. And I can finally do a back straight which is pretty much what it sounds like. A backflip.... but straight! And today I just got a front pike... or it feels like I did. I need to have someone record me. Now my next goal is to do a front straight, which is pretty hard... well at least it is to me (no, I do not want to hear about all your 20 years of gymnastics and how you can do a triple off the ground. Good for you, please keep that to yourself). Hahaha I feel like a hypocrite right now bragging about what I'm trying to do. Ok, Emily, time to shut up. Well I guess you could say this was a little update. But all I'm saying (ok maybe I was wrong) is that I was able to do more than I thought on the, somewhat small, trampoline. The only thing is that my mom has restricted me from it until Thursday! Thursday!! That's a long way away! Only because I had said my back was hurting and so she blamed it on the trampoline saying that I should take a break. Even though I told her it stopped hurting after about 30 minutes, she still said no. :( So if you want to come over sometime after Thursday, come over!! That would be awesome! Tons of fun! Great! A blast! Cya!

Wheeee!!!

     Wow I really haven't written in forever. So I guess I'll go back to Christmas. It was awesome! We had a great Christmas staying home with family, then we went to spend time the next day with our dad's side of the family. We exchanged gifts, ate food, talked, and some of us played with the little kids. I got quite a few gifts that I am sooooo excited about!!!!
     First of all.... I got my shoes!!!! Yes, the crazy one's I mentioned below.  And. (drumroll please) I. Got. A. Trampoline!!! Wow, I was so excited! I have wanted one since I was about eight years-old and had to wait six (long) years until.... finally, we got one! And they are still so much fun! Josh and I love jumping up and dow, doing flips, playing popcorn, and seeing who can bounce each other up the highest.
     The only thing is that it's no fun jumping in the freezing cold when you're huffing and puffing and your throat is dry and cold while the cold wind is stabbing at your skin..... not fun! Especially when the wind is so strong that it takes the trampoline all the way to the other side of the yard! Yes, it happened. But our very loving and helpful aunt and uncle moved it back and fixed the poles and netting that came undone.
     My goal was to be able to do a back handspring, but that's not gonna happen. With a 12 ft trampoline, there's not much space to do a ton of flips. So now my new goal to to be able to someday turn a front or side aerial. I can get my front walkover, but doing it without hands is a different story. Wish me luck!