In the last month and a half...

Alright, I am going to attempt to update everyone on what has been occurring in Spain in the last month and a half since I haven't blogged at all! :)

We started regular classes at the center. During the month of September, I was only taking an intensive language course. Now I am taking 5 classes in Spanish about the culture, literature, variations of the language, etc. They are going really well. I am a little nervous though because we have only 2 tests in each of them. If I do poorly on them, I will do poorly in the classes. Uh oh! The tests are next week, so I am going to spending this week studying all of the time!

Church is spectacular! I love the body that God has placed me with here. They are such a family. There are many of us guiris (international people) here, but they have welcomed us with open arms. I have been singing with the praise band here, which has been a delight. We had an evangelistic concert a couple of weeks ago in which the choir and the praise band sang and the hip hop dance group performed. So awesome! I just got back yesterday from our fall retreat with the youth. We went to a camp in the mountains near Malaga. It was such a great weekend of fellowship with one another as well as a weekend of huge challenges in the faith. We had a minister from Sevilla come and preach about Romans 12:2. We talked about how we are called to get out of the church essentially. It was especially convicting when he asked us to raise our hands if we had not been raised in a Christian family or raised in the church. Only 6 out of 75 raised their hands. There is something wrong with that picture. We are not called to be salt and light to our Christians friends. We are called to be salt and light to the world. He challenged us to pray long and hard for God to show us how he has gifted us to serve the lost. Then GO! :)

This week I am starting to volunteer with an organization here in which I will be spending a couple hours a week with people (mainly elderly people) in hospitals just keeping them company. I am really excited. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

The Spanish is getting much better! This is terrible, but for about the first month and half, I barely spoke outside of class. I was too embarrassed and nervous to make mistakes. But, in the last 2 weeks, I have made friends with some Spaniards who have helped bunches. Once you get to know people, and they understand your level of Spanish it isn't nearly as hard to talk. :)

Today is a national holiday. Everyone goes to the graves of people that they knew and leaves flowers, etc. As a result, we don't have school. Therefore, I am blogging! But, right now, I need to get some major reading done for my literature class. It takes about 10 times as long to read in Spanish as it does in English! :)

I miss and love you all dearly! Keep leaving comments, I want to hear from you!