Our USA Time, In Numbers

Once we leave to go back to Mexico, we will have been in the United States for 16 and a half months.
It's been good!!

Number of states we've been to: 7 (Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado, Illinois, Tennessee, and Georgia)  If you count airplane layovers, it's 8 - Texas.

Seattle

Number of houses, apartments, and hotels we've stayed since leaving our house in Queretaro: 16 SIXTEEEEEEEEN!  This is 8 houses, 6 apartments, one hotel, and one cabin.  Thank you to all of you who housed us! 

Number of flights we've taken: 16 for JP, 14 for Jessi.

Large metro areas (like over a million people) we were in: Portland, Seattle, L.A., Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver.

Portland

Number of methods of transportation we've taken: 9 - Automobile, city bus, inter-city bus, taxi, airplane, subway/metro/elevated train, train, bike, foot. 

Number of churches we've been to: 13

Number of times people have invited us to Mexican food that was said to be super authentic: approximately 30.

Number of super authentic mexican restaurants we've been too: approximately zero.  :)  (Although our friend Lluvia made us some excellent super authentic stuff in their home!)

Coldest weather we experienced: 25 degrees at Hoodoo Oregon.

Hotest weather we experienced: 103 degrees, thank you Chicago.

Number of times we've seen people standing with their bikes on a street corner smoking and thought that it was people selling tamales: about 5. 
(People have bikes with little carts on them that they use to carry around tamales to sell, and when it's cold outside you can see the steam coming off them that looks like a little bit of smoke).

Number of cool new friends we've made: ??  (We can't count that high!!)

We are so grateful for the time we were able to spend here.  It's been great to see old friends, and make new ones.  God has been so good!

This and That

We've had a full past two months, that's for sure.  Good stuff though!
In February, JP and I celebrated our 32nd birthdays.  (Involving Buffalo Burgers, and Mongolian Grill!)
JP finished English classes at Chemeketa - his English has improved so much, that, even if he were to continue there, he would only have one semester left of classes!
I had my last day at Great Harvest (we have a LOT of stuff to do before heading back!)
AND, (even though I'm sure you've heard by now) JP was approved for US citizenship!  SO, YAY!  He should get it on April 18th, and, tentatively, we'll be heading to Mexico on April 29th. 
We're excited!!

If You Know One Latino, You *don't* Know Them All

THIS is a great article.  (Click on the sentence to read article)

I used to think that all of Latin America had the same culture, lifestyle, language, and food.  But, through experiences, I found that I was mistaken.  Be educated about cultural differences, and NOT calling all Latinos Mexicans, or assuming they are all alike.  Just like a foreigner visiting New Orleans who tells another foreigner what to expect in the US when foreigner #2 will be going to Seattle...  Night and day differences there!
I like learning about cultures!

Año Nuevo

Año Nuevo, or New Years, has a few interesting traditions that come with it in Mexico!

The most common Mexican tradition (that isn't used in the USA), and the only one I've participated in is the midnight grapes tradition.  Instead of watching the ball drop in Times Square, a group of Mexican TV stars, newsanchors, and other famous people get together on TV and at midnight there are twelve clock chimes.  At home, you should have prepared 12 grapes for each person present.  For each clock chime you put a grape in your mouth (I'm unsure as to whether or not you're supposed to chew it right away or not!), the chimes go fast, so you (and the famous people on TV) end up with a mouth full of grape by the time it's done!  :)

Another tradition is that you should get an empty suitcase or some type of luggage out, and run around the block with it at midnight (I'm assuming after the grapes! heehee!).  Supposedly if you do this, you'll travel somewhere cool during the next year.

And, if you come visit us during December in Mexico, you'll notice that WalMart and similar stores have a huge stock of yellow and red underwear.  If you want to get more money in the new year, you should be wearing yellow underwear at midnight.  If you want to fall in love, you should be wearing red underwear.  And you have to choose one - no wearing two pairs of underwear because then it doesn't work! 

Apparently, last New Year's Eve JP and I didn't watch the ball drop in Times Square.  In the morning on the 31st, we were watching the Today Show, and they were lifting up the ball over Times Square.  I explained to JP that for the minute befre midnight the ball will start dropping.  He said he wanted to see it because it's a really big ball and he wanted to see it shatter all over the place.  When I said it doesn't shatter, it just "lands" at the bottom and makes the big 2013 light up, he was like, "What?!  What's the point of that?!"  Good point JP.  I guess every country has some nonsensical traditions!  But they're fun anyway!

Holidays!

This was our second holiday season in the United States - it was good to be able to spend it with my family again!  We spent Christmas morning with Rick and Barb, had Christmas lunch/dinner with the Lanes, then went to the church where we opened it up for anyone who may not have had Christmas plans to come to and enjoy dessert and games!  We ended up having a whole meal at the church, as a family brought their Christmas soup, which is has noodles and fish in it, and also rice and kimchi!  It was yummy! 

 

 

 Rick and Barb

For New Years, JP and I went to hang out with a few other families - again eating Korean food, which neither of us had ever had before Christmas this year - playing lots of games and talking until midnight.  The next day, we had the Gillette family (my mom's side) party.  It was good to see aunts, uncles, and cousins again!

 

New Year's Eve dinner

 

Gillette family party!

Not a Veteran Yet!

Recently I was reading some blogs from new missionaries who have just moved to Mexico and Central America.  It was interesting to see the things they are struggling with.  I want to tell them that in 7 years, they will look back and feel like pros in the same areas!  One person mentioned that they were waiting in line in the bank for 20 mintues...  I go to the bank with a book and a Coke because I know I will not be out in 20 minutes!  (trying to set up a USA/Mexico online transfer account, I spent 10 hours over the course of 2 months in the bank, and I didn't get the account set up successfully!  Side note - I went in to try again with my Mexican citizen I.D., and it took about an hour TOTAL!)  And then there's the language learning.  I'm so grateful that God allowed me to start learning Spanish when I was 14, and I was conversational by 4 years later!  Learning on the field must be difficult!

Some things about life as a gringa in Latin America are old hat now.  But I have light years of learning to do yet!  Living in Queretaro, I feel like I have a lot LESS cultural aspects to have to deal with, I mean come on, we can FLUSH our TOILET PAPER, have hot water showers, have better internet that JP and I currently have in the U.S., and I don't stick out like a sore thumb from being blonde and freakishly tall! 

BUT, I have so much to learn when it comes to the MINISTRY aspects of it all.  Sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do.  And I'm not good at that.  Sometimes I don't want to meet with another young lady who is going through rough times - it's not comfortable.  Sometimes I don't like to be at dinner with another couple while they tell us why they think Christian churches are harmful to the traditional culture - it's disheartening.  Sometimes I would rather not have foul-mouthed beer-drinking young professionals over to our house and listen to them talk about their latest relationship failure - I'd rather go to tacos with friends from church and hear about the youth conference they went to in Mexico City. 

But we live in Queretaro to help people come to a relationship with Christ.  And when one person accepts Christ, it really does make it all worth it! 

New missionaries - hang in there through the culture and language struggles!  That gets better!  Remember why you are where you are.  The hard times, uncomfortable-ness, disheartening convesations, and frustrations are worth it because God allows YOU to play a part in changing eternity for someone else!

Amistad

The main thing that I knew I would miss in Mexico during our time in the States was our awesome friends.  (You thought I was going to say tacos, didn't you!)  Amistad (ah-mee-STAHD) means friendship. 
Things change in a year (or 15 months most likely, by the time we get back).  We missed the wedding of Pam, one of my best friends, and her new husband David.  Our good friends Phil and Sandy, and Ruben and Brenda are having babies in the next couple months.  They weren't even pregnant when we left.  I see Facebook pictures of our friends having a great time all together, and we aren't in them.  It's been hard. 

But God has provided for us in that area during our time here.  We have the most awesomest small group ever!  We were just three couples for a few month, and now a new couple has joined, and a single young lady has been attending too, taking our total up to nine!  I feel blessed that God has brought these people into our lives!  When we first started going to a small group, I told myself not to get too attached to everyone since we'll be leaving to go back to Mexico.  Well, I got too attached.  But that's ok.  I know we'll have to leave, but we'll see them when we come to visit (and when they come to visit us, hint hint!)

Here's a few pictures of good times we've had as a group over the past several months:

When we went to see the midnight showing of Avengers when it came out:
(Note Brooke's big bag - it was full of trail mix and other snacks to take into the theater.  JUST like we do in Mexico!  haha!)

 

Making smores in the backyard (JP learned Reeses peanut butter cup smores here!)

 

And most recently, FryDay - where the guys all got together and fried all kinds of junk!

Frying Twinkies:

 

Fried stuffed jalapeños (I got to try these and they were GREAT!)

 Frying in the garage!  Us girls went hung out with the kids and ordered in Olive Garden that day - Yummy!

We also pray for each other and look at the Bible together!  (It's just not condusive to take pictures of that!)  We've been looking at 1 Corinthians the past couple months, which has been a good learning experience. 

I am so thankful for our friends in the States.  Yes, it will be hard to leave now.  But they'll just have to come visit!  :) 

The One About Colorado

I said that I'd tell about our Colorado trip, and never did, so here it is!  :P
We spent a week with Walt and DiAne in Colorado Springs.  Two families hosted us in their homes while we were there, and they were extremely hospitable and nice to us.  Walt and DiAne took us to the USA Olympic Training Center, Compassion International, Focus on the Family, the Garden of the gods, and other fun places around Colorado Springs.
Then we had an intensive three day "business as ministry" training. We plan to use this program in our ministry in Queretaro.   It was an excellent training, the leader took lots of time personally with JP and I to go over questions we had. 
It was a really great week!

 

"Blobsledding" at the Olympic Training Center!

 

Us with Walt and DiAne at the Garden of the gods!

 

Navigating an "Olde West" ghost town!

Lessons from My Ear

If you didn't see about our time at International Teams, scroll down to the next post, or click HERE to see some pictures!

The last few days at I.T. were a little rough, due to an ear infection I had coming on.  I'd never had one before, but ended up going to two urgent care clinics, getting a shot for pain (I NEV.ER. request a shot, but the pain won out this time!), and missing out on some of the fun that could have been had during our stay with Justin and Lluvia.  God blessed me with a few hours of good time to spend with them though - we hadn't seen them in over a year, so it was great to catch up and talk about good times!

Word to the wise - NEVER get on an airplane with a perforated ear drum.  Seriously.  Dude.  But that's what we did.  And I think God taught me a lot from that experience.  This may sound exaggerated, but I have never experienced as much pain for such an extended period of time as I did with this infection.  And on the plane from Chicago to Portland, I couldn't think straight.  All I could do was cry out to God that He would make it stop.  I remember that one of my college professors said one time that during a particularly painful child birth she decided to use that time to praise God that she was having a baby, and praise Him for who He is.  And that scenario came to my mind.  And I started to sing (in my head, not out loud!) praises to God.  Sometimes the pain was unbearable, and I cried, and I think JP was close to tears a few times, and the kid sitting in front of us definitely thought I was off my rocker!  But the phrase that kept running through my head was "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."  I can't find that exact phrase in the Bible, although I'm sure something similar is there.  But I just knew that God was in control - He has the power to heal and the power to not.  It's His to decide, and if He decides not to heal when I want, I will still praise Him. 

Then I kind of hoped that after that revelation God would instantly heal my ear, but He didn't.  The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.  A lesson - or TRUTH - that I will never forget.

We spent uncomfortable two weeks in Salem (I kept telling myself my ear was on the mend even though all signs said it was not) before getting BACK on an airplane to go to Colorado (will post more about that soon!).  I thought I was healed enough to go to Colorado, but apparently not.  The plane ride was a killer again, and our friends Walt and DiAne who hosted us in Colorado Springs changed our plans to go to Breckenridge to take me to the doctor, which ended in a minor surgery to get the *fungus* out of my ear.  The doctor was afraid that it had penetrated into the bones in my ear (I freaked out when I heard that!), so he put me under and cleaned it up, and it wasn't near as bad as he'd thought.  Then the rest of the time in Colorado was quite pleasant, since my ear quit hurting three weeks after it started!

Here's me and the nurse post-op in the hospital.  They gave me a Coke to wake me up!  :)

I T July!

So, considering that it's been like, a LONG time since we've written, and we've had a TON of stuff happen in that vast stretch of time (which is only 3 months, but seems like we had a year's worth of stuff going on), I'll do some pictures of what went on during JULY.

 

We spent the month at International Teams in Elgin Illinois (about 30 minutes north-ish of Chicago).  JP did 3 weeks of training - his "official I.T. training" for being officially a missionary!  And I did kind of a refresher one week course - it's what they offer for new missionaries before coming to the longer training - JP took this in April.

 

So here's our time in pictures!

 

JP and I in downtown Chicago.  You can't spend a month in Elgin and not make the trek to downtown Chi-Town.  hehe

 

 

I was SUPER  happy that Franklin (one of my brothers from Honduras) and his wife Kendra were able to come visit!  Fran had never been to the US before, and Kendra is from Michigan, so they spent a few weeks with her family, and were able to meet me in Chicago for a day (JP had classes and couldn't come).

 

I took a lot of the classes with JP, so I was able to get to know all the other missionaries in training, like Michelle and Chris (with us below) going to Uganda!  We had lots of fun times getting to know the other missionaries and hanging out.

 

We went to "La Villita," which is pretty much Northern Mexico transplanted to Chicago, with Jay, Julianne, and their kids.  They are going to an undecided location in Latin America, and wanted to experience as close to Mexico as possible with some real live mexicans - us.  :)  It was a great day - the busses were problematic, as none of us had any idea how to use them, but we ate at a place that *almost* tasted like home, and found "elotes" (el-OH-tays) (mentioned about 100 times in previous blog posts, and pictured below!)  JP and I were thrilled, and Jay and Julianne and kids have a new favorite food!

 

 

JP with Suzie and Scott at I.T., getting his diploma.  As you can tell, everyone is very serious around I.T. heehee!

 

It was an amazing month!  We topped it off by getting to visit Justin and Lluvia and their baby who served with us in QRO for 6 years (they were there a lot before I came too!).