A couple pics...

The Memphis guys pulling down a tree this morning.

Aya in her truck! :)

Last night's meeting

The meeting we had last night was really encouraging!! Abba read an email to us that a guy had written him and his answers to the guy's questions. It was about discipling people and being a disciple yourself. He also talked about us out here and how we need to be doing more in the neighborhood. He said it is too easy to become complacent and just fit in with the world, but that's not why we are out here. If our life only consists of working and making a living, then we are supposed to come back to the village because that's not why we were sent out here.
It really got my brain to start spinning its wheels. How can I as a teen be a help to God's work out here? What can I do to show the life that we have? The guys work all day and the ladies are at home so the ladies are going to get more chances to meet people here in the neighborhood then the men, but how can they if they don't go out of their houses? I know I've been inside a lot lately for the past couple weeks and that has been somewhat because of the rain, but even that doesn't need to be my excuse. Everyone knows that I'm not like the friendliest person to people I don't know much less people I do know, but maybe that's why God has me out here...to grow and get bigger in that area.
The whole meeting was very good! It's hard living out here with like zero encouragement or meetings. Abba only comes out here maybe every other week. I haven't been to any of his teachings out here at all because I usually have dance Thursday nights. I was very glad that I was there last night!

Sisters...

Thank goodness for no school!! :) This sleeping in thing has been the most amazing thing ever!!!

Well, Alaina, Abby and her kids came out last night to spend the night and Lain had voice lessons today. Abby just came for fun and her husband is working out here in Memphis tomorrow. They got here around 10pm and staid up until midnight writing songs! They were so tired that they were laughing at practically every single thing that was said!! I staid up with them only until 11pm and was like sooo tired after that.

Today Lain and Mic went shopping while the rest of us Memphis people, and Abby and kids, went to Shelby Farms for a picnic lunch, to talk, be outside and plan menus. Lain and Mic met us there later on. It was a very nice day and didn't rain here at all!! There was a very nice breeze which kept us from boiling too much, all though I don't think we could've because the sun was like non-existent today. Mic and myself took the kids for a walk around the lake while Ho lied on a blanket with Corby and the ladies talked. It was a very strenuous workout for me because the path around the lake is like one and a half mile and I carried a sleeping Sabria the whole way while walking very slow because all the kids couldn't keep up!! :(

So now Abba, Doug, Eli, Blue, Ms. Mala, Ben and Toni are here for dinner and a meeting. I hope the meeting, or meetings, don't last too long! I'm still tired and my cough that I got rid of a week ago is coming back to haunt me. :(

Another day....

Last night my family and Joel's family went to Ben and Toni Holt's house for dinner and a meeting. We got there around 7pm and had some chili and bread sticks then just sat around and talked for about an hour. There were a couple other families there who Ben usually meets with on Tuesday nights. Two other families didn't come though. After we talked, Ben played the guitar and we sang some of their songs and then sang some of our songs, which was refreshing. :) A older man started to teach out of the Bible next. He read and explained about Sampson and his life. He talked for what seemed like hours. Finally everybody left. We tried to leave but Ben wouldn't let us. He wanted us to stay and talk. It was sweet of him. :) Thanks to Hosanna I didn't get bored the whole time. She made me and Mic laugh! So at about 11:45pm, Ben let us go home. :) We were all dead tired!! It was quite an experience going there. The families out here in the Gatehouse are going to trade out going to Ben's every other Tuesday night I think. On the Tuesdays we don't go there I think we are going to Thomas and Erica's. Pray for us that we know what to do and say!

So nothing much happening here besides that. Still getting ready for Amy's wedding. Trying to figure out what we're wearing...well, what I'm wearing.
My family is still trying to go to Hawaii. We aren't going this month any more because of the money but we are trying to go toward the beginning of December. I'm still praying it happens sometime this year!!!
Well, that's it for today.

Ingathering

Slept in again today! It's really surprising because my mom like never lets us sleep in. I'm lovin' it!!! I'd better not get used to it though... :(

Ok, since I have some time on my hands now and I'm not altogether hungry or anything, I guess I could write about some things I learned or that really stood out to me over the Ingathering weekend.
     I got to the village, as I wrote in a blog before, after the burning which really made me upset, but I was there for some of the talking in the tent afterwards. Right as I walked up, Khale stood up and talked. I was grateful that I didn't miss that!! I was amazed at how much God has been doing in the hearts of the Sundari Jewels and Silver Knights since I've left!! It was a big shock to see how they all acted during the Ingathering compared to how they used to act and be. I was overwhelmed with a sense of how great our God is!!! He can do anything if only we believe! At one point towards the end, Papa Jeremiah stood up and talked about laying up your treasures in Heaven. He said that we need to let everything go and give it all to God and He will give us everything back 100 fold. I've heard that a lot in my life but it has never quite hit me as it hit me then. All of a sudden I felt like God stood Papa Jeremiah up to say that just for me. Like Papa Jeremiah was starring at me the entire time. I didn't know what to do. What he was saying was exactly what I had been struggling with for a little over a week. I had been crying out to God every day, asking Him to speak to me and help me to be okay with what He was asking me to let go of. Here He was, in the form of Papa Jeremiah, answering my prayers in a way that I didn't think He would use. I was filled with a peace that I hadn't known before. I had prayed a couple nights before asking God to give me peace in knowing that what I was doing was His will. Now I knew for sure that I was doing what was right.
I'd like to say that after that experience I was fine and never struggled with it again, but I can't. The next day the same struggles came on me, but I had the strength to work through them. I wanted to work through them. I wanted to do God's will. I've always wanted to know God's will for my life, most people do, and when I found out that this was His will for now, I poured myself into it with everything that I had.
Every day I have to struggle and work through the same thing, but I know that there is an end in sight and I'm doing God's will and it makes me happy! Sometimes when my friends talk about certain things, it brings me back to what my self wants and I get to thinking about my self and I become terribly depressed. I just want to crawl up in a ball and bury myself in a deep hole and never see the light of day again, but I have to work through it. Sometimes it takes leaving the room or just looking for God because He'll always be there when we need Him.
I know that I'll keep struggling with this for a long time, but that is because there are beings who want to take me out and pull me away from God. I am going to do everything in my power to keep on the path towards God and keep fighting against self. God never asks us to do anything that we can't do!

Lazy day!

Today was a very lazy day! Everybody slept in!! I had to get up at 8:30am because I had to go to Le Bonheur but I did go back to sleep afterwards at 2:30pm and slept until 8pm! :) I guess we all are catching up on all the sleep we didn't get over the Ingathering weekend.
Today's is Tim's b-day. We told him we had a meeting at 8pm about some problems but really Aya and Rushi went out and bought some ice cream and made a candy bar cake for him. He was really happy that we did something for him. :)

Here are a few pics from the Ingathering...

 

  

  

   

Finally home!!

I'm home today but I haven't downloaded my pics yet. I might try to later on tonight. Right now I'm really tired so I think I'm gonna try to sleep some. Today has just been a lazy hang around the house day.
Micaiah finally sold his snake today! We have been trying to do that for a while now.

The Ingathering was awesome! I love it how God took care of us and kept back the rain and made Friday and Saturday beautiful! Now that it's all over, I have to get back into my regular schedule of life. :(
Anyway, I had a wonderful time in the village w/ all my friends and can't wait to see them at Amy and Quinn's wedding!! :)

I'll post pics when I download them.