God is so good! There are so many things I am learning about myself, Christian communities, and most importantly, God. Our team has gotten the opportunity to join a local church and help lead worship on Thursdays. This has been such an eye opening oppurtunity for me. Being able to stand in the middle of the church, surrounded by people who are crying out to God in two different languages, has given me an appreciation for God's glory and power. The fact that God can perfectly understand and hear all of our prayers and cries at the same time shows how powerful he is. While I have gotten SO MUCH better at speaking Spanish and can hold full conversations and understand the sermons now, there is still so much that I do not know, and to think God knows not only all of Spanish but every other language that has ever been created blows my mind. Thinking about the topic of language has made me think about so many different things and learn so much about myself and how I learn, and about God. For example, this makes me think about the tower of Babel and how confusing that must have been for the people there to start building and understand each other completely, and then, in one instance, have no idea what the person beside them was saying. The complexity of language points straight back to its creator in the beauty of how it was created to glorify and prove the power of the lord. Another thing God has shown me this week is that he really does hear me. During a church service led by one of our amazing mentors, Amanda, on Friday, it hit me that God had answered one of my biggest prayers from the last 3 years. During/after my freshman year of high school, I was so lonely, I knew that God was beside me and walked with me through my life, but I also knew that He calls us to be in a community, and i didnt have that. I constantly begged God for friends who truly wanted the best for me and who loved the Lord. I begged him to help me be the person who was a good friend and someone who "deserved" good friends. Like almost every other teenage girl, I continued to have terrible friends who I allowed to lead me astray and treat me like my worth was absolutely nothing, and friendship breakups throughout the rest of my high school time, which was another reason I chose to cut it short lol. I felt extremely defeated, like God didn't hear my cries for this thing that I wanted so desperately, and that I would never find my people. In deciding to cut my senior year out and go on this trip, I begged God for this to finally be the answer to my years of prayer. Then I simply forgot in the business of change and preparing for the trip. May-December, I was so happy. I was with my boyfriend and family all the time. I was working at a job that I actually enjoyed. I went to community college classes that were extremely easy, but also helped me work towards the nursing degree I want. These classes taught me so many things that my other school did not about people and responsibility. I spent intentional time with the few friends I had and made a couple of new friends from all different backgrounds that taught me so much. I started to spend intentional time with the Lord. I felt like I was growing in the way I wanted to and like I was achieving so much more than if I had stayed at school. I did not and still have not regretted my choice at all. While I really liked how my life was and knew that I had made the right decision i still felt lonely and like I had not found my people. And then it was time to leave for my trip, and I was SO nerovous becasue i had finally gotten to a place where I felt successful and happy, and now it was all changing again. But I knew I had to go, so I did! The entire time has been such a roller coaster of highs and lows. There is so much good and beauty here. I constantly learn, and I WANT to learn, which is a big change for me. God is showing me so many thing and his presence is so visible here. Serving has been SUCH a blessing im not sure how I am supposed to leave these kids on Friday. But at the same time, there were and are extreme lows. I miss my parents and Addison so much. I miss the comforts of home. I miss the few friends I have who are continuing life without me. I went from being an only child where my parents worked 7-6 most days, so I had lots of alone time, to living with 26 other 17-22 year olds ALL THE TIME. Alone time is not a thing here. While it is like college in the sense that I am literally living with a bunch of friends with no rules, it is also extremely overstimulating and frustrating at times. And for a long time, you feel alone. While living together and loving God gives us some things in common everyome here is from all over the country, and we were all raised so differently and live completely different lives, so it is hard to connect. We all deeply desire a community and good friendships, but that's extremely hard to create when you know nothing about each other, have almost zero similarities in lifestyles, and have zero free time lol (our schedule is crazy). While all these things are true, we still dove in headfirst to try to create a safe place where we had that type of friendship. So while sitting in church listening to Amanda talk about how Jesus is our friend, it hit me that I was literally sitting between 8 people who were my answered prayers. While sitting in that serice i looked around at the girls that God has given me. The girls I have been drawn to and who truly care for me and want the best for me. The girls that lives relfect the goodness and love of the Lord that is shining from their hearts. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that God not only heard me, but he answered me with x1000 the people I thought he would. The entire group of 26 is such a blessing that God has brought me to. These 8 girls have shown me what true friendship is like, and now I cannot imagine my life without them. Thank you, God, for being so good. And thank you to those 8 girls who I know read this b/c they love me and want to support me! I LOVE YOU ALL. I have found my people because God is so good and he hears me all the time. The probelm i face now is that in a short 2 months and 14 days, all of my people are scattered back across the country, and I cannot imagine how hard that is going to be. Also, the contradiction of missing my people at home and wanting to be with them, but also wanting to be with the people God has answered my prayers with here and this time to never end, is hard to handle in my brain. I know this is evidence that God is so good, and he hears and understands us better than we can even fathom. It also shows me that if God doesn't answer my prayer immediately, keep praying he has a plan and he hears me.

For prayer requests, my team is leaving the orphanage on Friday the 13th, and that will be so extremely hard, so please pray that these kids know they are loved and that they lean into the Lord. Also, pray for safety as we move to another city in Mexico and then to Guatemala.

With love layla