This summer I worked up in Idaho as a colporteur leader for Idaho Youth Rush. Jeff Kimmel, the Literature Ministries director of the Idaho Conference, called me up and asked if I wanted to be one of three leaders in the summer program. I’ve done colporteuring before, but I had never had any training on leading. Most of the time you get hired as a leader only after going to SOULS West down in Arizona or after doing Big Books. I hadn’t done either of those, but I knew it would be good for me to stretch myself and that it would be good for my character. So I said yes.

I missed the first week of the program because of having to do finals that week. I joined up with the group of 13 students and met my fellow leaders for the first time. It was a good group, though being the person that I am, it took me awhile to connect with some of them.

Being a leader consists of several responsibilities. Since there was three of us, we got to rotate on some of the everyday things, like giving worships, song service, etc. But we had individual responsibilities as well. Mine was that I was in charge of the finances. I had three students as my scribes who would count all the money from the three different vans. I helped them figure out their mistakes and entered everything into the computer, made bank runs, and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff. All these things happened in the morning. From about 1 to 9 p.m. we were out in the field. As a leader, I drove the van and had 4 to 5 students in there with me. I would drive them to territory, drop them off on different streets, work with them, deliver books to them, and move them to new streets. This sounds simple enough, but it’s harder than it sounds. I am extremely bad with maps, which is a curse for a colporteur leader. Fortunately, Jeff came out with me the first few days to train me some and help me get the hang of things. Still, I struggled with running territory for most of the summer…

Giving worships was another challenge for me. Before the summer, I had never given worships more than about 5 minutes long. For these ones, it was more like 20 to 30 minutes. I worried about it for the many weeks leading up to the summer, but God really pulled through for me. He helped me come up with topics and helped me flesh them out. The night before I was going to give a worship, I would call my dad and talk through the whole thing with him. Poor guy… But he was super helpful.

There were so many things about the summer that were challenging for me, but good at the same time. I guess that’s just how life is. There were so many times when I felt so underqualified to be doing what I was doing. I doubted myself constantly. I even gave a worship about that topic. I was preaching to myself mostly… Two things really stuck out that I learned this summer. The first was that I depend way to much on people. Instead of making decisions or thinking for myself, I rely on others to do it for me. I gotta do that for myself and rely way more on God. The second was that I need to take the words “I can’t” out of my vocabulary. That was a serious hindrance for me this summer, and ultimately will be later in life. I gave a worship on this subject too…

Anyways, though this was a tough summer that stretched me to my limits and tried my patience to no end, I know it was what I needed. I still have a love for colporteuring, and I even got to canvass the last couple weeks since we were short students. loved it.

After we finished up the summer in Idaho, the other leaders and I drove all the way down to Clovis, CA for SOULS West graduation. Then the leaders from all the Magabooks programs went to Big Bear for our leadership retreat. It was super fun. We stayed at a 5-star resort–we relaxed, had meetings where we got to share the crazy experiences we all had, and had fun together. So refreshing…

Now that I’m back home, I’ve got about a month before I have to head back up to WWU. During that time, I need to apply for Loma Linda for next year for PT, finish my observation hours, and a bunch of other little things. I’ve gotta enjoy what little summer I have, cuz this’ll be the last one I have for a while…

At the moment, I’m basically just sick of classes. Josh left for Bolivia the other day, and it reminded me of how much I miss being out in the mission field. Yeah I know, you can make anywhere a mission field. But it’s just not the same… I wish it didn’t take so long to get through college…

Christmas break went all too fast. It was fun though. I was able to spend quite a bit of time with friends and family. Mitchell and I also went to GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ) for about 5 days in Louisville, Kentucky. I really enjoyed my experience there, though I was exhausted for most of the time. This was because we had a red-eye flight out there, which threw me for a loop for the rest of the week. Then the night before we flew out from there back to Walla Walla, I only got 3 hours of sleep. It doesn’t help that I can’t sleep on airplanes… But all in all, it was still a good trip. What I liked best about it was probably that I was able to hear a testimony about a 26-year-old missionary from Ethiopia. He had an amazing story that really inspired me. If nothing else, GYC renewed the longing I have to become a missionary… We’ll see how God leads…

This quarter I’m taking 4 new classes: Sociology, Nutrition, Messages of the Old Testament, and Conceptual Physics. So far they are going pretty good. They will mostly just be time consuming with lots of reading…

I’m still trying to decide whether or not to do PT or PT Assistant. Everyone is telling me to just go all the way, and that seems to be what I’m leaning towards, but I’m still sending in an application for the PTA program anyways. I’m almost done with my observation hours–I just have to do 20 hours in a hospital or something…

So, I’m doing good up here in the cold weather and am lovin’ life. Thanks God…

I’m really praying that God will use me this year. I know He’s got a plan–I just need to figure out what it is. That seems to be the theme of me life–figuring out God’s will. I know most people can relate. I’m still undecided about my major, so I’m leaning on God for that one too. But anyway, I think I’ll enjoy my time up here in Walla Walla. If nothing else, it’ll be quite the adventure…

So, now that I’m home again, I’ve gotta finish up this psychology class I’m doing online… Ick. In a week and a half is Soquel Campmeeting which I’m really looking forward to. For now, I’m just praying for motivation…

A couple Sabbaths ago, Charlene and Michelle Narita come over to our house to go on a little hike. Mitchell and I took them up over our hill and down to a creek. There were already some people there that didn’t look too friendly, so we headed back up to a little waterfall we had seen. Mitchell started bounding up it while the rest of us looked at it with less than thrilled expressions. The rocks were really slippery and the sides were almost all poison oak. But Mitchell convinced us to at least try climbing up. It turned out to be quite a humorous experience. Char and Michelle each had a good fall, and Mitchell and I just slipped around everywhere. Char slipped completely flat onto her stomach on the rocks-I’ve never seen Michelle laugh so hard, though she had her own good fall. Though us three girls were complaining to Mitch the whole time, I’m sure they’ll look back on that as a fond memory.

Probably the most exciting thing that’s happened over the past couple weeks was hiking Half Dome in Yosemite. The Naritas organized it, and a few other families came. The group met at the church at 4 a.m. and we headed up. When we arrived and were getting ready to hike, we saw a bear approach and attempt to get into a car that had food inside. They’re just a little too bold these days. By the time everyone arrived and we got to the trailhead, it was around 7:00. We headed up vernal falls, which is really pouring right now. I brought along a poncho-otherwise I would’ve been soaked. The group split up into a few different groups as we continued on. That last bit before the cables is definitely the most gruesome. Tall steps at the end is not fun. The group I was with continually waited for me as I plodded along. Fortunately the cables weren’t too crowded, so my group made it up around 11:30. We ate lunch up there, but then clouds started rolling in and it started sprinkling. Two rangers were up there and advised everyone to start heading down as it is pretty dangerous to be up there in lightning storms. Everyone dashed for the cables, which made going down them a very slow process. Going down the rest went a lot faster. Matthew Narita, Josh Pratt, and I were in the front and made it down to the bottom at quite a brisk pace. I don’t think my knees will ever be the same… We took the bus to curry village to wait for the others to arrive, which ended up not being such a good idea-it was a big hassle for them to pick us up. Anyway, we drove home, and the group headed to the Narita’s house for dinner. It was delicious as usual. We had cupcakes for dessert in honor of Josh and Kirk’s birthdays. Fun day…

It really is nice to be home, but I do feel pretty lazy a lot of the time. I’m taking on online psychology class that is proving to be a pain to do. I don’t think online classes are my thing. But it will be nice to get it out of the way. I’ll be starting to work for my dad in a couple days to earn back a little of all the cash I spent while away. Other than that, my summer has been pretty uneventful. It’s nice to be able to relax and not worry about much. This is the life…

We left Cambodia on April 12. When we went to the taxi place to get a taxi to the border, we were literally bombarded by 25 taxi drivers all hoping we would choose them. They even started to take our luggage to their cars, but Wendy helped us ward them off. We finally chose one and crossed the border without any problems. We took a bus to Bangkok and stayed in my cousin Bekah’s apartment. Her and her husband are teaching at the international school there. We loved staying at her apartment with all it’s little conveniences: washing machine, shower, running water, a table to eat at, comfy bed… Life is good. That week in Bangkok was the Sonkran festival. It’s where everyone throws water at each other. One day we went out with the other SM’s that are working in Bangkok and spent the day soaking people and being soaked. First we stood out on a street corner where a hose was and threw buckets of water on passing tuk tuks and motorcylists. We had a blast. Then we went to a street where hundreds of people were gathered, mostly Thais. Everyone was soaked to the skin. Oh, they also have this powder stuff that they mix with water, and they rub it all over each other’s faces. One person told me that it’s a sign of friendship so it’s rude to try to turn away. So, as you can imagine, all our faces were pretty unrecognizable by the end. We didn’t really know what we were getting into as we walked further and further down the street. Pretty soon we couldn’t move at all because there were so many people. We were in there for hours, inching along, trying to get out of there. We finally made it out just before it began to get dark. We were all cold, and it made it worse when people came along and threw ice cold water on you. But we had a good time.

Early Friday morning (the 17th) we had a taxi drive us to the airport. We were pretty ecstatic as our plane took off for Japan. After a 5 hour flight we landed in the Narita airport. We somehow miraculously were able to get bus tickets, store our luggage, and arrive at the bus station where Becky Ishii met us. This lady is amazing! She planned out our whole stay in Japan. My dad somehow got a hold of her name, and she really was an answer to prayer. We stayed at her house for the first few nights. We went to their English-speaking church where we met some really nice people. On Sunday, Becky and her husband Chris (he’s the ADRA director for Japan) took us to Mt. Fuji. It was beautiful. Unfortunately we can’t climb it at this time of the year, but it was still amazing. That night we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. The train is crazy fast. We were met there by Takako, a Japanese lady who lives in between Kyoto and Osaka. She was really nice, though her English was a bit hard to understand at times. She took us to Kyoto on Monday. We saw a beautiful gold temple, a rock garden, and the Nijo castle. On Tuesday, an Australian guy named Gerry took us to the Osaka castle. That was interesting because he actually knew some of the history of the place. He didn’t really know where to take us after that, but we had a great time talking with him. On Wednesday, we took a train to Tokyo. Oh, by the way, the trains here are so confusing! Fortunately we’ve only had to figure out a couple trains by ourselves. Anyways, we went to the school in Tokyo first where a missionary named Jasmine works. She’s from England and has been in Japan for a little over a year. She’s awesome. She took us out to eat, and then we sat in a couple of classes with her. First she had a Bible study with about 10 elderly Japanese people. They were great! Then she had a couple English lessons with some students and then a Bible class with three little boys. Jasmine is really gifted at teaching. The director of the school, Ayoko, showed up and took us to her house, where we stayed for 2 nights. She is the cutest little lady–the classic grandma. Her English was really good too. She took us around to different places around Tokyo on Thursday: the top of a tower where we saw a panoramic view of Tokyo (it’s huge!), a really nice cultural museum, an amusement park (where I had to go on the roller coaster alone…), and to little shops. Man, the Japanese are just too nice. Ayoko wouldn’t let us pay for one single thing while she took us around. It was really nice of her, but it just made us feel a little helpless. Jasmine did the same thing to us when she took us around on Friday. That night, she had us give a little talk at vespers. Emily and I each shared a little of our testimony.

Today we went to the English church again here in Yokohama. We gave a 25-minute talk to the little children’s church and showed them pictures. Then in the afternoon, we talked to the adults about our Thailand/Cambodia adventures. I really love the Japanese people. They are so friendly and polite, even the kids. I’ve gotta come back here someday.

Sorry this post is so brief and not many details. It would just be too long…

I really can’t believe that I’m flying home tomorrow! Unreal. I’ll have to stay up most of the night tonight so I’ll be able to sleep on the plane and hopefully get myself back on good ol’ California time. It’s weird–I’ll get home before I leave Japan. Figure that one out…

Well, all in all I can say that was a great 7 1/2 months. I really needed this and God knew it. I’ve learned to depend on him in a way I haven’t done before. I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that religion equals service. When I look back on the times in my life when I was serving others, that’s when I was the closest to God. Otherwise, if I’m not serving, then I lose my focus. Even if that would’ve been the only thing I learned this year (which it wasn’t), it would have been worth it. It’s pretty much impossible to give up a year to God and not be changed. Try it out.