I am sitting in the coffee shop in Ephraim drinking my coffee with creamer and watching Travis look at pictures of hairless dogs. Why on earth anyone would want one is beyond me because the things are hideous, but that's besides the point. Anyway, I got here safely.
Nealy and I had a few adventures and played in Salt Lake for awhile and then met up with Chip and Jamie at the mall last night. After a 2 hour car ride, I finally got here and was able to put my stuff in my new bedroom. As soon as I can find a computer that will allow me to upload pictures, I will show you what it looks like. I am a fan. Very small but nice.
(For those of you who have seen the girl's apartments up above the garage before, let me give you a mental image. Remember that MASSIVE living room? Well it is now chopped in half with a half wall and a full length wall which make up my bedroom framing it in by the outside wall and the back bedroom wall (that bedroom beside the kitchen). My door is almost immediately after the door through which you enter the apartment. The walls are beige with a beautiful lamp on the upper section of one side, a bed, and a desk, and a pretty nice sized closet. I love all of the closet space here... some of you remember how much I love closets.)
Today I slept in and just rested for awhile then made a run to Walmart to get some essentials, including a bedside lamp, blow dryer (for those FREEZING winter mornings when I will not want to go out with wet hair), and a few other items. I am excited to make it look like my own space.
I have spent the day hanging out with Kim and Jamie and Travis. Most of the others are either off at work or classes. There is a group that has not made it back from their retreat yet because they were traveling in a vehicle that broke down about half way back from Wyoming. Opps. Gareth is with them and will fix it. They will be back sometime in the next couple of days dependent on how long it takes to fix. Bearings or something. I never got the full story. Anyway, Kim and her husband Shane- (one of those who is stuck with the broken vehicle)are going to be moving here soon to be full time assistant directors of the ministry TriGrace. They will be living nearby and working here in the cafe and around the college house. I have spent some time with Kim today talking and I already adore the lady.
Jamie as always is amazing. :) Gotta love that woman.
We'll see what kind of excitement starts when the rest of the crew finally are all back and around. For now, I am going to go enjoy my coffee and talk to Kate again on the phone. Keep calling me people! I want to hear from you. Text message, call, email, comment on the blog or facebook... anything. I will and do respond.
God is so faithful.

Safe in Utah finally. :) It was a pretty eventful send off. We were pretty good at keeping it light and not many tears. Nealy picked me up at the airport and we proceeded to have adventures almost immediately. We went for a walk in Memory Grove Park when it started to pour rain and hail. So we ran from tree cover to tree cover and then from building overhang to overhang. We ended up at Starbucks where I got Kate's favorite boring drink in her honor. ;) Then a quick Walmart run to replace the face wash that the airline took from me and then off to find some dinner. We picked up a couple of movies and curled up with blankets and some good food. Tomorrow more adventures await; not sure what, though.
Still trying to get ahold of Chip and Jamie to find out when exactly I am headed to the college house.

My friend Lilly asked for pictures... so here are some from my last night in Longview. Enjoy. There are more on facebook if you are on my friends list, then you should be able to see them.

I leave tomorrow morning to fly out. This time tomorrow, I will actually already be flying. I plan on enjoying every moment that I can today with friends before I go, including a very "epic" ending to my Texas time by going to a dance tonight with more amazing adventures to follow. It is good.

For now, I want to give you a prayer request because I am afraid that with the chaos of moving and then settling in, that I may forget later. My little sister, Lindsay, is 17. She is a senior in high school this year and her senior year has just gotten majorly complicated. She is going in to have brain surgery next week due to a childhood condition that she was born with called, Arnold Chiari Malformation. It is a mouthful to say but basically it means that the brain stem is too close to the spinal cord because there was more space back there than there should be. (At least, that was the basic way they tried to describe it to me when I was seven and watching her go through her first brain surgery.)You can click here to find out the more technical medical definitions, but suffice it to say, this little girl is in need of some major prayer. She will be leaving early next week to go to NY to get prepped for surgery and then the actual surgery is on the 8th of September of the following week. She is super brave but this still is not easy. It will mean a lot of recop time and craziness for her and my family. Not to mention the time lost from work for Dad - never a good thing, trust me. So... that being said, while I may not get time to post the prayer request in detail like this next week, I had to post it now and I WILL post updates about it so that you know how she is doing after. Click HERE to read her journal updates.

Thanks for the prayers. It means the world to me. This little girl is pretty special in my book.

Bye bye Caddie...
Pray that the sale of the caddie goes through tomorrow. I am asking a fair price (almost too fair) and the car is being sold as is, cash only. It is in decent condition. But.. the buyer is a young'n and is having a hard time making his schedule work with the tax office. And I only have one day to do this in. Why did I not do it sooner, you may ask? Well, funny how that works... need a car to go to work and needed to go to work to afford to move. Anyway, just pray that it all goes well. Other than the last few packing details this is the only BIG hurdle left before my exit.
Also, good news. I got the job lined up for when I get there. :)
God is faithful... it will be alright.

Epic adventures. Tonight a new freshman girl at LU came up to Kate and I and asked us what we would give her for advice for college. Then we were later asked at Starbucks by a somewhat interesting character of a kid what we suggested he should do for improving himself and what we thought life was about.
The only answers we could give to any of the above questions were to seek God and follow after Him. From there our answers extended to relationship. Relationships with people and with Jesus. There is honestly no point beyond that for which we are here but to serve Him, know Him, love Him, and honor Him. By our relationship with Him and with other people...
I love random conversations like that... and soon, I get to LIVE in a coffee shoppe and have conversations like that. I was praying tonight and I told God that it hurts when I try to stay quiet and not say anything. You can't call yourself on of His and not be desperate to share it. I am not always going to have days where I want to speak up, but God, give me the strength and boldness and grace to do it anyway, inspite of what I want.
In my book, epic is a night like tonight.

Tomorrow I am supposed to be speaking in church about moving to Utah and the ministry there. The main thing that keeps coming to mind, however; is how much I want to thank the church for all they have given me. They have given me a home... something that I haven't really had before. I was taken in and loved so completely, that more often than not, it was pretty overwhelming. God has provided in ways so far beyond what I could ever fathom. Through random donuts or life group meetings or nights at Bridge or CTC classes, the outpouring of love has not stopped from the moment God let me get involved there. Not to mention the adoption of the Walter's family and the amazing way that they have shown me a crazy amount of love. If I ever have a doubt of how much Christ is pursuing me and how much He adores me as His little girl, all I have to think of would be the crazy love of that home.
Kate and her mom took me in and put up with a lot since December. Heh... Kate has put up with a lot since she met me... Not to mention all of my other friends who have been amazing...
I guess, God is sending me to Utah because there is no way that I can repay the people here for their kindness or compassion. Just like I can never hope to repay Christ for His sacrifice. But I CAN go in His name and join Him in His work. I can learn how to share that same love with other people. Hopefully, that will be thanks enough, because I honestly can't offer anything more than myself to say it with. I want to give back and the only way that I know how is to show someone else what I have learned. Freedom... it still makes me shake my head. What an incredible gift.
Reading 2nd Corinthians 6-8 tonight. And I fell in love with this: Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. - 2nd Cor. 6:4-10.

How cool will it be to be able to claim all of those someday? Then I can call myself a missionary. Until then... I am still just learning.