Good news! The surgery went well and Lindsay is in recovery. Dad said that she is semi-concious. If you would like to send her a card, email me and I'll give you the address. My parents are staying at the Ronald McDonald house there in town where the hospital is so that they can be close by. All mail would go to the RDH and then from there mis padres will take it to Linds. Thank you so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray, she still needs it. (felizalba@gmail.com)

As for things here, they are going alright. I am LOVING my bedroom. (pictures to come eventually) :) And church was pretty cool yesterday. I will have to give you an abbreviated version of my notes from the sermon. I started working at the local Walmart and found a couple of Christians - I was VERY excited about that. Spent a lot of time working in the coffee shop and around the college house. We had the board of directors from the ministry here this past weekend so that was pretty exciting. I got a lot of cafe (coffee shop) hours in while everyone else was busy preparing - so I covered their shifts. Very cool.

I haven't really had much opportunity yet to talk to anyone but I am not worried - I am here for the long-haul, no matter how homesick for Tecsas I get/am. There will be plenty of time to talk.

Keep praying!!!!!! If you would like more detailed updates then email me and I will try to put together a specific prayer/support email to send out monthly or maybe bimonthly for you to check out. There are some things that I won't be able to talk about in the blog posts just because it is a public communication, but I can send a letter/email with more detail that is a bit more private. And for the record, more often than not, unless it is a member of the ministry here or someone that would be known to most of my readers, I will use fake names just to keep it safer for everyone. (felizalba@gmail.com)

Today is Lindsay's surgery. Please be praying. I will update more later as I find out.

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.