A Blessed Weekend

What a blessing this weekend has been. I have been able to spend time with the Lord, get some things done that had been put off, hang out with Jenilea, get the pasola looked at, go on a run, was invited over to Kyla's house (another missionary through Young Life) for a girl's night and to meet new friends, and had a successful pasola ride to ANIJA and my tutor's house without stalling or crashing. I was also able to spend some time with a team from Washington today. I had a lot of opportunities to talk about how I came about being a missionary here and what my experience has been like so far. We also went to a waterfall today called Upper Jimenoa. Please pray for the team that is here as they will be helping me in my 5th-8th grade English classes on Tuesday and Thursday, with construction, and with the Awana program in the afternoons.

A few things I am praying about:
-Where I should get involved at church. Right now I feel like it's at Nueva Vida. That is the church that the kids from the ARK orphanage come to, along with a lot of other missionaries from KAI, but I don't understand any of the sermon. There is another church I have been to that I like which has more people my age and they use an overhead that shows bullet points about the sermon (in Spanish) which helps me to understand what the sermon is about.
-I would like a helmet to wear when riding the pasola.
-We (Katie, Jenilea, and myself) have found a house to rent and we are hoping to move within the next week or so. The workers need to finish painting and cleaning, we need to put screens on all the windows before we move in, and I need to buy a bed.
-I've seen that there are a lot of missionaries and ministries reaching out to the Dominican Republic and to the town of Jarabacoa. How can I be encouraging to the missionaries and ministries already here in Jarabacoa?
Thanks for your prayers, support, and encouraging words! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Walking around Jarabacoa.


Here's a house in the community.


The backside of another house in the community.


A typical kitchen.


View walking to the waterfall.


Upper Jimenoa


Upper Jimenoa with a rainbow


Upper Jimenoa with a rainbow. My head was actually in the water a little bit.


One of my students, Dary Davy. He lives in the community and spends a lot of time with the KAI missionary's families.