I'm here!

Hey guys,

Made it down here. My roommates are all in and we will hit Ikea friday. It's really interesting because we are in bunk beds. Very different from what I'm use to. My roommates are interesting and in a very good way. we are all a little easy going and out of our comfort zone. They are hilarious. I have a nickname from my roommate Shannon. It makes me laugh because she named me gadget girl. Pull out a knife, a flashlight, a couple zip-ties from your suitcase and you're gadget girl. haha today I actually fixed her sunglasses...With my knife. :)

I'm so glad we are starting to do stuff. Today we did a team building exercise. We have badges and we had to decipher Spanish clues to find them.....It was good and a great assignment. We messed up and had to have a penalty. After that- we had to find our badges. Of course.... we didn't follow directions and ended up having to jump in the pool. yep, with all our clothes on. This picture is the whole group minus one.

I will say that i was very apprehensive about this whole trip but I am content. I had my breakdown day the first night I was here, but ever since then...I realize that in a short period of time I head home for Christmas. I am learning more and more about these ladies and gentleman. They are such an awesome group of girls and I am excited to see what the future holds. Pray for our leader Jaime. She's got a lot of responsibility and leading our team of 12 girls and 1 guy is crazy. She's crazy awesome and what an awesome woman of God. Today really showed that she's got our backs and is apart of our team. It's cool to see a leader jump in too. I was totally not expected that at all... even if we did have to sit in a non air conditioned room for punishment. ;)

By the way, if you're wondering. I am not staying in those nice apartments behind us. Those are guest apartments...MUCH nicer than our apartments. haha 

All in all it has been a great couple of days. Tomorrow we go out of the complex for not just the airport or beach. We are headed to Santo Domingo to get essentials because our room is quite small. 10 drawer for 3 girls. haha yep. not enough room. That is the understatement of the year.

More pictures to follow tomorrow's excursion.

If you want to get in touch with me just know Im not always connected to internet.

Facetime me : Melissaghester@yahoo.com
or 

Download viber on your smart phone and add my number. (We can text this way and you can call me)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention...I killed a tarantula in our apartment. :) haha No joke. Allison put it on Instagram. It has to be legit. Feel free to check out the picture.. Just know I killed it and a girl Lauren drowned it in freakin raid. haha tarantula picture 


Pray for sleep and team building.

Till next time.

4 days and counting.

First off, I just want to thank everyone for reading this. You have so much other stuff to do and read, but you're taking the time to read this. I am truly thankful for you reading this. :)

Okay, if you could see me... I am smiling for ear to ear. I am totally stoked because in a couple weeks I will be in the Dominican. I can't tell you how excited I am but just to say that i feel like a kid who just got the toy of her dreams at Christmas. haha

Anyways, if you know me- you know that i really hate to read. So, what I've been doing is listening to Mere Christianity. (Reading is just not cutting it) I can say it's a different approach but it works just as well. 2-3 chapters at a time and you're golden. That book is full of things I have really never even thought of. It's amazing and perplexing at the same time.

I have started to pack... Oh wait! I'm done packing. ha. 4 days before I leave and I've got everything besides the essentials packed. I am quite proud of myself. I have packed ahead of time, planned, prepared and all the while being super organized. haha That's one for the records right there... I've bought clothes galore, new shoes,  bought my Spanish books- yes textbooks. I will be taking Spanish classes while down there... Here's the first thing I thought of when I was going back to school.

Haha, I love that movie and just had to share. :)

School, oh man it's been forever since I've been in school. So, quite another adjustment. lol This whole trip feels like it's going to be a little out of my comfort zone. I guess when you're called to go and do- you can't worry about how you feel. You just have to go and do and leave the rest up to God. Packing is almost the same way. I've bought pink stuff galore. If you know me - you know that i'd never bought pink rain boots, but oh I did. I remember in the 7th grade... I had a teacher (Mrs.Martin) told me never to say never when it comes to the color of clothes. Ha, I still remember saying no way I'll never wear pink and yet- I've got a lot of pink clothes. :)

Anyways, I'm getting ready for this adventure. I'm nervous because I've never just gone and done something like this. Almost feels like I'm jumping ship a little bit. For the first time since 15 I won't have a job, and I'll be completely dependent on these people at Score. lol

I'm really gonna miss my awaken family and friends. I've been out late hanging with friends because everyone wants to see me before I leave. It's sad because it keeps hitting me that I won't be in the states. I know, I know... I'm headed down the pity party train tracks. I'll stop.

Lately I have been learning how to do something that is really hard for me. It seems like this journey I have been on has led to one thing... One phrase.... One word.... Forgiveness.  Yes, it's a hard word and yes it's not easy. I've had things happen or things said, that brought me down for a very long time. If you knew me a year or two or three years ago (Bless you if you did)- you wouldn't recognize the Melissa you see today. I am transformed in a way that people can actually see. No, I am not transformer but clean living makes for a clean life. I don't know about you- but I love being clean and living a clean life. It's a feeling like no other.

So I feel completely at ease with my roommates. I will admit I was quite scared about rooming with others.  However, I feel like the girls I'm rooming with are a good fit. If you will, pray for them and their names are Shannon and Renee. Shannon's from the great state of New York and Renee is from the great state of Indiana. We've been talk via Facebook about ideas on what to pack etc.

As I bring this long post to a close. Know that I will try to update this as much as I can.

I flyout on Monday at 9:45am and will probably get there around 1:30ish.

See you around Christmas!

Till Next Time,

Melissa