It has finally been done. I've gone through almost 2 weeks now as full time storekeeper. Chris has taken my jobs, cook and relief storekeeping, although I think he's still trying to switch locations. Either that or he could quite possibly be fired soon, it's not looking good for him.
I still love storekeeping, a very good thing! Although Tuesday was pretty rough for me. Last week while storekeeping I finally had time to get everything organized how I liked it, by the end of the week it was all pretty comfortable, everything had a place and it was all neat and orderly (go figure!). Tuesday, I get in from my "weekend" and after 2 days of Chris' relief storekeeping, I felt like I had lost all of the progress I had made. I was not happy at all for the first few hours of work. We were running out of stuff left and right, not entirely Chris' fault, I guess we're hitting our busiest few weeks right now. But it's my job to bring in what we need, and when we run out of stuff, people come to me asking where it is. Well, I settled down after a bit, and got to organizing things again. The order that we brought in was pretty massive, and I had a few other special things on my lists to do. Getting in at noon, I was finally able to leave around 10:30. Wednesday was a bit better. Another massive order, still trying to keep up with demands, but since it was the last Wednesday of the month we had to do inventory. Basically, we count EVERY food item that we bring in. Prepared or not, we have to count it all and enter it into the computers. I did this with Jenn the head cook, and she was VERY appreciative. I don't how things worked out while she did it with Chris, but she read off the list of items and I told her how much we had of it. It was a lot like when I go through for my daily orders, except I'm writing down how much we have instead of how much we need. Jenn was excited too because we would have one random item in a different cooler, and instead of having to go and find out how much we had, I could remember, mainly because I had already gone through and done my ordering for the next day. It all really wasn't that bad, and today Jenn was asking why I had to leave so early and if I could extend my end date (NOT A CHANCE!). It was quite the compliment though, and last week Frank was asking the same thing haha. Today, we had a few discussions about who will be my relief storekeep. We've got eyes on one guy in particular who works in the pantry, I'm not too fond of him, he's kind of annoying but we'll see what happens. The good part is that I get to train the relief this time, so he'll be learning to do it my way! HAHA!
Sunday we ran the services at Madison again. Sarah preached her first ever sermon, and pulled off an awesome Christmas message! (July 25th, Christmas in July) We sang Christmas carols and she talked about how we can have the excitement of Christmas year round instead of just once. It was very well done! After that, we went to West Yellowstone and hung around there for the afternoon. It was a lot of fun, we visited random shops, and went to the park. I had bought a kite, one of those 5 dollar cheap bird kites and we had a steady wind. I had it up for a little bit then my line got severely tangled. So after about 10 minutes of untangling I finally had it up in the air... then it crashed and ripped. I flew it for maybe 15 minutes :( devastated. After that I pulled out my soccer ball. The size 4, really light one. I kicked it a couple times... then got it stuck in a tree. DEVASTATED!! It was maybe 20 feet up in a lodgepole pine, the nearest branch was 8-9 feet up which I somehow managed to grab and pull myself up to rescue the ball. I played with it a bit longer and a little kid in 2nd grade came and joined me. I showed him a few tricks and we talked about soccer and how he wants to be a professional. I encouraged him to keep practicing and working hard, we had a blast :)
Eventually, we went back to Madison for our final service to find that they were setting up right at our amphitheater for several speeches to be made the next day, one of the key speakers being Vice President Joe "Bison" Biden. We nick-named him thus because, like a bison walking down the road throwing off people's plans, Joe "Bison" Biden was walking into our amphitheater and we had to cancel our night service.
So there it is. Tomorrow, Nam and I are going to be joining a few of the Crusaders to read through the book of John. I'm looking forward to this one because I haven't been able to make it to any of their events yet. I've barely met any of them either and for some reason they don't always show up for our services... Be praying for Nam as we read through the Gospel message!
Less than 3 weeks now, I think I'm preaching this week, and I think I'll be preaching about where we call home... a good sermon for the end of this summer!
Thanks all for your prayers! I'll be home before you know it!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
July 20th
These updates are getting further and further between. I guess in most part because not a whole lot happens during the week, just work. Anyway!
Work has been pretty good still. Frank still wants me to be the storekeeper. On Friday he told me that they would do something about it on Sunday. For some reason I thought that he would have done it sooner, but I guess he's not allowed or something. Anyway, he told me today that he talked to Jen and that they'll be doing something soon... we'll see.
Something to pray about, on Saturday there was a little incident with Amber. It just happened that my roommates wanted to go to lunch at the EDR at the Inn instead of our usual Snowlodge EDR. So we headed over there and had lunch. Amber was in there and I said hi, but not much more. We were just finishing up when I noticed her and another guy a few tables over. The guy was almost yelling at Amber and wasn't too happy (fortunately there were other people with Amber). As we were leaving I felt like I should talk to her about it and make sure she was ok. She has had some trouble with this guy in the past. He's a Christian, he's showed up to a bunch of our service, but he has some kind of mental trouble, I'm not entirely sure what. We're pretty sure he's got a serious crush on Amber and she's had to tell him off a few times in the past. That day it just happened that he had told her that he bought her a present while he was in West Yellowstone. Amber figured what he was up to and told him that she didn't want it because he wasn't going to be able to buy a date so to speak. This upset him pretty good I guess, and he got angry and was saying how she isn't really a Christian because Christians don't act like that etc. then he stormed off. Amber has talked to her managers since then, and they know that he's caused problems like this in the past few months. They said that they could get him out of here on grounds of harrassment. Amber was pretty shook up, she almost started to cry when she was telling me about it, she was afraid he was going to get physical. I prayed for her there and told her that if she ever needed anything, anytime, to contact me. I feel a bit responsible for the girls on our team since I'm the only guy in the group. Anyway, she went back to work and she's still trying to avoid him as much as possible. It's a tricky situation because we know we're supposed to show love to him, but this is almost getting dangerous, and Amber isn't the only girl this has happened to. Please be praying!
Sunday, the college team had the day off, and Staci, Sarah and I have been plotting a camping trip. We got our permits and started looking at the gear we had and realized we were a bit short. So we drove to West Yellowstone and bought some stuff, just kinda the bare minimum survival gear in my opinion. We then drove out to our trailhead, on the East side of Lake Yellowstone, called 9 mile trail or something like that. It was 5 miles in to our campsite. Not a horrible hike at all, mostly flat travelling, but the mosquitos were THICK. A couple river crossings which I managed to find a way across so that I wouldn't have to change intno sandals, or... ahem... go through in my boots. I stayed dry! We got to our campsite at about 5pm, which was great because we had a bit of set up to do, I was worried that we wouldn't have enough sunlight to get it all done but we were fine for time. The site was BEAUTIFUL, and the wind coming off the lake once in a while kept the mosquitos manageable. The edge of the forest behind us and Lake Yellowstone in front. We built a fire and got that going first. I cut a couple lodgepole pine trunks and lashed together a lean-to: I hope we got a picture of it... I'm pretty proud of that one! :) As rough as this trip was, it was great being able to use skills I learned from Royal Rangers. Thanks so much to Mr. Nast and the rest for teaching us all, I loved it! So we had a good fire going, I had bought a pot to use for cooking so we had potatoes and bacon. The first real meal I've cooked in almost 2 months... it was great! After that, we had to boil water for the next day, I really miss those water filters now, but no one got sick so I guess we did ok. Sarah didn't have a sleeping bag so I gave her mine, and her and Staci shared the lean-to. I stayed by the fire and kept it going, we were a little worried about bears as we weren't exactly following the rules on food prep and all. I slept for a little bit, but for the most part just watched the fire and the stars. I enjoyed it but I missed my buddies, you guys make a trip anywhere loads of fun! We had a couple doe deer that kept wandering near our camp, they would get about 30 feet away and just kinda watch us. Around 4 pm I noticed one of them had laid down near our site. It was comforting having them around, it was like they were guarding us, in that they wouldn't have been there if a bear were around. We got up around 6 and I made breakfast. Potatoes, eggs and spamwiches hahaha. I haven't had spam in YEARS, but it wasn't half bad. We broke camp quick and hit the trail, we needed to get back ASAP because Sarah had to work at 4. Uneventful hike back, although, right by our campsite we started following bear tracks down the trail, fresh poop and what looked like what was left of a grouse. It all wasn't there the day before! We made it back to Old Faithful around 1. I showered and fell asleep for about 4 hours.
Tuesday, I got into work and instead of spending the first few hours doing food prep as usual, I had a bit of work to do reorganizing. Again, I'll have something real nice working in one of our coolers and it's a complete mess when I get back. Keeps me busy! I might miss working with some of these people. I really like Steve, our morning sous chef, and Adam, who was our Pantry lead, but he just took over the evening sous chef position. They're both pretty neat guys to work with. So I guess that's all for now. Next week Sarah will be preaching, her first time ever, and we're going to have a Christmas service for July 25th. Normally out here, they celebrate Christmas on August 25th, they get a huge tree for the Inn and have cookies and music, since we're all going to miss it we're doing it early! Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it.
So, good night for now. Keep praying, I'll be home soon, now less than 1 month!
Work has been pretty good still. Frank still wants me to be the storekeeper. On Friday he told me that they would do something about it on Sunday. For some reason I thought that he would have done it sooner, but I guess he's not allowed or something. Anyway, he told me today that he talked to Jen and that they'll be doing something soon... we'll see.
Something to pray about, on Saturday there was a little incident with Amber. It just happened that my roommates wanted to go to lunch at the EDR at the Inn instead of our usual Snowlodge EDR. So we headed over there and had lunch. Amber was in there and I said hi, but not much more. We were just finishing up when I noticed her and another guy a few tables over. The guy was almost yelling at Amber and wasn't too happy (fortunately there were other people with Amber). As we were leaving I felt like I should talk to her about it and make sure she was ok. She has had some trouble with this guy in the past. He's a Christian, he's showed up to a bunch of our service, but he has some kind of mental trouble, I'm not entirely sure what. We're pretty sure he's got a serious crush on Amber and she's had to tell him off a few times in the past. That day it just happened that he had told her that he bought her a present while he was in West Yellowstone. Amber figured what he was up to and told him that she didn't want it because he wasn't going to be able to buy a date so to speak. This upset him pretty good I guess, and he got angry and was saying how she isn't really a Christian because Christians don't act like that etc. then he stormed off. Amber has talked to her managers since then, and they know that he's caused problems like this in the past few months. They said that they could get him out of here on grounds of harrassment. Amber was pretty shook up, she almost started to cry when she was telling me about it, she was afraid he was going to get physical. I prayed for her there and told her that if she ever needed anything, anytime, to contact me. I feel a bit responsible for the girls on our team since I'm the only guy in the group. Anyway, she went back to work and she's still trying to avoid him as much as possible. It's a tricky situation because we know we're supposed to show love to him, but this is almost getting dangerous, and Amber isn't the only girl this has happened to. Please be praying!
Sunday, the college team had the day off, and Staci, Sarah and I have been plotting a camping trip. We got our permits and started looking at the gear we had and realized we were a bit short. So we drove to West Yellowstone and bought some stuff, just kinda the bare minimum survival gear in my opinion. We then drove out to our trailhead, on the East side of Lake Yellowstone, called 9 mile trail or something like that. It was 5 miles in to our campsite. Not a horrible hike at all, mostly flat travelling, but the mosquitos were THICK. A couple river crossings which I managed to find a way across so that I wouldn't have to change intno sandals, or... ahem... go through in my boots. I stayed dry! We got to our campsite at about 5pm, which was great because we had a bit of set up to do, I was worried that we wouldn't have enough sunlight to get it all done but we were fine for time. The site was BEAUTIFUL, and the wind coming off the lake once in a while kept the mosquitos manageable. The edge of the forest behind us and Lake Yellowstone in front. We built a fire and got that going first. I cut a couple lodgepole pine trunks and lashed together a lean-to: I hope we got a picture of it... I'm pretty proud of that one! :) As rough as this trip was, it was great being able to use skills I learned from Royal Rangers. Thanks so much to Mr. Nast and the rest for teaching us all, I loved it! So we had a good fire going, I had bought a pot to use for cooking so we had potatoes and bacon. The first real meal I've cooked in almost 2 months... it was great! After that, we had to boil water for the next day, I really miss those water filters now, but no one got sick so I guess we did ok. Sarah didn't have a sleeping bag so I gave her mine, and her and Staci shared the lean-to. I stayed by the fire and kept it going, we were a little worried about bears as we weren't exactly following the rules on food prep and all. I slept for a little bit, but for the most part just watched the fire and the stars. I enjoyed it but I missed my buddies, you guys make a trip anywhere loads of fun! We had a couple doe deer that kept wandering near our camp, they would get about 30 feet away and just kinda watch us. Around 4 pm I noticed one of them had laid down near our site. It was comforting having them around, it was like they were guarding us, in that they wouldn't have been there if a bear were around. We got up around 6 and I made breakfast. Potatoes, eggs and spamwiches hahaha. I haven't had spam in YEARS, but it wasn't half bad. We broke camp quick and hit the trail, we needed to get back ASAP because Sarah had to work at 4. Uneventful hike back, although, right by our campsite we started following bear tracks down the trail, fresh poop and what looked like what was left of a grouse. It all wasn't there the day before! We made it back to Old Faithful around 1. I showered and fell asleep for about 4 hours.
Tuesday, I got into work and instead of spending the first few hours doing food prep as usual, I had a bit of work to do reorganizing. Again, I'll have something real nice working in one of our coolers and it's a complete mess when I get back. Keeps me busy! I might miss working with some of these people. I really like Steve, our morning sous chef, and Adam, who was our Pantry lead, but he just took over the evening sous chef position. They're both pretty neat guys to work with. So I guess that's all for now. Next week Sarah will be preaching, her first time ever, and we're going to have a Christmas service for July 25th. Normally out here, they celebrate Christmas on August 25th, they get a huge tree for the Inn and have cookies and music, since we're all going to miss it we're doing it early! Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it.
So, good night for now. Keep praying, I'll be home soon, now less than 1 month!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
July 11th...ish
So through all the hassles of having to mess with our employers over where we can and can't use internet... we now have wireless in our dorm again and it's much higher quality!
In no particular order, I guess that's how my mind works, here's what's happened in the past week.
Work as usual, although I was cooking in the mornings getting everything all set up. I love working with Steve, but I hate waking up at 6-6:30 in the morning. On the plus side, on Thursday I was able to go on a hike up Purple Mountain with Amber and a couple of her friends from Singapore I think. That was pretty cool. Sunday we were conducting the Old Faithful services so Amber preached. She did a really good job talking about "sanctuary" and how sometimes God has us step back so we can learn new things and prepare for what He has in store for us. I can't help but believe that God has me out here to learn new things and prep for the next leg of the race. One possibility that has come up in conversations and other things, particularly in the past year or so, I feel like God might be leading me into a pastoral internship. It's all still kinda up in the air and I guess I'm waiting for more confirmation, but I'm now openly considering this as a possibility after graduation. Come to think of it, that might be the most stable possibility so far. ANYWAY.
Sunday after our second service, we were going to drive out to Lake Yellowstone and rent a rowboat and just chill for the afternoon. Thanks to the lovely hills and horrible reception, our group got split up and Staci, Sarah, and I ended up driving around. Loads of fun! I want to bring back the Sunday afternoon drive tradition.
Cool story number 1. I'm in my room and my roommate Nam comes in. He was out on a trip with some people (Campus Crusaders) and one of the girls in the group told him about Jesus and gave him a Bible to read. He told me about it and said, "I think I like this stuff". I don't think he's taking it entirely seriously yet, but he started reading Genesis and he's pretty into it. I've been able to answer questions and explain things for him too so it's been pretty neat!
Cool story number 2. Before our last service, I'm sitting outside the Lodge Cafeteria eating a pretzel and this guy Marcus I met before came and sat down next to me. He's a traditionalist Catholic I think... anyway, he asks if I could pray for him and he starts telling me about how his ex-wife is in a rough situation with her current boyfriend and Marcus wants her and his son back and how he's genuinely changing who he is now for her and he's willing to do anything for her to be safe. This is with about 30 minutes until we start our last service, I really wanted to stay and hear him out more but duty called. I was able to pray for him and I'm really hoping that God will show up powerfully. It sounded like Marcus already had his wake up call and was ready to change. If you remember, please pray for him too!
Cool story number 3. After a crazy trip to Bozeman with my roommate Nam, and friends Tung and Hiep, (all Vietnamese) they invited me over for dinner. Chicken and fried ramen noodles, it was pretty dang good for not having a kitchen and equipment to work with! More of their friends showed up, I mean my friends too but yeah, we ate and chatted and hung out for a while. And somehow, perhaps Niah told them, but I guess they heard that I'm a pastor. Once again, the first question I get when I tell them that I might: "Can you get married???" followed by "Ooooooooooooooooh" when I tell them yes, yes I can get married. I love em! They make me laugh! Noon, one of the girls, showed me a Vietnamese Bible that she has. She told me that she isn't a Christian but she likes reading it because it gives her good feelings. I told her that if she ever has any questions I'd love to talk to her about it. She seemed pretty interested, and again, Niah was there as well, my old roommate, and when we were talking about the Bible he seemed VERY interested. Keep praying that God will work in their hearts more and more and draw them to the Truth!
We kept saying that it was like Christmas, everyone coming back to their room to find us there with stuff we bought for them in Bozeman. Since I'm the one driving the car they've nick named me Santa Claus :D which I can't remember what it is in Vietnamese but I love it hahaha! When they found out that I could drive some of them there next week I had 5 of them crowding around me practically begging me! I'm looking forward to it, I hope we do it, at the least it will give us time to talk and I'm sure the Bible will come up at some point.
Cool story number 4. Not really a story but, I got back from work today and found out that I have a third roommate now. His name is Andres and he's from Quito, Ecuador. Somehow he found out that I play soccer and he was already asking me if I knew where to play, he wants to start as soon as possible... no objections!!
I feel like I have more cool stories to tell, but I'm gettin pretty tired so if I remember more I'll throw them in another post!
Thanks for all your prayers and support!
(1 month!!)
In no particular order, I guess that's how my mind works, here's what's happened in the past week.
Work as usual, although I was cooking in the mornings getting everything all set up. I love working with Steve, but I hate waking up at 6-6:30 in the morning. On the plus side, on Thursday I was able to go on a hike up Purple Mountain with Amber and a couple of her friends from Singapore I think. That was pretty cool. Sunday we were conducting the Old Faithful services so Amber preached. She did a really good job talking about "sanctuary" and how sometimes God has us step back so we can learn new things and prepare for what He has in store for us. I can't help but believe that God has me out here to learn new things and prep for the next leg of the race. One possibility that has come up in conversations and other things, particularly in the past year or so, I feel like God might be leading me into a pastoral internship. It's all still kinda up in the air and I guess I'm waiting for more confirmation, but I'm now openly considering this as a possibility after graduation. Come to think of it, that might be the most stable possibility so far. ANYWAY.
Sunday after our second service, we were going to drive out to Lake Yellowstone and rent a rowboat and just chill for the afternoon. Thanks to the lovely hills and horrible reception, our group got split up and Staci, Sarah, and I ended up driving around. Loads of fun! I want to bring back the Sunday afternoon drive tradition.
Cool story number 1. I'm in my room and my roommate Nam comes in. He was out on a trip with some people (Campus Crusaders) and one of the girls in the group told him about Jesus and gave him a Bible to read. He told me about it and said, "I think I like this stuff". I don't think he's taking it entirely seriously yet, but he started reading Genesis and he's pretty into it. I've been able to answer questions and explain things for him too so it's been pretty neat!
Cool story number 2. Before our last service, I'm sitting outside the Lodge Cafeteria eating a pretzel and this guy Marcus I met before came and sat down next to me. He's a traditionalist Catholic I think... anyway, he asks if I could pray for him and he starts telling me about how his ex-wife is in a rough situation with her current boyfriend and Marcus wants her and his son back and how he's genuinely changing who he is now for her and he's willing to do anything for her to be safe. This is with about 30 minutes until we start our last service, I really wanted to stay and hear him out more but duty called. I was able to pray for him and I'm really hoping that God will show up powerfully. It sounded like Marcus already had his wake up call and was ready to change. If you remember, please pray for him too!
Cool story number 3. After a crazy trip to Bozeman with my roommate Nam, and friends Tung and Hiep, (all Vietnamese) they invited me over for dinner. Chicken and fried ramen noodles, it was pretty dang good for not having a kitchen and equipment to work with! More of their friends showed up, I mean my friends too but yeah, we ate and chatted and hung out for a while. And somehow, perhaps Niah told them, but I guess they heard that I'm a pastor. Once again, the first question I get when I tell them that I might: "Can you get married???" followed by "Ooooooooooooooooh" when I tell them yes, yes I can get married. I love em! They make me laugh! Noon, one of the girls, showed me a Vietnamese Bible that she has. She told me that she isn't a Christian but she likes reading it because it gives her good feelings. I told her that if she ever has any questions I'd love to talk to her about it. She seemed pretty interested, and again, Niah was there as well, my old roommate, and when we were talking about the Bible he seemed VERY interested. Keep praying that God will work in their hearts more and more and draw them to the Truth!
We kept saying that it was like Christmas, everyone coming back to their room to find us there with stuff we bought for them in Bozeman. Since I'm the one driving the car they've nick named me Santa Claus :D which I can't remember what it is in Vietnamese but I love it hahaha! When they found out that I could drive some of them there next week I had 5 of them crowding around me practically begging me! I'm looking forward to it, I hope we do it, at the least it will give us time to talk and I'm sure the Bible will come up at some point.
Cool story number 4. Not really a story but, I got back from work today and found out that I have a third roommate now. His name is Andres and he's from Quito, Ecuador. Somehow he found out that I play soccer and he was already asking me if I knew where to play, he wants to start as soon as possible... no objections!!
I feel like I have more cool stories to tell, but I'm gettin pretty tired so if I remember more I'll throw them in another post!
Thanks for all your prayers and support!
(1 month!!)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
July 4th Week
Well, we are past the midsummer point. I'm having a great time but still, I can't wait to be home! Workdays have been mostly uneventful. I'm getting a bit faster and more efficient at all this cook stuff. However, I've been asked by head chef Jen if I would mind switching jobs with storekeeper Chris. I would work full time storekeeper and he would cook and relief. I haven't heard back about that, of course I agreed, but I do know that Chris is trying to transfer to a different job. Again, lots of people that I've talked with really don't want him around much longer, most likely if he doesn't get his transfer he might get the boot anyway. Just an example. Last week when I storekeeped I tried to organize our freezer a bit better. Things went pretty well, I was able to fit more boxes on the shelves and keep like items with each other, I was pretty proud of it. That next week, although saying that he really liked the organization and some of the changes made, when I got in this week it was all out of whack again. Not wiggidy whack, no not even regular type. I think we have 8 boxes of peas which we only use once in a while when we make chicken pot pie filling... which we make MAYBE twice a week. 2 boxes, what we're supposed to have is more than enough. Ok, now I'm just venting. At least he keeps me busy!
I'm starting to get more comfortable around people now too. 2 guys in particular, our Sous Chef for the mornings, Steve - he's a great guy, sarcastic quite often but you get used to it. He's been here for 7 years total. I eat lunch or dinner with him once in a while and its always worth it. The other is a front of the house guy named James. We met a while back when he noticed I was from Minnesota, he used to live in Minneapolis. He's a really nice guy, and I'm trying to fix his laptop at the moment haha. Last night we met one other guy named Charlie. He works over at the Old Faithful Inn as a line cook so I don't know if I'll see him again. Story though:
Staci and I decided that we wanted to have a campfire so I reserved a spot through the ranger station, got the permit and headed out there right after work. It was a bit of a rush trying to get the fire started and enough wood before things got dark, fire was started but I still had to scrounge in the dark for more wood (by the way, my new "chain saw" works AWESOME... just wear hand protection of some sort). So I started the fire and I'm waiting around for Staci to get off work and this guy shows up randomly. We talked for a little bit and he asks me if I'd ever hear of fire dancing. Not a clue... I thought it was a movie or something. Anyway, he asks if it'd be cool if he seasoned his new fire staves. Me not knowing any better said, "sure!". He leaves, Staci shows up, and this guy comes back with two fire staves he bought recently. He had to soak the ends in gasoline for so long then burn them for a while etc. While he burned the ends he put on a little show for us. More like he was so excited to try them out he couldn't wait, but I still got most of it all on video and let me say it was AWESOME. Firedancing, by the way, is basically twirling batons with fire on each end. He was going with both at the same time before we left. I think we're going to try and meet up again sometime, I really hope we do! That was a great treat for last night.
Hmm Sunday. Going back in time a few days.
Our services went well. We were at the Madison campground, our first service we had one family show up. It was ok though when that happens things get really informal and kinda fun. Second service we had the National Director for ACMNP Spencer Lundgaard show up with his family. We knew he was coming but it was still a treat. We all kinda knew him from our regional conferences which I think he was at all of them. I preached again, but I felt like it didn't flow as well as my previous ones. I redid my first sermon and I think that might have been the problem. Instead of completely rewriting the whole thing and using the same points, I rewrote some of it, so it was like 2 different thought processes coming together. All the same, Spencer told me afterwards, he never would have guessed I was a college student from the thoughts I shared in my sermon. That was pretty encouraging! He also remembered that I was a PK and he said that he could definitely tell I got some of that from my dad.
Monday, we had another ACMNP parkwide fun day. 31 of us hiked Avalanche Peak. About 3000 feet change in altitude in less than 3 miles. It was a beast of an uphill climb, but at the top it was amazing. And we had snow fields to slide down!!! :D (I was the only one to climb up twice)
I guess that's all for now, I'm running out of battery and I have to get to work!
I'm starting to get more comfortable around people now too. 2 guys in particular, our Sous Chef for the mornings, Steve - he's a great guy, sarcastic quite often but you get used to it. He's been here for 7 years total. I eat lunch or dinner with him once in a while and its always worth it. The other is a front of the house guy named James. We met a while back when he noticed I was from Minnesota, he used to live in Minneapolis. He's a really nice guy, and I'm trying to fix his laptop at the moment haha. Last night we met one other guy named Charlie. He works over at the Old Faithful Inn as a line cook so I don't know if I'll see him again. Story though:
Staci and I decided that we wanted to have a campfire so I reserved a spot through the ranger station, got the permit and headed out there right after work. It was a bit of a rush trying to get the fire started and enough wood before things got dark, fire was started but I still had to scrounge in the dark for more wood (by the way, my new "chain saw" works AWESOME... just wear hand protection of some sort). So I started the fire and I'm waiting around for Staci to get off work and this guy shows up randomly. We talked for a little bit and he asks me if I'd ever hear of fire dancing. Not a clue... I thought it was a movie or something. Anyway, he asks if it'd be cool if he seasoned his new fire staves. Me not knowing any better said, "sure!". He leaves, Staci shows up, and this guy comes back with two fire staves he bought recently. He had to soak the ends in gasoline for so long then burn them for a while etc. While he burned the ends he put on a little show for us. More like he was so excited to try them out he couldn't wait, but I still got most of it all on video and let me say it was AWESOME. Firedancing, by the way, is basically twirling batons with fire on each end. He was going with both at the same time before we left. I think we're going to try and meet up again sometime, I really hope we do! That was a great treat for last night.
Hmm Sunday. Going back in time a few days.
Our services went well. We were at the Madison campground, our first service we had one family show up. It was ok though when that happens things get really informal and kinda fun. Second service we had the National Director for ACMNP Spencer Lundgaard show up with his family. We knew he was coming but it was still a treat. We all kinda knew him from our regional conferences which I think he was at all of them. I preached again, but I felt like it didn't flow as well as my previous ones. I redid my first sermon and I think that might have been the problem. Instead of completely rewriting the whole thing and using the same points, I rewrote some of it, so it was like 2 different thought processes coming together. All the same, Spencer told me afterwards, he never would have guessed I was a college student from the thoughts I shared in my sermon. That was pretty encouraging! He also remembered that I was a PK and he said that he could definitely tell I got some of that from my dad.
Monday, we had another ACMNP parkwide fun day. 31 of us hiked Avalanche Peak. About 3000 feet change in altitude in less than 3 miles. It was a beast of an uphill climb, but at the top it was amazing. And we had snow fields to slide down!!! :D (I was the only one to climb up twice)
I guess that's all for now, I'm running out of battery and I have to get to work!
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