Monday, November 16

Good day at school; I stayed a while afterwards because LB had a lot of grading to do and I wanted to get some grading done, too. I took care of some odds and ends of decorating in my classroom, putting up some of the kids’ art projects and stuff. We headed home about 5 and I finally talked with Amy on the phone, which was great because I haven’t talked to her in a few weeks. There’s just so much that happens in 2 weeks sometimes to try to remember it all and get it into a limited amount of time is frustrating. I don’t like how it’s hard for people in the states to call abroad without huge phonebills or international plans on their phones. I don’t mind being the one to call people because it really is cheaper for me, but it’s just hard when I don’t get a hold of people and don’t know their schedules. Darn international calling charges.

Jacki, Sarah and Jacki’s friend Alyssa were in town so it was me, LB, Kirsty and Jacki’s other friend Alex had just gotten back from traveling around Honduras for a week by himself. We asked him how it went and what he had been learning about God and stuff and it opened up a really good dinner religion conversation. We’re all at different points in our faith journey with different questions and doubts and it was enlightening to gain wisdom from what others have been learning as well as be challenged by their questions. We talked about why Jesus had to die, why God couldn’t just forgive our sins without having Jesus die; whether heaven and hell really exist and about eternity; what happens to people who aren’t sure about their faith, who are searching or even those who haven’t heard the Gospel what happens to them when they die. Big questions without easy or simple answers, but it was very satisfying for me to talk about that stuff. It felt like I was back at college, being academic, thinking, pondering, wrestling with ideas and questions and where to find the answers, if they exist. And after that Alex had told us how many times he had Dunkin Donuts in SPS and we were like ‘Let’s make donuts!’ So we did; we used pancake mix with egg, milk and sugar and then fried it in oil. It worked pretty good actually; I was kinda surprised. We put some sugar, honey or jam on them and if we had had frosting, we would have for sure put some on. It was amazing.