Why is it so difficult?!

I've got a confession to make: I haven't been spending the time with God that I should be. I know, I know, who does? But as I look back on the last few years of my life, specifically from when I started going to real school (hahaha! Homeschooling totally counts as real school, but TCC and UW count as really real school since I actually had to leave the house and follow a set schedule), I've always tried to make time every day for a quiet time. A lot of times that meant getting up 30 minutes earlier every morning so that I could get into the word before I really started my day. Or during my summers at camp I made a conscious effort to spend some time with God everyday (I know, you're thinking, "Lisa, you were at a Christian camp....it's about God." but it's surprisingly kind of hard to make time for God sometimes, even at a Christian camp), even if that meant rocking out to some worship tunes while making a million and ten cookies for the campers.
When I first arrived in Xela I made it a priority to find a church. Before I even arrived, I asked some local missionaries about a church with English services and then I sought that church out 2 days after I got here. I continued getting up a half hour earlier than I really needed to so that I could start my day off with some God time. But then something happened....I don't really know what exactly though. I started working and, at first, I was still getting up and doing my daily devos. But my mornings started getting earlier and that extra 30 minutes of sleep was sounding better and better. I started working on Sundays...like all day on Sundays. So attending church got really difficult. And now I find myself 41 days into a 90-day devotional that I brought back with me from the states at the end of March.
Funny. Today's devo was about self-image (I'm reading the devotional Pure by Rebecca St James). She says, "Delighting in who God made us to be is hard.......We must try to build our self-image around what God thinks of us. This requires spending time with Him regularly to allow Him to fill us with His love." Then I read 2 Timothy. In 1 & 2 Timothy Paul reminds Timothy how important it is to be always in the scriptures, to know the teachings so that he wouldn't get led astray and so that he could help others not be led astray, so that false teachings wouldn't get hold of him or the rest of the church body. How is it that there are reminders everywhere for me to spend time with God daily and yet I'm only 41 days into a 90-day devotional that I've had for over 5 months? Today I find myself in a place where I've only been thanking God for great things and asking for help with hard things. I want to be in a place where God is a major part of everything I do. I've been there before.
Today I looked at the last few months of my life. I've spent an average of 2 hours every weekday at the gym, even with an occasionally crazy work schedule. I've watched a lot of Netflix. I've almost read the whole Chronicles of Narnia series in Spanish. I've read 3 other books in their entirety in Spanish. And I've read 41 days of my 90-day devotional. Something is wrong here.
I wrote this prayer in my journal today and I want to share it with you because if I tell you about it then I have more push to remember it.

I know I suck at consistently spending time with You.

I know You warn me about stuff and I ignore You.

I know You are always right next to me, just waiting for me to face You and invite You into my day.

Today I invite You into everything I do.

Today I'm facing You and asking you to continue speaking to me,

to continue pulling on my heart,

and to continue loving & protecting me.

Today I'm asking You to forgive the things I've done and the things I've left undone,

to forgive who I've been and what I am and guide who I will be.

Today I place myself in Your hands.

Tomorrow is another day.

Today I pray that You would place on my heart to do the same tomorrow.

May everyday of my life be a fresh commitment to You.

Thank You for being You.

Today I realized (probably for the millionth time) that I'm just waiting for the day when God gives up on me. The day when He says, "Lisa, I've been pursuing you for a long time. I'm tired and I'm done." But that's not how God rolls. I have journals with pages filled with the words of songs and verses that remind me of this, and yet for some reason it never quite sticks. I keep finding myself in this place of waiting for Him to say, "Peace out. Nice knowing you." 

So here's the request that I have for you: pretty please pray for me. Pray that I will always feel that my day is lacking something essential when I don't spend time with God. Pray that I will be able to rest in His faithfulness, not spend my time questioning it. 

This morning I woke up with this song stuck in my head. I would love for this to be my prayer every day.

Once upon a time some people from 1st Pres came all the way to Huehue....

 I miss home!!!!!!!

Just thought I'd put that out there. The other day I was showing my Guatemalan friend my house on the google maps street view and then he showed me where he used to live in Oklahoma and we started really missing the states. Then on Monday I had the amazing privilege of getting to meet up with the First Pres adult mission team. Let's start there.

I knew that their flight landed at 10AM, so I was planning to jump on a bus from Xela around 2PM to make it to Huehue around the same time as them. That morning I realized they were probably going to pass through Cuatro Caminos (it means 4 ways...it's a big 4-way intersection and you can pretty much go anywhere from there) and I should see if I could meet them there and then ride with them the rest of the way. But I didn't want to call Edwin to ask because I wasn't sure how busy he was. Lo and behold, he called me around 1 to say that they were going to pass through Cuatro Caminos and I should try to meet up with them there. Ha! So he told me he'd get in touch with them and find out when they'd be passing through and he'd let me know. He called me back about an hour later and said they'd be there in about an hour and 15 minutes....unfortunately my phone decided to cut out right when he said an hour so I only heard 15 minutes. Yikes! So I jumped on the first bus I could to get there and I was praying that I'd make it on time....mostly I was praying that he meant 15 minutes Guatemalan time (which could mean up to 45 minutes). Well I got there about 30 minutes after he called (which was pretty good time on a bus) and I called him to see if they'd already passed. He said no, they'd pass in about 45 minutes. Crap!!! But at least they hadn't already passed through. So I crossed the street to Pollo Campero (it's like KFC, but in Spanish) and ate some food and read my book a little to kill some time. While I was reading it started raining....but like raining raining raining, POURING! And I had to go back across the street to meet up with the group. Just crossing the street my shoes got soaked and my clothes were pretty evenly damped everywhere, but a green van showed up and I saw familiar faces(!!!!!!!). So I ran over to give Mama Nalty a big hug and jumped into the van. Another Guatemalan woman tried to get in, but our driver (Duglas, he's awesome) had to tell her that it wasn't a microbus. Hahaha! 

So we made our way to Huehue (pronounced way-way) and I had to answer lots of questions, but it was so great! I was remembering the time I went to Huehue with First Pres in 2010 and how everything looked so new and exciting to me and how this time it was so normal, everything! The way people drive, the landscape, the roadside markets, the chicken buses passing like madmen, and even the road between Xela and Huehue. I couldn't put myself back into the "all of this is brand new" mindset. But it was great. We got to the guest house in Huehue and I couldn't believe how close it was to the school where I taught on Saturdays for a few months...like actually, it was only 3 blocks away. But we walked into the house and it was like walking into my home, a familiar house where I'd passed a week with some of my very best friends. Anyways, we got settled in and then we went to Berea (the Bible Institute) so that Edwin could show us around. Once we got back to the house Katie gave me all my presents from home...well, she told me she put them on my bed and I got super stoked and ran upstairs and she said it would be like opening my Christmas stocking (sweet! Because I didn't have one last year). Oh my gosh! It was like being at home, reading the notes and seeing my new, one-of-a-kind Camp McCullough t-shirt (funny because I'd just been thinking about how this would be the first summer in 8 years that I wouldn't have a camp shirt). Day 1 ended with everyone super pooped out from like 24 hours of travel so everyone crashed pretty early. OH!!!! And we sang Johnny Appleseed before dinner, and my team did dishes, so it was really like being at camp. :)

Day 2 started out with a bomb.com breakfast (but let's be honest, every meal at the guest house is bomb.com). I was planning to leave that morning around 11 to make it back to Xela in time for my 3PM class, but Edwin asked me "Lisa, do you really have to leave today? Why don't you stay until tomorrow when we leave for the plantation?" Well, in all honesty I only had the one class and the student is pretty chill so I called him to see if we could cancel class for the day (which apparently I'm not supposed to do, oops!) and he's super buena onda (it's like 'cool') and he said that was fine. He knew I was in Huehue visiting friends so he told me to have fun. So I got to spend another day in Huehue!! We went to explore the park, market and cemetery in the morning and then after lunch the boys went back to Berea to build tables and the girls stayed home to paint. Vicky and I painted the downstairs bathroom and the other ladies painted the cabana. We had a great time painting. 

Then the next day we all went to Berea to paint the tables that the boys built. Joe made me a Santa beard/Amish hat, it's pretty bomb.com. Then we headed back to the house for lunch and everyone got ready to go to the plantation while I got ready to go back to Xela. I haven't heard/spoken so much English in....I don't remember how long, but it was so much fun! I loved to see the difference between a youth mission trip and an adult trip. The adults have so many more stories and they're so much more independent during free time. Youth just want to joke around all the time, there's always a love triangle or two, they're always together, and most of their stories include half of the people on the trip. But whether it's youth or adults, the Huehue guest house is like home, always....well, at least for me. Hahaha! I was sad to leave them, but it was so good to see some familiar faces from home and have a few days to just be relaxed. It was pretty much like a party...just without the Moza.

Places I need to visit in Guatemala before heading home

I know, I know, Guatemala is a small country. It's about 60% of the size of Washington state. But somehow in my 7 months here I still haven't managed to visit all the the "must-see" places. So here's my list of places to go in the next 3 months.....if I don't make it to all of these places I guess I'll just have to come back one day. Oh darn! Hahaha! But first, I already wrote this post and I made it totally awesome and described the places but for some reason it neither saved nor posted and it all got erased.....so now my motivation to make this awesome is about 2/10. If you think these places look awesome you can google them to see what they're all about.

 1. Antigua, Guatemala

 2. Tak'alik      Ab'aj

 3. Izabal 
  & Rio    Dulce

 4. Semuc Champey

 5. Tikal

6. Tilapa Beach

Bienvenido a Mexico!!

As a U.S. citizen I automatically receive a 90-day traveler's visa when I enter Guatemala. The problem is when I want to stay here for 11 months...I have to make a few visa runs. Apparently it's super common and there are U.S. citizens who have lived here for years (like 10-15) and have been making a run to Mexico every 90 days that whole time (apparently it's a lot easier than getting residency). Well, my first 90-day stint happened to fit almost perfectly with my trip back home for my mom's wedding (I stayed for 98 days so I had to pay a fee of Q.80...about $10, when I left), but this time I was not so lucky. My 90 days were coming to a close and I figured I might as well hop over to Mexico while I was already practically on the border for my weekend classes in Malacatan.
Getting to the border was a piece of cake. I got into a taxi with a few other people and we each paid Q.5 for the 20-minute ride (that's less than $1!). Once we arrived at the border, however, I had no idea what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to go. So I started walking towards something that looked very border-like and asked someone where I go to get my passport stamped. She pointed out the immigration window to me and I started to make my way over. On my way there were a few guys asking me if I needed to change any Guatemalan Quetzales to Mexican Pesos...so I changed Q.400 and got super ripped off on the exchange rate (I really should have researched more thoroughly the current rate and had a better idea of how much I should be getting...my bad), but got to the window and had an exit stamp added to my passport. Before I knew it, there was this guy showing me where to go to get all the way through the border and where to catch another taxi to Tapachula (apparently it's a great city...I didn't receive quite the same impression). When I got into the cab the guy asked me for a tip. This was fair because I really had no idea where I was supposed to be going and he really helped me out, so I gave him a tip. But then there was this other guy telling me that I should also be giving him a tip because he was the owner of the taxi or something like that....I gave him nothing because the first time I'd seen him was about 45 seconds earlier, what was I supposed to tip him for?!
Anyways, as we got into Tapachula the driver asked me where I was going and I told him the address of a hotel that I'd read about on a forum about visa runs to Tapachula. He told me that hotel was on the other side of town and that he'd help me find a place closer to the center. It really made no difference to me, as long as I wasn't charged an arm and a leg for a hotel room. The first place we stopped wanted MX$400 a night (that's about $30US or Q.250...I make Q.25 an hour, so no way, especially after getting gyped on  the exchange at the border). So we headed to another place. The driver told me he thought this other place charged MX$150 a night, but he wasn't sure. So we went in and I asked how much a room cost. The guy asked me if I wanted the price per night or per hour. Gross. Per night. MX$150. Great, so I asked if they had space available. He said no, but they'd have a free room at 6pm. Gross. I really didn't want to stay in a hotel room that had just been rented out for a couple hours. But I really didn't have any other options so I said I'd be back at 6. I headed to the central park to walk around and find some food. I went into a little torta restaurant (tortas are delicious Mexican grilled sandwiches...if you haven't had one, you need to go find the nearest taco truck and get one) and read my book for a while and ate, of course. Eventually I got tired of just sitting there and toting my backpack full of heavy books that I had to bring for my classes, so I decided to walk around in search of a different hotel nearby. I found one for only MX$60 a night and decided that for that price, it really didn't matter how gross it was and it was only one night. I don't know what was going on with the manager though because I asked how much they charged per night, he told me, then he asked "is that all you wanted?" So I said, "No, do you have space?" And he looked super confused and said, "space?" Apparently I wasn't clear enough or something so I asked "do you have a room available that I could stay in?" So he let me in and showed me a super ghetto room (pictures below), but I really didn't care so I went into the office to "check in." Check-in at that hotel means writing down the occupant's name and how many nights they're staying. No I.D. check, nothing. Also, he asked me for my name and he thought I said Yulisa and so that's what he wrote.

My light switch and who knows what kind of outlet!

This is how I "locked" my door

My bed, complete with a single sheet and a weird smell

 Needless to say, I thought it would be a good idea to sleep with my mace close by. Thankfully nothing happened, it was just loud and hot and hard to sleep, but nothing dangerous. Haha! Well I got up early to head back to Xela. The weirdo manager was trying to tell me that I should stay another night because it was Sunday and I should wait to travel until Monday....but I'm pretty sure the reason I chose to travel on Saturday/Sunday was so that I could still work Monday. Weirdo!! Anyways, I got back to the border and the same guy was there to "guide" me through the border process again and to show me where to catch a cab back to Malacatan (apparently the fact that I'd just been there the day before and knew where things were didn't seem to cross his mind). I changed my pesos back to quetzales and didn't get as badly ripped off, but still a whacky exchange rate. A little further through the border process there were about 6 guys waving money in my face telling me that I needed to change my pesos to quetzales because I couldn't spend pesos in Guatemala. It didn't matter how many times I told them I didn't have any pesos, they just kept telling me that I needed to change my pesos. Then when we were nearly to the taxis some other guy came up asking me where I was going (also trying to "help" me find a bus/taxi). He started listing places so I just said I was going to Malacatan and he pointed out a microbus (the ones that are basically just vans) I could get onto so I asked him how much it cost and he told me Q.20. I said, "How is it Q.20?! I paid Q.5 for a taxi yesterday!!" (by this point I was really frustrated with everyone trying to "help" me) And right then we just so happened to be right next to a taxi headed to Malacatan for (you guessed it!) Q.5. I peaced out and finally got back to familiar land then took my two buses back to Xela and made it in time for church (p.s. I started going to a different church with Spanish services and I really like it, except I only understand about 75% of what's being said because I have yet to learn all of the church-y Spanish)....kind of. I was half an hour late, but in Guatemalan time that's only like 5 minutes late. Unfortunately I felt super gross during the whole service because I didn't have time to shower and I didn't shower at the hotel because the shower was super gross and they didn't have towels....so, yeah.
Anyways, I have another 90 days here...so basically 90 days to figure out how to not go through all that again. When my friend Matt went to renew his visa he just paid the border officer to stamp him in and out without actually going into Mexico...maybe I'll do that next time. This trip just re-affirmed that I'm not a traveler, at least not by myself. I love seeing new places, but if I'm going to go somewhere by myself it's going to be to do something, not just to visit. It's boring and stressful and stupid traveling alone...at least in my opinion. I would say that this was one of those experiences that I'm glad I had but I hope I'll never have to have again. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me, there's no way I could've survived that without God watching out for me!!

The rainy season is upon us

Apparently umbrellas aren't just for tourists here

A little rain never stopped people from selling food in the park

When I first arrived in Xela it was winter. At night and in the morning it got incredibly cold...ok fine, it was like 0°C, but it felt really cold because in the afternoons it would warm up to 15-20°C. But during all of this time there was no rain. It snowed in San Marcos (a city about 2 hours away from Xela), and by snowed I mean there was maybe an inch of snow and it was all over the newspapers. Kinda like in western Washington. Anyways, in all the time I'd been here, it'd rained only a handful of times and only for about an hour and then it was done. Well all that has changed now. About 2 weeks ago it just started raining and it's been cloudy and drizzly with big passing thunderstorms ever since. Sure, there have been some sun breaks, but not like before. It's so weird that it will be sunny and then it starts sprinkling and before you know it you can't hear yourself think because the rain is so loud on the roof, not to mention the giant booms of thunder. I absolutely love it! I only wish I had brought my rain boots.
It's almost always drizzly in Tacoma, but there are hardly ever big downpours where it feels like the sky has to run out of water soon. A bright flash of lightning, closely followed by the huge boom of thunder. Here it's an every day occurrence. It's beautiful! Sure, walking to and from work from
where I catch the bus kind of sucks when it's dumping rain....especially when a car drives by just fast enough that the river running through the road decides it'd have more fun all over you, but hey, asi es la vida!
Apparently Guatemalan engineers don't know how to think ahead, however, so the drainage system is pretty non-existent. When it really rains the roads become mini-rivers that are impossible to cross without completely soaking at least one of your feet. But it's kinda fun making crossing the street a game: find the high spot in the road that's not yet submersed in water so you can cross without landing ankle-deep in a puddle.
I don't know why, but it's so beautiful to me how it can be sunny one second and then dumping rain and rolling thunder the next. When I was flying into Guatemala city for the first time by myself in December there was a lightning storm in the distance and I just watched it for the last half hour of my flight. It was amazing to just watch a chunk of the sky light up for a fraction of a second. Now when there's lightning it usually lights up the whole academy where I work, or the power goes out. It's a little alarming to be teaching a class at night and then it's like someone is flashing giant flood lights just outside the window, but it's amazing! Maybe it's that in Tacoma (where I've pretty much spent my entire life up until this point) there's hardly ever lightning. It makes the front page of the Tribune when there is (you know the picture I'm talking about, a big lightning bolt in the sky with the Narrows Bridge in the background...same one every time). So even though it happens every day here, I'm still amazed by it every time. I'm still amazed by how incredible loud the rain can be, especially at my weekend spot in Malacatan.
What about you? Is there something that you encounter frequently but it still manages to sweep you off your feet every time?