Bolivia 2013

So over the summer I had the opportunity to spend three weeks in Bolivia for service. It was a Humanitarian EFY and was the experience of a lifetime. We first went to Peru and visited Machu Picchu. We hiked up Wayna Picchu, which is the super tall mountain next to Machu Picchu that also has ruins on it, but has an amazing view of the Machu Picchu below. We then went to Bolivia, where we stayed in a hostel, and spent most of our time building a school with brick and mortar (also laying the foundation with dirt that we dug ourselves. It was really fun getting to see the kids who were also in school in the small school building/run down house they were using. We got to teach them English (by the end of the 3 weeks they all knew the basic greetings, numbers, colors, etc). On rainy days we visited the Old Folks home (which had terrible living standards). We were also able to experience the houses of some of the poorest people whose living conditions were astonishing. I have tons of photos from the experience so I'm just going to post some of my favorites.

Bus rides were a long, every day thing to get where we needed to go....

Lots of traveling = need to catch up on sleep whenever possible. Me trying to sleep at the airport.

Yes, we went to church every Wednesday and Saturday. Most of it was in Spanish. On Wednesdays we played soccer. 

Playing soccer with my favorite.

Our fourth of July party.

And... Finally... Souvenir Shopping.

Through service, we not only help others but we help ourselves. We grow as people, developing our love for humanity and strengthening our own testimonies. We increase our own gratitude for the things we have. I remember when I first came back from Bolivia, every little thing stood out to me. Every single little detail in our lives is such a blessing, and we are so lucky to be born in the situations we were born in.

You can just call me-

Senior Class President aka Varsity Cheer team head captain. That's right, you're looking at the girl with the titles. Even though I feel the same as before, through all of the dedication in cheer leading and hard working in stunting and coming up with stunt sequences/ simply being responsible I tried out for and made head captain of the cheer team!

  

And through lots of campaigning, poster-making, cookie-baking, and just smiling and asking people everyday to vote I was also elected as senior class president! Although I know it will be a huge job, I'm excited to plan fun events such as a senior skip day and approved event ideas. I'm also open to new ideas if any of you have any suggestions at all whatsoever! Luckily my young women's leader was also senior class president so she has many fun ideas that she's helping brainstorm!

My friend who I ran with and I both won with over 50% of the votes (I ran against 4 people so that's a good sign...) and so I'm also excited to keep in touch with her through the years in planning the reunions! Its a good excuse. My only fear is giving the speech at graduation, but I have a year to think about that so I'm not too worried. Yet.

Anyways, I'm very very excited about both of these things and have been so blessed to not only have so much support from my friends and family, but also have heavenly father on my side to help guide me to make the right decisions and be an influence/ leader in others lives.

Laural Retreat

Okay, so I'm not going to write much for this post, but I just recently went to a Laural Retreat over the end of spring break (which my spring break was really fun-filled by the way). The Laural Retreat was fun; I mainly hung out with my favorite ward friends but also made new friends from the stake. We went to the beach, went rock climbing, went in the pool, watched movies, and ate tonssss of delicious snacks (gained like 10 pounds but don't regret it a single bit). It was overall a good experience. My friend Morayna and I also made new friends at the beach and played volleyball with them, and got their numbers. They live in Michigan, so it was prettyyyy cool not going to lie.

Also, Grandma and Grandpa are renting a house right across from Flagler Beach, and I am so excited! We already know we are going to go there daily after school and it will be so great to be able to hang out with them so often and be so close to the beach. This is such a fun thing for me and I absolutely love the idea of having them so nearby. ♥♥♥♥

By the way, if you haven't already noticed, in my sidebar I have a recent updates area for my instagram! If I haven't posted in a while, I probably most definitely have been updating my instagram with pictures, so you can just check that out to see some other recent/ possibly exciting things that have been going on in my life!

Love you all, mwah.