The Windy City

I'm entering into my last week at training and I have mixed feelings about the situation. I am looking forward to seeing my family and spending time in Oklahoma before I go to Arizona, BUT I have met some amazing people at training. I'm constantly surrounded by laughter, people who are in love with Jesus Christ, and pure joy. I am so grateful for this experience!


Anyway, meet team Arizona State!

James, Zach, Me, Maureen, baby Madeline, and Matt. Missing: Sheena.

 We played Putt Putt as a team to get to know each other better. I won 2nd place! Pretty good if I do say so myself. James is in his 3rd year as a missionary. He's our team director (aka leader). Zach is a 1st year missionary and graduated from Benedictine. Matt and Maureen are married and have baby Madeline. They're also 1st year missionaries. Sheena is our other teammate, but she's not at training because she's a 4th year missionary!

Our team made a trip to Chicago!

Chicago 94 stories up. Crazy.

My 1st taste of deep dish pizza. It was intense.

THE BEAN!

The only thing I really wanted to do in Chicago was see the bean. My wish came true! Thanks guys.

We ate our dinner here. I was told it's famous in the SNL world.

Chicago was fantastic, but I'm really glad I was not placed there. It was nice to visit the big city, but it was so busy! I don't think I could handle it all the time. It was a really fun day with the team!

Thundering Up! 

New friends who I'm really going to miss!

FOCUS training has been one of the best experiences of my life. I've learned so much about myself and about Jesus. The people here are so unique and magnificent. I know this year is going to bring many wonderful opportunities and graces are going to flow! It will definitely be rough at times....especially when I'm on campus, but eternity is worth the awkwardness. :)

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I Have Called You By Name

I'm into my 3rd week at FOCUS training! I can't believe it. The time has really flown by. I've been so busy, but full of blessings. A lot of questions have been coming at me, so I'm going to do a little Q&A. :)

• Where are you?
• I'm in Champaign, IL at the University of Illinois for new staff training.
• What do you do all day?
• My days are jam packed! My days vary a little. Some days I work out in the morning and some days I have my Holy Hour (an hour spent praying in front of the blessed sacrament) in the morning. From 9:15-12:20 we have class. We mainly learn about the mission of FOCUS, about the Bible, and how to handle difficult questions that may arise on campus. After that we pray a rosary and then lunch! At 3, we have more classes usually on how to raise our financial support. At 5:15 we have Mass and then dinner. Our evenings are sometimes free, but usually we do things with our college.
• What's a college?
• It's a smaller group of women who spend time praying together, talking about being a woman, playing games, and just doing fun stuff. Our college's patroness is Saint Gemma. She's legit. 
• When will you be on campus?
• August 16th, but classes don't start until the 23rd.
• Are you going back to Oklahoma at all?
• I'll be in OK all of July and part of August.
• Where are you going?
• Arizona State University. Go sun devils!
• What do you do on campus?
• Lead Bible studies, 1on 1 mentorships, reach out to students on campus, hold fun activities for students that don't involve drugs/alcohol/bad stuff.
• Are you excited?
• Ohhhhh YES! :)

Here is what else is going on:

This is our Chapel at DAILY Mass. It's gorgeous! Look at those beautiful Sisters of Life!

Going to Mass here is amazing. The chapel barely holds all of us! Today we had 10 priests celebrating the Eucharist with us. I'm incredibly blessed.

New friend Julie!

New friend Mayra!

Old friend Maddy!

L'Angelus came to play in Champaign! They're a band from Louisiana and all the members are siblings and strong Catholics. They were AMAZING and so much fun. We danced the night away. Literally. I danced from 8-12:45. My feet were about to fall off.

We got soaked on our way back from class!

Jesus decided to bless us with some rain today right when we got out of class. Too bad none of us had an umbrella! We were soaking wet, but being the good missionaries that we are, we offered it up for all the souls in purgatory. Hooray!

I continue to love training, but it is a struggle at times. I've shared with several people that I feel God more present in my life than ever before, but I also feel the presence of Satan stronger than I ever have before. God lifts me up in times of struggle and is so loving, but Satan is just dumb. Satan likes to make the simplest things frustrating. He keeps messing with my phone, so prayers for that. I was struggling today in Holy Hour and I looked down and saw a piece of paper on the ground. It said Isaiah 43 on it, so I'm sharing: "But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." God has called me by name to FOCUS and I could not be more blessed. I love Him and I know that He loves me. 

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Painted Desert

Thursday night after Mass, there was an announcement made for all 1st year missionaries that we were to meet downstairs at 8:15 for a special treat. Of course we all knew what was going to happen, we were going to get our placements for the next year! I was so incredibly nervous. I really thought I might pass out. I wasn't nervous about where I was going or who my teammates were going to be, I was more nervous about all the change! I have always said that I love change, but I have never experienced this kind of change in my life before. I am giving my life over to Christ, moving somewhere completely new, I won't know anyone, and it's all happening so fast. Missionary life was becoming very real to me. I received my card that contained my placement, but I didn't open it immediately. I went into the chapel to pray for awhile. Once I felt more at ease, I opened the letter. As I'm sure many of you have heard, I'm going to ARIZONA STATE!!!! I'm beyond excited to see what God has in store for me. It's going to be an amazing adventure. :D

ASU has the highest student enrollment in the United States with over 72,000 students! That's a lot of souls to capture for Christ Jesus!

I'm going to live by cacti. Cool. No snow!!!

Go Sun Devils!

ASU is located in Tempe, which is the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. They're apart of the Pac-12 conference, NCAA Division 1 and their mascot is the Sun Devil. hahaha. I found this really funny. 

I can't wait to be on campus and share my life with the students at ASU. It's been really fun getting to know my team (there's 5 of us). I wish I had a picture of them, but I'll have one soon. Please keep me, the students at ASU, and our team in your prayers! Also, please let me know if you're in need of any prayers. We pray a Holy Hour every day, which means we do a lot of praying. Yay for Arizona State! 

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