Hello one and all and welcome to my little space on the internet. As you all know I'm living here in Arizona right now and loving every minute of it! I've made a lot of friends and developing bonds with many people in my ward and work. I totally feel a difference in my life after getting out of Utah and experiencing life on my own.
When Laurie moved down here we've been having a lot of fun traveling back and forth to Utah. Our latest little venture was Baja Mexico. One word: Awesome! We just got back from doing a service project at an orphanage just north of Ensenada. It was such an amazing experience! We went with a group mostly from BYU called KAIIZEN, which is a Japanese word meaning "continuous improvement". A friend of ours was associated with this group. This group goes down to Mexico about every 6 weeks or so and does projects for this and other orphanages. On this trip there was about 150 people so they're in the process of finding and building relationships with other orphanages so we can spread out a little. So needless to say, the organization is definitely growing. On this trip we were able to have a sub-for-Santa for the kids. When we got there, we helped them put together Christmas stockings complete with stuffers like toothbrushes and little games. That night we had a big barbecue (I was in charge of cooking up like 300 hamburgers!) and later we handed out presents which was one of my most amazing experiences. The look on the kids faces when they opened up their presents was truly priceless. Did I forget to mention that this part of Mexico was almost third world country like? It was so sad to see the conditions these people live in. It makes me feel so so lucky and blessed to have been born where I was. These children literally have NOTHING! I feel lucky to be apart of an organization who desires to do some good in the world. I think I've found a new passion in life. Going on this Baja trip has inspired me to learn Spanish so I can communicate better next time I go down there. The next day after the sub-for-Santa my group went and painted the school the kids go to. There were about 5 classrooms and 2 bathrooms we painted. The trip was a good mix between work and play. After painting, we had the choice of either going into Ensenada and do some shopping or whatever, or we could go back to the beach that we went to the first time. My car decided to go back to the beach. We hung out there for a little while and watched the sunset on the coast. It was really cool. After everyone got bored with the beach, we went back to where we were camping and partied the rest of the night and had J-dogs (BTW, I highly recommend picking one up next time anyone is in Provo!). That night the wind was blowing really hard and the tent we were in wasn't really built for wind so it kept us up all night. At about 3:30, we all had about enough of the wind so the car group we were with wanted to leave. So we were packed up and on the road about 4:15 in the morning! It was crazy but a good call. The 2 guys we were carpooling with dropped us back off at the San Diego temple where my car was and we parted ways. That day Laurie and I decided to drive up to L.A. to see a mutual friend and to hang out for a few hours up there. On our way back we stopped in Upland California where Laurie lived for about a month so she could visit her old branch and to go to church. Then we went back home from there. It was an awesome trip. It was a very rewarding experience. Something I'm definitely going to do again.
