3rd Day of Conference (Monday)

7/20    Today didn't start out too well.  I waited for Jeremy, Rachel, and Walter to come down the stairs of the dorm so we could walk to breakfast together.  (We all had breakfast duty for dining hall.)  On the way down the stairs I slipped and fell down a couple stairs.  At least I was with people when it happened.  They asked me if I was alright, but at that point I really didn't know if I was.  I answered with I might be in shock, but tried to get up anyways.  I was able to get up without a problem so we continued our walk to the dining hall as if nothing had happened.  The next day I'd be sore and be sporting a nice bruise on my arm.  Since it was still the beginning of Conference I was afraid if I had actually hurt myself I wouldn't be able to participate in much and it'd just be a sad week for me, but fortunately that wasn't the case.  :)  In the dining hall for breakfast I was on dish duty with Rachel.  We found out that watered down peanut butter is pretty disgusting.
         After breakfast I went back to the dorms quick to go change into my dress.  I rushed to make it to the Young Adults meeting in time but it turns out I made it early.  In the Young Adults meeting we did a religious Mad Libs.  Those things where you fill in random verbs/nouns/etc into blanks then it comes out with a really weird story.  Some weird things that came out of my story were the lines My mouth will be like a pencil sharpener for God's words, and he will make you like a puppy to the nations.  Pencil sharpener doesn't sound like a very good thing to be with God's words.
            Morning meeting was next and for worship time we got to do the "J-E-S-U-S song" and "Oh Happy Day".  A lot of people went up to the front to do a group dance for "Oh Happy Day" and I was one of them even though I didn't know the moves I felt the energy and needed to be up there :D.  Think I caught on to the song pretty well too.
 

Here's A Tutorial so you can do the dance too xD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik0mc5zgvxQ

Here's the J-E-S-U-S song, it was pretty adorable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sVoS8xykm8

   Those songs definitely got me pumped for the rest of the morning meeting, it was so great.  The great worship time was followed by a skit about the traditions of Conference.  Which Jeremy's sister lead by playing a song on her violin.  It was a very comedic song and made me even more excited to be at Conference.

     Next was the morning meeting speech given by the morning speaker Mike Haddox who would be there to speak all week.  He told us a story about how there had been a girl from a foster care center that had been following him around, and he was annoyed by her so he tried everything he could do to make sure she wouldn't go by him.  But one day when she came up to him she said "Thank you for loving kids like me."  and he realized that in that moment she hadn't been talking to him, but to God.  

   At lunch I was put on salad duty.  I got to refill bins of salad topping for an hour...pretty hardcore.  

After lunch we headed to the gym where the "Stop Hunger Now" event was going on.  Our goal was to package 20,000 meals within an hour.  My group was helping package the meals.  I had the duty of passing the meals between the sealant table and the packaging table.  

   We ended up going above and beyond our goal within that hour.  After that successful hour we went to go tie-dye shirts.  Luckily I had my  white "I Can't Stop Watching YouTubers" T-shirt in my bag because someone had forgotten to tell me it was tie-dye day. (I had already been up to Hillside twice that day, and wasn't planning on climbing that hill again.)  Jeremy told me the instructions on how to do a spiral and left me to tie-dye by myself.  The mission of the day being to tie-dye a shirt.  The tie-dye shirt came out to look really good.  I used blue, yellow, pink, and orange.  The yellow and blue created green shocked me at first because I forgot colors mixed and did that.  Saying I didn't put green on my shirt.  Jeremy had to point the mixing fact out to me.  :P

       

    After Rachel, Jeremy, and I were done tie-dying we sat outside and listened to music for the rest of free time and talked.  Jeremy helped his brother tie-dye his shirt as well.  During this time Amber sent me a text that twenty-one-pilots released a music video for "Lane Boy", I shouted the text out to Jeremy and we both watched the music video.  

    That night my group was leading Chill on the Hill with Subs.  So I got to talk with all the people in my group, watching as people made their own subs.  Jeremy, Walter, and Rachel went to a Singing Bee event for a bit that night.  

   Things I learned during the Young Adult meeting in the morning:

- Some themes of "The Bible" include: Forgiveness, Love, Grace, Justice, and Sacrifice.

- "Your soul can never grow old, it's evergreen."  A lyric in one of Ed Sheeran's song. 

-God looks up at the sky and sees constellations like hearts,  (We all had to think of a symbol of God's Love for us while they played "A Sky Full of Stars" by Coldplay).  My symbol was a constellation in the shape of a heart.  

-Here's a Link to "A Sky Fall of Hearts": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp7NtW_hKJI&list=PLYCj5hDCGNSpdqoUtzMV_Ch1BYvofF2q-

2nd Day of Conference

7/19/15  2nd Day of Conference:  I got to start my first day as a dining hall worker at Conference.  I was put on two days of breakfast and all days doing lunch.  This morning I bused tables for both breakfast and lunch.  The Scripture read at the morning meeting happened to be one of my favorite bible stories.  It was when Peter had a vision about how he shouldn't view other people as unpure that God had made clean.  (Acts 10:1-11:18) Acts is one of my top favorite stories of  "The Bible"
       My mission for today from Jeremy was to visit the Mission Fair and talk to the people there, so during free time that's where we went, and Rachel too.  After that we looked around the bookstore for a bit, then headed to Mugsies (A little coffee shop in New Wilmington right down the road from the campus.)  Autumn had told me to order the frozen hot chocolate when I got there.  Even though that sounded gross, I ordered it anyway, and it turned out being super good.  Josh and Hannah were at Mugsies too.  Josh is another one that's a childhood friend of Jeremy's and Hannah is his girlfriend.  More old Conference stories were shared, as well as the topic of being afraid to give blood.  There was a blood drive going on later that week.
    I didn't write anything in my notes about Vespers or Evening meeting so I'm guessing it was pretty uneventful....hopefully.  Chill on the Hill for the night was breakfasty foods.  I had a chocolate chip pancakes.  Jeremy and Walter's group prepared the meal.  Watched people play Smash until it was time to go to small group where we sang together.

Things learned at the Young Adult bible study hour in the morning:

-  We as Young Adults are in a transition in life between child and adult, and this transition isn't going to be easy.  The term for this transition is "metatoxilogical."  We just have to know that God is with us through it all.  A song that goes along with the metatoxilogical condition is "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons.  "Don't mistake God's inactivity for absence.  When you don't know the answer to something, ask God, yourself, or others the question of "What's Going on?"and "How can I use my gifts and strengths in my adulthood?"

- A quote that stood out to me during the Bible hour was "People don't hate history. they hate their own history."  

Link to the song: "It's Time": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOatp-OCw3E

(This is also the song I came out on stage to when I was on Prom Court my Junior year of high school.) 

The Benefits of Journaling

    Journaling helps you remember specific details of good things that have happened during a certain day.  Your able to remember certain comments or jokes someone made, or a happy memory you had forgotten.

    I wish I would journal more.  I used to write in a journal every day without missing a day during high school.  I've had a hard time keeping one these days.  I go about 2 weeks writing in it then will forget about it.

    A cool thing about journaling though is you can see the outcome of a certain situation.  For example here's a passage from my journal to illustrate this:

    April 7th 2015:  "I found out that I got the job at The Threshold, and decided that that was I wanted to do with my summer.  Probably going to Trek as well.  Jeremy was disappointed that I wouldn't be going to Conference.  We don't know that for sure, I'll have to pray about it, and maybe God will make it happen if it's meant to be."

      I found this excerpt during a quiet time I had put aside for myself and read it to Jeremy after small group at the Conference that is mentioned in the above excerpt.  As you can see I did end up going to the Conference.  My prayers lead me to the answer that God did want me on this trip, and made it possible, and it's so cool to see the end result of the original journal entry.  You can really see God at work through this passage.  I may have been frustrated and confused but God made a way for me.  At first I didn't understand, but unraveled in time.

1st Official Day of Conference

7/18/15:  (I'm writing about this a week after it happened so I might have forgot some stuff).  Today is the first official day of Conference.  I planned on waking up for breakfast and I really thought I did since my phone told me it was 7:10, and breakfast started at 7:00.  Turned out it was actually 8:00 (My phone had never switched over.)  So me and Jeremy's mom who had been relying on my alarm to wake her up woke up late.  To pass time until the actual Conference would start we hung out in the Lobby of Ferguson.  (Maddy, Jeremy, Walter, Autumn, and Eli).  We spent a long time playing Wikilinks.  I ended up winning a round.  No one could seem to find My Little Pony, but I was able to find it even though I had started out with a banking system.  The banking system, led to the term monopoly, which lead me to the game of "Monopoly" which lead me to the Hasbro company, then to "My Little Pony."  Other terms that were searched for were "Space Jam", and "The Beatles."

 

 At lunch, while I was trying to say "french fries"  I accidentally said that I wanted "french flies", and the server was kind of like umm excuse me.  So I repeated myself, this time saying the correct terminology.  French flies, wee wee.  

                                                         

(Apparently French Flies exist ^)

Also at lunch a guy named Cody who was also part of the Young Adult group came and sat by us for a bit.  According to Jeremy he looks way different then he did.  Even though he was Walter and Jeremy's roommate he never showed up to small group meetings or to sleep in the dorm.  (He's changed.)  After lunch Jeremy, and I accompanied by Walter moved our stuff into the Hillside Lobby,  (Hillside is the name of the dorms we stayed in).  It's on top of a very steep hill.  I was literally dying by the time I got up to the top of the hill.  It was one of the hottest days of the year, and you get winded from walking up that hill.  Even though we were too early to move in, we were able to find out our rooms and roommates.  My room happened to be on the same level as the lobby so I was satisfied with that.  We then went to the church to help chaperon Junior High kids as they assisted people to help them move in.  I was so done with the heat then that I didn't do much than that.  (I did help one lady move in though).  We had a dining hall meeting scheduled at 4,  no one had told me where it was taking place so I assumed it was the church. It wasn't....so I ended up being late.  Luckily a kind man drove me to Galbreath so I didn't have to walk across campus to get over there because Lord knows I wouldn't :P.   I ended up getting there late but luckily they went through the rules again.  (It turns out I'll be working the same shift as Walter, Jeremy, and Andi).  While I was listening to the guy explain the rules again I was abandoned by the group, and couldn't figure out where they had gone.  When it was dinner time around 5 I asked the guy at McKelvey if young adults were suppose to eat there for dinner and he said I was suppose to be at the other dining hall.  That didn't seem right but I went to the other dining hall anyway where I saw Autumn and talked to her, and she told me I was indeed suppose to be at McKelvey.  I was really upset at this point and confused but on my way to McKelvey for the second time I saw Jeremy and his childhood friend Rachel walking to McKelvey.  I told them about my situation (good first impression to Rachel, Alex :P) Had dinner with everyone, and "segwayed" out of a conversation to go and get icecream.  

before our first Vespers session, Rachel and Jeremy helped me move my stuff into the lobby.  Vespers is a thing the Young Adults went to every evening before the evening meeting, where each night one of the small group leaders would give their testimony.  I don't remember what was said at the first Anderson meeting but it was a pretty big deal.  XD.  Except that I met two other first-timers from the young adult group which had been my challenge of the day from Jeremy.  (During the week Jeremy would give me a mission each day to help me get into the NWMC spirit.)  It turns out the two people I introduced myself to were only going to be there that night, and one was my potential roommate.  After Anderson was the first Chill on the Hill.  Chill on the Hill is where the Young Adults hang out in the lobby of Hillside and each night a different small group cooks a meal.  That night was pizza.  I met my roommates Mary and Cammy.  Mary happened to be Jeremy's fetus friend he had high-fived in the womb. She was kind of a badass, and Cammy and I got along really great.  I probably had the best roommates :P. Mary ended up taking the bed in the center of the room, to take one for the team. (Faith never ended up showing up, so she was going to take her bed instead, but never ended up switching beds.)  Especially since I didn't know what I was getting into since I hadn't requested one.  Afterwards we had our first small group meeting where we all shared our past stories and how we had found out about Conference.   

First Day of Conference

     Friday July 17th: Got to Pennsylvania the night before where we spent the night playing Pictionary Telephone.  After I woke up I took a little tour of the campus where the Conference took place (Westminister College).  After we helped out at the church to prepare for Conference.  The Conference doesn't officially start until tomorrow at 3.  We then hung out at one of the buildings on campus called McKelvey.  This is where Jeremy noticed Walter (one of his childhood best friends from Conference).  Along with his family:  Eli, his brother, and Autumn his cousin.  Walter is super funny.  After being at McKelvey for awhile we decided to go to the church to see if anyone else had shown up early.  We ended up not seeing anyone so we just hung out in the church loft.  (Autumn, Jeremy, Eli, Walter, Andi, and her friend Sarah.) In the church loft Andi and Sarah made friendship bracelets while Jeremy played some of Steve's "Gangnam Style" mashups, and a song about sunscreen.  After we had, had dinner we decided to take a group nap in the lobby where Jeremy's mom was staying.  Jeremy played his U2 lullaby album as we all tried to fall asleep on one of the couches.  That was cut short though by another one of Jeremy's childhood friends Maddy who wanted to talk with us.  I still slept for a bit while they shared old Conference stories.  That night there was an Icecream social where Jeremy finally got his new iPod he had ordered the Tuesday before Conference had started.  The ice cream social was kind of disappointing because it was just Klondike bars.  Autumn and I were the first to get back to Ferguson Lobby after we were satisfied.  Ferguson is where I met a new friend.  A 4 year old named Sofia.

  She commented about how she was going to turn 19 next year so we'd be the same age. When Jeremy had been talking about stocks she had thought he had been talking about socks and shouted eww Stinky Stocks! We started off by playing hide-and-go-seek until there was literally no more places to hide, but she still wanted to keep playing, tag, putting together a puzzle and various other games.  Jeremy opened the box to his iPod during this time and figured out all of its cool features.

 I guess I had been put on babysitting duty for Sofia because her dad kind of left. :P She planned a tickle ambush on Jeremy after Walter and his family had left the lobby.  She would whisper to me about her plans to go and tickle him and then awkwardly tell Jeremy that we were just discussing his computer/hair/outfit etc.   After Sofia had went to bed, Jeremy showed me the cool features/games he had on his iPod and even showed a guy in the lobby one of the features.  

My Strengths

          My friend Trae encouraged me to take an Assessment that would highlight the strengths/traits that are strong within me.  By doing this I will be able to use those strengths to truly make a difference in the world, and in people's lives.  So below are my Top 5 strengths, and a little bit about each.  This blogpost would be too long if I posted all the information and you wouldn't want to read it then.

          1) Developer: Developers see the potential in others. They naturally see others’ capacity to change, grow, and develop for the better. And they are drawn to people for this reason. Being part of another person’s development is one of the best experiences in the world for them. They look for ways to challenge others. They devise interesting experiences that can stretch people, help them grow, and experience success.

2) Includer: This is the philosophy on which people with strong Includer talents center their lives. They want to include people and make them feel like part of the group. They notice people who feel like outsiders or who feel unappreciated and try to reach out and bring them in. They are instinctively accepting of others. Regardless of race, sex, nationality, personality, or faith, Includers cast few judgments.

            3) Maximizer: Maximizers see talents and strengths in others, usually before anyone else does. Strengths — whether their own or someone else’s fascinate them. Maximizers love to help others become excited about their potential. They have the capacity to see what people do best and which jobs they will be good at. They can see how people’s talents match the tasks that must be completed.

4) Positivity: People with strong Positivity talents are generous with praise, quick to smile, and always on the lookout for the upside of the situation. They bring enthusiasm to people, groups, and organizations. They can stimulate others to be more productive and hopeful. They always seem to find a way to lighten the spirits of those around them. They are optimistic, hopeful, and fun-loving. They celebrate every achievement. They find ways to make everything more exciting and more vital.

           5) People with strong Empathy talents can sense the emotions of those around them. They can feel what others are feeling as though the emotions were their own. They intuitively see the world through others’ eyes and share their perspectives. They perceive people’s pain or joy — sometimes before it is even expressed. Their instinctive ability to understand is powerful. They can hear unvoiced questions and anticipate needs. Where others grapple for words, they seem to find the right things to say and strike the right tone. As a result, they help people express their feelings — to themselves as well as to others. They help people give voice to their emotional lives.

      Some of these I was not expecting to get, but they all do explain me a lot, and I am very encouraged to use these strengths in the future.  

Gallup/Clifton Strengthfinder Assessment

Scared of My Own Insecurity

   I can relate a lot to "twenty-one-pilots" lyrics.  The one I probably relate to the most is "I've been thinking too much, help me."  Overthinking is something I've had to deal with my whole life, that has had the power to hurt me.  Everyone has these insecurities, but they also have things they like about themselves which I'm going to focus on below.

                               My Good Qualities

    Humor:  I've been told that I'm funny, and quite possibly could be a comedian.  I'll try everything I can to make sure your having a good time, even if I have to act like a complete idiot to make you laugh.

   Honesty:  I'll be upfront with you, if anything has hurt me, or you want to know my opinion on something.

    Loyalty:  Once I'm your friend it will be hard for me not to be loyal to you, that is as long as you deserve it.  If you treat me wrong, I'll be on my way.

    Considerate:  If someone invites me somewhere, I'll usually always try my best to go as long as I'm not working at that exact time.  I won't usually cancel on you unless it's important.

    Non-Judgmental: I don't care what you look like, if your nice to me we can be friends.  I also see different sides of situations and am a very open person.  You can tell me anything you've done or are doing and I wouldn't judge you.

   Nice/Caring:  I want you to feel the best you can, and will compliment you.
 
  Empathy:  I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me, whatever time it is and try my best to provide advice or help you work it out.

  Patience:  I'll be slow to anger, and give things time.

  Forgiveness:  I'll always forgive you, even if its hard for me.
 
   Hopeful:  If I'm feeling down I can always count on the fact that it will get better, and be optimistic about the situation.

 Adventurous:  I'm always up for an adventure, and experiencing new things.

Thoughtful:  I put a lot of thought into the gifts I give people, and will usually remember details that you share with me.

  Easy-going:  I'm probably one of the least high maintenence people you'll meet.

   Excitable:  College has made me get excited over smaller things, and appreciate things more.


   What are the good qualities that make up you, and why?

Conference!!!!???

       In exactly two weeks yesterday I will be in Pennsylvania experiencing my first day at the New Wilmington Mission Conference (NWMC).  A conference my friend Jeremy has been going to literally since he was born.  This will be his 21st year, with no plan of stopping in the future.  An event he tries to add into most conversations just so he can have a chance to talk about it or relate it to Conference somehow.  He's not the only one who's this way, when I went to his house for the 1st time back in April, his family talked about Conference for hours.  A Conference talked about and praised that much gives me super high expectations and excitement which I am a little concerned about, I don't want to have my expectations crash down.
        I'm also pretty confident it will be a good time, since I've seen countdowns starting from over 100 days until Conference, and videos as well as posts all over about this Conference.  So I'm pretty excited to see what it has in store for me (It will also be in a different state, and I really enjoy traveling around/road trips.)  So I'm excited for that aspect of it too.
       I'm thinking of maybe trying to go in with possibly lower expectations so my heart doesn't get hurt in the process if things don't turn out as great or go differently then I had planned.  That way if it is as good as everyone says I will be completely mind-blown.  It's easy for me to have my heart hurt from too high of expectations so I'm really trying to avoid that, even though I don't doubt this will be a life-changing awesome occurrence.  I'm also pretty excited for the sexy hairnets I'll get to wear while working in the dining hall.
       Hopefully this experience will strengthen my relationship with God, provide me with great friendships, and strengthen my friendship with Jeremy and his family members.

My Summer Job

     I've said this multiple times before, but this summer I am working at a place called the Threshold as a summer camp counselor.  This job requires me to work with disabled kids with multiple different kinds of disabilities.  For my job I was put in the group with kids age 9-14.  Going all different places in Southeastern Wisconsin as far north as Sheboygan, and as far south as Kenosha.

         I definitely did not know what I was getting into, and was honestly kind of afraid.  This job is a lot of work, but not as scary/bad as I thought it would be.  It is pretty rewarding.  I even joke that this job has brought out the inner-mom in me.  Which is probably pretty accurate.  So far I've gone into work-mode twice while being in a non-work environment, and yelling things before even thinking because its so natural at work.  This job has definitely taught me a lot including
   - Learning techniques that work for each child.
   - Learning how to discipline children in an effective way.
   - The importance of patience.
   -Trying to be as caring as possible so you don't upset the misbehaving child even more.
   - Being a role-model at teacher to the kids.
      For my job I work one-on-one with a boy.  Which means although I am with the younger kids I have to keep an eye on my boy, so he doesn't do anything he isn't suppose to, or take him away from the group to cool-down. Working one on one also has been rewarding because it makes you feel bonded to the child, like this child is family to you, and you don't want anyone else to bother/hurt that child.
   I'm not allowed to talk about my clients, but if I could this blogpost would be filled with tons of funny/weird occurrences that have happened while I was working.  I also really like the fact that the job allows me to go to places that I've never been before, like the Jelly Belly Factory or Blue Lotus.