El Sábado Pasado (Ayer)

Yesterday turned out to be a fantastic Sabbath. I debated on going to church or not because I was so tired from a late, late afterglow the night before. But, of course, my brain woke me up at eight so I was up and ready by 9:45. A little late for the 9:30 beginning of church but it was fine. As usual, I only understood about 1/8 of the service, and when it is over, I head to English Sabbath school to get a little more knowledge. During song service, someone was playing an ukulele. Of course, I went up afterwards to play it and made four new friends out of the deal. Winning. So that was my morning.

After lunch in el comedor I changed and got ready to go to JABES with my roommate. JABES is one of many, many little mission groups that go out each Sabbath into the nearby towns. Groups go to help with Pathfinder clubs (called "Conquistadores"), old folks homes, or just to play and spend time with kids. The group I went with (and plan to go with again) went to play games and tell a Bible story to a group of children in Diamante, a town about half an hour away by bus. Two other boys in ACA came in my same group, and we were worried we were going to be completely lost because of out lack of Spanish. But hey, guess what? I found someone in our group who speaks English! So when we were really having trouble understanding what was happening, my new friend would come and explain. It was a lot of fun, and made me really miss camp and surprisingly, Mexico. Here's why:

After singing a few songs with the kids, one of which I knew thanks to my mission trip in Mexico, we played tag. Then another version of tag. Then ANOTHER version of tag. Though at first one of little boys thought I was Japanese, by the end I had a couple little girls giving me hugs and trying to talk to me. Mostly I just said "que lindo" and "necesitas ayudar?" and they seemed to get the message. This is why I loved the day so much. I had missed giving back to others instead of just taking time for myself.

We got back on campus around 6:45pm and after dinner in the cafe, I stopped by my friends' room to say hi. We ended up going out for a walk to explore la villa at night. People were out drinking mate and chatting on the side of the street just like during the day! We stopped by the indoor cancha de fútbol (soccer court) and watched a game. I got to practice my Spanish a lot and even got a random stranger to pose for a picture when my phone flashed. I just wanted to sneak a pic of the fancy motorcycle cart, that's all! But a blew my cover, which actually turned out better in the end.