Greetings from HOTlanta!

Only the best city ever!

I am having a great time here—life is amazing. God is so good—I live in the most amazing apartment, it doesn’t have any furniture in it except 10 beds—there are only 5 of us that live here—we really only sleep and shower here and on Friday nights have girl night….

I work in the Legionary High School here and if I ever doubted what God has wanted me to do with my life, I have totally found it here—I am basically a youth minister—planning the retreats and just meeting the girls and having fun with them and they are so great!

I actually have my first retreat on Monday, so please pray for me and all the girls!

We have had a plethora of hilarious things happening here—our apartment has been infested by cockroaches and I thought I was going to pee my pants when one of my fellow coworkers freaked out and then jumped up on our island and cried how the babies were crawling all over her—it was so funny, I hope I can attach the video to this because we watch it everyday and laugh harder and harder each time—it never gets old.

Well for those of you who know about my obsession with Mother Teresa, get a load of this—I started reading a book with many of her insights complied in it—its called “No Greater Love”—I cry everyday because she is so amazing and inspires me so much. I am working on giving until it hurts, because that is the only way I will really be able to love to the fullest capacity, but anyway the exciting thing is that I am going to go to PA for a weekend commemorating her 10 anniversary into Heaven—the consecrated women didn’t even know about my obsession until after they asked me to go and I nearly cried. I am so excited! It’s the first weekend in October, and you can bet I am counting down.

I think I need to describe to you the individuals I live with—right now there are only 5 of us, like I said, but we are waiting for 2 more—a Mexican and a German, but that’s all we know.

Let’s begin with Elyse. Basically all you need to say is Columbus and that’s her. For some reason the nickname totally fits. She has just graduated high school and has the most amazing boyfriend who writes her one letter a day (I try to not be jealous, I just live vicariously through her). She is extremely hysterical—she’s the one who thought the cockroaches were crawling all over her.

Angela is actually from the Atlanta area and was a co-worker last year in Chicago—weird—her and Elyse are long lost bff’s. We live in a small world. Angela is another crack up—she has a big smile and bigger heart, but is a pistol. She is number 4 of 11, and the typical middle child, extremely sarcastic, but it is so nice to have her here letting us know what to do yaddayadda.

We just had a new girl come, Clarissa, she was unexpected, but totally welcomed. She’s really quiet and a neat-freak, which is good because none of the rest of us are, and our apartment hadn’t been cleaned until she arrived. She’s warming up and helping me learn my espanol. I will be fluent by the end of this year.

And then we have all our favorite, Kritzia. Kritzia is from the Philippines and so kind she almost seems stupid. But she is hilarious. Its just little things that she does that is so hysterical. She has an accent, so I think that is why so many things are hilarious—like she said, “maybe I should just walk it out, walk it out”. Now, this doesn’t seem funny, but those are lyrics to a rap song and hearing her say that in the context of which she did was so funny Elyse fell to the ground. We also call her Princess Kritzia because she has never ironed or done the laundry or cooked before (she looked at the stove and said, “what do you do with this?”) because she has ‘helpers’ at her house. Now, this is a cultural thing in the Philippines, but absolutely hysterical. Everyone just needs a Kritzia.

I just got back from my first retreat experience, and the person I wanted to see most was Kritzia—that’s just how she is for us. We love her—basically, she completes us.

My first retreat was amazing—God worked His magic as always. I am obsessed with the retreats and once again I am totally excited to do this for the rest of my life! it was with sophomore girls, and lets just say that working with sophomores has never been high on my priority list because I don’t like them. I like to say I am allergic. Seriously, I’m sure I was allergic t myself at that time, that’s why I was such a piece of work, I was having a reaction to myself. But praise be to Jesus, I a.) did not kill anyone and b.) won them over completely. At school on Wednesday they all saw me in the hall and were like “hey, what’s up”—we’re tight. It’s a wonder what God can do…

Just yesterday I had the most beautiful meditation—the passage we were using was the loaves and fishes, and when I began to pray on it, Jesus gave me this awesome image. He and I were in this stadium ( I have a hard time with numbers), it was totally full, and He looked at me and said, “ok, what do you have to give them?” and I just looked at Him and almost started laughing…. “ugh, nothing—I don’t have something for all of them” and He just looked at me and asked me to give Him my heart. Of course I gave it to Him, but didn’t expect what next happened. He took my heart and broke it into pieces and began passing it all throughout the stadium. Looking at me, He said, “I need you to love them. Every one of them. You need to give them all of yourself—that’s how they will receive me.” After He said that, there were baskets placed at my feet and He continued explaining, “and because of that, I will give you all the love you need, in excess, like all this left-over.”

He is so good to me—I also felt like He told me in adoration the other day when I was freaking out about life, that He has pursued me, and I need to expect some guy to pursue me in the same way He has if he is really worth it. So, basically….Jesus loves me!

You’re all in my prayers—and I promise I miss you. Its weird, especially with school starting and everything….bittersweet. I guess I’m learning to sacrifice, and that’s awesome!

In closing, some good ole Mother Teresa to warm the soul,

“This is something all of us need to learn. The chance to share our love with others is a gift from God. May it be for us just as it was for Jesus. Let’s love one another as He has loved us. Let’s love one another with undivided love. Let’s experience the joy of loving God and loving one another.”