My 1st Month

Hello Family & Friends!

One month has passed...can you believe that? I certainly can not. It has both flown and crawled by, depending on the day! Here's the latest news here in the Villa.

The Lujan Pilgrimage Experience
2 weekends ago, I got to do something really amazing. I went on a pilgrimage to Lujan, in celebration for Our Lady of Lujan in Argentina. She is the patron Saint of Argentina. It's a national pilgrimage and THOUSANDS of people gather together in starting from B.A. and walk 70 kilometers to Lujan! It was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Ok, so people from all backgrounds do this pilgrimage for many different reasons. I walked this one for 3 things: 1, my family an friends 2, my vocation and 3, to learn and understand this language. I presented all of my sufferings, pain, discomforts, joys, laughs, the whole thing to Nuestra Señora de Lujan and I have every confidence that she has heard them all :) Can I just tell you...um...it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO freaking HARD!!!!!!!! There were 4 main stops and I made it to the 3rd stop called Rodriguez. I walked a total of 50 kilometers and then my feet could actually not walk anymore. Along the way, there are many different vendors selling every sort of goody you could imagine. And, there are also volunteers at each of the 4 stops that set up mini hospital tents to patch up people's blisters, twisted ankles, cuts and give massages. Yeah, you can bet that I signed up for the massage! It was so beautiful and humbling, because this total stranger is caring for me with such love and giving me all this encouragment to keep going and that in the end, the graces for my intentions are so worth the current suffering. As you can imagine what my feet looked and smelled like after 50 kilometers of walking, not even I would want to touch those babies. But this woman, without a flinch, totally took care of me. Also, before the 3rd stop, there were priests alongside the road with buckets of holy water and we were able to stop and the priests gave us BEAUTIFUL blessings. That alone, gave me so much strength to keep going. We also had an awesome group. Karina, me, Denis, Franciso (the new missionary) and Antonio (temporary HH intern). We held eachothers hands, prayed together, joked around and got serious...as you can imagine, we spent a total of 11 hours straight together walking! :)

I Don't Know How to Love!!
I had a pretty sobering experiencing last week. Nothing specifically happened really. One day, I woke up and just plain and simply, didn't want to be here anymore. My zeal for the people had left me and I had no idea why I was there. I realized that I came to this mission with many of my own prideful opinions and ideas. And obviously, I quickly found out that nearly NONE of them were as I had imagined and became more and more depressed and disappointed. Before coming here, I thought I knew how to love. I thought I knew how to be selfless. But day after day of this life, I realized I knew NOTHING of love and I actually was surprised how quickly I wanted to give up. And then, in a sort of desperation, I read an article from Fr. Thierry (the founder of HH). He addressed this EXACT concern and said that we must accept the fact that we do not know how to love...and that it is ok. I can't explain to you the relief I felt when I was able to let go and humble myself to realize, I just don't know it all. As Fr. Thierry says, "The missionaries are in the Kindergarten of love. Even if we have a Bachelor's in Psychology or a Masters in Law or Theology, we are all Kindergartners in the school of love." It IS possible to learn to love, but it takes practice and it takes hard work and more importantly it takes God's grace. Freedom! I found freedom from my disappointments! I found freedom from my frustrations! And I felt renewed...my zeal to learn how to love these children was back.

The Pictures
In the pictures below, there is 1 of Selena, the mom of Christian (the child who robbed us). She has been coming over more and more lately and LOVES teaching me how to cook :) The Gospel has become more alive to me than ever. I am given an opportunity to eat with prostitutes and drug addicts, just like Jesus invites us to do. It's absolutely incredible. Selena made me laugh so hard because she said I cook too much like a white girl and need some Latin spice!!! hahaha...

Eze is the little boy I'm hugging. His family life is terrible, just like all the children. His parents are never there and he gets no attention from home. He comes over to our home every single day, all day long. He is very clingy with us and simply wants to be held and loved. Since being here, he has maybe changed his clothes 5 times...if that. His shoes are completely tattered and he is never clean. Eze is teaching me about love! Loving when I am tired, loving when I am irritated, loving when I just plain don't want to, loving when others are mean, loving when I feel I'm too busy with other things, and most importantly, loving simply. It doesn't take much to show him or the others love. He just wants his hand held, or his back patted, or a hug. He wants to be told he's smart and that he's a good boy and that God loves him. I always want to overcomplicate things, to make things fancy, to make things better. In reality, it's the simple acts, the simple words that really make a difference. I have so much to learn! And I am SO thankful I beginning that process now ;)

Final Thoughts
Thank you for loving me through your prayers and through your encouraging words. I pray that today, you know God's incredible love for you and are able to share it in a new way. God bless you! See you next week! xoxo

Some Friends of the Villa

My 1st day of cooking! Selena (mother of Christian) came over to help me
Ezekial (Eze), a very good friend of ours
Playing ring around the rosey with some of the children
The girls begging us to let them stay and play more! Screaming "Injusticia!" hahaha
Vanina, Lali and Silvana

The End of Lujan!

Are we there yet? No..20 more kilometers! haha
One final stretch for Antonio
And, we made it...Denis is OUT!
Kari & me AFTER...yes, that homeless looking girl is me :)

We are starting to feel the burn..
And it's all worth it!!!
One proud North American, carrying Our Lady of Lujan

Much need blessings from priests along our pilgrimage

Along the way...

Look at all the people!

In my arms is supposed to be my family!! I was praying for you the entire way! The last bit of sunlight...35 more kilometers to go!

Lujan Pilgrimage

The Lujan Pilgrims chowing down to fuel up for our HUGE walk
Kari & me BEFORE...
Francisco (new missionary from France!), Kari, Denis & Me at the starting point (70 km to go!!!)

The weather was GORGEOUS! Gracias a Dios!

P.S.!!!

I totally forgot to tell you about Juan Carlos!! He's in the last picture. We visited him randomly last week and he brought out his passport so that we would know the date of his birthday, which was this past Monday. Is that not precious?

So...on Monday, we made him a card and gathered up 2 presents for him from home. Because he was born on the Feast of the Archangels (Michael, Raphael and Gabriel), we had this little frame thingie with those 3 angels on it and I thought it would be perfect! And then we found this random toy that sings the McDonald's theme song??? lol! Anyway, Monday afternoon, Denis and I went to his home to celebrate his bday with him and as soon as we gave him his card and gifts, tears just flowed down his tired face. He kissed the little stuffed animal and kept playing the McDonald's theme song over and over and over. (After the visit, I was TOTALLY craving McDonald's...isn't that funny?? haha). Denis explained to him that his birthday was really special because of the Feast day being celebrated and he said "All the days are special! Be thankful for each and every one God gives us!" Juan Carlos is a special friend to HH. He brought out all the cards he has received from past missionaries over 12 years and wanted us to read them all...so we did. :)

He's our new friend...and now he's yours too. Pray for him and his family. His wife passed away 3 years ago and he has become an alcoholic since, to numb the pain. His daughter was explaining to us how sad it makes her. He's a wise soul though and SO close to our Lord...I know He's being taken care of.

Ok...bye for real this time! See you next week!